A/N: I'm so thankful for these gorgeous reviewers and supporters of my story: katesanneshepard, snowflakes211, TearsInTheDust, Kathleen Murphy, sunshineforever13, byLunaA, Midgardian Avenger, irishcaribou, clay cowan, kwisteria, Angel Blue, evincis, nrdhrd3, purpledolphin, and Guest. I live off your reviews and I LOVED my birthday messages.

Disclaimer: Do I really even need this? You know I'm not powerful enough to own these guys.

Chapter 21:Lost and Found

Gabriel groaned in blind agony when the branch that was holding up the tent got kicked down roughly on the edge of his skull. He was positive he heard a sickening thud when it hit, and it was so heavy that he felt the jarring of his teeth as they clenched against each other.

That could not have been good for his concussion.

His instincts kicking in, he shoved the branch off and out of the way, rolled off of an alarmed Riley (who was pushing him off of her just as quickly), and tried to get his bearings. It was just as dark as it had been under the tent when the armed men had doused their fire a minute ago, but Gabriel caught the faint light of a flashlight in his peripheral vision.

Whipping around to face the light, as well as the gruff voice that had spoken, Gabriel attempted to stand up and defend himself when all of a sudden, he felt an invisible hand leaving him at the mercy of gravity. He found he was terribly dizzy and his head pounded whenever he even tried to turn his head.

Never one to give up, he stood again, this time having better luck by leaning on the tree for support. A lot of his energy was focused on fighting gravity, though, and he wondered all too late how he was supposed to concentrate on fighting anyone else.

The light from the flashlight was reflecting off the pant leg of a man dressed in a black suit. Well, at least he thought so. His vision seemed to be slightly blurred. And something else was funny too - at once the light seemed to be coming closer and tilting at an odd angle, and that's when he started to notice that it felt like he was underwater. There was a ringing in his ears and he heard noises that sounded far off in the distance but very near to him at the same time.

Riley - Where was Riley? His hearing had been affected in some way once his skull was knocked, but one of the muffled sounds was eerily close to sounding like the shouting of his partner.

The light was tilting strangely again, and dots sported at the edges of his vision. Gabriel suddenly felt sick to his stomach, like he needed heave up food that he hadn't even consumed that day. His head throbbed like it could split open and he soon felt the cold, hard, ground come up to meet him. Another wave of pain resurfaced again, but then the light disappeared and everything else was gone.

When Gabriel reawakened, the first thing he noticed was that his shoulder blades were bent at an uncomfortable angle and that his hands were bound behind his back, tightly wound together so that his circulation was nearly cut off.

The second thing he noticed was the old pine needle smell and dusty air of the room he was in. Gabriel slowly blinked, wincing at the brightness of the sunshine streaming directly into his eyes from the dirty window above him.

Gabriel figured he must have been out a couple hours. The sickening vertigo he'd experienced before had lessened to a tolerable level, but his head was still drumming a persistent beat, making him wish he had his special cure for hangovers with him.

Though of course, this was no hangover.

And again, panic surged through him as he tried to swing his head around (which was incredibly difficult when he was lying in such a position on the floor) in search of his partner. With great effort, he proceeded in his attempt to roll over. Every muscle in his body seemed to protest, but he ignored everything until he saw her on the other side of the small, wooden room.

Next to the door, she was sitting rather limply in a chair, hands bound behind her back as well. Riley's hair was hanging down and covering her face, but Gabriel was never more confident that it was her. The sick feeling in his stomach was starting to come back as he noticed her shirt was ripped in a few more places and there was blood spatter staining her shirt. Whether it was hers or someone else's, he didn't know.

What he was sure of, though, was that she wouldn't have given up easily. These men must have been idiots if they thought they could take Riley easily. He had no doubt that they'd left the agents in the room while they went off to clean up the wounds Riley most likely inflicted upon them once they were captured.

His nausea grew when he realized he wasn't sure if she was breathing. His throat was so dry it ached, but he called out to her anyway. Gabriel wouldn't be able to live with himself if she was- No. She wouldn't. Couldn't.

"Riley? You awake?"

He hadn't expected her head to snap up as soon as he'd said it, and a flicker of hope sprung through his chest long enough so that he grinned up at her endearingly.

"Gabriel? Yeah, I- I'm fine. You're…" Riley's expression was one of bewilderment and disbelief. Her voice was somewhat stuffy and Gabriel almost thought he noticed the remnants of red rings around her eyes, but dismissed the thought at first. She bit down on her lip, though, a method he'd seen countless times on anyone else to stop tears from surfacing.

He'd never seen Riley cry. Maybe she thought he'd been dead…

"I'm good too. One hundred percent, A- Okay," he chimed in.

"Yeah, you sure look it," she tried for a weak attempt at a joke. Gabriel didn't care about what he looked like, though he imagined it resembled something like hell; he was just glad they'd both survived this far.

He wished he knew how much longer he'd be able to proudly state that fact. Those bastards that had captured them had to be coming back soon, and Gabriel would gladly give them a few bullets to chew if his hands were free. Or you know, if he had his gun, he thought and scowled.

"Riley, did they search us for weapons?" he asked. A sudden bright idea had come to him out of the bleak darkness of the situation.

"Yeah they tried," she smirked and stared at some indistinct spot beyond the door. "The guardsman and his guys searched me but I'm pretty sure two of them ended up with bloody noses." A triumphant grin made an appearance on her face and Gabriel couldn't help feel a little proud of her.

"Nice. Is that how you got that cut on your lip?" He nodded to the trickle of blood on her chin that she seemed to have just now noticed. Riley did her best to shrug and turned back to face him.

"What's the point of this question?"

"I was thinking. They probably didn't do a proper search on me because they were lugging me around, right? I mean, I'm no Hurley, but I'm not exactly light, right?" Despite the circumstances, she gave him another half-smile at the Lost reference.

"Still not seeing the point."

"What I was thinking is that they weren't too concerned with me fighting back because they didn't know if or when I'd wake up. And they probably," he paused, lifting up one of this feet, "…didn't check for the pocketknife in my shoe."

The corners of his mouth turned upward and he motioned for her to come closer and check his ankle where the knife should be. She eagerly scooted the chair backwards in his direction and tried to turn so that her bound hands could search for it.

While Riley worked and searched for the small piece, Gabriel tried to make light conversation.

"Terrible timing those guards had, right?" He kept his tone even but Riley didn't acknowledge him. "I mean, we've had poor luck before. Seriously, probably the worst track record when it comes to timing. But-"

"Gabriel." She dismissed him in a tone that told Gabriel the conversation should end, but of course, he kept going.

"What? It's true. I still think we wouldn't have probably got ourselves into this situation if we'd gotten it out of our systems much earlier," he stated matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean, in the Cabin? How about before this whole thing started, when we first started this mess?

"I'm pretty sure you didn't even like me then. Just found me intolerable and a nuisance that you had to keep track of every day. No way you'd let me get near to you," Gabriel said.

"What?" Riley stilled in her movements. She took a deep breathe, seemingly needing a minute to compose herself before she started. "First of all, I've never found you intolerable, as you put it."

She'd taken hold of the pocketknife finally and leaned back into her original position. The knife was tossed behind her into Gabriel's possession so that he could roll over the knife and cut himself out first. "Secondly…Secondly, we are not talking about this right now."

"Well when do you propose we do talk about it?" he urged her. He could feel a hint of anger creeping into his voice. "I'm not an expert on relationships-"

"Relationships? We are not-"

"-But I'm pretty sure you're supposed to talk about these things!" Gabriel's voice rose over hers. "You're supposed to talk about when you start to grow a little more attached than you feel comfortable with. You're supposed to talk about it when you start have feelings for-"

"Gabriel!" she shouted, eyes wide with sudden fright. Her ears had perked up when she heard footsteps and voices outside the cabin, "They're coming back!"

"Don't think this means we're done talking," he told her. He knew to drop it for now, though, so he worked harder on cutting his arms lose. The rope was thick and the knife was not as sharp as Gabriel thought it would be, but he still tried in vain to loosen himself.

"Pretend you're still knocked out," she whispered furiously as two men with AK-47s burst through the door.

She nearly flinched when the door slammed back on its hinges, but set her jaw, determined not to look weak. Riley risked another glance at Gabriel, but he'd already closed his eyes and made it seem as though she might have only dreamt she was talking to him.

One man went to check on Gabriel while the other rounded Riley's chair. The first guard near her partner, the scruffy, older-looking man with a dark and unkempt beard, nudged Gabriel with his foot.

"We thought we heard talking," said the younger guard nearest to her. He'd bent down so that Riley looked him in the eyes, but his fowl breath had her curling away from him. In contrast to the other man, he was clean-shaven and his hair smoothed back, a cliché golden chain around his neck. His Hispanic accent was thick, but his basic English wasn't half bad.

"This one's faking, I can tell," said the elder. His English seemed swifter and rolled more easily off his tongue in a rough voice that belonged to a smoker. As the old man walked past her and around to the other side of Gabriel, her nose confirmed the overpowering odor of tobacco on him.

"¿Cómo puede usted decir?" asked the younger man, pointing at Gabriel's limp body. "He looks dead to me, Aníbal."

Aníbal wore a downright sinister grin and lifted his leg back, aiming to get Gabriel hard in the pit of his stomach, but Riley all but shouted at him to stop.

"No!" She'd screamed, hissing obscenities through her teeth when he landed one solid kick into her partner's crumpled form. She couldn't see his face, but saw his body fight to keep still, a barely noticeable twitch escaping him at the painful contact. He must have been exerting an impressive amount of self-control, Riley thought. She hadn't heard him groan at all, but supposed any noise he might have made would have been drowned out by her protests.

She was still playing her part of worried fiancé, as Riley knew she couldn't let her cover drop completely. It was against protocol, not to mention it would serve to stall for time when the guardsmen would begin their inevitable interrogation of the two. It sure seemed as though Gabriel was doing better to stall at the moment, and for a fleeting moment she was jealous that he was the one tied up on the floor.

Regret instantly consumed her as soon as the thought crossed her mind. She hadn't meant to envy his ability to pretend to sleep; Riley hated having to be the one to watch her partner in pain. She had to do something.

"Stop, please!" she cried out, trying to summon actual tears. Fake tears responded at the very least, so with a heavy voice, she continued, "Please let my fiancé and I go. We didn't do anything!"

It sounded convincing to her ears, but the younger guard leaned into her personal space again, breath rotting. She held onto her desperate expression, cringing in faux fear and taking in short gulps of air. "Guess we were wrong, chica. He looks pretty dead to me. No more esposo for you-"

His head reeled back suddenly, blood cascading from where her nose had collided with his. The goosebumps on his forehead accompanied a dazed expression with unfocused eyes, and the older guard asked lazily what the matter was before the man tumbled unconscious beside Gabriel.

Riley kept the smile off her face and glared up at the old man who stepped over both lifeless bodies and sharply smacked his hand across her cheek.

"How dare you? Show some respect, perra," he spat.

Riley blinked the white spots out of her vison and spit the blood out of her mouth. Her glare was no less intense as she watched the brute man essentially drag his unconscious companion out of the empty room they were in.

When she knew it was safe enough, she whispered to Gabriel.

"Are you okay? God, that looked painful."

"Felt just like it looked, then," he responded weakly, still unmoving. "What was that guy wearing, lead shoes?"

"Gabriel," she chastised, but though the better of it. "Hang in there a little longer. Is your rope any looser yet?"

He grunted and held up his bound arms that hadn't loosened one bit. "I had to hide the knife when they walked in. I'll try again." And with that, his fingers dutifully went back to work. However, he paused momentarily to glance up at her.

"What did you do to that guard, anyway? And why didn't he…" Gabriel trailed off as he noticed the red imprint of Aníbal's hand on her cheek. His jaw visibly clenched and he swore as Riley had moments ago. "If that asshole comes in here again, I swear, I'm going to-"

"Leave him at my mercy so I can beat his sorry ass personally?" Riley offered darkly.

Gabriel knew she was capable of handling things herself and was expertly skilled in the art of payback, so he simply nodded. Even though he knew to let her fight her own battles, Gabriel was overcome with the need to offer his own protection unnecessarily, to beat any man who laid a finger on her into a pulp.

No, something much worse than that, Gabriel decided, but was too preoccupied with the knife in his hands to conjure up a proper way to murder – ahem, maim – the imbeciles who'd left them in the cabin. He had worked up a ball of angry energy that fueled his need to escape, and was nearly through with the rope when the door opened again.

Riley took a sharp breath when she saw none other than the main guardsman who'd been after them the whole time, step in behind Aníbal. He was the only one in the room with a knife instead of a gun. Behind them, they'd left the door open and she'd cringed at the sight of who was standing in the doorway.

Poor Ms. Bates was held up by another olive-skinned man with a tattoo crawling up the side of his arm. The terrified woman was visibly shaking and her cheeks, nose, and rim of her eyes were the same shade of red. She'd obviously been through a lot, and her hands were bound and her mouth gagged, and Riley felt absolutely responsible for her pain.

"Sally, are you okay?" she tried. All the armsmen laughed sickeningly as she lifted her gaze up from her feet to look Riley in the eye. She hadn't been expecting the officer to hold up a defiant chin and give a curt nod. Evidently, she might have been holding out better than Riley thought she would.

Guilt twisted her gut yet again when Aníbal took the Guardsman went to her, using his thumb to wipe of a splotch of blood on Sally's face. "Thank you for being so helpful, Señorita."

She was confused for only a second before she realized that the men had obviously needed someone who knew the area well to get around. It was no wonder why they'd been found as quickly as they had when the agents thought they'd been able to squeeze a day's worth of hiking between them. And poor Ms. Bates had to be brought into this. The woman was a park officer, but she hadn't had any training to deal with torture, which was no doubt inflicted upon her to get the answers that the Guardsman wanted.

Riley wished to convey with her eyes that it was alright, that anyone would have done the same thing in her position, but Bates did not meet her gaze again. She was shoved out the door and dragged around the side of the building where Riley could hear the crunching of footsteps in the woods.

That thankfully gave Riley a clue that they were still somewhere on the campgrounds. When they'd been taken before, she didn't remember walking very far as she thought she might. Ms. Bates, she guessed, had led them to the nearest cabin and they were tuck in the storage shed.

The Guardsman turned on his heel and strutted back towards her with a purpose. "You two have caused me a lot of trouble over the past week. Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"No. Please tell me what you're talking about, I don't understand-" she pleaded with a hurt voice. The Guardsman wasn't having any of it, though, and whipped a hand across the other side of hair face. Tears stung her eyes and she let them fall, still acting the part.

"Cut the crap," he interrupted. "I was there when you snuck into that building, watching everything. I saw you knock out DeGuiero, I know you're cops."

Resigned, Riley dropped the frightened look off of her face in the blink of an eye. He leaned even closer, trying to appear menacing, but it only angered her. What was it with these men and their lack of personal space? She took a page from Gabriel's book and decided to piss him off even further, spitting directly into his face.

He backed up and let out a noise of disgust while Aníbal surged forward a brought a fist into the side of her ribs. She coughed and struggled to breathe normally, but Aníbal geared up to throw another punch. When he was sure she got the message, he said, "Show some respect. Don't you know who you're talking to?"

She shook her head, sucking in a rattled breath. "Haven't had the pleasure of meeting face to face." Riley stopped to cough and noticed a speckle of blood land on her shirt. She glared at the bastard in question.

"He sido grosero," he chuckled. "Not many have the privilege to know my real name."

"I don't think they're gonna leave here alive, anyways," Aníbal told him, a wild look on him. He eyed Riley again like he would love nothing more in the world than to wrap his fingers around her neck and squeeze until she turned blue. She suppressed a shudder.

A flicker of movement caught her eye and she saw Gabriel with a pained expression, sweat dripping down his brow. Cutting the rope behind his back couldn't have been that difficult, so she immediately worried that he may have been in more pain than she would've thought. His face was screwed up in silent concentration, and Riley had to tear her attention back to her captors so that they wouldn't notice the commotion her partner was bound to cause.

"Ricardo Estevez," he smiled a toothy grin full of cigarette-stained teeth. He held a hand out to shake hers, and frowned. "Oh, I forgot your hands are a little tied up at the moment." Only his accomplice snickered.

Estevez turned his attention to Gabriel, whose face was blank still. He checked the limp man's pulse and seemed satisfied, oddly. "He's not dead yet. I'm gonna tell you something though, chica. By the end of this, you're gonna wish you were dead."

"Yeah?" she tilted her head up at him, disbelieving.

"That arms deal you infiltrated, my boss was in there. He's the guy who pays me to do my job, and that's to keep people like you out of his hair."

"Piss-poor job you've done," she bit out. Aníbal grinned and slammed another fist into Riley, knocking the wind out of her.

"So we had a little slip-up, no big deal. Boss doesn't care so long as we take care of our problem. You see, we still get paid to take care of these messes, make sure we leave no loose ends. It's no big deal, to us, right chico?"

"Right," he answered to Estevez.

"What is a big deal is that you've escaped for this long. So you see, we're gonna take care of this the hard way. If you'd have stayed home, we could've got this problem over and done with. Send someone to your apartamento – kill you both, rapído y limpio."

"Yeah, but then you have to go and send us on this wild goose chase," the old man interrupted but was cut off with a look. "But we had a little help from Miss Loose-lips, and you ain't gonna escape us this time."

Riley's legs had not been bound, so the next time Estevez got near her, she aimed her hardest kick at his shins and toppled him to the ground, causing a vein to appear in his neck, his face red with anger. The Guardsman shook it off and took out his knife. "I was hoping to kill you slowly and tortuously, but…"

She raised her eyebrows, impatient for him to finish.

"It appears I cannot wait." He chuckled and walked out the window to check and see if anyone was around and was about to step over Gabriel when suddenly the agent came to life and twisted his ankle. The guardsman yelped and lost his balance. Taking advantage of the man's surprise, Gabriel's calves wrapped around his neck and restrained him in a chokehold.

The Guardsman was almost instantly unconscious, but Gabriel's victory was short-lived when he heard the cock of a gun behind him. He'd almost forgotten the AK-47 in Aníbal's hand. The man was shouting at him in Spanish again, but Gabriel's translator was on the fritz for the time being. He understood enough to let go of his hold on the man's boss and stood up, ready to fight the man for his gun.

Riley was looking at him proudly before, but now her eyes conveyed concern. The armed man behind her appeared to have the same look, and he seemed to weigh his options before pointing the gun to Riley's temple instead. This time it was he who wore the worried expression.

"Put that gun down before you hurt yourself," Gabriel dared tell him. He could tell the Hispanic was inexperienced despite his age. Either that or he wasn't supposed to be in charge, because Aníbal never seemed completely sure of his decisions. He was hoping the man would do something so Gabriel would have the opportunity to seriously hurt him for touching Riley. "I'm having quite the headache right now, so why don't we just talk like gentlemen?"

"I doubt that's really his forte," Riley mumbled to keep distracting him. She was looking up at Gabriel curiously though at the mention of his headache. It was a flicker of hope in the darkness. He winked at her.

"I think you should untie her now," Gabriel told him. He was feeling powerful again, feeling as though electricity were running through his veins. When he'd been on the floor, Gabriel had had enough time to try and activate his chip again. It had been painstakingly difficult and earned him the worst migraine he'd probably ever felt, but had somehow enough power left in him to keep the chip up and running.

"Why don't you check your phone, chico?" he added, mocking the man's accent from earlier.

Aníbal furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to question what the hell he was talking about, but Gabriel nodded to the man's pocket seconds before it sounded off. He'd sent a message repeating his order to let his partner go. The gun nearly dropped out of the man's hands but he glared back at Gabriel, looking as though he'd seen a ghost. "What did you do?"

"Let the woman go." Gabriel ignored him and took a step forward, but the gun was pointed back at him.

"Don't come a step closer or I'll blow your head off," he said, aiming again. His eyes were wide with fright as his cell rang again, but he ignored it and stepped around Riley to get a closer shot. Voices could be heard outside, men shouting and guns shooting. His attention was diverted to the commotion outside, getting more concerned by the minute.

Riley cleared her throat and caught Gabriel's attention. He saw that a bruise was starting to form at the bridge of her nose. She nodded her head conspicuously at the gun and mouthed something. He shook his head at her, telling her he didn't understand. Safety, she mouthed again clearly. Safety is on.

He nodded his understanding and immediately grabbed at the barrel of the gun, tugging Aníbal forward with his own momentum and slamming a hand up for his head to swing into, pushing up. The man grunted in pain and Gabriel brought his foot down on the man's kneecap, pushing him backwards towards Riley. She managed to stand up with the chair behind her back and swing it around, slamming and breaking it on the unarmed man's back. He fell limply to the floor.

Her momentum was still carrying her backwards though, but Gabriel caught ahold of her before she fell too. He set her steadily on her feet and grabbed for the pocketknife again, quickly untying the rest of the rope. As soon as her hands were free, she whipped around to face him and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, face buried in his chest. He held Riley just as tightly back.

They stayed a few beats before Riley released him, a bit embarrassed by the burst of emotion. "Good work, partner," she managed.

He nodded and resisted the urge to hug her again, make sure she was alright. The adrenaline he'd experienced had numbed the pain in his arm, but it was coming back again. He groaned as he felt the pain from his head return again as well. Gabriel remembered the shouts from outside again, though, and followed Riley in picking up the discarded weapons on the floor.

They inched towards the door together, ready to swing it open when it was suddenly opened for them. A man dressed in a bullet-proof vest and armed with a gun of his own burst through and showed them a toothy smile. His took his sunglasses off and stepped back out the door, shouting, "Clear! They're over here!"

"Jameson," Gabriel sighed. "You don't know how great it is to see you."

Riley returned his smile, putting down her gun. "How'd you find us?"

Gabriel put a hand on her shoulder. "I had a little time to send a quick message to our friends at Cyber Command. I'm just glad you were nearby, Jameson."

"Of course! As soon as you were missing, we all headed straight up here. Don't act like you had so little confidence in us," he told them, acting offended. "We found you eventually, didn't we?"

Both agents just grinned tiredly at him. Jameson donned a more serious expression. "Are you guys alright, though?"

Riley and Gabriel shared a look as though it were an inside joke, answering at the same time. "Never Better."

"Good to hear. You look like hell, though." He made a show of sniffing at Gabriel. "Smell like it too. Let's get you over to the ambulance, yeah?"

He left them to check in with the rest of the team and the agents deflated. It was all over. What was left of the men guarding the arms meet were being taken into custody and they no longer had to be on the run. Within a few hours, after giving their statements, they'd be back home, able to sleep comfortably, warmly, and be well-fed.

Before Riley could step out the door of the shed, he pulled her into a quick embrace again. It was overwhelming, the range of emotions he'd experienced in the last week. He just wanted one more peaceful moment before he got interrogated by the med staff and his superiors. Gabriel wrapped her in a warm hug and rested his lips softly in her hair one last time, whispering, "I'm glad you're okay."

She could only nod, evidently not trusting her own voice. He pulled away and grasped the sides of her face gently, turning her both ways so that he could better see the injuries Aníbal had inflicted. He growled, frustrated that he hadn't been able to prevent the attack and placed a barely-there kiss on her forehead, still holding her as if she were about to break. The only thought comforting him was that he knew she was a strong agent and would probably kick his ass for treating her as if she were weak.

Gabriel released her, not wanting to make a show of his concern and embarrass himself any longer. He turned to lead her out the door, and she followed suit silently. She surprised him, however, by gently reaching for his hand, squeezing it in gratitude. He expected her to let go once they were out in the open, but she just used her other hand to grip his same arm, making it appear as though she were just providing him assistance as they waked to the ambulance together.

He smiled to himself, not able to keep the beaming dimples off his face because he was never happier to hold a girl's hand.

It was over, he told himself.

Everything was going right again.

A/N: I can't apologize enough for this late update. I'm freaking out because I start college again in a week. I wanna get these last few updates in on time, but we'll see. Thank you all for sticking with me for as long as you have! Only a few more chapters left, but they'll be good. :D

Thank you guys SO much for all the birthday wishes and feedback! Please, please, please leave a review and let me know if you still love it?