Bobby put his cheek against the cool smooth surface of the floor. His eyes were closed and he was fighting against the twilight just short of unconscious. Eames. He thought about his partner, as if willing her to show up would be enough to make her magically appear.
"Detective… Detective..." Fernandez said in a sing-song way kind of jabbing Bobby with the barrel of the shotgun. "Nice vest." Fernandez smiled, as if he was complimenting Bobby on a fashion statement. The vest had saved Bobby's life, but the shotgun blast to the Kevlar and the bash to the head had caused some serious damage. "You know, I thought that raid on the house would take you all day. It was nice thinking about you all tucked away so far out of the city." Fernandez poked Bobby with his foot, to make certain he was listening. "But you left your boys to do the clean up."
Bobby rolled slightly onto his back, lifting his face away from the coolness of the garage floor. He still could not open his eyes, but his brain was a bit more alert. He was thinking about what Fernandez was saying. The raid had been a set up, a diversion to get him out of the city, a snipe hunt so Fernandez could grab up Lucy. Bobby thought about the house in the woods, constructed shotgun style, with room behind room single file and linear, like some kind of antiquated house in the south where the front door looked straight through to the back. The tip was that Theo Fernandez's brother Miguel was there, and so they took the house at dawn. No one was there, and it didn't look like anyone had spent the night there. So Bobby left two other members of the task force, Brian Murphy and Matt Walker, to poke around a bit further while Bobby headed back into the city with the rest of the team.
"Oh Detective, I'd love to take you with me. My brother would love to see you. But, it's not you that I need." Fernandez said and his voice seemed distant. Bobby couldn't tell if the man was walking away or if his consciousness was slipping away. Either way, after a few moments Bobby blacked out.
"CLEAR." The next word Bobby heard was a familiar word. It was Murphy's voice, and Bobby could hear footsteps. "In here." Murphy said next, and when Bobby opened his eyes, it wasn't Murphy's face in front of him, it was Eames. But she wasn't looking at him; she was looking at his chest.
"Holy shit." Eames mumbled, "About 3 minutes until a bus is on site, hang in Bobby." Eames softly pressed her hand against Bobby's forehead to keep him from trying to move, from trying to sit up.
"Addie." Bobby groaned, her name rang clear in his brain, but it was incomprehensible to Eames. Bobby swallowed hard, struggling with air in his lungs. The weight of the Kevlar felt like it was suffocating him. "Lucy." He said, next.
"We heard the whole thing." Eames said, "I picked up your phone call, switched it to speaker and muted my side." Bobby could hear sirens coming closer. "Where is Lucy?" Eames asked.
"Dunno." Bobby managed. "Laura's, maybe." Bobby again was trying to sit up, but this time EMTs were pressing him backward onto the ground. Bobby could see Eames dialing a number on her cell phone. He could see that whoever she was trying wasn't picking up. "Lucy?" Bobby croaked.
"Yeah, voice mail." Eames replied, wincing at the pain on Bobby's face as the EMTs finally helped him to sit up. All of the color drained from his face and for a moment his eyes were completely out of focus. Eames thought he was going to be sick, but he managed to get by it. Bobby managed to get by a lot of painful things, and Eames knew that he was familiar with the physical pain of what was bound to be several damaged ribs and likely a concussion.
Lucy pulled onto her street to find it packed with several patrol cars, several unmarked cars, and an ambulance. She was wondering about what happened at one of her neighbor's houses, feeling a bit nervous about anything that should bring out such a police presence. She had been at her sister's feeding Addie, and had ended up staying a bit longer than planned. Sometimes she could not seem to bring herself away from her little daughter. Today, as Lucy was rocking Addie to sleep for a nap at Laura's she had found her self looking in her baby girl's eyes. They were shifting from the cerulean of birth to a deeper color. Lucy was convinced they were turning brown like Bobby's.
Lucy pulled her car over to the curb, realizing that the street was nearly impassable. She stepped out of the car and starting trying to line up the police cars with a particular house. She felt her heart beating in her ears when she realized that her house was at the center of everything. She didn't even realize she had starting walking, she could see Bobby's car in the driveway. At some point she started running, and then suddenly a person was in her way, a tall person caught her mid stride and literally picked her up into his arms and off her feet.
"Lucy." It was Mike Logan saying her name, but Lucy was wriggling in his arms, not paying attention, all of her energy focused on getting to her house, to getting to where she thought Bobby was, to where she knew that something was significantly wrong. "Lucy." Mike wrapped his arms tighter around her. "He's Ok, he's Ok." Mike repeated the words, stroking his hand down her hair, still holding her up and off her feet. "We're finishing securing the scene. Just one more minute, honey, one minute." Mike continued to hold her.
"Let me go. God, let me go." Lucy mumbled, still squirming in Mike Logan's arms.
"CLEAR. ALL CLEAR." Mike Logan heard the words and let Lucy down onto her feet. She was sprinting toward the ambulance and Logan found he had a hard time keeping up with her. Yet, just as suddenly as she had taken off running, she stopped. And, Mike crashed into the back of her. She had rounded the corner of the ambulance to where Bobby was sitting on a stretcher. The EMTs were gently removing his damaged Kevlar. Mike could see Lucy start trembling, shaking. He watched her wrap her arms around herself in a futile effort to steady her emotions.
"Lucy, he's Ok." Mike repeated, reaching out and placing his hands firmly on her shoulders. "He's fine." Mike reiterated, more firmly. Bobby hadn't noticed her standing there, he was talking with Eames, repeating the details, going over some aspects of the raid that morning, of the information they had received the day before, trying to piece together the moments that led to him coming upon Theo Fernandez at his house.
"Goren." Mike finally said, catching Bobby's attention. Bobby's eyes met Mike's first, then shifted to Lucy. And as soon as their eyes met, Lucy jumped forward out of Mike's hands toward Bobby. Mike watched as Lucy slowly reached out and ran her slender fingers ever so softly across Bobby's face. Mike realized that she wasn't saying anything. A lot of women would have been hysterically chattering, but not Lucy. Mike realized that Lucy could say more with her eyes and her body language than most people could say in entire conversations. Mike watched as Bobby reached out and with his thumbs he gently wiped the tears off Lucy's cheeks and then pulled her forward and tightly into his arms. Mike could see Lucy was still shaking and he guessed that Bobby felt like he was going to puke from the pain in his ribs, but Bobby couldn't help himself from holding Lucy. Hell, if Bobby hadn't pulled Lucy into his arms, Mike would've. It was either that, or let her collapse onto the street from the shock of it all.
"We've got an inside problem." Eames came to stand beside Mike. "Fernandez was here for Lucy. Coming upon Bobby was an accident." Eames revealed. Mike Logan was not on the task force, he had responded to the scene when he heard the details on the scanner.
"Well, shit." Logan mumbled. "Goren's gonna turn himself inside out over that one."
"I think he has already started. I'm going to need a favor from you Logan." Eames looked at him, and she rarely asked anyone for favors. "He needs to go to the hospital, and he needs to know that Lucy and Addie are safe. Can you see to that?" Eames asked, thinking that would give her some room to see to Bobby.
"Done." Mike looked at Eames. "An inside problem… any ideas?"
"Yeah, too many ideas. Right now, I think he suspects everyone." Eames allowed, knowing that was a bit irrational, and once Bobby had some time to organize his thoughts they could probably narrow the list.
"Everyone?" Mike asked looking at Eames, quirking his brow, his implication obvious.
"Well, hopefully not everyone." Eames managed a small smile in a very stressful moment, believing that she wasn't on the list.
A/N: Wow, thanks for reading and reviewing. At first, I was just going to simply play around with the word shotgun (the gun, the architecture of the house in the opening of this chapter, and I have some other meanings in my pocket) but your reviews gave me a plot to play with :) So, now you might have a story... if I can keep it in my brain. As always, I love to hear from you.