Mike Logan pulled the car up at a distance. ESU had already responded and was establishing a perimeter. Bobby pushed himself up and out of the back seat. He hadn't said anything, but he was in more and more pain, and this time as he stood he felt a bit dizzy. He shook it off, but he could tell that Eames had noticed.
"Bobby." Eames said, her voice was soft, she had called him by his first name. She held her hand out as if to touch his arm, but she held back. He gave her an I'm-ok-look. And she looked at him, her reservations clear in her eyes. Her shoulder was sore, but she knew it was nothing compared to the aftermath of pain resulting from a shotgun blast to Kevlar.
Bobby looked at the house in the distance, he could see that the front door was standing wide open, and from the light through the house, he could also tell that the back door was wide open. This detail raised the hair on his neck. Something was wrong. Fernandez would not leave the doors standing open.
"We have the perimeter secure." ESU was reporting to Eames. "We have not identified anyone moving around inside. We are beginning to visually inspect the rooms more closely while maintaining the perimeter."
"We have one person inside, on the bed in the middle room. We have not identified anyone else inside." The voice came over the ESU officer's earbud loudly enough that both Eames and Bobby could clearly hear the words.
Bobby looked at the house, one person inside. Please God, let that be Lucy and let her be Ok. Eames nodded at the ESU officer, indicating they could close on the house. As about 6 officers flooded into the premises, Bobby and Mike Logan followed along. Eames, with her injured shoulder and her arm taped to her side stayed behind with the commanding ESU officer.
ESU efficiently secured the scene, and Bobby moved through the house toward the middle room, where he remembered a double mattress on the floor had been when he had last entered the house. Two ESU officers were standing over Lucy. Her feet were bound, as were her hands behind her back, she was also blind folded, and gagged. ESU was carefully undoing the bindings, expertly preserving evidence while quickly freeing her. By the time Bobby was with her, ESU had her sitting, her hands and legs free. He knelt down on the floor in front of her. She blinked a few times letting her eyes adjust to the light. As soon as she focused on him, Lucy threw herself forward and into his arms, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and her legs around his waist. She was burying herself in his warmth, in his embrace, in his smell. He could feel her shaking in his arms. He closed his eyes for a long moment and just took in the feel of her.
"Are you hurt?" Bobby's voice was hoarse, his question barely audible. But she was shaking her head no. "Did he hurt you?" He had to ask again, and again Lucy shook her head no. He ran his hands through the tangles in her hair, down her back across an unfamiliar feeling shirt. He opened his eyes to see that her legs were bare, and she was wearing a man's French cuffed light blue dress shirt. Lucy remained tightly wrapped around him. He noticed Mike Logan holding a piece of stationery. Logan was wearing gloves, and he moved the note into Bobby's line of sight.
She smells nice doesn't she? Like me. Sorry I missed you.
Bobby realized that Lucy was wearing Theo Fernandez's shirt, and when Bobby breathed in, he realized that Lucy smelled like men's cologne. Bobby's stomach violently turned.
"Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?" Bobby asked the exact same question again. Lucy was still wrapped around him, she was shaking her head no. Bobby used his hands to softly pull her away so he could look into her eyes. "Did he touch you, did he hurt you?" Bobby whispered, searching her deep hazel eyes. She was shaking her head no. "Did he touch you?" He asked, thinking about the note, the fact that she wasn't wearing her clothes.
"No. No, he didn't touch me." Lucy said, her voice was a gravely whisper. "No." She reached out and touched Bobby's face. "He didn't touch me." She said the words again. Bobby wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back against him and held her tight. He ignored the nausea rising up in his chest from the pain in his ribs. He ignored the light headed feeling he had from kneeling on the floor, and just held her tight.
"Detective." When Bobby opened his eyes, it was an EMT standing in front of him. He could see that ESU was leaving, and the crime scene guys were coming in. Eames had come inside and was looking at the note with Mike Logan. She was shaking her head, visibly upset. The EMT gently peeled Lucy out of Bobby's arms, and started taking her vital signs, softly questioning her about possible injuries.
"He um, he uh… he figured out what I'd said, about the wind moving through me. He looked at the front door and opened it, and then moved to the back door and opened it. Then he looked at me and smiled, and laughed a little. Maybe an hour ago, maybe less, he left. I couldn't really tell, with the doors open and my eyes covered." Lucy was looking at Bobby. She was blinking back tears, trying to be strong.
"Addie is with Olivia." Bobby was speaking quietly so no one else would hear. Lucy was nodding; he could see relief in her eyes. Bobby was pushing himself to standing, he needed to contact Olivia Benson, let her know that Theo Fernandez was in the wind. "Let me just say something to Eames, I'll be right back." Bobby's voice was still soft. Lucy was nodding.
Bobby was not surprised to find that Eames had already contacted Benson. Eames was ahead of practically everything, smoothing the path so Bobby could work through the case, get Lucy home safely, and attempt to apprehend the Fernandez brothers. He turned to see Lucy sitting on the bed, wearing another man's shirt, she looked so pale, her shapely legs tucked up under her as the EMTs continued to check over her. Bobby watched her taking rapid shallow breaths. Her eyes never left him, like if she was to look away she would lose track of him.
"I'm fine, I just, I just want to get home." Lucy tried to push the EMTs away, she moved to standing. It was Mike Logan who moved quickly enough to catch her, otherwise she would have collapsed. Logan put his arm around her and Bobby watched as Logan said something softly into her ear. She was nodding, and she looked away from Bobby to look up at Mike. Bobby watched as Mike handed Lucy his phone.
"Olivia." Bobby heard Lucy whisper into the receiver. "I'm fine. How is Addie?" Bobby watched Lucy smile, as if talking with Olivia about Addie was a small step to feeling a bit more normal. "Yeah, she likes pumpkin, she had that for breakfast." Lucy said, and Bobby thought that breakfast seemed like a lifetime ago.
The next morning Bobby was walking into 1PP. He needed to catch up with Mike Logan on something. Really he just wanted to thank Mike for yesterday, though he hadn't quite figured out how he was going to phrase it. Last night, the remaining members of the task force made 6 arrests across Chicago and New York, all pretty high level, and confiscated multiple millions of dollars in drugs and related money. The bust was well received by numerous people in very powerful positions in law enforcement, including some key staff in the DEA. Though to Bobby, the arrests and seizure of drugs and money were meaningless. Theo Fernandez and his brother Miguel were not among those arrested.
After talking with Mike Logan, Bobby's next stop would be to visit Alex Eames. He was completely floored at how Eames had effortlessly kept their side moving and involved in the operations of yesterday. While he had been completely consumed with thinking about getting Lucy home safely, Eames had smoothed over the action from yesterday with several chains of command, including the task force, Major Case (because of Mike Logan's involvement), and SVU (related to Benson and Stabler). Which reminded him, he also needed to go by and see if he could catch Elliot Stabler.
Bobby leaned back against the elevator wall, trying to catch a breath. He had resisted taking any of the medication that had been prescribed for the pain related to his injuries. He closed his eyes and his brain was immediately flooded with the image of Lucy bound and gagged on the bed in that house yesterday. His senses were assaulted with the memory of the smell of Fernandez on Lucy, the feel of his shirt on Lucy. He hated himself for bringing that kind of danger and violence into the life of his family. And, he was still trying to figure out how to avoid that in the future, which brought him to thinking about Matt Walker, who still had not regained consciousness.
Bobby remembered an afternoon, right after he had closed on the purchase of the house, when Matt Walker and Brian Murphy had come by with a couple other of the younger officers assigned to the task force. Two were visiting from Chicago. They were talking shop over a cooler full of beer, and he remembered with a smile the image of Brian Murphy trying to shotgun a beer and having the carbonated beverage explode into his mouth. Matt Walker had to show everyone how it was done. Bobby hated to think that anyone who had spent such time with him could actually betray him.
"Hold the elevator." A familiar deep baritone called out. Bobby opened his eyes to realize that the elevator hadn't moved, actually it wasn't going to move anytime soon. Bobby was so out of it that he had forgotten to press a button for the floor. When he heard the voice he reached out and pressed the button and actually pressed the doors closed button as well. The last person on this earth that he wanted to see right now was Emil Skoda.
"Goren." Skoda stood outside the elevator, physically pausing before stepping on.
Bobby looked at Skoda, and knew in an instant that the other man was keenly aware of everything that had happened in the past day. This brought Bobby's mind back around to making him feel sick about not keeping his family safe. Lucy had been deeply involved with Skoda for quite a while, in fact, she had almost married him. Bobby could not help but think of the nice, normal, safe life Lucy would have had if she had stayed with Skoda. Emil Skoda would never have brought the kind of violence and chaos into her life that Bobby felt he had managed to bring. Bobby looked at Skoda without saying a word, he managed a small nod of recognition, but he was too tired to do anything else.
"Goren?" Skoda said his name again, but this time it was more of a question, Bobby could almost hear concern in the other man's voice. He thought that was ironic, that Skoda was concerned for him. Bobby wished that Skoda would simply punch him in the face, or dress him down for being so completely careless as to put Lucy and Addie in such danger. Bobby slowly realized that Skoda's concern was sincere and warranted. Bobby tried to catch his breath, but he was in such pain he couldn't. He tried to open his eyes, but he was so disoriented that he couldn't. He tried to step forward and get out of the elevator and away from his thoughts and away from Skoda, but he couldn't. Instead Bobby collapsed onto the elevator floor like a sack of potatoes and completed lost consciousness.
A/N: I don't know why, I just can't think of Bobby's life as a pretty package with a pretty bow. Thanks for reading and letting me know by dropping me a review ;).