"Burn in HELL!"

Brenda felt her fingers tighten around his neck out of sheer anger and by the bulging of Croelick's eyes, she new he was feeling the air leaving his body. Brenda stared into his eyes and saw fear, but she felt no quilt. This lack of emotion not only surprised her; it thrilled her.

"This is just the kind of pay back you deserve, Croelick," she said while her eyes remained locked to his.

She was in full control and he knew it. Croelick struggled at her grip, slipped and fell back to rear end time and time again…and he took her down with the last one. Brenda caught her balance, straddled his upper torso, and held him firmly in place. She caught his eyes again. The fear had began to fade in his eyes; replaced by a glossy film on the edge of passing out. Brenda wanted him gone…dead. It did not matter anymore who attacked whom, or which law was right…she never wanted to see his face again.

Croelick gasped for breath now and flailed beneath her like a fish on dry land. He tried to speak, but his air flow tight and restricted left his words silent and his mind unstable. He felt light headed and when he wanted to fight back, her hands only got tighter. Inside his mind, something told him to give in…that he would get his chance to pay her back for this…something told him to stop. He wanted to keep fighting…keep living to see her struggle…but something kept telling him to stop. In the end, when darkness finally took him into nothingness, Croelick was not sure it was the voice that told him to stop, or lack of oxygen.

Brenda squeezed one more time, hard and saw his eyes roll back into his head. For a long while, with the clock ticking loudly in her ears, she held her hands in place until she was sure he was gone. No one would come back from this…he should not come back from this…

-He will not come back from this- Brenda thought.

It was after that thought that she felt comfortable enough to release her fingers from his neck. Her hands were white and red, sore, and numb…and they trembled. She sucked in a deep breath and pulled her hands to her chest, feeling her heart beating fast inside her chest. She was still surprised that she had actually taken him down…not that she had any doubts, but…the slight thought of never making it out alive had crossed her mind more times than one in the past few days.

"My god…"she said breathlessly at the deep markings on his neck. There were blood vessels broken and the skin was raw and purple. She swallowed and slowly got up. The room was suspended before her and she stumbled over to the door with the glass window that she had just broken. Brenda leaned against it for support for what seemed like an eternity, closed her eyes, and mentally told the room to stop floating. She still felt nauseous from the smell of gasoline. Outside a hawk let out a shrill cry which caused her eyes to jerk open. In addition, she spun around, ready for an attack out of instinct to only see Croelick's unconscious body on the tiled kitchen floor.

"You stay right there, " she said as she slowly stepped past him and looked for a phone or anything to call out from. After a few moments, when nothing possible was found she walked back over and kicked him hard in the side, hoping to bruise him.

"Good for nothing…" Her words stopped at the sound of a helicopter heard off in the distance.

"Help…" her mind screamed.

"Help," her lips screamed, but found that her voice was not coming. Her throat was dry, swollen, and scratchy. "Shit…"she mumbled to herself and moved farther from the house, shaded her eyes from the sun, and looked up. There was still the sounds of what could be a helicopter…but where. Brenda scanned above and then lowered her eyes to find a dismayed view of the landscaped that surrounded her. She could not place where she was nor could she see any other buildings around, or a road, or even signs of other people. All she saw were miles and miles of thick, tall, trees. Her sense of hope that any escape was possible began to disappear along with her chances of surviving out in the wilderness in her present condition. Brenda's shoulders dropped and in frustration, she wiped her face free from loose sticky strands of hair, only to pull out a few. She winced and listened again for the helicopter, but the sound was gone. She stomped one foot in the dirt, hard. Then Brenda came up with a finale solution: If there was no way to escape…then she would make sure there was no way Croelick would ever be able to touch her again…--Fritz woke up not knowing how long he had been asleep. His entire body was stiff and when he stretched everything popped or strained from lack of movement. He groaned and out of habit, reached out to the empty side of the bed where Brenda should be before he remembered she was gone. Anger filled up inside of him like an on coming desert storm; violent and kettle black. He heard his heart pounding hard in his ears and he bawled up his fingers into the fabric of the comforter to their bed. He had to find her…he had to find her now…

--

Croelick moaned and coughed himself to a slow and painful conscious state. His eyes fluttered a few times, but did not quite open. Brenda sat across the room watching him intently. While he had been unconscious, Brenda had searched the house for more than just duck tape to restrain him and found a pile of very thick rope. She then secured him to a chair, used double layers of duck tape at his ankles and wrists and placed the thick rope around his neck. She tied the ends of the rope to a post in the chair's back.

Croelick moaned again.

"I can't say I am happy to see you are alive, Croelick," Brenda said flatly.

Croelick groaned at her words and his head rolled to the side.

"You should feel lucky to be alive, because if I did not want to see you rot in jail for the rest of your life…you would be six feet under ground," she added bitterly. Croelick coughed a pale laugh.

"I knew you could not kill me, Brenda," came his forced, weak words. "You have a good sense of morals. You are a cop after all. Service and justice…"

"Oh I could," Brenda interrupted and folded her arms at her chest. "I could a thousand times over. Shame once is all we get."

Croelick let out another hint of a laugh. "Shame," he mirrored her words and rolled his head to face front and opened his eyes. Brenda could not stop the ice cold fingers that ran down her spine and caused her to shudder. Right there front of her…pure evil stared back at her in cold, swollen eyes. "But my death," Croelick continued, "would have meant nothing, if taken by anyone else but you, Brenda. I find you very fascinating as I am sure you are well aware of by now. I even risked everything…my own freedom to make you mine."

"You can rot in that cell forever, Croelick and you, will always remember who put you there," she said, her words growing more intense as she spoke. Brenda stood and walked forward toward him. "You will hate me for the rest of your life and that is all I want."Croelick could not move back from her intimidating glare and the radiating anger that nearly chocked him again. His arrogant smile slowly faded into curiosity and awe. He had never experience anger like Brenda's and he was drawn in more by it. He looked wide-eyed up at her when she stopped in front of his chair. His next words were chosen not only to strike back at her, but to feed the anger.

"But you will always have me with you."

"What do you mean," she spat

"Why, that burn your stomach…you will always see it and you will always remember who put that there."

Brenda began to tremble again, but this time not from fear.

"It will be there during all of those intimate moments. It will be there when that belli is swollen with child…"

"Stop it!"

"…it will be there when you are old…when you are dying…when a lover's hand touches your body…"

"STOP IT!"

Croelick was satisfied. If he could not inflict physical pain on her…the emotional pain would have to do and even if it caused him more suffering, which it did. Brenda swung her arm back and struck him with full force on the left cheek. Then she backed away. Her shoulders sagged and Croelick slowly moved his head back to the front in time to see her fall back into the chair, exhausted.

"Did I hurt you again, Brenda," he asked, studying her.

"No," she said and met his gaze. Her eyes were hard and tired. "I just realized that you are not worth it. You are nothing. You mean as much to me as a piece of gum under my shoe. I will toss you away. I will never think of you. You can be sure of that."

"I don't believe you…"

Brenda arched an eyebrow. "You will…"

--

It had seemed like hours for the help to arrive…and when it did, manic was the name of the game. There were several police helicopters in the fields, more than five police cruisers from the surrounding precincts and two ambulances. Brenda had been taken immediately to the nearest ambulance and treated for the burn and various other wounds. Croelick, against everyone's wishes was also treated for wounds and then placed in the back of a police cruiser farthest from the ambulance that Brenda rested in.

Brenda, remained in the ambulance after being treated. She laid on her side, knees curled to her chest on the medical bed. Her eyes were moist from a few tears that trailed a path down her bruised cheek. She wiped them away just as she heard foot steps approaching; two types of foots prints to be exact. The first was slower; the second was slow then more frantic. She pegged the first to be that of Chief Pope and the second to be Fritz. Brenda had been trying to think of something, anything to say over the hour after she was left to rest in ambulance, but she had come up blank…not to mention out-right frustrated at her lack of thought. Outside the ambulance, Pope stopped Agent Howard from advancing forward.

"I want to see her!" Fritz said in strong, angry words at being stopped. Raw emotions flooded his body and he had to mentally stop himself from shoving Pope aside. The frustration did not go unnoticed and Pope placed a strong, comforting hand on Howard's shoulder and squeezed.

"Ok," he said calmly," but we need to get her to a hospital and then back to LA, ASAP. Understood?"

"Understood," Fritz barely got out as he pushed past the rest of the people and saw the ambulance ahead that held Brenda. He could not get there fast enough, just as he could not fly into Washington state fast enough. When he had woken earlier that day, a message flashed from his cell phone on the table. He had cursed himself for sleeping too hard and not hearing his phone ring. The message on the other end had been like a clouded dream…one that he was not so sure was reality. But when he finally spoke over the phone to Chief Pope that dream like reality became real reality. They had found her…her team had found her…they had not let her down…they had not let him down. Pope had said that someone from a near by county had received a strange message from a car radio. When they went to investigate the source of the message, they had found Brenda and Croelick. The police knew right away who she was, based on the reports of a female chief of police in LA that had been reported missing. Her face was all over the area as well as the surrounding counties and states. There had been relief in her eyes, but also an eerie distance. Brenda had appeared numb according to police.

As he approached the ambulance, Fritz's pace slowed and he steadied himself with a deep breath and visual image of what to expect. His breath was shallow. He first saw the medical kit at the step, then the medical bed, then the very tip of her bare feet. He slowly climbed up inside the ambulance and took in her body with pained eyes. The he sat down, gently and quietly. Brenda felt the air of the small compartment change with his presence and her throat tightened. Fritz sat down on the bench opposite from her, saw that her eyes were closed, and after a moment, spoke her name.

"Brenda?"

Brenda startled violently and her eyes shot open to see a blurry image of Fritz. She had known he was there, but after days of terror, her nerves were all but shot. He fought the urge to reach out and touch right away, when he saw the prey like fear in her brown eyes.

"I am sorry. I did not mean to startle you," Fritz said gently and locked her eyes with his. He desperately wanted to reached out for her…to touch her.

At seeing him, Brenda felt her strength began to crumble. She felt her eyes well up with new warm tears and knew that her chin quivered without any shame. Fritz saw her shaking and that sight broke his heart into pieces. This was his Brenda…this was the woman he loved…and that bastard Croelick had hurt her. Fritz would see that man suffer…he vowed that in his heart.

Her body was in shock…more from the mental trauma than the physical trauma and he could not take it any more. With one movement and fearing her resistance, Fritz took her within his arms. Brenda did not resist and she felt herself scooped up and held within his protective, large, strong and warm arms. It was then that she finally cracked into a million pieces…and she did not feel an ounce of embarrassment. She sobbed against his chest, while his hand came up to gingerly stroke her cheek and then hold her face to him while she cried. Brenda's hands searched his body and found the fabric and his shoulder blades. She gripped the fabric of his suit with all the strength she had left and held him as close to her as was humanly possible. Fritz let her cry, knowing full well that she needed his support and when her sobs became whispered, he lowered his lips to the top of her head and placed a soft kiss to her stiff hair. At the touch of his lips upon her, Brenda's hold to him tightened and after awhile as he held her, rocked slowly, and lightly stroked the side of her face, her crying slowed and then stopped. She felt weak and lifeless in his arms and Fritz knew Pope was right. Brenda needed to get to a hospital as soon as possible.

"Brenda," Fritz said gently. "We need to get you to a hospi…"

Brenda interrupted him and pulled back from his chest to stare into his face. His breath was caught in his throat. Her eyes were empty brown pools of color. "I just want to go home. Please, Fritz. I want to go home." Her haunted words matched the look in her eyes.

He continued to look at her for a moment and then brought both of his hands to cup her face gently. Her lips and chin quivered as he traced the dark shadow under her left eye with his thumb. While his eyes remained within hers, Brenda spoke again.

"Please," was all she said. Fritz leaned forward and placed a kiss to her lips, sighed, and gave in. He always gave in to her. She was that type of woman. She was the woman he loved with everything he had in his being.

"OK Brenda. OK. I will take you home," he finally said and pulled back from the kiss. A single tear fell down her cheek. When she moved her hand up to start to wipe it away, Fritz touched her cheek and did it for her. She gave a faint, loving smile.

"Thank you," was all she said…and 'thank you,' with the look in her eyes…was all he needed.

The medical staff present did not report any severe injuries, but that of minor cuts and bruises. Brenda did not mention the burn at her stomach and when they had found it, she still did talk about how it came to be. The medics had treated it and placed a gauze bandage over the burn.

Fritz had made the decision to take her home against Pope's order. He knew that he would have to answer to the man later, but right now…all that mattered, was her. He did not care anymore about order. All Fritz wanted was to never loose her again. He held her tight against him, lifted her as he stood, and carried her out of the back of the ambulance to his car. No one stopped him. No one dared…

--

Hours later, the sun had set and darkness took over the city of LA. When they had arrived home, Brenda had taken almost an hour in the shower before collapsing into bed…still wet in her towel.

Fritz entered the room not long after the shower waters had stopped to find her on the bed asleep. He sighed heavily and shrugged. Then he moved over to the bed and slowly drew a thick blanket over her body up to her shoulders before sliding into bed next to her and drawing her body gently into his arms. He made a slightly annoyed grunt when her towel holding her hair hit him in the face. He gently removed it and she did not wake to his relief. He smiled lovingly down at her and shook his head. "Brenda, Brenda, Brenda," he whispered as he nicely fixed her hair in a way so that he could nuzzle his face against hers. Fritz stayed awake for a long time, listening to her breath before he finally closed his own eyes. He was surprised at how fast he became tired and then soon…how fast he had fallen asleep. Agent Fritz Howard had awoke this day alone and unsure if he would ever see her again…but he would not wake the next morning the same.Neither one would be the same…

--

Croelick sat motionless and silent in the darkness of his cell. His eyes were fixed on the only amount of light that came in through the bullet proof glass of his cell door. He listened to the silence…he listened to nothing. When he closed his eyes, only one image was burned within his memory…Brenda…Brenda…Brenda…

He dug his fingers into the mattress of his bed and a few drops of blood fell to the cement floor at his feet. She was going to pay…Brenda was going to pay…and he would make sure he was the one to make her suffer for everything she had done…as his heart that she broke. He breathed in one shuddered, angry breath and opened his eyes to stare at the window again.

"I won't make the same mistake twice…" Croelick said to no one.

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Sorry this took so long. I got busy with making a video, plus I had to put all my stuff into my new computer. But here it is. I hope you all enjoy and thank you so much for reading.