Stockholm Syndrome
Chapter Two
Eric was in Trace, working on evidence from the downtown shooting when Ryan rushed into the same lab and immediately began working on his own evidence. The younger CSI was completely oblivious to his surroundings, which Eric found pretty amusing. After a few moments of watching the frantic man, he finally spoke up. "What's the rush, Wolfe?" he asked, a wide grin on his face.
"Natalia."
The grin on his face quickly disappeared. He had no idea what was going on, but he didn't like the tone in Ryan's voice. "What about Natalia? What's going on?" His own evidence was quickly forgotten about as he moved closer to his co-worker.
Ryan paused what he was doing to face Eric. "H had me go to Natalia's when he found out she wasn't at work," he explained. "When I got there, her purse and keys were lying on the ground. Car was in the driveway, no one inside the house."
It took a few moments for Eric to process the possibility that his friend could be kidnapped. This had already happened once with Calleigh, and now Natalia…
"But you don't know that for sure, that she was kidnapped," he said. Ryan's response was a nod. It brought very little relief to the older CSI, but at least it was something. "Good," he said. "I don't think that we should believe anything without solid proof." The statement had been more for himself than for Ryan. He had a terrible feeling that Natalia really had been kidnapped, and the only way he could remain the least bit sane was to remind himself that they had no solid proof… yet.
At that moment, both of their pagers went off. It was Horatio, telling them to come to his office – ASAP.
After asking a couple lab technicians to watch over their evidence, Eric and Ryan took off for their boss' office almost at a run. It wasn't very far from trace, so they were there seconds later. Already inside the office was Calleigh, as well as Horatio, who was looking at a piece of paper in his hands. Quietly, both men took a seat on either side of their blonde co-worker.
"Horatio?" Calleigh asked, her voice soft and nervous. She didn't know why, but she had a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something was wrong.
The red head continued to stare at the paper for another few seconds before looking at his CSIs. "Natalia has been kidnapped," he said bluntly. He ignored the trio's horrified reactions as he began to explain the situation the best he could: "After you two left for your crime scene," he said, nodding toward Eric and Calleigh, "I had Ryan go to Natalia's house to see if everything was all right. He found what could be described as a suspicious scene, so I decided it would be best to consider it a crime scene.
"When we arrived back here no more than five minutes ago, I found this letter waiting for me on my desk." The paper he had been holding in his hand was now in front of a very still Calleigh. Slowly, she picked up the paper and read it to herself:
Lieutenant Caine,
Missing something? I have your CSI. If you want her back, you'll need to do me a little favor.
A few weeks ago, you put my friend away for murdering his ex-girlfriend. Conner Manning is innocent.
What I need you to do is let him go. When you release him, I'll release her. Until then, Natalia Boa Vista will stay with me. Don't worry – I won't kill her, but you should know that I do have a nasty temper and very little patience. The longer you keep Conner Manning behind bars, the longer and more painful your CSI's torture sessions will be.
Calleigh didn't know what to think. She looked from the paper to an oddly calm Horatio, who was staring at the floor. She passed the letter to Ryan, who read it, then passed it to Eric. They spent the entire time in silence, trying to let it all sink in.
With a shaky hand, Eric placed the paper back down on the desk when he finished reading it. His brown eyes made their way from Ryan's face, to Calleigh's, and finally, to Horatio's. "What do we do, H?" he asked.
For the first time in a while, Horatio didn't have an immediate answer. What could they do? There had been almost no evidence at the scene and there were no witnesses. They had very little to go by… but that would have to be good enough.
"Eric, I want you and Calleigh to finish your current case. There's not much that you two can do with the little evidence we have from Natalia's." He could tell by the looks on the two CSIs' faces that they wanted to put the other case on hold and help find Natalia, but it was more important that they worked on their shooting first.
"Mr. Wolfe, I want you to go back to working on that trace evidence." Ryan nodded as Horatio picked up the letter. "I'll drop this off at Questioned Documents and then take a look at Natalia's belongings, okay?" All three CSIs nodded. "Okay. Let's go."
...
According to the alarm clock on the nightstand, it was now nine o'clock at night. She should be home right now, getting ready to fall asleep. Instead, she was in a location unknown to her, being held captive by a man who was nothing short of intimidating.
She was terrified, hungry, and in desperate need of the bathroom.
Natalia let out a frustrated growl as she literally danced back and forth across the room. Jason had untied her arms and legs, as well as removed the duct tape from her mouth, several hours ago, and she had spent a lot of time moving around ever since. Her movement was mostly due to the fact that her bladder would burst if she kept still much longer, but she was also looking for a way out.
She had gone over every crevice of the small room, hoping that perhaps there was a secret passage or something that would help her escape. Luck was not on her side, though, as she never came upon anything that could prove the least bit useful to her.
But she wouldn't give up. She wouldn't give up until she was out of here. Well… either that, or dead.
She was a fighter, and she'd keep trying… right after she did something about her bladder. It had been almost twenty-four hours since she had last gone to the bathroom, and she was feeling it. She needed to relieve herself, bathroom or not.
And so Natalia made her way across the room, as far away from the bed as she could get. She skirted her way around the table and into one of the corners, where she pulled down her pants and underwear, and made to squat.
"What the HELL are you doing?!"
Natalia froze and looked up at Jason, who had just come down the stairs. It took her a few seconds to find her voice as she stared into his furious brown eyes before she explained, "I need to use the bathroom."
"Then use it!" Jason yelled as he marched over to her, barely giving her enough time to pull her pants back up before he grabbed onto her arm and dragged her toward the one other door in the room. He kept a firm grip on her arm as he grabbed onto the handle and went to turn it, only to find that it was locked. "Fuck," he muttered.
The CSI flinched as Jason suddenly kicked the door down, revealing what had been on the other side of it: a bathroom.
It was small, but was still able fit a tub/shower, toilet, and sink. Natalia barely had time to make out anything else before she was pushed into the room. "Go!"
Slowly, Natalia stepped up to the toilet, then turned around to look at the doorway. Jason stood there, watching her, making no movement to fix the door. "Go," he said again, his voice low and angry.
Only after realizing that he wasn't going to give her any privacy, Natalia pulled her pants down to her knees and sat on the toilet. She made sure to avoid looking anywhere near the doorway and did her best to ignore the man staring at her.
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A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I may not always respond to them, but they're greatly appreciated!
