Natalia finally stopped screaming and was now sobbing in the chair. She could feel the blood trickle down her leg, she was always told that being shot in the kneecap was one of the most painful places to be shot. She never believed it till now, the pain was sharp and intense, it grew like a wild fire through her body.
She had some painful battle wounds from Nick and his abusive ways, and she was still recovering from the battle wound that she got when she was rough housing with Calleigh in her living room. The two girls were wrestling on the floor, which was one of Calleigh's favorite things to do, usually because Calleigh always had the upper hand and once Natalia was pinned things would always lead to something else. But on this rare occasion Natalia gained the upper hand, for quick second Natalia's mind wandered as she was actually beating Calleigh, she didn't feel when Calleigh started to push back. Trying to give herself a better stance at the last second Calleigh pushed Natalia's right leg back making it slip into the leg of her coffee table breaking Natalia's big toe.
Those types of pains were easy for her block, but this, this was something different. All she felt was a sharp consent pain that was showing no sign of letting up. Her head hung down low, and she just stared at her knee as she felt her eyes growing heavy.
All she could see was red; on the right side of her tan slacks that she wore to work that morning were stained red. She wasn't sure if she was imagining things but it looked like her knee no longer had a shape to it.
Brian was standing pretty close to her when he shot her. A gunshot wound that close to her body had to have shuttered her kneecap somewhat if not completely.
As Natalia sat there with silent tears flowing down her face, she felt her body fight the sudden onset of pain that accompanied what was left of her kneecap. Unfortunately for the Natalia it didn't take long for her body to lose that battle, and she passed out from the pain.
"Asshole! What are we going do H? And what the hell is that?" Eric said angrily with a raised voice.
"We are going to relax, I don't know what that the countdown is for but let's find Natalia before it reaches zero." Horatio said. "Frank and I are going to have another talk to Mr. Mulder, Eric and Ryan I want you to find anything you can about Brian Falco. Houses he owns or owned, where he went to the school, who he hangs out with, I want to know him like the back of them hand. Walter, I want you to say here and help Dave, we were talking to him for over twenty minutes there must be someway of tracking him." Horatio turned to Calleigh who was just staring at the computer screen watching the clock countdown. "Calleigh I want you to go in the break room and try to relax."
Calleigh's head shot towards Horatio, "No, I can't do that. I need to be out there, I need to find her Horatio. Who knows what he is doing to her right now." Calleigh said.
"We will find her, but right now I need you to try and relax."
"I need to relax... I'm fine...You are going to look me in the eyes and tell me out of everyone in this room I'm the one that needs to relax" she said with a slightly raised voice, looking over towards Eric.
"I know, but right now this is just turned into a personal case for you. I need you with her head on straight, and plus you made a personal threat to Mr. Falco. If..."
"When" Calleigh interjected.
"...When we catch him, his defense could being up the exchanging of words you two had a moment ago and he could get a reduced sentence or worst, the judge could let him walk free. Is that what you really want?" Horatio said in a tone, indicting that he was right.
Calleigh just stared at him for a while with cold almost lifeless eyes before she huffed and turned around. "Whatever" she said under voice before she kicked the AV door open to find other lab workers gathered around the door trying to hear what was going on. Calleigh just ignored them and marched her way over the break room.
Horatio watched the whole time, and watch as in one fluid motion she shoved all the newspapers and magazines off the table before slamming her fist on the table and putting her head down. Turning back to his team he looked at them and said, "Let's go."
30 minutes later Horatio was in the interrogation room with Frank and Nate Mulder.
Nate sat with his legs stretched out and crossed with his arms folded chewing on his tongue. "Why I'm here?" he finally said.
"Your here Mr. Mulder because you lied to me." Horatio said looking out the window.
Nate also looked out the window briefly before shaking his head and replying "No."
Horatio just grinned, and set photos of the Hummer's hood that Natalia was driving with oil marks all over it, then put a paper with a chart and other chemical compounds on it.
Grabbing the photos and paper he looked at it before placing them back on the table, "What is this?"
"That Mr. Mulder would be special oil that is only sold in your store found under the hood of Natalia's Hummer, and I'm willing to bet is probably on your hands right now." Horatio said.
"Other people work there, I'm not the only one to touches that oil" Nate said now sitting up more.
"True, but we found only three set of prints on that Hummer and one of them is yours." Horatio said as he placed the pictures of the Nate's fingerprints in front of him.
Nate just sat there in the silence looking at all the evidence against him.
"We can help you Nate, if you let us." Frank added.
"Oh yeah, how?" Nate replied sarcastically.
"Help us catch Brian and we will make sure that you get the minimal punishment that is available for you" Frank said.
"Minimal punishment? I've done nothing wrong" Nate said with a sigh as he looked out the window again.
"Nothing wrong, we got you for aiding and abetting a fugitive, obstruction of justice, vehicle tampering and assisting in a kidnapping. All together you're looking at about 25 years in prison." Frank huffed.
Nate raised his hands and cover is face and gave out a sigh before lowing his hands. "He came on to my lot this morning with a champagne color Hummer, said there was something wrong with the engine, wanted me take a look at it. I told him the pop the hood and I would take a look. I saw the GPS tracking units riddle everywhere, I back up looked at the side and saw the Miami Dade Police Department seal I told him to get the car off my lot." Nate paused and looked at Horatio "I swear I didn't know he kidnapped an police officer, the Hummer was empty when he brought it to me."
"Okay, can you tell me house's or other business's Brian might own or anywhere he might be?" Horatio asked.
Shaking his head, Nate looked at him "He has a house in Coral Gables and he just bought one West Palm Beach, that is all I really know."
"Okay, thank you, Frank can I have word."
Both Horatio and Frank stepped outside of the room looking at Nate who was playing with is fingernails.
"Do you believe him Horatio?"
"Not at all, so here is what we are going to do, have Ryan and Eric check out his place in Coral Gables, and then call West Palm Beach and have them check out his house there. I'll be in the AV lab if you need me."
Horatio and Frank went their separate ways, making his way over to the AV lab he couldn't help but to look over towards the break room. There he saw Calleigh walking around like a caged animal all riled up from being tormented all day by little kids. One small movement or word would set her off. He wasn't the only one that realized it; all of her co-workers saw it too. Normally the break room had at least 2 or 3 officers in it but no one dared to go in out of fear of what Calleigh would do. Lunches and dinners that were brought in or leftovers from earlier shifts just stayed there, and everyone found themselves going downstairs to the local cafe for coffee and dinner.
Horatio just continued on his path to the AV lab when he got an uneasiness, like someone was watching him. All he could was look down and smile to himself, he knew Calleigh was watching him, stalking his every move. Taking another glance back at the break room he saw that he was right, Calleigh was standing there glaring at him. Her eyes were dark green, her nostrils flared, jaw clenched shut and her arms crossed. He knew that she had hated him right now, but it would soon pass when they got Natalia back. But right now he knew to keep Calleigh from going on a rampage he had to find Natalia and fast.
Walking into the AV lab he saw Walter typing on the keyboard looking at the computer screen while Dave was in the back of room working on one of the severs.
"What do we have so far?" Horatio said walking over to Walter's side.
"Nothing H, the Dongle was used to hide his location, it's so heavily encrypted, it will take longer than 12 hours to break it." Walter sighed as he looked down at the timer, which was at 11 hours.
"Okay well it's 10 p.m. keep working and let me know if you get anything new. We need to find her before 8 a.m." Horatio said as he walked out of the AV lab.
Half way across town Eric and Ryan were making their way to Coral Gables. Eric was driving while Ryan sat in the passenger seat looking out the window.
Miami nightlife was just starting, the lights were bright and the streets were filling with young college students and workers looking for a cocktail with some friends. It seemed like everyone was out, expect Eric and Ryan.
The two men were stuck trying to save their missing teammate, so she too could enjoy the Miami nightlife at the end of a long shift.
The two drove in silence till Ryan finally said something. "Calleigh and Natalia... I never would have pegged them for being gay or bi."
"Yeah" Eric said in a low whisper, still thinking about everything that as going on. Eric still loved Calleigh and never really got over the fact that she dumped him.
In the back of his mind he always knew that she had feelings for Natalia. He would catch her looking longing at Natalia when she was in the DNA lab, or when they were at a crime scene. She was even upset that Natalia went to someone else to help her learn how to shoot. Then every night she was always going out to dinner or having drinks with friends, pretty much doing everything she could to avoid Eric.
She was always gone, both mentally and physically, Calleigh was always a touchy person but she slowly started to withdraw from Eric.
Till finally Eric confronted her, the two got into a huge argument that ended in Calleigh leaving Eric.
But with all turmoil aside, Eric knew that she should be happy and if Natalia could make her happy then so be it.
"So do you believe Brian? Or do you think they have been seeing each other longer than a year?" Ryan said.
Eric just shrugged as he continued to drive. "Man, two of the hottest women in the crime lab are dating each other." Eric said with groan "Not fair."
"Right."
The two men pulled up to Brian's house in Coral Gables, Eric looked at his phone and saw that Frank sent him a text saying they have a warrant for the house, by the time they got out of the hummer a patrol car came up with their warrant.
They knocked on the door and got no answer so they opened the front door, and began to search the house. Eric stayed downstairs while Ryan went upstairs.
Upstairs, Ryan came up short, there was nothing in all three of the bedrooms upstairs. But Eric on the other hand walked into the office and hit the jackpot, "Ryan, I found something" He yelled looking through files.
"What have you got?" Ryan said entering the room.
"He's real estate agent, Natalia could be anywhere." Eric said looking at another file.
"Anywhere in Miami or the state of Florida?"
"I'm thinking anywhere in this country. He has houses in Florida, Las Vegas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, New York, and Boston. He even has books here on how to fly planes, this isn't looking good." Eric said.
The two of the them spent 2 hours collected all the files in the office, and they were soon on their way back to the lab.
Eric and Ryan joined Horatio and Frank in the AV lab; Eric was about to say something when Calleigh walked in.
"Calleigh you know you can't be here." Horatio said
"Why, because this is personal case. Well guess what, she is a team member; she has been apart of this team for the past 5 years. It's a personal case for everyone here, the only difference is I'm in a relationship with her. So technically all of us should not be on this case."
The room was silent for a few moments before Eric spoke again. "Brian is a real estate agent with propriety that is all over this country. Natalia could be anywhere."
"Well we can narrow it down to only Florida." Walter said looking at one of files.
"No we can't" Calleigh said in cold tone.
"Why? He doesn't have time to move her, not to mention I think the airports would report a man with a hostage in a heartbeat." Walter added.
"One he has a private jet so moving her out of the state is not that hard for him. Two he has houses in L.A, Miami to L.A is a 5-hour plane ride. Natalia has been missing since 11 a.m. if not earlier; Brian didn't contact us till 8 in the evening. So she has been missing for 9 hours, she could be anywhere." Calleigh said with a still cold tone, never taking her eyes off the file in front of her.
Some time later Natalia finally regained consciousness, even through she knew nothing would probably happen she had to move her hands. It was almost instinct, but what she wasn't counting on was her wrist almost sliding out of the duck tape.
Natalia's head shot up when she realized that the tape was beginning to lose its stickiness. She knew it had to be due to the fact that she was sweating, and there was no air conditioning in the room that she was in.
Before she continued to wiggle her way out of the tape she looked around to see that she was all alone. A few more twists of her wrist and her hand slid right out.
With her hands in front of her, she stared at her ankles, which were still taped to the chair. She knew she couldn't make it very far on a shattered knee; she had no clue if she was really alone. Brian could have people downstairs keeping watch of the house while he was gone.
Natalia gave a sigh of defeat, until she looked up at the laptop. That was her answer, the laptop. She remembered one day a couple of weeks ago Dave, Walter and her were in the AV lab goofing around. She remembered Dave and Walter getting into a heated argument about the station's severs and how much they were lacking in the security department, which resulted in Dave giving them an intermediate course on how to hack.
She didn't need to be great at; she just needed to be okay. Her goal wasn't to be successful and get into the severs undetected, she wanted to get caught.
She knew that is was a bad idea untie her ankles, she didn't know when Brian was coming back. With her knee the way it was, she couldn't move as quickly as she could if he suddenly came back.
So she did the next best thing, she slowly and quietly slid the chair closer to the laptop. After the first scoot, she stopped and gave a loud and muffled groan when her kneecap reminded her that it was still shattered and still hurting.
Natalia tried her best to put the pain behind her, and continued on her mission to get the laptop that seemed to be miles away. But with each scoot the pain just got bigger and more noticeable.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity she was at the laptop. With a sigh she pushed the spacebar waking the laptop up from its sleep. Natalia began typing taking all the back doors that Dave showed her. In the middle of rewriting one of lines of code she pushed the control button the computer that turned on the web cam.
"Guys..." Walter said looking at computer screen.
Horatio and his team looked at the screen, and watched as Natalia was typing on the computer but she never made eye contact with web cam. She had more important things to worry about, like what was the difference between an if-else statement and a do while loop.
"What is she doing?" Walter said.
"I don't know, Walter" Horatio continued "Natalia? Can you hear us?"
Natalia didn't respond, she was struggling to remember everything that Dave was saying that day. But he was speaking technologic mambo jambo, and it was starting to go in one ear and out the other.
"Guess not" Eric said, as they watched as Natalia continue to type.
The further she made into the database the harder and longer the lines of code became. Till finally she couldn't go any further she needed to know binary and hex numbers along with ASCII code. She knew Dave talked about it, but by that time all she was hearing was white noise and just shaking her head yes while wondering what her blonde counterpart was up too.
Natalia had stopped typing and was deep in thought when a loud crash came from downstairs snapping Natalia out of her memories.
She exited out of the database and put the computer back to sleep. Trying her best to ignore the pain of her knee she took two giant scoots backwards so she was in the same spot as before. She managed to her slip her hands back into her duck tape bracelet, right when Brian came up the stairs.
"DAMN IT!" Eric yelled as he slammed his fist on the table. "What the hell was she doing?"
No one could answer Eric question, the room was silent and extremely tense. It was at that moment there was beeping noise coming from the back of room.
Dave walked over to the computer that was used to keep track of the stations severs; it was going crazy and throwing up screen after screen. It was making it hard for Dave to make sense of everything that was going on.
Dave was typing for a few minutes, till finally he gave a sigh and sat in a chair that was in the back.
"Dave?" Horatio said picking up on his sigh of defeat.
"Someone just tried to hack into our network here at the station."
"You mean Natalia?" Ryan said while putting his hands on his hips.
Dave just shrugged as he started typing on the computer again.
"Oh come on Dave it had to be Natalia!" Eric yelled. "We just watched her type on the computer for like 10 minutes, once she stops your computers go crazy. Anybody could tell that it was Natalia."
Emotions were running high, Natalia had been missing for over 12 hours now. It didn't help that much that the clues they were getting were nothing but dead ends. Nobody wanted to see Natalia downstairs on Tom's table being cut open and Brian still on the loose tormenting them.
"Look, I want to say that it was Natalia who was trying to hack the system. But I can't."
"Why?" Eric asked.
"Do you know how many times a day we get hacked, by kids and other countries? It's like 50 to 60 times everyday. When I got here there was really nothing in place to stop it or slow it down." Dave continued "So I created a program to let me know when someone is trying to get into our network. Unfortunately if they are not in the network I can't track them, I can only see the country, state and city."
"And?" Walter added.
Dave typed some more on the computer before he paused to say, "Miami Florida."
"I can try to do some reverse engineering and see if I can't give you a radius of where the computer is located."
For the first time in this whole case the team finally got some good news, knowing that Natalia could still be in the state as well as the city.
"It's going to be a long night." Walter said under his breath, looking at his watch to see it was eleven o'clock at night.