Sorry for the delay - but this is the last chapter! Da dum. Thanks for all your support!
"Man down!" Davis shouted into the telephone. "I repeat, man down! Richards is shot!"
He could see Poole standing spattered with blood next to the limp form of his fellow agent. The other screens were filled with FBI agents, guns drawn.
"Katie," he heard Poole breathe. "Don't do this."
Davis could do nothing but watch this horror film.
"Riley," Richards said, blood bubbling at her mouth. Poole knelt next to her, uncertainly looking at the two bullet wounds in her middle.
"Lucy, hold on." He spread his hands, shakily, and pressed them to the wounds. Pressure, he thought, keep up the pressure.
"They… know," she said, her eyes glossing over as they tried to focus on the face in front of her, her breath coming short and pained. "They know. They can see you."
"Lucy," Poole said. "Lucy, don't."
"Shut up!" the woman shouted again, trained her gun on him. Poole ignored her. Richards drew a ragged breath, closed her eyes.
"I don't want to shoot you, Riley!" the woman said. "Get up!"
"Lucy." Poole's voice was quiet, his hands bloody.
-
"Shots fired," Sadusky said into the phone. "Move in. Cover Poole."
He got out of the van, loaded his weapon, and strode towards the house.
-
"Abigail," Ben said, reached for her hand. She returned the gesture, her eyes wet.
"What did Sadusky say?"
"He didn't. It was the monitoring agent, Davis. He said to be prepared for anything and wait for another call."
Abigail turned her face into Ben's jacket and cried openly.
Tears pricked at the corners of Ben's eyes.
Burying Riley for the third time would be too much.
-
Riley was terrified and in shock. The woman who he believed had been just another Analyst trying to convert him had turned out to be his salvation. And she was dying. Her blood was on his clothes.
"Lucy. Lucy. Can you hear me?"
They know. They can see you. That's what she said. What the hell does it mean?
"Get up, Riley! She's too far gone. She deserves it." Katie's voice. Kind, concerned Katie. Hard. Cold. This wasn't real. It was a nightmare.
"Lucy," Riley said. Then there was chaos.
A third gunshot rang through the air. Something hit him in the chest, pushed him backwards. He was on his back, someone looking down into his face.
"Mr. Poole. Are you hurt?"
"No," Riley said, and the agent pulled him to his feet. He was unhurt, but still, the agent gave him thorough once-over.
The room was starting to come into view. He could see paramedics working on Lucy, a pair of agents restraining a hysterical Katie.
He was dizzy. The world spun, and someone pushed him onto a couch. He heard the agent's voice again, asking for a paramedic.
"Mr. Poole. Can you look at me?"
Riley lifted his head, looked into a pair of hazel eyes.
"Can you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?"
"Four." His voice seemed disconnected, not part of him.
"I think you'll be fine. But I want you to come around to the hospital. We should get you checked out properly. It's not every day someone comes back to life after half a year."
The paramedic smiled at him. Riley managed something between a sob and a laugh.
"Mr. Poole."
A familiar voice. Riley looked up. Sadusky.
"Man," Riley said. "I never thought I'd be happy to see you."
Sadusky chuckled, sat down on the couch next to Riley.
"Glad to see you've still got your humor. You're a famous man, Mr. Poole. You've got your own paparazzi waiting outside."
"This is… not how I wanted to get famous."
"You can't always get what you want," Sadusky said. "Now, I suggest you go with this nice man, and get a checkup. There are some people who are very anxious to see you."
-
When Riley got the all-clear from the hospital staff, he didn't know what to do. He didn't know whether he should just walk out of the hospital. He had nowhere to go. And he didn't want to be photographed like this. He still had Lucy's blood on his hands, his clothes.
So he sat down in one of the smaller waiting rooms and lowered his head into his hands. Slowly, he started to shake. It was over. Somehow, his brain didn't accept it yet. What he'd been wishing for a year had become true. He was free.
Taking a deep breath, he raised his head and stood up.
He froze.
There, in the door, stood the one person he'd missed most.
Ben didn't know what to do. He was usually so decisive, but now, he had no idea what to do.
For a long while, the two friends just stared at each other. Then Riley cleared his throat. He'd fantasized over this moment for a year. But he couldn't find words to say.
"Riley." Ben's voice broke.
"Ben." Riley cracked a smile. "I've… missed you."
"Missed me." Ben let out a chuckle that turned into a sob. "You've missed me."
He crossed the space between then, and in an uncharacteristic display of emotion, he wrapped his arms around Riley. Riley stiffened for a moment. The last hug he'd received was when Alex came to break the news of his death to him. Then he relaxed, returned the hug, and tears came.
Riley cried for the first time in a year. Hot tears stung his eyes and Ben could feel the wetness against his jacket's shoulder. Tears threatened to break in his own eyes, but instead, he gripped Riley tighter.
Abigail rounded the corner, looking for Ben, saw the two through the glass window and clasped a hand over her mouth. She didn't know how long she stood there behind them, silently crying before Ben broke the hug, let go of Riley.
Riley's breath caught as he saw Abigail. She just stood there crying.
"Abby," Riley said quietly. "Don't cry. I'm okay."
She shook her head, unable to speak, just pulled him into a hug. Ben clapped Riley's shoulder a couple of times, then broke the two apart and pulled both of them into a hug.
When Abigail had run out of tears, they reluctantly let go of each other.
"You thought I was dead." Riley swept at his eyes with the back of his hand.
"We buried you twice," Abigail said, her eyes red and her voice raw. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."
They sat down, Abigail refusing to let go of Riley, as if he would disappear if she did. She kept her hand on his knee.
"Neither did I," Riley said.
"What happened?" Ben asked tentatively. Riley gave him a long look, gave a weary chuckle.
"You want the entire story, or the abridged version?"
Ben smiled. He'd forgotten Riley's humor.
"I got hit in the head, forced to write a security program for a terrorist organization masquerading as a cult, then I accidentally trusted the completely wrong person, got put in my place by being told I was dead, spent six months doing absolutely nothing with my life except think that I will never see anyone I love again, then the woman who was my only deliverance got shot in front of me and I thought I was dead for sure, then I got rescued by Sadusky and his FBI pals." Riley grinned, and for a moment, they saw a glimmer of the old Riley. Then the smile vanished and Riley averted his eyes.
"Riley?" Ben said, concerned.
"How…" Riley started, paused. "How long did you think I decided to vanish?"
"About five minutes," Ben said. "Then I realized you'd never do that."
Riley met Ben's eyes.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Riley dropped his head, shook it.
"I was so scared, that you'd stop looking for me when 'my' body was found."
Ben shook his head.
"I never stopped looking for you, even when they found that body. I always knew."
Riley shook his head again, the recent horror of the past still lingering.
"I was so scared…"
Abigail leaned forward, kissed the top of his head.
"You're okay. You don't need to be scared anymore. You're safe. You're with us."
-
I'm coming round
To open the blinds
You can't hide here any longer
My God you need
To rinse those puffy eyes
You can't lie still any longer
I guess they'll ask you where you've been
And you'll have to tell them
Again and again
And you probably don't wanna hear tomorrow's another day
But I promise you you'll see the sun again
And you're asking me why pain's the only way to happiness
And I promise you you'll see the sun again
-
Riley woke up – but not blinded by Katie ripping the blinds open. It was still strange to wake up to no Katie. He sat up carefully, half-expecting her to jump out from behind the door.
But he wasn't in the big bedroom anymore. He was in Ben and Abigail's cozy guest bedroom. Since he had no place to go and didn't want to stay at a hotel that would only remind him of the way he was treated, they had insisted he stayed with them. He didn't protest. Besides. It had only been a week since…
The FBI didn't put Riley through much more grief. They only wanted the codes to disable the security and they had all the evidence they needed. The entire organization was shut down, Jim and Danny, and other members involved in and informed of Riley's situation, arrested and charged with terrorism, kidnapping and coercing Riley into working with them. Riley didn't even have to testify. All pled guilty. Katie was charged with murder, classed as a religious fanatic and placed in psychiatric care.
The worst was the media frenzy. Riley couldn't leave the house without being accosted by a reporter or a news van, so he basically became a prisoner all over again. Ben had almost forbidden him to leave the house for a week. Not that he listened.
He cried when the FBI discovered his Ferrari at another Analyst community, sprayed yellow and a fake registration covering his plates. The next day, he saw his sniffling picture in the news and a big caption saying "little millionaire reunited with his car". He'd been pretty mad. It was what they'd done to it that had him crying. There were liquid stains all over the seats, crumbs encrusted everywhere. He'd had it sent in to get it fixed, and when he'd gotten it back, it was good as new. He cried again.
He'd dreaded the media since the day that Special Agent Lucy Richards died. He knew they'd link him to her death, and he didn't want to talk about it. But today, instead of scowling at the media gathered at the bottom of the drive from Ben's top floor window, he was going to go out and meet them. He was going to take his Ferrari, pop on his new sunglasses and drive right past them.
Who cares if they take pictures?
"Where are you going?" Abigail asked suspiciously as she saw Riley come downstairs, keys jangling in his hand.
"Out," he answered vaguely. Her face froze.
"Are you sure? You know that the media is waiting at the end of the drive, right?"
"I'm tired of being afraid," Riley said. "I'm not going to let this stupid year get the better of me."
Abigail stared as he hopped over the driver's side of the car, thought of what Agent Bishop had said the day they first saw Riley alive. About how people who go through experiences like that are often changed for the worse and are never the same again.
She watched Riley start his car, a satisfied smirk on his face. Agent Bishop was right, Riley had changed. The first few days he'd been morose, and hadn't done much but sleep. But then, yesterday, there'd been a sudden change in him. He'd been sitting in Ben's office, his feet up on the desk, staring out the window. Abigail had been watching him, a half-concerned look on her face. Then he turned his face to her.
"Do you think there's a reason this happened to me?"
She'd been taken off guard by the sudden question.
"I don't know. Do you think so?"
"Maybe. That girl, the crazy one, sometimes she made sense. She used to talk about God a lot. Made me think sometimes." He paused, gazed out the window. "I once told her about my parents. She said God tests us all the time to see how strong we are."
Abigail had shaken her head in amazement. She hadn't ever known Riley to be religious or anything. Riley laughed at her expression. His first real laugh.
"I'm not going all religious, don't worry. I'm just saying. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. I keep thinking about the bad stuff. I keep thinking how much better off I'd be if this hadn't happened. But now…"
He'd stopped talking, but she could see the gears working in his head.
Bishop had been right. Riley had changed. But in a better way.
-
Riley grinned as he neared the end of the drive. He'd been steeling himself all week for this, but now, he relaxed. This what he wanted. This was what he'd always wanted.
He shifted the Ferrari into a lower gear as he neared the end of the drive. He hadn't driven this thing for a year, but it came naturally now. It had taken him forever to learn the strange Formula One shift gears, with the paddles on the steering wheel. And still, he sometimes screwed up.
He wasn't going to now. He was confident. He slowed, watched as the media parted to stare for a few moments. He could guess that he looked pretty cool.
Then a camera snapped and the hounds were released.
"Mr. Poole! Can we have a word?"
"No comment."
"How does it feel to be so popular?"
"Pretty cool."
"How did your horrific experience change your life?"
Riley didn't answer. He grinned, let the Ferrari do the work. And slipped through the throng of media, vanishing down the road.
And it's all over. Riley gets what he wants, sort of, and everyone's happy. I really wanted this story to have a happy ending, and I really do think Riley's tougher than he looks. I didn't want this fic to end in that and-he-was-never-the-same-again way some fics do. I wanted things to go back to normal. Like at the end of the films. And, heh, if anyone noticed, this fic started with THE car, and ended with it, like BoS did. I didn't mean for it to, but when I read it again, I was like 'cool'.
Oh yeah – I don't usually do songfic, and I don't usually listen to music while I'm writing, but this song just seemed apt. Believe it or not, I was listening to it as I was writing the last few paragraphs. It was one of those songs you have on your ipod that you've heard but haven't actually listened to. It's called See the Sun by Dido. I didn't have the lyrics so I just wrote what made sense. So don't flame me for that. And it also gave me a great ironic title. And… I don't own it.
So. If anyone's interested, I might write a cute little follow-up one-shot just to see how Riley's handling fame. Or, since I'm working on a new story, maybe I should let this one flow into that one… it's also a multichap. Any ideas are really welcome, give me a PM. And I don't mind some constructive criticism.
Anyway. Over and out.