Hello everyone!
Here is the chapter that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about Annie!
Thank you for all the reviews and putting this story under alert and/or favorites!
Disclaimer is in Chapter 1: Who?
luvs,
crzychigurl343
Smith, A.
"Alright, I think, my dear, that you have been put through enough today. Walker, clean up her wounds and extract the bullet out from her leg. We don't want the future Mrs. Stryker to die from metal poisoning while we are not looking." Stryker stated before caressing Annie's cheek. She spat right in his face and he chuckled at this as he wiped away the mucus from his face. After that he punched her right in the stomach so as not to fracture her already broken ribs.
"Still fighting I see. Well, don't worry sweet Annie; you will succumb to my logic in less than 24 hours before we leave 5:30 sharp tomorrow evening." Stryker whispered in her ear but loud enough for it to echo in the room so that her potential rescuers could hear it through the video feed. She widened her eyes at the fact that her captor felt comfortable enough with the situation to give a specific time of their supposed departure. It wasn't a trick, she could tell based on the physiological indicators that her mother taught her to see if someone was telling the truth or if they were trying to hide something.
Annie had lost all track of time after falling asleep the previous night. She didn't realize that she had just been tortured for basically twelve hours with brief interludes so that Stryker could go out and do some business and that was when Annie could rest or eat to maintain her "health" as Stryker put it and then so that his mini army of mercenaries could clean up the mess created during her previous fight with four deceased mercenaries. First off after her fight was "electric shock therapy" then followed by a typical beating and then Stryker followed it up with his favorite technique: water boarding. He left for a third meeting and came back to use her as a punching bag.
"Good night cupcake." Stryker stated gleefully and pecked her on the cheek before leaving. Annie once more felt a tremor rack her body in disgust at Stryker but he didn't see this as he had turned his back and glided out of her cell without a care in the world, clicking the button on the remote control to turn off the camera and its live video stream. With the huge clang of the door, Annie was left alone with her constant companion, Lucas, and to her thoughts about what she had just learned.
As Lucas examined her body to take note of her injuries, Annie's thoughts meditated on deceased Special Agent Kevin O'Riley, her partner and lover. She first met the man recently after her divorce because her previous partner, Special Agent Laurence Roberts Jr., had to transfer to the Arizona branch. Annie and O'Riley hit it off as soon as they met. He would go to lengths to make her happy months after her divorce to Elijah Ryans and supported her fully when Annie adopted Jason even though most of her co-workers and friends thought that this was an extreme reaction to the break-up and claimed that she wasn't in her right mind. Special Agent Kevin O'Riley was probably the most supportive man a woman would ever find. It wasn't long after that, about a year after her divorce, that the two finally became a couple.
That year of their relationship was something special. As they worked cases together, they steadily fell more and more in love. And when they drunkenly tied the knot after a gruesome serial killer case, Annie couldn't have been happier that once they were sober O'Riley was on board with the idea of them staying married. She finally had her own family, a husband and a son that understood her and her job and didn't want her to change that like Eli did. Eli wanted a trophy wife, a stay at home mom, and he wanted kids early on in their marriage. But Kevin wasn't like that. Kevin understood that they could wait a year or two to have kids and when they did, he didn't want Annie to quit her job unless she wanted to. Annie felt as if she had finally met her true love.
Another year went by, this time as a married couple. Kevin and her were still going strong with minimal problems, unlike her first year of marriage to Elijah, and Jason had finally settled into his new life as a college student/marine cadet with his own high school sweetheart, a girl named Emma Pierson. Then Annie missed her period and when this happened she took the drug store pregnancy test that said positive after the three minutes of suspenseful waiting in the bathroom with Kevin and Jason. Kevin was ecstatic and so was she. Annie always knew she wanted to be a mom someday but with Elijah it was too soon for her, she was only 25 years old. By the time she was married to Kevin, she was 28 and more situated in life. Kevin scheduled her doctor's appointment to get the final confirmation before telling anyone about her pregnancy.
It was that fateful day that while they waited at the doctor's office for their appointment when Kevin got the call. A building was being held hostage by Stryker, although they didn't know that at the time, and said he would blow it up and all of its occupants if the FBI did not meet his demands which were to give him 500 million dollars and a helicopter that would take him to a private plane that would fly anywhere of his choosing without getting arrested. Kevin and Annie were the best negotiators at the FBI agency in Washington D.C. hence why the bureau called. Kevin told her to stay at the hospital for their appointment, saying that if she was really pregnant then he would be damned to let her anywhere near a potential bombing. Annie smiled at him and pecked him on the lips one last time before letting him go on without her. It would be hours later while Annie was relaxing at home when she got the call about the building being blown up and Kevin being inside of the building when it blew. That was when her world began to crumble around her.
Annie rushed to the hospital with her parents, Carson, Jason, and Emma to see what type of condition Kevin was in. The news the doctors gave her was grim to say the least. Kevin suffered 3rd degree burns on over 75% of his body and was barely hanging on to being unconscious. The doctors didn't feel that the odds were in his favor and allowed her to go see him one last time. Annie went to the burn unit and stopped at the window that allowed her to see into Kevin's room. He was mostly wrapped up in bandages so that Annie could only see his eyelids, his fiery red hair, one hand, and the bottom of his feet. It scared her to see how white those few limbs were compared to the white bed sheets he was lying in. It would be 6 hours later when Kevin's heart finally gave out and he was pronounced dead. There went a chunk of her world.
Weeks went by and Special Agent Kevin O'Riley was laid to rest in Arlington cemetery next to his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and so on and so forth, since all O'Riley men entered the army and served their nation. Annie would visit his gravestone daily with all of her friends coming by and giving her their condolences at their old home. It would be the day that Hetty arrived and stayed with Annie for the evening when Annie got the call from the doctor's office to confirm that she was not pregnant and that they were so sorry for the delayed results. Hetty didn't hear the contents of the call but it was obvious from how distraught Annie was that it was not a good one. Annie collapsed to the ground, raked with sobs, and Hetty just held the young woman for hours: comforting her and saying soothing words. Annie clung to Hetty until she accidently fell asleep. Hetty called Jason so that he could pick up Annie and take her to bed, explaining to him that Annie's fit was brought upon by a phone call from the doctor. Jason was able to put two and two together but waited to confirm with Annie the next day after Hetty left. Another piece of Annie's world: gone.
In less than a month Annie lost almost everything she thought she would have had thirty, forty years from now: a husband and two children, maybe more. Now she only had one child and was a widow. But the hits kept coming. Because she was never actually pregnant, Annie and Jason kept the false pregnancy under wraps even from her parents and sister. She was back at work, struggling to stay focus on the case at hand without breaking down when she got the third call that would ruin her life. Annie had just put in the claim for Kevin's life insurance claiming to be his wife when they called her back. That was when she found out that the Vegas chapel that she and Kevin were married in was shut down due to sanctioning illegal marriages, their ordains were not certified by the government. In the eyes of the law, Anne Marie Smith was never married to Kevin Seamus O'Riley and thus she could not collect on the insurance. That was the last straw for Annie; she quit her job at the FBI and started packing.
It wasn't the money that upset Annie to the point where she was planning on uprooting her life. It was the fact that the entire past year of marital bliss was a lie and that if Kevin didn't die that in the next month, she and he would have been officially married in front of all of their friends and family. Everything was just crumbling down around her and Annie wasn't going to sit there and let it continue. It seemed silly now but Annie really thought that if she ran from her life then nothing else bad would happen.
Annie packed, sold the house she lived in with Kevin and for a short time with Jason as a family, stayed long enough to collect her last paycheck and see her son get married to his high school sweetheart before flying out to Ireland. For the next three years, Annie went globe-trotting to heal her wounds and gain the courage to go back to her real life in the United States. Sure she would visit her family for important events such as birthdays and anniversaries but she wouldn't stay longer than a week before going back to an undisclosed city. It wouldn't be until two months before she made the official move to Los Angeles that Annie got amazing news.
She got a call from Jason that Emma was pregnant. Annie could tell that he hesitated on telling her this because he was afraid that he would upset her but Annie was glad that he did tell her. Annie was happy that her son was getting something that Annie almost had. One month later during her stay in Tibet she got the email of the sonogram of Jason and Emma's baby. Also in that email was an offer for her to stay in the L.A. area for Emma and Jason due to Jason's pleas for Annie to be a part of the pregnancy and then to be around for her grandchild on a more permanent basis. Annie always had a difficult time saying no to Jason, but this email sent her over the edge and forced her to respond yes to Jason and Emma's wish for Annie to come back to the U.S. on a permanent basis before she was ready.
Thanks to the Indian banks where she had kept most of her money during her globetrotting, Annie had difficulty transferring her money to her U.S. accounts. It would be another week before Annie could finally put the down payment on her condo in Los Angeles and then move in a week later. But it all worked out for she missed the bullet of being pinned as a murderer by a federal agency and then gained employment from the same agency after clearing her name: NCIS: OSP.
Even though, all of this led her to where she was now, living happily in L.A. gaining new friends, working with the mastermind and amusing Henrietta Lange once more, and preparing for the new baby, Annie regretted that it was at the cost of Kevin O'Riley's life. For if anyone deserved to live, it would be Kevin. At least, that was the case for Annie and she would happily traded spots with Kevin so he could have experienced the same happiness Annie did these past 6 months. Kevin rose from the dead right at the moment in Annie's mind's eye as she could clearly see his tall, muscled form, slicked-back red hair, a spray of freckles all over his body, emerald green eyes, and easy-going smile. He stood there in his normal suit in front of Annie, just smiling at her with loving eyes that she missed. Oddly enough, Kevin started to fade and become blurry. Annie wanted to fight, she didn't want him to leave but she was too exhausted to do so. That and she was being held in place by cuffs and Lucas who was now extracting the bullet from her thigh.
"Stay still or I could permanently damage your muscle ligaments or your nervous system in your leg." Lucas scolded her when she flinched from the pain as his forceps, which he mysteriously pulled out while she was in midst thought, connected with the bullet. As he cautiously pulled it out; Annie hissed in pain and closed her eyes hoping to see Kevin's smiling face once more. But she didn't, she saw Callen's sexy lopsided smirk. She clung to that image as Lucas continued to stitch up her wound on her thigh and then her hand before bandaging her rib cage.
Through his examination, Annie seriously considered just giving up and forcing Stryker to kill her. But upon seeing Callen's face on the back of her eyelids, she was reminded that she had friends and family who were watching this, who were doing everything in their power to get her back. She couldn't give up, not just yet. What Annie needed to do was figure out where she was being held at and then finding a way to communicate that to everyone back at NCIS: OSP without Stryker realizing it all before 5:30 pm tomorrow.
'Yeah, this is going to be easy.' She scoffed once she laid out that idea in her head but rallied around her more optimistic side than focusing on the negatives. Then out of nowhere a weird beeping noise came out of Lucas' pocket. It stopped after three rings, rang again, stopped once more, and then repeated itself. On the fourth call Lucas answered.
"How did you get my number and why are you calling?" He said into the phone after taking a step away from Annie. When the person responded Lucas looked at her and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. She gave him a confused look back.
"Excuse me," Lucas said to her and then left the room. When he opened the door, Annie took this chance to find some clue to help her first figure out where she was. As she looked around the room her nose got hit by a smell when Lucas opened the door. Annie breathed it in and recognized it as salt water. But she wasn't sure from the short amount of time she had to smell it from how quickly Lucas walked out the door. She got to reaffirm her guess when the door reopened two minutes later and the smell of salt water hit her nose once more. Except for, this time it wasn't Lucas who entered her cell.
"Finally, I thought Walker would never leave!" One man exclaimed as he and his friend tiptoed into the room to make sure that the camera was off and no one else was in the room. Both men were plain looking with brown hair and brown eyes and muscular builds of those who weight-lifted often.
"Well, let's do this quickly before he comes back!" The second man said once they closed the door. Annie had a sinking feeling as to what they wanted to do with her, especially when she saw the looks in their eyes. That look was exactly the same one that Stryker gave her every time he saw her: lust.
"Really? You're that bad in the sack that it only takes you both-" Annie began to comment before the first mercenary slapped her across the face and then the second punched her in the ribs. At the resounding crack she heard upon impact, she knew that she had at least one fractured rib if not more due to the size of the second mercenary's meaty hand.
"Shut up you whore!" They both shouted at once and Annie couldn't help but chuckle at how similar the two mercenaries were even though it was obvious that they weren't related by their facial structure despite the fact that they were both on the same level of plainness when put on the good-looking chart in Annie's mind. That and they were playing into her hands quite easily, she would prefer to be beaten than raped and the one sure way to do this was to get them so pissed off that they forget about raping her and wanting to instead beat the hell out of her. As expected the two men came at her and she kicked them away or jerked as if to dodge to keep up appearances. It worked as Lucas walked in two minutes after the two mercenaries attacked.
"What the hell do you two think you are doing?" Lucas boomed and glared at the two mercenaries who stopped their assault as soon as the door clanged against the wall.
"They were going to rape me and after I insulted them, decided to beat me to a bloody pulp instead." Annie whimpered for full effect and she could see Lucas' face begin to get red from anger. He then whispered something to his walkie-talkie and aimed his two hand guns at the mercenaries' heads until Stryker came down with two extra bodyguards.
"Is it true? You were planning on raping my Annie and then decided to use her as your personal punching bag when I expressly told everyone that she is mine and mine alone?" Stryker rounded immediately on the two mercenaries upon entering the room. Annie then spat some more blood and groaned at this action damning the two men even more so. Stryker followed through on what Annie thought he would have done by shooting the two men point blank.
"I'm sorry my dear that this has happened to you, but now you know that I keep my promises and I promise you that you would be happy and safe with me. You got to believe that." Stryker said softly to her and caressed her face once more. Annie resisted the urge to do what she normally would have done, shiver in disgust, and instead just nodded her head against his palm to show that she understood. Stryker smiled at this, feeling like he was winning her over before turning on Lucas.
"Why the hell did you leave your post Walker?" Stryker asked with a deadly tone to his voice.
"Sir, I stepped out to take a call." Lucas responded and Annie widened her eyes at how bold Lucas was by telling Stryker the truth.
"A phone call?" Stryker replied in the same tone and raised his gun at Lucas who remained as calm as a cucumber.
"Yes it was a call from my old boss, Harrison Kane. Annie's friends and family seem to have contacted him for help and thus he called me. He told me that he knew that I was working for you and that you had Annie. He wanted me to betray you and help them save Annie from your grasp, sir." Lucas prattled on as if he was in the military once more and Annie had to admire him for that. Although the sinking feeling returned at the mention of Harrison's recent involvement in this case.
"And will you help him?" Stryker continued unfazed and so did Lucas.
"He wasn't planning on paying me at first and when he did name his price it was infinitely lower than what you are paying me. So, I told him no." Lucas stated automatically. The two men had a mini stare off before Stryker lowered his weapon.
"Good then, but be warned now. Leave your post again and I will put a bullet in your brain easily." Stryker warned and Lucas nodded his head at this. Stryker gave her one last caress before storming out of the room. Because there was two hulky dead bodies the two bodyguards had to get some friends to help them carry the bodies out of the room. It was this that gave Annie her opportune moment to figure out where she was.
The return of the salt water smell and the strength of it confirmed to Annie that she was near the ocean if not on it. Then, Lucas had to hold the door open for the four men who had their hands full with the two dead bodies. This allowed Annie to get a look at the hallway that told her immediately where she was. It was metal just like the room and every so often there was what marines would call "knee-knockers" or the lower lip of the passageway raised up to shin height so that if one wasn't paying attention one would injure their legs and fall over. But what sealed the deal for Annie was that down the passageway was stairs that lead up to a portal that opened up to the sky where sea gulls could be heard. Lucas then closed the door after the men were clear.
"You know where we are right?" He asked and Annie hesitated on answering not sure where he was going with this.
"Well, you better figure it out soon and then find a way to tell your friends on the receiving end of the video feed because I won't be telling Harrison our location until he lands and that won't be until 4:30 pm the earliest." Lucas responded either way and Annie stared him in shock.
"I thought you said you weren't going to help him?" She said once she found her voice.
"Yeah well, I don't want Harrison chasing after me and stealing all my money if I don't help him. He has given me until he lands for an answer." Lucas explained but it just confused Annie even more.
"Then why wait until then? Why not call him now and leave him a voicemail if he doesn't pick up?" She asked.
"Because I don't want Stryker to know I called Harrison back or your friends and then I will be killed, or worse, not paid." He stated.
'You really need to get your priorities straight.' She thought and he continued before she say that aloud.
"Also, if his flight gets delayed somehow or whatever and it's too late Harrison will still come after me and blame me for that reason somehow. Like I said, you need to get this message to your people somehow someway before Harrison lands or there will be hell to pay." Lucas ended the conversation and Annie rolled her eyes.
"Easier said than done." She replied all the same and Lucas gave her a dirty look.
"Just tell me more information on where we are like the name of the boat." Annie ignored the look and meditated on how she was going to relay this information to her friends back at NCIS: OSP without Stryker figuring it all out as Lucas did what she said and told her exactly where they were.
