Author's note: Hey guys, you must think I'm dead, but here's an update for you. Even with a little action at the end, it kinda sucks but I hope I'll get better at writing this stuff. :) Hope you enjoy! Please don't forget to drop me a line when you finished, I treasure your feedbacks beyond everything!
Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own anything.
Chapter Six: Far From Okay
The suspect's lawyer finally arrived – a tall man in expensive suit and with nonchalant expression, who never gave Abbie and Foggy a second glance – and the usual procedure began. Foggy stated his name, title and purpose of the hearing. The man at the opposite side of the table, named Bruce Belcher seemed to be rather bored than anything. Foggy had already had a hearing with him before and he couldn't come up with anything new, so he had to go through his questions from earlier again with little modifications.
"Mr Belcher, who did you meet at the Port on Wednesday evening when you were arrested?"
Abbie reminded herself of the fact that she happened to be an assistant now so quickly snatched a piece of paper and started to take notes. She tried to focus on this man but nothing happened, her mind was silent and peaceful. Belcher also didn't try to engage in conversation with Foggy, his answers were short and reticent.
"As I previously stated I had never intended to meet anyone there at the port," he sad in a deep, even voice.
"During the investigation the police found a note in your calendar at this day. Three letters: MGU." Foggy pointed out."What does that mean?"
"It means nothing. Initial letters of my loved ones," Belcher replied with a strange little smile lingering on his lips. Abbie found him utterly loathsome and revolting as he was clearly lying to them.
"What are M, G and U stand for?"
"Margaret, Gary and Ursula, as I told before."
Foggy sighed and moved to the next question. Of course the names were already checked, distant members of his actual family. Obviously the codenames were carefully picked and perfectly safe, leaving only that little itching in the stomach when you know something more lays beneath but you can't prove it in any possible way. They had nothing to hold against him, that was for sure. The questions were useless and Belcher didn't give them proper answers. Now or never, Abbie had a feeling that it was time for her move. Yeah, let's get into action, but how? Foggy's questions and Belcher's short answers faded slightly as she was thinking hard. Trying to focus as hard as she could, she concentrated on the man sitting across her. It helped nothing. She didn't have a single, distant echo in her mind.
Abbie looked down at her hands in frustration. That was the point when she realized, she stopped taking notes minutes ago. Ashamed, she cleared her throat and with a sudden idea, let the pen flipping out from her fingers. The little instrument rolled over the other side of the desk, near to Belcher's cuffed hands. Yes! Abbie gathered all the courage she had in herself and mumbling apologizes, reached over to the pen, while deliberately touched the man's skin. She peered up to him in the same moment as the man shot her an intensive glance. And all of a sudden a deep, unpleasant voice echoed right there in her mind, clean and straight. Gary Walsh, that prick. At eleven.
Abbie drew her hand back startled, squeezing that poor pen as if her life depended on it. Her heart throbbed in her throat almost painfully heard and she didn't even dare to look at Belcher. She mumbled a muffled apologize and leaned back onto her chair. After a few seconds she attempted to make eye contact with Foggy who was surprisingly eager to return her glance. Abbie noticed that the lawyer was in an utterly uncomfortable state while desperately tried to interrogate the suspect without any little trace of success. Abbie blinked at him a few times, hoping she was sporting an encouraging smile, but to be completely honest, poor girl was just as nervous and edgy as Foggy. However the guy got the hidden message and closed his files with a sudden move.
"That would be all for now. Thank you for having us," Foggy nodded toward the police officer who was standing in the distant corner of the room and also the attorney across him. Abbie noticed that Foggy was avoiding to take a last glance at Belcher though. When Foggy abruptly stood up, she hurried to follow him, gathering her papers and pen and stumbled toward the door right in the heel of Foggy.
Outside Matt was waiting for them impatiently. At the same exact moment they stepped out, he straightened up, fully alarmed and carefully listening to them. As Foggy and Abbie approached him, he studied their heartbeats for a moment, then couldn't stand but asked in a low and stifled voice: "Do we have something?"
"Yes", Abbie breathed, trying to swallow down the strange, newly-formed dumpling in her throat. She wasn't quite used to this kind of shit. Yeah, she definitely overheard something she wouldn't want every now and then, but this was something else: totally deliberate and happened with a rather intimidating suspect of crime. It was a little bit too much for starters. "Get the hell outta here."
Matt nodded and they immediately headed toward the front door. Leaving their visitor badges at the receptionist's counter finally left the building and Abbie's racing heart also started to slow down. She took a few deep breath in the fresh air and suddenly felt relieved.
"I got nothing we haven't already know", Foggy said and the two men turned toward Abbie.
She sighed. "I got a name. Gary Walsh."
After a moment of silence Matt shook his head. "Gary Walsh. Never heard of the name. We gotta check on him. Anything else?"
"Oh, yes. Eleven."
"Eleven what?" Foggy asked.
"I don't know. Uhm… at eleven, it was. Gary Walsh at eleven. It seems to be a meeting. Maybe with Gary Walsh and at eleven o'clock. But when exactly, I don't have a clue. It can be today or tomorrow or anytime. And anywhere."
"Is that all?" Foggy asked frustrated as they reached the corner on the street.
Abbie growled a bit, feeling the same frustration. "I am so sorry," she scoffed angrily "The thoughts of people don't work like this. We are just rumbling incoherent words in our minds most of the time. Next time you should hire someone who can see even the mental images of other people, I guess. My abilities reached their limits, I suppose."
Matt put his hand onto hers in an attempt to soothe her. "Sorry, Abbie. We are incredibly grateful for your help." Abbie could only nod in response even though the man next to her couldn't see that, and suddenly she felt very unsure again. As if her heart was starting to pace a bit quicker again. However, having his hand on hers felt surprisingly good. There was something in his appearance that could calm her and make her feel okay. Foggy also apologized for his manner and excused himself to work. When Abbie and Matt were left alone the man stepped a little closer.
"Abbie, as I said I'm very grateful for what you did. Now we have another clue we can work on. The others are going to meet tonight at the same place as the other day. Could you join us this time? I think it would be helpful if you could tell us again what happened in the hearing when everyone is present. Would you do that for me, please?"
"Uhm… yeah, sure" Abbie didn't see the point but she would never admit that for the world. There was a little feeling forming the depths of her heart now. Pride. She was proud of what she just did. Hey, not many can tell that about themselves! Maybe this shit is actually good for something. Yes, it would definitely be nice to repeat everything in front of the others again. Bunch of weirdos, sure, but still. At least they were not totally freaked out when she revealed her long-hidden secret which kept her in chains, forcing to avoid people and pretend as everything is normal and in order. Even when it was – well, saying that nothing was normal and in order would be a huge understatement. So yes, she would go, surely.
Abbie nodded. "Yes, I'll be there. Now I'm involved in this whole… thing, so why not."
Matt grabbed her arms with a smile. "Thank you, Abbie. Thank you so much. Meet us at 9.30 p.m. in the dojo. You'll see, you are making a difference here" he added reassuringly.
Abbie felt her cheeks flush and suddenly muttered something about taking a cab. Matt gave her a last warm smile and said his goodbye before leaving her on the sidewalk and walked away in an unusually steady and fast pace. Well, I'm not even surprised now, Abbie thought to herself shrugging as she got into a cab.
The atmosphere was quite different now in the dojo. There was a light but distinct tension lingering over them as the kid with the messy hair was relentlessly pacing while his sort of girlfriend tried to hush him in an uneasy voice. They were still waiting for Matt, Luke and Jessica. Abbie arrived a little early and was rewarded with the company of these two. The kid almost couldn't handle the joy that Abbie's appearance caused him – probably none of them expected her to show up anymore. Well, Matthew was quite persuasive, we have to give him that. But thank God, at least this Danny Rand boy didn't come up with the Oracle-bullshit. It would have been way too much. After a while light footsteps were heard and Matt showed up in the door.
"Good evening" he greeted them politely and stood there frozen for a minute before he entered the room. Quickly he took his moment to count the heartbeats and estimate who were in the room. Of course it helped when everyone said hi. Stepping closer he asked Danny. "So we are waiting for Jessica and Luke?"
"Yeah, hope they have some news, too," the boy answered, never stopping his nerve-racking pacing.
Abbie was amazed. How in the hell he could tell that? The man was really something. She was literally itching to ask Matt about this non-conventional behavior of a blind man but before she could've gathered the courage the two missing members of the strange team arrived together.
"Finally!" Danny exclaimed impatiently "So, would you please tell us, what you got?" he turned to Abbie.
Everyone gave her a curious eye, so she sighed and tried to remember all the details. "We went to this guy, uhm, Belcher, the one who is in custody."
"Yes, he's probably an underboss of the gang we are currently after. But neither we nor the police could get even the smallest details from him, so he's going to slip out of our hands very soon." Danny added slightly impatiently. "Is there anything you can do or not?"
Abbie just raised an eyebrow at the hot-headed boy but let it go. Instead of retorting she nodded and started to speak. "So… I heard nothing at all when we were sitting on the opposite sides of a table, but when I got the chance I touched him for a moment. Only a mere moment I could risk, but it went really well, thank God. And I heard this: Gary Walsh, that prick. At eleven. That's all", she hurried to add before Danny Rand or his fellow nutcases would attack her for more details. But nothing like that happened, the room fell in silence for a long moment.
"So we have a name, another name," Jessica stood in the corner, leaning to the wall with an expression that made it clear, she was far from amazed with the turn of events. "Alright, gonna check it, we'll see what turns up."
"Yes, this is definitely something. And we shouldn't forget about the date. At eleven." Matt quoted, but Abbie felt the urge to interject.
"Yeah, I don't know anything about that. Sorry. Not a day, not a place, nothing. I'm not even sure it's an exact time for something. It probably is, and maybe it's right tonight, but—"
"It doesn't matter" Matt gave her his reassuring smile. "With your help we eventually get another clue when had nothing else than dead ends."
The guy seemed to be almost hopeful, and also Luke nodded in agreement and thanked Abbie but Danny just didn't stop pacing across the room – hell, it even seemed like it was annoying Jessica as well. Abbie didn't have to think about it too long, because the boy offered the explanation eagerly as he ran his fingers through the messy hair of his and growled in frustration.
"We are running out of time. I tell you guys, it's a selection process. I've seen it before. We. Don't. have. The. Time."
Although before anyone could have spoken, something happened. At first it was Matt who snapped up his head but it was too late for him to realize that they got company. Before he could've warned the others, the door swung open with a large thump and Abbie couldn't see anything else but the muzzle fire. She just stood there at her place frozen, watching a bunch of men barging in the room and entering fire at them, while sheer terror took over her.
Luke was the first to move: with steady steps he moved closer to the enemy, bullets rolling down from his chest. When he reached the first man and grabbed his weapon, taking advantage of the sudden moment of stunned silence Jessica leaned forward and punched the first man in the line with such an inhuman force he flew back to the door, drifting three others with himself. This was the moment when the others engaged in the combat as well. There was five against eight.
All of a sudden life came back into Abbie's limp body and instinct took over: she ducked down and tried to draw as far as she could get. Even though her brand new buddies did a really good job at keeping the attackers occupied, one of them who was previously knocked down by Jessica pulled himself together and noticed the rather vulnerable woman on the floor. Abbie, being absolutely unexperienced in these kind of situation and never even held a gun in her life, helplessly watched the fast changing scene in front of her, so she immediately noticed that one of their attackers was interested in her. She screamed but her voice wasn't recognizable in the noise of the combat. The man approached her and lifted his gun menacingly. Abbie had never found herself in front of a gun, the blood ran cold in her veins and somehow the moment widened up: everything was clear, including her mind. She was facing death, Abbie knew that well. She had nothing, absolutely nothing power to fight back. However before she could've reached the end of the sad train of her thoughts, the man was pulled up into the air and an enormous force tossed him heavily against the wall not far from where Abbie curled up.
"You okay?" Luke looked down at her and she could only nod in response.
The room fell into silence again. Their attackers were laying on the floor unconscious and in an erratic pattern. Weapons were thrown all over the place. Abbie's alleys were gathering themselves panting from the impact of the sudden attack. Colleen cleaned her sword from thick, red blood. Abbie was alive. But honestly, that was far from okay.