Seven Days and Counting
Disclaimer:- Don't own them just borrowing!
Episode:- Lots of little things from early series no major spoilers
Pairing:- Sandra / Gerry
Rating:- M
Achieve:- . /group/new_tricksff/
Summary:- Sandra's missing can the boys work out who's taken her and get her back before it's too late.
Author's Note:- Ok let me think, not really sure how to authors note this other than to say it's not the usual thing I write. It's angsty and tense and involves serious character danger and so if you are opening this expecting my usual sort of fluffy sexy smut for the sake of smut STOP NOW. If you don't like to see our fav characters in distress or danger STOP NOW. To be honest I can't think of any other way to warn you so here goes and please review if that's what you're into since this will be as hard for me to write as for you to read lol
Day 2
My eyes snap open as I feel the bed dip beside me and his fingers run down my cheek.
"Don't touch me!" the words are out of my mouth and I'm pulling away from him before I've decided if it's wise to make him angry.
"Oh Sandra fiery as ever;" he's laughing at me as I use the arm not still attached to the bed frame to pull the sheet closer around my body. "There's a bathroom through that door over there. I've got your favourite soap and shampoo and stuff and there's clean towels and something for you to put on. I'm going to leave you to shower but don't bother trying to find a way out there's only one door out of this room and I have the key and I'll be locking it behind me. There are brushes and a hair drier on the dressing table. I'll give you an hour then I'll be back and we can have breakfast together.
"Why are you doing this? If you're going to keep me here, if you've been watching me closely enough to know what soap I like why didn't you just call me, ask me out, do anything other than this?"
He's holding my wrist gently unlocking the cuff and he's so close I can almost see his face even in the dark and again there's a tug of recognition but not enough for me to form a clear picture. I'm getting there though.
"So many questions Sandra;" He says quietly brushing my hair away from my face as I fight the urge to push him away. Right now he has all the power and I need to know more about what I'm dealing with if I'm going to survive this. "I'll be back soon."
He's gone and I wait until I hear the key turn in the lock before pulling the sheet around me and getting off the bed. The room is so dark but the heavy drapes on the windows hide only wooden shutter locked firmly in place so I have no hope of changing that situation.
"Think Sandra come on!" I'm so angry with myself for not going with my gut this last week. I knew something wasn't right I told them all that then I let them talk me into believing I was over reacting. Opening the door to the bathroom it takes a second for my eyes to adjust to the dim light as I look around at the cosmetics on the shelf above the sink. Jesus this just gets more frightening everything on the shelf is new and every one is the brand that I use day in and day out. How long has he been watching me? How could he have found out so much about me without me knowing? I really need to think of a way to get him to start talking to me if there's no way out of here except through that door I need to get him to trust me and hope the boys are finding out more than I am otherwise I have no hope.
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"Shit we need to call Strickland and get a forensic team in here." Gerry said quietly as he, Jack and Brian stood in Sandra's living room looking at the obvious signs of a struggle. "There's no sign of forced entry so either she knew him or…."
"Or he let himself in and was waiting here for her when she got home." Brian interrupted pointing at the single silver key in the middle of the dining table.
"He had a key? What the hell?" Jack replied moving through the room mentally noting the disarray and the small pool of blood on the floor by the coffee table.
"Hey you need to see this." Brian called from down the hall as they joined him at Sandra's bedroom door.
"Oh my god!" Jack muttered as Gerry walked a little further into the room.
"You think he did this before she came home? I mean do you think he was here messing with her things while she was with us?" Brian asked as they looked at the piles of clothes, bedding, jewellery and other personal items scattered about the room.
"I bloody hope so." Gerry sighed saying a silent prayer that Sandra had never seen this room. He knew how she valued her privacy and how upset she would be that it had been so completely invaded. Looking at the toppled night stand, the book she'd been reading, the lamp, the bottle of hand cream, the box of tissues and things that he's seen only a couple of nights before in their regular position he felt his stomach lurch. "Have you got a hanky or something Jack?"
"Yeah here." Jack replied taking a neatly folded cotton hanky from his pocket and handing it to him watching suspiciously as Gerry covered his hand with it and moving across the room opened a drawer in the bottom of the wardrobe.
"What are you looking for?" Brian asked tiptoeing through the debris himself as Gerry lifted a hand gun from the drawer holding it up with the hanky.
"Well he didn't take this but then again it being here means she didn't have a chance to get to it either so it's a mixed blessing I suppose." He sighed "She wasn't in this room before he took her if she had been the first place she'd have gone was this drawer.
"How did you know it was there?" Jack asked feeling the pieces fall into place as Gerry avoided the question and they were interrupted by the arrival of Strickland and a small team of crime scene techs.
"They don't know who lives here it's just another scene to them." Strickland said quietly nodding toward the front door as he walked toward it and all three men followed him. "That's some mess in there so we're assuming he took her from here?"
"What do you think?" Gerry snapped as the other three men stared at him in surprise. "She walked out of that pub two nights ago and we let her and she came back home to this now she's gone! I swear when we find this guy you better keep him the hell away from me because I'll not be responsible for my…."
"Sir?" A young woman dressed in a white forensics suit interrupted them as Strickland and Brian followed her back into the house to see what they had found and Jack watched as Gerry leant against the garden wall lighting a cigarette.
"How long?" He asked leaning against the wall too and laughing as Gerry stared at him in shock. "Don't bother denying it I'm not judging either of you I just want to know how long you've been together?"
"Just over a year." He sighed staring at his feet. They'd been careful, very careful and when he had broached the subject of telling the others she had brushed him off reminding him that there were very good reasons why they didn't.
"That long? God you two are much better at keeping secrets than I'd given you credit for." Jack laughed wondering how often they'd left the office together, argued in plain sight and arrived together without it having occurred to him that there might be something more going on. "Is it serious? I mean are you together or is it just…. You know…Just sex?"
"Just sex?" Gerry laughed "Jesus Jack you know Sandra right? Do you think if it was just sex she'd ever have let it happen? That she'd risk the whole dynamic of our team for a shag? Of course it's serious I….well I love her but we just couldn't tell you all she was worried that if Strickland found out he'd blow a gasket."
"Well you're going to have to try a bit harder to keep yourself under control when he's around." Jack muttered feeling the other man's pain and frustration radiating from his. "If you keep losing it around him he's going to work out that something's going on, then when we find her and she realises you let the cat out of the bag she'll kill you."
"I should have left with her that night Jack, I was supposed to we had plans but she was so irritated with us for not taking her seriously that I knew she'd not want to see me before the morning. The whole book and bath line was for my benefit so I knew not to follow her. If I'd just made her stay or if I'd gone with her then…"
"Stop that now." Jack snapped "It doesn't help. You spend the rest of this week beating yourself up about what you should have done and you'll be no use to anyone. What you need to be doing now is thinking, you obviously spent a lot more time with her than the rest of us, did you notice anything, anyone hanging around is there something we're missing?"
"No…well I don't know maybe I'll think about it." Gerry replied as Brian joined them again.
"There's more blood in the bathroom sink a lot of it, it looks like someone washed their hands. With any luck she managed to injure him and we'll get a DNA profile." He said excitedly before taking in the looks on the other men's faces. "What's going on?"
"Gerry and Sandra are together," Jack replied quietly.
"No they aren't he's here and we don't know where the hell she is what are you talking …"
"No Brian." Gerry interrupted waiting a beat as realisation flooded Brian's face.
"You and Sandra? Seriously? Nah you two are having me on."
"Does this really strike you as something we'd be joking about right now?" Jack asked not really sure how Brian was going to take the news.
"That's how you knew about the gun?"
"Yeah but listen Brian Strickland doesn't know; she didn't want him to mess with the unit because we were in a relationship so we had to keep it quiet." Gerry continued glancing at Jack as they both waited for Brian to react.
"Well you better keep your temper in check then." He said quietly shaking his head and smiling. "So you and the Governor? Esther's going to love this she's always said you two were made for each other. Is it serious or just…."
"For fuck sake what is it with you two? No it's not just about sex yes it's serious I'm in love with her why do you both assume immediately that I'd only be with her for her body?"
"Your track record!" Jack smiled as they saw Strickland come back out of the house toward them.
"Forensics are just about finished I'll see you three back at the office and we'll go over what we've got." He said sternly before disappearing in the direction of his car.
"Right." Brian said keeping his voice low and conspiratorial. "Let's get our Governor back then you can both explain why you didn't tell us before now while we celebrate."
"That man never ceases to amaze me." Gerry sighed as they all went back into the house and Jack nodded his agreement.
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"You are so beautiful." His voice startles me as I set the hair drier down again on the dressing table and try to hide the shaking in my hands. "I knew that nightgown would look amazing on you."
"It's very pretty." I say quietly looking down and the scarlet camisole nighty he had left in the bathroom. It's too cheap, too short, and too tacky, everything I hate but it's better than being naked. He's standing in the doorway and I can see the hall behind him. If I could just take him by surprise, catch him off guard I may be able to get past him.
"On you it is."
"Really?" Standing up I turn slowly in front of him hoping that I'm distracting him as I walk toward the door smiling and reaching for his hand. He grasps my hand and in a split second I pull him into the room and suddenly everything is a blur. He's kicked the door shut and I feel his other hand make contact with my face, feel blood dripping from my nose as he throws me backward toward the bed.
"Big mistake Sandra." I hear him growl before a rough cloth covers my mouth and nose and fumes invade my senses as the room fades around me.
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Standing with his back to the room looking out the bedroom window Gerry felt like his chest was being compressed. A few days ago this room was one of the places he loved to be more than any other, now even with his back to the destruction the room echoed with the emptiness of her loss.
"We'll make it right before she comes home." Brian said entering the room and shaking Gerry from his thoughts. "Esther will help she won't ever see this we'll make sure of that."
"Damn right we will." Jack agreed as all three of them looked around a final time. "Now shall we go find the woman you love Gerry?"
"I can't think of anything I'd like to do more right now." Gerry agreed as they all left the room and he closed the door behind him. "We're coming for you darlin' just hang in there we'll find you I promise." He continued whispering his words at the closed bedroom door silently praying that the next time he walked through it she would be in his arms where she should be.