OWT-The Worst Reunion in History

When Tucker Bryant woke up, his vision was cloudy and his body was aching. He waited a few seconds before moving to examine himself for blood. Sighing in relief, he rested his head against a cold and dirty wall. He had no idea where he was, but he had a strong feeling that it had to do with the final stage of the scavenger hunt.

"Hello, is any one there?" he heard a very familiar voice holler. He tried to reply, but his throat was too hoarse to. He cleared it, swallowed some of his spit, and tried again.

"Yeah, I'm here!" he called back. There was a short silence before the voice answered; most likely, the person had paused to contemplate the familiarity that she also heard in the answer.

"Tucker, is that you?" she asked. And at that moment, Tucker realized who was on the receiving end of the conversation.

"Yeah Divya, it's me!"

"Are you bleeding?" Divya asked. 'Are you bleeding?' Tucker thought. 'Out of all the things I'm told or asked, that three-worded sentence has to be the one I'm asked the most'.

"I'm fine, Divya; how about you?" Tucker noticed the hesitation in Divya's voice, and for what felt like the longest of times, it was completely silent.

"I'm okay." she finally replied. "I'm coming over to find you, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." Tucker sighed. He was sick of always having to be rescued….

"Just keep talking; I'm going to follow your voice."

"Smart plan." Tucker commented with a little hint of teenage sarcasm slurring his words. "You're starting to think a lot like Hank, you."

"Yes, well, I suppose that's a compliment. Hank is a very smart person." Divya laughed.

"And so are you."

Divya maneuvered around in the only slightly-lit place, trying her best to find the teenager as quickly as possible. Finally, she caught his voice again and was able to pinpoint his location. After shifting a few boxes around and opening a wooden door, she found him.

When Tucker initially saw Divya, he immediately frowned. "What happened to you?"

This time, it was Divya's turn to frown. "What do you mean?" He couldn't possibly know about what had happened just moments before- Evan being hurt, herself fighting for him, the man who had taken them hurting her, finally getting to the man and freeing Evan. She had been out for a few minutes in between and thus missing the part where Evan was officially released and the now apparent reappearance of said man and his new 'guest'. She barely recalled pulling her clothes on again…

"There are bruises on your arm, and it looks like your face made acquaintances with the floor." Tucker mumbled, obviously upset about the whole situation.

"Oh, that." she muttered. "The man who took us took Evan as well. Evan…." she stopped as her voice cracked to clear her throat. Then, with a stronger voice, she continued. "Evan was hurt,-badly. I-I talked him into letting Evan go, but not without a fight first."

"He hurt you." Tucker said, filling in the blanks. He shook his head; something was wrong. The man wouldn't have just let Evan go- medical emergency or not. Something had changed, and when something changed with this man, people got hurt.

Divya could tell that Tucker was hiding something, but she didn't press it. So instead, she tried her approach a different way. "I have no idea what's going on here, but I'm sure it involves Hank somehow."

"And Boris." Tucker muttered; then, he let his head bang against the wall, too tired to support its weight.

Realizing that she had started off on the wrong foot, she sighed. "You don't have to tell me anything if its going to get you in trouble…"

"It's a little late for that." Tucker responded. "And even if I do know more than you do and I do tell you about it, it won't matter. Even if we combined all the information we have together, I strongly suspect that it still won't be enough to create the big picture."

"Well, what do you know? Because, to be completely honest, I have no idea what's going on." Divya admitted.

Tucker hesitated before telling her the complete story. It wasn't a long story, but it certainly was complicated. There were blanks in-between pieces of information, dissolving any chances of piecing everything together. Plot holes and lose-ends lead to a very incomplete, in-progress story, and it was obvious to Divya that the 'author' of the story didn't know where he was heading with it. In a sense, the man who had kidnapped them was a character in Tucker's telling, but he was in fact the author of the story, and only he knew where and when everything would finally tie in together. When he reached the end of his story, Divya shook her head, now understanding Tucker's frustration.

"So we know the man who kidnapped us?" Divya asked, incredulous. The man she had seen did not look like Marhsal Bryant. And how could she not have recognized the man? Was it just the stress of the situation getting to her and blocking her from doing so? Then again, she had never seen his face; it had always been covered...

"My…my dad tried to convince me that it was Boris, but…I don't think I believe him." Tucker sighed. "I mean, he told me that Boris was a murderer- nothing else, though.."

"You think it was your dad." Divya caught on.

"How could Boris be the killer? I mean, he got a letter, too." Tucker said, nodding his head. He left the words hanging in the air, hinting to Divya that he had other reasons to believe that Boris wasn't the killer. She waited for him to continue, but he never did, so she pressed on herself.

"There's more, isn't there?"

Tucker turned his head to face Divya, a grim look on his face. "Boris is closer to my family than the Hamptons thinks. He's done a lot for my family- done a lot for me. Let's just say that I owe Boris a lot."

Tucker's unusually cold words hit him hard. Divya could sense that there was more than one hidden meaning behind the words, but before she could question their meanings, a door slammed opened and then shut. They both whipped around and stood on their feet, heading into the main room. When they reached the main room again, Tucker and Divya gasped. There was no sign of the man who had kidnapped him, but Boris and Hank lay unconscious on the floor.

"Are they okay?" Tucker asked, his breathing faltering.

"Yes, Tucker, they'll be okay." Divya reassured as she leaned over to check their vitals. "He drugged all of us when we were first kidnapped. The drugs will pass in a few minutes."

"O-okay." Tucker stuttered. Even if he knew that they would wake up, what would happen when they woke up worried him still. Sensing the boy's unease, Divya placed a reassuring hand on Tucker's arm and guided the boy down to the floor. Once they were sitting, she faced him and smiled sadly. "What?" he asked groggily.

"When was the last time you slept?"

"When was the last time you slept?" Tucker injected. Divya scowled at the boy, and he sighed, knowing that he had to answer. "It's been a day….or three."

"I think you should try to rest." Divya suggested. A look of panic crossed Tucker's expression before she realized his fear. "I won't let him hurt you…or Hank and Boris. It'll be okay, Tucker." The Indian woman smiled at the still reluctant child. "I promise."

If it was anyone other than Divya at that moment in time, Tucker wouldn't have believed them. He had been lied to so many times in his short 17 years of life, and trust never came easily for him. With a small nod, he slid down until his entire body was on the floor. Divya took off her somewhat thin cardigan and laid it on top of him. He whispered a weak 'thank you' before curling up into a small ball. "You're welcome." Divya whispered back. She smiled softly as she took in the boy's sleeping form, allowing herself to run a hand through his hair.

"Have you thought about having children?" a thick male voice asked from behind her. She jumped back, her smile evaporating. She turned around to find Boris sitting upright- Hank still laid out across the floor.

"Are you all right?" Divya asked, rushing to his side.

"I'm fine." Boris responded. "But a better question would be, is Tucker okay?" Boris looked concerned, more-so than Divya would have expected him to. She raised an eyebrow, earning an understanding look from Boris. "I understand that you may find my concerns for Tucker a bit odd, but he's a child, Divya. Surely you feel for him as well; I am sure that you feel just as upset at the man who has disrupted our lives like this and brought a hemophilic child into his games." Boris' voice wasn't one of questions, rather one of a statement. He knew that Divya didn't feel the same way, but he was rather suggesting she should. Understanding the hint, she nodded her head, pretending to be too concerned about Tucker's health to question Boris about his past with the Bryant family.

Boris gently tilted her head with his free hand to examine her facial bruises but didn't comment as she pulled away to curl her arms around Tucker on the floor. She was right of course, the only thing that mattered was getting Tucker out of this mess.

For about thirty minutes, Boris and Divya watched as the youngest 'hostage' slept fitfully, tossing and turning, moaning and whimpering. Every once in a while, Divya would reach out to the young boy and whispering comforting words and run a hand over his cheek. He would calm down for a few minutes, but a peaceful slumber never officially came.

Boris watched as Divya's motherly instincts kicked in. He was reassured that Tucker had been taken care of for the unknown amount of time he was alone with her, and he took comfort in the thought. He watched the two interact with a grim look on his face, knowing that the short-lived peace was just that: short lived.