Hey everybody! Here's chapter 7 of Distance, we're starting to hit some big action in this part! Don't forget to review! I want to make sure you all like it so far!
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
The sound bounced off the walls of autopsy loudly. Ducky glanced at Palmer, noting that even Jimmy's patience was coming to an end with the sound, then Ducky glanced at the woman standing at the unoccupied autopsy table staring at the body Palmer and Ducky were working on as her finger tapped restlessly on the table in front of her.
Ducky sighed to himself before catching Palmer's eyes and motioning to the door with his head. Palmer caught on quickly and nodded once before grabbing some samples from the body and headed for the door, stating, "I'll take these to Abby."
Ducky turned back to the body, waiting to see if Riley would talk or not. After a few moments of just the tapping noise continuing somewhat obnoxiously, Ducky put down his scalpel and walked over to Riley. He moved in front of her, blocking her view of the body she had been staring at for the past 20 minutes since she came down to see what they had so far. She blinked then looked up at him and seeing who it was she asked, "What do you have, Ducky?"
"We haven't completed the autopsy yet. It would get done easier if there wasn't an insistent tapping noise." The elderly man gently admonished as he motioned to her hand that was still tapping the table. Riley looked down at her hand and stopped abruptly and instead crossed her arms in front of her. She mumbled an apology and moved to the other side of the autopsy table to stand next to Ducky.
Ducky looked her over, she was wearing a wrinkled dress shirt and her pants were wrinkled also in the upper thigh from where Riley had the tendency to clutch at her pants when she was under pressure. Her normally perfect ponytail was slightly loose with dark strands of hair framing her tired face. Ducky knew she was under a lot of stress, her son was kidnapped and for the first time in 6 years her husband wasn't a continent away and she couldn't continue to avoid the issues between them.
"How are you, dear Riley?" Ducky asked softly. When she opened her mouth, most likely preparing to spout the 'im fine' crap that Ducky theorized she learned from her 'big brother' Tony, he raised a hand and said, "The truth, please,"
Riley looked at him before sighing and running a hand down her face. "Honestly, I feel like im about to have a nervous breakdown, Duck. Adam has been kidnapped by some psycho and my son…my baby boy is hurting and there's nothing I can do. Then on top of that Sherlock is here in DC and…" Riley trailed off and took a deep, shaky breath. Ducky laid a hand on her shoulder in comfort and she softly continued, "And it's so hard to be around him, because half of me wants' to wrap my arms around him and never let go while the other half is so scared to let him in again after what happened. And it pisses me off so much because I need to focus on my son, on saving him before…" She couldn't continue. Just the thought of her son being murdered by Moriarty broke her heart and had fear running rampant through her. She had seen what Moriarty did to people, saw what he did when he was apparently 'bored' and the chance that that might happen to her son…
The elderly M.E. watched in sadness as a tear rolled down the woman's face. He moved to comfort her when the swish of the doors to Autopsy opening caused him to pause. He turned and saw Sherlock, Tony, John and Gibbs striding in with determined but tired faces. Ducky glanced at the clock and saw that it was just coming on 3 in the morning and he knew that none of them were going to sleep until they had Adam safely returned.
Riley had wiped the tear from her face and cleared her throat before turning toward the others. She glanced at their faces and pushed some of the hope down and asked, "Did you find something?"
Tony spoke up first, "McGee looked at surveillance cameras around Adam's school." He paused and Riley took a step closer to the four men and motioned for Tony to continue. He did after glancing at the others, "It seems Adam missed his bus and he started to walk here from what McGee can tell. A few blocks away a van pulled up next to him and a woman had asked Adam something. Adam seemed like he wouldn't answer but the woman must have said something to reassure him because Adam did answer. Then a man came up behind Adam and we think he drugged him because Adam stopped struggling after a moment. The man put him in the van and it drove off and McGee lost it after a block."
Riley nodded and asked, "This woman, do we have a picture of her to run through AFIS? What about the man?"
Sherlock then took a step toward her, and she focused on him. "Agent McGee was able to get a shot of her face from one of the cameras. She looks familiar to me but I can't place her, maybe you would know,"
Though Riley was surprised that Sherlock couldn't remember someone, she nodded her head and Sherlock handed a picture to her. She took it from him and looked it over.
She raised a hand to her mouth in shock, mumbling, "My god."
"Riley? Do you know who she is?" Gibbs asked. Riley glanced at him before looking up into Sherlock's eyes and whispered a name, "Jessica St. Patrick. She…we went to school together."
Recognition shined in Sherlock's eyes, "She was a friend of your roommate, Jayden."
"Yes," Riley nodded, staring down at the picture, "Jayden introduced me to all of her friends because she knew that I didn't know anyone in London. Jessica for some reason hated me from the start. She hated when people commented on the fact that we could be twins if my eyes had stayed one color."
Tony and Gibbs shared a glance before her father asked, "When was the last time you spoke with her?"
"At our graduation," Riley said, frowning as she snatched the last few pictures in Sherlock's hands. She flipped through them, pausing on a shot of Jessica smirking at Adam. Sherlock noticed the growing anger in Riley's eyes and took another step closer to her, laying a hand on her arm.
Storm blue eyes looked up at him and Sherlock asked, "Did the two of you talk?"
"Yes, she told me that she hoped that we would see each other sometime in the future so she could show me how she was nothing like 'perfect' Riley Black." They all were silent after Riley's reply, thinking of how Jessica could have become so close to Moriarty.
"Boss!" McGee's voice was heard coming from the video camera connected to Autopsy and Abby's Lab. They all turned toward the camera and saw McGee, Abby and Palmer staring at them.
"What McGee?" Gibbs responded.
"Abby found the closest thing to McAdam's Bar and Grill-"
Abby then pushed McGee away and said, "There's an old bar in downtown that was shut down a few years ago called McAdam's Pub. That's the only place in D.C. that is similar to McAdam's Bar and Grill, Gibbs."
Gibbs, Tony, John, Sherlock and Riley headed for the doors to Autopsy as Gibbs said over his shoulder, "Send the address to DiNozzo, Abbs. Duck, tell us the cause of death when you know,"
Ducky watched them disappear in the elevator and turned back toward the body and hurried to continue with the autopsy.
Team Gibbs, John and Sherlock arrived at the abandoned bar at 4 after making a plan and getting prepared. The building was the last building on a corner and had three entrances: the front, the side door, and the back door leading to the alley. The old bar was fairly large and all of them would be splitting up in order to cover the whole building.
Gibbs and Tony would go in through the front and take the front, Riley and Ziva would go in through the side and cover the small dining room and basement, and McGee, Sherlock and John would take the back and cover the kitchen and a room that was used to store the alcohol.
They all put on bullet proof vests and put in ear buds to stay in contact and separated to their assigned positions. Riley covered Ziva as the woman kneeled and started to pick the lock. Once she had it, she slowly pulled open the door and swung her gun and flashlight to see if there was anyone in the dining room. Seeing no one, she nodded once to Riley and the two silently stepped into the room, sweeping their guns and flashlights around the room and covering each other.
"I'll take the basement," Riley said softly to Ziva who nodded to acknowledge that she heard the other woman as she continued to sweep the room. Riley moved to where the door to the basement was from the blueprints they all looked over before arriving. She reached the door knob and was slightly surprised it turned under her hand so easily and pushed the door open slowly. Once it was open enough for her, she slipped in and headed down the stairs slowly, keeping an eye on her surroundings.
She soon reached the bottom of the steps and started to clear the large room. There were old things that had been used for the bar spread throughout the room and as she moved around a large table that had old beer and whiskey bottles, she heard a slam.
She swung around toward the sound distinguishing it as the door to the basement slamming closed. She was quiet for a moment, trying to hear if there was anyone else in the room with her before speaking into her mic on her wrist that was connected with the team, "Ziva, did you close the door to the basement?"
There was a pause, "No. I did not close the door. I thought it was you on your way back from clearing the basement. Do you need some assistance?"
Riley looked around, turning her flashlight slowly around the basement as she moved closer to the stairs. Seeing nothing, she lifted her wrist to speak again, "No, I think im good. It was probably just the door being so-," She gasped as she had swung her flashlight to take one last look behind her when she saw a dark haired figure swing a beer bottle at her head. She tried to dodge it but the bottle grazed the side of her head, causing her to feel slightly dizzy and making her miss the bottle swinging back toward her and slicing along the side of her turned neck with the jagged edges that had been broken off from the first swing to her head.
Riley stumbled backwards with a slight grown. She fell back against the staircase and looked up dazedly at the figure she could now see was a woman. Jessica St. Patrick to be exact.
The agent slid along the wall, to give herself some room against her assailant as she felt blood slid down the side of her ringing head and down her neck. Riley had barely passed the last step when Jessica lunged for her again, tackling Riley to the ground and causing her gun and flashlight to fly from her hand.
Her head hit the floor with force, tearing a pained yelp from her lips and she blacked out for a few seconds. When she came to again, she first heard yelling in her ear as the others tried to get a response from her and were becoming concerned when she didn't respond. The next she heard was the sound of Jessica moving around her restlessly. Riley sat motionless for a moment waiting for Jessica to be away where she hoped and thought her flashlight and gun had been thrown, then feeling adrenaline rush through her veins, she turned to her side then pushed herself up and over toward where she saw the light from her flashlight.
Riley heard Jessica yell behind her and started to bend to reach for her flashlight when she felt a hand grab a chunk of her ponytail and pull her head back painfully. She reached one hand back to grab the hand clutching her hair while she used her other arm to elbow the woman behind her. Her elbow connected solidly and her hair was let go as Jessica groaned in pain. Riley continued for her flashlight and snatched it from the grown and swept the floor for her gun as she heard pounding coming from the door above her as the others tried to get in.
She cringed when she heard Sherlock's voice scream in her ear, "RILEY! ANSWER ME, GODDAMN IT!"
That one moment of her clutching her head gave Jessica enough time to attack her again. But Riley was tired and pissed that she was getting her ass kicked by a woman who was attacking her with beer bottles and pulling her hair like a stupid cat fight. So as Jessica tackled her from behind, Riley swung her fist with the flashlight in it behind her and felt it connect with Jessica's face.
Jessica screamed in pain as they fell to the ground and Riley groaned as she bit into her tongue from her chin landing on the ground below her and she felt her ribs strain under the sudden landing. The two struggled for a moment before Riley was able to be facing Jessica. Hands came around Riley's throat and Riley felt her air supply cut off.
She felt something land on her face before she heard Jessica scream at her, "YOU BITCH! YOU BROKE MY NOSE, IM GOING TO KILL YOU! IM GOING TO KILL YOU AND YOUR 'PERFECT' HUSBAND THEN IM GOING TO MAKE YOUR PRECIOUS SON FEEL AS MUCH PAIN AS POSSIBLE BEFORE I TRAIN HIM TO THINK ME OF HIS MOTHER AND NOT YOU, YOU WHORE!"
Riley reacted at that threat and pushed her hand into Jessica's face, feeling the broken nose and pushing against it. The hands around her throat suddenly left and took in a long gasp of air before she turned on her side and coughed. She swung her flashlight and caught sight of her gun, lunging for it as she heard Jessica scream in outrage and pain.
Riley's bloody hand grasped her gun and as she turned back toward Jessica she felt a broken piece of glass slid through her upper left arm. She screamed in pain as she stumbled back, her gun hand automatically coming up and shooting blindly toward the direction the glass came from.
Jessica yelped as the door above them crashed open. Riley heard Jessica run and she slid down a work bench as the others came running down the stairs, beams of flashlights shining along walls. She laid her head back, idly seeing behind her closed eyelids a light of a flashlight hitting her face.
"Riley!" She heard Sherlock yell with panic and fear in his voice. She probably looked like a mess, blood running down the right side of her face and the right side of her neck, she was sure bruises would appear around her neck and the piece of glass sticking out of her left arm.
She opened her eyes when she felt a gentle touch on her cheek. Sherlock was crouching next to her, studying her face worriedly while John stood behind him with his flashlight aloft. She smiled weakly at him to show she was alright but Sherlock just frowned even more and leaned forward to press his forehead to hers. She let him do it, knowing he needed to reassure himself that she was still alive and to pull himself together. She flinched when she felt a hand lift her left arm. She and Sherlock both looked over and saw John had crouched on her opposite side and using his flashlight was looking over her arm.
"What's the diagnosis, Doctor?" Riley tried to ask wryly but it just came out sounding weary. John looked up at her as Sherlock ripped some of his outer shirt off to press to the side of her neck where the worse of the blood was.
"It looks like it just went through skin. A hospital will know for sure." John said as he kept her arm in his grip.
"An ambulance is less than 5 minutes away," Gibbs said as he came over to them, looking Riley over in concern. Riley nodded before groaning as she felt horrifyingly dizzy. She reached up and grasped Sherlock's arm weakly, her eyes fluttering as she tried to stay conscious.
She gazed up at Sherlock blearily as he said, "Don't fall asleep, Riley."
"'m tryin'," she mumbled. She kept her eyes locked onto Sherlock's as a hand pressed softly to her pulse in her neck.
"Her pulse is weak, she needs an ambulance now," John's voice said. Sherlock swiped a hand across her cheek as Tony's voice asked, "Can we move her?"
"…Yes, we just have to be careful of her arm. Sherlock, pick her up and we can maneuver her arm to rest on her stomach until we can get her on a stretcher." She saw Sherlock nod and he looked down at her and said, "Im going to pick you up, ok Riley?"
She may have given consent, but she didn't know if her mouth moved or not. Sherlock reached one arm under her armpits and his other arm under her knees and then he lifted her. She gave a whimper as her arm was jostled and burning fire seemed to race up her arm. She turned her head into Sherlock's neck and closed her eyes.
She must have passed out for a moment because when she opened her eyes they were outside in the cold air…and she was freezing. She tried to move closer to Sherlock for warmth but she was being put down on a stiff bed type thing. She groaned in protest, feeling coldness spreading out throughout her body. Unknown faces bent over her, faces she had never seen in her life-and where was Sherlock? She needed Sherlock, she was so cold.
Her arm reached out blindly for Sherlock. One of the strangers moved and Riley felt a familiar, long fingered, calloused hand grasp hers. A mask was put over her face and she could breath (why didn't she notice she couldn't breathe so well before?) then Sherlock was looking down at her. He was saying something as they moved into an enclosed space. Riley tried to focus on what he was saying but she was so tired and her head was throbbing in painful tandem with her heart.
Sherlock seemed to notice her problem since he leaned forward and she heard, "I love you, Riley,"
She squeezed his hand and as she slipped into unconsciousness, and she hoped she said loud enough for him to hear, "I love you, too."