Author's Note: This is it…the last regular chapter. In classic ACW style, we'll be skipping forward a good bit of time for the epi. Hope you like it.

Big thanks to AgoodWITCH who was always super fast with the returns on this one. Also a big thanks to my WC ladies for their support and feedback. Also, thank you to all of you who read and reviewed. This has been one of the least reviewed stories of mine in quite a while, but I loved writing it anyway. I'm not sure I'm really a dark and twisty writer, but I enjoyed giving it a go. Without further adieu, the final chapter…

Chapter 11

It was quiet in the darkness...so quiet that all I could hear was my labored breathing and the clank of the chains that bound me. I struggled against my restraints, hoping for a weakness, knowing it would be nearly impossible to escape in my current position. If I could free my hands, then I'd have a much better chance.

I fought until my wrists were raw and finally gave up. Once I became used to the darkness, I did notice there was a very faint green led light in the upper right hand corner of the room…most likely night vision video surveillance. If my hands had been free, I would have flipped the fucker off, but instead I glared before positioning myself to scoot across the floor, attempting to examine the chain and the place where it connected to the floor.

I felt tears floating along my lower lids when I realized that the chain was thick and strong, as was the u-shaped metal that was sunk directly into the concrete I found under the shag carpeting. This was not going to be any point of weakness to exploit. It was hard to feel my way around, having to lie on my side to expose my hands to the floor below. I shifted the carpet a bit more to see if I could find anything hidden beneath when I heard the muted sound of something shifting to my right in the carpet. I lifted the carpet a little higher, hearing the sound again.

I fought to wriggle my way in the direction of the sound, feeling around the deep nap of the carpeting with my face, trying not to gag at the cloying smell. I nearly yelled in triumph when my nose came in contact with something long and metal. I nudged it a few more times before using my mouth to pick it up, letting out a cheer when I saw it was a key…I just hoped it was a key to something for me.

Getting my hands free was nearly impossible. I had been so relieved when I finally managed to get the key into my hand by dropping it on the floor and rolling on my side again to pick it up. The lock was even angled a little so that I was able to slide the key into the hole after a lot of adjusting, but turning the key without turning the whole lock turned out to be the hardest part.

I had no sense of time while I was fighting with the key and the lock, but finally a loud click and the sudden release in tension on my left wrist told me that I had managed to unlock the extremely heavy metal u-shaped lock from the rectangular base. A few grunts and wiggles later, the hand restraints fell free, allowing me to move my aching arms to the front of my body. My legs were so stiff from being forced into that same position for so long, as well as my shoulders from the strain of being wrenched behind my back, that I couldn't resist the tears.

I lay flat a few moments, panting before sitting up to see why my legs were still restrained. I noticed that it had been a smaller chain linking my arms to my legs and another, larger pad lock kept my bound together. I knew it was a waste of effort, but still yanked the key from the first lock and tried it on the larger lock, but with no luck. With a whimper, I shifted back over on my hands and knees and began shuffling around on the carpet, sweeping my hands back and forth in search of a second key. I found two more planted keys, but neither fit the lock.

The stress and the dark were starting to be too much, my panic that my time was running out starting to take over, when suddenly something changed. I didn't even realize that there was another sound in the room until it was missing. I glanced up toward the light to see it had been extinguished, along with the small whirring sound of some sort of ventilation system. I couldn't help but smirk to myself. Either it was my lucky day, or my boys sorted out that my signal was being blocked and forced an electrical shutdown, but either way, Caulfield's jammer was no doubt out of commission. I only had to hope that we weren't so far underground that my GPS signal wouldn't be able to penetrate.

Feeling a sense of renewed strength, I began testing the edges of the carpet all around the room. A loud rumble started down the hall moments before the ventilation restarted as well as the light in the corner. I had made it down two walls, checking the edge of the carpet as I went. I was just about to give up when the shag raised under my hand. I felt in the dark and did a fist pump when I laid fingers on a larger metal key.

Seconds later, I was free of the foot shackles and trying to stand, the intense tingling in my feet making it nearly impossible to keep my footing. I leaned against the wall, bringing along the shorter chain that had bound my hands so I had some sort of weapon, as I shuffled toward the door, keeping a mental picture of where I left the other keys in case one of them is needed to open it. When I reached the door, however, I was surprised to find it unlocked. I opened the door to find a dimly lit corridor of concrete waiting for me.

I wrapped the chain around my right hand twice, leaving a good eight inches of chain hanging down to use at a distance if necessary and leaned against the wall as I shuffled to the right, hoping I was headed out, but also knowing he was probably watching every move I made. The first door I came to was dark inside, the overwhelming stench of excrement told me that it was most likely another cell, one I certainly didn't want to be stuck in. I shut the door quickly and continued on my way.

I came to a utilitarian bathroom, a living room that looked as though it stepped right out of the 1960's, complete with hideous colored furniture and an ancient TV with bunny ears, which no doubt picked up no signal at all. There were even fake window frames in this particular room, fading pictures of a green lawn stretching out to meet a blue sky mounted behind the frames. It actually was more chilling to me than the cell I had been in for whatever reason.

The next door led to a supply room, the ladder leading up I the far right corner of the room making me smile with the hope that I had found the way out. I checked over my shoulder before moving to stand at the bottom of the ladder. As quietly as I could, I moved up the steps and braced my hand against the heavy trap door, only to have nothing happen. I stepped a little higher, bracing my shoulder against the door, but not even the slightest budge of the gray metal.

My breathing began to speed and the tears began to fall before I even took my first step down, my worst nightmare growing more and more real with every passing moment. My vision was so blurred with my tears, and my thoughts so distracted, I hadn't even known he was behind me until his arms wrapped around my waist his hot breath brushing the skin under my ear as one hand slid up my sternum to grip my chin roughly and tip my head back.

"I knew you wouldn't disappoint me, Belladonna. You were always meant to be mine…to be here with me. I have a dream, Bella, a dream to have the perfect family, the perfect life…I just needed the perfect woman. I went through a lot of ladies before I found you. It started long before I met Royce, but together we helped each other grow. He helped me present a better face to the world, and I…I taught him how to execute the perfect abduction and how to get away with it…time and time again."

I was trembling, trying not to do anything too rash until I had a better opportunity as he licked my neck and pawed at my body. Either he hadn't noticed the chain or didn't think I could do anything with it. Either way, I wasn't going to bring attention to it…at least not yet. I let him lead me further away from the stairs and press me against a wall as he continued talking, so smug in his perfection, so convinced that he had it all mapped out. He explained how he'd been shown this place by his foster father, the man who built the bunker during the paranoia that followed World War II. As the cold war waged on, the man made another discovery…his safe place also made for the perfect safe place to take his victims, the children he tortured and abused, scaring them into never telling the authorities what had happened to them. Then one day he met young Jamie Caulfield, underestimating him immediately due to his size and appearance. James Caulfield was the last child to ever enter the front doors of that house, and the foster parents suddenly became hermits, paying their bills through channels and having food delivered so they didn't have to be seen…so nobody would see that they were no longer living above ground at all. They stayed there for years until they finally died from captivity and were buried in the back yard, under the wife's prize flowers.

James took up permanent residence in this place after that, coming and going through the back door I had been trying to escape through that eventually came out in a shed in the back yard. He captured women and brought them here, to test them, to see if they were worthy, and when they weren't, they too were buried with the owners of the house. There were already ten bodies out there before Royce King ever found his twin, fifteen by the time James had prepared him to go back out into the world the find 'the one that got away.' And ten more in the past several years since James had been capable of going out into the world to find more suitable, and yet still unworthy, prospects. My heart broke for those girls as he spoke of them as nothing more than trash.

I'd almost numbed myself completely to his touch as his hands slid over my most intimate places. It was like I was out of my own body, watching it from afar. I could feel the shock kicking in.

"But you…oh you my Bella Donna, my truly worthy equal. You will be the bearer of my future. We are going to make a life here and you are going to bear me the children I know I deserve. You will adore me and love me and we will raise my sons together to continue my legacy. They will learn to earn everything and be worthy of all that they have and prune that which isn't worthy."

He was babbling endlessly in his self effacing soliloquy, not noticing the small creaking sound down the hall. I took a deep breath and braced myself, tightening my grip on the chain and trying not to vomit as I came back into my body and felt his hands on me, touching me in ways that I would never allow. I could feel him smiling against my neck as he spoke when I interrupted him, my voice raspy.

"There's only one problem with your plan, James. " I tensed up and brought my chain covered hand up, making contact with his nose as I screamed out. "I'm not a victim!"

He released me immediately and grabbed his nose, already pouring with blood as I spun around and whipped the chain across his knees, knocking him to the floor. I didn't give him a chance to get up before I bolted out of the room and down the hallway toward the sound of the creak. I had to hope it was coming from the other exit and that my boys had found me somehow. I knew there was a chance it could be another co-conspirator, or even Victoria if she had survived, but I just felt with the power outage that it had to be my boys.

I was almost to the source of the sound when I heard a yell behind me. I screamed and tried to run faster, grateful that the feeling had now come back to my legs, but wishing they would go just a bit faster still. I skidded into a dark room where the creaking was coming from, feeling so relieved to find another set of stairs leading to another door. I climbed up and started banging on it with the chain, screaming for them to help. I could hear James drawing closer. I turned on the stairs to lean against the rungs, grabbing the chain more tightly in my hand to whip it toward him again, this time going for his face and throat. His pounding steps were drawing closer as my heart beat faster and faster, and then with no warning, the metal above me was wrenched up and the warm voice I'd been begging to hear met my ears.

Emmett's loud voice quickly overpowered it. "Holy Fuck, Bella! What the?"

"Gun!" I yelled up at him. Emmett stepped at the opening of the door and pulled me up with one hand, while training his gun down into the space with the other, but James never showed in the room, apparently hearing their arrival.

"There's a second exit, through the shed. Send guns there too. As far as I know these are the only two ways out."

I was shaking, still in nothing but my underwear, my wrists and ankles raw and bleeding as Edward hugged me, taking me into a corner of the basement and shedding his jacket to put around me before wrapping me in his arms. Meanwhile, Emmett and two other agents disappeared down into the bunker.

"I was so scared, Bella. I was so afraid we wouldn't find you."

I just nodded and cried against his chest. I vaguely remember Carlisle coming in, ordering some clothes be brought in for me while squints flooded the scene, documenting and taking samples. It was always hard going through that as an agent, but it was so much worse being the victim. Soon Rose arrived, bruised and cut. She was trembling with fear, but insisted on coming to me, handing me some clothes and helping me put them on with shaky hands while Edward shielded us with his body and his coat.

"You shouldn't have done this to yourself, Rosalie. You didn't have to come back here."

Rose had tears in her eyes as she looked at me. "You came in here to save me. The least I can do is face this place to help you."

We both fell together with loud sobs as Edward turned to face us, looking at a loss. Eventually he curled his arms around the both of us, calming us before leading us back out through the house and to the waiting van, which took me to the hospital for a more thorough checkup. I was relatively certain he had yet to take part in carnal knowledge of my body while I was sedated, but I didn't know for sure. I was more than a little relieved when tests confirmed that the only thing wrong with me was a few bruised body parts and quite a bit of skin tearing…nothing that wouldn't heal eventually. Well, the outside would heal easily, but the rest, I wasn't so sure.

Edward stayed at my side through everything. He left the room for my exams, but was back by my side the second the exams were over. He held my hand while I gave my statement and went out of his way to make sure I had everything I needed during my five hour stay.

We actually got lucky in finding the bunker. With the existence of Caulfield, there was a chance that King's lawyers would appeal on the grounds that there was no way to prove King was guilty when his and Caulfield's DNA was so similar, but there was more than enough evidence in the bunker to link them both to everything. One team coming from one end and the other coming in from the shed, Caulfield ended up being caught, ironically enough, in my cell. With the undeniable evidence and the over two dozen bodies found buried in the back yard, there was no doubt in my mind that neither brother would ever see the light of day again.

When we returned to HQ that night, everyone was exhausted. When Edward offered to drive me home and stay with me, I jumped at the opportunity, not wanting to be alone at night in a dark apartment. He was so sweet as he tucked me in and kissed my forehead after I was all dressed for bed, turning to walk out of the room and crash on my couch. He was almost to the door when I called out to him, my voice sounding so small and weak, I would have sworn it was a small girl instead of my own.

"Edward, would you please stay in here with me? I don't want to be alone." He looked over his shoulder at me, a look of concern crossing his face. I knew what he was thinking…trauma, co-dependence, post-traumatic attachment, and so on. I smiled and shook my head.

"I would have wanted it before Baltimore. If I'm honest, I've wanted it for a long time, but I was being stubborn about the boss/employee relationship thing…and it's not even the FBI's rule since you're contract."

He licked his lips and stared at me a long time before cautiously crossing over to my bed to sit on the edge before lying woodenly beside me, doing his best not to touch me. I rolled to face him with a sigh before reaching over to take his hand and rest it on my waist.

"I need to know that safe touching is still possible. I need to know that I can trust this. I know I can, but I need reminding. Please, Edward."

His green eyes darted back and forth between both of mine, before he relaxed, scooting closer and wrapping his arm around my waist, his nose nuzzling into my hair that was resting on the pillow between us.

"Thank you, Edward."

He smiled, sadness shining in his eyes. "Anything for you, Bella…Always."

I closed my eyes and smiled softly as I let the darkness surround me, the warmth of Edward beside me reminding me that I was home, safe and sound.