Another chapter for you all!

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Chapter 19

Ivy was on the spot, this was worse than any situation she had been put in so far in her life. She couldn't believe her Uncle would sell her out so quickly, but she knew it was to tempt the both of them for all Ivy wanted to do was rush forwards and help Eric. To tell him about that she knew the house his son was playing in, that she was slowly starting to piece together his game and what they had to do to survive. But she couldn't. And more importantly, John was right. For if Ivy had never pointed out Eric's attitude and his contempt for life to Mark Hoffman while in his office late at night; the poor Detective and his son may never be in this situation.

"What the fuck does he mean?" Daniel Rigg asked straight away and Ivy looked back focusing on the monitors. "Answer the fucking question!" He shouted.

"I'm not responsible for this." She said adamantly.

"Then why would he say that?" Allison asked nastily, pointing at the walkie talkie. Her eyes were gleaming with betrayal and Daniel's hands quivered as if he would very much like to punch her solidly in the head.

"I don't know, but how could I have lead towards Eric when I didn't even know him a month ago?" Ivy asked incredulously, her brain was whirring trying to think of a possible way she could get out of the situation.

"Still plenty of time for you to run off and tell your Uncle all about us." Daniel said with a snarl, "You know loads about me too don't you?" It was rhetorical but Ivy answered anyway.

"Yes I know things about all of you, private things to be kept between the two of us. I value privacy." That was a lie if she had ever told one. This had to be her greatest whopper. "And do you think out of anyone I would talk to it would be my Uncle who has shut himself away after her divorced my Aunt who I didn't even know was a mass serial killer until tonight." Ivy finished letting the concept settle, it seemed far fetched enough for her and turning their points into obscene concepts seemed the best approach. "How did he know so much about Lawrence? Adam? Any of his other victims because he must stalk them. He has ways of finding out information, how many people do we see a day? Any one of them could be helping him or someone on the very force themselves." Ivy said quickly her mind jumping back to Mark cozied up in his nice warm office at the station wondering how many were dead yet. She had never entertained her Uncle stalking people before but it seemed logical now. She felt sick at the lies she was spinning knowing she would get tangled soon.

"And that someone could very well be you newbie." Rigg emphasised his eyes cold, all the warmth and mirth she had seen in them at the bar when they were taking the piss out of her gone.

"Oh please good luck finding any evidence to prove your insane theory." She felt like such a hypocrite scoffing at their ideas when they had hit the nail on the head, for while she hadn't gone running to her Uncle she had accidentally confided in Mark more than once, the final one being only yesterday when retrieving her coat. But it was also her duty to John to report to him about the Detective, although it wasn't to do with their personal lives, just what they were doing involving his own case. The silence died down again and Eric was still shouting at John, however they had moved on from Ivy. Eric probably had suspected such a thing anyway and wouldn't find this information to be as startling as his colleagues.

"I don't know what to say. I can't think it was you. I know you don't like Eric but I don't see how Ivy could have told Jigsaw anything. She's spent all her time at the station or with Adam." Allison concluded sadly rubbing her tired eyes.

"Maybe her boyfriend..."

"Adam wants nothing to do with Jigsaw ever again. He hardly even asks me what I do." Ivy said abruptly. Another lie. Adam always liked to ponder over the next murder or the old ones. It gave him an unusual sense of closure or so Ivy thought. Grateful it wasn't him in these horrific traps and adding to his happiness at still being alive. It also kept him alert and aware that his captor was still out there, alive in the world. And still killing.

That was the end of the discussion.

"Why are you so desperate to get your son back?" John's weak voice was back, it sounded more like a strained whisper than it did before.

"Because he's my son." Eric answered, he sounded like he was crying or was extremely close to tears anyway. Everyone present in the monitors room felt instantly guilty as Ivy stared at the house in front of her. It was strange to think the people inside it were slowly dying from a poison, even if they did make it out of these bizarre traps. Where is the trapdoor I climbed out of? Ivy began searching the rooms through the monitors screens till she landed on the room the game had started in, the one with the giant safe in the middle. There are antidotes in that safe...what did that tape said we hardly heard it. 'You all possess the combination to the safe.' Was that something to do with the prison they went to for Ivy knew the three of them who admitted it themselves, Eric's son had been to mall jail and and Amanda has also been locked up for drugs and other shit. So they had criminality in common. But that didn't mean they all went to the same prison if Daniel had only done a tiny amount of insignificant time. Or that is why they were all there? That makes more sense. Ivy thought and thought but nothing came she was getting more and more frustrated the longer she battled with her Uncle's games.

"Why is it we're only willing to do that when a life is at stake?" John asked and Ivy frowned. That's not entirely true, Allison didn't forgive Lawrence but perhaps that was because all of them nearly died?

"I've always loved my son that's never changed."

"No, no it's changed now."

Ivy turned back to watch Amanda who had gone upstairs on her own to look around for anymore clues. She stopped outside a door that wouldn't open and then continued along to another with a name across it in red paint. GUS, Amanda frowned before walking back to where she came from. Ivy frowned wondering which of the poor buggers was GUS and when his trap would be revealed to the others.

"You see the knowledge of death changes everything, you see if I were to tell you the exact date and time of your own death it would shatter your world completely. I know" John spoke and Ivy listened in once more despite herself, she really was a nosy bitch but John had never even hinted about his feeling towards his death sentence before now. "Can you imagine what it feels like to have someone sit you down and tell you that you're dying?" He asked and Allison looked at the walkie talkie they had set on the desk in surprise. Of course they didn't know anything about John Krammer the man and she looked at Ivy questioningly.

"He has cancer." Ivy said quietly and Allison's face had a look of surprise before it was replaced with understanding. Rigg had left the room earlier to vent some of his own anger to his SWAT buddies leaving the two women alone.

"That gravity of that hmm? That the clocks ticking for you. In a split second your world's cracked open, you look at things differently, you smell things differently. You savour everything be it a glass of water or a walk in the park." Ivy felt tears well up at her Uncle's words and she began to shake. His words echoed deep inside of her, connecting to what she had felt in that bathroom. The utter despair that her life might end. That that bathroom might have been the last thing she ever saw. Allison got up and put her arms around her hushing her as they kept listening together.

"The clock is ticking John."

"But most people have the luxury of not knowing when that clock is going to go off." John reminded the catatonic Detective. "And the irony of it is that keeps them from ever really living their life; it keeps them sleepwalking. It keeps them drinking that glass of water but never really tasting it."

"You can still fix this John." Eric tried once again and Ivy wanted to kick and scream like the scared child she was inside. He still was not listening.

"He's going to die." Ivy said bleakly through her tears and Allison stared at her in horror.

"Don't ever say things like that." She ordered at once but Ivy just kept shaking her head. John's metaphors made me feel guilty, guilty at how many glasses of water she had chugged down since escaping. What had she done with her life since she got out but get more and more ensnared in the same dangers as before.

"Yeah but can we fix you?" John asked, his voice stronger now his haunting lesson was over. "I'm not fixable. I've had cancer."

Eric began laughing under his breath, "You can't use cancer as an excuse for what you do." This was further proof of his own selfish ignorance and Ivy sobered enough to turn away from Allison and to stand up and go to the doorway of the room so she could see the two.

"The cancer isn't what started me in my work. It was the moment I decided to end my life that started me in my work. And brought meaning to it." John confided and Ivy stopped thinking to digest the new piece of information. End my life? "I had literally driven myself to suicide." John carried on anyway despite Ivy's brain wanting him to wait. "And I failed. My body had not been strong enough to fight off the cancer cells. Yet I had lived through a plunge off a cliff." Remarkably her Uncle's voice held no bitterness at all as he told this new segment of his life Ivy had never known of before now. When could he even have done that? She asked herself, something as crucial as that surely? When you were digging in restricted files at the FBI a nagging voice reminded her. When your own success was more important than the welfare of the who really cared for you. "But to my amazement, I was alive. And I was determined to spend the rest of my days testing the fabric of human nature." John paused to let it sink in and Ivy realised his eyes were on her. She didn't think he'd be able to see her standing in the doorway all the way at the back of the workshop. "Do you understand?" He asked her and she nodded the tears still fresh on her face, "Eric?" He turned back to the cop imploring him to see sense.

"You have the chance to do something good right now John. Just tell me where my son is, and I'll help you."

Ivy shook her head at her Uncle and she knew he had caught the action. She knew she was going to pass. She wanted Daniel Matthews to live, but his father didn't deserve it. He hadn't learned anything at all tonight and wasn't going to. "I don't need your help but I can tell you still don't understand. Those who don't appreciate life do not deserve life." It couldn't have been put any simpler and Ivy knew she'd carry those words to the grave.

"My son appreciates his life."

"But do you appreciate yours? Do you appreciate your sons?"

John hit the wrong button there as Eric slammed his fist on the desk, his violent tendencies rising again and Ivy jumped nearly crashing into the fencing. Allison came to peer at her.

"What are you doing?" She hissed, disapproving of Ivy spying. Ivy motioned for the Detective to leave her alone and Allison sighed going back to the monitors as she received a call. Lucky bitch still had her phone, maybe John's put mine on silent? Eric had got up to leave.

"Don't forget the rules." John warned and he stopped. Ivy panicked and shot into the monitor room where Allison smirked at her cowardice. "If you want to find your son.

Eric didn't listen, he walked away and allowed the SWAT guys to apprehend John again.

"No we don't have fifteen minutes." Allison told the tech team as the clock's timer ran into the final hour. Ivy peered at the screens, Amanda was still searching high and low and the blonde woman had collapsed under the effects of the poison, Eric's son helping her. Amanda now had an axe in her hand but where she had got it was a mystery.

"If you passed your test then why are you here?" Daniel had struck up a conversation with Amanda as she kept looking. He was holding her bandaged arm. Ivy kept wishing the quality was better on those stupid screens so she could understand more.

"Because I wasn't being very good to myself." Amanda said and Ivy understood, remembering a similar bandage when they had saved Adam but hadn't passed any heat of it. Amanda was a self harmer? It fit John's appreciating life mantra.

"What were you arrested for?" Daniel asked and Ivy leaned forwards, she didn't know the whole story after all so why not find out now since the bitch on the monitors had double crossed her by telling John about her and Adam anyway.

"Possession." She answered and Amanda frowned, it was a weird answer. Daniel didn't understand it either. "Maybe you should talk to the cop who arrested me." Amanda threw the comment over her shoulder and Ivy's hands knocked the walkie talkie to the floor in excitement. She knew why they were all there, these test subject's connection. It was Eric Matthews. He had sent them all down and his son was in mortal danger.

"Allison we need to get Daniel out of there now." Ivy said abruptly, startling all in the room.

"Well done." Eric snapped nastily, "Only just figured how important he is."

"No, I mean." Ivy hesitate as her rules came back into her mind. You greatest weakness. She couldn't help Eric, his son had to save himself. She changed tack, "Why was Amanda arrested for possession?" She asked both Allison and Eric, her eyes caught Eric's uncomfortable switch of weight. "She just said then that he should talk to the cop who arrested me. That means she was innocent doesn't it?"

"What are you trying to imply here?" Eric snapped.

Ivy shook her head, "I can't tell you, I'm not allowed to. You have to figure it out yourself but I don't think you can do anything but see how this game plays out." Ivy informed the ex partners bleakly pointing at the monitors. The subjects were trying to break into another room now.

"Your not making any sense." Allison told her. "Don't bring up things like this if you can't tell us what you mean."

"I am trying to give you hints but you are not listening, just like you never really listened to my Uncle in there." Ivy said rounding on Eric again. "Their first tape told them to understand the link among them, what if it has something to do with their arrests?" She already felt like she had given them more than enough to work from, it seemed obvious to her now. Daniel Matthews wasn't in harm from any traps, in fact Ivy was beginning to believe he didn't have his own trap at all and neither did Amanda. They just had to survive, but Daniel was in danger if the others found out about his father bring Eric Matthews. Ivy knew Eric had been the cop to bring Amanda in all those years ago and it sounded like a wrongful arrest. It had been in Amanda's file which Ivy had flicked through on more than one occasion in an attempt to understand what made her change her mind about Adam. But looking at the topic on hand, who was to say that Eric Matthews didn't make a couple more wrongful arrests on his violent bid to end the city's crime? Or some other plausible bullshit his mind had clung on to.

All thoughts of Eric though was driven from Ivy's mind as she watched the subjects discover Xavier's room, the pit of needles in the floor and the twisted little bastard declaring someone other than himself would be going in. The man had been the controller from the start, he was the most threatening and the most violet with the longest amount of time in jail, or so Ivy would guess. That made him very dangerous in the group and no one was selfless enough to volunteer. The ripped bully's eyes landed on Daniel Matthews and Ivy's heart jumped in fear before he moved over to Amanda. Ivy's cry to stop was loud and painful for the others to hear as she jumped to her feet as she watched the poor woman be flung straight into the pit of thousands and thousands of needles. Allison and Eric's eye's widened too as they stared on too and Ivy felt like she could throw up at any moment. It must have been pure agony, maybe even more than sawing off your own foot. The needles were sticking to every part of Amanda they touched, some embedding themselves in her flesh while others merely cut and made lacerations on her hands as she struggled to move them. Every movement she made ended with a scream of utter pain as she slowly began to dig through them. No one looked remorseful or even remotely sympathetic for the ex druggie as she began to hurriedly dig through the needles. The nausea slid up her throat burning it like a bile as she turned away from the monitors to lean against the fencing, why was that particular trap causing her to react so strongly when someone being shot in the eye hadn't made her flinch? Perhaps it was because once again this was someone she knew, rather well. Perhaps it was the example of simple torture before her, as it was highly unlikely Amanda would die from such a trap though it did seemed unfair to only have two minutes. Or perhaps it was the dirty condition she knew those needles were in, how easy it would be to get an infection and her skin crawled once more. She couldn't ever imagine having those pierce her skin with the dirt contaminating and mingling into her bloodstream.

Finally she could hear someone trying to reason with the others. "We've gotta help her." Eric's son's voice rang through on the monitor. "Jesus christ guys!" He shouted and Ivy turned back to the screens hoping he would offer his help. Thankfully he did, extending a hand to help Amanda out of the pit. She had located the correct needle with a key hanging from it and Xavier was trying to put it in the lock. They failed and were locked out permanently. Ivy frowned and winced as she watched Daniel pulling the stubborn needles from Amanda, she noticed the irony of Amanda being the one punished for her sins and in a pit of needles above all other things. Ivy frowned feeling a sudden rise of justice as she thought of Adam's own key shining down the plughole and despite knowing she would never have been able to do what Amanda had just put herself through, Ivy was glad she had experienced proper punishment for Adam's un winnable test.

"Where is this god damned tech team?" Eric asked pulling his gaze away from the monitors to vent his frustrations on the two female Detectives and Rigg who had snuck in the room again to watch. He looked a little shaken at the display he had just watched, his eyes were flicking to John more than ever. Ivy looked at him and shook her head at the camera that was watching them, it was beginning to feel almost amusing watching the clueless Detective miss all the clues, all the signs. Another one of the subjects, a woman had admitted to having gone to jail as well. That meant five that had been to jail so far out of the misfit bunch of psychopaths with Daniel being the only one who not to. He was the odd one out. She knew that this must be a little of what John felt every time he watched his subjects in his complicated games, a sense of schadenfreude he must have felt during her own game as he watched them piece together all the pieces of the puzzles, our ignorance being what blinded us from getting out earlier.

"They'll be here any second." Allison reassured while Rigg paced.

"I'm not listening to this anymore." Rigg told them all but his eyes stayed firmly on Ivy who hadn't left her position at the fencing. "Another second is too fucking long."

"Look I know how this guy works okay. He's playing a game, Eric just needs to stay in it a little while longer." Stated Allison with bravado that made Ivy commend her, for she didn't have a clue what John's main goal was with this scheme. How Detective Matthews fit into the category of people who need to be 'fixed' as he had said before, sure he was a little corrupt, but so was Hoffman and herself and his violence controlled his motions but usually there was an ultimate sin being committed worthy of a test. Drug abuse, rape, voyerism, adulterous behaviour, a delay of justice. Something that had affected other people's lives in the process. Eric did not however look happy at having to resume his gameplay though, he was rubbing his forehead impatiently as if Ivy had passed her earlier headache onto him. It was possible that she had for a sense of clarity had overwhelmed her. The test subjects on the screens didn't have long left on the timer and that might be when the rewards were given to them from Ivy's test since she was going to win. She wasn't going to tell Eric or Allison or Daniel Rigg diddily squat. She could save six people's lives.

"Take a look at the clock." Rigg said pointing to it. It was dead on half an hour. "You two need to start thinking outside the box or his son is gonna end up in one. And you with all your secrets well fuck him Ivy. Nothing's gonna happen to you if you don't keep quiet. Your ass is safe anyway so why don't you at least point us the right direction." They were two harsh blows as both Ivy and Eric winced.

"Because if she does then those people may not get out alive you know that." Allison argued back quickly. "In case you've forgotten Eric's son is one of those people. Maybe Ivy's test works with Eric's, compliments it so to speak."

"Jigsaw said they'd get a reward, we don't know what that is. No one's bothered to ask him." Daniel argued and Ivy frowned.

"Then you go and ask him." She told him narrowing her eyes and squaring her shoulders ready for a verbal assault that didn't come. Instead Rigg turned away and for a moment Ivy thought he actually was. What harm would it do to ask? Ivy wondered although she was pretty sure the reward would be the antidotes now. Lifesaving.

Allison shoved the walkie talkie away from her and began to stare at the designs on the walls. One was of the Reverse Bear Trap again, another of a box with hands sticking up into it on a large post it note and an unusual drawing of a man in a hockey helmet. "His work. You wanna get to him that's how you do it." Ivy cocked an eyebrow showing her disbelief.

"I don't know Allison. My Uncle never really speaks passionately about being Jigsaw and his notoriety." Ivy protested.

"But don't you see he's relishing this. It's an opportunity to be heard, to be studied." Allison enlightened and Ivy breathed in a lot of air before releasing it again. "Threaten to destroy his work." Allison persisted to Eric who was listening intently. "It's worth a shot." She said to console Ivy as Eric walked to near her place at the fencing to peer out at John who was still sitting not saying a single word or moving a muscle. The SWAT team as vigilant as ever. Then with a sudden burst of energy the hotheaded ex Detective moved towards John snatching handfuls of his drawings on the way before slamming them on his desk and ripping them up before John's eyes. Ivy felt a pang of sympathy for her Uncle as some of these drawings were meticulously detailed and it felt wrong to destroy them.

"You can get your conviction without all this evidence." John told him his eyes roving over the destroyed files

"I don't need this shit to convict you." Eric hissed dangerously hunting for more he could destroy his eyes alive with his rage.

"So go ahead, destroy it." John seemed completely unperturbed.

"I will."

"Destroy them all. Just know it will not save your son if you do."

"You kill my son I kill you." Ivy cringed at the utter philistine like response. Caveman language between men, but John wasn't your average man.

Eric dumped a whole box of sketch books and files onto the desk with a loud bang. "Go ahead." John repeated watching him contently, contrasting with the dangerous tension Ivy could feel in the air. "We both know the sort of person you are; the sort of person who gunned down an unarmed suspect. The sort of person who plants evidence in order to obtain a conviction. The sort of person whose wife leaves him and his son hates him." Every word was struck with the bite of a viper as Eric kept on his rampage. Ivy's mouth had fallen open at her Uncle's words as her question from earlier was answered, she moved from her position right against the fencing she had pressed herself against in order to hear every word and back to the monitors where she peered closer at the figures on the monitors. 'Maybe you should talk to the cop who arrested me.'

"He's what they have in common." Ivy whispered.

"What?" Allison asked and Ivy shushed her instantly. It slotted in perfectly with Daniel and why they were on screen. Eric had been so preoccupied with squeezing every last drop of information out of John he hadn't sat and listened to the clues presenting themselves to him. And even though he had to sit and listen to John to fully win his test, Allison was too concerned with the tech team to see anything beyond the murders. They were all too anxious to save and were not listening; the one things John wanted from them above all.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Shouted Eric at the top of his voice before more voices were made apparent.

"Thank god the tech team are here." Allison breathed. Ivy gave herself enough room to slip past Allison and the tech team which had her attention anyway and went back to peer round the corner to better listen to Eric and John.

"There's something I haven't told you Eric." Her Uncle ventured one last time.

"I'm done listening."

Ivy cursed Eric Matthews once more wondering when his game would end and hoping it was soon. This was all becoming excruciating and all she wanted was to call Adam and be near his calming heartbeat.

"Maybe I can just show it to you." John continued his eyes duller than usual now. "Unfortunately it's going to be difficult for me to get it myself so perhaps you could ask the people who are listening on that walkie despite my instructions in there could get it for me." He said mysteriously and Ivy smirked back at Allison who was staring at the talkie in question in fear at being called out again. "Brown desk, second drawer down." Ivy ran back to retrieve the object in question but Allison had beaten her to it. "You may not remember all those people but I'm sure they remember you." Ivy didn't wait to snatch the files out of Allison's hands before bursting into her own peals of laughter. "And it appears your colleague had it figured out long ago. You'd better watch out Eric, because my niece is far in the lead right now." John warned with a smile tainting his voice.

"I was right." She whispered, her eyes a little maniacal. Inside were the mug shots of all players in the Nerve Gas House. All those who had been framed by Eric Matthews for crimes they did not commit.

"You were the arresting officer in all their cases and you are the one who planted all the evidence to obtain their convictions." John's voice carried through the talkie which was now more of a weapon than an aid. Allison had a look of sheer disbelief and betrayal as Eric moved towards the files Ivy was now freely sharing with Allison. "You were the one who put them all away."

"Your son is playing a game with a lot of people who don't like you Eric." Ivy warned with a smug smile of satisfaction on her face. She couldn't quite believe how she had managed to hit the target so accurately.

"You fucking bitch." Eric swore advancing on her but Ivy held her ground. "How long have you known."

"Since that needle pit." Ivy answered honestly. "You should have followed the rules. You should have all paid more attention and listened to what was around you." She lectured and Eric seized her wrist twisting it painfully till she cried out, breaking her confidence.

"You would do well to let Ivy go Eric. It would be a shame if they discovered who your son was." John advised his voice the darkest it had ever been and Eric's eyes filled with tears of pure desperation as he released Ivy.

"Please." He whispered to her so only she could hear him. "Please Ivy, I'm sorry. Just please help me beat him."

Ivy looked at him sadly inertia flooding her insides once again. "I don't think I could even if I wanted to. I don't know where Daniel is. Only that he's in danger."

"Hey look." Rigg was pointing to the monitors at the group of subjects including Daniel and Amanda. "They found the x." He said and Ivy tore herself away from Eric's sad eyes and onto the monitors. She never wanted to look at them again.

"What are you doing with him?" The female woman asked. Ivy took the files from Rigg and opened it at the woman named Addison Corday. She was looking at a photo which had been hidden behind the picture with a slashed x on the glass. "This is your father?" She asked as the writing gave everything away.

"What you know him?" Daniel asked in just as much confusion.

"Yeah. The guy who put me away, he set me up." Addison confirmed, her voice becoming harsher. Ivy closed her eyes as the enemies began to form and all she could think about was how sorry she felt for poor Daniel Matthews who, because of his father may be hunted down by every surviving member in the house for revenge on his father."

"That's not your father." Amanda whispered form her place against the wall with the other weaker woman. She sounded completely broken after her experience in the needle pit. Daniel shrugged, not understanding the severity of what had just occurred. The weaker woman began to convulse all of a sudden. A seizure, her mouth foaming as the deadly toxin invaded her system. She died in a somewhat peaceful state in Amanda's arms. Ivy watched sadly as Addison too abandoned Daniel to the mercy of Amanda and Xavier.

"Where's the black guy?" She asked scanning the monitors before finding his body on another screen, his head caved in by the nail baseball bat of Xavier's. Xavier himself was roaming the corridors looking for something, the blood still dripping from the bat, his walk had purpose and Ivy pointed to him for Eric.

"He's the guy who is gonna cause the trouble." Ivy told him. "He's figured something out the others haven't." She concluded and Eric looked at her with hope in his eyes.

"But you know it? You've figured it out too?" He asked.

Ivy paused before shaking her head sadly. "No I don't. I don't know much more than you do right now." She said bleakly apologising with her eyes. "I'd only just finished working out what that connection between the subjects in that house were." And how your failing your own game.

"Look." Allison frowned pointing back to the monitors where Amanda had abandoned Daniel on his own and discovered Jonas' body. Addison was walking about on her own and Xavier still looking for the rest of them.

"Bitches." Eric snarled as he watched the two women abandon his son to fend for himself. In the next few seconds however Amanda had found Daniel Matthews again and seized his hand, pulling him along.

"Perhaps not." Ivy said with a smile as they ran through the house together, although Ivy's concern about Xavier had not been erased yet.

"Perhaps Eric, you would be better continuing your own game and let the fellow Detectives watch how your son's game plays out." John's voice reminded on the talkie and Ivy watched Eric close his eyes in exasperation.

"Eric!" Allison cried and Eric and Ivy's eyes both switched to the screen again. Amanda and Daniel had run right into Xavier who was brandishing a knife. The duo took off running and Eric cried out himself as Xavier Chavez began a manhunt for their blood.

"What's he after?" She asked dumbly out loud.

"My fucking son." Eric shouted in her face, his breath was stale as if he hadn't eaten for a while and it made Ivy recoil.

"But this can't just be revenge, he was after them before he found that note." Ivy retorted her eyes back on the chase. Eric watched on sadly as his eyes filled with tears as his desperation began to take hold of him. Stealthily he pulled his gun from his pocket and heading back over to John, no one caught the movement but Rigg, Ivy was now caught up with watching Amanda and Daniel hoping they would be the ones to make it out alive. The ones to reap her reward.

It was Allison's cry of "Eric!" that alerted Ivy to the Detective's actions. Allison tried to move towards him but Rigg was ready and blocked her pathway. Ivy joined her in confusion.

"What?" She asked as Allison fought with the Rigg.

"We tried your way." He told them both refusing to budge an inch.

Allison gave up and pulled Ivy back over to the fencing to watch through the thin wires, "Just watch." She instructed sadly and foreboding crept into Ivy's stomach. The two women watch as in a sudden burst of strength Eric upturned the desk John was seated behind. Ripped papers and pictures fluttered in the air like morbid butterflies as the desk made a horrendous racket in the quiet that had settled among them all for so long as it hit the floor. Eric lunged at John and pulled him from his wheelchair causing John's IV to rip from his arm. Ivy's eyes went wide as Eric resorted to his infamous brutality to get answers. She watched the lunatic cop fling her Uncle into the wall where his already frail body bent round the workbenches and screamed loud enough to get of their attentions for a second as she flew to get past Rigg who caught her round the waist and held her back despite her greatest of efforts to move.

"Get out of my way now." She snarled kicking and punching every avaliable part of the SWAT Commander who grimaced but took the beating, no doubt taking one for the team.

"Alright calm down." He told her and she tried to slap him.

"This is so fucked up and you know it. He's a cancer patient, he's dying slowly. See that wheelchair and that IV!" She appealed still struggling though the energy was draining out of her. Allison too was trying to reason with the maniac cop through the fencing and Ivy screamed even louder and higher as the sound of a fist meeting a skull rang through the workshop before sounds of almighty violence filled the air.

"Shut up." Rigg warned her his arm digging into her own as he held her but Ivy's hand were in her trouser pockets digging for the small instrument she chose to always keep on her at all times. Ever since she first retrieved it at the hospital. She brandished it in front of her and Rigg stepped back quickly when his eyes caught it. "The fuck is that?" He asked her as she pushed the scalpel closer to him.

"Get your hands off me." Ivy warned him her eyes blazing as her Uncle's cries began to surround the rooms, creeping into every corner of the building and under Ivy's skin. Allison watched on but said nothing, nor did she make a move to stop her friend as Rigg slowly let her pass, eying her as if she was suffering from a serious mental disorder. Other objects were crashing into the floor as Ivy darted back past the SWAT team and the tech team and over to where Eric was pounding the living daylights out of her Uncle. John looked so fragile on the surface that Ivy felt the overwhelming need to protect him. To help him and reach out to him as she had never done before her trap. All those reports she had given him recently were nothing compared to witnessing the beating her was undertaking without complaint or any attempt to fight back. Ivy knew this was because her Uncle would never stoop as low as his victim. Because Eric Matthews never had a chance to survive. She needed to step in, she owed him this much. She made her moved lunging forwards and shoving Eric hard in the back so he stumbled, nearly falling at the surprise attack. It was as if he hadn't heard her with all the blood rushing through his ears. He turned in surprise before his shock was replaced with equal anger.

"You fucking bitch." He spat swinging a punch at her which she avoided narrowly landing one of her own in his jaw. She heard a small crunching sound she was sure was some of his teeth as he spat some blood out of his mouth.

"The corruption reeks from you." She bit back looking down on him with a look of loathing mingling with disgust. "You're not worthy of that son you've got."

That did it for Eric Matthews who charged forwards and grabbed her by the throat, dragging her towards his own body where he took pleasure in delivering a hard smack across her left cheek and Ivy's head smacked to the right due to the sheer force behind it. Pain exploded on her face as a thousand stinging nettles entered her face, she blinked through the pain as she felt her weight collapse underneath her and she sank to her knees. Eric throughly satisfied at the distinctive scarlet hand mark already appearing on her delicate features turned back round to John and slammed him once again into his desk. John's eyes were wide as he watched Ivy's attempts to move on the floor. Much of her energy had been taken by the larger man and she could hear Allison shouting and screaming from a way off.

"Not long to go now till your son is pissing blood." John hissed nastily smirking at the rabid cop in front of him.

"I'll take the whole family down." Eric said through gritted teeth, or what was left of them. Spitting some more blood out onto John's face as he took his hand and bent one of his fingers back till it snapped, the sound ricocheting around the space. John's scream of pure agony was what propelled Ivy forwards to sink the scalpel into the back of Eric's neck with a smirk before running so as to not get hit as Eric cried out at the attack. Eric turned insane eyes onto her before grinning maliciously. He withdrew the scalpel and flung it to one side before turning back to John. He drew his knee up kicking her Uncle over and over and punching till John's nose burst from the rough assaults. Ivy didn't know what else she could do. As if reading her mind John called out to her, his voice was a hideous mess.

"Leave him Ivy."

Ivy thought she had no choice. This man was not going to respond to her own violence, he was focused and determined on her Uncle and no one else. He was going to make him pay because he believed his son was gone now.

"Now that's the Eric Matthews they gave medals to." John said through his bloody state and his comment was meant with a series of stomps form Eric. Each one tore a little more at Ivy's heart as the flashbacks of the bathroom began again, blurring her vision till she stepped back in pure panic. Her breathing was becoming painful and her chest hurt. Am I having a heart attack? She wondered briefly as she crashed into a wall, more tears falling down her cheeks as she watched on in horror her mind flitting from the past to the present as she slid down and clutched her knees. She jumped and looked down at her ankle feeling the weight of the shackle back on her leg, but it was fake. Eric had grabbed the walkie talkie and spoke into it.

"Nobody's listening anymore asshole." He said as he kneeled over John and took out his gun again. Ivy's pulse stopped for a second.

"D...don't." She said in a minuscule voice that trembled all over. Was he going to shoot him? End it that easily? Ivy didn't even want to contemplate what such a thing would do to her own fragile mind state, never mind Jill who still loved him dearly. Would her Uncle's death mean peace or just more nightmares. Ivy closed her eyes praying on prayer that she could shut out the cruel world and be back at home with Adam eating Chinese and watching reruns of 'Friends' where Adam would liken himself looks wise to Joey but share the unfortunate fate of Ross.

"Open your mouth." Eric instructed pointing the gun into John's mouth so it began to choke him. "There. Well? I'll say it again." Eric said drawing the gun to his throat instead.

"Game over." John said looking up into Eric's eyes. And Ivy raised her head. "I'll take you to the house." He said and Eric instantly began to get to his feet.

Eric Matthews you fool.

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