AN: Just wanna say thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews! You asked, here he is! Sorry if this chapter is so long, but it either very long or very short, so here it is. Enjoy! Once again, FrostyFingers, you're the best, girl!
Disclaimer: I own nothing
He had had to leave. Staying had no longer been an option. Not when he had clearly been losing his objectivity towards the list, his objectivity towards her. He had had to leave. Telling Dembe to take care of everything, take care of her had been the wisest decision. The more he heard about her, the more he would care and it wasn't like she would reciprocate his feelings in any way; it would be too selfish of him to even ask for that. No, staying had definitely no longer been an option. To hell with the immunity deal. It had all just been a scam anyway. No way the U.S. government would ever sign an agreement like that and he was well aware of that. So, disappearing from the face of the earth like he had done so many times before had been his only option and that was exactly what he had done.
Every once in a while Dembe would try to let him in on the team's reports on her, which he would easily dismiss by a wave of his hand and a few words in a tone that held a calculated amount of annoyance. "Dembe, how many times do I have to remind you that I simply don't want to be bothered withthis matter anymore? I do not care what's happening in Agent Keen's life, my friend, so please stop trying to fill my head with unimportant problems. God knows I have too much to worry about already." He would often see the look of sadness in his long time friend's eyes, but would choose to ignore it, pretend it wasn't there.
There was always a new place to go. The quiet nights that he had gotten too used to after a day full of work were gone and replaced by a night out with any woman he could find in whatever city business took him to. Whether he took them to a nice little restaurant first, or to a fun night at some jazz club, at the end of the night theywould be between his sheets.
The first month had been hell. Seeing her face everywhere he went, hearing her voice every time he was alone. Seeing the deep blue of her eyes whenever he looked up at the sky. It didn't matter who he was with, he would always close his eyes and pretend it was her. Pretend it was her perfume that was filling his nostrils, pretending it was her mouth that was kissing him back and her hands that were making their way up and down his body, but when he looked up, it never were her eyes that were looking back at him.
As the time passed, he had learned to shut it all out. He had learned to simply tell himself nothing of this had ever happened. Had told himself she had never existed. Had learned to not feel anymore. Had learned to hide behind his façade once again.
Dembe felt the ire starting to rise inside of him as he hung up the phone. That was it. Things had gone way too far now, everything seemed to have gotten out of control. He had to get this to him, no matter if he wanted to hear this or not. Walking back into the house, he could hear the loud moans that came from behind the closed doors of the bedroom. Managing to swallow some of the anger he was feeling, he knocked loud enough to be heard above all the noise that was coming from the other side "Raymond!" When the room suddenly became quiet, Dembe stepped back and waited for the man to step out.
As the door slowly opened, Red came out of the roomstill fully clothed, except for the tie that was gone; his vest hung open and his shirt was untucked with the first two buttons undone and his face held an expression of clear annoyance for being disturbed during his leisure time. "I really hope there is a good reason for interrupting us, my friend. This better be urgent," he said walking to the liquor cabinet and pouring himself a few fingers of his favorite Scotch.
"I think the girl needs to go, Raymond. This is serious," Dembe told him with a look Red had never seen on him before. Without needing further explanation, he entered the room and came out only moments later with the flavor of the week on his heels.
Red escorted her to the front door and immediately returned to the living room, where Dembe was waiting for him. "Well, what is it?" He asked returning his attention to the tumbler he had left on the fireplace mantel.
"Agent Keen was -" Dembe started only to be abruptly interrupted.
"Dembe, I thought I had already told you to take care of this matter. I don't want to be bothered with this! How can I be any clearer?!" He asked in a tone that made his displeasure for the affair clear to both men. "Agent Keen's whereabouts don't concern me anymore, that's why I trusted you to take care of her security detail and not let me in on the reports! I just can't believe you had to interrupt me from having what promised to be the most mind blowing sex I had in months! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone who can actually keep pace with me and my kind of games?"
As he made his way back into the room once again, Dembe started shouting, all the anger from the latest news simply taking over his self-control. "How is that? How can you simply go from entering her life like that to just not caring anymore? How can you keep being such a cold hearted bastard when her life is clearly falling apart because of you?" The look on Red's face, as he turned back, was more than enough to tell Dembe that he had been taken aback by the unexpected behavior of his long time bodyguard and friend.
"Whatever my reasons for leaving may be, Dembe, I surely don't owe you an explanation for them. Agent Keen is a strong woman, I'm sure she'll come out of it eventually." His left eye twitched at the mention of her name. He started making his way back to his room only to stopdead in his tracks once again at the angry words that came out of Dembe's mouth.
"And just when do you think that is going to be? When the next son of a bitch decides to rape her and stab a knife into her stomach and then leave her bleeding to death in a cold and dirty alley, because she's lost too much weight and is too drunk to even defend herself anymore? Do you think she'll come out of it then?"
The impact of these words hit him right in the face and suddenly it felt as if a knife had been pushed through his heart. His friend watched as all blood left his face and Red was suddenly looking considerably pale. His breath turned labored. His Lizzie. No, it couldn't be. She couldn't be…
"Is she…?" he couldn't even finish that thought. His jaw was clenched as hard as ever, his fists balled up tightly by his sides and his eyes were wideand showed nothing but fear of his friend's answer.
"She's alive. Barely. They found her just in time and took her to a hospital," Dembe explained, sitting down on the sofa, eyes trained on Red, relieved with the knowledge that his friend was still in there somewhere.
"Tell me," was all Red was able to whisper as he sat down in the chair opposite the other one.
"Since our departure she has begun to crumble. She was getting more and more in the way of the team and their job, couldn't fulfill her duty as a profiler anymore. Assistant Director Cooper had to put her on indefinite leave. She has stopped eating and started drinking a lot. Until there wasn't a single day she went through without passing out on her living room floor. Tonight she left the house to buy more alcohol and when she saw that the store was closed, she went into one of the bars across the street," he said and Red couldn't help but picture his Lizzie in this state. It was a horrifying thought. "Our man watching her at that time saw her go inside and decided to take a break to get something to eat. When he came back to the bar, she had just disappeared. He asked the barman and the guy told him she had left with some man named Bert. So our man went around to look for her and that's when he found her in the alley. Blood all over her body, she wasn't breathing and there was only a very weak pulse. He immediately called for help and started doing everything he could. It seemed as if she was still fighting to get through this. They made it to the hospital andthe doctors took care of her. She is in critical condition, but they think she will make it, if she can get through the night."
The weight of Dembe's words settled heavily on Red's chest. Lizzie. His Lizziehad become a drunk. And because of that she had been raped and was now in a critical state in some hospital bed. Alone. This, all of it, had been going on for too long already, he couldn't let this continue started rising within him. He wanted to kill the man who had done this to her. And the man who had let this happen to her. He would burn down the world until he found the ones responsible for her suffering.
"Locate the man who did this. I don't care how. Find him and get him ready for me," he said with his eyes shut tightly, while fighting for self-control.
"It's already taken care of, Raymond."
Looking into Dembe's eyes, he was thankful for the man for knowing him so well that he didn't need the order to make it happen. He nodded and simply asked, "What about the one who was supposed to be watching her?"
Dembe shifted uncomfortably in his seat before saying, "He did save her afterwards. I don't think he needs to be disposed of. The warning I gave him made it clear enough to never sleep on the job again."
Suddenly Red jumped up and furiously started pacing, all composure gone. "Well, someone's got to pay! I don't care who or how! If they are incapable of doing their job, then they're useless to the world!"
Dembe stood up as well, his anger rising again. "Then perhaps you should start blaming yourself, Raymond! I'm sick of this shit! You were the one who decided to leave! You were the one who wouldn't give a crap about her state, even when I almost begged you to listen! You are the one who went around pretending all those years by her side never happened. Taking your little dolls to dinner and then having your way with them afterwards whenever you felt like it! And now you want to blame the world because you can't man up enough to take responsibility for your own actions! Well, then, let me make this clear for you: Elizabeth is in this state, because your actions put her there!"
His words were like a punch to Red's face. His stomach dropped and he began to feel sick. Taking two steps back, he let himself fall back into the chair, his legs not able to support him much longer as he felt himself falling apart. Dembe was right. She was in that position because of him. Everything that happened to her in the last four months had been because of him. She had nearly gotten killed because of him. Tears started falling freely from his eyes and he couldn't stop a sob from escaping his throat. His breathing became erratic as realization dawned on him. What had he done?
"I'll make the arrangements. We'll go back tomorrow morning." He heard Dembe say, but didn't bother to answer. Letting his head fall into his hands, he promised himself that from now on he would personallytake care of her protection, at whatever costs. Pictures of her smiling face were dancing in front of his eyes. Just the thought of never seeing that smile again made his head dizzy.
"Lizzie…" he breathed out.