Too late!
Reynolds stared at the building in despair… the foreman's password had halted the demolition… but not before the first round of charges detonated. He heard the man explaining the building was unstable now… that they would have to wait… Wait? No! His baby was in there somewhere…
He was running… Part of his mind registered that he wasn't alone but no one else mattered, he just had to find her.
"EMILY!" he screamed… "EMILY!" Other voices echoed his calls… He heard one voice call another name and he hated that voice… "How dare anyone look for someone else…" he thought.
He darted through the debris filled halls…the silence taunted him… He choked on the dust filled air…His grief blinded him as he stumbled in a maze of rubble
"EMILY!"
He heard it… a child crying… a little voice filled with pain and terror… "Emily!"
The door was locked…NO! Reynold slammed his body into the door…once, twice… the door splintered open on the fourth strike. His shoulder aching, he reeled into the room and stood trembling just inside… half the room was gone, along with the 4 rooms above it…collapsed through the gaping hole into the basement… He couldn't breathe… Emily was under that pile of rubble… Her plaintive wails came from below.
Wails? Crying meant she was alive … and conscious… and clearly terrified… Panic and rage mixed in perfect proportion ripped through his heart.
"EMILY!" I'm coming baby… he promised silently…Daddy's coming…just hang on.
He dove through the hole into the dark cavernous space below. On his knees digging through the broken stone and iron with his bare hands he felt his nails chip, break, bleed… his knuckles scrape on the rough edges… his pants and the skin underneath tear on the stone. He didn't stop, just desperately followed that beautiful heartbreaking sound…that sound that meant his baby was still there. He called her name again and again… relief and agony filled his mind when her wails turned to "DAAAAAADDY!"
He prayed… tears ran down his dirty cheeks… he cursed THAT MAN … no, he refused to consider Caffrey a man… that monster …that brought her here… left her here, alone… promising him a painful death… the moment he found him.
His hand brushed against something that wasn't stone … or metal. An arm…a man's upper arm and shoulder… the arm was clearly broken, but he didn't care because he caught a glimpse of Emily's blonde hair beneath that arm… he yanked debris away frantically…uncovering a dark head, blood seeping from a gash at the hairline…and a pale face twisted with pain, more blood on the cheek, and around the lips…
Reynolds didn't care what condition Caffrey was in… he did this, he was the reason Emily was hurt and afraid and maybe… No! He wouldn't even think that… he pushed the chilling thought away… he just needed to get to her and everything would be ok…
He wrenched the broken arm away from his daughter… extracting a scream from the man who held her. Emily was tucked in a tiny cavity in the rubble … a cavity created by Caffrey's body, lying on his side, he enfolded her like he was…Reynolds pushed the faint misgiving away as finally freed, Emily scrambled into her daddy's arms…
"DADDY!" she wailed as he picked her up… little arms wrapping tightly around his neck. Reynolds breathed again. She didn't seem to be badly hurt… he held his baby. She cried into his shoulder and he sobbed with her… He needed to get her out of here… he should probably send help for the injured man too…he sighed, tempted to just leave him…except… doubt niggled at his mind… if he brought her here … why hadn't he left...? Why was he lying broken in the rubble, with Emily in his arms?
"Em…mmily" he whirled to look at Caffrey… and froze, a chill running down his spine as his eyes fell on something that shifted the world under his feet …it wasn't the way the man's eyes tried to focus, his voice whispering her name again… or how he choked then… painful gasping coughs that shook his whole frame… more blood spattered the wreckage near his mouth… not the way the exposed side of his chest seemed to cave in… no, Reynolds didn't see his face or his body… his eyes were fixed on the arm that still trailed over the debris at Caffrey's back… the arm that bend unnaturally between the elbow and shoulder… the arm that moved feebly as if searching for something. He stared in disbelief at the bruised, bloody wrist… couldn't tear his eyes away… he knew what made a wrist look like that… it could only be one thing, ligature marks… Someone else had held him prisoner. Reynolds' doubt turned to certainty. He suddenly knew what happened. The man's wrist had been bound… and from the look of it... he had nearly torn his hand off to get free, but he hadn't run to safety… he stayed, to wrap his arms… his body… around Emily… to protect her from the crushing stone…
Reynolds was going to be sick…"What if he's innocent?" Burke's words echoed though his mind. "What if you're wrong?" His mind reeled… the ground lurched, as the realization of what he'd done ripped through his mind… He was going to fix this. He was going to make it right… somehow.
His eyes traveled over what he could see of the young man. Head, shoulder, arm and part of his chest… everything else was still buried… unfocused blue eyes moving rapidly back and forth searching for something, broken arm fumbling over the rubble reaching…feeling for … Reynold couldn't look anymore. He turned his eyes to his daughter… dirty, tousled, pajamas torn, a small bruise on her cheek, a cut on her arm, tear streaks on her cheeks, her little finger wedged in her mouth… she gazed at him with clear frightened eyes… She was ok… banged up but safe.
"Tom!"
He looked up through the dust that filled the air … and the haze that filled his mind as someone called to him… Robert.
"Tom… is she ok? How badly is she hurt?"
"she's ok…" he looked over at the broken man… still half concealed by cruel granite, thinking of the tiny safe crevice Emily had been clutched in.. "She was protected from the worst of it." Reynolds made a decision "Robert… I need you to get Emily outside… and get paramedics in here. As soon as possible…10 minutes ago if you can!" he responded to the shock on his probie's face "she wasn't alone!" the kid froze…
"You mean…?" he didn't answer that… he couldn't…
Removing his daughter's hands from his neck was the hardest thing he had ever done, she whimpered and clung to him fearfully… But he passed her up to the safety of Robert's grasp with whispered reassurance that he would come get her very soon…
"And Robert…"
"Yeah?"
"Find Burke"
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Peter was getting desperate… since he followed Reynolds into the condemned building he had seen no trace of either Neal or the little girl. He heard other agents calling through the haze that filled air but they were shadows flitting though the destruction… one of the shadows drifted close enough he could get a clearer glimpse of him. Robert… Reynolds' probie clutching a small figure… Emily clung to the familiar form with all her strength. Blood trickled from a cut on her arm and from a nasty scrape on her leg, the agent held her tightly against his chest, effectively immobilizing the toddler. At least the shivering child was alive, Peter thought. When the young man spoke to him… he almost didn't catch it.
"Reynolds wants you…" the kid jerked his head back the direction he came. "He's back there. Second hall on the right… you'll know the door when you see it." Peter ran…
The door was broken, hanging crookedly open… half the room inside had collapsed into a gaping void. His breath caught… he had a bad feeling what he would find below.
He lowered himself into the hole carefully. The dim light made the shadows eerie…the space was too quiet, he thought. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness the shape of Reynolds hunched over the rubble became visible… Peter's mind went red when he realized the other agent was kneeling over a still body half buried in the avalanche of metal and stone…his hands on the man's face… Neal.
Reynolds' promise to kill the young man flashed though his mind…
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Reynolds didn't watch Emily and Robert go. He scrambled back over the rubble.
"Can you hear me?" he asked the injured man… he grasped the damaged hand… gently this time, frightened of causing more pain now. "I'm going to get you out… ok?" The blue eyes tried to focus… widening with panic as he recognized Reynolds
" 'm sor...ry..." tears filled his eyes "Em...mily… I… can…can't … find... her…w-was …here…" his gaze darted frantically… "I… tried…tried to… save …I'm…so… sorry" he trailed off choking again… tears escaping unnoticed…
"Shhh…it's ok. She's ok… just rest." Reynolds swallowed. He had been so sure this man was a monster… and now… what could he say to him…? "I'm sorry … I'm so sorry." sorry for what? His conscience raged at him sorry you misjudged him? Sorry you let the real monsters destroy an innocent man? Sorry for hurting him? Sorry he's going to die here…he tried to shove the last thought away… but it didn't budge, because the possibility was far too apparent. "I'm going to get you out, ok?" those bright eyes never left his face, struggling to stay focused. What have I done?
He started to shift the stone and metal off of the trembling body… so he didn't have to meet those eyes…
"Stay with me… ok...?" he froze as the man gave a little sound…almost a sob. "I'm sorry… I'm not trying to hurt you… we have to get you out of here. The building isn't safe" He risked a glance at the pale face and was surprised to get a nod. "You understand me?" another tiny nod, though the movement seemed to cause pain "good… your friend…Peter, he'll be here soon."
"Go...od…"Caffrey's face moved as if trying to smile. "Trust … Pe...ter" as if his friend's mere presence could somehow save him. The agent gulped… finally understanding Burke's fierce loyalty to the man. How could you willingly betray such trust? You're a good man… like Peter. Reynolds shifted more rubble... he couldn't look the man in the eye any longer. For a moment the only sound was stone scraping on stone.
"Why?" Reynolds asked…
"Wha-at?"
"Why did you do this? Why did you protect my baby?"
"She's… thr-three…and… daddy… needs... her…" as if that explained everything. Reynolds looked at him, then turned back to freeing him. It was all he could do to fix this… There was just one problem… a huge block of granite lay across Caffrey's legs… the massive stone must weigh at least a thousand pounds… its bulk twisted the man's body to an impossible angle at the hips… Thomas set his shoulder against it… he shifted the block just a bit…
The scream echoed unnaturally loud in the dim room… Reynolds froze…Caffrey's back arched, every muscle tense as a bow string… quivering. Then, to his horror, the tension vanished completely… the shivering body going absolutely lax in an instant. The stillness was as loud in the dark, as the scream. He swore…
"Caffrey?" no response… he moved back to the pale face… checking for a pulse... there it was. His heart was stuttering… struggling but still beating. "Caffrey … do you hear me?" he touched the man's hair "Neal…?" He couldn't free the young man alone…that was painfully obvious, but he couldn't leave him either…
Strong hands grabbed him from behind and physically threw him away from the prone form. He struck the floor and gasped … stunned for a moment
"Get away from him!" Burke's face was twisted in the dim, dusty light. He turned away and knelt beside the broken body under the rubble… he didn't say a word. …Reynolds watched him touch the ashen cheek… smooth the dark hair… A strangled sound escaped his throat… he took the limp hand gently…
"We need to get him out of here…" Reynolds voice was brittle "it isn't stable in here… the rest of this place could come down." Burke nodded
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Catching him by the shoulders and heaving him several feet away, his every instinct and moment of training went into that one movement. With a deep rage and strength he didn't know he had Peter threw the man away from his friend…
"Get away from him!"
Then he knelt beside Neal…studying his lifeless face, the broken arm that sagged motionless from his shoulder… the way the side of his chest caved in slightly…the faint grey cast of his skin. It was all too clear, he was too late, his friend was gone… that broken body couldn't be alive…there were too many injuries…too much damage. He touched Neal's face… softly… as if he could still cause him pain. He tried to wipe the blood from the pale cheek, brushed the brown hair away from his eyes. Tears came unnoticed…he choked back the sob... sitting back on his heels he took the limp hand in his "I'm sorry… I let you down" he thought… "I promised I would protect you…I'm so sorry"
"We need to get him out of here." Reynolds' voice was surprisingly gentle… Peter didn't hear the rest of what the man said but he nodded… because he had no intention of leaving Neal here… he couldn't save him, but he would not let this awful place be his tomb.
"There's a slab of granite..." Reynolds stepped up beside him and pointed "pinning his legs… I couldn't move it alone. When I tried…" he managed another nod…still gripping the younger man's hand mournfully… despite his best efforts he was going to bury his best friend again… and this time…and this time… there would be no Bordeaux… no storage unit with clues to bring him home… this time…
A hand on his shoulder snapped him back to the task at hand… he could hate Reynolds later… he knew he would, but right now he needed his help. He picked himself up and moved to the block of stone, preparing to shove it aside… to his surprise Reynolds stopped him…
"Careful." He looked at the other agent "you don't want to hurt him." surprise turned to disbelief.
"Don't…" he glared at the man
"He's alive… at least he was a minute ago…" Reynolds didn't meet his eyes … when he spoke again it was a broken whisper "We're going to save him… "