Chapter 5, enjoy!

Warnings: None

Unbeta AF

Can You Keep A Secret?

Chapter 5

Hunger Pain

Jeanne's mouth twisted into a grimace, as she looked at the boxes full of VHS, DVDs and memory sticks. She took in the boxes of random items as well. Several pictures of women, items from the women's houses or apartments.

The sick son of a bitch, Jeanne thought as she pulled out a memory stick that was title 'My Petite Lamb,' turning it around in her fingers before turning to the person who was in charge of the forensic department "Have many women do you think he's killed?"

"At this point in time," The woman said as she began to place items from the box full of 'Tokens of Affection' and began to set them up to take pictures of them, "I'm not too sure, there's so many items and videos to watch through. From the looks of it, it could be a little as 8 victims and as many as 30 to 50," Jeanne inhaled sharply and the woman in charge nodded her head, looking somber, "There's so many videos to go through, to be honest, I don't think I'm ready for this…"

Jeanne nodded her head, placed the memory stick down and frowned, looking at all the items. The team had been confused, when they hadn't found items of the victims in Barton Wilkes bunker. As a serial killer, many kept personal items from their victims, as a twisted way to remember them by or to keep a piece of item. They had thought Barton had been an outlier, until they went down to do another sweep through. They found a secret closet, full to the brim with recordings and the like. The process of going through the videos would be hellish.

Jeanne lowered her hands and looking at the pictures the madman had taken. The women, all smiling and carefree in their pictures, not knowing that they had been chosen by a madman and killed off. How could anyone want to adore this man?

Jeanne left the room, mumbling an excuse and made her way through the FBI headquarters. Carlos had kept in regular contact with her, keeping her updated regarding the installation of the security systems in the safe house and the bodyguards he had chosen for the women. While Stephanie would have a few that rotated days, including Carlos himself, Brittany would only have one, in an effort to put her at ease. Jeanne thought that was best for the women, they needed protection but they needed stability as well.

Speaking of stability, Jeanne faltered as she saw Joe Morelli leaning against near the double doors that led into the Missing Person's Unit of the FBI, him lacking the credentials to get in, not since Jeanne had locked it down, to protect the identity of the women from leaks.

Joe Morelli had a façade of stability but Jeanne could see something in the man's eyes, something not right. The man was approachable, yes, he had many buddies in his department, domestic terrorism, but there was always a buffer between him and the others. Like, he was waiting for the perfect moment to snap.

He had come to the FBI, fresh out the Navy, as an ex Navy Seal. From what the Navy told them, Morelli had been honorable discharged, for a situation and the FBI swooped in and took in, giving him a place in the domestic terrorism unit. He was handsome, she supposed, with brown hair and brown eyes, set in a handsome face. He wore his suit well and looked relaxed, as he leaned against the wall, waiting for someone.

Someone like Jeanne, the woman thought, as she resumed walking over to the doors well, she might as well get this confrontation over with. She walked up to Morelli, who perked up, seeing her stride forward, "Agent Borrows," the man tipped his head and Jeanne did the same.

"Agent Morelli, what can I do for you?" Jeanne asked, placing a hand on her hip and moving so that she Joe couldn't access entrance to her department, "Domestic Terrorism is two floors down."

"I wanted to offer my services for your big case, with Barton Wilkes and his victims," Jeanne raised an eyebrow and looked to the man, "I know you already have people from my unit helping but…"

"But..?" Jeanne looked to Morelli who squared his shoulders and looked to the woman.

"Jane Doe B," Morelli whispered, looking to Jeanne, "The curly brown haired woman, I know her, personally, we go way back."

Now that was interesting Jeanne mused, looking to Morelli, who nodded his head, "And you know her how?"

"We have history, if you know what I mean," Morelli's eyes took on a strange glint and Jeanne returned his steel eyed gaze with a look of her own. She had a feeling she knew what he meant.

"I have spent almost two months, getting a team tailored to the needs of Barton Wilke's victims. We've enough people already, Agent Morelli, and besides, I would consider you working on my team a conflict of interest," Jeanne started, looking over to Joe, "Your help is not wanted or needed and should any leaks, regarding the Jane Doe A and B be made from the FBI, I will see to it that you spend a couple years behind bars and stripped of anything you've earned, do you understand?"

Jeanne watched Joe's throat work slightly, the way his right eye twitched just so and then he responded with a firm, "I understand, Agent Borrows."

"Good, now leave, Domestic Terrorism is on the 3rd floor," Jeanne repeated, and watched to make sure the man left, entering the elevator and all, before she muttered, "Not good at all, I'll have to make a call."

She made her way to her office and called the head of domestic terrorism and told them about Morelli and to keep an eye on him, there was something about the man she didn't like and she definitely didn't like how eager he seemed to be to get close to Stephanie Plum as well.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"You want to know something about fate and destiny, boy? No matter how long or how far you run from it; it will always come catching up to you, you remember that, as you run away from your own destiny."

The man folded his arms, thinking about what his grandfather and his father had told him and shook his head. They had been right, they had been so right, it hurt him to his soul. What he had been running away from came back to bite him in the ass. The man had been given an assignment, from his agency and it required someone with the highest clearance, which just so happened to be him. The man had been briefed about it and felt his gut churn at the coincidence that was being thrown at him.

There had been a brief blip of some ancient magic and the Agency had sensed it. Not only had they sensed the magic, they had sense another source of magic, this one not as benevolent as they hoped it would be. The man had to go to where the blip of magic had been sensed at and then find the source of the malignant magic and handle them and if they could find the source of the other magical source to bring it to them.

So he found himself being closely followed in the bunker of Barton Wilkes, by an FBI agent, after flashing his Agency badge. He could sense the malignant magic, they had used it for something near an empty, hidden closet, for what, he didn't know. He felt like he knew that magic and frowned, how did he know it?

The man looked to metal table in the middle of the room and shuddered slightly, he had read about Barton Wilkes, how he kept two women hostage for months, torturing them before he was killed. If Wilkes had been one of their kind, he would have been dealt with before he even got his very first victim, as it was, he had not been one of them but a mere human, and he didn't use magic to hide his tracks. The man was a monster, he should have been offed ages ago.

The man ran a hand over the table and paused, placing a hand on his chest and closing his eyes. This brief flash of magic he felt before it faded, it felt like it he had known it all his life, even though he had never felt it until now.

"Fucking destiny," the man muttered and then he lifted his fingers from the table and asked the agent following him, "Who's the agent in charge of this case?"

"That would be Agent Jeanne Ellen Borrows," The agent said to him, making the man nod his head, "Do I need to call her?"

"No, no," The man said, waving his hand before tucking it into the pocket of his jeans, "I'll deal with her later, thanks for letting me in, I have all that I need."

The man walked past the confused agent and made his way out the bunker, confusing the agents when they opened the door he went through and found him gone. The perks of being him, he supposed. He would have to go talk to the agent in charge soon, to figure out who had been trapped here by the madman.

For now, he had to go deal with something, something he didn't want to deal with but life had other plans for him, apparently.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"It feels like the world has gone on without me," Stephanie muttered to the woman beside her as they ate together, "I've only been held hostage for seven months but…I don't know, I feel like I'm an outsider, looking in."

"Only been held hostage.." The woman hummed, as she used her small fork to cut into her cake, "Stephanie, my darling, you were kidnapped and held captive for seven months, being tortured, you are allowed to feel as though you are on the outside looking in, you have been through a lot."

Stephanie looked down at her plate of sweets, the creamy chocolate frosting on her cake, the swirls of strawberries in her sliver of cheesecake. She hadn't eaten something so rich like this in ages. Her seven months in hell had been periods of no food, moldy or stale food and only enough water so that they could survive another week, "You know…the first meal I ate, after being rescued was two days after I woke up in the hospital. It had been vegetable broth and weak tea."

Stephanie felt amber eyes on her frame as she cut through the cake and ate a small piece, slowly, very slowly and when she swallowed, she whispered, "It was like eating a five course feast, I felt as though I hadn't had anything that delicious in ages."

"Stephanie…" The woman reached out and placed a hand on Stephanie's and gently squeezed it, as tears formed in Stephanie's eyes, "I am so sorry you faced that pain, I wish I had woken sooner, that I had done something sooner…"

Stephanie wiped at her eyes and said, "I feel like my friend got it worse, I was just the spare, sometimes, he 'played' with her for hours, forcing me to watch as he did, why should I be complaining about my ordeal when she got it worse, is sometimes what I think."

"Stephanie, you both are allowed to complain to feel how you with, regarding your ordeal in that place," The woman said, gently taking the dessert plate from the woman and setting it down, pulling Stephanie to her, as she cried silently, "You were both tortured, mentally and physically, it's okay to feel this pain."

"I hate thinking about it, remembering what happened to us," Stephanie whispered, her face resting in the crook of the woman's shoulder, "How do I feel like I belong in the world again?"

"Shh, do not worry about that now, focus on healing, focus on yourself, before you think about the outside world," The woman soothed Stephanie, gently patting her back as she cried, "Do not think of yourself as weak, you and your friend are strong, you survived for as long as you had in that place, don't let anyone think less of you."

Stephanie gripped the woman and then asked, "What's your name? I-I've been talking to you all this time, and I don't even know what to call you, do you have a name?"

The woman gently held Stephanie away from her, staring at her for a moment and then muttering, "That is a good question, I do not have a name, or if I do, I have forgotten it, perhaps, as a way to make you feel better, you can find one for me," she wiped at Stephanie's eyes and smiled softly, "I am sure you can find the perfect name for me."

Stephanie nodded her head and wiped her eyes and said, with a weak smile on her face, "That does sound like a good idea, thank you for trying to distract me…"

The woman smiled and then asked Stephanie a strange question, "How is your friend, Stephanie, has she been acting weird, lately?"

"Not…really," Stephanie said, looking to the woman, as they sat together in the field of the roses, frowning but then she paused and said, "Though, when we were leaving the hospital to go to our new house, she complained her eyes hurt, but I think it's because we've been in a dark place for so long, it weakened her eyesight."

"I see," the woman sighed, looking to Stephanie before smiling brightly and saying, "Now, let us finish our treat and you can tell me about the on goings of your life outside of the hospital."

The woman and Stephanie spoke for a while before Stephanie woke up in her bed. She let out a sigh and buried her head in her new pillows, inhaling their sweet scent. The bed she was in was so much better than her bed at the hospital and was miles above better than the one in the bunker.

Stephanie could hear movement going on, footsteps, making their way down the hallways, outside her bedroom door and she sat up, wiping the sleep from her eyes and slid out of the bed and walked over to her bathroom. Stephanie washed her face and brushed her teeth, relishing the warm water as she took a fast shower. Having a morning routine like this, it made her feel almost human.

Stephanie slid on a pair of jeans and a turtleneck, before she slid a pair of socks, making her way out of her room. She made sure her tracker, a gold necklace, was on her as she walked into the kitchen to find Alejandro, Lester and Brittany in the kitchen, Alejandro making breakfast, Lester was changing the TV that rested on the kitchen wall and Brittany was fiddling with her phone.

"This text to voice makes me sound like that awful TikTok voice," Brittany's phone stated as she wrote out her feelings, "I need for you all to learn sign language a little faster."

"We'll try faster," Lester looked over to Brittany, who sighed and nodded her head, sipping her tea, quickly, "We promise."

Lester was Stephanie's bodyguard for the day and Stephanie found him to be great. He was a laid back man but was always on guard, when it came to Stephanie's safety. He was tall and strongly built, with odd green eyes and black hair. He wore a pair of blue jeans and an AC/DC t-shirt of white, looking as though he was about to go out to a concert. He was always cracking jokes, putting Stephanie at ease, with Brittany okay with him.

Alejandro, Carlos's brother was also a tall man, but was lean, unlike his younger brother and Lester (who is the cousin of both Manoso brothers, it turns out.) He was a little lighter than his brother with sharp eyes of light brown and brown hair that was short. He always wore suits, slacks, dress shirts, suit jackets, the works, but they were never black in color. Out of both brothers, Stephanie had a feeling Alejandro was a little more dangerous than Carlos. Though he was soft spoken and held an air of gentleness around him, Alejandro was fast, very fast, and his senses were sharp. Alejandro was Brittany's only bodyguard because the woman was extremely nervous around anyone else, she barely tolerated Carlos and Lester.

"Good morning, Stephanie," Lester said to the woman, who sat beside Heidi, holding up a coffee kettle, "Coffee?"

"Thanks," Stephanie said as she took the pot and poured herself a cup of coffee and accepting the plate of food from Alejandro, "Thank you Alejandro."

"You're welcome," Alejandro smiled to Stephanie as he gave Brittany her own plate of food as well, "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, I did," Stephanie looked down at her food began to cut her pancakes up into tiny pieces, "It's nice to sleep in a bed that's not in a hospital."

"I bet it is," The man said, sitting beside Brittany who didn't waste time cutting her food up, stuffing pancakes in her mouth, with her hands and eating them quickly, "I'm glad you two are settling in well," he placed a gentle hand over Brittany's hand, without looking up from pouring cream into his cup of coffee, and the woman slowed her eating.

The way they handled eating food was something the psychiatrist said would have to be tackled sooner than later. Stephanie hadn't thought that they were develop dysfunctional relationships with food but here she was, cutting her food up into tiny pieces, to try to make them last longer, her meals now taking over an hour to eat and Brittany inhaled her food, her meals lasting mere seconds, sometimes not even chewing it, if she was eating soft foods. Stephanie was scared to run out of food, quickly and Brittany was scared she would lose it, or it would get taken away. Stephanie saw first hand how that fear came to be, with Wilkes tossing food on the ground in front of them and while he let Stephanie eat for as long as she wanted to, Brittany was not given that luxury, due to the man's twisted desire to see his 'Petite Lamb' suffer. For Stephanie, food meant that there would be no torture happening, as long as she ate but for her friend, food meant a twisted game when would it be taken from her and how much could she eat before the next meal. The first week in the hospital and they were introduced to solid foods once more, Brittany ate it with her hands, quickly, and had a panic attack when one of the nurses tried to stop her.

Lester, Carlos and James, Stephanie bodyguards were extremely understanding and placed no blame on Stephanie for her very slow eating habits. Alejandro knew that Brittany's eating style was a result of their time away, but was still concerned with how fast she ate, so he often would just hold his hand over hers, when she ate to slow her down.

"There's a special place in hell for people like Barton," Alejandro told Stephanie one night, after she made an excuse for both hers and Brittany's eating habit, "No need to excuse yourself, Ms. Stephanie, this was forced upon you."

"My job called," Stephanie said, suddenly, as she ate her meal, looking over to Brittany, "My supervisor told me my position would be waiting for me, whenever I was ready to return, I'm thinking of doing remote work, though, too many people."

"I don't want to think about my job," Brittany typed, after she wiped her hands clean, "I can barely handle the light, with my eyes, I don't think I can handle lectures."

"Speaking of eyes," Alejandro said to Brittany, turning to the woman, "You have an appointment with the eye doctor at 1PM today."

"Thanks for reminding me, I forgot," Brittany's phone said as the woman typed, "I feel like my brain is like Swiss cheese, these days, it's so hard to remember things."

Stephanie knew that feeling well, walking into a room for something and then forgetting why she came. The gaps between time, wondering where it went. She hated it, she wanted to be normal again, she wanted to feel fine again but she had no idea when she would be normal or how she would go back to being normal, not with all the mess going on in her head. Her family kept saying soon, she would be fine, but she didn't feel like she would soon, she felt so broken, so lost, what was she to do?

TBC….

A bunch of new people are sniffing around, hmmm...hmmm....