The Butterfly returns {For Tagged Only}

[Deleted]

James Reagan

tag: Dr Sofia Austin , Matthew Cole , Tess Walker ,

words

“He stalked her? Oh no... why didn’t I see it. I should have paid more attention.” Burke was not good with people when the key was turned, he was used to just saying it cold, and not having to deal with the aftermath - James would probably slap him later for it - he watched her fumbling in her bag “She works and she goes home, we had coffee a few times at the shop a block away from the hospital.” Burke tried to slowly reach out but avoiding actually grabbing her “Dinner at Mario’s, two nights ago. I’ve been on shift for...” Burke glanced down at his own watch on instinct, it had already been a long morning “A long shift, I saw her last at O’Neill’s bar on fifty fourth, she was ending her shift and I was just starting mine but that would have been over eighteen hours ago. I know she was working if that helps?” Gently Burke reached out taking her arm he met her gaze “It’s enough” he said softly, quietly. He wouldn't push her too hard, she was evidently beyond exhausted already.

-

“I’ll talk you to death sooner than give you the time of day.” James inwardly snorted at that whilst Mark just glared at her “I trust you.” Mark sneered a chuckle escaping his lips “Awww that’s sweet” “I’m sorry, we should have talked more.” “Maybe you should have” Mark replied, James narrowed his eyes

“Matt, Sofia.” “DONT LET HIM DO ANYTHING STUPID.” “He doesn’t have you James, promise me you wont do anything stupid. Promise me.” James gritted his teeth, Tess was scared of him going down the pit again, going back to the bottle “I promise” he said firmly and Mark laughed before turning and moving away, going ‘off camera’ as he moved towards the container. James swallowed “Tess, I’m staying right here” he said calmly, firmly. His job was to keep Tess calm, keep the video live and help his team figure out where Tess was, that was all he could do. Part of him wanted to run, go out on the road and do it himself, but he had no clues to where she was, he never found where Mark had kept Mya either.

---

“Matt.” Jason nodded briefly “Yeah, we gotta spread them out, search the city.” “How fast can you get people moving on this?” Well, at least Matt had someone ON the line, having a cop already on side was good for their position right now. “Evans!” as Matt looked over at James so did Jason “She’s not who you want, you want me - thats what this is about, you have me - leave her alone” “No, you need to get them moving quicker than that.” Jason glanced over at Matt “Look this isn't a ransom situation. This guy's gonna kill her, you understand, he's gonna kill her.” Jason hated those words, really hated them, he straightened up  “What are the most critical locations right now? Where should we send the first units?”  Jason quickly pointed out the locations as Matt relayed the coordinates to the CO until Matt hung up “Matt, Sofia.” as Matt stepped away Jason looked over at Burke “DONT LET HIM DO ANYTHING STUPID.” Burke nodded at the look Jason was giving him “Tess? Tess, don't worry. It's gonna be ok.” “You hear me? It's gonna be ok.” “Even if the worst happened.” walking over Jason grabbed Matt and pulled him away gently “Buddy, don’t give Evans yourself” he said softly as nearby Burke guided Sofia gently to a chair. The two feds had to keep it level and calm, they had to.

-

There was a suddenly a loud scraping noise in the background, heard loudly over the speakers as something heavy was dragged noisily across the ground - James cringed at the sound “What’s he doing?” he asked Tess - uneasily.

Out of the sight of the camera Mark is dragging the container towards the exit.

“What can you see?” he asked, Mark was toying with them, clearly trying to unnearve James but had James healed enough to keep his mind focused on Tess?.

notes: I've had to cut out some parts of dialogue as I couldn't get my writing to flow around it, apologies guys!.

♡

[Matthew Cole]

Matt looked at Tess' face on the screen and the feeling was indescribably horrible, seeing her tied down like that and knowing she could be gone any second now. She was putting on a brave front but she had to be scared, the way she spluttered like that for them not to let James do anything stupid.
He had been in a burning building with her and knew what the twinkle of fear looked like in her eyes, even if Mark didn't, and it ripped at him.

He felt Jason pull him away from the view of the screen. Initially he resisted because his emotions had stirred up and he wanted to stay near the monitor, he wanted to shout to Tess but Jason gently persisted, and just as well because he WAS getting sucked in.

“Buddy, don’t give Evans yourself”

He knew the man was right because he was just starting to get drawn in to the head game this psycho had set up. Boy this Mark guy was good at what he liked to do.

Matt put both hands on the back of his head as he paced on the spot for a second in a stressed out and emotionally unsettled state while he tried to settle himself. He looked to Jason and gave him a nod in agreement to his statement.

"You're right, man. You're right." He conceded, a touch of stress in his voice.

He rubbed a hand over his mouth and chin and collected himself.
He knew everyone had to keep a cool head if Tess was gonna get out of this alive. That was when his eyes turned to James.

“What’s he doing?” “What can you see?”

Jason had pulled Matt far enough aside to stop him shouting to Tess, but he was still close enough to James, and close enough to the screen to hear everything; Every heartbreaking promise between Tess and James, every taunting word from Mark and every ear piercing scraping sound.

The noise didn't sound good and the look on James' face didn't look any better.
There wasn't words that described how much he hated not being able to do anything to help Tess on the other side of the screen, or to help his dear friend James on this side of the screen. He had made his call to his CO and now he felt useless as it was all down to James to keep Mark on the line while the others traced the call. How and if the poor man was gonna keep a cool head he didn't know.

His eyes glanced over at Sofia as Burke guided her to a chair. If he felt useless right now he could only imagine how she felt. The poor dear shouldn't even be in the room, but until they knew she wouldn't be in any danger then he supposed it was the safest place for her.
She looked so tired part of him wanted to just wrap her up in a warm blanket and put her some place where she wouldn't have had to have known about any of this, but that was yet another thing he couldn't do anything about.

What could he do? He had liaised with PD and forwarded location information, so his biggest and only job right now was to stay close to James, not that he could do much to help him at this point.

*****************************************************
Around the city

Meanwhile three squad cars barrelled down the road with sirens blaring as they heading towards two vacant residential housed in opposite ends of town, while two more squad cars and a spare swat unit arrived on scene at an old, empty factory on the outskirts of a rundown commercial area.

The swat team poured out of their van and moved towards the building in formation, wasting no time breaking down the front door and swarming in with caution to sweep the place.

Tag: Tess Walker , Dr Sofia Austin , @james

[Dr Sofia Austin]

Sofia stared at Burke, that man and people obviously he had no idea but then had she been hugged to death and fawned over Sofia might have committed an offence herself. She looked at him when he took her arm, she had just rambled about a morning and her shift and the fact that Tess should have been home and that was enough? How did the FBI even work, if a patient had given her that information she would have been tearing her hair out but this time she simply had no idea what to do or say that would make much of a difference to anyone.

“You have to find her... please you’ve got to find her.” She stated as if they had just been doing nothing for the past few minutes. Her friend was gone and Sofia hardly wanted to think about what would happen if Tess never came back. It would be hard enough for her but for James, she knew what alcohol could do to a person and how unless someone wanted to there was no coming back from that at least in her eyes. It was bad enough that she was unable to drag her father back but James, she had no idea if he would even want to come back after this.

Sofia wanted to talk to Tess to tell her it would be alright but hearing her ask them not to late James do anything stupid. She was a doctor not an agent, give her a person to save and she would do all she could. Ask her to find a person she was useless which she was slowly coming to terms with given the current situation. She was over tired, stressed and there was little in the way of a health crisis for her to deal with. No she needed to focus on the people in the room and keep her mind off the bad things that had so much potential to go wrong.

She tried to smile a thank you at Burke when he guided her to a chair but everything just felt so wrong. She had nothing, her skill set was useless for this situation and sitting back and watching as her best friend was on the far side of a screen, James stood in the room and now Matt all people she needed to help but she had little idea how to. “Burke, what can I do... I’ve got to do something... I can go get her things from her place or make coffee or...” Sofia had no idea what she could do; it was like sitting at the edge of something and having no plan.

In the emergency room there was a plan, she knew where things were what people needed but looking between the faces and hearing the voices it was heart breaking. Sitting in silence with her own head buzzing Sofia heard the loud scarping and then James asking what was Mark doing. She shot off her seat but hardly took a step as she stared at James. Was Mark going to kill her on the screen? Who did that? What was wrong with people she thought as she looked to Matt and Burke. “I should have made them talk...I’m sorry I shouldn’t have let them go without talking.” She spluttered.

At the hospital she had tried her best after she was shot; she had been the world’s biggest pain in the backside over forcing them to go to the hospital together. Forcing them to talk and yet what had they done when they had left? Apparently not enough talking. No when they were all back and safe Sofia would go on a rampage, if she had to kidnap them both herself everyone was talking and no one was getting out alive until they did. Sofia dropped herself back onto the chair as she buried her head in her hands for a moment.

@james, Matthew Cole, Tess Walker,

[Tess Walker]

Somewhere between being scared to death Tess heard Matt’s voice, she wished she could believe him just like she had when the fire had taken hold in the building. If anything she would have taken a second shot at that situation over the one she was in as she could hear the emotion in Matt’s voice. “It’s gonna be okay.” Tess repeated to Matt trying not to just break down and cry right then. She knew how this ended, Mark didnt let people live and they hadn’t found Mya so how could they even have a hope of finding her. The cop in her had her down as a lost cause yet all she had to hold onto was the hope that Mark had made a mistake along the way.

Sweet, oh she wanted to strangle Mark as she struggled against the ties that held her in place. If she could get one finger on the guy she would make it worth it. Tess glared at Mark, “Don’t you dare tell me what I should have done... anyway it’s obvious that you like talking more than I do. Mr Chatty who really should shut up for everyone’s sake.” She snapped, great idea tell the guy that can kill you sooner than look at you to shut up. Oh her plan needed some serious work but then what was the plan, stay alive as long as possible and hope for the best case scenario in all of this.

Hearing James promise not to do anything stupid provided her with a little relief, at least that was one thing. If she had his promise not to do anything stupid she could trust that as she heard Mark laugh. “You need to go James... you don’t need to see this.” She said looking off camera for a moment as she watched Mark move toward the container. Was this where he got the chain saw out to kill her or electric chair or worse she wondered trying to think of anything that would make sense as to what was going on or in the container.

It was a time like this that being a cop didnt help the imagination of what could be in containers. For one it was nothing good but second to that the imagination couldnt ever go far enough. There was always that one surprise that you didnt see coming as her head started spinning with ideas of what it might be. None of them fluffy bunnies or anything remotely happy. Tess closed her eyes for a moment trying to fight back the tears before the scarping noise made her flinch. Her eyes shot open as she stared at Mark dragging the container.

“He’s.... he’s dragging a container.” Tess said watching as she could hardly keep her focus on James. “I can see the way out... he’s there with the container but I...” Tess stopped knowing there was no way she could get out still being stuck to the chair as she looked at Mark. “What’s in it?” Tess asked him trying to think if Mark was talking then he might give something away. “Or do you just like moving heavy things around, I mean sure if that’s your thing then go have at it but I thought we were getting along here not playing at house removals.” She said as she stared at the container.

Was it big enough to hide a body in she wondered trying to decide if that was for her eventual end or if it was already in use for something as her brain seemed to stop there. Trying to figure out if it was big enough it was certainly heavy enough and they hadn’t found Mya yet as Tess bit her lip now not wanting to know what was either in the container, had been or frankly anything about it. She couldnt even look at the screen as she chose to simply stare at her feet hoping that no one else was jumping to anything she had in her head at that moment.

Tag: @james, Matthew Cole, Dr Sofia Austin

[Deleted]

James Reagan

tag

words

Hearing the exchange between James and Tess Mark just smirked, especially when they wanted to know what was in the box "You will see" he sneered before placing the box down right by the door and unlocking it he pushed it open and then walking around to the other side of the box he pushed the thing through the door then approached Tess "I'm just popping out sweetie, try not to miss me Butterfly" he chuckled. 

"You're right, man. You're right." Jason just nodded quietly.

“You have to find her... please you’ve got to find her.” Burke nodded, he knew what they had to do “Burke, what can I do... I’ve got to do something... I can go get her things from her place or make coffee or...” Burke hesitated then shook his head “I should have made them talk...I’m sorry I shouldn’t have let them go without talking.” Burke just gently rubbed her shoulder.

Mark approached the screen “Time to say goodbye” he sneered before clicking the ‘end call’ button “No, don’t!” James shouted but his words went unheeded, and as the screen went black James stared at it for a long while before turning slowly and looking over at Sofia, then over at Matt. David looked up from where he’d been seated and watched James as Burke turned to face him as did Jason.

What could he do? Lose his head? Let rip and completely melt down? Go on a rampage? Yell at everyone and smash things? Maybe go get drunk? No none of those things would help find her, Mark was a cryptic fool and James knew it and he just wanted to get under his skin, doing anything like that would be playing right into that fools hands.

Exhaling James ran a hand over his face “Matt, head over to her place” James said quietly “See if CSU found anything, see if anything popped up” he walked over to Sofia, he pulled a chair over and sat beside her “Guys, shipping containers, warehouses - anything! Go look! NOW!” the three agents at the computers nodded and got to work. James looked over at Jason “Go with Matt” he ordered and Jason nodded heading out.

Burke looked over at David then back at James “Past case - see if we find anything” he said quietly before moving off to the computer to instruct David, the young agent was good but he still needed guidance.

Now that it was deadly quiet in the room James realised just how exhausted he felt, but as he looked across at Sofia he felt a whole lot of something else “Hey” he hadn’t failed to hear what she had said previously “We’ll find her” he had to be hopeful right? Positive, hopeful, he knew Tess was in grave danger but he had to cling on to what Matt had said to him earlier.

Burke approached after a moment “If you want to go freshen up, there’s a washroom just around the corner” he said, well he was being curteous.

-

Exiting the room Mark locked the door behind him leaving Tess alone in the huge room - It's bare and quiet, empty and cold, it has high ceilings and pipes running along the length like water pipes. A few small windows along one side let in a little light but provides no clue as to what is outside.

notes: I think we may need to split people off We'll mark posts to make it clear hah.

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