Chapter Text
It was dark, but that’s how it is when you have a blindfold over your eyes. Quinn tried not to panic, focusing on her breathing. She had a cloth in her mouth, so all she had was her nose to breathe. If she started freaking, if she let the tears come, she would suffocate herself. So she took deep, carefully measured breaths, letting the strong arms pull and yank her this way and that. Her wrists tied together, the bonds hurting her skin as it chafed.
But suddenly, the arms let her go, throwing her to the ground. It was cold and hard...concrete? A hand yanked the cloth from her mouth, and she coughed at the sudden removal, her mouth dry. A yank at the blindfold. Sudden dim light, but it was light. She squinted, trying to make the shapes come into focus.
“Now, normally I wouldn’t be quite this quick to put my bait in these kind of...accommodations. However, this is simply killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.” She blinked rapidly, and everything cleared up. She was on her knees in a small empty room. She had been right - concrete floor. Rowan Pope was standing in front of her, all suit and tie, while two large-muscled men in uniform - the ones who pulled her here, she presumed - stood on his flanks. Rowan was still talking. “You were a B-613 agent and you failed to follow orders. So…” He swept his hand in gesture to the room, “here we are.”
Her eyes followed his gesture before falling on the raised space in the floor. A square piece of metal...a door? But what…
Rowan nodded to the man on his right, and the man stepped forward, opening the heavy steel door as the second man stepped up to Quinn, taking her left arm and hauling her to her feet. She looked frantically from Rowan to the open door...she knew immediately where she was. She was no longer in control of her breathing as it hitched, coming in hyper gasps. Her mouth was dry, she knew trying to speak would do no good. Her throat was caked and dry, she would only choke on the effort. Rowan held up a hand, and the man holding her stopped dragging her, standing still as Rowan placed a phone to his ear.
“Huck. I assume you received my...present?” Rowan paused, listening. Even in the still silence of the room, Quinn could hear nothing. Rowan smiled. “Ah yes, I thought she would do the job nicely. But, you see, I do want Jake Ballard quite badly. Just as I’m sure you want your...associate.” Rowan paused again, and then laughed. “Well I’ll be sure to let Miss Perkins know that you had yet to even notice her disappearance. Maybe I chose the wrong person to use…” Rowan paused again, his face tensing. “Miss Perkins is unavailable at the moment. She is just getting settled into her accommodations I have provided for her. I’m sure she will be quite comfortable…” Rowan waved his hand at the man who still gripped her arm, and he began hauling her to the open door...Her eyes were finally able to make sense of she she was seeing, and she finally tried to squirm from the man’s grasp.
This was the hole that Huck had lost his mind in.
“Huck!” She tried to scream, but her voice was still too feeble to build any real volume. The small room, however, helped the volume, and she felt relatively positive that Huck had heard her, if the look on Rowan’s face said anything.
“As I said, she is getting settled. I will return her to you as soon as you give me Jake Ballard. You may want to be quick about it, though. You know I have no qualms about giving you a starved corpse if it takes you too long.” Rowan lowered the phone, putting it back in his pocket. He nodded…
And she was falling. It wasn’t as long a fall as she had expected, but it was long enough. Her back slammed into the dirt below, knocking the wind from her lungs. She coughed, trying to get her bearings back. A shadow cast over her, and she looked up to Rowan, looking down on her. “It is up to your fiancee as to how much time you spend here. Had you followed your orders before Jake Ballard took over as Command, you might be in a slightly more comfortable position. I’m sure you understand. Enjoy your stay.”
And suddenly, the door slammed, and it was dark. Darker than the darkest night. So quiet. She couldn’t see the walls of the hole, but she could feel them around her, as if they were creeping closer with every breath she took. She let herself lean back against one, her knees pulling close to her chest. One hand stroked the bulge of her stomach, and as it did, the tears came.
…
The elevator doors had closed and the elevator car had sunk down, but still he stood there. He couldn’t see anything but her face as her mouth opened, and then turned away from his words. She hadn’t said she loved him.
The fact that she had said she wasn’t leaving him made no difference. If she didn’t love him, what did it matter? What did any of it matter? Without her love, how could he exist…
Exist. Sirens went off in his head. The accounts he was supposed to be hacking into. He had been unable to, thinking that it was just a more advanced security system than per usual. But it wasn’t. The account was there, but it wasn’t. The computers and the entire system believed there was an account where there was actually nothing. The account did not exist. Yet his software kept searching, because to any computer, there is an account.
This was no ordinary sex scandal. This was far too sophisticated. Huck quickly took the cell phone from his pocket, cursing when he got voicemail. “Liv, get back to the office. There is no account. We’ve been played.” He put the phone back in his pocket, turning and walking back into the office. Quinn had just walked in to see this woman trying to seduce him, and she was setting them up. He had to know why. He was half-blind with rage, but he kept his head level. Marcie smiled when he entered the meeting room again.
“Would you like to pick up where we left-”
“What is your game?” Huck demanded.
“I don’t know what you’re-”
“The account does not exist, you have us chasing after false stories and a very high security system that makes every computer system believe there is an actual account. What is your game?”
Marcie smiled. “Well, if I told you that, it wouldn’t be any fun.”
Huck’s fingers curled into fists. This woman was playing them, and damaged his relationship in the process. Just then, his phone rang, and he lifted it to his ear.
“Huck, what’s going on?” Liv’s voice, worried, cut through static bursts.
“Get back to the office.”
“We’re ten minutes out.” His phone went silent, and he put it back in his pocket. Marcie sat in the chair, crossing her legs with a smug grin. Huck took a deep breath and turned to his computer. Maybe he could figure out how this virus that had created a nonexistant account had originated. If he could trace it…
His fingers danced across the keys while his mind tried not to replay the look on Quinn’s face, jaw hanging open, before she turned away from him.
…
There was no way to know how long she had been in the dark. A minute? An hour? A day? It felt like forever. The silence had already started a ringing in her ears. No sound, no light, and nothing to give her hope. How did Huck make it out?
He didn’t, she realized. He lost himself here. And now she was going to lose herself too.
She had long since let herself slump to the side, from sitting to laying on the floor. She couldn’t tell if it was dirt or just covered in dirt, and she couldn’t bring herself to care. Huck had been here. Right here, years ago. There’s a part of him still here with her. There has to be.
Her fingers stroked her stomach again. Yes. Yes, there was a part of him down here.
Would she die with it?
…
“Huck?” Olivia and Abby walked into the room.
“Marcie,” Olivia crossed her arms. “What is going on?”
“Sorry, Miss Pope, you’ve been great, but I couldn’t turn down as much money as I was getting for this.” Marcie smiled, standing. “So, where is Jake Ballard?”
“What?” Olivia asked.
“Command sent you.” Huck immediately saw. There was noone else that would be looking for Jake Ballard. Noone who could have set up such an elaborate scheme. But to what end?
Marcie pulled out her own phone and pressed a button. “I think this call might answer your questions.” She held it out to Huck. Olivia looked sideways at him, but he nodded, taking the phone and putting it to his ear.
“Hello?”
“Huck. I assume you’ve received my...present?” The voice of Rowan Pope immediately made his muscles tense.
“Marcie Smith.”
“Ah yes, I thought she would do the job nicely. But, you see, I do want Jake Ballard quite badly. Just as I’m sure you want your...associate.”
“What are you talking about?” Huck growled.
Rowan laughed. “Well I’ll be sure to let Miss Perkins know that you had yet to even notice her disappearance. Maybe I chose the wrong person to use…”
Huck felt his fingers gripping the phone so tightly that the plastic creaked in protest. “What have you done with her? Let me talk to her. Now.”
“Miss Perkins is unavailable at the moment. She is just getting settled into her accommodations I have provided for her. I’m sure she will be quite comfortable…”
Huck could hear scuffling in the background, and suddenly, a scream. “Huck!” Quinn. His heart stopped.
Rowan spoke again. “As I said, she is getting settled. I will return her to you as soon as you give me Jake Ballard. You may want to be quick about it, though. You know I have no qualms about giving you a starved corpse if it takes you too long.” The phone was suddenly silent, the line dead.
Two heartbeats, and he threw the phone across the room, where it shattered against the wall. “Huck!” Olivia took a step toward him. He turned on Marcie, who shrugged.
“Hey, I was only paid to get the girl to go off on her own.”
“Huck, what is going-”
“Your father has Quinn, Liv,” He whispered, still staring Marcie down. “Command has Quinn, and he’s not letting her go until he has Jake.”
“Huck, I-”
“Liv, I’m sorry, but this isn’t your choice, this is Jake’s. I’m going to get him and bring him here, and we’ll figure it out. Do not leave this office until I get back, Liv, do you understand me?”
Olivia nodded slowly, and her eyes shot over to Marcie.
“Liv.” Huck pulled a gun from the holster in the back of his jeans. “Keep her here, we don’t need Command two steps ahead, shoot her if you have to. Abby, get your gun from your desk. Lock the office behind me, don’t let anyone in, I will call you when we are coming up.”
Abby turned for her office, and Huck gave Marcie one last glare before turning for the door, breaking into a run for the elevator. He tried not to think about Quinn, how badly he had fucked up...he knew exactly where Rowan meant to keep her, and if he thought of her in the same hole he had been tossed in, he wouldn’t be able to hold himself together. A showdown was inevitable no matter what, and he couldn’t afford to be anything less than 100%. As he sped off in his car, his mind was formulating a plan…
…
She understood. She understood completely. Huck had lost his mind and she completely understood.
She couldn’t tell if it had been five minutes or five hours. There was nothing, nothing but fear of never getting out. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess of words she couldn’t string into a proper sentence. The tears had already dried on her cheeks, as she had no more to give, and dust and dirt dried her mouth. Each second that passed made it harder for her to think.
What was going to happen to her?