Dangerous Secrets

Chapter 4: Home Invasion

Lisa awoke in an unfamiliar location. What time is it? She tried to recall the events leading up to her current predicament. The last thing she could remember was heading to her car on the way to work, but she'd never made it to the car. She took a moment to take in her surroundings. She appeared to be in some kind of cabin, she didn't hear any traffic sounds so she assumed that she had to be somewhere outside of the city. She made a mental note that it was still day time, but it was still dark in the room because the curtains were drawn. She was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, her arms were tied behind her and her feet were bound as well. Her mouth was also gagged. Judging by her headache, she assumed she had either been knocked unconscious or most likely drugged. Lisa thought she could taste a hint of some chemical on her mouth. Beyond that she appeared to be uninjured.

Suddenly she heard footsteps approaching. She saw her captor out of the corner of her eye, it looked like Jason Foster.

"Good morning, beautiful," he said calmly as though he were her best friend. She mumbled something incoherent in response. "Ah, let me remove that." He opened one of the curtains in order to allow more light in. He then moved to her side and removed the gag from her mouth. She knew he was unstable, but she didn't realize he would ever be capable of all this. He was on enough medication to calm a horse- unless he stopped taking that medication.

"So how are we this morning?" He sounded like a nurse or a caretaker.

"Um, where am I?"

"We're at my cabin."

"Why?" She asked calmly. If she learned anything in college it was the number one golden rule of psychiatry: humor the maniac.

"Because we're going fishing together, remember?" He spoke to her as though she was the one sounding crazy.

She feigned interest, "So why don't you untie me and we can go-"

He suddenly became angry,"No! I'm not stupid, you're just lying- you lie all the time!" He was irrational and disgusted.

Why me? "I've never lied to you, Jason," she replied calmly.

"Yes you have," he growled.

"About what?" She asked genuinely confused.

"You said we couldn't be together, but now I know the real reason!" He looked ready to cry.

'Ah, so you sent the email.' He calmed down suddenly and continued, "But that's all right, I understand now- I understand what you're going through, and I'll take care of it."

"Take care of what?"

"Agent Spade. It's her fault we can't be together. You're all the same!"

'Dr. Reynard always gives me the craziest ones!' "Jason, Samantha has nothing to do with any of this." She spoke very calmly in an attempt to dissuade him.

"Oh but she does," He reached out and stroked her face, it took almost everything Lisa had not to recoil in disgust for fear of setting him off. "She's confused you...corrupted you, but don't worry I will destroy her."

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35 hours missing

It was late into the afternoon and the team still sat around their desks trying to piece together the evidence. Danny continued, "My theory is that this Jason guy asks Dr. Harris out every time he sees her. She always says no, and then maybe his invitations make her uncomfortable… and after a while she…"

"Tries to transfer him," Vivian finished his sentence.

"But does he know about the transfer?" Elena asked.

There was a silence for a moment and then Jack asked, "Or more importantly does he know about Samantha? If he's already unstable it could have set him off."

Martin walked over, "Hey, apparently Jason goes by five other names. Under the name George Bennington, he owns a cabin by a lake, it's about a four hour drive from here."

"Okay, Vivian, Elena, and Martin- go check out this cabin."

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Later that night...

After Samantha finished washing up her dishes she tried to watch a little bit of TV. Finally tired of watching stupid infomercials, she decided to get ready for bed and slipped into a pair of cotton pajama pants and a gray t-shirt. I doubt I'll be getting much sleep, but it's worth a try. Samantha turned her light out and was on the brink of sleep when she heard a sound coming from the living room. It sounded like someone struggling with the lock on her front door. She jumped out of bed and grabbed the butcher knife that she now kept on the night stand- it wasn't her gun, but it was better than nothing. Then she grabbed her phone and dialed the security detail. Samantha knew she didn't have much time before whoever was at the door made it in, so she left her phone on the bed, knowing that the security detail would check on her to see why she called.

She quickly and quietly made her way through her dark apartment and crouched behind a recliner so that her position would be shielded from the intruder. She realized that getting to the door would be a problematic since he most likely had her gun. Finally the door popped open. She couldn't make out the person's face in the dark, but she could tell it was a man and a tall one at that. She could also tell that he was wearing a ski mask.

He shut the door behind himself as he felt around for a light switch and flicked it on. He began to slowly make his way near the chair Sam was crouched behind. 'Here goes nothing', she thought. As soon as he walked near the recliner, he caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye and turned quickly. Sam immediately saw his reaction and slammed into him knocking him to the ground. The attacker saw that she had a knife and tried to wrestle it away from her.

He was so much bigger than her that even though Sam was putting all her strength into the struggle he was quickly and easily gaining the upper hand. He managed to pin her on her back, but he was still having trouble getting the knife away from her, that's when the blonde kneed him in the crotch as hard as she could. He immediately let out a yelp and relinquished his grip on her wrists. He placed his left hand on the ground to support his body and used his other hand to attempt to shield his ailing crotch.

She took the opportunity to stab him in his left hand almost pinning it to the floor. "You bitch!" He yowled and punched Samantha in the face as hard as he could. The force of the blow caused Sam to hit the back of her head against the floor, disorienting her momentarily. She screamed for help hoping that someone would hear her.

He cradled his wounded hand and stood up. Then with his good arm he shakily pulled out a gun, Samantha saw him reach for his weapon and forced herself off of the ground with a strength she didn't even know she possessed and lunged at him one more time. She succeeded in knocking him backwards. Then he pulled the trigger at point blank range.

Time seemed to slow down for Sam as she felt a strong impact, then numbness in her lower abdomen as she fell to the floor. Her attacker, realizing that someone would have heard the gunshot, ran towards the door. He also noticed that he hadn't quite finished the job as a dazed Sam tried to stand up. He aimed the gun, Samantha noticing this tried to take cover behind her coffee table, but was unable to move fast enough as he fired at her. Then he ran out the door and down the hall still clutching his bleeding hand.

Sam officially felt like crap. She tried to assess her injuries without panicking- the first thing that she noticed was that she was soaking wet, and the smell of blood immediately invaded her nostrils. She suddenly felt faint and disoriented and it was becoming harder and harder to keep her eyes open. She knew she was too weak to get up, but made the effort anyways. She managed to roll herself over on her stomach and drag her way in the direction of the front door, leaving a trail of blood behind her- 'Someone has got to find me'. She realized that she must have taken a bullet in the shoulder since she was only able to use her left arm to pull herself forward. She made it less than five feet before she just couldn't go any further and the pain in her abdomen was now too excruciating- she rolled onto her back and tried to call out, but instead of sound coming out she coughed up blood. She suddenly felt disoriented again, then she noticed someone was hovering over her.

"This is Agent Tillman, I need an ambulance at," She understood snippets of what was being said. She felt someone applying pressure to her abdomen and lifted her head slightly to see another agent trying to stop the bleeding. The agent who was on the phone was saying something to her. She could see his lips moving, but she couldn't hear any sound. Then her world faded to black.

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Vivian, Danny and Elena pulled out their guns and carefully entered the dark cabin. "FBI freeze!" Vivian was the first to notice a figure tied to a chair.

"Dr. Harris, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but he left hours ago. He said he was going after Samantha!"

Vivian got on her phone and called Jack.

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Jack and Danny raced through hospital doors on their way to the ER. Danny practically slid up to the receptionist's desk. "We're here to see Samantha Spade." The receptionist thought for a moment.

"Oh she just came in not too long ago- she's still in surgery," she said sympathetically. She then directed them to a man in scrubs who was rushing past. As soon as he saw them he slowed down.

"Are either of you related to or close to Ms. Spade?"

They both blurted out "Yes!" simultaneously which got them a strange look from the doctor. Jack inquired, "How bad is she?"

The doctor continued, "Well she was shot twice- once in the abdomen and once in the shoulder blade. The bullet passed all the way through her shoulder and we were able to patch it up quickly." The doctor paused for a moment. Jack knew there would be a 'but'. "However, we had a hard time removing the bullet from her abdomen- it left a lot of internal bleeding. We're giving her a blood transfusion as we speak. She also suffered a minor concussion-"

"But will she be okay?" Danny asked impatiently.

"If she makes it through the night, then it'll definitely improve her chances. I'm actually more concerned about her head injury. It'll make it harder for her to regain consciousness, combine that with massive blood loss- I'm afraid she might slip into a coma." Jack nodded solemnly. Danny turned and took a seat in the waiting area.

Jack followed, but right before he could sit down his phone rang, he saw Vivian's name and answered it. "Viv tell me you have good news."

"I do. We found Dr. Harris."

"Is she-"

"She's alright, but there was no sign of Jason."

"Don't worry about Jason, we've already got him." Jack said hastily.

"Really? When?"

"Viv, some thing's happened, I need you to get to St. Joseph's Hospital."

Vivian was almost afraid to ask, "Is everyone okay?"

"No, Sam was shot and she's in surgery right now."

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Samantha awoke from what had felt like an endless fog. As she slowly regained consciousness she tried to open her eyelids, but it was just too hard for her at the moment so she kept her eyes shut. She managed to deduce based on the stiff bed she was lying on and the rhythmic beeping sound that she was in a hospital. 'Damn it! she thought, Well its better than being dead I guess.'

That's when she felt a warm hand stroking her palm gently. She was able to make out a sad voice, "I love you Sam, I'm sorry for everything, sorry for all of this." It was Lisa! She shouted at her mentally. She desperately wanted to respond to her lover, but her body just wouldn't wake up. 'Does this mean she's okay? Wait, am I okay? But she was just too tired to speak and sleep quickly reclaimed her before anyone knew that she could hear them.

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One month later...

Lisa walked into the living room of her apartment trying to suppress a chuckle as Sam went on a tirade. "The man tried to kill me! He might have killed you!" Samantha could not believe what she was hearing, "Doesn't that bother you at all?"

"Of course it bothers me," Lisa said rolling her eyes, "But I can't condemn the man- he's not evil, he's ill. He should be in a mental institution- not a maximum security prison. He can't even function without being heavily medicated..."

"Yea, well you're not the one who was shot...twice! A little 'security' wouldn't hurt." Samantha complained. Lisa sighed, she knew there would be no convincing Sam and at the prospect of another argument she decided to change the subject. Samantha plopped down next to Lisa on the couch, grimacing as she did so. The brunette became concerned.

"So how are you feeling?"

"Better." Samantha replied offering Lisa a smile. Her right arm was still in a sling and her side was still sore, but she would be fine.

"Will you be ready to testify on Wednesday?"

"Just you try and stop me." Samantha said passionately. She then leaned in and rested her head on Lisa's shoulder.

"I'll take that as a yes." Lisa chuckled.

"But changing the subject...have you seen my black jacket?" Sam looked thoughtful for a moment. "I can't remember if I left it here or at my apartment."

Lisa paused for a moment seeing her possible segue. "Um Sam, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about."

Sam lifted her head off of her shoulder and sat up giving Lisa her full attention. Paranoia immediately got the best of her. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh no, everything is fine." Lisa cleared her throat a little nervously. "Actually, I wanted to ask you if maybe you wanted to move in with me?" Sam looked like a deer caught in the headlights. The brunette became concerned by the other woman's reaction and started babbling. "If you're not ready I won't take it personally. I just figured that you wouldn't have to go back and forth between my place and your place and you spend so much time over here anyways-"

"No!" Lisa looked startled for a moment. "No, I mean yes! I would love to move in with you." Sam smiled at her sincerely.

"Really?" Lisa wasn't quite convinced.

"Of Course." Sam leaned in giving her a soft kiss on her lips as she snuggled into her arms.

The End.