Summery: You get a call telling you, your cousin has been attacked. You go to New York, and meet the team. But get more than you bargained for. PART 8.
Amanda rushed to me as soon as she saw me enter the precinct. She reached me just in time to catch me as my knees gave out. Preventing me from falling freefall to the floor. “(Y/N), what happened? Are you ok?”
I could barely comprehend what was happening around me. I felt clammy and hot all over. There was ringing in my ears and I was dizzy. I could feel tears on my face.
Fin and Liv were there now. Liv’s hand going to my forehand. “(Y/N). (Y/N)! Are you alright? What happened?”
“Are you hurt?” I heard someone say as strong arms went around me. One around my back and the other under my knees, picking me up bridal style. Nick. It was Nick.
“It’s me.” I heard myself breath. “He’s after me.”
“What’d she say?” Fin asked as I was set down in a chair.
“(Y/N) do you know how you got here?” Someone asked.
“He’s after me. It’s been me all along.”
“What are you talking about? (Y/N) we don’t know what you are trying to tell us.” Liv said.
A sob broke from my throat. “Marie. He has Marie.”
“Who has Marie?” Nick asked.
“I don’t know. He took the phone away before she could tell me.”
“You spoke to Marie?” Amanda gasped.
“He called me. Let her speak. She asked me to help her.”
“What else did he say?” Liv asked, taking control of the situation.
“He said…that…he’d been planning this for years. That he knew I’d come for Marie.”
Nick wiped tears from my face as Liv asked if he’d said anything else.
“No. That’s it. It’s my fault. It’s my fault he ever hurt her. He’s been after me this whole time.” I cried as another sob racked through my chest.
The concern shown on everyone faces as they looked from each other to me.
Amanda was the first to speak. “She doesn’t look good. She may need to go to the hospital.”
I shook my head no. “I don’t need a hospital…I need to find Marie. I don’t think I can take anymore.”
“It’s ok. Everything will be alright.” Nick said in a comforting voice still kneeling in front of me.
“He’s in my head. All I can hear is that chuckle…same as before. He’s laughing at me. Laughing while he tortures me.” I said as more tears blurred my vision.
“What do you mean ‘the same as before.’?” Liv asked.
“The man on the phone…he’s the same man who attacked me at my car.” My voice breaking.
“Are you sure?” Fin asked.
Nodding I said, “I’d know that sound anywhere.”
The memory of his eyes gleaming down at me as he cuts off my airway becomes too much. I started to have a hard time breathing. The last thing I see is the worry on Nicks' face as darkness closes in and I fell myself start to fall.
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I woke up at the hospital. They said I had passed out from extreme shock and stress. Rafael had rushed in right as they said I could go home.
“Are you alright?” He asked, his arms going around my waist and bringing me to him.
I smiled softly as his eyes raked over me; checking me for any and all injury.
“I’m ok,” I whispered. I hadn’t meant to whisper but I suppose that just showed how tired and exhausted I was.
“What happened? Liv said that…that he called you.”
I nodded and asked him to take me home. Promising to tell him as we drove.
“Liv wants to take a statement from you now that you’re feeling better. Are you alright if they meet us at home?”
I nodded yes and we went home.
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Liv and Nick met us at my apartment. Took my statement, told me how sorry they were for this, told me to feel better and went on their way.
Rafael closed the door behind them as they left and turned to look at me sitting on the couch.
Coming to me he took my hands in his and kissed my palms.
“Cariño…this isn’t your fault.”
Tears filled my eyes for what had to be the hundredth time that day. Everyone had expressed their sympathies that I was apart of this. He was the only one who understood that what I was really upset about was the fact that I felt like it was my fault that this happened to Marie.
“I think it might be,” I said, my voice thick.
He shook his head and took me in his arms; kissing the top of my head. “No. It isn’t. You didn’t do this.”
Then he did the thing that I didn’t even know I needed. He simply held me as I cried…as I grieved the pain Marie must be in, grieved the life that I’d had before all of this.
Looking up at Rafael I looked him in the eye and took his hand in my hands. “I want you to know that no matter what happened that I wouldn’t change anything if it meant losing you. I will find Marie…I won’t let him have her. But no matter what I can’t lose you.”
Rafael swallowed and looked at with that humming intensity that he seemed to always have in his eyes when he looked at me and leaned down to kiss me gently. At some point, he picked me up in his arms and carried me bridal style up the stairs to the bedroom. He wouldn’t let me do anything saying he’d take care of me. He changed my clothes and tucked me into bed, joining me once he had changed. Taking me In his arms he kissed my neck and told me to sleep and that he’d take care of me.
I fell asleep listening to him softly sing a song that sounded like a lullaby in Spanish.
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It was going on two months since the phone call and the team wasn’t any closer to finding Marie.
I’d seen Liv, Nick, Amanda and Fin at a dinner party that Liv had had at her apartment just a couple nights ago. It had been enjoyable with good food and company. It wasn’t until I was in the kitchen helping Liv clean up that I stopped enjoying the night.
“How are you holding up?” Liv asked turning towards as I helped plate the dessert.
“Good. Rafael is helping a lot. I don’t know how I’d get through any of this without him.”
“I’m glad and I’m so happy for the both of you. I’ve never seen him smile like he has since you two started dating. His smile actually reached his eyes now.”
I smiled. “He’s everything to me now.”
“Anyone can see he feels the same about you.” She said smiling at me. She looked me in the eye and I could see she wanted to say something else. The smile left her lips as she opened her mouth. “It’s been two months since anything new about Marie has come up. I glad that if we…we don’t find her that you have Rafael.”
I felt myself stiffen at her words. “Thank you,” I said not looking at her.
I wasn’t angry at her words. I knew what she was saying and what she was doing. She was trying to prepare me for the worse.
Honestly…I wasn’t sure what would be worse. Finding Marie dead or not finding her at all. Always having to wonder if she was still alive. If she was suffering.
Rafael and I said our goodbyes at the end of the night and headed home via a taxi.
When we arrived at my apartment which Rafael had all but officially moved into, Rafael asked me if I was alright.
“I’m fine,” I said, going to him and put my arms around his waist.
His arms circled me over my arms. “Did something happen in the kitchen? You’ve been quiet since then.”
I told what Liv had said. I think he made me love him, even more, when he didn’t try to say anything. Didn’t condemn Liv, didn’t try to defend her; just let me speak and feel what I was feeling.
I told I was angry. I understood what she was doing and where she was coming from. “I just can’t think like that. She has to be alive. I know she is…I can feel it.”
“No matter what I will always stand by you in everything,” Rafael said to me, leaning down to kiss me.
He made my toes curl every time he kissed me; every time taking my breath away.
I loved how he kissed me. Like he needed me to stay alive. Like I was his oxygen. As if he were a man starving and I was the only thing that could sustain him.
Pulling away from me he rested his forehead against mine and said: “I love you.”
I took his hand and lead him upstairs; showing him every way I could that I loved him with everything in me.
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Rafael and I spent every moment we had together. If it hadn’t been for Marie these would have been the happiest of my life and even still they were up there. I knew that Rafael was the love of my life.
Even still Nick never failed to let me know that he still wanted me.
The last time I’d been at the station to listen to some men the police had brought in that had eyes like the man's. They’d had the men repeat that same thing he’d said to me about Marie and I being so different. It hadn’t been any of them. None of them made the hair stand on the back of my neck as he had.
Nick had grabbed me on the steps of the precinct.
“How are you doing?” He asked.
“Fine. Just holding onto the hope that we find Marie.” I said honestly.
We’d talked for a few minutes about Marie before Nick asked about me and Rafael; if we were still together.
“You know how I feel about you.” He said, moving closer and putting a hand on both of my elbows.
“I know, Nick. But…you need to know…Rafael and I are real. This isn’t going to end soon…if ever.”
“Is that why you’re with Amanda?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
His eyes went wide before asking me how I knew about that.
“I see the way she looks at you when she thinks no one is looking. And the way you two disappear when all of us are out. You always leave right after she does.”
He went to say something but I cut him off.
“I’m glad you two are seeing each other. Because I will always choose Rafael…no matter what happens it will always be Rafael. I care for you, Nick…I always will. I’ll always be grateful for what you’ve done for me but I choose Rafael.” I said before turning and walking away from Nick; leaving him on the steps of the precinct.
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Rafael and I were out at a little café he liked to go to near the park enjoying lunch. He’d seen someone from work and I told him to say “Hello” that I’d wait for him here. I would have gone with him but I was too tired to listen to what I knew would be at least a twenty-minute conversation.
Rafael had kept me up until 4:58 this morning making love to me in ways I hadn’t even know possible. I had woken him this morning around 10 by taking him in my mouth. His hisses of pleasure spurring me on. I was beginning to wonder if every time was going to be this amazing. I had expected making love to become routine at some point but Rafael enjoyed showing me all the different ways we could come together. I was sure Rafael had to be an exceptionally good lover. His first priority when we made love was to make sure that I was completely and wholly pleasured. These days with him were amazing.
My thoughts hit a melancholy note when I wondered how wonderful it would be to be with Rafael once we found Marie. I knew she was alive and that he was just biding his time. I knew he wouldn’t kill her just like that. This was a cat and mouse game to him with me cast as the mouse. This was far from over. I was just waiting for him to make the next move.
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I could see her now sitting at that little table as the A.D.A left to go talk to someone.
“What an idiot.” I thought. “Leaving her alone like that. I could take her before he even had time to turn his head.”
A chuckle escaped my lips under my breath as I thought what his face would look like when he realized I had taken her right under his nose.
I would have her soon. I wanted her now but I knew the longer I dragged this out the more fun it would be. I couldn’t wait to hear her finally scream for me.
“Soon,” I promised her, almost wondering if she could somehow hear from my vantage point as she turned her head and it almost seemed like she looked right at me.
