Fractured (Broken Part 2)

Sun and Fun

Malcolm screamed out in frustration throwing papers behind him as I sat on the window sil just outside the cell.
"What do we do?" Dani asked walking up to where I sat as Malcolm threw more papers off the desk and flipped it over.
"About what?" I asked absently still watching my husband.
"About Bright. He's losing it."
"For now? Just let him scream and destroy the cell. Remember how I was when Watkins had him? It's better he let it out than keep it in so it can slowly destroy him." I glanced at her before returning my attention to Malcolm.
He grabbed the top of the bookcase throwing it to the ground still yelling and screaming.
Perhaps to someone looking in from the outside it looked like a tantrum. I knew Malcolm. He held so much inside in regards to his father. He was just finally letting it out.
He picked up the rug throwing it into a large pile then threw the mattress off the bed and kicked at it before finally collapsing in the middle of the room breathing heavily.
"Do you feel any better?" I asked walking into the room with Dani close behind me.
"Not really." He admitted looking up at me.
"I heard what happened at the farm. The Surgeon's gone." Dani said when his eyes rested on her.
"So all eyes are on his head case son, right? The criminal profiler who couldn't find his own father." He spat.
"Malcolm no." I said kneeling down in front of him.
"No one cares about that." Dani said still standing near the door.
I forced back the sigh resting in my chest.
"I care. I can't live like this. Knowing he's out there somewhere. He could come for me; our family at any time." He exclaimed at her.
"Malcolm. He's not going to win this. I'm not going to let him hurt you." I promised touching the skin on the back of his hand.
"That's not what scares you. What scares you is living the rest of your life without your father in it." Dani shook her head.
I couldn't tell if she was trying to help me calm him or wind him up further.
"No, my mistake was underestimating him. It was brilliant, really, using the other inmates as a diversion." Malcolm muttered.
"Bright." She said his name again.
"But to craft an alternate escape plan? Martin must have had another ally. Someone I missed." Malcolm looked around the room frantically crawling away from me.
"Give it a rest. For once in your life, slow down and acknowledge what this is doing to you." Dani sighed angrily.
"Dani. Enough." I finally stepped back in.
Her heart was in the right place but that wasn't how to get through to Malcolm.
"Where is Vivian Capshaw?" Malcolm asked looking at me holding a handful of butterscotch wrappers.
"They were having sex. My father and Vivian Capshaw." Malcolm announced to the team and Marshal Emily Ruiz as I sat on the table in the conference room.
"The woman made a mistake. Doesn't mean she was boffing a convicted serial killer." Dani sighed.
"During our last visit, my father was preoccupied with some sort of erotic fantasy." Malcolm said looking at me.
"Uh, that's TMI, bro." JT shook his head.
"But what if it wasn't just a fantasy? There were candy wrappers. Butterscotch. Martin had them tucked away, like little mementos, indicating some sort of significance." Malcolm looked at me again for help.
"I overheard them on the phone the day of the escape." I cut in.
Every eye in the room focused on me.
"Martin called to try to talk to Malcolm. We'd decided to cut communication with him for the sake of the baby. She came in and said that Pete was onto them and asked how he could know they were sleeping together." I continued.
"You said nothing, because...?" Emily turned on me.
"It seemed fairly irrelevant. Martin is a master manipulator so him coercing her into sex was never out of the realm of possibility to me." I shrugged.
"What changed your mind?" Gil asked.
He knew me. He knew there was something I was holding back.
"You mean besides the looks you all keep giving my husband, like he's fucking crazy?" I asked harshly.
"At the very least, Vivian is lying about the severity of her lapse in judgment. At worst, she's the one who broke my father out of Claremont." Malcolm said.
"Okay. Call me if you turn up with an actual lead." Emily scoffed at Gil.
"And as for you, you're off my case." She turned on Malcolm.
"You said yourself I'm in a unique position to help you find Martin Whitly." Malcolm argued as I pulled out my phone to text Sophie.
Meet at the mansion. I sent simply.
"That was before I spent yesterday barking up the wrong tree." She growled almost storming out of the room.
"This doesn't mean we can't run a parallel investigation." Malcolm said turning to Gil.
"That's exactly what it means." Gil practically shouted slamming a fist against the table causing me to flinch slightly.
"Gil, please. You know how much I need this." Malcolm pleaded.
"Stop. I am scared. You both barely made it through the last manhunt. You are not gonna survive another one. Lily, please. What about the baby?" Dani pleaded.
"Our baby is fine." I growled at her.
"Go home, Malcolm. Lily, please, I'm not ordering you this time, I'm begging you." Gil looked between us.
"Come on Malcolm. Let's go." I said getting off the table and walking out without a look back at the others.
"What are we doing?" Malcolm asked as I rifled through the trunk of my car.
"Sophie and Aaron are going to meet us at home. We don't need NYPD or US Marshals to find your father." I sighed.
"I just wish they believed in me." He sighed sadly.
"I know. They're just not there yet." I sighed.
It felt like the FBI all over again.
"What are you looking for?" He asked sounding exasperated.
"Ah! These..." I said straightening up.
In my hand a little black box. Inside a pair of invisible coms.
"That's not necessary, Lily." Malcolm sighed.
"For the sake of your pregnant wife's sanity, please." I insisted.
He nodded reluctantly and slid the clear silicone earpiece into his right ear.
I drove us home after putting my own earpiece in.
Sophie, Aaron, Sarah, Mark, Jessica and Ainsley we're all sitting in the living room when we arrived.
"The Surgeon has been missing for days, and Gil wants to take you off the case?" Ainsley asked after we settled in.
"He thinks I'm a liability." Malcolm sighed leaning into me.
"Don't they even want to bring Dad in?" Ainsley pushed.
"Dead or alive. Case closes either way." I sighed holding my husband.
"Good." Jessica spoke up.
"Maybe keep a lid on the death wish just for the sake of your children?" Ainsley looked over at her mother.
"I support Gil's decision. That does not mean I want your father dead." Jessica sighed and shook her head.
"You have become consumed by this, Malcolm. You cannot keep tormenting yourself in some desperate attempt to understand his twisted mind. I love you. Both of you. More than I hate him. Now, it is time that we pour ourselves a drink, hunker down, and let the police do their work." She looked between her children.
"What are your theories, exactly?" Ainsley asked causing Jessica to groan in exasperation.
"Vivian Capshaw. She didn't just unshackle Martin. She helped him escape." Malcolm looked up at me.
"Well, if he's gotten into her mind, then she's a victim, no matter how complicit. They have to understand that." Jessica sighed again.
"She's also missing." I looked at her.
"So Dad and this woman are just out there somewhere, together?" Ainsley asked.
"That's the theory. But they don't believe it. So no one's looking for her." I nodded.
"Look, I know you don't care about Martin. But what about a brainwashed woman trapped in the clutches of an unleashed serial killer?" Malcolm pleaded with his mom.
"Vivian Capshaw isn't just a victim. She could be victim number 24." Sophie said.
Something about the woman who would have originally been victim 24 saying those words broke through to her.
"Well, then, we have to find her." Jessica nodded.
"Aaron?" I turned to him.
"Yeah?" He glanced up at me from his laptop.
"Oh! I finally broke through the hospital's firewall ten minutes ago. There's mountains of records here. Sophie and I are working through them as quickly as we can."
"Start with her most recent previous position. Find why she left." I instructed as gently as I could.
"Lily? May I speak to you a moment? In private?" Jessica asked me.
"Uh... sure." I nodded.
Malcolm looked at me concerned.
"Don't worry, baby. Just give us a moment." I reassured him urging Jessica to follow me into the kitchen.
"What's wrong, Jess?" I asked pulling some crackers out of the cabinet.
"I'm worried about Detective Tarmel." She admitted.
"JT? Why?" I asked.
"Gil had him sit with me while you were looking for Martin. I got one of those calls... You know..." She trailed off.
"The threatening calls, yeah, I know." I nodded munching on crackers.
"He said that people are calling his wife... because of the incident." She explained.
"Tally... Uh... I'll talk to them. Get it figured out." I promised her, forcing my expression to remain even.
They hadn't told me any of that and my formal investigation was still very much open.
"Lily? Aaron found something." Ainsley said rushing into the room.
"I'll have Sophie take you home. Wait there for our word." I told Jessica before rushing out of the room behind Ainsley.
"According to Capshaw's file, Logan Zeiger was one of her last patients at St. Sebastian's." Aaron explained after Sophie left with Jessica.
"So this guy's the reason she resigned?" Ainsley asked.
"We know Vivian likes to blur the lines of authority. Maybe Martin wasn't her first office romance." Malcolm suggested.
"Gross." Ainsley shuttered.
"Let's go ask him." I said noting the address for him on file.
"Yeah, let's go." Ainsley jumped up.
"Oh no. You need to stay here." Malcolm said shaking his head.
"Lily?" Ainsley pleaded with me.
"I need some help going over these files, Ainsley. " Aaron spoke up.
"Oh, fine.. " She sighed sitting down next to him.
"Thank you." I mouthed to him before leading Malcolm out to the car.
I drove us out to Logan Zeiger's address in the city.
"Mr. Zeiger is in meetings all day." A dark haired woman, likely his assistant, told us after I knocked on the door.
"What's in that room?" Malcolm asked motioning to a closed door behind her.
He caught my eye when I turned to look at him and motioned with his eyes to the camera watching us.
"Who even are you? I'm sorry, I have to ask you to leave." She looked between us.
"I'm Dr. Lilian Bright Chief of the FBI's New York Field Office. I have some questions about Dr. Vivian Capshaw." I said looking directly into the camera.
The door popped open with a low buzz.
"Don't touch anything." She sighed motioning us through the door.
A low groan came from the man lying in the hospital bed across from the base of the stairs.
"What happened to him?" I asked as he groaned again.
"He's paralyzed. A high-level cervical spinal cord injury." She explained.
"Can he talk?" Malcolm asked beside me.
"Hell yes, I can talk. But the Dow doesn't look kindly on invalids." Logan answered in a raspy voice.
"The hospital considered my condition inoperable. Must have seen 50 doctors until Vivian..." He continued.
"Vivian's surgery paralyzed you, didn't it? Do you hold her responsible?" Malcolm asked.
"Vivian helped me when no one else would." He shot at my husband.
Logan's heart rate monitor began beeping rapidly and he groaned again.
"I think you should go." The woman spoke up.
"No. Tell us, please, Logan. Tell us how she helped you." Malcolm insisted.
"Malcolm" I whispered.
"My collection... She sends me a piece every year to mark the occasion of my surgery. The day... I became a survivor." Logan chuckled.
"Now... you tell me why you're here." His eyes moved between Malcolm and I.
"We're investigating the escape of Martin Whitly from Claremont Psychiatric Hospital. We have reason to believe that Dr. Capshaw acted as his accomplice." I answered.
"Vivian is not some criminal. She's a hero. She is my hero." Logan almost growled at me, his heart rate soaring again.
"You really need to leave." The woman said again.
"You stay... you stay away from her." Logan called after us as the beeping monitor continued.
"You s... stay away from her." He forced out again.
Malcolm paused on the steps outside Zeiger's front door.
"What are you thinking?" I asked Malcolm when he turned to look at me.
"I don't think Vivian is the victim here. I think my father is." Malcolm said his eyes wide.
"We have to tell the others." Malcolm insisted as I drove us away from Logan's home.
"Why? So they can tell you you're crazy?" I sighed.
Malcolm may have been the one vastly distrusted in the FBI, but I was the one who had to watch it happen. This wasn't much different and I hated it. Gil, Dani, and JT were like family to us and watching them dismiss him so easily just pissed me off.
"Please, Lily?" Malcolm pleaded with me.
"Fine." I sighed.
"Vivian Capshaw kidnapped The Surgeon. The surgery she performed on Logan Zeiger proves it. Her psychology is closer to Martin's own than one of his victims." Malcolm explained standing in front of Major Crimes as I leaned against the doorway.
"No one's got the hot takes like Malcolm Bright." JT sighed.
"There is no evidence whatsoever that Capshaw is mentally unstable." Gil said.
"You looked into her?" Malcolm looked at him.
"A trusted member of my team has a theory, I run it down. Doesn't mean you were right. Bright, Capshaw's record is clean." Gil answered.
"And if I'm not buying her as a brainwashed victim, there's no way in hell I'm buying she's nutty enough to kidnap The Surgeon." JT pushed.
"She operated on Logan Zeiger not in spite of the risks but because of them. Vivian suffers from malignant hero syndrome. Her need to control drives her to hurt patients to receive credit for saving them. It's a subset of the angel of mercy pathology." Malcolm continued.
I knew it was a lost cause. We were on our own. I was somewhat impressed that Gil ran her down but he didn't have access to the entirety of her records like I did.
"All right, so, Vivian's hacking up patients, the hospital finds out, forces her to resign, and erases her record in order to avoid a lawsuit?" Dani asked.
"Yes! Precisely." Malcolm exclaimed.
"Do you hear yourself? The mental hoops you're jumping through?" She shot back.
"Look, my father is in danger. I can feel it." He pushed.
His hands trembled violently.
"I've seen that hand shake while you're ordering a mochaccino." JT countered.
"What's more likely, that Martin is this woman's victim, or that The Surgeon is carving up the pretty doctor as we speak?" He continued.
"I have been right before, when everyone else is wrong, and I am telling you, I am right on this. We are running out of time to save him." Malcolm exclaimed looking around at them.
"You don't care. None of you care if my father lives or dies." Malcolm's voice cracked and my heart shattered.
"And what if he did? I'll tell you what, you would be free." Dani answered.
"Malcolm." I said his name gently.
"She sent Logan Zeiger gifts every year from the same shop. The owner of the store had an address for Vivian. It's a storage facility, an hour out of the city." Malcolm tried once more.
"No way." Dani sighed.
"Whatever's there might corroborate my profile." Malcolm pushed.
"Malcolm, honey. Let's go." I pushed when no one said anything more.
As Malcolm walked passed me I noticed Dani stand up at start to follow.
"Dani? You really up for this? Because he sure isn't." Gil said stopping her.
"Don't bother." I interrupted before she could answer him.
"I told him coming here was a mistake. Nothing is going to change that Martin Whitly is his father and whether we bring him in alive or not none of you will ever be able to see passed that." I turned on my heel and walked off after my husband.
"What if they're right?" Malcolm asked as I drove us out to the storage facility.
"Right about what?" I asked laying my left hand on my stomach as our little angel fluttered beneath the surface.
"What if I need...? What if... What if he makes me who I am?" Malcolm looked at me.
"Malcolm, my love. Martin Whitly is a cruel and violent man. You are none of those things. You were so ready to let him go, Malcolm. For us." I sighed.
"I still don't want him anywhere near us or our baby. I just don't want him dead. Not like this." Malcolm reassured me.
"We'll find him, Malcolm." I promised.
Sophie waited for us outside the storage facility.
"You really like pushing the envelope, don't you?" She asked as I climbed out of the car.
"If Malcolm's right we have an obligation to find him." I responded.
"I don't have to like it." She huffed.
"No, my dear. You don't."
Sophie lead Malcolm and I into the building and to the storage locker registered to Vivian Capshaw.
"FBI!" I called out once Sophie unlocked the door.
"The lights must be automated." Malcolm said stepping around us to wave his arms and trigger the lights.
"They should come on now." He said.
Sophie and I cautiously walked in behind him as soon as the lights came on.
"Lily. Look at this stuff."
"Fentanyl, other opiates. Paralytics, beta blockers, sedatives." I read the plethora of labels standing next to my husband.
"She's a doctor. It's not enough." Sophie said.
"When will it be enough?" Malcolm exclaimed.
"It is something. Even a doctor shouldn't have this kind of stock on hand. A hospital, yes but a single doctor. These are highly controlled substances." I sighed knowing Sophie was right.
As cunning as we'd learned Vivian to be, she'd explain it away and get a slap on the wrist.
A noise drew my attention down the hall.
"Who's there?" Malcolm called out next to me.
A shadow moved at the end of the hall.
"Hey!" Malcolm exclaimed running out of the room after it.
"Malcolm!" I called after him.
As I moved to run after him, Sophie put her hand on my shoulder.
"You can't chase after him. It's too dangerous. You're pregnant." She reminded me.
"You go then." I urged.
"This could be good. If it is Capshaw then he can convince her to take him to Martin."
"At what cost?" I exclaimed.
"I'll go to the car and I'll follow them. She'll think I stayed with you." She offered.
I heard Malcolm slam against a door over the earpiece then silence.
"Just dropped by to pick up a few things." Vivian's voice said stopping my heart.
"I know you took my father. I know what you're doing to him." Malcolm accused.
"I'm not sure that's possible." She chuckled.
"Tell me where he is!" Malcolm snapped.
"You could arrest me. But then you wouldn't find where he is." I could hear the dismissive tone of her voice.
"Take me to Martin Whitly." Malcolm's voice turned pleading.
"No." She said.
She was goading him and I hated it.
"I'll surrender, put my life in your hands... if you bring me to my father." Malcolm bargained.
"And then what?" She asked.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Or maybe I'll call my wife; our friends at Major Crimes?"
Silence followed for what felt like an eternity then...
"What is it?" Malcolm asked.
"All you need to know is that two will do the trick." Vivian answered.
The crunch that followed turned my stomach. He knew I hated when he chewed his pills. It was a sign, so I'd know she drugged him.
I heard a trunk pop, then after a moment close.
"I love you." Malcolm said as an engine started.
"Sophie's following. I'm going to come get you." I promised.
"I love you so much."
Sophie's text came in a moment later.
They pulled out. It read.
Don't lose him Sophie. I responded before rushing out to the parking lot.
I drove straight to the precinct. With Malcolm missing I was certain Gil and the others would help me find them.
"Where's Gil?" I asked Emily who sat behind his desk.
"If you have information about The Surgeon's whereabouts then you should tell me as it is my case." She smirked at me.
I weighed my options carefully. If the Marshals were to know that I can track Malcolm then they'd go in with the assumption that Vivian is a victim. There was nothing I could say to change that. I could see it in her eyes.
"My brother's in trouble." Ainsley told Dani just within earshot.
"Again." Dani sighed loudly looking up at her.
"That's it? Malcolm disappears, and you're not even worried?" Ainsley asked incredulously.
"I'm always worried. But I'm also pissed. They went rogue." Dani responded with a glance at me.
"I have proof she took him." Ainsley said.
"I know you took my father. I know what you're doing to him." Malcolm said through her phone.
"I'm not sure that's possible." Vivian responded.
"Capshaw." Dani muttered.
"Ainsley." I said her name.
"We're on our own. Let's go." I sighed.
"I tried calling him back, but his phone's dead. Or... worse. But... if he and Lily mean anything to you, help us. Please." Ainsley pleaded with her.
"Tell me what you know." Dani conceded.
"Sophie, where are you?" I asked after Ainsley and I filled Dani in on everything we knew.
"We just passed through Jersey and she got on I-87 northbound." She explained.
"Where the hell is she taking him?" I muttered almost to myself after hanging up choosing to take I-87 straight up to avoid the interchange.
"Where are they?" Ainsley asked from the backseat of my car.
Dani sat beside me in the passenger seat.
"North I-87." I sighed speeding through down the interstate.
"Wait. I saw something in Logan Zeiger's files." Ainsley exclaimed.
"Do I want to know how you got those?" Dani asked.
"I'm an FBI Chief. My reach is farther than you might expect." I sighed at the insinuation.
Ainsley rustled through the file behind me as my heart raced.
"Here! Logan Zeiger owns a mansion in Plattsburgh at 1010 Park Lane." She read off.
I silently considered that information for a moment.
They were at least an hour ahead of us.
"Sophie. Ainsley says Logan Zeiger owns a mansion in Plattsburgh. I'm having Dani send you the address now." I told her.
Every second that passed felt like an hour as we drove. Occasionally, I found myself caressing my small baby bump as I drove.
Then the engine cut off over my earpiece and my phone rang.
"You were right, Lily. They just pulled into Zeiger's place. I'm parking a block over and I'll walk to see what I can see. Maybe try to get inside." Sophie said.
"Thank you. Be careful." I answered.
The trunk popped again. I heard what sounded like wheels on concrete. Vivian huffed loudly.
My best guess was she moved him onto a gurney of some sort.
I pressed the gas pedal down to the floor and flipped on my lights and siren.
"My boy." I heard Martin's voice.
"Martin." I muttered.
"Dad's there?" Ainsley asked.
"How do you know that?" Dani asked.
I pointed silently to my right ear where my earpiece sat.
I could hear footsteps, like heels on tile.
"Don't worry. I have no plans to hurt you. Although I'm not sure... there's room for three. Your father is so close to finally committing to our life together." Vivian's voice said.
It took everything I had to focus on the road while I listened.
"Well, you know I can't do that, Vivian. Not until you agree to let go of my son." Martin bargained.
"Oh, Malcolm came with me willingly. Why did you do that? Don't you share the popular opinion about Martin Whitly?" She asked.
"Of course I do. He's a psychopath. An unrepentant murderer." Malcolm answered.
I let out the breath I was holding at the sound of his voice.
"Then why are you here?" Vivian asked him.
"Because he also happens to be my father."
I could hear the emotion in his voice.
"Tell me what you want from me." Martin pleaded.
I was shocked to hear emotion in his voice.
"I want that. I want what he has. I want all of you." Vivian exclaimed.
My breath caught in my chest as Malcolm took a shaky breath.
We both knew he needed to do something; say something that might take her attention.
"Is this Logan Zeiger's place? He got a bit defensive when we came calling." Malcolm asked, his voice sounded strong but there was fear underneath.
"Because he understands me." Vivian said.
"I understand you, Vivian. This is what I do. You saw something in my father. You had a connection. But that doesn't mean you're the same." Malcolm told her.
"Be careful." I muttered.
"Don't let them know I can hear you."
"He sees me. He's the only one." Vivian exclaimed.
"Martin Whitly is a serial killer. Not to mention a malignant narcissist. You want him to love you. But he can't." Malcolm said.
"When was the last time you mitigated an embolism?" Vivian asked and my heart stopped.
"You're not equipped for that procedure here." Martin stuttered.
"No." I muttered pushing my gas pedal harder.
"What?" Ainsley asked anxiously but I didn't answer her.
Vivian couldn't really give Malcolm an embolism... No one's that crazy.
"Which is why, when I complete it, you'll understand my greatness is aligned with your own." She said.
"No, no, no, Vivian, Vivian, please, no. Vivian..." Martin practically begged but she hushed him.
I heard the distinct sound of air hissing as Malcolm gasped.
"Malcolm..." I said his name but he didn't answer.
He gasped and wheezed.
"He's my son!" Martin yelled.
"And he's my patient." Vivian said calmly.
"This bitch is fucking crazy." I muttered
The rapid beeping of a heart rate monitor gave way to a flatline.
"Malcolm! Malcolm, if there's anyway you can hear me don't you dare give up. Our child deserves to know their father." I said.
Tears stung my eyes. I tried and failed to push them back as the monitor continued to announce his distress.
The only thing that came close to how I felt in that moment was my miscarriage after Bryce. He was dying and I couldn't do anything. The car wouldn't move fast enough. It couldn't.
"If he dies, I won't kill you. No, I will make you live in pain... in agony... in ways that you can't possibly imagine." Martin yelled at her.
"How devilish." She responded sarcastically.
"Oh, I'm not the devil, Vivian. But I will show you hell." Martin growled.
For the first time, I actually heard the voice of The Surgeon.
"Get Sophie on the phone. Now." I told Dani next to me.
"It's a powerful thing, isn't it? Holding a life in the palm of your hand. I know what drives you, Martin. Because you know what? It drives me, too. What happens here today... binds us for life." Vivian said.
I heard Malcolm gasp weakly.
"Malcolm. Oh my God." I sighed.
I turned off the siren as I pulled onto Park Lane.
"No, you... you have to complete the extraction before it reaches the pulmonary arteries." Martin begged.
"I can do without the mansplaining." Vivian snapped at him.
I heard the doorbell ring in the background.
Malcolm breathed weakly.
"Malcolm stay with me, baby. I love you. Do you hear me? I love you. Stay with me." I begged.
The doorbell rang again.
"Lily?" Sophie answered the phone.
"Someone's here." Vivian said I could hear her heels walking away.
"She gave Malcolm an embolism. She has to finish the extraction or he'll die. Don't ring the bell again." I told her.
"What are you doing? Complete the extraction! Vivian!" Martin yelled after her.
"I'm here, baby. You stay with me. You hear me? I love you. Malcolm?" I begged racing down the street.
"Lily..." Malcolm muttered my name.
"I'm going to get you home to her, my boy. I promise." Martin said.
Martin struggled and grunted in the background as Malcolm's heart rate monitor continued beeping.
"Come on baby. Don't you give up on me. You fight. I love you. Fight for me; for our baby." I begged.
"Malcolm, I need you to stay with me." Martin said as Malcolm's heart rate increased dangerously until he flatlined again.
"Malcolm! Don't worry, my boy, it's like you said... This is what I do. Please come back to me. Please, please, please. This is all for you, remember? All for us."
"Malcolm!" I called pulling up to the mansion.
I heard Malcolm gasp as the heart rate monitor began beeping steadily again.
"You saved my life." Malcolm whispered.
"They've found us." Vivian said.
I could hear Martin's breath catch.
"Get me in there. Now." I called to Sophie as I leaped out of the car.
Sophie pounded on the door.
"FBI!" She called.
"I will always love you, Martin. Always." Vivian almost whispered.
Her breath trembled and she gasped.
"I called the police." Vivian said.
"This isn't gonna work, Vivian." Martin said.
"I've seen prison now. I can't go back there. I'm not as strong as you are." She yelled at him.
"Breach it! Now!" I called pulling my pistol from it's holster.
"On what grounds?" Dani asked grabbing my arm.
"On the grounds that I just listened to my husband flatline twice at her hand! Aaron is recording everything. I only need Malcolm's consent. It's fully admissible." I ripped my arm from her grip.
"You have two men locked in a torture dungeon. No one's gonna believe you're the victim." Martin told her.
"Why not? He did." She exclaimed.
Sophie aimed her pistol at the lock and fired three times.
Vivian screamed out.
"You know, I think there may be something very wrong with that woman. Okay, come on." Martin told Malcolm.
I heard straps unbuckling and Malcolm gasped.
"It's okay. It's all right, it's all right. You're safe now." Martin said as Sophie, Dani, Ainsley and I rushed into the foyer.
"She's right. They're gonna kill you. Run." Malcolm whispered, his breathing still labored.
Malcolm didn't know who all I'd brought with me or if I was the first in the door.
"Help me! Please!" Vivian exclaimed running up to us.
"Where are they?" Dani asked.
"Where's my family?" Ainsley pushed.
"He's a monster!" Vivian sobbed.
"Stay with her. Put pressure on her wound." I instructed Dani and Ainsley.
"Sophie. With me." I urged.
"Martin! Malcolm!" I called as Sophie and I carefully cleared room after room.
"Malcolm!" I called his name again.
We came to a set of double doors.
"Martin! Malcolm! If you're in there, answer me!" I called before motioning for Sophie to open the door.
Inside, a heart rate monitor sat next to a gurney with straps. A chair with torn bindings sat off to the side. On a silver medical tray lay a syringe full of blood.
"They're gone." I said coming back into the foyer.
"There's a syringe down there full of blood. Agent Sanders is collecting the evidence so we can test it and confirm her story." I told Dani with Vivian well in earshot.
It took every ounce of self control I had to pretend I didn't know exactly what happened in that room.
"What do we do now?" Dani asked me quietly after the EMTs took over the work on Vivian.
"I think it's about time I take on The Surgeon." I answered solemnly staring out the window across the water.