The Secret Beneath The Waves

Chapter 24: "I loved her, I loved her, I loved her."

**Picture of Tony at the top of the page

Chapter Twenty Four: Evelyn Ramirez

Spencer was not entirely sure what happened next. Her vision seemed to tunnel, and she was unaware of her surroundings. She could faintly hear Tony, calling her name, but it seemed like they were both at different ends of a tunnel. His voice was faint and an echo.

Her life felt like it was spiraling out of control. It's your fault. She thought. It's your fault, since you were the one that dragged them all into this. You were the one that made everybody move to Chicago. This is YOUR fault.

Then in half a second, her vision cleared, and she was aware of her surroundings. Tony's hand was on her back, "Spencer, you need to calm down, okay?" he whispered. "Don't show any signs of attachment." Spencer nodded meekly, but the amount of despair she felt was nothing compared to Shawn. He would not let go of her hand. His hazel eyes seemed to carry an extra weight behind them. He murmured something very softly, over and over again. And Spencer swore it was: "I loved her,, I loved her, i loved her."

He hadn't stopped rocking back and forth, and Tony crouched next to him, keeping a hand on his shoulder, trying to get him to calm down. Tony himself looked like he was barely keeping it together. Involuntary tears were still flowing down Shawn's face, his cheeks glistening.

Then there was a BOOM. and the lady soon appeared again, Jane standing meekly at her side. Oliver was nowhere to be found.

Picking herself up, Spencer turned to face her."Where is he?" she asked quietly. The woman said nothing, but Jane opened her mouth, looking like she wanted to say something.

The woman only pointed at Spencer. "You," she said. Spencer was about to protest, a lot, but the look on Jane's face said otherwise. She followed, refusing to look back at Tony, and the broken person who had once been called Shawn.

Spencer was lead to a room, and shoved inside. "You must get some answers out of her, Jane," the woman said in a soft tone, yet is was a command.

The door closed, and she found herself in the room only with Jane. "There are no cameras in here," Jane whispered softly "Or recorders," and after that they stayed silent. Until they heard the sound of heels clicking away. Then all of Jane's thoughts spilled out of her like a waterfall. "I'm so sorry!" she pleaded. "I just n-needed the money. I didn't know what else to do. I-"

"You needed the money?" Spencer interrupted, an incredulous look on her face. "You work for the French branch of an extremely high-paying organization. Why the hell would you need money?" Unbelievable, Spencer thought, waving her hands around for emphasis. Jane was quiet for a minute, until her hand came to rest upon her abdomen. And then it dawned on Spencer, and felt like someone had just knocked her over with a boulder. "Because I'm pregnant." she said, her voice still only a hoarse whisper.

Spencer was speechless.

"For how long?"

"About one month"

"...and you couldn't think of any other way to get the money?"

"It was the only way to get money fast. It's the reason why Maxence was doing this as well."

They then lapsed into another long silence. Spencer sat against the wall, resting her head on her knees. Jane leaned against the wall, her hand not leaving her stomach.

"I'm sorry," Spencer said after a while. "I didn't know." she smiled slightly. "Aidan's gonna be the godfather."

"Yes," Jane nodded. She stopped leaning against the wall, "Oliver is not dead Spencer," she stated. "He is just being kept in another room, to try and fool you all. And..." she trailed off. Spencer looked at her, and Jane looked kind of lost. "There is a slight, slight possibility that...Adri may not be dead." Spencer looked at her, and she nodded once. "That woman, Evelyn Ramirez, she wants to get intel inside of the organization. She thinks that they sent you, but i know better. Andrew would never let you guys do this," she said, and Spencer nodded.

"She has not actually killed anyone. The gun has bullets that conceal a small electrode. Adri has been put into shock, essentially. She once worked for your New York department herself, but she will kill if she deems it necessary." Jane continued, her green eyes filled with dread. "Then we will not let her. We will escape and call in some sort of reinforcements." Spencer promised, and they left the room.

Being led to and from the big room to these small rooms was getting tedious, and pretty soon Tony, Shawn and Spencer were waiting, dizzy in anticipation of what was going to happen next. Shawn hadn't said a word since what happened to Adri, and during the time Spencer was being "interrogated" by Jane, the body had been removed. She didn't want to ask Tony in front of Shawn, who looked on the verge of collapsing again once more.

"We have to escape," Spencer decided. Shawn looked at her, "Not without Adri" he croaked out, and Tony looked at him with concern. "We won't leave her, but we do need to get out of here," he compromised. Shawn only nodded. "I want to kill her," he said. "I want to kill that woman for killing Adri,"

Spencer swallowed hard. Jane had been pretty hesitant to tell Spencer herself, not wanting to get her hopes up. She couldn't make Shawn hopeful only for him to possibly end up sinking even lower into depression.

Spencer got up, and started walking around the perimeter of the room, her hands tracing the walls. It seemed cliché, but there could be some trap door, or some kind of lever, that led them to somewhere that was hidden before. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tony doing the same thing on the opposite wall. Nothing, he mouthed to her, and she nodded her head in affirmation.

"The only way that we can leave, is by going out the way we came in," she pointed at the metal garage door. Tony went over to it, trying to lift it up, and the garage door creaked in protest, rising less than half an inch off of the marble flooring.

Walking over to him, they tried to lift it up together, the garage door now barely rose over an inch. "Maybe a lever of some kind," Ton mused. Spencer shrugged. Looking around the room, there was essentially nothing to use as a lever, (unless they used their shoes in some way).

Spencer turned on her heel, and walked back down the hallway. None of them had bothered to go in there, no one knowing what lay behind there.Trying all of the doors, she found on that was unlocked. Going inside, it looked like a simple bedroom, weirdly enough. There was a single white bed and a suitcase, shoved in the corner of the room. With a pang, Spencer realized it was a hospital room. This was an abandoned hospital. "We could try to take out the bolts from the headboard and foot of the bed," Tony suggested, having apparently followed her out. "Find Oliver first," she instructed. He nodded, "I'm taking Shawn with me," he said, and Spencer nodded. She was about to go further into the room, when Tony called out,

"Spencer?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't die"

"M-kay"

Tony rolled his eyes, jogging out of the room. Spencer then turned her attention back to the room. Head and footboards were the only option.

After what seemed like years, but in reality was about an hour, she had managed to take out the foot of the bed. It now sat at an angle, with bolts and screws strewn all over the hardwood. After another "year," the headboard was taken off as well, Spencer's fingertips were a bright red, from unscrewing the parts with her fingers.

Locking an arm under each of the pieces, she made her way back out the room, almost running into Tony, Shawn and Oliver.

There was dirt smeared across Oliver's cheek, which was surprising since the hallways were absolutely clean. Other than that, all three guys looked the same.

Making their way back, using Tony's shoes as a fulcrum, and placing both boards on top of the shoes, Spencer, Shawn and Oliver held up the garage door, able to raise the heavy door about about three inches off the ground. Then, Tony slid the lever under the door.

"Do you think it'll hold?" Spencer asked him. Tony shrugged, "It's the best thing we got," he said and was silent after.

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~Ananya Ramesh