My Split Conference

Even as a doctor, the smell of decomposing flesh wasn’t one that could be forgotten easily. Once picked up, it hung on the air, choking through lungs and a nose that wasn’t sure it wanted to breathe it in any longer.

It was an awful smell. It came across as a horrible mixture of rotten earth, putrid flesh, and something no longer human that had ceased to be part of the world that society tread upon.

JD debated between breathing in through his nose or his mouth. The bonus of breathing through the mouth was that he might not be able to pick up the scent anymore. On the other hand, it meant he tasted it instead, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to attempt that.

Perry still slept soundly underneath him, his heartbeat slow and steady against JD’s ear.

JD rolled his shoulders. They ached all over again, and he wasn’t sure if he should be grateful or not that he couldn’t sleep. When he slept, things flashed in front of his eyes.

Those twisted bodies in the basement weren’t going to be easily forgotten either. When he shut his eyes, they came to life and begged for him to save them. He was a doctor, wasn’t he? Couldn’t he do something for them? Wasn’t he supposed to help people?

JD resisted the urge to let his eyes slide shut in the darkness. The death was still in the air, mixed with the scents and odors of the bathroom. It was close to unbearable sometimes.

Still, JD kept going as the only other obvious alternative was to catch a bad case of not breathing. He sighed against Perry’s chest, and silently begged for this whole thing to end somehow.

It was the waiting, in the long run, that had begun to wear him down. Never mind the other things that were waiting to be dealt with.

JD stubbornly wiped his face against his shoulder. Thomas’s knife had been frightening, but the gun caused the real anxiety. A gun was somehow a more immediate threat then anything else.

After all, you couldn’t plausibly or efficiently shoot someone’s head off with a knife.

Perry didn’t open his eyes when alertness drifted over him in a hazy fog. He obligingly gave his body over to the anxious panic that made him wish he could shake. His throat was already tickling, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to stay "asleep" for much longer.

Before he coughed though, JD’s face had turned up to him. Perry gave him an odd frown in question of how the kid had known he was awake at all.

JD tilted his head towards Perry’s chest, and thumped his leg softly.

Perry conceded that with a nod as JD slid away from him for comfort’s sake. He sighed hard.

Thomas couldn’t keep them there forever…something had to give eventually, if not Thomas’s own mind.

Things were barely falling together as it was, and Perry found his mind trying to figure out just what horrors had gone on in this house that had taken Thomas to such a deranged level of violence. He knew it had something to do with the half-mummified bodies in the basement.

Perry sighed again. His head hurt, his shoulders hurt, his chest hurt, everything hurt right now. He almost debated making a racket so Thomas would at least drug him again, but he knew what a dangerous road that was to follow.

JD was staring at him again then, and Perry just shrugged in the darkness.

They knew it was only a matter of time before Thomas came back, and neither man fancied being topless again in the cold room.

Perry thought harder then, trying to figure out where Thomas could have possibly taken them. It couldn’t have been far from Arizona really, and since it was winter, that broadened the possibilities.

Hell, Northern California was known to get snow in the winter time.

Although, Perry could narrow it down to somewhere with a lot of wide open spaces. Looking around outside the house, Perry hadn’t seen any other houses for as far as he could see.

There had also been snow everywhere. Given the draft that was prone to running through the room as well, Perry wondered if he could assume that it was windy outside as well.

It was the footsteps that drew him up again, and he turned his hazy glance back to JD sharply.

Fingers drummed against the door again, a hummed nursery rhyme drifting over the dead air in the bathroom.

Perry felt his throat tighten, and his stomach dropped when he heard JD give an involuntary whimper. Still, Perry’s eyes flew to the bent nail in the wall.

Mirror fragments lay all over the floor, two candles flat on the countertop.

But when Thomas entered the room, he didn’t turn the light on. He did, however, have a small box with him. It looked very much like a gag-radio that emitted funny noises, or perhaps changed a voice to sound different. He looked proud of himself in the darkness, and the childish glee over his face was devoid of the inhuman quality.

"Eric told me to put this in here," Thomas said happily as he put the box on the countertop. "I made it myself. Wanna see what it does? Do ya?"

Perry swallowed hard, even though his relief washed over him coldly. If Eric or Thomas wasn’t in control, the other things may not happen.

"Yeah, Tommy," JD finally said quietly, hoping he didn’t frighten the man.

Thomas laughed gaily, and flipped a switch on the little box.

JD winced. A high-pitched frequency of rhythmic beeps pierced the air. It almost hurt, though Thomas didn’t seem to mind it.

Perry, however, looked as if he might kill something if it didn’t stop soon.

But Thomas clapped at them, jeering a laugh in their direction. "See, I knew you’d like it." He turned and began to leave the room, but stopped at the last minute. "And Eric says you can’t get out of the bathtub anymore. He says it’s because you were bad again for talking."

Thomas seemed to pause for a minute, but continued in the same tone. "Boy, I don’t know what you two are doing, but you should stop it." Then he turned again and left.

Perry felt like his ears would start bleeding if the beeping didn’t stop, but it still went. He struggled to release his wrists, but they wouldn’t budge.

JD moved in the bathtub, turning his back to Perry. He cupped his hands behind him.

Perry frowned for a minute, trying to figure out what the kid was trying to say.

JD turned to glare at him again, and stood in the tub. He backed up towards Perry until he could feel the dirty curls through his fingers. Then he separated his hands as much as possible and pushed them over Perry’s ears.

Perry got it then, and slowly lowered his head so JD could at least sit down while he helped. He felt bad that the pain in his head stopped a bit, but JD was still wincing.

JD struggled to compare it to the fast-paced beat of someone’s heart threatening to give out. It was a little higher then he remembered, but it made it easier to listen to.

Until he closed his eyes, and then he was back at the hospital, trying to save twisted mummies who had been dead for years.

XXXXXXXXXX

Thomas looked at them quietly in the darkness some time later. They didn’t always look at him either (though the older man was asleep).

The beeping didn’t bother him, not in the least. It had cost him precious time to let Tommy out to play for a while, but the kid was better with gadgets then he. It reminded him of bells, even, little bells that had used to hang on the basement door.

They had always rung when it opened.

Thomas shook his head. The younger man was staring at him now expectantly.

"What, Tom?"

"Why are you just standing there?"

Thomas didn’t feel obligated to reply, and he didn’t. The older man stirred beneath him slightly, but didn’t wake.

"Why won’t you let us go?"

Again, Thomas didn’t reply, and didn’t feel the need to. He felt, if nothing else, it was apparent enough to the two men in the bathtub.

"What happened to the bodies downstairs?"

Thomas did look up a bit at that, eyes gleaming in the dim lighting that came from the bedroom.

"They died."

JD resisted the urge to snort, no matter how uneasy the man’s presence made him. He finally settled for silence again, still holding his hands over Perry’s ears.

Thomas looked at them silently, even as the older man slowly rose from the floor of the tub. Now there were two sets of eyes, staring at him in frightened curiosity. He snatched the little box from the countertop, and left the room.

Perry looked at JD as Thomas returned a moment later.

Reluctantly, Perry couldn’t find it in himself to struggle when Thomas approached him with the needle. His body felt like it was on fire, and he had a headache to kill them all.

His mind reeled at the tiny jab he felt in his neck. He watched JD try to pull away, but Thomas grabbed his hair roughly and gave him the same treatment.

It was when Thomas placed blindfolds and gags on them both that JD struggled to focus through the thick fog of drugs.

Still, all he could figure was putting one foot in front of the other as he was pulled out first and his bonds were removed from his ankles.

Perry could still faintly hear the beeping as he struggled to figure out where JD was being taken.

"You move, he dies," Thomas said evenly.

The threat was enough after everything else, though Perry still felt sickness washing through him when he couldn’t tell where the kid was.

Still, about ten minutes later, Thomas returned and loosened the cording around Perry’s ankles. Perry debated briefly if he should struggle, but decided against it. He was weak, high, and desperate to not provoke Thomas into anger.

He could still faintly hear the beeping, but it sounded muffled. Perry stumbled down the stairs, and cold air blasted against his face as he was led out of the house and shoved into the backseat of a vehicle.

The gag caught his sigh of relief when he felt JD’s body next to his own. The younger man didn’t move though when Perry touched him. Blindly, Perry whipped his head around, a muffled question already on his lips.

He never finished, and felt something hard slam into the back of his skull.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jordan fisted her hands tightly in her lap, feeling alone and angry in the small police room. A cup of coffee sat in front of her, untouched. Elliot had taken Jack to day care that morning, but hadn’t been able to wiggle away from her shift at the hospital.

Jordan had tried not feel disappointed by this; she couldn’t make Elliot move stuff around just because she felt a little needy.

Lieutenant Jacobs came in, his face hard and almost impossible to read as he sat down.

"Miss Sullivan, there are a couple of questions I’d like to ask you about your ex-husband and the man he was abducted with."

"I’ve already told you everything I know about them."

"Were they…ah…romantically involved before they were taken?"

Jordan sidled a dangerously narrow look in his direction. "To the best of my knowledge, no."

"But you and your ex-husband are estranged?"

Jordan didn’t like the tone of voice the man had taken. "We see each other here and there. What are you getting at?"

"Miss Sullivan, do you think that this could possibly be their elaborate idea of a sick joke?"

Jordan felt something bubbling hard inside of her, and she dug her nails into her palms in an attempt to keep from hitting the man. She felt drops of wetness touch her fingers, trying to focus on it to balance her raging anger.

"You have got to be joking."

"Is it possible?"

Jordan stood slowly, balancing the heels of her hands against the cold, metal counter.

"You run out of ideas and ways to find them and all of the sudden, this is some lover’s quarrel?" Jordan asked, tone low and barely controlled.

"Miss…"

"Shut up." Jordan pressed her hands hard into the metal, feeling the wetness gather beneath her palms. "You can’t figure out how to separate your head from your ass and so you want to stand there and tell me that this is all because he wants to hurt me somehow? You have got to quite possibly be the worst, lowest excuse of a male to ever walk this earth. Tell me, when you were born, did you bite your mother’s head off or did you just beat her with your soft spot? I would have to be on the latter of the two considering your behavior today."

Jordan turned slowly, smears of blood staining the metal. She turned at the door. "You lousy excuse of a cop; you are going to be lucky if they put you on security watch at the chimp cage at the zoo by the time my lawyer is done with you."

She slammed the door behind her, frustrated tears already building behind her eyes. She got into her car and turned the radio on as loud as she could as she started the engine.

Some kind of loud rock blasted out of the speakers as she sped off. She gripped the wheel tightly as she drove back to her residence, remaining in the car to let the music abuse her ears into numbness.

When she was sure she wouldn’t hear herself, she let out a long, angry scream of rage.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Jordan nursed a hard drink when the door opened and Elliot walked in, sans Jack.

"Carla’s got him," Elliot told her, having not looked yet. "I think she’s trying to wean Turk with Jack, but I still don’t get why…what the hell happened?"

Jordan looked up, eyes bright with drink and her face pale. "They’re not going to find them, are they?"

Elliot shrugged in silence. "You know they might."

"False hope, Blondie. They’re not going to find them, are they?"

"Maybe not, but you can’t say for sure that they won’t. What happened at the police department today?"

Jordan snorted. "That place isn’t a police department; it’s a special building for idiots who like to play dress-up." She quickly relayed the basis of Lieutenant Jacobs’ newest theory.

Elliot looked at her in shock. "You’re…joking. You’ve got to be."

Jordan gave a suspiciously silly grin. "Does this look like the woman of a face who would lie to you?" She frowned. "That’s not right…"

"Okay, I think it’s time to put that down," Elliot said gently, reaching for Jordan’s glass.

Jordan jerked it back. "Oh, no, princess. You’re so not taking this drink from me." She wagged a wide finger that Elliot getting out of the way of it. "No, no, no…you take this drink and I’ll do more then spank you again."

Elliot’s fair cheeks turned slightly red. "I think you’ve had enough."

"I don’t think you’ve had enough…"

"Jordan, that doesn’t make any sense," Elliot said in slight exasperation. She had little toleration for smart-ass type drunks.

"So’s your face," Jordan smarted back and giggled suddenly. "Oh my god, I finally get the dumbest hospital in that stupid joke. Or something…like…that. Yeah."

Elliot sighed and only reached for the drink again. "Come on, let’s put the drink down now."

"No." Jordan clumsily stumbled to her feet, sloshing a bit of liquor on Elliot’s top. She looked at the now empty glass, and turned a mournful stare in Elliot’s direction. "Okay…I give up."

"What?"

"Why’s the scotch gone?" Jordan burst into giggles again and stumbled her way to the dimly lit kitchen to refill her glass.

Elliot sighed, running a hand through her hair as she followed her. Frick…she’s totally shnockered…

"Because you drank it all, it looks like," Elliot commented, noting that Jordan had made her way through the better half of a pint of liquor. "Why don’t we go to bed? You look sleepy."

Jordan glared at her suspiciously. "You’re just trying to get me to go to sleep."

"You’re still going to feel like hell in the morning."

"Just ‘cause I’m not sleepin’ with the guy doesn’t mean he’s not my friend," Jordan snapped at her, anger suddenly bubbling in her again. "He’s my kid’s father. I like him okay…just not enough to let him screw me anymore."

"I know."

"Sides…we all know he’s been lyin’ to himself since he met that whiny kid."

"Who’s that?" Elliot asked, slowly steering Jordan towards the bedroom, but still curious of what she had to say.

"The girl," Jordan muttered in frustration even as she walked into the bedroom and took a sip from her glass. "Calls him girls’ names. JP…DT…DJ. That’s it. DJ. Ever since that kid came into it, he’s never been the same again."

"They’re good friends."

"Oh please, princess," Jordan laughed, but it came out as a guffaw that Elliot wished she’d been able to record.

Even the infamous cool queen Jordan Sullivan could be off-her-rocker drunk.

"He’s been tryin’ to get into that kid’s pants for two years." Jordan finally put the drink down on the bedside table as Elliot stripped Jordan’s shirt from her body. She grinned in a leering fashion at the blonde. "Been tryin’ to get into yours since that stupid rape whistle incident."

Elliot’s face colored as she pushed Jordan down to sit on the bed. "I think it’s time for sleep."

Jordan grinned again in the same suggestive manner and grabbed a hold of Elliot’s shirt to tug her down to the bed with her.

"Bed’s a good idea. Sleep isn’t."

Elliot debated a minute; she made it a rule most of the time to never sleep with someone when they were drunk.

But under that laughing smile and giggling eyes, the desperation had come back and when Jordan touched her face, she felt light scabbing on the palms.

Elliot held Jordan’s hand out to look at, seeing the half-moon marks dug into Jordan’s palms.

"I was tryin’ not to punch the leader of the short-bus kids at the special people place."

Elliot figured she meant the cop and sighed. "I should put some rubbing alcohol on this. Don’t want it infected."

Jordan slapped away at Elliot’s concerned, capable hands. "Not now, Blondie." She tugged Elliot down for a sloppy, wet kiss on the mouth. "Not right now."

Elliot sighed as she lay down beside of Jordan. When the kiss turned more stable and even, Elliot realized Jordan had (finally) passed out.

"Oh, I don’t envy you in the morning," Elliot muttered and pushed her hair from her face again. She inspected the minor wounds on Jordan’s palms again, sighing at what it must have felt like to have a police officer say that the whole thing was a practical joke.

And Elliot could understand (a little at least) where Jordan was coming from on Perry’s end. Just because she didn’t love JD or sleep with him didn’t mean she was terribly worried about him as well.

Elliot gently pushed a few pieces of Jordan’s slightly-sweaty hair from her face. She slept soundly and deeply, smelling strongly of the liquor she had been drinking. Her expression was still tense in sleep, the lines of worry showing clearly upon her face.

As she pulled Jordan’s slacks from her hips, Elliot did give a reluctant thought. It would’ve been nice to simply forget everything for a while tonight, whether it was through liquor or sex.

Unfortunately, the two didn’t always combine well. Elliot stripped and pulled on a pair of loose pajama bottoms and a white camisole to wear to bed. She lay down again beside of Jordan, knowing the woman would have mocked her had she been awake.

Elliot could just hear it now, some smart-aleck remark that shoved away the building relationship between them. Elliot, for her part, struggled to distance herself as best she could.

She was still trying when Jordan’s eyes unexpectedly opened a few minutes later.

Jordan caught the hand that was stroking her face. She stared at Elliot hard for a minute, trying to focus on the concerned face in front of her.

"It’s too much," Jordan finally slurred out, and passed into sleep once more, releasing Elliot’s wrist.

Elliot stared at her as she flipped the lamp out and lay beside of her. She linked their hands on the pillow.

"Yeah. Way too much."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

When JD woke, the car was moving. The blindfold was still firmly in place, as was the dirty rag that had been stuffed into his mouth. He struggled not to cough around it, and settled for what he hoped sounded like a sleepy grunt. He was sprawled over the backseat of a vehicle, and Perry was lying on top of his hips.

And his head felt like someone had shoved an arrow through it.

JD could only assume by then that Thomas was driving them somewhere. To do what, JD couldn’t imagine. Still, his mind began to race with thoughts and ideas.

Once again, that small window of time was open to him to do something instead of wait around for Thomas to do something to them again.

Thomas whistled lightly in the front seat in that eerily calm mood of his.

Struggling a bit and rubbing his head as quietly as he could against the seat, the blindfold finally slipped from one eye.

Bright sunlight pierced in, making JD close his eyes again. He slowly opened them again and struggled to peer out the window.

The snow was gone, and they appeared to be on a highway of some kind. JD frowned; it looked familiar somehow.

Unfortunately, JD couldn’t figure out for the life of him why it looked familiar. He did have presence of mind enough to start figuring out the risks of intentionally frightening Thomas into a car crash.

But given that neither he nor Perry wore seatbelts, JD didn’t think it was the best idea he’d ever had. It might, however, beat wherever Thomas was taking them.

He felt slight movement above him, and the thought occurred to him that he may not be able to shift Perry’s weight away enough to do anything. The older man remained unconscious above him.

JD looked out the window again, struggling to figure out why the highway looked so familiar. The memory still didn’t come and JD sighed against the gag.

So it was back to the waiting game once more.

The waiting game, as it turned out, didn’t last long. The car came to a stop just as Perry was slowly waking up. JD struggled to push his blindfold back into place as the door behind his head opened.

Smelling salts were plunged beneath his nose, and this time, JD did cough into the dirty rag as he was jerked out of the car. He felt something land hard beside of him with a cough, and assumed that Perry had fallen to the cement as well.

"Alright, boys," Thomas said, and JD heard the cock of a gun. "End of the road, really. You two have been great fun, but you know, you’re just not that big a pleasure for me anymore. You don’t scream, you don’t hurt, and all you do is just stare around that goddamn room like I’ve hurt you or something."

JD felt his stomach shaking as he struggled to sit up. He scraped his face against his shoulder, but couldn’t find the right angle to push off the blindfold.

Perry had heard the cock of the gun too, and immediately stiffened up as he struggled to get to his feet.

"Now, I’ve left you somewhere where people who put up with you long enough to make you think they care can find you. Still, you should be dead by then I would imagine. It’s pretty early in the morning; I had to wait for the mail guy. I even delivered my last letter today."

Oh god, come on…no, he’s not…Perry’s thoughts were desperate and quick behind the pounding of his head as he struggled to work his mouth against the rag between his lips.

"You’re too weak to fix, and not willing to help yourselves," Thomas went on. "And I don’t need you to keep going anymore. So it’s time for the end of your world, the end of all voices, the end of all things. You really will be silent now."

JD mouthed against the rag, making incoherent noises and whimpers. He could vaguely heard mutters from Perry’s side as well.

And the waiting began when Thomas didn’t speak anymore, but the gun hadn’t gone off.

XXXXXXXXXX

Jordan decided who ever had invented liquor must die a slow, painful death that involved shoving said invention very far in the rear opening. She groaned against the pillow, arm flying out for Elliot.

Nothing was there, however, and Jordan was forced to open her eyes. Light made her shut them again, but she finally ran a tongue over her lips and dry mouth. Elliot must have gone to work.

Jordan sighed, last night’s bender catching up to her and her biological clock waking her before she wanted to be up. She stood, realizing she was only in her underwear.

With a groan, Jordan tried to remember what had happened last night, only feeling the residual effects of anger and hurt as she pulled sloppy clothes on so she could pick up the mail and the newspaper.

Rubbing a hand over her gritty face, Jordan grabbed a bottle of water on her way, debating whether she wanted to add any coffee to her already dehydrated system. Grumbling that she would never drink again, Jordan began to make her way to the elevator.

Still yawning and tired when she stepped off, she didn’t think to look where she was going and ran straight into a solid back of a skinny man.

"Christ, stand in the middle of the hallway would you?" Jordan snapped and turned to look.

The bottle of water hit the ground.

JD looked up, eyes still blinded and knocked Perry hard to the side to get him out of the way. He knew the female voice.

Jordan ducked away from the fist that was heading towards her, but the man seemed disinterested in her.

Perry was getting to his feet and running towards JD’s muffled sounds of JD's throat, struggling to form words of his own.

"This is the way the world ends," Thomas sang lightly, gun held up towards JD and Perry.

Jordan’s frightened glare went lost on the men as she struggled to make the decision of attacking the man and risking him firing out of fear, or by doing nothing and him shooting the weapon anyway.

Thomas glared at the two men, who were struggling to find his voice. "They all lie. It does end with a bang."

In one last desperate attempt, Perry struggled to shove JD to the side even though he couldn’t see. He thought he felt something contact his shoulder.

Jordan screamed as four shots pierced the air, hands clapping over her ears as she ducked to the ground again.

Thomas looked down at her idly. "Maybe it does end with a whimper."

One last shot sounded, and Thomas exited the apartment building calmly, tucking the handgun into his pocket as he went.

Looking up to the sky, he whistled lightly between his teeth and tongue, and headed for his car.

Continues with Chapter 10