[NRPG : In the office scene, I'm assuming that Zenya is still taking care of Valery and Vanessa is still recovering at St. Vincent's. I hope that that's not too much of an assumption.
lyrics in () come from - "Whole Lotta Trouble" by Stevie Nicks.]
RPG :
[Sunset II Apartments, 10:40 pm]
Leo took off down the hall after the person who had threatened to push Valery off of the balcony. As he entered the stairwell, he heard the familiar sound of a gun cocking from below and stepped back as a shot was fired. The sound was almost deafening in the enclosed stairwell, but was soon replaced by the sound of footsteps running down the stairwell. Knowing that he had almost no chance of catching the pusher that way, Leo retreated back into the building and took the elevator down. As he got off at the bottom floor, he flew out of the building in hot pursuit, only to see a dark sedan with no license plates taking off down the street. Leo jumped into his own car to give chase, only to lose the car 5 minutes later somewhere in the middle of D.C. Frustrated, Leo turned around and headed back towards St. Vincent's Hospital where Zenya and Valery would probably be.
[St. Vincent's Hospital, 12:20 am]
As Leo sat in the Waiting Area, his mind wandered back to what had occured over the past day. 24 hours hadn't even passed since they had returned from Boston when Rebecca Cross had tried to take them out. It seemed very convenient how she had Zenya's cell phone number, and how she apparently knew where Leo lived. She seemed to have just a little too much information, and this bugged Leo to no end. How could she have gotten all of this info? Where was Ted and who was this mystery pusher? Who would be her next target?
No sooner than those thoughts passed through his mind, Zenya came walking back into the waiting area. She looked totally exhausted, the events of the past few weeks suddenly catching up to her. Leo got up and crossed the waiting area towards her.
"Zenya. How is he?"
Zenya snapped out of her thoughts and gave Leo a small smile. "He'll be fine, they're going to take him to surgery to dig out the bullet."
Leo frowned at this. "I must be getting old. A year ago that shot would've gone clean through. Maybe I should look into getting myself some bifocals."
This got the desired chuckle from Zenya as she just stood there and shook her head. A moment later, a tear escaped from Zenya's eye as the weight of the past month caught up with her. Her capture and near escape from Rebecca Cross, the encounter with the unknown agents in Boston, her finding out about Leo's ties to her family's bombing, Docker, and now this, Valery nearly being killed by Rebecca. Everything seemed to have rushed up on Zenya in that one moment as she began to cry. Leo, never one to be comfortable around crying women, just stepped forward and held Zenya as her tears fell on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry." Zenya said, a few minutes later as she wiped the last of her tears from her face. "I didn't mean to go to pieces like that."
"Sshhhhh..." Leo replied as he handed her his handkerchief. "It's been a rough time for all of us."
Zenya nodded as she recomposed her self. "Thanks again, Leo."
"Anytime." Leo looked back at her with his half-smile. "Are you going to need anything from your place? I'm assuming that you'll probably stay the night here."
"Umm... no, I won't need anything." Zenya said, "what are you going to do?"
"Research." Leo said, as he waved to Zenya before leaving the waiting area.
[JEH, Zulu Office. Two days later.]
The next couple of days were a blur to Leo, as he dug into everything he could think of to find out who Rebecca was and what her next move might be. It didn't take long as he was later informed of Vanessa's boyfriend, then the attempt on Martin's girlfriend and Jim's young friend. Rebecca seemed to want to get everyone where they hurt the most. The only ones that she didn't get to yet were Jordan and Leo, until the phone call that just came through on Jordan's phone. That left only Leo.
"What's wrong, Jordan?" Jim asked, seeing the expression of surprise on Jordan's face.
Leo looked at Martin and shrugged as Jordan went to his desk to continue his conversation. Leo then went to his own computer in order to see if any of his searches came up with anything. He saw a message from Caretaker who found out about Rebecca, Ted, and Thaddeus Cross and their companies, Crosstech Inc, Crossline communications, Cross International. As Jim read the information over Leo's shoulder, he gave off a low whistle.
"We're dealing with some pretty powerful hitters." he said.
"Yeah." Leo agreed, "But this time, they picked the wrong people to hit."
Jordan soon rejoined the group and told them that he had to go check up on his sister.
"Does Rebecca have her also?" Martin asked.
"No, but she's pregnant." Jordan said, as he headed out of the door, leaving the other three agents looking after him with confusion. As soon as he left, Martin decided to go back to make sure that Emily was okay, while Jim said he was going to spend some time with Barney. With nothing to do but wait, Leo decided that he would do it at home.
As soon as he stepped into his apartment, Leo knew that something was wrong. Everything seemed to be in place, but yet it wasn't. All of a sudden, his phone began to ring. Shutting himself in, he went over to answer the phone, fully expecting it to be Rebecca Cross on the other side. He wasn't disappointed in the least.
[Hello, Leo. Long time no see.]
"What do you want, Rebecca?" Leo asked. All of a sudden, his CD stereo system kicked on with a CD in and playing. It sounded like one of his Stevie Nicks CD's were in and was playing.
(Would you change your mind at the very last moment, would you say stop for a second, so that you could think for a minute?)
[Do you like my selection, Leo?]
"It doesn't matter, now does it? What do you want?"
[You were probably the hardest one of your team for me to try to hurt, not having any close relatives nearby, no family to protect. It must be a very lonely life.]
"I manage. Sorry to disappoint you so much."
[Sarcasm doesn't fit you well, Leo. Ever since Santa Fe, You've been a real pain in the ass for me. You messed up my sacrifice timetable and you stopped my brother from pushing that boyfriend of Zenya's to his untimely death. You are a thorn in my side and I think I want you dead.]
(When I want something, I get it. Well, this could be a whole lotta trouble, a whole lotta trouble for you.)
For a while, Leo contemplated if her timing was just impeccable or had she planned it this way. "Well, you know where to find me. You could try to kill me, but I don't think you'll have too much success."
[You should never underestimate me, Leo. I've already got you and you just don't know it yet.]
(You could be my prisoner, well you're not living in the real world, not living in the real world)
At this, Leo looked into his kitchen at the microwave as he saw that it was on and counting down. It was currently at 3:12 and counting. Then he saw something else in the microwave, a red dot slowly tracing it's way across towards his head. As he dove towards the floor, 3 shots rang out and Leo heard his window blow in.
[Still fast as ever, Mr. Jones. But not fast enough, you're still a dead man.]
(You're not my friend, You're not my love. And this is something that we don't discuss. Where are you? Sometimes I hear you crying and I wake up, and I get through it.)
"We'll see about that, Rebecca."
(Well, this could be a whole lotta trouble, whole lotta trouble baby, a whole lotta trouble for you)
[Yes, we'll see, won't we?]
"Be careful, I'm coming after you and your baby." Leo said, laughing a little as he heard a sharp intake of breath on the other side of the line. All of a sudden, the room was alive with the sound of automatic fire.
[Goodbye, Mr. Jones.]
Everything seemed to be exploding around Leo's body as bullets tore into every single breakable thing that Leo owned. Leo crawled towards the the door and managed to get clear into the hall as he heard his microwave finish and his apartment exploded into a massive fireball. Leo was already down the hall and into the elevator as he noticed the flames flaring out of his apartment.
"Well, the hunt is on." Leo thought to himself as he entered his car and took off onto the streets of D.C.