Chekhov's Gun

Story: Chekhov's GunStorylink: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10054842/1/Category: IntelligenceGenre: Hurt/Comfort/FriendshipAuthor: ScottishLauraAuthorlink: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/2178619/Last updated: 05/22/2014Words: 26665Rating: K+Status: In ProgressContent: Chapter 1 to 19 of 19 chaptersSource: FanFiction.net

Summary: A series of oneshots and drabbles with Riley and Gabriel. Ideas from random prompts I find - lots of whumpand hanging out. Chapter Nineteen: Trip. "Lillian, it hurts that you think I'm a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy."

*Chapter 1*: Headache

While I'm still not entirely happy with this fic, I feel the Intelligence fanfiction is lacking, and I have nothing better todo at the moment. So, please enjoy, tell me what you think and send many prompts and ideas. I'm running out ofthings to work with! I also only vaguely proof read this, so apologies for any mistakes.

-Scottie.

Headache

Riley knew it was going to be a bad day the moment she woke up. The dull throbbing at her temples that she knewwould only intensify as the sun rose further into the sky was already sending waves of nauseating pain through her skull,and it was all she could do to roll over and pull a cool pillow over her head.

The blaring of her alarm not five minutes later just intensified the hate she had for every single thing in the world at thatpoint in time. She aggressively smacked the button on the top of the clock and instantly regretting it, groaned and curledinto a tight ball and massaged her temples. The fact that it was Sunday only made the pain a little better, but Riley hadplanned to finish unpacking her boxes today. After the busy few weeks since she'd moved in, there were still boxes ofclothes, utensils, books and cutlery sitting around that she simply hadn't had the time to unpack.

Riley was almost considering uncurling herself briefly to hunt down some painkillers, but after deciding they wereprobably in one of the unpacked boxes, she decided against it, instead reaching for the phone on the bedside table,turning it to silence and hoping that she could sleep it off.

A sharp knock and someone calling her name from the direction of the front door stirred Riley from her sleep.

"Riley, you here?" She groaned. She'd forgotten Gabriel had offered to come and help her finish unpacking. "Riley?" Hecalled again. His voice was in her apartment, so he had clearly managed to break in somehow. "Riley?" His voice wassofter this time, but she could tell he was at the bedroom door. She felt the mattress dip at her knees, and the pillowcovering her head began to slide away. Riley reached up to the pillow to keep it where it was, not wanting any lightexposure. Gabriel seemed to understand, and he stood. Riley could hear his light footsteps move through the roombefore disappearing but returning shortly. The mattress dipped again, and Gabriel spoke quietly.

"The curtains are closed, and the lights are all off," he said, attempting to prise Riley's fingers off the pillow so he couldremove it. Riley eventually gave in, uncurling her fingers and allowing the pillow to slide away. She rolled onto her backand cracked an eye open.

"Not unpacking today," she mumbled, her words sending a rush of dizziness through her. Gabriel laughed quietly.

"I didn't think so," he whispered in response. "Do you have any painkillers?" He asked, and Riley felt the mattress shift ashe stood up again. Riley shook her head, to dizzy and nauseous to attempt to form a coherent sentence. "I'll go getsome. I'll be back in twenty minutes." Riley groaned and rolled back onto her side, one arm flopping over the edge of thebed.

That was how Gabriel found her seventeen minutes later, when he returned with painkillers, ice cream and a book.Putting the ice cream in the freezer, he filled a glass with water and tipped two of the tablets onto his palm.

Stepping into Riley's room again, Gabriel placed the water on the table next to the bed, the pills next to the glass and heplaced a gentle hand on Riley's shoulder. She groaned again and pulled an arm over her face.

"Riley, can you sit up for a few minutes? I have drugs." The potential for pain relief forced Riley to attempt to sit up,leaning heavily against the headboard. Gabriel pushed the pills into one hand and the water into the other. When shehad swallowed them - and finished the water, at Gabriels' insistence - she immediately slumped back down.

"Try and get some more sleep," Gabriel whispered, pulling a sheet up over her shoulders. "You'll feel better when youwake up." Riley just blinked at him before moving into a comfortable position and closing her eyes. Gabriel smiled andleft to read his book.

A few hours later, Gabriel heard the creaking of the bedroom door.

"Gabriel?" Riley's soft voice could be heard from the door. He looked up from his book.

"Feeling better?" He smiled as she walked into the room and planted herself onto the couch. She nodded.

"A little. Less throbbing, more nausea." Gabriel smiled again.

"Ice cream?" He asked, gesturing toward the kitchen. Riley looked confused.

"I don't have any." Her comment trailed off when Gabriel stood and walked into the kitchen, returning shortly with bowls,spoons and a container of ice cream. He set them down on the coffee table and offered the ice cream to Riley.

"It always made Amelia feel better," he shrugged at the unasked question on Riley's lips. "Figured it'd be worth a shotwith you." Riley smiled sadly and reached for the ice cream. Leaning back into the couch and taking a bite of the icecream, she smiled again.

"You're right," she said. "Ice cream works well." Gabriel winked.

"Knew it."

They sat on the couch for the rest of the day, the TV playing softly in the background. Riley dosed up on painkillersanother few times, falling asleep for a few hours every time she did until finally it was 9:20, and they did have to go towork tomorrow. Gabriel stretched as he stood up, knees and shoulders cracking from long hours of inactivity.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Gabriel called as he put the ice cream back in the freezer and opened the apartment door. Rileynodded, smiling. "And call me if you need anything." She rolled her eyes.

"I'll be fine," she called. "Thanks for…helping." Gabriel nodded.

"Anytime."

Review and stay tuned for the next drabble!

*Chapter 2*: Bleed

Kudos to everyone that followed or favourited so far! Also thanks to GailHollyDovChloe, halaA, yagmuysu,GabrileyLuvrrrr, Burt00, krazyy989, Halle Alexis and Brocattie for the reviews. Extra special kudos to diana-of-walesfor the review and influx of ideas, some of which I will start work on when my current list of prompts runs dry!

Anyway, without further ado, here is a shorter fic to keep everyone going until next week! I may add another onelater this week, but I dislocated my wrist rock climbing yesterday, so we'll see how much typing I can actually do.

Enjoy!

-Scottie.

Bleed

They were just doing some hand to hand combat training while they waited for the intel on the mission to come in. It wasLillian's idea - Gabriel had been pacing around, waiting impatiently and he begun bickering with Riley. Lillian had beenabout to snap and yell at the two of them and so she suggested that they go and do something productive.

They had immediately agreed, Riley was just happy to get out of the briefing room where everyone was on their toeswaiting, and Gabriel seriously needed to burn off some energy.

"I don't want to hurt you," Riley teased as they kicked their shoes off and emptied their pockets. Gabriel grinned.

"You're not going to hurt me," he replied. "I'm too good for that." Riley rolled her eyes and they each took their stancesacross from each other. For a quarter of an hour, they traded blows, blocking some and making contact on others. Theyweren't trying to hurt each other, but they both knew the other had the capacity to if it came to it.

Riley was close to calling it quits another ten minutes later, and just as she ducked under and away from one ofGabriel's feet that had been aimed for her head, his elbow followed through and connected with her nose. Riley head acrunch, immediately followed by the warm trickle of blood. Gabriel swore.

"Are you alright?" He asked, placing a hand on her shoulder and tilting her chin upwards so he could see. Riley nodded.

"Yeah, I'm good. I don't think it's broken." Gabriel nodded.

"We best get that blood to stop before Lillian calls us back in." Riley nodded, and Gabriel jogged to where he haddropped his jacket earlier, fishing some tissues from a pocket. As Riley accepted them, she grinned.

"Didn't think you were the type to carry tissues around." Gabriel shrugged. "What are you, an old lady?" Gabriel shook hishead.

"Nah, for a while after they put the chip in, I'd get nosebleeds all the time. Thought it was a good idea to carry them, just incase." Riley nodded.

"Clearly it was." They fell into silence as Riley pinched her nose closed to stop the blood flow. After a few minutes, andunder Gabriel's direction, Riley unpinched her nose to see if the bleeding had stopped. Satisfied that it had, Gabrielstood, pulling Riley to her feet before pulling on shoes and jackets and refilling pockets. Just as Riley had pulled her armthrough the second sleeve of her jacket, Gabriel motioned that they needed to go.

"Intel has come through, we gotta go." Riley just nodded and the two hurriedly returned to the briefing room.

"Alright, so according to our agent in Pakistan-" Lillian turned to face Riley and Gabriel. "What the hell did you do,Gabriel?" Gabriel held his hands up in surrender.

"It was an accident," he started. Lillian rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, our agent in Pakistan has managed to break into the terrorist cell…"

Don't forget to review! Concrit is welcome!

*Chapter 3*: Candle

Hello again, readers! Before I let you get to the story, I want to thank Burt00, krazyy989, KongLiu, halaA,Confidential Brunette, GabrileyLuvrrrr, yagmuysu, TabbyHazelEyes, Halle Alexis and jemsimmons for the reviews!Also thanks to everyone that has followed/favourited since last time I thanked you all.

Anyway, I actually had a few people suggest this (or a similar) idea, but I had already written this before I publishedthe first chapter. Otherwise I'd credit you for the prompts.

-Scottie.

Candle

It had been a long week at Cyber Command, so when Friday afternoon finally rolled around and there were no pressingthreats to the country, Riley was glad to finally be able to get home and eat junk food and sleep. The week had includedGabriel, as usual, dragging Riley into a number of fights, one of which had involved her being thrown down two flights ofstairs, and an unhappy trip to the hospital. Fortunately, she had been cleared of any serious injuries, and had been ableto return to work sporting a black eye, bruised ribs and a sprained wrist.

Riley sighed as she unlocked the door of her apartment and pushed the door open, kicking off her boots and sheddingher jacket before closing the door and flopping onto the couch, her socked feet resting on the coffee table. She had justturned the TV on and had begun flicking through channels when the lights flickered a few times before they andeverything else electronic turned off. Riley groaned and pushed herself off the couch and began hunting for a flashlightso she could go and check the fusebox. She had just found one and was looking for fresh batteries when her phonerang.

"Gabriel, if we have a case, I think I might actually kill you." Riley heard a laugh at the other end of the line.

"Actually," Gabriel replied, "My power has gone out, and assuming yours has as well, I was going to invite you over. I haveChinese and a laptop with a full battery." He laughed again. "But if you're going to kill me, I may rethink that offer." Rileyrolled her eyes.

"Well seeing as we don't have a case, I think you're off the hook."

"Good. So you'll be here in five minutes?" Gabriel's voice trailed off as he waited for her response.

"Give me ten and I'll bring my DVD collection."

"It's a deal."

So that was how fifteen minutes later, Riley was seated on Gabriel's couch, Chinese food in hand and a huge stack ofDVD's between them.

"Why do you have so many movies?" Gabriel asked. "I thought you'd've been too busy protecting the President to havefree time." Riley shook her head.

"We work in shifts," she replied. "I got the nice daytime and family event shift. Which means I had plenty of time formovies after work." She took a bite of whatever food Gabriel had shoved into her hands earlier. "Why did you order somuch food?" She asked, noting the collection of dishes both on the coffee table and the counter in the kitchen. Gabrielshrugged.

"Lunch," he replied vaguely. "Now, let's pick a movie."

After much deliberation, they eventually settled on a movie they'd both enjoy and found a comfortable position to watchfrom. But it had been a long and difficult week, and less then an hour in, Riley's eyes kept sliding shut before she wouldforce them open, and the dialogue in the movie was making less and less sense. Sometime between Riley's eyessliding shut and her opening them again, Gabriel had shifted, slinging one arm around Riley's shoulder, and allowingher to use his chest as a pillow. She knew she would regret it later (both her ribs, and the teasing from Gabriel for fallingasleep in the movie), but she was tired and it seemed to be a good option.

Next thing Riley knew, it was morning, and somehow she had gotten wedged between Gabriel and the cushions of thecouch, yet no matter how much she tried to get out (without waking Gabriel), she couldn't. Sighing, and wrapping an armas best she could around her now very sore ribs, she stared up at the ceiling while she waited for Gabriel to wake up.But before long, the sun started to creep through the open curtains, and he begun to stir. One arm tightened around

Riley's shoulders, and she had to admit that she hadn't noticed it was there. Gabriel's grip tightened further, and hepulled Riley into his chest before his other arm curled around her waist.

"Gabriel," Riley whispered. "Gabriel wake up." She put a hand on his chest to try and push him off. "Gabriel!" Shewhispered sharply." She grinned as he startled awake, his eyes looking at the surroundings before landing on Riley's.

"I guess we fell asleep last night," he said, not trying to hide the grin on his face at Riley's attempts to free herself.

"I guess," she replied. "Will you let me up?" She stopped her attempts for a moment to watch him.

"Suppose I'd better," he replied, his grip loosening slightly. "After all, you're late for your Saturday morning jog." Gabrielgrinned at Riley's gasp.

"No seriously," she replied, wincing at the pain through her ribs. "Let me go." He didn't relent, and Riley winced again."Ribs, Gabriel!" Gabriel suddenly remembered, and he released her so quickly that he almost slid off the couch.

"Crap, sorry," he mumbled. "Are you alright?" Riley nodded.

"Yeah, I'm good." Gabriel pushed himself from the couch and stood, arching his back and stretching his neck andshoulders.

"Coffee?" He asked, padding toward the kitchen.

"If the power's back on, that'd be great." Riley replied as she pushed herself to a seated position, arms curled protectivelyaround her ribs. Gabriel turned and smiled from across the kitchen.

"Looks like we're in luck," he winked before turning back to the coffee.

Please review! As always, feel free to PM me or add ideas in the reviews! Any and all are welcome, and you will getmentioned for it.

*Chapter 4*: Nightmare

So I played pretty well at cricket this weekend (with my wrist heavily strapped and drugged with painkillers), and justhad a pretty good weekend all around, so I felt it was a good time to post another fic. This one is a bit shorter again,but there are a few coming up that are longer than usual. As usual, reviews and ideas are welcomed!

As usual, thanks to Confidential Brunette, cookycrazy, krazyy989, Halle Alexis, CelticCrossings, TabbyHazelEyes,Burt00, Blue Obsidian Butterfly, Kong Liu, Janani, halaA, GabrileyLuvrrr and for reviewing the last chapter!

Also, at the moment, I have no idea if I actually ship these two together, seeing as there's only been a few episodesso far. As the season progresses, I may end up shipping, but for now, I really enjoy writing these guys as friends.

-Scottie

Nightmare

Gabriel woke with a start at the sound of what he thought was someone yelling. Rolling over, he checked the clockbeside the unusual bed of the safe house and groaned at the time. He lay awake for a few more minutes, wondering if itwas just his imagination, or he'd somehow opened a sound clip while he was asleep. When he heard nothing, hesighed and rolled onto his side. Fully intending to go back to sleep, he jerked awake again from the edge of sleep atanother yell. This time, he was able to pinpoint the sound to the room adjacent to the one he was in.

Rubbing his eyes, Gabriel rolled out of the bed and reached for his gun, just in case. He quietly pushed open the doorand listened, his ear next to the door. At another shout, this time more muffled than the last, he knocked on the door.

"Riley, are you ok?" She didn't respond, so he knocked again. "Riley?" Hearing nothing, he pushed the door open andstepped inside, checking for any intruders. He glanced over at Riley as he did, noticing she was still in bed, the sheetstangled around her ankles, and she was thrashing around.

Gabriel quickly tucked his gun into the waistband of his shorts and hurried across to Riley. He pinned one arm to herside as he tried to wake her, but had no luck. Deciding there was no other way, he pinned her other arm and knelt on thebed, forcing her legs to be still.

"Riley," he yelled. "Wake up!" She struggled against him a while longer, but soon her movements slowed, and her eyesopened.

"Gabriel?" She whispered, confused. She noted the tangled sheets around her feet, and the way Gabriel was pinning herand suddenly the nightmare rushed back. Forcing back tears and the ball of terror forming in the pit of her stomach, Rileytried to roll away from Gabriel.

"Nightmare?" He asked gently, releasing her limbs and moving to sit on the other half of the bed. Riley just nodded,rolling away from him. She clearly didn't want to talk about it, so Gabriel supposed he should go. "Will you be OK?" Rileynodded, and Gabriel clambered off the bed. "I'll see you later in the morning then." She didn't respond, and Gabrielpadded over to the door.

"Wait," Riley called weakly after him. "Can you stay?" Gabriel looked over his shoulder to her, and the still terrified look onher face told him he couldn't refuse. He nodded, and returned to the bed. He lay down on the unoccupied side, ignoringthe fact the sheets and blankets were in no way effective anymore. Tucking one arm under his head, he glanced over atRiley who had rolled over to face him. He smiled, and moved so they were facing each other.

"Night, Gabriel," Riley said, her eyes fluttering closed.

"G'night, Riley." He replied, his following close after.

When Gabriel woke the next morning, he noted that they had moved throughout the night, and had somehow ended upnestled together. Riley had one hand folded under her head, the other pressed against Gabriels chest while he had anarm splayed against her waist. Riley began waking as well, and she rolled further into the warmth of Gabriel's chest. Hereyes blinked open slowly and she took in her surroundings.

"Morning," Gabriel mumbled. "Sleep well?" She looked up at him.

"I've slept better." She yawned. "Coffee?" Gabriel grinned and they separated.

Don't forget to review!

*Chapter 5*: Unbind

Greetings, internet! I bring you a new fic! This one could be a little heavy for some people, but I didn't get toodescriptive with anything. Just deals with a little kidnapping and post-kidnapping injuries.

Anyway, thanks to everyone that favourited and followed since the last chapter, and kudos to ConfidentalBrunette,Kong Liu, , TVDFan4Ever, GabrileyLuvrrr, BluEbeRRi304, cookycrazy, Burt00, HalaA, Schotia, ShortyStarRose, Waylo,chymom and carylshipper101 for the reviews!

I again want to thank diana-of-wales for sending me another pretty huge list of ideas this week. If anyone else hassome, please. Send them. I am still injured with nothing to do during the week and running out of ideas pretty quickly.

And if anyone can tell me what the Chekhov's Gun use in the episode was (105) you can have a free internet highfive!

Enjoy the chapter, and stay tuned for more!

-Scottie.

Unbind

"Riley?" Gabriels voice echoed through the tunnels. "Riley, call out if you can hear me!" He was vaguely aware of shoutsfrom other agents, but he wasn't listening. Franticly, Gabriel pushed every single door open, without a care for his ownsafety, searching for his missing protector.

"She's in here!" A shout from across the tunnel, and Gabriel set off at a sprint, pushing people out of the way. He wassecond through the door, and first to Riley.

"Riley?" He whispered, kneeling down in front of her. She was tied to a metal chair, heavy ropes around her torso andshins, and her wrists were handcuffed behind her back. Both ankles were tied to a chair leg, and there was a gag in hermouth and a blindfold over her eyes. "Riley, it's Gabriel." He gently reached up and pushed the gag out of her mouth,relieved to hear her breathing. He carefully untied the blindfold, careful not to pull any of her messy hair as he did. Heknelt back down in front of her and tilted her chin up so he could see her face.

"Gabriel?" Riley croaked his name and cracked her non swollen eye open.

"It's me," he replied. "We found you." Riley smiled tiredly, her eye falling closed again.

Gabriel quickly set to work untying the ropes from around her torso, frowning at how tightly they had been pulled. As soonas he released the knot and the rope dropped, Riley fell into a coughing fit, her arms straining from their position cuffedat her back. He moved onto the ropes around her legs, and then to the handcuffs. He reached into his pocket and quicklypulled out a lock pick set and made quick work of the lock, releasing the mechanism almost instantly. Riley was stillcoughing, her breaths coming as wheezes, and Gabriel moved to face her again, tilting her chin so she was lookingdirectly at him.

"Riley, I need you to focus. Injuries?" She frowned and coughed violently a few more times before replying.

"Ribs," she mumbled. "Definitely broken." She paused, trying to work out which parts of her body hurt more than others."Shoulder might be dislocated. Collarbone hurts pretty bad. And my ankle is pretty messed up as well." Gabriel nodded.

"Anything else?" Riley nodded.

"Everything hurts." She forced herself to look up again. "But I'm good."

Riley passed out a few minutes later, but the paramedics had arrived just in time.

"Serious bruising to the torso," one called. "No chest sounds on the right. She's got a collapsed lung. I gotta relieve thepressure." The second paramedic nodded.

"Wait 'till we're on the road and I'll call it in." The paramedics were instantly moving again, and before Gabriel could evenblink they had a neck brace around Riley's neck, and had transferred her onto the stretcher.

"Where are you taking her?" Gabriel didn't hear the response as the doors slammed shut, so he instead raced out to thevan he had arrived in, and followed the ambulance. He'd delete all the speeding fines later.

It was four hours before anyone would give him any news. He had asked every half hour until the nurse stopped givinghim sympathetic looks and told him that when they had anything to tell him, the Doctors would be out. But four hours andseventeen ignored phone calls later, a Doctor came out, ushering him to a private room.

"The paramedics notified me she is an agent, so I though it best I tell you what's going on somewhere private." Gabrielnodded.

"Is she gonna be alright?" He asked, ignoring the slip of desperation in his voice. The Doctor smiled.

"She's going to be fine." Gabriel sighed in relief. "She has some severe injuries, and she'll have to be here for a fewweeks, but we're confident that she will make a full recovery." Gabriel smiled.

"So what were the injuries?" It was the Doctor's turn to sigh. He peered at his clipboard.

"She has seven broken ribs, two of which caused the pneumothorax the paramedics treated in the ambulance, afractured collarbone and a dislocated ankle. She also has some severe facial bruising, and a significant stab wound onher thigh. She's very lucky to be alive with a wound like that. She could have bled out days ago, it might have hit a nerve,but fortunately it only injured muscle, and there should be no serious complications with that." Gabriel nodded, and letout another relieved breath.

"Can I see her?" The Doctor nodded.

"She is sleeping at the moment, she's been heavily sedated, and we'd like to keep it that way for a few days until shestarts to recover, but you may see her." Gabriel thanked the doctor, and after getting directions, he hurried down thecorridors to Riley's room.

As he pushed the door open, his step faltered. He forced himself to breathe as he took in the sight of Riley. She waspale, much paler than usual, the sling on her left arm starkly contrasting with the white of the rest of the room. One eyewas swollen, and Gabriel could see scratches and cuts across her cheeks. He dragged a chair across the room andflopped down in it, not sure what to do now that there was no danger.

Gabriel stood after a half hour of fidgeting, and began pacing through the room. His phone was still vibrating in hispocket, but he ignored it again. He didn't know what to say. It was his fault Riley had been taken - a case they wereworking had gotten too close for comfort to a crime lord, and then Riley was taken while she was out on her run on Fridaynight.

Gabriel and Lillian hadn't realised Riley was missing until Monday morning when she didn't show up on time and herphone kept ringing out. Instantly, Gabriel had hacked his way into the CCTV around her apartment and found the footageof her leaving, but never coming back. He tracked her run through more CCTV footage until finally he found her.

She had been jogging past a park, streetlights lighting her way as the sun had dipped under the horizon. Up ahead, oneof the streetlights flickered a few times before going out. Riley assumed it was nothing, just a b lown globe or short circuit.But when she approached the spot which was no longer lit up, a noise to her right alerted her to a problem. Riley spuntowards the noise, searching for any disturbances. She didn't notice a person moving behind her until something wasswung into the back of her knees and she dropped to the ground. She grunted and rolled back to her feet, fists raised. Aperson masked in b lack lunged towards her, and she sidestepped him, throwing him into the ground with a crunch.

Riley was on full alert now, and as she saw more b lack masked people approaching, she knew it was time to leave.Taking off at a sprint, Riley headed back towards her apartment, knowing there was a few back routes she could take ifneeded.

Her plan was cut short however, and as she rounded the corner she was shoved to the ground, and she felt her anklesnap as she landed. Groaning, Riley attempted to push herself up, only to receive what felt like a boot to her ribs. Shedropped back to the ground and curled into a ball as more contact spattered her sides and head. A solid b low to hertemple, and she b lacked out.

They had been sent an encoded email shortly after noon on Monday requesting 20 million US dollars for Riley's life.Gabriel had tried to trace the sender, but it had been sent in an Internet Cafe which had no security footage. So they hadgone along with the request, setting up a meet, and loading 20 million fake US dollars into a van. Gabriel drove, andNelson had linked him in with a heat satellite showing the numbers inside the building. Coverage was spotty, though,and they could only see those inside the main areas, any side rooms were invisible.

So Gabriel had gone to the meet, managed to get inside the building (which he discovered was an old tunnel) and thenall hell broke loose. Twenty other agents stormed in, taking out every enemy in sight, and then they paired off to search

the side rooms.

Gabriels phone vibrated in his pocket again, and this time he pulled it out. Swiping the screen, he reluctantly answered.

"Lillian." A relieved sigh could be heard from the other end of the line.

"Gabriel, what happened? We've been calling you for hours." He shrugged. "How is Riley?" Gabriel scrubbed a handacross his face.

"She's going to be alright. Doc said she's been beat up pretty bad and she'll be sedated for a few days, but she's goingto be ok." Gabriel heard Nelson sigh and yell an "Oh thank God" in the background.

"And the crime syndicate?"

"Gone. Everyone that was in that building was either killed or captured." Gabriel could almost hear the approving nodfrom Lillian.

"Good. Get some rest, Gabriel. She's going to need you when she wakes up." Lillian hung up, and Gabriel dropped thephone to his lap. He sighed again and stood up, dragging a second chair to where he was seated beside Riley's bed.Flopping down again, he put his feet up in the chair and leaned back, folding his arms across his stomach and closinghis eyes.

Please review!

*Chapter 6*: Snowflake

This is another long-ish one for you guys! It sorta got away from me when I was writing it.

My usual thanks go out to Captain America, johnnyreag, Burt00, TVDFan4Ever, Halle Alexis, Confidential Brunette, ,HalaA, Shaneaadialevesque, GabrieleyLuvrrr, Kong Liu, LovingMuldhart4ever, dontstopthelove15, 3 and guest for thereviews, and also to those that review earlier chapters as well. And muchas gracias for all the new favourites andfollows!

Please review and let me know, as per usual, if you have any ideas!

Snow Flake

Gabriel and Riley had been sent to take out an illegal satellite facility hidden deep in a state park. It was supposed to bea pretty straightforward mission, except a massive blizzard hit while Riley and Gabriel were outside. It wouldn't've beenso bad, except that they were now in the middle of a state park, and they were being chased. Gabriel led Riley down afrozen over path, ducking under stray bullets and branches, ignoring the snow creeping down their socks and necks.Stumbling over a frozen tree trunk, Riley heard Gabriel swear from ahead of her.

"Gabriel?" She caught up to him, and crouched when he waved for her to do so.

"They've got snow bikes up ahead," he muttered. "And they're only about a half mile behind us." Riley glanced over hershoulder.

"The snow should cover our tracks from behind," She looked around for any other options. "But we need to findsomewhere to hide." Gabriel nodded in agreement.

"And we have to get off this path soon or our tracks won't be covered." Gabriel looked down the slope they were sitting onthe edge of. "Looks like we're going down." Gabriel stood up and began working his way down the slope, careful not toslip. Glancing over her shoulder again, Riley followed. Soon they had made it to the bottom of the slope, and lookedaround.

"Now where?" Gabriel spotted a fallen log that was almost hidden by the snow.

"That log looks like it could be hollow." He started walking quickly, and after adjusting her hood, she followed. Gabrielinspected the log and waved Riley over.

"It's hollow," he called. "But we'd better get in quickly, they're pretty close now." Riley jogged, as best she could throughthe shin deep snow, and Gabriel pulled her up into the log. It was dark and smelt rancid, but it was better than nothing.

Reaching for his pack, Gabriel pulled out the satellite phone and a blanket, placing the latter down on the floor. As hedialled the sat phone, Riley pulled her own pack off and pulled out the sleeping bag.

"Sat phone's not working," Gabriel put the phone back in the pack. "Must be too much interference from the storm."

"Well, we may as well wait here until we have somewhere to go," Riley said, unzipping the sleeping bag and laying downon the blanket. "And at least it's warm." She held up one side of the sleeping bag and gestured for Gabriel to move underit. He kicked off his wet boots, as Riley had done earlier, and crawled under the sleeping bag, instantly enjoying thewarmth. "Can you tell where they are now?" Riley asked. Gabriel shook his head.

"No. The satellite's moved now, so we're on our own."

They fell into a comfortable silence, listening to the wind and the snow thudding into the log, and desperately hoping theydidn't hear any other human life. A few times they heard shouts from above them, at the top of the slope they had comedown, and Gabriel and Riley looked at each other, panic spread across their face. But the voices faded, and after a fullhour of silence, they felt like they were safe for now. Gabriel slid out from under the sleeping bag, and a rush of cold airrolled in. Riley shivered and pulled her knees up to her chest.

"Gabriel, what are you doing?" She rolled to her side to get a better look. Gabriel was kneeling at the end of the log,peering cautiously around.

"It's almost dark out," he said as he crawled back, shivering. "If we try and move now, we'll get lost." He pulled himselfback under the sleeping bag, craving the warmth.

"I have some energy bars in my bag." Riley mumbled. While Gabriel had returned to the sleeping bag, it was suddenly

colder than before. The pair settled under the sleeping bag, side by side, arms and legs touching. "I think I have a littlewater left, too." Gabriel nodded.

"I have a few MRE's," he shivered. "But I'm not desperate enough for those yet." Riley laughed, teeth chattering as shedid. They fell into another silence that was filled with teeth chattering and shivering.

It was a bitterly cold night, and eventually Gabriel and Riley ended up huddled together against it, making as much bodilycontact as possible. Sometime during the night, they drifted off to sleep, the cold still biting at their extremities.

When Gabriel woke, the sun had just risen and he could see the snow that had built up overnight. He groaned when hetwitched his nose and found most of his face numb, his nose more so than the rest. He gently shook Riley awake,careful not to roll out from under the warmth of the blankets.

"Riley, we gotta move. We can't stay in here all day." Riley blinked a few times before waking up completely, slightly takenaback by the closeness of their bodies. They separated quickly, reaching for boots and repacking packs so they couldhead off. Riley pulled a pair of socks from her pack, hurriedly putting them on after removing the original pair.

They were soon packed, and Gabriel crawled forward first, checking for anyone around them. He signalled they wereclear, so they clambered out of the log, pushing snow out of the way.

"Gabriel, is that satellite back in range? We've got to find somewhere better for an exfil." Gabriel shook his head.

"I'll see if I can get a message through to Nelson. We're just going to have to find a road and follow it." Riley nodded.

"Well, the main road we came on to get here was to the west, so maybe we head that way and see what we can find?"Gabriel nodded and gestured for her to start.

"After you, m'lady." RIley rolled her eyes and hiked her pack higher over her shoulders and started walking west.

They had been walking for just over two hours when Gabriel suggested they stop. Their pace had been slowing downsignificantly, so he suggested they have something to eat and rest for a few minutes. When Riley dropped to the log hewas sat on, he turned to look at her.

"Riley, your lips are blue."

"That's because it's cold," she shot back. "Your's are too." Gabriel lifted his water bottle to his lips. They needed to get outof here soon. After a ten minute break, the two agents filled their bottles with snow, stowed them in the packs and beganwalking again.

Less than ten minutes after they'd started off again, Gabriel heard voices in the distance.

"Riley, they're on our trail, we need to move." They began running as fast as they could through the snow, stumbling overhidden rocks and tree stumps. The shouts were getting closer, and Riley could swear she heard the sound of bulletswhizzing past their heads. Riley heard a shout of pain from Gabriel and she turned to see what had happened. Bloodwas rapidly staining the sleeve of his jacket and his arm hung uselessly at his side, but he waved her on.

"I'm fine," he caught up to Riley. "Keep moving." Riley just nodded and turned back to watch where she was going.

"Gabriel, there's a road up ahead. Call in that exfil!" Gabriel nodded.

They made it onto the road and could hear the approaching helicopter, and Riley dropped her pack to search for a flare.She dug it out and activated the flare, and just as she did, a burst of pain went through her shoulder, and she dropped tothe ground.

"Riley!" She heard Gabriel call out and saw him moving towards her before he too grunted and dropped. The helicopterwas right above them now, and Riley watched from underneath as four agents in tactical gear dropped out of thehelicopter and efficiently took out all enemies in sight. Riley let her head flop back onto the ground as she pressedharder onto the wound in her shoulder.

"Gabriel," she called. "Are you alright?" A grunt somewhere to her left told her he was at least still alive.

"I'm fine," he replied, "but being shot sucks." Riley just laughed as two of the agents approached her and helped her upinto the helicopter. She didn't fight them when they pushed her onto the bed in the makeshift medbay at the back of thehelicopter, just groaning and clenching her fist when they applied more pressure to the wound. She could hear Gabrielgroaning as well, and she could only assume he was being given the same treatment.

"I told you," Riley said as a nurse retied her hospital gown after changing the dressings. "I'm fine." The nurse just gaveher an exasperated look. "Can I go now?" The nurse sighed.

"Ma'am, you had surgery to repair torn muscle in your shoulder and remove a bullet. You're staying here, and in this beduntil the Doctors clear you from that and your hypothermia." Riley sighed. "And you'd better keep that sling on." Shesighed again and leaned back into the pillows.

"How long 'till I can lose the sling?" The nurse winked and checked something at the door of the room.

"Looks like you'll be getting a new roommate soon," she smiled at Riley. "A friend of yours. He's in recovery from surgery,then he'll be moved here." The nurse replaced the charts at the foot of Riley's bed and patted her foot.

"Thank you," Riley called as she left. The nurse smiled again over her shoulder and continued out of the room. Rileyleant back into her pillows again, closing her eyes as she felt the painkillers kicking in again. She was really tired afterall…

"Sir, really, I'm fine." The doctor at the end of Gabriel's bed peered at Gabriel over the rims of his glasses.

"Mr Vaughn, you've just had surgery for two bullet wounds, and you're still recovering from some severe hypothermia. Youare far from fine." Gabriel groaned.

"I've had worse," he argued. "Can I please go?" The Doctor shook his head.

"No, you may not. The bullet in your thigh came awfully close to nicking an artery, and I don't want to have to do anemergency surgery if you open your stitches and bleed everywhere again." Gabriel threw his good arm over his eyes asa nurse came in and spoke to the Doctor. "Stay in this bed for a few days and I'll let you go home," the Doctor said,passing the charts to the nurse and walking away.

"Thank you, Doc," Gabriel called after him.

"Sir, we're moving you into another room now," the nurse glanced over his charts. "We'll give you some morphine and ameal when we get you settled in there." Gabriel nodded and relaxed into the bed as another nurse walked in and begunmanoeuvring the bed down the hallways.

Riley woke to the sound of wheels being locked into place, and she looked around the room, the morphine leaving her alittle disoriented. She finally focused on the person in the bed that had just been moved in, and smiled a little.

"Gabriel!" He looked over the edge of the railing of the bed and grinned.

"Long time, no see," he joked. "How'd you pull up?" Riley shrugged with one arm.

"Bullet through the shoulder, had surgery to get it out. Mild dose of hypothermia. I've had worse. What about you?"

"Tiny bout of hypothermia, a bullet nicked my thigh and just missed an artery. Another one in my arm they had to dig out."Riley looked mildly impressed.

"Well at least the mission was a success," Riley grinned at the exasperated expression on Gabriel's face.

"We got shot, Riley. You do realise how much that sucks, don't you?" She rolled her eyes and leaned back into thepillows again.

"You know I've been shot more times working with you than I have in my entire career?" It was Gabriel's turn to grin.

"It's a talent."

*Chapter 7*: Ball

So this fic is from a prompt from diana-of-wales. I'm really not sure what happened while I was writing this, it justtook off and kept going for a while. So that's why it's kinda long. Anyway, I'm really low on prompts/ideas now, and Ionly have a few left that I've written. So I'm kinda desperate - if you have any ideas at all, I'm keen to hear them.

Anyway, enjoy, review and leave me some ideas!

-Scottie.

"Riley and Gabriel have to attend sometime of formal event in Washington…"

"But I'm not in the Secret Service any more," Riley frowned. "So why am I being sent to one of their gigs?" Lillian shookher head and gestured that Riley come over to where she and Nelson were watching a computer.

"See this guy?" Nelson pointed out someone on the screen. "He's a Syrian national. Married a naturalised Americancitizen. However, our guy here has been collaborating with some nasty people." Riley nodded.

"So you want me to go in and keep and eye on him, stop him from pulling anything while the President is around?" Lilliannodded.

"Exactly. Gabriel will be going in as well, and the two of you need to maintain your cover at all costs." Riley nodded.

"And the Service has been briefed?" Nelson nodded.

"Jameson spoke to Agent Griffin who is the DL for this protective job." Riley rolled her eyes. "They've been alerted theyare not to show any recognition of you, but they will allow you to do what you need, provided the President is in nodanger." Riley nodded.

"Seems pretty standard." She straightened up. "So you said Gabriel and I were going in. What exactly are our covers?"

"I cant believe we're going in as a married couple." Gabriel laughed from across the room.

"Doesn't seem like a bad idea. No one will question us when we argue all the time." Riley took a moment to stoppunching the bag and stare at Gabriel over her shoulder. "What?" He said, holding his hands in surrender. "I'm justsaying." Riley rolled her eyes and went back to punching the bag. Gabriel sighed and stood up, walking over to Riley.

"I mean, we could've just gone in as Secret Service agents again," Riley grunted, throwing some extra effort into targetingthe bag.

"Too hard to stay close to our friend from Syria that way." Gabriel reached out and put a hand on Riley's shoulder. "Comeon, Captain America, you don't need to bust the bag." Riley shook her head in exasperation. "Besides, we have a ball togo to," Gabriel grinned, and reached down to unwrap one of Riley's hand wraps. "When he was done, he dropped to oneknee and pulled a box from his pocket. "So, Agent Neal. Will you fake marry me for tonight?" He threaded a ring ontoRiley's hand, and she sighed in exasperation.

"Jackass." Gabriel looked wounded.

"That's not a nice thing to call your husband," Gabriel called after her as she walked out of the room.

Three hours later, Riley was lying on her couch flicking through TV channels while she waited. Soon, there was a knockat the door before it opened, and Gabriel stepped through wearing a tuxedo.

"Wow, you clean up nice," Gabriel smiled as Riley stood up and turned the TV off.

"You don't look too bad yourself, Gabriel."

"Ready to go?" Gabriel asked noting Riley's lack of shoes. She nodded and scooped her bag from the counter andquickly pulled her shoes on.

"Let's roll," Riley said as she straightened up. Gabriel offered her his arm and she gently threaded her arm through hisas she locked her apartment door. Gabriel led her down the stairs and to the front of her building where a limo waswaiting. He opened the door for her and helped her in before closing the door and walking to the other side of the car. He

climbed in, and the driver began their night.

"So Riley," Gabriel grinned. "Or should I call you Mrs. Hill?" Riley just smiled.

"Mr. Hill," she giggled a little, and then chuckled at the expression on Gabriel's face. "What, you've never seen someonethat can go with their cover?" Gabriel shook his head.

"I didn't think you could giggle," he winked. "Maybe you should use that when I say something particularly charmingtonight." Riley sighed and turned to look out the window.

"Remember Gabriel, we're here to keep an eye on our Syrian friend, not cause any problems." She heard his indignantsigh.

"O ye of little faith. We'll get the job done." Riley raised an eyebrow. "Smile," Gabriel said. "We're here."

The car pulled up alongside the building and Gabriel thanked the driver before leaving the car. He jogged to the otherside and pulled the door open, offering a hand for Riley as she stepped from the car. They walked arm in arm to the frontdoor where they showed their invitation and "ID" for the evening, before being waved through to the ballroom.

"Well Mrs. Hill," Gabriel placed a hand on Riley's back, and a shiver went down her spine. It was not unnoticed by Gabrielwho did his best to smother a grin. "Shall we go meet some people?" Riley smiled up at him and nodded.

They spent the next 45 minutes chatting to other people they ran into, making themselves look like they were just part ofthe crowd. Just as they had begun talking to a newlywed couple, the husband being a nuclear physicist which made forboth interesting and awkward conversation, Riley turned and leaned into Gabriel's chest in whispered into his ear.

"7 o'clock," she whispered. "And it looks like he's brought friends." Gabriel chuckled and gently kissed her cheek.

"Excuse us," Gabriel said. "We're just going to head to the dance floor for a while." The couple nodded and smiled.

"It was nice to meet you," Riley smiled and waved politely as they headed onto the dance floor. Gabriel placed his handon Riley's back and took her hand in his and Riley put her hand on Gabriel's shoulder. Gabriel pulled her against him, sotheir foreheads were touching.

"Nelson, we have a problem," Gabriel mumbled, as the pair swayed on the dance floor. "Looks like our guy may havebrought some company."

"I'll run facial rec on them, see if they'll be any trouble."

"Already done," Gabriel replied, smiling at Riley as though they were having a conversation. "One of them, name is AdadAsar, he's suspected to have been involved in the transport of RedX, the other guy, Sargon Elyiah, he's clean."

"So that doesn't help in figuring if they're pulling something tonight." Riley shook her head as Nelson's voice crackledthrough their earpieces.

"If he's clean, this could be some kind of initiation." Gabriel nodded, and moved his head to the side of Riley's, making itlook like he was whispering in her ear.

"And if it is, they may have more guys in here." Riley pulled away from Gabriel.

"We need to get the President out of here." Gabriel reached for Riley's hand and they slowly walked from the dance floor.It was crucial they didn't panic the Syrians, or all hell could break loose.

"Nelson, tell Griffin to move. But tell him that they need to do it subtly." Riley rolled her eyes.

"They're good at subtle, Gabriel." He glanced at her.

"Not when the President is in danger, they're not."

The President had been cleared from the building, and Gabriel and Riley had been given orders to take the three Syriansinto custody. Fingers still interwoven, they began to walk over to the Syrians, stopping in front of them.

"Excuse me sir," Gabriel offered his hand to Adad. "My wife and I noticed you three gentlemen, and we were trying toguess where you were from." Adad shook Gabriel's hand.

"See, I think you could be from Turkey, maybe Lebanon, but my husband-"

"Please go now." Sargon spoke with a thick accent, and Gabriel turned to look at him.

"Sorry if we offended you," he said. "We were just -"

"Leave. Now." Gabriel took a step back, and Riley wrapped her arm around Gabriel's back, and they walked away.

"Nelson, we're going to need back up to get those guys. They've got guns, and we don't have vests." There was no reply,and Riley put a hand to her ear.

"Nelson?" She looked to Gabriel.

"What's going on?" He frowned for a moment.

"Something's blocking our signal. I'll try and get through to Nelson with the chip."

"Everybody down!" The sound of gunshots and screaming erupted from not far behind them, and Gabriel and Riley ranover to a table, and crawled underneath it. The tablecloth was long enough that if they pressed themselves against thewall, they wouldn't be seen by a casual glance.

"You'd better work quickly," Riley muttered, watching feet passing in front of the table. Gabriel frowned again. "You wereright," she mumbled a few moments later. "They do have more men." Gabriel looked at her.

"That's not the worst part," he whispered. "Secret service are locked out. They cut external power, and the securityautomatically seals the doors. We're trapped."

They had stayed hidden for the best part of an hour now. Gabriel had gotten through whatever was blocking the radios,and everyone was aware of what was going on inside the building. Riley had almost decided they were safe when feetcame into view of the tables, and the cloth was lifted up. They were greeted by the barrels of three rifles pointed at them,and Riley immediately slipped into her cover, crying out and hiding her face in Gabriel's jacket.

Gabriel held his hands up.

"Please, don't shoot!" Rough hands reached under the table and dragged Gabriel and Riley out, and Gabriel was mildlyamused to see that Riley had summoned some tears from somewhere. "We heard the gun shots and hid," Gabrielblurted. "We didn't know what was happening. I swear!" One man - not any of the three they had identified earlier -stepped forward and pulled cable ties around Gabriel's wrists, locking them behind his back. Riley was still whimperingand clutching his jacket when the man tried to reach for her wrists.

"No, please no," she cried out, struggling out of his grip. Her efforts were rewarded by a sharp backhand to her cheek.Riley dropped to the ground, the unexpected blow bringing real tears to her eyes.

"Hey," Gabriel called. "Leave my wife alone!"

"I suggest you stay out of this," the cable tie guy sneered. "Or your wife will be worse off than this." Riley let out a sob asthe man dragged her to her feet and cuffed her hands, shoving her towards Gabriel. He tried as best he could to beconcerned for her, but that was harder to do with cuffed hands. "Now walk," he said, placing the barrel of a gun on eachof their backs. Riley sniffed and they began walking.

They were pushed onto the dance floor, where a number of other people were laying face down, their wrists cuffed in asimilar fashion to Gabriel and Riley's. With no warning, they were pushed down onto the ground where Riley landedawkwardly on her shoulder, and muffled another cry as she felt something pop. Gabriel rolled as he landed, and endedup on his back where he started yelling at cable tie guy.

"Leave us alone! We didn't do anything. We're just lawyers!" The guy sneered and thrust his boot into Gabriel stomach.

"Shut up now." He whispered, a menacing tone in his voice. Gabriel just glared at him until a foot made contact with hisface and he grunted. The man rolled Gabriel onto his front and walked off.

"Gabriel, are you alright?" He turned his head and Riley could see the gash on his forehead.

"I'll be fine." He noticed her shoulder, and the awkward position it was in. "But I think asking if you're alright is a betterquestion." Riley grimaced.

"I think my shoulder is dislocated, but there's nothing I can do about it."

It only took twenty minutes for the SEAL team to infiltrate the ballroom and another seven seconds to take out thehostiles. Fifteen seconds more and the doors opened, and people from every agency rushed in. Paramedics followedclosely through the doors, and people were freed from their cuffs and checked over for injuries. Gabriel and Riley wereamong the last to be freed, as they were at the far end of the room. As soon as Riley's hands were freed, she groanedand rolled onto her side, her good arm reaching for her shoulder.

"Yep," she moaned. "Definitely dislocated." A paramedic moved over to Riley and checked for any further injuries.

"Ma'am, we're going to need to take you to a hospital to get that set." Riley shook her head.

"Is there anyone that is seriously injured?" The paramedic nodded.

"A few GSW's, lots of broken bones, and a number of people have gone into shock." Riley waved the paramedic away.

"Take care of them," she said. "I'll get to a hospital another way." The paramedic frowned.

"I'd rather not leave it where it is," he said. "It'll cause ligament damage, and -" Gabriel interrupted him.

"Go," he said. "I'll take her to a hospital." The paramedic frowned, and Gabriel reached into his wallet for his ID. Theparamedic nodded.

"Don't wait too long," he called as he headed away. "You'll just make it worse for yourself." Riley rolled her eyes, andturned to Gabriel.

"Looks like you might need a few stitches yourself, Mr. Hill." She raised her good hand to his forehead to inspect thewound. "Or some superglue." Gabriel laughed.

"Come on," he said, standing up and carefully pulling Riley to her feet. "Let's get going. It's been a long night."

The night didn't get any shorter, and even after flashing his badge, Gabriel and Riley were stuck in the ER waiting roomfor a few hours before they were called through. Riley's shoulder was soon relocated, put in a sling and prescribedsome painkillers while Gabriel got away with a small patch of superglue, painkillers and a promise to not headbuttanyone for a few weeks.

Gabriel led Riley to the car he had somehow procured after the ball, and she got in, sighing as she sat.

"I cannot wait to get out of this tux," Gabriel muttered as he started the car. "I hate suits." Riley rolled her head sidewaysto look at him.

"You hate suits. Really?" He shrugged.

"Why do you think I joined the army? No suits." Riley nodded.

"Sure. Nothing to do with the whole macho man thing you've got going on?" Gabriel looked bemused.

"Macho man? I don't know what you're talking about." Riley laughed.

"Leave my wife alone?" She laughed. "That's really going to stop a bunch of terrorists." Gabriel shrugged again.

"I was just going with it. Besides, that's going to leave a sweet bruise." He gestured to the dried patch of blood on hercheek where the guys ring had made contact with her.

"I know, right?" She smiled. "It'll look great at whatever ball Lillian has planned for us tomorrow night." Gabriel's headsnapped to her.

"What? Another ball?" Riley burst out laughing.

"I was joking," she choked. "But that was a far greater reaction than I could've hoped for."

"Shut up."

They soon arrived back at Riley's apartment building, and Gabriel parked the car and escorted her up the stairs to her

apartment.

"You know I can walk on my own," she mumbled, a wave of tiredness crashing over her suddenly. Gabriel nodded, silentfor once, and she assumed he was similarly exhausted. She barely made it through the front door without collapsing.

"Gabriel," he had just turned to begin back down the stairs. He turned to her and blinked. "Do you want to stay heretonight?" He blinked again and nodded, stepping inside the apartment and locking the door behind him. Riley led himinto her bedroom and pulled a set of pyjamas from her drawer. "I'm just going to change," she mumbled, forcing back ayawn. She closed the bathroom door and immediately changed out of the dress and into her more comfortable pyjamas.Turning on the tap, she splashed some water on her face, wiping away the tear stains and blood from earlier in thenight.

When she returned to her bedroom, Gabriel had kicked off his shoes and socks and taken his tux off leaving him in hisboxers, stretched out half under the covers of one side of her bed. Smiling slightly, she crawled into the other side of thebed and turned the light off.

"Good night, Mr. Hill," she mumbled, moments before sleep overcame her.

Thanks to Careeseforever, NCISRookie33, Halle Alexis, Burt00, halaA, Yessiree, TheShadowWhoHidesInTHeDark,krazyy989, TVDFan4Ever, Kong Liu, Confidential Brunette, philosophizingwonder and cytpotter for the reviews,special thanks to diana-of-wales for both the review and the prompt.

Also thanks to evynn. paul for reviewing, I've just realised that your username has been missed every time I've beento thank you. (I blame the site - apparently it looks too much like a web address).

*Chapter 8*: Surprise

Firstly, huge thanks to everyone who's reviewed, followed or favourited so far. Words can't really express howthankful I am that we've made it past 100 reviews and follows and over 50 favourites.

As usual, thanks to Confidental Brunette, cytpotter, krazyy989, Chymom, Halle Alexis, Secret reviewer, jess119,Captain America, yagmuysu, NCISRookie33 (And the Hill name was unintentional, but good job for catching theCaptain America reference), Angelus 320, halaA, Erin, Raleigh Becket, TVDFan4Ever, GailHollyDovChloe, Ellie,XxPurpleLovexX and Jennywalker6 for your reviews!

I'm still on the lookout for some new ideas, so keep them coming. This chapter is pretty short, but don't worry, thenext one is a little longer and whumpier, closer to my usual standard of whump.

-Scottie.

Surprise

Riley was sitting in the conference room, papers spread out across the table in front of her. She was preparing for abriefing with the Pakistani Intelligence Minister regarding a mission they were hoping to run just inside the Indian border.

However, after the last time Gabriel had been on Pakistani land, they were less than happy to allow American's onto theirland as a way in to India.

Lillian had been coerced into a meeting with a few heads of Government and other intelligence agencies, leaving Rileyto prepare the briefing. Gabriel watched as she leant back in the seat and scrubbed a hand tiredly across her face. Theintel collection had taken a long time, and the team had been up for almost 36 hours straight. Gabriel was about to goand see if she wanted coffee before the briefing started, but just as he stepped around the corner to the door, hereceived an alert from security that the Pakistani's had arrived.

"Sorry Riley," he mumbled as he turned away. "No coffee for you yet."

In hopes of persuading the Intelligence minister to allow them to run the mission, Gabriel had been banned fromentering the conference room, and from being within 25 feet of the room. So while he waited, he flopped down in one ofthe arm chairs in Lillian's office, and brought up the camera feed.

When the Pakistani's begun to stand up, shaking Riley's and the other CyberCom agents hands, Gabriel stood too. Hegrabbed a cup of coffee and headed back toward the briefing room. When he got there, everyone but Riley was gone,and she was still in her seat, slumped backwards, eyes closed.

Gabriel approached quietly, and placed a hand on Riley's shoulder. What he didn't expect was the reaction from Riley. Atthe sudden pressure on her shoulder, she spun, trapped Gabriel's hand and threw a punch, connecting with his nose.Gabriel instantly dropped the coffee - good thing it was in a paper cup - and reached for his nose.

Riley blinked a few times as she looked around, she had zoned out for a few moments after the Pakistani's had left.Noting the dull pain in her hand, she turned to Gabriel.

"What the hell, Gabriel?" He looked up from trying to stem the blood trickling down his face.

"What the hell Gabriel? What the hell, Riley? You punched me in the face!" Riley frowned and looked down at her hand.The telltale redness across her knuckles meant she probably had.

"You shouldn't sneak up on me like that," she said. "I'm so tired, I barely know what I'm doing at the moment." Gabrielnodded.

"That makes two of us." He straightened up fully, happy with the decreased flow of blood from his nose. "I brought youcoffee," he said, gesturing to the empty cup and brown liquid on the floor. "But I think we should go get some more." Rileynodded.

"I think that's a good idea." She turned back to the table and neatly placed all the papers in the file before turning back toGabriel. "Lead on," she said. "And maybe we should find you some tissues, too."

Please Review!

*Chapter 9*: Landslide

As usual, I request ideas, one word prompts, anything you have to offer (getting a bit desperate now, if you couldn'talready tell). Feel free to PM me if you don't want to leave it in a review. But anyway, please enjoy and review! Youguys make my day with all the emails I get from your kind words.

Thanks to Jennywalker6, NCISRookie33, krazyy989, Guest, Agent Striker, popie92, TVDFan4Ever, Burt00,Careeseforever and Alesia for your reviews of the last chapter, and to anyone that has review a previous chapter,and thanks to everyone that followed and favourited.

All errors are still mine, I'm still too lazy to proof read and I do a lot of writing late at night.

-Scottie

Landslide

"Everyone, get clear, now!" Gabriel glanced over his shoulder at the fast approaching agents running towards them.

"What's going on?" Riley asked, looking up from the laptop that was sitting on the boot of the car. Gabriel quicklyaccessed the building blueprints and compared them to camera feeds and photos that had been taken of the scene.

"There's a bomb in there," he pulled Riley away from the car and began running.

Had they been any faster, it would have ended in their untimely demise. However, as luck would have it, a wooden palletwas thrown into the air as the building behind them suddenly spewed flames and a shockwave into the air. This woodenpallet struck Gabriel and Riley throwing them to the ground, unconscious and trapped.

Riley woke first, her head foggy and her ears ringing. She closed her eyes to try and clear the fog, but it wasn'thappening. She tried to sit up to look around, only to find that her lower half and most of her chest was being heldagainst the ground and the more she struggled against it, the tighter it got. Looking to the side, she saw Gabriel layingon his stomach, pinned under a wooden pallet and a fallen timber post.

"Gabriel," she called, or at least she thought she did, her ears were still ringing pretty bad. "Gabriel, can you hear me?"He didn't respond, but Riley figured his ears might have been as bad as hers. Ignoring the stabbing pain it sent throughher ribs, Riley stretched her arm out as far as she could, her fingers grazing Gabriel's.

At the contact, Gabriel's hand jerked, and he turned his head to see Riley. His mouth moved, and Riley assumed he hadsaid something, but she couldn't hear him. She just shook her head, hoping he'd understand. Laying his head againstthe concrete ground, Gabriel stretched his arm out further, and laced his fingers in Riley's. She hadn't realised howmuch she needed the contact until now, and her breathing finally calmed down, the tight pressure from the crate andwhatever else on top of her going away slightly.

Riley wasn't sure how long she had been trapped when she noticed the ringing had finally quietened down enough thatshe could hear voices.

"Gabriel?" His fingers tightened around hers.

"Riley, you can hear me now?" Riley nodded, but then remembered he couldn't see her.

"Yeah, I can. How long have we been stuck?" Gabriel sighed.

"A little over an hour. The search parties are getting closer, though. They're only about 70 yards away." Riley sighed inrelief.

"How long have you been able to hear again?" She asked, enjoying the lack of ringing.

"About 20 minutes," Riley heard Gabriel shifting a little. "I wasn't sure when your's was going to be back, so I've beentalking out loud until you heard." Riley laughed, immediately regretting it when she felt some of the load above her shift.

"Should we call for help?" Riley suggested, groaning at the different position of the weight.

"Probably a good idea." A moment of silence, then Gabriel started yelling. "Hey, over here! We're stuck underneathrubble!" Riley heard voices approaching.

"Where are you?" They yelled. "Call out!"

"Over here," Gabriel called. "Right by the orange oil barrel!" More voices responded.

"They're over here," Riley could hear people getting closer. "Call in the paramedics. They're going to need medical help."A face appeared at the top of Riley's field of vision.

"Ma'am, Sir, my name's Jacob. Are you alright?" Riley nodded.

"I think so," she called, hearing a similar response from Gabriel. Jacob nodded.

"Alright. We're going to secure this load as best we can and try clear you folks from under it. Does that sound alright?"

"Just hurry up and move it," Gabriel groaned. "It's starting to get real heavy." Riley nodded in agreement.

There was about ten minutes of waiting until Jacob's head reappeared.

"We're about set now, call out straight away if something hurts." Riley nodded and gripped Gabriel's hand tighter.

"Almost there," Gabriel called to her. "We're almost out, Riley." They heard the call to start moving the load, and instantly,Gabriel pulled his legs out from under the pallet. As it lifted higher, Riley cried out.

"No, stop!" The movement ceased straight away. Gabriel dragged himself along the ground to her.

"What is it?" Jacob asked.

"Something moved. My leg's trapped and something's pressing down harder as the load goes up." Jacob nodded andhurried off. Riley winced and tried to muffle a groan. Gabriel squeezed her hand.

"Don't worry," he mumbled. "You'll get out of this. Just like you always do." Riley forced herself not to laugh.

"Why is it that whenever we take you somewhere, something blows up?" Gabriel pretended to look wounded.

"You take that back! Remember that ball?" Riley rolled her eyes.

"You got your head superglued back together. That's close enough." Gabriel sighed.

"That time in -"

"If you say Munich, I will kick your ass." Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Well, as soon as I'm free." Gabriel laughed again.

"If you'd let me finish, I was going to say Armenia." Riley threw him a look of exasperation.

"We were there because you accidentally let a building explode." Gabriel frowned.

"Fine." He said. "But if you can't take me anywhere, what are you going to do with the Nation's most advanced weapon?"

"I don't know, put you behind a desk?" Gabriel gasped.

"You wouldn't!" Riley winked, and Jacob reappeared.

"I have bad news, ma'am." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "The load that shifted - a concrete rebar is trapping an oilbarrel, and we can't free the load without hurting you without moving that rebar. But if we move that -"

"The barrel falls on me." Riley sighed. "What do we do?" Jacob winced.

"We're going to have to lift the load like before and just pull you out. As best we can tell, you're under a flat surface, so itshould be pretty simple." Riley nodded.

"Except the whole leg crushing thing." Jacob nodded, and Riley closed her eyes, sighing. She opened them a momentlater.

"OK. Gabriel, can you pull me out?" Gabriel nodded, and unlaced their fingers. He planted himself above Riley's head,his arms gripping her arms as tightly as he could.

"Are you ready, ma'am?" Riley looked up at Gabriel.

"I'm ready when you are, Gabriel." She forced her eyes closed and braced against the pain.

"Lift!" The call came from Jacob, and Riley immediately cried out as her leg was put under pressure. At the same time,Gabriel pulled as hard as he could, and Riley began to slide out from under the load. When her trapped foot was free,the pulling became much easier, and she slid out the remainder of the way, landing on Gabriel as he fell backwardsfrom the release of opposing pressure.

She lay there, not moving as the adrenaline from the situation finally exhausted it's stockpile.

"Riley?" She felt more than heard Gabriel's voice. "Are you ok?" She took a deep breath.

"Yeah, I think I'm alright." Paramedics immediately reached their side, and two of them gently rolled Riley onto theground. She groaned as her now freed leg touched the ground.

"Ma'am, can you tell me what hurts?" Riley had to think about it for a few moments.

"My leg, ribs are pretty sore, but that's it." She felt an IV inserted into the back of her hand, and then the throbbing of herleg began to fade, shortly followed by everything else.

"So I was trapped under a huge load of barrels and concrete, and all I come out with are a few stitches and bruises?"Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

"I hardly think 25 stitches is a few." Riley shrugged.

"Considering I thought I was going to lose my leg for a while there, I'll take it." Gabriel chuckled, fiddling with the loosegauze around his wrist. "I still don't quite get how you managed to drag me out of there with a broken wrist," she said.Gabriel shrugged.

"When you've had to drag a guy bigger than me through the desert with a bullet wound, pulling you out along a hardsurface was a piece of cake." Riley rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't you be thanking me or something though?" It was Riley'sturn to raise an eyebrow.

"Thank you Gabriel." He smiled sweetly. "I suppose it might come in handy to take you places sometimes, after all."

Please review on your way out!

*Chapter 10*: Phone Call

My usual thanks are extended to Confidental Brunette, Halle Alexis, Jennywalker6, cytpotter, Guest, MidgardianAvenger, HalaA, Agent Striker, Ellie, Careeseforever, TVDFan4Ever, Tardis. diaries, Meredith Kerrick and Lauren forreviewing, as well as to everyone that followed and/or favourited.

So I go back to uni tomorrow morning, which means I may have less time to be writing from here on out (however,bus trips are long and nasty, so who knows). But either way, keep sending in prompts or ideas, and I'll do my best tokeep this going in my spare time. The prompt from this fic came from diana-of-wales, so special thanks to you, onceagain.

Enjoy and review!

-Scottie.

Riley has a girls night with some of her girlfriends from the secret service and drunk dials Gabriel who tracks her downand get her home safely

"Gabriel, I told you I'm busy tonight." Riley sighed and folded her arms as Gabriel grinned.

"Yes, you did." Riley raised an eyebrow. "What did you say you were doing again?" Riley rolled her eyes and beganwalking.

"I didn't," she said as Gabriel caught up with her and stepped in her path, blocking her way as she tried to sidestep him.

"So why won't you tell me?" He asked, hands on hips. Riley sighed.

"If I tell you, will you let me leave in peace?" Gabriel nodded. "I'm going out with some girlfriends," she relented. "I haven'tseen them in a long time." Gabriel grinned.

"Girls night?" Riley sighed.

"Gabriel," he wasn't even trying to hide his grin. "They're just some old Secret Service friends. They've been onassignment for a while. I promised I'd meet them and catch up." She sidestepped Gabriel successfully and steppedthrough the doors.

"Want me to come with you?" Riley glanced back over her shoulder.

"Not even a little bit," she shot back, laughing as Gabriel's step faltered.

"Wow," he replied quickly. "That hurt." Riley smiled and gave him a quick hug as she reached her car.

"I'll see you tomorrow evening. Unless you're going to bail on that run you promised me." Riley had climbed into the carand was looking out at Gabriel.

"Not a chance," Gabriel grinned as he leant against the car, pushing the door closed. "Not a chance."

"Riley, as much as I'd like to hang, it's 2am." Gabriel rolled onto his side, glancing at his alarm clock.

"Awww, come on Gabriel, you wanted to come with me earlier," Gabriel could hear Riley slurring badly and muffledmusic in the background.

"Riley, are you alright?" There was a pause before she replied.

"I'm fine," she replied, slurring getting heavier. "You should come," she mumbled. Gabriel sighed, swinging his feet offthe bed.

"Alright Riley, I'm coming. Where are you?" He heard her laughing in the distance. "Riley." The call disconnected, andGabriel groaned. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes and tracked down Riley's phone. When he had located it, hestepped into the jeans laying on the floor and dug a clean-ish shirt from somewhere. Jogging down the stairs, his phonerang again as he reached the car.

"Gabriel," he started the engine and put the phone on speaker. "Why aren't you here yet, Gabriel?" Gabriel sighed as hepulled out onto the road.

"Because I've just left, Riley." She sighed.

"But when will you be here?" Gabriel could almost hear her pouting.

"Five minutes, Riley. Just stay where you are."

Gabriel pulled up at the front of the bar he had tracked Riley down to, and he quickly spotted her standing out the front,staring at a noticeboard, swaying dangerously. He hurried over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey Riley," he said, as she turned around and grinned at him.

"Gabriel!" Riley grinned and launched into a bear hug. After the brief moment of shock went away, Gabriel broke Riley'sgrip and tried to quiet her. "Where are we going now?" Gabriel reached for her hand and pulled her to the car.

"We're going to a party," he said as he reached the drivers side, making sure she'd buckled her seatbelt. Almost as soonas Gabriel had started driving, Riley fell asleep.

"Come on Riley," Gabriel unbuckled her seatbelt. "Time to get up." Riley groaned, and Gabriel couldn't help but grin.

"Too early," she mumbled.

"C'mon," Gabriel replied, pulling her out of the car and slinging her arm across his shoulder. "Let's get you inside."

Gabriel somehow managed to half drag and half walk Riley up the stairs to his apartment. He deposited her on thecouch and pulled her boots off as she slung an arm across her face.

"Gabriel," she called from across the room as he was hunting down some painkillers. "I thought we were going to aparty?" Gabriel grinned as he knelt down next to her, a glass of water and two tablets in his hand.

"Take these and have a nap, and then we'll go to the party, alright?" Riley nodded and did as she was told beforeslumping down again, falling asleep almost instantly. Gabriel sighed and shook his head and fetched a spare blanketwhich he draped over Riley, tucking it under her legs.

"See you in the morning, Riley." He turned off the lights and went back to his bed, barely managing to kick off his jeansand shoes before he fell asleep.

Gabriel slept through his 5:45 alarm, thankfully, and only woke when the sun had brightened enough to make the roomsemi-light. Groaning, Gabriel rolled over to check the time, noting that he had slept long past his usual wake up time. Hewandered out to the kitchen, intending to make a coffee and wait for the caffeine to kick in when he noticed Riley stillasleep on the couch. Gabriel grinned and walked over to the couch, lightly shaking her awake.

"Wakey wakey, Riley." She groaned and a frown appeared in her forehead, but she just rolled over without waking.Gabriel shook her shoulder again. "Come on Riley," she frowned again. "You're late for work." That seemed to do thetrick, and Riley bolted upright, clutching her temples a moment later. When the pain had subsided a few moments later,she noticed Gabriel sitting on his haunches, chuckling.

"That was cruel," she mumbled. "You knew I'd be hungover." The grin reappeared on Gabriel's face.

"Coffee?" He asked, not so quietly. Riley just nodded, wincing as he stood up, making as much noise as he could. Shegroaned and buried her face in the couch.

"I hate you, Gabriel."

Review!

*Chapter 11*: Malfunction

Thanks to Jennywalker6, NCISRookie33, cookycrazy, krazyy989, Chymom, halaA, Raleigh Becket, ConfidentialBrunette, Halle Alexis, Agent Striker, Careeseforever, Ellie, trustpixiedust, Waylo, Guest and nancy80228 for thereviews, and also to everyone that followed and favourited!

This prompt came from Schotia (a guest), so kudos for sending it in!

As usual, please review and leave any ideas you may want me to write up.

-Scottie.

Could you do one where gabriel gets hacked by mei chen again and ends up really hurting riley then comes to to findout what hes done and has to deal with it? AU of the scene. What could've happened.

"How are you doing this?" Riley woke abruptly and stood, her hands raised in surrender.

"How am I doing what, Gabriel?" A frown appeared in Gabriel's eyebrows.

"Why are you watching me?" Riley started to panic a little.

"Gabriel, put the gun down."

"I don't want anything from you." He moved the gun from where it was aimed at Riley, almost as though he was followingsomeone with it.

"Gabriel, you're cyber rendering, you need to hear me." He blinked a few times, almost as if she was getting through.

"Hey guys, listen, there was one thing - what the hell?" Riley didn't take her eyes off Gabriel as Nelson appeared on thecomputer. "Listen. Ok, look he's being hacked right now, you have to shut him down." Unblinking, Riley replied.

"How?"

"Is there a defibrillator on board? A surge of electricity might shock him out of -" Riley had no time to find a defibrillator, soshe had no choice but to punch him, and hope it'd have the same effect. "Or you could do that." For a moment, it lookedlike it had worked, but then Gabriel straightened up, and launched an array of punches and kicks at Riley. She didn't haveany time to react, barely managing to dodge those that were actually going to make contact.

"Gabriel!" She yelled, finally getting her own arms up in a defensive position. "Gabriel, it's Riley!" Riley could hear Nelsonyelling in the background, and Lillian wanting to know what the hell was happening. She had been backed into a corner,and Gabriel was still advancing. As soon as she tried to move from the corner, Gabriel reached out and pushed her backinto the wall, one hand wrapping itself around her windpipe.

"Why are you here," Gabriel yelled. "What do you want from me?" Riley was quickly running out of oxygen.

"Gabriel," she choked out. "Let go, please." He didn't immediately relent, but just as she was on the edges ofconsciousness, he released her, and she dropped to the floor, coughing and clutching at her throat. But it wasn't longbefore he dragged her up and pinned her against the wall again.

"I'm giving you one last chance," he yelled. "Tell me what you want." His forearm pinned her shoulders to the wall, butshe managed to punch a fist into his stomach, causing his grip to loosen for a moment. Riley tried to slip out, but Gabrielmanaged to keep hold of her, push her back against the wall and deliver a blow to her head. She gritted back the cry ofpain that was trying to force it's way out.

"Nelson," she called. "You gotta do something." Riley winced as Gabriel slammed her harder into the wall.

"Get out of my head," he spat. "Now!" He pushed harder again.

"Gabriel, please, it's me, Riley." The anger seemed to dissipate for a few seconds, and Gabriel blinked a few times inrapid succession again, but then it returned and Gabriel slammed Riley hard into the wall one last time, and the back ofher head made contact and she finally passed out.

Gabriel removed his forearm from Mei Chin's shoulder and let her slide to the floor before turning around. He couldvaguely hear someone familiar calling his name.

"Gabriel," it was getting louder. "Gabriel, come on, bro. Wake up." The walls began to flicker and move in and out offocus. "Gabriel." They suddenly snapped into focus, and Gabriel hurried over to the computer screen where Nelson,Lillian and Cassidy were crowded around, peering worriedly at him.

"What's up," he asked. "Something wrong?" Nelson pulled his glasses off, and Lillian sighed.

"You were hacked," Dr. Cassidy said. "Mei Chin got in and-" he paused, and the three glanced at each other worriedly.

"And what?" Gabriel asked. "What she'd do?" Lillian sighed again.

"It's not what she did, Gabriel. It's what you did." Gabriel frowned.

"What do you mean? What did I do?"

"Go check on Riley," Nelson said. "Make sure she's alright." Gabriel abruptly stood and looked around for Riley, notseeing her anywhere.

"Where is she?" Gabriel asked, turning back to the computer.

"Check the conference room," Lillian said. "That's where you came from." Gabriel hurried over to the double doors andpulled them open, immediately spotting her in a pile on the floor.

"Riley," he called, jogging across to her and checking for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found it, strongand steady. "Riley, squeeze my hand if you can hear me." He gently wrapped his hand around Riley's, waiting for aresponse. When he got none, he carefully picked her up and carried her back into the main area of the plane. Setting herdown in a seat, he walked back to the computer.

"What happened?" He asked, sitting in the seat.

"Whatever went on with Mei Chin in the cyber render," Cassidy said, frowning. "That was actually happening. But it wasRiley in the room, not Mei Chin." Gabriel leant back in the chair.

"So I did this?" All three nodded, and Gabriel let his head fall into his hand.

"Gabriel, she's waking up." Lillian drew him out of his moment of confusion. "Go help her."

Gabriel stood and walked across to Riley, crouching in front of her. She groaned and slowly pulled a hand up to the backof her head, only opening her eyes when she felt blood come away. As she opened her eyes, she spotted Gabriel andimmediately pulled away from him.

"Hey," he whispered reassuringly. "It's me, I'm not going to hurt you." Riley didn't move. "I was hacked," he said, sitting onthe edge of the table. "I didn't mean to hurt you." Riley winced.

"Mei Chin?" She asked simply, her voice coming out dry and hoarse. Gabriel nodded, and he pulled a water bottleacross the table for Riley. She gratefully accepted it and downed half the water. "Are you ok?" She asked, concernspreading across her face. Gabriel laughed incredulously.

"I just pinned you against a wall and knocked you out and you ask if I'm ok?" Riley shrugged.

"I know how much it hurts your knuckles when you hit people," she joked. "And I have a pretty hard head." Gabriel smiledsadly.

"But seriously," he said, a hard line returning to his face. "Are you ok?" Riley nodded.

"My head is killing me and I'm pretty sure you almost collapsed my windpipe, but I'm fine."

"Gabriel?" Lillian's voice sounded from the computer across the room. "Is everything alright?" Gabriel glanced at Rileybefore walking over to the computer.

"Yeah, everything's fine. We'll check in when we land." Gabriel switched the computer off and returned to his seat on thetable. He reached out and held Riley's chin, turning her head to get a better look at the bruises already forming aroundher eye. "That's going to be a sweet black eye," he muttered, and Riley laughed."

"I'll remind you of that when it swells up enough that I can't see out of it," she replied. Gabriel smiled and stood again.

"I'll get you some ice. That'll help keep the swelling down." Riley smiled.

"Thanks. Better get some for your knuckles, too." Gabriel glanced down, noticing for the first time the cut knuckles andbruises forming around them.

"Wow, you really do have a hard head." Gabriel returned with two icepacks, and passed one to Riley before slumping intothe chair next to her. "I really am sorry," he said. "I was out of control. I don't know what-"

"Gabriel," Riley interrupted. "It's alright. I get it." She gently reached over and patted his hand. "Just let me get some sleepbefore we land and I won't say anything about this again." Gabriel nodded his thanks, and Riley balanced the icepack onher eye, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.

Please review!

*Chapter 12*: Story

It's a public holiday over here today, so I decided I should upload today, mostly because I have a 35 page researchpaper to write in the next two weeks. Procrastination! Yeah!

Anyway, thanks to Halle Alexis, Scotia, Lattelady, Agent Striker, krazyy989, Waylo, dontstopthelove15,Careeseforever, halaA, notdonewithyou and TVDFan4Ever for reviewing this chapter, as well as to everyone thatreviewed a previous chapter, and followed or favourited!

This idea came (again) from diana-of-wales, so plenty of thanks is being sent your way.

Please review, and as usual, leave any ideas you wish for me to write up!

Griffin shows up at Riley's place to "apologise" and try to talk his way back into Riley good graces only to discover whenhe asks to be let in Gabriel sprawled out on Riley's couch quite comfortab le and looking like he owns the place

"Charlie?" Riley stared incredulously at the man standing outside her door.

"Hey Thriller." Riley rolled her eyes. "Nice sling."

"Don't call me that." Her voice had a hard tone to it, and Charlie winced. "What do you want?" Griffin shoved his hands inhis pockets, and he looked almost like a nervous schoolboy, albeit 6'3 and in a suit.

"Look," he said, sighing. "After Panama, when we broke up, suddenly you weren't in the Service anymore." Rileyshrugged.

"So?" Griffin shuffled his feet awkwardly.

"Can I come in and talk?" He took a step toward Riley and she shook her head.

"Charlie, now's not a good time." He took another step forward and Riley stepped back, pushing the door slightly furtheropen as she did. Griffin smiled slightly and peered inside.

"Take a bullet today?" He asked. "Nice place," he continued, moving closer to Riley. Riley folded her arms as best shecould with a sling on.

"Yeah, I did, actually." She sighed. "How did you find me anyway? I have a different cell number." Griffin shrugged, a cockygrin spreading across his face.

"I have my ways." Riley sighed again.

"Look, Charlie, if I give you my number, will you leave?" Griffin raised an eyebrow. "You can call me another time and I'llmeet you somewhere." Charlie smiled.

"I suppose that could work."

Riley sighed and turned around, stepping back into her apartment to find a pen and paper. Griffin followed her inside,and Riley had to work to stifle the laughter as he stopped dead three steps inside.

"Hello again, Agent Griffin," Gabriel called from his position sprawled across the couch. "Haven't seen you in a while."Charlie shot a look at Riley.

"What?" She grinned at the confused look on Griffin's face.

"Oh, don't mind me," Gabriel said, pushing himself off the couch. "We both took a few bullets today, so we're just hangingout here, tending wounds. The usual." Charlie's mouth hung open as his mouth wordlessly moved.

"Gabriel, put the sling back on," Riley called as she returned to the room with a slip of paper. "You'll pull the stitches out."

"I'm not putting the sling back on," he argued back. "It doesn't fit." Riley shook her head.

"Stop being a five year old. It fits fine." Gabriel shook his head.

"No, it really doesn't. Beside, it's my left arm. I can't do anything right handed."

"No better time to learn." Riley scrawled her number down on the paper and held it out for Griffin.

"How did you get shot?" Griffin asked, ignoring the paper Riley was holding out. Gabriel grinned, glancing over to Rileywho rolled her eyes.

"Funny story, actually."

"It's not that funny," Riley interrupted.

"That's what you think," Gabriel chuckled. "So," he said turning to Griffin and leading him to the couch. "We were checkingout this building linked to this case we're working," Riley fell into the couch next to Gabriel, where he unthinkingly slunghis arm across her shoulder. "And out of nowhere this gang drives up, all in beat up vans and trucks. They all pile out,and it's just me and Riley, no backup."

"We didn't really have any choice but to run," Riley added. Gabriel nodded his agreement.

"So we took off, and these guys were firing at us as we ran. But this warehouse had floorboards ripped up, and I got myfoot caught in one and went down. Riley had to come back to get my foot untangled, and she got hit then. But we got outand back to the car, and another three guys appeared in front of us. One of them had an assault rifle, and he got a fewshots off before we took him down."

"That's how Gabriel got hit." Riley explained. "And then bled all over the car." Gabriel looked over to her.

"I did not." He shook his head. "I'm pretty sure you were doing most of the bleeding." Riley raised an eyebrow.

"I might have, but at least I had the sense to bandage it before it got all over the car."

"I didn't have time," Gabriel argued back. "I was driving and we were being chased." Riley rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." She turned back to Griffin, ignoring Gabriel's fingers as they played with the ends of her hair over hershoulder. "So we got out, and back to CyberCom, and it turns out the guys that were shooting at us were actually a rivalgang trying to out the gang that owned the building we were in." Gabriel nodded again.

"So we kind of helped the guys we were trying to get rid of, in a way." Griffin just nodded and stood up from the armchairhe was in.

"Um, I'd better go," he mumbled as he walked toward the door. "See you 'round, Riley, Gabriel." He pulled the doorclosed behind him.

"That was weird." Riley said, glancing at Gabriel, who just nodded slowly in agreement.

"I don't think he'll be back for a while." Riley smiled.

"Thanks," she said after a moments' pause, resting her head on his shoulder for a few moments.

"For what?" She looked up.

"When have we ever sat like this before?" She said glancing at Gabriel's arm across her shoulders. Gabriel shrugged.

"I just figured it might scare him off quicker." Riley shook her head.

"I'm pretty sure he's just scared of you, period." Gabriel grinned.

"A little friendly competition," he said. "That's all." Riley laughed.

"Now seriously Gabriel, put the sling back on!"

Review!

*Chapter 13*: Sharing

Sorry for the longer than usual delay in updating - I've barely been home for long enough to sleep, let alone have timeto write since uni started up.

But anyway, thanks as usual to everyone who followed and favourited, and extra thanks to Alesia, halaA, chymom,krazyy989, Halle Alexis, Zmrzlina763, NCISRookie33, MyBrokenButterfly, Waylo, ashlynnlols, RuthWriter, AgentStriker, Dandelion Wine, Blueeyeddolicityfreak, Ilovereadingtoomuch and the unnamed guest for the reviews.

Hopefully uni settles down a bit soon, but keep sending ideas in! Some ideas just flow beautifully, others not somuch, hence why I haven't written up all that I've been suggested.

Finally, special thanks again to diana-of-wales for the idea for this fic.

7.) Gabriel and Riley get stuck sharing a hotel room

"Unfortunately, we only have one room left." The motel receptionist looked up from her computer. "Will that be an issue?"Gabriel glanced over his shoulder to the car just outside the motel, Riley fast asleep in the passenger side, her headleaning against the window.

"I think that'll be fine." The receptionist smiled and passed Gabriel the key.

"Checkout is at 10am, breakfast is included with the room, you'll find it just down the end of that hallway starting at 7."She gestured to a hallway to Gabriel's left. "Enjoy your stay," the receptionist smiled flirtatiously as Gabriel took the keyand walked back to the car. Snow was beginning to fall and the temperature was dropping quickly, so Gabriel joggedback out to the car, climbing in and pulling the door closed behind him.

"Riley," he put a hand on her arm to wake her. She woke up immediately, blinking away the blurriness.

"Where are we?" She asked, stretching.

"About four hours out of Virginia," Gabriel replied. "I was falling asleep, and you're no help as a navigator, so I checkedinto a motel." Riley nodded sleepily.

"Good. After that last assignment, I could do with a real bed for a few nights." Gabriel agreed. Sleeping in abandonedwooden huts and forest floors for the past few nights meant that both agents were exhausted and aching.

"We'll take the sleeping bags in with us," Gabriel suggested. "I don't trust motel room linen." Riley nodded.

"Good call," she forced back a yawn. "Let's go now, I'm going to fall asleep any second." Gabriel grinned and reachedinto their packs that had been thrown carelessly into the back of the car. He somehow dragged two sleeping bags out,and passed one to Riley before they clambered out. Riley, stiff from sleeping sitting up stretched out her legs beforefollowing Gabriel into the relative warmth of the motel lobby.

"Home sweet home," Gabriel muttered as he pushed the door open. The room was far from sweet. It was a tiny roomwith a small double bed and a bathroom that didn't have a shower.

"Looks like you'll have to deal with my stench for another night," Riley joked. Gabriel replied instantly.

"And you with mine," he gestured to the bed. "Seeing as we'll be in close quarters again." Riley groaned.

"Is the universe trying to punish me?" She dropped the sleeping bag on the bed and sat down next to it. "I have to spendfour nights in a forest with you, and now that we're so close to home, I have to be punished for another night?" Gabrielplaced a hand on his chest, a wounded expression crossing his face.

"Wow, Riley. I didn't know you felt that way." Riley laughed and pulled her sleeping bag from the casing.

"Looks like you made a good call," Riley noted as she pulled back the duvet and immediately seeing stains on thesheets. "I don't think I'll use these pillows, either." She pulled the pillows off the bed and kicked her boots off. She pulledher gun from the holster and placed it on the bedstead next to her before unhooking her belt and curling it up next to herboots on the floor. Unzipping her sleeping bag and climbing inside, RIley glanced over to Gabriel who was sitting on theedge of the bed, staring out the window.

"Gabriel, you OK?" Riley finished zipping up her sleeping bag and she rolled onto her side to face him. "Gabriel?" Sheasked again when he didn't respond. He shook his head a few times.

"Yeah, I'm good." He mumbled, kicking his boots off and removing his belt and gun as Riley had done. "Just thinking."Riley rolled back onto her back.

"I think we've done enough thinking for a few days, Gabriel." She moved a hand behind her head, resting it on her elbow."I need some sleep." She looked back over to Gabriel and smiled.

"Night, Riley." He smiled back.

"Night, Gabriel. Don't hurt yourself with that thinking." She heard Gabriel chuckle quietly as she turned the light on herbedstand off.

Riley woke a few hours later, shivering violently. She tucked her sleeping bag closer around her and pulled her kneesup, but the cold seemed to have seeped in far enough that she couldn't warm up. Huddling as tightly as she could, Rileytried to stop her teeth from chattering, but to no avail.

"Can you stop with the shivering," Gabriel mumbled, sleep slurring his speech.

"I wish I could, Gabriel," Riley shivered back. "Except that it's freezing in here." Gabriel sat up and went to turn the light on,immediately withdrawing his arm when he was hit by the cold air.

"My God that's cold." Riley nodded. "I bet it's the receptionist. She's jealous that I didn't acknowledge her advancesearlier." Riley laughed.

"Well maybe we should take advantage of that," Riley winked. "Give her something to think about."

"Why Riley Neal, you scheming minx." Gabriel chuckled and Riley shook her head.

"But seriously," she said. "Body heat is the best way to conserve heat." Gabriel grinned and unzipped his sleeping bagslightly.

"Would you like to join me, Agent Neal?" Riley rolled her eyes and quickly crawled out of her sleeping bag and awkwardlyinto Gabriel's. They shuffled around in the close space for a few moments until they both found a comfortable position,sharing as much body heat as possible. When Riley buried her face in the crook of Gabriel's neck, he jerked awayquickly.

"Riley, you're freezing!" Gabriel wrapped his arm tighter around her waist.

"I know," she said, snuggling into Gabriel's chest. "That's why I'm in here, remember?" They fell into silence as theybegun to feel their extremities warming up, and eventually, they fell asleep.

Gabriel woke at the first knock at the door. He blinked a few times, as he tried to figure out where he was before heremembered. Another knock at the door and Gabriel called out.

"Come in," Riley began to stir a little and Gabriel lightly ran his fingers through her hair until she settled again.

"Good morning," the receptionist from the night before pushed a cart into the room. "There was a problem in the kitchenthis morning, so we're bringing meals to rooms today. Can I get you anything?" Riley was disturbed by the high pitchedvoice of the receptionist, and she properly woke up.

"Gabriel?" She mumbled, slightly dazed from the abrupt waking up.

"Morning Riley," Gabriel said, his arm still around her waist as it had been during the night. "Sleep well?" He askedturning to her. Riley shrugged.

"When it got warmer, I did," she replied smiling sweetly, quickly catching onto Gabriel's attempt to clear the receptionistfrom the room. Gabriel returned her smile.

"That's good," he replied, kissing her on the forehead. "What would you like for breakfast?" Gabriel asked, his fingerstangling themselves into Riley's on top of the sleeping bag.

"I'll have whatever you're having, honey," Riley had to force back a laugh as she glanced the evil eyes the receptionistwas giving her.

Gabriel took the food from the receptionist who then turned and stormed from the room, pulling the cart with her. Whenthe door was safely closed, Riley allowed the laughter to escape.

"Should I be concerned how easily you transitioned into a loving girlfriend?" Gabriel asked, turning to watch her.

"Concerned?" She asked incredulously. "You're the one that started it." Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

"Did I now?" Riley nodded. "So I'm incorrect in remembering a conversation last night then?" He asked, a grin spreadingacross his face. "In which you suggested that we give the receptionist something to think about?" Riley shook her head.

"You would be very incorrect." Gabriel nodded.

"Ok then. So would I also be incorrect in remembering that you're ticklish?" Riley's eyes widened.

"Gabriel, if-" he rolled over and pinned her legs underneath his as he targeted the ticklish point on her side. Sheimmediately tired to escape his grip, but he held both her wrists captive with his free hand. "Gabriel, stop!" Gabriel shookhis head.

"Admit that it was your idea!" He replied.

"Never!" Riley shot back, and Gabriel intensified the tickling. "Ok, ok," Riley caved a few moments later. "I admit it!"Gabriel grinned at her, leaning in closer to her face.

"I love you too, sweetie," Gabriel winked and kissed her on the forehead again before he rolled off her and draggedhimself out of the sleeping bag.

Please review!

*Chapter 14*: Greet

I really don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this one, but it happened, either way. It's highly likely these willstart to get shorter from this point onwards, seeing as I've got a load of uni work to keep up with, but they shouldkeep coming for the time being!

Thanks to notdonewithyou, halaA, TheLonelyGodsMuse, heheyyho, RuthWriter, Burt00, Careeseforever, Olivia, AgentStriker, Puckish879, TVDFan4Ever, Waylo, guru lupin the fix life, citroensandblueteacups, NCISRookie33 andgetbacktwerk for the reviews, as well as to everyone who followed or favourited!

You should all know the drill by now, please review and leave any prompts/ideas you may have!

Greet

"See you next week, Gabriel." Gabriel did a double take as Riley stepped past him and out of the room.

"Next week?" He called. "Riley, it's Tuesday." Riley turned back to him, arms folded.

"Did you seriously not listen to a word I said earlier?" Gabriel winced.

"No, I may have been cyber rendering a little bit." Riley rolled her eyes.

"I have a training course to attend," she said. "So I'm leaving for the rest of the week."

"Training for what?" He asked. "Aren't you like, the most qualified agent in this building?" Riley shrugged, grinning.

"Can't hurt to be even more prepared." She turned away and began walking again.

"Stay safe," he called at her retreating figure.

"Always am, Gabriel," she called back over her shoulder. "Always am."

As Gabriel's luck would have it, the week was uneventful and filled with paperwork, and a lot of trashcan basketball withNelson and Jameson. A lot.

"Gabriel, Nelson, I told you if I caught you doing this again, I'd-"

"C'mon, Lillian," Gabriel said as he stood up from the swively office chair he was on. "There's nothing to do here." Lillianfolded her arms.

"That's because you haven't finished your paperwork," she said, glancing pointedly at the stack of paper on the desk."And until you finish the paperwork, you aren't going on any field work." Nelson snickered at the pissed expression onGabriel's face. "That goes for you too, Nelson. Finish your paperwork or you won't be back in the lab for weeks."

"Riley, come back." Gabriel sighed into the phone. "Lillian won't let me do anything anymore." Riley laughed as shemoved her phone to her other ear.

"I can't come back right now," Riley replied. "You know that."

"Come on," Gabriel said. "Just tell me where you are, and I'll bust you out."

"Look Gabriel," Riley sighed. "It's late and I'm tired, I'm going to bed. I'll be home in two days."

"Fine," Gabriel replied. "But I'm gonna keep calling you."

"I'll keep my phone off." Gabriel gasped.

"You wouldn't!" Riley laughed again.

"You know I will." They fell into silence.

"Night, Riley." Gabriel said, finally. "See you soon."

"Night Gabriel."

"Neal, you're up!" Riley groaned as she pushed herself out of the bridge she had maintained for way too long and joggedup to the instructor 20 yards ahead of her. "There are four insurgents within 450 yards of here. Your job is to take themout before they get the chance to fire any shots at your soldiers who are stranded in that ruined building there." Theinstructor gestured to a run down barn about 230 yards away on her right. "You have five rounds, and three minutesbefore insurgent backup arrives, two minutes and 45 seconds until the exfil window for your guys closes. Got it?" Rileynodded.

"Yes sir." Riley set up behind the sniper rifle that had been set up on a ledge.

"Time starts now." Peering away from the scope, Riley looked for the telltale glint of a scope against the sun. Spotting two,she noted the direction of one, and took aim at the second. When she had a visual, she fired, and a puff of red chalk toldher she'd hit her mark. Immediately swinging to locate the second sniper, she spotted the glint again and lined him up.This sniper took longer to reveal himself, and Riley focused on her breathing while she waited. Just as she pulled thetrigger and saw the red chalk, the instructor next to her called out the two minute warning.

Looking away from the scope again, Riley scanned the landscape for anything that looked out of place. Noticing astrangely coloured clump of dirt on the ground about 100 yards from the soldiers building, Riley immediately focused thescope on it, spotting the nose of a rifle poking out from the end. She lined up what she calculated to be centre mass of thehidden body, and pulled the trigged. The red chalk again puffed out.

"One minute until insurgent backup arrives," Riley didn't acknowledge the instructor, instead looking for the last enemysniper. One of the soldiers in the building called out through the comms that he'd spotted movement to the west. Rileysearched the area, not seeing any movement.

"Any chance of a clearer estimate?" She asked, aware there was very little time left until the exfil window would be gone.

"Maybe 200 yards to the west," the soldier replied. "Right near that dead scrub." Riley glanced away from the scope,spotting the scrub, and then what could've been a branch, or it could've been the rails of another rifle.

"15 seconds to exfil," the instructor called. Riley took a deep breath. If this wasn't the last sniper, she wouldn't be ab le tofind him in time anyway. Steadying herself, she took aim, held her breath and fired. A slight red haze drifted into the air,and Riley let out a sigh of relief, her head dropping to the side of the rifle.

"Good work, Neal." The instructor said. "Best time of the day."

Riley pulled her bag from the passenger seat of the car, and climbed out, locking the door behind her. As she passedthrough security, she showed her badge and swiped her ID to get through the entrance. Just as she'd put her ID back inher pocket, Gabriel called out.

"Welcome back, Riley," he called from his position leaning against the wall near the lifts.

"Were you waiting for me to get in?" Riley asked as she approached him. Gabriel shook his head.

"Why would I be waiting for you?" Riley laughed and turned to the lift.

"If I didn't know better," she said. "I'd think you missed me."

Review!

*Chapter 15*: Service

I've had a super busy week (my USB died and I lost two 30 page assignments that are due soon) so I haven't had anytime to update, and I apologise for that.

Also, I forgot last week to again thank everyone who has reviewed this story ever for getting Chekhov's Gun to over200 reviews! It's an incredible feeling to know that so many people appreciate the work I've put into this, so thankyou.

Thanks to RuthWriter, Agent Striker, krazyy989, Halle Alexis, Alesia, NCISRookie33, citroensandblueteacups,Careeseforever, gurlluvintheficlife,halaA, Morroki and KC Pendragon for the reviews, and to everyone who favouritedand followed!

I was rewatching the Pilot episode when I decided I'd attempt to write this scene up, let me know if you think I did itjustice!

-Scottie.

"You two just don't want to watch another Disney movie, am I right?" Riley sighed as the two male agents before herattempted their best puppy dog faces.

"We've seen every Disney movie and chick flick the girls have been to see in the past year and a half," David, one of theagents complained. "If I get one more song stuck in my head for weeks, I'm going to kill someone." Riley rolled her eyes.

"Come on, guys. You know it's been a long week for me." The second agent, Smith shrugged.

"Consider it bonding with the girls," he said, a smug grin on his face. "Besides, the First Lady already approved it." Rileysighed.

"Fine," she muttered. "But you two owe me. Big time." Grins broke out on the faces of the two agents.

"Whatever you want, Neal," Smith called as they hurried away, not wanting to give Riley any chance to change her mind.

"Come on Natasha," Riley called from outside the door of Sasha's room. "We'll be late if you don't get a move on."

"Riley," the girl responded, "I keep telling you to call me Sasha!" Riley heard footsteps approaching the door.

"I'm so glad you're coming with us, Riley," Malia said as they followed her down the hall to the waiting car. "David andSmith are boring, and they never even watch the movies!" Riley smiled.

"I didn't really have much choice in the matter," she replied as she climbed into the car, checking with a quick glance thatthe girls had put their seatbelts on. "But as long as you two get home safe, then that's all that matters."

Riley had followed the two girls as they bought their tickets (a quick glimpse of Riley's badge and she was through, noquestions asked) and wandered through to the theatre. Malia turned toward the bathroom and Sasha followedimmediately. Glancing around the lobby mentally tagging any potential threats, Riley followed the girls.

"Sasha, Malia, get back," Riley called as a masked man barged into the restrooms, his eyes narrowing as Riley movedbetween the man and the two young girls.

"Sir, I need you to leave." Riley said firmly. "Now." The man continued approaching, and so Riley stepped forward andwith a few quick hits, the man dropped to the ground, unmoving. Just as she looked up, another man pushed throughthe door. "Oh come on," Riley groaned as the guy pulled a knife from his pocket. She carefully approached him, dodginga few thrusts of the knife, a few more grazing her side before she landed a blow across his chest, forcing him back a fewfeet.

The man snarled and lunged at Riley, and she didn't manage to get out of the way in time. The knife sunk into her thigh,and Riley grunted as she dropped to the ground, somehow managing to pull the man with her. Using her good leg, sheconnected her knee with his head until he too fell to the ground, unmoving, and she pulled the blade from her thigh. Shethrew it to the ground and groaned again, clambering to her feet, well aware of the warm blood now flowing freely fromher leg.

"Come on girls, we have to get out of here." She held her hand out and Sasha took it, Malia clutching her sisters' otherhand. Riley had just pulled the door open when another two men approached. Riley moved quickly, dropping Sasha's

hand and she caught the approaching fist of the first man, moving out of the way of his low kick at the same time. Usinghis momentum against him, she threw him to the ground, noting the fourth man was trying to circle around behind her.He lunged before Riley could stop him, and he picked the knife up from the ground, and then in one movement spunback towards Riley, plunging the blade into her shoulder. Riley cried out, her arm hanging uselessly at her side.

Sensing movement to her other side, Riley ducked under a fist, but was losing too much blood to avoid the body thatcame flying after it. The momentum threw her into the wall and she felt the knife press harder into her shoulder beforedropping out, clattering loudly to the ground. She clambered back to her feet, knowing that if she stayed down, the fightwas over. Taking a pained deep breath, Riley quickly dispatched a series of kicks and fists to the body and head of theman in front of her, who soon succumbed to the barrage. He dropped to the ground, pinning the fourth man to theground.

Allowing herself a moment to take another deep breath, Riley pressed a finger to her ear, calling for a car to get them outof there. She called out to the girls.

"Malia, Sasha, quick, get to the car."

"Riley, you're bleeding!" Riley shook off Malia's hand.

"I'm fine," Riley replied, clutching her thigh in a vain attempt to lessen the bleeding. "We gotta get you home." The twogirls glanced at each other, terrified expressions briefly crossing their faces. "It's going to be fine," Riley said, turning toface them. "But we've got to move now." The girls nodded and the three of them hurried, as best the could with Rileybleeding everywhere, to the car that was waiting by the entrance. They piled in, and the driver turned around, concernevident on his face.

"Are you alright Agent Neal?" Riley waved a hand.

"I'm fine," she groaned. "Just drive."

Ten minutes and several impromptu bandages later, the driver pulled up at the main entrance to the White House.Sasha and Malia hurried out, pulling the front doors open. Riley followed, a dizziness falling over her as she stood.Shaking it away, Riley limped to the door and stepped inside.

"Someone help," Malia yelled as they ran inside. "Please!" Riley leant heavily against the door frame when she heard aburst of static through her ear piece.

"Agent Neal, is everything OK?" Riley had no energy left to respond. "Agent Neal? I heard yelling downstairs, is everythingalright?"

"Not really," Riley mumbled her vision blurring and her grip on the door slipping. "But the girls are safe." She glanceddown at her thigh and at the blood still seeping through the bandages before she finally dropped to the ground, andstayed down.

"Malia? Malia, what happened to Riley?" Agent Smith sprinted down the stairs and found the two daughters of thePresident screaming for help, and Riley crumpled in a heap at the door.

"There were four men," Malia choked out. "They had a knife, and they were trying to get to us. Riley stopped them, butshe's been hurt real bad." Smith turned to Riley and immediately spotted the stained bandages around her upper legand the blooming patch of blood staining her once crisp white shirt.

"David, call an ambulance," Smith called into his mic. "And make it real quick." Moments later, Agent David came runningdown the stairs and across to Smith.

"Ambo is on it's way," he puffed. Smith nodded.

"Help me put pressure on these," he gestured to the two growing patches of blood. "She's losing a lot of blood," hemuttered, keeping his voice quiet enough that the two girls couldn't hear. "It's going to be close."

Riley woke to a searing pain in her thigh and a dull ache in her shoulder. Groaning as she cracked an eyelid open, thebright light disoriented her for a moment.

"Riley?" She groaned. "Riley, it's Smith." Groaning again Riley opened her eyes completely.

"Where am I?" She mumbled.

"Hospital," Smith replied, leaning forward in his chair. "Do you remember what happened?" Riley closed her eyes for amoment before nodding.

"Yeah," she sighed. "I remember."

"You lost a lot of blood, Riley." She nodded. That would explain the tiredness then. "Doctors thought you weren't going tomake it." Riley grinned.

"Good to see you've got some faith in me." Riley stretched a bit, careful not to move her sore shoulder. "Are the girlsalright?" Smith nodded.

"They were a bit scared at first, but they settled down pretty soon when you got out of surgery." Riley nodded and adjustedthe sling around her shoulder.

"So, when do I get back to work?"

Please review!

*Chapter 16*: Stuck

I actually had a lot of fun writing this one, so thanks to Erin for the prompt!

My usual thanks go to everyone that followed or favourited, and extra thanks to RuthWriter, krazyy989, AgentStriker, McNuggets, NCISRookie33, kateanneshepherd, Puckish879, gurl luvin the fic life and red lighting forreviewing!

My apologies also for not updating as I usually do, I've had a long week of being sick and having assignments due foruni. I have a mid semester break coming up soon, so hopefully I can get some more writing done then!

Anyway, please enjoy and leave a review, as well as any prompts you may have.

-Scottie.

Stuck in freezer. (I couldn't work with a freezer, so I used some creative license here).

"No, you can't leave us in here!" Riley kicked out at the man who had just pushed her into the edge of a crate. Had herwrists not been tied together, she would have attempted to drop the guy, but as it was, they weren't, and she wasrewarded for her kicking efforts by a fist to her own jaw. As she hit the ground, she took a moment to make sure Gabrielwas still breathing.

"Get in there," the man sneered, dragging Riley by her hair back to her feet. "Or I'll shoot you both." Riley winced as shewas pushed forward into the shipping container. She landed heavily on her side, and Gabriel was thrown in, landing halfon top of her. Riley heard the door close and the scratching of a padlock being latched into place seconds later.Groaning under the dead weight of Gabriel, she rolled out from under him, and pulled the knife from the side of his boot.She carefully sliced the rope around her wrists before untying Gabriel's, replacing the knife in his boot.

Riley stood and moved to the door, searching for any exit possibility. When she couldn't find any obvious exits, shelashed out and kicked the door, immediately regretting it as a stabbing pain made it's way up her foot. She walked backover to Gabriel when she noticed him starting to come to.

"Gabriel, you gotta keep moving or your concussion's going to get a lot worse." Riley pulled the lethargic man to his feet,tripping backwards over an empty crate. She felt a trickle of blood running down her forearm, but ignored it, pullingherself back to her feet and hurried back to Gabriel. "Damn it Gabriel, talk to me."

"Bit hard to talk when you're telling me what to do all the time." Riley shook her head.

"Nice to see you still have a sense of humour." She frowned when he was slow to respond again. "Are you ok?" Gabrielgazed expressionlessly at her for a minute.

"I think I hit my head on something," he mumbled. Riley frowned again.

"You don't remember it?" Gabriel shook his head. "You did more than hit it," she noticed the beads of sweat starting towork their way down Gabriel's forehead. "Gabriel, you were thrown into a wall," Gabriel frowned, and Riley reached for hishand and began walking, forcing him to follow.

"At the shipping yard?" Gabriel asked. Riley nodded. "I think I remember most of it," he mumbled. Riley turned to face himagain, noting how clammy his palm was. "Riley," Gabriel mumbled. "You're really hot." Riley started moving again.

"You're not too bad yourself," she replied, cursing when she tripped over another crate, this time not pulling herself upagain. Gabriel dropped to the ground next to her, and Riley finally pulled herself into a seated position.

"Let's just hope Nelson was watching." Gabriel mumbled. "Or we're going to fry in here."

Riley just nodded, the intense heat inside the container draining any energy she had left. She closed her eyes for a fewminutes, opening them only when a trickle of sweat rolled down her face, jerking her back to awareness. Riley wiped ahand across her face, hissing when she pressed her jaw too hard, and glanced over to Gabriel. He had his eyes closedas well, and Riley reached out a hand to wake him up.

"Gabriel," she croaked, her throat dry and lips cracked from dehydration. "Gabriel, wake up." Gabriel groaned and turnedhis head, but didn't respond. Riley sighed when she gave his shoulder one last shake and felt the cut on her forearmshe'd received earlier split open. She rolled her sleeve up to inspect the cut, and when she'd decided it'd be alright fornow, she tore a few strips of fabric from her shirt, fastening them as bandages.

"Riley?" Riley was distracted from her task by Gabriel's confused mumbling.

"What's up Gabriel?" He turned his head to face Riley.

"Thirsty," he mumbled, his eyes blinking closed before reopening again.

"Me too," Riley replied. "But there's nothing in here." Gabriel sighed. "Is there any way you can get a message to Lillian orNelson?" Gabriel shook his head.

"Nah, we're in a shipping container. The metal is blocking any signals from getting in or out." Riley groaned.

"Looks like we're stuck." She turned to face Gabriel again. "Try and stay awake," she said. "I don't want you dying on mein here." Gabriel managed a wry grin before he reached for Riley's jaw, turning her head sideways to better see thebruise spreading across the side of her face.

"I don't remember that happening," Gabriel frowned as he gently touched her jaw, checking for a break.

"That's because you'd already passed out," Riley returned, wincing at the pressure.

"I don't think it's broken," Gabriel mumbled, moving her head to face him again. "Did you get hit in the head too?" Heasked. Riley thought for a moment.

"I may have collided with the ground on the way in," she replied. "But I didn't think so." Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

"Well you've got a nasty cut, so you've done well." Gabriel dropped his hand from her chin.

"What about you?" Riley asked. "Any injuries?" Gabriel shook his head.

"Head is pounding and I really need a drink, but everything else is intact." Riley nodded, wiping another layer of sweatfrom her face.

They fell into silence for a while, Riley drifting in and out of consciousness, Gabriel staying out for most of the time. Shewas abruptly woken again when the sound of a padlock at the front of the container was heard, and shouts in aEuropean language she didn't recognise were heard. Riley quickly found the rope she had untied from Gabriel's wristsearlier and loosely knotted the rope around him again. The rope she'd cut from her own wrists was not reusable, so sheleft it and moved back to Gabriel, hoping if she pretended to be unconscious, they'd present them with an opportunity toget out. Leaning against the wall of the container, she closed her eyes and listened.

The door of the container swung open with a loud bang, and it took all the self control Riley had not to jump at the sound.It sounded like there were three men that stepped into the container. A moment later, one man called out something,and the other two hurried over to Gabriel and Riley, dragging them to their feet. Staying limp, Riley knew that they'd foundthe rope, and there wasn't much time left for them. Riley felt a hand curl around her forearm, and she ignored the pain ofthe man pressing on the wound. He pulled her hand forward from behind her back, revealing her untied wrists. Anotherman shouted an order and she was immediately thrown to the ground. She couldn't hold back a groan as she slammedinto the ground. She barely had time to register the throbbing pain through her temple when her hands were roughlybound again, pulled tighter than before. They bound her ankles with the same rough rope before dragging her by theback of her shirt, along the ground to the other side of the container. Riley felt another piece of rope being looped aroundher midsection and pulled tight against what Riley guessed was a heavy crate she'd seen from the other side of thecontainer earlier. One last blow to her cheek, and Riley let her head slump to the side.

She heard the men move over to Gabriel, checking the ropes and searching his pockets again. Carefully cracking oneeye open enough to see through her eyelashes, she watched them find the knife in his boot, bind his ankles and thenleave the container, slamming the door shut. The now familiar sound of the padlock was heard, and then nothing.

"Riley," Gabriel called a few moments later. "Are you alright?" Riley nodded.

"Yeah," she mumbled, her entire head and face aching. "I'm fine. Are you?"

"I'm good," he replied. "Great actually." Riley reopened her eyes to see a grin spread across his face.

"How are you great right now?" The grin grew bigger.

"Managed to send a message to Nelson while they left the door open," he replied. "Help is on the way." Riley returnedhis smile, and watched as he wriggled around for a while.

"What are you doing?" Riley finally asked after watching his frustration grow.

"Idiot that tied the rope didn't do it very well," he replied, still twisting. "If I can grab the loose end, I should be able to get itundone." She watched for a few more minutes until he finally got it. "Yes!" he called. "Got it!" He pulled his hands free andmoved to his ankles, quickly unknotting the rope and pulling it off.

Gabriel stood and moved over to Riley, stepping around the splintered wooden crates. He untied her ankles, carefullypulling the rope off and avoiding giving her rope burn. He had just started searching for the knot around her middle whenthere was shouting and gunfire outside the crate. Gabriel looked at Riley.

"Go," she said. "If it's not CyberCom, don't let them in." Gabriel nodded and hurried over to the door of the crate,positioning himself to the side of the door. "Be careful," she added as the shouts got closer. When the door burst open,Riley squinted against the bright sunlight. The armed man that stood in front of the door peered in.

"Agent Neal?" He asked, stepping inside and immediately being pulled into a headlock by Gabriel.

"Who are you?" Gabriel yelled. The man dropped his weapon and tried to reply.

"Agent Green," he choked. "CyberCom." Gabriel released his grip.

"Show me your ID." The man stepped away from Gabriel and massaged his throat, his free hand pulling his ID from apocket. He handed it to Gabriel who glanced over it.

"You guys took your time," he said as he handed it back and walked over to Riley. "You got a knife or anything?" AgentGreen handed a combat knife to Gabriel, who turned back to Riley and cut through the ropes with ease. Gabriel handedthe knife back to the Agent and pulled Riley to her feet.

"Let's not do this again," Gabriel said as they sat on the edge of an ambulance, water bottles in hand. Riley nodded, andheld up her water bottle, and Gabriel touched his bottle to hers.

"I'll drink to that."

Review!

*Chapter 17*: Wounded

Thanks to RuthWriter, krazyy989, Effie17, Guest, Scotia, Charlotte, Halle Alexis and Agent Striker for the reviews onthe last chapter, and to those who followed and favourited. Extra thanks to Midgardian Avenger for this prompt forthis chapter!

I'm not sure how many more chapters there's going to be, I've been swamped with assignments and I am runningout of ideas to work with here. But never fear, I have a few more written up for now, and hopefully inspiration willstrike again during my upcoming mid-semester break.

Anyway, please review and send in prompts or ideas, either in the reviews or PM them to me! Thanks for all yoursupport up to this point.

-Scottie

Prompt: Riley gets shot in the leg so Gabriel has to stay with her to help her move in her apartment. (MidgardianAvenger)

"West, put the gun down," Riley called, aiming her own gun at him, but knowing that there was no way he could actuallyshoot, not without harming Gabriel.

"No!" The panicked West called back. "Put your gun down and call off the backup, or I shoot." Gabriel winced as Westtightened his grip around Gabriel's neck.

"I can't do that, West. Now put the gun down. It's over." Three armed CyberCom soldiers moved into the room, weaponsraised. West grew suddenly more panicked, his gun flicking between the four agents in front of him. "West, drop thegun!" Riley took half a step forward as West pressed himself against a wall. West pressed his eyes closed for a momentbefore suddenly reopening them and pulling the trigger. Riley cried out and immediately fell to the ground as the bulletpierced the side of her leg.

"Riley!" Gabriel called as the recoil from West's gun pushed them closer to the wall. Using the momentum to hisadvantage, he pressed West against the wall and slammed his arm into it, his hand losing it's grip on the weapon. Itdropped to the ground, and with one last shove backward into the wall, West followed it. "Riley," Gabriel called again ashe hurried across to her.

"I'm fine," she winced, her hands clamped over her thigh. "It just nicked me." Gabriel pressed down on her hands,applying extra pressure to the wound.

"Get rid of this guy," Gabriel called to the agents. "And someone call an ambulance."

"Gabriel, I told you that I'm fine," Riley complained as a nurse pushed her to the car in a borrowed wheelchair. Gabrielshook his head, sighing.

"Riley, you can't even walk yet. I still don't know how you got discharged." She shrugged.

"I have a very specific skill set," she replied. Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"Well, Ms Specific, that doesn't change the fact that you can't walk." Gabriel unlocked the car that Lillian had ever so nicelysent to the hospital, and threw the crutches the nurse handed him into the trunk.

"I'll be fine once the pain meds kick in," she argued back. "Besides, I just want to go home and have a nice long, hotshower." The nurse stopped her before Gabriel could.

"You can't get your stitches wet for another day and a half." Gabriel grinned at the grimace that immediately spreadacross Riley's face.

"Great," she mumbled. "48 hours hunting down a bad guy and I still can't have a shower. It's like the gift that keeps ongiving." Gabriel chuckled.

"Come on," he said, offering his hand to help her from the wheelchair. "You're coming back to my apartment." At the lookof frustration that spread across her face, Gabriel grinned again. "I have a better couch." Riley rolled her eyes and tookthe proffered hand wincing when she straightened her leg. Gabriel kept his hold on her hand and pulled it over hisshoulder and they limped the few steps into the car. Gabriel closed the door when she was comfortably seated, and the

nurse handed him a package.

"Extra dressings and the pain meds she was prescribed." She told him. "If the stitches tear, take her to a Doctor or bringher back here as soon as you can." Gabriel nodded his thanks.

"Thank you," he called as the nurse wheeled the chair back toward the hospital. He turned back to the car and pulledhimself in. "Well Riley," he grinned. "Looks like it's just you and me."

After a long and complicated argument about how best to get Riley up the stairs to Gabriel's apartment (which Gabriellost, no way was Riley letting Gabriel carry her up three flights of stairs, she had crutches and could still walk, thank youvery much), Riley fell onto Gabriel's couch, the crutches falling to the floor beneath her.

"Seeing as your DVD collection isn't here this time," Gabriel announced, walking toward Riley, files of DVD's in hishands. "We'll have to pick something from my collection which is, regrettably, much less extensive than yours." Rileysmiled.

"I'm sure your collection is just fine," she replied, grinning as he threw her one of the files.

They chose a movie, a cheesy comedy, and watched through before Gabriel stood, stretching out his back.

"Hungry?" He asked. Riley shook her head.

"Not really. I ate at the hospital." Gabriel gasped.

"And you didn't share?" Riley grinned.

"I'm kinda tired," she admitted. "It's been a long day." Gabriel nodded and helped Riley get to her feet. He pulled one ofher arms over his shoulder and walked her to his room. She fell onto the bed, exhaustion clearly showing on her face.Gabriel turned back to the door.

"I'll see you in the morning, Riley. Sleep well." He was almost out the door when Riley's voice stopped him.

"Wait, Gabriel," he turned back. "Can I borrow something to sleep in?" She asked. Her jeans had been destroyed by thebullet, and the scrub pants she had been given looked uncomfortably large, the drawstring tied tightly around her waist.Gabriel nodded and walked to his wardrobe, digging around in a drawer. He emerged a few moments later with an oldlooking shirt and a pair of gym shorts.

"They're probably a bit big," he said, "but they're pretty comfortable." Riley took the clothes from him.

"Thanks," she said. "My go bag's back at CyberCom, else I'd have my own." Gabriel smiled and walked back to the door.

"Sleep well," he called, pulling the door closed behind him. Riley waited a few moments before she painfully pulledherself to her feet and swapped the scrub pants for Gabriel's shorts, her blood stained shirt following shortly after. Sittingback down, she pulled her boots and socks off, dropping them next to the bed before she lay down on top of the coversand promptly fell asleep.

When she woke, she was under the blankets, and her clothes had been folded up neatly and placed next to her boots.She blinked sleep out of her eyes, searching for a clock. When she found one, she discovered she'd slept for almost 12hours. Swinging her legs out of the bed, she winced when her foot made contact with the floor sending a jolt of pain upher leg. The door was open a crack, and swallowing her pride, Riley called out.

"Gabriel," she called, hearing footsteps moving toward the room. He peered into the room and grinned.

"Morning, sleeping beauty," he smiled as he stepped in. His smile changed to a frown when he saw the expression onRiley's face. "Let me go get your drugs before we continue this conversation." Riley smiled her thanks as Gabrielretreated to the kitchen and filled a glass with water and palmed two of the pain pills the nurse had given him the nightbefore. He returned to Riley and passed the water and drugs, sitting on the bed next to her. The effect was almostinstantaneous, and Riley turned to face him. "Better?" Gabriel asked. Riley nodded.

"Better." She pushed herself off the bed and tested her weight on her leg.

"Calm down," Gabriel said as she started to bounce on the leg. "You'll bust your stitches." Riley rolled her eyes, andGabriel stood up. "If you'll walk carefully, I'll make you pancakes for breakfast."

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*Chapter 18*: Realisation

So I really can't remember when I wrote this, but I do remember having fun with it. Thanks to Lauren for the prompt!

Thanks to Chymom, krazyy989, RuthWriter, Agent Striker, Midgardian Avenger, Guest, Careeseforever,citroensandblueteacups and Waylo for the reviews and prompts (keep them coming, guys, the Uni semester is oversoon!), and also to everyone that followed and favourited. :)

What if Amelia actually didn't die but was a terrorist, and ends up shooting Riley so Gabriel has to decide between hiswife or a injured Riley.

"Wait," Riley frowned as the woman she was chasing turned around. "Amelia?" The women stopped, her gun pointing atRiley.

"Thought I was dead?" Riley gripped her own gun tighter, knowing that Amelia had both the upper hand and the extrafirepower.

"We reviewed footage from the scene, found remnants of bodies. There was no way that you survived the explosion,"Riley said, trying to work her brain around the paradox before her.

"And yet here I am." Riley ignored the crackle of static and questions from Gabriel in her earpiece.

"So what," Riley asked. "You pretend to be dead to stop Gabriel from finding anything to do with you, and then when itsuits you, you just reappear and threaten to destroy him and get the chip to Mei Chin and the Chinese?" Ameliashrugged.

"The Chinese did offer me a lot of money," she started. "But not just for the chip." Amelia's finger moved to the trigger. "Iget a bonus if you die."

Riley reacted instantly, diving to her right, pulling her own trigger a few times as she did. But it was just the kind of dayshe was having, and she felt a few bullets hitting her before she crashed into the ground, blood already pooling aroundher. She vaguely heard Gabriel yelling through her earpiece again, and using her last vestiges of energy, she activatedher own mic and struggled to spit out a few words.

"Gabriel, it's Amelia," the woman was in her rapidly blurring peripheral vision. "I've been hit." She struggled to take a fewbreaths. "Don't come to me, Amelia wants you dead." As she choked out the last word, Riley felt all her energy had beensapped, and she closed her eyes, her head dropping to the ground.

"Riley!" Gabriel roared, ignoring the frightened jumps from the CyberCom agents in the room with him. "Riley!" He calledthrough the earpiece again when she didn't reply. Taking off, Gabriel pulled up the footage of the room Riley had gone tocheck and clear. His heart dropped when he found her laying on the ground, a worryingly big pool of blood surroundingher torso. His heart dropped again when he saw Amelia standing by the window of the room, machine gun in hand. Hetook off running again, and soon ended up at the entrance to the room.

"Riley," her name escaped his lips before he could stop himself, and Amelia turned around.

"And the calvary arrives," she smiled as Gabriel stepped into the room, his gun trained on the woman who was once hiswife as he walked across to Riley. He reached to check her pulse. "Don't touch her," Amelia warned.

"Or what," Gabriel spat back, ignoring her and counting Riley's pulse. It was weak, but still there. She was holding on."You'll shoot me?" Amelia's finger twitched on the trigger.

"I'd consider it." Gabriel raised a hand to his ear.

"Lillian, we're going to need an ambulance here. And quick. Riley's been hit." He heard a flurry of movement and aconfirmation that an ambulance was on it's way.

"Gabriel, you're kidding yourself if you think that you're going to be able to save the girl." Gabriel straightened up andtrained his gun back on Amelia. "You won't shoot me." Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

"You seem very sure about that." Amelia smiled. Gabriel was taken back to a time when they were happily married, andthat smile greeted him on a daily basis.

"I know you, Gabriel. I know everything about you." Gabriel shook his head, clearing the fog of the flashback.

"You've been talking to Mei Chin," he deadpanned. "Haven't you." Amelia shrugged.

"I've been busy." Gabriel glared at her.

"How did you get out of the hospital?" he asked. "There was no way I could see you escaping. Riley and I barely made it."Amelia smiled again, but this time, Gabriel was well aware of what she was doing as she stepped towards him.

"I have friends in all the right places," Amelia replied, stepping closer again. "It's amazing what a bit of help can do." Shestopped walking, now only 5 feet from him. "Put the gun down, Gabriel. The girl's almost dead and there's no way youcan get out of this situation." Gabriel bit his lip to stop his frustrated cry. He glanced quickly over to Riley, the ever growingpool of red around her showing just how close she was to dying. He looked back at Amelia, and the smug smile on herface, and in that moment, he knew what he had to do.

"I'm sorry, Amelia. I really am." He took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, the bullet that the gun spat out piercingstraight through her heart. She didn't have time to cry out before she was dead. Gabriel dropped his gun and fell to hisknees, the intensity of the situation finally catching up to him. After a few moments, he came back to his senses anddragged himself to his feet and over to Riley. He stripped his vest off, carefully pulling Riley's off before he pulled hisovershirt off, pressing it over the worst bleeding wounds.

"Come on Riley," he muttered as he applied as much pressure as he could over her torso. "You can't die on me. Notnow. I can't lose you." He heard movement at the door and he turned to see what was happening. Two paramedics werepeering in the door. "Quick," he yelled. "Over here. She's lost a lot of blood." The paramedics hurried over, pushingGabriel out of the way and packing gauze into the wounds, doing the best they could to stop the blood loss. Theytransferred her onto a stretcher and Gabriel followed as they raced her out of the room and to the ambulance. Gabriel satin the side of truck, making himself as small as he could while the paramedic set to work on stabilising Riley.

"Gabriel," he slipped back to reality at the pressure on his shoulder. He looked up at Nelson who was smiling sadly athim. "Lillian told me what happened." He passed Gabriel a cup of coffee. "Thought you could do with one of these."Gabriel smiled and took the cup from Nelson, grimacing as the bitter coffee slid down his throat.

"I didn't have a choice," Gabriel said after a few minutes of silence had elapsed. "Riley was going to die. I couldn't letAmelia take me while I knew Riley could die." Nelson raised an eyebrow.

"But still," he said. "You shot her. Couldn't you have subdued her or something?" Gabriel sighed.

"There was no time."

"Mr. Vaughn?" Gabriel looked up to the source of the unfamiliar voice. He stood up, passing the coffee back to Nelson."She's going to be alright," the Doctor said, and Gabriel let out a huge sigh of relief. Behind him, he heard Nelson cry outa similar sound of relief. "She's lost a lot of blood, but the vest saved her life. All four bullets missed anything vital. She'llbe weak and tired for a while, but there were no complications in the surgery, and she'll make a full recovery." The Doctorpatted Gabriel's shoulder as he fell against the wall. "I'll send a nurse down to take you to her soon when she's in aroom." He turned back the way he came, and Gabriel slid down the wall, his head falling into his hands.

When Gabriel walked into Riley's room, he nearly passed out. She was pale - much paler than usual, and the beeping ofthe machines she was hooked up to were beeping slower than he was used to, slower than they should be. Taking adeep breath to steady himself, he stepped into the room, sitting in the chair beside the bed. He gently reached out andtook her hand, revelling in the feeling of her warm skin. She tightened her fingers around Gabriel's and turned her head,eyes fluttering open.

"Hey," she whispered, and Gabriel couldn't contain the smile that spread across his face.

"Hey yourself," he replied. "How do you feel?" Riley sighed.

"Tired and sore mostly," she replied. She paused for a moment. "Gabriel, I saw what happened." Gabriel withdrew hishand, and pulled away from her. "Why'd you do it?" Gabriel sighed and leant back in his chair, dragging a hand acrosshis face.

"After Amelia died in the hospital and I thought there was no way she could've survived, I'd finally accepted the fact shewas gone." He sighed again, and Riley stretched out her arm, her fingers tangling into his. "But then when she was back

there, at first it was like I'd never lost her. And then I realised that if I kept believing that, you were going to die. When Irealised she'd been working with Mei Chin, I knew she wouldn't take me back, regardless of what I did. So it was the onlychoice." Riley smiled sadly.

"You know that Lillian said she almost regretted choosing you for the chip," Riley said. "She said that she knew you wereplanning on using it to find Amelia." Gabriel nodded.

"Yeah, I know."

"I told her that she was wrong. Told her that if it came down to it, you'd do the right thing." Gabriel nodded.

"She was a terrorist, Riley. I did my job." Riley tightened her grip on Gabriel's hand.

"Not every man would have." She watched his face as she saw the battle raging in his head. "You're a good man,Gabriel." Gabriel smiled, a genuine smile that told Riley he was working through it.

"You know you owe me twenty bucks, right?"

Hope you guys enjoyed it! Please review!

*Chapter 19*: Trip

Yo everyone, so sorry about not updating in a month, uni got really crazy and I may have completely forgotten aboutthis for a while… Anyway, since it's been a while since I updated, I actually can't remember who sent in this prompt.If it was you (or you know who it was) let me know and I'll amend this so you get my official kudos :) until then,thanks for the prompt!

Riley sprains an ankle and Gabriel takes it upon himself to help her get home by carrying her and then hovering overher.

"Our suspect is running an op in a shipping yard a few miles from your location. Gabriel, we want him in one piece."

"Lillian, it hurts that you think I'm a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy." Next to him, Riley huffed.

"You killed our only other lead this morning." Gabriel shrugged.

"You make a valid point."

"I'll send some other Agents to the yard, do not engage until they arrive, clear?" Riley nodded, noting the fact that Gabrielpointedly didn't respond.

"Send us the address," she said as Gabriel started the car.

"Gabriel, you heard Lillian. We wait for backup." Gabriel ignored Riley, getting out of the car and checking his gun.

"We don't have time, Riley," Gabriel called over his shoulder as he started jogging. "He's got camera's everywhere. By thetime they arrive, he'll be gone." Riley sighed.

"Fine, but follow me." Gabriel chuckled.

"Not a chance," he replied before he took off, jogging to the corner of the nearest container, peering around the corner.

"I'm going to kill him," Riley muttered as she followed him, waiting for his signal to move further past the crate.

They crept through the shipping yard until Gabriel found the crate the suspect was inside.

"Riley, can you get up high?" Riley looked around, quickly spotting a covered position atop a nearby position. Shenodded. "Good. Move now, I'll wait 'till you're up before I get them out." Riley nodded again before moving off.

"Be careful," she warned as she hurried away, climbing up the outside of a container and placing herself on the corner,covered from most of the undesirable angles. She glanced down to Gabriel and nodded, and he walked to the door ofthe container. Knocking loudly, they heard shouts from inside, and Gabriel retreated a few steps, giving Riley a betterangle on anyone that came out. The doors swung open and three armed men stepped out, brandishing their guns atGabriel. He holstered his pistol and held his hands up in surrender. At a nod from Gabriel, Riley took out the three menas Gabriel dove to the side, seeking cover from the gunfire erupting from inside.

Riley stepped out from her position again to fire off another few shots, checking the position of the armed men. Whenthey began returning fire, she stepped back into cover, but not quickly enough, and a bullet grazed her calf, sending herstaggering forwards. Recovering her balance quickly enough but knowing she had to get off the container. Firing off a fewmore shots around the corner, she moved to the edge of the crate and jumped off, But as her luck would have it, thebullet wound in her calf caused her leg to buckle as soon as it hit the ground, and instead of rolling over her shoulderlike planned, Riley dropped to a heap on the ground. She felt something in her ankle snap in that moment, and she criedout, immediately regretting it as shouts were heard moving in her direction. Dragging herself into a corner, hoping forsome sort of cover, two men rounded the corner. Riley fired twice, each bullet making contact and killing the men. A thirdman followed, and he joined the other two on the ground.

Soon the sound of gunfire from Gabriel's last position died down, and Riley listened out for the sound of anyone moving.She heard heavy footsteps from around the container to her right.

"Riley?" Gabriel called. "Where are you?"

"I'm over here," Riley called back. The footsteps slowed and changed directions and then someone stepped out fromaround the corner.

"Riley?" Gabriel called again. This time, Riley didn't respond as their suspect calmly walked towards her, gun raised and

aimed at her chest. "Riley!" Riley instantly aimed her own gun and pulled the trigger, only to find that she had no bulletsleft. The suspect grinned as he continued walking, his gun not wavering.

"Well isn't this a nice surprise," he said, as he stopped walking a few feet away from Riley. "Looks like the tide hasturned."

"Riley?" Riley opened her mouth to call back, but was interrupted before she could speak.

"Don't even think about it," the suspect spat at her. "You make one noise and I will kill you."

"Why don't you then," Riley replied, desperately trying to control her voice.

"Maybe I will," he smirked back before moving his finger off the trigger guard and onto the trigger itself. Riley closed hereyes and bit her lip to keep from crying out in fear. A moment later, the sound of a bullet firing made her jump, and sheforced herself to open her eyes. In front of her, their suspect had fallen backwards, a bullet embedded in his chest.

"Riley, are you alright?" Gabriel asked, sprinting over to her and dropping to his knees in front of her. Riley nodded.

"I'll live." After a moment, she finally looked away from the dead suspect. "What happened to taking him alive?" Gabrielsighed.

"Technically, Lillian requested him in one piece. And that is still the case." Riley sighed and Gabriel pushed himself backto his feet, offering his hand to pull Riley up. She reached for his hand and he dragged her to her feet where she instantlyfell back down, clutching at her injured calf and ankle.

"Forgot about that," Riley muttered, wincing at the intense pain now spreading through her lower leg.

"What happened?" Gabriel asked as a blood stain on her jeans grew larger.

"Bullet grazed my calf," she replied, wincing again as he applied pressure. "And I might've sorta fallen off a container."

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