(no subject)

[nike_ravus]

Title: Custodian (7 of 7)
Author: Alsike
Rating: M, for Murder
Pairing: Look, do you want the various hook-ups or the true-love destiny, because either way I'm not telling you.
Summary: 

Sent to San Francisco to eradicate a leak, Jill, Emily and Claire wind up on the trail of a serial killer that leads them into the dark depths of the Connecticut Mafia.

“All right, so who’s next?”

Jill closed her eyes.  Lindsay’s boyfriend was Tom before she was taken by the Cabots and had her death faked.  She escapes.  Finds Tom, finds out that he’s working for the same organization that held her captive for twelve years, kills him.  Kills all his connections, one after another, doesn’t care whether they’re Gilmore or Cabot, just that they have ties to the mob.  But she’s reached the end of Jill’s list.  Who else…?

Claire… was taken after a tip by Heather, of course!  Who else?

“Cindy!”  The girl looks up at her, her eyes wide.  “You wanted to be a crime reporter, right?  You need to call the police, send them to 110 Hillcrest in Berkeley.  You come, you’ll get the scoop.  We’re going to catch a serial killer.  It’s my fault, and I’m the perfect bait.”

*            *            *

“But what about this killer!” Ms. Gilmore exclaimed.

“I told you we were investigating that,” Claire replied stiffly.

“We know who it is,” interjected Emily, “at least we think we do.  I’ve seen her twice.  Jill’s trying to intercept her.”

“I should call her and tell her to stop,” said Claire blandly.

“What?  Why?” cried Ms. Gilmore.

“She’s only killing Gilmores.  Michael Logan is next.  It’s really none of our business.”

Emily’s jaw dropped.  “But we almost have her!“

Ms. Gilmore glowered.  “What do you want?”

“We want the information Tom Hogan collected from you, and safe passage out.”

“It’s already been integrated.  It’s too late for that.”

“How about ending the feud?” suggested Lorelai.  Everyone looked at her.  “Because if we don’t, both me and Alex, here, are going to be in a lot of trouble for what we did last night.”

Emily snickered.  Claire looked affronted.  Ms Gilmore glanced between them, confused.  Irina just grinned.

“Do you have enough power to do something like that?”

“I can agree to talks.”

“I think that’s probably more than this problem is worth.”

“I won’t ask for vengeance for the torture,” said Claire stiffly.

Ms Gilmore frowned, but she was beaten.  “Fine.  Now do something about the killer.”

“Wait,” Emily stepped in to the center.  “Is Heather one of yours?”

Irina nodded.  “I’m her link.  She called me about you all.”

“Then we know who the next victim is.”

“Call Jill.”

No one picked up Jill’s phone.  Emily started to panic.  “We have to go.  Now.”

*            *            *

It was already dark outside when Heather started to cook dinner.  Little Lindsay had been put to bed after a quickly fried up hamburger.  Heather hadn’t felt like eating then.  She still didn’t, but it would be stupid not to.  She took out the hamburger meat and turned on the burner under the cast iron frying pan.  She chopped half an onion and a few cloves of garlic and had just finished kneading them into the meat with a liberal dose of salt and pepper as well, when the doorbell rang.  She quickly washed her hands and went to the door.

She checked the peephole first, turning on the porch light so she could see, but the woman was turned away, only showing a smooth cheek and a tail of dark hair.  She opened the door.

“Hi, Heather.”

“Hello…”  Heather stepped back as she recognized the woman, thinner, eyes darkened in the shadow, an oddly scarred, but still a gorgeous as Tom had always said when he was drunk, “Lindsay.”

The door shut behind them.  They stood quietly in the dim kitchen.  Heather had only bothered to turn on the light over the stove while she was cooking.

“It was you, then, who killed him, Tom, I mean.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I couldn’t recognize him anymore,” Lindsay’s eyes were like burning coals.  Heather shivered, trying to glance around for something to defend herself with, knowing that humans were the best glance followers on the planet.  “Something had corrupted him, turned him into something vile and wrong.  That thing was you, wasn’t it?”

“W-why do you think that?”

Lindsay laughed.  “Don’t play innocent with me.  I know who you are, Heather Donnelly.  I know who your family is, and I know what they do.  Heather Derevko.”

“But, but why do you think I corrupted him?”

“Who else is in the perfect position to do it?”

“Why do you think he was corrupt?”

Lindsay narrowed her eyes, and Heather breathed in sharply through her nose.  “You can talk all you want, I’m still going to kill you.”

“But you shouldn’t have killed him.  You were right about me, but you shouldn’t have killed him.”

“What are you talking about?”

Heather smiled, but there was no pleasure in it.  “I wasn’t here to corrupt him.  I was a plant.  He was meant to meet me, fall in love with me, marry me.  But I was here to keep him pure.”

“I was going to marry him.  Before, and even after I escaped, I was going to find him, and when I did, he was working for the same people who held me and tortured me for twelve years.”

Heather snorted derisively.  “You’re an idiot.”

“What?”

“I thought you were a cop.  Don’t you know anything about undercover assignments?”

“I checked.  There was no records going anywhere in the system about him working undercover.”

“That’s because they were going to my people.  It was an easy lie.  His partner, his superior, even his friends were all my people.  And so we sent him on a mission.  We thought the Cabots might get him, if they caught him.  We didn’t think it would be a vigilante like you.”

Lindsay was frozen and silent.  Heather smiled savagely.  “Did I shock you?  Murderer.”

“You’re a liar.”

“Do you think so?  Do you think your beloved Tom, who loved you so much even after he had me, would ever betray his principles like that?  God, he loved you so much he named our daughter after you, and you put a knife in his gut.”

Her hands were shaking, but Jill saw her clench the knife tighter.  “This is all your fault!  You still deserve-“

She lunged and Jill darted out of the hall, grabbing her, pulling her away.  Heather thrown up her arms, and the knife sliced her forearm, blood welling out.

“Stop it!”

Lindsay whiled on her attacker and Jill grabbed her knife arm, holding it away from her with every ounce of strength she had.  Lindsay saw who she was fighting, and froze, her eyes widening.

“There’s no reason to kill her, is there?  It’s not her fault.  It’s mine.  I’m the one you really want.”

“You…”  It was clear Lindsay did remember her, but she had better make sure of it.

“What happened to you?  You followed me, or something, and they caught you.  Did they torture you?  Did they forget about you?  Did you blame me, over and over again, blame your self for chasing after a gutter punk?  I was the one who ruined your life.”

Jill could see Lindsay’s eyes flickering between Heather and her.  She couldn’t decide who to kill first, could she?  The one who had taken her lover and fooled her into killing him, or the one who had led her into a trap.

“Come on.  She has a little kid.  She made your boyfriend happy for a while.  I was the one who rejected you, told you to fuck off.  I chose them over you.  Two unknowns, I took the one that looked like fun.”

“Fun?”  Lindsay stepped back, jerking her arm out of Jill’s grip.  “You would say that.  Do you know what they did to me?”

“Tell me.”  Time, she needed time.

“They tried to corrupt me.  They tried with words, with cash, and then with knives.”  Lindsay laughed shortly.  “But I wouldn’t give into them, not like you.”  She touched her face, pointing out the thin white scars.  “You see these?  They cut into all my sinuses and waited to see if I would drown in my own blood.  Eventually they got bored.”

“And then what?”

“They forgot about me.  For years.  Until they needed to clean out some old buildings and remembered they were keeping me.  They took me to the border to shoot me.  But I escaped.”  Lindsay smiled.  “I never gave in.”

“I’m impressed by your strength.”  She was, honestly.  Standing up to years of torture and only loosing your mind?  That was pretty good.  “And I’m sorry for what they did to you.”  It was her fault.  But Jill had made her decision, and Lindsay could have decided to leave her alone.  Working for the Cabots was hard in its own way, but it was always direct, never hypocritical.  No one ever pretended they were doing the right thing, and in that way it was a lot more pure than playing politics.  And yes, she had covered up murders, defended scumbags, lied in a hundred different ways, but Jill liked her life, and liked the absence of arbitrary idealism in it even more.

“But tell me, what did you win, by staying so strong?”  She glanced down to hide her smile and then back up to Lindsay’s face.  “What do you win?”

The knife moved quicker than she expected, no telegraphing, no warning.  She could see it, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t-

A flash of black, a thud.  Lindsay Boxer collapsed on the floor, the knife falling from her hand and skittering away.

Emily stood across her body, holding a cast-iron frying pan and looking embarrassed.

“Fuck, Emily!” Jill couldn’t control the words.  “You are so fucking sexy!”

Emily gave her an embarrassed smile.

Heather snorted and Jill spun.  “Hey!”  She gave her the ‘don’t diss my girl,’ finger-point of death.

“No!  You’re totally right.”  Heather wiped the smile from her face as best she could and then looked down at Lindsay’s prone form.  “I was just sure…”  She looked up at Jill.  “And you’re a Cabot!  Why did you save my life?”

Emily set the frying pan down on the counter and flexed her hand a few times.  “Feud’s over,” she said.  “They’ve promised talks.”

Jill looked at her and then at Heather.  She shrugged.  “That’s news to me.  I just don’t like watching beautiful women die.”

There was the sound of a siren in the distance.  “Shit,” muttered Jill, “We’ve got to get out of here.  I tipped off the cops in case we didn’t stop her.”

Emily looked stricken at Jill’s worst case scenario.  Heather reached for the frying pan.

“I’ll take that, and play the traumatized victim, yeah?”  Then she yelped and dropped it back on the counter.  “Shit!  That’s hot!”  She stared at Emily.  “How did you-?”

Emily looked at the frying pan, just as surprised at its temperature.  “I didn’t notice.”

Jill shook her head and grinned.  She and Emily turned to head out the back, but Jill stopped suddenly and looked back at Heather.

 “If a reporter named Cindy Thomas asks, give her an interview, okay.”

Heather looked bewildered but nodded and then tested the frying pan to see if it was cool enough to handle yet.

Jill and Emily jogged out the back, ducking around to where Claire was waiting with the car, just as the first police vehicle sailed up, siren wailing.

They stayed just long enough to see Heather be escorted outside, the frying pan handle clasped in a convenient oven mitt, weeping and gasping like a perfect victim.

*            *            *

“Wait, you’re kidding me, our little princess is Alex Cabot?”

Emily laughed.  “I told you that nickname was perfect.”

A week of vacation later, they were heading home.  Jill grabbed a paper in the airport.  Front page, byline Cindy Thomas, Crazed Killer Captured!  She snorted at the headline.

It looked like someone else had linked Lindsay to the Knifer killings and made up some crazy idea that she had been behind them then too, then faked her death and ran away to China while the high-school teacher. who was either framed, or a copycat, was arrested and put to death.  She reemerged to take vengeance on her ex-boyfriend, killing him, his friends, and attempting to kill his wife and child.  Jill’s head spun at the garbage they had come up with.

Lindsay had been diagnosed as a paranoid schitzophrenic, prone to fantasies about crime and mob violence, and considered herself an avenger.  As California was not a death-penalty state, and the lawyers had successfully fought extradition, she was likely to be locked up in a high-security psychiatric ward.  That was good news.

Jill had mentioned what had happened to Lindsay Boxer to Claire, who nodded, and said, “I’ll deal with it.”

Knowing who Claire actually was made the words seem to say that whoever had screwed up with Lindsay was as good as dead.

Jill didn’t feel guilty about the situation anymore.  She had made her decision, chosen her own life, and it was pretty good the way it was.

Emily leaned on her shoulder and glanced at the byline.  “What was up with her?  Anything going there?”

“Cute, but not my type, in this life at least.  And probably more interested in her byline than me.”  She flicked her eyebrows at Emily.  “Sara?”

“Cute, but not my type.”  Jill smacked her sarcastic ass.  Emily yelped and ran down the concourse.  Jill chased her, dodging people and luggage until they crashed into the wall at their boarding gate.  They called it a tie there and flopped into a set of chairs.

“And she has her own unrequited crush to deal with.”  The words were said quietly, but clear enough.

Jill’s raised her eyebrows curiously.  Her “own” huh?  She hooked her arms around her rescuer Emily’s shoulders and gave her an awkward comfort-hug then a noogie.

“What about you, Claire?  Meeting up with Lorelai again?”

The Gilmore heir had spent nearly the entire week at their house.  She spent the days driving Claire crazy and napping on the sofa, and the nights driving Jill and Emily crazy until they gave up sleeping at night and also napped during the days when it was less noisy.  Claire had proven Jill’s hypothesis correct, she really didn’t need to sleep at all.

Claire scowled.  “Not if I see her first.  I have an irritating feeling she’ll pop up at the most inconvenient times.”

“She said she’d been considering moving to New York,” added Emily with a grin.  “Do you think the families would consider a merger?”

“There is no way in Hell I would marry that woman!”

Emily and Jill fell over each other laughing, and finally Claire joined in.

They laughed all the way home.

 FIN

Query: There have been some ideas floating around for a sequel, more Criminal Minds based (meaning i'll be killing off most of those characters or at least torturing them).  I've left a few things open, backstory-wise, that need to be filled in. Would anyone have any interest in reading it?