Kermit sat in the icy silence of his own anger as he waited for Emma to be brought up to him from her cell. One week had passed since he had almost lost his daughter and his life. One week had done little to settle his emotions. They were under his control, but barely. Each day he fought the urge to drive down to the hospital and choke the sad remains of Latrodect's life out of his body.
Adjusting himself in the uncomfortable metal chair, he waited in the interrogation room, all the while thinking back over the past seven days. The thoughts repeated his decisions and mistakes and regrets. They boiled inside his chest. He let them. They were living, breathing demons grasping at every moment of rest he tried to steal. Nothing would stop them or appease them. Not fists pounded into walls. Not four clips fired into a paper version of his enemy. Nothing.
All of his senses were jacked into overdrive from the frustration. Cool air blew from the air conditioning vents and pounded against his face. The constant pressure set off another relentless throbbing inside his temples. The ends of his fingers longed to tap out their impatience on the table surface, so he stopped them. Release would come soon enough.
The silence only compounded the unsatisfied rage in his chest. Savannah's veiled attempts at smoothing over whatever anger she felt didn't do much to douse the fire. She stayed busy, rarely looking him in the eye, and hovered over their daughter. The call from Karen this morning hadn't helped. One more insult to compound the injury. He wasn't certain what to do about it. He wasn't certain of anything except the nauseating bitterness that bubbled up into his throat and set his head on fire..
Few things were certain except for the fact that Latrodect didn't have the decency to die in a helicopter crash or with a knife in his guts. His child's life had been forever changed by the terror she'd lived through at the hands of that lunatic. And, Kermit was also certain of another thing -- that Emma Thorn would soon be a free woman. And all of it was certainly his fault.
The door squeaked open into the middle of his thoughts. Emma stepped into the room confidently. Drab denim and sneakers did little to tone down her persona. Kermit searched her face for one slice of remorse, one hint of contrition that could make what was about to happen palatable. He found none.
Emma smiled provocatively and sat down in a chair at the other end of the table. Her satisfaction danced around the room. A female officer lingered just inside the door but left quickly at Kermit's nod.
"So," Emma said in a lighthearted voice, "you've finally gotten around to thanking me. Better late than never."
Kermit forced himself to answer her calmly. "Exactly what should I thank you for, dear? For taking such glee in my attempted murder? For delivering my child into the hands of a killer? For taking part in the murder of a friend of mine? What?"
"Well, that's gratitude for you!" Emma blew a fake pout his way. "I saved your daughter's life in the end. You'd think you could show at least as much appreciation as the Feds."
"Don't think you'll get much gratitude from me, lady." The words sliced out of his mouth toward her as she continued to gloat over her success. "You sent a three-year-old child, MY child, into the arms of a cold blooded killer. Don't flatter yourself thinking you're some philanthropist because you saved your own ass by changing sides during the final battle."
"I had no idea what he was planning, Kermit." Emma's lip trembled in a calculated performance. "I thought he'd lure you then let her go. I wasn't too eaten up with guilt over your punishment, but I wouldn't have let him hurt her."
"You let him put a LOADED GUN INTO HER HANDS!" His palm slapped against the table. The force propelled him to his feet and Emma flinched backward in surprise. The pain in his head drummed more insistently with the sudden change in altitude.
Snapping his reflexes back under tight control, Kermit stopped the momentum pushing him forward and calmed his voice. "You've never had a child before, have you, Emma?"
The shift of direction seemed to startled her into silence. As he walked slowly around to stand behind her, he quieted his voice even more. It dripped out over Emma's head in a false casualness that belied his anger. Emma shook her head back and forth without speaking.
"I didn't think so," he said, standing still at her back. "It's hard to explain, really, the way you fall in love with your child, Emma. She becomes your life in an instant. Just like that," he snapped his fingers beside her ear and Emma jumped, "everything changes. Bring this pure, innocent little life into the world and you have a chance to atone for all your transgressions. My job is to protect her, love her, raise her to be strong and decent. Surprisingly enough, I think I'm doing a good job of that."
Leaning down over her head, Kermit whispered, "And do you know that my brave, precious child is afraid to sleep in her own bed anymore because the 'bad people' might come back for her? For the past week, she can't close her eyes to rest unless she's in my bed, in my arms, so that the 'bad people' will stay away. Do you understand how that feels, Emma? To know that your little girl is afraid for her life?" Stroking the cold flesh on Emma's cheek, he said, "I blame you for that, Emma. You've killed her image of the world as a safe place. You've stolen that from her. What do you think would be fair compensation for such a theft?"
"I swear I didn't know it was loaded," she pleaded as he advanced. Her eyes darted toward the door, looking for a savior that was out of reach. Briefly, the female officer who had escorted her into the room glanced through the window, then walked away. Kermit smiled pleasantly as the woman disappeared, offering him a comrade's gift of privacy.
Now left on his own, Kermit loomed over Emma. The woman tried to rise, only to be held firmly in her seat by two large hands on her shoulders. As she sank back into the chair, she struggled to place herself in a more sympathetic position. "I'm not completely heartless," came the pathetic half-choked voice as Emma's panic began to grow.
"Funny, that's exactly what your boss said before he sent my daughter and my best friend down an elevator to be butchered." Quickly stepping around to face her, Kermit slipped his fingers around her neck. With an instant release of his anger, he brutally pulled Emma's face up toward his own.
"I'm sorry..." She was whimpering and trying to squirm away from the icy grip on her throat. Kermit's hands fell cold as his grip tightened.
"No," he whispered in to her ear, pulling her up into the air to dangle in his fists, "you're not sorry about what you did. No more sorry than I am now about what I'm doing. You're sorry you were caught."
Emma let go a stifled gag and pulled frantically on the fingers closed around her neck.
"Hurting me is one thing," he said, his voice oddly quiet as Emma struggled in his hands, "but you hurt my child. It makes me want to kill you, Emma. I've been thinking about it every time Kat woke up in the middle of a nightmare of your making. She feels helpless. I feel helpless. Do you?"
No sound could pass her lips as she fought for air and life.
Giving her a satisfying shake, Kermit said, "Nothing would make me happier than to pop those beautiful eyes right out of your head, here and now. But, you've managed to slide your sleazy little ass into a crack in the system." Her face began to turn a desperate shade of bright red. Kermit's tone rumbled from a whisper to a growl as Emma's pulse beat against his palms. "Let me assure you, dear Emma, that if you do not forever vanish into whatever identity the Feds create for you, I'll kill you." He squeezed tighter, shaking with the thrill of her struggle against him. As she tried to kick at him, Kermit straddled her legs and closed his knees around her thighs, holding her still. "If I ever see you again, if I ever hear that obnoxious giggle again, if I ever even smell you again, you're dead. I'll bury you so deep it'll take the maggots ten years to dig down far enough to suck on your rotten corpse."
He could smell her fear. It smelled good. He wanted her to be deathly afraid, so afraid that she would never forget the feeling. He wanted to be in her nightmares in whatever fantasy life the Feds constructed for her after her testimony.
Allowing Emma's body to ease back into the chair, he loosened his hold on her throat. The pounding rage began to subside as Emma's color slowly returned to normal. Her body was still trembling as his hands left her neck completely. Her eyes closed as she coughed and fought to pull in gulps of air. Kermit had experienced few episodes of satisfaction over the past weeks. Now, he savored the moment.
"Is that clear?" Kermit stood up and wiped his hands on his jacket. "A nod will suffice."
Emma clutched at her throat, eyes fixed on the floor. Her head shook quickly up and down.
"Good. Have a nice time on Uncle Sam," he said, as the cooperative officer returned from her coffee break. As he headed toward the door, he paused and tossed a final taunt over he shoulder. "And don't forget, Emma. If I change my mind about letting you live, I can find you any time I want."
"All done?" the officer asked, opening the door and tactfully ignoring her prisoner's shambled condition.
"She's all yours," Kermit said to the woman, smiling as he passed and closed the door behind him.
******
Most days, Karen Simms loved being a cop. From the first day at the academy, she had found her place in the world of law enforcement. Most days she came down on the winning side. Bad guys locked away. Right overcoming wrong. Justice being satisfied. If the police did their jobs they way they should, those were the general outcomes.
Then there were days like today.
Karen sat uncomfortably in her office, staring out the polished glass door bearing her name, feeling sick. They had done their jobs, made arrests, and no one was going to pay. Latrodect would probably die before standing trial and Emma Thorn was about to walk out of the precinct free as a bird.
One long finger traced the words on Emma's release papers. It felt dirty to touch the print that would set her free. Logically, sacrificing one small fish to catch a whale made sense. There was no relief in that logic after the phone call she had made to Kermit an hour earlier. His cold silence at the news nearly turned her ear to ice. "Thank you for calling," had been his only response and then dial tone.
Suddenly, someone rushed by Karen's door. A blur of blonde hair and a familiar voice caught her attention and Karen quickly left her office to intercept Savannah as she plowed through the room toward Kermit's office.
"Damn," Karen muttered to herself, as she headed toward the woman who was now exiting Kermit's empty office.
"Karen," Savannah said, out of breath, "where's Kermit? After you called, he tore out of the driveway like he was goin' to a fire. What happened?"
"He didn't tell you?" Karen took her by the arm and tried to guide her back into Kermit's office. News like this should be delivered in private.
Shaking off the gentle touch, Savannah stood firm in the crowded squad room. "Tell me what? What happened, Karen? Where's Kermit?"
"Emma is being released into FBI custody." Karen watched Savannah's face carefully and tried once again to guide her into Kermit's office.
"But she's going to jail, right? Federal court, right?" Savannah stared back into Karen's eyes, and got her answer.
Karen remained silent, watching the woman's skin go suddenly pale with shock then a violent shade of red with newly born anger. Bracing for the explosion to come, Karen said, "No, she's not. I'm sorry. I called Kermit to warn you both so that--"
"YOU'RE SORRY?! YOU'RE SORRY?!" Savannah screeched the words back into Karen's face, moving backward to distance herself. All eyes in the room focused on the two women, one calm and resigned to the inevitable and one distraught with fury. "What the hell is wrong with you people! She's a murderer, Karen! She kidnapped Kat and nearly got her killed! Why are you letting her go?!"
"I'm not letting her go," Karen said, firing the defensive words through clenched teeth. With a mammoth effort, Karen softened her next sentence. "The Feds have taken control and I have orders to release her into their custody. She'll testify against Latrodect and his organization then be moved into the Witness Protection Program."
"So she gets off, he'll probably die before trial, and what do we get? Not shit!" With a trembling fingers, Savannah pushed a damp handful of hair back from her face. "Where's the justice in all this, Karen?"
"In knowing Latrodect's organization will be shut down layers above his head and any destruction he could have caused will be stopped." Karen parroted the explanation given to her along with Emma Thorn's release papers. It was no less palatable leaving her lips than it had been entering her ears that morning.
Mary Margaret, eased her way into the tense situation and put a comforting hand on her friend's back. "Hon, making a scene won't help. Let's just sit in Kermit's office and wait for him to come upstairs."
"NO!" Pulling away from another friendly touch, Savannah began to pace through the room, ranting in public view. "My child can't even sleep by herself anymore. She clings to Kermit all day long because she's terrified. I want them to pay, dammit. I want someone to pay besides US."
Stepping into Savannah's path, Karen made herself a solid barrier. The younger woman stopped short, her eyes a raging indictment toward the only available defendant. "I know you want that. I want it, too. But this is how the system works. Sometimes you get justice and sometimes you're just lucky to get out alive."
The anger translated itself into heavy tears that began to bleed down Savannah's face. "I feel a lot of things right now, Karen. Lucky isn't one of them."
Savannah's hands knotted into tight fists, and twisted the edge of her T-shirt into a wrinkled ball. Karen reached out, taking one of those angry fists into her hand. This time, her touch was accepted. "Yeah, I know," Karen said, slipping her arm around Savannah's shoulders. "Come sit down and I'll send someone to find Kermit." If he was in the building, it wouldn't take much detective work to locate him.
They had only begun to move toward the door when a decidedly indiscreet voice sang out through the hall. "Thanks for the hospitality, folks."
Savannah's head jerked toward the sound of Emma Thorn strolling through the precinct. The stunning reality of injustice shot through Savannah like an electric jolt. Emma was walking through the precinct, chatting with girlish abandon. The woman who had tormented their lives for months, was flirting opening with the federal agents escorting her through the halls.
Digging her nails into sweating palms, Savannah growled her vicious indignation. "How can they let her go? It's insane."
Karen Simms felt the fury radiate from the younger woman in red hot waves. "Stay calm, Savannah," the captain whispered, trying to stop the building squall. "Let it go."
Every cell exploding in rage, Savannah fell deaf to Karen's attempt at handling her. The tugging on her arm ignored, she burst through the squad room and out into the hall. Shaking with fury, she rooted herself in the path of the oncoming trio.
"You're only hurting yourself, Savannah," Karen called, racing behind her to stop an impending train wreck.
The classic irresistible force, Emma jiggled herself to a stop directly in front of the enraged woman. Courting her ragged anger like a lover, Emma said, "It's been real, Mrs. Griffin."
In spite of the bravado, Karen could sense a slightly rattled touch to Emma Thorn's normal confidence. There was a growing bruise on the woman's throat and her eyes were washed in red. *Kermit.* If he were the source, Karen preferred no to know it.
Karen reached the confrontation and put herself between Kermit's wife and the prisoner.
Unclenching her teeth to hiss out an angry counter, Savannah said, "You'll get yours, lady. They can sprinkle all the perfume they want on you but the trash is still trash."
As Emma smacked her gum and began to tremble with laughter, Karen used both of her hands on Savannah's shoulders to turn her around and forcefully propel her into motion. Karen shot a poisonous look over her shoulder at Agent Stanley Rolph and said, "Discretion has never been your strong suit, Stanley. Do you always parade protected witnesses out through the front door?"
Agent Rolph let the comment pass as Karen successfully moved the seething woman out of the hall. Emma Thorn refused to follow his lead. Blowing a bubble, she called after the pair before Karen could move Savannah through the door. "Oh, Mrs. Griffin, I did some research on you."
*Just great, * Karen groaned in her mind, as Savannah broke away and stalked back into the hall to face the woman and her evil taunts.
Oblivious to the stern and protective federal escorts, she wedged her way into Emma's personal space. Savannah's entire body and voice shook with the bottled up fury that was now leaking out of every pore. "Researching new insects to crawl around in you underpants, Emma?" she countered, ignoring the laughter her comment drew from a uniformed officer passing by the confrontation.
"Weeeellllll, if you must know," the woman taunted, "I found out that you were barefoot and pregnant while our mutual stud was doing me the first time." A vicious smile decorating her exotic features, as Emma continued, "You big as a house and draped in maternity clothes and Kermit draped in....well..." she oozed lasciviously, "me."
"Who ended up with him, dear?"
Karen watched as Savannah held onto her restraint with desperate fingertips. Her green eyes nearly danced with flames and the tension grew.
With a perilous wink, Emma looped her arms through those of her guards and flipped, "That may be, but it doesn't matter. You can never erase me from his mind. No matter how much Mr. Noble tries, he won't forget being in my bed." With a satisfied smile, she added, "After all, he did come back for more."
The move was well aimed but slow, a fraction of a second too slow. Karen would never be sure if she held back her hand to allow Savannah's fist to fly past or if she simply missed it. In a blur of retaliation and unbridled lust for revenge, Savannah plowed her small fist into the perfectly formed nose of her husband's ex-lover.
Her attack caught the agents completely off guard. Staggering backward, arms still entangled, the men stopped Emma from falling to the floor as Karen Simms roughly dragged Savannah away from her victim.
A dazed Emma was moaning and clutching at her broken, bloody nose. Gasping for breath, all she could do was wail and fight to stay upright. Blood splattered the jail house issue denim shirt she wore and smeared over her face.
Karen had both arms locked around Savannah, shoving her through the door, as the enraged woman shouted, "So much for being a protected witness, huh, Bitch??!! You ever come near my family again and I'LL KILL YOU!!!"
"Savannah, shut up!" Karen forced her into the squad room and slammed the door on Agent Rolph's pursuit.
"Karen, I can't just let a federal witness be attacked in our custody without filing charges," The frustrated agent tried to pull open the door as his partner stuffed a handkerchief over Emma's gushing nose.
Karen held firmly to the doorknob. "Let it go, Stanley and get her--"
Getting her second wind, Savannah made a play to get out the door and back to her victim. "Attacked??!!! After what SHE did to us??!! I'll show you attacked!!!"
With Savannah digging around her body for the doorknob, Karen shouted again, "Get that woman out of my precinct, Stanley!" Karen used her forearm to shove Savannah backward into Mary Margaret's grasp, who yanked her away from the door.
"Let me go!!!" Savannah screamed as Mary Margaret pulled her toward the captain's office.
Turning her attention back toward the hysterical woman, Karen pointed her finger and said, "Stop this right now or I'll have YOU locked up. Skalany, get her out of here, now."
"GO AHEAD! Lock me up!" Savannah screeched as the door slammed shut behind her.
Karen Simms took a deep breath, then cast a satisfied grin at the disfigured federal witness groaning in pain on the floor. "Looks like you'll be making a stop at the ER before going your merry way, Stanley."
"I don't know what rules you operate under, Karen, but you're responsible for this," shouted the red faced agent glaring down at her through the glass barrier.
"And YOU, my by-the-book friend, took great pleasure in setting up this little cat fight by waltzing that woman through here." Relieved to have regained control of the volatile situation, Karen returned the glare, "After what she's been put through, be glad I dragged Savannah off of her when I did or you'd be out one witness."
"I'll be reporting this."
"Go ahead. Now get out." Karen whirled and stalked back into her office. Jerking open the door, she found Savannah pacing and gasping for breath in her anger. Her thin cotton shirt was damp with perspiration and her hair waved around wildly demonstrating the devastating helplessness she was feeling.
Karen kept her voice level but firm and said, "I'm giving you a freebie this time because of the circumstances, but don't you EVER make a scene like that in my precinct again."
"Fine," Savannah spat back as she continued to stomp her way through the office. "The next time some bitch tries to murder my daughter, I'll send her flowers instead poppin' her. That make you happy?"
Karen fought back a useless response. She was sympathetic to the young mother's pain. She was suffering and nothing could be done to give her relief. If she had experienced any satisfaction in her assault on Emma Thorn, it was the least she deserved.
"Will the two of you please excuse us?" Kermit's deep voice rang out from the doorway.
Karen turned to face him, taking in the calming presence he offered. He stood perfectly still inside the doorway, neither in or out of the office, waiting for them to leave. The contrast between Kermit's controlled darkness and Savannah's chaotic breakdown on the other side of the room was a relief. Savannah Griffin out of control could be handled. Kermit Griffin out of control would be another story.
Motioning Skalany out of the room, Karen moved by as Kermit walked into the office. "Take as long as you need," she said, closing the door and leaving them alone to come to terms with this no win situation.
For a few moments, Kermit stayed quiet and watched Savannah. She stood with her back to him, arms wrapped around her body. In spite of the heat outside, she was shivering. Her fingers were tangled around her sleeve and he saw blood smeared over the knuckles of one hand. Broderick had filled him in quickly when he had called downstairs, so the source of the injury was no mystery.
*At least I didn't draw blood,* he thought, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and moving to her side. With a gentle touch, he reached out to take the bloody hand into his own and said, "Let me see that hand."
"Don't touch me!" Savannah whirled away from him, unspeakable anger lashing out at him. The power of her emotions slapped him in the face and he withdrew.
"Okay," he answered coolly, returning the handkerchief to his jacket. "Would you like to break my nose, now? Bigger target."
Hands waving around in a helpless expression of her fury, she fired the shot that had been loaded into her mind for weeks. "How could you let this happen?" Pointing a finger of her bruised hand toward her husband, she yelled, "How could you do that with her? To us?"
The words exploded between them, echoing around the room, as a stunned silence engulfed them both.
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