Chapter Text
Three days.
Three days locked in an empty room, caged in by mouldy redbrick walls with nowhere to sit but the cracked concrete floor.
Three days with no food.
Three days surviving on the two bottles of water that their kidnappers had provided when they first locked them in, presumably thinking that it would be a good idea to keep the hostages alive. Dani was trying really hard not to focus on what it meant that nothing had been provided since.
She was sitting cross legged on the floor with her head leaned back against the dirty wall, keeping her eyes closed against the headache that was throbbing in her temples and shooting sparks of pain behind her eyes. She knew it was from dehydration, but she only had about a mouthful of water left in the bottle and was trying to ration it, unsure how much longer they would be trapped there.
The last 24 hours or so had left her feeling sluggish and unusually sleepy. Bright had assured her that it was a common symptom of dehydration and would pass once she had more water, even offering his own bottle for her to drink, which she politely refused. She knew he was going to need it more than she did.
While she was shivering slightly in the cool room, rendered sedentary by the increasing dizziness and exhaustion, he'd been pacing the room for hours, sweating and flushed. They were both well aware that the sweat was using up precious fluids that his body couldn't afford to lose, but there was nothing to be done about that. The benzo withdrawal was hitting him hard.
Malcolm was mumbling to himself as he paced the room -14 steps, spin, 14 steps, spin - gesturing expansively as he spoke, but Dani only caught fragments of his sentences here and there as he passed. She knew he was trying to work out where exactly they were and what their captors were planning, hyperfocusing in order to keep his mind off of the growing anxiety and restlessness that was clawing its way through his chest cavity, but she'd given up on trying to help him work the case when she noticed it was just agitating him more.
So she leaned back and waited. Waited for Malcolm to still. Waited for their kidnappers to return. Waited for Gil to figure out where they were and come rescue them.
*
They'd been working a joint case with narcotics for the past couple weeks, trying to bring down a new player in town that was moving a staggering amount of product and leaving a trail of bodies behind. A few days prior, just before sunrise while canvassing the area around the most recent homicide, Dani and Malcolm had stumbled onto a stash house, and before Dani had a chance to call it in or even pull her gun, they'd both been knocked out with forceful blows to the head.
Malcolm had awoken first, groggily taking stock of the room they'd been locked in, heartrate skyrocketing when he saw Dani sprawled on the floor, unmoving. He crawled over to check on her, whispering "please, please, please" as he moved, begging the universe to show some mercy for a change, dropping his head and huffing out a sobbing breath when he found a steady pulse.
He checked the space over, but it was barren aside from two bottles of water set just inside the room. No windows, one very sturdy looking door. His guess was a storage space of some kind. The aged brick and musty, almost rotten smell led him to believe they were in a warehouse near the river, but that didn't really narrow anything down. He tried the door and found it, unsurprisingly, locked. He tried kicking it open a few times, but the heavy hinges and industrial lock kept the door from even shifting. The noise did, however, cause Dani to stir and he rushed to her side to help her up.
A low groan escaped her lips and she pressed a trembling hand to the back of her head as she hauled herself up, leaning unsteadily against the nearby wall and swallowing hard as a wave of nausea overtook her at the too-sudden movement.
"Hey," Malcolm said softly as he crouched down in front of her, supporting her with both of his hands warm on her shoulders. "Take it easy. How are you feeling?"
She scrunched her nose and cracked an eye open. The singular bare bulb in the ceiling provided little light but still stabbed into Dani's brain like hot pokers and she squeezed her eyes shut once again, taking deep breaths as she let the pain wash over her and slowly fade.
"M'okay," she finally managed after the worst of the pain had passed. She knew she'd have a hell of a headache for a while, but she was already starting to feel better. She blinked her eyes open and took in their current predicament, forehead creasing as she noticed the blood on Malcolm's collar.
"Bright," she said, reaching out towards the crimson stain, "you're bleeding."
"I was bleeding. Was. It's fine." He brushed off her concern, moving beside her and gesturing for her to turn her head away so he could check for any serious injuries. She hissed as his fingers ran over a sizable goose-egg on the back of her head.
"Sorry." He winced in sympathy as he pulled his hands away. "Didn't break the skin, but you've got a hell of a lump."
"It's fine," she said, using a grip on his shoulder to help lever herself to her feet. "Did you see anything? Who took us, where we are, anything that might help?"
Malcolm was keeping a close eye on Dani, still worried that she may be sporting a concussion. She raised an eyebrow at the concern that he wore so openly on his face and blew out and exasperated sigh.
"Honestly, Bright. I'm fine," she said earnestly, appreciating his concern but knowing they had more important things they needed to focus on. "But we need to get out of here."
"Right." Bright said, trusting that Dani was being truthful about her head wound. "I only woke up a few minutes before you did. I didn't see anyone. But I think we're by the river, possibly in an abandoned warehouse." He had turned to walk along the wall, trailing his fingers over the brick and mortar as he spoke. "How cliché."
"Why take us to a secondary location?" Dani wondered out loud. "I mean, I get knocking us out when we got too close, but why not just leave us there and run. Or kill us?" Dani asked, making her way to the door and giving the handle a shake.
"Insurance?" Malcolm replied, wandering over to join her at the door and leaning against the wall as she ran her hands around the seams, looking for any weak spots. "They know the police are getting closer. Maybe they intend to use us as bargaining chips to get away?"
Dani hummed noncommittally, then stepped back and kicked at the handle, bringing her foot down hard against the metal. Bright saw her wince at the impact but wisely kept his mouth shut.
He leaned over and picked up the water bottles, handing one out to her as he said, "Looks like reinforced steel hardware. I don't think we're going to be getting out of here by force." She shot him a look and he raised his hands in surrender as best he could while still holding both of the water bottles, adding "Not judging. I tried to kick it open too. I'm just saying I think we may need a new plan."
Dani harrumphed but reached out for one of the bottles of water with a wiggle of her fingers. Malcolm passed it over with an amused smile but pressed his lips together at the glare Dani shot his way.
"How do we know this isn't drugged or something?" Dani asked, inspecting the bottle for signs of tampering.
"They already had us completely at their mercy when we were unconscious," Malcolm replied as he cracked the lid off the bottle. "If they wanted us dead, they would have killed us then." He took a mouthful of the liquid and swallowed it down.
Dani couldn't really fault his logic, so she followed suit, taking a large gulp of the soothing water, but stopped Bright when he brought the bottle to his lips once again.
"Don't know how long we're going to be here," she said placing a halting hand on his forearm. “We might need to make these last."
He looked surprised at the insight and nodded his agreement as he capped the water and put the bottle back on the floor beside the door.
"So what now?" he asked.
"Now we wait."