Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chris strolled down the street, glancing at shop windows and occasionally stopping to admire the items on display. He walked past one of the multiple alleyways offshooting from the street when a pair of hands reached out from the shadows and dragged him back into the alley. He let out a startled yelp that was muffled by the hand clamped over his mouth.

Chris was now face to ‘face’ with a man in a ski mask. He stood stock still as the man held a knife to his throat.

“Listen up, you are going to come with me, okay? You try anything and I’ll gut you like a fish, understand?” the stranger said, his voice was distorted somehow. It was made artificially deeper. Chris gave a slight nod, trying not to cut himself on the sharp blade held to his neck. The stranger let go of him, but still stayed close enough to easily grab Chris if he tried to make a break for it.

“So, how much are you going to ask for me?” Chris asked, as he was led through the maze of back alleys.

“What?”

“I assume you're kidnapping me for ransom, so how much do you want?”

“Why are you so calm about this?”

“You think this is the first time someone has tried to use me to get money from my parents? This is old hat at this point. And you still haven’t answered my question, how much are you gonna ask for? £500,000? £750,000?”

“You’ve been kidnapped before?”

“Yeah, it is a hazard when your parents are rich and annoy people.”

“God, how have you lived this long?” Chris’ kidnapper asks, incredulous at how nonchalant Chris is about this. He shrugs in response. They turn another corner and there is a large, black van waiting for them. The back opens as they approach and someone else with a ski mask climbs out. They brandished a gun and pointed it directly at Chris and motioned for him to get in the van. He rolls his eyes, sighs, and gets into the van. The man who grabbed him slid in behind him.

“So what’s next?” Chris asked as the van sped off. His kidnappers exchanged glances. The one with the knife spoke.

“Put your hands behind your back.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then maybe you’ll end up a little worse for wear, we need you alive, whether or not you are unharmed depends upon your behaviour.”

“Fine,” Chris grumbled, putting his hand behind his back as the kidnapper with the gun retrieved some rope. They quickly tied his wrists together, then moved onto tie his ankles and knees together as well. He tried to pull at his bindings, but they held firm. These guys were no amateurs. He glanced around the van to find that it had been almost entirely gutted. The only thing that remained was the driver's seat.

“This isn’t very safe.”

“It doesn’t need to be!”

“Okay, okay, it’s whatever I guess. Is there anything I can call you guys by the way? I know you don't want to give me your real names or anything, but like something so you aren’t just ‘knife dude’ would be nice.”

“You can call me Tommy, the guy driving is called Mouse, and the dude holding the pistol is known as Jack.”

“Lovely. Well, Tommy, you still haven’t answered my question, how much is the ransom?”

“It’s some documents.”

“What?”

“We need some documents that someone that cares about you has, alright?”

“So this isn’t a ransom for my parents? Well, that’s a relief they stopped paying after the third time it happened.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Good question.”

“Are you gonna answer it?”

“Nah.”

“Are you scared?”

“Not really, this is what, the thirtieth time I’ve been kidnapped for ransom? It’s practically routine at this point.”

“How are you alive? You said your parents stopped paying after the third time.”

“Good question.”

“God you’re annoying.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot. So, does the person you're extorting know you have me yet or?”

“No, he doesn’t.”

“So, how and when are you gonna tell him?”

“Later and with a text from your phone.”

“Chances are whomever you send it to will think it’s a prank.”

“If he thinks that then we’ll just have to send photographic evidence then.”

“Dammit, I hate ransom photographs. They always take forever because people want you to look scared but around the fifth kidnapping the novelty has worn off. Who are you trying to get the documents from anyways? I don’t think you’ll get them in exchange for me anyways. I don’t hold much value I’m afraid.”

“Will you shut up?”

“I will if you answer one question.”

“Fine, what do you want to know?”

“Are we close to where we are heading?”

“Yes,” said Tommy, glaring at Chris. He leaned forward towards the driver's seat and looked through the windshield to get an idea of how close they were to the warehouse. Chris grumbled to himself as the van sped along backstreets. He pulled at the bindings again, trying to loosen them a little bit. He only succeeded in getting Jack’s attention, who promptly came over and tightened his bindings. Chris whimpered at the increased pressure. Silence fell over the van after that.

Roughly ten minutes later the van slowed to a stop in a car park right by the abandoned warehouse that Portis held Marcus in. Tommy opened the door and hopped out of the van. Jack followed him, carrying out their gear which was a pair of duffel bags. Finally Mouse climbed out of the driver’s seat, grabbed Chris, slung him over one shoulder, and took him out of the van and into the warehouse. The other two a couple of steps behind them. Chris was dumped on the ground near the center of the room. He let out a shout when he was dropped onto the cold, hard, concrete floor. All three of the kidnappers turned to glare at him before shuffling a little bit aways and having a brief discussion. Mouse and Jack rifled through the duffel bags and retrieved several guns and knives. Tommy also reached into a duffel bag, but instead he pulled out a bandanna and the phone he had pick-pocketed off Chris earlier. After grabbing the desired items he headed towards Chris.

“So what are you gonna do now?” Chris asked, trying to back away from Tommy who was swiftly approaching with a dark glint in his eyes.

“Photoshoot. What’s your phone passcode?”

“One, nine, eight, zero.”

“That’s it?”

“Yup.”

“Great, I’m in.”

“So, photos?”

“Yes,” agreed Tommy. He stepped closer to Chris and rolled up the bandanna as he did so.

“What are you gonna do with that?”

“This,” Tommy hissed as he roughly shoved the bandanna between Chris’ teeth before tying around the back of his head. Chris shook his head roughly, trying to dislodge the gag, as Tommy backed up to admire his handiwork. He pulled back his arm and punched Chris in the face. Then he hit him again, and again, and again, until he was satisfied. Chris looked like he was in pretty rough shape, tears leaked down his cheeks, blood ran from his nose, and the beginnings of bruises started forming across his face. Tommy lifted the phone.

“Smile for the camera.”

Chapter Text

Tim was sat at work, playing solitaire on his computer, waiting for his next assignment. It had been a pretty low key week and he just wanted to do something exciting. He blankly stared at his computer screen as playing cards tried to escape the screen. He stretched as the winning animation played on his game of solitaire. He was jolted out of his mindless playing by his phone going off. He fumbled around for a minute, until he found the phone. He had gotten a message from Chris. Tim rolled his eyes, smiling slightly until he opened up the message. He froze.

He had been sent a photo of Chris. The blood was the first thing that caught Tim’s eye. It leaked from his nose. The next thing he noticed the tears that were running down Chris’ cheeks and into the cloth that gagged him. Someone had kidnapped his best friend, tied him up, and beat him bruised and bloody. Tim seethed. The Chris he was used to was bouncy and snarky, not shaken or crying. He was getting ready to send a reply when another message came from Chris.

‘Give us all of the documents on the Raskolnikov case or we will kill Mr. Pitt-Goddard. You have two days. The sooner we get those documents the less your boy gets hurt.’

Tim stood up sharply and marched over to The Examiner’s office, Caitlin glanced up at him, but went right back to whatever she had been doing. He knocked on The Examiner’s door then went right in not waiting for an answer.

“Sir, I have a problem,” Tim started, opening the photo of Chris. The Examiner looked up from the jewelry catalogue he’d been pursuing, and up at Tim.

“What sort of problem? Does someone need to ‘clean up’ a ‘mess’ you made?”

“What? No! Just. Look at this,” Tim said, showing the image to his boss. The Examiner’s eyes darkened as he looked at the image.

“Is this serious?”

“Yes! And this guy wants the Raskolnikov files.”

“Or?”

“Chris gets murdered.”

“How attached are you to him?”

“Very! He is my best friend and I want him around for a while longer.”

“So, what do you expect me to do?”

“Can you try to ping Chris’ phone so we can get a location?”

“Sure, but what are you gonna do with that information?”

“I was thinking of going over there and showing that man a piece of my mind, hopefully with several other agents if they’ll come with me.”

“Ah, I see, you want me and Caitlin to help you rescue your little boytoy.”

“He’s not my boytoy, this is serious, please just help me find him.”

“And if we can’t find him?”

“That isn’t an option,” Tim said, leaving The Examiner’s office, slammin the door behind him. He walked back to his desk, studying the photo he was sent the whole way. The background felt oddly familiar to him. As he sat down he heard a gentle ‘Hey.’ from across the desk. He looked up to see Caitlin looking at him, curiosity glinting in her blue eyes.

“What’s going on? Are you alright?” she asked, leaning closer so she could speak quieter. Tim just shook his head and slid his phone across the desk so she could see the photo. She softly gasped as she realized what the picture was.

“When did you get this?”

“Maybe five minutes ago.”

“What are you going to do? Did they demand a ransom?”

“I don’t know. I feel like I know where they took him though. If I find out where that is, then we can just go rescue him without giving them the files they want.”

“Well, where have you been that looks like that?”

“There were a few assignments that were in similar places and that place Portis… took… Marcus,” Tim said, realizing he knew exactly where Chris was. The old vinyl factory off Darby road.

“Did you know where Chris was taken?”

“I think so, you round up the Examiner and Moritz. Meet me at the old factory off Darby road!”

“Isn’t that where Portis-”

“Yes!”

“Wow, kinda cliche, don’t ya think?”

“Please, we will discuss how unoriginal the kidnapper is after we save Chris. Okay?”

“Yeah, don’t mind me, I was just trying to lighten the mood.”

“Okay, just please hurry,” Tim says to Caitlin, leaving the office. He ran out of the building, got into his car, and sped off to go save his best friend.

Chapter Text

Chris sat on the cold, concrete floor, bored out of his mind. It had to have been at least half an hour since they had sent the ransom demands to Tim and he’d just been sitting in silence. He couldn’t even make conversation to keep things interesting. He glanced around the warehouse again, looking at the pillars he had already counted and the dark, odd stains breaking up the continuous grey of the concrete building. He was getting ready for another game of What Does That Stain Look Like? when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He looked over to where he thought he saw something, but nothing was there. Chris stared at that spot for a second. Then another. And another. He saw another slight movement out of the corner of his eye again and turned to look at it when he heard a shout.

He watched as the men who grabbed him loaded guns and started shooting. The kidnapper Chris talked to earlier had backed away from the door and towards him. Chris tried to shuffle back and away from Tommy who was still approaching, whilst still keeping an eye on the other two firing their weapons at someone. He had maybe made it a foot back when he felt the barrel of Tommy’s pistol dig into the soft skin under his chin. Chris sighed, rolled his eyes, and glared at Tommy, who had picked him up and was now using him as a human shield. He looked back towards the front door of the building and saw a figure, lit from behind by the afternoon sun. Then he heard Tommy’s artificially warped voice.

“Take another step closer and he’ll be dead before he even hits the ground.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Chris let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. His knight in shining armor was here. Tim.

“Why not?” Tommy asks, flicking the safety on and off.

“Because then you wouldn’t have a hostage and I would shoot you.”

“That actually makes sense.”

“So, will you let him go and get off with a lighter sentence, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?”

“Well, if I let him go, then I am for sure going to prison, so that’s a no. So it looks like we are at an impasse.”

“Oh, that’s not a good idea.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I didn’t come alone,” Tim says just as Tommy is shot in the knee from behind by Caitlin. He drops Chris to the ground and clutches his leg as he crumples to the ground in pain. Tim and Caitlin both run to the two men as soon as they both hit the floor. Caitlin handcuffed Tommy and led him away, towards where the Examiner and Moritz were waiting.

Tim kneeled beside Chris as he set to work, untying the ropes that bound his wrists behind his back. As soon as his hands were untied, Chris untied the gag as Tim worked the ropes on his ankles. Then he unbound the ropes around his thighs and he was free. After a beat Tim pulled Chris in close for a hug.

“Hey, man, I’m okay. I’m not that hurt,” Chris reassured as Tim clung to him.

“I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“It’s gonna take more than a kidnapping to keep me from bugging you everyday.”

“You’re the one who got held hostage. Shouldn’t I be comforting you?”

“Nah, I’ve done this song and dance more times than you have. At a certain point it doesn’t phase you anymore.”

“You were crying in the picture they sent of you.”

“That happens when you get punched in the face, so I wasn’t scared or anything.”

“Okay, but seriously how are you so calm about this?”

“Practice makes perfect.”

“How many times have you been kidnapped?!”

“More than thirty, less than a hundred.”

“You haven’t ever mentioned this before.”

“Oh, yeah that is because I didn’t need to worry you over a mundane occurrence.”

“I have known you for over seven years, so this has been regular for you for how long?”

“I think I got used to it at around age nine, after you have ten kidnappings under your belt it becomes routine more or less.”

“Chris, you are my closest and dearest friend, but what the fuck?”

“If you have wealthy, well-known dicks for parents then it is just kind of expected.”

“Jesus Christ, Chris.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“How are you alive?”

“I live to spite god and my parents.”

“So are you truly okay? Should we go get your face checked out? Do you need therapy?”

“Nope, maybe, probably.”

“Okay, anything else you need to tell me?”

“The kidnappers were a solid 4/10.”

“What?”

“The kidnappers did a 4/10 job.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, you see, I try to rate my kidnapping experience every time and these guys got a 4/10. They were pretty professional at first. You know, wearing masks and the voice modifier, that way they can let the captive go without worrying about being ID'd later. But their rating plummeted once they took me to an abandoned warehouse without a chair for me to sit on. Then the rating dropped further after they hit me and left me on the cold concrete floor, bored out of my mind.”

“Let’s get out of here, we can unpack all of that later,” Tim said, getting up. He then gave Chris a hand up, only for Chris to almost immediately fall over. He would’ve been back on the ground had Tim not caught him.

“Sorry about that, the ropes were a little tight and my legs are asleep now. Mind giving me a hand to the car?” Chris asked, slinging his wiry arm over Tim’s broad shoulders. Together they walked out to the car. Tim helped Chris into the passenger’s seat, then walked over to where his coworkers were waiting.

“How is he?” Caitlin asked, looking around Tim, trying to get a peak of Chris sitting in the car.

“He is surprisingly fine. Apparently this isn’t the first or even twentieth time he has been kidnapped.”

“Really? He might make a fine sp-” the Examiner started, but was cut off by a pointed look from Tim.

“No. Just no. I don’t want him in any more danger than he is already in okay? If it is alright with you guys, I think I’ll take my housemate home and stay with him the rest of the day, to make sure that he gets some rest. We also might pop into A&E to make sure his nose isn’t broken. Thanks for helping me save him.”

“Sure you will Tim. And don’t worry about it, you can have the rest of the week off to make sure your boy toy is doing alright.”

“He isn’t my bo-”

“Tim there isn’t any need to thank us, you’d do the same for us. Isn’t that right Moritz.”

“Yeah, we are glad to help.”

“Thanks again guys, but I should probably go get Chris home. Bye,” Tim said, waving goodbye to his coworkers as he turned back towards his car and climbed in the driver’s seat. He drove away from the old vinyl factory and towards the house they shared.