The Detective's Damsel

xii.

IVAN BURST OUT of the capsule with Elizabeth in his arms, smoke billowing around him and serving for an exceedingly impressive entrance. But as much as he would have loved to focus on the idea that he looked very much like a sexy fireman carrying a beautiful woman bridal-style from a burning building, he had to force himself to stay focused.

Ryan came rushing up to him from behind the desk, the loud whir of the machine quieting as it powered down. "Where are they?" He demanded, eyes wild with fatigue and worry. They widened when he saw Ivan's very human-sized, very Elizabethan package.

"Where's who? I'm doing great by the way, thanks for asking," Ivan said.

"Soldier and Rapunzel, where are they?"

"What do you mean? We're all..." Ivan hesitated when he realized that room had become eerily, uncomfortably silent. "We're not all here, are we?"

"Dammit," Ryan muttered under his breath. If it was a typical day, Ivan would have had some smart-aleck remark about how it was bad joojoo to swear in front of a student, but he figured he should probably save that particular joke for a later date. "What the hell happened out there?"

"I would love to answer you," Ivan responded, shifting Elizabeth's unconscious body in his arms. "But I'm currently being weighed down by a serial killer in an extremely heavy dress and some assistance would be very much appreciated." Wearing a t-shirt and jeans, Elizabeth couldn't have weighed more than 115 pounds. But with the ridiculous monstrosity that was her dress, she felt more like 200. Though he had to admit, she looked nothing like how he imagined a serial killer would.

Ryan's gaze refocused on the girl in Ivan's arms. "You got her," he muttered under his breath.

"You're welcome," said Ivan. Some of the color returned to Ryan's cheeks as he spurred himself into action, wheeling in a long metal table as well as an IV stand. Ivan's muscles thanked him immensely as soon as Elizabeth's body was settled and he watched as Ryan carefully attached her body to the drip. The sedative would knock her out for at least a few hours, but Ivan knew they would need all of that time and more to figure out how they were supposed to proceed. Her eyes were closed and she looked surprisingly peaceful, but anything beat the kicking and thrashing he'd experienced earlier. Ivan was pretty sure he'd have bruises in unmentionable places.

He turned his back to Elizabeth's prone form, gripping the edge of the table with his fingers. Ryan had returned to his desk, typing rapidly on his computer. "They aren't here," Ryan said, as if saying it aloud would make it untrue. "Why aren't they here?" His pale hair was sticking up on end from where he'd raked his hands through it. Dark circles hung under his eyes, alerting Ivan to the fact that Ryan had been here all day. Or night. Ivan had forgotten what time it was.

"I don't understand," Ivan said, shedding himself of the heavy wool jacket he'd been wearing and tossing it rather haphazardly over Elizabeth's sleeping shoulders. Let it not be said that he wasn't a gentleman. "They were in the room with me." Ivan scrunched his face up in thought. He'd lost sight of them at some point in pursuit of Corinna's sister. "Well, sort of."

Ryan watched Ivan carefully with a sharp gaze relaying enough scrutiny that Ivan instantly thought of his mother. "What happened, Ivan?" Yeesh. It had been at least a year since Ryan called him by his real name. His worst nightmare was coming true: Ryan was officially becoming his mother.

Ivan told him everything, from Corinna's advice to their run-in with Niklos and Ferenc to the capture of Elizabeth herself. As he spoke, he started to remember details that hadn't been present before, like the fact that Corinna had almost been the reason Elizabeth escaped. It was fuzzy, but he remembered her yelling out to her sister, telling her to run. She had called out again later, he thought, but to Knight. He remembered that Corinna's voice made Knight lose his grip on Elizabeth, how she tumbled through the open doorway and had nearly escaped. How Ivan tackled her in the way no man should ever do and tugged the Travel band onto her wrist just as they blinked out of existence. But that was it.