Title: Their darkest hour will bring them together.

Author: Loz

E-Mail: [email protected]

Rating: M

Category: Church/Mac.

Series: Nup.

Spoilers: None.

Archive (if applicable): [ Lies and Manipulations ] www(dot)geocities(dot)com(slash)loz06, also www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net

Feedback: The good, the bad and the very ugly it's all appreciated.

Summary:

Author's Notes:

Disclaimers: I have no association with channel 9, Beyond or any other associated with Stingers. I don't own Stingers, or any of its characters.

“No news is good news Pete” Danni says sailing past him

“Pete read that,” Angie said pointing over Church’s shoulder to where she’d been reading a large article on the third page of The Age.

Last night police discovered the bodies of a young inner city Melbourne couple. Their house had been raided and they had been tied up and hung to death, the crime so horrific they would have witnessed each others hanging death via a video camera hook up, set up by the home invaders. This is the second invasion of this type and police are getting desperate…………………

“That’s horrible I can’t read anymore” Church says snapping the paper shut.

“What’s horrible?” Mac questions entering with hot coffee.

“Read this.” Angie thrusts the paper in her direction, but before Mac has a chance her mobile begins to sing. Heading to her office she answers in her usual formal tone. She disappears behind her closed door as the two operatives under her continued to catch up on the daily news.

“She’s been in there a long time.” Danni says joining the paper reading. Church passes it over and climbs the stairs to knock on the door. When there’s no answer he opens the door calling her name softly, entering and closing the door behind him.

Mac stands silently near the window, she makes no sound even when her name is called again. He walks silently to face Mac, tears streak her make-up, mascara runs in rivers and pink blotches poker-dot her face.

“What’s wrong?” Church looks her directly in the eye.

“I just found out...” Mac sniffs, wiping her eyes, shaking her head a little in an attempt to compose herself. “…That my best friend died last night.” She collapsed into tears again.

“She had just arrived home to her new husband, in her new home.” She looks up at Church with salty tear stained cheeks, eyes open wide.

“Their home was invaded, they were strung up and would have watched their own deaths.” It

clicks instantly with Peter, he doesn’t need to be told twice, instinctively putting his arm around her in comfort.

“Do you mind if I have some time alone ?” she pulls her head from his shoulder, Church leaves as silently as he arrived.

“Angie throw out that paper now.” Church takes the stairs two at a time.

“I haven’t read the comics yet,” she protests.

“If Stoney sees that, there’ll be all hell.” Church lies.

“Why?” Danni adds her two cents worth.

“One of the guys he put away just got out and another just got off.” Church continues on his

lying way.

“Double blow and on a Friday, what a way to end a week.” Angie tosses the paper in the nearest bin.

“You guys got something to work on?” Church puts on his man-in-charge voice.

“Yes Boss,” Danni replies moving on.

“Where’s Mac?” Angie is going to be tougher to satisfy.

“On the phone to Homicide, she’ll be off in a minute.” Angie accepts half-heartedly and goes to finish some long overdue paper work.

Peter climbs the stairs once again this time finding Mac on the phone…to Homicide apparently.

“I understand that... yes I realise that….yes I fully understand the risks…I think we can achieve the desired outcome.” Peter doesn’t have to be smart to realise she isn’t planning a funeral or sending some flowers to the grieving parents. He just hopes she isn’t planning anything foolish.

“Briefing in 5 minutes.” She tells him replacing the phone in its cradle. Mac stands and moves to the window again, her back to him almost as if he is no longer in the room.

“I’m sorry about your friend Ellen.” At this Mac turns, she doesn’t ever think she’s heard

him call her by her first name before, but she recognises the significance of the change in

title.

“I’ll be fine thank you.” She replies, her back still to Church.

It was as if nothing had happened before the briefing. The emotional image that had been painted on the face of Ellen Mackenzie has been replaced with the usual hard-nosed, all business, stable Ellen Mackenzie.

~!  It’s amazing how you make a face

      just like a wall,

      How you take your heart and turn it off  !~

“As you know there has been a lot of media coverage on the recent home invasion. We’ve been bought in to help out, we don’t want anymore of these occurring. We never wanted them to start.”

Peter doesn’t like at all where this is headed

“So far what we have gathered is the offenders pick wealthy looking houses, the more secluded the better. They strike of an afternoon but it’s mostly night or the next day before anyone finds them. They may pose as workmen of some sort, package deliverers or metre readers. They may even stake the place out before hand, to get a feel for the resident’s movements and patterns.

“Do we think there is more than one of them?” Danni inquires.

“Yes, we think there could be as many as five. They enter the house, owners are tied up while the others ransack the house taking whatever they like. Unfortunately the violence is escalating, initially the victims survived, now they’re dying.”

“How are we going to work this?” Peter asks, as if he couldn’t already guess.

“Church and I will be going in, in a house in the area. We’ll pose as residents and hopefully they’ll take the bait.”

Church tries to hide his disappointment at Mac’s plan.

“The rest of you will form an intensive man power surveillance team. There are no sick days or holidays from now. I’ll have background information in an hour, in the meantime let’s get the loose ends tied up.” With that she heads back to her office.

Church follows her closely slamming the door behind him.

“Forget it Mac,” he says as she sits at her desk.

“Forget what Pete?” She says feigning innocence.

“Don’t you remember conflict of interest, too close to the case - emotionally involved.” He suggests.

“Don’t you ever come in here and lecture me about the things you just mentioned, you’re a classic case of those factors on more than one occasion. I need to do this, I need to do this for me and for my friend.”

“What you need to do is grieve, you cried for five minutes and then you’re back out there organising a highly dangerous sting involving yourself.” Church becomes frustrated, she’s more stubborn than a mule.

“I would beat my chest and pull out my hair if I thought it would help. I need to do this.” She says sincerely

“Right fine, well I’m not going in with you, you’re too close.” Peter takes a few steps across the room.

“Fine I’ll go in by myself.” Mac replies shuffling the paper on her desk.

“Are you mad? You’ll be overpowered in a second.” Church says in disbelief

“Peter do you remember what happened when you escaped from gaol with the man who shot your wife in cold blood? Do you remember when the photos came in of us in the motel? This friend of mine was the only one I could turn to, she got me through. You put both of those things together and you judge just how much of what you said I’m going to listen to.”

“Fine.” Church gives an inch. “But it’s you and me, no one else because I know you and I can keep watch over you.” He feels for sure she’s going to take a mile.

~!         We get along so we

            shouldn’t argue

            and I don’t know, said I don’t know

            all these feelings, cloud up my reasoning            !~

“Kitchen, bathroom, laundry, living room...” Angie gives Mac and Pete the twenty-five cent tour of their new house, at least it will be for a little while.

“Fridge is stocked, cupboards are full and we’ve bought over some clothes. There’s a new car in the garage. Oh and here.” She holds out two wedding rings one male and one female.

“Don’t lose them they have to be returned when the operation is over.” Angie concludes.

Mac puts the ring on her finger and twirls it around as she looks around the house. Peter stands and watches her reflect on their situation.

~!         It’s nothing, it’s so normal you

            just stand there I could say so much

            but I don’t go there coz I don’t want to !~

Church surveys the trees that dwarf the house, he looks at the street up and down before giving the thumbs up to Danni who’s across the street. Council workers and gardeners double as back up, their faces unfamiliar to Church. Around the back yard trees shad the grass, the back lane is quiet but occupied by a grey Falcon.

Inside Mac paces the living area unable to relax.

“Jesus you’re so strung out.” Peter says walking over to her.

“Sit and relax, it’s not going to happen any faster by pacing the room.” He prods her into the lounge where she sits still.

“How are you at listening?” Mac asks him.

“You could be selling ice to the Eskimo’s and I’d listen to you Mac, if it would help.”

She gets up moving towards the backdoor indicating she wants some privacy for this conversation. Away from the house that’s wired, they sit on the back patio, Mac talks and Church listens. She laughs cries, smiles and sobs, but most importantly she gets it all off her chest.

“You want to get some take-out for dinner?” Church asks. “I know a nice little Italian place around the corner from here.”

“Sure,” the last thing Mac feels like doing is eating.

Later they sit in the dull light picking through pasta in bolognaise sauce.

“Is this something you could see yourself doing in the future?” Church asks her out of the silence.

“Waiting for a home invasion to happen I hope not.” Mac avoids the real meaning to the question.

“No, you know what I’m saying, nice house, nice car. Married and mortgage?”

“It certainly is different, stable and predictably boring. I don’t think it’s something that would gel well given the job we’re in at the moment.” Mac observes. “ I don’t think I’m finished with what I’ve got just for the moment yet.”

“Me either.” Church concludes the topic, not another word is spoken.

By eleven o’clock that night nothing has eventuated and Church has to almost tuck Mac into bed to get her to stay there. He beds down in the next room feeling safe, the house was being watched from every angle and there’s no activity that could take place in the house without someone hearing.

The trees outside cut strange shadows across the room, though he still sleeps soundly. In the next room Mac is anything but peaceful. A rouge filmmaker fills her head with memories of her friend, the good and the bad haunts her sleep. Then as clear as day Mac stands in front of her friend as she hangs from the noose, she’s saying something, her mouth moving, but Mac can’t hear it. She’s frozen to the spot unable to rescue her friend, unable to turn away, forced to watch till her friends head slumps lifelessly forward.

Mac awakes, sitting up with a jolt. She’s not alone in the room, she can make out a figure sitting on the edge of the bed. Her adrenaline pumps as her body prepares for fight or flight. She fumbles for the gun on the bedside table, once she’s grasped it, she flicks on the light holding the gun up.

“Oh God Peter,” she drops the gun in front of her and slumps forward.

“Your loud nocturnal mutterings woke me, were you having a nightmare?” He asks with grave concern in his eyes, not only that she had just pointed a gun at him, with the safety off.

He doesn’t require an answer and doesn’t get one, silence and ignorance are the biggest indicators of a ‘yes’ answer. Replacing the gun and switching off the light he curls up next to her on the bed.

“You’ll be o.k.” He says into the darkness.

~!         Enemies at war we build defences

            And secret hiding places

            I might need you to hold me tonight

            I might need you to say it’s all right        !~

At nine Danni knocks on the door to the cover house, Church is making coffee, Mac still asleep. She had mumbled her way through the rest of the night and Church hadn’t slept to well at all.

“You want some coffee?” He asks letting Danni in

“Depends, do you want the good or the bad news first?” She returns.

“Bad news” Church opts spooning out the instant.

“They struck again last night, house around the corner.”

“The good news?” Church adds hot water

“The residents survived and have given us some information, they’re both in hospital with shock and superficial wounds.” Danni smiles at the small amount of good information.

“I’ve got to run, I’m off back to the factory for some sleep, say hello to Stone and Angie for me. Catch you in 12 hours. Oh and when Mac gets up, tell her thank you very much for the surveillance partner….he’s hot.” And with that she leaves.

Church smiles, off to get your beauty sleep Danni, he heads up the stairs with hot coffee and perches himself on the edge of the bed setting the mug down on the bedside table.

“Thanks for staying with me last night.” Mac sits behind the plumped up pillows, the doona almost to her shoulders.

“That’s what friends are for.” Church replies.

“Something’s are above and beyond the call of duty.” Mac replies gratefully accepting the coffee.

“I’m going to head over to the factory now and catch up. I’ll be back later and I’ll get someone to knock on the door and do a sweep of the place and take a look around while I’m gone to make sure your o.k.”

She nods in agreement not saying a word, in her mind she can look out for herself no matter what situation arose, but if it makes Church feel better. Feeling utterly depressed and angry inside since the death of her friend Mac doesn’t get out of bed till Church returns. Their talk last night has made her feel somewhat better, but it hasn’t represented a total release. She passes the morning reading and flipping through the TV channels that is very strange behaviour for her. It’s true that she never spends time for Ellen anymore, to do things for herself. The time could come when one day she’d blink, but her eyes wouldn’t open again and the list of things that her heart desires would no longer be attainable. Her life is the job she loves, working with people she loves and  catching criminals she loathes. Was she wrong last night to say she wasn’t finished with this period in her life, did the day that the darkness, darkness she worked to prevent each day, seeped a little closer into her life through the opening of her friend, signal she had had enough? She grabs the pillow from next to her curling around it to think more, instead she drifts into a haunted, disturbed dream again.

Mac’s slumber is disturbed by the doorbell, under the impression Church will answer it she remains in bed in order to regain full capacity of her functions. Her somewhat overdose of sleep has left her feeling hung over. The bell rings again and Mac dons a robe and heads downstairs. Church’s temporary hearing loss is a result of the headphones attached to the hand held game he plays intensely. She arouses his attention and they both head to the kitchen to see who it is at the door. Via the video camera above the door, four men in police uniform stand and waited.

“Did anybody stop by while I was gone?” Peter looks intensely at her.

“No I was asleep for a bit, unless they let themselves in, in that time.”

“No that wouldn’t have happened, it might have blown our cover, you can let them in.” Church is confident.

“I’m not letting them in looking like this.” Mac looks down at the shabby robe she’s wearing.

“It doesn’t matter, they don’t know you from a bar of soap, you won’t see them again.” Church wants them to do their sweep and be gone, all be it, three hours too late. It wasn’t good for business to have cops crawling the premises, well-uniformed cops.

“Mac, God I want to get back to Super Mario.” Church’s voice is tainted with urgency. He watches as her bare feet pad across the room towards the front door till she’s out of sight. He goes back to saving the world, well at least the hand held game world.

Church doesn’t look up when Mac returns, this is routine so he plugs the headphones back in, though he wishes he could give them a piece of his mind about being so late. But there’s something strange going on and it isn’t until he sees the gun pointed at Mac’s head and the ill fitting uniforms that he realises that they aren’t cops and they aren’t here to check the house. The terror is just beginning.

“Stone would you shut that thing up?” Angie strains to hear over the wire and Oscar’s mobile ringing isn’t helping.

“Yeah post one.” He answers, Angie has the binoculars out trying to get a better view.

“O.K thanks.” It’s a short and bittersweet conversation for Stone. “Our victims from last night are home, they’re both cops, and they’ve just been through their house to see what was taken. Four police uniforms are gone.”

“Four officers just went inside the cover house.” Angie’s voice is laced with panic and fear.

“Was there a direction put out on a sweep on the house?” Stone asks.

“From the outside, it was completed 3 hours ago by plain clothed officers.”

“Great,” Stone bangs the phone down on the table. “Post one to all receivers, be advised targets are in the house, repeat targets are in the house, they are wearing police uniforms.”

“What now?” Angie asks after Stone finishes with the radio call. Their targets have gotten into the house without their knowledge.

“We wait, listen and hope.” Stone picks up his binoculars. “What are the wires picking up?

“Nothing.” Angie’s voice is tiny.

“What do you want?” Mac asks her voice full of emotion and a small amount of fear. She’s imagined this moment for a long time, but now she’s in it she felt totally helpless. The power of the situation is not in her court.

She knew what she wanted, she wanted to scratch their eyes out, pull out their vital organs one by one, then pull out their hearts so they could watch them stop beating. She watches Church on the lounge, oblivious to the goings on only five metres from him. His face is scowled in concentration, fingers moving rapidly along the keypad. A shot is fired from behind him and instantaneously Church is sewn into the web.

"What's all this about honey?" Church's voice doesn’t come over as confident as he would have liked.

"This your wife?" The guy who has Mac asks as he twirls the gun through her hair.

"Yes it is...I'm sorry I don't know your name, are you O.K Carla?" Church says using Mac’s undercover name.

"She's fine." The leader snaps. "You can call me Gary." he concludes.

"Hope you don't mind, but we're hear to do a little interior decorating." The guy to Gary's left speaks, his gun pointing at Church. Peter’s eyes move quickly from face to face not dwelling long for fear of causing trouble and committing each one to memory. He doesn’t recognise any of them.

"Do your job." Gary says to the other three who move off, picking a room each and proceeding to turn it upside down. They slash and smash everything in sight, taking nothing. Church realises this is because there is nothing here that would aid them in any further adventures. Church and Mac have a gun put to their backs to encourage them up the stairs. Upstairs is dangerous because there are no wires in the bedrooms or bathrooms.

"Nice, very nice." Gary says surveying each room as he passes.

"So what you two lawyers or something.?" The guns press harder to encourage an answer.

"Accountant."

"School teacher" Church and Mac reply as planned.

"BORING" comes the loud and obnoxious voice of Gary. They move from room to room upstairs, Mac knows he is probably choosing the room of death.

"Nice" Gary comments when they reached the room Mac had slept in the night previous and the current afternoon. The guns dug harder into their backs and Mac and Peter take the obligatory step forward into the room.

"Oh look you've turned the bed down for me already." Gary says in a mocking tone.

"Travis get in here now." He raises his voice to a yell. The short dark man of the lot appears with a roll of duct tape.

"Tie him up now." Gary instructs. Church allows himself to be taped to the chair in the corner.

"Please take what you want and leave us alone." Church pleads, they’re upstairs in a room that isn’t bugged and didn't face the street so no one could look in… things aren’t looking up. They got worse when the last piece of tape goes over his mouth.

"I'd love to do that mate, but you see I haven't taken all that I want yet. I'm about to get myself a piece of your wife." At this point Mac feels more vulnerable than she ever has before and Church feels as helpless as he ever had before.

"GET OUT!" Gary yells to Travis.

"Look Gaz, I don't know if this is such a god idea..."

"GET OUT!" Gary bellows again. "Shut the door behind you."

Mac looks around helplessly for an escape route. In a moment she could well be subjected to this sadistic mans sexual fantasies and she is hopelessly trapped. She doesn’t mind that her eyes fall on Church’s and they’re windows to her fear and vulnerability.

"I don't know what would be worse mate, seeing another man kill your wife, or seeing another man fuck your wife. Of course you may prefer to see her dead anyway and in that case I'd have to kill you too." Gary is so close to Church he can feel his foul breath on his face, Church is helpless to do anything but it doesn’t stop the look in his eyes that says he won’t let that happen.

Gary moves to the centre of the room to address them both. "As this is an even number your fate has been sealed and you are destined never to see another sunrise."

"An even number, what does that mean?" Mac asks.

"It means sweetheart that you are house number 10 and there for you must die."

"But this is number 250." Mac wants to keep him talking and distracted for as long as possible.

"That is true and a lovely house it is, but you’re project number 10." Gary begins his approach towards Mac.

"You've done this 10 time?" Mac says backing away.

"That's right gorgeous, I'm qualified to run classes now on how to do it. Perhaps my own slot on TV, do it yourself home invasions." Gary grabs Mac's robe and throws it open, from his chair in the corner Peter rocks desperately to try and get free.

"So all those invasions on TV, that was you?" Mac struggles trying to get her robe shut again, but Gary is too strong and she succeeds only in getting it thrown to the floor.

"Smart and beautiful, it sure was." Church knows Gary has just confessed to no one other than the three people present in the room. Gary pulls Mac in for a long rough kiss, she struggles to break free tasting his cigarette and alcohol breath. The kiss breaks off sharply as he grabs her wrist and twists it painfully.

"There's a fine line between pleasure and pain, darlin’, I can bring you either, so we can do this the hard way or the easy way, but it's going to be done." Mac notices Gary's hands are large, coarse and cracked like they hadn't seen water in quite a while. They find their way up Mac's shirt pulling it over her head. Her constant struggles are of no consequence, Gary still has a hold of her wrist and is too strong.

"Get on the bed." He orders, Mac takes the opportunity to study Gary as he removes his shirt. He’s about 35 to 40, his body gives him away as someone who’s worked a manual labour job, outdoors most days, his hands a clear give away of this as well. Mac struggles again to prevent Gary from pulling down her shorts, she’s starting to wear out, her constant defences are exhausting and getting her nowhere. This time she's pushed him too far, he pulls a knife from a holder down his ankle and places it next to her neck. In his chair Church is screaming on the inside, where is the back up, why haven't they come to check everything is O.K, Mac’s lying on the bed in her underwear, everything is not O.K.

"Don't make me use it prematurely." Gary voice is full of snide. Threat gone he places the knife on the edge of the bed and proceeds to take off his boots, tossing them across the room at Church like he were some sort of target. Once he misses Church twice he proceeds to unbutton his jeans. Church can't stand it anymore, he uses his feet to jump the chair across the room towards the knife on the bed. In the back of his mind he knows it wouldn't help but he can't sit by and watch anymore happen. The banging on the floor attracts Gary's attention and reaches the knife before Church can.

"No way mate, you can't join in." Gary, clad only in a small pair of briefs flaunts himself around the helpless Church.

"Maybe you want some hey?" He continues to dance around Church who is powerless to stop him.

"You wanna take a sneak peek at what's soon to be up your wife, might make you jealous, a bit more than what you got," Gary’s about to remove his last piece of clothing when there’s an almighty bang behind them

Mac stands next to the bed holding the gun she had pointed at Church last night, Church had replaced it in the draw soon after it had been pointed at him.

"Move slowly towards the door and put your hands above your head." It’s almost as if the hard-nosed, business Ellen Mackenzie is back. Gary is quite taken aback, but not defeated. He grabs the knife from the bed and moves towards her, Mac fires twice and he slumps to the floor.

She runs to Church's chair unlocking his feet then arms, he rips the tape from his mouth but it wouldn't have made a difference, they stand and embrace, no words spoken, till the police from outside burst into the room.

No amount of running water or soapy lather could wash away the day’s events. Everyone else has gone home for some well-deserved rest. Mac desperately tries to wash away the case but she knows it isn’t going to work and she knows she doesn't want to be alone tonight.

She finds Church sitting in the central work area drinking a beer. She sits next to him in silence. Silence says so much more between them than words ever would.

"I should never have let you on this case." Silence is the largest answer ‘yes’ one could get from Mac.

"You’re going to have the most disgusting dreams for a long time to come Mac." He says, still looking at her she remains focused straight ahead.

"We got the other 2 men, they admitted to the previous home invasions. Gary the sadistic one, he raped and killed the victims, the even ones. He'd only been out for 6 months, he'd been serving time for aggravated sexual assault. He knew nothing about home invasions." Still Mac doesn’t look at him.

"They arrested the other 3 downstairs, they were smoking and drinking, before they came upstairs to us. It was your bullet in to ceiling that got their attention, it came through on the downstairs wire.

“I can't be alone tonight Peter." She says looking at him now. She doesn't need to ask the question, it is understood what is being asked. "I feel safe with you Pete, this afternoon, I knew what was going to happen, I was scared, but I felt safe because you were there."

A single tear appears in Mac's eye. Church places his hands on her cheeks and sweeps it aside with a thumb. He moves into caress his lips with hers in a short, but sweet and tender kiss.

"I'm sorry I was way out of line." Church drops his hands and leans back in the chair.

"No you weren't, I wanted it to happen too."

"I have the worst timing." he replies grinning.

"Don't you see, now is when I need you, when I've just come through the darkest hour of my life. I need you to be there, to understand like only you can. You were there, you experienced it also. I can't go home and tell the walls what I've been through and expect them to be able to comfort me. I miss you Pete."

Church takes a minute to take in what Mac has just said. "I was so afraid tonight, tied to that chair. The operation was the last thing on my mind. I was afraid of what might happen to you, what he might have done to you. I felt so helpless not being able to do anything."

"You got us out and you can help me now." She replies smiling between tears.

Church smiles back at her. "Is this us back together again, round two?"

"This is us helping each other in the best way we know how and once our heads are right again, we can sleep at night and I've grieved properly. Who knows where it will go." She seals her final speech with a kiss.