Си Паради: Dancing With Shadows

Walking to the doorway she looked down the hall and saw Tony standing outside the second bedroom door before quickly pulling her head back into the kitchen. Maybe this was just a false alarm. Obviously there had been no one in the first bedroom. Yeah, right.

Sherman was pressed against the wall in the bedroom next to the door. Hearing nothing, he eased around the door only to bump into an equally startled tall, dark woman.

Tony reacted a millisecond faster and grabbed the arm holding the gun pointed at her, shoving it up and simultaneously pressing hard on a nerve in the wrist. Sherman had started to squeeze the trigger and the gun went off, the bullet imbedding in the wall.

Megan’s heart almost stopped when she heard the gunfire. Immediately activating the button on the watch, she ran to the apartment door unlocking it. Running back into the kitchen, she looked down the hallway, quickly pulling her head back when she saw that Tony seemed to be unharmed.

Sherman was unable to stop his hand from opening and the gun fell to the floor. Brutally driving his other elbow into Tony, he threw his weight against her propelling them across the hall, their momentum stopped when their bodies impacted against the opposite wall.

Having a slight advantage now, Sherman grabbed Tony’s arm and slammed it against the wall, causing the gun to fall from her hand.

Tony had finally got her breath back from the blow to her solar plexus, and she pushed away from the wall attempting to free herself, while simultaneously drawing her knee up in an attempt to incapacitate Sherman with a groin hit.

Expecting the move, Sherman jumped back out of the way and while Tony was off balance, he once against threw his weight against her driving her into the wall, raising his hands to her neck and choking her.

His grip was like iron and Tony resisted the urge to grab his wrists and attempt to dislodge his hands. Already feeling the lack of oxygen, she raised her arms and forcefully smacked her open hands against his ears with strength fortified by adrenalin. The blow caused a slight loosening of the choke hold and sucking in some much needed air, she brought her arms up between his and in an outward sweeping motion, she broke his hold on her neck. At the moment his hands loosened, Tony drove her head into his face, her forehead impacting with his nose, followed by a crushing blow to his chin with her elbow.

Sherman jumped back, tears blinding him. In excruciating pain, his hands involuntarily covering his bloody nose, he backed away from her trying to stay out of her reach in the narrow confines of the hallway. Lowering a hand to his pocket, he extracted a switchblade and pressed the button snapping the blade into place. Extending his arm in a slashing motion with the knife, he began to move toward her, his vision slowly improving.

Quickly back peddling, Tony began circling him, staying clear of the reach of the knife, looking for an opportunity for to disarm him and deliver a crippling blow. But Sherman was protecting himself by countering her attempts to get closer by leading with the knife. Turning sideways to present a smaller target, he circled warily, the dance of the two adversaries well underway.

Megan continued to observe the battle knowing it was best if she stayed out of the way. She had already started down the hallway once, before Tony broke the choke hold around her neck. She had watched Tony in action before, and had full confidence in her ability to protect herself. But this guy was heavier than she was, and it was obvious he was also very highly trained.

When Sherman pulled the knife Megan’s temper flared. She’d be damned if he was going to harm her lover if she could do anything about it.

Tony didn’t have anything to protect herself with. Looking around the kitchen for a weapon, her eyes settled on the heavy round, paperweight sitting on the table. It was about the size of a baseball except it was flat on the bottom. A pretty yellow flower was suspended in the middle of it.

Grabbing the paperweight off the table, she waited until Sherman’s back was toward her, and then stepped into the mouth of the hallway.

Waiting until Tony noticed her, she hefted the paperweight in her hand, and drew her arm back sending it forcefully through the air, satisfied when it landed solidly in the middle of Sherman’s back.

Megan knew it wouldn’t really hurt him, but her intent was to distract him so that Tony could disarm him.

Sherman was unable to check the automatic impulse to turn his head at the sharp pain that shot through his back when the paperweight hit him.

Tony immediately threw her leg up into a front kick, connecting solidly with his wrist. Sherman grunted in pain, both of them hearing the snap of a bone as the knife fell to the floor.

Holding his injured wrist against his chest, Sherman threw a brutal sidekick toward Tony. She danced out of the way and let go of a roundhouse that snapped his head back and stunned him. Immediately following up with a solid kick to the groin, Sherman dropped to the ground.

Tony reached down and picked up her gun, training it on the other agent. Her thoughts were dark, the image of a terror stricken boy laying in the middle of a busy street flickering in slow motion through her mind. Her finger tightened against the trigger.

Suddenly she felt a warm hand on her arm, and a concerned voice asked, "Tony… are you ok?"

Taking a deep breath, Tony said, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Just then the front door banged open and two uniformed cops entered the apartment with their guns drawn.

Megan called out, "Down there," and the two officers quickly walked down the hallway, taking in the scene.

Not knowing either patrolman, Tony said, "FBI. Would you cuff this guy to something?"

One of the officers grabbed Sherman hauling him to his feet and took him into the living room fastening the cuff to Sherman’s uninjured wrist and fastening the other end around the metal frame of the heavy computer table. Putting his gun away, he pulled out his radio and called for an ambulance.

The other officer asked Tony to surrender her gun. Knowing this was just routine procedure, she handed it to him.

Taking her weapon, the patrolman put his gun in his holster and began questioning Tony and Megan.

Brian arrived and walked into the apartment. Taking over the questioning, he quickly had a summary of the events.

When Tony got to the end of her statement she mentioned her gun had been confiscated, "You never fired your gun, right?" Brian asked.

"No. Never had a chance to," Tony said, her face grim.

Brian had no doubt she would have liked to, though. Turning to the officer that had her weapon, he said, "Give her back her gun. She’s an FBI agent and they have jurisdiction on this case."

Tony picked up the phone, and called the number she had been given to reach Huey after hours. When he answered, she said, "We got him."

"You ok?"

"I’m fine. But Sherman managed to break his wrist in the scuffle," she paused, and then added, "and probably his nose too."

"With some help from you, I’m sure," Huey quipped back.

"A little," Tony said, smiling. "The local cops are going to take him to the hospital and then hold him until you can get someone here to pick him up."

"I’ll have someone there tomorrow morning."

When the apartment finally cleared out, Tony walked over and hugged Megan. Returning the hug, Megan asked, "I’m so glad you’re ok. How did you get home so early?"

"Braxton finally gave the word to move in. All the principal players were gathered at the site and when we let him know that, he realized it was too good of an opportunity to pass up."

"It’s finally really over."

"Um hum. You know you got a real mean fastball, Love. That was a good idea. Thanks," Tony said, smiling at her lover.