Against the Odds

A/N: My second update in a week! Yay! I hope you guys enjoy it and as always, I’d love to hear what you think!

****************

Alex felt a little more awake after her shower; at least as awake as she could be after only having slept an hour. She dried off quickly, towel dried her hair and pulled it up into a messy bun, and then dressed in a pair of comfortable jeans and a t-shirt.

She still felt a bit uneasy as she moved about her and Harry’s room. She really couldn’t believe she had let it get this far with Patrick. She had known something was off with him for awhile; since their honeymoon when he questioned Harry’s decision to take her out on the motorcycle if she was honest. But she hadn’t wanted to make a big deal over nothing and there had been so much going on with Philip’s death and Harry’s accident…

“No…Stop beating yourself up over it, Alex” she said to herself as she closed her eyes for a moment and took several deep breaths. When she opened her eyes she turned and looked at the clock on her bedside table and a small smile pulled at her lips. Emma would be home within half an hour wand Harry should be back at anytime. She would feel better with both of them home; with her family back with her.

“I’ll just have to keep myself busy until then,” she murmured to herself, trying the best she could to shake off the unease she felt. She grabbed her laptop from the dresser and turned to Gus, laying on his bed in the corner as he watched her. “Come on, Gus Gus,” she called to him. “Come hang out with me while we wait for Emma and Daddy.”

Gus jumped up at Emma’s name, his tail wagging and his tongue flopping from his mouth in excitement. Alex laughed and reached down to scratch behind his ears as he passed her and then trotted from the room ahead of her. She flipped off the light behind her and made her way to the stairs. She was about three steps from the bottom when she noticed Gus in the foyer below her; his ears back and a whining sort of growl coming from him.

“Gus?” she called out as she hit the bottom step. “Buddy…?”

“He’s not very happy I’m here I don’t think.”

Alex gasped as she spun around, all the breath sucking from her lungs and her laptop sliding from her hands and going crashing to the ground as she saw him standing on the other side of her foyer. He was dirty and disheveled and looked nothing like the same man who had thrown tea on her dress not even eighteen hours before.

“Oh my God…Patrick...” she choked out, shaking her head as she began to walk backwards. “Please…”

His smile was pure evil as he stepped forward toward her. And then, he raised his arm and pointed his pistol right at her.

“Hello, Alexandra.”

“Oh God...oh God…” Alex whimpered, bile rising in her throat as she stared down the barrel of Patrick’s gun. “Please don’t kill me. Please...I have a daughter. Emma...she needs me and…”

“Shut up!” Patrick yelled, bringing a startled cry from Alex and a louder, more aggressive growl from Gus. Patrick quickly swung his gun down in Gus’s direction, his eyes narrowing in anger at the dog.

“No!” Alex screamed hoarsely, instinctively jumping to her dog’s defense, leaning down to wrap her arms around his neck. “Don’t! I’ll calm him down, I promise. You can’t…” Her words came out as a choking sort of sob and she shook her head. “Please…”

Patrick’s jaw clenched but after a moment he finally pulled the gun away. “Fine. But get him out of here, Alex.”

“But…”

“This will work so much better if you do what I say, Duchess,” Patrick threatened, his eyes darkening with his words. “Get rid of the fucking dog or I promise you I will do it myself.”

“Okay, okay,” Alex sobbed, tears beginning to run in fast rivers down her cheeks as she hugged Gus to her. “I’m so sorry, buddy,” she murmured as she rose , keeping her hands tight to his collar. “I’m just...going to put him out the front door,” she mumbled, her eyes wide as she looked to Patrick.

“Fine,” he nodded. “But don’t even think about running out with him.” He lifted his gun and raised his eyebrows, as if reminding her of what would happen if she did. “Got it?”

Alex nodded, slowly, her chest rising and falling with the effort of trying to keep herself calm and rational. She tugged on Gus’s collar, but he wouldn’t budge, his eyes set on Patrick as he let out another growl. Pulling the strength from somewhere to keep the shakiness out of her voice, he leaned over and spoke low to her dog, “Please Gus Gus, let’s go outside. It’ll be alright, buddy. Daddy and Emma will come get you soon.”

He let out a low whine but turned to look at her as she tugged on his collar. She tugged again and this time he didn’t resist. With relief, she moved to the door and quickly opened it before pushing Gus outside. He turned around immediately, looking at her as if he knew that he absolutely shouldn’t be leaving her alone and she couldn’t handle it, her shoulders shaking with sobs as she weighed her chances of just bolting out of the door.

“Close it,” Patrick ordered and she cried harder as she regretfully obeyed. “Good girl,” his tone of voice softened; he was obviously more at ease without the growling, protective dog in between them. “Now lock it, Alex.”

Her hand shook so badly that she fumbled over the lock for a moment before she could finally turn it, the sound of it sliding into place making her want to throw up.

“Why are you doing this to me?” She whispered, still facing the closed door.

“Turn around when you speak to me, Alex,” Patrick demanded. She shook her head but obeyed and turned around slowly, though she still couldn’t meet his eyes. “We will have to work on that,” he mused and it sent a chill through Alex’s entire body. “But to answer your question, I had to make you see how much I care about you. And everything else I’ve done has failed to work; so here we are. It’s your own fault really. If you would have just paid attention and understood how much I love you, we wouldn’t be here.”

“This isn’t love,” Alex gasped, the words falling from her mouth before she realized it. Her eyes lifted to his, wide and incredulous. “Taking me hostage? This isn’t love! This is...crazy!”

Patrick sighed as if he were dealing with a small child. “You really are quite dramatic, Duchess,” he shook his head and stepped toward her. She recoiled in fear but he reached out and grabbed her arm anyway. She yelped from how hard he gripped her; his fingers digging into her skin as he pulled her out of the entryway, into the living room, and over to the couch.

“You’re hurting me!” Alex cried out, trying to yank her arm from his grip.

He immediately released her arm and took a step back, as if he realized he’d gone too far. “I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to hurt you,” he murmured, watching as she rubbed at the bruises already forming where his fingers had gripped her.

Alex blinked, thrown by the complete change in his demeanor. But before she could try and decide whether or not to take advantage of his apparent desire to do her no harm, the hard set of his jaw and the anger in his eyes returned; though he made no more moves to touch her.

“Sit down,” he demanded, nodding to the couch behind her. “Remember, this will be so much easier on you if you do as I say.”

Alex sucked in a breath and then slowly sat down, her eyes trained on him the entire time. She was deathly afraid that he was going to come down after her and she knew that him having a gun assured she couldn’t properly defend herself. She’d had self-defense training before she’d married Harry; as those who married into the family usually did and if she could just get him to ditch the gun…

“You don’t have to look at me like I’m some dangerous criminal,” he admonished as he moved to sit in one of the chairs across from the couch.

“You’re holding me against my will with a gun pointed at me,” she whispered. “You are dangerous.”

“No, you have it wrong,” Patrick shook his head quickly. “This is for your benefit.”

“Mine?” Alex gasped. “How could it…”

“How else are you going to listen to me?” Patrick interrupted, his tone turning somewhat condescending towards her. “I mean, nothing else has worked. It’s a good thing you have someone as smart as me looking out for you, Duchess. Can I still call you that once we leave? I like the way it sounds.”

Alex felt like she was going to choke on the fear rising in her throat. “Leave? What are you talking about?”

“You know, I was rather hoping that your husband wouldn't be an issue by now,” he rattled on not bothering to answer her question. “I didn’t want the chance that he could come after us. I tried to take care of that…”

“What?” The word burst from Alex’s lips, loud and piercing into his rambling thought process. “What are you saying? How did...oh GOD.” The realization hit her square in the stomach with the force of a ton of bricks. “Oh my God. You did it, didn’t you? The brakes on the car.”

He smiled then, beaming with a sick sort of pride. “See what I’m willing to do for you, Duchess?”

“Oh my God,” Alex cried, her hand covering her mouth as she began to gag, the information making her stomach roll. “I’m...I’m going to be sick.”

**************

It was the memory of Alex telling him what it was like in those agonizing hours after his car crash that hit Harry and stuck with him when it was confirmed that Patrick was in his house and had taken his wife hostage. He remembered her telling him how it was the uncertainty that was the worst part; how not knowing how she could possibly deal with him not being there and the possibility having to tell Emma that he wasn’t ever coming home made the wait for news excruciating. He had felt so bad when she had told him those things, not only because she went through those things, but because he hadn’t been able to identify with that particular brand of agony.

But that had all changed now.

Now he knew that agony. And it was tearing him apart on the inside. His wife; the absolute love of his life, the woman who had given him a beautiful daughter and the promise of so much more, was locked in their home and at the mercy of a madman.

The first hour had been the worst. The first responders had found Gus on the scene, barking like crazy and scratching at the front door. The poor, worried puppy had whined and barked as the police pulled him away from the scene and it wasn’t until they brought him to Harry where he was waiting at Will and Kate’s apartment that he began to calm down. And it made Harry sick that Alex was truly all alone with that crazy asshole, without even their beloved dog for comfort.

And then, Alex’s parents had arrived with Emma. Though they known something was going on when Emma’s protection team had received the code, had first diverted away from Kensington Palace, and then had been ordered back with strict instructions to drive straight to William and Kate’s apartment, the truth of the situation wasn’t revealed until they were safely inside of Will and Kate’s apartment. Harry would never forget the way Donna broke down in sobs in Mike’s arms and the way Mike had achingly told her it would be alright when there was no way he could actually know that.

It made him want to cry to think of the call he’d had to place to Matt and Charlotte and the way they’d come at once; making it to Kensington in under twenty minutes, even with a infant son in tow. He’d known instantly that Charlotte had been crying and that Matt was beyond shaken; he’d only seen that look on Alex’s brother’s face once before - when Charlotte had been in surgery after she’d had Cooper and her condition had been so uncertain.

But nothing was worse than Emma breaking down. Nothing would ever take the image from his mind of the cries and the tears and the way his sweet, innocent, beautiful daughter clutched onto him so tightly as she begged and begged him to make sure her mummy was brought home safely. His heart had broke as he promised her he would do exactly that; because he knew there was a chance he couldn’t.

But he was going to do everything he could to bring Alex back to him and back to him. And the fact was, that he couldn’t do that waiting in Will and Kate’s apartment. He had to be down at the perimeter the police had set up around their cottage. He had to be in contact with everyone that was working on the best plan to get his wife out of harm’s way. And since he couldn’t bring Emma into that; into the chaos and intensity that was happening just across the palace grounds. In truth, he almost broke down himself when he’d had to untangle his daughter’s arms from around his neck and step away from her. Sobs had wracked her little body as Matt stepped in, pulling Emma into a fierce hug and promising to not let her go until her Mummy was back home safe.

And then, with a final, solemn look to the family that was gathered in his brother’s apartment, Harry left, flanked on all sides by police protection as he quickly moved across the palace grounds to try and fulfill the promise he’d made to his daughter.

He was stunned by the enormity of the scene when he reached it. Yellow caution tape cordoned off a wide area around the cottage and there were police cars and flashing lights everywhere. Helicopters hovered overhead and when he looked up he was upset to see that media helicopters were among those above them. Of course the media knew by now; though he had no idea if a statement had been issued or not. If it had, his father had been the one to take care of it. But it still made him angry that they couldn’t have enough decency not to hover above their home for pictures and video of the situation.

“Your Royal Highness!”

Harry’s head turned towards the voice that had called his name and he nodded as he made his way over to Bernard Hogan-Howe, the commissioner of Scotland Yard. “Commissioner,” he greeted him with a handshake, raising his voice to be heard over the helicopters. “Are they going to clear the airspace here and get these damn media choppers out of here?”

Commissioner Hogan-Howe looked above him and swore, shaking his head before he pulled his radio up to make a call. “I called them when I first got here,” he explained to Harry once he pulled the radio away from his mouth. “The official clearance just went through and they’re warning the choppers right now.”

Harry nodded and then looked up, watching as the circling helicopters slowly began to make their way off, leaving just the one police helicopter of above them. He turned back to the Commissioner and took a deep breath. “Can you tell me what we know?”

The Commissioner nodded and handed Harry a tablet that contained the facts as they knew them. “We’ve pulled security footage from the grounds. We have video feed of him entering the Kensington Palace gates last night while you and your wife were at the Grosvenor Hotel. We also have footage of him entering your residence. There were no restrictions to him being on the palace grounds at that time as the reports weren’t filed until this morning when Scotland Yard was called to your residence.”

“God damn it,” Harry swore, shaking his head and rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, mad at himself for not taking care of getting Patrick off his wife’s detail the night before when he’d wanted to. “Alright, so we know how he got the flowers in. But how in the hell did he manage to get back after I’d left this morning?”

Commissioner Hogan-Howe frowned and visibly swallowed. “He never left. He was in your house the entire night.”

**************

As if it weren’t bad enough that Patrick had just confessed that he’d tried to kill her husband, he’d had to further humiliate her by standing at the door of the bathroom while she’d vomited. He watched her as she’d lost the contents of her stomach and then dry heaved until she just couldn’t anymore, until she’d had to force herself to take deep breaths to calm down.

“Can I get you some water?” he asked, the puppy dog look creeping back onto his face as he looked down on her.

“I don’t want anything from you,” she sobbed as she leaned back against the wall of the bathroom and pushed her hair from her face. “Just leave me alone.”

“Ah Duchess, you’re not being very appreciative of…” His words trailed off as the sudden sound of sirens interrupted the quiet around them. “Well, sounds as if we’ve been found out.”

“They’re not going to let you get away with this,” Alex said, wiping the tears from her face as she moved to stand.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Patrick said as he leaned forward and grabbed her arm, yanking her from the bathroom.

“Ow!” she cried, trying to yank her arm free. But this time he didn’t let her go so easily. And instead of taking her back into the living room, this time he headed straight for the stairs and started climbing, pulling her up with him. He didn’t release her until they got to the top of the stairs and then he pointed his gun down the hall.

“To your bedroom,” he ordered.

“No,” Alex gasped, shaking her head as she shrank away from him.

Patrick sighed. “Calm down. I’m not going to do anything to you in there. You just need to start packing your stuff.”

“My stuff?”

“Yes, your stuff,” Patrick repeated. “We’re going to be leaving tonight and you need to have clothes packed.”

“Why do you keep talking about leaving?” Alex asked wearily. She’d only been in this situation for an hour, but she was exhausted and scared and she had no idea what the man holding her at gunpoint would do to her or what his plan was.

His smile lit up and once again, Alex was stunned at the way his moods changed in mere seconds. “I’m going to take you away from here, of course,” he said, and once again, Alex felt like she was going to be sick. “We can’t very well live in London, now can we?” His voice was almost cheery as he took ahold of her arm again - albeit more gently this time - and steered her down the hallway to her and Harry’s bedroom. “Of course we can’t, Duchess. We’ll be going somewhere far away from civilization. Don’t worry, they won’t follow us. And even if they did, I could defend us if they ever found us.”

Tears filled Alex’s eyes and spilled over, running down her cheeks as he pulled her into her bedroom. “You’re insane,” she whispered. “You are. You’re insane.”

His eyes darkened dangerously and Alex shrank back, afraid she had gone too far. “Now that’s not a very nice thing to say, Duchess. Apologize to me.”

But before Alex could open her mouth, a shrill ring pierced the silence and Alex jumped, though she knew exactly what the sound was. “The phone…” she whispered, looking longingly at the landline receiver on Harry’s nightstand.

“Don’t answer it,” he barked out. “I’m going to answer. It’s going to be Scotland Yard. And you aren’t going to make a peep unless I tell you to, got it?”

**************

Two hours.

That’s how long it had been since Patrick had answered the landline. In those two hours he’d made her get on the phone to prove she was alive but he’d held the gun to her head the entire time, ensuring she said nothing else but what he told her to say. And then, he’d made her pack. For those two hours, he’d been watching over her as he instructed her on exactly what to bring, rifling through all of her drawers and picking out everything he wanted her to take; right down to her underwear. He was so methodical about it, so measured. He knew where everything was in her room; knew exactly where to look for things and the realization that he’d been in there often enough to know those things only made her more scared.

And more determined that whatever happened, she would never, ever leave the grounds of the palace with him.

“You never apologized to me, Duchess. For calling me insane earlier.”

Her head snapped up from where she’d just zipped up a suitcase and she shook her head slowly. “I’m not going to apologize. You are crazy. You’re holding me hostage! You’ve convinced yourself that you’re in love with me…”

“I am!” he thundered, his face growing red.

But Alex wasn’t deterred. Not now. Not when it felt like she had absolutely nothing else to lose.

“And you think you can what? Train me to be in love with you? You think you can take me away from my husband and my daughter and my family and that for some reason I’ll be so grateful to you that I’ll fall in love with you? The person who took away everything that matters to me in life? You are insane.”

“Do you think that you’re doing and saying smart things right now?” His voice was low and she knew there was a threat laced in there but that’s when it hit her. She knew exactly what she needed to do.

Through all of his apparent planning in his mission to take her as his own and run off with her, he simply hadn’t considered the fact that she wouldn’t eventually go willingly. He’d expected the police and he’d already come up with a plan - however far fetched it probably was - to clear that problem out of the way.

But he hadn’t planned on what to do when she refused to play along.

What she needed to do was incredibly risky and she knew that. If she got too defiant and he got violent with her, it could mean her life. But all she had to do was push him just enough to distract him enough to get the gun away from him…

“I think the smart thing to do would have been to not hold the Duchess of Sussex hostage at gunpoint,” she replied, her voice firmer than it had been in hours as she stood up tall. She was scared out of her mind and shaking but now that she had a plan, adrenaline began to pump through her veins and she felt a little braver every single second that passed.

“I’m getting very fed up by your tone of voice, Duchess,” he warned in a low tone. “You’re usually so compliant when your husband tells you what to do.”

“Harry doesn’t tell me to do anything,” Alex scoffed, mounting her offense slowly. “And if he wants me to do something he asks me and I love and respect him so I try my best to make him happy.”

“You keep saying you love him but you’re lying!” Patrick shouted, taking a menacing step toward her as his anger began to show through more and more. “You haven’t even slept together in months!”

And Alex reeled backwards as if she’s been punched. A rush of breath left her lungs at the realization that he held such private knowledge; that was something that only and Harry and Alex knew themselves. “How do you know that?!” she gasped, backing up as he advanced on her, a little bit of her bravery slipping from her.

He grinned, wide and proud of himself. “I’ve been listening,” he said, pointing the gun in his hand at his ear.

Alex swallowed the urge to vomit again and whispered, “You bugged our room?”

“Oh no,” he shook his head slowly. “Your entire cottage here.” He took another step toward her and the fear surged within her again. “That’s right,” he continued, his sick smile pulling higher when he’d backed her against the wall. “I know everything. I know it all, Duchess. Used to be you two couldn’t get enough of each other but once I started paying you some attention...it all stopped.”

“You mean once you tried to kill my husband and we couldn’t because he was critically injured?! You’re disgusting and delusional!” she spat, shaking her head as he stepped closer. She had to fight the urge to gag at the stench of him, at how horrifying the entire moment was.

“Don’t worry, Duchess. I won’t ever go long without…”

“You will never touch me,” she hissed. “Ever.”

“Remember what I said at the beginning of this?” His head dipped closer to her and it took everything Alex had not to gag in reaction. “This will all go so much easier on you if just do as I say…”

And with those words, Alex found the moment she’d been waiting for.

The knee she threw into his groin took him completely by surprise. He howled in pain and doubled over just as she kicked at his right hand, dislodging the gun from his grasp and sending it skidding across the hardwood floor.

“Bitch!” Patrick screamed as she pushed past him and ran for the gun. Her fingers closed around the cold metal just as his fingers closed around her arm and he pulled her whirling around to face him. “I’m going to kill you!”

His fingers closed around the hand that she had wrapped around the gun and she yelped in pain as he tried to pry her fingers loose. Desperation and dread joined the adrenaline pumping so fiercely through her veins and she did the only thing she could possibly do. With strength she didn’t know she had, she managed to get her other hand to the gun and though she couldn’t fight him off enough to ensure that it would hit him or even that it wouldn’t hit her, she pulled in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and sent up a desperate prayer.

And then she pulled the trigger.

***************

Harry was a soldier; a captain in the British Army who had been to war - twice. He’d sat in the gunner position on the Apache during his second deployment; he was more than familiar with the sound of a gunshot.

But the gunshot that came from his house that night was the loudest gunshot he’d ever heard; he was sure of it. The instant it sounded out into the evening air he felt his entire world go hazy. He vaguely heard the instant shouts from the police gathered around him; the orders from those in charge for the SWAT team to get into position to go into the house, but he didn’t comprehend it. All he felt was his knees start to go weak and the ache beginning to spread in his chest at the reality of what that gunshot meant for him.

“Sir! Sir, we need to pull you away from here!” His protection officer’s voice was faint in his head and Harry shook his head wildly, fighting off Mark’s attempts to pull him from the scene.

“No!” Harry choked out. “No! I’m not leaving her! I can’t…”

And then, just as Harry’s mind was about to fully spiral out of control, the door to the cottage swung open.

And his wife came stumbling out.

************

The lights startled her at first. She had known they were all out there, but in the darkness of the early evening the flashing red and blue and the the spotlights coming from the police vehicles were overwhelmingly bright, assured she couldn’t see anything, and she stumbled from the door, not quite sure where to run.

“Alex!”

Her head whipped towards the sound of his voice and a split second later she saw him. She took off towards him as he ran towards her, tears already clouding her vision by the time she launched herself into his arms.

“Harry!” she cried, flinging her arms around his neck as he grunted with the force at which her body hit his. His arms came crashing around her and it was the sweetest thing either of them had either felt. He immediately leaned down and lifted Alex up into his arms and turned around, carrying her in the exact opposite direction of the police now rushing past them towards the cottage.

“Alex...oh my god, baby...are you okay? Are you hurt?” He rushed out as he pushed through the barricades, looking around for medical attention.

“No no...I…” she sobbed, her breath hitching and her voice frantic. “I shot him. I don’t...I don’t know where I shot him, Harry. I don’t know if I killed him or...he could still…”

But before she could finish her sentence, another gunshot pierced the air around them and they both knew; the police that had gone in after she’d come out had assured that Patrick Smith was dead.

And for some reason, it made her cry harder; harder than she’d ever cried in her life. She let out a wail of a moan into his neck and her entire body shook with an intensity that Harry had never seen. And he knew that he had to get her away from there right then.

He turned and immediately began to stride in the direction of his brother’s apartment and not a single person dared to stop him. He needed to bring her to her family.

He needed to bring her to Emma.

His protection team and two other officers surrounded them and began to escort them without hesitation. They understood; anyone within twenty feet of the Duchess could hear her cries and they knew, now was not the time to start questioning her as to what happened inside of the cottage. Patrick Smith was dead and it didn’t make a bit of difference whether she gave her statement right then or the next day.

Right then, she just needed to feel safe.

To Be Continued...