CITY MAZE

Disclaimer: Don't own the original characters, MGM, Mirisch and Trilogy do.

AU: EA

Parts: One

Notes: Bastardized answer to the same challenge that created Spring Water. Just a bit of fun, written in response to getting stuck getting out of Boston one night. Sometimes, I swear, the city streets MOVE.

Description: Car chase

RATING: PG-13. There is some swearing. For me, that's pretty big.

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"There! Look! Washington Street! Turn right!"

Buck hit the brakes, jerking the wheel hard to the right, the jeep nearly turning over as it made the tight corner from Kneeland onto Washington. In the background, the sirens continued to blare, bearing down on them. JD gripped the leather seat, praying to God he knew here the hell they were going. Walking around Boston was not the same as driving around it - roads just didn't go where they were supposed to. The city was like a maze that constantly shifted, as if some evil deity found it amusing to play with driver's minds.

Pedestrians screamed and yelled, jumping out of the way as the old battered vehicle honked and swerved its way down the brick lined street. Buck was frowning, forced to slow down as they passed through Downtown Crossing and back onto tar. Then he pressed down on the accelerator again.

"Here! Right! Court Street, turn! Turn!"

Buck swerved again, the small roads not fit for the SUV. Hell, they weren't fit for cars.

"And left, left!"

Actually, Buck didn't have much of a choice, swerving left onto Congress. The other option was to go down the one way State Street in the wrong direction.

More pedestrians jumped and yelled, their eyes wide as the jeep sped past.

Behind, the sirens continued to blare. BPD vehicles swerved onto Congress not far behind the jeep.

JD glanced vaguely at Fanueil Hall on their right, the pretty building all lit up for the evening. Most everything was closed this late, but some of the bars were still open. People were still very much out in the streets...literally.

Buck ran the red light halfway down the street, cutting off the cars coming in from the right. Cabs honked, and every screeching tire indicated another near miss the ladies' man had. Pedestrians ran for the sidewalks, their usual uncontested ownership of the streets undermined by one crazy driver.

JD jabbed his finger to the left, turning Buck up Cambridge Street as they passed Haymarket. Again, Buck really hadn't any choice. He followed the kid's directions blindly. Fact was, if someone had asked, he would have been completely at a loss to tell them where they hell they were.

New York was a piece of cake compared to this. Buck knew full well it would take him weeks to get the knots of stress out of his back after one night of driving in this miserable city. And it had looked so pretty and innocent when they had arrived....

Cambridge was a wide street, and Buck used this to his advantage, sliding in and out traffic. More honking. The sirens were getting louder.

JD's cell phone rang.

"Chris?" The kid pressed it to his ear, then dropped it as Buck careened through the curves at the end. "No! Go straight through! Up there! Onto the bridge!" he pointed.

"What bridge?"

"Oh CRAP! We're on fuckin' Storrow! Shit Buck! Didn't you see the ramp? We gotta turn around!"

"Where? How?"

"I don't know! We're on Storrow! Take the next exit!"

"What in the world is a Storrow! And where the hell are we?"

"This is the Charles River," JD pointed at the water rushing by on their right. "That's Cambridge," he pointed across to the other side. "That's where the others are. We have to get there before the police get us, but you damn well missed the bridge!"

"Can't we cross somewhere else?"

"I...Yeah, yeah! There! See? Mass Ave! Get off! Left, stay left, no LEFT!....CRAP! Great, now we're on frikkin' Fenway heading in the wrong direction! Why didn't you stay to the left?"

"It's the damn road! You try turning a jeep at 60 miles per hour on roads the size of bike tracks! I couldn't get over to the left in time! And why would we go left if the bridge is to our right? It doesn't make any sense! And isn't Fenway a ballpark?"

"It's a road! They named the park after the road! Damn it, I TOLD you to let me drive! You can't drive in Boston unless you're from here! But, oh no, you're faster, you said. Just get in, you said. It's just another city, you said, they're all the same. Well this one is DIFFERENT!"

"How the hell was I supposed to know! I HATE this city!" Buck kept veering left, his intention to try and get back to where they had started.

"Yeah, yeah." JD shook his head, gripping the seat again as Buck veered to the left. Then he saw the sign for Mass Ave again, and pointed.

"There! Turn right! No, right, RIGHT! Ah! Damn it! BUCK! You are an idiot!"

"I don't get these streets!" Buck shook his head, the headache behind his right eye thumping. "I go left and it takes me right!"

"I TOLD you to go right! Right takes you left here! You have to listen to me! Now where the hell are we? Crap!"

Buck wrenched the wheel to the left, nearly avoiding colliding with a cop that came out of nowhere. They were like swarming bees, coming out of alleyways and side streets as if laying in wait. They knew this city; they knew it's back ways. JD felt at a loss as to how to get them across the river. He gripped the seat, trying to figure out how to get them heading back in the right direction. Where the hell were they?

Was that the back of the Museum?

"The MFA!" JD bounced. "Okay, okay! I know where we are! Turn here, HERE!"

Buck did as he was told, thankful that at least there weren't any pedestrians wandering around down here. He turned again at the end of the road, and found himself on something bigger. The sign said Huntington. The Christian Science Monitor loomed ahead, the beautiful mother church all lit up.

"And left again! Mass Ave, see? That’s Symphony Hall, by the way." JD jerked a thumb at the brick hall they cornered around.

“Lovely,” Buck muttered, seeing nothing but potholes, cars and people. What was with the people in this city? Didn’t they understand the streets were for cars?

Meanwhile, the phone had fallen to the side, still connected to where Chris was on the other end. The blond detective kept harshly whispering JD's name, trying to get the kid's attention.

Buck turned, but his head was completely confused. He felt like they just did a big circle. His sense of direction was so completely skewed at this point, that he probably couldn't even find his own nose unless JD pointed it out for him.

At least this fabled "Mass Ave" was straight. The first straight road he'd seen in this insane town.

They ran the red again and climbed up onto the bridge over the river. JD sank back like the world had lifted from his shoulders; they were almost there.

That's when he heard Chris calling his name into the phone. Scrambling around, he found it had fallen between the seat and the door. Holding it up to his ear, he apologized rapidly to the detective on the other side. Buck listened to the conversation with half an ear, the other on the lights that had climbed up onto the bridge behind them.

"Yeah," the kid said, "they're right behind us! They think we're the ones who have the girl, all right! We'll lead them right to the warehouse, and then disappear. Where are you going to meet us exactly? Yeah. I know it. Okay, we're just hitting the other side. Turn right onto Memorial, Buck. Turn's wicked sharp. See it? Brake or you'll miss it! Okay Chris, ten minutes, we'll be there." He hung up. "I hope."

JD looked at Buck, and jabbed a finger to the right. Buck frowned and swerved hard to the right as soon as they hit the other side of the bridge, then swerved left at JD’s instructions. He found himself on a two lane road skirting the water. The police had fallen back a little, but were still only maybe a minute behind them. They were going to be cutting this awfully close.

JD looked at the water whipping past on their right, the city of Boston reflecting in the still water of the Charles River. Then he sat a little straighter as they came up on the Longfellow Bridge.

"Buck, up ahead, at the next bridge, you need to be on your left to get under it."

"What? Won't that take me off this road?"

"No. Trust me, just this once, okay?"

"It looks like it's going to take me..."

"DO AS I SAY, damn it!"

"Yes sir." Buck actually gave a small grin, and turned the car into the left line. They rose up, then down, going under the intersecting road. Buck grinned wider. JD nodded.

"Now, up ahead, turn left at the next turn off, okay?"

"Yes sir." Buck clipped the phrase, and would have saluted if he felt he could take a hand of the wheel.

JD shook his head, smiling himself despite the gravity of the situation.

In minutes, they were off Memorial and turning into the parking lot of a warehouse. Buck screeched to a halt, and both he and JD jumped out of the jeep and ran to the side of the building. Then they hunkered down behind some bushes.

Seconds later, the police careened in after them, about fifteen cars in all, and they all flanked the discarded jeep. Cops surrounded the vehicle, and, upon finding it empty, instantly surrounded the warehouse.

Several shots were fired from an upper window. The cops shot back.

Cops swarmed the building on all sides, splitting into groups and finding every possible entrance. In moments, they were inside, quickly heading up to confront the surprised bad guys inside.

Still hidden in the bushes, JD and Buck slunk away, staying low. When they reached the other side of the building, they saw a blond girl talking to some officers near the back door. They could just make out her description of her kidnapping, of breaking her bonds to hide in the back room, but not knowing how to get out the locked back door. Thank goodness the police had arrived when they did, she said, hugging them. The cops grinned proudly.

Buck gave JD a thumbs up sign.

They continued to slink away.

Finally, after crossing behind a few more warehouses, they found the others. Nathan was on the phone, presumably talking with Ezra and Josiah in New York, while Chris and Vin were talking with a young man -- one of the kidnappers. He had fallen in love with the girl, and she had fallen for him. When they had tried to rescue her upon finding her at the warehouse that evening, she had refused to leave unless they could get the young man out too. So, they came up with this elaborate plan.

They had found the jeep parked near the building, the same jeep that had been marked by the cops as the kidnapping vehicle. Why the bad guys still had it, who knows. Stupidity, probably. Anyway, Buck and JD hot-wired it and went to go get the cops attention. Something they clearly did very well. Their goal was to then lead the cops back to the warehouse.

Meanwhile, Chris, Vin and Nathan, with the young man's help, got the girl to the back door of the warehouse and hidden. The rest of the kidnappers were oblivious to all this, watching TV and lounging around in the late hour. Chris then called JD, to get on update on where they were. As soon as he knew they had made it across the river (not an easy task, apparently), they left the girl inside the back door and took the young man outside. Then they ran to where they had left their rented car several blocks away.

That was where Buck and JD found them.

Nathan hung up the phone and nodded at the two latecomers. "I was just telling Josiah and Ezra you were okay," he said, looking at JD. The kid was not really supposed to be there at all, being Ezra and Josiah's legal secretary, but the detectives had asked to borrow him for his knowledge of Boston for this case. Josiah and Ezra had been calling non-stop since JD had said he would go along.

"Good, now, we should really get out of here," Chris said, handing JD the keys. The kid grinned, and walked to the driver's side door.

"Where to?" the kid asked.

"At this point, just get us back across the river," Chris noted, "before the cops start combing the area for accomplices."

"Across the river?" Buck's face paled. "Can't we stay on this side? I mean, you have no idea how hard it was...."

"It's easier in this direction, Buck," JD grinned. "Trust me. Getting out of Boston is impossible. Getting back into the maze? That's a piece of cake."

End.

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