Briar Rose - Chapter 1 (Tangled in the Thorns)

Synopsis: Takes place after the episode, Briar Rose. Paul Ballard finally finds and enters the Dollhouse to save Echo/Caroline. However Alpha wants Echo for himself. Will Paul be able to save the princess? and if so, will they live happily ever after?

Author Note: As my more loyla readers will have noticed, I haven't update in about 4 years! This is just a note to let you know I am aiming to finish all my Charmed stories as soon as possible. I also hope you enjoy my new scribbles!

This was the last place Paul expected himself to be. He had been searching for clues to the dollhouse for months, anything. Absolutely anything to do with the dollhouse. He could hardly believe, he had actually managed to gain entrance. If it weren't for the current situation he was in he might even feel elated. But if there was anything he had learnt on this case it was that you could never get too happy too soon. When he had seen Caroline his guard had went down, he hadn't expected the security that had come up behind him or that she was resist him so much. After all he was saving her, but he didn't hold that against her. Caroline was obviously confused, in her doll-like state she didn't know him; she didn't know that she had asked him to save her. She was the victim and it was his job to save her- sure he had been suspended from the FBI so technically it wasn't his job anymore but the more he had delved into it, the more he had found out about Caroline and what the operators of the dollhouse did, the more his resolute had hardened. He couldn't let them get away with imprisoning people and using their bodies as shells to carry whatever personality they made up for it. He couldn't, he just couldn't.

When his superiors had given him the case of the Dollhouse, Paul had known why. Once he got his teeth into something he didn't let go until he knew the truth. It was one of the things that made him a good FBI agent. However, by most, the Dollhouse just seemed to be an urban legend: a joke. But someone from high up obviously believed it was worth investigating so he had pursued it, and the more he had pursued it the more he believed the Dollhouse really did exist. His first major lead had been when he'd found out about Caroline. Until then all he'd had was suspicions and possible clients that weren't saying a word. When he had found out about Caroline he had found drive to push further and further until he could finally save her. So what if they volunteered to be in the Dollhouse! No one would willingly become slaves, there had to be some kind of coercion. He had seen Caroline's yearbook video- there was no way a young vibrant, outspoken girl like that would willingly join such a program unless she was in trouble. It had been obvious from the tape that she had no problem speaking her mind and that she would stand up for both herself and anything she believed in. So the Dollhouse house insisted they had willing volunteers become their zombies? Hmf! He'd become a doll first before he believe that load of crap.

Eventually he had found the creator of the Dollhouse, or at least it's shell, Steven Kepler. Or at least he thought he had. He couldn't believe he had been fooled, but he had he hadn't who he really was. It wasn't until Steve had taken Echo that it had been revealed who he really was. Alpha. He had led a doll back home. Completely oblivious to the fact he had let a killer doll right back to where he wanted. It all made sense now. Alpha had given him clues to Caroline, the only doll Alpha was obsessed with, to drive Paul's obsession to save her. Then once Caroline's handler came out to restrain Paul, both would be distracted enough to forget about Steve and he could take Caroline, or Echo as they called her. Of course what Paul hadn't known when he had 'made' Steve come along was that the real Steven Kepler was dead and Alpha had taken his place. Alpha knew that he would fight until he could get in to get Caroline; he also knew the only person that would be able to get inside was Steven Kepler. So he had waited until Paul figured it all out and came to him. It was a good plan that involved a lot of waiting and the perfect timing. But Alpha had done it with, what seemed like, no fuss whatsoever. He had been tricked by a doll, but then again that seemed to be happening way too often lately. First Mellie and now Lubov?! His heart had dropped into his stomach when he had seen Lubov being frog-marched across the open room. His whole life... then, it had just seemed like a big game. His neighbour and lover, his informant- that didn't give any information worth use. He had to admit, Alpha had played his part well- who would have throught a eco-nut, pot head would be a deadly serious psycho killer? Of course that part made sense now. Lubov's job was to throw him off the scent and Mellie's was to keep an eye on him. They had had him chasing his tail; right where they wanted him. Keeping himself busy while not bothering them in the slightest. That was where he had been. It had been like he had hit the jackpot when he had discovered Steve Kepler, if only he had found the real Steve Kepler before he had been murdered by Alpha. But he hadn't and now things had changed. Caroline had been abducted, Alpha was on the loose and he was detained in the Dollhouse. He was so close to saving Caroline but at the same time, so far away.

Now all he had to do was get out of here, the DeWitt woman was pacing in front of him. As soon as she'd seen something on the monitor she had became panicked and had exchanged hushed words with the hired gun that had beat the crap out of him. It was wasn't until she had started blaming him for Alpha's return that he had figured out what happened, then and before Alpha had left the Dollhouse. The methodical slashes he inflicted on his victims and the bloodbath that had ensued before. Caroline. The only living doll in the middle of a river of corpses.

"They won't wake up"

That is what she had said, apparently. They had stripped her of everything she had ever known, she hadn't understood that they would never wake up again. And now she was in that monster's clutches. He would get out of here, Paul told himself determinedly. He would get out of this prison, find Caroline and free her and protect her from this hell. From the Dollhouse and Alpha.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any legal rights to the Dollhouse. The only thing I own is the rights to this story.

© Rinniku