Summary: Erica has been captured. With the world blissed there are very few people who can help her. Fortunately those few are the best. Besides, Hobbes owes her more than one life. It's time for him to start saving.

Pairing: Erica/Hobbes

Spoilers: nothing specific but knowing what occurs in the finale of season two sure helps. I seem to be ignoring Project Ares in my post-series stories. I have too much lingering angst and not enough information to believe in a corporate savior.

Rated T for reader Torture of the angst-causing kind.

This is not a song fic by any means but I'm listening to "Pictures" by Eyes of Eden right now and it fits too ridiculously well not to mention. Consider it the soundtrack.

Live To Fight Another Day

He sat in darkness, forcing his body to remain still even as his emotions began to stir, deeper and more intense with every passing moment. They'd taken over, his emotions, and that was why he'd come back in the first place, wasn't it? She was somewhere inside the mothership and he had to get her out. He couldn't think of a scenario in which Anna wouldn't be torturing her for information, or torturing her just to feel the thrill of the power she held over Erica and the rest of the filthy human race. Erica had been her greatest ally, and then Erica had revealed herself to be Anna's greatest foe. There was no way Anna wouldn't be torturing her.

Hobbes felt anger overtaking him at the thought. He felt that urge to hit something, to punch a hole right through the metal walls that surrounded him. It was not an urge he felt often. There wasn't much he cared about enough to cause that reaction. He was hidden on a Visitor transport, waiting for a signal from Joshua. Joshua told him to stay put until his signal, and Hobbes would do so, because he knew saving her was more important, so much more important, than satisfying the childish need to release his anger.

What he wanted was to rush out of the transport, find a target and just start shooting. He wanted to mow them all down one by one, for invading their planet, for blackmailing him and using his only weakness to bring him to his knees, for lying to everyone and making them believe. He wanted to destroy them for showing up at all in the first place, for taking over his life and ruining it.

For hurting her.

What he was going to do instead was wait. He would wait until Joshua gave the signal, because he knew that's how he would get to her and get her out safely.

It's the least you could do.

In Anna's private chamber Erica laid sprawled on the floor. None of her bones were broken and she wondered how that was possible. So much pain. Anna was able to produce so much pain in her without actually damaging anything but her spirit. Erica's spirit remained intact but it was badly bruised, and she felt her limit approaching. She felt the end approaching. She'd been there for days and still hadn't cracked. There was nothing to tell Anna, and Anna knew somewhere in her cold, reptilian heart that Erica wasn't going to tell her anything anyway. They both knew the score. Yet still the pain went on because, despite her desire to remain the cold, reptilian bitch she thought she was, Anna was pissed that Erica had successfully fooled her for so long. Anna was angry and Erica was the perfect punching bag. The perfect example.

Erica understood Anna's anger; she felt the same anger toward Anna, and she knew she would do the same were the roles reversed. So she felt the end for herself approaching, since Anna's anger would never end.

Erica was sprawled on the floor, like an animal exhausted. She was dimly aware of her surroundings, dimly aware of the pain. She was starting to go numb. It was tempting to give up, it really was. It wasn't just Anna's pain she was dealing with.

Numb is better than pain. I'm done with the pain.

Anna left her there, thinking her mother ship was more secure than ever. She walked toward the guarded door. Her tail whipped and her high heels clicked on the faux tile floors of her ship, and she stopped next to the guard as if to give him an order. She opened her mouth, then had a second thought. She glanced at Erica's body, curled and limp on the floor of her one-woman war room, and decided she needed no order to guard the prisoner. The prisoner was no flight risk. The prisoner was barely more than a sack of meat and bones.

That's all they are, all they ever were. Pathetic creatures.

So Anna left, taking the guard with her.

Anna had a problem with underestimating humans.

"Go. Go now."

Hobbes lifted his head from meditation at the sound of Joshua's voice. There was nothing else now but the mission. Hobbes heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing other than success. There was only him and Erica and the obstacles between them. And maybe Joshua's voice if he took a wrong turn.

"Left. Down the hallway. The door will open when you approach it, I've got eyes on the location."

"Good man." Hobbes muttered on the way. Clean in, clean out, no pauses or fuck-ups or changes in the plan. This was happening and it was happening now. They would leave together. They would escape.

No more Joshua. The door was opening and Hobbes didn't hesitate. Not until he saw her.

She was next to the windows. Her eyes were open but she wasn't really looking at anything. Just letting the light in, so she would know if they went out. Her lights.

Her body was sprawled on the floor, as if she'd been knocked out and thrown there and hadn't bothered moving since waking up. One hand rested lightly on her stomach, the other palm up on the floor. She showed no outward signs of pain. Just exhaustion and abuse.

Otherwise the room was empty. Completely empty, no furniture or anything. Just a white floor and Erica.

Erica stared up into the light and she felt tired. Her eyes began to slip closed when she heard the door opening. Her eyes opened, when she thought Anna was returning.

So soon? I'm almost done dying here, just give me another minute.

She was too tired to look. She let her eyes close again, and the door was shutting. A few seconds later she felt someone next to her, someone warm. Someone that wasn't Anna.

"Erica."

His voice was too familiar. She thought maybe she was dreaming. He'd disappeared and she'd been angry. How embarrassing for her to dream of this. She hoped the Visitors weren't watching.

Then she felt hands on her body. One brushed the hair from her forehead, the other touched her hand.

"Erica." he said again.

Too vivid.

With great effort Erica told her eyes to open. Merely summoning the command was difficult, the act even more so. Her will was almost gone, but this presence made her curious for one last look.

"Hey." said Hobbes, softly, as he watched Erica try. Just to try, that was enough to show she was still with him. "I'm getting you out of here." he said. "Can you move?"

Erica blinked and looked up at him. His face was too familiar. She'd seen it too closely before. They'd been so close.

"Can you move?" he asked again, not letting her off the hook. "Or do I have to move you?"

He wasn't going to ask again. There was no time. He just didn't know how badly she was hurt.

Erica blinked and breathed, and that was progress. Her lips parted, only slightly, and she studied his face. Wasn't he gone? Never coming back? Abandoned them? Deserter?

"Last chance." said Hobbes. "Walk or be carried."

"You came back." she said. The sound of her voice surprised him. It felt sudden, after thinking she might never speak to him again. It wasn't strong, but it wasn't as weak as it could be either. It sounded shockingly normal, considering where she was and what she looked like. Hobbes looked into Erica's eyes, relieved to see life there at all.

"Yeah, I did." he said.

Erica stared. He couldn't guess what she was feeling, or what she was thinking before she said it.

"And you shaved." said Erica. She blinked again. He'd lost count of how many times, like her eyes could count the moments they were together.

Hobbes moved his body into a position to pick her up off the floor. He lifted her upper body with his hands and set one arm beneath her back. Her head lolled. He moved carefully but with a steady confidence, knowing he'd paused too long already, as he cradled her upper body and slipped his other arm under her knees. He braced himself and picked her up in one smooth motion, holding her head against his shoulder and the rest of her body to his abdomen. Her long legs dangled from the knee down, swaying a bit as he moved toward the door.

"I like you better with a beard." she said, her voice cracking only because her throat was dry.

The door opened and he carried her out, leaving the same way he came in.

"The way is clear." said Joshua's voice in his ear, just to reassure him.

"I'm so tired." said Erica. Her voice was so soft. She let her forehead rest where Hobbes' shoulder met his chest. She couldn't feel her own weight, but she figured she was pretty out of it and that she shouldn't worry about such things, not when she was being saved. Being saved was a good thing, right?

Hobbes got them to the transport, and Joshua unlocked the controls from a remote location. For a medical officer he sure had some power. Before taking command of the vehicle, Hobbes dropped slowly to his knees and laid Erica out on the cold floor. She should have been used to it but the flat surface reminded her of the pain. Hobbes could see her face contort against her will - her will, which returned with greater strength the more she realized she was free of the torture - and he apologized immediately.

"It'll take us a few minutes to get to the surface." he said. He laid her flat on her back and placed her hands on her stomach so she could feel herself and comfort herself and know that her body was still there. "And after that we'll have to take a car."

Erica tried to look up at him but she was so, so tired. Hobbes brushed her hair from her face again. He didn't mean to but his hand caressed her face. Lovingly. And it helped.

"I'm gonna get you back to a big, comfy bed." he told her. "And you'll sleep for days."

Erica's eyes closed, not from exhaustion but from sudden emotion. She'd just realized she was safe again. That she was going to live.

"No one's gonna touch you." said Hobbes. He watched her swallow, and he knew they had to get out of there five minutes ago. "No one's gonna touch you." he said again, and he realized he was mesmerized by her face. He left her suddenly on the floor, and then he flew them home. It wasn't so tough. The flight was mostly automated. The Visitors were only as advanced as their own technology, just like the humans. They weren't so smart.

For three days Erica laid in a bed that was not her own, but it felt heavenly compared to where she'd been staying. Hobbes checked in on her now and then. It was Lisa who kept constant watch, bringing Erica food and water, laying with her while she slept and reporting to Hobbes with every new development no matter how small.

Hobbes peeked into the bedroom on the third day, to find Erica fast asleep with Lisa watching her. Erica was on her back, head tipped to the side, deep into a dream she wouldn't remember upon waking. Lisa was curled up on her side, knees bent, head resting on her arm, eyes wide open and gazing at the near-fallen leader of the Fifth Column movement. She breathed in time with Erica and if she noticed Hobbes at the door, she didn't reveal it until minutes later. Lisa turned her head to look at him, and her expression remained neutral. Then Lisa sat up, and she did it slowly so as not to disturb Erica's sleep.

"She was asking for you." said Lisa, her voice hushed.

Hobbes stared at her with a hard to read expression. He looked upset. Insulted even, perhaps on Erica's behalf.

"I think you should lay with her." Lisa suggested softly.

"You think I should lay with her." Hobbes repeated, as if he didn't believe it.

Lisa nodded. "She wants the company. She needs to know we're here. She told me that."

Hobbes hesitated in the doorway, choking on his emotional reaction.

"There aren't many of us left." said Lisa. Us, she said. Lisa counted herself as one of the filthy humans now, the miserable souls who knew what the Visitors were there for and weren't happy to let it happen.

"Nobody knows she's alive," said Lisa, whispering now. "Except the two of us, and Joshua." Lisa's expression became less submissive, more stern. "She needs to know you're here."

A little Erica in training. thought Hobbes. Alright, then. If she needs it.

He stepped inside and shrugged his jacket off. Erica stirred, and he slowed, hesitating before he set his jacket down on the arm chair next to the bed. Erica turned onto her side, turning her back to Hobbes and giving him the perfect opportunity to spoon her. Lisa laid back down, and rested her gaze on Erica's face again. Just watching her.

Hobbes left his shoes on the floor and laid down on the bed behind Erica. He'd been here before. Not with Lisa in the bed, but this was different anyway. Erica was their patient, a ward for a princess and a mercenary. Hobbes put his arm over her waist and waited for her to shrug him off. She didn't. She laid there, not limp and lifeless like she'd been in Anna's white room, but comfortable and sleeping, resting instead of just surviving. Hobbes pulled his arm tighter around her, pulling himself closer to her body, and he pressed his face into her hair. She'd bathed, or had been bathed by Lisa. She smelled so good. She smelled clean.

Erica's arm moved to hold his, and she snuggled into him. Either she was sleepily aware of what was happening or it was a reflex, a subconscious reaction based on her intense desire for comfort. Hobbes didn't mind either way, as long as she was comforted.

Eventually, Lisa left the room. She slipped away. Hobbes felt the bed move but he didn't dare move his head to look. His eyes were closed, he could feel her breathing, and he was getting sleepy too.

Maybe when Erica woke up she would remember to hate him.

Or maybe not.

He'd hold her while he had the chance.