Title: Enclosed Places / Exposed Spaces

Author: Luna

Rating: R/NC-17

Ship: Sydney/Sark

Timeline: Set before Phase 1.

Distribution: SD-1, Cover Me, Surrender: Syd and Sark, FF.net

A/N: This is for the Cover Me June/July Challenge. The first story is told from Sark's POV, and the second from Sydney's. Just a warning, it's a little dark.

Any and all comments are greatly appreciated!

I just want to give a huge thank you to Amy (alud) for betaing this for me in record time! Thank you so much!

A/N2:  For Sypgal44: I have read Atlas Shrugged. It's one of my favorite books. In fact, there are parts in this story, The Contradiction and The Flag that are tributes to it. J

Enclosed Places

Day 0 - Darkness

Darkness. Complete and utter darkness. That's the first thing I notice, anyway.  But the realization that my head and shoulders ache horribly, follows soon after. I try to open my eyes, to see if that will solve part of my problems, but that in fact doubles them.

It turns out that my eyes are already open.

I move onto my next problem; the ache in my shoulders. It takes me a moment to catalogue the location of all my limbs and the position of my body without any visual cues, but after a time, I manage to do so. At least it answers the question as to why my shoulders are screaming at me. It turns out that I am sitting on the floor and my hands are secured behind me. Judging by the chafing and soreness in my wrists, I can only assume that I am handcuffed.

Which brings me to my aching head.

I've been captured.

No, wait a minute…

…we've been captured.

I hear a small moan somewhere to my right, but there is a slight echo so it is difficult for me to tell if the moan is small because she's far away or because she's in the same condition as I am in.

She moans again and I hear some shuffling. She must be only a few feet away. I hear a sharp intake of breath as she makes the final move into consciousness and her movements increase slightly.

"Sydney--" I try to speak but my throat is so dry that I'm sure I sounded unintelligible.

"What--?" she responds with the same dry voice, confirming that she is not very far and likely in the same shape that I am in.

She tries again. "Where am I?"

I fill her in on what I know so far. "We've been captured Sydney."

I hear her groan slightly and lie back down.