Title: Prisoners of War
Summary: A lazy smirk graced his face, yet he was still one hundred percent serious. "You're in my territory now, and you follow my rules. Jerry has no way of finding you, and I have no intention of letting him. Understand? Good."
Rating: T
Pairing: Scam/Sam
DEDICATED: To Cresenta's Lark because she's helped me with everything always! I haven't been able to write much because I've been so busy (in a bad way), and she's always been there cheering me on whenever I write and helping me get inspired and being my friend (even if sometimes I don't do the same for her :( ), so this is for you! Thank you for everything : )


She could feel her hair matted with what she thought was her blood, lying limply against her forehead and cheeks, covering half her face. She could feel a pain on her left side, and remembered how a few hours ago she had tried to bend her fingers and found that she couldn't do it.

The searing pain had numbed over time, but maybe that was just her mind, trying to adapt to this new environment. She almost snorted with disbelief; it was only a matter of time before she died, and it wouldn't be because of some bullet lodged in her heart, or a knife wound twisted inside her gut. No, it would probably be from an infection. A bacteria, eating away her insides and soiling her own body because nobody bothered to clean her wounds.

Her body had probably tried to repatch the ligaments in her fingers, and if someone did manage to find her in this place (they had to, they just had to, even though she knew it had been a few days and no one was coming) she would have to break her hand again so it could set properly this time. Maybe that's why they did this to her, so that she'd have to hurt herself again just to get better. Oh the irony.

Terrance was a fan of dramatics.

Sam took a breath through her chapped bloody lips, feeling the cold damp air of this cell enter her lungs. She didn't know where she was, but they had kept her in some dungeon. And here she thought Terrance would have had more fun putting her in an tiny electric-barred cage so that even if she stretched her legs, she'd get electrocuted. Oh well. She wasn't about to give him that idea. The asshole would probably do it and take the credit for himself.

She closed her eyes again, and willed herself to sleep. That way, even if she was in pain, there was a small chance she wouldn't feel it.

-o-

When she came to, someone was dragging her out of the cell along the gritty pavement, with her legs in the air; someone's hands around her ankles. She didn't even have the energy to push them off.

"Get her wounds treated you imbeciles. There's no point in having her as a bargaining chip if she's dead."

She knew that voice, along with that cynical sarcastic tone. She wasn't sure who was worse, him or Terrance. Well, at least he was going to treat her, which is more than what Terrance did, and even though she was hot headed and stubborn, she knew better than to resist treatment just to prove a point. No, she needed to get out of here, and to do that she needed to be treated.

She kept her eyes half open and left her body limp, feeling how the lackey (from what she could hear) kept holding onto her legs, but this time another one picked her up by her underarms and the two of them carried her to whatever destination they had in mind.

She could make out a corner, a sign that read... ard... c bin

The letters were faded. Obviously. Well at least it was a good point to remember the layout—

A hand had grabbed her hair in a fist and pulled on it, hard enough to make her chin tilt up and teeth clench and her eyes flash open. She had stopped moving. His mouth was near her ear.

"There's no point in trying to remember how to navigate your way out of here", he hissed, and Sam almost groaned. "You're not getting out any time soon. Mark my words."

And with that he released her letting her head jerk back to its original position. Why did she bother to keep long hair again?

She licked her lips fruitlessly and a few moments later they had reached a steel door. Sam pretended to be looking up and noted the numbers: 2 5 9 2 3—

He pulled her hair roughly again and this time she couldn't keep the groan inside. "What did I tell you? Keep your eyes where they belong unless you'd like for me to sew them shut." She turned her head in his direction and glared at him. He glared right back before she heard the beep of the door sliding open, and in seconds they threw her in, leaving her body to hit the ground unfavorably. She bit her tongue to keep the scream from coming out; she had landed on her broken left hand and on her rather large knife wound on her leg.

The remaining light from the hallway disappeared as she heard the door sliding shut. For a second she thought they left her alone again and she tried to get off her injured side when she heard the footsteps first, and felt his hand on the back of her collar second. He pulled her up quickly and turned her around to face him before pushing her into a nearby wall, his hand digging into her bad shoulder. This time she couldn't keep the scream from coming out.

"Oops", he said mockingly. Sam blinked back the tears before looking into the face of Tim Scam again, glaring at him with all her might despite the fact that her dislocated right shoulder was aching and burning in pain and why wouldn't he let go?

She unconsciously gulped at the impassive way he was staring at her, scanning her body for injuries and while he did that Sam took a quick look of her surroundings and found a small bed and a dresser, with a mirror on the other side of the wall. The room was tiny.

A scowl marred his face and he grabbed her jaw and directed her face straight towards him, and Sam clenched her teeth again because her jaw (and her left temple) were covered in purple bruises and Scam just had a nasty habit of touching all the places she was injured. Maybe he had an eye for those things, since he wasn't even there when they tortured her.

"Eyes on me", he growled out, "Or do you have a hard time understanding the concept?"

"Why? Always want me to have my eyes on you?" she said with a small laugh, before the painful coughing returned. Damn that punch to her chest. "Didn't know you felt that way Scam. I'm flattered."

He rolled his eyes, "Injured beyond belief and still making jokes? Well I'd say I'm proud, really, but I don't support stupidity."

She scowled about to say something when his hand on her right shoulder grabbed the area and roughly and quickly and dammit painfully pushed the bone back into place and she screamed loud enough to mask the sound of the bone popping back into its rightful place; she didn't have time to even be surprised before he grabbed her neck and slammed her against the wall again.

A lazy smirk graced his face, yet he was still one hundred percent serious. "You're in my territory now, and you follow my rules. Jerry has no way of finding you, and I have no intention of letting him. Understand? Good."

He let her fall to the floor and left the room. Sam followed him as long as she could before her eyes draped shut again, not registering the sound of the doctor coming inside to help her.

-o-

When she woke up again, a dim light hit her eyes but it wasn't enough to blind her; heck she couldn't even see half the room! She leaned her head back against the... pillow? (Scam gave her a pillow? How sweet. Ooooh, maybe it had a bomb inside that would detonate the nanosecond she picked her head up. Wouldn't that be swell.) She felt her right arm and left hand stuck and unmovable; she took a few minutes to let her eyes re-adjust to see that she had a cast on both areas. She could see far enough down her body to realize there was some white covering her left leg; ah. A bandage.

A minute later she could feel the heavy weight of something on her temple; another bandage maybe? She was bleeding before, probably because someone hit a crowbar against her head. Good times.

She wondered when she had turned so cynical. Well, maybe it was when she was freakin' tortured for information on WOOHP, (a waste of both their time, really. Like did they not know who she was and how loyal she was to WOOHP?), but this time LAMOS didn't go easy on her. They never did this before; usually they stuck her in some holding cell with electric handcuffs and her only torture would be hearing their bad puns. But now they went hard on her, breaking her fingers one by one, dislocating her shoulder, punching her over and over again in the stomach and chest and face, and no one from WOOHP came yet. Useless. Oh, and Terrance was there in the flesh laughing at her screams. Fucker. A small part of her brain hoped that she lost her morals by the end of this trip and stabbed Terrance in the eye with the same knife he twisted into her leg; that would teach him.

But no. She was Sam. She was the Queen of Morals, and so she had a sick sense of duty to uphold them. She outwardly scowled.

Scam came in with a new set of bandages. Oh would he be changing her bandages? Fantastic. More bonding time.

"Well you're lucky", he said with a lack of sincerity in his voice. "Your doctor got killed for asking stupid questions after she treated you. Congratulations. Your luck is astounding, though I can't say the same for me because now I'm stuck taking care of you", he said bitterly.

Sam's eyes widened when she heard the news. "W-what?" Killed? Doctor? Wait what?

(Did this mean Scam didn't treat her wounds before? Thank God. At least now she wouldn't have to worry about her body having some secret chip inside.)

Wait. Back to the point. Murdered? LAMOS murdered people?

"... You guys, you're not murderers", Sam said weakly, her eyes widening with the concept. LAMOS never killed people; well besides her, Clover and Alex. Kind of. And Jerry. And maybe half of WOOHP. Or they tried to kill people but she and her friends were able to stop them. Right. There we go. (Stupid crowbar; now she had to wait for half her thoughts to come catch the thoughts that were lightyears ahead of the other ones.)

He gave her a look, (Okay, so maybe Scam was a murderer, she wasn't sure to be honest but by the look he was giving her she would bet her entire tuition money on the fact that he was one, but that wasn't her point. Really.) before snorting, "Pretending I'm a good guy so I can fulfill the qualities of your perfect man?"

Asshole. Using her feelings against her like that. She was over him by the way.

Sam rolled her eyes, "You're not funny."

"Actually, I think I'm hilarious. It hurts that you don't feel the same way, really."

Scam almost ripped the bandages off her legs and Sam was thankful that Scam didn't go into the medical field; he didn't have the sincerity or patience or understanding of how you shouldn't be rough with a patient because dammit that hurt Scam, to be a doctor or nurse.

Oh wait. He was her personal nurse now it seemed. Doubly fantastic.

She watched him drop the bloody bandages in the garbage can before wrapping the new bandage around her thigh. She was going to lift her head up but then the thought about the bomb inside her pillow came fleeting back and Sam wanted to hit herself for being so stupid. He wouldn't put a bomb in there... Right?

Of course right.

... Stupid crowbar. She was going to slap that person in the face. With a chair.

"Scam?" she found herself calling out while he was opening the door to leave. "You didn't... put a bomb under my pillow did you?"

Oh wow the question sounded even more stupid when it was said out loud.

His face was impassive first before a chuckle escaped his lips. "Either you're extremely paranoid because of me to think I'd put a bomb under your pillow, which is a success in my book to be honest, or that's code for you want a softer pillow. The answer is no to both questions. Now shut up." And then he slammed the door on her.

Asshole. Maybe she should slap his face with a chair instead. Would serve him right. Hmph.

She was going to need anger management after this. And maybe some therapy. She sounded more sadistic and homicidal then Scam on a good day; this was an issue.

-o-

There were 56 ceiling tiles and 14 half ceiling tiles. She was also bored beyond belief and she was beginning to get scared how sadistic she was sounding. At the moment, she had listed 23 different ways to torture Terrance as payback, 12 different ways of putting Scam in his place, and 45 different ways she was going to scream at WOOHP when (if?) they rescued her. Seriously. They were a top secret spy agency and the best of the best. And they couldn't even find her? It's been ... eight days at least. (As depressing as the thought was, she pushed it aside to let anger take its place. Anger was easier and less painful to feel right now honestly.)

What, did they think the only torture she was being subdued to was Terrance and Boogie Gus shouting out their plans to the world? Idiots. She was losing respect for them. If she got out of here, (it scared her how she used to think when she was getting out of here and not if, as if it had a chance of not happening), she was going to demand a full apology, and make WOOHP pay for her vacationing for a year. Oh, and maybe quit if her stupid hand wouldn't stop bothering her with its stupid aches and pains. Dammit.

Scam came back and for some reason she was relieved. Well, at least she wouldn't have to be bored.

"When am I getting out of here?" she asked him the second he entered the room. He raised an eyebrow in response.

"Was that a joke? And you say I'm not funny?"

"I wasn't joking!" she said indignantly with a huff, before lying her face back on the pillow and ignoring the pounding in her head. And the searing hot acid-like burning in her shoulder. And her hand. And her thigh. And she tried to ignore the soreness in her stomach.

He had come to change her bandages again it seemed. Heh, if he kept this up she'd start thinking he cared about her. She snorted and pushed the thought away from her mind. She was obviously delirious. If she could remember correctly Scam wanted her injuries taken care of so that she didn't die of some stupid mere infection, so that she could be used as a bargaining chip.

She started talking again when he was in the middle of changing her bandages. "You're smart", she told him as if observing this about him for the first time. "Can't you get me some morphine? Or make me some? Put that brain to good use."

Okay she was prodding him because she was bored, and well, Scam was fun to poke fun of. When he wasn't thinking of killing her or breaking her leg in battle before throwing her down to the ground and hope she died on impact. Oh, and she was bored. That was the important part.

"I don't recall you talking this much before", he said in a bored tone before taking something out of a small suitcase. It was a long clear syringe. "But I was kind enough to take some for you before I left." She rolled her eyes. More like he was sick of her talking to him and hope she fell asleep and stayed that way. Asshole.

"... How do I know that's morphine?" she asked almost hesitantly. She knew she was having homicidal thoughts and all, but it didn't mean she was having suicidal thoughts. She was just waiting out this pain in hopes of getting well enough to walk out the door without wobbling like an idiot.

He smirked, "You don't." Asshole.

He continued to speak. The urge to throw a boulder at his stupid smirking face was tempting. Too bad she didn't have a boulder. "Think of it as a different version of Russian Roulette. If I inject you and you're alive, it's only morphine. If I inject you and you die, then game over and I'll be free of your incessant questions. Happy now?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "You could have just said it was morphine and be done with it." Drama queen. Though she didn't think she was well enough to say that to him and get out alive.

He ignored her and injected the morphine into her body, and apparently it was a more powerful dose because she fell asleep instantly."

-o-

The next time she woke up, she had ice packs on her face and shoulder and hands. Scam was already in the room.

It took her some time to compose her next question for him. She wanted to dance in glee at how annoyed he would be with her.

"So... why are you helping me?"

He ignored her the first time she asked, so she asked again, to which he ignored her again. The third time she asked, she had picked up her right leg and bent it so that she could kick him in the shoulder.

He wasn't pleased. She couldn't find it in herself to care.

"And don't give me that bargaining chip crap; you cleaned my wounds and treated me... yet you're going above and beyond what you have to..." she said, her voice dying in the end. Dammit, and she had sounded so strong in the beginning too.

Well she was confused. Lying here and being in pain and eating their crappy food, (she figured if they really wanted to poison her and kill her off, Scam wouldn't be here treating her injuries), and she still couldn't come up with a reason as to why he would be doing this.

Scam rolled his eyes but gave her an answer, "You're no good to me dead."

Oh. Well that made sense. Kind of.

"And Terrance and the rest of the LAMOS don't mind you doing this?" she asked incredulously. She had a hard time believing that the man who had laughed at her screams of torture was sitting back and just letting Scam fix her up.

He raised an eyebrow, "Missing Terrance's lovely company? And here I thought you were always happy to see me." Sam scowled. The sarcasm would be less obvious if he painted a sign on his forehead saying he being sarcastic. Annoying.

"Now unless you want me to bring in Terrance to let him break a few more bones and maybe tear an organ or two, shut up."

And then he left.

It took Sam a few seconds to realize that he never answered her questions.

Forget the chair and the boulder. Those were too easy to throw at him. She wanted to throw her imaginary bomb at his STUPID HEAD. That asshole.

-o-

A lot of time had passed with Scam occasaionally coming in and they swapped retorts, before he changed his bandages and left. She had once gotten him to tell her that its been a week and four days already.

Eventually the anger died out and hot tears rolled down her cheeks. It didn't seem like WOOHP was coming back for her.

-o-

She fiddled with a long screw that she found lying in the corner behind the bed. She had stretched down to reach it for a few days to get it, and it killed her stomach to have to move so much, but she did it. It was worth it.

She looked at the black object with a slight smile. This was good. It could help her. Somehow.

She looked around the room. The pain medication was still in her system it seemed, because she was numb and not in blinding pain for once. Well, at least she could count on Scam for that, as odd as it seemed. The thought didn't rest easy in her mind so she pushed it away.

Sam looked around the room for anything she could toy with in the future, and was disappointed to see that the door was sealed shut and had a coded lock on it. 2 5 9 2 3. There were five more beeps she heard that day before Scam rudely pulled her away from it, Maybe the next time she came, she could feel which numbers had heat on it once he left. It was a longshot, but it wasn't like she had any other plans.

-o-

Apparently she had fallen asleep before Scam came in (dammit) because when she had woken up, her bandages seemed fresh and there was a new pack of ice sitting on her shoulder and hand. Darn. She would have to wait for him to come again to move with her plan.

She looked up and shifted into a more comfortable position before counting the ceiling tiles out of boredom. 94 ceiling tiles and 24... half... tiles...

Her eyes shot open and she looked around the room; it didn't look any different from the other room she was in, but the layout and furniture (or lack of) stayed the same. She started panicking. No, of all the times she could have fallen asleep! Her heart started beating faster and faster and she pushed the ice pack off her leg to stand up off the bed but her leg collapsed on her when it touched the floor. With a groan she pushed herself off with her right hand, trying not to injure her shoulder with the pressure.

"Your bed might be uncomfortable, but I doubt the floor's any better."

She grimaced. She was losing her hearing; she didnt' even suspect that he came in. Looking up, she sent him a glare. "Did you change my room?"

He raised an eyebrow before picking her up and throwing her back onto the bed. "And it matters because...?"

"..."

"You couldn't figure out the code to that room anyways. I changed it the day you moved in." ... Asshole. She was beginning to hate him even more.

Sam looked around the room and down at the corner of the bed that was against the wall, and under her pillow. Shit. That nail she had was gone. When she glanced up, Scam was looking at her as if he knew what she was thinking. Whatever. She would get out even if WOOHP didn't want to help her.

"You want to try?", he said teasingly. "Go ahead." He stepped aside to let the coded lock come into her line of sight. She gave him a wary look.

"You think I can't break it."

He actually shook his head, "No... I think out of everyone, you could do it." He kept staring at her with his hands in his pockets and that look on his face. The thought processed in her head.

"Even if I break it and get out..." she hypothesized, watching him carefully for any reaction, "I'm still stuck here." He almost smiled.

"Have fun", he said, dropping something on her lap before leaving the room and locking it behind him. Sam looked down.

It was the black nail she had found before.

-o-

She thinks she cracked part of the code, but she can't be sure. She actually has no real hope to get out of here that fast; it would be too quick. Too unrealistic. At least it makes the time pass by.

The next time she sees Scam, she asks him how long she's been here. He tells her it's been three weeks. Three. Fucking. Weeks.

Why hasn't WOOHP come for her? Can they not find her? How hard can it be to find LAMOS's headquarters?

Her heart felt like it dropped a little bit lower. She closed her eyes and let the tears fall.

-o-

"Where am I?"

He gave her a cool look before pulling out the stiches out. She had managed to cut herself on the corner of the bed a few days ago while trying to find an escape route. She brought it on herself to be honest. It was a stupid move, but she was getting desperate.

"In a room. Obviously."

She scowled.

"Why hasn't WOOHP come to rescue me yet?" Okay she didn't mean to make her voice sound that shrill and desperate because really, letting Scam know she was desperate was not on her list of things to do today, but she couldn't help it. The burning curiosity, the dying wonder, of why she was still here when she should have been rescued weeks ago... it was killing her.

He rolled his eyes, "Because they're incompetent?" She slapped his arm with her good hand.

Scam threw the blue stitches away. "If I tell you, will you shut up?"

"Oh you love my questions", she said with a small smirk to tease him.

He rolled his eyes again, "Of course. That's obviously why I keep telling you to shut up. Makes sense really."

"How is it that you complain that I ask too many questions when your sarcasm knows no bounds?"

"And why am I sarcastic? Oh right. Because you ask too many questions. Notice how that pattern works."

She opened her mouth to retort before she realized what he was doing. "Hey! Don't change the subject! Why hasn't WOOHP found me yet? And don't you dare say you don't know", she warned him, stopping him before he spoke, "I know you know."

Crossing his arms, he rolled his eyes again. "It's because they can't find you. Is that concept so hard for you to grasp?"

She ignored the jab and bit her lip, "Why can't they find me?"

He snorted, "Do I really have to dignify that with an answer? They can't find you because they suck at finding you. Why can't it be that simple for you?" She glared at him. Bastard. As if she didn't know what he was doing. Trying to insult her and WOOHP to get her mind off the fact that she wanted to know why they couldn't find her. She knew she was at LAMOS headquarters; WOOHP knew she was at LAMOS headquarters; SCAM knew she was at LAMOS headquarters; so why couldn't they find her?Where exactly was she?

He didn't give her a chance to voice her thoughts, because he left the room. Sam sighed. Well, back to trying to get out of here. She made her way to the door, slowly but surely.

-o-

He came in and took the cast off her hand. Nothing else was said and she didn't have the energy to ask him anything. Oh, also he inserted one of his lovely comments. She was too busy wallowing in self pity to care. Then he left and she was still wallowing in pity and depression.

How could WOOHP leave her here? Why weren't they looking for her? Why couldn't they find her?

Her eyes burned and the tears fell and she didn't have the energy to wipe them away. Who cares. No one was looking at her and Scam wasn't here and if she wanted to cry, she would. She deserved to have that at least.

It had been six weeks since she was captured by Terrance. Six weeks since she was tortured and laughed at for being in pain. Six weeks after she had still told that motherfucker nothing about WOOHP and she was still waiting for Clover and Alex and Jerry and the fucking calvary to come save her. And they didn't. They didn't come.

And she didn't know why. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know why anymore, because it was starting to feel like Scam was the only one who cared if she was alive.

-o-

The door slammed open and when Sam looked up her jaw dropped.

It was Terrance who had stormed into the room and Sam's eyes widened when she saw him; after a few ... months of not seeing him she was surprised to see him here.

"There you are you little shit", he said through gritted teeth, a gun held tightly in his left hand while he glared at her murderously. "Do you know how long I've been looking for you? Imagine my surprise when you're in Tim Scam's "secret" private sector where noone can get the Goddamn authority to enter. I should have known he would have planned something like this; kidnap you from your cell and hide you here."

Sam could practically see him foaming at the mouth and squirmed, trying to get her good hand out even though she didn't have any weapons and she was still healing. Shit. Shit. Shit.

He continued to speak with his taunts, his anger boiling through him. "When I find him I'm going to killhim for doing this! He thinks he can take away my bait does he? Well I'll show him that he was WRONG to betray me!"

A lot of her was confused but kept quiet, letting Terrance talk to himself and reveal what was going on. It wasn't like Scam was interested in story telling time.

"And those STUPID GUARDS!" he screamed out, kicking a nearby chair into the wall and smashing it to pieces, even though it didn't relieve his anger. "I tell them to do something plain and simple; stay in front of your cell and make sure you don't get out, and no one but me gets in. But noooooo", he mocked, his eyes burning with rage as he glared at Sam, "Those IDIOTS couldn't get the memo that Tim is OUT of LAMOS! That he has NO AUTHORITY to be here, yet he WALTZES in with his stupid charming face and expects to get what he WANTS? Well NO! I won't STAND for it!" he screamed out, breathing heavily.

"And you, you stupid bitch", he said, pointing the gun straight at her. Sam felt her pulse stop. "Of ALL the times you choose NOT to escape, you choose NOW? If you had escaped, I could have FOUND you and continued with my plans of my war against WOOHP. But no. You decide to STAY here and LIVE IT UP while I'm stuck LOOKING for you. Well you'll pay dearly for that mistake", he said with an evil growing grin. "Tim likes to play nurse does he? Well let's see how good he is with bullet wounds."

He cocked the gun and aimed at her and Sam was ready to push herself off the bed and onto the floor in an attempt to duck, but she didn't have to.

She heard his gurgling before she saw him fall.

His blood had pooled at the floor and his body and fell with a thump. Sam's jaw dropped before she looked up at his attacker.

Scam was standing there calmly, wiping the blood off his knife with a small towel. As if he didn't just kill someone in cold blood and their body wasn't jumbled on the floor. She looked away.

-o-

Scam moved her to a different room after that. Sam was still trying to get over the shock.

"I don't... I don't get it. If you quit LAMOS", she asked with a small whisper, "Does that mean... you're on my side?" That felt like a stupid question and if she wasn't so eager to get out she would have slapped herself silly for asking it. "Are you going to let me go?" she asked with a small hint of the hope that had died out months ago.

Maybe that was an even stupider question, judging by the cold look on his face. She ignored the thought.

His face was as still as stone when he answered her. "I'm on my own side. And as my prisoner, you have no chance of escaping."

He took out a syringe with blue liquid and injected it inside her before she could even think about protesting.

And then he left.

And she wasn't even sure what to think anymore.

-o-

She had gotten into the habit of counting seconds and minutes and hours. She was glad her brain had started to catch up to her once more because she could keep store of how many hours had passed without forgetting.

12 hours, 14 minutes, 56 seconds, 57 seconds, 58 seconds.

Scam should have visited her by now.

12 hours, 15 minutes, 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds.

Usually he would come to give her food at least. She wasn't sure why he was so... nice was a really bad word to describe it to be honest. Maybe helpful. She didn't get it. He wasn't obligated to help her. Her wounds were healing on their own now; she didn't have to be that drugged anymore so she could eat by herself without injuring herself even more. And she had been here for almost two months, and he kept visiting her. When he didn't have to. It didn't make sense.

Her eyes felt droopy again. She figured it had to do with that blue stuff he gave her. It seemed to last a long time. Was that why he wasn't coming? Because he knew she'd be pain free? Well great. For a smart guy, he sure forgot the fact that he needed to eat.

Maybe she was being picky. She went almost a week without eating. Terrance wasn't as... helpful, as Scam was.

Maybe nice was a good word for it. But then she thought of how he had slit Terrance's throat without even blinking and took that thought back. Then again, she thought she was a nice person, and she had been dreaming and smiling at the thought of Terrance's eyes being poked with her high heeled boots, and took the thought back. Whatever. She didn't even know what to call him anymore. He was just Scam.

A small part of her was happy that Terrance was out of comission for good. Maybe she was thinking like a sociopath, but honestly. Terrance wasn't human; not even animals took sick pleasure at the way her bones snapped in two and gleamed at the way the blood poured out of her body like a fountain. She didn't know when he had become so... cruel, so sadistic, but she couldn't say she was sad that he was dead.

Sam sighed. Maybe this room was starting to make her crazy. Maybe it was such close proximity to Scam all the time; she didn't know. She was just tired.

After two more hours of falling asleep and waking up, she figured that the thought of killing or torturing Terrance wasn't too bad of a thought, considering he was a psychotic maniac who laughed at hurting people. Asshole deserved it.

Maybe she should get help if she ever got out of here. She didn't think this was normal. Right now, she couldn't find it in herself to really care about it.

-o-

"They think you've gone underground."

31 hours, 26 minutes. She forgot to keep count of the seconds. She was tired.

She looked up at the sound of his voice, blinking slowly when she heard him. He hadn't visited her for a few days, (it might have only been two or three days but her stomach was loudly protesting that) and she was hungry. Not that she would tell him that. She'd die first. Obviously. Okay maybe not.

In her haziness (she wasn't sure what he drugged her with this time two (three?) days ago; it a blue liquid and it made her pain go away in a second so she didn't complain), she realized that he was walking with a limp. His hand was pressed against his leg, a little to the left above his knee.

"What?" she asked hoarsely after not talking for a few days. Being alone for that many hours made her realize how much she liked having someone to talk to besides that voice in her head that was growing louder and louder.

"They", he said slowly with narrowed eyes, "As in WOOHP, think you've gone underground. You know, hiding."

She blinked. "... Why?"

He shrugged, before pulling up a chair and sitting on it. If she wasn't so in tune with the emotions played on his face, she would have missed the slight grimace as he sat down. He favored his right leg. "Because I told them so."

Sam opened her mouth to ask why again, when she realized how dumb that would sound. She was sure she gave Scam enough stupid questions to begin with. She had a brain; it was about time she stopped letting narcotics and some sadistic thoughts in her head get in the way of that.

He told them that so that they wouldn't look for her. Okay. That made sense. It was cruel and horrible and she wanted to punch him for keeping her here, but on the bright side, he was stopping her from feeling too much pain. By drugging her constantly. Okay that didn't sound as good as she was hoping it would.

She looked back at his leg. Squinting, she saw that the black pants he wore were... wet. A drop fell to the grey floor and it was red.

She glanced back up at him. He was staring at her impassively again. What else was new. He was bleeding and didn't even seem to give a fuck, and she was stuck here doing nothing about it.

Be selfish, or help him. Hm. She would think about it. He had left her hungry; give him a few more moments to suffer.

(Okay; there was something wrong with her.)

She ignored the nagging in her head that told her to help him. Or tried to.

"So they've been looking for me?" she asked hesitantly, using her left elbow to lift herself off the bed. She was getting some strength back in the left hand; she had been doing whatever hand excercises she could think of to try to get her range of motion back. A few weeks of that was doing her some good at least. Her shoulder was out of its cast too. She could help him. If she squinted, she could see that he actually looked like he was in a lot of pain. The nagging telltale sign of guilt pulled at her heartstrings.

Of course he didn't show it. Men and their dumb pride.

He sighed before nodding.

"Why haven't they found me here though? They looked didn't they?" Okay she would help him, really she would, so her conscious should shut the fuck up and let her quell her quench for knowledge. She was already getting up and reaching for the first aid kit under the bed. He pretended to not see what she was doing.

He inhaled deeply before telling her, "This part of the headquarters is not in the blueprints. I built it without anyone else knowing. You can't find it unless I give authority."

"... Then how did Terrance find it?" her voice was shakier than she wanted it to be. Considering the murderous look on his face, she had a feeling Terrance either tricked him or forced him into revealing it. The fact that he could do that to someone like Scam made her a little more glad that he was dead.

He didn't answer her. Sam didn't really expect an answer. They didn't really talk about why he killed Terrance. She ignored the tiny possibility that he killed him for her. That would be stupid and impossible. There could be other reasons. Like... like he was on his own side. He fought for himself (and her too apparently, wait no, that was wrong.) Or that Terrance betrayed him. Wait, according to Terrance, Scam betrayed him. Okay she was confused. He got rid of an enemy. The end. Nothing more, nothing less.

She sat down at his feet and forced him to pull up the pant leg; she bit her lip when she saw the circular wound. No wonder he was pressing against it before. Looking back up at his face she saw that stony impassive look, pretending like he wasn't hurt. Men and their dumb pride.

She gulped when she saw the bloody bullet hole; with shaky hands she picked out the tweezers; she could figure out what had happened.

"You're an idiot", she whispered softly to herself, before looking inside the wound and trying to get the bullet out. "You should go to the hospital."

He snorted. "Yes I'm sure I would be so welcome there. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll bring me complimentary flowers." She looked up and saw him clench his teeth when she pulled the bullet out. It didn't look like it hit any bones. Well it better have not, for his sake.

Rolling her eyes at his cynicism, she took out the antiseptic and wiped down his wound to try to clean it before it got infected. He probably already got it infected because of his stubbornness. She should leave him here and... and she couldn't do that to him. Not now. Not after everything he did for her.

She started to sew up the wound. She glanced up at him and noticed how haggard his face looked. How worn out. He had been fighting for a while it seemed. Maybe the bullet wound was the wake up call he needed to remember that she was still here. That she could...

Help him? She would have pushed away the thought except she was doing just that. She was helping him. She wasn't sure why. Probably because she felt bad. Oh and he helped her, for reasons beyond her understanding. Scam never told her why he was doing what he was doing, and she didn't think he ever would. The most out of his mouth were his charming, sarcastic comments. Those were wonderful. Really.

She stitched up the wound and wiped the blood off before wrapping the guaze around his leg. He didn't say anything. She started to wipe the blood off his hands and ignored the bloody gun that was dropped at the doorway. The image of someone shooting him and him falling and shooting back whoever shot him felt terrifying, because he was Scam. It just didn't feel right. Him getting hurt. Yet here he was.

In the midst of her worrying, (she wondered when that happened; her worrying? About Scam? Okay; she was just going to chalk it up to the fact that she was losing her mind and just leave it at that. Seemed easier.), she noticed that the silence between them wasn't awkward. It was kind of... coughcomfortablecough, her patching him up when he needed her, and it didn't even feel weird because, well, he did it for her, for whatever reason. She wasn't going to pretend she understood him. Maybe he knew he would need her too, and that she wouldn't just leave him hurting like this because she was a good person. But she wasn't sure if she qualified as an innocent good spy anymore, not when she had thoughts (and maybe some plans) about releasing a hungry tiger into a cage with Terrance and do nothing to help him.

Maybe she was helping Scam now because... she wanted to.

That didn't change the fact that she was locked in this room, with one way out and she wasn't done figuring out the code yet, and it still bothered her as to why Scam treated her so well when he could have just hung her upside from the ceiling and threw knives at her swinging body, or tortured her for information, or left her to be tortured by Terrance. Wouldn't that have been easier?

And it didn't explain why he had quit LAMOS. Because he was on his own side he said. But what side was that?

He didn't torture her. He let her heal. Dammit he even helped her heal. Sometimes it really honestly just felt like he... wanted her here. Which, didn't make much sense but it was the only thing she could think of. Well that, and the possibility of him keeping her here so that WOOHP didn't have her as one of their own. He did say that he lied to WOOHP and let them go on a wild goose hunt for her.

So she was his prisoner. Okay. That part she knew already. But... why let her heal? Didn't that just increase her chances of escaping?

Why did it keep feeling like he cared, when the logical side of her said that he had no reason to care about her? It made no sense. He made no sense, and it didn't really seem like he had any intention of telling her anything. Ugh. Men.

"... When am I getting out of here?" she asked in a small whisper. She wasn't sure if she expected an answer for that question either.

He said nothing, just looking down at his wound before shaking that faraway look out of his eyes and actually looking at her for once.

"Your wounds look better. What's stopping you?" she could hear the mockery in his voice, yet it didn't seem like he was actually joking. ... That didn't make sense. Then again, neither did anything else.

She gave the door a look before looking back at him.

She picked the first thought that came to mind. "I... don't know the code?" It was a statement yet it sounded like a question. Well here was a good question for him; didn't he know that already? She squashed the thought in her mind that whispered something about her making excuses. Traitor. Couldn't even trust her own mind now.

A part of her was thinking about when it could have become an excuse. She didn't like lying here, healing and doing nothing. Though she supposed she would be doing the same thing if was in a hospital, but the only person who visited her was Scam. Which... didn't make sense. Because people who came to visit you in the hospital were the people who really cared. And Scam did that. Visited her, not cared, because the caring part didn't make sense. Oh, and he also took care of her wounds. Which he did NOT have to do, because, well, he was supposed to be the enemy. You don't nurse your enemies back to health unless you were the good guy. Last time she checked, Scam wasn't the good guy. Yet, he wasn't on LAMOS' side. He was on his own side.

She could feel herself getting a headache. She turned her attention back to Scam.

"You already figured out the first seven digits right?" he said. It was a question that sounded like a statement. She wondered how he knew. He seemed to know everything. "The last three are 4, 6 and 9. So, what's stopping you?" He had a hidden message somewhere in there; she just knew it. What was stopping her?

She paused in her wrapping and looked at him. Did he just...

The idea of him being a good guy, kind of, came back. Good guys let other good guys go. He was letting her go. Yet it didn't feel like he wanted to, but he was doing it because... she wanted to? Which didn't make sense. At all. Her head was offically hosting a party for elephants because her head was pounding nonstop.

She just stared at him. Why would he let her go? She was his prisoner and maybe he wanted WOOHP to fail without their best spy even though they wouldn't really fail; she was not that conceited. Maybe he wanted WOOHP's efforts to be focused on finding her, but Jerry wouldn't do that, not after two months of no contact. He'd keep a small team (probably Clover and Alex, and maybe Dean and Britney if he had other spies avaliable) to keep searching for her, and use his other spies to be a forced to reckon with. Scam used to be a spy; he would know that.

And Jerry would need those forces. Last time she had heard, WOOHP was on the verge of starting some "war" with LAMOS, with all the bad guys in general. And she heard this from Terrance, who, normally would not be a reliable source, but Terrance had a bad habit of sprouting out his plans when he felt really evil and thought he was winning. That's why she was captured.

That's why she was tortured.

The idea she was toying with before, of him keeping her here because he wanted to, came back. Well. He did want to keep her here. At least he did. She wasn't sure why he was letting her go now, and she wasn't sure why in the world she was hesitating.

She pulled herself out of her thoughts long enough to realize that she hadn't said anything. He wasn't really waiting for an answer though; she could see that much.

He was waiting for her to take the chance and leave. She was still sitting there wrapping the guaze around his leg silently. She felt like she had heavy weights as ankle bracelets. Something in her didn't want to leave. Once she left, she wouldn't be able to go back. Weird. She was supposed to not want to go back. Yet...

She bit her lip. Why was this happening? Wasn't she working on the code for this exact reason? To get out? And Scam was letting her go. She couldn't figure out why, but that's what he was doing. Unless he was giving her a fake code to mess with her, but she didn't feel like that was really the case.

Her mind traveled back what Scam said before. Her wounds looked better; what was stopping her from leaving now? She had no chance of leaving before unless WOOHP came in and rescued her (which wasn't happening, from what she could tell). Now she did. She was in recovery and would need months of therapy, but she could muster enough energy to escape.

Maybe... Maybe Scam kept her here because he cared. In a way. Cared enough about her being hurt, yet not enough to realize that he was keeping her trapped like an animal. Okay, not fair. Terrance kept her trapped like an animal, and on top of that he tortured her because he was psychotic. Scam healed her, took care of her, fed her, gave her a freakin' bed, which is more than she could say about Jerry's maniac of a twin brother.

Maybe he kept her here because she was heavily injured. Maybe he... cared. And maybe she was crazy for thinking it, (she wouldn't put it past herself), but she couldn't figure out any other reasons for his actions other than that. She couldn't fathom why he might have cared, but... it really did look like he did.

She looked at his torn shirt, the right side being cut off. She saw the blood there as well and felt her heart tugging again to fix it. She had a feeling he had more wounds hidden behind his clothes, and being the macho man he was (typical) he didn't tell her. He was in a lot of pain; she knew what it was like to be in a lot of pain, to feel your nerves on fire and your muscles aching and crying and your skin sore; feeling weak and tired and in pain. She knew what that was like.

And Scam had... helped her. Probably (hopefully?) because he cared.

Then when she picked up the antiseptic again, with the intention of helping him, and lifted up his shirt to start wiping the blood away and start cleaning the wound, she was hit with the thought that she... cared about him too. How could she not? After everything he did? Granted, a lot of it seemed selfish on his part, but in the end, what he wanted was...? Her getting better? Her... staying there? Okay that might have been a badly thought-out thought on her part; maybe that was how she felt; her wanting him to... want her to stay there. Which was weird in all honesty, but she already declared herself crazy; what's one more "crazy" thought?

As she wiped down his wounds and started to stitch up the cut, her heart tugged again, because it looked like he had fought fifty men simultaneously with the injuries on his chest. Okay; she mnight have been crazy but it was obvious to her. She cared. About him. For whatever reason, she did.

And this might be the crazy talking, seriously. Because although she knew the code... she didn't think she wanted to leave just yet.


A lot of you are probably wondering what is ACTUALLY going on in Scam's head, and all you have is speculation because this is ALL shown from Sam's point of view. I might write a sister fic with Scam's point of view, and pray to God that I don't make it out of character, but I believe that Scam is a selfish guy, deep down, and if he does want Sam there, he'd want her willing to stay on her own. Which in the end, she does. Maybe it was intentional or unintentional manipulation on his part, I have no idea because I just wrote this with one idea in mind and came out with a completely different plot, so I'd have to write it out for me to know what Scam was really thinking. I think he cares, but is very unwilling to admit it to himself. It might even be on an unconscious level. The reason why he cares... Well you'd find out if there's a sister fic :P

BUT that's also all speculation, because I don't know for sure either. :P (Aren't I the best? Jk) What I'd REALLY like to know is what YOU guys think Scam was going through. Obviously he is experiencing the car where Sam is not, so things are a little different for him. Why did he suddenly come and tell Sam what he told WOOHP? Did his reasons for taking her away from Terrance change from the beginning to the end? Why did he quit LAMOS? Does he actually care?

Something you wouldn't really understand and see in the story is the war between LAMOS and WOOHP; it doesn't involve civilians at first but it gets nasty really quick. It's a full out war, basically, between the two parties, hence the title: Prisoners of War. The reason you don't see this is because it's entirely from Sam's point of view, and it begins with her being captured. If I wrote Scam's POV (which I might depending on if this fic is reviewed well), you would definitely see more of the other side; the war that Sam doesn't see because she's a prisoner.

And the way Terrance acted... well there's a reason this is war.

Also, I am aware that I broke a thousand grammar rules—with my fragments and run on sentences and use of commas, but what you need to know is that I wrote this with the intention that the readers would follow Sam's thoughts. In your mind, I doubt your thoughts have nice sentence structure. Oh, also my spell check isn't working, so ignore all the blatant spelling errors. Love you all!

What did you guys think? Reviews would be nice; I might consider writing out the sister fic if this story gets good attention.

Gah. Long AN. Here's where I say "I love you guys" and hope it makes up for that. :P

Love,
Ivy