Disclaimer: I do not own anything or anyone from the Uncharted series, they belong to Naughty Dog. I do however own my character.
Hey, thanks to Neon Jack and whitephoenix18 for your reviews, they make me inexplicably happy! To Neon Jack, try not to dislike Sam too much and I hope you enjoy this chapter. To whitephoenix18, I shall be interested to see what you think of where I take it and good luck with your own fanfic, I hope you enjoy this chapter too.
Now we're off to Scotland and once more there is some Uncharted dialogue in there. I hope you all enjoy this chapter so read on, dear readers, read on...
Chapter 3
I was beyond relief to get back to my hotel and up into my own room. My luggage sat in the corner. My normal clothes still lay strewn over the bed where I had left them, along with the empty cardboard cover that had contained my new pair of specially bought tights. I removed my shoes first, the only reason I didn't kick them off was because they were too tight to do so. Next the tights and finally the dress. Then I sat down on the floor, using my bed as a back rest, in only my underwear and went through the events of the evening in my mind. It didn't seem to take me long to get back to that smiling, smug face of Sam Drake. I sighed and pushed myself up. I needed a bath and I was sick of wearing a bra so I flung it off and headed for the bathroom.
They arrived while I was having breakfast the next morning. I was sat in the dining room picking at my continental breakfast, having not slept well in the night, when I happened to look up and see Nate in the lobby chatting to one of the porters. The man directed Nate towards the dining room and as he turned he spotted me and waved. I nodded and taking a last swig of my coffee I got up and made my way towards him. He apologised for interrupting my breakfast but I waved him off and we went upstairs to my room to get my bags, which were pretty much packed and waiting. He offered to carry them but I shook my head and took them myself. Yet halfway down he did tap me on one shoulder, causing me to turn, and he swiped the main bag in my left hand into his own with a grin. I sighed, but could not help flash him a small smile. We paused in the lobby while I paid and then we were off.
The boot of the car they were using was already open and awaiting my bags as we left the hotel. Once they were safely loaded, Nate opened the front passenger seat, which Sully had vacated to allow me to sit there on the account of my motion sickness, before he jumped into the driver's seat. As Nate started the car up, something touched me lightly on the shoulder and I turned to find my necklace being dangled in my direction.
"Safe and sound," said Sam, dropping it into my hand.
I immediately put it back on, feeling a sense of relief to feel it there once more. He then handed me my phone, though a little more reluctantly, as we got underway.
"So how are we getting to Scotland then?" I asked curiously. "Plus you do know you guys need visas and the like to even get into Britain."
"Well," started Nate slowly.
"That's only if you go through official entrances," said Sully from behind me.
"Hey, I don't do illegal you know," I said, looking around the three.
"Well as you'll be staying on the plane, you technically won't have to do illegal," said Sam, leaning back in his seat having lent forward to give me back my possessions.
"The plane has to land you know," I said, rolling my eyes, not that those in the back could see. "On land, hence, illegal."
"Not all planes," said Sully causing me to swing round in my seat.
"Oh no, please no," I said, looking at Sully who just winked at me.
Out of the corner of my eye Sam looked like he was enjoying my displeasure a little too much.
"It'll be fine. Don't worry about it," said Nate cheerfully.
Sure I thought, turning back around in my seat, but you might be eating your words when I'm throwing up everywhere.
As we reached the docks, that could be seen from the Rossi Estate, my fears were answered as I spotted Sully's sea plane. Planes I can cope with, but boats, planes on water, anything on water without a sickness tablet, which only lasts so many hours, and nope, nope, nope. I've had motion sickness since I was a child and it only got worse the older I got, can't even go on swings anymore. The mere idea of getting on that plane and waiting for takeoff made my stomach churn and I wasn't even on it yet.
"You'll be fine," said Nate, clapping me on the shoulder as he passed me stood on the dock staring at the plane in horror. "Just imagine it's stable."
"That won't make a figure of difference," I said, shaking my head.
"Afraid of flying?" queried Sam, coming past me carrying a couple of bags.
"Nope, the flying part's fine," I replied, hugging my arms to myself.
"It's the water she's not as keen on," said Nate as he stuck his head out the door and took the bags from Sam.
"More the rocking motion actually," I said, feeling a shiver run through me at the thought. The two smiled to each other and I wanted to punch them there and then. "Where's Sully?"
I wanted to change the subject and as my friend was nowhere in sight I figured it could not hurt to ask.
"Said he had to get something," said Nate, coming onto the dock again. "Required getting hold one of his old contacts. He said he wouldn't be long, but to get the plane loaded."
"Right," I said, moving to sit down on some crates at the edge of the dock.
Nate continued loading while Sam gave me a glance.
"What?" I asked, staring back at him.
"You could give us a hand you know," he said casually as he grabbed something else.
"I could indeed," I replied, glancing down at my watch before looking back up at him. "But I thought you might not trust me to do so, besides you two strong men seem to be doing fine on your own."
I gave him a grin and I could see Nate smirk a little. They continued loading for several more minutes before I hopped off the crates and grabbed up some of the remaining gear off the dock. Sam looked at me as I walked past him onto the plane and I shrugged and continued.
"You sure I can't carry that for you?" he called after me.
I placed the stuff down in the plane and stuck my left arm back out the door giving him the finger.
"Nice," said a voice I recognised to be Sully.
I quickly stuck my hands by my sides. He gave me a smile and a wink as he entered carrying a large black plastic case.
"I'm sure he deserved it, lass," he added quietly.
With the last of the stuff loaded and our pilot having arrived, we shut the door and Sully started up the engine. With a splutter and a sniff she was going and he slowly cruised her out away from the dock. He then glanced back to check Sam and I were ready, as Nate was in the co-pilot's seat, and with our nods he pushed up the throttle and finally pulled back on the control yoke. Up the plane went, climbing up and up until Sully turned her and levelled her out. We were on our way to Scotland.
The flight could have definitely been worse, but I survived for my part. We were all pretty quiet for most of it, Nate occasionally saying something or telling a short story with Sully chipping in, but otherwise we just enjoyed each others company in silence. Sam seemed to doze in his seat though I got the feeling he was never actually asleep, but somehow watching me like he thought I might try to murder them all. It was when we came into land though that my anxiety over the whole water thing returned with a vengeance.
The landing was slightly bumpy, but Sully was a reasonably experienced pilot so it was a good landing as they go. However along with the jolly Scottish weather of snow and freezing winds with some sunshine I'll admit, not that made it any warmer, the north sea was being far from obliging. The waves were not big, but the fact the plane rocked back and forth meant I could feel my stomach beginning to turn. Nope, there was no way I was staying on this plane.
"What do you mean I've got to stay on this plane?" I demanded as Sam and Nate were preparing to make for the shoreline. Sully was carefully manoeuvring the plane as close as he dared so the two could avoid getting wet. "I want to get off."
"No," said Sam simply.
The more cheeky demeanour of the Sam that had been at the docks had been buried and replaced, once again, by the suspicious one.
"I will throw up, I can feel it," I said, refusing to take his no as an answer.
"Do so out the door," he replied.
"I will not," I responded sharply. "I'm more likely to fall out doing so in this weather!"
Possibly a slight over exaggeration, not that I cared.
"It's hardly rocking at all," said Sam with a shake of his head. "Stop making a drama out of it!"
"It's likely going to be dangerous," said Nate now he had finished kitting himself out. "I can't risk you getting hurt."
"I don't want to come with you," I said, looking at him with a pleading expression. "I just want to sit on the shoreline, like over there on those rocks, grass and heather."
I pointed to a spot at the base of the sea cliffs.
"Where Victor can't see you so you can ring Rafe, huh?" said Sam accusingly. "Give him a heads up we're coming, huh?"
I clenched my hands into fists in frustration. Then I grabbed my phone and placed it on top of the plane's instrument panel.
"There, no way of contacting anyone," I snapped. "Happy?"
Sam looked as if he was trying to think of something else.
"Great," said Nate, trying to defuse the situation. "Now put on something warm, it's kinda cold out there."
Having been given shortwave radios we quickly and carefully jumped from the plane onto the rocks. I felt my boot slide a little, my balance almost going, but I caught myself only to find Sam's quick retreating hand as if he'd tried to catch me. I looked at him, but he had already looked away and now strode on ahead, but not before almost slipping and falling himself. I forced myself not to laugh and continued gingerly across the seaweed and rocks to the more firmer ground. From there I found a little sheltered area, out of the wind, at the base of the cliffs. Nate gave me a smile and I wished them luck before they began their perilous climb up. I was glad I didn't have to do it, but I was even more glad to be off the rocking plane. They reached the top safely to my relief and Sully's and began scouting where they were headed. Finally Nate's voice came over the radio.
"Sully," he said, I could see Sully now lent out of the plane door.
"Yeah?"
"Hey, listen, we're good to go here," continued Nate.
"Okay kid," said Sully, giving me a smile to which I nodded. "Happy hunting."
"Last chance to come with," said Nate, though I was pretty sure Sully had no wish to climb the cliffs.
"Yeah, well," he replied. "Unless you can find me an escalator, I think I'll pass."
I smirked and wrapped my jacket tighter around myself. Nate laughed.
"All right. We'll see you in a few."
Nate waved and then I saw Sully pause before pressing the talk button again.
"Hey Nate…"
"Yeah?"
"Just-" he started but paused.
I saw Sully struggle, as if he wished to say something but couldn't.
"Ah, just bring me back something shiny, will ya?" he said finally, but I knew from his expression what he had wanted to say.
"That's the plan," replied Nate before clicking off.
The two then headed off leaving us to our own devices, which would have been fine if it had not been for the sudden loud, ground shaking boom that caused me to have to move rapidly as little bits of cliff broke loose and fell. It was followed not long after by another and then another still. Clearly this Rafe was getting overly desperate to find something, though with all that explosive material I would be surprised he was not actually doing seismic tests rather then an excavation. I doubted, if he did find something, whether there would actually be anything left of it at all.
"You okay over there?" came Sully's rather concerned voice over the radio after the second explosion.
"Yep, just had to move," I replied, giving him a wave which he returned. "I'll be surprised if he doesn't cause a landslide or some major subsidence at the rate he's going."
"He's clearly desperate," said Sully, glancing up the cliff, slight worry on his features.
"Clearly," I concurred before adding. "Nate will be fine."
"I hope so," he replied quietly.
Sully was a decent way out away from cliffs but he kept in touch with me over the radio, though we were on a different channel from the boys. Mostly because we didn't want to blow their cover with our own conversation if they happened upon some trouble. We kept our conversation to a minimum though as the boys had priority.
Somehow the waiting felt worse then the idea of sneaking around the Scottish countryside, trying to avoid armed men with dynamite or C-4 or whatever they were using. Every explosion, every occasional burst of gun fire that the constantly present bitter wind brought to us made our concern over the brother's safety rise. Then it all went quiet except for the occasional explosion. I sat down again and picked a couple of strands of frozen grass, casually stripping it into pieces. Oh how I hated waiting.
It had probably been about half an hour, maybe forty or forty-five minutes even, when the silence between booms was interrupted. I had been building a miniature snowman inbetween the flurries of snow fall and had been just attempting to give him little pebble eyes when a bust of heavy gun fire started up, making me jump. I paused listening and was unsure whether to feel relieved or not when it stopped. I waited to see if anymore would occur, but the silence continued. I picked up the pebble I had dropped only to drop it again as Sully's voice now came over the radio.
"Kid? What's your status?" he asked, clearly he had been concerned too.
"Hey, Sully," came Nate's voice and it warmed my steadily cooling heart to hear it. "We're on the trail, but the treasure's closer to the cathedral than we originally thought."
"Oh boy," replied Sully and I knew from his tone that we were all thinking the same with that new info. "So what do you need me to do?"
"Well, just keep those engines warm," said Nate's voice. "We'll be back before too long."
"You got it," replied Sully, waving at me now to ensure I was following and I nodded in reply. "Keep me posted."
"Will do," came Nate's reply before radio silence resumed.
I wished them luck but I also wished that Nate's 'before too long' would be sooner rather then later. It didn't help that the weather appeared to be deteriorating the longer we waited. Having long since given up on the snowman I now paced back and forth to keep warm, wrapping the jacket I wore tighter round myself and wishing I was wearing thermals and walking trousers instead of a useless pair of jeans. The snow had begun to fall properly, constant large flakes instead of the occasional flurries that had come before, and it was making my jeans damp. Never go hiking in Scotland in jeans, they take forever to dry, I thought, but then I reminded myself originally I hadn't been planning to end up in Scotland. I glanced at the sea plane sat rocking out on the steadily increasing waves and even though I was feeling the cold, I was still immensely glad I was not on it. Yet I felt my frustration rise and looked up at the cliff. What was taking them so long! Clearly Sully wondered too because his voice came back on to the radio.
"Kid, storm's picking up. How's it looking?"
"We're about to head into the cave," came Nate's reply.
"The cave?" said Sully, his voice sounding like it had a 'are you serious' tone to it.
"Yeah…" continued Nate. "Might lose contact for a bit. Don't get too worried."
"All right, I'll keep the porch light on for you," said Sully, his words reminding me of a moment from a children's book of my youth where a whole town lit candles in their windows to guide a boat home.
It was completely random, but with the stormy weather it made me feel a little warmer inside.
"All right," said Nate with a slight laugh. "Call you soon."
Time passed slowly, I had forgotten to look at my watch when we started so I had no idea how long they had been out there when a definite change occurred. There was an explosion and then a few minutes later I felt a massive rumbling beneath my feet. Sully stuck his head out the plane and looked at me, I shrugged in response and then we both heard the increase in gun fire. Heavy and sustained. A fire fight had clearly broken out and we both were in no doubt that the boys were on one side of it. I felt my worry rise. Sully grabbed the radio.
"God damn it, Nate," he said into the radio. "I can hear the fireworks from here. What the hell is going on?"
I began to make my way towards the slippery rocks that we had originally landed on as Sully now beckoned me. It seemed it was time to get back on the dreaded rocking plane and the sea was quite rough.
"Long story; short version is get us the hell out of here!" came Nate's under duress sounding reply.
"Yeah, I figured," Sully replied as he shut the door, disappearing into the plane to move it closer to me. "Hold tight, I'll be there as soon as I can!"
He moved it as close as he dared before reopening the door and rushing back to the controls. I braced myself before I leapt forward and flung myself, ungracefully, at the open doorway. I made it somehow, I was pretty sure I gained several bruises but at least I had not slipped and fallen in the sea. I shut the door as Sully started her up and went to join him in the cockpit, pocketing my phone off the instrument panel as I did.
"Hold on tight," he said as I strapped myself in. "I feel it's going to get a little hairy!"
Then he pushed up the throttle, pulled back the yoke and up we went.
We flew up along the coast towards the cathedral, the tension rising as we did. On our first pass we were too high to be spotted, but now Sully brought her down lower with the aim of locating the brothers. I peered out the window trying to spot any sign of the two jackets I knew they had been wearing.
"Do you see them?" asked Sully as we flew over the building.
"No," I replied. "At least nothing I would recognise as being them."
I looked again and that's when several muzzle flashes caught my eye.
"Wait!" I said, craning my neck to see. "There's gun fire over near that crane. It has to be them."
"I see it," agreed Sully as he turned the plane. "What I don't see, however, is anywhere to land around there."
I looked too, but the heather on the hillside was deep looking and you could see the occasional large rock sticking out of it. Unless we landed literally on the crumbling ruins of the cathedral itself then there was no way we could land, at least not on the land. I sighed and Sully gave me a sympathetic smile.
Having spotted the gunfire had now ceased Sully grabbed the radio.
"Hey kid," said Sully and for a moment I thought I spotted two figures I recognised near the crane. "There's no place to land up here. Can you make it down to the water?"
"Yeah set her down," replied Nate, sounding out of breath. "One way or another we'll get to you."
Sully set the radio down again and his face took on a serious expression as he concentrated on getting the plane down onto the water as safely and as close to the cliffs as he dared. He swept the plane down past the bit of the cathedral with the crane, which I personally have no idea how they got it there, and round to land on the now choppy waters of the north sea again. The landing was bumpy to say the least and almost immediately I felt ill, but now was not the time to be selfish. I leapt out my seat and ran for the door, opening it in readiness for the brothers to just clamber in. I could see them now, sliding down piles of scree and fending off multiple enemies with a variety of weapons and I felt useless. There was nothing I could do.
"You see them?" called Sully from the cockpit.
"Yeah, I do now," I replied. "They're under a lot of fire power and there's nothing I can do."
"You sure about that?" he said, there was a certain tone in his voice.
"Uh, yeah," I said, rolling my eyes to myself. "Unless you think I can magically kill those Shoreline folk with my mind alone."
Sully chuckled.
"You remember how I was late to the plane this morning?" he said, leaning round in his seat to look at me. I nodded. "Why don't you check out that black case behind you that I brought."
I swung round and made a move to the case in question that was strapped in along with the rest of the gear. I pulled it out and popped it open to find I admired what it contained.
"Figured you deserved a present, so I got you a little friend," said Sully with a grin. "I'm sure you know how to use it."
I nodded and he turned back around as I assembled it, before moving back towards the door. The brothers were still legging it, ducking behind cover when they could.
"Well she's not like my girl at home but let's see if we understand one another," I said, aiming the sniper rifle out the door. I scoped out a target, accounted for the wind and lined up the shot. "Here goes nothing."
I fired at my target and the rifle kicked more then I was expecting. The shot wasn't perfect and instead of hitting the head or the body, it slammed into the gun he was holding and gave him such a shock he slipped and fell off the cliff. I shrugged, it had the same desired effect. I aimed again and this time I hit the target more or less where I wanted. Now we were talking.
I hit another and another and then Sully called to me.
"How are they doing?"
I looked for the boys again, locating them quickly. Nate had just been grabbed from behind and was struggling to break the man's hold. Sam's gun was up and prepared to shoot said man when Nate indicated something behind Sam. I swept the rifle back towards where Nate was indicating as Sam turned too slowly to line up a shot. The man who had got Sam dead to rights moved to pull the trigger, but he never succeeded in completing the action. To Sam's surprise his would be killer's head instead partly exploded as my bullet penetrated his skull, but Sam had no time to think on it as, like me, he could see more Shoreliners were coming. He turned to find Nate had finally broken the man's hold and punched him off the cliff. They could get moving again.
"Good," I replied.
Everything was working well except that the Shoreline folk had not only finally worked out the brothers were headed for the plane, but that there was also a sniper in said plane. They now turned their guns on the plane and I had to take cover as bullets thudded into the fuselage.
"Boys, they're shooting at my plane," called Sully over the radio as I tried to return fire. "Hurry the hell up, or your ride's gonna sink!"
He then turned in his seat again.
"You ok back there?"
"Yep, fine," I replied, finally hitting one of the men with an automatic machine gun. "Will be happier when we get out of here though!"
"You and me both," he replied.
Finally the brothers leapt off the scree covered cliff, swinging from their grapples into the sea as bullets rained after them.
"Aahh!" yelled Nate as the temperature of the water hit him.
He swam for the plane as I got another shot off at a Shoreliner. Whether it hit, I wasn't sure and I didn't have time to find out.
"Sully!" Nate called. "Get her going!"
Sully turned the ignition and she started up.
"Quick!" added Nate.
He reached the plane and I hauled him in. Nate then turned to help Sam as more of Nadine's men showed up.
"C'mon! C'mon!" said Nate, pulling his brother in. "Go, go!"
Nate slammed the doors shut as Sully floored it and rapidly took off in such a way I lost my balance and crashed to the floor. I didn't care, we were out of there.
Ok, so there we go. What do we think? As ever I'm always interested to know so would you kindly press the review button, please? :)
