While Jason had been having a lovely time with Vaas – as well as finding out the location of one of their friends – Grant had been running around in circles on Rook. He was busy hunting, killing and scavenging the island to survive. Rook was beautiful, he couldn't deny that – but he couldn't let himself enjoy it, not even on a very base and surface level.

The health and general welfare of his brothers, his girlfriend and his friends were always at the forefront of his mind. It was maddening, the way that he felt most of the time. He felt a constant push and pull between where he was and where he desired to be and who he desired to be around. Riley and Jason popped up in his head more often than the rest of them, of course, they did.

They were his family and he had been more or less a surrogate father for the two of them since their father had died. It was difficult for him to turn off that ever-persistent worry. He would have been happy to run back to the pirates' camp and grab Jason – assuming that he was even still there – but he knew that he had to prioritize what was feasible.

He knew that he couldn't take on Vaas just yet, no matter how much he wanted to. The pirate had protection and worse than that, he had his brother right with him – being held captive and attacked for all that he knew. So, the moment that Dennis had informed him of a lead on one of his friends, he had run towards it without a second thought. This Earnhardt guy apparently had a few screws loose in his head and he survived by selling his home-brewed drugs to the pirates, but he was more or less harmless. Even if Dennis had referred to him as a, "Colonist,"… whatever the hell that means.

Grant made his way across the island, climbing radio towers and taking out a few outposts on the way. By the time that he was at the colonial house, he was practically bathed in blood and dirt accumulated from the journey he had made. He figured that he would just have to deal with it – for now at least.

He found the doctor in a dilapidated looking greenhouse. Everything about the area that he lived on looked old and run down – Grant had to wonder just how long he had been living here, seemingly untouched by both the natives and the pirates running rampant on the island.

Doctor Earnhardt was a squirrelly looking man who was constantly muttering to himself about this or that. He set Grant on edge, just a little bit, but he dealt with the man just long enough to see Daisy and get the whereabouts of a cure for her fever – a set of mushrooms in a cave below his home. As he left the house to go and get said mushrooms, the doctor had pleaded with him to save Daisy. He told Grant that she must be saved, both for Grant's sake and his own.

When Grant made his way down into the cave, he hadn't any idea what he should expect – he certainly didn't expect to suddenly be breathing in some sort of noxious vapors that made his vision cloud up and distort until it felt like he had been transported somewhere else entirely.

The rest of the cave fell down and crumbled away until only a strip of the cave was left and Grant was walking forward without any will of his own – moving purely on inertia, through the distorted version that he had fallen into.

He was walking forward, seeing fragments of both his past, his present, and his future. He saw the club in Bangkok that they had partied in and met the DJ who told them about the Rook islands. He saw the DJ – what was his name? Doug something or other, he had been so unassuming that Grant hadn't bothered to think about him much – and noticed just how much he looked like the other pirates that he had encountered and killed on the island.

He wasn't given much chance to look at that before he was being pushed forward once again and he saw Riley tied to a chair and beaten half to death with some oddly familiar looking man standing over him and telling him what he needed to do if Riley wanted to work for him and what would happen to him if he didn't.

As he was pushed forward once again, Grant noticed Keith kneeling on the floor, bloodied and bruised as he was frozen. He saw most of his friends – he saw Liza, Oliver and Daisy all trapped in their specific places of bondage – but he didn't see Jason, not once.

It would have made him ask more questions about it but everything that happened right before his eyes was so unexplained and so sudden that he couldn't determine any sort of meaning behind it and before he could really figure anything out – he was being pushed out of the vision, out of his fugue state and thrown back into reality.

When he came to, Grant looked around, unsure of how and when he had gotten in front of the doctor. He quickly recovered from his slight shock and handed the jar filled with the mushrooms to him. "Here." He said, tone verging on urgent."Will this do?" He asked and the doctor was on his way to where Daisy lay resting without saying even a word to Grant.

Grant sighed and followed him up, waiting and watching as Doctor Earnhardt administered the antidote to her. "Grant…" Daisy murmured in a light and drowsy voice as he noticed him. Grant could see that she was bruised to hell and still seemed to be out of sorts, "It's you…" She exclaimed with a breathless sort of delight present in her tone of voice.

Daisy didn't look great right now but she would be better soon, he reassured himself. The doctor seemed like he was short a couple of fuses, but he seemed like he was a more than capable chemist and if he could craft enough drugs to keep himself constantly high, he was able to make more of the antidote that his girlfriend so desperately needed.

Daisy would be herself in no time and when she recovered, Grant wouldn't be surprised if she demanded to come along and rescue their friends with him. "How are you feeling?" He asked her, sitting himself down on the edge of the bed at her side.

"You got away, that's what I'm feeling!" She had a dazed out smile on her face as she reached towards him, grabbing onto his hand and squeezing it softly for a moment before she let him go.

"That doctor, he's… something." Grant commented, in an attempt to lighten the tense mood somewhat and maybe even lessen his concerns about the man.

"Oh, he's harmless." Daisy replied dismissively, "He's kinda sweet actually. He carried me here… I escaped from the convoy and at some point, I passed out." She looked down for a moment, "The doctor saved me!"

"Well, I'm glad you made it. It's been really rough." He said in a somber tone and Daisy must have seen that something was wrong

"Grant, what's wrong?"

"It's Jason. He's still back at that camp, he wouldn't leave." He blurted out. Daisy didn't say anything, she just looked at him oddly, waiting for him to continue on. So he did. "I don't know why but he was acting strange, like he didn't think that Vaas – that that psychopath who kidnapped us wouldn't hurt him or something…" he trailed off with a slight groan, "It just doesn't make any sense."

"Jason's strong." She said, reassuringly. "He can make it through, I know he can. He'll be fine, Grant, I can promise you that he will be fine."

"Are you gonna be okay?" He asked, his tone suddenly becoming very business-like. "I have to go and talk to the doctor about the others." She nodded and told him, voice as low as a whisper, to go.

Earnhardt was waiting in the corner of the room, looking like he had been trying to not appear as if he was eavesdropping. "Can I talk to you?" He asked and then, when the doctor agreed, "I want to thank you for saving her." He said sincerely and firmly.

"Think nothing of it."

"Three of my friends and my little brothers are missing. When I find them – can I bring them here?" He asked in a leading manner like he was expecting a firm 'yes'.

"Absolutely not." Earnhardt replied, "I can't afford to have Vaas' captives here! His men buy product from me Todo El Tiempo!"

Grant was about to say something back when Daisy piped up, "Please Doctor." she interrupted the two of them, "Let him bring them here. They'll die otherwise."

The doctor was at Daisy's side in a moment, "Agnes!" He exclaimed, looking at her in a paternalistic manner. Grant found it odd but didn't say anything. "How can I refuse you? Of course, they can stay." He agreed, "Oh… I'm gonna need a double dose after this. To calm my nerves…" He slurred, already intoxicated on something as he sat on the bed and squeezed Daisy's hand.

"Wait here, alright? I'm gonna go find the others." He requested in a low voice before he was down the stairs and out of the house. He had a lot of work to do and he couldn't afford to stop and spend any more time with his girlfriend, no matter how much he wanted to.


The Grand Island Port Hotel was a shady looking place that gave Jason the impression that it could crumble to the ground at any moment. He looked at it worriedly for a moment before he was running up to the hotel as quickly and quietly as he could.

He couldn't afford to be seen by the any of the pirates guarding the place – if they did, all of them would swarm around the place to try and get him, kill him or whatever, and one of them was bound to get away and tell Vaas or Hoyt what he was doing. That wouldn't end well. Not for any of them. Not for him, not for Vaas and certainly not for Liza.

At the very least, Vaas had made sure that he was armed to the teeth – he had been given a sniper rifle, a compound bow, a pistol with a silencer on it and a sawed-off shotgun as well as a few different sorts of throwables. He was donning a Kevlar vest, as well as a long neckerchief to cover up the majority of his face. He planned on getting in and out without anyone noticing him and if anyone saw him then they needed to die – nothing personal, really, he was just doing whatever needed to be done. He walked towards the building and searched around until he found a safe vantage point. Once he did, he crouched down on the ground and took out his camera.

The hotel was sparsely guarded and it didn't look to Jason as if many of them were even paying attention to what was going on around him – that worked out perfectly well for him, especially when he noticed an open window in the back of the building that had nobody moving around it.

He crept up to the window, making sure to keep his footsteps as quiet as possible until he was pressed right up against it. His fingers braced against the rusty window almost painfully as he pulled himself into the building. As soon as he was in the room, he spotted a pirate sitting down on a chair with a rifle clasped in hand. Jason let out a long-suffering sigh and aimed his handgun at the back of the mans' head, he held his breath and pulled the trigger – killing him instantly.

Jason felt the tiniest inkling of guilt – an alarmingly small amount of guilt, considering that he had never killed anyone before – as the pirate bowled himself over and collapsed in death. Jason hoisted him up and dragged him over to the window to drop him out of it with a loud "SPLAT" sounding out as he hit the ground.

The omega let out a disgusted scoff and made his way down the hall, crouched down and moving quietly and slowly with his gun in hand. He searched around the area for a while – taking out each pirate that he saw and hiding them along the way in his search for her. After a bit of searching – and a lot more blood on his hands than he was comfortable looking at – he found her, bound up in a chair with a cloth gag haphazardly stuffed in her mouth.

Jason frowned and pulled the gag out of her mouth, "Are you okay?" He whispered to her as he cut the rope from her wrists and ankles. Liza murmured something affirmatively and pulled herself up to her feet, only to crumble down to the floor when she took a few steps forward. "Shit." He murmured to himself as he helped her off of the ground. "How long were you tied up there like that?"

Liza shrugged at that, taking to leaning on Jason for support as she got her bearings. "I don't know. A few days maybe?" She guessed, "They just left me tied up here and I thought that they were just going to leave me to starve here. I was so scared."

Jason's mind was immediately brought back to the very real danger that the two of them were in and his knowledge that the longer they stayed here, the more danger they would be in sprung him right into action. "We're going to have to jump out the window at the end of the hall." He told her, eliciting an incredulous look out of her. "It's the only option we have here," he explained, speaking in a soft and rapid-fire sort of tone. "Look I just, I was lucky that I found you as easily as I did… and I had some help but- the point is that I'm not sure just how many of those guys are in the building and I know that there aren't

"I… okay, I trust you." She acquiesced with a wary sort of look on her face like her agreement came out entirely of desperation – which it definitely was. "Let's go," she said. The two of them made their way down the hall, moving quickly and quietly – making sure not to rustle any attention out of the pirates moving on the floor below and before either of them knew it, they were standing in front of the window – staring at the space below them with a sense of trepidation.

Neither of them really wanted to make the leap down, but they knew that it was inevitable, that they really had no choice in the matter. Jason frowned and held his breath as he took the jump down first so that when Liza followed right behind him he was able to catch her by her legs and make the tumbledown easier for her. It didn't stop either of them from rolling down onto the ground, accidentally entangling their limbs with one another in a way that bruised and battered the both of them.

The two of them ran and ran the whole way down the road as they escaped, refusing to look back at the hotel until Jason found the truck that he had stowed away down the road at least a quarter of a mile away. As soon as they got in the vehicle – Liza in the driver's seat and Jason riding passenger – they took a moment to quietly and exhaustively gloat.

"H-holy shit," Jason exclaimed, one hand pressed against his chest and the other leaning against the dashboard. "I can't believe we… that was so fucking lucky!" Pure dumb luck was all that Jason could think to attribute it to, as he had such little training that that was all that it could be in his mind.

"Yeah… lucky." Liza replied in a dismal sort of tone as she started up the car and drove forward down the road, "Where are we supposed to go, anyway?" She asked. Jason was about to answer her when he saw a bright red truck looming in the distance – he let out a short litany of curses.

He knew well enough that if that truck moved close enough to meet them then they would be screwed. He kept looking back at it with a nervous sort of hopefulness emanating around him – like if he kept his eyes on the hotel then none of the pirates would move an inch forward. "Keep going." He told her.

"Keep going? Keep going where, Jason?" Liza implored him, hoping for some sort of plan to come out of the other's mouth. "Do you even know where we're supposed to go?" She asked with a tone of voice that bordered on exasperated.

"It doesn't matter just keep going!" Jason snapped at her, "It was a fucking miracle we got out of there as easily as we did but they might catch up with us any second now. So go!" Liza grumbled to herself about what an ass Jason was being and how he had no plan but still, she obeyed him nonetheless.

Jason dug around in his pockets for a few moments before he pulled out what looked like an old fashioned cell phone, "Vaas," He panted, sounding horribly out of breath. Liza's eyes widened as she heard that name. She knew who that was, and it only meant bad news in her mind. "We got out just fine. Now can you please tell me you found someplace safe I can have her go." He asked quickly.

Vaas' voice was ringing out on the other end in moments, "There's a doctor we buy product from northeast of you. I'll send you the coordinates right now. See, this doctor, he has a cave underneath his house. Bring her there and she should be fine." He explained in a low voice, "You come back once you get that blanquita there." It wasn't really a request – or even a question – but Jason felt compelled to answer him nonetheless with a quick agreement before he stuffed the phone back into his pockets and took out a small handheld GPS.

He looked over at Liza and smiled at her nervously. "We'll be out of here soon," He said in a reassuring manner. "There's a fork upcoming, take a right."They drove like that for some time – mostly in silence, with Jason cutting in occasionally with directions – until they were parked at the white colonial house, belonging to Dr. Earnhardt.

Liza jumped out of the car and was quick to ask Jason a few questions, in rapid-fire succession, that she had kept quiet about for long enough, "So, you were talking to that guy that kidnapped us." She coughed awkwardly, "And he was helping us, which is odd, for obvious reasons. So my question is, why is he doing that? What does he benefit from that?" She asked, the question so leading that Jason gave her an incredulous look that she would phrase it like that.

Jason bristled slightly at her line of questioning but he recovered quickly with the understanding that Liza was a well-meaning sort of person and this whole situation was weird, "Um, yeah." He said, "Vaas is, he's my alpha – like my true alpha if you can believe that. So, uh, that's why he's helping me." he explained as quickly and concisely as he was able, his tone verging on awkward. Luckily she hadn't caught sight of the mark on his neck, "So that's what's happening right now."

"Oh," She said, looking down almost like she was disappointed. It wasn't hard for Jason to understand why – he and Liza used to date, years ago and they had been pretty serious. It hadn't worked out for them, but they had stayed pretty close as friends, up until this point. "I'm guessing that you're happy with all of this?" She asked him with a tone that suggested that she was desperately hoping for a 'no' to come out of his mouth.

"Well…" Jason said in reply as he slid himself down onto the floor and walked towards her, "It's just really complicated, you know?" He said, reluctant to explain himself, though he knew that he had to if he wanted Liza to stop judging him like she was. "This whole situation is really weird, fucked up and complicated, I know that. Vaas is…" he frowned as he found no way to properly defend him, so he ended up settling for more of a tepid defense of him. "Well, he's insane. I'd be a liar if I said he wasn't and he is almost always using something but he's been good – to me and I like being with him."

He made it out like it was simple, but he knew – and he could bet, without even saying a word to her that Liza knew – that it wasn't. There was no way that what he and Vaas had with each other could ever be thought of as simple. It was intense, irreversible and almost unwanted in how overwhelmingly their bond consumed his thoughts and feelings. "Are you going to stay here?" Liza asked, her voice so quiet and so hesitant that he barely heard her, "With him?"

It didn't surprise him that she would ask that, but his face still twisted as he thought about it for just a moment,"I don't know. Probably." He said with a shrug, "I don't think I really have much of a choice." He didn't like the idea of leaving Vaas – he was inextricably tied to the other man and if he went and got all of his friends back and then left the island then he might suffer from Broken Bond Syndrome.

He didn't want to end up going back to California and being thrown into a deep depression that might end up killing him – he was almost entirely sure that his odds of surviving the mental strife he would suffer from being entirely separated from Vaas were next to none, so he didn't want to chance it.

Liza understood exactly what he was saying and thinking and decided to drop the subject entirely. The two of them walked down the hill and into the cave. As they walked through, they were surprised to see Daisy sitting in one corner of the cave, working on what looked like an almost entirely broken boat.

Jason was shocked to see her sitting there – looking like she had been banged up to hell, but ultimately still alive and well enough to be moving around. He was so shocked that he stood there, slack-jawed like some kind of idiot for a few moments before he allowed himself to recover while Liza ran up to her to pull her into a tight hug. As the two of them pulled away, Daisy noticed Jason standing there and she vaulted towards him to pull him just as close and tight as she had held Liza.

"Jason!" She exclaimed, hugging him so close that he struggled to breathe a little bit – even for an alpha, she had always been insanely strong for a woman of her stature. "You're okay! Oh, Grant will be so relieved to find out that you're alright."

Jason was taken aback by that. A part of him had been coming to terms with the idea that he might not see Grant for a long time if he had even survived his escape from Vaas and the rest of the pirates in the first place. "Wait, you've seen him?" He exclaimed as he pulled back from her embrace, "How is he? Did he seem like he was alright? It's pretty dangerous out here."

Daisy took a few moments to answer him, trying to phrase her words very carefully. "Physically he was just fine but he did seem like he was really troubled," She answered cautiously, "He was worried about you the most, I think." Jason knew exactly what she was implying, but he let her continue on. "Maybe you should stay here, he's bound to come back sooner or later and see you."

He frowned at that, his shoulder slumping in visible disappointment in himself. "Oh, I can't. I can't stay here. I have to go back to-" and he was about to explain himself the best that he could, gearing himself up for the two of them to tear into him when he felt Liza squeeze his arm in a comforting and reassuring manner. It made it easier for him to continue on and as he explained himself in an almost nervous manner, he could see Daisy's understanding of what had happened between him and Vaas and why he couldn't stay unfold with every word that he spoke.

"Oh," She said intelligently in response, a shell shocked expression forming on her face. She didn't speak for a few moments before she told him in a low voice that she understood. Daisy didn't bother moralizing at him or expressing any of her concerns. She understood that her opinions on it didn't really matter, but still, she couldn't help but be a little worried for Jason's safety and sanity. "Can you at least stay and rest for a little?" She asked, figuring that that was the best that she could do.

In any other situation, Jason might have objected – but as it stood he was exhausted and he doubted that he could make the journey across the island with how he felt. "I… okay you know what, you're right. I need to rest." He acquiesced, "I will…I'll stay for an hour or two and if Grant somehow shows up by then, that would be great." He sat down and made a place on the floor to rest himself up for the journey ahead. "But I doubt it. Knowing Grant, he's probably busy as all hell."

Jason laughed at that in agreement, knowing that he would be busy too – even though he was much less anxious about the duty that he had to his friends while Grant was running around doing the same – if he wanted to free all of his friends, he would need to be smart, he would need to keep his ear to the ground for the locations of any of them that were still locked up and waiting to be either freed, killed or sold into slavery and not get himself killed in the process.