A/N: I don't own Leverage of any of the characters in this story, except the original ones. I write for fun and make no profit. I don't write slash.
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Enjoy the new chapter.
Chapter 7
She walked back into the room where Eliot rested and without speaking, she put a hand on his forehead.
"Good. You aren't as feverish as you were."
"What is Order 78?" he asked her, his voice raspy from disuse.
"Shhh. Just try to relax. Close your eyes, Eliot."
"No."
"What?"
"I can't stop what you're doin', but that doesn't mean I'm gonna help ya."
"All right. If that's the way you want it, fine." She drew liquid in a syringe, and injected him with it. As his eyes slipped closed, she started speaking quietly.
(0o0)
Snatches of sound became voices as Eliot floated back toward consciousness. The first thing he realized he felt was that he was at least partially dressed. Moments later, the voices turned into a passionate conversation—almost an argument.
"I'm telling you, there has to be more." This was the voice of a man Eliot didn't recognize. He knew that voice. Right now he couldn't put a face with a name, though.
"And you got your medical degree from where, exactly? There's nothing more. You brought me here to make him talk, and I've done that. Question him yourself, if you don't believe me." She held something out to him.
"I recorded the session."
"Well then, I have no further use for him. Or for you."
He snapped his fingers and she watched in horror as two guards each drew their guns, and a dozen shots rang out in quick succession. As she stood watching, with a mild look of shock, two men moved up beside her, and she felt a searing pain as something hard struck her across the skull, and the blackness rose up to meet her.
(0o0)
The Asian man who had brought the team their meals for the past three days, unlocked the door to the room they were being held in, and pushed it aside. He was accompanied by four guards. Without a word, their hands and feet were shackled, they were blindfolded, and marched out of the room and into a vehicle waiting outside.
They rode for more than an hour over rough roads and rocky terrain. When the rattletrap van they were riding in finally came to a stop, all of them were stiff from being jostled around. The guards hustled them out and prodded them forward at gunpoint, forcing them to walk as best they could while shackled together. The guards prodded them up a steep hill, on an unassuming dirt trail. If they had been able to see where they were going, it wouldn't have helped them, as they wouldn't have thought they were being taken anywhere significant anyway. There was nothing but grass, flowers, and dirt as far as a person could see.
Finally, they reached the top of the hill, and the trail they were on opened out into a large flat space with the painted markings of an airfield. Though they could see nothing, Nate could hear the blades of a large helicopter. They were pushed inside, and the doors were roughly closed behind them. The chopper took off, taking them Heaven knows where. Nate sighed. There was nothing to be done now until they landed.
(0o0)
Kitty woke up to the sensation of something cold and wet hitting her methodically on top of the head—thunk, thunk, thunk. Opening her eyes, she discovered she was tied to a tree, in the pouring rain, and soaking wet. She couldn't stop shivering. The building was nowhere in sight, so she had no idea where she was. She shoved the discomfort she was feeling ruthlessly aside, and tried to get away from the freezing water.
Suddenly, the events that took place right before she lost consciousness came flooding back, and she began struggling against the ropes tying her to the tree. She needed to find out if Eliot was all right, or even alive. She kept replaying the shooting in her mind, and she had to admit that it didn't look good for him. She started to feel an overwhelming sadness, but shoved it aside. She would deal with that later. The priority now was to secure her freedom, and try to find out what happened to Eliot.
She was tied too securely to slip out of the hemp ropes, and she was tied in such a way that she couldn't use the bark of the tree to cut the ropes, so she wiggled her body down until one of the ropes covered her mouth, and she started to chew. The process took awhile, but she was eventually able to free herself. Obviously, these people weren't professionals. Professionals would never have tied her with rope she could chew through, but if they weren't part of the North Korean government, or the military, who were they?
She used the survival training she had learned in the military to try to start figuring out where she was. Using the moss growing on the trees, and the relative position of the sun overhead, she managed to determine that it was late afternoon, but already getting dark, and when she began looking closely, she found the tracks where they had dragged her here. They came from the South, and she started moving back in that direction.
She had walked for about twenty minutes, if what she was doing could actually be called walking. She was really stumbling along like she was drunk, off balance and wobbly, and as a result, she was having to stop frequently and rest, in order not to make too much noise moving through the forest. She was leaning against a rock, resting, wishing she had the equipment to collect and purify rainwater—equipment she would have with her under normal circumstances. While she was resting, she heard a soft groan, so low she wasn't sure she actually heard anything. Looking around, and seeing nothing, she began pushing one foot out in front of her as she walked, nudging through the leaves and other underbrush on the forest floor, searching for the source of the noise.
Finally, she found Eliot, battered and bloody, and so cold, but alive. If they could reach the river, she knew of an abandoned hut where they could hole up for a few days, and she could check in. Placing a hand on his chest, she whispered soft words of reassurance, and then she reached down and hooked Eliot under the arms, eliciting a louder groan from him and causing him to pass out. Muttering apologies under her breath, she began dragging him through the forest.
She had to stop much more often with Eliot in tow, and each time she stopped, she had to make sure they were well-hidden and cover their tracks. So, it took most of the night for her to get them both to the hut, and be sure they were safe. The temperature was below freezing when she woke up, but now it was far below freezing. Both were wet and half frozen. The hut had no heat or electricity, so all it would really do was keep the wind off of them. She couldn't see to treat Eliot's injuries, so she would try to keep him comfortable, and hope he made it through the night. She covered him with the two small, thin blankets she found in the hut, and settled in beside him, with the idea of keeping him warm. She sighed. It was going to be a long night.
