This is the scene in episode 3 of series 2, where Samantha offers Tom freedom if he does something for her...

SPOILERS FOR 2x03!


As the door opened Tom looked over to where Samantha was now standing with a torch in her hand. She opened the door to his 'cell' and stood in the doorway, "How are you?" she asked casually, and Tom inwardly scoffed, did she really expect him to answer that?

She walked slowly and leant against the metal mesh of the wall. "Let's make a deal, you do something for me, and I'll let you go." Tom looked up, "Kill Dexter."

Tom was not really surprised by her request, she was power-mad, and anyone who threatened that power was removed, she overturned the juries' vote in the so-called 'trial' just so the threat to her power would be removed. "Why don't you do it yourself?" He asked.

"Wouldn't look good."

"When you meet your maker?" Tom asked, unconvinced.

"When I meet my public." Of course this would be the reason, he saw how Samantha's 'people' reacted when Abby told them about the last trial, she couldn't be seen with blood on her hands, or the people would revolt, "I'll put out a story you escaped and Dexter was killed trying to stop you."

Tom thought about it, "You're good." He admitted, it was a foolproof plan. "No." He didn't want to be in debt to her, nor anybody else. His freedom was not worth that.

Samantha took another path to try and get him to do it, "He's killed. He's raped. There was talk of young girls-"Tom cut her off. Did she really think this would work? Playing on his moral beliefs? He'd thought she have had a better Plan B than that.

"Sounds like he deserves die then, okay, I'll do it. For society." A hint of sarcasm seeped into his voice. She seemed to realize her plan was not going to work on him, she took a shallow breath then sat on his makeshift bed.

She watched him carefully, "Do you think Anya will wait for you for seven years? Do you think she'll be safe out there without you?" He looked at her. Emotional blackmail. Clever. Tom wondered if his opinion of Samantha Willis could get any lower, she wasn't even worthy to mention Anya's name, "Do it for yourself. His life for your freedom, you've done it before." She paused, watching him as she got up, "There are other men in the room where he sleeps, but he goes out to exercise every day, early, alone. You can do it then. I'll be back at dawn." She left.

Tom's brain wrestled with itself. Of course, he didn't have a problem with killing Dexter, the man who had stolen from and terrorized the group, then kidnapped Anya,but he did not want to be indebted to Samantha, like he owed her something for his freedom.

But Samantha's emotional blackmail was working on him, and even though he hated to admit it, even to himself, the thought of Anya being on her own finished him. This was extraordinarily weak of him, he thought, he shouldn't care if some doctor called Anya was on her own, he shouldn't care.

Had someone tried emotional blackmail on him a year ago, there wouldn't have been a snowball's chance in hell of it working, because they wouldn't have anyone that he cared about enough to blackmail him with. But now Anya had stomped into his life, messing with his emotions and stopping him from working in the way he was used to working, looking after number one, not trusting anyone.

Dexter's life for his freedom, it was fair deal, Tom supposed.


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Disclaimer: Despite my best efforts to get the BBC to sell Max Beesley to me, all I own in the series one boxset :(