Desmond catapulted awake with a desperate cry on his lips and the image of Malik Al-Sayf, younger than Desmond had ever seen him, leaping into a fight after his younger brother, Kadar. Desmond could feel Altair's panic at the idea something might happen to one of his only friends, the emotion so thick that it seemed to clog his throat. His heart was pounding in his chest and his skin was soaked in sweat. He panted for breath as he stared at the blank wall just a few feet away, reminding himself that he was Desmond, not Altair, and that obviously Malik had survived because he had been around to snark at Desmond's ancestor during his animus sessions at Abstergo. He closed his eyes and pressed his head against his knees, arms shaking when he wrapped them around his legs.
It wasn't as if Desmond didn't know exactly what was going on. He'd learned about the Bleeding Effect from the Apple long before the Templars had ever been able to manufacture an animus. That didn't make things better. The only difference between the Desmond the Apple had shown him and himself was that he knew, without Lucy telling him, that he was going crazy. It was not a comforting thought. He shuddered and bit down hard on his lip so that the sob building up didn't escape. Suddenly feeling suffocated, he scrambled to his feet, eyes scanning the room. Since the Assassin safe house was a warehouse, they were all spread out on air mattresses in the same room. Lucy was curled up in a little ball inside her sleeping bag, breathing evenly, and Rebecca was sprawled out on her stomach in her own, snoring softly. On Desmond's other side, Shaun's sleeping bag was empty.
After being with the Assassins for a few days, Desmond knew enough of their routines to guess that the Brit was working on database entries and pouring over Desmond's recorded animus sessions. The knowledge that his little episode hadn't woken anyone was incredibly relieving and he knelt, grabbing his sweat shirt and slipping on his shoes before creeping towards the door. He was already dressed, his training through the animus and memories of Daniel ambushing him as part of his training when he was seventeen keeping him from stripping when he went to sleep, so it was simple to slip on his sweatshirt in preparation of sneaking out for a breath of fresh air in the hope that it could clear away the last, lingering images of Masyaf. He paused once at the door, glancing back into the room to make sure he hadn't woken either of the girls. He didn't notice Rebecca's green eyes tracking his movements.
Desmond made his way quietly down the concrete hall in the opposite directly of the room with the animus, taking the stairs that led to the warehouse room. Stepping outside on to sheet metal, he breath out a sigh of relief as cool wind smacked his face. The sounds and smells of Masyaf all those centuries ago faded away, replaced by the distant clamor of New York in the evening. Desmond settled cautiously on the rooftop, making sure he wasn't going to slide off before relaxing a bit. The chill of the evening sank through his clothes where they were resting against the metal roof. "Can you see the stars from here?" a voice asked from the entrance to the roof and Desmond flinched, jerking to his feet and whipping around to see Rebecca staring at him with wide eyes.
"Sorry," she apologized, and then offered him a sheepish smile. "Mind if I join you?"
"If you want," Desmond replied, sinking down cautiously to see on the roof again. Rebecca climbed the rest of the way out and settled next to him, her arm warm where it pressed up against his own.
They sat in silence for a few minutes before the brunette shivered, wrapping her arms around her chest. Desmond slipped out of his sweatshirt and handed it to her without meeting her eyes. "Thanks," she said once she'd wrestled it on and Desmond nodded in uncomfortable acknowledgement. He honestly wasn't certain of what to think about Shaun and Rebecca. Of the two of them, the perky brunette was easier to like, but Desmond had discovered that he made friends more easily with women than men, probably because he half expected some sort of abuse from the men. Shaun's abrasive attitude didn't help with that perception, and Desmond avoided the Brit as much as possible, if for no other reason than to avoid the sick, churning feeling he got in his stomach when someone he didn't know if he could trust snapped at him.
He wasn't certain if he could trust Rebecca either, but he wanted to. She was friendly and open, all her emotions written on her face for the world to see. Furthermore, she was trying to at least build some kind of amicable working relationship between the two of them. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for him. The plan he, Lucy, and Daniel had agonized over until it was perfect, required no slips. Should he be wrong about Rebecca's loyalties, it would ruin everything. It didn't mean he couldn't be kind to the brunette, but the knowledge was incredibly effective at keeping him from attempting to form some kind of friendship.
"How are you not freezing?" Rebecca demanded, breaking the silence. Desmond shrugged, unwilling to admit that the cold grounded him, along with the noises from the city. She frowned at him and grabbed his arm, releasing it when he twitched a little. "Come on," she ordered. "If we're going to stay up until the sun rises, we might as well do it where it's warm." She paused a moment, seeming the remember the chill the permeated the warehouse, and then added, "Or at least warmer."
Desmond reluctantly followed Rebecca back into the warehouse, and then into main room. Shaun was bent over his laptop, skin bleached even whiter by the glow of the computer screen. The Brit glanced up when Rebecca and Desmond entered, tracking their movements until Rebecca was sitting on her rolling chair and Desmond was perched on the edge of the animus. Then he turned back to his research, keys clicking under his fingers. "So what sent you to the roof anyway?" Rebecca inquired.
"I needed a little fresh air," Desmond mumbled, staring down at the floor.
"Totally understandable," Rebecca replied and when Desmond glanced up, her gaze was sympathetic. A moment later she brightened and spun her chair towards her laptop. "Oh, oh! I've got an idea," she chirped, fingers flying on the keyboard. A moment later she was shoving Desmond over and settling into the animus next to him. Without any explanation, she settled the laptop on their legs and pressed play. Desmond startled a little when he was assaulted by opening music, but within a couple minutes he was relaxing into the animus. Rebecca had picked some action movie he didn't recognize, not that he'd actually seen very many movies, and it was nice to just mindlessly watch what was going on instead of being involved in the action. His eyes slowly began to drift closed. By the time they made it halfway through the movie, he had fallen into a peaceful sleep.
Rebecca didn't dare move for fear of disturbing the newest member of their little Assassin team. Even before he'd jolted awake with a sound that was almost a sob, he'd roused her by thrashing about in his sleeping bag. Watching him, she had been surprised that he hadn't rolled off the air mattress still wrapped up in his sleeping bag. Tracking him to the rooftop of the warehouse had been worrisome, and she'd been afraid that he was going to throw himself off it. Rebecca had read Lucy's reports from Abstergo, and she knew exactly what prolonged exposure to the animus did to a person. Clay Kaczmarek was just the latest in a long list of people that had ended their lives while suffering from the Bleeding Effect.
Judging from Lucy's reports, most of the animus subjects had ended their own lives. Vidic had survived his short time in the animus seemingly unharmed and Daniel Cross was also alive, but he was plagued by the Bleeding Effect. The blonde had theorized that there might be one more subject that had survived, but the other thirteen had ended their lives in various, sometimes creative, ways. Even though she'd only known him for a few days, Rebecca didn't want Desmond to be the next victim in a long line.
Pushing bleak thoughts away, the brunette tried to focus as Jason Bourne tracked down the people who'd been trying to kill him. Rebecca was a huge action movie buff and she had a variety of different films saved on her computer. Before she'd joined the Assassins, she'd also had a Netflix queue full of a variety of action and horror movies, but she'd dropped that when she signed up on this crew. There was too much of a chance of being tracked by Templars through that account. The movie came to a close and Rebecca silenced it before beginning to search for another, sleep no longer sounding appealing after seeing the hopeless longing in Desmond's eyes as he'd stared out into the night.
"So you've subjected Miles to your horrible taste in movies," Shaun said, dark circles thick under his eyes as he paused next to her. "Congratulations."
"Exhaustion ruins your wit, Shaun," she replied with a grin. "You've been researching too long."
"Nonsense," came the swift reply. "I'm only trying to keep our arguing down to a minimum so our poor test subject can get some rest." Rebecca rolled her eyes at Shaun's sarcasm and turned her attention back to her movies. It took a minute to bring up another, Christopher Nolan's Batman adaptation, and she expected Shaun to leave, either to return to his work or to go catch a few hours of sleep before they needed to start Desmond's animus sessions for the day. Instead he said, "Why'd you drag him in here at this time of night anyway? And why are you wearing his sweatshirt?"
"He had a nightmare and ended up on the roof," she said, turning away from the opening to look Shaun in the eye. "He handed over his sweatshirt when he noticed I was cold and I managed to convince him to come in."
"Bleeding Effect?" Shaun's voice was grim, and Rebecca nodded in agreement.
"At least I think so. He wouldn't say." She glanced over at Desmond, whose face was wrinkled in what looked like pain. "Maybe he'll tell Lucy."
"Yes, he does seem to be rather attached to her," the Brit commented. Rebecca hummed in agreement, watching the events that would make Bruce Wayne into Batman play out on the screen. "He's not like I expected," Shaun admitted after a moment.
"I know what you mean." She glanced back at Shaun and gave him a smile, "Get some rest Shaun, otherwise you won't be able to snark properly tomorrow and Lucy might think something is wrong."
"It's already tomorrow," Shaun informed her, but he was already heading for their sleeping quarters, footsteps heavy. Rebecca shook her head and turned her attention towards Batman.
She fell asleep halfway through the movie and woke to a startled noise in her ear. Rebecca jolted upright, elbowing Desmond in the side. He winced but didn't protest, mumbling an apology for waking her before retreating towards the bathroom. Rebecca watched him go, trying to wake her mind up fully, and then slid out of the animus. Her laptop had fallen asleep at some point and she plugged it in, guessing it was probably close to dying. White fabric slipped over her hands and she realized she was still wearing Desmond's sweatshirt. She slipped it off and folded it carefully, placing it on the edge of the animus. That would allow Desmond to pick it up before he started today's session and still pretend that the events of last night never happened. Rebecca would be okay with that so long as it helped build up trust between herself and someone she hoped to befriend.