Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.

One Long Shift

Chapter Nine: Stalling

Usually Kyle was pretty clueless as to the grander scheme of things. Sure, he usually knew the big, vague details - evil alien empire, valiant resistance movement, Gordon 'The Opener of the Way' Freeman - but the stuff about what the plans to stop the Combine actually were, that kind of thing? Not something that entered his mind.

Not that he wasn't curious. It was just above his pay grade. If the resistance had pay grades.

And, frankly, part of him didn't want to know the details. He was happy to just do his part and help in any way he could. Of course, it didn't hurt that this way the Combine would have no reason to interrogate him. Although after his experience with the slug thing, that wasn't so comforting. Seemed the Combine were content to suck out your brains regardless of whether you knew anything or not.

He stopped at a tree to catch his breath, and also to give his freshly healed leg a break. He had been so distracted by the conversation he had been having with Barney had hadn't even paid attention to Wicker applying the med-pack. The sounds of the battle behind him were intermittent. Kyle wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

Of course, he would kind of like to know what the hell was going on now. First Ray looks like he's rescuing him, then makes to shoot him - and maybe would have if Barney hadn't come in. Then Barney starts accusing him of being a Combine collaborator. Then Ray denies seeing him being dragged off by a Hunter. Then Barney attacks Ray. Then Wicker attacks him, talking about her daughter, or all things.

A daughter? Kyle had no idea she even had a daughter. And Ray had something to do with what happened to said daughter. Or something. Neither Barney or Wicker were particularly elaborate on that point.

There was the old adage of 'mind your own business', but… Kyle was here, with a gun, chasing Wicker and Ray because of that business, so he figured that maybe gave him a right to know.

A gunshot echoed from ahead of him, followed by an incredibly angry yell from Wicker.

"You know I can hit you from here, Ray!"

He set off, running as fast as his weakened leg would allow. It only took him a couple of seconds to find them.

Wicker had her rifle raised, pointed at Ray's back. Ray was a couple of paces ahead of her, hands in the air. But it didn't look like he had been shot. Yet. Kyle guessed that the gunshot he heard before had been a warning shot.

Flexing his fingers on the grip of his handgun, Kyle glanced between them, his breathing light. Hesitantly, he brought up the gun, unsure of who to point it at. Finally, with a helpless grimace, he threw the gun away.

Though she noticed the sound of the gun hitting the ground, she didn't take her aim from Ray.

"Turn around and leave, Kyle."

"Uh… Barney told me to-"

"Fuck Barney! Turn around and leave!"

Kyle swallowed. Shit, his hands were shaking. Why were his hands shaking?

"Wicker. This… this isn't going to solve anything."

"I'm not tryin' to solve anythin'. Does this look like a puzzle to you? No, this is a child-murdering bastard getting what he deserves."

A cold shiver ran through Kyle as he saw his old friend in an entirely new, horrible light.

Ray risked a look back. "Wicker, I didn't-"

"YOU SHUT UP! YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!"

Slowly, Kyle started walking towards Wicker. "Look, I… don't know what he did. And you don't have to tell me. I just-"

"I had a baby, a couple of years ago. A miracle baby. Her name was Carol and she was the most beautiful thing I had seen in my entire life. And this…" She literally spat as she looked at Ray. "…thing, he… called the Combine, told them where my baby was. And we had to leave her. Everybody else would have died if we didn't, and we thought we could rescue her, we thought…"

Tears were building in her eyes, but she blinked them away, taking a deadly step towards Ray. Kyle side-stepped along with her, keeping himself beside her.

"Do you know what happened to her, Ray?" she growled.

He didn't reply.

"ANSWER ME!"

"No! No, I…" He sighed, and bowed his head. "I don't."

"I did. Alyx found out. They experimented on her, and she died. I don't know what they did, but we've all seen Stalkers before. We know what the Combine…" Her bottom lip trembled. "…we know what they can do."

His mind was a blank. There were literally no thoughts in Kyle's head. All he could do was watch and listen.

"And you called them. You told them where to find her, knowing what they would do to her."

Ray still didn't reply, and Wicker didn't look like she was going to add anything soon. She was literally shaking with rage, though through some miracle she managed to keep a stable grip on her rifle.

Frowning, Kyle slowly looked over at Ray. "Why?"

Ray's head twitched, as if he hadn't been expecting that. Whether it was the question or the fact that it was Kyle asking it that surprised him, Kyle didn't know.

"…it's for your own good."

That answer even managed to hit Wicker, who blinked in shock. "What?"

"We're… the human race, we're… too stubborn. I can see what the Combine are offering us, and in the end it's better for us. Biologically, technologically… they've got so much they want to share with us, and we're… biting the hand that feeds. Everyone thinks about it but never says anything, because it's this dirty little secret; that if we just stopped resisting and just… got over ourselves… then they'd help us."

Almost dumbfounded by the strange words that were coming out of his best friend's mouth, Kyle closed his eyes and shook his head. He vaguely hoped that he'd open his eyes and this would somehow never have happened.

"What… I… Ray, have you not been awake for the past two decades? The war? The enslavement?"

"Big changes always take time, and there are some dark patches, but we can come out the other side shining so brightly, don't you understand? Us and them, them and us… there are no sides, here. It should just be us. All of us, working together."

Wicker's eyes had literally darkened during some part of that speech, and Kyle watched nervously as she adjusted her grip on the rifle.

"I'm going to shoot you now," she said, her voice disturbingly even.

"Don't-" Kyle reached out, stopping just short of actually touching the rifle.

"Why, Kyle?! Why? Did you hear what he just said? The crazy shit he believes? You think that's gonna change if I don't kill him?"

"You're not going to kill him," Kyle said, feeling completely certain.

"I've killed people before."

"Yeah, in a war. They were shooting at you, you shot at them. That's not what this is. This is an execution, Wicker. That's the kind of stuff the Combine do. I've seen CPs…" He sighed heavily, horrific images flowing back to him. "…I've watched… friends… be lined up and shot."

He lay a gentle hand on the top of her rifle.

"That's them. Not you." With as little pressure as he could manage, he gradually pushed down on the rifle. "That's not you."

At first, she resisted, and Kyle was considering the possibility that he might get into a fight with Wicker over someone who had been working with the Combine for years. Then, much to his relief, she seemed to allow it, her grip slackening.

That was when Kyle spotted the Hunter leaping into view on the other side of Wicker. Without a moment's thought he grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and threw her aside, intending to leap with her but stumbling on his injured leg.

A burst of flashes blasted out of the Hunter as it fired the darts. Kyle felt a series of pinpricks hitting his body, the final one lodging in his neck, just below his ear.

Falling to the ground, he heard the steadily increasing whine of the darts as they prepared to explode.

Kyle looked at Ray and Wicker.

"Run-"

The whining came to a crescendo.

There was a bright flash.

And then there was nothing.

(A/N: Reviews welcome, as always)