Title - Written By The Victors
Chapter title - The Escape
Author - OblivionsGarden
Genre - Romance/Adventure/Friendship/Drama
Disclaimer - I do not own the Uncharted Series in anyway shape or form. I only own the plot points surrounding my oc's, not recognized from the games. For this chapter I own, Penny Kingsley.
Chapter Word Count - 2384 words.
A/n - Please leave a review, I'd greatly appreciate it. Hope you enjoy, xx (:
Having been boosted up the wall by Sully and Elena and caught and pulled the rest of the way by Nate, Penny was now chasing after Sam with his baby brother. At first, Nathan had tried to insist that she stay was Sully and Elena and find the plane but she was stubborn. She couldn't stay behind, she'd have driven herself, and the others, crazy.
They barely spoke as they traveled, only noting when they saw Sam's footprints or to give a heads up of dangerous rocks. By the time the two found themselves beneath Rafe and Nadine, Penny had used almost all of her remaining energy. The jumping, sliding and climbing had reopened the wound in her stomach or at least it felt like it. She hadn't took a chance to check, fearing what she'd find beneath her shirt but she could feel the agitation.
When the explosion on the ship came, Penny's chest constricted as she pushed away thoughts of Sam having been near. She and Nate climbed onto the ship, ran across the deck and down below where they found Avery's treasure. If she hadn't been so preoccupied she would've commented how it reminded her of Aladdin's cave. Nathan found a door and pulled it up, clouds of smoke coming billowing out. They called out for Sam only for Rafe to stumble forward, gun aimed and ready.
"Hey, Nate." He greeted in an oddly cheery manner. "And Penny, too. I need to hire better men if they can't finish off one little girl."
"Where is Sam?" Nate demanded, own gun pointed right back at Rafe.
"Oh, he's right there."
Penny's eyes fell to Sam's unconscious form, trapped beneath a beam of wood. She felt bile rising and fought to keep it down as she made to move over to him only for Rafe to stop her.
"Relax, he's alive. Y'know this idiot nearly got us all killed."
"Just let me go to him." She pleaded, noticing how his eyes fell to the gun strapped to her thigh. She glanced at Nate who gave her a discreet nod. She pulled the gun from it's holster tossing it through the door behind them. "Please." She asked again and he side stepped, letting her pass.
She dropped to her knees by Sam's head, running her hand across his cheek, willing him to wake up. She kept half of her concentration on Rafe, cursing when Nadine took Nate's gun. When she turned on Rafe too, for a brief second she thought she might get them all out of there. But of course, they just weren't that lucky. The door was slammed closed behind her and it seemed to hammer the nail into Rafe's swiftly decreasing sanity.
When he pulled the sword from the chest of Thomas Tew, Nate looked back at Penny. "Get him awake, I'll deal with him."
"Sam, c'mon... You gotta wake up now!" Penny lightly slapped his cheek, tears blurring her vision. "Please..." His eyes fluttered, finally, head turning to see what was happening. "Sam, thank god!"
She grinned, looking back up to where Nathan was lying flat on his back, defenseless as Rafe stood above him.
"Nathan!" Sam called, reaching the sword the lay so close to him and sliding it to his brother.
Penny tried to lift the beam that was trapping Sam but there was no way she could do it alone. Sam tried to help but even together the beam was too strong, they needed Nate.
"Penny, I'm sorry." Sam had stopped pushing the wood, instead staring up at the woman above him. "I shouldn't have dragged you into this. Twice."
"Shut up." She snapped. "I don't want an apology, I want a boyfriend." She continued to push the wood, to no avail. Sam smiled a little as he looked up at her.
"You wanted me to be your boyfriend?" He sounded so innocent in the way he asked, like he didn't really believe her. "Me?"
"Yeah, you." There was a loud crash behind her and she soon realised that Rafe was dead, crushed by the treasure he'd spent most of his life searching for. "Nate, we need you here." She called.
Even with the combined strength of all three of them, it was no use. The beam just wouldn't move. Nate wouldn't give up but Sam had no fight left and Penny was swiftly running out of energy.
"Listen to me!" Sam grabbed his brothers arm. "All I ever wanted to do was find this treasure with you. Hey, we did it. We did it, little brother. Okay? It's all right."
"You're saying goodbye." Penny stated, tears spilling down her cheeks now.
"Nathan, you gotta go." Sam glanced at Penny, his own eyes wet as he pushed Nathan away. "There is no other way. C'mon Nathan I gotta know you made it out all right! I gotta know you and Penny are safe."
"I'm not leaving you here, you giant idiot." Penny sobbed, refusing to move from Sam's side. "Not a chance."
"Please, Penny." Sam begged. "Go with Nathan, go live your life."
"That's it!" Nathan gasped and Penny's eyes darted over to him. He aimed the canon at the floor, blowing through it with ease. As the water started to fill the boat, they managed to lift the wooden beam from Sam's chest.
"You are one crazy son of a bitch." Sam gasped as he climbed to his feet, pulling Penny up with him.
"Takes one to know one. C'mon."
The three of them took a deep breath and dove, swimming as fast as they could manage out of the ship, heading straight out of the cave. Penny could feel her body giving up but she tried to push on, using Sam and Nate's voices as her guide. She was just passing the rocks when she just couldn't move anymore, her body gave up. She took an involuntary gasp, swallowing a mouthful of water as she did before her eyes drifted shut.
The relief that flooded Elena's entire being as she saw her husband swimming out of the now blocked up cave was overwhelming. She pulled him up onto land, pulling Sam up too. As the two men collapsed onto their back, she turned expecting to see Penny reaching up, but the redhead was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Penny?" She frowned and Sam shot back up, looking out into the water.
He wasted no time, diving straight back into the water and heading back where they'd come from. Sam dove under by the cliff side, spotting Penny, face down. He wrapped one arm around her waist, swimming to the surface and dragging her to land. Nate took her from him, laying her down on the ground as Elena knelt beside her. She began pressing her hands on her chest as she had learnt to do years ago in a first aid course she took with her college. Sam was shaking, pacing, kneeling and then standing again. His hands raked through his hair over and over until he heard her cough.
Water spilled from her mouth and Nathan tilted her head to the side so it could run freely as she coughed more up. Eventually she took a deep shuddering breath and let her head drop back onto the ground as Sam knelt beside her, lifting her shoulders and pulling her to rest her upper body on his thighs as he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sorry you went through all that to come out without your treasure." Penny's voice was rougher than usual and she continued to cough.
"I got you didn't I?" Sam didn't miss a beat and the cocky smirk she had come to love was right the in front of her face.
"Smooth." She laughed.
"About as smooth as sandpaper." Nate shook his head at the two as Elena shot up a flare for Sully.
Sam carried Penny into the plane, her body to exhausted to move anymore. He got her settled onto two seats as he sat on a third, her upper body leaning against his chest as he held her close.
"You know since we met, I've been shot at, beaten up, stabbed and I almost drowned... I think you're bad for my health, Sam Drake."
Sam laughed as he brushed some of her dirt matted hair from her face. "But you can hold on a little longer right? Til we get you to the hospital?"
"Yeah, maybe. I don't know Sam. I think adrenaline was keeping me going before but now I just... I feel like shit."
"You hold on, kid!" Sully called from the front of the plane. "You die on me, I'll kick you goddamn scrawny ass."
Elena used Sully's on board medical supplies to properly clean and dress her wounds until they could be tended to properly. Sam kept talking to her the whole time, just to stop her from passing out.
"Oh, I found something of yours." Elena stated suddenly, leaning to grab the object from beneath her seat. "I found it when we first landed, stuck in the sand. Sully said it was yours."
Penny took the battered camera from Elena's hands with a sad smile. Despite the obvious she tried to turn it on, sighing when nothing happened.
"Betty's dead." She turned the camera over, pulling the SD card from it's slot. "I hope this still works... I got some good shots before I lost her."
"One of Sam's good squat, right?" Nate chuckled and Penny rolled her eyes.
"Your ass is on there too, Nate."
The rest of the flight was used mainly for Sam to apologize and try to explain although after everything nobody really needed it. The anger had mellowed and subdued but Sam needed to say his piece. He needed them to know he knew he'd done wrong and was acknowledging it.
The doctors at the hospital were persuaded by Sully that Penny had been attacked by an unknown man and with her agreeing with that story, their questions ran dry. The wanted to keep her in at least overnight to keep check on her wounds and general state of mind. She was aware that the doctors didn't buy their story and were waiting for the truth. She also knew they wouldn't get it and nor would the police who came to question her about the supposed attack.
Penny managed to convince Nate and Elena to continue on home, insisting that she was in safe hands and didn't need them to babysit her. She was forced to promise to visit them in the future, get to hang out with them some place other than a cliff edge.
Sam and Sully, were not as easily convinced at the others. There was no way either man would be leaving Penny alone in a Kings Bay hospital and so she settled for having Sam by her side as soon as he had seen off his brother and sister in law. She tried to tell him she'd only be there for the evening, two at the most but he wouldn't leave.
"So, what's next for you, Mr Drake?" She asked as he sat in the chair by her bed. She scratched at the skin around the drip in her arm, keeping all of her vitals up.
"Sully has a job in Portugal." He answered, hands shaking, itching to smoke.
"Crack open a window and have at it, you're making me nervous." Penny laughed as he jumped up to do so.
"You want in?" Sam asked, blowing smoke out into the evening air.
"I've got to go home, Sam." Penny's eyes fell to the itchy sheets on her bed. "I've got some explaining to do... But when I'm done, I could always come catch you up. I mean two old geezers like you an Sully, how far could you get?"
"Old geezers, huh?" Sam chuckled, finishing his cigarette and tossing the but out. "I've got the energy of a twenty five year old." He winked, climbing onto the bed beside her and stretching out his long legs.
"Yeah, I'll bet." She laughed, leaning into his side.
Sam waited until she'd fallen asleep to have his second cigarette. He was eventually asked to leave by one of the nurses but he returned bright and early the following morning when she was discharged.
"You sure you don't want me to come with?" Sam asked, as he, Penny and Sully waited for Penny's plane call at the airport.
"I'm about to tell my parents that I almost died twice, spent weeks getting shot at, scaling cliffs, participating in boat and car chases and fighting an army and a mad man. If I turn up with an older guy with a bullet wound on his arm who just spent fifteen years in jail... They might drop dead right then and there." The three shared a laugh as Penny's plane was called. "I better be off then. I'll see you in Portugal."
"You take your time, kid. Heal first, then come find us." Sully embraced the younger girl and she squeezed him a little.
"Just keep me updated and keep the BFG safe."
"Will do." Sully smiled. "Say hi to Stanley for me."
"He's gonna want to kick your ass when he sees me." Penny snorted. "Grandfather always had been protective, you know that." She turned to Sam who was watching her wit a familiar glint in his eye. "It's back."
"What?" He frowned.
"You're sparkle." She shrugged. "When we started this you always had this little twinkle in your eye, it went away on the cliff." Sam looked down at his boots. "And now it's back. You're excited for your new job aren't you?" She pushed his chin so he was looking at her. "Be safe, big guy."
"I will." He pulled her in for a hug, hand holding the back of her head protectively. "You too, princess."
The last call for her flight was announced and she sighed. She went up on her tiptoes, holding Sam's shoulders for balance as she reached to press a chaste kiss to his lips.
"When I meet up with you in Portugal, we'll finish this." She whispered so Sully couldn't hear before turning and heading for the eleven hour plane journey.