Here's chapter 12!

A little warning: it's a little depressing, but necessary for you to understand a little bit better Annabeth's background and current attitude.

I hope I did the rescue scene justice and that it satisfies your wish to know what exactly went down on the rescue and under what exact circumstances did Annabeth and Steve first met.

Enjoy…

- Are you okay? – asked the first man that approached her – can you move?

She was speechless. She could see that the people coming into her room were some kind of military men but it was imposible. No one knew they were there.

She had woken up from her slumber by the sound of gunshots being fired somewhere outside her room, a room that had become their prison for at least a week; or it could be more, she just wasn't sure anymore. She had looked down at the body she had been holding and over which she had started to fall asleep due to exhaustion: Alex's body.

Tears had immediately come to her eyes again and she started sobbing, she could feel the pressure of her pain pressing down on her chest threatening with cutting out her air circulation for good. Not that she would have complained, she wished the pain would just take her away and be done with her. That way she could still be with him wherever souls went after they died.

She had been startled again by the door to the room being almost blown to pieces and two men dressed in military issued uniforms entered. One had stayed at the door while the other had come closer to her, checking Alex's neck for a pulse and then asking her the question.

- Huh? – was all she managed to say. The man looked at her with something between anger and surprise before speaking again while checking her for injuries.

- I'm Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett. We're getting you out of here. Are you hurt? Can you move?

- Dog! We need to get out of here now! – yelled the man at the door while more gunfire could be heard from outside.

- Listen, we have to move! – repeated the man, McGarrett, since she wasn't making any effort of her own. When he reached her arm to grab it and help her stand, she shrieked and leaned back. Her arm was broken and any contact made it incredibly painful – Jesus! Do you have any other injury?

- Le-leg – she stuttered. He looked down and saw what appeared to be a knife wound. It wasn't bleeding, which led him to believe that it had been made several days ago. He looked at her again and asked himself what the hell had happened to these kids? He glanced at the body of the young boy, disgusted to see so many bullet wounds in him and had to swallow down the bile that had risen up his throat.

- Okay, okay… - he said, trying to come up with a way to move the girl without hurting her further – I'm gonna carry you, okay? – he turned then to his teammate – Fox! We'll need cover fire to get out! I won't be able to shoot!

- Roger that! – McGarret leaned down and put his arms underneath the back of her knees and her back to lift her up.

- NO! NO! Let me go! – she suddenly screamed trying to get away from him.

- It's okay! I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm gonna get you out of here – he tried to approach her again but she hit him with what little force she still had and clutched the boy's body with all her might.

- I can't leave him! – she yelled, pressing her face against the boy's chest and sarting to sob almost uncontrollably.

- Listen! We have to get out of here! I can't carry you both and if Fox does it, we'll have no protection fire. I'm sorry but we have to leave him – he hated what they had to do; given his way, he would have the boy's body returned to his country but right now the primary mission was to get the girl out alive and they were outnumbered. He couldn't let a body be a liability where the lives of his men were concerned, as well as the rest of the mission. He reached for the girl again.

- NO! Please! Please! I can't leave him! – she was crying terribly now, holding to the boy's clothes for dear life and possibly making her injuries worse, but she didn't seem to acknowledge the pain right now. Steve turned to the door when the sounds of the battle taking place outside became nearer and nearer and one other shout from his teammate told him everything he needed to know. It was either getting out now, or not getting out at all. He regreted what he needed to do, but he sobered up and pushed all feelings aside: he grabbed the girl, putting his arms around her middle and pulling her up tomwards him. He couldn't decide if the scream that came out of her was from pain or protest, because he had felt several of her ribs shift when he had moved her. She tried to fight him, struggled into the hold he had of her but she was too weak and injuried to do much more than upset a little bit his balance – ALEX! No! Put… me… down! Leave me… here! ALEX! – Steve just played deaf. It was the only way.

- Alright! Let's go! – he told Fox, and together they made their way through the hallway.

The rest of his team had managed to clear the exit route but were still under heavy fire. He could see that one of them had been hit but he was still up and firing back, so the wound couldn't be too serious. At least, he hoped so.

The girl in his arms was still trying to get free and tears were running freely down her cheeks although she had stopped shouting. Now, all he could hear coming from her was the sound of heavy breathing and small whimpers of pain. He knew the hold he had on her must have been hurting her and once they reached a corner, he set her down on the floor to relieve the pressure from her ribs. She clunged into one of his arms for support because she couldn't put a lot of weight into her injured leg, but stifled a groan when she applied force with her broken arm.

Her eyes were still glued to the end of the way they had just come, unable to believe that she was leaving him behind. The pain coming from her body was nothing compared to the one tearing her heart apart and she tried to get rid of the man holding her to go back to him because she couldn't possibly live without him.

Sensing her movements, Steve held on to her a little tighter and looked at her to tell her again that they needed to move but the pain he saw reflected in those young eyes made his heart hammer in his chest. She was just a kid for crying out loud! How could anyone hurt her like this? Once they had stepped out of that dark room, he had been able to see the evidence of some of the damage inflicted upon her: she had bruises all over her body, her lips were split in diferent places, there had a wound on her temple, one of her arms was broken, her ribs were definitely compromised, she had the knife wound in her leg and he could see finger marks on her neck. But seeing the desperation in her eyes he knew that she wasn't hurting as much from the physical injuries than from having to leave the boy behind.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by his team, giving him the green light to run towards their escape vehicle, and he adjusted his hold of the girl. This time, he was able to carry her bridal style because all energy seemed to have left her body in the last couple of seconds and she had stopped struggling against him. So he took her and ran behind the cover fire of his men towards the vehicle. Once he secured the girl inside, he had taken his weapon and provided cover for the rest of his team to make it back towards him. Eventualy they all did, and sooner rather than later they were on their way to the pickup location where a helicopter would be waiting for them to arrive with their cargo.

Once in the helicopter, the member of the team with the greatest medical knowledge did a preliminary check of the girl, using what little supplies he had to splint the girl's arm and tie a bandage on her leg.

Annabeth had been conscious throughout the whole escape and although she would have wanted to keep fighting, she just simply had no more energy. There came a point where all physical pain had been numbed by her exhaustion; it was as if her body had been turned off. But the one thing she couldn't turn off was her mind, which was screaming insde her head to just drop dead at that moment because she had left him behind. They had killed him… He had killed him, right there in front of her, and she had been left with his body to try and think about how she would continue to live if he was no longer with her.

There were no words to describe the terrible heartbreaking pain she had felt when the last shot directly to the head had been fired, but having to actually leave him behind, in that hell of a place where not only their bodies but their minds had been terrorized until almost the point of no return was just too much for her.

She had failed him. They were both alone in the world and had only eachother to count on, and she had let him down. She wasn't able to protect, save or even bring home the body of the person she loved the most in the entire world, and the sorrow was eating her alive. She didn't see the point in these men rescuing her and getting her out of the place if he wasn't there with her as well.

And as she lost her battle against the dark, right when they were about to reach the base, she whispered the words that carried the only thing she desired most in the world right now. And those were three words that Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett would never forget.

- Please… kill me…

H50H50H50H50H50H50H50H50H50H50

Aaaaaand, end of the flashback…

Well… there you have it! What did you think about it?

And how will Annabeth react now that the flashback is over and she has all those memories fresh inside her mind?

Will she use the cold defensive attitude or will the team finally see a bit of emotion from her?

I guess we'll have to wait and see… remember to leave a review if you're so kind! I would love to see what you guys thought of this chapter…

Until next chapter!