Another chapter posted extremely late I know! Called a night out at the SU haha!

We left on a bit of a cliffhanger didn't we?

Enjoy!

Chapter 13

"What the fuck are you doing?" Ivy screamed at Amanda grabbing the hysterical woman by the forearms and shoving her as violently as was possible away from Adam. She seized the plastic and ripped it free from Adam's face. His mouth had been pressed so tightly against the suffocation device the plastic had formed around the 'o' shape his mouth had been making in his last ditch effort at getting a breath of air. Adam's chest expanded as he took in a breath of air with a huge gasp, nearly collapsing all the way back to the tiled floor. Seeing Adam dry retching tightened Ivy's grip on the scalpel that now was her best defence from the woman in front of her. "You're sick." She hissed through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Breathed Amanda between her sobs and hiccups. All the killing strength seemed to have been knocked out of her as the apprentice gripped onto the bathtub to stop herself from falling over. "I was try...trying to help him."

"By killing him?" She shrieked advancing on Amanda who shrank further down the bathtub. She had no weapons on her at all, only the plastic bag now lying in a tiny pool of blood Ivy began to realise was dripping from Adam's mouth. The poor man was still coughing on the floor between gasps of air. He was covered in dirt from the rank bathroom and his smell matched the stench rising from Zepp's cold corpse. Ivy bent down to Adam and gently reached out to touch his back making sure to keep one eye trained on Amanda; Adam flinched horribly and Ivy found herself using the same soothing words a mother would use on their child. The reaction Adam had to the words was immediate as he began whimpering.

"S..so...cold." He stuttered and Ivy's gaze snapped onto Amanda's jacket, she was still bawling her eyes out crying out apologies. She too was on the floor leaning against the bathtub, her knees knocking together. Adam's frame was shaking all over and his eyes were beginning to roll into the back of his head. Ivy quickly slipped a hand under his chin, stroking her thumb against his cheek.

"It's okay Adam." She soothed, here eyes making contact with Amanda. "Give me your jacket." She ordered and Amanda obeyed at once, closing her eyes when Ivy snatched it out of her hands and wrapped the small jacket as best as she could round Adam. His quivering muscles were spazaming uncontrollably sending Ivy's brain into a medley of panic. Amanda began to climb to her feet again. "Don't you move you bitch." Ivy warned. The situation was so risky. John could walk in at any moment, she was sure she was shouting loud enough for him to hear and Amanda began hushing her. Or Mark could discover them and then they may all be dead. She needed to get Adam moving if she could. She thrust the scalpel at Amanda who recoiled away from it again. Why she hadn't tried to run for it while Ivy was holding Adam was beyond her. She could have sealed the door on them and let them both rot but she was still here out of some maddening sense of apology. Adam let out a moan as his hand gripped Ivy's blouse, his grip alternating between being obscenely tight and then slackening.

"I...Ivy." She didn't know whether it was a question or a statement or a plead for the end, but the crack and hoarseness was breaking her heart and she abruptly covered Adam's hand with the hand that held the scalpel.

"Yes it's me. I...came back." She whispered and Adam nodded.

"You did..you...key." He was becoming delirious as he coughed again and Ivy remembered the water bottle she had stashed in her trouser pocket and poured some down his throat. Adam could hardly even swallow it and most dribbled down his chin.

"Key." Ivy repeated before carefully laying Adam's head back down on the floor and standing. "Where is it?" She said advancing on Amanda all the time. Amanda held her hands up as if Ivy was going to shoot her and when Ivy repeated the words again this time raising the scalpel Amanda pointed to the plughole. "Gotcha." She whispered darkly.

"I...I told you where it is." Amanda cried and Ivy shook her head.

"Yeah but how did you know where it was?" Asked Ivy smirking while her eyes glinted darkly in the minimal torchlight. Amanda opened her mouth to answer and then seeing how Ivy had trapped her began to tremble, her eyes hardening slightly. "Exactly." Ivy finished. Her mind once again going into overdrive, "How was he ever meant to get the damn key if it went down the plughole?" She asked Amanda.

"I just put it on his chest so he would have seen it when he woke up." Amanda revealed and Ivy started laughing at how she had hit the nail on the head.

"Y'know when you wake up in a bath with the lights off after being knocked out with your leg in a shackle you don't tend to notice a key floating around with you." She defended while over gesticulating with the scalpel. "And the bath emptied when he woke anyway, because he didn't see it when we tried to get the tape recorder." Ivy remembered quickly. She shook her head slowly, her dangerous eyes never leaving Amanda. "You tied the plughole's chain to his leg so when he woke he would pull it out and the key would go down the plughole." She guessed. Amanda's eyes widened horribly so they were as wide as saucers. She looked like a hysterical bullfrog with eyeliner. Her silence confirmed all that Ivy needed to know. "You just like to kill don't you?" She spat venomously. Ivy grabbed the torch from its place on the floor and shone it down the plughole. She could see a faintish blue light glowing in the dark. Straightening up she point a finger at Amanda. "Give me the key so I can release him."

Amanda shook her head, another trickle of black ran down her cheek, "I can't." She said simply. "There's only one key and it's down there." She said looking at the bath. Ivy could feel her heart shrinking as she turned back to Adam who was just conscious. He had picked up the water bottle with the last ounces of his strength and had drained the whole thing in the time Ivy and Amanda had been arguing. Ivy whipped her head back round to the apprentice, glanced down at her slim, scarred wrists and cast a careless look back to the plughole. "Then go and get it." Amanda blinked dumbly at the woman in front of her who was now checking Adam's pulse again. The young man was moaning for his ankle to be released and Amanda watched as Ivy bent down and held his head in her hands, running a reassuring hand through his hair and pressing a kind kiss to his right temple. Amanda was fixated on the two, a fresh set of tears brimming in her eyes. "Amanda please. Do the right thing." Ivy pleaded as Adam began to drift in and out of consciousness.

"You really do care for him. Okay, okay..." Whispered Amanda crawling into the still wet bath. She kept muttering the same word over and over again while Ivy gently massaged Adam's temples, more for her own sake than his. She watched Amanda let out a cry of discomfort as her hand travelled further and further down the empty abyss. Ivy prayed to whatever divine being there was that she and Adam would be able to escape and get the help he needed in peace. It seemed like hours before Amanda finally stumbled back over to them, the blue light illuminating the dark room ever so slightly in her fist.

"Put it in the lock." Ivy instructed, her voice much calmer. She didn't want to provoke Amanda when she was holding the key between Adam's life and his death in her palm, her eyes were hunting round the room like a wild animal as she crouched down and slid the key in the lock. With a snap the shackle came undone and Adam's red and raw ankle slipped from the restraint easily.

"Oh god!" Adam cried out. He must have felt the weight lift from his leg and he bucked out of Ivy's arms straight away. Amanda had moved as soon as her task was done.

Ivy's throat hitched as she let out a small "Yes." And then began to hoist one of Adam's arms under her shoulder. She didn't know whether to ask for Amanda's help again or to not press her luck; she decided on the latter and struggled with Adam on her own. "Make sure no one is out there." She told the apprentice who nodded and walked straight up to the industrial door. "Wait!" Ivy hissed and Amanda halted instantly.

"What?" The apprentice asked looking back over her shoulder as Ivy picked up her pace, hobbling towards the door with Adam as fast as she could till she was over the threshold.

"Didn't want you to change your mind and decide to leave us in there." Was Ivy's answer and Amanda gave her a withering look.

"I...wouldn't have." She whispered and something in the quiver of her voice made Ivy believe her, though she did think she had been smart to outwit the woman while she had the chance. She also still had a firm grip on the scalpel. The two women and the nearly unconscious Adam made their way quickly round the cellars with Amanda too now supporting Adam and Ivy's heart jumped when they passed John's office. "He said he was going to bed." Amanda whispered. "After meeting with Hoffman."

"This is so dangerous." Whispered Ivy and Amanda nodded. Ivy only briefly noted Amanda's slip up mentioning Hoffman's name. Amanda pressed on and Ivy kept pace, Adam was thankfully not saying a word which was also slightly worrying at the same time.

"You have to leave the same way you came tonight." Amanda told her in hushed tones as they passed the oil barrel Ivy had hid behind earlier. The door to their freedom again was in sight and only a couple of feet away and still Ivy could not remove that feeling that crept slowly up her spine and made it tingle that they were going to get caught. Amanda pushed the door open and into the cool night air outside then she stopped.

She removed her shoulder form under Adam and Ivy nearly buckled under his weight, "What are you doing?" She asked Amanda heatedly and with a tad of desperation.

"He can't. He can't leave." She sobbed again and Ivy cursed aloud in sheer frustration.

"What the fuck we're out now. He's free Amanda, we're all free. You've helped reverse what you did." She reasoned but Amanda just shook her head.

"No, no. John can't find out. He can never find out what i did, he'll put me in another game." Tears were streaming down her face again. Adam was getting heavier and all Ivy wanted to do was get away from the bi-polar survivor. "He's gonna find out there is no body, when he goes in and sees that he's not dead he's going to realise it was me."

"No Amanda we can fix that now. He doesn't have to know."

"Please you're gonna get off scott free aren't you? You look like the brave little hero while I'm just the cold bitch that trapped him in there." Spat Amanda and Ivy was sure if she had a weapon she would have used it by now. Instead she had to resort to breaking down.

"I disobeyed John too." Ivy argued. "I'm just as accountable as you are, and we are going to fix this."

"How?" Screamed Amanda and Ivy paused for a moment.

The answer came easily to her as Jill's story from the morning swam to the forefront of her mind "Tapp." She whispered. "Do you still have Tapp's dead body?" Amanda nodded, "Then you need to go back now and chain Tapp's body up to where Adam was chained. He's already at the same decomposition rate as Zepp so his features will begin to be unrecognisable soon. Amanda; Tapp can just take Adam's place." Ivy smiled at how she they could wriggle out of yet another death trap. Amanda nodded once again.

"It could work." She pondered, "But you have to help me!"

"I can't." Ivy said sadly, "I would help but I need to get Adam somewhere safe."

"Not a hospital. You have to take him home." Cried Amanda, "The police can't know he's escaped or the press, cause when they do John will." She begged and Ivy nodded, wondering how Adam was ever going to live in society again if he was meant to be dead.

Ivy stared into the night before her and cursed again realising her only mistake tonight. "I don't have a car with me. How am I supposed to get him any further?"

Amanda however was ready for that one. "John told me to find you when you were finished and to drop you back home. He knows you don't have a car which is something you need to get so..." Amanda threw a set of keys from her jeans pocket which Ivy caught. "Just bring it back tomorrow morning." Ivy looked at the keys in her hand and gave her fellow survivor a watery smile. "Thank you." She said before readjusting Adam and walking over to the Ford of which the keys belonged to and settled Adam into the back seat.

For only 7:00pm Ivy felt as exhausted as Adam, driving was giving her a huge headache and she didn't want to think about how she was going to successfully get Adam into her apartment. As she left the Meat Packing District behind hoping she would never see it again Ivy began speeding down the New York roads, caring less and less about the National Speed Limit with every stop she had to make. Adam had finally given in to unconsciousness and was breathing heavily in the back seat. Ivy felt so sorry for the stinking man with the soft brown hair now having to put his complete trust in the woman he shared a bathroom with for many hours with a gunshot wound still embedded in his shoulder, severe dehydration, starvation and potential breathing problems due to the dangerous mix of near suffocation and smoking. Once she began to recognise some familiar streets Ivy relaxed a little more into the car seat, yet she was unused to the handling of Amanda's car and so couldn't relax completely. She wondered what would happen if the police pulled her over and saw the state of Adam lying passed out on her back seat. She decided to slow down till she pulled up outside her apartment.

Adam now being unconscious caused a big problem for her. Was it safer to leave him in the car overnight where he as comfortable? Not if someone else discovers him and tries to do me or Amanda for attempted murder. She decided her best approach would be to bring him up to her apartment where she could watch over him and if she ran into anyone she'd say he got involved in a drunken bar fight or something of that nature which would explain the blood. The divine was on her side though as her apartment foyer was deserted apart from the security guard who offered to help Ivy on seeing her drunken companion but had left her well enough alone when she told the guard he could occasionally lash out when drunk. The lift had come quickly and she double checked that she had locked the door to her apartment properly before dragging Adam over to her bedroom and lying him cautiously on the bed. Her unconscious friend gave what sounded like an appreciative moan in his unconscious state when his body met the soft mattress and duvet and Ivy smiled. He had finally found comfort and for the first time she allowed her brain to understand that not only had she saved Adam, despite all of Jill and Lawrence's warnings but she had, so far got away with it. She wanted to jump around the bedroom in jubilation and sank tiredly onto the bed next to Adam. Resigning herself that if she wanted to really save Adam she still had a lot to do she set to it, knowing she wouldn't be getting much sleep that night anyway. Her nightmares would all consist of the image of Adam's body writhing around in his attempt to get out of the plastic bag anyway.

Ivy began with Adam's clothes slowly removing the disgusting white shirt that had already stained the duvet with blood, sweat and general dampness. His nicely toned chest greeted her again and Ivy's eyebrows knitted together as she saw the extent of the bullet wound. It did't look very severe to her but it would need treating asap. Next came Adam's jeans where Ivy had to ignore the shyness building inside of her as she slowly tugged them off his body, Adam's boxers nearly following suit as they rode dangerous low on his sculpted hips. His feet were disgusting and covered in the white stuff they had all been covered in from the bathroom as well as dried blood. Another wave of nausea hit her as she looked at them before heading into her bathroom and wetting a sponge and bringing the soap along with her. She began dutifully scrubbing thinking to herself all the time what a strange and unusual situation the FBI agent had found herself in. But her sense of owing Adam an overwhelming sense of duty and care made her push on and gently bring Adam's hygiene back to a somewhat suitable level. She stopped when she saw the damaged the shackle had done to Adam's ankle. While Ivy was still having to limp around a little, she knew Adam would not be lucky to not have any nerve damage in his ankle. The area was rubbed raw and bleeding profusely but thankfully had not rubbed itself down to the bone, it was much skinnier than his other ankle due to the constant pressure and he may need a walking cane like Lawrence; but it was a very small price to pay for his freedom. Ivy then set to work on the bullet wound in Adam's shoulder. She still had the scalpel she had used to threaten Amanda into doing her bidding with and thought it would come in useful for digging the bullet out. She wished Lawrence was here with her instead of at the hospital as she had no idea at all how to treat a bullet wound. Deciding she may need to do a little research Ivy shamefully crossed over to her paper strewn, small office and switched on her mac. In the meantime she set out multiple cold bottles of water from the fridge on her bedside table incase Adam woke up anytime soon, as well as some paracetamol incase he needed a minor pain relief. She then put the kettle on for a cup of coffee and went to her mac with a steaming cup full of the stuff.

Becoming more and more frustrated after passing more and more sites full of unhelpful jackass comments or the multiple signs advising to 'seek medical help.' Ivy really began to consider if there was anyway to get Adam to a hospital, or at least a way of getting Lawrence to her apartment. Even if they would allow her into his room at this time which was highly unlikely she doubted very much she would be able to smuggle yet another person out of a guarded building without being caught. Bringing Adam to the hospital herself was like signing a death warrant for herself and Amanda now. Although if she dumped Adam in a place where he would be discovered then they would never know it was her and Amanda couldn't get in trouble either. It certainly seemed the most logical plan, but Adam's severe condition stopped Ivy from committing the selfish act. What if someone else found him? Hoffman was just one of the many people that flashed through Ivy's mind and switching the idea off completely and resigning herself to keep Adam hidden till she could speak to her Uncle was the best idea. She finally found a simple looking site advising the crudest methods of survival and Ivy raced to her kitchen, grabbed the bottle of Smirnoff's she kept in her cupboard as well as the first aid kit and went back to her bedroom. Adam had tried to roll over onto his good shoulder in his unconscious state and Ivy smiled sadly at him before tenderly rolling him onto his back.

"Cleaning the wound with alcohol would be a good start." Advised the computer and so Ivy set to pouring some of the vodka on a clean cloth and wiping away the blood that was still oozing from the bullet wound. This gave her a better view of the bullet itself which thanks to Lawrence's appalling aim had more or less just caught in his shoulder. Pulling a small set of tweezers from the first aid kit where 'I guess you have to remove the bullet or something if your not getting help soon,' rang through her head. And as if Ivy was removing a stubborn splinter from her hand, she pulled the bullet slowly out making sure both she and Adam were as steady as possible, thankfully she had stopped shaking after her cup of half-drunken coffee and was able to succeed with little difficulty. Her back was aching from leaning over Adam and a spurt of blood squelched out of the wound. Ivy went back to the alcohol soaked cloth, rung it out in a bowl of water and then reapplied the strong smelling cloth to the shoulder to continue cleaning. Then going back into her living room and hunting through her cupboards and pulling out her sewing kit, Ivy gulped. She couldn't help but thing how wrong this was as the shaking started again and she had to psyche herself up just to thread the string through the needle. She kept telling herself over and over again that it wasn't a deep wound, there was minimal blood. He would definitely live now and that this was the last risky step she had left to complete. Her anxiety levels were on par with what she had felt when confronted by Zepp and his gun. Just in and out, just in and out. She repeated like a mantra as the needle slowly pierced Adam's skin and slid out again and again as the wound began to close. She was surprised at Adam's continued silence having expected him to have made a few moans. Finally the wound was closed and Ivy could relax. She ran the cloth once more over the stitches before taking out the longest bandage she could find in the first aid kit, sterilised it and wrapped it tightly round Adam's shoulder, looping it through his armpit. The work on Adam had taken another two hours and Ivy's eyes were begging her for rest. Knowing there was nothing more she could do for Adam until he had awoken, she grabbed a blanket from her wardrobe and a set of pyjamas and trudged back into the living room. Changing and slumping onto one of her sofas Ivy was asleep in a matter of minutes an arm flopping over the side and the blanket slipping from her chest leaving the bare parts of her skin not covered by the flimsy vest open to the cold night air.

At 3:00 in the morning Ivy woke bleary eyed to the sound of rustling from the bedroom door she had left open so as to check on Adam when he needed her. She was beautifully comfortable in the warmth of her blanket, no matter how her body was whining from the awkward angle her neck had slept at, unused to the limiting space of a sofa. Knowing if she didn't check on Adam that all her efforts may go to waste, Ivy couldn't resist cursing the young man for waking her from sleep that was as dearly precious to her as ever and went to her bedroom. Adam was rolling round in bed, dreaming bad dreams of chains, tiles and keys. The occasional coherent word could be understood but most of his dialogue was made up of moans, groans and the frequent cry for help, Ivy climbed onto the bed and crawled over to the right side where Adam was clutching his pillow at an odd angle and burying his face into it as it the pillow could protect him from every ghastly vision he saw. He was much skinnier than when they had been cooped up in that bathroom together with Lawrence.

"Adam can you wake up." Ivy whispered gently touching the young man who whimpered when her hand met his shoulder.

"C...cold." He whispered stuttering all the while and Ivy went back to her makeshift bed in the living room and sacrificed her blanket to wrap around Adam. She didn't have anymore in her apartment but it seemed to satisfy him.

"It's alright Adam." She reassured calmly, able to whisper the words of comfort she daren't speak in front of Amanda back in the bathroom. "You're safe with me now. We are all safe and no one can come to hurt us again." She didn't know whether he could hear her words or if they all just blurred together in his mind but he tilted his head towards her and the lines of stress in his forehead smoothed. Ivy touched the back of her hand to his forehead and feeling the slight heat there under the layer of dirt, she reached over to pick up the water bottle, let some of the water spill into her hand and dribbled it across Adam's forehead. The droplets ran down his cheeks and some travelled into his matted hair and as his face registered the soothing cold his lips quirked into a grimace. "Are you unconscious or just asleep?" Ivy pondered, wondering how much a person could do while unconscious and hoping he would wake up soon. Even for a couple of minutes so she would not feel as alone as she did then. Running a hand along Adam's cheeks, smoothing some of the creases formed by his nightmares Ivy felt a sense of peace enter her bones as she allowed herself to lie in a more comfortable position, her hand never stopping its quest to smooth out the man's face beside her. Her eyes travelled down Adam's blanketed body till her sleepy gaze rested on his ankle. Realising she had never treated it she moaned to herself wanting to relax back into the inviting warm of his body heat but dutifully clambered back out of bed and fetched the vodka induced cloth and cleaned the red raw ankle. If Adam had been conscious the stinging would surely have woken him as she made sure to cleanse every area. After carefully bandaging that too she lay back onto the bed, yet all efforts of sleep began to allude her and she found herself back in her office trawling through the news reports about her trap which gave her no more information than that she already knew. So Ivy switched to looking for information on the Detectives she would be working with, feeling that she might as well as be prepared. After reading a tiny dated article about Kerry rising to the rank of a homicide Detective Ivy rooted round for the last known location of her phone, surprised she hadn't looked for it beforehand. There were endless amounts of texts and missed phone calls and one so recent as tonight from an unknown number. She hoped to god it wasn't Amanda calling her to panic once again. She picked up the folder Kerry had given her at the hospital and thumbed through till she found a list of the Detective's numbers and began adding them into her IPhone before pressing call.

A voice as slurred with sleep as Ivy felt picked up. "Uh Detective Kerry, homicide." Mumbled the voice.

"Kerry it's Ivy, the survivor from the bathroom." Ivy frowned at how she had re-introduced herself.

"Do know what time it is?" Grumbled Kerry and Ivy could hear rustling in the background.

"Yeah I do, I'm having quite a lot of insomnia lately," She lied, "But I never officially told you my answer regarding the job." Ivy pressed on and she heard Kerry make a noise. "I can start tomorrow."

"Uh yeah, come by tomorrow then. 8:15." Kerry answered and as soon as Ivy had confirmed, the Detective hung up. Putting her phone back down Ivy's fingers hovered over the keyboard thinking, she had now researched a little on every Detective, both alive and dead and assessed who she thought might take a bit of work, all expect for one. She was caught in a moment of inertia where her fingers typed random words and lazily darted round the keyboard. She got as far as the second 'f' in his surname before closing the web browser and shutting the computer off. She'd find out more about him tomorrow.

SHE SAVED HIM the little hero! But don't worry Ivy's luck certainly isn't going to remain that sunny.

What's Adam's reaction going to be when he recovers I wonder? What about John? Amanda? Hoffman?

Read and review! xoxo