The characters do to belong to us.

Chapter Fourteen

Sasha started to stir, but could yet not see through the flashing colors. "Who's there, and I know you are. I can hear you. Tell me, please." She groaned in pain.

"My name is Liza," the older woman responded. "I'm not here to experiment on you, I'm here to help. What's your name, honey?"

"Sasha," she whispered quietly. "I want to go home."

"I know," Liza said empathetically. "They gave you something that they give all of the clones to test their endurance. But they gave you more because they've been searching for you. I'm not one of them. I live here in hiding, and I'm going to help you the best that I can."

Footsteps echoed again, and both women froze in fear. Liza tiptoed out of the room. "I'll be watching over you, Sasha. I promise."

The man was back and Sasha made no sound as he injected her again. She braced herself for another feeling like earlier but was surprised to observe her consciousness slipping away into nothingness, like the way water swirls down a drain with a loud slurp before it is gone.

Liza crept back into the room, her worst fears confirmed. Sasha's heart had stopped in their next phase of the experiment. She immediately started CPR and waited patiently for several minutes until the young woman started to breathe again.

"What happened?" Sasha asked, completely exhausted. She felt a heavy weight on her chest, but could not decide what it was.

"You're ok, but don't try to talk," Liza advised gently, smoothing her hair in a motherly way.

Sasha obeyed and laid back wordlessly. She felt safe with this stranger and was comforted by her presence.

The days, or perhaps weeks, for all Sasha knew, went by in the same manner of different experiences after the man's needle pierced her skin. One moment, she was spinning and burning and after drugged into an indescribable void where she felt nothing, knew nothing. Then she would wake up, gasping for air. More times than not, it felt as if someone had been pushing hard on her sternum to the point of bruising or even breaking several of her ribs. Every time she came back to consciousness the watchful cerulean eyes of Liza were upon her. All of this was normal until the day she heard sirens and footsteps outside the room in which she was kept, and all chaos broke loose.

Jane Rizzoli had gained a wealth of intelligence regarding the rogue agents and their hatred of and experiments on clones through the tireless work of her partners Korsak and Frost in the days since Sasha was missing. Finally, it all came together and she tossed caution to the wind as she sought to stop the terrorization of clones and their originals for once and for all.

On a windy afternoon, she stood outside a seemingly abandoned house with her badge and gun, her determination mixed with the revelry of returning to her normal state of affairs in her work. As the SWAT team leader signaled, she charged the compound with the other officials. Hope waited with the medical team, whom the police had both wished and feared would be needed for the rescue of those trapped by the splinter agency. She prayed that her daughter would be found alive. Hope wasn't sure when she'd first started to consider Sasha a daughter, but she was determined not to lose her. "Please let Sasha be all right," she whispered as the raid began.

In the house, Sasha heard the running steps of people outside. She was shocked at the light that invaded her eyes as the door to her room was flung open. The man with the syringe was standing in the doorway, holding a gun instead of the typical vials.

"Move!" He barked at her, impatient when her attempts to move after a month of being restrained to a table made her slow and jerky. Liza emerged from the shadows but he turned to her with hatred and his eyes and slapped her across the face.

"Get her out of here," he ordered with a harsh nod toward Sasha.

Liza did as she was told, helping Sasha to the hallway, where even more light filled their senses. If it hadn't been for the terrifying circumstances, Sasha might have basked in the light she had so craved in the underground. But Liza urged her on and she attempted to walk on legs that felt like jelly, and weakened with each step she was forced to take toward the firing squad blocking the entrance to the other rooms. Liza was ever at her side, and she held tighter, not just out of physical weakness, but out of fear.

What happened next came so quickly that those who witnessed it could never agree on an exact recitation of events. The guards raised their guns to shoot, but were overtaken at once by a ferocious Jane Rizzoli and her team of sharpshooters. Feeling his own end at hand, the last guard aimed his gun at Liza, the hated traitor of the rogue agency. Sasha saw what was about to happen and was not about to let the woman responsible for her own survival die.

"Liza!" She called out and lunged at her friend in order to knock her to the floor, but the guard was too fast. He fired his gun in rapid rounds, landing three bullets in Sasha's torso before finally hitting Liza as the last one passed through each of them. His satisfaction was short lived, as a single gunshot from the avenging angel with black hair and heartbroken eyes pierced him in the head, resulting in instantaneous death. She had felled every other rogue guard and radioed in the medical unit for the survivors. Blinking back tears, Jane ran toward Sasha and Liza. The two women were lying in a heap, Sasha on top of her fallen friend. She was conscious and saw Jane through blurry eyes. "Jane? You did it..."

"Shh, don't talk," Jane hushed her through her own tears. "It's over. Hope is coming and we are taking you out of here. Just hang on and try to stay awake. Please."

The effort to comply with Jane's request was more than she could take as two officers carried her into the front room and carefully laid her onto the floor. Hope came inside and looked at her daughter lying there with blood moistening the front of her top and leaking through to the worn beige carpet.p beneath her body. She had no time for shock because if she didn't think and act quickly, she could not save Sasha's life.

Hope knelt next to Sasha and positioned herself behind her head and began to robotically assess her patient. "Airway, breathing, circulation," she recited under her breath. It was clear that Sasha's breath wouldn't last long if her lungs were not drained of the blood that was going to fill them at any minute. Hope gestured to the paramedics who were pouring into the doorway. "Over here," she tried to keep her voice as calm as possible. Jane was also at her side within seconds.

Jane held Sasha's hand as Hope gently put an oxygen mask over her face, lightly lifting the younger woman's head to secure it in back. "Take deep breaths," she said, "we are getting you out of here. Concentrate on that."

"I can't... go back... there..." Sasha murmured.

"You don't have to," Jane reassured, "it's over now. You're going to a regular hospital and then home."

Hope nodded. "And until then you'll have a room with a window in it."

She and Jane exchanged looks of worry and dread because they hoped everything they were saying to soothe her would indeed happen. Just then, Sasha flinched and started to cry softly as the paramedic pierced her skin with a needle for the intravenous line. Hope looked at her arms and saw all the injection marks from the experimental drugs. "Don't worry, honey," she explained. "This is to help, not hurt you. I'm going to be taking care of you and I promise to not let anyone other than doctors, nurses and paramedics give you any medication. So just let them help you, ok?" Sasha nodded and laid still while they finished up.

"How is my friend?" Her eyes scanned the room.

"I don't know," Jane intoned. "But the other doctors will take care of her well. We need to focus on you right now."

Hope nodded. "I'm going to give you something to make you sleepy so we can insert the chest tubes on both sides and you won't feel it. Then we leave in the helicopter because it's extra fast."

Hope kept talking and so Sasha drifted into a medication hazy slumber while still listening to her biological mother's gentle voice. As soon as the blood was drained and breathing made easier, they boarded the helicopter and were gone.

Jane and Hope sat silently in the helicopter, and only when Jane broke the silence did the doctor take her eyes away from her unconscious daughter.

Jane wiped a tear from her eyes. "She's bad off," the black haired woman said.

"Yes," the doctor blinked back her own tears. "It doesn't look good for Sasha. Not at all."

The news of the rogue agency's demise spread quickly amidst those in the colony. Along with their freedom came the bittersweet news of Sasha's rescue and injury. Within an hour, a large and haphazard family had assembled in the waiting room. Among them were Barry, Vince, Maura, Constance, Angela, Jamie, Lena and George Connor, Angie and Anna. Soon, Jimmy had even arrived. All were waiting on news regarding Sasha.

She was wheeled at once into the operating room with Hope constantly following along. Jane held a sobbing Maura in her arms and tried to reassure her that everything would be alright with her younger sister. But even Jane wasn't sure, and Maura could tell.

Hope emerged after hours and told the waiting crowd that Sasha was now in ICU, and they would have to wait to see what her condition would bring in the hours ahead.

Barry took it the hardest of anyone, having fallen truly in love even during the harsh circumstances of their time together over the last months. Their courtship had blossomed into each falling mutually in love with the other. As soon as she was allowed visitors, Barry went into her room. He gasped as he saw the woman he loved lying so still and so waxenly pale. Hope had told them that she had suffered major blood loss and torn lungs, but nothing could prepare Barry for what he was looking at. He sank down into the chair alongside Sasha's bed and held her hand, letting himself cry. The only sound above his tears were the whooshing of the ventilator and the languid beeping of the heart monitor. Other than that, Sasha seemed utterly lifeless. Hope came up behind him and put a supportive hand upon his shoulder. She squeezed it and sat alongside him.

"She's quite strong, not many would have made it this far. I didn't think she'd get out of that house alive, nevertheless through the operation." Hope truly was cautiously optimistic. "She'll be kept in a coma for a while to let her body heal. You can stay a few more minutes but as you saw there are many who want to see her."

Down in the underground, Jane and Jamie packed up the sparse apartment. Jane managed to convince the orange striped kitten to get into the carrier with a heathy bribe of cat treats. After that, they went through the drawers one by one. Jane teared up as she found Maura's things as well, as she hated fighting with Maura anytime, but especially when they had just found each other again. She cried for Maura, for herself and for Sasha. She felt Jamie's gentle touch on her arm and melted into full blown sobs as they finished the job of packing. Once she calmed down, Jane cleared her throat and looked toward the other room. "I'll get more boxes and get Maura's things. She has too much on her mind to worry about a crummy little apartment. It is the least I can do."

Maura ran her hand over Sasha's forehead and a breath left her when her eyes opened. "Hi. I'm here. You're going to be okay."

Sasha blinked in confusion. She tried to speak, but Maura held a hand up as if motioning her to stop.

"Don't talk, you need the tube in your throat to breathe, but it makes you unable to use your vocal cords while it's in." Maura felt her mind lapsing into google speak like it I'd when she was overcome by emotion.

"It's ok, though. The best doctors are working on you. You're doing much better than expected. I'm not leaving you just like you didn't leave me. Never like you never left."

Barry came into the room and sat down at Sasha's other side. "I'm glad you're awake," he said gently. "But you need your rest,so just close your eyes. We're here." He took her hand in his and kissed her fingers one by one as it grew slack with sleep and medication. Then he and Maura sat in silence for a few minutes.

"She's not doing as well as they'd like," Maura said. "They're going to put her back in the coma to let her heal more."

"Right," Barry said. He looked at Sasha's face and stroked her forehead. "She has to make it, Maura. There isn't any way that she can't. I need her in my life. There isn't a day that goes by that she does not make better for being with me."

Maura nodded tearfully. "Sasha is the reason we have made it this far. I don't know what made her go outside, do you? She's why Kaylee and I are safe and why I regained my identity and my memories. Without her, I'd still be wandering around thinking my name is Tess. And now I'd be lost with a baby for whom to care. I can't live without her. She's my other half."

Maura constantly stayed by Sasha's side, except for a visit from Jane with Kaylee. When Jane's arm came around her, Maura allowed herself to break down.

"I'm sorry, Jane. I didn't mean the things I said."

"Shh. I know. It's okay. Shhh." Jane pulled free from the hug. "You need to eat and sleep, Maur. Jamie and I brought your stuff from the underground. Sasha's things, too. The cat is at Sasha's."

Maura's only response was to cry harder.

"Please get some rest, because you can't help Kaylee or Sasha like this." Jane was insistent. "I'll stay here with her while you do, and I won't leave her side. Come on, Maura. You have to take care of yourself, or you'll end up in a bed next to her. Please."

Maura nodded and let Jane help her out of the chair. Angela was standing in the doorway. "Come on, sweet Maura, I will take you home to the brownstone. There are quite a few people in the apartment, not to mention cats. And I'm cooking for everyone."

Maura was almost knocked over by Anna when she walked through the door. The girl was muttering something about being sorry, but Maura was too tired to figure out what she meant.

"Anna, you have nothing to be sorry for," Maura said, hoping she said the right thing.

"But I do," Anna exclaimed. "I was angry with you when you and Aunt Sasha were missing. But I know now that it wasn't your fault."

The next hour was a blur for Maura as she tried to make conversation. She was relieved when it was just her and Jane. She lay in bed after showering with Jane next to her. Kaylee lay in between them, awake and alert.

"You want to talk?" Jane asked after a moment.

"No," Maura whispered. "There's nothing to say. I should sleep, but I can't."

"I know, just understand you can talk to me whenever you need." Jane reassured her friend.

"Thank you, Jane." Maura inched closer to her friend and allowed herself to fall asleep.

Five days later, Barry was still by Sasha's bedside, but little had changed. The doctors, as Maura had said, increased her sedatives enough to keep her in the coma for at least seven days. This was in order to give her a chance to heal enough to breathe on her own and wake spontaneously. However, the rest was a long wait to see exactly what damage the firing squad had done to his girlfriend's body.

It was one of these twilight afternoons that a woman whom Barry had never seen before was wheeled in by a nurse, a patient who wore a robe and a tired expression. She appeared to be much closer to discharge than Sasha would hope to become for weeks.

"Hello," the woman said in a pleasantly low voice. Tears tried to spring up in Barry's eyes as he knew it was what Sasha would delightfully refer to as a jazz voice, like Jane Rizzoli's. But she was lying motionless as the tubes, wires and various pieces of machinery kept her as much among the living as possible, unable to think or comment on such things that made them ponder and grin in the previous stages of their relationship.

"Hello," Barry greeted back, taking his eyes away from his stricken girlfriend only for a moment. "I'm Barry Frost," he began.

"I know who you are," the woman said. "I asked and they told me. My name is Liza. I know Sasha. We were together in that house."

Barry was shocked to hear that anyone else had survived. Thirdhand tales of that day didn't exactly fill in all the blanks. He was too concerned for Sasha to try to fit every piece of the puzzle together. However, as Liza told what had happened regarding the experiments, he could not keep his anger at the rogue agency nor his fears for her future to himself. What he sensed was an overwhelming gratitude for Liza's efforts to keep Sasha alive after every round of injections and twisted laboratory drugs.

Unusual for a woman of her discretion, Liza found herself telling this polite and handsome young man about her family and their tragic deaths without hesitation. Barry listened to the story of Michael and Rory, as well as her insistence of staying behind to try to help the agency's other victims.

"She didn't look anything physically like my Rory, but Sasha reminded me of my girl in her fighting spirit," Liza explained. "Now, I try to help everyone who needs it, but in Sasha's case there was something special. Nevertheless, I could not have dreamed that she would be so protective of me. When they dragged her from the room when she was hardly able to walk after a month of being chained down to that table, she saw that the guard who wanted to shoot me. The guard who had been an enemy of myself and my husband for years was aiming for me. She tried to push me out of the way and took those three bullets by stepping in front of me. Only one passed through her body and into mine. I am going home tomorrow." Liza paused to wipe a tear from her eyes with the back of her hand before grasping the limp hand lying in front of her. She gently rubbed it with motherly affection and love. "Much more than I can say for her."

Barry didn't know what to say, nor did Liza. They sat there in silence, with their own hopes, regrets and prayers.