"How much further?" Lara asked Ricardo when she woke up. It had been about two hours since they escaped and now they were driving down a highway into the city of Athens.
"Not much." Ricardo answered. He was still nervous around them but his fear had started to drift away.
"Take…us to a ba-bank first." Thomas stuttered. Lara glanced back at him and her eyes almost bulged. He was white, completely white. His eyes were bloodshot to the point that she could barely see any white and he was fighting to keep them opened. Lara jerked to get a better look causing Sam to wake up and bang her head with Lara's. Lara just ignored the collision and turned to Thomas.
"We need to get you to a hospital!" Lara snapped. She was pissed at herself for falling asleep after Sam did and not remembering Thomas's wound.
"No, we…need to g-get to a bank and then…a…an airport." Thomas argued. Sam turned to see what the deal was and noticed Thomas's state.
"Take us to the hospital" Sam ordered Ricardo.
"Stop…No…they will be expecting that."
"Thomas you need to get looked at." Lara urged. She looked at Emily and saw that she was still unconscious.
"Drive us to a bank." Thomas demanded. Lara huffed in annoyance.
"Why a bank?" Sam asked
"Every…IAA soldier has an account…that…that is made so that…if something like this…happens…w-we can…get money out…to get away…and alert IAA. I call…my account…number and announce…the location of the bank…and the money gets...wired to the …b-bank." Thomas explained. He was completely out of breath after his explanation.
"Fine we will go to the b-"
"Take your shirt off." Sam and Lara both looked to see that Emily had awoken and was now sitting up and shifting to Thomas's side. Thomas looked at Emily and cupped her cheek, her eyes locked with his as she lifted his shirt up over the wound. Her eyes left his to assess the wound and what needed to be done. She peeled back the bandages and took note of the beginning of an infection starting to form mostly likely from the wound not being cleaned and stitched shut.
"The bullet needs to be taken out." Emily said.
"Already has been." Thomas replied. Emily looked up surprised and confused, Thomas pointed to Sam. Emily looked at the wound again and noticed the other wound cutting from the hole.
"You had to open it more?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to get the bullet out." Sam explained. She could feel Lara tighten her grip around her waist and her eyes bearing into her neck.
"The bullet is out but there is still an infection forming…fuck Thomas…I need to stitch you…I need medical supplies." Emily shifted her hands to his face. Thomas's eyes were almost completely closed but he managed to speak.
"You…kn-know…the…the number…" His eyes shut completely. Emily's fingers flew to his pulse point; Lara noticed her breathe a breath of relief after a few seconds but could still see fear and concern in her expression.
"Where is the nearest bank?" Emily asked.
"We are coming to it." Ricardo announced. They pulled in front of a huge white building with a sign that said ALPHA Bank. Lara saw that the lights were still on inside the building and people were walking in and out.
"Stay here, I'm not sure how long this is going to take but I want you to shift him to a laying position and keep checking his pulse." Emily opened the truck door and got out but she didn't leave right away, she stared at Thomas. She was rooted to the spot, she didn't want to leave, he was fading fast and she needed to do something.
"Emily, we got him." Lara said. Sam climbed into the back seat. Lara had gotten out of the truck too and moved behind Emily, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"If anything happens…come-come…" Emily tried to speak.
"We will." Lara said. Emily nodded her head and turned to walk into the bank. Lara got into the back seat and moved Thomas's legs up onto the seat while Sam shifted Thomas's head so that it was in her lap making it capable for her to check his pulse. Lara returned to the front seat and shifted so she was able to comfortably watch Sam and Thomas. Ricardo also turned to look in the back seat; he had turned off the car to save the little gas they had.
"Is he going to be okay?" He asked. His eyes shifted from Thomas, to Sam then to Lara. Neither Sam nor Lara answered. Thomas didn't look good; as the seconds ticked he started to look worse.
"Do you know anything?" Lara asked Ricardo. Ricardo knew what she was talking about.
"Not much. I was only told that you guys were to be kept guarded and not allowed out. I got some information that you were needed to find something but I am new so I wasn't told a lot." He said. Lara noticed that he had an accent but it wasn't Greek, and that his English was pretty fluent.
"Where you from?"
"Germany." He answered.
"You speak English very well." Lara noted
"Father was originally from Canada but moved to Germany and met my mother, so I was taught both languages."
"How did you get mixed up in this?" Sam asked. Sam had gotten to the point of leaving two fingers pressed to Thomas's pulse point.
"Parents died when I was young, and I've been alone ever since. We had no family…not that I know of. My parents never mentioned any. I was wandering the streets when I bumped into a few guys and got into a tussle with them. They were impressed with how well I could hold my own weight so they offered me a job, I just thought it was a security job but when we came here it all changed. I just wanted the money…"
Ricardo rested his head on the steering wheel and began to sob. Lara glanced at Sam with an expression asking her what to do.
"This…is…to-too much. I never…wanted to…to hurt anyone…now…th-they want to…to kill me." Ricardo spluttered through tears. Lara placed her hand on his shoulder and gently rubbed circles.
"We'll figure this out." She reassured. The weight of everything was starting to press down on her shoulders. She looked around the truck and saw how much this expedition had gone haywire. Lara's eyes fell on Sam; she was looking down at Thomas shifting his head a little bit. The feeling of panic filled Lara, she was afraid of seeing Sam in the position that Thomas was in and herself being in Emily's shoes.
"Sorry." Ricardo muttered wiping away the tears from his face. Lara glanced at him and felt saddened that such a young kid had been thrown into this mess.
Nobody said anything for the next hour; they just sat in the truck in complete silence listening to the struggling breaths of Thomas. The silence was broken by Emily opening the back door and climbing into the truck with a bag.
"Take me to a drug store or someplace that sells first aid supplies." Emily ordered. Ricardo turned the ignition and began to drive. Lara and Sam both stared at Emily waiting for her to tell them something. Emily lifted Thomas's shirt again and started to press around the wound. Lara didn't know what she was doing but she figured it was some medical thing because Emily had done the same thing to her when she was injured.
"€100,000." Emily whispered.
"So IAA has been alerted?"
"Yeah, not sure what happens now but we are not going to the airport until he is bandaged and able to stay awake and stand. So after we get the supplies we will find a hotel or something."
"Wow, 100,000. That's more than I figured you'd get." Lara said.
"He has more in the account but I didn't want to have to convert a lot of money if we go to a different country." Emily explained.
"This is the only drug store that I know of. I'm not sure where there is a hotel but I can go in with you to ask the clerk. I know a little of the language." Ricardo said. Emily nodded at him and they both got out of the truck leaving Lara and Sam alone with Thomas.
"You okay?" Lara asked. She looked at Sam and could see that Sam's thoughts were a million miles away. The side of Sam's face had started to form an ugly bruise and the gash looked like it needed to be cleaned. "Sam…baby?" Lara called out to her again since she didn't respond the first time. Sam's head turned up to face Lara but her eyes didn't meet her's. Lara reached into the backseat to grab Sam's hand, the one that wasn't pressed to Thomas's pulse. "Sam?" Sam's eyes flickered to Lara's.
"Yeah?" Sam responded.
"What's going through your head?" Lara asked. She felt Sam lace their fingers together and give her hand a squeeze.
"Honestly…I don't know…." Sam said. Her eyes had started to lose their brightness, it wasn't gone but it was just dim. Lara felt her heart break looking at Sam.
Sam…I'm sorry. This wasn't supposed to happen…we knew there was a risk but it wasn't supposed to happen. Baby please don't lose that spark…god…that spark is what keeps me going.
"His pulse is getting slower."
Lara looked at Thomas's chest and saw that it was barely rising and falling. She looked towards the window and saw that Emily and Ricardo were walking out of the store. She caught Emily's eyes and beckoned for her to hurry up. Emily's eyes flashed with worry as she ran towards the truck and hopped into the back. Ricardo had the truck started and moving before he shut his door.
"It's six blocks away." he announced. Lara was impressed on how much concern she could see in the young teens face. He really wanted to help them and not hurt them.
"Here, hold this." Emily said as she handed Sam three bags. Emily had pulled out a water bottle and some cloths before handing the bags to Sam. She opened the bottle and poured the water on and around the wound, then used the cloth to clean up the new and dried up blood from his skin and the wound.
"Fuck…the infection is spreading within the wound…how long till we get to the hotel?" Emily snapped.
"Ten minutes." Ricardo answered. He was tapping his hands against the steering wheel in impatience.
"It needs to be cleaned now. Sam…grab both his hands in a firm grip. Lara…I need you back here to hold his feet."
Emily moved to the floor of the truck and Lara climbed into the back and grabbed both Thomas's feet. They were all cramped but no one noticed or cared. Emily reached into the bags that Sam had moved to the floor and pulled out, what Lara figured, was alcohol.
"He is going to jerk…I need you to have a strong hold on him." Emily said. She glanced at both girls before unscrewing the cap and moving the bottle to hover over the wound.
"Fuck…I'm sorry." Emily muttered before pouring almost the whole bottle on the wound. Within seconds Thomas reacted. His arms and legs jerked and both Lara and Sam felt his muscles tighten and pull against their grip. The alcohol started to sizzle and bubble with in the wound, starting the cleaning process of killing the infection.
After a few more seconds of pulling against Lara and Sam, Thomas relaxed again. Not once had he opened his eyes but his breathing had quickened and his pulse began to race.
"We're here." Ricardo said.
"Give me the money and we will go in and get some rooms." Sam said. Emily passes her the bag and Sam took some money out of it before getting out of the truck and entering the motel office building.
"Your girlfriend gave him a chance." Emily whispered. Her voice was so low that it took Lara a few seconds to realize she had spoken and what she had said.
"What?" Lara asked
"Taking the bullet out. It stopped the infection from spreading further and from the bullet going deeper. Now he only has to deal with the small infection he has instead of me cutting the skin and taking the bullet out. If I had to do it now, it would have weakened him even more, but since it is out he can use the little strength he has to fight the infection."
"Will he be okay?"
"Yeah, he should be…no… he is going to be fine. I am going to stitch him up and give him some pain relievers and he WILL be fine in the morning. Besides, he is too stubborn to die."
Lara and Emily both chuckled at the comment. Lara watched Emily brush the hair off of Thomas's forehead and give him a kiss. The back door was opened and Sam smiled at them.
"We got two adjoined rooms for €80." Sam stated. Emily and Lara climbed out the back. Ricardo pulled Thomas to the edge of the seat and then slung one of his arms over his shoulder and heaved him into a standing position. Emily went on the other side of Thomas and slung his other arm over her shoulder. Sam led them to two rooms, 5 & 6. She opened the door to six and Emily and Ricardo carried Thomas to the bed and laid him down on it. Lara handed Emily the bags from the store and she began to work on stitching Thomas's wounds.
After, when Sam and Ricardo left to get food and drinks from the mini store down the street, they mostly all stayed in the one room watching Emily work on Thomas. It took her about an hour to stitch him since he kept on flinching every time she stuck the needle point into his skin. After she finished bandaging him up, she crushed the pain relievers, put them in the water and slowly poured the water in his mouth making sure that he swallowed.
"Now we wait?" Sam asked Emily nodded and beckoned for one of the sandwiches Sam had bought. Sam grabbed the sandwich and tossed it to her; she quickly started to eat it. Once she was finished with the sandwich she lay down on the bed and fell asleep, leaving Sam, Lara and Ricardo to eat their food in silence.
A half hour after Emily fell asleep Lara abruptly stood up from the chair she was sitting in, grabbed the unused first aid supplies and walked into the adjoined room. Sam glanced at Emily and Ricardo, who had fallen asleep on the other bed, before standing up and following Lara into the other room.
"Sweetie?" Sam called out into the dark room
"Sam," Lara answered. She turned on the bedside light and Sam could see her sitting cross legged on the bed. "Come here."
Sam walked over to Lara and climbed onto the bed to face her. Lara scooted closer and shifted her legs on either side of Sam so she could reach Sam's face without straining. She grabbed the alcohol bottle, poured some of the contents on a cotton swab and lifted it to the gash on Sam's face and gently cleaned the cut. Sam winced in pain but didn't take her eyes away from Lara's. She saw the focus in Lara's eyes as she worked to clean away any grime from the cut. She also noticed the guilty look on her face, it was the same expression she had when she was blaming herself for the deaths of the Endurance crew, but what Sam didn't know was why she had the guilty look.
Sam reached with one of her hands to cup Lara's cheek. Lara sighed and pulled her own hand away from Sam's face; she locked her eyes with Sam's.
"She…she…kissed me," Lara stumbled out. Sam didn't need her to elaborate on who she was talking about. She just kept her silence and let Lara continue talking. "I didn't like it…but I don't know what she has on her but it's some…sort of drug. Sam, I can feel myself slowly losing myself around her…I completely lose awareness of my surroundings. Everything starts…starts to spin." Lara was trying to explain how the experience was but she couldn't find the words to describe it
"What did you do?" Sam asked. Lara was confused but then she figured out that Sam was talking about the kiss.
"I-I bit her…I remember tasting blood and she backhanded me an-"
Sam started to chuckle a little but then it turned into a full blown laugh. Lara couldn't help but smirk, Sam's laugh was contagious.
"I don't see how this is funny, the slap hurt." Lara said between giggles. Sam smiled at her, then pushed her down onto the bed and cuddled against her side.
"That bitch is going to think twice before messing with us. When you were still in the cave she had me pinned against her and I head-butted her and then when she kisses you, you bite her. I wouldn't be surprised if her face was all swollen up and looked like a moldy blueberry." Sam said.
"Wait…you head-butted her?" Lara asked. She felt Sam nodded against her chest. "Is that why you have the gash on your face?" Sam nodded again.
"It doesn't really hurt anymore, it more sore than anything." Sam told her.
"I'm sorry Sam." Lara uttered. Sam sat up on her elbow and glared at Lara.
"Please don't start that…this was not your fault, none of it was." Sam leaned in close so that their lips were millimeters away from each other.
"What would I do without you?" Lara whispered before leaning in the rest of the way to connect their lips. Sam smiled into Lara's lips before breaking away; she got up and walked into the other room. Lara was puzzled at the sudden loss of contact but then saw Sam return with the box Lara had grabbed when they escaped. Sam put the box at the foot of the bed on the floor and reached in and pulled something out. Lara rolled her eyes when she saw that it was the camera.
Of all things that are in the box, she notices her camera. Typical Sam.
Sam climbed back onto the bed and straddled Lara's abdomen. She fiddled with the camera for a few minutes before pointing it at Lara.
"Once again we have the soon to be world famous archeologist, Lara Croft. Say hello Lara."
Sam moved her head to the side to mockingly glare at Lara when she didn't say anything.
"Really Sam, with all that's going on?" Lara shook her head but the smile was growing by the seconds across her face.
"I wanted to document an important moment." Sam said. Lara raised an eyebrow at her.
"What's so important about now?"
"Well, Ms. Croft I wanted to find out what your feelings were about being the damsel…in…distress and having your Dashing. Beautiful. Girlfriend comes rescue you?"
"Damsel in distress? Weren't you captured first?" Lara threw back at her.
"So, it was me you rescued you which makes you the damsel in distress," Sam stated "And if I remember clearly the hero is supposed to get a reward."
"Oh really? What was mine for rescuing you on Yamatai?" Lara asked. She folded her arms across her chest.
"Obviously it was me."
"I'm still debating on whether it's a reward or a punishment." Lara muttered. Lara chuckled when Sam slapped her arm and stuck her tongue out at her.
"Anyways…I still want my reward…so what will it be Ms. Croft?"
Lara stared at Sam through the lens of the camera before leaning forward and placing her hand over the lens and pulling the camera out of Sam's grasp while reaching her other hand to press against the back of Sam's neck and bring their lips together. While her lips were still attached to Sam's Lara fumbled around with the camera until she felt the little screen close back into place and then put it down on the night stand. Sam threaded her fingers through Lara's hair while leaning her gently back down on the bed never breaking the kiss. Lara deepened the kiss by forcing her tongue into Sam's mouth and began the battle for dominance. Sam moaned into the kiss as Lara's other hand trialed under shirt and up along her spine.
Lara was the first to break away but she quickly moved her mouth to Sam's neck. The heat between them was building up but suddenly Sam pulled back and let out a loud yawn that cause water to pool in her eyes. Sam went to kiss her again but Lara stopped her.
"Let's go to sleep." Lara suggested. Sam pouted and shook her head.
"I want my reward." Sam whined
"Baby…you will get your reward but I need my "hero" to go to sleep." Lara said while doing the air quotations on hero.
Sam went to protest again but another yawn crept up on her interrupting any chance of an argument she was going to give. Sam sighed before rolling off Lara's abdomen and onto the bed. She lay down so she was facing Lara; she grabbed her hand and intertwined their finger together. Lara pulled their twined finger towards her mouth and kissed the back of Sam's hand.
"I just felt my heart skip a beat." Sam mumbled. Her eyes were getting heavy. "We could totally make an awesome chick flick. I come save you and you charm your way into my pants to give me my reward, it would be so romantic."
"Yeah that is sooo romantic Sam," Lara said. "Go to sleep oh mighty heroine."
Lara watched Sam's eyes close and after a few minutes her breathing became shallow and steady. Lara had a sense that something was off about Sam. Her personality was still there but there was something that Sam was holding back, Lara could see it in her eyes. Something had happened while they were separated, something scarring.
Although her thoughts were jumbled and running wild, the more she looked at Sam the more she felt her own exhaustion taking over. Lara eventually succumbed to sleep but it wouldn't last long.
Sorry for the wait but finals are almost over and after that I'll be able to write more and update sooner. Hope you enjoy.