At first Steve thought she'd been a figment of his imagination; his exhausted mind playing tricks on him after god knows how many miles of running through a forest that under any other circumstance would make a wonderful camp site. Except in his case, the sheer endless trees all looking alike, the ravine that saw no daylight and the uncertainty of who was chasing whom all added to his heightened level of stress.
Thankfully it seemed that the longer he stared at the white sweatshirt and blue work pants running downhill in front of him, the more it looked like he had managed to catch up with Milan by some divine intervention.
Part of him wanted to call out to her, order her to stay in place and end this cat and mouse game. The other part knew that he'd be taking an incredibly high risk of drawing unwanted attention his way, the last thing they currently needed.
Instead, he sped up his pace; trying to get an idea on which direction Sarah was headed, keeping an eye on the blonde ponytail bopping with every fervent step she took.
Once he recognized a distinctive trend to the left, Steve sped up more, trying to outrun the Fire Captain and get ahead of her from the right side, hoping to cut off her escape route.
Yet, it seemed that despite her prolonged captivity, the young woman was surprisingly athletic, nearly outrunning him if it hadn't been for a couple fallen trees blocking her way and slowing her down.
Using the opportunity to his advantage, Steve turned the corner and circled around her, one hand stretched out to stop her in her tracks.
"Sarah…Sarah, I am here to help you…. You…you gotta stop running for a second.", he gasped, seeing her eyes widen in fear at the unexpected company, then soften again once she recognized him.
"No. No. We gotta keep running, Inspector. I will not let these guys catch me again. I appreciate what you are trying to do, but don't try to stop me."
"We stopped two of them already. We're going to stop the other two. Backup is on its way."
"You can't guarantee that. They can still find me again. No. No, I can't go back there!"
With a determined headshake, she leapt across the set of tree trunks, bypassing Steve faster than he could react, putting several feet of distance between them before he ever took a step.
"I am trying to help you!", he insisted, keeping his voice low as they crossed the wooden terrain at a dizzying pace, too fast for his injured body to keep up for long.
Milan didn't answer, her frantic flight gaining momentum by the second, as she rushed past tree after tree, making tight corners like a rabbit running from a fox, the horror of what she'd been through over the last month encouraging her to continue that marathon downhill as if she was planning to run the entire distance back to San Francisco.
Steve's legs were burning from the continued strain following their capture and hectic escape, his lungs wheezy, no longer sending enough oxygen to where it was needed the most.
Keeping up with the Fire Captain's pace as best as he could, he turned to the right, hoping to repeat his earlier maneuver of cutting her off, when his legs finally gave out, sending him tumbling to the ground, where he rolled several times, before ending up on his back, chest heaving, covered head to toe in sweat.
Fighting the darkness that was trying to lull him into the comfort of unconscious oblivion, he rested his head against the soft bed of pine needles, breathing through his mouth, feeling the sweat that was rolling down his temples cool off his worn-out body, and waited for the incessant throbbing in his chest to slow down enough to continue his pursuit, even if it meant having to locate Milan all over again.
Much to his surprise, he heard the Fire Captain slow down when she noticed he was no longer following, then retreat altogether, before appearing next to him where she knelt down carefully, two cold fingers of her right hand reaching for his wrist to check his pulse.
"We gotta keep going, Inspector…", Milan urged, once again using his title for lack of recalling the actual name of the man who had helped her escape, "I know you don't want to get up…but you have to."
Drawing in a shallow breath, Steve blinked his eyes open, meeting hers just as she bent over to gently tap his chest.
"Get up. Please."
"I can't…", he admitted between gasps, then shook his head, "You gotta give me a minute. It's been…a bit of a day."
He watched her eyes run over his body, stop at the cut on his throat, before she reached toward his lower back, her hand covered in blood when she pulled it back.
"We can…we can get you to a hospital as soon as we get into town. But we have to keep running. What if they catch up with us? They'll kill you. And me too, after they get done raping me again."
Gently grasping her wrist to get her to focus, Steve shook his head slowly, trying to ward off the dizziness.
"Sarah, there's no way I am going to make it all the way down the mountainside in this condition. And my partner is still up there somewhere, trying to track us down to help. But he can't do that if we keep running away from him. You gotta trust us. We are here to keep you safe."
Holding onto his hand with both of hers, Sarah let out a shuddered breath, a panicked sob escaping her lips before their eyes met again.
"I am so scared. I…I can't go back."
"You won't!", Steve insisted and used his free hand to lean up on his elbow, instantly regretting the move when his lower back screamed in pain.
"I promise you that you won't have to go back to these guys, Sarah. I…I am armed…", he continued through clenched teeth, "By now my department is aware of what's going on and is sending help. This place will be swarming with cops soon enough."
Summoning the last bit of trust left in her, Sarah hesitantly cocked her head in agreement, resting her hands in her lap and waiting, as he tried to regain enough strength to resume their rescue mission and bring this case to a close.
"And by the way, my name is Stephen. Stephen Keller.", he said and smiled warmly, "I am here to protect you. Nobody is going to lay a hand on you as long as I have a breath left in me."
It was the breaking of a nearby branch that disrupted their quiet conversation, as a set of determined footsteps encroached on their location.
"That's something that can be changed fairly easy, Kid."