Chapter Fifty-seven

Standing in the rubble of the caved in stairwell Jake watched Peter's health visibly decline with frightening speed. After ten minutes of standing silent guard at the impossibly small gap that Neal had somehow managed to slip past Peter had gone from just putting his palm against the wall to leaning his shoulder into it to keep standing. He had used the last of his strength to get Neal this far and now that his charge was gone he was fading fast. With a painful sounding cough Peter spat blood on the dirty floor.

At first Jake had been a little nervous about being left alone with Peter, he knew that Peter tolerated him mostly for Neal's sake in hopes that if he could no longer protect him that Jake would take over. With Neal gone Jake had felt that it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities that Peter would turn on him. However seeing that he was far more ill than he had let Neal believe Jake relaxed knowing that Peter couldn't pose a threat to him right now even if he wanted to.

Waiting the dark stairwell Jake didn't have any real faith in Neal returning with help. With this last chance at escape literally blocked off Jake was starting to think about heading back to the Labyrinth in hopes that he could still talk York into honoring his promise to take him to see the sky. If York discovered Neal missing he would just kill everyone in the Labyrinth and shut it down in an attempt to help hide his crimes. However Jake reasoned that if he could at least get Peter back he might be able to trick York into thinking everything was fine with a pile of blankets in Neal's place. After years of successfully keeping captives York would have no reason to check too closely on his near dead prisoners. Although as it was Peter seemed determined to die at the spot that he'd been forced to send Neal past alone.

"Peter," Jake carefully broke the silence "we should go back."

"No." Peter shook his head slightly but stopped when the motion made him gag from vertigo. "If Neal can't get out he'll come back here."

"He will come back to the room as well. There's no sense in standing here."

"No." Peter growled stubbornly keeping his back to Jake.

"It could be hours or ever days before he finds a way out and brings someone back." Jake reasoned.

"I'm not going back."

"You do realize that if you pass out and end up on this freezing cold stone floor you'll be dead in an hour, right?" Jake pointed out.

"I'm not going back." Peter repeated.

"Peter…"

"Jake, stop. I'm not going to make it past Miller." Peter admitted quietly as he finally turned around. "I barely made it the first time. If I end up on that floor I'm never getting up again and I'd rather be found here."

Peter proved his point by coughing a spatter of blood across the back of his hand. Jake guessed that somewhere along the line one of his broken ribs must have injured his lung causing it to slowly fill with blood. Even if the puncture was relatively minor Peter probably didn't have another twenty-four hours left in him without medical attention. With the ivory cast to his sweat drenched skin it didn't seem likely that the injury was minor so his time line was probably closer to twelve, assuming he could stay off the floor. Studying Peter for a moment Jake had a sudden realization.

"You were lying when you told Neal that you knew he'd get you out. That was just to get him to leave. You never expected him to make it back in time."

"I didn't lie." Peter said firmly. "He'll get me out."

"But not alive."

"I never said anything about that."

"You should have at least had him relay a message to your wife."

"I don't need Neal to tell Elizabeth I love her; she knows."

Jake paused at the conviction in Peter's tone. Too weary to remain standing Peter knelt down on the floor and sat back on his heels to keep up off the cold floor as best he could. Jake still didn't feel that rescue was coming, it was more far likely that Neal would get lost in the darkness searching for an exit that didn't exist. However he found himself wanting to at least give Peter a fighting chance in case a miracle occurred. If Peter had asked Neal to stay for his final few hours he would have, but instead he'd sent him away to at lest try to increase his odds of survival. No one had ever shown Jake anything even close to that kind of loyalty, but he also knew he'd never done anything to earn it. In this eleventh hour it was too late to make up for any of his past sins, but one act of altruism was better than nothing.

"Stay here. I will go get some supplies and bring them back here."

Peter tried to reply but was interrupted by a coughing spell. Knowing that there was nothing he could do here Jake left and headed back towards the entrance back into the Labyrinth. Taking a deep breath while he still could Jake bolted through the door that had remained locked for so many years. Glancing over at the ruined remains of Miller laying on top of the other dried carcasses Jake could understand why Peter had been so insistent that Neal not see the gruesome reminder of mortality. Barely making it back out into the far hallway Jake dropped to his knees and dry heaved violently for a moment. Peter had been right, there was no way he was going to make it past the unbearable stench in his condition.

Getting his stomach back under control Jake hurried back to the room that Peter and Neal had shared for the past two months. Digging in the small closet he grabbed what little food was left and then filled a few empty Ensure bottles with water. Going back out in the front room he used the large wool blanket to help carry the supplies back to the stairwell. Repeating his trick of getting some breath before hand Jake bolted into the rotting room and raced to the door that he'd left open.

On the far side of the door Jake slammed it shut and paused despite the smell with his hand on the lock. By going back to stay with Peter he was giving up on any chance of talking York into taking him to see the sky. There was always the chance that in his arrogance that the Labyrinth was inescapable that he wouldn't even check to see if Neal and Peter were here. He was going to come as soon as the morning rain let up, and if discovered all three of his branded gone he might actually close down the Labyrinth forever.

"York is going to kill you either way…" Jake muttered to himself "…you need to do once decent thing before he does."

With new conviction Jake threw the bolt to lock the door again. He had no idea if York had the key or if he would even bother chasing them down here. Either way Jake decided that like Peter he didn't want to end up rotting next to Miller and the other victims. It was better to starve in the stairwell, at the very least it technically wasn't a part of the Labyrinth that he'd been trapped in for longer than he cared to remember.

Returning to Peter Jake found him still on his knees but starting to fall asleep. Nodding off briefly Peter was jerked back awake when his head bowed. Putting the small supply of food and water on the floor Jake brought the blanket over and after laying it out next to Peter he helped him on to it. Joining Peter on the few inches of fabric that separated them from hypothermia Jake guided Peter to lay against him before he folded the blanket over him. Peter was already shivering from his time kneeling on the floor but he quickly warmed and relaxed. Although still having trouble catching his breath Peter looked much improved from just a few minutes prior.

"Thank you, Jake."

"It's the least I can do."

"No, the least you could do would have been leaving me here to die alone."