Paige sat once again at sick call wading through charts and records. Another X5 that had been in the program Lexa had belonged to had just given birth and it had went badly. Paige checked the time on the clock. The hour was almost over. She glanced at the door and saw the doctor was still busy with the male X7 who had his arm broken during hand to hand that afternoon.
Paige had thought a lot last night when she was supposed to be sleeping. If they took Lexa out tonight and something went wrong she would blame herself. On the other hand if they stayed here eventually something would go wrong. There had been many X5s that gave birth to severely deformed babies due to the hormones that they had been feeding them.
Her brow furrowed as she tried to understand why they would give them hormones when the mother's body produced them. She glanced into the office to find the doctor's back still to her. Paige grabbed the six records she had been looking at and put them under her desk.
The doctor soon finished the X5's cast and came out wiping his hands on a small towel. He leaned over the desk to eye the records Paige was now putting into order to return to the record vault.
"Wasn't there more?" He asked.
"I returned some earlier today sir." Paige lied. Her breath came faster and her heart pounded painfully.
The doctor nodded and threw the towel in a bin nearby.
"I'm done here." He gathered the records from the desk and left the office.
Paige's breath slowed and the pain in her chest eased. She lifted her foot off the records underneath the desk and lifted them to her lap. She quickly set the desk to rights and pulled a trash bag from the clean up locker. She put the records in the bag and left the office hoping that anyone who saw her would think she was just taking out the doctor's trash.
~!~!~
Paige stowed the trash bag in her locker and went to get lunch trays for Vin and Lexa. She wrinkled her nose at the beef stew knowing that it probably tasted like chalk. She carried the trays to Lexa's cell first. She put Vin's tray on the table next to the door and went in carrying Lexa's tray. She slid the tray onto the table and went to the bed and shook Lexa awake. Lexa rolled over and blinked slowly and stared at Paige.
" Time for lunch." Paige said. Lexa just stared back her face devoid of any expression. Paige frowned.
"You need to eat." She insisted. Again Lexa laid there motionless. Paige's frown turned into a full on scowl when she realized what had happened. Lexa had retreated inside herself. She knew if the doctors found out what had happened they would do something to complicate their escape.
She pulled Lexa into a sitting position and let go of her to see if she would stay. She felt a small amount of triumph when she did. Paige took a hold of both of Lexa's hands and pulled her upright. Lexa swayed a bit due to her stomach and Paige was forced to steady her.
She lead Lexa to the chair and sat her down. Paige picked up the spoon from her tray and put it into her hand wrapping her fingers around it. She let go of Lexa's hand and it stayed on the table. Lexa made no motion to eat.
Paige sighed. "Please eat Lexa. You are going
to need your strength for both you and your child."
Lexa just stared into space.
Paige smoothed the hair back from Lexa's face and told her "I am going to take Vin his lunch then I will be back and help you okay?" Lexa blinked. Paige watched her face anxiously for any sign of her friend but all she saw was her friend's empty shell. Disappointed, she stood and left the room to take Vin's meal to him quickly.
~!~!~!
When she entered Vin was doing sit-ups. Paige bit her lip as she put his tray down.
"What's wrong?" Vin asked.
"She's worse."
"How worse?" She could hear how upset he was.
"She's gone inside herself. Completely. She won't even feed herself. I have to go help her eat when I leave here. We don't want anyone to notice she's not eating and take her to the Med ward."
"Damn." Vin sweared.
"Yeah."
"Okay, so should we go over the plan?"
"Well, here's what I've come up with. We stick with the tape thing. After I leave wait about an hour until you leave here. With Lexa being how she is it's going to take me a while to get her down to the river. You go get my daughter and we will be waiting at the boulders for you."
"What's her designation? Your daughters?" Vin asked.
"2x5-838." She told him. Vin nodded.
"All right. See you tonight." He told her.
Paige hurried back to her charge.
~!~!~
Paige looked down at her gray T-shirt in disgust. She had attempted to feed Lexa her stew but ended up getting most of it all over herself. She entered her barracks and pulled the offending shirt over her head and tossed it into the large laundry bin at the front of the hall. It would be gathered and washed but hopefully it's owner would not be there to receive it two days from now.
She opened her locker and pulled a fresh shirt down from the neat stack at the top and yanked it over her head in an irritated motion. She supposed she should have stayed in the other shirt until she made sure Lexa was cleaned up but she couldn't stand the smell.
She rushed back to Lexa and began to clean her up. She had to settle for running a wet washcloth over the other woman's face and hands. Then she brushed the long brown hair that now fell to her waist. She braided it tightly and secured it with a band at the bottom.
Paige eased Lexa back onto the bed again and pulled the cover over her. She sighed and left.
~!~!~!!
Vin paced in his cell. Ten steps one way, ten steps back. All day long he had tried to prepare himself for the event that was about to come. His heart raced as he realized that it was about the time for Paige to bring his dinner and the adventure would begin.
The door clicked open and revealed Paige there with his tray. He could see the telltale pieces of tape stuck to the bottom. She smiled nervously.
"You ready?" She asked.
"As ready as I will ever be. You?"
"Yeah, I think so. I just hope everything goes smoothly." She said.
"Me too."
"Vin?" Paige asked hesitantly. "What's it like on the outside?"
"It's different." He answered slowly. "It's dirty, people are starving, work is scarce as is money." He could see her face fall. "But you know what? There are good things. You can sleep in late. You can choose what you eat anything you want for dinner. There is music, friends, kids play and don't do drills. You child can grow up and wear colors, not camouflage. She can play games and sing. It will be great." He reassured her.
She smiled. "Okay. I should go. See you at the boulders."
"Count on it."
~!~!~!
As Paige left Vin could feel the muscles in his neck and shoulders tense and his biceps flexed as she closed the door gently so that Vin could catch it and wrap the tape around it which he did.
He taped the latch and let it fall closed knowing that it would open when it is time. Then he set about making himself ready for the events to come. He changed into a brown camouflage uniform with jacket knowing that it gets cold in the desert at night.
He sat on his bunk and tied his boots on. He rolled his head in a circle trying to relax as he counted down his remaining time. When he estimated about half an hour left he at a bit of food from his tray but he didn't have an appetite. At two minutes till he took a deep breath and eased the door open carefully. He saw the guard at the end of the hall as Paige had told him. He saw no one in the other direction.
Vin stepped out into the hall when the guard was looking to his left and let the door close soundlessly. He blurred to the guard and kicked him in the stomach with all the pent up anxiety and anger he had felt those months being held prisoner in that place of nightmares.
The breath left the guard with an audible whoosh leaving him bent double and open for Vin's uppercut that followed. In the few seconds it had taken Vin to leave his cell, the guard landed flat on his back unconscious with blood gushing from his nose. Vin dragged him to the gear locker at the end of the hall and locked him in hoping it would take the man hours to recover.
Vin hurried to the outside door and found the path Paige had told him about and followed it quickly. Her directions were surprisingly accurate and in no time he found himself standing outside the infants ward. There were few people in this building and Vin almost laughed at the ease he had getting in.
~@!~!@
After Paige left Vin she hurried to her barracks.
She grabbed the bag containing the records out of her locker and avoided
the stares of many soldiers.
"Clean uniforms for X5-427. I was in too much of a hurry earlier today." She muttered hoping the excuse would hold.
She left the barracks and hurried to the building that housed Lexa's cell. As she walked in the darkness she realized how cold it got a night and mentally reminded herself to make sure she brought a jacket for Lexa.
She made it to Lexa's cell without seeing anyone else. She assumed it was because it was so close to lights out. Everyone must be getting ready to bunk down. She opened the door to the cell hoping to find Lexa a little more aware than she had left her. She was laying on the bed with her eyes closed, though from her breathing Paige could tell she wasn't asleep.
Without speaking, Paige walked to the locker holding all of Lexa's possessions. She grabbed two jackets and her boots from the bottom of the locker. She then pulled Lexa up and put the boots on her feet. She pulled on a jacket and rolled up the sleeves that were too big for her as was the rest of the coat. It was part of the pregnancy uniform but would due fine for Paige until she could find something else.
She struggled with Lexa to put on her coat and finally got it on. Then she pulled her to her feet and found that she didn't have to steady the girl this time. Paige tugged on her hands and Lexa trudged along eyes unseeing.
Quickly realizing that anyone who saw them like this would realize something was wrong Paige frowned. Improvising she looped her arm around one of Lexa's and it looked like she was just helping another soldier along.
They made slow progress out of the building and Paige worried
that they may not get to the boulders in time.
~!~!~!
Inside the ward there was only two nurses attending what Vin estimated to be thirty infants give or take. He didn't want to hurt either nurse in case one of the babies would need them, but he didn't think that he could just go in and waltz out with the little girl and get away with it easily.
When he saw that the nurses weren't going to be leaving the room any time soon another joined them. Vin groaned as the women chatted cheerfully. The third nurse and Vin sighed in relief. Now or never, he figured.
Vin eased the door open and slipped inside sticking to the wall trying to integrate himself with the shadows. One of the nurses looked up at the door as it closed. Her head turned left and right, her eyes skimming over his dark form in the shadows.
"Who's there?" She called out. Her voice was raspy like she had a cold.
Vin groaned inwardly but stood still. "I know you're there." She called out.
Vin stepped forward out of the shadows. "I am just here for a child." He said.
The nurse moved forward to stand between him and the children. "I don't think so." She said.
"Peggy, get out of his way. He's an X5, the one they caught." The other nurse said warily. Vin vaguely recognized her from his days in the recovery unit.
"Look I just want 2X5-838." Vin said slowly. He inched forward towards the women trying not to frighten them.
"Why?" Peggy asked.
"My sister and I are leaving and we are taking her mother with us. 675." Vin explained.
"Peggy." The other woman hissed.
"Shh. DO you really think you can get out of here?" Peggy asked.
"Yes."
Peggy considered it a moment. "I don't think it's right what they do to these children. You promise she will have a normal life? No number? A real name?"
"I promise." He said solemnly.
Peggy turned and went through the rows and picked up a child wrapped in a white blanket and handed it to Vin.
"Here." She caressed the child's cheek softly. "Hold on." She turned and gathered a small bag and dumped out what was obviously her belongings. A cheap romance novel, a brush, pens. She quickly filled it with diapers baby clothes and what formula she could.
"Take this. And you take care of her." The whole time the other nurse had been sputtering and protesting and Vin looked at her.
"You are going to get into trouble." He said.
"Probably." The nurse replied smiling sadly. "But it will be worth it. I will tell them you forced us."
"I won't let you do this! I am going to turn on the alarm!" The other nurse screeched.
Vin shifted the baby to one arm and blurred towards the other nurse who's hand was lifting towards a button on the wall. He hit her sharply on the back of the head and caught her as she fell to the ground. He laid her down lightly.
He turned back to Peggy. "Thank you." He told her.
"Thank you. You are doing something I wish I could do for all of them." She replied. "Now go. Hurry."
Vin leaned forward and kissed her softly on the cheek. Then he turned and hurried outside. Once the cool air hit the baby's cheek she yawned and opened her eyes. The bright blue eyes bored into his dark ones as if sizing him up. Then, as if satisfied, she yawned once more and closed her eyes snuggling into his arms.
Vin quickly made his way to the boulders easily and
found that Lexa and Paige had not yet arrived. He waited with impatience
as the time went by and they did not show.
****To Be Continued.....
Aren't I evil? HeHe. I am going to post the next part soon. Three day weekend for me (yay!) Who knows? If I get tons of reviews maybe I will post two or three chapters this weekend. Thats a hint people! Click Click! Thank you!