Chapter 10: Reciprocal

"Please come in and join the party and don't forget to close the door." Cassandra said.

Claire and Alex both slowly made their way into the room. Claire dropped her bag as Alex threw her a gun. 4 bullets. Alex's must have the same amount. How are we going to do this?

"Hey guys." Darien said in a low, weak voice.

"Darien, sweetie, its Claire. We're going to get you out of here." she said.

"That's nice." He said in a daze.

Cassandra began to laugh. "You really think you'll be getting out of here so easy?" she stated more than asked.

Then she made a gesture with her free hand for them to look over to the far wall. There sat a bomb counting down from 4:00 minutes.

"You'll never get out of here in time." she said

"Neither will you." Alex retorted. "I can live with that."

Cassandra stopped smiling. Clearly she hadn't thought of this.

"I'll make you a deal. You let me go and I'll give you back Darien here." she said nervously, looking at the two women.

"No, I think we'll just all stay here." Claire said.

Darien raised his head. "Claire, I don't want to die." He wailed, a tear falling down his cut cheek. Claire winced.

"Don't worry, Darien, you're safe." Alex said trying to comfort him. Meanwhile Cassandra was going through possibilities of how to get out in her head. The bomb hit 3 minutes. The room was silent other than Darien's slight whimper every few seconds.

2 minutes...Cassandra spoke up again. "If you don't let me out I'll kill him right now."

Alex smiled. "Go ahead. He's dead anyway. If you shoot him now, we'll shoot you and leave with lots of time in hand."

Cassandra fell silent again.

1 minute.

Cassandra took a step away from Darien and opened fire. Claire and Alex dove out of the way. Alex rolled and came to a stop and began to open fire on Cassandra. She ran out the door with Alex on her tail. Claire looked up from her spot by the table to see that Cassandra hadn't shot Darien, but at the ceiling and the chains holding him there. He now lay curled up in a heap on the floor. Claire grabbed her handset.

"Bobby, Cassandra took off. She set a bomb. Get the hell out of here!" She screamed into it hoping he got the message. She jumped to her feet and ran to Darien.

"Hi Darien. It's okay we're going to get you out of here." She raised her gun and fired all of her bullets into the chains and locks that still held him immobile. He flinched and opened his eyes wide at the sounds, thinking she was going to miss and hit him.

"Bloody-hell." Claire yelled. "I'm sorry Darien, I should have warned you."

"I'll forgive you if you get me out of here." Claire looked at the bomb.

30 seconds.

Alex rushed back into the room. "Bobby's out, Cassandra got away."

"It's not important now. We have 20 seconds to get out of here." Claire and Alex both grabbed Darien and began to half carry, half drag him out.

"Darien can you quicksilver us?" Claire said knowing they wouldn't get out in time.

"I'll try." Darien said taking a deep breath and concentrating on speeding up his heart, which wasn't too hard considering the situation. He felt the quicksilver first coat himself, then Claire, and finally Alex. "It won't last long, hurry." He said weakly the effort of covering three people being almost too much.

"Duck in here" said Alex. She pulled them into a room that was more like an office. She had remembered this room from kicking it in before. Claire closed the door behind them and ran to hide behind the desk that was there. Darien re-quicksilvered her, and just as he finished, the bomb went off. The three of them felt a slight tingle of warmth, something like being next to a fireplace in the middle of winter. Claire heard Alex gasp and Darien fighting to get a breath. If he passes out we're all dead.

"

Hold on Darien." God I hope we live through this. If I never got to tell Darien how I feel, I'd probably never reach the afterlife

           " Yeah Hold on Darien." Alex said God I hope we live. If I never saw Bobby I'd…where did that come from?

"Yeah Fawkes. Almost over." Claire heard Alex say.

The warmth left then, and Claire and Alex climbed out from under the desk and picked up Fawkes. They began to walk as fast as they could, knowing Bobby was probably worrying himself to death over them.

"Look, the door." Claire and Alex picked up their pace. Just as they reached the door Darien spoke up.

"Guys I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put you in danger. I've got to stop now." Darien passed out and the quicksilver fell from them. Both Claire and Alex were shocked by the heat and the smoke. Alex let go of Darien and pulled open the door burning her hand in the process. Claire was trying to hold Darien up.

"Alex." she gasped feeling her legs getting weak. Alex reached over and grabbed Darien's left side again and they made their way through the doors into the open arms of Bobby Hobbes. He grabbed Darien as the two girls fell to their knees coughing. They were both slightly red in areas. Clothes were singed from passing through the doors. Their eyes were red from irritation, and Alex's hand was burnt. Other than that they were fine.

Bobby carefully laid down his partner and then grabbed each one of the girls and pulled them up and way from the burning building just as the fire engines arrived