* * * * *
Samantha stood rooted in her spot, too stubborn to move.
"I know this is not what you want to hear, but it's true. Now you can stand here, and likely be killed or kidnapped when Sark finds you here, or you can come with us and we can possibly help you to live a full life." Sydney tried again.
"I don't want to spend the rest of my life running." Samantha continued to be rooted to her spot. She wanted to run. She knew that if just this once she ran, she would never stop running, and the last shreds of what was left her life would just dissolve into the past.
Vaughn pulled Samantha towards the door. "Fine, don't spend your entire life running, but now is the time to run."
Samantha looked Vaughn in the eye. "Would you run?"
"Right now, yes."
"You?" Samantha asked, turning to Weiss. "Would you run?"
"I'd rather run than die."
"And what about you Sydney? You don't seem like a runner to me."
"Sam, even I know when to back down from a battle. I would run."
"My stuff?" Samantha asked. Most of her junk she didn't really care about, but her photos… her photos were the most precious things she owned and they were irreplaceable.
"It's all at the safe house, we'll take it with us. When it is finally safe and you don't have to run anymore, you can have it back."
At this point Samantha was getting frustrated. No one would side with her. And then Sydney was starting to give her conflicting statements. "You told me it would never be safe."
"I meant when you can protect yourself."
Samantha sighed. People she trusted surrounded her, and they were all telling her to run. Objects in motion stay in motion. People running keep running. "You promise that I'll stop running one day, right?" She asked, looking at Sydney. Sydney said nothing, standing there as stubborn as Samantha. "Right?"
"You listen to me!" Weiss exclaimed, stepping in between Sydney and Samantha. He looked directly at Samantha. "You're as stubborn as she is! But get this! For once in her life, Sark won't want to kill Sydney when he sees her. He'll only want to capture you, and then torture you until he gets whatever kind of information he's looking for. And quite frankly, I don't want to see the CIA's precious resources used as we try and rescue you, because you were too stupid to run!" Weiss said through gritted teeth and with a voice stained with aggravation as he tried not to yell. "So if you're not going to go willingly, so help me, I'll make sure that you're knocked out in a second, and we'll carry you out!"
Samantha's eyes grew real wide. She was surprised by Weiss' outburst. Just looking at him, she thought he was a good-natured man who never got mad or upset. By looking at Sydney and Vaughn's expressions, Samantha could see that they were just as surprised as she was. Even Weiss seemed to be surprised by what he had just done. Meaning it was a big deal that he had just gone to that extreme. "Alright, let's go." She said. Sydney nodded towards Weiss and Vaughn, then she and Samantha started to run. As the two women got a head start running to the awaiting van, the men picked up every last shred of Samantha's presence from the room.
"Wow, I haven't gotten that mad since I caught Elizabeth trying to take half of my stuff to school with her." Weiss said, as Vaughn started to pull out of the parking lot.
Samantha looked longingly out the window as she watched the hospital slowly fade from view. She watched as they passed her school, still crawling with detectives and construction crews, as they tried to reopen the school as quickly as possible. They passed the coffee shop where she had worked and she and her friends had liked to hang out. Sydney saw the pain that Samantha was feeling, so she held the girl close until they drove just out of town, and pulled into the safe house.
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