A Final Farwell
Chapter 10
A/N: I'm getting the feeling that I may have confused a few people in Chapter 9's authors note when I said M/L interaction. What I actually meant was that even though Max is still Carmen she is talking to Logan, and I also promise that it is a M/L shipper but you'll have to wait for that. I'm very sorry if I confused any of you or gave you the wrong impression as to where this story was going. So anyways thanks for all the wonderful reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
She watched him go, feeling extremely guilty for it. She knew that she could lie and say that she had killed him, but lies had a funny way of coming back to bite you in the ass. That was something that she knew all too well. At least she thought she did.
Thinking about how much she didn't want to go back to Manticore, something that would very surely ruin the rest of her day, she got up and walked down the million steps to the ground floor. Going to her car she started it up and was about to drive away when something in the rearview mirror caught her eye. There was something silver poking out through the separation in the back seat.
Getting out she pulled the front seat forward and climbed in the back. Running her hand through the separation she came out with a small box with a microphone on one end. She recognized it, they had showed her one in basic training. It was a state of the art Global Positioning System they had been spying on her ever since she had left the Manticore facility. That means they probably had other agents tracking her watching her every move, which meant that they probably knew that she had let Mr. Cale go.
That meant that they were both in danger, which by definition was never a good thing. She was an expert at escape and evade, but these agents had been trained like her, they probably calculated her every move even before she knew herself what she was going to do. Looking around slowly hoping to not alert them to her find, she pretended to bend down to fix her shoe while crushing with her hand the GPS system on the ground.
Seeming preoccupied with her shoe, she glanced around once more and not seeing any movement she got in her car and left taking good care to run over the GPS system just to make sure it was really broken. She headed through the back streets of Seattle and made her way to Fogle Towers. Slipping past the security guard she headed toward the elevator taking it to the top floor where the penthouse was located.
She got to the door and put her ear up to it listening for any sounds from inside, not hearing anything she turned the knob, surprised to find it unlocked. The penthouse was empty and clothes were missing from the drawers in the bedroom. So he had taken her advice, he had skipped town, maybe he was smart after all. Now the only thing she had to do was find him. It's very strange how ironic it was, first she had come to kill him, then he had come after her and now it was her turn again to go after him only this time it was to warn him and not to kill him.
She saw that the computer room had been torn apart, included with a few bullet holes in the wall where he had shot right through the computer. She had to hand it to him, he was taking every precaution that he could think of taking. She went through the desk drawers and was about to close one when something caught her eye. It was a pink slip of paper with the name of a hotel in Sector 9 on it. Judging by it, she guessed that he had, had big plans for the night 2 months ago to rent out the honeymoon suite.
It was a long shot, there was nothing saying that he would be at the same hotel, but it was the only clue that she had to his whereabouts. Grabbing the piece of paper out of the drawer she arrived at the hotel 15 minutes later. Asking the concierge she found out that her suspicions had been right he was staying at the hotel. It was her guess that he planned only to stay the night and then catch the first plane out of the airport.
Donning a maid's outfit, she stole a cart so that she could blend in and hopefully not be noticed by the people who were passing through the halls. There was nothing out of place if she was dressed as a maid, nothing in the remotest threatening about it. Knocking on his door she swiped the skeleton key that all maids carried through the lock. Grabbing a stack of towels off of the cart to hide her face if needed she proceeded through the hallway into the main part of the room.
He was lying on the bed watching some blurry program on the TV. He didn't give her a second thought, but after dropping the towels in the bathroom and walking back out, he glanced up. Immediately jumping off the bed and grabbing the gun that was lying on the night table. "Please don't shot me, I'm not armed," she said quickly hoping to deter him from placing a bullet in her head.
"Where have I heard that one before?" he said sarcastically then pausing. "Oh yeah, right before you shot me in the leg, I have to admit the maids outfit is a nice touch."
"I'm here to help you, there are armed men outside who are waiting for the perfect opportunity to show you the barrel of a gun. Now if you would like to make it out of here alive you're going to have to trust me."
"Trust you?" He said incredulously. "Do you even know the meaning of the word trust?"
"I'm trying to help you. What do you not understand about that?" Carmen yelled at him.
"The part where I'm supposed to trust you." He still had the gun aimed her way and showed no signs of putting it down. "Now what were you saying about armed men trying to kill you?"
"After you left the Needle I was in my car and found a GPS system with a microphone. They were following me when I went to your apartment and they probably followed you here."
"Okay so for the second time today you have put my life in danger-"
"Get down." Carmen yelled as she saw a hail of bullets being shot at the window, she looked up just in time to see Logan fall to the ground a bright stain of red spreading on his white shirt. Crawling to where he lay, she picked up the gun that lay unceremoniously next to him. She pulled him onto her lap and checked for a pulse, it was there but was very faint. His blue eyes fluttered open and he whispered something too faint for her to hear. Bending closer she heard the words, "Sam Carr, Harbour Lights."
She wasn't exactly sure what it meant but pulling the phonebook out from the nightstand she flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for. "Harbour Lights Medical 947 Baker Street."
Getting on her knees and looking out the window she couldn't see any movement but that didn't mean anything, there were ways that even she didn't know. Pulling the man to his feet she helped carry him to the door and to the elevator, which she took to the underground parking lot.
Putting him in the back seat of her car, she prayed that he would be okay. She wasn't exactly sure why she wanted him to live but she had a feeling that it was because he was her only link to the past, the one that she couldn't remember. Driving as fast as she could without speeding she made it to the hospital and was dismayed to see that the man had lost conscientiousness. Taking him through the front door of the ER, she went up to the check in window.
"I need to see Dr. Carr. This man is a patient of his, he's been shot, and you need to help him. Please."
"Ma'am Dr. Carr is very busy you'll have to wait until he has time, he has other patients to attend to." Sighing Carmen pulled a fifty dollar bill out from her purse and slipped it under the opening in the window. The nurse looked at it and nodded. "I'll see what I can do." She picked up the phone and started talking. Seconds later she put it down and looked at Carmen. "You need to go straight through that door then down the hall, take the first left you come to."
"Oh God, thank you." A man walked through the door that the nurse had told her to take.
"Max?" The man had a look of stunned shock on his face. But then it returned to a look of concern as he glanced at the man in her arms. "What happened?" As he motioned for her to follow him.
"Someone tried to assassinate him." Dr. Carr gave her a strange look and motioned for her to set him down on the gurney in the room.
"I'm going to have to ask you to wait outside, you aren't even supposed to be back here." He said pulling her towards the door. "I'll come out and give you updates when I have a chance, now please wait out in the waiting room."
Giving the man lying on the table one last glance, Carmen walked through the doors and headed down the hall to the waiting room, which was filled with people crying, and praying. One woman was sitting in a chair across the room staring almost catatonically at the wall. The only free seat in the room was next to her. Sitting down, Carmen went into her own little dream world and she was sure that the two of them made a perfect pair, both staring at absolutely nothing. She spent most of her time in the waiting room trying to drown out the ever-continuous noise that plagued the it.
Waiting was something that never set well with her, she hated it, counting it as a useless waste of time. Why should she wait when there were so many things that needed to be done? She was about to leave when Dr. Carr walked through the double swinging doors. "Max," he said in a monotone voice. "The bullet collapsed his left lung, we were able to repair it, but there is some internal bleeding where the bullet pierced an artery."
"So what does that mean?" Carmen asked, not even caring that for the fourth or fifth time in almost two days she had yet again been called Max. "He's going to be okay isn't he?" She was scaring herself with the concern that laced her question.
"I'm not entirely sure, he's very strong, a fighter, but we'll have to keep him for some time to make sure that there wasn't any permanent damage."
"Can I see him?"
"I'm not sure if that is such a good idea, you seem a little distraught, I think the best thing is for you to go to your apartment and get some sleep, you look as though you need it."
"All right, but I'm coming back first thing tomorrow. If that is all right with you? Here's my cell phone number call me if anything changes." she said softly, she hated being told what to do, but she knew that he was right, she did need to go home and take care of a few things, a few very important things.
Walking through the parking lot, she kicked her car in frustration, leaving a little indentation on the driver side door, throwing out a stream of curses to the sky at her stupidity. She wanted to know why she cared so much, she wanted to know what this man had awakened in her, what happened to Carmen the uncaring killer, who didn't care about anyone but herself. She hated it, hated it with a passion that was unbridled, she hated that feeling, the feeling that she cared for another human being other then herself.
The temperature had dropped considerably certainly below freezing and the rain was starting to become snow, which wasn't uncommon for Seattle. She drove down the interstate at lightening fast speed and was surprised to find no one on the roads, it was nearing 7 pm, usually a moderate traffic hour for a large city like Seattle, but she could almost bet that the temperature and the snow had deterred people from venturing out of their homes.
She made it through the sector check points in record time and was driving along the interstate when she decided that the car was too quiet, flipping the dial on the radio she turned it to one of the few all music stations that frequented the air waves, most others were news or talk shows and she certainly didn't have any interest in those.
Staring at the road, she noticed that as she got farther away from the city, it got darker and darker, as the trees became thicker and thicker, she turned on her brights hoping to make the road a little easier to see in the rising darkness. But the brights are what caused the accident, they glared on the road too harshly, blinding Carmen and making her swerve into the oncoming lane, and it just so happened that the lone car on the interstate was coming at the same time. She didn't feel the impact she didn't feel much of anything until the car came to a screeching halt as the hood impacted with a car and then by a rather tall tree about 10 feet from the edge of the road.
She raised her head warily, turning her neck from side to side to make sure that it wasn't broken. She could feel blood slowly trickling down the side of her face, not a pleasant feeling. Pulling her arm up she wiped it away with the back of her hand, staining the material of her shirt. Looking through the windshield she saw a stray beam of light growing brighter.
"Hey are you all right?" said a strong female voice. The beam of light disappeared getting lost in the denseness of the woods surrounding them but reappearing through the driver window of the car. "Just stay still, I'm going to call an ambulance." The women pulled out a cell phone but before she had a chance to dial Carmen spoke.
"I'm fine please don't do that. I don't need an ambulance, I'd rather not have to deal with the authorities right now, I'm in kind of a hurry." She unbuckled the seat belt and moved to open the door, but the woman was standing in the way.
"Are you sure you should be doing that?" The women questioned, "You could be really hurt, please let me call you an ambulance, I'd feel better if you let me do that."
"I'll let you call them, if you'll let me get out of my car." The women backed away as Carmen pulled her keys from the ignition, she was sure that she would be needing them, especially if she made it back to Manticore they held her security checkpoint key that allowed her to go anywhere in the building. Stepping out of the car, Carmen stumbled on a stray root from one of the trees surrounding them. The women caught her by the arm dropping her cell phone in her attempt to help Carmen balance.
The touch brought back a bunch of flashes for Carmen, children in hospital gowns, a young girl getting shot, a freezing day with children running through the woods. She pulled away instantly and looked up into the face of the women. She was Carmen's age and height with long blond hair, and blue eyes. There was something very familiar about her they way she held herself. "Max, is it really you? Logan told me you and Zack were dead, what happened?" Max just stared at the women not replying. "Max are you all right?" Max nodded.
"I'm fine, how's your car." Max said like her normal self, more worried about others than herself.
"Don't worry about my car, I hated it anyway, right now I'm more worried about you, Max what happened? Where have you been for the past 4 months?"
"I'll tell you later, right now I think it might be better to get out of here before someone comes by and sees this disaster all I need right now is to deal with the police, is your car still drivable."
"I think so, the hood of yours has been smashed it pretty bad, try starting it." Opening the driver side door, Max inserted the key praying that it started, the engine sputtered and then started. Not wanted to leave it sitting just incase it stalled she got in and looked at Syl who stated "I have a hotel, a few miles away follow me there we can patch you up, are you sure you can drive?"
"For the second time, I'm fine stop being the overprotective sister." Max said sternly.
"I can't help it, it's my job, I like being overprotective." With that she walked to her own car 50 feet away, starting it, she turned onto the road. She waited for Max to pull her car from around the tree and then drove away. Syl hoped that Max was really okay, she had the habit of lying so that people wouldn't worry about her, one day that habit of hers was going to backfire.
In the other car, Max was mumbling to herself about Syl, she knew that her sister would have a lot of questions about where she had been, and she was fully prepared to answer them. After she took down Manticore and the people who tried to hurt her and Logan. Knowing her sister as well as she did though, she knew that she wasn't going to get anywhere if she didn't tell her sister the truth and right when they got to Syl's motel.
A/N: Okay hope you liked this chapter please tell me what you thought about it. I feel like the chapter was a little awkward, maybe not oh well.