Living on Borrowed Time

Disclaimer: I own nothing

I don't eat pie for breakfast, I do have a tendency to eat ham sandwiches and of course the occasional ice cream… I don't see the problem either, but people are weird and they like to go off on the "Its not good for you" thing…like its good for you any other time of the day rolls eyes

Chapter 8 – Tortured Tale

The two were still fuming, but Hawkeye carefully put an end to the spat by ignoring it and continuing with the story. She took a deep (unneeded) breath and closed her eyes, trying to picture what Red headquarters had been like. "Red was operating out of an old meat packing plant…much like the one we arrested Barry the Chopper in. It'd been abandoned for a few years and it was a little decrepit. There weren't many ways in, but I found a few weak boards at the back of the building and snuck in." Roy had quieted down a bit since she began her monologue and she couldn't help but open her eyes to see if he was still there. He was staring at her intently with those determined black eyes of his. She struggled a moment as his eyes stared holes in her. She regained her train of thought and continued. In the background Roy's water faucet dripped. The only other noise in the kitchen was Black Hayate's quiet munching of the cereal. "I found my way into a back room and I hid there for a few minutes. There were some voices echoing around the complex, so I tried to be as quiet as possible. A few of the Red walked by my room and I followed them into a main room. There were boxes of grenades and guns spread throughout the room and I hid behind those as the two rejoined the rest of the group. There were about 6 in the room, the man I was looking for wasn't among them. He showed up later." Riza suddenly felt the events leading up to her death rushing back to her, flooding her essence. She felt even lighter, almost faint. She thought she closed her eyes as she tried to speak but she wasn't sure. She could see herself standing behind the crates of grenades, her gun at the ready. Riza could remember not wanting to shoot anyone and with this many people it would have been impossible to apprehend them all without shooting at least a few. The man that had been following Mustang wasn't with the six in the room. As Riza watched herself watch the criminals she heard someone come up behind her. Suddenly she was back inside her own body in her memory. The silent attacker landed a blow between her shoulder blades. The strike had been unexpected and she fell to the floor. Before she could try to stand up a heavy foot was in the center of her back, holding her down. A greasy hand took hold of her hair and slammed her head against the ground until she was unconscious.

Blackness enveloped Riza and she felt herself being completely lost in the emotions of the capture. When she awoke she was shackled to the wall with several dirty men making eyes at her. The one she could only assume to be the leader made a few snide remarks about the military not being nearly as intelligent as they thought they were. It suddenly became clear to her…they'd known. They knew she was coming.

She tried to come up with a reason as to why they could possibly want her. Overall she wasn't terribly important. If she were gone no one besides Eli would miss her. What would be the point? Her head ached too much from its earlier beating on the floor to really be able to reason through her rush of thoughts.

The leader came toward her and caressed her face with desire. The man had flaming red hair and for a moment Hawkeye wondered if he was the reason they called themselves "Red". All of the men looked at her hungrily…as if they hadn't seen a woman in years.

"Can we have a little fun, Boss?" a mousy man dared to ask the red head. The leader smirked evilly. "Of course. He didn't say anything about needing to keep her in perfect condition. His only request was to hold her here." The mousy man seemed to jump at the chance to use a woman. Just as he got close enough to touch Riza the red headed man knocked him off his feet. "Me first." He said. He took a set of keys from his belt and unlocked her hands and feet. He held onto her roughly and tried to drag her toward a back room. Hawkeye's head was still foggy but she did her best to resist. Her weapons had been confiscated and she glanced longingly back at them sitting on a table twenty feet away. Her eyes narrowed in determination and she roughly kneed the leader in the groin and ran toward her guns. Five men immediately jumped her. She never stood a chance.

"I wouldn't try that again if I were you." The man snarled at her. "I was being nice before…" He turned his attention away from her and shouted an order to his minions. "Take her to my room, chain her to the bed. We'll see how feisty she is after I kick a little of the fire out of her." Intense dread settled into Riza's stomach…there wasn't anyway out of this. She could only hope that Eli would try to play hero and rescue her. In the pit of her stomach, she knew no one was coming.

"Hawkeye!" screamed Roy's voice through her memories. "Hawkeye! Come back!"

Suddenly the world seemed to snap back into place. The warehouse was gone and she was back in Mustang's kitchen staring into his concerned eyes over the top of his kitchen table. "Where'd you go?" he said, seemingly on the brink of panic.

"What do you mean?" she ask, mentally shaking off the fog from her memories.

"You were telling me that someone knocked you out from behind and then you just faded into nothing." He explained as worry played across his charming features. "I was afraid I lost you." He added almost inaudibly. A jagged pained race through Roy's chest at the thought of losing her again. It'd been hard enough the first time.

"I'm sorry." She replied, realizing how deeply she'd plunged herself into her memories. "Where was I?"

"You said that someone knocked your head against the floor." He prompted.

"Oh yes," she said, relief washing over her. For a moment she feared she told him everything…including how they'd violated her. Carefully she picked up in her story, making sure to skip the part about how they'd violated her…how they'd fought over her like a pack of dogs and a bone. After her close encounter with the leader and a few others they'd brought her back into the main room where they'd kept her chained to one of the walls. The leader, who's name she later found out to be Flynn, didn't trust her and seldom let her out of his sight. "The next night I heard Flynn fighting with someone. I'm pretty sure it was the man that set me up."

"How could you tell?"

"He was mad at Flynn for letting his men beat me. Apparently, they'd made some sort of deal that someone was tell you that I was captured and wait for you to take the bait. He kept saying how I wasn't supposed to have been hurt." The memories still rang in her ears and she fought back the urge to drop back into them. "The man that set the whole thing up pretty much pressed Flynn's last nerve and he said that he was tired of listening to the military no matter how well he was paid. The man tried to protest, but Flynn shot off a few rounds and the man turned tail."

"Could you see them? Can you describe the man?"

Hawkeye was faced with one of the most challenging decisions she'd ever made. The military couldn't be trusted; Roy knew that, but could she really tell him how close to home the truth struck? Even in the dim light of the warehouse, the blonde hair and cigarette were seemingly unmistakable. It'd been dark…but there was little chance she was mistaken. "N-no…it was too dark, I couldn't really make the man out." She felt horrible for lying to him, but this entire mess was just too much for him to handle right now. His life was already falling like a house of cards around him…there was no need to help it along.

"Then what happened?" Roy said, leaning even closer on the table so not to miss a word.

"Flynn shot me."

The bluntness of her statement made Roy wince. "How'd you get on the front steps?"

Hawkeye had to concentrate hard. There had been a few hours while she was bleeding to death that she'd passed out. She couldn't remember being put in the car, but she did remember being wrapped in a coat. "I think the man that had been assigned to follow you took pity on me. I think it was him that dropped me there."

Roy's chest ached, the thought that she laid there in the dark until he found her was almost unbearable. There was no doubt, the men that did this would pay…all he needed was the right people to back him up.