I'm sorry.

As Kowalski woke, it registered that he was on a cot of some sort, and as he sat up and looked around, it became clear he was alone in a small cell. It was hard to know if Doris had moved them to a completely different location or if it was only another room they hadn't come across.

Although at the moment, finding Skipper and Private was the more pressing matter. That and why he had a metal band around his left wrist. It was plain but thick and virtually seamless as he turned his wrist over to examine it. In some ways, it was similar to the collar that Francis had designed, but he couldn't feel any electrical currents thrumming through this body, and there wasn't any sign of any modifications. However, that left him with little comfort, given what Doris had been able to do with a simple toxin.

"I never quite understood why my brother was so obsessed with you." Doris's voice started Kowalski, and he watched with caution as she came into view and then stopped in front of his cell. She held an open notebook in hand and didn't bother to look up as she continued to address him. "And I do mean obsessed. Almost every set of notes from the last ten or so years have pages dedicated to how you've squandered your intellect, but after getting to know you," she looked up at him, her blue eyes filled with warmth and admiration, "I'm inclined to agree."

For a moment, Kowalski could believe that this had been the same woman he had been in love with once. "So what's the plan now?" He asked, wondering how much time had passed. A part of him hoped that she would tell him that the rest of the team had been let go with the cure.

Doris closed the notebook and tapped her fingernails against the cover as if in thought."I still have some concerns regarding your loyalty. It's hard to imagine that you really would turn your back on your team."

Kowalski laughed humorlessly at the remark. "You didn't give me much of a choice after you made it look like I had been working with you all along."

"To be fair, in a way you have been working with me all along, but I want to make sure that there's no going back for you." Doris moved to open the door but paused and glanced at his wrist, "so there are two things to keep in mind. One: that band isn't just for looks. Two," Doris opened the door and stepped off to the side, "I still have your team."

The statement was both a threat and a promise. Doris did not trust him, and she would not keep her end of the deal unless she knew he could be trusted. After only a moment, Kowalski responded with a sharp, "Understood."

"Good boy." The door swung open. "Now follow me."

Kowalski did but paid little attention to his surroundings. A rookie mistake that Skipper would never let him hear the end of if he knew, but his mind was preoccupied with the idea that Doris wanted his loyalty. Within a short time, Doris led him to a dead end with a single door. The bio-lock panel next to it seemed to taunt him.

"You can go first." Doris gestured to the door and neatly boxed him off in the small space. "Your team is just on the other side."

In that moment, Kowalski knew the game she was playing at not, at least a small part of it. She was still trying to wedge the divide between them. Her brother had underestimated the strength of their bond, so Doris wanted to ensure that it wasn't a threat at all. Even if Skipper knew that Doris had manipulated things the fact that he had been hiding it didn't look good on him, and he knew exactly what it would look like if he walked into a secure room freely.

"One day you're going to have to tell me how you got my exact biometrics to pull this little trick off."

"Trust me Kowalski," Doris looked up at Kowalski through her lashes and backed him against the door, "you know exactly how I got them, but if you want a refresher…."

Kowalski flinched as Doris closed the gap between them with a searing kiss. Everything in him revolted at the contact and he moved to push her away. But the second his hand closed over her shoulder, he remembered the band on his wrist and froze.

"Kowalski!"

The door against his back slid into the wall, and he stumbled backward into the room, breaking the kiss. He turned at the sound of his name and saw Skipper and Private bound to chairs on the other side of the room. "Skipper, that wasn't what it looked like, I swear!"

"Can it Kowalski, I had a gut feeling that you weren't coming clean about everything." Skipper's voice was deadly steady. No sign of anger, not even as he turned to face Doris. "Is this all part of the deal you had?"

"No, not originally, but the terms have changed," Doris answered and crossed the room to the table set up next to her captive audience.

"A change in terms?" Skipper scoffed. "You've essentially taken out my sargent and you've taken my lieutenant," he cast a glare at Kowalski before continuing, "what more could you possibly want?"

"Well, the problem is I don't have your lieutenant yet." She picked up a syringe from a tray that held various medical supplies from a suture kit to scalpels on the table and examined it in the light. "I will honor my side of the deal so long as Kowalski can honor his and prove his loyalty to me."

"You mean the new friendship bracelet isn't enough?" Kowalski asked and didn't miss the way his teammates checked his wrists, their eyes lingering in the metal band.

"We both know that all partnerships are better with trust, and let's be honest- that wasn't something we had. Even in our most intimate moments," Doris practically purred the word and enjoyed seeing the color flood Kowalski's face, "it was clear that you didn't belong to me."

"What exactly are you asking me?"

"I suppose you are on a time crunch so to keep it simple. Just as you said: one life for another." Doris uncapped the syringe, and the thin needle glinted in the light. " This is the unaltered form of the toxin I used on your boyfriend. If you want to save him then you'll have to pick one of your teammates to take his place. If you try anything else than the band on your wrist will administer a dose to you and our agreement is then null and void."

"You are one twisted bitch," Kowalski's voice was flat as he weighed his options.

"I learned from my brother's mistakes." She passed the syringe to him with a small smile and withdrew a small remote from her pocket.

Most likely, it was the remote that controlled the band around his wrist. "Is there even a cure?" Kowalski asked, just needing a little more time to find a way out of the corner he had backed the team into. He looked down at the syringe in his hand and then back up at Doris.

"Of course," Doris used her free hand to pull a vial from the breast pocket of her lab coat. "Just synthesized this morning."

"So what happens once you have your revenge? Are you going to become an eco terrorist like your brother? Or haven't you thought that far ahead?"

Doris slipped the vial back into her pocket and cocked an eyebrow in his direction. "Are you sure you really want to be stalling?"

Kowalski tried not to show how unnerved he was by her gaze. "I'm just trying to figure out what exactly you're getting out of doing this. Not just revenge, but how you're going to actually benefit from doing this."

"What does that matter to you?"

"Just curious. I mean, you're a brilliant marine biologist at the top of your field, leading expeditions, and doing unparalleled research. I read your file and it looks like all of that was only possible because of your brother." He couldn't figure out why she threw away everything her brother had given her.

"He was only trying to make the world a better place. Save it from the humans who were destroying it," Doris was becoming visibly upset, and her growing anger could be heard in her voice. "He didn't deserve to be killed."

"I'm not saying he deserved to be killed," Kowalski forced himself to say even though he still remembered the collar the Blowhole had used to try to control him. The agonizing electric pulses forced him to fight his own teammates. It had been a relief when Rico snapped the flimsy device and broke the mad scientist's hold over him. "He was a brilliant scientist who could have done amazing things for the world and because of him you were in a position to do the same so why throw all of that away?"

"Love and sacrifice tend to go hand in hand, but you already know all about that." Doris remarked, growing impatient. "Make your choice Kowalski, we both that Rico doesn't have all day."

Kowalski looked between the small remote in Doris's hand and his teammates. The weight of the syringe in his hand seemed to quadruple with each passing second.

Then a dull but loud thud rang out from somewhere else in the facility, drawing Doris's attention. It wasn't much of an opening, but Kowalski took it and threw himself towards the woman dropping the syringe. The move startled her into dropping the remote, but as he did so, she dived towards him or, more accurately, towards the fallen syringe.

They hit the floor in a tangle, and Kowalski winced as his shoulder slammed into the table's edge with a sickening pop, sending the tray and various medical equipment to the floor. He just needed to subdue her, but at the same time, the cure was on her person, and one wrong move could potentially shatter it. His hesitation gave her an advantage, and she rolled them so she was straddling Kowalski as they clamored for the syringe.

"I knew you would try to play hero." She practically growled as he wrapped one hand around his throat and squeezed. But not before slamming his head onto the floor with a sickening gasped in pain and was further stunned by the chokehold and watched for a moment in a daze as Doris used her other hand to withdraw the vial containing the cure. He could hear Skipper and Private but couldn't make out what they were saying. He grabbed the hand around his throat, ignoring the pain tearing through his shoulder while the other searched the floor aimlessly for anything he could use as his brain began to shut down.

"Deal's off."

The words barely registered in Kowalski's mind as his fingers grazed something solid. He gripped it weakly, knowing that even if he failed Rico, he would at the very least go down swinging. With that last bit of strength and consciousness, he swung and felt whatever he had grabbed make contact with what felt like Doris's side. The sound of glass shattering reached his ears, and one thought echoed through his mind as he gave into the darkness swallowing him. I'm sorry, Rico.