If you've been following this story at all, you might feel like this brings things to a close really quickly. I promise that this is not the case! I have a few different ideas that I'm debating with for this story, but this was a direction that it took before I really had a chance to reconsider. Mickey sort of took control at this point, so...blame her. Leave me a review once you've read it if you can!

Chapter Ten

It had been some early hour of the morning when the door had opened once more and several of Church's men had rushed inside to gather Barney from his place on the floor and forcibly drag him away. Despite her best efforts to get to him and perhaps spare him from further harm, Mikayla had been held fast by two men who had been sent in with the sole purpose of restraining her in mind. Even as she struggled in their grasp and called to them to take her in his place she knew that her pleas would fall upon deaf ears. Church was far too enthralled with her reaction to take note of her words, and he smirked in triumph at the door until Barney was far enough away that Mikayla couldn't cross the distance before the door was once again slammed in her face. It was hopeless, and she knew that as she pounded her fists weakly against the metal door. Yet she continued to do so until eventually the ache in her arms became too much and she leaned heavily against it for support.

She had been waiting anxiously since that time for him to be returned to their holding cell, praying that he might be brought back alive for reasons she didn't yet understand. Church was far too arrogant to kill him right away, he'd proven that when he had thrown the older man's battered frame into the room the night before. But that didn't mean that he wasn't currently torturing Barney within an inch of his life at that very moment, and the only reason the old man was in that position was because he had come to save her. Was it a stupid idea? Oh hell, it was perhaps one of the worst ideas he had ever come up with. But regardless, she still felt partially responsible.

Back and forth in painfully slow and (anxious) steps did Mikayla cross the distance of her prison as the minutes gave way into hours, pausing for every bit of sound that she heard on the other side of the door. Each time she was met with disappointment. Even if she had some clue of how this place was laid out she'd be in a much better position to do something than she currently was.

Finally after what felt like an eternity of waiting, the door finally began to open again. Mikayla positioned herself against the wall and waited for the instant that there was enough room for her to move, but was swiftly blocked off by a man nearly twice her size who jumped into the room with his gun at the ready. Evidently Church had suspected that she would not be easily dissuaded from escaping and had prepped all of his men on how to handle her. With her hands slowly raised into the air she took a few steps backward, putting a safe distance between herself and the man who literally held her life in his hands. Even when they once again threw Barney's bloody and battered frame in to join her, the young woman did not move until she knew that the gun was no longer aimed at her chest.

But as soon as the door was closed and they were safely locked inside again, she flew to his side.

"Damn it," she cursed under her breath as her dark eyes began their cursory observation. "I'll kill that son of a bitch, I swear."

Barney coughed, gasping for air. "You shouldn't be using…..that kind of language," he chastised.

Mickey rolled her eyes. "Don't even start with me, old man."

Damn it, she thought. Without knowing what had been done to him she couldn't be sure of what to be looking for, and truthfully she didn't think she'd ever find it under all of the blood that now painted his skin and clothing. Already she could see hints of bruises beginning to form on his face in the areas that were swollen and she didn't doubt for an instant that his hand was broken again just by the way that his fingers sat crookedly. There was nothing in the room to help her attend to him either. No running water or cloth or anything else.

But as she continued to look him over and gently push aside the sections of clothing that still clung to his body, Mikayla's eyes instantly widened when she reached his chest and her hands flew in a hurry to remove the last piece of clothing that remained on her upper body. The cut was deep and round, evidently carved out of his body at a torturously slow rate. She'd seen these sorts of wounds from a few of her jobs in the Middle East, where an underground drug lord liked to mark the victims who came too close to finding him with a mark that would eventually kill them because of the amount of blood it released from the body and the lack of food, water and shelter that the victims later had when they were dumped in the hot desert sun.

How Church had gotten hold of this information she didn't know. All that Mickey was concerned about was stopping the bleeding with what precious material she had left to offer. There was nothing to shield her from the prying eyes of men anymore, save for the black material of her bra. Her abdominals, sides, back and shoulders were now completely exposed. But even as the first of the shivers began to run along her skin and cause her to quiver she never allowed herself to make a sound. Barney was in rough shape, rougher than perhaps his body could now handle that he had progressed in age. And for now that was to be her main priority.

"Did you see anything when they took you?" she asked, partially hoping to distract him from his pain while she struggled to formulate a plan of escape. "Anything that looked like an exit?"

Unfortunately, Barney gave his head a little bit of a shake. "No," he admitted. "Not unless you count…small windows that are…too high to reach."

The brunette cursed lightly under her breath. "There's got to be a way," she grumbled, looking around the room again in case she had missed something from the million other times that she had repeated the same movement.

"Maybe there isn't-"

"No," Mikayla interrupted sharply. "I refuse to think that I've been beaten by a smart-ass cue ball, alright? We're getting out of here somehow."

Barney didn't argue further, but that might have been because of his injuries as well. The sands of the proverbial hourglass was slowly draining away and Mikayla knew that she needed to act quickly. But what the hell was she supposed to do? Even as her eyes scanned the room again she saw nothing that would help them. There was nothing they could use, and with no strength left in either of their bodies she knew that reaching the window on the wall was impossible. She'd never admit it aloud but Church had cornered them well. He'd found the dirt he needed on her, lead her right into a trap and successfully used her as bait to bring Barney into his clutches. He'd used her as a pawn.

And right now it looked like he was going to get exactly what he wanted.

If she were close to a wall, she'd probably punch it right now. And break her hand as a result. The brunette growled in frustration as her mind hit brick wall after brick wall of ideas. Even if she had somehow been left with a pen she would have been in better shape than this. But there was nothing; she had nothing.

"Look, Barney we-"

But the girl stopped short when she looked down at the old man and saw that his eyes were closed. Dread filtered through her body in that moment. The hand that wasn't holding the makeshift bandage to his chest was instantly on his shoulder, shaking him with as much force as she could muster in her beaten state. He didn't make a sound.

"Barney? BARNEY!"

Her hand moved from his shoulder to his throat as her fingers attempted to locate his pulse. It was there – barely. A voice in the back of her mind told her that she couldn't afford to panic in this situation but that was exactly what her body wanted her to do. One of her hands was still holding the compress to his chest, but the rest of her began to tremble as her heart started to race. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't just let him die like this, not after he had come so far to try and save her. Even if it had been foolish of him to think that Church would let her go with his surrender, he had still come. Was this how it was all to end? With him dying of the wounds that had been inflicted upon him while she stood by helpless to save him? She couldn't believe that it was all going to end like this.

"Mickey!"

Her head shot up instantly at the sound, wide eyes staring at the door. No, she thought. She hadn't heard anything. It had been a figment of her imagination, a moment of desperation where she had heard something-

"Mickey!"

There was it was again. "Gunnar! Gunnar we're in here!"

She'd know that voice anywhere. He called out to some of the others and the banging against the door began, giving the girl a bit of a fright as she tried to pull Barney's unconscious form a little further away from the metal frame. But it was no use, the old man was far too big for her to move on her own accord in her weaker state. She doubted that she'd have been able to move him even if she had been in the best of health. And she didn't dare to remove her hand from his chest in case the blood started to flow again.

"Mick, you have to get away from the door," Lee called to her.

But the girl was quick to respond. "I can't! It's Barney!"

Curse words could be heard on the other side as the team gathered outside, unsure of how the hell they were supposed to break them out. Obviously Church had done something to the exterior of the door in order to prevent any such rescue missions, and that meant that their task had become a hundred times harder. Voices debated what to do in tones that were muffled against the door, but Mikayla's only thoughts were of the man who lay beside her. He was dying, and if they didn't act fast then they were going to lose him.

"I'm losing him, Lee!"

None of them missed the panic in her words. They hollered at one another and finally seemed to have an idea of what they needed to do. It was shouted for her to cover her head and stay as low as she could, but the young woman simply leaned forward to shield Barney from whatever plan they had concocted. A few seconds later there was a blast at the far end of the room as part of the wall was blown away, leaving a hole big enough for the team to get through. Lee was the first one to step over the pile of rubble and hurry toward them, throwing his weapon over his shoulder as he came and knelt down beside her.

"Are you okay?" he asked quickly. "Did they hurt you?"

"Don't worry about me. If we don't move we're going to lose him."

Through grit teeth Lee took only a second to look down at his friend before turning back and calling for Doc, who was swiftly followed into the room by Gunnar. Both men fell to their knees around Barney's still form as they went back and forth with what they needed to do, where the worst of his injuries were. Doc's hands gently moved Mikayla's out of the way so that he could inspect the wound on his chest. A cursory examination was all that was required however. When he noted how severe it was and how shallow Barney's breathing had become, Doc grabbed a wad of fresh gauze from his pocket and packed the wound tightly, calling for Caesar to come in and help him.

It took Doc, Gunnar, Lee and Caesar working together to carefully get Barney up off of the ground and into a stable hold that would allow them to carry his unconscious form out of the building. Mickey watched for a couple of minutes before her mind caught up to what was happening around her and she realized that she needed to get back to her feet.

"Need a hand?"

Her head turned sharply to look upward at the outstretched hand that was being offered to her, noting that it was connected to one of the younger faces she wasn't overly familiar with. The boy could easily have been her own age, she thought to herself, with a leaner frame than most of the others, but a height that might actually rival Gunnar's. There was a bit of a curl in his lips when he looked down at her but it was free of any cocky glimmer that she was accustomed to seeing in the men who thought they were coming to her aid.

Before she could change her mind, Mickey reached up and pressed her palm into his, gritting her teeth for the long journey upward. It was a painfully slow process, but the young man didn't seem to be in too much of a rush to get her standing again. Once there she exhaled slowly, attempting to rid herself of the dizzy feeling that her head had suddenly adopted.

"Thanks."

He nodded to her. "Are you able to walk alright?"

Mickey shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."

She released his hand and turned toward the hole that had been made in the wall for their escape, thinking of the steps she would take in that direction. It shouldn't be a difficult task she thought to herself. And though the first step went well, the second saw her knees give out and her body begin to fall toward the ground. It was only a pair of strong arms around her waist that kept her from falling completely, and Mickey looked upward once again to see the amusement dancing in the depths of the young man's eyes as he regarded her with a smile.

"I'm going to take that as a no."

"Thorn! Where the hell are you?!"

The both of them frowned at the frantic voice they could hear on the other end as Thorn reached up to touch his ear piece. "I'm inside the building, where else am I supposed to be?"

"You need to get out of there right now!"

"Luna, what the hell-"

"The building's rigged!"

"WHAT?!"

Mickey's eyes grew wide as she and Thorn looked at each other, neither of them seeming to breathe in that instant. Church had planned this all along. He knew that the team would follow Barney in order to save her and so he had planned for such an event. He wanted them destroyed, completely and utterly removed from the face of the Earth. Maybe it was Barney that he had targeted in his video, but it was the entire time that he was really after.

And thanks to her, they'd walked right into his trap.

"Go," she urged him, looking toward the door. "You've got a chance to get out of here, now go!"

"Yeah right," he scoffed, scooping her up into his arms without warning. "The old man will kill me himself if I leave you behind."

He was off like a shot, taking them both through the opening in the wall and into the vacant corridor before Mickey had the time to protest. Her arms instinctively looped around his neck to hold herself in place as he moved swiftly down the opening, all the while being yelled at by various members of the team in his earpiece that he needed to find the exit immediately. And if Mickey could hear them, she could only imagine how loudly they were screaming in Thorn's ear.

With both of their hearts racing he continued down the corridor, taking the odd turn here and there as he tried to find his way back out of the maze that had been created to throw them off guard. Mickey could only pray that he knew where he was going. One wrong move and they would be so turned around that there was no way either of them would make it out of the building alive. Panic began to fill the young woman's heart. All she had been conscious for was her removal from one room to another, she wouldn't be able to help him navigate the halls.

What if they didn't make it?

"Thorn!"

Just ahead of them was another figure, one that Mikayla remembered from their brief exchange in the hangar. He waved at the two of them to hurry in his direction, thrusting his arms forward as Thorn approached.

"Give her here."

Her body was transferred from one set of arms to another before she had time to register the movement, her arms again reaching up to wrap around his neck in a tight hold. The closer she kept herself and the tighter she held her own body, the easier it would be for him to run with her, she remembered. But the exchange was so fast that she barely felt a moment of pause before they were off again, with the second man, Smilee, she remembered them calling him, now leading the way out of the maze. The urgency in their steps was not missed by the young woman as they went, her eyes locked on the tunnel ahead of them until they reached a light so bright that she was forced to turn her head away and close her eyes firmly. The searing heat of the sun pressed roughly against her skin, a feeling that only grew worse when she felt the hot flash of the blast from behind them.

They'd made it out.

Smilee seemed to move a little faster with the blast at his back, and Mickey turned her head just enough to see that what was left of the building was now engulfed in flames. Even against the sun she could feel the heat that radiated from the flames. She forced her eyes to open a little against the blinding lights so that she could see the destruction that lay behind them, a frightening scene that had nearly cost her not only her own life but Barney's as well.

Neither Thorn nor Smilee stopped running until they were safely up the ramp of the plane and inside the cabin. It began to close as they reached the top, the engines roaring into life once more as Smilee set her down carefully on the floor. As the plane lurched forward Mickey lost her balance a little, and his arms quickly tightened around her waist as he pulled her to him for more stability. They were like that for only a moment before she began to pull away, allowing him to gently guide her to the bench that was attached to the inner wall. But she shook her head, pressing against him again as she looked up with fear in her eyes.

"Where is he?"

Smilee didn't give her a verbal response, but a soft sigh as he turned his eyes toward the front of the plane. Her gaze followed his, and Mikayla knew that he was somewhere beneath the crowd of people who hovered about him in concern. On instinct her legs began to move despite how badly they shook, leading her closer and closer to the group. She was barely aware of the hold that Smilee still had on her, or the lingering hands of Thorn as he too attempted to keep her steady as she moved. But the sea of people seemed to part as she approached, each of them turning to look at her with the same sad eyes before they retreated to various places on the bench and left only the older members of the team standing guard.

Doc was on his knees beside Barney, his hands finishing with the bandage that he had wrapped as tightly around his chest as he could manage. The eyes of the others were upon her now, she could feel it. Yet she never once looked at any of them for fear of what else she might see. Using Smilee to balance she slowly sunk down to her knees beside Barney's unconscious body and continued to stare at his face, her eyes wide as they consumed his still image.

She inhaled slowly. "Is he going to be alright?"

Doc hesitated, looking up at Lee and Gunnar for a moment before he formulated his reply. "I hope so."

Mikayla nodded in quiet understanding. She knew how severe the wound was, and with more of his years behind him as opposed to ahead of him these were the injuries that would cost him the most. He was no longer a young man of twenty who could break a bone in his leg and then be walking again in four weeks. But with the blood that he had lost…

She didn't speak again. Instead she positioned herself on the floor in a way that wasn't completely uncomfortable and quietly picked up the old man's damaged hand in her own, gingerly turning it over to assess how badly it had been hurt. And for the remainder of the journey home, she didn't let it go. Her eyes never once left him, even as Gunnar grabbed the rough blanket from the back of the plane and draped it around her naked shoulders to shield her body from any wandering eyes. She didn't notice that the Swedish giant had placed himself on the bench just behind her in a protective manner, nor that Lee's gaze was solely focused on the way that she seemed to guard Barney from anything else that might seek them out.

This wasn't over, she thought to herself. If Church thought he was going to get away with this, he had another thing coming.