Her ribs might have been broken but her spirit wasn't.

At least, that's what she tried to tell herself as she struggled against the damp, cold cement wall, breathing shallow as to not hurt her ribs any further than they were already hurt. Drips of cold water kept falling onto her head, and the smell of decay was strong, enough to make her eyes water.

She wasn't sure how many had died in her but judging by the stretch, at least a few… Sam wiped the tears from her eyes and tried sitting up straight instead, only to gasp at the sharp pain twisting in her rib cage. She slumped back down and tried taking a deep breath, just to make sure she wasn't hyperventilating.

But it was so, so hard, she thought with a cracked sob.

She didn't even know where Clover or Alex were… if they were even… she gulped, alive. Last she saw them they were being dragged off with a different guard in the prison facility they broken into. That was before she got kicked so hard in the chest that her she was sure one of her ribs were broken.

At least, she hoped it was only one.

When the guard kicked her into the prison cell, she was too busy grimacing at the shooting pain in her back and chest and head. It took her a few moments to compose herself, but by then the guard was gone.

She had to get out of here.

None of their missions were easy, that was for sure, but the bruises she got from fighting never led to this, this pain…

She'd be fine, she told herself. She had to get up and get out of here. Find Clover, Alex, and shut down this illegal prison that wasn't performing insane acts on their prisoners by making them fight to the death.

The experiments they were doing on the other hand… that was rumor. She was here to find that out before they got caught and—

The footsteps she heard were light but determined. Making their way to her.

Sam gulped and shakily stood up on legs that wanted to give out on her, but she stayed upright, taking another shallow breath and exhaling weakly.

But the figure that came in front of her was…

Oh no, she gasped.

When she was brought here, she didn't see any other prisoners but… she thought they just wanted to isolate her. Not… not this.

They fell into a trap. That was for sure.

His smirk confirmed it, as she blinked a few times to make sure she was staring at the figure of the one and only… Tim Scam.

He gestured to the walls around them. "Like it? I bought it just for you." He looked back at her and just smiled.

Sam didn't say anything back. When looking back at this moment, she would remember that she just wasn't sure what to say.

They fell into a trap concocted by one of their deadliest enemies. Sam gulped and tried not to clutch her side but Scam's keen eyes were too quick, easily falling onto the side of her chest and he frowned. He turned his head slightly, as if to look at someone to his right, and just muttered, "I thought I said not to injure her."

Why Scam didn't want her injured was probably more frightening than him injuring her, Sam thought wildly. What did he want with her?

"What", she said quietly, yet somehow loud enough to echo in the prison cell, "are you doing here?"

Scam's attention came back to her, and suddenly she wished she hadn't spoken. His gaze was pointed and cruel, and his attention on her was anything but flattering.

Scam just quietly opened the prison cell door, and Sam wondered if she should make a run for it, but he entered, very confident and secure that she wouldn't get past him. Considering the amount of guards she fought when they were captured… he might not be wrong, but she'd die before she told him that.

He raised an eyebrow tauntingly, "Not even going to pretend to lift a finger?"

Her ribs were broken and her ankle was twisted and her head was killing her so no, she knew when she was at a disadvantage. She would just wait for a better moment to strike. "I just want to know what you're doing here."

"Ever think I just missed you?"

She laughed, mockingly. "Didn't know you knew how to do that."

Scam placed a hand on his chest, "Why Sam, that might have hurt if I had a heart. How cruel."

"You're telling me you built…" she glanced around them, "This prison conspiracy to just get us out here?"

"Oh no, not all of you… Your friends are fine by the way, thanks for asking. I'll send them your regards."

Oh God, Clover and Alex. She'd been so distracted by Scam's presence.

"What did you do to them!" She screamed, ready to pounce at him.

He rolled his eyes, "Do you ever listen? They're fine. They're on a ship sailing back to WOOHP as we speak."

On a ship?

"And you just… let them go?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. "You?"

Scam sighed and crossed his arms. "I told you. I didn't need them."

His unspoken words weren't lost on her. This was bad. "But you need me?"

"Now you're getting it."

Sam tried to step back but only found the wall behind her. Scam's threatening form only became more sinister in the cracked moonlight coming in from the solitary window.

"I'm not letting you use me for anything."

"Oh? Were you planning on escaping from me somehow?" He gestured to her, and she realized a little too late that it was for the guards that suddenly flanked Scam. "Grab her", he said nonchalantly and turned around to leave.

The same masked guards tried to grab her but Sam lunged a kick at one of them and sideswiped the other, twisting around and letting them hit each other when they tried to grab her. Pain ignored, she ran towards the exit—

Only for Scam to grab her by both arms and hold them tight to his chest.

"Must you be so difficult all the time?" He asked, rolling his eyes. He pulled her closer to him and made work of her arms by binding them behind her. Sam tried to kick his leg but he slammed her against a nearby wall and Sam winced. Her back wasn't ready for that just yet, and Scam seemed to know it.

"I'm not helping you!" She shouted into his face, despite it only being inches away from hers.

He rolled his eyes again. Really, the action should have caused brain damage for him by now considering how often he did it every time she spoke. "You don't have much of a choice in the matter. Now come on, we're wasting time. Unless you'd like me to call my friends over in that ship and have them… purposely sink?"

She scoffed. "Nice try, you don't have any friends."

With one hand holding her arms behind her back dragging her along, he clutched at his heart again. "You wound me."

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. "Save it. What do you want?" She asked, struggling against his tight grip.

"You'll find out soon enough."

With recovered guards behind them, It took some time after a maze of cement walls, filthy floors and she thinks she saw a few rats, but they finally reached what looked like an upgraded secure laboratory. He tossed her into a chair and her wrists and ankles were bound together quickly. Sam glared at him. She had tried escaping multiple times along the way but Scam seemed to be more about his wits than usual, not letting anyone but himself handle her. In the state she was in, she'd have to recover a little longer before taking him on in a battle.

Scam quickly started messing with some … was that chemicals… on his table and ignored her, despite her unsuccessfully struggling out of her bonds. He pulled out a thick liquid out of a clear glass bottle with a syringe and changed the needle tip, before insisting his guards leave them alone.

She did not want to be alone with Tim Scam.

But her wishes and demands went unheard as she struggled harder against her bond… If only she could get the laser lipstick she has hidden under her sleeve…

Focusing on getting the lipstick out of her sleeve, Sam was almost successful with it when Scam suddenly clamped a hand down on her hand and stared at her with dark eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?"

She smiled sweetly. "Trying to get away from you?"

He laughed. "So soon? We haven't even gotten to the best part yet."

And with that, he held her head still, and injected her with the thick liquid into her neck.

Sam struggled more but it was no use, as whatever was in that vial made its way into her bloodstream.

It burned.

"What the hell was that!"

He shrugged. "A test… you want to get stronger don't you?"

She scowled. "Not using anything from you."

"Too late." He signaled to his guards. "Get her out of my sight."

His guards chained her wrists and ankles and blindfolded her, taking her on another maze before she smelled the salt of the sea, the unsteadiness of the ground below her.

It seemed she was going home.

Days later, after WOOHP found her in the middle of the ocean, Sam rubbed her arms silently.

Clover and Alex had been found in a similar manner to her. They were safe and unharmed, and upon conversation with them, she found that they didn't even know Tim Scam was in the building.

Jerry questioned her and questioned her, ran tests and diagnostics on her and even threatened to send her to the hospital but Sam refused. The WOOHP medical facility was intrusive enough.

Maybe it was a psychological trick. A way of making her think he did something to her. But a part of her knew it was something more sinister. She just… wasn't sure what. She hadn't felt any side effects. In fact, she felt exactly the same.

That's what scared her.

At night she was afraid to sleep, scared he'd come for her and see what the effects of his serum was…

But nothing. For days and days which stretched into weeks and then months. She heard nothing from Tim Scam.

That didn't stop her from thinking about him though.

In the WOOHP lab, she ran her own diagnostics and studied her molecular formula and even tested her genes and it was then that she found it.

Not by studying, but on sheer dumb accident. She cut her hand on a piece of glass but found that…

There wasn't even a cut.

She tested the theory out with a scalpel and noticed the same thing. Nothing. No blood, no scar.

Just… skin.

Sam gaped at her hand and started shaking slightly. No. She was just hallucinating. That's all. She still had pain from her ribs, her head, her ankle, her back. Her injuries hadn't disappeared, but new injuries…

No. No, no. She had to find Scam.

Except it's like he disappeared off the face of the Earth, which wasn't like him. He hadn't been found, despite WOOHP agents sweeping the prison facility. Even the laboratory itself was set on fire, as it a bomb went off in it.

Nothing was saved. Nothing viable to see what Scam injected her with.

Sam jumped out of her seat and ran, quickly finding her way into Jerry's office.

"Any luck on Scam?" She asked almost breathlessly, and Jerry raised an eyebrow in concern.

"No, not yet. Everything alright Sam?"

She bit her lip. "I need to find him."

"Yes I assure you, WOOHP is doing everything we can to find him. In fact, I was about to send some agents to Paris and—"

"I'll go."

Jerry looked at her with shock. "Sam we haven't even figured out what Scam injected you with. It could make you … vulnerable, or—"

She cut him off. Vulnerability wasn't something she was worried about right now. She had to find Scam and get answers. "I'll go. I can find him."

He sighed. "Well, at least let me give you backup—"

"No, I want to do this one solo."

Jerry frowned. "Sam, the last mission you were on ended badly, and it could have ended up much worse."

Sam smiled at him, "But it didn't, and I'm fine. Please Jer? If I can't find him in 24 hours you'll send a whole team after me, ok?"

Jerry was going to get more wrinkles if he kept frowning like that. "Nice try. You have 4 hours."

More than enough. She got this feeling Scam was looking for her anyways. "Deal."

She found him in three.

On the Eiffel Tower of all places… as if he wasn't a wanted criminal.

"Five months and six days… you noticed it too huh?" He asked her, not looking at her. The people around him ignored them, unaware that there was a dangerous man in their midst.

She got closer to him. "What was that thing?"

He shrugged, "A little serum I like to call the fountain of youth."

Fountain of… oh you've got to be kidding me. "You're joking."

"I'm not."

Sam sighed deeply, rubbing a hand against her forehead. "Scam I'm being serious here." He turned to face her and came closer, and to anyone else watching them they'd think they were on a date.

"Finally noticed you're immune to even the slightest of paper cuts did you? Have you noticed that you've barely aged?"

"I'm 25 of course I've barely aged from five months ago—"

"Well I haven't aged in five years", he said, interrupting her. "I injected that serum in myself five years ago."

Sam gulped. This was just some horrible prank. She'd throw herself off the tower and wake up and the dream would be over. "That's not possible."

Scam placed his hands in his pockets, looking over the edge. "It is. I've found the source of immortality."

This was absurd. She didn't want to believe him but… a part of her did. He was too serious and this was Scam, she didn't think he knew how to joke. "And you gave it to me because?" She asked.

That's what was plaguing her now. That Scam had chosen her that fateful night.

She thought it was some new age torture device not… not this.

He shrugged, turning back to face the crowd. "I needed a second subject… figured sticking with you for all time didn't seem as bad as the other options."

Her jaw dropped. What kind of horrible confession was THAT?

Sam started hyperventilating. "Scam this isn't funny."

"No, it's not."

"I don't understand."

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "You will… I'll be seeing a lot of you from now on Samantha."

She scoffed. "You will most certainly not. I'm taking you back to jail!"

"Jail's a long time to to spend immortality, don't you think? You of all people should understand."

"How am I supposed to understand!" she hissed, making sure their conversation couldn't be heard by the people around them. "You dumped this on me! I'm supposed to believe you haven't aged?"

"Do I look like I've aged?"

No, he hadn't, but she thought it was an unfortunate byproduct of good genes, not some crazy serum causing immortality.

She chose to ignore him instead. Crossing her arms, she asked, "You haven't given it long enough. Maybe you'll start aging tomorrow, and this will... this will be some sick joke you decided to play on both of us." Why he chose her was beyond her. But a part of her... a part of her believed him. Maybe she hadn't hallucinated being unable to injure herself.

She grabbed his arm and started dragging him, audience be damned. "I'm taking you back."

"So you can visit me every day then? See if I've aged tomorrow?"

She growled. "Your weird obsession with me is over. I'm not getting dragged into this."

Scam pulled his arm back and inadvertently pulled Sam into his waiting arms. "You already have."

Sam struggled to get out of his grip but he was insistent. "It's not fair for you to have dragged me into what's YOUR problem."

A ring from her X-powder startled them both, and Sam looked between them to see her arms grasped in Scam's hands and gulped.

"That's Jerry."

He raised an eyebrow. "If you want more answers, you should avoid telling him you've found me."

"Were you even going to give me any answers that wasn't something out of a fantasy novel?"

"I'm only telling you the truth Samantha."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Ridiculous that's what you are." He let go of one of her arms and she immediately answered.

"Hey Jerry."

"Sam, you're alright… I'm about to send some agents over." It seemed her one hour was up.

Sam glanced at Scam who slowly shook his head. She ignored him. The bastard deserved it. "That's fine. No sign of him anyways. Thanks Jerry."

She hung up before he could say anything else and Scam smirked. "I'm proud of you."

"Shut up. We're leaving."

"And we're going… where?"

She chose a nondescript cafe in London, sneaking onto the train with Scam before WOOHP agents surrounded them.

"I want real answers."

"Like?" He said, nonchalantly drinking his coffee.

"Why'd you choose someone to experiment on?" The "me" went left unsaid.

He shrugged. "I already answered this question."

"Actually you jerk, you didn't, so get to talking."

Sighing, he said, "I needed a good way of testing if this experiment only affected me or if it affected someone else as well."

"And you chose me?"

He didn't answer.

She didn't expect him to. In fact, she was afraid to know why he didn't think hanging out with her, his sworn enemy, for all eternity was a good idea and frankly she did not want to know.

She rubbed a hand across her forehead, soothing her incoming migraine. "Where's the serum now?"

"I destroyed it."

"… Why?"

"I didn't want people getting their hands on it."

"But you tested it on yourself and then me without any consequence!"

"Sounds about right."

God this man was infuriating.

She had to know.

"Why me?"

He stared at her quietly and wouldn't answer.

She'd find that he wouldn't answer that question again for the next 50 years… when they both hadn't aged a day.

And then one day, when they were both hiding from their friends and the world, pretending to have died from some freak accident thirty five years ago…

He'd tell her. Tell her that he loved her but didn't want to spend this eternity with anyone else.

But Sam wouldn't find that out for another fifty years.

This fic didn't want to end... Maybe it's a sign to make a sequel. :)

Review please!

Love,

Ivy