Perilous

Chapter Five

Cammie POV

"Cammie."

As soon as the word left his mouth, the door was slammed shut and he was pressed against it, my forearm on his throat.

"How the hell do you know that name? How the hell do you know!?" I demanded.

Zach struggled to breathe. "I..." He coughed, but I didn't relieve the pressure on his windpipe. "I remember you."

I growled. "There should be nothing to remember!"

"Y-yes, there is." He argued breathlessly. "It w-was years ago. Catherine had kept you from me for a long time. B-but then I did something...it was something stupid. I-I think I assaulted a guard?"

As he spoke, my arm slowly released the pressure on his throat. He continued, breathing easier now. "I don't know. I-I think I was 10 or 11? She tied me to a chair...I had to watch her torture a girl my age for hours as punishment. I found a video of me screaming for it to stop in the old evidence files I was looking at and...I remember. Every time I screwed up, the girl paid for it. And then one day...Catherine put us in the same cell. I cleaned her wounds and talked to her. She, she told me her name was Cammie, Cammie Morgan. Short for Cameron."

It was really hot all of a sudden. My head started to hurt. My arms fell to my side.

"I saw her many times after that. Whenever she finished with training or being tortured, I patched up her cuts and bruises. Whenever Catherine starved her as punishment, I would slip her some of my rations. She wasn't allowed to go outside or above ground unless Catherine was with her, so I brought her photographs of the things I saw. I made her something once. So that she could remember me if I was ever caught."

He searched my eyes with his green ones.

"After about two years Catherine caught me showing her photos and giving her food. She locked her away. I never saw her again. I assumed she was dead." Zach reached a hand out to touch my hair. "It was you, wasn't it? You're Cammie, right? I recognize your eyes. The same sapphire blue." His fingers toyed with the ends of my hair. My eyes simply stared into his.

"Agh!" I suddenly screamed and stumbled back as a sharp pain pierced my skull. My hands grasped at my head.

"Cammie! Oh my god, Cams." Zach ran toward me and caught me before I could fall.

I started to feel faint, light-headed. My heart pounded.

The last thing I heard was Zach calling my name. I hadn't heard that name in years.

The last thing I saw were his concerned green eyes peering down at me.

I squeezed my eyes. They blinked a few times before opening fully.

Looking around, I recognized the CIA infirmary. It was empty besides Nick sleeping in a chair at the door.

Suddenly, there was a movement in my lap.

Looking down, I saw a mass of soft, light brown curls.

Smiling, I ran my fingers through his hair. It really was soft.

Zach stirred, blinking up at me.

He sat up abruptly. "You're awake."

I nodded before realizing how much my head hurt. "Yeah, looks like it." I began to sit up but he gently pushed me back down.

"No, stay. Rest. We still have a few hours before we have to get on our plane."

I sighed, laying my head on the pillow beneath me.

Zach's green eyes stayed locked with mine as he brushed some hair out of my face.

"Zach...I remember." My voice whispered.

"You remember what? Me? From years ago?"

I looked down. "Yeah, a few moments. I didn't before but...these are broken up. Like scenes in a...movie? And the dialogue is...difficult to make out." My eyes connected with his again. "I think she did something to me, Zach. I think she made me forget."

He started to get angry but then Nick woke up and walked over.

"Ah, she's awake." He made a few marks on a clipboard before checking my fever and my vitals, flashing a light in my eyes.

"Is she okay?" Zach asked.

Nick nodded. "She seems fine. I suggest a few hours of sleep and some pain meds but she should be alright. A question, though." He turned to me. "Have you had any frequent drug use in the past? We took a blood sample and found traces of an unknown drug in your system. It seems you've consumed it so often that your cells have started to...regenerate it, in a way. Like how you would think of government mutation experiments in movies, for example."

I clenched my fists, digging my nails into my palms. "She drugged me. She fucking drugged me so that I wouldn't remember my past. She made me forget."

Zach placed a hand on my shoulder. I calmed only slightly.

"How the fuck do you get this crap out of me?" I demanded.

Nick thought for a moment before saying, "We could do a near complete blood transfusion. We have more than enough of A-positive here. If we draw enough contaminated blood from your body and replace it with clean blood and a bit of morphine, your system should replicate that and get your body to produce normal blood again. The transfusion should only take an hour or so, but you'll be extremely weak for at least 24 hours, and a bit sick after that. I would say the full effects would last about...3 days. The first day, drowsiness and weak muscles. The second day, nausea and fever. Last day, headache. Actually, your head should hurt all three days." He paused. "What do you wanna do? If you want to remember, or at least want it out of your system, this is the only way."

"Do it."

"No way in hell."

I looked at Zach as he looked at me.

"Zach, I have to do this. I can hardly remember anything between the ages of 8 and 14. I can't just not do anything about it." I said.

He clenched his fists. "You heard him. You'll be sick for three days. We're leaving for London in the morning."

"The transfusion will be done by then. Someone will just have to help me along for the first day. I should be fine after that."

His jaw clenched. "I don't like this. I don't like this at all."

I narrowed my eyes. "You don't have to fucking like it. You just have to deal with it." Turning to Nick, I nodded. "Do it."

Zach turned away and ran a hand through his hair as Nick began to prepare me for the transfusion.

After a few minutes, Zach turned around. He seemed concerned. "Will she feel anything?"

"Besides a slight headache? Not a thing. She'll be asleep through the whole process and maybe a bit after." Nick replied.

Reluctant, Zach nodded.

Nick left not long after to get the blood.

While he was gone, Zach kneeled next to the bed.

"What did you tell him happened?" I asked.

"Just that I came to check on you in your hotel, we got to talking about Catherine, you tried to remember something, and you passed out." He searched my eyes.

I nodded. "Good. He won't suspect anything."

"Yeah..." Zach took my hand. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"No, but I don't have a choice. I could know a very important piece of information and it's blocked from my memory. I have to do this."

We were quiet after that.

I started thinking, and suddenly something came to my attention. "Zach?"

"Yeah?"

"You can't...you can't tell anyone who I am. Even if they recognize me, and it's been twenty years so I doubt they will, they can't know."

His head snapped up. "What? Why? I remember you told me about your parents and your friends, Rachel and Matthew? Bex, Liz, and Macey? Your family and friends are right in front of your face and you don't want them to know who you are?"

"Zach, please..." My eyes burned with tears I'd hidden for years. My voice was softer, quieter. "Please don't tell anyone. Please."

Reluctant, he nodded. "Okay, I won't. Don't cry, okay?"

I blinked back the tears just as Nick reappeared.

Zach stood and stepped back, falling into one of the chairs in front of the bed I was in. Nick hung the bag of blood on some medical machine and attached several tubes, connected them to me.

"You ready?" Nick asked, holding a syringe of anesthesia.

My eyes traveled around the room and connected with Zach's bright, worried green eyes.

"Yeah, I'm ready."

Seconds later, my eyelids fluttered closed.

"Cam...Cammie...Cams, wake up. Wake up."

I mumbled something unintelligible.

"Cammie...Come on, Cam. We got a flight to catch."

I shook my head, turning on my side. "Ne zelim. Odlazi." I drew out the last word.

"Oh, you're speaking Croatian now. Get up you little marshmallow."

A smile spread across my face as I blinked, looking up into his playfully green eyes. "I'm not a marshmallow." My words sounded whiny, probably due to the drowsiness thing. "You're lucky that I'm not in any shape to fight, mister."

Zach smirked. "You, an assassin? Medicated and drowsy? This is going to be an interesting 24 hours."

"Meh." I buried my face in the pillow.

"Alright, up you go."

He took me into his arms bridal style and I giggled. "Whee,"

His smirk morphed into an amused smile. "Yeah, real interesting."

TWENTY MINUTES LATER

Poor Nick carried all of our bags including his own, considering I was unable to carry any myself, and Zach had to carry me.

By the time Zach set me down in one of the chairs on the jet, all eyes were on us.

"Zach! Why is she wearing nothing but a robe!?" Macey demanded.

Nick explained briefly what had happened to me the night before. They all understood.

Zach sat down as the pilot took off. "And Little Miss three-year-old over here refused to put on clothes."

I crossed my arms with a pout. "I'm not three years old. I'm..." I looked at my fingers before holding up 2, then 8.

Zach smirked, Liz giggled, Bex held back a grin and the rest of the guys laughed. Macey rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand.

"Come on, girls." Macey dragged me toward the bathroom with Bex and Liz following behind.

Macey gave me a white floral dress to wear. It was off-shoulder and fell a couple of inches above my knees. After Macey shoved me into it, Bex slid some black heels on my feet. Liz did my hair in two dutch braids while Bex and Mace handled my makeup.

When they were finished, I looked nice and sweet. Drowsy me loved it. Normal me would have shot something.

I clapped, looking into the mirror. "Yay!"

The girls giggled, pushing me out of the bathroom.

"Here, Goode." Bex sat me next to Zach. "Nightshade is all yours."

I plopped down next to him. "Hi! Your eyes are very very green.'

He smiled in amusement. "Thank you."

I yawned. "I'm sleepy."

"Go to sleep then."

"But I'm cold."

Zach sighed and shrugged off his leather jacket, wrapping it around me.

"There," He said. "Now you won't be cold."

I gasped. "I'm warm now! Magic!"

Zach burst out laughing. The others joined in.

"Must be," Zach smirked at me, shaking his head. "Must be."

I toyed with the zipper on Zach's jacket as the other's talked.

"You know, the difference between how she was yesterday and how she is now is insane," Bex said.

Grant nodded. "Yeah. She was ready to kill our asses and now she's like...sunshine and rainbows."

Jonas was typing furiously on his computer, probably hacking into something, but still managed to put his two cents into the conversation. "She's on meds, right?"

"Standard pain medication and morphine. She needed a generous amount." Nick didn't bother looking up from his phone.

"Lizzie, you see what I'm getting at?"

Liz looked up at him over her book and her glasses with a sly smile. "Of course."

Macey watched the two with an odd mixture of annoyance, confusion, and amusement. "Okay, I know you two love these moments where you're the only ones that understand what's going on, but like can you explain?"

Jonas shrugged. "A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts."

"Woman," Liz corrected.

He put his hands up in surrender, then cursed and got back to hacking.

Bex snorted.

"So you're saying that if we treat this as if she's drunk, we can assume that this is what the non-murderous, non-serious Nightshade is like?" Zach asked.

"Yep," Liz said.

Macey shrugged. "Makes sense. She was locked away and forced to kill people for years. I doubt she's really a killer. Deep down inside she's probably just a woman who was forced to grow up before the age of ten. She probably trusts no one, so she hides who she really is."

Zach looked at me with a smile, and all my intoxicated self did was smile back.

"Speaking of, do we have any idea of who she is? Like her name, her parents, etcetera?" Grant asked.

Everyone shrugged and shook their heads. Even on meds, I worried about Zach. I looked at him and he looked back, telling the others he didn't have a clue.

"It's odd not calling her by name." Grant continued.

Zach was the one to reply. "Just think of 'Nightshade' as a codename."

"Yeah, okay."

I was starting to fall asleep as I slowly unbraided my hair. "Zach?" Another yawn.

"Yeah?"

I was asleep before I could respond.