Hi guys... first I thought I'd write a oneshot... but I couldn't. I fell in love with the story, so here it goes... Enjoy!
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I have to find her.
That thought was consuming his whole consciousness. Ever since the door had closed after her, he only thought about how to handle this situation: was it another trick of Cheng? To get a woman and make her look like Audrey? To fool him into telling her everythng they wanted to know?
It was time to get some closure. Once and for all he wanted to know what was going on here. He had to be one step ahead to survive this ordeal.
Fine, he was in a hospital room. That could be anywhere. He didn't know for how long he had been in Chengs custody, but it must have been months. Maybe the were finally giving up on the concept of torture.
Audrey... no, she would never act along.
Unwillingly, his thoughts drifted away from his developing plans, back to the memories that had kept him alive during the past months. He could still see her, standing out there in the morning sun, waiting for him to come back after taking that 'call' from Kim. It had been the last image that his eyes had seen before Chengs men had sedated and abducted him.
Focus.
He snapped back into the present.
Audrey was at reach - closer than to any time before in the past months.
He tried to move his legs. It worked... not perfectly, but enough to move. Arms. Fingers. Relieved, his body collapsed back into the bed, tired after only a few seconds of moving. He was exhausted already, but relieved that he could still move.
It took him almost a minute to sit up in bed. Instantly, he felt sick. It was too early, he knew that too, but he just couldn't stay here not knowing where he actually was. Audrey had left the room, after that doctor had told her to leave him alone, she had only closed the door - noone had cared to lock it.
As he found himself sitting at the bed, staring at the unlocked door, the urge to seek for freedom drove him through all the pain that he still felt. Those little aches... they were nothing, compared to what he had been through in the past months. That little pain of walking over there was nothing, compared to the prospect of finding the door unlocked.
Carelessly he ripped the IV out of his arm and the electrodes off his chest, taking care to switch off the annoying sound of the monitor next to him before detaching the cables. The back of his head still told him to be careful. This must be one of Chengs's tricks. But Audrey. Maybe it wasn't?
He grabbed the intravenous stand and pulled himself up from the bed. Immediately, his abdomen started to hurt. He tried to think back why, but the past days seemed like a big blur now.
As he tried to hold his aching belly with his left arm he was only forced to let go after the first touch - the arm hurt even more than his abdomen.
Slowly he went towards the door, step by step. Those three yards felt like a mile.
He hoped for the door to still be open but the closer he got there, the bigger his fear grew that it was maybe locked.
Remembering that he only had one good hand to open the door he leant against the wall and pushed the IV stand away.
Please... be open, he prayed.
The handle felt cold as the fingers of his right hand enclosed it.
It was the first time in months that his fingers enclosed the door handle of his cell, with a prospect on freedom.
He took a deep breath and opened the door.
The rush out here was unbelieveable. Nurses, doctors, others, patients... it had been months since he'd last seen so many people.
Nobody of them looked Chinese. They didn't even notice him first, all engrossed in conversations - actual conversations, about the plans that seemed to be made on the whiteboards on both sides of the hallway.
For a moment he even forgot the pain and stepped out into the hallway without holding on to anything.
FREEDOM.
This was not one of Chengs plans... this was actual FREEDOM.
Did he even remember how this felt like?
At once, it overwhelmed him. He was free. This was not one of Cheng's sick tricks to get him talking.
FREEDOM. So this was how it felt like. He didn't even realize that a silent tear of happiness trickled down his cheeks. He had survived it. It was over.
"Sir?"
He also didn't realize the nurse who was standing right in front of him, looking concerned and afraid at the same time upon seeing a man in his shape standing out here.
Ever since his view had caught her at the end of the hallway, he just couldn't turn away.
"Sir!", the nurse said again, louder, trying to judge what he was up to do. "Sir!", she called out.
He didn't even take notice.
Clumsily he made one steps towards the one person who his eyes were centered on.
Audrey, he murmured and stretched out his hand to touch her, though she was at the other end of that endlessly long hallway.
The voices of the others got loud. More and more people rushed towards him. He noticed none of them counsciously.
Focus. He had focused on her during all the bad times. Every time the pain set in, he closed his eyes and remembered who was still out there, waiting for him to return one day. She was the reason why had never given up, never given in to them and had refused to die.
Finally, Teddy also took notice of the happenings down the hallway. Their John Doe was standing out in the hallway, two fresh gunshot wounds in his abdomen, broken leg, arm and ribs... He's going to collapse within the next few moments, she realized the moment she saw him.
She started rushing towards him.
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Audrey, it was only a thought right now. She was coming over.
He stretched out his good arm once more and made another step towards here that made him stumble. One of the others caught him and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen.
He was focused on the one an only thing his mind could think of right now.
"Audrey...", he finally managed to whisper before his knees gave in completely. He gladly let go of everything as he collapsed into her arms, his mind telling him that he had arrived back home, at the one place that he had always dreamt of.
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That was a shorter one, but longer ones are to follow... enjoy!