"Meggie, wakey wakey…" Something was tickling her nose. She swats at it, curling up into a tighter ball on the couch. Two days after their 'party' mother nature threw a wrench into the works. The heating pad was turned up as high as she could stand, only half helping to take the edge off of the pain. Megan had been downing Midol every two to four hours, depending on if she was conscious or not, and had effectively ripped off Altair's head from his shoulders when he grumbled about her being a little testy. She had banished herself to the living room, realizing just what was going on. She was never really that bad but then again, emotions had been running high these last few months.

The tickling thing was back.

She cracks one eye open to find Ezio was holding a feather in his hand, a goofy grin plastered on his face. "Good, you're up!" Her eye narrows. Was he stupid? Hadn't he been there when she ripped Altair a new one? "They wanted me to tell you they were going to town for a few hours. Something about giving you space." He shrugs.

"…Fuck off." Was her eloquent response and she closes her eyes, pulling her blanket over her head and curling tighter around the heating pad. She hears him laughing and walking off. She was in pain, and it was worse than usual. Thank god, she only had to wait for a day maybe two more and it would be over. Then she could apologize to Altair. Before was out of the question, not with how easy it was to make her irritated.

But she did have to wonder, was she really that bad right now? It wasn't like she could help it. And in her opinion, anger was better than bouts of depression and hysterical (and impromptu) crying. She felt no need to get chick flicks and have a crying fest, rather she wanted to find the nearest chocolate cake and eat the whole damn thing.

She sits up after a minute grabbing the pain killers and her water, and takes two of them before laying back down. "Ezio!" She cries after a few more minutes and the man comes into her view. "Go to my room and get my stuffed kitty? Please?" She questions, giving him the best pout she could muster at the time. He smiles at her and retrieves it quickly. She now knew why they left him; he was to be her yes man.

She could live with that.

Megan had called her agent to let him know she was going to be taking a break from all of her stories, so she could focus on herself. She had things she needed to sort out and couldn't do so when she had to worry about deadlines and manuscripts and fixing problems. He eventually agreed after about half an hour of her pleading her case to him. He told her to take as much time as she needed so she would be in top performance and as such, so would her stories. She had relocated herself to her room, only because she had a TV in there and didn't have one in the living room. She was curled up sideways on her bed, heating pads on her stomach and back, a blanket laid over her and watching locked up. She was finding that she was watching more TV, not the news but other random things that seemed to catch her interest. Even Alex was joining her more and more. She would still find herself reading books while watching the flat screen if only for the noise more than anything. Though she did enjoy watching America's Funniest Home Videos, when that was on everyone was in her room to watch it and laugh.

"Anything you need?" Ezio questions as he pops his head in, her door left open just for that purpose. She thinks about it for a few moments.

"Um, chocolate milk and uh… some of that stuff you made last night." She answers him, throwing a blanket back over herself. He leaves saying he would be back in a moment. She releases a breathe, gets up, and goes to the bathroom. Mother Nature was calling her and she was insistent.

When she exits she notices a rather tall glass of chocolate milk sitting on her side table and voices talking downstairs. She takes the glass and downs it, setting it back down. She wasn't in so much pain now and her emotions were better in check. She even felt confident that she wouldn't bite off anyone's head. So she headed out downstairs, taking the steps slowly to allow them to prepare just in case. When she makes it down and heads into the living room, pausing as everyone looks at her. They were leery. She gives them a smile and a wave to which they all relax at.

"Better?" Malik questions.

"Somewhat. I hate being a woman sometimes though." She answers with a laugh, making her way to her 'chair'. Altair leans away from her and she rolls her eyes.

Two nights later, banging awoke Megan later that night. She had gotten Altair to relax eventually, after forcing herself to apologize, and the rest of the day had been great. She rolls over and sees that Alex was still asleep, the sound not even registering to him. She wonders vaguely if she had them all that stressed out. She waits a minute to see if she hears the noise again but doesn't so she lays back down, relaxing into Alex once more. Something crashes causing her to jolt into a sitting position, heart in her throat. She shakes Alex but he doesn't waken. Frustrated she huffs and gets up, looking around her room for anything to protect herself with. She didn't find squat. Irritated she pulls at the green sleeves of the large long sleeve shirt she wore and the black soffe shorts.

'Dammit, I gotta remind myself to get that stupid baseball bat from storage tomorrow. Fucking raccoons getting inside.' She thinks with a roll of her eyes, opening her door and heading downstairs. None of the other men had seemed to be bothered with the noise so she didn't think much of it. Going downstairs she flicks the lights on but nothing happens. 'Odd.' She purses her lips but shrugs, heading into the living room. She peers around in the dark, squinting her eyes, and sees a lamp that had been knocked off of one the side tables. She also notices the back door was cracked open. "Wha-"

A cloth covers her mouth, smelling of something sweet, and her body becomes limp and her vision fuzzy. She sags into the body behind her and the person lifts her up, throwing her over their shoulder. She loses conscious.

Alex awakens alone in Megan's bed. He listens for her in the bathroom but hears nothing.

"Hey Mega-.. Alex, where's Megan? Something broke one of the lamps downstairs." Desmond says after finding her door to her room open and only the other male in the room. Groggily Alex processes the information, brain stops, then reboots.

"You haven't seen her?"

Desmond shakes his head in the negative. "Nah was hoping she was here." Desmond could feel his heart moving further up his throat. This wasn't good. Alex gets out of the bed quickly, panic rising. Both men head downstairs where the rest were, looking around at the mess that was left behind. Books were strewn across the floor along with the lamp shattered on the hardwood.

"She wouldn't just leave." Shaun says his expression dark.

"What smells sweet?" Leo questions, smelling the air. The rest follow suit; Altair, Malik, and Shaun screwing up their faces as the scent assaults their smell receptors.

"Chloroform." Alex remarks, eyes widening with the information.

"Kidnapped." Altair speaks out, saying what they all knew. The phone suddenly rings causing them all to jump. Des was closest to it and he picks it up. He doesn't say anything instead listening to whoever was speaking then give the phone a steely look.

"What? What did they say?" Ezio questions.

"The guy said he has her and has no intention of letting her go. Voice sounded warbled. Used a voice scrambler." He answers. Shaun growls and grabs her laptop, breaking into the phone company to get all the information he needed. Alex heads outside, the ground covered in fresh snow. Any tracks would have been covered long ago. He was angry, the rage near blinding him. He didn't understand how the others could be so… calm, so level headed when the woman who had taken them in was gone. Just disappeared.

"Bloody computer. To slow." Shaun growls, anger manifesting as irritation. He pushes buttons quickly; Ezio, Altair, and Malik looking around the house to find anything they could use to help find the girl. They were all blaming themselves.

"I should have woke up. She could have gone to anyone of us and asked for help…" Desmond grouses, head down and his hands threaded together. His shoulders were tensed and hunched. Shaun shoots him a look but couldn't agree more. Who knew what had been going through the girl's head when she decided to go down by herself.

When he looks back he finds that the software he had downloaded had found the source of the number. Gave them an address even. "Got it."

The door opens and one of the other men walks out. He didn't know how long he had been out there, didn't want to know. "Shaun found the place. We are leaving."

It was Malik. Alex turns on his heels and walks past the Arab into the living room. The Brit was getting up from the computer, the sound of the printer working in Megan's study alerting him to Shaun printing something out. "The place is an abandoned warehouse over in the outskirts of Seattle." Alex nods, body morphing to give him not only his hoodie but his jacket too.

"Word of warning though." He remarks, voice deepening. They all look at him. "Stay behind me." They nod.

Her head hurt. Worse than the other night when they had managed to get her shitfaced. She attempts to open her eyes but could see nothing, eventually realizing something was covering her face the more she moved around and felt something hitting her arms. She also realized she was tied up to a chair, hands behind her back and the back of the chair she was sitting in in-between her back and arms. There was tape on her mouth as well. She had a bad taste and smell that was lingering in her mouth and nose. And she was wondering just how long she had been out. A few hours? A day? A week?

"Yeah, I get it… No she hasn't woken up yet… Why the fuck would we do something like that?...No, we'll deliver on time." She hears a man speaking angrily, pauses in between as he listens to whoever he was talking to then the snap of a phone closing. Heavy footfalls come closer and stop right in front of her and the man sighs, clothing shifting as he moves. "Well little one, be happy we were given orders to not touch you." She could smell his rancid breath and flinches as he pats the left side of her face with a hand. He rests the same hand on her face, gripping the upper corner of the tape. "Got any last words girly?" He questions and pulls the tape off enough for her to talk.

"Yeah… You're in deep shit." She says. His hand is removed from her face and he slaps her hard enough to bust her lip. The coppery tang of her blood negates the bad taste in her mouth. He replaces the tape, pats her face one more time, and walks away. Panic was still gripping her heart but she fought through it enough to think about her situation. She knew now that she had been kidnapped. She was worried about the guys, she didn't know if they had been hurt or even killed. Everyone had been so stressed out that they hadn't woke up like she did to the noises.

'Guys, I hope you're alright…' She thinks, swallowing the blood and saliva in her mouth. She tries to even out her breathing so she would hyperventilate, that would be bad. An unknown amount of time later (she knew it had to be hours, she could hear ticking from a clock somewhere) the heavy footfalls return, and the guy wasn't alone. She counted atleast 4 more people with him and they were laughing.

"Well girly, we talked it over and realized that while we couldn't have our… normal," she could hear the sneer in his voice and the laughter of the people with him, "fun, we figured we could still have a form of it." As he was talking someone cuts her bindings, freeing her hands and feet but redoing her hands in front of her, and then she is hit across the face so hard her chair tips back and falls, taking her with it. Suddenly, feet and hands were hitting and kicking her without warning and she tries to curl into a ball to escape it whimpering.

"Sir! We have a- AAAHHH!" A voice chokes out, ending in a gurgling scream. The hands and feet stop and she curls up tighter in an attempt to be a smaller target. She could hear yelling and gun fire, the smell acidic and causing bile to want to climb up her throat. Instead, someone yanks her to her feet and forces her to run blind. The voice yelling at the people around her alerted her to the fact that it was the same man who had hit her first. He keeps her running, pulling her up when her feet trip. She would run into things with her hips, legs, and bare feet as they would turn corners. She could feel the tears leaking from her eyes, soaking whatever was keeping her blind. The man stops and she hears a heavy door open and feels sunlight on her body. He forces her to move quickly, not run anymore, a short distance away and stop once more. This time she hears a van door open and she was shoved inside with the door closing afterwards.

"Shit!" The strange man yells and she jerks as gunfire sounds out behind the door. She lays still, unwilling to move out of fear when the door is pulled open once more and a voice gives a sigh of relief; whoever it was pulls the tape off her mouth and she begins to breath heavy in fear, softly sobbing as she expected something else to happen to her.

"Sh, sh, sh… It's me, it's Alex." The person says softly, taking her face in his hands. She releases a shuddering, sobbing breath, leaning into his hands and he picks her up bridal style. He doesn't remove the blind fold from her eyes, instead he continues to whisper to her; telling her everything was fine, they were fine, all of them were there to save her, he was there to save her. She clutched him as closely as she could with her wrists still bound together. She hears other people give out breaths of relief as she comes into view with Alex.

She was shaking uncontrollably, her body positively vibrating in fear and shock. She is carried to a vehicle and passed off to Leo who continues to give her words of encouragement on doing a good job and that she was safe. Her shaking begins to wane as Alex gets in beside her, she could tell because he was so warm but he was shaking too. She didn't want to know why though. She wanted to forget everything.

The engine starts and she clings closer to Leo who strokes her hair, arms, and back in a soothing manner. "Hey, Megan. I'm gunna cut off the tape on your arms alright?" Des questions softly, gently taking her wrists in hand. She nods, unsure if she could keep her voice steady, and she not only hears the tape being cut but feels it as well. The pieces were removed as gently as possible and then she slowly removes the blindfold. Her vision was shot, blurry and disoriented, but she could make out the people around her. She, Leo, and Alex were in the back seat of the expedition; Des and Malik in the two middle seats, Ezio sitting on the floor between them, leaving Shaun and Altair up in the front seats. The tears start again, as she realizes that every one of them had relieved expressions on their faces.

They stop at a motel several hours later, only because it was already late and they wanted to check the girl over. Des had gotten out and got two double rooms, paying cash, and returns with the room numbers and keys. When they get in the rooms, Megan immediately goes into the bathroom and locks the door behind her. She starts up the shower, the scalding water symbolically washing away all the things that had happened. She sat in the tub with the water cascading down on her until it ran cold. Only then did she get out and take the large fluffy white towel and wrapped it around her body. She didn't want to wear the clothing she had, felt that there was something evil to do with them now. The only article she puts back on was her underwear. She walks out into the room and Alex pulls her over to him, taking note of all the bruises he could see and all those that would show up in a few days.

She had a few cuts on her arms, shallow ones at that. Other than that she was fine, the real problem was how was she dealing with it emotionally?

"Are you ok?" Malik questions as Alex puts his jacket over her shoulders, forcing her to sit on the bed beside him. She was still shaking but not near as violently as before.

"I.. I think so." She answers as she looks at him. Her eyes weren't vacant, they were alert; like she was dealing with it rather well.

"We were worried." Desmond gives the girl a soft, sincere smile.

"Oh hell, we were going out of our fucking minds when we realized you were gone." Shaun says, crossing his arms over his chest. Altair and Ezio nod, giving small smiles of their own to the girl. She looks each of them in the face, realizing that they were being truthful.

She fights the rather cynical smile coming onto her own lips. "What, couldn't live a day without me?"

They all roll their eyes at her, real smiles breaking through at her rather normal behavior. They would have to wait and see just how much this affected her but for now, they were glad she was safe with them.

"She's asleep now." Des says, coming out of the room that the Megan and Alex were sharing for the time being. They would send in someone else to help keep watch. She had relieved what she could remember when she woke up, stressing that nothing else had happened other than being hit and kicked. The wounds were all superficial, to fade away in a week or so. It was more the emotional stress that was causing worry, she was filing it away all too well.

"Good." Ezio answers him, a harsh look upon his face. They had decided, once they realized she was fighting to stay awake, that they would take turns watching at night. Alex would stay with her as he had been, only more vigilant. It was just strange that suddenly the girl would be taken but not them. She had no enemies, she wasn't really a people person per say. She had befriended them because they had allowed it. She didn't ask questions they weren't comfortable with telling her the answer to and when they had said something that she would find interesting and them willing to talk, she would only use the information for a story, having them help her with twisting it into a fantasy. She never said anything horrible to say to them and if she did, it was always as a joke or a barb to get them out of a funk as she would put it. But right now, she needed them even if she didn't realize it. They found themselves responsible for allowing this to happen to her.

"I'll take first watch." Altair says, not allowing anyone else a chance. He felt he deserved the most blame, his room was beside the stairs and thus the last room she would have passed. He climbs onto the railing then climbs up onto the roof, snow falling in his wake. They made sure to check on the Arab every 45 minutes to an hour and a half to make sure he didn't freeze to death. After a deliberation Des was next on watch, taking over for the man at midnight and would stay there till morning. Malik enters the room with Alex and Megan, finding the girl to be virtually fused to the other man but were both sitting against the headboard. Alex opens his eyes, looking first to the girl then to him.

"Altair is taking first watch. It would be best if you stayed here with her. After what you did back there, I do not think anyone would be able to get through you to her." Malik could still see the man taking out the first wave, being riddled with bullets but not fazed in the least. He had killed or disarmed many of them, leaving the rest to be taken care of by the Assassins once he saw Megan being dragged out to the back door. His weapons were nigh unstoppable, slicing through both bodies and metal as if they were air. In a way Malik was glad she had brought the man out of whatever he was plagued with because Malik knew if it came to a fight between them and him, he would win every time and not for lack of trying on their part but more because he was made for war.

"Agreed." Alex affirms in his gravelly voice, once more hunkering down and closing his eyes. Malik turn off the light and lays down on the other bed that was closest to the door. He didn't know if he would be able to sleep for a while after the brutality of what they had witnessed being used against the girl. She couldn't have hurt any of those men, she was smaller and weaker not to mention tied up and blindfolded. He releases a sigh, willing the stress to leave his body. It was times like this he wished he still had his other arm, didn't have this accursed handicap. Maybe he could have done something more to help.

Ezio closes the door after him, Shaun and Desmond having entered before him. There was two cots lying against the wall, looking all to inviting. But none of them were tired, would not be until they returned home… Megan's house. Startled, Ezio realizes they had been referring to the place as home, all of them. As for why, the reasons were all different. Every time he looked at Megan, he was woefully reminded of his own sister Claudia. He had to wonder if she and their mother realized he was gone. Did he stop existing once he had come here? Had Leonardo? Or did they think he had died with his father and brothers now? The questions would sometimes keep him up at night, rattling around his brain with nowhere to go.

"Leonardo, mio amico, do you ever wonder what happened to us?" He questions as he sits on the cot in front of the bed the painter was occupying. Leonardo hmm's like he always does when a question vexes him. Desmond and Shaun mirror him and Leo with Desmond on the bed and Shaun on the cot. He had a problem when they had first met, their appearances so alike it was mystifying.

"I do not know, nor do I want to. We must have come here for a reason. That reason has not presented itself yet I believe." He answers him giving a shrug as an afterthought. The same questions plagued all of them, but they knew that if it was possible for them to return they would need to be patient. They, at first, had only wanted to give the girl vague information about themselves. But in as short a time as possible, she had somehow wormed her way into their souls. They cared for her as a younger sister, she was young and naïve to a fault. But it was that she never pretended to be different with any of them. She was who she was; silly, smart, worldly, soulful, loving, a friend. None of the Assassins had realized it until it was too late but they did not care. She was their sister, if not of blood then of the heart.

"I have to side with Leo on this. What will be, will be." Desmond says, flopping back and covering up with the blanket on the bed. If they did sleep, it would be light.

I have realized that I have an unholy liking for causing pain, past and present, to my oc's. Any story I have made, even the one's I haven't posted on here, have some form of trauma inflicted upon them. But anyways, I know I posted last night but my brain decided that today would be a great day to get another chapter out. And I hope I did alright with it. Everything I put up will mostly be from Megan's point of view, her thoughts on everything and what she notices. I tried to do the same with the guys and I don't know if it was a pass or fail. Please let me know what you think.

I wanna thank MoonlitMeeting, Pheonix-164, and Pauchalina for the reviews. If you're willing to keep up with my insanity, I comemorate you. And I wanna thank all of you who have read the story thus far.

Also, Pheonix-164 gave me the idea for the chapter. I didn't follow it completely but definitely got inspired by the suggestion.

I have the plot thought of and the ending generalized. I know how many chapters as well, I'm gunna shoot for 50 and then the epilogue. They will all be named after Linkin Park songs, even if they do not have anything to do with the chapter itself.

I also wanna say that where Megan is from, the Assassin series and PROTOTYPE one do not exist. Nobody knows who these people are, so there is no fan base to run rabid all over their asses. Though I might make an outtakes series for this or just something funny. But not until the story is finished will I do so. I tend to have a terrible case of procrastination when I get more than one project under my belt when it comes to writing.

As always, please e-mail or pm or review. If you have questions but do not have an account here, I do accept guest reviews and will answer them at the end of the next chapter or in an e-mail. My e-mail is on my page if you need it. And I hadn't realized I had my guest filter off, but that has been resolved. Any negative reviews will be ignored and any threats to report as well. Thank you!