Yaaaay update!
The first thing that Darren saw afterwards was the floor. Moaning as everything came back slowly and painfully, he saw it swing gently underneath him as a door somewhere beyond him opened. It made him feel sick. And then, a small flight of stairs. He recognised those.
He was off to the basement.
He tried to struggle weakly, but Jesus fuck everything hurt. He moaned again as his guards dragged him down the stairs, holding him up between them. His shoes thudded against every stair, and with massive effort, forced himself to look up.
Hastings had stood up in his cell, squinting into the light, and his mouth fell open when he recognised Darren. Ignoring him for the moment, he was forced to his feet as one of his guards opened the cell across from Hastings, and braced himself as he was thrown in. He didn't run for the door as it locked – he just picked himself up very slowly and leant against the bars, only sighing when the upstairs doors closed.
He was waiting for Hastings to say something, and he didn't disappoint.
'What's going on?' He demanded. Before he answered, Darren gingerly prodded the back of his head, and instantly regretted it. It really, really hurt.
'We got found out. Vidic planted a microphone on me.'
There was a scuffling noise, and a clang that made his ears hurt as Shaun kicked his bars.
'Me too mate.' He said.
'How could you - ?!' Shaun spluttered. 'I had you down as a moron, but this - !'
'I didn't know!' Darren yelled back at him, pounding on his bars, never mind the pain. 'I went in there, I was with her and I didn't fucking know, all right?!' He sighed, and fuck it, he was crying. 'They killed her brother too, right in front of her, and it's all my fault.'
Shaun fell silent. Darren resented it. He wanted Hastings to yell at him some more, to validate all his grief and guilt and ease its burden. But he'd gone completely silent.
'I don't believe it,' he said.
'What?' Darren demanded it.
'You fell in love with her, didn't you?'
Darren didn't answer him.
'How bloody cliché,' Shaun laughed breathlessly. 'And I bet she fancied you too, right? Or at least, you thought she did?'
When Darren didn't answer him again, Shaun howled.
'Oh this is bloody perfect. How the tables have turned,' he hissed. 'You could have saved us all, and you walked right into a trap.'
Darren glared at him. 'The Assassins are coming tomorrow.'
Shaun fell silent, and Darren was pleased to hear it.
'What?' He breathed.
'The Doctor and that lot, they're coming tomorrow, to get Miles.' Darren had quit smoking the day he met Maria, but god knew he could do with a fag right then. His head swam with her and everything he'd done, and dear god it hurt. 'And I don't know about you Hastings, but I'd save your breath for when they're here. Maybe you can shout for them to save your girlfriend before they tear this place to the ground and bury you under it.'
Darren waited for Hastings to say something else, to argue with him some more, but he heard his feet scuff on the floor as he walked away from his bars. Darren felt like laughing, and opened his mouth to do it, but there was no sound. He just cried instead, his head thumping, knowing that Maria thought he'd betrayed her and how everything may as well be lost.
In which I called myself out on my own horrific cliche :P If I were to rewrite this the Darren/Maria thing would be horrifically different, but what can I say? I was 16 and had no idea what I was doing! And now I'm 19 off to actually learn how to write professionally and well, the way my writing's changed speaks for itself!
I hope the future updates are to standard, but they'll be a little different in style and stuff. And I'm also planning to write an interaction of sorts (I won't go into detail - spoilers!) That'll be like a little extra, and can be either a part of this fic's canon or not: it can be whatever you want it to be when you read it :D
Anyway, more updates to come soon! :D