The car sped down the dirt road. Steve looked behind him at Claudia. Her head still resting on the headrest of the seat, eyes closed.

"Claudia. Claudia!" Steve had to raise his voice slightly to wake her up from semi-consciousness. She opened her eyes and quickly brought her head forward. "You have to keep the pressure on it, alright? You have to stay awake"

"Uh-huh" Claudia muttered as she winced against the pressure from her bloody hands. Steve turned back to the road. They had put enough distance between themselves and the men but were still in the country lanes. The rain hammered the car and the wind-screen wipers had difficulty keeping up. Steve had sweat on his brow, he was stressed out. There isn't enough gas, we're gonna be stuck here. He thought as he continued down the road. His eyes couldn't help but continuously dart towards the fuel gauge as it drained further and further down. He guessed they might be able to make it another mile or two but after that what would he do? Where would they end up? He was beginning to panic. He took several deep breaths, just like he did in his meditation, to calm him down. He didn't want to tell Claudia that they were soon to be out of gas but on the other hand, she needed to know what was going on and he was a rubbish liar anyway.

"Claudia, we only have a tiny amount of gas left, we'll have to stop soon"

"My laptop...pass me my laptop" Claudia managed through her pain.

"Claud, what are you-'' Steve said, looking at her via the front mirror.

"Just pass me it, please" Claudia interrupted him, too tired to explain to him why she needed her laptop. Steve, with one eye on the road, gave Claudia her precious computer from under the passenger seat. She opened it with her unoccupied hand and began typing away with just the one hand. Steve didn't question what she was doing and continued on. However he only managed to continue for another hundred meters down the road before the prius simply stopped. They had left the field domain and were now bordering on the very outskirts of the city. Ordinary warehouses filled with ordinary things were in sight. They had reached some civilization but there seemed to be no chance of finding any other people. The place was seemingly empty.

Claudia was using a GPS system on her laptop to find out their position. Still breathing heavily as she typed, she found that there was a couple more miles worth of warehouses before any signs of suburbia at least.

"For God's sake!" Steve hit the steering wheel with his hand in annoyance. He got out of the car, the rain still strong and joined Claudia in the back. He knew there was no spare gas in the boot; he had let Pete borrow it a few days ago.

"I know...our position" Claudia spoke to him in-between breaths, showing Steve her laptop. Her face was pale and clammy and her eyes were blinking an awful lot more than normal. She was fighting to stay conscious; she was losing too much blood. Plus she was shivering from the cold.

"I'm getting you an ambulance. Right now. They'll know our position and will be able to find us" Steve put Claudia's laptop in the foot well and took out his phone, wondering if he would even have signal through all of this weather. He checked the screen, he did. Thank you, he thought. As he dialled the number, Claudia's vision began to blur and she couldn't really register what Steve was saying down the phone. She tried to fight it but it was just too hard. Her head rolled onto Steve's shoulder as she completely lost consciousness.

"What condition is she in now?" The woman from the hospital asked Steve on the phone.

"She's-'' Steve felt Claudia's head rest on his shoulder and looked at her face, she was out. "She's just fallen unconscious, just this second"

"How long ago has it been since the incident?"

"I'm not sure, maybe twenty minutes" Steve replied "We've been keeping pressure on it but she's still losing too much blood, I don't know what else to do" He felt her neck for a pulse just to check. There was one but it was faint.

"We've sent an ambulance to your position; it should arrive in roughly fifteen minutes, until then keep applying pressure and try to keep her conscious for as long as possible. Don't move her from her current position"

"OK, thank you" Steve replied and hung up the phone. "Claudia" He looked down at her soaked red head resting on his shoulder. He knew she wouldn't come round simply by saying her name. He felt guilty for what he was about to do but it needed to be done. She needed to stay conscious.

Steve gently pushed Claudia off him and sat her against the seat once more. He leaned forward to the front of the prius.

"Here goes" he took a deep breath and slammed his hand down on the horn of the car. The sound swarmed through the prius, Steve didn't take his hand away and looked back at Claudia, she was wincing and the sound. Wincing. She was conscious, or there about. Steve removed his hand as Claudia let out another groan.

"Jinksy Jinksy Jinksy...stop it dude" She breathed quietly, just above a whisper.

Steve sat back down. Claudia had her eyes shut still but at least she was speaking.

"What did the hospital guys say?"

"They said they'll be here in around fifteen minutes ok? We just need to hold on till then alright?" Steve put his arm around her small shoulders and she gently moved into his side, resting against him once more. His jacket was wet and a little cold but his body heat was still there, and she couldn't help but close her eyes. "Claud, they also said you have to stay awake, so talk to me"

"I am awake"

"You might not be in a few seconds, so keep talking to me"

Claudia let out a small half laugh, half sigh.

"What's funny?" Steve asked

"This just isn't how I imagined today would go"

"Tell me about it" Steve agreed

"Turns out getting shot really does hurt a lot more than how they play it out in movies." She paused for a few seconds "When we're outta here and back at Leena's...I'm gonna teach you how to use your laptop – properly"

"Surely we won't have time for that, you want to get back in the field right? Senior Agent? And I can use a laptop"

"Please, you can't even change your password without my help. And we will have plenty of time; I plan on having at least a week's worth of R&R"

"Artie would probably want to triple that time. Speaking of Artie, do you want to call him?" Steve looked down at her.

Claudia opened her eyes and looked up at him "No, I don't want to worry him just yet, you know how he gets"

She rested her head back on his shoulder. They both stopped talking. A comfortable silence came between them as they listened to the drumming of the rain against the car. It was very therapeutic. It didn't help Claudia's attempts at staying conscious. Such a soothing sound...No. must stay awake, she thought. She was surprised the pain wasn't keeping her conscious but then again, she was starting to lose the feeling in her leg, it was numbing. Brilliant.

"Starting to lose feeling in the old wound down here" She said, breaking the silence, still shivering slightly.

"Can you feel this?" Steve pushed both his hands down hard on her leg. Very hard. Claudia could feel that.

"Argh! Yes! Dude what the hell?" She sat forward slightly. It hurt and immediately brought back the feeling of pain, eradicating the numbness. It also made her vision swim in front of her she tried blinking it out but it wouldn't stop. Her head swayed. The pain just got worse. She moaned.

"It's bad if you start to lose feeling" Steve said soothingly in her ear "Trust me, it's better to have pain than no feeling. The blood circulation is starting to cut off; it's the only way to keep it moving"

Claudia tried to tell him that she understood but she couldn't so instead she nodded as best as she could. Her eyes were closed tightly as she leaned back into him. Steve kept the hard pressure, the pain was stubborn, and it would not desist, only persist and get worse. Too worse. Too much pain. She was losing it again...fading...fading...into black.

TBC

Tell me what you think, i'm running out of inspiration...