Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid idiot! Zane sped along the road, windshield wipers working double time and the thunder crashing almost loud enough to match his mood. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought about the possibility of Lewis doing something this idiotic before now! The guy had practically lived and breathed protecting the girls and he had made it clear on more then one occasion that he didn't think they took their safety seriously enough.
He'd warned them that if they were caught they would become lab rats. Experiments. Pets. And Zane knew the girls were aware of this, and he knew that they were cautious. The problem was that they weren't always cautious enough; they were almost caught too many times.
Lewis had apparently decided to take matters into his own hands.
Zane slammed his hands into his steering wheel. "FUCK!" He took a deep breath to calm himself, and didn't feel any better.
He supposed now Lewis's attitude before disappearing made sense, in a twisted, desperate to protect sort of way. He'd turned himself so he could distract Denman from the girls, and then tried to cut ties with the girls so they wouldn't follow/find him and bring themselves back into Denman's radar. At least that's what Zane was assuming had been his reasoning. Idiot.
When Zane got him out of there, if Lewis was okay, he was going to rip him a new one!
Zane took the turn onto the long dirt drive viciously, his back tires spinning. After a few minutes he slowed down and shut off his lights, barely able to see the road in the black. When he came to the last bend that would put him in the parking lot he stopped and shut off his engine.
He took a few minutes to calm himself, listening to the rain hammering onto his truck.
He was startled out of his calm by the piercing ring of his cell. He answered it automatically.
"Bennet!" He barked into it.
"It's Emma," she announced and he smacked his head back into his headrest. He shouldn't have answered it, not right now. What was he thinking?
"Hello," he offered, and reached over to his glove box, snapping it open and pulling out a blue bandana.
"You're not home yet," she announced, sounding slightly accusing and he closed his eyes, listening to the rain.
"No, I'm not," he agreed, swallowing thickly. "Listen Em, I'm sorry but I can't really talk right now."
"It's almost midnight Zane. What could you possibly be doing?" He let his silence answer for him, allowing her to draw whatever conclusion she wanted and suddenly she was stammering an apology for 'interrupting' him and ordered him to call her in the morning before hanging up. He would have found it funny, if his gut wasn't filled with cement and his heart wasn't in his throat.
He tied the bandana around his face, resting it just below his eyes before pulling a hoodie over his head, tying the hood firmly in place. It wasn't much of a disguise, but it would have to do.
He should probably wait before barging in to get Lewis. He should have a game plan, a back up plan, and he should wait until he was calmer. However, not many had ever called him a reasonable guy and he'd often been accused of leaping before looking. Plus: the moment he had proof Lewis was there, and he understood what Lewis was probably suffering through, his entire being had been demanding that he go rescue him right now! If he had just listened to his gut all those months ago, while Lewis had slowly been chasing the girls away from him with harsh words and an overbearing attitude, he may have been able to avoid all of this in the first place. He wasn't going to ignore his instincts anymore.
Tucking his weapon into the back of his pants, he palmed the access card and stepped out of his truck.
He didn't bother hiding his approach: he didn't really have any idea how to, so he tried to make up for it by being fast. He did pause a moment before entering the building. Through the rain and darkness he could see two vehicles, and while he didn't know which vehicles the 'guards' drove he did recognize one as being Denman's. She wasn't supposed to working to late.
Tugging his hood self-consciously he swiped the card and slipped into the building, his shoes instantly squelching on the pristine floor. He grimaced, looked around, noticing that nobody was manning the front desk, the lights in the building at half dim. Luck was with him so far, he only hoped it would hold up as he jogged in the direction Sarah had told him the little room was.
The place wasn't that large, but it was still two stories and had several corridors, which subsequently led to quite a few rooms. Breathing heavily and trying desperately to remain silent he approached the one he believed he wanted and quickly unlocked it. After an ominous click it swung open silently, and he stepped inside cautiously, looking around for Lewis.
It was empty.
He looked around again, thinking his friend might be tucked in a corner, but it was no use. The only place to hide was under the bolted down cot, and there was no way he was under there. He stared a moment at the massive, obviously two-way mirror that was almost one entire wall.
"Shit," he muttered quietly, and stepped back into the corridor. He regrouped and moved cautiously to where he thought the 'tank' room was. Thankfully his shoes had stopped squeaking a while ago with his steps, and as jogged down the hallway a door caught his attention. He stopped and blinked at it. Really? He looked down the corridor, feeling antsy and then back at the door marked 'security.' Shit. He didn't really know what he was doing, but he knew that he might not have a chance to get back here after he found his AWOL aquaman. He pulled his weapon and slipped into the room, thankful that he'd worn gloves so he didn't need to worry about leaving his prints behind.
Nobody was there. It was rather anti-climatic, but he could honestly say he wasn't that upset over it. He licked his lips and looked around at the six screens over the work counsel. They seemed focused on the main entrance and hallways and he couldn't see anyone on them. Where the hell were the aforementioned guards? He looked away from the screen and at the systems.
Digital.
He smiled. He could work with that.
It was a matter of five minutes work destroying all the stored security feeds of the last five months (he hoped they didn't have back-up feeds somewhere else), and it wasn't exactly difficult to shut the entire system down. Regardless he left his disguise in place, because at this point there was no sense in becoming over confident.
When he finally found the 'tank room' and looked down on the large space he literally froze. Having toured various marine labs before he had expected something like this; a place that involved many lights, and stainless steel, and water. He'd expected it to be dark and sinister and smelling like fish.
The room was sinister, but it was anything but dark. A large, extraordinarily thick glassed tank took up a massive amount of space to one side, the water in it backlit a rather pretty blue, stairs running up and around its top. A pool sank into the floor along the opposite wall. There were large sinks, lab benches in various locations, computers and screens, portable scanners and medical equipment, tubes and large compressed tanks of who knew what. An extra long table sat bolted into the floor, surrounded by lights and reminding him of a morgue.
More importantly: The room had Lewis. Zane pressed himself back against the wall, knowing he stuck out like a sore thumb up on the balcony that overlooked the entire space, and did everything in his power to not breathe too loudly.
Lewis was there all right, his arms bound behind him as he was shoved through the room. Zane recognized the brute as the one that had been cussing everyone out on the dock that morning. He was none too gentle as he slammed Lewis into one of the lab benches and bent him over it. Lewis grunted but didn't say anything. Zane pulled it together and moved as quietly as he could to the stairs, praying that no one would notice him.
"That stunt you pulled this morning?" the man over Lewis hissed. "That was the last one, you understand?"
"Screw you," Lewis snarled, his voice raspy but strong and Zane almost tripped as he tried to watch them and where he was sneaking at the same time.
"For such a smart guy you can be a real idiot!" The guy declared and, while Zane didn't care for the asshole at all, he couldn't argue the truth of that particular statement. Lewis just laughed humourlessly.
"What are you going to do? Lock me up?" Zane crept down the stairs, and froze when the man moved, wrenching Lewis up and then marching him a few steps to slam him face-first into the glass tank. Lewis was struggling, but it was clear that he was at a disadvantage as the man, who was built like a brick house, used his entire body to crush his friend into the tank.
Lewis's breath misted the glass, baring his teeth angrily as he fought to gain some kind of purchase.
"Oh, I'm gonna do a lot more than that."
Zane had reached the main floor, and his vision tinged red.
It only took a few long steps to reach them, where he pressed his gun to the back of the man's head, and cocked it. It made an impression as the man froze.
"Get off him," Zane suggested quietly and not at all pleasantly.
"Okay," the man agreed instantly. "Easy now, I'm letting him go." He brought his hands up and then carefully moved away. Zane stepped back with him, giving himself a bit more space between them.
"On your knees, hands over your head." He barked, not letting the man turn around and waited until the guy had complied. His hand was shaking, the nozzle of the weapon twitching back and forth. He'd never held a weapon on anyone before. Never even really thought about it since he'd decided he wouldn't become an officer. It was powerful, and scary as sin. He huffed a breath out, feeling the bandana over his mouth flutter.
"Lewis," he said calmly, and properly laid eyes on his friend for the first time in months. "You should have told me where you were going, I would have picked you up sooner."
Lewis's bloodshot eyes were wide with shock under his floppy, too long bangs. He was still breathing heavily from his struggle, his pale green scrub shirt rising and falling, his pants hanging a little lower then Zane felt was appropriate. He refused to think on that, needing to keep his head in the game for now. Which translated into: he didn't want to have to beat the shit out of the guy on the ground in blind anger.
"It wasn't exactly a planned vacation, and this resort has a 'no telephone' policy." Lewis came back with, a tad too slow and lacking the sarcasm such words required, but at least he was trying. His voice was a bit hoarse.
Zane wasn't sure he believed this wasn't a 'planned' vacation, but he was more then willing to play it Lewis's way. So long as they got out of this nightmare.
"Well, then I suppose it was a lucky thing I was in the area. What's got your hands locked?" Lewis turned to show him a pair of padded cuffs wrapped snugly around his wrists.
"The keys are in his back left pocket," Lewis nodded to the guy on the floor and Zane had him fish them out slowly, and toss them in his direction.
"Do you really think we'll just let you waltz out of here?" the man on the ground snorted derisively at them. "Even if you make it past the front doors, Lewis, then what? You're going to swim on your merry way through the ocean? Go back to living a normal life? Go to school? Haven't you learned yet that you belong to us? You belong to me!"
Zane picked the keys up and moved to Lewis, quickly removing the cuffs and forcing himself to ignore the deep bruising around both his wrists.
"You hurt?" Zane asked quietly, trying to assess Lewis and keep an eye on his prisoner. He wanted to squeeze his shoulder, maybe give the guy a comforting hug because he seriously looked like he needed it. They both ignored the guy on the ground.
"Nah, I'm good." Lewis was still looking at him as if he didn't quite believe Zane was there. Zane wasn't sure he could trust Lewis to answer him truthfully, not anymore, but right now he didn't have much choice but to agree. He would check him out properly later, when he was safe.
"Then let's get out of here," he suggested. He looked around the large room, taking in the massive tank, the pool in the ground, the stainless steel and computers. It made his skin crawl.
"Gladly. Right after I blow it up," Lewis agreed, his tone light. Light enough, in fact, that it actually took a second for his words to properly register.
"You can't do that!" The man on the ground jumped to his feet and spun around in rage. Zane retrained his weapon on him, and fortunately he didn't move further from his spot, but he glared angrily at Lewis.
"Watch me," Lewis stared him down, and there wasn't a hint of emotion in his tone. Zane looked at the long metal table bolted to the floor in the centre of the room. The one that reminded him of a morgue. It had examination lights hanging over it, and restraints permanently attached.
"There's a bunch of oxygen tanks in the corner," Zane pointed out, trying to sound casual about it.
"And there's more in the side room there," Lewis nodded to a door, before turning back to the man standing before them. His face had gone a scary shade of red. Lewis dangled the cuffs that had been on his wrists only minutes before. "Hold out your wrists."
"Months of research Lewis! How can you even consider destroying all of that?" the man's tone turned pleading as Lewis cuffed him.
"Very easily," Lewis responded, and then delivered a devastating upper-cut. The man's jaw snapped shut and he staggered. Blood began to dribble from his mouth, no doubt from biting his tongue, and the only thing that stopped him from dropping to the floor was the thick wall of the water tank as he slumped into it. Lewis stared past him into the tank, before shaking it off. "Can you watch him for a second?" He didn't wait for Zane to agree as he literally ran out of the room.
Zane pointed his gun at the guy slumped on the floor, watched as he wiped his bloody lips with his shoulder. His glare was dark, venomous. There was something not right about him.
"He belongs to me," he told Zane, and from inflection alone Zane knew he believed it.
"Yeah, he really doesn't." Zane disagreed.
"Who the hell are you?" He demanded and Zane shrugged, still holding out his weapon.
"The new night custodian." He was saved from hearing his response as Lewis came rushing back into the room, two heavy looking red gas canisters in his hands.
Lewis didn't waste any time. He moved to a series of glass fridges, opening the doors and leaving them that way, before disappearing into the back room. One by one he rolled out the large oxygen tanks, placing them about the room and opening their valves. Then he began sloshing one gas canisters contents about the room, taking care to get the contents of the fridges.
"You god damned, crazy freak!" The man hollered and Lewis stiffened a moment before continuing.
"He's not the freak," Zane pointed the gun menacingly, satisfied with the fear and worry in his hostages eyes. He would have loved to shoot him. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) that wasn't an option. Lewis disappeared with the second gas can, coming back a few minutes later empty handed.
Oxygen hissed throughout the room.
"Ready?" Zane asked and Lewis nodded.
"I lit a Bunsen burner in the next room over. We really don't want to be here when it goes off."
They made it all the way to the front lobby, the glass doors to freedom in sight before it all went sour in a fantastically horrible way.
The arrow that lodged itself in Zane's arm made an impression and, right after the near blinding pain registered his hand went numb. The gun fell from his fingers, skirting across the floor and he turned to go after it only to watch it be scooped up by Denman. The woman tossed her small water crossbow to the side and levelled the weapon at his head. He would have laughed if his arm didn't hurt so damn much.
They froze, and the man Lewis had cuffed moved forward and took the key from him. After he had freed himself he very pointedly approached Lewis, moving behind him and slipping a restraining arm around his neck.
Lewis looked…Zane couldn't even describe the emotions crossing his friends face, didn't want to describe them so he turned back to Denman, who was glaring heatedly at him.
"He doesn't belong to you," she stated softly, trying to stare Zane down. She tossed her ponytail over her shoulder.
"No," Zane agreed. "He doesn't."
"He belongs to me."
"That's not what your hired muscle over there was saying' a few minutes ago."
"Don't listen to him Linda. He's just trying to distract us." The man instantly disagreed.
"I'm aware of that Gil," she snapped, her blue eyes flashing coldly before softening again and focusing on Lewis. "I just don't understand why you want to leave us so desperately."
"Are you serious?" Zane asked when it was clear Lewis wasn't going to say anything. "You must be insane!"
"I am helping man kind here! We are helping mankind!"
"You're not helping them for free though, are you?" He argued angrily, looking over his shoulder at the doors, seeing their reflections in them.
"It's all going to be a moot point in a minute or so," Lewis piped up, grunting when Gil apparently tightened his hold. Zane was terrified, felt panic flowing through him like blood, but he forced a mocking grin onto his hidden face and looked her in the eye.
"Oh that's right, time is a factor, since this place is set to explode any minute now."
"You're lying!" She lost some of her composure.
"He's not," Gil assured her, waiting for instructions. Her eyes went wide with panic and she looked back down the hallway they had just come from. "We need to get out of here!"
"We can't! All of our work is in there! Everything! Months of research…they won't give me another grant without more information on the subject! I'll have to tell them about Lewis and then they'll take him away from me!"
"Don't be an idiot Denman!" Lewis snarled at her, his back arched as Gil held him tight. "It's over!"
"It's not!" She denied, and then cold fury overcame her as she looked back at Zane. "This is your fault!"
"Sure," he agreed easily enough as she levelled the gun at him again. "You want to know something else?" He asked, swallowing thickly. He flinched when she pulled the trigger. "That's not a real gun."
He stepped towards her and ripped it out of her shocked hands, and then he belted her across the face for good measure. She went down with a cry, tears of anguish running down her cheeks. He had nothing but disgust for her. He turned back when he heard a cry behind him, to find Gil on the floor clutching at his face, blood freely pouring from beneath his hand.
Lucas stood over him, feet braced and shoulders square and black spines protruding from his arms, running up the length of his forearm and elbow. Zane balked a moment, staring at the alien sight, before coming to his senses and stepping forward. He rested a hand on Lewis's shoulder.
The guy spun around, raising his arm in warning, the finned spines flashing and Zane quickly hopped back a step, holding out his hands in surrender. One of the apparently very sharp accessories had blood on them. Lewis blinked at him, and then quickly lowered his arms.
"Sorry."
"No worries. Now can we please get out of here before this place blows?" Zane asked, very much afraid that that was going to happen any moment now. Lewis nodded, and then his eyes widened in surprise.
"Linda! The place is going to explode! Don't go back there!" He yelled and Zane whirled around to see her scrambling to her feet and rushing off towards the labs.
"Let's go!" Zane ordered, propelling Lewis to move and sparing a moment to make sure that Gil was following, before the three of them smashed out the doors into the rain.
He made it a full five steps before he heard Lewis curse and turned around to find him flat on his face in the mud, a massive fish tail twisting about where his legs should be. Zane ran back.
"Sorry about this Lewis," he apologized. Ignoring the pain spiking his arm he roughly hauled the guy up and over his shoulder. He made it two steps before the first explosion shook the ground. Then another.
"No!" Gil cried out behind them but Zane didn't waste anytime. He ran through the rain, and tried very hard not to think about how Lewis's massive fish form was draped clear across his front, his hand gripping the surprisingly soft scales to hold him in place. Thankfully Lewis had moved his actual fin off to the side, because it was rather massive and Zane would have been tripping over it otherwise.
It was only a matter of moments before he was ripping open the passenger door to his truck and unceremoniously flopping Lewis onto the seat. Lewis grunted. Zane didn't bother sorting him out as he ran to the driver's door. A third explosion erupted, and Zane felt a hot breeze push past him as he jumped into his truck and rammed the keys into the ignition. By that time Lewis had pulled himself all the way in and slammed the door shut.
Zane didn't waste anymore time getting them out of there: there weren't many roads leading to this place and the authorities could discover the fire any minute now. He drove like a demon, nearly ran over a wallaby, and didn't slow down until they finally hit a stretch of civilization twenty minutes later.
He looked over at Lewis and swallowed hard.
Fuck if that wasn't a profile he would never forget.
Lewis was hugging himself, head bowed forward, scrub top soaking wet and his fin stuffed awkwardly into the front. It looked painful to Zane, and he cringed. He reached into the back seat, grabbing at the small duffle he had there and pulling it up front.
"You can push the seat back as far as it will go," he suggested. Lewis blinked at him. "The space was meant for legs, and that looks incredibly uncomfortable," he decided. Lewis took a deep breath and then did as suggested. A bit of the pinched look around his eyes disappeared. Zane pushed the bag he'd dropped on the seat between them towards Lewis. "Towel and extra clothes," he said, and then politely kept his gaze on the road.
It took a few minutes before Lewis began moving, first stripping off his shirt and pulling on a dry one. He used the towel to cover his lap, and as much of his fin, as possible.
Zane swallowed thickly, wishing he still had the bandana over his face to hide his discomfort. He pointed them in the direction of home. They would be there shortly after the sun rose.
The silence in the car was heavy, but only slightly awkward. They were content to just sit there, and Zane didn't even realize that Lewis had dried off enough to get his legs back until the guy was shimmying into a pair of sweats.
His arm was killing him, throbbing in time with the pounding in his head.
It was an hour after Zane had shoved Lewis into his cab before the guy looked over at him, and then raised an eyebrow.
"You brought a water gun to rescue me?" He commented and Zane shrugged. For a water gun it was scarily real looking, with all the bells and whistles and a nice lack of bullets.
"Relax, it wasn't loaded." Lewis breathed out an incredulous laugh, and Zane laughed with him. They didn't stop for several minutes, and if parts of it were slightly hysterical Zane doubted they would ever talk about it. Lewis rubbed a hand through his hair, and leaned back in his seat.
"I can honestly say I never thought I would be so glad to see your smarmy face," Lewis sighed.
"Missed you too cupcake," Zane grinned, meaning it more then he'd meant most things in his life. Lewis looked over at him, the tired grin on his face illuminated by a passing car, and then the grin fell.
"Shit," he shifted in his seat, "I forgot you were hurt! I am so sorry!" He gushed and Zane shrugged it off, because yeah it hurt, and the sensation of half dried and still trickling blood was not pleasant, but it was not a problem.
"No reason to apologize, unless it was you who shot me," he flashed a quick grin and saw that Lewis wasn't at all appeased. It looked like four months of hell hadn't dampened his protective streak any.
"Pull over; it needs to be taken care of." Zane did as ordered, because he had a feeling that Lewis wouldn't let up about the issue and he was feeling slightly light headed. He hissed as the material of his hoodie was carefully cut away and Lewis hummed and hawed at the wound. "It's not so bad," he decided and Zane snorted at the lie.
"I have an arrow sticking out of my arm," he pointed out.
"Really? I must have missed that fact with all the blood getting in the way."
Zane swallowed and looked pointedly out the front windshield.
"We should get you to a hospital," Lewis decided, and Zane immediately shook his head. They were too close to the 'crime' scene, and hospital records would pinpoint his location should anyone decide to connect him to Denman. Lewis seemed to understand that and sighed softly. "Then I need to remove the bolt."
It was agreed. Zane bit the straps of his bag, and failed miserably in being the strong and silent type. He also passed out, which he realized only after he woke up to Lewis shaking his shoulder.
The injured shoulder.
Funny thing was that there was no pain. He frowned and looked over at his friend. The guy was pale and shaking.
"Where did you find drugs?" he asked, blinking slowly and when Lewis merely smiled and leaned back in his seat he frowned even more. He looked at his arm wearily, and grimaced at all the blood. It took him an embarrassingly long moment to realize that there was no longer a hole for the blood to be coming from.
He bolted upright in his seat, shoving roughly at the flopping material of the sweatshirt until just taking it off all together. There was absolutely no pain. He looked accusingly at Lewis.
"What did you do?" Lewis shrugged. "Lewis? I need to know!" He tried to make it a demand, but it came out more pleading then anything else and Lewis opened tired eyes and turned to him again, a sad smile gracing his lips.
"I found my gift." His gift? Zane stared at him angrily and Lewis huffed as though he were a particularly dimwitted friend. "My gift" he enunciated. "Apparently I can heal things."
Zane stared at him.
"Huh." He was exhausted, and he could tell Lewis was about ten times more exhausted, even though he managed a snort at his reaction. "Did it…hurt you?"
"No, just made me tired. Mind buggerin off while I catch a few winks," he demanded, finally having enough and Zane nodded silently. He pulled back onto the highway, rain still pelting at the windshield, wipers on full, and when he heard Lewis snort lightly in his sleep he finally relaxed.
"Idiot," he muttered under his breath, casting a glance at the guy and wondering how the hell he was going to get him through this.
The drive home gave him plenty of time to ponder.