I'm so sorry for the delay in posting. I had several chapters already written, however, I lost control of Berena and something later on in the story effected earlier chapters so I had to do a re-write *shakes fist* and my exams are over so I should be back on track now ^_^
Special thanks to those of you who continue to leave kudos and comments. They literally get me through whats currently happening to BBC's version of Berena.
(Not sure if I can claim I treat the characters better though knowing whats already on the cards ;) )
Chapter 8
Bernie didn't sleep much that night. Between Serena twitching from her undoubted nightmares and Bernie's mind racing from both trying to calm her down and trying to find a way out, she barely managed an hour.
The next day came all too soon as more toast was brought to them. Once she'd heard the tell tale click of the lock once more, Bernie gently rocked Serena where she lay and whispered her name in a bid to wake her up gently. Serena, for a brief moment, smiled and tightened her grip on Bernie before memories came flooding back to her conscious mind and she remembered where they were.
Bolting up in the bed, Serena pushed herself away from Bernie and made to stand. Bernie was one step ahead of her though and reached for the bucket before Serena even realised she was standing in Mick's drying blood. Everything crashed down on Serena at once, the sight and smell knocking her back to sit on the edge of the bed, as her stomach began to contract.
Though Bernie held the bucket before Serena, nothing actually came from her heaving. It was then that Bernie realised she hadn't seen the woman eat since their meal at that Italian restaurant. She knew Serena had bought a chocolate pastry for her slight hangover but she hadn't physically seen her eat it.
Bernie sighed and then began to rub soothing circles on the woman's back in an attempt to sooth her. Eventually her heaving stopped, giving way to sobs that wracked her entire body. Bernie made to put her arms around Serena but Serena shrugged them off. "Don't" she said brokenly.
Bernie pulled back as though she'd been burned and lowered her gaze to the bed. After a moment, she raised her eyes to meet the back of Serena's head "Serena I'm sorry"
Serena's shoulders dropped "what for? Getting us stuck here or trading us in for a short stint in Kiev?" Bernie bit her lip and told herself Serena was a wounded animal right now; she was just lashing out at the nearest target.
"This was an unforeseen occurrence" she replied with a steady voice, making the comment almost clinical in nature "you know that"
"And yet here we are. Shit always seems to go wrong around you, Bernie, and I always seem to have to clean it up! I'm done! It's gone too far, Bernie!" she yelled. She wasn't really paying attention to her words; she just knew she needed to shout for a while. "I'm stuck here, whilst Jason is at home right now probably worried out of his skull! Who's going to look after him, Bernie? Hmm?"
"I'm sure Alan or Raf-"
"How?" Serena growled, "How can you be sure of anything?" she tightened her arms around herself "you don't even know how to act like an adult. All your sure of is that your legs will carry you if and when you decide to run when something gets too serious" Serena then let out a bark of laughter "except now of course. There's a locked door and 4 concrete walls blocking your path"
Bernie lowered her gaze once more. 'She's just upset, its ok. Don't fight back; you can rise above this for her sake. Just comfort her' she thought, "Serena it's going to be ok, we'll get out of here"
Serena let out a puff of air as tears continued to trail silently down her cheeks "Who are you kidding, Bernie? No one's even looking for us"
"Me" Bernie said mentally, unaware that she'd said it out loud.
"What?" Serena questioned as she turned to look at Bernie "What do you mean 'me'?"
Bernie raised her head but she couldn't quite meet Serena's eyes "I meant there are people looking for you. Jason's looking for you. Forgive me but you've been gone over 24 hours, half the country is probably looking for you"
Serena seemed to take a moment to mull over Bernie's words, or what she wasn't saying to be precise. "Me" Bernie furrowed her brow in confusion and finally met Serena's gaze "You said 'me' as in you think they aren't looking for you too"
Bernie lowered her eyes once more "They're not. Only you got phone calls."
"Bernie that doesn't mean no one's looking for you"
Bernie pulled herself to the edge of the bed "No, Serena, I…" she took a deep breath and pushed herself onto her shaking legs, needing to distance herself from the other woman "I'm not saying it to get sympathy, I'm just stating facts." She walked across the room and leaned heavily against the wall "Realistically, who'd be looking for me?"
"Cameron" Serena replied immediately and with confidence.
Bernie simply scoffed and shook her head before letting her gaze linger on a spot of red on the floor "Serena, I haven't spoken to Cameron since that day he was on the ward." Biting her lip, she moved her gaze to a cleaner part of the floor and left it there "Lets face it. Within a month of me being home, I'd burned every bridge I'd ever built." She said bitterly "I lost the army, I lost my marriage, my kids… Alex. At the end of the day, Serena, I go home to an empty flat and never see another living soul until I turn back up at the hospital." She looked to Serena once more "You have friends, you have family. People notice when you're not there." Taking one look at Serena's eyes, she knew she'd said too much "Look Serena, the point isn't whether someone is looking for me or not, the point is, there's someone looking for one of us. We will get out of this, I promise."
"B-Bernie I didn't know, I-I didn't think" stuttered Serena. She lowered her head as her mind threw a mental image of Bernie in a cold flat on her own, lonely and depressed at her. Shaking off the sad thought, she gazed back up to focus intently on Bernie "I'd have noticed you weren't there" she said quietly.
Bernie's stare softened as she looked at the other woman. The other woman who was the most beautiful sight she'd ever laid her sore eyes on. So much compassion and love to give, even to Bernie, as messed up as she was. Just as she opened her mouth to speak the lock unclicked and in came Simon, a smile once again adorning his face.
"Ladies! How are we this fine afternoon?" When no answer was forthcoming, he looked to the blonde "Major! Good to see you up and about. I was beginning to think you were lazy!" He chuckled and right there and then, Bernie had never had such an urge to break someone's teeth.
He turned his head to Serena and suddenly his face became serious "so… have we decided what we're going to be doing tomorrow night?"
Bernie took one look at Serena and she knew exactly what she had to do to save her "Yes" she said without thinking. Simon immediately turned to face her "Yes I will help you"
"Bernie" Serena cut in, shocked, but Bernie wasn't for stopping.
"I will help you on one condition"
"Oh Major, I don't think you're in any posi-" he began but Bernie swiftly cut him off.
"You let her go" she said with squared shoulders and an edge to her voice that dared him to refuse her.
"And why would I do that?" he said in a sly tone.
"She's useless to you. She has no field training or experience. Let her go and not only will I help you, I-I'll stay with you"
"BERNIE NO!" Serena propelled herself from the bed and made to move towards Bernie but stopped at Bernie's outstretched hand.
"Serena, no one's going to miss me. There's too many people that need you" Bernie didn't have to tear her gaze from Simons to know there were tears welling in the brunette's eyes.
"Well whilst this is all very good and interesting, I don't think you realise, Major, what happens to people who become useless to me" His eyes moved to the pile of papers at her feet.
Bernie looked down, only now noticing the photographs, and her eyes widened in horror. Serena cursed herself for not having the strength to pick them up and hide them when they'd first been thrown at her.
Bernie shot her head up to look at Simon, colour draining from her face as he chuckled "Lucky for Ms Campbell here, I already know she's an accomplished surgeon… and very much useful to me." He paused and smiled back at Serena "but you're right" he said before turning back to Bernie "she's got no experience in the field, that's why she's going to stay here and wait for the casualties whilst you go out into the field"
Serena watched with silent horror as Bernie nodded her head. "Bernie… no"
Bernie turned her head to Serena then "its ok" she smiles "you're safer this way" Serena couldn't even respond. Her throat felt like it was closing over.
"Well now that that's all taken care of" she said as he clapped his hands together "would you ladies like to follow me to your new theatre?" two men entered the room and began to bind the women's wrists with cable ties.
"Is this necessary? We're hardly judo masters" growled Bernie as she watched one of the minions tighten the tie on Serena's delicate wrists.
"Well, after the state you left my boys in, I think I owe it to them to give them a bit of reassurance…" Bernie looked at him with confusion "and duck tape didn't exactly hinder you last time, did it?"
"What are you talking on about?" questioned Bernie. Was this something that happened whilst she had that poison running through her veins?
"Bernie…" began Serena.
"Oh she didn't tell you? You broke free from the duck tape and took down 3 of my men in the space of seconds… that was of course after you'd already broken another's nose on the way in"
Bernie turned to look Serena in the eye. With the way Serena refused to meet her eyes, she could only assume the worst. Dear god, she hadn't hurt Serena, had she?
"Well then… you two obviously have a lot to talk about later. Shall we get on with the tour?"
Bernie continued to look at Serena's face until the men handling them out forced her to break her gaze.
As they were walked through the halls, Bernie took this opportunity to map out the area. Should they get the chance to escape, she wanted to know exactly where they were going. She also needed to gather information and work out where they were but thus far all she could see were symmetrical hallways with grubby white wash walls and blue doors.
Bernie noted with particular interest that the building seemed to be dilapidated. Abandoned perhaps? And almost clinical in nature. She stored those pieces of information away in her mind when they finally came to a corridor lined with glass.
"well here we are ladies, welcome to your new theatre"
Bernie was vaguely aware of being pushed forward into one of the glass rooms. On the way past the wall of glass, she was horrified to find the right side of her face marred with an angry purple bruise. 'Dear god… when did that happen?'
Pulling her mind away from her reflection, she took in the room around her. Inside the small room was decrepit, out-dated medical equipment, some bolted to the floor with rusted bolts. Clearly the equipment had been there for years. Were they in some sort of old hospital?
"You can't expect us to work here" said Serena with disgust.
"Oh, you've got no choice, your majesty" sang Simon "what's wrong with it? I think it's rather cosy all things considered"
"This equipment is out of date and probably crawling with germs. Anyone we operate on here will die of infection even if we do save them from their initial wounds"
"Point well made, Ms Campbell" he said cheerfully as he picked up a rusted scalpel from the tray. He then moved towards her and held the scalpel up in front of her face. Bernie jumped forward to put herself between Simon and Serena but was forcefully pulled back by the hair by the man who walked her in.
"Now now, Major, don't be rude." He turned to her then "me and Serena were just talking like adults" he turned back to Serena, so close she could feel his hot breath on her cheek "you know I really can see your point, Ms Campbell. I'll have to liberate you some new equipment…" he looked from the scalpel to Serena's eyes "Would that appease her majesty?"
When no answer was forthcoming, Simon simply scoffed "Take them back to their room"
As Bernie and Serena were handled out of the room once more, Simon leant in close to Bernie's ear, scalpel still in hand, and whispered "I don't know what made you think other wise, Major… but after all this is over you're here to stay whether you make a bargain or not". He then reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, a sign for the man escorting her to stop moving.
Bernie watched with bated breath as Serena continued down the corridor, seemingly unaware that Bernie wasn't following. Bernie closed her eyes as a dull thud began in her head. This couldn't be good.
Simon came to stop in front of her and held the scalpel up to inspect it as he spoke "I know it's risky business bringing in people to help keep us alive when we've practically kidnapped them…"
"Practically" Bernie repeated with a harsh snort. Simon's eyes rose to meet Bernie's, his features hardening.
"Listen, I'm running a serious operation here and I don't need to be worried that some jumped up ex-army medic is going to ruin it by betraying me" At this he swiftly brought the scalpel up, coming to stop abruptly with the point directly in front of Bernie's right eye. It was a move, he'd hope would make her flinch, but frustration began to fester in his stomach when he received no such reaction.
He hummed in irritation as her steely gaze continued to stare back at him "I see scare tactics like this won't work on you and judging by your words earlier about no one missing you, you clearly don't have much to loose" he narrowed his eyes "You're different, Major. All those we 'acquired' before you were selfish, but not you. You're a soldier. It's been beaten into you not to fear death and to live for others…" he let the words hang in the air as a smile began to blossom on his lips "but you see, I don't need to threaten your life because you've already give the game away" At this Bernie narrowed her eyes. "I know what makes you tick"
"Do you?" she deadpanned.
"Mm I do, Major I do" He drew the scalpel away to examine it once more "You see I flushed you out" he stated proudly "Twice, in the space of 10 minutes, you tried to put yourself in harm's way for that snotty little bitch" Bernie's jaw unconsciously clenched at the insult to Serena "You're a soldier. A protector. You're life means nothing in comparison to someone else's, that much is obvious."
Bernie wanted to scream and shout. She wasn't that kind of soldier! This man was a fucking idiot! A dangerous idiot, but an idiot none the less. Instead, she drew in a deep breath to show her boredom of the topic and replied "is there a point coming up somewhere? It's just I'd like to return to my oh so luxurious suite now"
Simon smirked "People are your weakness, in this case Serena." The only sign that this had even registered with Bernie was the sudden paling of her skin "You'd do anything to make sure she stayed safe"
"That's not about being a soldier, it's about being decent human being" she spat back.
"Maybe, but it doesn't matter… cause that's your tick." She replied coolly "You stay in line and do as I ask, I won't give the order that will lead to her body discovered two weeks down the line, rotting in a canal"
Bernie's façade momentarily broke at the thought of her beautiful Serena being found with the life extinguished for her soulful eyes. "and what's to stop you hurting her in the mean time? Or even afterwards?"
He merely smiled at her "take her back to the 'oh so luxurious suite', Mac"