The supply run had taken longer than Bayley had expected it to. Getting everything she needed had meant going to several different crappy stores in the run down backwater little town, and she'd also taken some time to use the cheap burner phone she'd purchased to make a few calls. Putting the word out that she had Becky in captivity and was willing to listen to offers was easier said than done, given that she had to try and avoid people who might figuratively go running straight to Ronda with the news. Again, she had found herself wondering if letting Becky go might actually be a better idea, but she really couldn't. She needed the money for too important a reason to simply give up on it just like that. Where else was she going to get her hands on a million dollars? Nowhere, that was the simple answer. Now she had to wait and hope that someone would bite, while also trying her best not to get caught with a hostage in a motel room, or having Charlotte and Ronda track her down and kill her. On the list of shitty situations to be in, this had to be right at the top.

At least Becky hadn't managed to escape or attract anyone's attention, she saw as she walked back into the motel room, struggling with the bags of supplies and a large pizza box. That was the first piece of good news in a long time. Having a compliant hostage, and a safe place to keep her definitely made things a lot easier than if the opposites were true.

"Sorry I took so long," she said as she carefully set the supplies down on the bed, making sure not to drop the pizza. "I had to go to a few places, then I had to wait for them to cook the pizza. I don't know what you like, so I just had to hope you'll like the same as me. We've got ham, pepperoni and onion."

Becky liked the sound of the pizza, but she liked the idea of being untied from the bed and having the gag taken off her mouth a lot more. "Gmmmph," she growled, making a point of straining her wrists against their bonds to get her point across. She figured that was the least she deserved for lying there and being quiet while Bayley was out.

Bayley studied her captive for second. Becky was glaring at her, nostrils flaring as she struggled to breathe well enough with the tape covering her mouth. "You don't have to glare at me like that," she said, voice typically gentle. "I'm going to take the tape off in a second, and I bought something so I don't have to keep tying you up like that."

Reaching into one of the plastic bags, she pulled out two pairs of rather cheap looking metal handcuffs. Cheap or not, they would do the job they were intended for. Pleasingly, Becky made no attempt to resist as she untaped one of her wrists from where it was secured to the bed's frame, only to quickly reattach it with one of the pairs of handcuffs. The restraint was even more secure than before, but also slightly more comfortable for Becky. Moving on, Bayley untaped Becky's other wrist.

"I'll leave you with one hand free for now, so you can eat your half of the pizza. Don't try and hit me or struggle with the handcuffs and we won't have a problem, okay?"

Becky nodded, still determined not to provoke Bayley, in the hope that her captor would come around to the idea of letting her go, even though it seemed highly unlikely at the moment.

"Okay, you can take your gag off. No noise louder than I'm talking, like I said before. I'll share out the pizza and sort out the drinks."

While Becky carefully unwrapped the tape from around her head, doing her best to avoid pain by pulling out as few hairs as possible, Bayley tore the lid off the pizza box and placed half of the slices onto it. Next, she produced a bottle of cola and poured a serving into each of the two cups that had been provided with the motel room.

Pulling the last of the tape slowly off her mouth so as not to hurt her lips, Becky groaned in disgust. "That tape tastes nasty, and it makes it hard to breathe."

Bayley gave her a guilt-tinged grimace. "Sorry, but I had to do something to make sure you were quiet while I was out. You asked me not to put the sock in your mouth again."

"No, please don't do that," Becky said quickly. "You really don't have to do anything to keep me quiet. I'm not going to shout or do anything."

"Here, eat your pizza," Bayley said, deliberately not responding to what Becky had said as she handed her the lid of the pizza box. She then slid the night stand closer to the bed and put one of the cups of cola on it. "As long as you don't make me change my mind, you can spend the rest of the evening like this."

It had been so long since Becky had a filling meal. Although the pizza was only a cheap one, she attacked it with gusto. The two women ate in silence until the pizza was all gone. Becky spent the time second-guessing herself over the idea of telling Bayley that she found her attractive. Was it really a good idea? Would it freak her out and make things worse? Or might something actually develop between them? Surely that was beyond the realms of possibility in this situation, she reasoned.

Meanwhile, Bayley found herself feeling guilty again as she ate. She kept thinking that Becky had done nothing to ask for any of this. She was being held against her will, and was possibly going to be sold on like a used car or something. It really was wrong. This was a person, with feelings, with family, with friends, with a life of her own. She was also beautiful. That was something else that Bayley couldn't get away from. The more time she spent with Becky, the more she felt attracted to her. It was totally crazy for her to feel that way about her captive, but she couldn't help it.

"Thank you, Bayley," Becky said timidly when she finished off the last of her food.

"You're welcome," Bayley replied, unsure what else she could have said.

Becky summoned up all the courage she could find, then asked one of the questions she'd been considering while Bayley had been out on the supply run. "You seem like a nice girl, Bayley. You don't seem like a kidnapper. The other two, maybe, but not you. You said you needed the money. What did you need it for?"

Bayley was surprised by how much she wanted to talk about the problem. Just sharing it with someone felt like it would lighten the load a lot. "My dad's business is in big trouble," she revealed. "The economy collapsing has really hit him hard, and he's staring bankruptcy in the face, despite the fact that I've been giving him as much money as I could for the past few years."

"Money from criminal activities," Becky guessed, trying not to sound judgmental.

"Yes," Bayley admitted sheepishly. "Believe me, I never wanted to get involved in crime. There was literally nothing else I could do to get money, though. It turned out that I'm a very good thief. I guess no one suspects me because of how I look, or something. Anyway, Ronda and I worked a job together and she must have liked what she saw, seeing as she offered me the chance to take part in this, uh..."

"Kidnapping," Becky finished for her, unable to keep the edge out of her voice. "Bayley, do you actually realise how bad this idea is from your point of view? Even if you had managed to get the money for me, even if you managed to do that now, it wouldn't be any good to you. Do you really think you can just give your dad a million bucks and he'll just take it at face value? How would he even possibly account for that amount of money suddenly appearing in his business anyway? You'd both end up inside faster than I can click my fingers. My God," she added, shaking her head in disbelief. "That's why my life has been ruined? For a plan as crazy as that?"

"I didn't know what else to do," Bayley hissed at her, still mindful not to shout and possibly attract attention to the room. "If my dad's business goes under, my parents lose their house along with it. Do you think I'm going to see them end up on the streets and do nothing to help? Maybe you're right, maybe my idea was stupid, or maybe you're wrong. Obviously I wasn't just going to show up one day and give him a million dollars. I'm not a total idiot. I was going to keep giving him smaller amounts of money to keep the business going, until hopefully the economy picked up and he could stand on his own two feet again, leaving me with the rest of the money."

Becky was about to go on pointing out what she saw as the obvious flaws in the plan, but she stopped herself when she noticed the downcast look on Bayley's face. Head bowed slightly, she looked like she was on the verge of tears, and Becky would have been lying to herself if she tried to claim that she didn't find her to be the cutest girl she had ever set eyes on at that moment.

Bayley looked up and their eyes met for a second. Guilt was really weighing heavily on Bayley, even more so now that she realised she had been a fool to think this was a viable solution to her family's problems. "I'm sorry, Becky," she mumbled. "I ruined your life, and now I don't know what I'm going to do. I've probably ruined my own life as well. I don't know if I can let you go. Even if I do, Ronda and Charlotte are out there looking for us. They'll be coming for me first and foremost, but I can't see them risking leaving you alive either. You might even be safer here with me at the moment." She gulped, trying to hold back tears. "I'm way out of my depth, and I don't know what to do."

"Don't cry," Becky said, surprising herself with her genuine sympathy. "Crying won't make it any better. Come here, lie next to me. Talk to me about something else, because I don't like seeing you upset."

Bayley did as she'd been asked, laying her head down on the pillow next to Becky. "What do you mean, you don't like seeing me upset?"

"Exactly what I said. You might think this is crazy, hell, it probably is, but every time I look at you, I can't help myself thinking about how cute you are. Seeing how upset you looked just then really got to me."

Bayley felt herself blushing as she smiled. "That is crazy, but thank you. I don't deserve your sympathy, Becky, not after what I've done to you."

"Shhh," Becky whispered. "Let's just talk, Bayley. Tell me some more about yourself."

Bayley opened her eyes. She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep for, but it didn't feel like it had been long. She was still lying on the bed beside Becky, who was sleeping. It was difficult to estimate how long they had spent talking to each other earlier in the day. Many hours, that was for sure. They had gotten to know a lot more about each other, which had only left Bayley even more conflicted than she had been previously.

A large part of her wanted to let Becky go and hope that she could go back to her life without Ronda or Charlotte showing up and either kidnapping her again, or killing her. To counter that, there was the fact that she still couldn't totally get away from the idea of selling Becky to raise money to help her father's business. There was also a third problem to deal with now, which was the fact that she was undeniably attracted to the Irish woman. It was quite possible that the feeling was mutual, too. What a mess, she thought.

For a minute or so, Bayley just lay there looking at the sleeping Becky. She was lying with both of her wrists passed through the bed's framework and handcuffed together; the most comfortable way she could lie while also being secure enough that Bayley didn't have to worry about her escaping. There was also a single layer of duct tape over her mouth, wrapped around her head to make an effective but hopefully not too unpleasant gag. Bayley had wavered on the decision to apply the tape, but she just hadn't been able to trust Becky quite enough not to suddenly start screaming or shouting in the night. She did have the feeling that trust would come, in time.

For her part, Becky hadn't objected to the tape being put over her mouth, although Bayley had seen the disappointment in her eyes. She had clearly thought they might have been beyond that. Now she was sleeping soundly, which made Bayley feel a little better about it. Damn, she's beautiful, she thought, studying the woman beside her.

"I'm sorry, Becky," she breathed, barely audible. "I really want to let you go, but I don't want you to leave me."

Pins and needles were the first thing Becky noticed when she woke up. Her head had been resting on her left arm, thanks to how Bayley had secured her with the handcuffs. Shifting her position rectified that problem. It was harder to do something about the nasty adhesive taste in her mouth from the tape that was tightly sealing her lips. She had hoped that Bayley wouldn't feel the need to gag her again, and she had seen indecision in her eyes at the time. Sadly, the decision had ultimately gone the wrong way, from Becky's point of view. To further build trust, she had decided to remain silent the whole night and not struggle to get the tape off - a feat that might have been possible since Bayley had only wrapped it around her head once this time. Not getting the tape off now was hopefully worth it for the long term gain of never having to experience it again.

Looking at the sleeping woman beside her, Becky felt her heart aching. Yes, it was crazy. Yes, it made no sense, but there was no getting around the fact that she was falling for Bayley. Sharing their life stories had cemented that feeling. She had gotten the impression that Bayley was starting to feel the same way, too. Had her mouth not been taped, she would have leaned over and kissed Bayley in that moment. A soft kiss on those gorgeous lips to wake her up, then see what happened from there.

Becky wondered what response she might get if she told Bayley that she wanted to go back to her old life, but she wanted her to come with her. Maybe they could come up with some story about Charlotte and Ronda and go to the police together for protection? Did that make any kind of sense? Was the whole thing total insanity? Could love really blossom between them in the most unlikely of circumstances? She didn't have answers to any of those questions, but she decided that as soon as she was able to in the morning, she would kiss Bayley. How she reacted to that kiss would tell her a lot. If all went well, this could well be the last night she spent in captivity. That possibility was more than worth any risk that might be associated with the kiss.