The uncomfortable journey seemed to have gone on forever to Becky. Lying on the hard floor of a van, her head itchy and covered in sweat under the hood, her wrists tied up and mouth taped shut. None of it was pleasant, to say the least. She was angry and frustrated, but there wasn't much she could do about it.
At one point there had been a vehicle change. All Becky had been able to hear was an exchange between Stephanie and some men. Stephanie had expressed her satisfaction with the appearance of the second van that Bayley and Becky had been bundled into the back of. Becky had hoped that after the change had taken place, she and Bayley would be set free. So far, there was no sign of it happening.
Being bound and gagged had brought back a lot of memories from Becky's original kidnapping. Surprisingly, not all of them were bad memories. Yes, there was the all too familiar feeling of helplessness; of not being in control of her own destiny. But she had also relived her first experiences with Bayley.
Tied to bed in that remote cabin was where she had first seen her girlfriend, with those beautiful dark eyes under the ski mask. And then, after they had fled Ronda and Charlotte, although Becky had still been kept tied to the bed with her mouth taped a lot of the time, she had seen Bayley for the first time. Never in her life had she seem someone so cute, so beautiful. It had been love at first sight for her, as she suspected it had been for Bayley back at the cabin.
Strangely, Becky found herself turned on now by the memory of being tied up and at Bayley's mercy like that. At the time, it had been frightening. Now? She felt like maybe she wanted to try it again. She wondered if that was weird.
"Roadblock up ahead," a man's voice said from the front of the van, startling her out of her thoughts. "On the floor, and cover yourselves up."
"Shit!" Vega exclaimed. "I hoped to have bought us longer than this."
"Lucky we planned for the worst," McMahon replied.
"You heard the man, we're going to have to cover you up," Vega said, obviously talking to Bayley and Becky. Uncharacteristically, some reassuring words followed. "Don't worry. You're going to be okay."
Becky heard a muffled moan from Bayley, along with the sound a cover of some kind being spread out.
Someone lay down beside Becky, and a cover, maybe some kind of blanket, was put over her also. She made sure to stay quiet.
"Not a sound, either of you, or we're all fucked," Stephanie hissed.
Becky felt the van slow down, then come to a stop.
"Evening," a man said front the front of the van. Becky's eyes widened in surprise when she heard him introduce himself and another person as FBI agents. They were in a fake FBI van? Talk about ballsy, she thought.
The man had continued speaking, explaining that he and his partner was en-route to do some forensics work.
A man outside the van asked if they had heard about the prison break, and the driver confirmed that he had.
"I'm going to need to see some ID," the voice outside the vehicle said. It sounded more like someone going through the motions than someone who was suspicious about what he was seeing and hearing.
"Of course," said the other man in the front of the van.
Becky held her breath, feeling sweat trickling down her face. If it all went south now, the four women in the back of the van were all heading back to prison for a long time.
Small talk was still being made while the ID was checked. That had to be a good sign.
"Alright, you're good," came the verdict. Becky thought she heard a small sigh of relief from the person lying next to her, under the cover. She could faintly smell McMahon's perfume. Even the big tough boss lady was getting in a flap.
"Thanks," the driver said. "I hope you get them." He was referring to the escaped prisoners, Becky realised. Very clever.
"Ah, they won't come this way," the other voice complained. "But we'll stand here all fucking night anyway."
"Right," the driver said with amusement. With that, the van started moving again.
For a couple of minutes, no one said anything and no one moved. Then the driver spoke up. "We're past the police cordon now, Stephanie. Should be in the clear. About fifteen minutes until we part ways."
That prompted movement from McMahon and Vega, who tossed the covers away and got up, leaving Bayley and Becky on the floor.
The fifteen minutes, if that was how long it in fact was, dragged by for Becky. She was thirsty, needed to pee, and was drenched in sweat. The freedom she had been promised couldn't come soon enough.
Eventually, the van slowed, made a couple of turns, stopped for a moment, then sounded like it entered a building of some kind.
"Okay, here we are," the driver said as he killed the engine. "Move those two to your van and don't untie them or take those hoods off until we're gone."
"Yes, boss," Stephanie said dryly, not liking orders being given to her. It was supposed to be the other way around.
"Sorry. But you know the deal we made."
"Yes, I do. Zelina, move these two," Stephanie instructed.
The doors at the back of the van opened – Vega complying without a verbal acknowledgement.
Becky moaned in surprise into her gag when her legs were grabbed and she was dragged to the back edge of the van.
"Stand up, and I'll walk you over to the new vehicle," Vega said without any emotion in her voice. She was simply doing a job.
Awkwardly, Becky stood up and was led a few paces before Vega opened another van door and shoved her inside. This time, Becky landed on her front, managing to stop her head hitting the floor. She yelled a protest into the tape, angry at the way she was being thrown around.
"Oh, shut up," Vega said disinterestedly. Becky heard her walking away, along with Stephanie talking to the two men who had helped with their escape.
In moments, Bayley thudded into the van, letting out a pained cry as she landed.
"Bay?" Becky tried to say, producing only a muffled noise. At least she received one in reply.
"The payment has been made," Stephanie was saying. "We'll never work together again, but if the situation arose, I would recommend you."
"Appreciate it," the man who hadn't been driving the van said.
With that, the engine fired back up. The van reversed, then drove slowly away. The two mystery men and the fake FBI van were gone.
"A professional job," Stephanie commented, talking to Vega. Becky heard their footsteps approaching.
"Definitely," Vega replied. "We should be home and dry now. They can't possibly expect us to be outside a cordon that wide, that quickly. They'll assume we're hiding out somewhere."
"By the end of the day, we will be," Stephanie said, right by the back of the van now.
"But not anywhere they're going to be looking," Vega said as she climbed into the van.
Bayley yelled angrily into her gag, just beating Becky to it.
"Yes, alright," Stephanie said theatrically, as if they were being unreasonable wanting to be freed.
Becky felt someone grab her and haul her into a sitting position on the floor. The hood was pulled off her head, and bright light blinded her, causing her to moan and flinch away, closing her eyes.
As her vision adjusted to what she realised were the lights of a warehouse, the first thing Becky saw was McMahon sitting on the opposite side on the van, on a wooden bench of sorts. It was sickening how fresh and well made up she looked compared to the shit state Becky was in. Stephanie looked like she had just been out to dinner, not breaking out of prison.
Vega was sitting Bayley up. She whipped off her hood and tossed into a corner of the van. Becky watched her girl go through the same few moments of blindness, crying in pain in her gag. Even with her hair a mess, soaked in sweat and with her mouth taped, Bayley still looked adorable.
"You look a little warm, ladies," Stephanie said with a hint of amusement.
"Mmmph!" Becky growled at her, narrowing her eyes angrily.
"Please can we leave them like this?" Vega said with a grin, receiving a glare from Bayley.
"I think we've had our fun," Stephanie decided. "Take their gags off and untie them."
As Vega was closest to Bayley, she tore the tape from her mouth first in one swift motion.
"Oww! Jesus Christ!" Bayley protested. "Thanks for the breakout, Stephanie. I think we need to talk about your travel arrangements."
"Ah, relax," Stephanie said with a dismissive hand gesture. "You wanted out of prison, you're out."
Vega tore the strip of tape from Becky's mouth, hurting her skin and her lips. "Fuck!" she cried, glaring at McMahon. "Was that really necessary?"
"Yes, it was. You're lucky those guys agreed to bring you along at all. It took a look of persuasion and a lot of money to get them to do it."
"I'm sure it'll be nothing compared to what you can make from the BL-04," Becky said pointedly, before looking at Bayley, who was doing her best to tidy her sweat-soaked hair. "You okay, Bay?"
"I think I will be," Bayley said, a long way from happy about the way she had been treated. "How about you?"
"I need to pee, and I'm thirsty. Apart from that, I'm okay."
"You're going to have to wait until we find somewhere to stop for a piss break," Vega said. "Unless you want to do it the corner of a warehouse, that is?"
"I'll wait," Becky said.
Stephanie had moved closer to the front of the van, where a large bag sat on the floor. She unzipped it and pulled out a bottle of water. "Thirsty, I can help you with. Our friends were kind enough to plan ahead and provide us with water, sandwiches and snacks for the rest of our journey."
Typically, Stephanie fixed herself up with food and drink before passing anything to anyone else, while Vega untied Becky and Bayley's hands. Becky didn't care about the wait, she was just glad when a bottle of water came her way, and she downed the whole thing in one go, immediately feeling refreshed.
Bayley moved over to sit beside Becky, to no objection from Stephanie. They snuggled up to each other, glad that they were together, freed, and apparently safe. The four of them ate sandwiches and potato chips in silence for a while, until Bayley ventured a question.
"So, we successfully broke out of prison. Now what?"
"Now we continue the journey to the compound I've had people working on for the past few months," Stephanie said. "We'll be calling it home, and Becky, you'll be calling it a place of work, too. There's a research lab there waiting for you, and I'm told you'll find it lacking in nothing you need."
Becky nodded. She could hardly complain about the fact that her research was Stephanie's highest priority. After all, it was the only reason she and Bayley had been broken out of the prison.
Vega had pulled a blonde wig out of the bag and put it on, and was trying to get it to look right. Stephanie decided to help her as she continued speaking. "Zelina here is going to do the driving, and one of you will ride up front with her. The other will stay in the back with me."
Becky didn't bother objecting. She was in a position now where she had to take orders from Stephanie, no matter what they were. One thing she definitely didn't want to do any more than she possibly had to was spend time with or around Vega. Even though they were now somewhat 'on the same team' or whatever, she hadn't forgotten all of the nasty things Vega had done to her and to others in the prison. "I'll stay in the back," she decided.
With a nod, Stephanie went along with her. "Bayley, you're up front. Get yourselves sorted out. We need to get back on the road."
A/N: Special thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter.
Next time, we'll be with Bayley as she rides in the front of the van. I've had people request a bit more backstory on Bayley's character regarding her criminal past and such, so we'll get into that. If any of you have a question you would like Vega to ask Bayley, leave them in a review. I'll use any good ones I get!