This is a short one...I don't think I've ever written a chapter this short before, but I had some peoples messaging me both on here and my social networking sites asking when I was going to post something new. And then I thought, ya know, there is no need to draw this chapter out if I don't have to...and so I decided not to. And here it is. :)

6. The Mara and Bane Show

Israel had a reason for not liking doctors, and the way Mara fussed and fiddled over her made her agitated and anxious. The entire examination had started with questions, testing her memory, and she had opted not to answer any of them. Then came the poking and the prodding. A flashlight was shone in her eyes. Her pulse and blood pressure were taken and, after Mara took a wild guess at her patient's weight, she set an IV with a fluid drip to hydrate her. Israel remained quiet, yet annoyed that all the while Mara spoke to her with an optimistic ambivalence…as if they weren't both in the worst possible situation imaginable, as if they weren't both being held hostage.

The thought sparked a lightbulb in Israel's head and she couldn't help herself before she asked, "He doesn't have you trapped here, does he?" The words came out harsh, judging, and she cut her eyes at the doctor, narrowing them in suspicion and disbelief.

Mara sat shocked. This was the first time the girl had spoken to her. "…I'm not here willingly…" It was all she could say while keeping her anger in check. "I'm going to need to address your legs. You can either have a morphine drip, or I can give you a local."

Israel had never been a fan of mind numbing drugs, and she wasn't about to accommodate them now just because she was injured. "Local." She watched the doctor go over to her bag and fish out a metal tray which she then began loading with purple medical gloves, a syringe, and some type of medicine, along with gauze, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and the hooked needle for stitches.

"You're going to need to take off your pant and then lie on your stomach." Mara returned to the bed, waited as Israel stared up at her with fear and irritation.

"Can't you just work around them?" The last thing she wanted was to be without pants while Bane was just on the other side of the door; a door that would lock or even shut properly thanks to a good kicking.

Mara's eyes softened. "I'm not going to let him come in here and hurt you."

Israel scoffed. "I think we both know you can't stop him…" She struggled with slipping her jeans over her hips and down her legs, gritting her teeth when the material brushed against the cut on her calves. She paused, hated that she felt so naked without her pants, but slowly lied face down on the bed, pulling a pillow underneath her head.

Mara sat in a chair and then rested the metal pan on the bed within reach. She pulled on the rubber gloves. "Do you have any allergies? Any medications you can't take?"

"No." Israel said bitterly. She didn't like that this entire situation was reminding her of the dark that clouded her past. She clung to the pillow as Mara poured alcohol on a cotton ball and the smeared the substance over an area near her cut. It was going to hurt, Israel knew that, and so she gripped her fingers into the mattress, set her teeth on the pillow and braced herself.

"Okay, take a deep breath for me."

She did, and then there was the poke of the needle. She'd had shots before, and they were normally no big deal, but the meat of her calves were so swollen and infected that every millimeter the needle penetrated felt like nauseating fire and salt. The insertion of the anesthetic was no better. She likened it to the feeling of rapidly warming her fingers after playing in the snow. There was another poke then, this time below the cut, and the same sensation tore through her leg. One leg was over, but there was still the other one. Israel tore into the pillow with her teeth, squeezed her eyes shut while small beads of tears corralled at the corners of her eyes. The other leg was just as bad, if not worse, and the stinging and pain was beginning to make Israel nauseous again.

She was brave, Mara would give her that. The girl didn't make a peep as she applied the anesthetic, and the only visible way that Mara could tell she felt anything was when she would tense and grip the mattress. "I'll give that a moment to take effect. And while we're waiting…do you have any other injuries that I need to take a look at?"

Israel bit the inside of her cheek. The medicine was taking effect, she could feel parts of the wounds numbing, but the parts that hadn't yet still felt like fire. "No," she bit out. "No, I'm fine."

"Ya know, this would be much easier if you'd cooperate." Mara's tone was soft, understanding. "For instance, we could start with your name?"

The first words that came to Israel's mind was 'bite me,' but thus far the good doctor had yet to hurt her, and she was definitely in need of medical attention. "…Izzy…"

The excitement Mara felt, the joy at feeling as though she was getting through to her patient made her want to jump up and down. "Izzy… Is that short for something?"

She shot the doctor a hard glance. "Just Izzy."

"Alright then, Izzy. I have to go outside and ask Ba…" His name died on her tongue. "I'll be right back. I'll be just outside and no one is going to come through that door but me. Understand?"

Israel gave a curt nod. The pain in her legs was easing and her slow yet steady hydration was making her relax slightly.

Mara eased out of the room, giving one last glance to the girl on the bed before turning to come face to face with Bane's chest. He stood tall, his eyes burning with curiosity while his hand clutched loosely at the neck of his vest.

"Mara." He said her name as if it were a sneer, and it made her shoulders straighten, made her lift her head slightly. He noted the change in her demeanor, noted the way her shoulders squared, her eyes hardened. It was the Mara he used to know, not the soft, caring thing she'd become. Nonetheless, she had made her choice and because of that she no longer held any interest to him. The girl on the other hand… His eyes left the doctor, eyed the door she'd come from.

"She's fine." She eased past him. Went to the island where she retrieved a pad of paper and a pen from her purse. "Bane." She called to him because he had lingered at the door, almost as if he were tempted to go inside. He turned to her, walked leisurely to where she stood and watched as she began to write a list. "She's going to need medication. Antibiotics, pain killers, steroids…" She wrote down every medication she thought would help. "Also, I'm going to need her medical file if she has one." She wanted to keep this short and clipped. She didn't want to have to talk to him, be around him, any longer than necessary.

That caught Bane's attention. "Need I remind you, Dr. Mara, that your stay here is temporary? Once the girl is in good health you will return to your home."

Mara bit the inside of her lip. "Yes. I understand that. However, since you have called upon me to help her, and since I am here, I will make sure that I know all that I can about my patient before I leave her in your…" She made eye contact with him, held it as she said, "less than capable hands."

Bane's eyes turned cold and he towered over here, standing mere millimeters away. "Your time away has made you brave…and weak." His hand came up then, rested on her shoulder and a sick smile played on his lips when she flinched. "Would you like me to remind you of who you used to be? Of what you used to be a part of? …of who I am?"

Mara's eyes grew wide and her haunted past, their past together, played evilly behind her eyes. "No," she rasped. "No."

He took his hand away. "Do not think that we would not welcome you back…with open arms."

She blinked rapidly, handed him her list. "Just…her medical file. I'll need it." She left then, tail tucked between her legs as she fled from the room and down the hallway. She paused at the bedroom door, gathered herself and caught her breath before proceeding inside.

Bane watched her go, a smile behind his mask. She had always been easy to get to. Even after his extensive training, she always found it hard not to wear her emotions on her sleeve. It was something he had enjoyed about her. His eyes looked over her list, not surprised that he had already made a mental list of the medications the girl would need. However he felt out of sorts that he hadn't thought to seek out the girl's medical file. "Barsad…"

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Israel was still lain out on the bed. She felt marginally better from the fluid drip and for the life of her she wasn't sure if she even had legs anymore because she couldn't feel or move them. She heard footsteps outside the door and tensed, glanced over as she watched Dr. Mara step inside and then carefully shut the door as not to knock it off its hinges. She was flustered, and Israel could tell, but instead of bringing it up she asked, "how long until the anesthesia wears off?"

Mara eyed her patient's enflamed legs. "Right." She worked quickly to change the gloves she'd forgotten to remove and then sterilized the hooked needle after threading it. She set it aside and made sure to thoroughly flush out the wound with filtered water, and then iodine. She noted that Israel was no longer flinching. She picked up the needle and very carefully threaded it through the skin, pulling the thread through behind it.

It was a strange sensation, being stitched up. It wasn't the first time Israel had to have stitches, but each time the feeling felt nauseatingly foreign. The first time she'd had stitches she'd watched in a mirror as the doctor had sewn a gash near the back of her head. She'd been numbed up enough to not feel the pain, but she did feel the pressure and tugging of the needle and thread through the skin. It was almost as though she had been watching it happen to someone else.

Mara finished one calf and thoroughly checked her work before moving on to the next. The silence was getting to Israel. "How do you know Bane?" She asked. She felt the air in the room change, felt the doctor pause and tense before proceeding with her stitching. She was quiet for so long that Israel thought she wouldn't answer.

"We have a slight history," Mara replied tightly.

"But that doesn't tell me how you two met." Why she was pushing, she didn't know.

Mara's past swam behind her eyes. This wasn't a topic that she liked to talk about. It wasn't a really a topic that she liked to think about, couldn't have thought about up until 3 years ago. When she had her first child, Aiden, her husband had suggested that she get help, and she was in no state to disagree. She'd been a wreck. Constant night terrors had, at first, caused her to wake screaming, kicking, fighting. And after a while she'd managed to wake silently to keep from waking her husband. And after that she would go into the bathroom and cry, and eventually even the crying stopped. Instead of going to the bathroom she would just go sit in the kitchen or the living room and watch the sun come up. When her husband would wake she'd put on a fake smile and make him coffee…join him in the shower for morning sex, and then they would both leave for work. But it had been Aiden that undid her. A baby was life changing, and the hormones that surged through the female body were dangerous, and in her case deadly. And being a doctor, she'd known that, but reading about something in a book was different from experiencing it firsthand. Aiden was born, and she was unhinged.

Her husband, God bless him, had always been understanding, even when she finally broke down and told him about her past, about the things she done…about who and what she had been… He had never threatened to leave her, had always been patient with her, but it was the night that he found her standing over Aiden's crib, knife I hand… That was the night that he made her get help, because if she didn't then he would have taken the baby and left.

Her therapist was an elderly lady who wore her age like a silk veil woven with beauty and grace. She never one raised her voice, and anytime Mara got out of hand, went into a fit of rage, her therapist would pause, wait for the moment to pass before proceeding. It was only because of that woman that Mara could speak about her former life.

"He saved me…" The words came out a whisper, soft yet ragged.

Israel craned back to get a better look at her doctor, testing to see if her words were a joke.

Mara looked up then. "I say he saved me because at the time…that's what it was…to me." She swallowed audibly. "But I was young… Much younger than you. I was naïve and I wasn't street smart. I didn't know what I wanted out of life and had a friend, who I now know wasn't a friend at all, and she always led me into the worst situations." Her still hand began to move again, pressing the needle and thread through skin once more. "One night she wanted to go to a party. It wasn't the kind of party she thought it would be. It turned out to be just use two…surrounded by 7 men. I'm sure you can guess what their intent was." A sick chuckled escaped her lips. "They jumped on her, my friend, right away. And she screamed, and she screamed and begged me to help her, but I ran. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me right into to Bane. It was like I was out of the frying pan and into the fire."

Israel had grown very still, listened intently while her hands fisted the mattress. Listening to the tale made her uncomfortable as her own story was a slightly warped mirror of Mara's.

"I used to wonder why he took pity on me. Just from looking at him you can tell that Bane is not the kind of man to do nice things just for the fun of it. He always has an agenda."

"So he let you go then?"

"He did. But fate wanted me in his clutches. I went home, and I cried to my parents. I told them what had happened and they cried with me. I never heard from my friend again after that, but I tried not to think about her too often. Life was good and I was alive and well, and that was all that mattered. It only lasted for a month…maybe two at the most." Mara finished up the stitching on Israel's right leg and after checking it, drenched both wounds in iodine and bandaged them up. She helped Israel roll onto her back before pulling a light sheet over her. "I'm going to give you a sedative…just something to help you sleep." As Mara pulled away Israel's hand shot out and grabbed her.

"I don't want to be sedated."

Mara's hand was gentle as she pried loose her patient's fingers. "The anxiety and adrenaline…and fear…it will make it hard for you to rest, and Israel, you need to rest."

"I don't want to sleep." Her eyes had grown wide as saucers and her pulse spiked. The last thing she wanted to do was to close her eyes when she wasn't sure if she'd ever open them again.

"I'll be here the whole time. I'm not going to let anyone hurt you." Before, when Mara had said that, it had only been for reassurance, to help calm her down. But now she meant it, and to the best of her ability, she would protect this girl. She grabbed a syringe and medication from her bag. "I'll only give you a light dose. Just something to help you calm down. Sleeping will be up to you." She cleaned a spot on Israel's arm with alcohol and a cotton ball before sliding the needle into the vein to deliver the sedative.

Israel's reaction was immediate. She winced, her eyes fluttered and her lips slackened, but she was still awake. "Tell me more about you and Bane." Her words were softer now, hushed as the fought off the effects of the sedative.

Mara began to pack up her medical supplies and gave her a sad smile. "I think you've heard enough."

"If you tell me the whole story I'll let you dose me with enough pain killers to knock out a horse." She didn't want to sleep. She didn't want to shut her eyes for a single second, but stories of Bane were of importance to her. She was no spy, but she knew that if she learned more about Bane then she could perhaps find a weakness in him. After all, she wouldn't be content to stay his prisoner forever…or until he grew tired of her. This would just be a small price to pay.

"I'll tell you a little more, and then you'll sleep."

Israel nodded curtly, watched as Mara took a seat in the nearby chair. "Fate wanted me to be in Bane's clutches. That's the only way I can explain my parents dying. It was a month or so after I'd met Bane. I was at school when I got the news. When I was called the office I couldn't for the life of me fathom what I was in trouble for. I was a straight A student and all… I think I knew something was wrong when I sat down in the counselor's office instead of the principal's office. His eyes were sad. My first thought was that they'd found my friend's body somewhere, or maybe that a relative had died, and strangely my parent's didn't even come to mind. Strange how, as children, they seem so untouchable…almost like superheroes. They'd gotten into a car crash. It was a hit and run. My parent's car had flipped off the highway and luckily they died on impact. I cried." Mara shook her head, eyes sad, but her voice had a steely reserve. "None of my relative came to ID the body. At the time I was angry about that, now I know that it was because none of them wanted to take me in…as if I were a bad kid…" She shrugged.

Israel's eyes had turned to slits and her breathing was beginning to even out. She didn't want to sleep, but Mara's voice was soothing, and the medication was still coursing through her. "You were put in the state's care?"

The doctor nodded. "What they do to those kids…who they place them with…it's not right. And for some reason I went into it wide eyed and optimistic. I had no idea how bad the world could be. I was placed with a largely overweight woman who had already had a slew of children to care for. She collected us. I suppose, in retrospect, that her home wasn't that bad. We did chores and we went to church, but the woman was abusive and believed in corporal punishment. That was something that was new to me. I was there a full two weeks before I ran away…and that is when Bane found me. I don't even think he had to look hard. It was almost like he had been waiting for me…" Her words slowed as a lightbulb clicked on over her head. "…like he'd known where I had been the entire time…" She swallowed hard.

"He kidnapped you?"

"Oh he didn't have to. I went with him willingly. He made such promises about a life where I could do what I wanted, be who I wanted. I would be a part of a society that didn't have to abide by the normal rules, a world where anything and everything goes. Like I said before, I was young…dumb…and I went with him. And for the next 15 years of my life I allowed him to brainwash me and mold me into being what he wanted me to be. In fact, I am only a doctor today because of him. He and a few of his men had been injured. They were shot up and stabbed, some had broken bones… I can't explain how I knew to care of them or how I knew what to do. It was just something that came naturally to me. And Bane took note of that. He nurtured my healing qualities. He even paid for me to go to med school." A small smile graced her lips. "I used to think he was a god…"

There was a small knock at the door, and both Israel and Mara tense as Barsad came inside and motioned for Mara to follow him. She patted her patient's hand. "I'll be right back."

In the living room, Bane sat on the couch, hunched over a red file with at least 100 pages in it. "I believe that this is what you were asking for?" His voice was low as his eyes continued to scan the first page.

"Well you all work fast…" She couldn't help her jeer at him, and she couldn't help the scowl that marred her lips. The lightbulb above her head was burning bright and the question in her head haunted her.

He looked at her then, and she wished she could take back her words. "Your antibiotics on the counter as well as a few other supplies you will need."

She didn't miss his emphasis on the word 'supplies' and wasn't surprised to see a small plastic bag of medication sitting next to a very large box on the kitchen counter. "Thank you."

His eyes had already dismissed her. "You have one week, Mara. I suggest you make use of your time…and save your thank yous for someone who will appreciate them."

One of his soldiers immediately lifted the heavy box, but Mara stopped him as he headed down the hallway. "You don't go in that room without me."

The man laughed, but his eyes cut to Bane. "Sir?"

"Do as she says." He unfolded himself from the couch, closed the red file and held it out for the doctor. "I see that your bite has not left you."

"No thanks to you…sir." She took the file gently, made careful eye contact before going down the hallway. She opened the door gently, noted that Israel was fast asleep before silently proceeding inside. She motioned for the soldier to put the box down on the table at the far wall and then shooed him out. She suspected that Israel would be out for hours, maybe an entire day if the girl would just let herself relax. And, with the small amount of free time that was given her, Mara began to unpack the box, sneering that the large chemist set that she would have to piece together, and, while she worked, she read over Israel's file. It was going to be a long week.

Don't worry...Israel and Bane will be alone together soon...prolly after the next chapter. I've got some things in the works that I'm sure you'll like. Also, Israel's file is a doozy. Of course, I'm not going to tell you all that happened to her right away. Her past is going to be revealed in pieces...but my goodness does she have one. How is Mara going to react to what she reads? More importantly, how is Bane going to react, because you know he's going to give it a read.

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