Wow I can't believe I finally finished this monster. I hope you will forgive the lack of detail on Adam's recovery surgery, I just didn't have anymore in me for this round and the fic went about 13,000 words more than I'd originally intended. A quick note before you read the conclusion. I mention events in my one-shot "I Could Kiss You." At this point I've written well over a novel's worth of fics for this universe, so in some ways I've created my own bubble cannon and everything I write exists inside of that bubble.
Going back to the hideout was returning to a war zone. David swallowed. Malik had not even been close to exaggerating when she'd said the unmarked gang was a war cry. Bullets no longer cracked the air but the holes they left in bodies and walls were all too fresh. Smoke drifted acrid and hot from a melted spot in the concrete where some kind of explosive had killed the three men still sprawled around the crater.
Though he was glad he'd missed the fighting, David found the aftermath disturbing. The killing was so efficient the chill of it still hung in the air. He temporarily locked eyes with an armed ganger standing beneath a maintenance light and felt a shudder go through him. The other man stared back, the red light pulsing with the smoke from his cigarette. He was still holding a cocked weapon.
Malik strode on ahead with her eyes trained permanently on the hanger. She stepped around bodies and all she showed as far as reaction was a clenched jaw and a pallid complexion. Her breathing was shallow and sharp, but she clenched her fists and kept her head up, and the gang members seemed to respect her for it. David realized that this was a whole other kind of politics that he was all but mute in. Here, strangely enough, his chief pilot was the expert.
He'd known her training and residential background when he'd hired her but he'd never guessed that mob knowledge and a spine of steel would come with it. He was deeply impressed and for a fleeting moment wondered what would happen if Malik was Adam's field partner instead of his air support.
Adam was exactly where they left him, only now instead of complete darkness or harsh halogens to light his room there was the eerie lowlight of gold augmentation LEDs. No less than six Harvesters were circling Adam's table like some kind of cyberpunk ritual, their metal fingers clasped on weapons and the glittering spinal lights throwing conflicting shadows across Adam's body. They were identical, and David didn't dare ask if Tong had a Special Forces side to his gang. This was so uniform it was spooky, and David was immensely grateful that he lived in Michigan. The way Tong was going, soon the Harvesters wouldn't just control Lower Hengsha, they'd own it. This was no longer gang security, this was a private army.
The Harvesters parted like oil in water as they approached and Malik's only reaction to seeing Adam again was to fumble and grab David's hand under the table. Her complexion had gone as pale as it could go, and he caught her swallowing hard. It only then clicked about how much guilt she must be feeling. He squeezed back and freed his hand, rounding the table to check Adam over.
His skin had gone clammy and he was barely breathing. Even in his comatose state the energy drain was proving too much.
"We need to get him back to the VTOL," Malik said huskily, her fingers gripped hard on Adam's forearm opposite David.
David shook his head. "He won't survive the trip. Even with another IV he's barely hanging on, Faridah." He felt himself tearing up, his throat closing painfully.
"Then we take him to LIMB, get him enough to hang on—"
He shook his head again. "We can't take him to a LIMB clinic. They'd spend so much time bickering about the legalities of the surgery and his augments Adam would die in the interim."
"Sarif—"
"He won't survive the trip." David's voice broke on the last word and he didn't have the strength to stick it back together again. He covered his mouth with his metal hand and for the first time in his long career he hated the feel. "I'm sorry Faridah."
"My, my, Jensen. You do like to get yourself into tight spots, don't you?"
David and Malik both whirled, Malik's eyes going wide as Tong stepped into the lowlight, flashing a light up and down Adam's body as though he'd found something curious tucked away in the back closet. He tutted. "Such a waste."
"He's not dead yet!" Malik seethed, placing her small body in between Tong and Adam without a second thought.
"Oh, relax Xiǎo huǒ. I know a lost cause when I see one, and waiting around for Adam's inevitable expiration so I can have his augments is just a little too carrion feeder for me. No, bring him back to the Harvester base. I'll give you what you need to stabilize him and then you can take him back to Detroit."
Malik and David both stood stunned. Malik, her suspicion not quite able to turn away Tong's offer, spoke again, her voice barely a breath. "Why?"
"Because I still have respect for human life, despite what you both apparently think. And—how do you say it? I like Jensen's style." He gestured sharply to his harvesters, saying something David didn't catch in Chinese and in moments Adam had been scooped up and was being carried out into the early morning.
The Harvester base was not ideal for surgery. It was not ideal for anything really since it was a re-purposed parking garage, among other things, but Malik wasn't going to complain. She felt a shiver go down her spine as they passed the extraction room where the door was gaping, leaving a full view of the Harvester inside pulling bloodied wires from what was left of his victim's leg. Blood dribbled down the table and ran in channels towards a floor drain and she fisted her hands in her pockets to keep her disgust from showing. There was no respect for the people who'd died. None at all. She glanced back ahead at the Harvesters that were carrying Adam and tried to keep a lid on her suspicions. She still couldn't fully trust Tong's intentions or logic for helping them. She felt like they were seriously being duped and it was going to cost them at the worst possible moment. The only reason she hadn't fought back was because she knew they were backed against a wall. Adam literally had no chance of surviving unless Tong and David worked together to help him.
She felt her eyes burn but she refused to let her emotions go anywhere. How did this keep on happening to Adam? She remembered the first time they met when Megan had brought him around, right after his departure from SWAT. He'd been so…young then. She didn't really have another word for it and the thought made her want to wrap up somewhere warm and just sleep for so long. He'd been so young. She'd seen how the incident with his SWAT command weighed on him, but he still had some faith in the world. Still had the ability to look ahead and joke about security perks and make bad puns out of the chemicals Megan tried to explain to him. Malik's eyes watered and she couldn't help a private smile as a memory of him standing almost shoulder to hip with Megan when they both got off work for the night, he in the nicest tux she'd ever seen him wear, her still in her lab coat, off to see a movie and spend the night together to celebrate his hiring into the company.
Malik blinked away tears and crossed her arms, watching as they lay Adam down and got to work, Tong and David exchanging medical technobabble as their hands wove over Adam as though concocting technological magic. The utter ash in Adam's gaze for weeks, even months after the attack was still too fresh in her mind. He'd been grieving for Megan and his own body at the same time, and then when he'd discovered her alive and found out what their relationship had actually been he'd gone cold. After Panchaea his jaw had set a little harsher and for the first time since his surgery Malik thought his attitude suited his augments and that gave her a little chill. She hadn't been lying when she'd told him that augmentation suited him—but part of the harmony was that he gave life to his mechanical side, rather than letting the mechanics turn him stiff and harsh. The soul she'd once seen exude such warmth was slowly choking on the circumstances that kept demanding more of his augmented self. He was slowly healing, and she was grateful for it, but once again his life had taken a turn for the worse and this time it was her fault. How was she going to look him in the eye after all of this?
She suddenly felt that the room was too small and she excused herself, garnering a worried glance from David that he was too distracted to maintain. He only nodded in a short jerk and continued to feed a wire through Adam's brachial artery and into the arch of his heart.
For nearly three days they stayed with Tong and his Harvesters, and when the time was up and both Tong and David were sure Adam was going to live, they shook hands like civilized businessmen and parted ways. Tong even helped smuggle Adam back through Hengsha to the VTOL and used his contacts in the police to smooth out the legal kinks. Lee Sr. would not have freedom to bother Malik or Adam ever again.
"What deal did you strike, David?" Malik asked softly, standing across from him in the VTOL as he strapped Adam in and secured the blankets and IV keeping him through his induced coma. David paused, resting his hands on the edge of Adam's cot. He wouldn't meet her eyes.
"Let's just go home, Faridah," he said wearily.
Malik pressed her lips together, but she turned to the cockpit anyway and fell into the routine of flight checks. She wasn't content with the lack of transparency, but she was deeply weary and it could wait. All that mattered at that point was leaving Hengsha. All that mattered was going home.
For the first time since his emergency shut down, Adam opened his eyes in the back of the VTOL just as David disappeared inside Sarif to call his lawyers. Malik was sitting with him, holding his hand and resting her forehead against his shoulder as she waited for the medics to arrive and get him inside and perform final checks so he could go home. She wanted to be prepared for what he'd think, what he'd say when he woke up, but her grief and weariness were simply too much and she just rest there, nearly unconscious herself when his fingers twitched in hers.
She shot suddenly upright, blinking away tears and exhaustion. She sat forward eagerly, searching his face. "Adam?" She felt suddenly breathless, the doctor's threat of brain damage surging brow furrowed and he opened his eyes, blinking slowly as his retinas adjusted to the low light of very early sun was coming up, but it was not visible yet beyond the skyline and a grey-tinted-gold filtered through the cool air. His eyes flashed as the sensors recalibrated and he turned his head, looking at her. For a long moment she didn't see recognition there, and she held her breath, barely aware of how hard she was squeezing his hand.
"Malik?" he rasped finally, and it was simply too much. She broke down sobbing, gasping into his shoulder as she choked on her apology and her relief. She could feel him try to sit up and she pulled back, shaking her head and sniffing, trying to get herself under control enough to be intelligible.
"No, don't. You've been in a coma for days the modifications David was forced to make sucked you almost dry—we thought—"she swallowed and shook her head, her brow twisting with anguish. "Adam, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."
Adam looked alarmed, and slowly he managed to prop himself on his side so he could look at her better, so he could reach across and wipe away her tears with a warm thumb. He cupped her jaw gently and she wondered how anyone could complain about the touch of metal when it could be so forgiving. "Malik, no—how is this your fault?"
Her heart skipped a beat and she gripped his wrist, almost desperately. "You—you don't remember?"
He huffed a weak laugh. "I remember knocking out two bouncers for you and getting shoved into an alleyway. I remember you kissing me in that alleyway and then dodging police cams for the rest of our visit." He smiled wryly, stroking her cheekbone with his thumb when she gave him a watery smile. "I remember Pritchard giving me crap for a week about the whole thing." His hand moved to her shoulder and he squeezed, his expression earnest and suddenly somber. "And I remember getting justice for a woman—and an unborn child—who were murdered. The men who captured us, the damage they did, that was them. You are not and will never be responsible for their actions. I helped you voluntarily, Faridah. And I don't regret it." He gripped her shoulder a little tighter and locked their gazes. "Never apologize for defending people who can't defend themselves. Never apologize for justice."
Malik let out a shaky breath and felt more tears streak her cheeks, but she managed to nod. "I was so scared," she breathed, unsure of why she was admitting. Maybe she was too tired to fight it. "I really thought I was going to lose you, maybe lose David too all because I couldn't stop digging."
"You didn't," Adam assured her gently slipping his hand down her arm and lacing their fingers together. "You won't."
She smiled weakly and leaned forward until their foreheads were touching, closing her eyes and returning his grip. "I'm holding you to that, spy boy."
Xiǎo huǒ: Google Translate tells me this is Chinese for "Little fire" As for the deal David made, maybe that'll be a fic for another time.