A/N: So I know it's been a while, but all I can say is I've had terrible writers block and my motivation level has been down too. I'm back into writing this, but I'm busy with soccer so I'm aiming for having another chapter up in about a week or so, if all things go as planned, which, lately, they haven't. Just a few days ago my little bunny, Samuri (whom my account is named after), died of breathing complications four days after his first birthday, so, I'd really appreciate some feedback, cuz the past few weeks haven't gone very well... Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, and as always, enjoy!
Chapter 9: Back on Track
The steady beep of the heart monitor prevented Olivia from falling asleep, something she wanted to do very badly. She was now in the hospital and had made it back to Boston with almost no problems.
The kind couple from the forest had led her out, and she had immediately called Broyles, who then had her flown straight to Boston. Despite her protests, she was admitted into the hospital, and was now secretly glad she had been.
The painkillers took away all the physical pain, and she had time to think for once in a long time. No one else was in the room, but Walter had just left, wanting to help track Peter down.
Laying against the pillow and staring at the ceiling, Olivia thought about her and Walter's conversation.
Olivia was looking at the ceiling tiles, making patterns out of the grains in the tiles that didn't exist. She was trying to get her mind off her failure to help Peter, but there was nothing to occupy her.
The door then opened gently, and Astrid's kind face peeked in through the crack, "Olivia?" she whispered cautiously, not wanting to disturb her. When Olivia brought her gaze on Astrid instead of the ceiling, she continued, "Walter's here. He wants to talk to you, is that okay?"
Olivia knew she had to talk to Walter, she owed him after leaving Peter behind, but she knew he was an emotional wreck at the moment. He had been pouring all his energy into finding out where Peter might be, but with little luck. Without Peter to help him, he couldn't concentrate nearly as much as he should have. "Sure," she whispered to Astrid, her voice still coming back to her.
Nodding, Astrid left the room for a moment to get Walter. Taking a deep sigh, she tried to prepare herself for what was to come. If she was honest with herself, she knew that she didn't want to face Walter quite yet. He may not think that it was her fault that Peter was still gone, but Olivia blamed herself and that was enough. He would most likely ask her questions to try and decipher where Peter might be, but Olivia doubted she had anything new to offer. Hearing the door open again, she turned to find Walter standing there, his hands trembling and face half down.
"Walter..." Olivia whispered, seeing the distress in his face, "I-I'm sorry, I should have been more careful, I-"
"Olivia." Walter quietly interrupted, moving to sit in the chair beside her bed, "I know it's not your fault dear. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself." he paused, clenching his hands to try and stop the trembling, "I-I just wanted to ask you a few things, about Peter and those men..." at this, he trailed off, dropping his head again to stare at the floor.
"Sure," Olivia said softly, seeing that he couldn't continue, "go ahead."
"I can't lose him Olivia," he begged, tears in his eyes, "He means so much to me." Walter seemed to have forgotten about asking the questions.
"I know Walter," she said gently, "He means a lot to me too."
No one said anything after that. Walter never responded to Olivia's words, and she made no move to remind him of his. They both sat there in the quiet, deep in their own thoughts. Walter had his head in his hands, still trembling, and Olivia didn't know what to say. She knew that there wasn't much she could say to ease his mind, but she then thought she knew something, "Walter," she said, waiting for him to look up. When he did, with his hands still shaking, she continued, "I think I might know where Peter is."
"Oh where, Olivia?" Walter replied almost excitedly, standing up from the chair.
"Well I'm guessing that they still want the girl, so probably where ever she is. Do you think you would be able to track her down like you did last time?"
"Yes! I'm sure I can figure something out, Astro can help me." Walter muttered to himself, already forgetting his previous distraught behavior. "Thank you Olivia!" he said, already halfway out the door.
"You're welcome Walter." Olivia whispered in reply, trying to keep her composure. There was no one to hear her.
Olivia couldn't believe herself as she continued to blankly stare. Her vision had fogged, and she didn't blink, she just sat there, trying to think straight.
Peter was still in danger. She could have, should have helped him, and now she was here, in a hospital, with nothing to do. She felt fine, the drugs may have had something to do with it, but besides that, she was healed enough.
Frustrated and impatient, she sat up in the bed and tore off the IV attached to her. Swinging her legs across to hang over the edge of the bed, she sighed.
With one last push, she jumped off the bed, and headed to the bathroom to change. Slowly closing the door behind her, she turned and looked into the mirror, barely able to recognize herself.
Her face was bruised and scratched all over, with the most prominent scratch being from her right eyebrow, across her cheek, and down to her mouth. It was deep, and she had no idea where it could have come from. There were dark circles under her eyes, more so then usual, and Olivia tore her eyes away from the mirror to focus on changing, not wanting to find any other scars.
Opening up the plastic bag she sighed in relief when she found a clean set of workpants and jacket. It had been a terribly long time since she had felt clean.
Slipping on the pants, she groaned when her back nearly gave out in protest. Leaning back against the wall, she gasped and was starting to become frustrated.
It was clear to anybody that she was not ready to leave the hospital, but she couldn't just sit around and do nothing. Not when Peter was out there, and not when Walter and Astrid were working as hard as they could.
Grabbing her blouse, she slipped it on with more ease than the pants, since she didn't have to bend her back nearly as much. Following the blouse came the jacket and soon Olivia was fully dressed and set to go.
Throwing her hair back into a ponytail, she gathered her things and was about to leave when Broyles entered the room. He gave her a look of amusement when she scrambled to put her things back, as though she wasn't just about to leave.
"Uh, Sir." she stuttered, sitting on the edge of the bed, "Did you want something?"
"Well I was about to allow you to assist Dr. Bishop in the lab, but I see you're already a few steps ahead of me." he replied.
"Yes, yes I would love to help out Dr. Bishop, thank you Sir." Olivia said quickly, despite wanting to go out into the field.
"Okay, you will be released from the hospital shortly, stay here until then." he said, looking at her pointedly. He then exited, slowly closing the door behind.
Sighing in exasperation Olivia laid back on the bed and wished she could just go. Even though she knew it probably wouldn't happen, especially since Broyles had just caught her in the process. Now she would just have to help out Walter for a while, but at least it was something.
"We're almost there!" Peter heard Saunders call from the front of the car. Being in the trunk, the voice sounded distant but he could still hear it.
After traveling down the river for what felt like forever, he had been thrown into the trunk of a small car, and for the rest of the day, they had been driving.
Peter had no idea where the hell they were going, but over the past few hours the temperature and humidity in the trunk had gone up exponentially. He could hardly breathe in the stifling heat, and made a mental note to complain to the car company about the lack of air conditioning in the trunk. Yeah, 'cause the comfort of abduction victims is really a priority... he thought, shifting to face the opposite direction.
The road had gotten a lot bumpier in the past ten or so minutes, and the car had just hit a particularly large bump, sending Peter into the front of the trunk. He hit his head on something, and crashed back to the ground, groaning in pain.
Opening his eyes again, he immediately realized that he could see for the first time. That meant there was a light source. Searching, he found nothing, but when he turned around, he saw a sort of handle, glowing from the light shining on it. Upon closer inspection, Peter realized that there had been duct tape covering it before, but now it was peeling back at the corner.
Wincing in pain, Peter moved towards the handle and gripped the edge of the tape with his teeth. Pulling the tape back and spitting it out beside him, he saw that there were some illustrated directions on it.
They seemed to explain how to get out of the trunk from the inside, and Peter immediately took back his previous comment about the car company not attending to abduction victims. Now the only problem was getting a grip on the handle. His arms and legs were both bound, but he could still try and use his legs.
Twisting around as best he could, Peter had his head pressed against the back of the trunk, and was about to lift the handle with his foot, when he heard a quiet conversation going on between Saunders and another man.
"...even with cortexiphan in her body, are you sure she is the best choice?" Peter heard the unfamiliar man say.
"Of course," Saunders replied, "she is aware of her abilities, so it will work much better."
This made Peter stop. That was why they wanted Olivia? Because she had cortexiphan in her body? This was like Jones all over again, except he was clearly much more involved.
As if reading Peter's mind, Saunders continued, "David would have been thrilled..."
David? As in David Robert Jones? This was getting incredibly complicated for Peter. How did Saunders know him? Apparently they were close enough to be on a first name basis, but how?
Shaking his head, Peter realized that if Olivia hadn't even managed to escape, it wouldn't matter. He still wasn't sure if she had made it. It was extremely unlike her to leave someone behind, so what had gone wrong? Was she okay? Was she even alive?
Shaking his head again, Peter knew he had to concentrate on making it back first, otherwise he'd be worthless. Feeling the car slow to a stop, he heard Saunders say, "Be right back, check on Bishop while I'm gone." Saunders was going to the bathroom, and this was his chance.
Hearing the other man slam the door shut on the car, Peter stilled and readied himself for when he opened the trunk. He heard shuffling just in front of him and he slowly counted to himself, "One... two... three!" With a grunt, Peter lifted the handle and kicked the trunk open with all the force he could muster. The trunk swung open, and hit the man square in the face, snapping his head back with a sickening crack. He crumpled to the ground, his neck vertebrae snapped.
The sudden bright light blinded Peter and sent his head spinning. Squeezing his eyes shut he quickly swung his legs out of the trunk, not knowing how long Saunders would take.
As the throbbing subsided, Peter opened his eyes and immediately fell to the ground next to the dead man. Bringing his knees to his chest, he squirmed until he could bring his bound wrists back under his legs and in front of his body. Not wasting any time, he quickly untied his legs and stood, leaving his wrists bound.
Going to the other man, he knelt and sifted through all of his pockets and took what he could find. A wallet, pocket knife, handgun, and most importantly, car keys. Stuffing everything but the keys in his jacket pockets, he stood and rushed to the car, taking in his surroundings for the first time.
They were at a remote looking gas station, and they were the only ones there. The sun was beating down on the dry land, and it looked like it was about noon. Opening the driver's door, Peter sat in the seat and quickly put the keys in the ignition. Looking up, he was about to try and untie his hands with his teeth, but Saunders had just walked out of the station, completely unaware of what had happened. He had a bag of sunflower seeds in hand, and had just opened it when he stopped, noticing his assistant on the ground, dead.
Before he could react, Peter quickly started the car and drove it towards Saunders, hoping to at least knock him out. Saunders caught on however, and dropping the sunflower seeds, made a mad dash back into the gas station before Peter could get him.
He considered getting out of the car and finishing him off, but Saunders most likely had a bigger and better gun than he did, and Peter's hands were tied. Instead, he put the car in reverse, and the dust swirled up into the air as he backed out of the gas station and onto the deserted road. Glancing back at the gas station, he saw Saunders rushing out again, gun in hand, and a look of fury on his face. Taking that as his cue, he stepped on the gas pedal, driving as far and as fast as he could with his hands still tied.
A/N: How was it? Again, sorry about the super long wait, but could you please review and tell me how it was?