Disclaimer: I do not own anything in my stories except for the fan fiction (including plots, OC's and so on). All the characters belong to the rightful owners. Any songs/poems/etc in my stories do not belong to me unless stated otherwise.

Chapter 8

"But Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way."

A flush crept across Scarlett's skin that had nothing to do with the afternoon sun pouring down on them. The flush climbed her neck and kissed her cheeks, followed by a quivering across her belly and thighs.

One of her hands dug into the sand and the other into his back as he picked up speed, but he held her firm at the hips and she tightened her thighs into vice grip around his waist. She rolled her head against the warm sand while she thrust her hips to meet his.

She opened her eyes to meet his burning ones. The need and the pure, raw lust in them made her blush hotter and she let out a groan.

"Oh fuck." She mumbled into his shoulder. "God."

A loud crash outside woke her from her dream. Those eyes in her dream, she knew them. She swore she knew them. This was the only dream she had had in a long time that wasn't a nightmare. Dreams of the Coin Man, Felipe was his name, and Citra clouded her head. Some nights she woke up feeling like she had been poisoned and tortured all over again.

Days had passed. Then days turned into a week. Then into almost two. Yet there was no sight of Vaas. Not even a whisper of him. The pirates operated exactly like they did when Vaas was here, everyone had their own job and their own shifts. No questions asked.

Scarlett spent most of her days with Asher and Kip. Monroe and Carlos were in and out of the camp constantly. When Carlos wasn't there Gareth was the one in charge, so even he was busy most of the time. Everything in and around the camp had become rather mundane, everyone settled into a routine. Even Scarlett.

Her mornings began with recovering from a nightmare. Then she went to Turkey Point to get Ash and herself breakfast. After giving Ash his morphine and his breakfast, she usually headed out of the camp. It was one of her favourite parts of the day, getting out. Although she did prefer her evening walks more than the afternoon ones, she wasn't complaining because it had taken a bit to convince Gareth to let her go out on her own.

"No, no fucking way!" Gareth said, folding his arms over his chest and shaking his head. He looked every bit of the parental figure he was supposed to be. Scarlett still wondered how the man hadn't had any kids of his own because she knew that he would be a great father.

"Why not?" Scarlett asked, placing both of her palms of the table. "It's dangerous, I am fully aware of the fact. I know, Old Man, I know. But I'm getting serious cabin fever here." It was true, she needed a change to being in the camp. She wasn't a prisoner, but at the end of the day she felt like one.

Gareth shook his head, his mouth set in a thin line. "You don't know what's out there, kid. Citra might send people after you again!"

Her heart missed a beat at the mention of Citra, her fingers numbed and she swallowed. "If you give me weapons, I can protect myself. And, I have the walkie talkie Monroe gave me if something happens to Ash. If something happens I can alert him and at the same, you."

And Gareth did. He gave her two 1911 pistols, one F1 assault rifle and a machete the size of her thigh. She found a holster to hold the pistols in a pile of clothes that came from dead rejects and pirates.

Gareth eyed her when she had all of the weapons on her, shaking his head. "You really do look like you belong here now."

"And you don't like that."

"I hate it."

She came back into the camp before noon to have lunch with Asher. After that she helped Ash out of the building into the shadow of a big tree that was next to it. He was still in terrible pain, but getting him out helped prevent bed sores and got him some fresh air.

"I'm really glad you're here." Ash said, while to two sat in the beaten up garden chairs.

Scarlett adjusted the sunglasses on her nose. "Is that so?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah. I mean seriously. You're preventing me from going crazy from laying in bed." He took a sip of water, it was another one of those hotter-than-hell days. "You can only read Peter Pan a few times before even that makes you sick."

Scarlett let out a chuckle. "Liar. You only like having me here cause I give you morphine." She took off her boots and socks.

Ash laughed. "You caught me!"

"I knew it!" She said, grinning at him.

The little stereo that sat between them was blasting out some music from an old MP3 player. It was blasting out some generic pop from a couple of years ago, but neither of them particularly minded. It was too hot out to care about music, also neither of them was planning to get up to go to Kip in order to get another CD, so they settled with the repetitive pop.

"Scarlett!" Gareth shouted, walking over to the two of them. "There you are!"

"Here I am." She stood up from the chair, screwing the lid of the bottle on top of it.

"Listen. I have to head to main land for a bit. Might be a couple of days. Not sure yet." He said. "You be good, now. Aye?"

Scarlett smiled. "I'll try." She promised.

Gareth kissed her forehead and set off after saying his goodbyes to her and Ash. Scarlett settled back into the chair, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.

"Can I ask you something?" Ash questioned.

Scarlett kept position, but she couldn't help the way she tensed just slightly. "Sure."

"How are you related to Gareth?"

"I'm not." Scarlett said relaxing. "Gareth was my father's best friend. After my parents passed away, he became my guardian. I've always called him uncle, even though there is no blood relationship there. Family doesn't mean just blood though."

Asher nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Can I ask you something?" This time it was Scarlett who asked.

"Always." Ash smiled.

"What did you do before you came here?"

"That's a long story." Ash sighed.

"I've got nothing but time." Scarlett admitted.

"Well," Ash started. "You know I was an army brat and all. So we moved around quite a bit. My dad was killed in combat, right after I turned 18. I had moved back to California, not a week after I turned of age. I moved to Dad wanted me to become a cop and I almost did. Cars had my heart though."

He smiled one of his big wide smiles that made his blue eyes light up with happiness. "I found some work at a garage and soon after I got into street racing. I had this beautiful Skyline," he whistled, "now that was one hell of a car. I tweaked it up myself. Added in some Nitrous. Oh God, it was beautiful and so fucking fast!"

Scarlett couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. She didn't often see people getting excited or passionate about things.

"Anyway," he waved with his arm and moving on with the story, even though he could have gone on about his car for hours. "I got busted trying to save a buddy from being busted. I did three years for it. I got out and went back to racing. I should have known better, I should have." Ash was getting lost in his story, but then he looked straight into Scarlett's eyes. His wide grin still on his lips. "You know that feeling when something just makes you so fucking happy, that you can't help but go back to it. Like every time you think about it your toes start to tingle and you... You start to crave it."

"I suppose." Scar offered her input.

"Racing was like... A drug, I guess. I couldn't get enough." He laughed. "The adrenaline from it was fucking nuts!" He was remembering old times, old races and old wins. "It makes me sad we can't race here. Too many trees and not enough asphalt. Also the cars here are pieces of shits."

"Plus you'd probably end up in the sea."

Asher laughed, nodding. "Probably yeah. Though seriously, Vaas could at least get better fucking cars around here."

The way Ash said Vaas' name piqued her curiosity. There was a certain resentfulness to his voice that Scar had never heard from him. "You don't like Vaas." It wasn't a question.

Asher let out a bitter laugh and shook his head. "It's mutual though. I hate him, he hates me. The only thing I've got going for me, besides my beautiful face of course,"

"Of course," Scarlett chuckled.

With a small smile Ash continued.,"Is the fact that I'm a good mechanic. To him I'm one of those motherfucking white boys who he'd rather sell than have hanging around his camp. All of this slave trading, human and drug trafficking makes me fucking sick." He shook his head, his lips now pulled down in a frown. "But what can I do, I did sorta choose this."

"Yeah?" Scarlett was about to continue but the radio between them fell silent. She looked at it and noticed that the CD had ran out of songs to play, after a quick glance at the sky told her that it was already well past noon. "You should take your morphine."

"Let's get me inside them." Ash said, a smile on his lips once more.

Before Ash could get up there was the distinct rumble of an engine nearby. Neither of them thought much of it until their heard barking and shouting, which could only mean one thing.

"Speak of the Devil." Ash groaned.

Vaas was back.

Scarlett couldn't help but frown. Questions clouded her mind like dark clouds. It had been two weeks since she had seen him and she needed answers, about Citra, about so many fucking things.

"C'mon, you should get inside." Scarlett said, picking up Ash's crutches from the ground and handing them to him.

It was about ten minutes later that Vaas was dragged into the building by Monroe. A dozen men followed the two, all spotting pretty nasty wounds. Scarlett handed Ash the last morphine tablet as her mouth fell open looking at the men.

Vaas sat onto the table and leaned against the wall. "Them first!" Vaas shouted as Monroe approached him. Vaas pressed his covered shoulder, which was very clearly bleeding, between his hand and the wall. He was rather pale, or at least as pale as he could get. She guessed it was due to the wound in his shoulder.

Monroe glared at the man, swore at him in what sounded like Gaelic and Scar stood, in case help was needed. Monroe went outside for a moment, shouting something she couldn't make out. In a matter of seconds Monroe rushed back in.

"What the hell happened out there?" Scar asked, slightly panicked. Her eyes moved to Vaas, but he gave no answer. Instead, his jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed just slightly. It was obvious he was in a lot of pain.

"Roadside ambush." Monroe said, giving the rest of the men a quick once over, patching up any larger wounds. Though it seemed no one had anything as bad as Vaas. "One bomb, around a dozen men. It happens."

She hesitated asking, though she did already know the answer. "The Rakyat?" She noticed how the veins in Vaas' neck were pulsing.

Monroe grumbled, "Who else?"

Vaas was still putting pressure onto his shoulder, but he looked pale and weaker than normal. "Here, let me help." Scarlett said, walking toward Vaas to reach for his shoulder.

"No," he grumbled, shaking his head just slightly. "I got it." His voice was hoarse and rough, like he hadn't had a single drop of water in days.

"Vaas," Scarlett said, challenging.

"I said, I got it." He answered, his tone left no room for argument.

Scar was about to argue despite his tone, but a man rushed inside. Monroe quickly gave him instructions to treat the other men and then walked over to Vaas.

"Scarlett, fetch some disinfectant and something for him to bite down on." Monroe said, carefully peeling away the fabric on Vaas' shoulder. Scarlett made a move toward the supply cabinet. "I'm fairly certain one of the bullets might still be on his shoulder."

She halted at his words. "One of the bullets?" With trembling fingers she grabbed an old piece of leather that seemed to have once belonged to a belt. "How many in total?"

"Three." Vaas grunted.

"Three?" She almost shouted, her head whipping toward Vaas. The sheer stubbornness of the man still surprised her, with three bullet wounds in his shoulder and the amount of blood that he was losing he still refused her help.

He didn't look at her.

With a frown and a bad feeling growing in her stomach, Scarlett grabbed the disinfectant from a shelf and returned to the two men. "Here." She said, turning her eyes to Monroe.

Monroe's mouth was in a thin line. "Fetch some water and towels, my fear was not without reason it seems."

_x_

A cigarette hung between Scarlett's fingers as she walked through the jungle. With the sun low in the sky and the air thick with the events of the day, it was nearing dusk. Scarlett walked toward the beach, she could already smell the salty sea air that found it's path through the thick jungle.

Her mind was cluttered. Vaas hadn't as much as looked at her when he came into the camp, although he did have a bullet lodged in his shoulder, so Scarlett couldn't hold it against him. Even after that he hadn't acknowledged her and she had a feeling that something was wrong but she passed it off as nothing.

I mean, you are on an unmapped island. With your not-dead-afterall uncle of sorts, pirates ,and their bloodthirsty and slightly unhinged leader. The feeling that something is wrong is the most natural feeling that you could have. Scarlett reasoned to herself.

Vaas' anguished grunts still echoed in her head. The man didn't scream while the bullet was being pulled out of him, which surprised Scarlett. She knew Vaas was tough, the scar on his head proved that. Still, it amazed her and she made a mental note to ask Vaas about it later.

She still had so many questions and she was no closer to answers. She still had her mission here, and after weeks she still felt like she was at ground zero. Frustrated, she took a deep drag from her cigarette.

The jungle started thinning and the path she was on got wider. She was almost on the beach. The sea had offered her a strange sort of safe heaven ever since she was little. Her father loved the sea, so he had taken Scarlett with him every time he went sailing or to the docks. Perhaps now she loved the sea even more, now that he was gone.

Scarlett sighed. Her parents coming back to her thoughts. In her head it was fucked up that she could be without someone, in this case her parents, for years and had mastered not thinking about them, but no matter how much tie passed there were always the moments where she saw a photo of them, or caught a little of their perfume or cologne on a crowded street and suddenly she was plagued with a rapidly sinking stomach and the relentless question of could she have changed something? Could she have saved them?

Logically she knew there was nothing she could have done. She was a child, with only five years of age under her belt, and still innocent to the evils of the world. That didn't stop her from wondering.

The first thing that she did when she reached the beach was take her shoes off. With one last drag from the cigarette she threw it into the still warm sand. For a moment she let her eyes roam the beach that stretched for kilometres, looking for anything or anyone out of the ordinary. When everything seemed calm she picked up her boots and started walking toward the edge of the beach. She sat with her toes in the water, her boots and the machete next to her, and a cigarette on her lips, watching the sunset.

The salty sea air was gently rustling the few loose strands of hair and filling her lungs. The ocean was warm and the sky filled with orange as the sun dropped closer and closer to the horizon. This was the one place where she felt utterly relaxed.

"You should really keep up your guard." A voice said from behind her. In a fraction of a second Scarlett was on her knees with both of the pistols drawn, finger on trigger. The sea water was soaking her jeans, but that was the last thing on her mind. "I could have fucking killed you in so many different fucking ways with you just fucking sitting here like a motherfucker."

"Vaas." Scarlett sighed and lowered her weapons. "What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on bed rest?" She motioned to his bandaged shoulder.

Vaas chuckled and shook his head. "I have work to do. Plus a few extra fucking holes in my body won't fucking stop me."

"Work?" She questioned, rising to her feet.

Vaas nodded. "Mmh. I even pushed the fucking celebration forward by a day."

Scarlett picked up the machete and put it to it's place on her belt. "What are we celebrating?"

Vaas shrugged, his eyes scanning the horizon. The sun had almost completely set and the sky was turning into a dark red. "My return. Everything and nothing. The fucking existence of alcohol."

Scarlett smiled weakly. "Why am I not surprised."

"You should get back to camp, it's almost night fall."

Scarlett nodded and looked back at the setting sun. "I should." She took three steps past Vaas. "Are you coming?" She asked while turning to look over her shoulder.

"Right fucking behind you." He said and they both started walking. When they reached the edge of the jungle Vaas spoke up.

"Oi." Vaas whistled and Scarlett halted, turning around. "Does this smell like chloroform to you?" Vaas asked with a smirk, while one of his hands went to the back of Scarlett's neck and the other placed a white rag soaked in chloroform onto her nose and mouth.

Before she could fight him, she was only able to let out a muffled scream. Panic rose in her chest and then the darkness took over.

Well... This is an interesting turn of events.

Have any of you figured out why Scar is really there by the way?

As per usual, review, alert... post it to tumblr? Twitter? Whatever floats your boat.

Reviews are better than people constantly kidnapping you.

Adiós amigos.

-Max