Chapter 7

Sasha pushed pedal to the metal as she drove through the rainstorm. The weather was brutal and she could barely see the road in front of her through the thick rain. It was the kinds of conditions a person shouldn't drive in. But there was no way in hell she was slowing down as Tom was alive.

Daniela pulled to a stop in the empty parking lot of a cricket ground and pulled on the handbrake and cut the engine. She turned and looked to Wolf and Tom.

"How is he?" She asked Tom. Wolf was unconscious and deathly pale. The entire back seat looked drenched in blood.

"Not good." Tom said.

"I have to assume the Helicopter will be here soon. Can it fly in this weather?" she asked as she moved into the passenger seat to avoid the cold rain that was pouring in the driver's side window.

"It will." Tom said, she watched as his shoulders grew tense at the mere thought of the helo. There was an edginess to his demeanour that she knew all too well. The rain had slowed into a light drizzle and the distant sounds of a helicopter could be heard. She knew he was going to run.

"Don't-" she started but it was too late as Tom opened the passenger door and bolted. She looked to Wolf ; she knew she should stay and keep pressure on the wound but Tom was her key to freedom. There little chance Wolf would survive anyway.

She cursed her bad luck as she got out of the car and ran after Tom. The rain grew heavy again as another front came through. She chased him through the rain luckily for her; he was slow and weak. It made her able to catch up to him. She crashed into him; Taking him to the ground.

"Let me go!" he shouted, as he tried to struggle out of her grasp.

"Not happening, you fucking asshole." She told him as she punched him in the flank. She wasn't a trained fighter, but she knew how to fight when she was desperate. She was, she was definitely not letting him go. They wrestled, one trying to overpower the other. Within seconds, Tom managed to one up her. He ended up on top of her.

She heaved for air, shivering in the cold as the rain pounded into them. He looked down at her with his fist raised, ready to punch her. But he didn't.

"Hit me. It's what he wants you to do. I can see you want to do too given how much you've changed, so do it." she told him, he seemed frozen as if he saw something in her that made him stop. "HIT ME!" she shouted at him. He brought his fist down but instead of connecting it with her face it pounded into the ground next to her head.

Daniela had wished he had hit her, as he scrunched his face up in pain, he made a noise of pain and grief. He rolled off of her and onto the ground beside her. She knew she should comfort him, but she couldn't summon the empathy given the hell she'd been through. Instead, she rolled on top of him, he looked shocked by the manoeuvre and before he could defend himself. She punched him across the face; luckily knocking him unconscious.

She grimaced in pain as her hand throbbed and pushed off his body then rose to her feet. She turned around and saw the Helo land and two cars pull into the parking lot.

"What happened?" Mike asked Sasha as he watched Wolf being rushed on a stretcher to the infirmary. Tom followed by him on another stretcher. His friend was barely recognisable.

"We got him." Sasha said as she felt everything else was irrelevant until they knew that Wolf and Tom would survive. "I'll write a report but for now-"

"Go." he told her, as he knew that she needed to be near Tom. He wanted to as well but he was on duty. There was quite a mess leftover from their rescue to the point they'd been ordered by the UK Government to leave their waters immediately. She gave him a sad smile and clasped his shoulder silently thanking him before she left him.

He watched as the others piled out of the Helo, all looking worn and exhausted. Six months of relentless searching had come all thanks to the woman walking towards him.

"He's here, I held up my end." She told him, she seemed to have lost her spark as her usual happy apathetic self was dimmed.

"You need medical attention." He asked as he could see she was injured but seemingly superficial at best given she was still upright. But he'd seen some men be fine until the adrenaline wore off. So he preferred they err on the side of caution.

"I think your doctors have more important people to worry about than me. But I would appreciate a first aid kit and a hot shower." She said tiredly.

"I'll have a kit sent to the showers. You know where they are." He told her, she gave a nod and started walking away from him. "Thank you." he said, she froze for just a moment and looked over her shoulder and gave a curt nod before walking away.

Daniela stood in the women's shower room in her bra and knickers. She'd showered and tied her wet hair into a top bun. She hissed in pain as she tried to put a reach graze on her back but upon moving she was worried there was something under skin. But it was annoyingly just outside her reach. All of it just gave her flashbacks to the good old days when she had to take care of the injuries Pablo gave her.

The door to shower room opened and Kara came in. "Here let me." she said as she placed a medkit on the sink and opened it up. Daniela gave a nod as she was tired not just physically but also emotionally to argue. She hadn't expected the emotional fallout of the day as it hit her the hardest.

"Thank you." Daniela said softly, Kara snapped on surgical gloves and looked over her body in a clinical manner.

"You got a lot of scars." Kara murmured in slight dismay.

"Cigarettes and a belt." Daniela told her.

"What?" Kara asked as she hadn't expected Daniela being blunt.

"The burns, my husband used to beat me with his belt buckle until I was unconscious or close to it. He'd light up and have a smoke before snubbing it out on me until I woke up. Men are charming creatures." Daniela gave a sardonic smile while Kara wore a bleak yet shocked expression. "I think I have something in my back near my left shoulder blade." she told her.

"Let me see." Kara said, she moved behind Daniela "I see it, you definitely have something here." she said as she gently probed the site.

"I guess you thought I was a pampered princess with flawless skin?" Daniela asked.

"I actually think you're a sex starved woman who didn't respect the law or human life." Kara said as she picked up a pair of tweezers. Daniela winced as Kara pulled the offending object in her back.

"Oo, don't hold back." Daniela said with a pained smile. Kara responded with her own smile.

"You got a souvenir." Kara informed her as she placed a fragment of a bullet into a plastic kidney dish.

They lapsed in a semi silent manner with exceptions of Daniela expressing her pain. "You know what I realised while in the shower?" Daniela asked as she couldn't stand the silence.

"What?" Kara asked.

"For the first time in my life I'm actually free but I have nowhere to go." Daniela said, it had been a troubling thought given what she'd sacrificed for her freedom. "There were survivors. That means the Immunes will most likely try to retaliate." She said, not entirely sure if it were true but it was better than admitting the truth.

"You could go to Australia. Meet your mother." Kara told her.

"She wouldn't know me. Why would she care?" Daniela asked her, her mother was a stranger to her. A woman who had allowed her to be kept and used by her father.

"It doesn't matter, a mother always wants to see her child." Kara assured her.

"I doubt she'd be impressed, yet another person disappointed in me. She'll hate me because Wolf is dead." Daniela told her.

"He's not dead yet." Kara told her.

"We'll see." Daniela replied not optimistic at all.

Sasha sat by Tom's bedside. He was currently curled in a ball on the bunk in pain, his body drenched in sweat. He stared angrily at his hand that was clenched in a fist. He'd been ignoring her ever since he woke up. He didn't even acknowledge her presence.

He had a black eye from where Daniela had punched him. Track marks on his arms, he'd lost so much muscle mass that he was gaunt. His hair longer and wilder, he had a terrible beard and he smelt even worse than he looked. But she didn't care as they could be fixed with a shower and food. But how he looked so angry and bitter wasn't going to be easy to fix.

She had no clue what to say, all she knew was that she ached terribly for him. She ached for the damage done to his body and spirit. She wanted to reach out to him but his demeanour just told her to keep her distance.

"How long have they been in there?" Burk asked Daniela as he stood by her side. They were looking inside the room where Wolf was still being operated on by Rios. He was careful of his arm as it was still tender from the blood he'd donated for the surgery.

Everyone who was B negative and O negative had donated blood for Wolf's surgery. Many others donated blood to be transfused into plasma until Kara had shut down shop. Now it was just up to Rios to repair the damage and Wolf to keep fighting.

"9 hours or so." Daniela answered as she stared through the small port hole.

"Didn't think you cared." Burk commented. She quirked an eyebrow at him, there was something duller about her appearance. She was subdued, and looking ruffled it was such a change from the woman they'd all known.

"I don't." She said, but he could tell it was a lie. She would've been in the wardroom eating or in the gym enjoying the view. Not here, it made him wonder how they could've missed this side of her, the human side of her that actually cared about more than her own gain.

"Funny way of showing it." Burk replied.

"Do me a favour, and shut up." Daniela told him darkly.

"You should have left me alone." Tom said, speaking for the first time since arriving back. He knew he should be grateful to be here but he hated it. He hated the cold reality of who he was, how he'd changed. He hated how Sasha looked at him. How he no longer measured up, how he never would. He was better off left in the hell he'd been in.

"You know it's impossible for me to do that." Sasha told him, the words 'I love you' desperately wanted to come out of her mouth but she knew they wouldn't be appreciated as Tom looked at her with such hatred.

"Then get more drugs. I can't do this." He told her, he turned his face into the pillow and gave a low groan as he was in pain.

"Can't do that. You may not appreciate this now but you will one day thank me." Sasha told him.

"Thank you?" he asked in disbelief. "I'm dying." he told her.

"Hardly." Sasha scoffed bitterly.

"How dare you." Tom said angrily as his pain fuelled his anger. Sasha's features flashed with anger as he'd finally struck a raw nerve.

"How dare I? I searched the ends of the fucking Earth for you. You don't get to check out, you don't get to leave me again. So we're going to see this through. If you still feel the way you do when you're clean? Then we'll talk. But right now, you owe me. You owe me." She stressed the last sentence making sure he understood her clearly.

"Really? So you want this?" he narrowed his eyes at her, he sat up ignoring how his head spun and his pulse throbbed in his head. He gestured to his wasted body as he knew no one could see past what he truly was. "I am nothing, I'm not the man you loved, I will never be him again so why don't you just leave me the fuck alone!?" he told her, he was shaking with anger and from the withdrawal.

"Because I love you and this isn't you." Sasha told him firmly. He barked a harsh laugh.

"Oh god, you're so delusional." He said, he pressed his hands to his face and shook his head in disgust before he looked at her again. "This is me, this man right here and now. It's who I am. The one you love is gone." He informed her, tears streaked down his face, everything was beyond his reach and his control.

"How is he?" Mike asked Rios, Wolf was still in the operating room off from the infirmary; the door propped open. The surgery was over, had been for an hour. The room cleaned and Wolf left on the bed because they didn't have the space in the infirmary given there was a bout of gastro hitting the ship. Tom was in Mike's quarters drying out.

"I've removed the bullets, and repaired the damage as best I could. but, during the surgery, he experienced cardiac arrest. I was able to get his heart beating again on its' own, but I'll need to watch him very closely." Rios told him, they both looked in at Wolf's prone form; Daniela sat on a stool by his bedside staring into space. Her hands twisting in her lap, the only outward sign that she was concerned.

"Should I be having him transported to the nearest hospital?" Mike asked, Rios shook his head.

"No, right now he can't be moved. He's been jostled enough and there's a chance he could have another cardiac episode. It would be worse if he was in transit than here if that happened." Rios told him, Mike scrubbed a hand down his mouth as this day seemed like a hot mess.

"Ok," He said.

"I've heard the- Mr Chandler has been struggling with his withdrawal. I'll check in on him." Rios said, Mike opened his mouth to tell the doctor to get some rest but Daniela turned on her stool to face them.

"He's on Nostos, it's a new drug the virus created. It's being likened to Heroin and MDMA combined. I'm told it's a real trip." Daniela said as she joined their conversation without invitation.

"Perhaps we should source the drug and taper him off." Rios said looking to Daniela as she clearly had a better understanding of what was going on with Tom.

"Cold turkey is best and before you ask. No, I won't source it for you as I do not do or buy drugs. Period." Daniela told them.

"Slippery Slope?" Mike asked, not so subtly wondering how revealing Daniela would be of her character. She gave him a secretive smile.

"Always is and will be." Daniela told him.

"I need to check on him anyway." Rios said referring to Tom.

"Ok, keep me in the loop." Mike told him, Rios gave a nod and left them. Mike walked into the room and pulled up the other stool in the room and sat next Daniela. "So, what's next for you?" he asked.

"I haven't given it much thought." She lied in a light tone. He could tell she was lying because of how she rolled her shoulders back and jutted her chin out. She was clearly challenging him to call her out.

"Well, we can drop you anywhere along the coast of Europe." He offered, Daniela's expression grew uncomfortable for once the mask she kept so firmly in place was slipping. She was showing weakness which he wondered was a trick but decided to see it through. "Unless, you can't go back." he said.

"Why would you think that?" she asked him.

"If I were free, I'd be running home as fast as I could." Mike said.

"Maybe I've never had a home." She told him.

"What did you give Giorgio?" he asked her bluntly, she looked at him with a mocking smile, "The truth," he told her.

"Everything but my person and a bottle of Sriracha." She pursed her lips as she didn't see the point in lying. There was no gain in it. "I betrayed him, at least he feels it that way. The only reason he helped was so the US would keep out of his business. Now he has whatever is left of my Father's work, my properties and bank. I'm broke, and forbidden to step foot in Europe." She told him.

"For Tom?" Mike asked, she shook her head.

"For myself, I've never been free. Truly free until today." She poked her tongue into cheek as tears filled her eyes, the realisation of her confession hitting her was immense. "I just don't know what to do with it." she told him, she gave a weak smile and shrug.

Mike looked to Wolf and wore a thoughtful expression for a few minutes letting it sink in how much this woman had given them, and given up in the process. Daniela wiped the tears from her eyes and squared her shoulders again; pretending as if nothing touched her.

"There was a reward in the US for any useful leads. It's not much but it would be enough to start a new life; free of criminal activity in the US." Mike offered. She looked at him incredulously as she didn't believe him.

"Really?" she asked, as the offer seemed too good to be true.

"Yeah, if you want it. I can make it happen. It's the least we can do." He told her.

"I would." Daniela said with a sigh of relief.

"Good," Mike said.

"Thank you Captain." She said sincerely.

"Sure." He said as he knew even though she cut a deal with them; they all owed her more than what they could give her. She'd saved his best friend.

"But, can we not tell anyone what I did? I don't want them thinking I'm soft or something." Daniela told him. Mike snorted a laugh.

"I think that can be arranged." He assured her, she smiled.

"Good, but hey, if you want to thank me in another way…" She drawled suggestively, Mike laughed as he rose from his seat as that was the woman everyone had come to know.

"Keep dreaming on that one." he told her as he moved to leave.

"Oh, I am." She assured him. He shook his head and chuckled as he left the room.