Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Lady Lara Croft and Sam Nishimura.

Author's Note: I must apologise for the delay of this chapter! I have been pretty busy and sustained an injury that compromised my typing ability! More importantly, my view count for this story hasn't shifted for the past few days even though I know people have viewed it, so that has resulted in a considerable lack of motivation! Knowing how many people are reading my story plays a big part in my writing, so hopefully it will start to work soon. Enjoy the 11th chapter!

At 1pm, Lara got in her car with a smoothie, her bank card and a positive mind. She had been pacing around her house when she had caught sight of herself in the mirror- she had got a kind of shock when she saw Sam's clothes upon herself. It was weird seeing herself dressed like that, but she didn't get changed. She liked it. It reminded her what all of this was for and more importantly, it gave her a fresh mindset so she was ready for her next task.

Lara arrived at Hop Up at exactly 1:25pm so she hurried inside for her training session. On entering the building, she noticed it looked rather different to how it had looked earlier on in the day; there were several other people there, browsing the shop and talking to the numerous employees that bustled around carrying various boxes and files. Lara approached the front desk where a stout, overweight man in his thirties lingered. He looked like he didn't quite know what to do with himself.

"Hello," he said quietly as Lara stopped in front of his desk.

Lara raised her eyebrows. "Hello... Peter," she read from his tag.

"How can I help you?"

"I'm here for the 1:30 training session. My jump is at 2:30," Lara said. "Where do I need to go for it?"

Peter didn't answer. He brought out a book that looked similar to the one in Anna's office, but smaller. He flicked through it and looked up and down the page before looking up at Lara helplessly.

"Is there a problem?" she asked, looking at him worriedly.

"I-" Peter started before pulling out a hanky and wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Lady Croft!" exclaimed a voice from across the shop.

Lara rolled her eyes and turned to see Anna walking across.

"Lara is fine," Lara muttered through gritted teeth.

"Of course. Come right this way, you're just in time for your session."

Anna led Lara across the shop and through a separate door which opened into another small room, only slightly bigger than Anna's office. It had mirrors across one wall like a dance studio and a short, athletic woman stood in front of them. There was a family of three already in there- a large, rather worn-out looking man with his tall, slender wife and their excited looking daughter. They all turned when Lara entered.

"Ah! A full house," exclaimed the woman at the front.

Lara smiled.

"You must be..." The woman checked her papers. "Lady Croft. Please join us, we're just about to start."

"Please, call me Lara," Lara muttered, sighing to herself.

The woman smiled and turned to the group as Anna left.

"My name is Katrina but you can call me Kat. We're going to go through a few safety procedures so that you're all safe up there, okay?"

Lara rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. She didn't like Kat. She was obnoxious. Still, Lara listened to what she had to say anyway because she didn't like the thought of being that high up with no safety skills to fall back on.

Fortunately, the session went quicker than Lara had expected it would, taking only 15 minutes in total. There were a couple more papers to sign before they could leave so Lara let the family go first as they were jumping before her. Once they had signed the papers, they hurried out of the room excitedly so Lara stepped up to sign her forms.

"Hey," Kat said to her, smiling. Her voice seemed calmer now, less fake.

"Hi," Lara murmured, taking the paper and skimming over the writing.

"So you're here alone?" she asked Lara, looking her in the eye and still smiling.

Oh my God, she's fucking flirting with me, Lara thought as she gave back the forms.

"Yes. I'm here by myself."

"Really? A pretty girl like you?"

"Really. And when I'm finished, I'm going to my boyfriend's house," Lara said firmly.

She made her way to the door but Kat got there first.

"No way. You're not telling me you have a boyfriend," Kat smiled.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you."

"Oh please. My gaydar practically exploded when you walked in here."

Lara blushed but laughed in spite of herself.

"What's your girlfriend called?" Kat asked, leaning against the door.

"Who said I have a girlfriend?"

"My gaydar did. So who is she?"

"She's called Sam," Lara said shrugging like it was nothing. "Why are you so interested?"

"I'm interested in you."

"Then it's a shame I'm taken," Lara said, not meaning it at all. "Excuse me."

Kat moved to let her out.

"This isn't the last you've seen of me, Lara."

Lara just shook her head and walked away. She browsed aimlessly around the shop until 2 o'clock rolled round and she saw a familiar face enter the building. It was the man that she had seen in Dale Meadows that morning- not the lone man, but the one that had been sat with an elderly man. Lara noticed his worried frown as he scurried over to the front desk and dumped two big skydiving packs down. Then she twigged. He was the man she had bribed to come in to work. She had been right that morning- he was having breakfast with his father.

"Quentin," Lara said blankly, approaching the man from the rear.

"Oh. You must be Lara," he murmured, turning to see her.

"You decided not to bring your father along after all?"

"He's waiting in the car. I told him this would be quick," Quentin replied, looking outside towards his car.

"I see. But the jump isn't for another thirty minutes."

"Don't worry, he'll be none the wiser."

Lara frowned disapprovingly but shook off the thought.

"Hey," murmured Quentin, returning the frown. "Don't I know you already from somewhere?"

"Of a sort, yes," smiled Lara. "I'm also one of the lucky few who attends Dale Meadows on a regular basis."

"Oh yeah, of course! I completely recognise you now. You're usually in a booth with the pretty Japanese girl, right? That's you, right?"

"That's me," Lara grinned. She was happy that she wasn't the only one to appreciate Sam's attractiveness.

They started to talk about Dale Meadows, then about Sam, then about Quentin's father, then finally about the skydive.

"We should start heading over," Quentin told Lara as he checked is watch.

So they did. Quentin led Lara outside where they boarded a tiny shuttle van with "Hop Up" printed on the side, along with the company phone number and the picture of an aircraft.

"That's what we're gonna be riding in," Quentin said, pointing the aircraft out to Lara.

She smiled politely.

The van took only five minutes, if that, to get them to the short runway that would allow them to leave the ground. It was surrounded by grass and had an overpowering garage at the end where all of the planes were stored. Outside the garage stood a couple of pilots, drinking from mugs and smoking cigarettes, whom Quentin seemed rather familiar with.

"Tina, Victor. This is Lara. Lara, Victor will be our pilot for today."

They exchanged 'hello's and 'nice to meet you's before Victor left his mug and cigarettes to take Lara and Quentin to the plane they would be taking.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Victor grinned, standing with his hands on his hips and admiring his blue plane. He was wearing blue overalls to match- Lara thought he looked much more like an engineer than a pilot- and was very pleased when Quentin announced that this plane was his favourite. Lara was sure he said that about every plane he boarded.

"Thanks for doing this, Victor," Quentin added as they stepped inside the plane. "I know this jump wasn't supposed to be happening today so you didn't necessarily have to take us up."

Victor didn't say anything.

"Oh," Quentin sighed. "Lara bribed you too?"

"No!" protested Lara.

At the same time, Victor laughed.

"Bribe? I don't need no bribe! I was gonna take my darling up in the air anyway, she needs the flights or she'll get rusty. And anyways... I don't have nothing else to be doing."

Victor's grey eyes sparkled and his rose-tinted cheeks reflected the sunlight perfectly as he smiled at Lara. Lara smiled back. Victor was nice. He had probably been good-looking, too, in his prime. Now his auburn hair was thinning, his muscles were sagging and he had a substantial lack of teeth. Lara sort of felt sorry for the man.

Quentin gave Lara a chance to get changed into the skydiving kit she was hiring before he put on her harness and strapped himself to her.

"You won't have to do anything, leave all the work to me. When we're up there you can just relax, okay?"

"I'll try," sighed Lara.

After a final check that everyone was ready, Victor started up the aircraft and slowly rolled his way around to the beginning of the runway. Tina smiled up at him and waved as they set off away from her. The plane rumbled heavily as it raced down the runway, giving Lara a very bad case of butterflies in her stomach. She was glad that she was strapped to Quentin- she felt safe under his control and the warmth of his body against her back gave her a decent sense of security. Not that she would need it when she was thousands of feet above the ground.

The aircraft finally lifted and the rumbling stopped, letting Lara's stomach settle slightly. She tried to lean over to look out through the window, but she didn't want to pull on Quentin too much. She managed to get a quick glimpse of Tina's bright red overalls before they turned away and gained height. Then all Lara could see was sky.

Okay Lara, you need to be ready, she told herself. As soon as you're out there, you need to start looking for some kind of message. It could be on top of buildings, written in the trees, painted on banners, billboards, anything. Just keep your eyes peeled and make the most of the time. It will be over before you know it.

As the plane stopped inclining and started to level out, Lara sighed deeply to try to regulate her breathing. She was scared. She was scared of jumping out of the plane, but she was also scared of the message she might find. Lara didn't know where Sam was, or even if she was still alive. Cow Blood had her wrapped around his little finger and she didn't like it one bit, yet she had to do this for Sam. Just for Sam.

"Looks like we're in a good position!" Quentin shouted over the noisy aircraft engines.

The whirring of the engines suddenly got louder and Lara looked to her left to see the door opening. Quentin edged them closer to the gap.

"Are you ready?" he yelled as the door fully opened.

"I'm ready!" Lara yelled back.

Then suddenly she was falling. She could no longer feel Quentin's weight behind her but a small twist of her head told her that he was still there, on top of her back. Lara let her arms and legs fall freely as they spread out into a starfish pose. It was a lot more fun than she had expected it to be, but she suddenly remembered why she was here in the first place and started to look around desperately for a clue.

Lara could see the landscape of the earth below her, but none of it was clear. She wasn't close enough to the ground yet, but she kept telling herself to keep an eye out for something red. Anything. Cow Blood was consistent. This note would be in red, surely.

They were plummeting through the sky and every second gave Lara another detail about what she could see. Objects were becoming perceivable: buildings and trees separated from one another; concrete and grass became distinguishable; green became green and red became red.

Lara looked around desperately. Nothing stood out, but she had to keep looking. She glanced over her whole layout repeatedly before inspecting each section bit by bit. This became easier for her when Quentin put up the parachute. Although they were still going fast, it felt like a glide compared to the freefall Lara had just experienced. It gave her more time to study the area, which she did very intently. She checked on the top of buildings and looked for manmade patterns in the greenery, but nothing looked out of place. She looked out for signs or symbols that could have been put together on large flags, but every time a flag pole came into view, it bore only stars and stripes.

They were fast approaching the ground and Lara was rapidly losing her advantaged birds-eye view. She scanned everything that was within her eyesight, quickly but very carefully. Then she caught a glimpse of something red.

This must be it, she thought excitedly. Finally! This must be the next clue!