Thank you again for the previous reviews and apologies for the gap in posting. I hope you enjoy this one and again, apologies for any inconsistencies in Navy procedures and protocols. I own nothing.

"Tom? Wait... what are you...?" Tom could see the confusion on Sasha's face and the anger was bubbling up as he took in their surroundings.

"What have you done?" He asked to the guards behind him, forcing his voice to remain serious but calm.

Having boarded the ship with the seeds as arranged, Tom had been ushered by a group of Greek guards into the container. Although pretty dark, he could see Sasha and Burke had been tied up, attached with ropes to the ceiling of a container on the ships deck. Both of their clothes were torn and dirty. He could see cuts and bruises everywhere and blood spotted their clothes in several places. Burke was clearly awake while Sasha had seemed unconscious or worse, only moving when she sensed Tom beside her. Suddenly, he was pulled back and held by two huge guys who overpowered him easily.

"Just a little fun Captain." Tom turned at the sound of Lucia's voice just in time to see her saunter into the container, seeds in hand. "But don't worry, this is nothing compared to what I have planned for you." Her smile made his stomach lurch as he wondered what she had put Sasha, and Burke through because of him.

She walked past him towards Sasha who had gone back to looking limp and unconscious. He tried to shake the men holding him but it was pointless. "You have the seeds, now let them go."

Lucia make a show of pouting and reached out her free hand to strike Sasha'a cheek. "Do I have to?"

"We had a deal."

"Hmmmm fair enough. Get them out of here." She nodded at the guards by the door. "Don't be too careful though." She cut the rope holding Sasha's arms up and she fell to the ground with a thud.

"Sasha!" Tom couldn't help the fear in his voice as he struggled harder against his restrainers.

"I've got her Captain." Suddenly Burke was there, slinging her arm around his neck and supporting her waist with his free arm. "Sir, I-"

"Go! Get out of here!"

"We will come back-"

"I said get them out of here-" Lucia bellowed.

Tom watched as the soldiers pushed them out of the container and out of sight, praying silently they would make it back to the James in one piece.

"Tie him up."

Tom felt himself being tied up in the spot vacated by Burke just a few moments ago. He was still thinking about Sasha, bruised and bloody when he realised the other men had left.

Lucia turned back to Tom. "Alone at last. I'm genuinely curious to know what she has that I don't?" She paused but continued when he didn't respond. "Please, tell me."

Tom tore his eyes away from where Sasha had been hung to stare into Lucia's eyes, unblinking. "She's not a drug-taking psychopath for starters."

He barely registered the slap she gave him as his whole body felt strangely numb.

Three days later...

"Hey Cooper," Mike had been checking in on Sasha every few hours for the last three days and today's lunchtime visit had coincided with her opening her eyes for the first time since they'd rescued her from Vellek's ship.

"M... Mike?" Sasha raised her hand to her head which was pounding.

"You gave us a bit of a scare there y'know."

"Sorry... what...?" Synapses suddenly started firing on her brain. "Is Burke okay?"

"Burke is fine, recovering well."

More connections and a little shriek "Tom?"

"Sasha-"

"God no, why would he do that?" She interrupted him. "He knows protocol and not to negotiate with-"

"Sasha!" Now it was his turn to interrupt. "Tom is fine." She stopped, mouth open wide in disbelief. "Well, he's here on the ship anyway." Mike looked down at his hands on his lap.

"Mike?"

"He… well… he's in the same position you were about ten minutes ago."

"What? How long was I out for?"

He paused. "Coming up on three days."

Sasha still felt out of it but she must have misheard him. "Three…?"

"Doc said you needed your rest. He found…"

Sasha pushed everything that had happened on Vellek's ship to the back of her mind for the moment. "Where's Tom?"

Sasha walked into Tom's little cabin to see him lying on his back, arms by his side in what looked like peaceful sleep. Doc Rios was on the far side of the room checking some paperwork on a clipboard.

"What happened?" Sasha asked, although she wasn't sure she really wanted to know.

"He was only on the ship for maybe an hour after we got you and Burke off. With Lucia distracted by his arrival it was relatively easy for Vulture team to sneak up on the rear end of the ship and wait for the soldiers to disperse a little. Make it a little more of a fair fight."

Sasha couldn't tear away from Tom's lifeless body as she waited for Mike to continue but it was the Doc who filled in the blanks.

"When Wolf and the others found him he was unconscious. They thought he was just knocked out so they carried him, escorting him back to the rhib and eventually here."

"Is everyone okay?"

"Miller and Azima have flesh wounds where bullets scraped by but they'll be absolutely fine."

She didn't say anything out loud but she was relived for that small mercy.

The Doc continued. "When I examined him I knew something was wrong. There are extraordinary levels of nostros in his bloodstream and all my attempts to wake him up have failed."

Sasha could feel tears welling and she blinked furiously to hold them back.

"All of his vitals are normal and as far as I can tell he could wake up at any moment, I just have no idea when."

Sasha remembered the robot like people who had taken Vellek's 'cure'. "Or what state he'll be in when he wakes up," she finished what they were all thinking, not caring who heard the slight tremor in her voice.