Recap: Stephanie is held be Ramirez, but manages to knock him out, hit him with UV light, and kill him. After beating him to a bloody pulp.

Stephaine

I was a mess. I looked like an extra in Carrie. But I was alive. Well, sort of. As alive as I had been an hour ago.

It had taken a few minutes to get me out of the cell. Ramirez had taken the keys from me, and without them I couldn't unlock the door. But I couldn't approach the body because of the UV light. Everything it touched crispened and blackened. I looked around the cell, and decided my best bet was just to whack the light with the bed leg I had staked Ramizes with.

You ever watch Double Dare as a kid? The show with all the super messy challenges where you had to look for the flag in the vat of whipped cream or pudding? I had asked my parents if we could go on that show when I was a kid. Mom laughed at the very idea of getting that messy on TV. But I'd always dreamed of going on there and digging around in a big pool of slime. Be careful what you wish for. Looking for the key was like that, only infinitely grosser.

Once I found it I was able to get myself out of the room. Then let Ranger out of his. He put his arms around me so tightly even I was feeling the squeeze. "You're going to get covered in blood."

Ranger

I've been covered in blood before. But this was very different. A huge sense of relief flooded me as I held her close, my face nestled in her hair.

"I'm so sorry, he had some sort of power over me. I tried to resist, I really did, but it was like he was pulling the strings and I was a marionette."

"It's OK, it's OK" I said over and over, clenching my arms around her back, rubbing it gently.

"God, I'm just a mess." she said, looking at herself.

That we could fix. "Do you want another shower?"

She nodded. "I really, really do."

With Ramirez dead there didn't seem to be any point in keeping Lester and Bobby here. I sent them home, then texted Tank to let him know he didn't have to come in for a watch. Then we went back upstairs to the medical bay so we could use the shower.

I didn't want her out of my site, and the shower was large enough for someone who needed assistance, so I joined her.

It was only a few days since we had been in the shower together. And again it was caused by someone traumatizing her. As she stood under the water I gently washed her, trying to rinse away the horror she had been through. The water ran red, then pink, and finally clear. She saged against my body. "I'm so tired. I can't even keep my eyes open. It's weird, it's like I can feel the sun as it's ris.."

Then her knees gave out. I caught her before she fell, but she was fast asleep. Or, I thought she was asleep. She wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse, but she hadn't earlier either. I turned off the water and gently wrapped her in a towel. I checked my phone and confirmed that sunrise had been 45 seconds ago. My clothes were covered in blood, and by this point I was alone in the building, so I just picked her up and brought her downstairs without bothering to get dressed. Above ground wasn't lightproof, and the faster I got her into the basement, the safer she would be.

The bed was still intact, if disheveled from Bobby and I trying to smash it against the door. So I lay her down on it, then slipped under the covers with her. And in seconds I was almost as dead to the world as she was.