The moment the stranger asked his first question, Delenn had outlined what was at stake. Since then, she had resolutely confronted the two men. She would not give up.

They had dragged her away from the captain into the next room and forced her into a chair. She was terrified inside, but Delenn suppressed her fear, banishing it deep within her heart.

"Listen, let's make this easy for ourselves," the kidnapper, who had held the gun to her forehead, had positioned himself in front of her again, "give me the coordinates!"

Delenn looked defiantly into his face, her lips pressed tightly together.

"This won't work. We don't have forever," the other man who had ambushed them in the elevator shoved his companion aside. He roughly grabbed Delenn by the shoulders and yelled at her: "We know you know the place. One last time, give it to us!"

"This place is not for you."

Delenn didn't see the blow coming. The stranger had swung brutally, and the next thing she knew, she was lying on the ground with blood pooling in her mouth. Gasping, she spat out the blood. The pain followed involuntarily.

"Do you think I care what you are? Do you think I won't hesitate to hurt you? Give us those damn coordinates!"

The man grabbed her, pulled her to her feet, and shoved her back into the chair. As he did so, he tore at her outer robe, pulled out a knife, and cut it straight from Delenn's body. She trembled violently, knowing the man was doing this to intimidate her.

"Cadir, that's enough!" the smaller man held back Delenn's tormentor.

"Is that enough? You know our clients. If she won't talk, I'll make her talk."

He shook off his friend's hand and held the knife to Delenn's cheek, drawing a small trickle of blood. Delenn bit her tongue. She wouldn't break.

"You're lucky Minbari aren't attractive to me, and you certainly aren't. But that doesn't mean I can't have other fun with you. Give me the coordinates!"

Delenn felt tears welling in her eyes. This Cadir, he wouldn't hesitate to kill her, but who knew what he might do to her before that? With this uncertainty, she accepted her fate. Defiance gathered in the look she directed at Cadir. Enraged by her silence, he swung again, hitting Delenn hard in the abdomen. She screamed, fell from her chair, and lay shuddering on the floor. She wouldn't last long like this. She had to buy time. The other man, whose name was still hidden, leaned down to her: "Be good and give us the information. Surely you want to get out of here alive, don't you?"

Delenn nodded, whimpering, then whispered a sequence of numbers, which made the smaller man breathe a sigh of joy.

He frantically typed it into a small device. Cadir pulled her up from the floor and glared at her. "If you lied to us, I swear I will break every bone in your body with my own hands before I kill you."

Delenn returned his gaze with a hateful expression. He dragged her back into the next room to Sheridan and threw her emotionlessly beside him before closing the door behind him with a loud bang, leaving them both in the dim light.

John Sheridan felt infinite relief. She was back.

He waited until he was sure the stranger would not return, then he untied his bonds and carefully pulled the Minbari into a sitting position.

"Delenn!"

She didn't answer; instead, she trembled. As gently as possible, he touched her chin to look at her. She had a small cut on her cheek. Her lip was bitten, and a slight bruise was already forming on her pale skin. Sheridan swallowed his anger.

"I'm going to untie your bonds," he said, letting go of her face and beginning to position himself behind her. She flinched several times until he untied the knots.

Shuddering, she brought her hands forward, but couldn't stop them from trembling. John took her wrists in his hands and examined them meticulously. They had definitely bound Delenn better than him. The bonds had cut deep into her skin. She was no longer wearing her outer robe, which made her appear much more fragile and thinner than he was used to. It made him angry. Angry at the strangers, angry at himself for failing to protect her, but most of all, he was angry that he didn't know what to do next.

"What did they do to you?"

She lowered her gaze, unable to look at him: "I will survive."

Sheridan wasn't satisfied with that. He began to take off his uniform jacket.

"You're shaking. That's the shock."

He was just about to put the jacket on her when Delenn recoiled: "Don't!"

"Delenn, we're not arguing about that now."

It was the first time she had looked directly at him since his capture. Her shimmering green eyes met his with unusual depth.

"I'll just… bleed all over your uniform," she stammered shyly.

He looked at her in shock, then shook his head, rolling his eyes, and wrapped Delenn in his uniform.

Delenn inevitably flinched, but immediately she was surrounded by a grateful warmth emanating from the jacket, along with Sheridan's scent, which was more than soothing after all the pain.

The captain was incredibly close to her, which only intensified her emotional chaos. He had pulled her into his arms and repeatedly rubbed her upper arms to warm them.

"What did they want from you?"

She couldn't lie to him, so she tried to keep it as simple as possible, her lips trembling.

"A piece of information. My government has been helping Iksha political refugees establish a settlement not far from Minbar. As ambassador, I know their coordinates."

Sheridan took a sharp breath: "But… why?"

She chuckled bitterly. "Why, Captain? Because there are still some factions of the Iksha who pay a lot to wipe out dissenters from their world."

Sheridan said nothing, but Delenn continued unabated.

"I... gave them the wrong coordinates."

"Delenn…"

"So they'll most likely kill me if their client finds out."

Now it was Sheridan who flinched.

"It doesn't matter. My life is nothing compared to the lives of the many Iksha in this settlement."

"That's not true!" he looked at her almost angrily, which made Delenn hold her breath.

Sheridan let her go, ready to find a way out of the whole mess. He was the station's captain. He wasn't Garibaldi, who knew Babylon 5 inside and out, but he could damn well find a way out of this room. No room in Brown Sector was truly hermetically sealed. There had to be a solution.