Rebecca, pulled my hand down from her cheek, "Kit, promise me one thing."
I cringed, shaking my head that I didn't want to hear a death confession or a death promise. "You are going to be fine, Rebecca, just rest."
Rebecca squeezed my hand with the little strength she had left, "Look at me and for once in our lives together listen to me, Kit."
I swallowed hard, pulling my eyes back to hers. She smiled, "I never liked you, but you earned my respect and admiration for how strong and ballsy you are. The things you have done for Claire, Janes and me. The way you love Claire, I envy. Continue to love her and give her the peaceful, happy life she deserves. I know you will." She coughed again, her body going limp as she sucked in a breath, "And kill this Halston bitch the first chance you get, Kit. For me."
Rebecca smiled one more time as her chest fell with her last breath.
I choked out hard sob with a half scream, pulling Rebecca closer to my chest. I held her, crying and screaming at the sound of security officers stumbling in the rubble. Two dirty faces in torn uniforms popped up from behind a fallen chunk of wall. I screamed at them to help me get Rebecca's body out of the mess.
I stood up with them, helping to carry Rebecca's lifeless, broken body down a hallway. Sniffling back tears, finding the determination and strength I needed to get her body to safety then run after Claire. Then I would find Halston and kill her, no matter what the cost.
I numbly ran with Davidek. Shock had taken hold, blurring the edges of my mind and thoughts. Only allowing me to be dragged with him. He was hollering in the small radio he took from a passing security officer. Calling out alert codes that I normally knew, but now it all sounded like gibberish to my ears.
It felt like I was in a dream, a nightmare and I would wake up any second. Smothered by Kit's body in our bed in D.C. I looked up at Davidek suddenly, "Where's Kit?"
He shot a look over his shoulder, pulling me closer, "She's right behind us, Claire." He smiled tightly, wrapping his arm around my waist to comfort me. I stopped walking, making him stumble a few steps. "We have to go back." I began to panic, I had left Kit without a thought and as my mind began to clear, I saw the mistake it was.
Davidek reached back for me, "She's coming. I promise." His hand latched onto my wrist, I pulled it free, turning to run back to the garage. "We have to go back." My eyes filled with tears as shock morphed into panic.
"Goddamit, Claire, wait." Davidek's fingers grazed my elbow when the first muted boom shook the hallway. Making the two of us to cower.
The ceiling shook. Small rivers of dirt and dust trailing down to the floor with a distant crashing sound. I looked at Davidek, "What was that?"
He stared at me, his eyes telling me everything his voice wasn't. We both looked at his tiny black radio as the panicked voices began calling out there had been an explosion in the garage with casualties and major structural damage. My heart lurched into my throat as I shook my head, "No, no."
"Oh yes, yes Claire. Something went boom right where your little girlfriends stood." The raspy voice boomed down on top of us from the overhead speakers, drawing Davidek and I's attention straight to the ceiling. "And yes, I can see you and hear you as you stand in the walls you thought would protect you, instead they will be your coffin, my dear doctor."
Davidek growled through clenched teeth, "Fuck you Alistair, or do you want us to call you Meredith!"
The voice laughed in a way that made my spine tingle, "Halston is fine, no need to hide behind a false identity anymore. Even as it has served me so well for so long." A large dramatic sigh followed, "But as we come to the end here, I'd like to make sure I take full credit, not my crazy preacher man creation."
I dropped my head down to Davidek who was whispering through his teeth, "Walk with me calmly. There's a side hallway to the right that has no cameras. It will lead us back to the garage." I nodded curtly so only he could see it. Taking his hand as he stepped to me, he shook his head in anger, "This was a trap, all of it. She drove you in to her web of explosives. Son of a bitch."
"Aw, I do love you two. Lifelong best friends." Halston hummed, "I guess you would like me to tell you why I have gone through all this trouble for you, doctor. Well, first off I will tell you that I wanted to leave you five explosions to commemorate the five years of torture I faced as a result of you wanting to fight back the two idiots I hired to just play with you. But then I have always been a little anal with things being even. So I went to a nice fifteen. Then I said, what the heck Meredith, let's round up to an even twenty."
Halston chuckled as Davidek and slowly walked towards the door closest to our right, "So there are twenty, twenty pound C4 explosives perfectly placed in your Centre. It will level this lovely piece of architecture down to the lower hidden level you have." She let out a soft sigh, "This is a beautiful building, I enjoyed it immensely over the handful of months Jessica and I roamed it. Mapping it out and deciding where the best blast points were. All while you were courting the drunkard you fell in love with. It would be a great romance novel if I allowed you to live long enough to write it, Claire. I can see it now, the heartbroken drunk and the love ignorant scientist, an impossible romance in four acts."
I clutched at Davidek's hand as the raspy voice shook me with its rants and ramblings. Finally hearing the mad woman who wanted me dead, was having a profound, intense effect on me. I looked up at the ceiling, "Why do you have to do this?"
"Oh the golden child speaks!" Halston took in an audible breath, "You see I am a product of your selfishness, Claire. When you ignored my lovely attempts to recruit you at seventeen and twenty two, all because you wanted to be noble and moral with your science, I fell into poor standing with my bosses. Fast forward a few years and I find myself tossed into the hands of your counterpart." Halston paused.
When she spoke again, the tone in her voice told me she was agitated, "Five years of torture, pain, entrapment, and hell. All because Bourne could not compete with you, so she took it out on us. Her patients, her test subjects. All of us were a product of your selfishness Claire. Bourne was bumbling idiot with a child’s chemistry set compared to the genius of the great Claire Avondale."
I hollered up at the ceiling, "I wasn't selfish, it's not my fault Bourne did this to you and the others. I could have helped you if you came to me." I leaned against Davidek, hoping that I could play on whatever humanity was left in Halston, "I can still help you, Meredith, if you let me. Stop all of this and let me help you."
There was a moment of silence as Davidek and I reached the side entrance before Halston hissed on the overhead, "You can't help me. All you can do is suffer like I have. I wanted to do this face to face, make it more personal, but my business associated paid more for explosives. I hate explosives, they always bring back painful memories. It seems Caitriona has some debts of her own to pay, it's a shame really. I did truly admire her gusto in the search of love." Halston's tone had turned cold, void of the maniacal playfulness.
I called out again, "Meredith, let me, let us help you."
Halston cut me off, yelling into the overhead system, "You can help me by dying sooner, Claire."
Davidek and I cowered as a second blast rattled through the hallways, shaking the structure to the point I was afraid the walls would fall in on us. A video screen flicked onto the right of us, Halston's voice keying up, "Look, Claire, look at what you've made me do. If you hurry, maybe you can say goodbye. One down, your one true love left to go before I finish you." The overhead speaker squealed when whatever microphone Halston used was thrown to the floor.
I cringed looking up at the screen in front of the door Davidek kicked open. It took far too long for me to recognize Kit sitting on the floor, covered in dirt and smoke curling around her. I gasped, "Oh god, Kit." I moved to closer to the screen, watching her lift her head up to the camera. Tears cutting clean lines down her face while her mouth moved in silent cries. Rebecca in her arms, lifeless with wide blue eyes and blood in her mouth.
I turned to Davidek, my own tears streaming down my cheeks, "Rebecca..." I pushed past him, running as fast as I could back towards the garage. Ignoring Davidek yelling at me to stop.
Then the explosions came in rapid succession, spurring my legs to move faster than they ever had in my life.
I ran, ran as fast as my injured legs could carry me. Climbing over the falling debris along the far garage wall. A security officer had directed me to the side hallway I was in now, telling me it would take me straight to the Hive where Claire was. I thanked him, stole his sidearm and forced my feet and legs to move.
I was a third of the way down the hallway when I heard Halston's faint voice echo in the hallways. A quick squeal that was followed by an explosion to the left of me. An explosion so intense it threw me into the wall on the right. The walls and ceiling shook, tiles falling to the floor forcing me to cover my head and run.
I pushed my body through the pain, ignoring the second, third, and fourth explosions that ranged from right next to me to the far distance. Halston was intent on destroying the building, I didn't have time to stop and think about it. I had to use all of my energy to get to Claire.
I climbed over fallen wall sections, navigated burning chunks of steel, and pushed past the masses of security and medical personnel running to the screams and cries of those caught in the middle of Halston's deadly vendetta.
Things blurred around me with every step I landed and lifted off the floor, my only focus was getting to the woman I loved in time. I had counted six explosions, going off within a minute and a half of one another in a strange interior then exterior fashion. One explosion close to me, followed by one further away. Halston was destroying the building from the outside in, her ultimate goal was to seal all entries and exits to the Hive.
I pivoted around a corner, using the wall as my fulcrum to carry me over a small pile of rubble.
"Kit!"
My head shot up at the sound of Claire's voice shouting my name. I came to a stop, spotting her standing at the far end of the hallway, unscathed with Davey running next to her. Her face contorted into a mix of relief and sadness the moment her eyes met mine. She choked out a sob, her hand falling to press against her heart.
I smiled, holding up my hand in an awkward sign that I was still alive and coming to her. I tucked the gun in my right hand to my waist band to free up my hands to run to the woman and carry her with Davey to safety.
I took one step as the overhead speaker clicked on. Halston's voice streaming through clear and crisp.
"Watch Claire, watch me rip your entire life away like you did mine. Tick, tick, Boom."
The explosion consumed me in sound, force and heat. The orange light and heat rolled over me, searing the skin on my legs before throwing me to the ground. I hit my head on the floor hard, knocking myself out as the walls and ceiling collapsed down on my back, legs and head. Nothing to stop it as I was paralyzed by the force of the explosion.
The world went black, only Claire screaming my name in shrill panicked bursts, overpowering the world crashing down on me.
I couldn't hear my voice. I could only feel the screams as the sound carved its path up my throat and out of my mouth. Her name coming out of my mouth like a freight train in the hopes it would stop the fire and rubble from wrapping its deathly grip around her.
I had been blown back to my knees when the explosion went off right behind Kit. I looked up in time to see her fall as the orange ball of flames swept across her back. I tried to get to my feet, screaming over the sounds of the finally building giving in to Halston and collapsing. I stumbled, slipping and sliding, my tear blurred vision making it impossible with the smoke for me to see.
A hand fell to my shoulder pushing to stay where I was. I went to rip it away when another pair of hands came under my arms to lift me to my feet and pull me back into a strong chest. Davidek running past me to the pile of rubble that half covered Kit. Only leaving the top of her head and chest exposed.
I clawed at the arms wrapped around my waist, screaming for them to let me go as I watched Davidek and two other men from the research labs, start throwing the pieces of steel and concrete to the side. I pushed with my feet to move away from the arms, only to be lifted up and pulled in tighter as a voice yelled into my ear.
"We will take care of her, Claire. Let them get her out, I have the surgery theatre ready and waiting."
I craned my head to see Erich's wide blue eyes peering at me through his cracked glasses. He nodded at me to acknowledge it was him before he yelled again, "Come with me and we will save her. I have protocol Y set up."
I took in deep gasping breaths to calm myself, trying to get my brain to sink into what Erich was telling me. I flicked my head back to Davidek and the others. They had cleared Kit's body and was lifting her delicately onto a small portable gurney a fourth man brought over. She was limp, bloodied and burned, small tendrils of smoke seeping up into the air off of her clothing.
I reacted at the sight, shaking my head, "No, no, no!!" Pulling at Erich's arms to let me free until he spun me around. Ending the view of Kit and the broken mess she was. He pushed, carried me down the hall, "Claire, breathe. Focus. We can save her. You know that." He dragged me into a small open hallway, waving his hand over the small nondescript keypad. Lighting it up he pressed his palm against it, releasing the magnetic secret door to reveal a hydraulic elevator that was run on a completely separate generator to the main grid and backups. It had been a failsafe Ivan and Davidek suggested earlier this year in case of power outages or attacks on the country's main grid from terrorist groups.
Erich shoved me into the elevator, mashing the down button. Sending the elevator down to the Hive bunker where I had done Claire's surgery. I yelled at him, "Kit! Wait for her!"
Erich released me. I rushed to the closed doors, slamming my fists against the thick metal before turning around to face him. "Why didn't you wait?" I curled my hands into fists, ready to knock him out if I had to. Send the elevator back up to Davidek.
Erich leaned against the back wall. His white lab coat covered in dirt and blood, torn in places along with his scrubs. He let out a breath filled with exhaustion, "Davidek and Kit are in the next elevator." He motioned to the keypad next to my elbow. The small screen filled with images of Davidek and the others carrying Kit into a second hydraulic car. "I had to separate you from her to bring the doctor out." He motioned to the screen with his chin, "I need you to calm down and gather your bearings. You can and will save her." He looked dead in my eyes, "But you must set the emotions to the side, focus on the difficult ahead, Dr. Avondale."
I stared at him, clenching my jaw. He was right, but it didn't make it any easier. I closed my eyes, walking away from the small screen, I took deep breaths in through my nose. Desperately trying to calm down and redirect my adrenaline. But even behind closed eyes, all I could see was Kit lifeless on that gurney.
I flicked my eyes open to settle on Erich's, "Talk me through protocol Y." My voice wavered, trembled.
Erich smiled lightly, nodding, "Protocol Y. We have all her organs pulled and waiting in the surgery cooler, which is also on the backup power system. The serum bags have also been pulled. We have approximately twenty 1000ml bags specifically designed off of Caitriona's last blood samples. She will be scanned the second she is on the table, we assess and treat as we go."
I nodded, my jaw shifting in tension as I ground my teeth. The doctor in me fighting with the woman in love with the unconscious redhead. I let out a slow breath, "Davidek will assist, he helped me in Tennessee the last time."
Erich stepped closer to me as the elevator came to a slow stop, "We better get scrubbed up." He patted my shoulder and walked out the elevator.
I turned to face the pristine operating room. Everything was set up like Erich stated. The IV bags all hanging and ready to be used, the scanner ring hovering at the end of the bed. I took in one more deep breath, pulling on the last threads of strength, asking them to hang
with me a little longer while I worked to save Kit.
The second elevator car doors slid open right as Erich and I pulled on our gloves. Davidek and the two men who helped him, rushed to the operating table with Kit, setting her down gently.
I had to look away to stay composed. Kit's lower body was burned and broken, the ragged edge of her tibia poked through on her left side. The large lacerations on her right told me that was the side that bore down most of the brunt from falling rubble. She was breathing, labored wheezing breaths, ones that made her chest twitch as her lungs pushed against broken ribs. I could see her faint pulse move slowly in the vein in her neck, the same spot I always nuzzled into as I slept in her arms.
I closed my eyes, shaking my head back to focus. I couldn't think about anything other than the cold medical facts before me and the cold medical procedures I had to do to fix them.
Not the way Kit held me in the arms that were now broken. The hands and fingers that would always sneak their way in my hair when she thought I was asleep, now bloodied and bruised. The dimples on her cheek that I had finally pulled out and allowed it to show its face without fear, now covered in dark thick drying blood.
Davidek brushed past me, snapping me out of my morbid haze, grabbing gloves and a gown, "I have to send the other two out, there has been more explosions, five more in the time it took us to get Kit and get down here." He hollered to the two men, "Go through the back of the cooler. Run as fast as you can down that tunnel. It will dump you out at the bottom of the mountain by the water. Wait there for the rescue teams."
The two men nodded and ran to the cooler. Leaving Davidek, Erich and I with Kit.
Erich had already set up a serum IV in Kit's right arm. Squeezing the bag to speed up the process as he hit the start button on the body scanner. The large ring moving over her body forcing Davidek and I to stand back and wait the two minutes it would take to tell me how much work I had before me.
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