The Hostage and the Runaways

Isabella had been fading in and out of consciousness for hours. It was the last time she regained consciousness that her hands were being gently untied and the gag worked from her mouth. Unfortunately whoever was trying to untie the tight knots seemed to have very little success.

“Fuck me, what happened dove?” Niall’s voice rang out above her, his warm lips placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, Zayn was beside him trying to get the gag from her mouth before getting frustrated enough to go to the kitchen part of the bunker and bring back a sharp knife, carefully slicing through the material until it came loose. From there the doctor was able to free her mouth.

“Ella, love? Can you hear me?” Zayn asked, her eyed dilated and the sweat glistened down her body excessively. Her body shook like a drug addict going through withdrawal.

“E-Ethan injected m-me. It hurts.” Isabella sobbed, feeling the bones in her toes glue together, the spare fragments seemed to magnet back. Isabella could feel it and would have begged for death if she had the strength to do anything at all.

Zayn touched her forehead and noticed it was sweaty and hot to the touch, he needed to cool her body temperature down.

“Ni? Go into the bathroom, run a cold bath. We need to bring down her temperature. When Killian and Kellie get back from scouring around we’ll plan from there.” Zayn ordered, reassuring his blonde haired friend.

“Is she okay? What did Ethan do to her? I swear to God if I see him again I will rearrange his face.” Louis growled, coming to sit beside Isabella on the bed, putting his hand to her head, removing it to the touch. “Oh bloody hell, she’s burning up.”

“Lou? Help me get her dress off, Harry? Go into her box and see if she still has her nightgown or something light. We need to get her stabilized first. Liam? Will you see if the freezer has an icebox, if so grab some ice.” Zayn calmly gave everyone orders as he tried to calm Isabella, her body shaking so much that he wouldn’t be surprised if she went into another attack.

“I w-want my heartbeat.” Isabella murmured before her eyes rolled up to the back of her head.

Liam appeared a second after with ice wrapped in a paper towel.

Zayn took it and started to jab it around her neck, bringing it to her forehead and cheek.

Harry returned a moment after Liam, bringing a sheer pink nightgown, tossing it on the king sized bed, crawling on the bed beside Zayn and helping to peel the sheer dress from her body, Louis lifting her while Zayn kept her balanced up.

Liam stood watching, worry clearly in his eyes.

“Mates? The tub is almost a fourth full, the water isn’t coming in very fast.” Niall said as we walked back in and saw his other friends getting the dress off Isabella.

“Harry gently removing the dress and peeling it off over her head, exposing her emaciated, fragile body. Even Emory couldn’t help but stare silently from his place on the floor. He was still bound and gagged where the group left him but his cockiness seemed to fade and he tried to get their attention, figuring now was a good time as any.

Zayn let out an annoyed grunt before getting off the bed and went over to Emory, pulling his gag down.

“This better be life or death or it’s going to be.” Zayn threatened, seeing Emory’s eyes widen and he swallowed.

“Ethan injected her with something experimental, he said it magnets the bone fragments back together and lets them heal on their own time. He told Ella that he didn’t want her to run so he wasn’t going to heal her completely and that it was painful and that he’d leave her to it. He also said that he’s going to come collect payment next week, said Ella was payment also said if she told any of you that he’d kill you all and take her earlier, also told her that if his kindness was rejected that he would take Killian’s voice again. That’s all I know, please don’t kill me!” Emory closed his eyes and flinched back as Zayn’s eyes darkened and his hands balled into fists.

“Guess we know who the singing canary around here is and he sure does play a nice little tune.” Louis muttered, his anger also reaching a new low.

Niall eyed Isabella before snapping his fingers to get Harry’s attention.

“Hand her to me, mate. I’ll take care of her.” Niall said as Harry and Louis helped lift together to pass Isabella off to Niall.

Niall took her from them gently and walked toward the bathroom, setting her gently into the slow filling tub, dabbing a washcloth in the semi cold water and cooling her searing flesh.

“Little dove, come on, wake up for me lass. You got to cool off, I mean I know we’re hot but –“He trailed off, smiling gently before frowning again and wiping off the perspiration.

Harry and Louis entered into the bathroom and stopped next to Niall.

“Can we help mate? We’re here if you need us.” Harry comforted Niall who seemed to be at a loss on what to do.

“Ethan is such a cunt. Why would he do this? Fucking bloody hell, why would he want her? There’s no purpose in any of this. We can’t catch a break and we need to run. If he’s going to take her, we need to run – we need to run to protect her.” Niall looked at Harry who bent down to his friend’s eye level and took the cloth from his friend’s hands, running it down her chest, his green eyes unreadable.

At first the room was silent, Harry taking over the washing and Niall simply kneeling there watching her face, his own thoughts troubled and deep. Louis folded his arms, going back out to the main area and hoisting Emory off the floor and onto the edge of the bed, forcing his body weight on his arms.

Emory cried out, shaking. Louis scared the piss out of him.

“Okay, canary. I want to know what your relationship was with Ethan. Somehow I don’t buy you were only a patient. You’ve been way too uptight since seeing Isabella and I’m generally good at reading people – so what is your relationship or you’re going to earn another black eye tonight.” Louis threatened, his voice no nonsense and his demeanor barely controlled.

Emory swallowed, his throat parched. It literally hurt to swallow much less talk and he had no idea what these crazy twenty-something’s wanted from him. He helped make Isabella her setters to keep her toes straight, he had even did so without asking for anything in return. Unfortunately, Louis thought the punch to his one eye was justified when he had initially refused –in the end he ended up helping to make her setters – which were apparently still on her feet and if wet, he’d have to make another pair.

“I’m not lying, please –please don’t hit me.” Emory begged, struggling to clear his throat.

Zayn had gone back into the bathroom, carrying a syringe in his hand and Liam was at the fridge, grabbing a cold water bottle and bringing it over to Louis.

“Give this to him, he hasn’t had anything in over twenty-four hours, maybe a little more. We’re not Ethan, we don’t torture people for fun –want an example? Look no further than in the bathroom. Give him the water, Lou.” Liam coaxed before going to sit down in the one chair he was tied to when first regaining consciousness.

Louis growled, uncapping the water bottle, forcing Emory to sit up, slamming it roughly into his mouth, grabbing his beautiful blonde locks and tipping his head back roughly.

Emory sputtered as the water went down the wrong pipe, making him gag. In doing so, he barely gotten any as the rest dripped out of his mouth and onto his chest, seeping to his lap.

Louis tipped the water bottle back and capped the lid, the liquid nearly gone.

“That’s all you’ll be lucky to get for another twenty-four hours. Now, tell me the truth! Are you working for Glen Saudimere, what are you to Ethan!?” Louis yelled, grabbing the collar of his night shirt so their faces were inches apart.

Emory was still coughing and sputtering, trying to answer while also trying to clear his lungs, the familiar ache of an attack coming on.

Louis punched him in the stomach, his eyes clouding over with rage, Isabella was possibly in danger and Emory was doing nothing to be helpful in divulging information that could help them asses if he could be useful or if they could leave him for the dogs.

Liam stepped in, standing up and pulling Louis away, wrapping his arms around the Doncaster boy as Louis had angry tears spilling silently down his cheeks.

“Louis, you’re going to kill him! That’s enough! Come on mate, let’s take a walk, we’ll see if we can’t go be of some use to Killian and Kellie, okay? Just calm down.” Liam coaxed his friend gently and led him toward the bunker door, leaving Emory on the bed, coughing, sputtering and sobbing like a scared five year old.

Harry came out of the bathroom a second after Louis and Liam left, seeing Emory struggling to breathe. He didn’t say anything, he went to the box Ethan had left for Emory and took out one of five inhalers.

“Here you are mate.” Harry said, putting the inhaler in Emory’s mouth and pressing it three times, sitting down next to the blonde, his stare hard.

Emory’s chest untightened but he still felt as if he were drowning and his sobs hadn’t slowed, he was genuinely scared, the men around here were unpredictable and that included Ethan himself. He just wanted to go home away from these crazy people – unbeknownst to him that there was nothing to go back home to considering it was a flaming inferno when they left.

“I don’t know anything, I don’t know –I swear to God, I swear to Allah, I swear to the Norse and Greek fucking gods! I was just a patient of Ethan Bright’s when my wife was! I never met Glen Saudimere, I swear! Please, please just let me go!” Emory begged pathetically as Harry grabbed his gag and slipped it back into Emory’s mouth and knotting it back tightly to his head.

“That’s all I needed to know, thank you, Emory.” Harry replied emotionlessly and stood, pacing the front of the king sized bed in worry.

Emory sobbed, his chest heaving and his voice muffled into the gag as he continued to beg whoever would listen.

Harry looked up at the sound of the door, Killian walked in with Kellie – both looked more than a little upset – although when they surveyed the scene and Isabella not in the bed, they dealt with that first.

“Isabella’s in the bathroom, Niall and Zayn are trying to get her temperature down. Ethan drugged her.” Harry gestured to the other room as Killian wasted no time in entering it.

Kellie gestured to Emory.

“And his problem? Why is he freaking out and crying like an overgrown three year old?” Kellie asked, bemused to say the least.

“Louis scared him and tried to drown him with a water bottle.” Harry shrugged uncaringly while sitting down on a chair.

“Ah, okay. Well, anyhow; it seems our friend Ethan has stranded us out in the middle of nowhere without a vehicle. Killian and I walked a few miles either way and didn’t find anything remotely near civilization. So, we’re stuck. Update in a pig’s nut but that’s the gist.” Kellie folded his arms across his chest, seeing Harry’s duress.

“We need to figure something out because according to Emory, Ethan drugged Ella and then proceeded to be a further prick by letting her know that she’s his repayment for his so called kindness. Told her if she tells anyone that we’ll be dead, Killian won’t have a voice and she’ll be taken sooner. So, mate, we need to try to make a run – it might take walking in the dead of night fifteen or twenty miles but we got to get away.” Harry explained with a sigh, putting a hand to his forehead and rubbing it tenderly.

Kellie was getting annoyed with Emory’s crying and went to sit on the bed beside him, a small smile on his lips. He threw his arm around the sobbing foot surgeon and leant in slightly.

“Listen mate, Louis has a short temper but if you think his fuse is short, you haven’t been introduced to me yet. Hi, my name is Kellie O’Hare and I’m Irish. What that means is, if you don’t stop crying I’m going to knock you into next week like you were the assaulting party in a pub fight. You got me?”

Emory tried to calm down, filling the shiver crawling down his spine – the tone Kellie used, he had no doubt that the Irish bloke meant every word.

When he finally manage to calm down and slow his sobs Kellie took to patting his cheek a few times and stood up again, looking placid as Killian made his way from the bathroom, Isabella dressed in the sheer pink nightgown.

He set her on the bed wordlessly and looked at Kellie.

“Zayn and Niall filled me in, now what bro? We can’t just let Ethan take her –we have to run.” Killian decided with finality, sitting at the edge of the bed while Niall and Zayn joined the group.

“We run but we’ll do it tomorrow when everyone’s had adequate rest – that includes Ella. We have no idea how far we are from a town or anywhere remotely civilized. If this is an underground bunker – chances are we are pretty far out in the middle of nowhere but we will try regardless. Does everyone agree?” He looked around, each of the boys nodding their heads.

“Agreed.” Harry confirmed.

“Good, tomorrow at sunset. Tonight we take care of ourselves.”

Killian dismissed himself from the conversation, grasping Isabella’s hand and bringing it up to kiss it wordlessly, his eyes full of admiration.

Niall watched on, his own feelings burning at him as he watched Killian kiss her. As gently as a prince would his princess when waking her up from a spell. He wished more than anything to have that happiness. He loved Isabella and cared for her deeply and try as he might, the feelings only kept getting stronger.

Killian noticed Niall’s stare and smiled sadly, motioning him over.

Niall crawled on the other side of the hazelnut colored girl, raking his fingers gently through her thick disheveled hair, his eyes catching Killian’s.

“Remember what I said, mate. A heart with true love is selfless and unadulterated by jealousy. You love her as much as I and I won’t deny you that. Protect Isabella and love her. It’s not about the guy getting the girl, it’s about being there for when she needs you the most. We’re allies, Niall; not enemies – hell, we’re brothers from the same place, I will not see you as anything other. Aye?” Killian stuck his hand out, his eyes a tired brown but they were sincere and trusting.

“Aye. Alright.” Niall agreed, taking Killian’s hand and shaking in agreement, mauling over the other Irishman’s words.

Killian smiled and looked back toward Isabella, grasping his other hand around so both of them encased hers securely.

Niall continued to pet her wet hair, his other hand taking her other hand.

Kellie watched the scene before rolling his eyes and looking at Harry.

“I’m so glad cupid’s arrow hasn’t sodimized my ass yet. If it does mate, you have my full permission to take my gun and shoot me in the fucking head.”

Harry let a small smile pass his lips while Zayn chuckled lightly.

“Trust me mate, Niall fell hard the first time he met her. She’s something special, there’s no denying that.” Harry said, watching the two Irishmen.

“She maybe special but that’s not going to stop her from being hunted and killed. I’m going to train her some basic self-defense – if she passes them, then I will begin to fully transition her to what I learned in my time in the military. She is not going to like it but if she wants to stay alive – it’s the only way. Just as you blokes. Decide if you want to learn because Killian and I may not always be here to defend you and it’s good to have a skill. Think about it – let me know.”

Harry nodded hesitantly before looking at Zayn who shrugged.

“Count us in.”

Notes