Chapter Text
Ethan woke, both annoyed and impressed at the same time. Annoyed because getting kidnapped while not on active duty was never a good time and impressed that someone had actually managed to spike his drink and kidnap him.
“He’s awake.”
Ethan opened his eyes and looked around. Three men, around his age, casually dressed. The room was sparse and dingy, but it looked like he was still in London. Good. He was going to be late for drinks with Benji and once Benji realized Ethan was gone it wouldn’t take long for him to be found.
“Mind telling me what this is about?” Ethan smiled.
“We need the files.”
“You’re going to have to be more specific than that,” Ethan said. He’d been off active duty for a good month and he couldn't remember any loose ends from the last job, anyone left hanging and waiting for information.
“The Nelson files.”
“I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He would have said it either way but Ethan really, really didn’t know of any Nelson files.
“We really want to do this the easy way Mr. Hunt.”
“And who exactly are you?”
“You don’t need to know.”
Ethan huffed, “I don’t see us getting anywhere that way.”
“Hmm,” the man reached behind him to a table and brought out a syringe and a vial.
“Oh come on truth serum doesn’t work.” It did sometimes work, but truth serum wasn’t going to magically make him give them information he couldn’t remember. The only danger really was spilling information about Benji; Ethan would rather not involve him in the situation at all.
“Ah if only truth serum were reliable, would make things easier wouldn’t it? But this,” the man held the vial up and drew some of the cloudy liquid into the syringe, “Is not truth serum. This is something a little bit more fun.”
With that the man jabbed the syringe into Ethan’s arm and whatever the liquid was stung like a bitch as it went in.
Ethan opened his mouth to say something but then everything got fuzzy around him.
*****
“Ethan!”
Ethan shook his head and looked around. He was in a server room, pliers in hand and for a few moments he couldn’t remember how he had gotten there.
“Ethan you there?”
“Sorry Luther, I’m here, I’m almost ready.” Ethan finished opening the panel and got ready to insert the thumb drive, all he had to do was wait for Benji to be ready ten floors down in the hidden server room. With both drives in at the same time they would be able to get the information they were after.
“How are you doing Benji?” Ethan asked.
“Sorry, a little behind, had to…AHHH.”
“Benji!” There was no mistaking the gunshot Ethan heard over the comms, no mistaking Benji’s painful cry, “Benji please!”
“I…I’m here, almost there.”
“Benji, are you hit?”
“I can do this.”
Ethan took a deep breath, “I know you can do this Benji, are you hit?” The silence lasted far too long.
“I’m hit,” Benji said, “I’m at the server, I’m ready.”
“Alright, ready Luther,” Ethan said, somehow forcing the words out even though he wanted to drop everything and get to Benji.
“Ready Ethan.’
“On three Benji,” Ethan said.
“Right…” Benji said and groaned in pain. They got the drives in, got the information and Ethan couldn’t care less about it.
“I’m on the way Benji, just stay calm,” Ethan said.
“Ethan…”
“Hold on Benji,” Ethan said, he ran to the elevator and pushed the button with a shaking hand. The elevator started going down and Ethan felt like it was going in slow motion, like he could run down the stairs faster.
“Ethan…it's bad…”
“I’m almost there Benji, just put pressure on what you can, deep breaths, I’m almost there…”
Benji whimpered and gasped, “I’m sorry.”
The elevator door finally opened and Ethan took off running. He found the lower server room and…there was a lot of blood, a trail of it leading to the server room.
Ethan gasped.
Benji was on the floor on his side curled in on himself in a puddle of blood. Ethan couldn’t tell if he was breathing. He knelt next to Benji and drew the injured man into his arms.
“Benji please,” Ethan said as he put a hand to Benji’s neck. There was a pulse there but it was weak, Benji was taking shallow breaths, but they were irregular.
“Ethan…”
“I’m here Benji, I’ve got you.”
Benji smiled just a little bit and for a brief moment Ethan thought everything would be alright.
Benji shuddered in Ethan’s arms and no matter how hard Ethan pressed on Benji’s neck he could not find a pulse.
“Benji? No…no…” He held Benji close as tears ran down his cheeks. His heart broke and he could barely breathe. Not Benji, not like that.
*****
Ethan jerked awake with a cry. He fell over on his side, still tied to the chair and looked around. Where was Benji? What…wait…
It wasn’t real. It had felt so real, he could still feel Benji dying in his arms, he still felt the pain of it like a stone on his chest. He looked up at his captors and they laughed at him.
Ethan growled and twisted in the fallen chair but the ropes held tight.
“Now, now Mr. Hunt. You could have ended this already,” the man came forward and righted the chair, “So where are the files?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I really don’t,” Ethan said.
“We’ll have to try again then won’t we?”
The syringe was refilled and the man approached.
“No, no, no, no!”
Ethan felt the burn again and everything faded out.