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“Weren’t you afraid that I might not make it?” In the sunlight, Lara looked ethereal, like an angel. Her guardian angel, carrying her to a haven of safety in her strong arms. And hopefully to her bed. There was no need for her to be carrying her, but complaining was the furthest thing in her mind at the moment. Sam touched her biceps. Still incredibly firm, and bigger to boot. The time apart had been good to her muscles.
“I knew you’d do it, Lara,” Sam said. “Although that was way sooner than I thought. They didn’t even have time to get me through the door.”
“Yeah… I was about to knock when I saw them, so…”
“Still, that flip was impressive.”
She simply shrugged. “Are you alright? Did they hurt you? Was th-”
She couldn’t help but chuckle.“Lara, I’m fine. Well, I might have-”
“A concussion? Too much blood loss? Forgotten something important in your camera? Where’s your camera?” Dang, her worry was adorable.
She held onto Lara’s neck a little tighter. Sam felt she was slipping. Lara held her closer. “Some cuts. And marks that might take a while to disappear. And maybe embarrassment because the first time we see each other in ages is because you have to save me from thugs breaking into my apartment.”
She smiled. “Even though I wish we could’ve seen each other in different circumstances, I’m glad to see you again, Sam.”
“What a way to say you hate my job,” she said. “Is that why you don’t answer my calls?”
“I don’t hate it,” Lara protested, “I just wish it didn’t involve being kidnapped. And I’ll explain that later.”
Sam leaned closer. Their lips were too close to her face. Lara stopped and looked at her. She eyed her lips hungrily. “Occupational hazard. The truth’s worth it. And you’ll save me if I can’t save myself next adventure, won’t you?”
“Always, love.” Lara leaned in for a kiss. She had been waiting for this moment for forever.
And Sam opened her eyes. Fuck, it was just a dream. Again. Being in her stupidly hot arms, or anywhere near Lara, really, was a frequent feature of her dreams, she should have known as soon as she saw her. It was pathetic, but those dreams always comforted her. As if she was here and not in some unexplored part of a jungle or something. Even after all this time apart, or maybe because of all this time apart, her absence hurt. Her silence even more.
But that wasn’t the only thing wrong, she noticed. Her head pounded, her ears rang, and her body felt wounded. Blinking away the unconsciousness, Sam realized a group of masked people were tying her legs together. Where was she, again?
The memories crashed over her all at once. How she had been thinking about whether to call Lara again or not, how someone knocked on her door, how another someone entered through the window when she went to see who was there, how she panickedly pressed the button and hoped Lara would pick up this time, how she fought the intruders, and how registering a voice coming from her phone was the last thing she remembered. The bastards must have knocked her out.
Sam wasted no time and kicked one of the kidnappers with both of her legs. “What the-” His companions were taken by surprise. She kicked another one and punched another that got too close. Idiots, they should’ve started with her hands. With a quick move, she shook the rope off one of her legs and tried to run off.
She lasted three whole seconds until they grabbed her limbs again. “Not so fast, you nosy little rat.” This man was probably hired recently, the guy was strong but he didn’t have as many scars on his bare arms as others like him she had met and his hold on a hostage wasn’t perfected yet. Maybe it was his first time kidnapping someone?
“Is your repertoire of profanity as small as your-”
Okay, he could throw a mean punch to the guts. Duly noted. “We have to keep moving.”
“Sweet dreams,” another thug said, pulling her hair with a hand. With a quick move, she pushed the back of her head against something hard.
It didn’t matter. Lara would kick their asses as soon as she came for her.
—-------------
“I’m not sure about this, Lara,” Sam said, fiddling with her harness. She glanced at the abyss behind her and felt sick. There was nothing below, just miles and miles of darkness. She was supposed to be jumping there in a minute. Oh, the things she did for her best friend. “This looks too high to jump. Are you sure we’re not gonna die?”
She just laughed. “Sam, it’s perfectly safe! The rope will hold you, trust me.”
Sam rationally knew that people did this all the time. It was easy. Jump, hold onto the rope, look at the death trap below, and leave once their turn was over. Maybe go eat afterwards to celebrate not being split open by a rock after some sort of freak accident. Lara would never do something to get her killed, but the height was terrifying. “I trust you. It’s just I remembered my parents once asked me if I would jump off a cliff if my friends jumped and unfortunately realized the answer is yes.”
Lara chuckled. “Good to know you’d jump off anywhere for me.” Sam blushed. Yes, she would definitely jump into any death trap for her. Especially if she looked at her like that. “Now, come on, the next group is waiting their turn.” With that, she let herself fall.
And Sam jumped head first after her.
The world was upside down. This was new. Her head touched the ground, and there was a door in front of her. Judging by the poor light that only seemed to come from the door’s direction, Sam assumed that there were no windows she could jump out from, but she couldn’t exactly turn around too much to see.
She took the rest of the place in. Pieces of broken bottles everywhere, along with tiny specks that must be shards too small to clean, but just out of reach. Someone probably had been drinking a lot last night and made a poor job of cleaning. She scanned the floor for a bottle with a neck. There was one close enough. The only one in sight, actually. It was just the neck, but she could get it easily. Sam gathered her strength, turned her head so she could grab it with her mouth, and began swinging.
It took eight swings to get close enough. Grabbing it took some tries, she either missed or smacked her teeth against the glass, but Sam managed in the end. Using her lips and tongue, she moved the bottle until the sharp end was downwards. Or upwards. Whatever.
Much to her chagrin, however, she couldn’t reach the rope. The broken bottle was too short. Sam huffed and tried to impulse herself, but her back didn’t help. She should’ve worked on that at the gym more often. All she needed was a little more, the glass barely touched the rope.
But even though she didn’t have too much muscle, she had a strong will. If she couldn’t get a better position, she’d adjust. Sam tried again. Then again. Then again. And many times more after that. Eventually, the little touches of glass against rope were enough to break it. She dropped the broken bottle and began wiggling. The rope began to loosen, and as soon as she fell, she was free. With some scratches from the tiny bits of glass in her back, but free.
Sam looked around. No windows, but there was the door. Shelves full of plastic bottles and snacks, along with a forgotten opened can. And there was a discarded shirt in the corner. It seemed ripped, but it was too dark to tell. Might be dirt. She considered eating something, but her stomach screaming and pleading that she needed to eat anything soon wasn’t important now. She did grab snacks and two bottles of water. For later, if they hadn’t gone bad. She used the shirt as a make-shift bag, grabbed the rope and the broken bottle from the floor, and opened the door quietly.
Which was useless, because a thug was about to come in. “Shit.”
“She’s loo-”
Sam hit him with her bag and ran away. It seemed the place used to be a warehouse, but if she had to guess it was repurposed recently. The place was full of new unopened boxes and old dust. If only she had her camera on her now… “Where did she go?” the brute from before wondered. “You two, the bets can wait, she’s somewhere here!”
“Don’t tell me she broke free already,” someone groaned.
Sam hid behind a couple of boxes to catch her breath. The exit had to be somewhere. Maybe behind the wall of boxes on the left? Yeah, that was worth a try.
Someone was getting close. Sam gripped the broken bottle tightly and readied herself. One thug passed close enough and, before he could react, she stabbed him in the stomach and took his gun once his hands flew out to grip her. And… he was wearing a vest. Great. “Not this again,” he groaned, more annoyed than anything. He tossed her bottle away, but not before she put the gun to his head. At least that was uncovered.
Sam breathed deeply. “You’ve got five seconds to show me the exit,” she said in what she hoped was a menacing tone. She wasn’t sure she could shoot him, but he didn’t have to know that.
Then, she felt something press against her back. “And you’ve got three seconds to drop that,” she heard behind her.
Well, if these people hadn’t killed her before, chances were they wanted her alive. “Fine,” she said. She dropped the gun.
“Good.”
And then she ran away again.
This time, however, she wasn’t so lucky. They began firing, and one of them got her on her right side. Another bullet grazed her leg. Sam went rolling through the floor. She made an effort to get up. Her body failed her. Her legs gave out beneath her and her muscles were too weak to react. Not even her eyes wanted to work with her. Her stomach was crying by this point. Her head was clouding in a mixture of exhaustion, hunger, and pain from injuries she was starting to notice.
“You’d think she’d learn after the last six times,” she managed to hear over the pain.
“Wait… six… times?”
There were boots in front of her. “Huh.”
“Do you think we hit her too hard last time?” The voice was muffled. Or distant. Or she was going to black out soon.
“Not as hard as I’d like to hit this bitch.”
“The feeling’s, ah, mutual,” Sam managed to say, trying to fight the darkness creeping all over her to no avail.
What was taking Lara so long?
—-------------
Sam sighed and snuggled closer. Lara wrapped her arm around her and kissed the top of her head. She paused the documentary. “You did a good job with the angle, you know. I look fantastic.”
With that work of art she called body, it would be extremely difficult to get a bad shot. “Sweetie, all of your angles are fantastic,” she replied. “And that’s not flattery, your girlfriend here has seen every angle.”
Lara blushed. “Uh, thanks,” she said.
Sam tilted her head and kissed her on the cheek. “You’re so cute when you do that.”
Instead of blushing more, Lara pulled her closer. And kissed her. At the contact, her brain bluescreened. “I love you, Sam.”
Ah. So, she was in a dream. Well, better to enjoy it before she ended up alone in reality again.
She smiled. “I-”
Everything vanished.
“Lara?”
Silence.
“Lara? Where are you?”
Sam could feel someone was close. Hopefully someone who would get her out of this soon, but she doubted that. She kept her eyes closed and her body limp. Everything shook, it felt as if she were in a car going through a dirt road. But she was on a cold floor and her limbs were stretched.
A truck. She was in a truck.
“You know she kicks hard,” someone said. “I still have a sore shoulder from getting her out of that flat.”
“Fine, I’m tying the legs too. Is there any more rope?”
“Let me see… No. Just the one we’re already using.”
“Fuck.”
“If the boss didn’t want her alive for questioning, I’d throw her out now.” Oh. Well, now she knew what the boss wanted with her. She had her suspicions that she was onto something before this ordeal began.
“If the boss didn’t want her alive, I’d have put a bullet between her eyes instead of dragging her in the middle of nowhere and let the police deal with it.” The police would find her research in her apartment and begin pestering them too. Eventually. Probably.
“Agreed. She probably made enough enemies already.” Okay, that was kinda true with how much she found. Still, nothing had gone public yet and many of the people involved might not know someone was onto them and their shady business. She had no idea their boss, or anyone, knew about her research before this.
“We can cut her feet off, though. So she doesn’t cause more trouble, you know.” While it was said like a joke, Sam feared it might not.
“She’s waking up.” Well, so much for not moving.
They swore. “What do we have?”
“Uh… This, it can give us eight hours. It’ll take some minutes for full effect, though.”
“Do it, but you better watch her afterwards. I don’t want to deal with the boss after last time someone died.”
Silence. And then, “Give me a beer first.”
“Deal.”
Sam didn’t want to take the risk, so she opened her eyes. One of the thugs had a syringe with an unknown liquid. The others, realizing she was awake, held her before she could do anything about it. “Get that shit away from me!”
She tried to squirm away, even though it was useless. Unceremoniously, the syringe sank and the liquid disappeared inside her. While it didn’t do anything at first, Sam found her muscles were relaxing after a few seconds. Although she could still feel the bumps in the road. “Okay, our work here is done.” With that, the rest of the thugs went to the other side of the truck and began playing some card game.
That left her with Syringe Guy. “Aren’t you going to ask what we’re gonna do to you?” he asked.
Sam shrugged. Or tried to. Her shoulders didn’t move a lot. She was starting to feel lightheaded. “Why should I? I’m leaving soon a… any… way.” And talking was getting more difficult. Awesome.
He laughed. “Someone sounds so sure…”
“It’s th’ truth. If I was you, I’d jum’ ou’ as s… soon as I co… uld an’… run away.”
“Said the bitch that can’t stand up,” he replied mockingly. “Or even form a sentence.” And whose fault was that?
“A bitch with… s’meone who’ll get ‘er outta ‘ere.”
Syringe Guy leaned towards her, interested. “And who would this someone be?”
Sam looked at him straight into his eyes. “L- Lara Crof’.” It seemed he recognized the name. Good. “She’s t- trackin’ me now. Las’ time ‘is ‘appened, she didn’t… s’are none.” The cultists were also trying to kill her, so it was only fair she defended herself, but in any case Lara could kill effectively if she had to.
He chuckled. “I’d like to see her try.”
Sam yawned. “S… oon.”
“We’ll see,” he replied.
“When ‘m I gonna… slee’ so I don’ have… t' see… y- your ‘upid face?” she inquired.
“Whenever you want. This mostly affects your muscles so they don’t move.”
“An’ why… I ‘till tal’?”
He took a cigarette and lit it. “You think I’m a doctor? I don’t know. Now, shut up and let me enjoy five minutes of peace.”
She complied, but not for his sake. She felt weird. Not in pain, but weird and uncomfortable. Whatever was in that syringe was getting to her head, but not quick enough.
Sam tried to sleep again, but couldn’t. Truth be told, she didn’t know what was going to happen to her and she was nervous. There was no guarantee Lara had picked up her phone and heard her being carried off, maybe she had declined the call and was unaware she was kidnapped. If that was the case, she’d have to wait until Jonah decided she had been too quiet for too long and they all began worrying. And God knew where she would be by then. Or if she would be alive. Or whole.
She stopped that train of thought. She was going to survive this. Lara would eventually find her, no matter how long it took. Yes, that was a reassuring thought. She knew what she heard, Lara picked up. She was going to be safe. She was going to see her best friend again. All she needed to do was wait a little bit longer. That was what she had been doing for years, so she could do it some more.
Thoughts of Lara breaking the door and making her way through the thugs filled her mind as sleep finally came.
—-------------
“Sam. Sam!” A gentle pat on her face. Her body hurt. Her arms and head especially so. Were they moving her? She was too tired to move her eyelids, let alone her legs, so they would have to carry her again. Maybe the drug was still working. The hand remained on her face. “Wake up.”
Funny, that reminded her of Lara when she woke her up when she had a class she couldn’t miss. She’d talk like this when Sam had been drinking too much the night before and make sure there was enough water and meds to treat her massive hangover. So soft and full of care. If only it could be something else than a dream of hers this time.
Wait. She was too aware to be asleep.
Sam made an effort to open her eyes. The figure in front of her was unfocused, but she’d bet her career that it was Lara Croft kneeling in front of her. “Lara?” She couldn’t keep her eyelids from closing for a brief rest, but she heard her sigh in relief.
Her body suddenly moved forward and Sam registered her arms hurting less. Feeling Lara’s hold over her for the first time in such a long time was so nice… “Yes, I’ve got you.”
Sam let out a laugh that was more like a relieved breath. Her eyes were beginning to adjust. She didn’t recognize the place she was in, but that wasn’t important.
What was important was that she was safe. With Lara. Together again. Finally.
“I knew… you’d come,” she said, the tiredness creeping into her voice. Sam didn’t try to fight it off.
Lara seemed to notice she was slipping away. “Rest, Sam, it’s over. I’m here now. Sweet dreams.”
Her body followed her instructions almost instantly. As Sam felt Lara caress her lovingly and holding her against her chest, she knew she didn’t need sweet dreams to comfort her this time.