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Sherry's the first to wake, panic setting in before she can open her eyes. The metal bands clamped around her wrists and torso, holding her upright in some contraption, set off every red flag and mental alarm she has and she can't help it.
“No,” she tugs on the restraints, fear choking her, “no not again.” Tears well in Sherry's eyes, a knee jerk reaction to being restrained shoving her head first into fight or flight mode. Adrenaline leaves her body cold and her palms slick. She batters herself against the restraints, like a bird in a cage and it takes her longer than she'd like to get her head on straight, to think through the panic.
Clenching her hands into fists Sherry forces herself to stand still, dragging in slow, deep breaths, holding them for a count of seven before letting them out again.
"Think Sherry,” she scolds herself, “come on, it's not the same.” She grinds her teeth, forcing back the waves of memories threatening to drown her. “You're not going to let it be the same.” She hears a groan behind her, interrupting her mid pep-talk, and her heart stops.
“Jake?” Her voice shakes. She's afraid to ask, to hope it's really him, that they left him alive.
“Sherry?” His voice is thick, dry and graveled.
She sags in the restraints to hear him speak, relief washing over her and leaving her weak. If he's here maybe it'll be okay, maybe she'll be okay.
Sherry forces herself to take three more breaths before speaking again. “Are you okay?” She tries to make her voice level, to keep the fear from creeping in. She has little success. “I saw them clock you pretty good before they dragged me away.” It feels too much like small talk, but it's all she can manage.
Jake struggles in the restraints behind her, metal clanking at his efforts but Sherry already knows it's useless. “I'll live,” he grumbles and she can feel him shift behind her. Sherry wishes more than anything she could see him, as if it'll make him more real somehow. “You?”
Sherry wants to laugh but she doesn't know if it's the adrenaline or if it's actually funny. Jake seems to realize his mistake a moment later.
“Sorry, stupid question. Of course you're all right super-girl.” She can hear the smiles in his voice. She turns her head to the side in an effort to catch a look at him, but all she can see is a slice of his shoulder. It's better than nothing.
“Just because my body heals,” she says slowly, “doesn't mean I'm okay.” It sounds too vulnerable, too much like a confession. Maybe it is.
Sherry doesn't know where the sudden burst of honesty comes from but it feels good to say it, to let it out. “In spite of the virus and its side effects I'm still...” She struggles for a word other than 'human' but can't seem to find one. She leaves the thought hanging in the air, open-ended, unsure of how to finish. In the end she doesn't have to.
“Human,” Jake says for her and it makes Sherry's heart swell.
She hates the way her eyes sting and she blinks rapidly to keep from crying. “Something like that.” The words come out tight and choked and Sherry hopes he won't notice. They lapse into silence, Sherry lost in her thoughts until Jake drags her back out again.
“What're you thinking super-girl?” he asks, his voice unbearably kind. “You're awfully quiet back there.”
“Nothing.” It's a lie and they both know it. She says it too fast, but it's too late to take it back.
“Come on,” he coaxes. “You're scared.”
For the first time Sherry's glad he can't see her. “Through all the shit we've seen, you've never been scared. But now you are.” Jake cranes his head to see her reflection in the glass. “What did they do to you?”
“Nothing." She's trying for blithe indifference but it comes out high and tight. "We haven't been here that long.”
“That's not what I meant.”
Sherry bites her lip, swallowing thickly. She stiffens in the restraints but when she speaks her voice is soft. “I know what you meant.” She doesn't want to talk about it. She doesn't want to think about, let alone talk about it.
But maybe it's their location or the similarity to all the years she's already spent in a lab, or her brief stint of honesty but she tells him.
“Maybe the better question is what they didn't do to me.” Her voice is bitter and hollow, her mind lapsing back into the past. “If you can think it they did it, pushing me, testing my limits...” She fades out and the silence is painful.
“Did they find them?”
Sherry's hands clench and she grinds her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut against the pain. “No.” She barely manages to get the word out through the knot in her throat.
“Shit," Jake mumbles, "I'm sorry.”
It shouldn't matter, this one apology from a man who had nothing to do with the years of torture she endured but she knows he means it. The sincerity nearly breaks her.
“Why? They weren't.” She jumps when she feels his fingers brush her own and then she's craning her own hand back, stretching her fingers until she can twist them with his. It's painful and awkward, but the touch helps ground her, bringing her back out of the moment, the memories. She thought she'd moved past it. Or at least buried it deep enough it would stop affecting her. Guess she was wrong.
“What about you?” She knows she's changing the subject, but she doesn't care. She doesn't want to talk about it. “What are you thinking?” They should be looking for a way out, but she can't resist the urge to ask, to probe just a little deeper into the psyche of the man she knows so little about. Turnabout was fair play after all.
Jake is silent for so long she's beginning to think he either hasn't heard her or she's pushed too far, that he won't answer. He squeezes her fingers and the gesture keeps her from apologizing long enough for him to speak.
“That I should have kissed you when I had the chance.”
Sherry forgets to breathe. The admission shocks her, stealing the breath from her lungs and leaving her flushed. Her heart races and she has no idea what to say. She uses the tried and true method of changing the subject. Again.
“Can you reach my thumb?”
If Jake is caught off-guard by the question, the abrupt re-direct, he doesn't say it. Instead the fingers of the hand touching hers start reaching, probing, stretching up and over her thumb.
“Yeah, with a little work, why?”
Sherry swallows thickly, trying to brace herself for the pain. “Because I'm going to need you to break it.”
Jake's hand jerks out of her own so fast it leaves her reeling. “Are you serious?” he snaps.
“Yes Jake,” she throws back. “I can't get out otherwise. If I can get my hand free maybe I can get us out of this.” She wiggles her fingers at him but he holds his hand out of reach and won't let her touch him. “I'll be fine,” she coaxes. “It's not like it won't heal itself a minute later.” It's supposed to be a joke but he doesn't laugh.
“That doesn't matter.” She's thrown by the heat in his voice, how scathing he sounds. “You're asking me to hurt you. Just like all the others.” She senses him shaking his head. “I won't do that.”
“It isn't the same.” She cranes her neck around in a desperate attempt to see him. “They didn't have my permission. You do.” Her fingers reach for his again and this time he lets her touch find him, but doesn't reach back. “Please,” she pleads. “I don't know who or what might be coming through that door. But I can't go through this again.” She squeezes his fingers. “Please Jake. I need you. I need you to hurt me to help me. I can't go through this again. I can't-” Her voice cracks and she flushes in humiliation, her grip on his hand going slack.
Jake squeezes her fingers in his own, keeping her hand from falling. He takes a deep breath. “Nothing's going to happen to you. I won't let it.” He shifts his grip on her hand and Sherry braces herself but before Jake can snap her thumb the shackles whisk open and she's falling. Sherry barely has time to brace herself before she hits the ground.
“What the hell was that?” Jake demands, landing on his feet. He expects to see someone through one of the windows or coming in through the doors, but there's nothing, the silence stretching until it feels ready to snap.
“I don't know.” Sherry rubs her wrist where it aches from breaking her fall, still kneeling on the floor. “Do you think it might have been Chris and Piers?”
“The puppy dog?” Jake shrugs. “Don't know. But I say we get out of here before somebody else shows up.” He makes for the far wall where he's spotted an open vent, refusing to look at Sherry. “Think you can get through that? It should lead to that other room. Maybe there's a mechanism to open this door so we can get out...”
“Jake.” Sherry knows he's trying to change the subject, avoid talking about what he's said earlier, but she can't let it go. He stops but doesn't turn around, just listens to the slow approach of her footsteps behind him. She touches his arm, coaxing him around to face her.
Her face is flushed and she's scared, her heart racing, but she can't let it go. “Maybe...” She bites her lip, pulling her hand back, twisting her fingers together. She can't say it, not quite, but she does the best she can. “Just in case?” She peers up at him from under her lashes, lifting one shoulder and letting it drop.
Jake studies her, expression guarded but wanting, and she shuffles half a step forward.
“I don't want to miss another opportunity,” she breathes.
She doesn't realize she's stretched up onto her toes until she wavers, hands reaching out to rest against his chest to keep her balance. Jake's hands find her hips on reflex to keep her from falling. For the first time he looks scared, but he doesn't pull away. He doesn't move any closer either and Sherry's fingers pinch at his shirt in frustration.
“Damn it Jake just kiss-” She doesn't get a chance to finish the demand before he's swooped in, capturing her mouth with his own. She lets out a noise of surprise, caught off guard by the heat in his kiss as he presses into her, hands circling her back to crush her against his chest, hot and desperate.
Finally catching up Sherry stretches on her toes, arching into him, her hands finding his face, tracing over his jaw, catching his lips with her teeth. He groans, setting off a flash of heat inside her. She tips her head back, opening her mouth and he follows her, sliding his tongue against her own, fingers curling in her hair.
Every coherent thought vanishes from Sherry's mind, leaving her stunned and all she can think about is how much she wants him.
She isn't ready to let him go when he finally pulls away looking as dazed as she feels. Her hands are still clutching at his shirt, trying to draw him back in but Jake won't let her. He pets her hair, smoothing it back from her face and Sherry watches his Adam's apple bob as he swallows. The touch feels like an apology but Sherry leans into it anyway.
“Don't you dare say you're sorry,” she rasps. “Because if you never do that again you will be.”
“What?” he teases, “Kiss you?” He drags his thumb down over her lip. “Or apologize?” Sherry can hear the smirk in his voice and opens her eyes to glare at him. His smirk spreads into a full grown grin and Sherry frowns.
“Shut up,” she scolds. “Now boost me up so I can get through that vent and see about getting us out of here.”