By Absinthe Additional Warnings: Lesbian UST ahead. Chapter 15: Oh Gods, what was I thinking? I'm going to get her killed. Maia thought frantically as she let Sarah tape on a clean bandage. "You're thinking about changing your mind aren't you?" The blonde teasingly tugged at one of the long strands of Maia's wild ebony hair. "Now why would I go and do a thing like that?" The dark woman retorted, her jocularity revealing not a hint of the doubt she felt. She started to button the shirt up clumsily with her left hand. "Let me get that." Sarah circled around and pushed Maia's larger hand away trustingly. She was like a child playing with a lioness that did not know that those soft paws were capable of tearing her in two with hardly an effort. Sarah found her eyes wandering above the black buttons she was absently fastening. Maia watched bemusedly, as green eyes fastened on nipples the color of wet sandalwood. Sarah swallowed hard, hoping that the trembling of her fingers was not visible. When the shirt was at last closed to the second button, they prepared the apartment for their leaving. Garbage was bagged, laundry done and clothes packed. Maia scraped the dried blood up off the floor with her torn, scorched clothes, failing more or less completely to avoid getting Ajax in the blisters and cuts that pocked her one useful hand. Swearing lividly, she nevertheless finished the awkward job and disposed of the ragged clothing. When the two had readied everything, it was only 7 pm. They planned to leave after 10 to avoid Sarah's second-shift working neighbors. Sprawled on the sofa, Sarah peered up at her friend. The blonde grasped Maia's left hand and examined its wrist again. "Are you going to tell me about these?" She asked. The darkness that always lurked just beneath the seas of Maia's eyes edged nearer to the surface. Instead of pulling her hand away again, she settled cross legged on the floor. "It's not something I want to talk about. But it wasn't from an arrest if that's what you're wondering. Not saying I've never been arrested, but that was...five years ago I think." "Well then, are you going to tell me what it is you're hiding from?" "I guess, of all people, you're the one that should know. The less you know, the better off you'll be though. Just remember, you can change your mind about coming with me after you hear this." Maia tilted her head to rest on the cushion by Sarah's elbow. "I don't think that's likely." The blonde twirled a lock of Maia's curly hair. Maia quirked an eyebrow. "A little over six years ago, really nearly seven, I..I did a lot of things that...got me into a lot of shit." She paused, ad , what remained unsaid lay heavily in the air. Maia wasn't yet willing to divulge the details of those two years. She had become addicted to morphine. They'd given it to her in the hospitals for her leg, but when she left, the wound as yet unhealed, the powerful drug was all that kept her on her feet. She had nearly destroyed the joint in that leg by using it while under the narcotic's effect. She'd even gotten a tattoo to hide the scars, but the gradual deforming of the bone was unignorable. Maia remembered the intensive sessions she'd spent working with the men. The men that she taught how to fight and kill with and without weapons. They were all highly effective at reconnaissance, assassination, and hand to hand by the time Steve started to develop cold feet two years later, and handed the operation over to the US government. "OK. That's not very informative." Sarah snorted. "I'm sorry, but what happened then isn't important now. A man that I trusted, betrayed me." Even after all those years when he worked with me in picking out jobs to take. He always had a knack for picking out the right clients, the ones that would come through with the money in the end, and not decide to turn themselves and I in for murder after the hit was done. "He handed everything over the Government. He was granted clemency, and before I was caught, I sent one of my men after him, just to find him, to find out why he'd turned us all in, handed over the whole damned operation, but my instructions were mistaken, and Steve was killed." Sarah was now paying rapt attention, despite the gaping holes in the story. "I was convicted of murder, possession of illegal weapons, treason, selling and using illegal drugs, among other more numerous crimes, and sentenced to death by lethal injection. We went through the rehearsals, the last meal...And finally the day came when I went into that room for the last time. There was no one there to watch me die except for the staff and a few reporters. When I woke up-" "You're telling me you survived a lethal injection? That's impossible." "That's just it, it wasn't lethal, it was never meant to be. I was diverted...to serve my time in a different way."Gods I remember that month, after they stopped giving me the painkillers when I couldn't walk on my leg anymore. I couldn't' wait for the day to come when my life would end. And I used to cling to the knowledge that Steve was dead, that I'd had my vengeance., " They told me that we were protecting the people from terrorism. And I guess we were, but none of us ever really knew what was going on. When we first got out of training, they told us what we thought was the truth, but later I was promoted I guess, to head missions and control and train my own agents. Then they told me that everything I'd been told before was possibly not true, and that it was now my responsibility to make my agents believe, to cater to their emotional needs and keep them under control. I was good at it." Maia ran her fingers through her hair roughly. How many did I kill to save my own life? "Not that I'm proud of it. That's why I had to leave. I couldn't keep lying to them. I held their lives in my hands. If I was given the order, I had to be ready to terminate the men and women that I had trained myself instantly. Or I would be terminated."I owe them though. Section gave me new bones, taught me how to walk again, and took away the physical marks of my life before. Even that tattoo is gone now. "So the people who made you do that are the ones that are after you?" "I certainly hope not. They should think I'm dead. I left all my equipment and a tooth. Hopefully that will be enough." "A tooth?" "Yeah. Not much of a human body would have survived an explosion of the intensity that blowing all that propane caused. That's why I didn't get out fast enough to avoid getting burnt...It took me longer to get the thing out than I thought it would." "You pulled one of your own teeth out!!??" Sarah sat up in shock, still disbelieving, but edging closer to comprehension of the truth. Maia nodded and opened her mouth for the younger woman to confirm that one of her molars had been recently wrenched out. "This can't all be true. Why don't you tell someone about these people? There must be someone who can stop it!" "Sarah, don't you see? They must be working for the government, or else they would never be able to get hold of so many convicted criminals right out of prison. They get results I imagine, though their methods are..." "Horrifying." "Yes. They're sanctioned, or else they have some kind of power over the government somehow. I don't know. They kept us in the dark, all us disposable people." Maia turned her gaze back to her friend. "So do you still want to come with me?" "Of course I do. You didn't have a choice about what you were doing!" Sarah clung to that idea. "Don't you dare try to victimize me in this. There is ALWAYS a Choice." The bronze woman grabbed Sarah by the shoulder and shook her once. "You're not seeing the truth here. I'm a murderer Sarah. Coming with me could be the biggest mistake you ever make." "MAIA! Stop it. I have to come. I love you. I told you, you said I don't know you, but I do. I know who you are NOW, and that's all that matters. You've changed." "How can you be so damned sure?" Maia snarled. "I know!" Sarah tried to wrap her arms around the resisting woman, "You saved me back there in that alley, and you trusted me enough to come here when you were hurt. In a half an hour, we're going to leave this city, and we're not coming back. OK?" Maia gave in to the comfort of Sarah's warm embrace. There were no tears. Back to Chapter 14 Back to The Beginning Back to the fic page
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