Lila

She heard the beeping before anything else. It made her head hurt. But she couldn't escape it and was eventually forced to open her eyes. The room was dim, but still made her squint. Her chest hurt terribly and her mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton. She tried to swallow and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.

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She blinked, at first certain that Dane's father had moved her away from Dane to some little room of his own. But the beeping machine was clearly a heart monitor. There were tubes running from the inside of her elbow to a stand next to the bed. And… and she remembered.

Chris. Dane made her go. The pain of being in that rattling bin, all curled up. The way Chris had lifted her out so gently, rushing her to a van outside the building. The too-fast journey through the city streets. And she cried the whole way because they left Dane there.

They left him.

She left him.

She tried to say his name, but her voice wouldn't work, and her tongue felt too big for her mouth. It took a minute, but she was able to find the little button to call a nurse and she pressed it and pressed it and pressed it until running feet appeared in the doorway—two nurses, eyes wide and faces serious.

"What's wrong? Are you in pain?"

She tried to say yes, but her voice wouldn't work. She pointed to her mouth and mouthed "Water."

The nurse, who was checking her monitors and adjusting something on the stand next to the bed, looked to the woman behind her and said, "Can you get her a glass of water please?" The other nurse nodded and left the room.

The woman who stayed was older, her hair beginning to gray. She clicked a few buttons on the keyboard in front of the monitor, then turned to Lila, her eyes intent. "You're Lila Farris—I mean, Daniels?"

Lila nodded. The woman walked to put a hand over Lila's. "Do you know where you are?"

Lila mouthed the word hospital, and the woman nodded. "You were brought in last night with a broken rib that had caused internal bleeding. You were lucky to get out when you did. Your chest cavity was beginning to fill and eventually would have collapsed your lung. Someone was taking care of you," she said quietly.

Lila blinked. She'd known she was in pain, but she hadn't realized… She frowned at the woman, who smiled back. "You're fine. The doctors manipulated the rib back into place and drained the bleeding. Now you're under observation. We understand you went through quite a… difficult few days."

Lila nodded again. Then the other nurse, younger with brown hair and a sweet smile, turned up with a lidded cup and straw for Lila to drink. She sucked hard at the water and drained it in seconds.

"Is that better?" the nurse asked.

"Yes," Lila rasped.

"Lila!?" the familiar voice made her swing her head around quickly, which hurt her side, but Lila's eyes immediately filled.

"Chris?"

"Are you okay?" he rushed to her side as the nurses backed away to give him space to make it to the bedside and wrapped his arms gently around her.

Lila sobbed and it hurt, so she sucked in and tried to swallow back the tears. Chris kept murmuring, "It's going to be okay. I promise. It'll all work out… It's okay, Lila. I promise…" and stroking her back. But the nicer he was, the harder her tears pressed until she was forced to pull out of his arms and try to mop herself up because she was going to lose control completely.

Chris watched her, frowning, as she wiped her face and accepted a box of tissues from the nurse.

"Dane?" she rasped to Chris as soon as she could speak, still dabbing at her eyes with the tissues.

Chris blew out a breath. "I think you should rest for a little while and then we can do a full debrief—"

"Chris, tell me," she croaked. "I won't be able to rest. Tell me."

He looked at the nurses and they both nodded and walked out, closing the door softly behind them. Then Chris pulled a chair over to the bed from the wall and sat down, holding her hand on top of the blankets as she stared at him, frowning.

"We couldn't get him out," Chris said, running a hand through his hair. "I sent the back up team in as soon as we got out, but his dad returned and found the security guys… there was nothing we could do. Sending them in would have been a death sentence."

Lila nodded sadly. "What happened? Why could you only take me?"

Chris shook his head. "It was so lucky we could even get you out. Lila. We were supposed to just be doing reconnaissance. When the guys got into the security bay and I realized he was gone, and we had eyes on him… I knew I could get in and get out quickly, but… it was so close. I'm sorry it was only you. But I'm so glad we at least got that far."

Lila put her face in her hands. "I can't believe he's stuck there. Is there any chance we can get people in again?"

Chris's face pinched and he looked away from her.

"Chris?" she said, desperate. "What is it?"

"His dad took him somewhere, and we don't know where. We're working on it. We have leads. But… we haven't confirmed anything yet. I'm so sorry, Lila."

She sobbed, then caught herself as her side screamed at her. It was so unfair! So unfair! Dane had been so quick to get her out of there last night, and she understood why, but… "He'll kill him," she cried.

Chris was on his feet and had his arms around her again, rubbing her back gently on the good side, whispering reassurance. "We aren't done yet. Don't let yourself believe that. We'll get him out. We will," he said.

But Lila just kept crying.

He had to believe her.