Reid hadn’t gone to university here. He’d never stepped foot inside the enclosed walls of the Victoria campus until after the world had gone to shit. But, as he approached the long wall of dormitories, he’d come to think of it as the closest thing to home.
He knew the walls, which doors opened loudly, the rarely used paths. Each building on the small enclosed campus was connected to one another through a series of underground corridors. Reid had spent many nights walking them in the dark, only fire doors separating one section from the next. Though, before he left, a small incursion from outside threats had forced them to create barricades down in the basements of the dorms.
But the closures had never been perfect.
When he and Helena were together, he would sneak between the buildings in a foolish attempt to keep their rendezvous quiet. Much good that did. He thought back to Finn’s prodding, his jabs about Helena and it was clear the man put two and two together.
Slipping into one of the opened dorms, Reid checked to make sure no one was around before he headed into the basement.
He sighed in relief as he approached the first barricaded door. It wasn’t much more than plywood and duct tape, a testament to the lack of for-thought of the council. They should have fixed this, he thought with a huff but went to work peeling off the layers.
Once past the door, he approached the bottom of the stairwell. The dorm had been locked down tight since they’d moved Ashley inside. Getting up to the top floor where she’d been housed wouldn’t be as easy as getting into the building itself.
As he approached the main floor, he spied two men guarding the front door of the building. He couldn't hear a word they said with the glass door of the stairwell between them, but it provided a buffer of silence. Neither seemed too interested in their job and chatted away while he mounted the stairs.
A whistling echoed from the top floor. Another lone guard waited just beyond the barely open stairwell door. Can't get by them without being seen, Reid told himself, the fatal flaw in his plan. But, as he peeked through the open crack, he watched Shannon balance on a chair, rocking it back and forth.
Reid opened the door.
“The fuck are you doing here?” Despite the curse, Shannon smirked and let his chair flop down with a thud. “Do you know how much shit you'll be in if someone sees you?”
Reid gaged the response and relaxed. He'll cover for me, he decided. “Won't be more than a moment.” Reid walked past Shannon and gently knocked on the door before entering Ashley's room.
She lay face down on the floor or looked to be until she lifted herself in a smooth push-up. She’d rolled up her sleeves and pants and a thin sheen of sweat dappled her skin. With her back to Reid, she pushed through another three reps, her form perfect. In no way could he have guessed she’d been injured just days before. All signs of illness had left her. She was a vision of health and fitness.
“I told you, Shannon, I don't need anything else,” she said with a huff. Ashley leaned back until she was kneeling. “Unless you plan on whistling again. In which case…I need you to not.”
She looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened when she saw Reid.
“Hi,” he said, his lips curving in a grin.
For a moment, a small smile lifted her lips, a brief lapse in control. But Ashley soon corrected it as she looked away and stood up in one smooth motion.
“You shouldn't be here,” she said.
“Little late on that.” Reid reached back and closed the door. “Besides, it’s not likely I could get in any more trouble.”
“I doubt that.”
He smirked but she wasn’t smiling back. The warning had been a little too serious for his liking. “I thought I'd see how you were doing.” Reid hadn’t decided how to bring up Lancaster, but the small talk felt like empty space. “Are you recovering alright?”
“Better than expected.” The words left her like ice, cold and hard. She turned around and held out her hand to him.
Reid took the invitation to step closer. The mark on her palm looked more like a faded burn than the severe tissue damage he'd seen days before. The line that trailed along her arm, the slice Monte had dragged through her flesh, could have been a scar decades old. He turned her hand over, her skin warm in his, and the reverse had healed too. Without thinking his finger traced along the discoloured skin of her palm before she pulled it back.
It’s… inhuman recovery. “You look much better,” he said, swallowing. “Healthier I mean.”
She stared at him. Unflinching. Unwavering. Reid’s palms started to sweat and he couldn’t help but feel like he was back in Finn’s room. But this time, he was the one squirming.
“Is that it then?” Her arms crossed over her chest and he found himself having a hard time reading her.
The sun barely came in through the window casting a beam across her shoulder and hair. How much she had changed still left him breathless, not just since Monte’s assault, but since the bite back in the woods.
Absolutely remarkable. He stared back at her, meeting the intense gaze she levelled on him. And in those quiet moments, his uneasiness died. Her shoulders seemed to relax, her arms uncrossed, and the tensions between them dissolved in the silence.
He considered stepping forward, wondering when they’d be alone again - if ever - when a sobering thought hit him.
Finn was right. Reid exhaled and looked away. You are too fucking close.
Taking up a piece of wall on the opposite side of the room Reid decided to get down to business.
“The council has decided to transfer you to Casa Loma.”
Across from him, she leaned against the frame of the window and nodded.
“There's a doctor there, Lancaster. He has radio parts that we need and somehow he found out you were here, I don't know how. Helena might have dropped the hint, that business about a cure and all. I guess the how doesn’t really matter all that much.”
“Why not have him come here?” she asked.
Reid shrugged. “Not sure. It’s dumb to move you and risk your death, one way or another, it is what it is.”
With a huff, she arms crossed again.
“They’re sending you with Shannon and a few others that the council think are…” His choice of words filtered from the derogatory to the downright vulgar. “’Loyal’ enough to make the right choices.”
Ashley stiffened. “Monte?”
“Yeah. Thought you should know.” He exhaled. “But the others will keep him and his boys in line.”
“But not you?” she asked. For a moment he hoped it was disappointment he heard, but a part of him knew it was more wishful thinking.
“Not supposed to be. Apparently, I’m not trustworthy.”
She chuckled a little to herself and hearing her laugh made him relax.
“Finn's going to sneak me out to join the rest on route. Less likely to get sent back if I'm already outside the walls.”
“So we're… walking?” A touch of that sarcastic woman came back as she asked. “Isn't that a bit stupid?”
“More than a bit. But don't worry. They'll be enough of us heavily armed and it's not a long trip. You’ll be safe.”
Ashley nodded slowly and turned her back to Reid. “You’ll be safe” sounded so hollow to him, a promise he knew he couldn’t keep. And even if he did get her to Lancaster safely, then what?
Why am I even going? he wondered without coming to a conclusion.
“You could run,” he blurted the words in a whisper.
Ashley looked over her shoulder as if shocked he’d said it aloud. “It’s crossed my mind.” Her voice softened. “Not really sure that’d go over all to well here, would it?”
“Since Monte will probably be in charge I can imagine they'd tear him a new one.” He said it more as a joke but he knew that wasn’t what she meant.
Surprised again, he watched her laugh lightly.
She's right there, man. Daring another step, he moved towards her, trying to sate the need to reach out. “I know you could probably get out of here on your own and… I get why you haven’t. But this trip could be your last chance.”
She moved as if to turn around when knuckles rapped on the door.
Shannon poked his head inside. “Time to fuck off, Reid. Eric's coming to take the next shift and he’ll freak on me if you’re here.” He peered between the two of them before closing the door again.
Reid swore.
“It would be a bad idea,” Ashley said. “Trying to run.” She clarified but Reid felt like that wasn't what she really meant.
“Too fucking close,” Finn's voice echoed in his mind.
With a nod, he stepped back and made for the door.
In the stairwell, Shannon peered over the railing. “Eric's downstairs now. If you sneak onto the second floor you can wait 'til he passes.”
Doing as he was told, he made it to the second floor without being seen and escaped the dorm the same way he’d entered.
Knocking on the open door frame to her office, Reid startled Helena. She looked up from her open drawer before slamming it shut and wiping her lips.
“Still sneaking chocolate?” He tried to start it off the right way but Helena’s shock had already morphed into a scowl at the sight of him.
“No, not chocolate.” She didn’t invite him in or ask him to sit, so Reid did so himself. He closed to door behind him and approached her desk. He never liked the feel of her office, something sterile about it. Just like her bedroom it had this lack of personality and settled feel. Like she was planning on having to leave.
“I talked to Finn.”
“Of course you did,” she snapped. “I saw you lurking after the meeting. Let me guess, he’s told you everything?” Despite the snap, she avoided his eyes. Very much unlike her usual direct nature.
If he didn’t know her better, which was still a stretch to claim, he’d say she was pissed with how they’d left things. But that wasn’t Helena. She didn’t hold grudges, she wasn’t interested in strings. Uncomplicated had been her modus operandi from the moment he met her.
But this avoidance was new. The tension too. Like a bandaid then, he thought approaching her desk. “He explained a few things. I'll be joining you for the meet with Lancaster.”
Helena sighed. “The council-” But she stopped herself. “I guess you haven’t really changed, have you? Rules don’t matter. Responsibility means shit if it isn’t about what you want.”
“That’s a touch unfair.”
“But not inaccurate.”
Reid shifted uncomfortably. “Look, you don’t need to make this-”
“Is there something you want from me?” She pushed up from her chair and busied herself with collecting books and note pads. Why she couldn’t take five minutes was beyond him.
“Yeah. It’s about Lancaster and Ashley.”
Helena rushed to the door in a huff and locked it. “Are you nuts?” she hissed. “You have got to be more goddamn careful.”
“Stop being paranoid.” He got up and tried to walk to her, but Helena brushed past him. Reid clenched his jaw and sighed out a breath. “I just want to know-”
“I said I needed your help but not to get in trouble! If anyone overhead-”
“No one's out there.” Focusing on his breaths, Reid tried to remain calm. “If we get her to Lancaster, do you actually think you can make a cure with him?”
“I… I don’t…” she shook her head.
“I don't think we can trade her. She seemed freaked out by the whole idea and, like you said, this cure business could be more important. So, if we can get her to Lancaster, can you two work together to get it so she can leave? Convince the council to trade a cure for everyone's safety. Let her be on her way?”
Helena shook her head. “It's too risky.”
“I don’t believe it…” Reid gripped the back of the chair in front of her desk, squeezing the cracked leather.
“I can’t promise anything and if it doesn’t work out with Lancaster, and we get out of here-”
“Now trading her up is a viable solution? Once you get what you need, of course. Jesus fucking Christ Helena…” But it wasn’t about the cure. In his mind he’d conjured images of her slinking out of bed, shutting him out, and pretending he didn’t exist beyond her bedroom.
A huff escaped her. “That’s real rich coming from you.”
“This was your plan. What the fuck could have changed in two days? And don’t pretend you give a shit about everyone else.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“No? I’m pretty sure we both know you’re just too goddamn scared of fucking up.”
The words fell heavier than he thought they would. They sounded righteous in his own head but laid out in the air Reid sounded like an asshole.
“I don't know why I fuckin' came here,” he muttered, heading for the door.
“Yes, a cure is the most important thing. And if, if, we develop it, I’ll talk to the council,” Helena called to him. “But… I just can't think about only myself anymore.” Her eyes looked off in the distance, her face trapped in a state of unsure panic.
Maybe it's finally getting to her.
“Whatever helps you sleep, right?” He unlocked the door and stepped out, not wanting to wait for her retort.
There was only one thing left to do.
Get ready, he told himself. No matter what bullshit comes, just be ready.
Thank you for reading! I'm really happy I get to share this book/serial/conglomerate of words and drama with you. Having readers is amazing. If you have any comments, feedback, hype, etc, I'd love to hear from you too.
