They laid there in the shadows crowded against a busted sink for a little while longer after the soldiers left. Just listening to the alarms blaring and each other’s heavy breathing (her through her nose and him very much through his mouth since his warm breath was ghosting against the side of her neck).
Eventually his hand came off her mouth and she was going to ask him what they were going to do next. Instead she just yelped as she was suddenly pushed and then miraculously standing on her feet. Wolverine came up to his right behind her.
“Ready?” She asked him with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. He nodded and pushed past her. It didn’t seem necessary but he kicked open the unlocked cell door. With such eagerness she was surprised when he merely walked down the long corridor. She wanted to run, you were supposed to run when you somehow find a way to escape hell but he was obviously in no rush. She just prayed he wasn’t having second thoughts. Or maybe he was savoring the moment. Not that the reason why mattered, with a soft sigh of submission she walked right behind him.
“Do ya think they have sensors on tha elevator?” she asked as they got to it. It seemed fairly old, so perhaps not. She looked to him; he just shrugged his huge shoulders and leaned forward to press the call button. It came down slowly. She was praying for it to hurry up already, he was looking down at his boots. Finally it chimed and she tried to enjoy it.
Inside the elevator there was only one button, one to close the doors. She’d never noticed that before but then again no one ever asked her if she wanted to press the buttons. Looking for what she didn’t know, but she watched Wolverine’s face the whole ride up. His eyes didn’t leave his boots.
The steel doors finally slid open again to reveal another set of guard bars locking the elevator from the rest of the base. Theo was there, leaning his back against the bars, a walkie-talkie in a white knuckle grip in his hands.
“No, sir,” he spoke into it as they stepped out of the elevator. “My men haven’t picked up anything on the lowers levels.”
As she crept forward she was for the first time extremely glad to not have any shoes on her feet, even though Wolverine managed to move just as quietly with his lumbering black boots on.
“Uh no, sir. We haven’t found out yet how she got out. Yes. Yes, sir. I know.”
Suddenly Wolverine’s hands were on her hips and pushing her towards the wall. Her hands went on top of his in surprise at his impromptu touch but she managed not to make a sound.
“I understand, Colonel. And we have people outside tracking her. But she couldn’t have gotten far, sir. Someone will spot her. For Christ sakes she’s barely wearing any clothes and has white streaks in her hair.”
Once he had her against the wall Wolverine point one finger at her the pointed down with it. She got the messages fairly clearly. ‘Stay.’
“No, sir. I’m---no, I’m not saying--- Yes, sir. I apologize, sir.”
She didn’t stay. When he moved, she followed. She hoped whatever Theo was getting reamed for was his lacked of keeping up with his military training because it was amazing that he couldn’t basically feel someone the size of Wolverine coming up behind him.
“I’ll join them in a minute. I’m just going to go back down for a little while. I want to see if Wolverine saw something. No, I know. I’ll find someway to get it out of him. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
Metal claws slid out so slow it was even painful for her, but they didn’t make a single sound. Not wanting to witness the act first hand she turned her head to the side and covered her face with her hands and waited.
“I won’t. I’ll make sure he’ll still be good for the hit tonight, sir. What? No. No, sir. I know we’ll find her.”
A scream. “Wo…wo…wo…loo…LOOSE! All armed personal to----“ A wet, slicing noise, a pop, and a loud thud.
She kept her face covered until she heard the familiar groan of a metal cage door. When she risked a look Wolverine was standing just outside of the open doorway, Theo was on the ground, slouched against the bars, his head bent at an odd angle. She came forward timidly, careful to make as wide an arch away from the fallen soldier as she could. She knew she shouldn’t, that she’d regret it, but she looked at his face. Her hand instantly shot out and managed to blindly clutch at Wolverine’s.
Theo’s eyes were wise, staring without blinking at some unspeakable horror off in an unknown distance.
“Oh gawd,” she groaned, more in regret at seeing it herself than him being dead. “Ya should have stayed away from the bars, sugah.” Wolverine dragged her forward by their linked hands, away from the body and closer to freedom.
“Lieutenant? Lt. Theo! What in the hell are you doing? I know she’s loose, you imbecile! Stop playing with that God damn Wolverine and find her!”
They were moving quicker now through the dark corridors, but by no means running. Still hand in hand. She tried to think about how much their lives were in danger, but she couldn’t get out of her head how hot his hand was. It wasn’t sweaty, just hot.
From what she could tell the only thing Wolverine was worried about was the alarms. They seemed to be really bothering him because his face was contorted into a grimace and stayed that way. But they hadn’t run into anyone from the military yet so---Wolverine came to an abrupt stop and so did she when she ran out of length on her arm.
“Ow!” She rubbed her very likely dislocated shoulder with her free hand. “How’s about a little warning next---“
His head snapped around to her, blue eyes glaring at her under thick eyebrows. She opted not to finish her sentence and he went back to staring down the hallway behind them.
She was going to ask him if he heard anything when he jerked her arm out of its socket again, this time pulling her foreword with his command of “Run!”
“Hey! I need backup! All units, all units, sighting on first secondary level. Rogue confirmation . With Wolverine. I repeat with the Wolverine!”
He was trying to kill her. They were trying to kill her and he was trying to kill her. It was very apparent a while ago that she couldn’t run as fast as he could. That didn’t motivate him in the least to slow down or even let go of her hand. Her shoulder was throbbing from being dragged, her lungs were burning from running, her knees were shaking from trying to keep herself upright, and her head was hurting from all the yelling, alarms, and gunfire going off around them. There definitely was something to be said for sitting peacefully in your cell.
Another projectile wheezed passed her ear with a high pitched whistle. Bullet, dart, she hadn’t gotten a good enough look at one to tell, thankfully. The feeling of impending doom and the world crashing around was her clue that this wasn’t working.
“Damn it ta hell,” she swore. “Come on.”
He didn’t stop. She jerked again by her shoulder. “Ah got an idea,” she relented because she was never going to be able to pull him like he did her. His feet were going to have to go with her of their own accord.
“Now!” She yelled. He growled at her but let her pull him around the next corner. All the halls looked the exact same. No posters or maps showing the emergency exists. And did she ever need an emergency exit. She kept running until there was another corner, with no clue where she was leading them she took it.
Just after the turn was a nondescript door. Her mind didn’t register it until after they were past it. Finally clicking she came to an abrupt stop, this time Wolverine going ahead as far as the length of her arm. She winced and swore again under her breath. Being attached to a metal enhanced man was not easy.
“What?” He barked. Even she could hear the footsteps coming.
“Over here,” she tugged on his hand. Thankfully he followed without any more prodding. She stopped in front of the door and glared at it. A pad locked rested comfortably under the handle. She pulled on it once. Nothing. “Cut it off.”
Claws came out, it fell to the ground.
She picked up the fallen pieces of metal as he jerked open the door. They went inside without looking or even caring really where they were walking into. They never got a chance to either because the door shut behind them, pitching them room into darkness. Blind hands reached out in an attempt to feel her way around, find out where the hell they were. Her hand connected with something. Something stringy, wet, and cold. With an ‘eep’ she quickly pulled her hand away, fearing what she might have touched.
Suddenly light bathed over her, an anguished, dingy kind of light. Turning around she found Wolverine, his hand on a long string. She followed the string up with her eyes to one bare light blub hanging down from the ceiling that should have stopped working long ago. One thick black eyebrow hitched up higher than the other at her. With the new light she quickly looked back in front of her. A mop. A supply closet?
“Show off,” she huffed.
Footsteps sounded again and the light was gone as quickly as it came.
A warm hand appeared on the small of her back and pushed her hurriedly foreword. She was just waiting to collide into something in the dark, bracing for the impact. Did didn’t come, instead the pushing stopped then her arms were grabbed. She was spun around and pushed again, shuffling her feet backwards this time. Dizziness was being to dance around her. If the situation wasn’t so dire she would have said that he was screwing with her.
As she was being moved further back she realized they were wedged in between some where. Smoothness under her left hand, probably the wall. Her right hand told her definitely shelving. Her back barely had a chance to tell her about the other wall before the hot hands moved to her shoulders and pushed down.
She whimpered as her legs buckled under her and her butt collided none too softly with the concrete floor. A talk after all this about him learning his own strength was in order. She could feel him moving even closer so she quickly pulled her knees up to her chest, not wanting to risk him stepping on her in the dark. Again she was amazed that Theo didn’t have any notion about what was coming at him.
“Fuck’s sakes! They didn’t just disappear, people. Half you go down this way, the rest of us will take the left corridor. Let’s move, maggots!” It was muffed, by the door or distance she couldn’t tell, but she definitely still heard it.
Panic was beginning to creep up in her throat. She prayed they wouldn’t notice something as trivial as a smallish lock missing from a supply closet door. Because they were sure as hell cornered in here. She tried to will the mass back down to the pit of her stomach, where it belonged. No matter how hard she swallowed the damn thing refused to budge.
Again she couldn’t see but she could feel Wolverine moving. He crouched down in front of her, two huge thighs on either side of her that she had to rest her arms on to keep them from being trapped against her body in the tight space. Between his thighs and his chest that pressed her knees further into her body and her back into the wall she was effectively caged in. She wasn’t springing up anywhere. One burning hand landed itself heavily on her shoulder, thankfully the non-pulsating one, and the other disappeared somewhere behind her. It was probably supporting his body against the wall since he wasn’t absolutely crushing her. With a strong chin settling onto the top of her head the lump finally found its way back down.
The footsteps got louder. They had to be close.
“Woah, guys, wait. Didn’t there use to be a lock on this door?”
‘Ya have GOT ta be shittin’ me,’ she thought. Wolverine’s hand pressed harder into her shoulder, it hurt but not enough that her mind could register pain over fear.
The door opened with a faint squeak, light flooded in. She should have taken the opportunity to look and see where they were, how well they were hidden. Or at least the look on the soldiers faces when they saw them just sitting there. Instead she tucked her head into Wolverine’s chest and clinched her eyes shut.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“What? This door’s supposed to be locked. It wasn’t.”
“What, are you new to the job, man? Do you really think the Wolverine would hide in a fucking janitor’s closet?”
“Shit. No, you’re right. Buddy probably just forgot to put the lock back. He is starting to get over the hill.”
The light went out.
“Which is why we need the find these muties before Wolverine takes is head off just for the hell of it. Come on.”
Door shut. “Oh shit,” she breathed out loud. Wolverine’s head came off of hers as he leaned back again, easing the pressure on her chest.
“They know we’re not outside. That we’re still in tha base,” she pointed out. He grunted.
“Personal gonna get a little thick around here,” she went on, her voice wavering just a bit. He gave no response what so ever.
“Ain’t gonna be able to run willy-nilly through the halls ta tha well marked exit.” She admitted she was egging him on. But she was scared shitless and he was very close. There wasn’t a single tremble in his body.
Her hand slid all the way up his thigh to rest on his hip. With some creaking in her body and a few groans from both her and Wolverine she managed to sit up to her knees, bring her face closer to his. “What we need,” she continued, now that she could sort of make out his features in the dark. She could at least see those blue eyes of his. “Is a distraction.”
His eyes narrowed at her. Well, he really wasn’t going to like this. She leaned closer, resting both hands on his hips. “Ya think ya could track down Sabretooth in here?”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I want to apologize to freelke for openly and bluntly lying to her and everyone else. I said an update for yesterday and it totally didn't happen. In my defense it's a long chapter.... :P
Chapter End Notes:
Poor Lt. Theo. I didn't want to do it but Wolvie was pretty adament that he had to go. If there's any characters you wanna spare you better tell me before this gets too ugly. :~(