Don't Let Go

Chapter One~Meet N' Greet

Terrified. That was a good word for the emotion that kept shooting within her. It went with the beat of her heart, along with the pain that radiated from her ribs. She couldn't run fast enough to get far away from the people following right behind. Quickly ducking behind a trash bin, she slid to the ground in an attempt to catch her breath. It was less than thirty seconds before she heard the footsteps rounding the corner.

"Check the boiler room, we'll go this way. C'mon."

A quiet sob excaped her throat, and she pulled one of her hands away from the wound in her side to cover her mouth. With each passing second, the footfalls came closer and closer. She nearly screamed when she suddenly heard the sound of fighting. Her brain went into overdrive, her imagination coming up with the worst situations. The woman curled in tighter into the corner as tears burned their way down her cheeks. Please, she prayed. Please, just get me out of here, someone, please. Save me. Then she did scream. Someone grabbed her roughly by her arm and yanked her up.

"Please, don't hurt me! I don't know anything!"

"Quiet!" her perpetrator hissed. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

"You're not?" she whimpered.

"No. Listen, Tamara, my name is Eliot. I need you to calm down, alright." Then, as if to himself, "Why did it have to be me?"

"Excuse me?"

The man known as Eliot looked at her shocked. "Sorry, not you. My team."

"Your-what...what the hell is going on?"

"Guys, we need a way out. We've got more incoming. ETA sixty seconds." Turning back to her, he realized how she was holding herself. "How bad?"

"Knife between the bottom two ribs. I don't know how bad it is right now, but I think I'll be ok as long as I don't run anymore."

"Sorry, sweetheart, but we're about to have to run some more." Grabbing her hand, he tugged her along behind him. Only a moment later they were stopped by an air vent dropping in front of them. Both looked up, and a blond braid poked out.

"Are you two just gonna stand there and stare, or are you gonna grab on?" She lowered herself enough to reach the two. The man interlinked his fingers and motioned for her to jump.

"Are you crazy?!"

"Just-" Eliot made a face at her, motioning for her to hurry.

A growl of exhasperation, she put her hands on his shoulders and a foot into his hands. With a muttered count to three, he hoisted her up into the waiting arms of his quirky accomplice. A sharp cry made it out of her mouth as she was pulled over the lip of the vent, but was silenced by the thin blonde woman, who placed a gloved hand over her face. "Shh." She moved away and threw a rope down. "Grab it, I can't reach you and you're too heavy."

"Shut up, and pull, Parker."

"Hey, you mind?" The newly named Parker handed her the end of a long black rope. Realizing what she meant, Tamara started pulling on it despite the pain. Below them, she heard shouts and her initial rescuer began pushing her towards the direction Parker was going.

"Move, we gotta get outta here before-" shots rang out, making holes in the metal. Eliot sighed and flipped his long hair out of his face, "That. Come on."

They crawled through the air ducts for a few moments, before she was hit with the feeling of cool, fresh air on her face. And then fell face-first onto the sidewalk. "Ow. Crap."

"Come on, darlin'. Up you get, we've got a ride to catch."

"More running?" she asked.

"Yeah, more running."

And they were off again. Running across the empty parking lot, she started limping badly. Her leg burned, causing her to slow. A dark van came screeching down the road, coming to a halt in front of them. The door slid open, a dark skinned man yelled at them to get in, slamming the door once they had. The motion of the van caused her to fall backwards into Eliot, which in turn caused her to scream in pain.

"What happened in there?" a voice called from the front.

"They got to her before we did. One of them took a knife to her."

"Nate, we need to get her to a hospital!" Another voice.

"No, we can't do that. We'll take her back to the house, fix her up there."

"We don't have the equipment. What if she's got internal bleeding?"

"Eliot, you know your way around a needle. See what you can do when we get there. Everyone else, get the stuff he needs to take care of her."

"Take care of me? Who the hell are you people?! What do you want with me?"

"Relax," the mysterious man said. "We aren't going to hurt you. We just need to get you somewhere safe. It's alright, just-"

"Can't Eliot just knock her out or something?" Parker quiped.

"I ain't hitting a lady if she ain't hit me first."

"Well, then give her something."

"None of you people are touching me with anything. I swear to God, if any of you crazies even think about it, I am going to kick the living daylights out of you!"

"Now, now, baby girl." The black man crooned. "Why don't you just calm down." Noticing that he had a syringe hidden in the palm of his hand. True to her word, she kicked out at him and hit him twice. Once in the groin and another in the chest.

"Damn, Hardison. Didn't she just say don't touch her?" Eliot's voice wobbled with laughter.

"Shut up."

As the adrenaline wore off, she started to feel more and more pain in her right leg. It started off as just a throbbing, then got more intense, until it just burned with every move and bump of the van, until she was crying out every time. It wasn't very long before everyone was staring at her and wondering.

"What is it? The stab wound?" The long haired man moved her hand to check.

"Naw, man. It's already started clotting. Something else is wrong."

"My leg! It hurts."

"Lemme see."

"Don't!" She jerked away from him. "Please don't. Just...jsut wait until I've gotten some anesthesia or something."

"Knocking her out is still an option," said Parker in a sing-song voice.

"No need, we're here." The car jerked to a stop. And the driver turned around. "Now, how do we get a blood-covered, tearful, crying girl all the way up there?"

And that's the start of how Tamara was smuggled from the car, through the lobby, up the elevator, and into Nate's apartment.

"We don't have any anesthisia." Eliot informed her, turning to Nate he asked, "How the hell don't you have any anesthisia in your first aid kit? Have you not been around us long enough to know?" He turned back to the woman currently laying on the kitchen table. "Darlin' you're gonna have to settle for the old fashioned stuff. What's your poison?"

"Whiskey, if you have it."

"What, no vodka?" Hardison snarked.

"Whiskey is better for disinfectant, and it numbs me out more than vodka does when I drink it." They all just looked at her for a moment, before Eliot shrugged.

"Alright. I'll get you a bottle. Jim or Jack?"

"Jack."

"You got it." He was gone for a moment, then came back with a full bottle of Jack Daniel. Nate started to complain. He was silenced with a look. "Here."

She unscrewed the top and gulped down a good amount of drink. She winced slightly at the burn as it hit her stomach, then handed the bottle back to him. At his insistance, the other men left so she could take off her shirt and pants. Eliot turned his back from her when she was undressing and held out a blanket to cover most of her body. The two females held her at her shoulders and knees so that he could get to work. The knife wound was the most urgent, so he decided to do that one first. He poured a good amount into the hole, causing her to hiss in pain and Sophie and Parker to hold on tighter. There was no debris in the hole, luckily, so he simply stitched it up.

"Alright, now, ladies, I'm gonna need you to hold on tight. This filly's 'bout to start bucking." He poured more whiskey on her leg where the blood oozed out. It wasn't too bad at first, until he got a good look at it. "Uh, sweetheart, you're gonna want to bite down on something. Hold on..." he trailed off, looking for something to give her. He finally just gave up and pulled his belt through his loops and folded it up. "Here. Sorry, it's not all that clean, been through a rough life."

"Just give me the damn belt." He chuckled and put the leather between her teeth. The other two bore down as he started poking around in her leg-meat. In turn, she started screaming through the belt.

Nearly half an hour later, Tamara was laying limply against the table, her ragged breathing coming out in wearied sobs. Another shot of whiskey had her gripping Eliot's shirt-sleeve.

"Shh, it's alright, darlin'. It's all over now. I'm done. You're ok. I gotta wrap your leg up, 'kay? I'm gonna need you to let go for a minute." She nodded again, relaxing just enough for him to menouver her leg so he could get the bandages around it. "It's alright. Sophie's gonna go get you some clothes."

"Uh, little problem with that, dearest. She's a little...y'know...curvy for anything I or Parker have."

"Well, what else are we gonna do? She can't walk around in a blanket and underwear."

"I'm sure you've got something she can borrow for the time being."

Eliot rolled his eyes. "I've got some sweats and a tank top she can use."

"You might wanna get that girl a t-shirt." Hardison piped up from the doorway. "She too...womanly for just a tank top. Believe you me, my friend, we'd all be seeing her business. Well, if I hadn't already seen all her business. Not a lot goin' on on the interwebs." The other male disappeared for a moment.

"What the..." she gulped in a breath, "hell are you...doing...going through my carbon footprint?"

"Aw, baby girl, we knew everything about you the second we got on this case. Except why these bad guys wanted you in the first place."

"Hey, Hardison, why don't we leave the questions for the morning. Poor girl's been through hell tonight. Here, sorry if they're a little big. Look, you're gonna stay here for tonight. Tomorrow, after you've rested, had something to eat, then we'll start asking questions."

"Ok." She took the offered clothing and slid the articles on under the blanket. After that, she was led to a spare bedroom and tucked in. She was out before Sophie even left the room.