Imprisoned - 15. Momento Mori

"Elliott?"

I snap my gaze up to meet Ryan's, his brown eyes swimming with concern at the sight of me.

I have blood all over the front of my shirt, Alex's blood, and I've been sitting on the edge of one of the chaise lounges by the pool. I don't exactly know how long I've been sitting here, I was lost in my own thoughts, the sound of a gun going off playing on my repeat in my head.

It must have shown, because a moment later I felt a hand on my knee, and then Ryan was kneeling in front of me, that same concerned look still on his face.

I look back at him with swollen eyes, I hate that look. It reminds me of pity, and I don't like people pitying me.

"It's not your fault." He states calmly, giving my knee a gentle squeeze for reassurance.

I scoff and shake my head. "I killed her, Ryan."

"It was an accident." He urged.

My brow furrows at those words. An accident would have been if I just fatally wounded her, not killed her. The words made sense on paper but not in my head. It reminded me of when I was a resident and a patient died on my table. Everyone was quick to say it was an accident, but in all reality I was just cocky, arrogant, and it got someone killed.

"Please… Don't shut me out." Ryan pleads.

I bring my eyes up to meet his, that worry behind his eyes tugging at my resolve. I don't want to talk about this, not right now. I need to process it, mull it over, come to my own conclusions.

"I…" I started to form a sentence but the words were lost in the air. My mind was going to dark places, dark and scary recesses of my brain that I had kept locked away for so long. However, the way Ryan looks at me tugs at those doors and smashes against them like a battering ram.

Ryan places my face in his hands, rubbing my cheeks with his thumbs, and searching my eyes for answers.

"It should have been me." Just like that, those doors bust open and the dark thoughts came flooding out, like my own personal horror story.

Ryan shakes his head, his eyes going glassy. "No, don't say that."

"It's the truth." I say flatly, my own voice even scaring me.

"Listen to me," Ryan grips my face a little harder, his own expression going stern and a fire lighting behind his eyes that I have never seen before. "When that gun went off, I thought it was you, and I felt a piece of my heart die. So don't ever say that shit again, you hear me?" His voice is stern and it breaks slightly at that last sentence, his eyes starting to form tears.

I just blink at him, his words sinking in and leaving me shocked. I hadn't expected Ryan to get furious with me, though it wasn't out of hate, it was out of caring.

"I'm sorry." I reply in just above a whisper, dropping my gaze out of shame.

I feel Ryan's hand grab the back of my head and he pulls our heads together, resting the top of his forehead against mine. I can feel the heat of his breath on my face, and his all too familiar scent that made me feel safe and comforted.

We stayed like that for a little while, both of us telling each other how we felt with nothing more than just skin to skin contact. How can I move forward after killing Alex? She was my friend, my teammate, my sister. When the rest of the team finds out about this it's going to devastate them, Cody especially. How was I going to keep the team afloat through all of this?

My phone begins to vibrate, making us both jump and Ryan separates from me, much to my dismay.

I pull the phone out of my pocket and look at the caller ID. It's an unknown number, but I have a feeling who it was, I just hope my suspicions were incorrect.

I swipe the screen and put the call on speaker. "Hello?"

"Well I'm disappointed you answered, I was hoping Wilson would have finished the job." The husky drawl of General Dreyfus comes through the phone, the mention of Alex's name making my blood boil.

"You mother-"

"Let's spare the theatrics son and get right to the point." He cuts me off and I clamp my mouth shut, the rage rolling off of me like a tsunami, causing my hands to shake.

"What do you want?" I grit through my teeth.

"The same thing as you Pierce, to end this, although we both have different versions as to how we see this wanting to end."

"Cut the cryptic shit Dreyfus and get to the point." I growl.

"Eager are we? Very well. There's a warehouse on Harper and Locust, be there."

"And if I don't show?" I ask with a defiant tone.

Dreyfus chuckles. "You will Pierce, unless you want the rest of your team to die."

He had me there, I would of course show up. No doubt that was where the bomb was, and if the team is in danger I couldn't very well leave them out to dry.

"I'll take your silence as a need for initiative. Be here in one hour, or I start to execute your team. I think I'll start with the mouthy one, Monroe? He's your best friend right? No doubt that loss would finally crack you."

"Fuck you." I growl.

"Or maybe I'll start with Park, given the sight of him, I'm sure putting him down would be a relief." Dreyfus counters, I can practically see the smirk on his face through the phone.

"Fine." I reply through bared teeth.

"Good choice! Remember one hour, oh and Pierce? Bring that boyfriend of yours, no doubt he should be there when you lose."

The line cuts out and I'm left shaking from anger, my grip so tight on the phone that I was sure I would break it's delicate features.

Ryan shakes his head, his face flat and expressionless. "Trap."

"What else are we supposed to do Ryan?" I shoot back, a little too aggressively for my liking. Ryan cocks an eyebrow at me and I force my lips into a thin line, trying to dial back my anger.

"I'm sorry." I apologize.

"It's okay." He reassures me, rubbing my knee with his hand.

"It's not okay,” I let out a huff of air. “We can’t just walk in there without any way to defend ourselves.”

“We don’t have to.” Ryan looks over in the direction of Alex and the two men that were with her. I followed his gaze and noticed the two assault rifles and a handgun that were set neatly on the patio next to them. It wasn’t much but it was something at least.

"Hey." Ryan speaks up, making me pull my eyes away from Alex and look at him once more. "We're gonna get them back."

His tone is so sure and confident as he speaks, making me jealous and wishing I had that same confidence. I hope he's right, maybe Dreyfus is right. If I lose the rest of the team then maybe it will be the thing to finally make me crack, give into the pressure.

Ryan grabs my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze and just like that, some of those worries seem to dissipate little by little. It's funny how a simple touch from the right person could do that. I look at him and give a wry smile, nodding my head.

"We need to find the warehouse." I decide, standing up and releasing Ryan's hand, but not before giving it one final squeeze.

"I'll round up any weapons and ammo I can find." He replies, moving over towards the assault rifles laying on the patio.

I walked through the house and pushed the doors open to the office, stopping short of the entryway. It definitely looked like there had been struggle here. Both monitors that were once sitting on the desk were now laying on the floor amongst the shattered glass tabletop of the desk. It looked like someone had been slammed into it which, now that I recalled from upstairs hearing the glass break and someone yell out, that made sense.

I eye the tablet which is sitting next to the computer monitors and fish it off the floor, opening up the satellite feed of LA which broadcasts over the large monitors on the wall. I type in Harper and Locust and the feed focuses on a street corner, with a large warehouse taking up much of the block it sat on.

“Oh shit.” I scroll out slightly to reveal the area that it’s located in.

“What?” I hear Ryan ask from behind me, making me jump slightly. I hadn’t even heard him come into the room.

“This warehouse is maybe three blocks away from The Capitol Building-”

“And right across the street from Union Station.” Ryan points to the map.

I look closer at the map and he’s right. The location of the warehouse would make the perfect ground zero for a devastating bomb.

I pull up the heat signatures for the warehouse and what popped up stunned both of us. There were the normal heat signatures of people, I counted ten total, three of them I assume were the rest of the team and the other six I assume to be Dreyfus and his soldiers. Though that wasn’t what caught my attention. Lined up along the inside perimeter of the warehouse were small square heat signatures.

“Are those?”

“Bombs… Yeah I think so.” Ryan finishes my sentence.

It didn’t surprise me that Alex had lied about both the type of bomb, and the location. It made me angry to think about, and also sad, realizing that she would never be able to make up for her wrong doings. Regardless of her loyalties I knew that if given the chance, she would have come back to our side.

"So, we're gonna waltz into a warehouse that might as well just be one giant bomb, crawling with six armed soldiers, not including Dreyfus, and rescue our team while at the same time saving the city from an apocalyptic event. Am I right so far?" Ryan asks.

"Pretty much." I respond in a nervous tone. When said out loud it sounded like the dumbest plan ever. Who in their right mind would walk into a situation like that?

Ryan readjusts his hat, letting out a sigh. He walks up to the monitor and points to a spot in the back corner.

“We go in through here, that should get us in undetected.”

I gape at him slightly, admiring him while he studies the warehouse, considering all tactical options. He looks over at me, the corner of his mouth lifting into a small grin, and his eyebrow arching in amusement.

“What?”

“You're not gonna try and talk me out of this?”

Ryan lets out a snort, the grin never leaving his face. “Why would I? You wouldn’t listen anyway.”

“Is that a bad thing?” I chuckle nervously.

“It can be, but truth be told it’s one of the many things I adore about you.” He gives me a wink, which sends a blush across my face and makes me feel slightly giddy.

After coming up with a plan, and I transferred the blueprints into my wrist computer, we were on our way towards the warehouse. The streets were eerily quiet, which for LA was a rare sight to see regardless if it was five in the morning.

I steal a glance at Ryan, his eyes are focused on the road and his hat pulled backward. Every time a car passes us coming in the opposite direction, the headlights reflect off his eyes making them appear more brilliant if that was even possible.

His eyebrow cocks up in curiosity and I see a smile start to pull at the corner of his mouth. “Stop staring at me, you're creeping me out.” He teases.

“Who knows, maybe I am a creep.” I tease back.

“Impossible, you're too cute.” He gives me a wink.

“Ted Bundy was cute too.”

“Well, I guess we better just cut our losses then.” Ryan gives me one of his crooked smiles.

“Yeah, this is never gonna work out.” I give a heavy sigh.

We both chuckle and Ryan takes my hand, intertwining his fingers in mine. “I’m not letting you go anywhere.” He gives me a warm smile and I smile back, my heart skipping and bounding in my chest at his words. It almost made me forget that we were on our way to a high stakes mission.

Once we near the warehouse Ryan pulls over to the side of the road and kills the engine.

“We should walk from here, it’ll be easier to sneak up undetected.”

I nod my head in agreement and reach for the door handle.

"Wait, Elliott."

I turn around to face Ryan and before I know it his lips are crashing against mine. I let out a surprised and satisfied moan as I part my lips and let his tongue slide in to claim my mouth. A deep rumble escapes from his mouth as his hands find their way to my sides.

I bring my arms around his neck and deepen the kiss, all of the want and desire I feel for him I try to will in this single act. Our tongues clash against each other and my breath pitches as Ryan's hands move from my sides, to my chest, the feeling sending bolts of electricity through me.

"Ryan." I whisper breathlessly between kisses, though not in passion but instead to get his attention. As much as I want to stay here in this moment, savor every minute of it, we also need to get our team back.

"Fucking priorities."

"I know." He whispers back, pressing his forehead to mine. "I just didn't want to never get the chance to do that again."

"We will." I say confidently.

He nods his head in agreement, and we reluctantly break apart, my body screaming for more of his touches.

We both hop out of the truck and begin walking down the industrial road towards the warehouse.

“Are you ready?” I ask, checking my clip to see how many rounds I have.

“Yep, let’s get our team back.” He responds, his face and posture set in a serious tone.

The northeast side of the warehouse wasn’t as heavily guarded as the other side, which was why we chose it. It would take us longer to get to the team, but it would also mean the enemy wouldn’t see us coming.

We hug close to the side of a shipping container, managing to stay out of sight from the two men sitting sentry on the roof. Once we reach the end Ryan peaks around the corner and then quickly snaps his head back. He looks at me and begins giving me hand signals, telling me that there was someone coming. Just then I could hear the sound of gravel beneath boots and the faint smell of cigarette smoke as someone approached the other side of the corner.

We don’t have anywhere to go except back, and as I start to back away Ryan holds up the halt gesture. I comply with a wide-eyed expression, even though everything in my being was telling me to go back and around the other way.

When the man rounds the corner two things happen in rapid succession. First, the man saw us and his eyes went wide from shock, but before he could yell out Ryan punched him in the gut, causing him to keel over slightly. Then Ryan wheeled around behind him, wrapping himself around the man and putting him in a choke hold. He struggled for a few seconds but then finally went limp and Ryan gently lowered him to the ground.

Ryan grabs the man's radio and his gun, slinging it over his shoulder, and tosses me the man's sidearm, which I tuck into my holster.

We duck behind a truck just on the other side of the container and Ryan peeks through the window.

“We're about twenty yards from the door. We’ll have about a ten second window where the door will be out of their sights.” Ryan whispers..

Seeing Ryan work like this was something that I haven’t seen before, he was focused, in his own zone, and god dammit if that wasn’t insanely hot.

“Get ready.” Ryan whispers, snapping me back to reality.

The guards on the roof disappear for a split second and I feel a rough hand grab my wrist as Ryan begins pulling me across the gravel laden parking lot. My eyes were glued to the rooftop intently, looking for any sign of them coming back so we could hide again.

We made it to the door and Ryan went to open it, but instead his body collides with the door, giving a low thud.

"Shit!" Ryan hisses under his breath, jiggling the handle.

"We're gonna have to find another way in." I glance around nervously, making sure no one has spotted us.

Ryan reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet, brandishing a credit card. I give him a confused look as he slides the card between the door and the frame where the locking mechanism is. He jiggles the nob and the door gives a click, slowly opening. We both quickly step inside and I close the door quietly behind me.

"Wow, I thought that only worked in movies." I whisper astonishingly.

"That's come in handy more times than I'm proud to admit." Ryan shoots me a sheepish grin before leading the way down a narrow path between some large wooden crates.

I pull up the blueprints of the warehouse on my wrist computer, locking onto where the rest of the team is located.

"There should be a door up and to the left that'll take us to a staircase. The team is being held in a room at the top of the landing." I explain to Ryan who nods in confirmation.

I was surprised no one else spotted us as we duck around the vast array of large wooden crates and make it to the door, climbing the stairs quietly, two at a time.

We reach the door at the top of the landing and I place my hand on the doorknob, just as I was about ready to twist it Ryan stops me. I give him a puzzled look, wondering why he was stopping me.

"They're going to be guarded." He warns.

"Oh, right, I knew that." I blush from embarrassment.

"It's okay, you're pretty." He teases with a grin and I flip him off.

My eyes catch something metallic above the door and I look up to see a transom window.

"There." I point up to it and Ryan follows my finger, giving a nod of approval.

He kneels down on one knee and laces his fingers together, I catch on and place my boot in his interlocked hands, and he hoists me up so I can see through the panel of glass.

Ryan was right, they are being guarded, but only by two men. They're not pacing, instead leaning up against a desk shooting the shit. My eyes wander to the team, who are all tied together in a circle at the center of the room. I pat Ryan on the top of the head to let him know to put me down, accidently knocking his hat slightly askew.

"What did you see?" He whispers as he lowers me to the ground.

"Two guards with assault rifles." I respond.

Ryan fixes his hat with a thoughtful expression crossing his face.

"Turn around." He commands, pushing at my shoulders lightly.

"Wha-why?" I ask, letting him spin me around and cocking my head over my shoulder to see what he's doing.

He starts rifling through my bag, clearly on the hunt for something.

"Yes! You have one." Ryan cheered under his breath.

"One of what?" I ask trying to get a peek at what he snatched from my bag.

He zips my bag closed and I spin around to see him holding a silver canister in his hand. I quickly recognize it as a smoke grenade, and to be completely honest, I didn't even know I had it in my medical bag out of all places.

He goes to stand on one side of the door and I follow suit, pressing my back against the cool cement wall on the other side.

Ryan pulls the pin from the canister with a click and glances over at me with a look asking me if I'm ready. I nod my head tentatively and place my hand on the cool doorknob, giving it a twist and pushing it open so Ryan can toss the smoke grenade inside.

The sounds of coughing could be heard coming from inside the room and Ryan and I take that as our que that the smoke should be thick enough to conceal us. We pull our scarves up around our faces to protect us from the smoke and then step inside the room.

The room is completely shrouded in smoke that I can barely see, I look around for any signs of movement and see a dark figure stumbling around aimlessly. I can tell by the assault rifle he's clutching that he's the enemy and I quickly advance on him, pulling him into a choke hold. He struggles and I tighten my grip, but he’s strong. Then somehow I'm being lifted off the ground and It then dawns on me that the guy I'm practically riding piggyback, is at least a good five inches taller than me.

I kick at the back of his knee, trying to get him on his knees to give me a better advantage, but there's no use.

He begins swinging around and I hold on for dear life, my legs flying through the air like I'm a rag doll instead of two hundred pounds of beefy muscle.

Just when I begin to panic thinking about what I'm going to do, Ryan appears through the smoke like some sexy action hero bad ass. With a running start he jumps and lands a right hook on the man's temple. He grunts and falls to his knees, giving me the leverage I need to finally subdue him and he falls to the floor with a heavy thump.

"Thanks." I manage to say through heavy breathing.

"Why did you try to put him in a choke hold, he's easily seven feet tall?" Ryan asks, flicking his hand from the pain of punching the brute of a man.

"He didn't look that tall when he was leaned over." I argued.

"Hey, think you guys can stop bickering like an old married couple and come untie us?" Riley asks with an annoyed tone.

I roll my eyes as Ryan and I cross over to them and begin untying them from their restraints. My gaze lands on Cody, who is conscious but just barely.

"Hey, you okay?" I ask, placing a hand on his shoulder.

He nods his head slowly, leaning into my touch.

"Where's Alex?" Riley asks looking around and noticing her absence.

A new pain forms in my chest at the mention of her name. What was I supposed to say to them, how was I supposed to tell them that she was dead, and by my hands no less?

Ryan must have sensed my struggle because he spoke up before I could form the words on my mouth. "Later, we gotta get Cody out of here, then we gotta find the bomb."

I give him an appreciative glance and the glint in his eye tells me that he understands.

"Think you can carry a gun?" I ask turning my attention back to Cody.

"Yeah." He responds weakly.

I pull my sidearm out and hand it to him which he takes with a shaky hand. Ryan hands me his own sidearm so I have one and I drape Cody's arm around my shoulder, placing a hand on his hip. With a little help from him, and Jon, we both stand up, Cody slumping into me. He isn't heavy by any means, but it's a hell of a lot easier carrying someone if they can help at least somewhat.

Ryan leads the way, Riley behind him and Jon taking up the rear to keep an eye on our six. We make our way down the stairs, slowly for Cody and I because of his wounds, but we manage and once we reach the bottom I give a sigh of relief at the fact that we both don’t tumble down them.

We begin walking along the crates, trying to remain out of eyesight, when shots ring out, one of them hitting the top of the crate right next to my head.

"Fuck!" I shout, throwing Cody and I to the ground behind the wooden crate.

Shot after shot barrels into the crates were huddled behind, hoping to god that one of them doesn't find a way through and into one of us.

"There's at least six of them!" Jon shouts.

A shot rings out to my left and I snap my gaze over to see Riley poke back behind the crate.

"Five!" Riley comments with a cocky grin. I give him a grin and shake my head.

Jon pokes his head around the corner of the crate and then jerks back after a shot narrowly misses him.

"Catwalk, at our seven." He states.

Ryan nods sharply and pokes out slightly from behind his crate, ringing out two shots, both of which hit their target.

"Catwalk, at our four!" He replies as more shots ring out from the enemy, causing bits of splintering wood to rain down on us.

Riley jumps out firing a couple of rounds in the specified direction. There's a yelp and then a loud thud from someone falling from a height.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the door to the stairwell fly open and a woman with an assault rifle step through. I whip my gun in her direction and fire off a couple of rounds, both of them hitting her and causing her to flop against the door and then fall to the floor.

"We gotta move!" Ryan commands. It takes me a little bit to realize the gunfire has stopped and it's safe to come out.

I hoist Cody back up to his feet and he gives out a painful groan. We begin making our way towards the door out of the warehouse when a voice barks out, making us stop in our tracks.

"Leaving so soon?"

I don't need to turn around to see who it is, the deep and gravelly voice is recognizable anywhere. Regardless I turn around to see General Dreyfus, standing in a straight posture, hands behind his back, and an arrogant smirk set to his face. Just seeing him standing there so smug makes my blood boil, visions of Alex gasping her last breaths flowing through my mind.

He holds up a small electronic device proudly. "You didn't even get what you came here for."

I assumed what he was holding in his hand was the detonator for the bombs, I mean, what else could it be really?

"You're just going to detonate them anyway, so what are you waiting for?" I dare with a low growl.

He chuckles, shaking his head. "That would be too easy, but I have a better idea," He steps up to a crate nearby and places the detonator on the surface with a light thud. "Fight me for it."

I blink at him for a second and then scoff, shaking my head. "Your kidding right?"

He just stares at me, the look on his face indicating that he is not joking.

"What's to stop us from just shooting you and taking the detonator?" Ryan asks with an amused expression.

Dreyfus shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly, a smirk crossing his stony features. "I guess you could, but what would be satisfying about that? After all, I'm the reason Alex is dead right?"

"What!" Cody chokes out, coughing at the sudden gasp of air from the shocking news.

"You son of a bitch!" Riley raises his rifle but I stop him.

Dreyfus gives a chuckle. "What? Your leader didn't tell you? Well that's not surprising, seeing as she didn't die by my hands."

Riley slowly looks over towards me, a look of both shock and hurt crossing his face. I could feel Cody turn his head towards me also, the anger and sorrow just rolling off of him.

"It was an accident." Ryan gritted through his teeth, but that didn't deter their expressions.

"Isn't that what they all say?" Dreyfus smirks. My blood feels like it's boiling over at this point. I know what he's doing, he's trying to get me to play right into his hand, though dammit if it wasn't working.

"Take Cody." I give a low rumble, passing him over to Ryan who gives me an incredulous look.

"Elliott, you can't be serious?" He replies, taking Cody from me.

"Let him go." Cody shoots a glare at me which pierces my heart. I probably deserve that, but it doesn't hurt any less.

I turn around to face Dreyfus, handing my gun over to Jon who hesitates, but eventually takes it.

"Fine… Have it your way." I begin taking steps toward him, closing the gap between the two of us until we're mere feet away from each other. My fists are clenched so tight that I was sure my nails were digging deep into my palms.

"You and your team have been a royal pain in my ass, I'm going to enjoy this." He brings his large fists up in a fighters stance, his face stiff and determined.

I bring my own fists up and widen my stance. I was decent at hand to hand combat, but being a Doctor I relied heavily on my sidearm. However, there was no way I was going to let this bastard win.

He threw the first punch, a right hook that I dodged and then a left that I dodged again. He left himself open so I threw an uppercut that connected with his jaw and had him stumbling back slightly.

"I'm gonna rip your fuckin throat out." I growled, advancing on him.

He gave me an evil smirk and sweeped one of his legs, knocking me off my feet and making me land on the hard ground. Before I knew it he was on top of me, raining his fists down on me. I threw my arms up to protect my face, struggling to get out from underneath him. But he was heavier than me, and the more I struggled the more he seemed to pick up on it which made him punch me in the side.

I manage to grab his fists in both of mine, crossing our arms so that Dreyfuss jolts towards me. I give him a headbutt between the eyes and push him off of me. I scramble to my feet and out of the corner of my eye I can see Ryan start to take a step toward me, a look of concern on his face.

"No!" I growl, holding my hand out. "Don’t interfere, no matter what."

Ryan's expression turns to worry and Riley grabs his arm, pulling him back, Ryan following reluctantly.

I righted myself and went back into my stance, my vision now seeing red from rage.

Dreyfuss picked himself up off the ground, cords in his neck rigid, and face screwed up from anger. He came at me again but this time I was ready and I dodged him, landing a punch on the side of his temple. I grabbed the back of his head and thrust his face into my knee, the sound of breaking cartilage and bone cracking through the warehouse and reverberating off the walls.

He grunted and fell to his back, blood running out of his nose.

"C'mon, get up!" I ordered.

He picked himself up off the ground again, this time there was a darkness in his eyes, a pure evil that sent cold shivers down my body.

He spit blood out of his mouth, and reached into his boot withdrawing a knife.

I glanced at the knife and then back at him, that same evil smirk plastered on his face.

He came at me and swiped the knife towards my torso and I jumped back, dodging the sharp blade.

I tried knocking the knife out of his hand but instead he slashed me across my forearm, leaving a thin long cut which stung, but I ignored it.

He kept advancing on me and trying to connect the knife with me but I was backing up, not sure what my next move was.

I backed into a large crate and Dreyfuss seized the opportunity to try and bring the knife into my gut, but I caught his hand in both of mine and fought against him with all my might.

He was stronger than me, and the knife was inching closer and closer to my abdomen, I could practically feel the point start to touch my shirt.

He headbutted me which caused my hands to slip and I grunted as the knife blade plunged deep into my abdomen sending a searing hot pain across my stomach.

"No!" I could hear Ryan call out.

Dreyfuss smirked in a pleased manner as he twisted the knife blade inside of me causing me to gasp and groan from the pain.

My body felt like it was on fire as the blade cut through me, my insides trying to retreat from the foreign object invading my stomach. I had never been stabbed before, but I gotta say, it hurt worse than a bullet.

Dreyfuss stepped back, his eyes gleaming from what he had just done.

I collapsed to my knees, placing my hands around the knife handle. It was deep in me, all the way to the hilt and touching it only made my insides erupt more in pain.

"Elliott?! Get up!" I could hear Ryan shouting, his voice sounded so far away even though they were probably only a good fifty feet away.

"You don't get it kid," Dreyfus' gruff voice spoke out. "There is no stopping The Order, we are everywhere, and we could be anyone."

I gasped as I pulled the knife out of my abdomen, something that went against my better judgment as a physician, but I was dead anyway and I was determined to take this bastard with me.

He chuckled at me and leaned down slightly, that gleam still in his eyes. "Don’t fight it kid. Just let go."

I wish I could, I wish I could just collapse on the cool floor and sleep. Finally at peace, not having to fight anymore. I glance over at my team, all of them have wide eyed expressions, in complete shock at what had just happened. Ryan looked like he was on the verge of tears, his face stoic and his body shaking with emotion.

I turn my attention back to Dreyfus, a sudden wave of adrenaline crashing into me. My hand tightens around the handle of the blade and in one swift motion I bury the knife right into his thigh.

Dreyfus yell's and collapses down to my level, which is exactly what I want as I whirl around behind him and put him in a choke hold, pressing against his carotid with the crook of my arm.

He struggles, clawing at my face and fighting against me.

"Killing me… Won't stop… The Order…" He gasps as I tightened my grip against his windpipe.

"No," I growl in his ear. "But It's a start."

I jerk his head to the side and with an ear sickening crack, snap his neck.

He collapses to the ground with a thud, his body lifeless, and his head twisted at a disturbing angle.

I sit there on my knees leaning back slightly, not able to move. I don't know if it's from blood loss or if I finally have just given in and decided to stop fighting. I can see the team rushing towards me, though my body doesn’t want to move, no matter how much I want it to do so.

I collapse on my back and stare up at the ceiling, my breathing coming out in high pitched wheezes and my body feeling like it was going numb. So this is what it felt like to die.

The sun began to flow through one of the skylights in the ceiling, casting a beautiful golden glow across the many crates and facets of the warehouse. Even though I was in a dinghy warehouse, it was surprisingly peaceful the way the sun danced around.

"Elliott?" I felt a pair of warm arms wrap around me and then Ryan's face came into my line of sight. I blinked slowly, just staring at him. The sun from the skylight was shining around him, making him look even more gorgeous if that were possible.

I reached a hand up to brush his cheek and he took it in his, squeezing tight, his warm hand sending a radiating pulse through my body flooding me with emotions. There was so much I wanted to say, so much I wanted to do with this man that now I would never be able to accomplish. If I could have chosen a way to die, I guess this would be fine. No, it's better than fine, because at least I'm dying in the arms of the man I love.

"Stay with me." Ryan's voice was pained and he was fighting back tears.

"It's okay." I reply back in barely a whisper.

"No, you can't die, you can’t leave me." He pleads, a tear starting to slide down his cheek. “There’s still so much to do, the house in the suburbs, the dogs..." He trails off, his voice breaking.

I bring my other hand up weakly, and wipe the tear from his cheek with my thumb. He brings his hand up and keeps it there, leaning into my touch.

"I love you." I confess, finally getting all my feelings out. Too bad it was on my deathbed, so to speak.

Ryan nods his head. "I know," His voice breaks and he pulls me closer to him. “I love you too.” His shoulders begin shaking slightly as he cries into my chest. I wish he wouldn't cry, I hate seeing him cry, I hate seeing him in pain.

I cough and wheeze as my body begins to succumb to it's wounds, my vision slowly starting to fade out.

Los Angeles would live to see another day, but I wouldn't, and that was okay. Because I had accomplished my mission, and maybe this was my life's purpose, maybe this was my destiny, even though I thought that was a bunch of bullshit. But who knows what would be waiting for me on the other side.

My fight is over now.