“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of apologizing to her.” Romano said as Amber entered the room shutting the door behind her.

“Look Robert, I can deal with treating Corday, Lewis, and even Abby like they are pieces of meat but I have feelings for Kerry and I can’t…”

“You let her vomit didn’t you?” Romano asked standing up from the couch as soon as she sat down next to him. He was keeping his back too her as he spoke signaling that he was probably very pissed off at her.

“Yeah but…” Amber replied not getting why it was such a big deal, “Who cares Robert?”

“I care, it’s the principal of the thing…when I tell her to do something she does it end of story.” He still didn’t turn to look at her but his hand clenched into a tight fist.

“You know as well as I do that 9 times out of ten vomiting is involuntary.” Amber said through clenched teeth, watching as Romano took another step towards the door.

“She was fine before she left you should have just taken her to her room…never disobey me again.” And with that he stormed out of the room leaving Amber to think about what she had done. She was so confused at this point, she didn’t know if she should help Weaver or continue to listen to what Romano told her to do because she loved both of them equally. She felt tears prick at her eyes and she leaned forward, resting her face in her hands where she began to sob.

“Abby make him stop!” Susan yelled from her position in the corner that Carter had backed her into. Abby just sat in her chair looking down at her hands, she knew that if she tried to do anything to stop him he was just going to hurt her too and she didn’t really like Susan enough to take a beating for her.

“Oh come on Susan it’s not that bad, if you don’t resist me it won’t hurt.” Carter said in a soft tone of voice his body nearly pressing her against the wall. She swallowed hard but continued to stare him down, there was no way she was going to let him do this to her with out a fight. “Alright then, we can do this the easy way or my way…and I can assure you, you won’t like it done my way.”

“Well I’m not going to submit to you that easily so bring it on.” She spat at him and he clenched his teeth and started to role up his sleeves, when he was done with that he started to crack his knuckles and that’s when Susan realized that she was either going to have to fight him or get one of the worst beatings of her life.

“Once I start I won’t stop until you are completely out…so don’t even think about begging for mercy.” He snarled at her.

“Can I fight back?” She whispered, wondering how good she could possibly do against a man who was bent on raping her no matter what happened.

“Okay but you won’t win…”

“And why is that?”

“Because…” he pulled his fist back and punched her as hard as he could in the jaw, “I don’t fight fair.” The blow to her face cause her to fall to the floor, she took in a deep breath and forced herself to stand before he could get close enough to kick her while she was down. She lifted her arm and wiped the blood away from her lip even though her head was spinning.

“Is that all you got?” She whispered as she narrowed her gaze at him, he just sort of laughed before pulling her into a head butt and kneeing her in the stomach as hard as he could. All the air was knocked out of her and she fell back against the wall trying to draw in another breath.

“Most women would have just let themselves pass out after that.” He laughed as he took another stance to prepare to hit her again.

“I’m not most women…” With that she stepped forward and grabbed him by the shoulders and kneed him in the groin as hard as she could. He groaned slightly and fell to the floor where she started to kick him in the stomach repeatedly. For a moment it seemed to Abby like Lewis had the upper hand, well that was until Carter pulled a switch blade and used it to slice into Susan’s left heel…deep enough to sever her Achilles tendon. He knew how serious an injury like that would be on anyone, and he also knew that it would cause her to stop attacking at him and pass out from blood loss. She screamed and fell to the floor holding her ankle tightly trying to apply as much pressure as she could even though the pain was almost more then she could handle.

“And I told you I didn’t fight fair.” He crawled over to her and then motioned to Abby, who quickly brought over a first aid kit.

“Don’t touch me! I’d rather bleed to death!” She managed to get out, he just shrugged and smiled at her and that was the last thing she saw before the loss of blood caused her to pass out.

“For crying out loud Carter…” Amber said as she was stitching up the wound in Susan’s heel, Susan was still passed out but she most certainly wasn’t going to die from the injury, “You know she’s probably going to need surgery and we can’t take her to the hospital…do you realize how inconveniencing this is going to be?”

“So what? She doesn’t need surgery…with this injury she won’t be able to run from me any more.” Carter replied as he sat back in a near by chair and picked at his nails with the switch blade he had used on Susan, “Besides It’ll probably get infected and she’ll die…one less thing to worry about.”

“If that happens you’ll be a murderer.” Amber muttered, she finished up the stitching and reached for the bandage that was next to her.

“And you’ll be an accessory.” Carter replied and then he stood up and started to head for the door to the room, “I don’t care if she lives or dies…so it’s your problem now.” He then left the room slamming the door behind him. Amber didn’t really like Susan or Corday very much but that didn’t mean she wanted them to die, and it was going to be hard to keep a wound like this from getting infected if she didn’t have the right equipment. She finished tying the bandage around Susan’s ankle and then sat back slightly, she most certainly couldn’t let Susan die…or anyone else for that matter.

As far as Abby could remember she had only seen Weaver cry once, and even that wasn’t enough to prepare her for what she was about to see. She entered Weaver’s room to find her all out sobbing curled up on the bed, her breathing was shallow and Abby was sure if Kerry didn’t calm down soon she was hyperventilate and pass out.

“Kerry.” Abby shut the door behind her and rushed over to the bed, she hadn’t gotten along with the woman in the past but that didn’t mean she wanted to see her cry like that. Kerry had always been such a strong woman and it was hard for Abby to stomach, seeing her so upset like that, “Kerry what happened?”

“The sun ain’t gonna shine any more, the moon ain’t gonna rise in the sky…” Kerry muttered to her before she went back to crying. Abby of course had no idea what that meant, at first, but the words sounded rather familiar and she was able to trace it back to an old Cher song, “Nothing to lose but no more to win.”

“Look, Kerry, I can fix this I can get us out of here I promised you I would.” Abby almost pleaded with her, she couldn’t stand to see anyone in this shape. Weaver didn’t respond she just continued to cry, she was at the point where the tears wouldn’t come and her body was shaking terribly. “Kerry please just tell me what happened.”

“You promised me three days ago that we would be out of here…HOW THE HELL CAN I TRUST YOU ANY MORE?” Weaver suddenly screamed at her, “By all accounts you lied to me! You may have sobered up Amber but now she’s working for Romano…WILLINGLY!”

“What?”

“Oh you heard me!” She pulled herself to a sitting position and took a few deep breaths trying to calm herself down. Abby could barely believe what she had just heard, and because she had just come from a place where she had viewed a rather brutal attack on Susan she nearly lost it herself.

“Did he do something to you?” She whispered trying not to break down over the new information that was just relayed to her. Weaver looked at Abby for a moment before picking up her crutch and walking over to the table in the corner of the room and sitting down.

“I need something to drink, something very strong…can you get me something please?” She requested looking down at her hands, she knew that getting completely plastered probably wasn’t the best idea but she just couldn’t take this any more. Abby nodded slightly and left the room, when she came back she was holding a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses. She went over to the table and set down the bottle, then she placed one of the shot glasses in front of Weaver and one in front of herself. With out a word she poured the two shots and before she could even blink Weaver downed hers with out so much as a disgusted face. “More…”

“Are you…”

“Just pour it Abby!” She snapped, Abby took a deep breath and poured her another shot before downing her own and pouring another one. She was willing to let Weaver get drunk but there was no way she was going to let the poor woman poison herself. They continued with this until Weaver had downed seven shots compared to Abby who had only managed to get down two. “Another one.”

“No, you just took seven shots you have to wait for it to kick in.” Abby commanded, Kerry had drank the tequila so quickly she hadn’t given it any time to actually work. Weaver growled slightly and sat back in her chair, and about a minute later the effects of the alcohol hit her, and hard. She started to laugh, a very disconnected laugh, then she stood up and fell to the floor which caused her to laugh even harder. Abby was now sufficiently relaxed but she wasn’t going to drink any more because there had to be at least one sensible person in the room.

“Abby…” Weaver pulled herself to her feet and surprisingly made it over to the bed before collapsing again, “Tell Amber that she can bite me…tell Romano that he’s a fucking idiot, and tell Carter that if I ever see him again I’m going to smash his face in with my crutch.” Abby stood up and walked over to the bed and sat on the edge about a foot away from where Weaver was laying.

“I promised you I would get us out of here and I will…I just don’t know how yet.” Abby said softly and she put her hand on Weaver’s gently. Kerry then broke into another fit of laughter before passing out, Abby sighed and rolled her onto her side just incase she vomited so she wouldn’t aspirate. She grabbed the remote and turned on the TV…she didn’t watch it because she was too concerned with figuring out how to get them out of there, the background noise helped her concentrate.

Amber was sitting next to Susan holding her hand, but at the same time she was leaning up against the wall that the bed was pushed against and she was half asleep. She wanted to be there when Susan woke up even though she didn’t have the first clue what she was going to say to her. She couldn’t tell her that Carter wanted to leave her for dead, and she couldn’t tell her that surgery wasn’t an option right away. Since it wasn’t an option she knew that Susan would be well aware that she might lose her foot all together because the stitches that Amber had to make were with no more then a sewing needle and a common thread which she barely had time to disinfect before using.

“Amber?” Susan whispered loud enough to knock Amber out of her little cat nap, “I’m thirsty.” Amber shook her head slightly and then reached for the bottle of water she had brought in there with her, she then helped Susan sit up before handing it to her.

“Do you want something for the pain?” Amber offered still considering all of the options she could give to Susan to keep her from panicking.

“What do you have?”

“Morphine, Vicodin…” Amber replied leaning over to the box of stolen drugs that Carter had brought home from the hospital.

“Morphine…just not too much of it, it makes me sick.” She muttered and then took another sip of her water. Amber was unable to hook her up to an IV which would have been a problem if Susan hadn’t woken up when she did to drink some water. Amber pulled one of the needles from the box and loaded it before taking Susan’s arm and injecting it.

“I’m really sorry Susan…if I was here I would have stopped him from doing that to you.” Amber explained before tossing the needle away. Susan looked at her, an a tear rolled down her face which she quickly wiped away.

“Abby was here, and…she just sat there and…she just…she let him do it.” She whispered gently wiping another tear away from her bruised face. Amber swallowed hard, she wished so bad that she could have been there but now things were over and wishing wasn’t going to make things all better.

“Carter wants to leave you for dead…well not exactly leave you…he wants to use you and wait for infection to set in and…well…he indicated to me that he didn’t care if you died.” Amber blurted out, she didn’t know why but she thought that it might help Susan to know, “But I won’t let that happen, I’m going to get you out of here so you don’t lose your foot, or your leg to infection. The knife he used was not the cleanest and I didn’t have very many supplies to clean you up and, and,” She started to cry, “I’m so sorry I did everything I could…I really did I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“Whoa, slow down, it’s not your fault you weren’t here.” Susan replied and she turned her head so she was looking at Amber, “You did the best you could…you could have let me bleed to death, you could have done nothing…I’m sure Carter wasn’t going to help me…just thank you.” She put her hand on top of Amber’s and squeezed it slightly. She took another small drink from the water bottle and then handed it to Amber who set it on the floor by the bed.

“I don’t know how, but I’ll get you to the hospital as soon as I can.” Amber tried to reassure her, it was no longer about Romano threatening to hurt her, it was now about life and death and she wasn’t going to let Susan die. Susan nodded slightly before drifting off to sleep from the effects of the morphine, Amber knew she had to go talk to Kerry but she was dreading every second of it. She got up and covered Susan with a blanket before leaving the room making sure to set her watch so she would be back in fifteen minutes to check on her.