Danger Days: The Escape

Mikey had been standing outside Lauren’s bedroom for almost ten minutes, tossing up between whether to knock or continue up the hallway to his own room. Ever since she’d caught a glimpse of his burn before they’d left for the meeting she had been extremely cold toward him. Not only had she barely spoken to him, but she wouldn’t even sit next to him in the car. Other than his brother, he felt like he was closest to her, and to have her ignoring him pulled at his heart.

If he was being truthfully honest with himself, he was rather smitten with the compact brunette, who could be the sweetest thing in the world one moment and then a dangerous sniper the next. It was her determination that had him hooked; the way she never gave up hope, never gave up fighting, even when she felt like she had nothing more to give. He knew that she didn’t reciprocate his feelings, and he was fine with that, but it didn’t stop the nervousness that took over him when he had to talk to her alone.

“I know you’re out there, Mikey,” Lauren commented softly from the other side of the door, interrupting the silence.

He put his ear to the door, one hand on the knob in anticipation. “Can I come in?”

He heard shuffling on the other side of the door before he fell into the room when Lauren had yanked the door open. When he glanced up from his place on the floor he could see the mischievous look in her eyes even though her face portrayed callousness. He picked himself up, easily towering over her, but he was well aware that she held all the power in this situation.

“You said you were going to fix me up when we got back.” He was stalling, and she knew it, and Mikey knew that she knew it.

Lauren, quite literally, pushed Mikey back so he landed on the bed. She ignored the astonished looked on his face as she got down onto her knees to get the medical kit out from under the bed.

“Shirt off,” she said coldly, opening the metal box to retrieve bandages and antiseptic cream.

He obeyed her instructions, but he couldn’t help the way his skin blushed pink out of embarrassment. His body was very lean, with no muscular definition like some of the other guys had, and having Lauren see it at such close proximity made him feel slightly nauseous. There was also the issue of the horrible shirt tan that he had thanks to the harshness of the sun from their days in the desert. He just hoped that Lauren could ignore all his imperfections.

The way she touched his skin was soft; her fingers lightly dabbed at the burn with cloth and cold water. He watched the way she tended to his wound in awe, because, despite whatever it was he’d done wrong, she was still able to care. There was something tempting to the idea of not saying a word about the problem, just so she would be sweet and compassionate toward him, but he knew that it was the wrong thing to do; as soon as the burn was covered they’d be right back to where they were before she had let him into the room.

“Can you tell me what it is that I’ve done to make you act like this?”

“I really have to explain it to you?” Lauren asked incredulously, looking at with eyes that conveyed slight shock at the fact that he honestly didn’t know what he’d done. When he didn’t reply, she sighed heavily, focussed her attention on his hip, and explained. “You and I have always been really close, and I thought we told each other everything, and then yesterday all this stuff – important stuff – comes out that you never told me, like about Gerard being your brother and all those stories that you told about your family. Then I find out you’ve been hiding this from me, too. I feel betrayed by you, Mikey, and that’s something I never thought I’d ever have to say about anyone in this house, least of all you.”

A pang of guilt hit him hard as he realised that everything she was saying was true, yet he, like an idiot, still tried to defend himself hopelessly. “I didn’t think that you’d care that much.”

She prodded his burn a little harder than she should have, causing him to hiss in pain. “You guys here aren’t my friends, you’re my family... you’re all that I’ve got. Of course I’m going to care about whether you’re hurt or not! And now I’m hurt because you lied to me!”

She threw the cloth back into the small vessel of water and rose quickly to her feet. In a matter of seconds she was over by the window seat of her bedroom, on the verge of tears. Soon Mikey was by her side.

“I’m sorry,” Mikey said sincerely, his hand resting gently on her shoulder. “You... you mean a lot to me, and I know how you get. I wanted you to worry about your on injuries for once, so I didn’t tell you about mine, but that’s no excuse for lying to you. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you, even if means telling you every little embarrassing thing about me just so you know the truth; like my middle name is James, and the first time I masturbated my mum walked in on me, or how I slept with a nightlight until I was fourteen, and that I –”

“Just hug me.”

Mikey needed no further instruction. He sat down across from her and pulled her into a tight hug. His naked torso was still on display, and his burn hurt like hell, but none of that mattered because Lauren was hugging him back just as tightly. Her long hair was next to his head and smelt strongly of strawberries.

He felt her smile against his neck just as she pulled away, her arms still draped around him, that mischievous glint in her eyes again. “Did you really get busted masturbating by your mother?”

They both laughed. Things were comfortable between them again now that all their feelings were out in the open, well, almost all of their feelings. Mikey would be completely honest with Lauren about anything that she wanted to know, but his true feelings for her were the only exception to the rule. He couldn’t jeopardise their friendship by letting his stupid emotions for her, which were probably nothing more than a school boy crush, be found out. Gerard might have been able to do that with Frank, but Mikey was looking at the big picture, thinking ahead to what would happen after the war; Lauren meant too much to him to lose.
Besides, it was obvious to him that his brother and Frank did really love each other; he was sure he didn’t love Lauren, not like that, and he knew she didn’t love him.

When they eventually pulled apart from their embrace Lauren went back to dressing his burn. They talked as she bathed the burn in cold water once more, cleansed it with antiseptic cream, and covered it using gauze and strapping tape. The conversation consisted of all the little truths that they’d neglected to tell each other, even the most insignificant details like what their favourite toy was as a child. Everything they said cemented their friendship further until there were no secrets between them, other than Mikey’s feelings of course.

It was after dawn when Mikey finally returned to his own room, but he didn’t get much chance for sleep. Gerard came in about two hours after he had drifted off to sleep and, quite literally, thumped him awake.

“Bro, up,” he ordered. “We’ve got an enemy to overthrow and only a couple hours to plan, there’s no time for sleep now.”

Not in a mood to argue, Mikey arose and joined the other killjoys downstairs in the kitchen. He noticed that Lauren looked as tired as he felt. The stools on either side of her were vacant, so he sat down between her and Bob, assuming that Gerard would prefer to be between her and Frank.

“Ok, currently the plan is at we go to BL/IND at 2am and infiltrate. Can we expand on that please?” Gerard questioned sardonically as he took his seat; Frank had fallen asleep before he’d come into the bedroom last night, leaving him very hard and very horny, so he wasn’t exactly in the best of moods after he had to fix his problem on his own.

The kitchen was quiet for a few moments, the killjoys trying hard to think of what else they could do. No one had really thought about anything exact in terms of taking down BL/IND; they thought shooting would be enough. It wouldn’t.

When Gerard got no answer from anyone after five minutes, he decided to throw out one more thing to them. “This is a game of survival. I care about all these killjoys who are fighting, I do, but you guys are my main priority. Killjoys are going to get killed, but you guys can’t be any of them, so we have to be prepared before we go in there to give ourselves the best chance of coming out again.”

Bob, always trying to be proactive, fished his PDA out of his pocket and presented it Gerard. After a brief hesitation, Gerard took the compact device.

“There’s a map of the place on there, schedules, employee information, everything you need to know about BL/IND,” Bob said. “You need it more than I do.”

“You say that as if you’re not coming with us,” Gerard replied.

Bob rose from his seat. “That’s because I’m not.”

“What the hell?” came Frank’s shocked response.

“This isn’t my thing – my family knew that; that’s how I ended up at BL/IND in the first place. I’m doing you all a favour by not going.” He didn’t wait for his friends to say anything before he headed for the kitchen doorway.

Lauren quickly followed him, reaching him before he’d escaped the kitchen. She took hold of his arm and swung him back to face everyone. The sound of skin hitting skin echoed through the kitchen as she slapped him hard across the cheek.

“We are your family; these guys are your brothers, and I am your sister,” Lauren said forcefully through gritted teeth. “We know this is your thing. Sure, you aren’t the strongest or the most violent of us, but you are smart and you are brave. We need you, Bob, and if you can’t see that then why the hell are you still here?”

He recoiled at her harsh words. The slap had been nothing compared what came out of her mouth. Her attack made him think, not just about the strength she had, but how much he had changed in the sparse amount of time he’d been around these killjoys. He still didn’t believe that he could confront Korse, but he felt braver than what he had felt before leaving BL/IND. There was a new found confidence within himself. Reflecting on their experiences together he could see how far he’d come – from being a cowering man who dropped his paperwork to one that had been able to evade BL/IND twice, once on his own. He could fire a ray gun now, and put together plans that had been used to save killjoys. These killjoys had taught him so much. He at least owed it to them to stay and fight, even if it meant dying for them.

“I don’t know why I’m still here, but I can guarantee it’s because of all of you,” Bob replied earnestly, looking around the kitchen as he did so. “I’m not going anywhere, if you want me to stay that is.”

Lauren flung her arms around his neck, hugging him to her tightly. This was the only time that he’d hugged her back with as much enthusiasm as she’d given him. As they hugged she mumbled into his chest about how glad she was that he was staying.

The killjoys got back to planning for the infiltration of BL/IND after Gerard kindly told Bob and Lauren to “cut the sap”. By lunch time they had finally come up with something that they were all satisfied with. All that was left to do was get some sleep and find their confidence to face Korse one final time.