Imperium: Volume 2
Chapter 16.

I couldn't bring myself to look up to her. I was a god damn mess, all curled up in the corner like an abandoned dog.

She walked over to me and crouched down placing her hands on my knees. She didn't say anything. She didn't need to, her presence alone was comforting. I knew that her past brought in multitudes of run ins, the same as mine. But I didn't have the luxury of obliterating them. All the training in the world couldn't have prepared me for what happened.

I took a couple deep breaths and wiped the tears from my eyes. It took me a minute to clear my head, but I eventually was able to look up to her. She was concerned and had a pretty good idea as to what happened. Of course she would. She's been in this position countless times while on her own. To many to count.

She sat down with her legs crossed in front of me, making sure to close the distance.

"You don't have to tell me anything." She spoke softly. "Just know that I'm here for you when the time comes."

Her words were reassuring.

"H.....how do you cope with it?" I asked. Was this something that would go away in time. I was assaulted, raped, cut, and almost shot within less then 10 minutes.

10 minutes was all it took to strip me of my confidence, and my ability to sense my security and it was all thrown out the god damn window.

"It'll be hard Sarah." She took a breath before diving in. "I'm not sure what happened to you, but I can tell you one thing that I learned when being on my own. Trust your gut feeling. I was attacked once, and it was from someone I was told I could trust. He didnt get very far cus I blew his fingers off, but the thought of...what if...will always linger. My advise? Use that anger to fuel your fire. Your strong, and courageous. And from what Rowen told me, your fucking smart. To come up with something on the fly like that shows you've got bigger balls then anyone here........and I hear Kipsky's got the biggest."

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I couldn't help but chuckle. She gave me a beautiful smile, and her warmth and kindness took over the ominous feeling in the room.

I had to get on a seriousness note. Should I tell her what I picked up? I still didn't have definite proof, but would telling her now change the way of things? No.....she needed to know.

"June."

"Ya?" She replied.

"I have someth-"

Suddenly Raeve blipped into the room.

"June! We have a serious fucking problem!"

"Raeve can it wait? I'm ju-"

"June." I quickly stood up. No this can't wait. I looked to Raeve. "We'll meet you back in mission control."

He nodded and vanished before my eyes. I helped her up from the floor.

"What's going on?" She asked brushing the dust off her knees.

"They found something, and from what I know....this takes presidence over anything else." I took her hand. "Let's go."

Rowen's P.O.V.

Raeve popped back into mission control. Within a few minutes Sarah followed by June made their way back in. I could tell right away from the redness and puffiness of her eyes, she had finally let it all out. June was the best person to be there for that, no doubt in my mind.

"What's going on? ...someone explain." Demanded June.

Jay brought his eyes off the maps and looked over to her. "Rowen found this topographic map in the red stars office." He was rubbing his head. "June.....its a map of home base. They found it."

I watched as June snapped up her head. She had family there. They all did. You could practically see her face flush within seconds of hearing Jays words.

"What!? Well what are we doing here. Raeve!" She turned to him. "Can you warn them?"

Before he could answer Sarah spoke up. "No." Everyone quickly turned to her.

I watched her closely. She was focused and thinking of her next move. "Not just yet................. We have 12 days, correct Jay?" She asked him.

"Y..yes." He replied.

"What do you mean...how could you possibly know that?" Yelled June.

Jay pointed at the number sequence on the map.

"If we are correct, we think this is a date. 12 days from now, they have something planned for home base." He relayed to her.

"I have 12 days." Sarah said under her breath.

"Sarah......what are you thinking." I asked. The room was silent, and we all waited in anticipation for her next words.

"This needs to stay between us." She said. June looking more and more panicked by the second. "June I'm sorry but this just can't get out yet. Not till I find them first."

"Who?" Jay asked.

"The leak." She answered. "From what we know someone is feeding them information about home base. Which means they were there."

"Okay?" Jay said.

"However if they were still there, there would be no way for them to know which compound we were hitting. They knew we were hitting Delta."

She was putting the pieces together. "So that means the leak is somewhere here at Lingham.......Jay, aside from the recon team has anyone else been assigned anywhere?"

"No....no one." He responded.

"K. I need to act fast. Until I can find the leak, this must stay between us. If this gets out, the repercussions of this being known could move the date sooner. My guess is they have people watching the base closely, and seeing everyone fleeing would send out a red flag."

"Sarah." June said. "Are we really going to do this? We aren't even going to warn them? 12 days isn't alot of time. M.....my dad, Bowdie......jesus there's families with kids!"

Sarah was radiating empathy, but she was right. June was to scared right now and couldn't process everything coherently.

"2 days June..........give me 2 days to find the leak." She was fierce and confident. The Sarah that I witnessed the other day, was gone and what stood before me was a strategist and one you couldn't second guess. She looked around the room to all the faces.

"I need everyone here in this room to keep a tight lid on this. No talking to anyone about what we found, and sure as hell no warning to home base. Does everyone understand?"

Everyone agreed.

"June? Do you trust me?" Sarah asked her.

She was silent at first, almost wanting to fight against every word, but she came to her own conclusion swiftly. She looked to Sarah.

"With my life." She replied.

"Good." Said Sarah. "2 days from now.........I'll have our leak."

With that she started walking towards the plastic curtain. "Rowen." She called back. I looked over to her. "Let's get you cleaned up." And she walked out.

...............

"Does that hurt?" She asked, as she took the disinfectant to my wound.

"Mhmm." I said while trying to fight the pain.

"I'm sorry. I'm just trying to clean all the dried blood." She advised.

"It's ok. If anyone understands, it me." I told her.

"I know.....but how often does one get shot." She quickly glanced up to me fully realising who she was talking to. "I...I mean....in your case you get shot all the time.....s....some are worst then others."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Sarah....calm down, your starting to stutter ahah." I felt a sudden pain and it made me catch my breath.

"Sorry........I'm sorry." She said.

"Nope.....it's ok. Over there in the cupboard, could you grab the iodine, the compression bandages, and a tension wrap please?"

"Yes....just one second." She replied.

I watched as she grabbed everything from the cupboard like I asked, and she lined them up on the bed beside me. I gave her step by step instructions on how to clean and dress the wound before helping me make a sling with the tension wrap. All in all she did pretty well, which was no surprise to me.

"Okay....how does that feel?" She asked.

"You did good." I was dreading this next part. I wasn't sure how secure she felt with me....not after they.....

"Sarah." I spoke softly.

She looked down to the floor. She already knew what I was going to ask and she nodded.

"Hop on up here, and I'll close the curtain." I told her.

Cleaning her wound was necessary. From what I saw it wasn't a deep laceration, however it went through all layers of skin which required it to be cleaned out and perhaps a few pieces of tape to help the wound close.

"Do you need me to lay down?" She asked nervously.

"No.....you can sit up. I'll just wheel a chair up to you so I can get a better look. If that's ok?"

She nodded.

I grabbed my stool and wheeled it over to face her, and grabbed the necessary antibacterial wash to clean the wound. I took a seat, and she opened her legs so I could get a better look.

"Are you compfortable enough with me doing this..or do you want to wait for when the ladies come in?" I asked one more time so she knew it wasn't being forced on her.

"It's okay Rowen." She said softly, but her body was tense.

"I....I'm gonna need you to take off your top." I asked gently. She lifted up her shirt gently over her head and held onto it.

The first thing I noticed, was her bra was cut down the middle, and barely covered her breasts. I quickly looked to the long vertical cut that started from her breast bone.

"Here.....can you take this towel and tuck it in the top of your pants? It's just to stop the wash from getting your clothes wet." I asked her.

"Okay." She did as asked.

"Okay, I have to wash the dried blood, so I'll try and do it as painless as possible but if your in pain, you let me know ok?" She nodded.

I started by applying the antibacterial wash from the top and I let it run down the laceration. The white towel that sat up top her pants started turning into a red tinge. I then took a gauze bandage and wiped the cut clean. She winced a couple times, but stuck through the pain till I was able finally get a good look at it.

"Okay........it looks pretty good." I scanned the entirety of the cut, and it did look good aside from the part at the bottom. It looked more inflamed then the rest, and I could see something in it.

I stood up. "Sorry Sarah, I am going to to need you to lay down, there's just something I have to see."

She laid down, and doing so her bra fell to the sides of her rib cage. I immediately took my attention to her one breast. Particularly the left one. She had a small cut on her areola, and a..........bite mark that surrounded her nipple. I quickly grabbed her t shirt and placed it over top as to cover.

"Sorry." I quickly said.

"It's....ok." She softly.

I could hear the pain in her voice, and it started to form a knot in my throat.

"Please, just lay still for a moment as I grab some tweezers." I took to the bottom of the cut, and carefully pulled the wound a open slightly. I saw something resting in it, so I used the tweezers to pull it out.

What I pulled out looked like a hair. But it was coarse and short. Much like facial hair. Why would that be in there?

"He............he licked it." She said as I watched a tear roll down her cheek.

I just stood there in total disbelief. He fucking licked her wound? "Th.....the cut on your breast." I stated.

"From his knife." She said.

I stepped back and couldn't look at her. The fucking monster....he...fucking.....I couldn't fight back the tears. "Rowen....please, it's not your fault. I told you to go."

"Ya, but he......that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gone."

"We couldn't have known. Rowen please." She hopped off the bed and put her shirt on. She then came to me, and grabbed my hand.

"You saved me Rowen. If I chose to take anything from that night. I choose that." She stood up on her tippy toes and pulled me into a hug, then placing her head time.

"Thank you." She said. She wiped the tears from my cheeks and we held it there. She was so strong, and truly something to behold. Suddenly our gaze was ripped apart as the curtain was drawn.

"Cam?" She said. "What the hell are you doing?"

"That's a question I should be asking!" He yelled. "What the hell Sarah!?"

I looked at him tearing into her. Why he did I had no idea. He treated her like shit then and was an over zealous asshole that needed to be taken down a few notches. By the look of it, someone already did. His eyes were black and blue. The result of a broken nose.

"You need to leave!" She yelled back at him. "We are no longer together, now get that through your fucking head."

"I should have known you were some stuck up whore! I'm sure you just let every guy touch you..."

I took a step forward. There was no fucking way I was going to let him talk to her like that! Before I could even say something I found him now lying on the floor. He was grunting in pain holding his bloody nose. Sarah punched him sqaure in the face, and from the crunch I heard she managed to rebreak his nose.

"You fucking come near me again, I'll make sure your thrown in a god damn holding cell! I don't have time for this shit Cam, so do me a favor and fuck off ya?"

I just stood in silence. I however couldn't stop the grin the fell on my face. He was taken back from her sudden surge of confidence, and to be honest, he looked to be intimidated by her. He picked himself off the floor, holding his nose and started walking out.

"This is far from over Sarah." He said as he left.

She watched him leave. I couldn't see her face as she was still turned away from me, but she was silent. I took a step towards her. She then turned around and had the biggest grin on her face.

"That must have felt good." I said.

"I've felt better." She said as a tinge of red flushed her cheeks.

Our kiss?

She smiled as if confirming my thoughts. She was still listening in.

"Listen, I've gotta go. I've got 2 days to figure this out, and by the sounds of it people are starting their day." She said.

"K. Just try not to over do it like last time." I told her.

"Promise." She said before flashing me a smile and taking her leave.

There goes those damn flutters again.

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