The Hostage and the Wanted

Harry slipped onto the chair beside Isabella, his eyes still glancing over at the laptop. He didn’t trust it there, let alone in the flat. If signals could be manipulated, if they could truly show a location from a mere touch, then they weren’t safe with anything that could receive a connection.

“We need to leave.” Louis said, voicing his concern to Harry who looked back at him incredulously.

It was quiet throughout the room, Zayn was quietly checking over Isabella, Niall was perched up on the other chair, Louis had slipped himself onto the other side of the couch and Liam had pulled a chair from the kitchen and had it set at the side of the couch. Concern evident on his face.

“How is she?” Liam voiced, having been studying Zayn, his face looked way too concerned for his liking.

“Leave? You bloody nuts, mate? Where are we going to go?” Harry asked, he didn’t even know where to go before, let alone what they were going to do after.

“She’s in shock, her body is still rigid –extremely tense. I don’t know what to do.” Zayn sighed, turning to look at Louis and Harry.

“Knock it off mates, now is not the time to panic. He was saying that to scare us, nothing more. No one is going anywhere. One: because Louis still needs to let his shoulder heal, two: Isabella is not set for travel and three: you two aren’t coming here, causing trouble and then leaving us to deal with the mess. I’m a doctor, not a nanny. You want a mum? Go back home because she’d be better equipped to deal with this bullocks then any of us,” Zayn settled the two’s conflict, his eyes going back to Isabella again, his hand resting on her forehead before looking at Niall. “Mate?”

Niall got up wordlessly, his eyes just as concerned.

“Get rid of the laptop, unplug the television, anything else that has proxy or a signal. Turn all cell phones off. We don’t know anything about this guy and we won’t until Isabella is ready to tell us.” Zayn ordered Niall calmly, not wanting to alarm anyone. Panic would not help their situation, he was only glad that the other vans around the area were currently making their way to Ireland – at least he hoped that was still the case.

“Shouldn’t we wait to see what Ella thinks? She might make use of the laptop to keep watch over the vans.” Liam suggested.

Zayn paused but nodded.

“Alright. Last I checked it only had twenty percent battery left anyhow. Safest bet is to let it die completely, plug it in when we need.”

“I still think we need to get the bloody fuck out of here.” Louis muttered but dropped the subject and stood up.

“Would sedating her work? It would certainly help with the tenseness. She’s like a ragdoll after you knock her out.” Harry suggested, not able to sit anymore himself.

“She’s not in shock, dumb fucking idiots.” The computer said with annoyance.

Louis marched over to it and slammed the top open with agitation, meeting the same face they had seen about an hour previous.

“What makes you such a bloody expert, mate? Don’t you have some ass kissing to do with Saudimere? That is your shtick, right?” Louis growled, sitting down in front of the screen, anger flashing in his eyes.

“I’m the expert because that girl on the couch is –was my fiancée. I know what’s wrong, it’s something that rarely happens but when it does, if she doesn’t get help she will be a vegetable and that throws an Allen wrench into my plans. So, Zayn, the medical expert, that’s your name, isn’t it?” Ethan smirked, watching him come forward.

“It is, what’s wrong with her?” Zayn demanded calmly.

“She has a rare condition – less than one percent of the world has it. It’s a condition where the mind overloads and then the brain tries to send all the signals at once throughout the body to alert it. What she is technically having is a seizure only something you’d probably consider a lot worse. The way I see it, you have two choices Doctor Zayn, either take her to the hospital. Although, if you do I won’t hesitate to pay her a visit and I know you five aren’t as stupid as you look.” Ethan continued, although snorted as the five boys gathered around the lap top.

“Fuck you, mate. Quit playing games, what does she need?” Louis demanded, slamming his fist on the table.

“She needs a specific inhaler, should be in with her things.” Ethan shrugged before smiling, his hand on the connector. “I’ve said my peace but I will warn you this, Isabella is dangerous, if you’re going to keep a wild animal, you might want to cage it.”

With that he was gone, leaving five very confused boys.

“Fuck me.” Zayn muttered, walking to the side of the couch and hauling the duffle bag from its place, unzipping it and throwing its contents to the floor. “Is this all she had?”

“Yeah, nothing was left in the car so if she was carrying any sort of inhaler, it should be in there but I didn’t spot any –“ Harry began but as quick as he could explain, Isabella’s body sat up rigidly, taking in a huge lung full of air and screaming out toward the heavens.

“Fuck!” Niall swore as Zayn stood quickly and pressed his hand against her mouth, his body tensing against hers as she started to struggle.

Harry was the next to react, he could see her eyes were almost rolled in the back of her head and she didn’t appear to know what was going on. He managed to get a good grip on her, his good eye glancing at her with concern.

“What’s happening?” Niall asked, following suit to help them hold Isabella down.

“PTSD? Something – I don’t know.” Zayn replied, completely at a loss.

He reached into his pocket and took out one of the syringes, uncapping it and punching it into Isabella’s neck, releasing it’s drug.

Isabella’s tense body began to fall relaxed after a couple of minutes, she didn’t seem to know what was going on. It was like the depths of her consciousness had become possessed and made itself known at that moment but the boys hardly believed in demons. All they knew was the mystery surrounding Isabella kept getting bigger.

“Now what?” Louis sighed, watching Zayn lay Isabella back down on the couch and dig through the mess of money and photos before just throwing them in the bag.

When his hand reached on the last item, it was a small circular plastic shell with a little indentation and button on top. He picked it up and examined the outer shell before it suddenly clicked what it was and he rushed to the girl, putting it to her nose and pressing the button.

A hissing sound filled the air and a small amount of smoke went straight into her naval cavity. It was then her body went limp the rest of the way.

“What the hell?” Harry murmured, getting up off the girl, having never seen an inhaler like that before. Niall was the last one off, carefully taking the piece from Zayn and examining it himself. It looked complex – not something you see normally.

“You’re a doctor, any clue what this even was?” Niall asked, watching Harry take it from his hand and examine it himself.

“Why is it when something happens, you guys automatically assume I have the healing powers of God himself and know the answers to everything in the universe? For the last bloody time! Doctor, not God! I have no fucking clue what that thing is.” Zayn gestured, grabbing it back and stuffing it in his pocket.

“We know you’re not God, he’s more patient.” Niall smirked, standing up and receiving a smack upside the head.

“Oi! Not nice.” He glared but as immediate of a distraction it had been, his blue eyes fell back on Isabella and he softened again. “What about her?”

“She’ll be resting for a few hours but the inhaler seemed to work.” Zayn sighed, sobering himself and looking at Louis and Liam. “I can have the inhaler analyzed when I go back into work, my friend owes me a favor. I’ll see if he can reproduce it so Isabella has another dose if she needs it.”

“You can’t reproduce it.” The voice said, having been listening in on their conversation.

Zayn went silent before Louis turned and opened up the laptop again.

“Why is that?” He asked Ethan sarcastically.

“It’s my product, my inhaler. I’m somewhat of a doctor myself – with a scientist degree. Anastasia was diagnosed by me, treated by me. In fact, that’s how we met.” Ethan smiled, this time it was genuine. His beautiful blue eyes lit with excitement at the memory.

“She was your experiment?” Liam asked, standing up again to get in front of the lap top.

“She was a patient. I’ll leave it at that. Although, gentleman, I am most curious how you know her. Ana usually knows better than to involve others in her –adventures.” Ethan frowned.

“Hostage.” Harry answered one worded.

Ethan blanched for a second before a deep throated howl of laughter escaped his throat.

“You kidnapped my fiancée? Held her hostage and she hasn’t slipped you? Jesus H fucking – Saudimere should have hired you two. I recant my earlier statement about being stupid. You guys are fucking genius.” Ethan chuckled.

“I don’t find this the least bit amusing.” Louis said, folding his arm across his chest and leaning back.

“Get a sense of humor ‘mate’ I just think it’s funny that of everyone she’s encountered, and escaped from – the ones that would truly make it impossible for her to run are standing in front of me in the most simplistic way possible.” Ethan gestured out to them, the same smirk on his face.

“You’re lucky you’re behind a screen.” Louis challenged, which made Ethan laugh again.

“Judging by your battle scar and the green eyed monster with the one good eye, I suspect it wouldn’t be much of a challenge. Anyhow, your computer is about to die and I wanted to get an idea of who exactly I was dealing with. Tell Ana, whenever she wakes up, that I have a location and that I’ll see her soon.”

“Fuck you asshole!” Louis growled, pounding his hand down again.

“Yeah, not happening.” Harry confirmed with a small smile on his lips.

Ethan chuckled, looking behind them, which made them follow his gaze. It was also at that second there was another knock at the door.

“Better get that gents, it’s the police.”

With that the lap top died.

“Police! We’ve received a call of a disturbance, please open the door!”

“Fuck me.” Harry and Louis murmured in unison as they all scattered around the apartment.

Notes