[closed] When all turns out to be unjust, then I'll turn back and help you out

[powerdealer]

Seth is having a familiar dream. He's sitting in an underground interrogation room, cuffed hands resting on the cold metal table. Head bowed, eyes fixed on the table. Waiting. He's alone, but who knows who's on the other side of a one-way mirror next to him.

Elsewhere, as Daniel enters the dream, Seth casts him as someone being shown around the rebel base, perhaps as some sort of inspector, or someone who's just gotten their security clearance upped. The man showing him around is some sort of doctor, or a supervisor, probably both.

"Our next prisoner, J-19, has been working with us for three and a half months now. Doing good work, mostly compliant these days, though he can get a bit unruly sometimes," the man says, leading the way down one of the many underground corridors.


[Warning: ...I don't even know what all to warn for. Imprisonment, abuse, torture, temporary paralysis, NPC death, guns, a lot of emotions, sensory overload, suicide mentions... It's heavy.]

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[peacefulexplorer]

"Seth? Seth!"

He shakes him lightly by the shoulders but it makes no difference. The screaming fades into horrible, empty silence, and that somehow terrifies Daniel even more. His hands flutter frantically as he tries to think, work out a plan of action, anything, but Seth is deathly still and not responding to anything, and Daniel is scared.

Some distant part of himself manages to pour some rational thought in the midst of his own panic. He needs to figure out what's wrong. He needs to evaluate what's happened. And then he needs to get them both out of here.

Daniel breathes. Forces down the next wave of terror.

Pulse. Check for the pulse. Seth has a pulse. It's thready and it's erratic, but it's there. Present.

And breathing. Check his breathing.

Seth is breathing and his eyes are still open. So. So he's alive but unresponsive. The power he took from the civilian must have done this, though what purpose a power like that could serve Daniel can't imagine. Or care. He's ascertained that Seth is alive, if incapacitated, and that means he has to move on to step two of his improvised plan. Step two, which is. Is.

Right. To get them out.

Daniel checks his pulse one more time, then drops his hand onto Seth's shoulder and squeezes briefly before getting to his feet and checking the guards he took out before. They're both dead; Daniel cracked the first one's temple on the metal table and two gunshot wounds to the chest cavity took care of the other. He relieves the second of his weapon and a few spare clips and a keycard, all of which he pockets, and immediately returns to Seth's side, ignoring the steadily widening pools of red sprayed on the ground.

"C'mon," he grunts, pulling one of Seth's limp arms over his shoulder and, straining, pulling him upright, "we're getting outta here."

Moving is not fast and it's not easy, especially since Seth is a dead weight hung around one side, but Daniel can't think of a better way to carry him without sacrificing the use of the free hand that's carrying the gun. So they make slow and painful process and Daniel is feverishly trying to remember the quickest way to the door to the subway station to the outside to relative safety, all the while praying that no one comes their way.

[powerdealer]

Despite feeling a little like he's been hollowed out, Seth is suddenly a lot more aware of what's going on around him. Like the lack of mobility has just sharpened all his senses.

He wants to urge Daniel to hurry, to stop fretting over Seth, who might be trapped and terrified, but the other guy seemed in fine health, didn't he? Not mentally perhaps, but he was alive. He was walking. Seth wishes he could figure out how to walk.

As Daniel lifts him up, he can better see what's happened to the guards, and it makes him feel sick. It's not the first time he's seen dead bodies, and he's seen them in lots worse state than this, and he doesn't give much of a fuck about who they are, but the thought of Daniel having to do that to someone eats at him. Seth never wanted anyone hurt on account of him, and he certainly didn't want Daniel to do the hurting.

Seth tries to walk, and he thinks he might be able to move his legs a little, but it's too little to pull his feet under him, and he tries to grip on to Daniel's shoulder, but he's not managing that either.

And then they come to a stop outside a door, and somehow, miraculously, Seth manages to pull his legs up so his feet are planted on the ground, and he's so relieved when they're actually supporting him. And then after that, his body seems to do what the other man's did, just muscle memory, putting on foot in front of the other, not fast, and barely lifting his feet at all, no real ability to steer anywhere, but it takes some of the weight off Daniel.

[peacefulexplorer]

By the time they reach one of the doors, Seth has begun to exhibit some movement. Daniel adjusts his grip on the other man's shoulders and glances at him, surprised, but there's no time to stop and question it. He just swipes his keycard and waits impatiently for the door to unlock and swing open and hopes that it means Seth's condition, whatever it is, is improving. They move forward again and he's comforted that it's not just his imagination - Seth is helping as best as he can, no longer a dead weight.

"Come on, come on, come on," Daniel mutters under his breath, taking a left, then a right - or should it have been a right, then a left? No, there isn't any time to backtrack now. He can already hear the not-terribly-distant shouts of someone having found the dead bodies in the interrogation room, or maybe even from catching the de-powered civilian - whichever it is, it doesn't matter. Daniel tries to pick up the pace, however fractionally.

They reach the stretch of corridors that should lead to the subway station, but the crescendo of running footsteps behind them announces that they might not make it. Daniel rounds a corner and gently pulls Seth's arm off to let him lean back against the wall, then ducks back out to check if they're being pursued.

They are. Three more guards pelt into view, and in a panic Daniel brings up the gun and fires at random. The shot misses but communicates a clear warning and they immediately dive back around their corner to take cover. One of them ducks back out to fire at him.

Daniel drops him with one to the head, but the other two don't seem to care and step out to lay down fire on him in return. He fires once, twice -

Click.

Fuck.

It's Daniel's turn to take cover as the guards advance, and he scrambles to locate the extra clips. He finds the second gun first, flips the safety off, dodges back out to fire twice and hit one of them square in the thigh, flooring them, but has to leap back behind the corner again.

Shit. Shit.

"Sorry, Seth," he says tightly, wishing Seth could at least run while Daniel holds the last guard back, but instead he's gone and fucked it up and Seth will be stuck here again, worse than before, without the hope of escape or comfort from a familiar face. The thought is worse than the immediate threat of dying. Daniel swallows to alleviate some of the pressure on his chest and prepares to break cover one last time.

[powerdealer]

Seth pulse picks up as he can hear the footsteps and Daniel deposits him against the wall, and guns go off, and Daniel is risking his life and there's nothing Seth can do, he feels so utterly useless.

He can hear the sounds, he somehow knows how many there are, he can almost feel it when the first one goes down, and then the second one.

And then he notices another one, coming around the corner they're heading towards and oh god.

Fuck.

Seth wants to warn Daniel, grab him, call out, something, but he can only watch.

The guard notices Seth seeing him, and they dodge behind the corner, and they seem to be ready to shoot, well, if not Seth than at least Daniel, who still hasn't noticed.

But they don't, they only seem perplexed that Seth has done nothing to stop this, and as Daniel breaks cover to shoot at the pursuing guard and puts them down too, the guard that Seth can see dodges forward and grabs him, using him as a shield, training their gun on Daniel.

"Drop your weapon," they say, and Seth is panicking, because he knows Daniel won't risk hurting Seth. If he could just.. give Daniel a chance somehow. So he does the only thing he can do, and he lets himself drop.

[peacefulexplorer]

Daniel brings the last guard down but the clip is empty by the time he's disposed of them. He turns back around, breathing a small sigh of relief, and instantly halts.

Damnit. Damnit.

The guard holds Seth in front of him, an impromptu meatshield, and demands that Daniel drop his weapon, empty and useless as it is. Daniel slowly sinks to the ground to slide it over, stomach knotting. It's over. They're finished.

But Seth abruptly drops, dragging the guard who must not have expected the sudden increase in weight, and they let out a strangled yelp.

Daniel bursts from his half-crouch, swerving to avoid Seth, bull-rushes the guard in what is probably a terrible course of action but is the first plan his panicked, adrenaline-fueled brain could come up with, and cracks the butt of the gun against the side of their head just as their own weapon goes off.

The bullet rips through Daniel's shoulder. Pain, exquisite, blossoms from that point in space as the guard slumps over sideways, still conscious but thoroughly out of commission for the time being.

"Seth -" Daniel pants, gyrating halfway to make sure his friend is all right, but his shoulder is starting to leak, a darkened patch of warm red starting to soak through his jacket. The gun clatters to the ground so his hand can clap over the injury - he can't tell if it's superficial but the shoulder is full of important veins and things but it's possible, it doesn't hurt as much as it could, at least not yet - and Daniel drops to his knees in front of Seth.

"Seth, you okay?" he asks, a little ragged around the edges but still able to articulate reasonably well.

[powerdealer]

No.

No, no, no, Seth thinks it might've just worked, Daniel rushed forward but then there was a sharp sound that hurts his ears and rips through him. Metaphorically only, but he realises pretty quickly that it did rip through Daniel, and no.

And the stupid guy is just worried about Seth, who can't even manage to answer, can't focus his eyes on Daniel, almost can't do anything, and he is so useless and helpless like this.

And then he realises the guard has dropped right next to him, and they're not dead, they're still conscious, so if Seth can just... reach.. over...

It's barely a few inches but it feels like a mile, but Seth manages to close his hand against the guard's wrist, and he gasps as the power floods out, and he seems to feel up with everything he lost.

Including all the terror and the adrenaline and worry, which seems to hit him viscerally now, but somehow it launches him into action. He can move again, he can help, he can do something.

He pushes himself up, glancing at Daniel's injury - oh god, look at the blood, but he's conscious, he's still upright, it's okay, they can still get out. The guard isn't screaming, perhaps to out of it to do so, but they've gone all rigid, thrashing and twitching, making choking noises, but Seth doesn't spare them a second thought.

"C'mon," he says, grabbing the guard's dropped gun - not that Seth can really be trusted to hit a target with it - and goes to help Daniel up.

[peacefulexplorer]

To his supreme relief, Seth seems fine, or as fine as he can be in the condition he's in, and he's actually able to shift enough to change that and transfer the power to the poor bastard Daniel just brained. The power hits them and it looks like they're seizing, but Seth just gets to his feet without so much as a glance their way. At least he's recovered from whatever the hell that power was remarkably quickly, looking about ready to be out of here.

Daniel can't agree with that sentiment more. He rises as well, grunting in discomfort but with one hand still pressed firmly over the injury to stem the bloodflow, so he's not lightheaded yet. He checks his back for any signs that the bullet went straight through. There's no blood so he concludes that it's lodged itself in there somewhere, which has its pros and cons. The current pro being that at least he's not bleeding out two ways instead of one.

"Hey," he breathes to Seth, grinning faintly, relieved. There isn't time for a proper reunion, not yet - they'll have to get out first - but all the same. They're about to be free. They're about to be out, finally.

And, hey, they can both still walk. Daniel quickly starts doing so before he can decide if the pain in his shoulder has gotten worse, which it probably hasn't, he's just becoming more aware of it now that the danger's passed.

[powerdealer]

Seth is currently running on nothing but adrenaline and desperation to get out, he has no time to not feel fine nor terrible, no time to examine how he feels at all, he just needs to make sure they both get out.

They're quicker now, despite Daniel's injury, and Seth keeps his eyes and ears open, keeping the gun ready, following Daniel's directions, opening doors for them so Daniel can focus on keep his wound as closed as possible.

At last they reach the subway tracks, coming out a door in the near darkness, and Seth makes sure they keep to the wall, so they won't by hit by any trains or accidentally get electrocuted on the third rail.

"Where are we going?" he asks urgently, making sure Daniel is alright, and he puts away the gun for now.

He didn't see any cameras after a certain point, and there were probably several exits they could've headed for that the rebels will need to check. This buys them a little time, but only a little. They need to put some good distance between themselves and a base, and they need to see to Daniel's shoulder. Not a hospital, that's too risky once the rebels realise one of them has been injured. The rifties clinic? Still too risky, but maybe Seth can get one of the doctors to come to them. It's that or figure out how to perform surgery, and he doesn't think that's a great idea.

[peacefulexplorer]

Yep, things are starting to get a bit on the fuzzy side by the time they get to the subway tracks, but Daniel's more concerned for Seth at the moment - he's been in rough condition for a lot longer than Daniel has. Daniel's been shot before. He'll live. And if not, it's not like that'll be much of a deviation from the pattern.

The air here already feels better, probably a psychosomatic reaction, but it just feels good to breathe someplace that isn't in captivity, even if sucking in a deep lungful of non-base air makes Daniel feel a tad dizzy.

"Don't know," he answers, the words a little more slurred than usual but the consonants still clear. Then Daniel chuckles, vaguely, morbidly amused. "Didn't think that far ahead."

The pain in his shoulder hasn't gotten better but it hasn't gotten worse either, so Daniel's just assuming the bullet didn't hit anything important. Not a safe assumption by any means, but they have a priority. The plan is still to get Seth to safety, first and foremost.

"We get to someplace safe," he mutters, frowning ferociously. "Somewhere we can stay. We can deal with this," he indicates his shoulder with a tip of his head, "later, after we find one. Maybe a hotel. We lie low."

[powerdealer]

Seth nods a little frantically, and it hasn't actually hit him yet that he's outside, he's out of the base. After so long, he finds it impossible to wrap his head around, especially when he's so focused on Daniel and getting them both to safety.

Seth wants to take his hoodie off to wrap it around Daniel's wound, but it's already cold and neither of them are really dressed for... What is it, March? Not quite snow weather, probably, but still definitely cold.

"We.. We can take the train up north, find something there. Um. Do you have money?" he asks, trying to think. He's spent so much time thinking of what he would need if he escaped, but it's hard to conjure up all the thoughts and go through it rationally.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Yup." Wince. Daniel grimaces at his shoulder and eases off the pressure a little to check the blood flow. It's less than it was before, but between the state of his jacket and the hand that might as well be gloved in crimson, he doesn't think he could pass as your everyday passenger. "Not sure how we're gonna sneak this past, though."

But he does have money, thankfully. Hopefully enough hard cash to get them elsewhere.

"Right pocket," he says, nodding at it, and looks back up at Seth with an apologetic partial smile. "Could you? Don't, ah, don't really have hands at the moment."

[powerdealer]

"You'd be surprised how few shits the average New Yorkian gives," Seth answers in reply to Daniel's bloodied shoulder.

He nods and reaches into Daniel's pocket, realising his hands are trembling a little. He checks the wallet, and yeah, there should be enough for at least one night's hotel, but Seth is definitely going to withdraw much more as soon as he can. Just in case the rebels are capable of blocking Daniel's cards.

"Alright," he answers, pocketing the wallet, nodding nervously. He takes off his hoodie after all, draping it over Daniel's shoulder, hiding the worst of it. "If anyone asks, um, I'll just say you've cut yourself and we're heading to the hospital, and that it's not as bad as it looks. Just keep it covered. Ready to keep going?"

[peacefulexplorer]

Daniel nods again and lets Seth take the lead with this one, as navigating out of the rebel base used up all of his directional abilities at the moment.

"You gonna be all right?" he murmurs. "Not exactly room temperature out here. And you were in there, um," his shoulders jerk a little, and he stares at the ground a little too intently, "a long time."

[powerdealer]

"Yeah," he answers, leading the way towards the station. "It'll be better near the station, and the subway cars are heated..." He won't deny that it's uncomfortably cold, but it's not like he'll have time to freeze to death or get frostbite or something.

It does get better near the station, all the people in there warming it up decently enough. Still cold, but not freezing. He helps Daniel up the steps, but he doesn't head out onto the platform, keeping out of sight, in the dark until a train comes. It makes him nervous to have to wait, but at least he can check on Daniel.

"How's your shoulder? Do you know how bad it is?" he asks quietly, resisting the urge to push back the hoodie to check on him. Not like he can actually see anything.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Didn't go all the way through," Daniel assures him, voice equally low. "The joint isn't damaged and the bleeding's slowing down already." He exhales a little. He's been - for once - really, exceptionally lucky. He's been shot at enough to know that a bullet in the shoulder has the potential to be fatal if it smashes the ball-and-socket joint or any of the major blood vessels. But if this were the case, he'd be aware of it by now.

"What about you?" he asks again, fresh concern leaking into the words despite himself. "I don't know everything they did...in there and that power, whatever it was, it -"

Daniel breaks himself off. The moment he'd first seen Seth is replaying itself in his head, over and over, and out here it's at least dark enough that his rough treatment isn't starkly visible like it was under the glare of a fluorescent bulb. He just needs reassurance that they made it, miraculously, and that they'll be fine. Which they will.

Seth is finally out of that place, and that's the most important thing right now.

[powerdealer]

Seth smiles weakly, starts to reach out, hesitates for a moment, then gives Daniel's undamaged shoulder a reassuring squeeze. It feels good to be able to touch him. To touch anyone.

He ducks his head when Daniel asks the same of him, even if they can't properly see each other well.

"It was pretty horrible, yeah..." he admits, even more quiet. "But it didn't actually hurt me. I'll be fine," he reassures. He desperately doesn't want to focus on any of that right now. The worst of what's happened to him is in his head, and he doesn't want to dig through that. And exhaustion is starting to creep through him, far too easily, but then he's vaguely aware in not in great physical condition. But he just needs to stave it off long enough to get somewhere safe.

Then he hears the train coming, and he puts his hand on Daniel's back, leading them onto the platform before the driver can see them standing there. One person sees them coming out from there, but doesn't seem to care.

[peacefulexplorer]

Daniel offers a small, pained smile in return but the approaching train distracts them both from any more questions. He unconsciously increases the pressure on the wound, trying not to think about inevitable nerve damage he'll have to live with. Miraculous as it is that he's not currently emptying the contents of his subclavian artery all over the ground, there's a very good chance he won't ever recover full use of the arm.

Then Seth guides him gently to the platform, and Daniel decides he doesn't care if there's nerve damage, because after all this, Seth still got out. And that's very easily worth a dozen bullet holes, more even.

In the meantime, he tries to shrink down and be unassuming while they board, which is a difficult feat for a six foot man who's still in an uncomfortably high amount of pain. Out of the two of them, Daniel's currently the more likely to draw unwanted attention, haggard and exhausted as they both are.

[powerdealer]

The platform and the train are thankfully both pretty scarce in passengers, it not being rush hour, so they don't have to bump shoulders with anyone, and no one bothers them. It's pretty amazing just how secluded most people are on the subway, how good everyone is at ignoring everyone else.

Still, Seth is so completely unused to being around people, it's impossible to properly tamp down on the anxiety, especially while they're just sitting here. He fidgets nervously the entire time, the screeching noises of the train uncomfortably piercing, the jerking and shaking of the car doing nothing to calm him, the flashing lights in the darkness outside weirdly unsettling.

And all he can think about is all the things that could go wrong, paranoid that something's going to happen. Rebels will come find them while they're on the train with nowhere to escape to. Or the train will stop somewhere, fault on the line, or an accident up ahead, and they will be stuck here for an hour and Daniel will bleed out or something.

He jumps a little as the voice on the PA system says something he can't make out, and everything right now, after being mostly stuck in a single dingy room for however long, it's all giving him sensory overload, and he feels cold and clammy, his chest constricted, his shoulders tense, and he's so tired.

[peacefulexplorer]

Seth is weirdly jumpy the whole time, though Daniel reminds himself that it's not such strange behavior when one considers where he's spent the past few months of his life, and finds he can't really blame him. He wishes he could say something comforting and profound - that's his way, isn't it? - but the jostling of the train sends little spikes of pain shooting from the epicenter in his shoulder, just in case he forgot it was there, and it's making it very difficult to concentrate on any one thing.

Gradually a mix of the pain and the first real respite he's had since he went charging into the interrogation room start to wear down the edges of his own restlessness, picked up from the anxiety sparking thickly off Seth like a coat of armor. Daniel's eyes drop to half-mast as he becomes increasingly drowsy. At some point Daniel's neck loses its will and integrity in holding his head up, which slips sideways to thump onto Seth's shoulder. He immediately tries to apologize but now that the adrenaline has faded completely from his system he's devoted all of his remaining energy to holding down his wound and has trouble locating words. As it is, he can only shift his head an inch as he mumbles something indistinct and totally incomprehensible in sloppy recompense.

Thankfully, when the train jolts to their stop it jars him back into reasonable wakefulness. Daniel gives himself a little steadying shake and glances over at Seth apologetically. He can up without too much effort, at least, and start making his way out.

[powerdealer]

Seth's taken aback by Daniel's head suddenly dropping onto his shoulder, but he manages not to jump at that. And in any other situation, it would be adorable charming, but Seth can't help but worry it's the blood loss taking its toll, and he bites his lip nervously.

Daniel is out of it enough that he hardly seems to notice Seth carefully shifting, putting his arm around Daniel's back underneath the hoodie, so he can hold onto his hand, make sure it doesn't drop, and keep pressure on the wound.

Doing this is weirdly calming too, giving him something to focus on, even if that focus mostly involves worrying, and also helps Seth warm up a little. There are heaters in here, but it's not nearly warm enough to be comfortable when you're as lightly dressed as he is.

He smiles a little when Daniel looks at him again, mostly out of relief at him waking up again and that it mostly seems to be exhaustion. He keeps his hand on Daniel's back, making sure he's steady, in case he needs support. Not that Seth is in much of a state to give a whole lot of support. They manage to make it out, Seth looking over his shoulder probably a lot more than is warranted. The stairs are a challenge, but one that they manage to overcome.

It's freezing outside. And big, and loud, and bright, and full of people and cars. Seth shivers, looking around, trying to get his bearings. They seem to have come out right outside a Chase, good, they'll have ATMs, so he makes that his first priority. And there's a bus stop right there, with a bench that no one's sitting on, thank fucking god for small blessings. They need as many as they can get at the moment.

"Alright... You wait here, I'll go get money, ask someone if they know of any hotels nearby," he says, his voice shaking a little, as he's still shivering a bit.

[peacefulexplorer]

Daniel has a scary moment where he becomes too concerned about the inherent functional flaw in stairs (mentally cursing the initial designer, whomever they might have been, for not considering in the grand scheme of things what might occur should one have to use the stairs while having sustained a gunshot injury to the shoulder, because that really demonstrated a shameful lack of foresight on the design's part), but he gets through it all right with Seth's help. He notes somewhat hazily that Seth is shivering. He'd offer him his hoodie back but by now it's looking pretty gross and probably wouldn't do much in terms of shielding against the cold anyhow.

Seth mentions money and hotels and asking for directions and that jars Daniel back into the present. Mostly.

"Hey," he mutters, trying to project as much calm as he can - difficult, considering how he's less actually "calm" than just "tired and in pain" but at least he can still form recognizable words. "We're gonna be okay. It's okay."

He doesn't remember if that was intended to be reassurance or a reminder that they're just out of there, but either way it has similar meaning. Which is good, because Daniel's entirely forgotten which he meant to communicate. Perhaps both.

[powerdealer]

Seth smiles in return, but it's hardly without worry. Daniel is getting worse, and Seth has no idea how bad it is, and walking around isn't doing him any favours. But the best thing Seth can do for him is simply to hurry. He doesn't want to leave him on his own, but he kinda of has to.

"Um..." he adds, pulling out the wallet and picking out a card. "What's the pin number? And.. do you have a phone?" God, so many things that need doing, and so very urgently. Seth's head is reeling from all the input and thoughts and stress after being shielded from everything for so long.

[peacefulexplorer]

Daniel relays the pin automatically but has to think for a minute before he can appropriately recall where his phone is.

"Jacket pocket," he remembers finally, relieved he's still got enough cognitive processing to still be semi-useful even without the use of his hands. "Just - here."

He really, really wishes he didn't have to make Seth do all this for them both because, honestly, his goal was to get Seth out and now that they've done that he should be taking care of Seth and not the other way around. The least Daniel can do is offer what he has on him, phone and money and whatever else, in hopes that it can get them somewhere safe. Even if he can't actively hand Seth the phone so much as just nod at the pocket it's in.

[powerdealer]

Seth repeats the pin himself a few times to make sure he remembers, as he doesn't overly trust his brain at the moment. Then he carefully reaches around Daniel's arm to get into the jacket pocket and pull out the phone. He should probably be glad it was in the right one, otherwise it probably would've blood-stained by now too.

"Okay... I'll be right back, alright?" he says, making sure Daniel is okay. Then he practically runs into the bank, withdrawing as much money as it will let him, before he goes and asks for directions. Blissfully there's apparently several hotels within a couple blocks radius, and Seth notes down the names of all of them, and also asks for directions to a pharmacy.

As he heads back outside, he's already calling information and getting the number for the rifties clinic, and calling them as he gets back to bench where Daniel's sitting. "There's a hotel just nearby, it's not far. Are you still okay to walk?" he asks while the phone at the other end rings, putting his hand on Daniel's back, ready to help him up.

[peacefulexplorer]

Seth isn't gone for long but almost immediately after he leaves Daniel worries they might have been surreptitiously pursued. The longer he considers the idea the more likely it sounds. He glances back around his shoulder, scans the area a few times, but the lingering paranoia persists. His relief upon Seth's return is palpable.

"I'll be better once we get there," he replies, getting back to his feet with more effort than he'd like. "But yeah. I'll be fine."

"Fine" is relative. In this case, it means "able to walk a few a blocks without passing out, hopefully". Which Daniel is pretty sure he can manage. Mostly sure. Well, they're about to find out in any case.

"Who're you calling?" he asks once they're moving again. "Hotel?"