Damage Me

Chapter 21

I'm sitting in the passenger seat of a tank the next day, waiting for Aaron and Juliette to arrive.

It got pretty ugly between the two yesterday, and I was, ever so subtly, asked to leave the room. I don't know what had happened after I'd left.

I came into Aaron's room again this morning to have a talk with him and Delalieu, while Juliette showered.

We had a plan to get her off base, and I'm sitting here, waiting for that plan to carry out.
We certainly couldn't get her off the same way we got her on; we brought her in a body bag.

With the war ending, there were many casualties, and we used that to our advantage. A body bag wouldn't have been given a second glance. And she was unconscious, anyway.

I hear Delalieus hushed voice outside the tank, telling Juliette to hurry up, and the door behind me opening, then closing.

Aaron gets in the drivers seat at almost the same time. The door closes and we're moving before Juliette can buckle her seatbelt, as she is fumbling with the straps.

"Stay low and buckle up, love. These tanks weren't built for comfort." Aaron says, half smiling.

She eventually clicks it into place, and sinks into the seat as low as her small body will allow. I can't help but smile myself.

"So you know how to get there?" Juliette asks both of us.

"Of course." Aaron and I say simultaneously, startling me for some reason. We tend to do this a lot. I look over at Aaron, raise my eyebrow, and smile at myself.

Juliette reels a moment, then continues talking.
"But your father said neither of you could remember anything about Omega Point."

"How convenient for us that we've regained our memory." I say.

"Hey—How did you even get out of there? How did you get passed the guards?"

Aaron shrugs, says, "I told them I had permission to be out of my room."

"And they never asked me why. I just kept my head down and they didn't disrupt me." I say, nonchalant.

Juliette's jaw drops, and she gapes at both of us. "You're not serious."

"Very." Aaron says.

"But how did you find your way out?" She asks. "You got past the guards, fine. But that place is like a labyrinth—I couldn't find my way around even after I'd been living there for a month." She says, and I sigh.

Aaron checks some controls on the dashboard.
"I wasn't completely unconscious when I was carried in," he says. "I forced myself to pay attention to the entrance," he says. "I did my best to memorize any obvious landmarks. I also kept track of the amount of time it took to carry me from the entrance to the medical wing, and then from the medical wing to my room. And whenever Castle took me on my rounds to the bathroom," he says, "I studied my surroundings, trying to gauge how far I was from the exit."

"Good thing he was more awake than I was. I wasn't able to chose when I faded in and out of conscious. Hell, I couldn't even see when I was awake."

"So—" Juliette frowns. "You both could've defended yourself against the guards and tried to escape much sooner. Why didn't you?"

"I already told you," Aaron says. "It was oddly luxurious, being confined like that. I was able to catch up on weeks of sleep. I didn't have to work or deal with any military issues. But the most obvious answer," he says, exhaling, "is that I stayed because I was able to see you every day."