Eyes blinking open, Jim awoke slowly. At first everything seemed black, then light slowly seeped into the cave from the entrance, fine cracks in the walls.  The air was cool around them, rippling with the breaths and movements of the other bodies crammed around them.  He gently raised his head from his lover’s chest, stretching cramped muscles as best he could in the miniscule space.  His foot nudged a Maquisard sleeping in front of them, and Jim apologised softly as the woman grunted.

Sitting upright, he coaxed his still sleeping lover to rest against him, stroking his fingers through the long curls as Blair  rested his head in his lap, snoring slightly.  A flash of movement caught his eye and he looked up, relaxing a little at the sight of the little arachnid on the wall.

Jim watched the spider creep up the rock wall above his lover's body. Delicate paper-thin legs extended, tentatively feeling out and gripping the surface, then contracted again, pulling the long body upwards. It moved with an odd sort of grace, each slow movement captivating him. He watched entranced as it delicately skirted a little trickle of moisture, gripping onto a miniscule outcropping before overcoming the obstacle and continuing upwards.

There was a muffled little grunt from the man snoozing in his lap, then Blair shifted upwards, groggily wiping his face. "Jim?" he instinctively searched for his lover

Ellison gently patted his cheek, then gestured behind the Maquisard. "Careful, Chief."

"Huh?" Blair peered over his shoulder, then jumped as the spider crawled up at nose-height. "Yeeegh!" He picked up a rock to smack at the crawly, but Jim caught his hand.

"Look," he said softly.

Blair followed his gaze upwards, to a gossamer-thin web spreading out, covering the juncture between the wall and roof of the cave. Hundreds of tiny little bodies crawled around the pinwheel structure, their legs making the web shimmer in the dim light. Baby spiders.

With a little smile, Blair gently puffed a stream of air at the large spider, making it scurry upwards into the haven of its home. It fussed around the edges of its web, carefully stepping around the tiny industrious bodies.

Jim had been horribly glad of the silence from the town. Ex-town. It probably didn't even exist any more. Apparent silence gripped the night, but when he listened he could hear the shifting sounds of fabric and skin against rock, the occasional snore from the Maquis in the cave, and further out, the same sounds from the German soldiers. Funny how they all sounded the same in sleep.

The silence from the town clawed at the Leftenant now as he watched those diminutive lives in the web above him, guilt and sorrow washing over him in waves. How many people had been in Vassieux? How many of them were murdered? How many were hiding, like they were, waiting for death to come and steal them away?

Sensing his distress, Blair squeezed his lover reassuringly, wrapping his arms around the larger man as best he could, tucking the dark-haired head under his chin as his fingers trailed soothingly up and down the strong back. Jim returned the embrace, his head directly over the steadily beating heart of the smaller man, letting the rhythm soothe him a little.

After a long while, Blair gave him another squeeze, then got to his feet. Stepping carefully around the reclining bodies and rock-littered floor, he made his way to where Megan sat beside the wounded. Fourteen, fifteen of them had been injured during the battle or the mad flight, broken bones and gunshot wounds.  Seven had died already, bodies stacked to one side to make room for the living, pale hands dangling limply onto the cold floor.  With a sad look on her face, Megan carefully tugged a tattered shirt to cover the face of the last, a seventeen year old boy who had finally succumbed to the cold and his wounds.  She looked up as Blair sat beside her, resting a hand on her shoulder.  She touched the hand once, with a watery little smile, then scrubbed the tears from her face and moved back to the rest.

Blair reached down to brush a lock of hair back from Serena’s face. "Bonjour," he said softly as her brown eyes opened dully. "How do you feel?"

She smiled weakly and tapped the blood soaked bandages covering her side. "I have been better," she joked.  Carefully she moistened her lips. "Water?"

"Here,"  Megan tenderly lifted the woman’s head and neck, pressing a canteen to her lips.  Serena drank gratefully, then let her head fall back. "Thank you," she whispered before her eyes slid closed again, pain and exhaustion dragging at her mind.  Reaching out, she fumbled her hand to touch Blair’s.  "Thank you."

"Shh." Blair rubbed her hand gently. "Sleep. Rest. We’ll be leaving here soon, and I expect a full meal in payment."

With a little chuckle, Serena slipped into sleep, a small smile on her lips.

Blair kept up his own smile until he was sure the woman was asleep, then it melted off his face, sliding like butter in a pan. "How is she?"

Megan shook her head once, in reply.

Tears prickling his eyes, Blair made the woman more comfortable on the floor, then moved to help Megan with the others.

The day dragged on into night, then back into day, and they were still trapped.  Starved stomachs no longer rumbled, used to long periods without food.  The thirst was the worst, dry, parched mouths working convulsively in a futile attempt to work up saliva, clothing pressed to damp walls and sucked eagerly of the pitiful moisture.

Hands itching for something to do, Blair helped Megan, wiping gathering sweat from trembling, pain-filled bodies, soothing fevered dreams with a gentle hand, every so often looking up, towards the mouth of the cave where Jim stood lookout, exchanging encouraging smiles, grasping the small hope their continued existence offered.

Wiping the back of a trembling hand across his forehead, Blair ushered Megan to a less-uncomfortable spot in the rocks.  As the only trained medic they had, the nurse was overworked, exhaustion heavily lining her once-pretty face, making her look old and haggard.

As soon as she was asleep, Blair gratefully handed his role over to Rafe and Joel.  Straightening, he cast a weary gaze around the cave and tottered over to where a young man sat alone, pressed deep against a moss-covered wall.

"Do you mind if I sit here?"  The young man looked up and shook his head, and Blair saw he wasn’t a man after all, only a boy, barely old enough to hold a gun.

Gratefully he sank to the ground, tilting his head back and resting it against the cool surface.  The boy next to him shivered, and Blair opened his eyes again, pushing his exhaustion aside.  Something about the boy was familiar somehow.  "I know you...yes?"  he furrowed his brow, trying to think "From the Academy. You’re.."

"Alec Winters," the boy managed through chattering teeth.  A brief smile appeared, a brief flash of teeth, then it was gone.

"Alec." Blair treated the boy to a warm, genuine smile. Now he remembered. A childhood prodigy, his arrival had been all the news at the Academy. Blair had even tutored him once, back in a time before the madness. "Small world, isn’t it?"  Alec shivered again and Blair drew him gently to his side, shrugging one arm out of his jacket and tugging it over the boy so that they were sharing the little warmth it had to offer.

Alec gratefully nestled into the comfort. "Not so small. When the war broke out, my family, they sent me back home." He looked up for a moment, and the boy was gone, leaving behind the old, old eyes of a man who has seen too much. "They’re dead now, aren’t they?"

Blair wished he had an answer.

Jim relinquished his watch to Brown, handing over the pitifully loaded weapon to the Maquisard. Shifting further into the cave, he stretched as best as he could. There was nothing left now but the waiting game. Watching the Germans watching them watching the Germans watching them... he shook his head as the thoughts made him dizzy and headed over to his lover, stopping as something brushed past his cheek. Air. Not from the entrance but from...

"Simon," he beckoned the Captain over. "Can you feel that?"

Simon wrinkled his brow in confusion, then the little puff of air came again and his face cleared, lighting up with an almost-joy. "Air. There - another entrance. He corrected himself, a broad grin breaking over his face at the implication. "Exit."

Jim tilted his head left, then right, then left again, focusing. "There." He pointed to the dark recesses of the cave.

"There’s a crack back there. A fissure," Alec volunteered. "I - I used to play there, as a child."

Jim’s face tightened in fury. "Why the HELL didn’t you say anything before?!" he bellowed.  The boy shrank back in fear, pressing himself into the cave wall, behind the shelter of Blair’s body, anything to protect him from that terrible wrath.

Blair hugged him close to his side, extending one hand to stay his lover. "Alec?" he was careful to keep his voice low and soothing, all too aware of the terrified tremors shaking the too-thin, gangly frame.  "Alec, I know you’re scared, but do you remember where it leads?  Alec?"

Coaxed into courage by Blair’s gentleness, the boy nodded. "Outside. You will fit, but I-I do not know about the others." His voice cracked with stress, the thick accent making his stilted English hard to understand.

 Blair hugged him a little closer. "Good, that’s great, Alec," he encouraged. "You saved us!"

With a tender smile at his lover, Jim moved to one side to confer with Simon and Brackett, an arrogant American who was somehow the leader of another Reseau.  "Are we going for it?"

Brackett shook his head. "No. You heard the kid - there’s no way most of us can fit. We should wait it out. It’s already been a day and a half - the German’s are gonna give up before too long. We just need to stay here and stick it out."

"With what?"  Simon rounded on the smaller man angrily.  "We have no food. One canteen of water, one between thirty people. A handful of weapons with even less ammunition.  Eight of us have died already - what then?  Do we roll their bodies out at the Germans? Do we keep doing that as we die until those that are left are too weak? Then what?"  The man had no answer and Simon turned to the others. "I say we try it. The woman and young ones first - they have  better chance of fitting.  At least some of us can make it out alive." To Blair: "Sandburg; go help Megan. See who can be moved and who can’t. If they can’t, - try anyway. I’m not leaving anyone behind that I don’t have to. Jim," he turned his gaze on the Leftenant as Blair nodded and hurried over to the nurse. "Give me a hand here. See if we can widen this hole a little."

Jim nodded and started tugging, pulling away tiny handfuls of crumbling rock.

Blair crouched down next to Megan and Serena, putting a hand on the nurses shoulder. "Hello lovely ladies," he said in his best British accent, twirled an imaginary mustache, the fatigue and thirst dropping away. "And how are we this fine day?"

Serena chuckled, the motion turning into a dark, whooping cough that jarred her injured body, sending her gasping for air.  Under Megan’s direction, Blair helped the nurse lift the gypsy upright, gently rubbing circles on her back.  Serena doubled forward, eyes glazed and resigned to fate as she hacked, finally trembling into stillness.  A thin stream of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, air wheezing in and out of her lungs as they laid her back down.

She reached up with a surprisingly string grip, almost crushing Blair’s hand as Megan fussed with her dressings.  Finally lids drooped low, almost closed, but not quite, those half-crescents the most horrific thing Blair had ever seen as her grip loosened.

"Sandy-" he looked up into Megan’s eyes, mouth still open. All the answers he had never wanted were there in her eyes.  "Sandy, what is it?"

"A-a way out.." he dropped his gaze back to Serena, trying to reconcile the withered, almost-corpse with the cheeky, vibrant woman he knew and loved. "They found a way out. A fissure, through the back." His hand stroked over Serena’s hair. "We can leave," he whispered.

They news spread quickly in the cramped space, tired faces lighting with hope and eager hands tugging at the rock.  When they had a space big enough, Simon began directing the others out, watching as they silently made bodies that seemed too big fit into a crack that seemed too small, grabbing the offer of escape with both hands and both feet. Helping the wounded, leaving behind the smelly prison with glad hearts.

Brown and Joel helped the last few out as Simon walked over to where the others were, crouched around Serena. The gypsy gently brushed aside their attempts at help, settling herself back on the floor.  Two others had chosen the same option.

With time and proper medical care, she might have recovered. But they had neither.  And it was her  choice, her decision. Simon closed his eyes, the weight of command suddenly landing on his shoulders, making him stooped like an old man.  There was only one choice. One ending.  But at least he could make it easier.

Kneeling beside the wounded Maquisard, he tugged his gun out of his waist band.  "There’s five rounds left," he whispered.  Serena nodded in understanding.

 Megan leaned down and gave the dying woman a long, soft kiss. "Goodbye.." she choked on the word and turned into the comfort of Rafe's embrace.

"No...Serena..." Blair whispered in a little sob.

She kissed his cheek, then took the pistol in her long hands. "Go," she whispered, settling back, holding the weapon to her chest in a comfort. "Go with him, Jim, make a long life," she stroked the barrel of the gun, then raised it. "Go.."

"Serena..." A long arm snaked around his waist and pulled at him. "Serena, NO!" he screamed, bucking and fighting against the restraining hold as Jim hauled him away. "SERENA!" His hands beat against the walls of the fissure as Jim dragged him along, voice tearing out in a scream. "SERENA!"

Another burst of gunfire chattered across the hills, then a lone, single shot.

From inside the cave.

Tears running down his face, Blair ran. Head down, clinging to his lover's hand, running where Jim directed, not caring.

Somehow his hand was broken from Jim’s and he stumbled into Alec, gripping onto the smaller body and they clung together, legs tripping across the ground, almost to the point of falling, except they didn't fall, they couldn't, running faster and faster into the safety of the cool night air.