Call me Tori.

[Crystal]

9 months earlier:

---

Tori lay still on the floor in one of the rooms on the station, her eyes shut. She had just regained consciousness again and was unaware of her surroundings. He had hit her head and she was having trouble remembering what was happening. Cautiously tried to straighten one of her legs, crying out in pain as she did so.

The man heard her cry out and grinned as he walked back across the room to her. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her up off the floor before he forced her back across to where she had been hanging in front of the camera. He re-cuffed her wrists and watched her and she opened her eyes. He loved the confused look she had, it made him feel more in control. She could just reach the floor on her toes where she was now, he was use to taller victims.

She had stopped fighting him after he had hit her across the back of the head with the metal pole, and this disappointed him. The fight was half the fun. Shrugging to himself he walked across to a small table, picking up a knife. He walked back across to her and gently brushed the hair out of her face.

"Where should we start, love..... Jason, he suggested that I just kill you and be done with it. It's a pity, I thought you would have meant something to him. After all, you obviously think highly of him......"

He pauses trying to gauge her reaction, and smiled when he saw the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Don't worry.... I don't like that idea, I'm not going to kill you, yet. I want to have a bit of fun first."

Tori frowns, she could remember pulling the gun on him, and then nothing. She glances around the room quickly, looking for an escape. He had turned away, back to the table. She took the time to put weight on her injured leg, swearing under her breath as she did so. Realizing even if she did manage to free herself, escaping would be impossible. She tries to keep a steady voice as she mumbles,

"He..... He's not going to let you get away with this...."

He laughs at her before slowly walking back towards her, swinging a pole, hitting her on her left side. She whimpers as she collapses, only the cuffs holding her upright. He stands next to her and pulls her hair back, making her look at him.

"You will not talk unless talked to while you are here....."

She glares at him and stands up again, taking the strain off her arms, but keeping silent. He throws the pole on the floor and she flinches when it makes a noise. He holds the knife out where she can see it, trying to get a reaction and swore at her when she didn't move. The man walks around behind her holding the knife to her throat. He whispers something in her ear and for a moment she looked worried, before putting on the stony expression she had before, only this time she was biting her lip.

"Give it up already, love. He isn't coming to save you. Play the game.... Have a bit of fun already."

She shook her head, and he frowned. The man pulled the knife away from her kneck, running it down her back. She tried not to react but failed and flinched, trying to pull away from the blade.

"That's better...."

He ran his hand through her hair. She closed her eyes forcing herself to take a few shallow breaths.

"Please.... No more...." She says quietly, only to have him laugh at her.

"Please don't what? Do this?"

He throws another two punches, both connecting with a thud making her cry out again. She was struggling to stay on her feet now, the pain had become too much for her. She thought she heard a noise, but as she slips in and out of consciousnesses, she decides it was all in her mind.

"What the.....?!" The man looks around trying to find what had made the noise. Not seeing anything he turned back to Tori, pushing the tip of the knife into her shoulder.

"You should know I'm not a fan of tricks..... Especailly ones like that. Come on.... Get up." He taunted before kicking her feet out from underneath her as she tried.

As Jason hears the man taunting her, he quickly gets up in full view from behind the couch and fires the crossbow. The taster darts fly at him and land one on his neck and the other penetrating his cloths and arm. Jason then pulls down on the trigger. The man drops the knife, before realizing Jason was there. The man went to pull out Tori's gun but Jason pulled the trigger before he could even aim it. He fell to the floor convulsing as the electrical current ran through his body.

Jason spits on the floor with his eyes locked on the man. As he steps closer he keeps on pulling the trigger and watching him shiver with the electricity going through him. continuing this he walks over to Tori quickly and looks at the cuffs keeping her standing. He face saddens.

"Did he even give you a dink of water?"

She shakes her head slightly, struggling to understand what he was saying. She wanted to sleep. "He w... no..." She says quietly before stopping, not having the energy to finish the sentence.

Jason turns around hiding the anger showing from his face from Tori. He goes back to the man still being sent shocks every couple of seconds and start to kick him in the side."YOU... SON.... OF A.... " He knees down and searches his pockets finally finding a ring with keys. He then gets up and starts reaches up and tries to see which one fits finally finding the one that does to the cuffs. Pulling the trigger on his crossbow once more for good measure, he puts the crossbow down on the floor a good way away from the man and puts one of his arms under Tori's legs. He stops suddenly and looks at Tori with worry.

"Tori... did your legs break? Can.. can you move your toes?"

She looks down with a bit of a frown, "Only the left one...." She smiles slightly "Right one is ok." Tori looks across at the man for a moment before flinching as she tried to put weight on her left leg. "It hurts......" She mumbles, dropping her head so her hair covers some of her face.

"Alright... then when i get the cuffs off you gotta wrap your arms around my neck ok?" Without saying anything more hey turns the lock on the cuffs hand her hands fall down. He holds her by her waist till she she can stabilize herself. "I'm gonna get you to that couch alright? Just hang on tight." He helps to support her left leg as he starts walking with her.

Tori nodded slightly and wrapped her arms around his neck, she almost falls as the pain from the sudden change in position hits her. She moves one arm away from around his neck and pulls it up to guard her ribcage. She walks as best she could with Jason, Trying to focus on getting to where they were heading.

"I... I feel like I'm going to pass out or something...." she managed to say quietly as they reached the couch. She closes her eyes for a moment and almost looses balance. Jason, alarmed, quickly helps her lie down on the couch. He watches her for a moment to make sure she is still breathing before looking back at the man on the floor. He turns to Tori and sits on the couch and leans in to kiss her on the cheek. "Relax now... it will be over soon..." Tori nods ever so slightly before giving in to the pain and falling back into unconsciousness.

Jason sighs and now turns to the man on the floor. He starts walking towards him, his anger building inside him. "Hey you! Are you SHOCKED to see me?" The man stands up, shaky on his feet from the shocks. He scowls at Jason. Muttering something about Tori being a dead girl walking. He pulls at the tazer darts, frowning as he removed them from his skin. A small trickle of blood from each of the punctures can be seen. He picks up the knife and spits in Jason's direction before walking towards Tori.

Jason stops a few meters away. He then quickly reaches for his knives and draws them, holding one upside down in his left wrist and the larger on upright in his right. He Looks at his crossbow at the side but far away form him to get it and swears. "Hey you! I want a refund!"

"Refund for what?" He growls and stops walking towards Tori, turning to look at Jason. "What do you think Baldy? For not keeping your end of the deal!" Jason steps to the right, inching his way closer to the crossbow on the floor. "She's not dead. Yet. Quit your moanin' " he turns his back to Jason and shakes his head, watching Tori's breathing patterns. He smirks "even if you take her, she wont make it... shes screwed" he said in a taunting voice. Jason turns to the side and spits on the floor again then squishes it into the floorboards rudely. "I'll keep your remarks in mind when you'll be almost dead and moaning about it. Now how would you like it done? Smashed or stabbed?" Jason returns the grin as he steps a step closer to him. "Or should I just suprise you?"

He smirks and walks over to Her. "You try and touch me, and shes a gonner." Tori moves slightly whimpering as she does. Without hesitation Jason spins his smaller dagger in his left hand and throws it at the man, hitting him in the shoulder. Jason then charges at him with his larger dagger. The man puts his hand over where the dagger was still embedded in his shoulder. He swears and looks to be in pain. He sees Jason charging and braces for impact, readying his own knife. Jason sees his knife being taken out at the last moment and swings his dagger, clashing with his and with the force making him flinch and moving his hand with the knife to the side. He then gets ready for the man's counter lunge at him with the knife in the man's hand.

He does as Jason predicted and lunged back, he was weaker then normal as he was having to use his less dominant hand. Jason blocks the blade with his own and pushes it back, giving it a twist around the mans blade making him loose control and make its slip out of his hands. He laughs and grabs the mans shirt pulling it close to him while lifting his dagger up to his chin and then grabbing the dagger stuck in his shoulder and twisting it. The man swears and goes to fall to his knees as Jason twists the dagger. Realizing Jason also had one pressed under his chin he stayed on his feet. Just. "You kill me and you'll be a dead man" he warns, trying to keep his voice steady.

"Let me tell you something..." With the flat side of the blade by pulls on is chin to lift it up to look at him. "She's leaving here alive whether you like it or not. I kept a woman alive for a month before I let her die once. A MONTH! You think I can't stop her from ending up dead?" He smirks and leans into him closer. "You think I cant jsut cut your head clean off right now and be done with you?"

"and what happens when that 'month' is up..... she wont survive long" The man spits at Jason.

"You're all talk, kiddo." He smirks, hiding the pain of the knife in his shoulder well. "You wont kill me".

"I'm all talk? Is that right...." Jason's smile widens. "Goodnight Bates." With the hand holding the dagger, the takes it from under his neck and punches him in the side of the head with the end of the handle of dagger. He smashes it to his head with such force that the man gets knocked out and falls onto the floor. Jason then acts quick and takes off the cuffs from Tori's wrist and comes back to Bates and cuffs his hands behind his back.

---

Tori woke, keeping her eyes closed. She was more comfortable then she had been. On a bed, perhaps. She opens her eyes and doesn't recognize where she was, she tried to move, deciding it wasn't a good idea. "Jason?" She says anxiously. He didn't answer, and she eventually fell into a light sleep. The sound of the door opening woke her. "Tori? Are you awake?"

She nods slightly. "It hurts...." She says quietly trying not to move any more then she has to, even her breathing was dangerously shallow. "don't let him hurt me anymore..... please?" she mumbles. It was clear that she wasnt aware of where she was. Jason walks up to the bed. "Don't worry, hes not gonna hurt you anymore......." He looks over her again half sighing but catching himself doing so. "Just try to relax as best you can Tori, you'll be okay now. Your safe with me and I'm gonna get us back... Here you need.... here let me help."

Jason takes a oxygen mask from the wall that linked to a tank of extra air supply. Carefully he puts it on Tori. "That should help a bit... let me get you some water. You look dehydrated...." She closes her eyes, and keeps them shut, wincing in pain when he puts the mask on. She smiles slightly, as a thanks. Jason leaves the room and quickly comes back with a cup of warm water in his hands. He helps her to sit up really slowly and places the cup to her mouth to drink. Tori opens her eyes finally and watches Jason, wondering why he risked his life for hers. He returns with the drink and helps her sit up. She bites her lip trying to hide how much pain she was in. She pulls the mask down and takes a few sips before shaking her head. "I... cant. Please.. I need to lie down.... Where is he?"

Jason helps her back down gently and puts the mask back on. He ignores her question for now since he didn't want her to think about what she had been through."Alright, your gonna have to take a deep breath every hour or so... Can you do that? I know it will hurt but you need to try... Hold on let me get you something to help the pain....." He walks over to a shelf and gets a bottle with some tablets in it then walks back to her taking one out and leaving the bottle on the shelf. "This will help... Can you sit up one more time?"

"Ill try to...." she says quietly about the breaths and shakes her head "I want to but I cant sit up.... it hurts here.... " she holds her hands over the right side of her ribs. "It really hurts" she says starting to get upset. Jason nods and says in a calm, gentle tone. "The right side huh? Yeah its gonna hurt, that's why I wana give you this to die down the pain...." He notices she is getting more and more upset and sits next to her. He runs her hand through her hair gently, moving the hair from her eyes and with his thumb wiping off away tear.

"You know... This one time back on Crete... I'm at this bar right? And there was this fat big guy always drunk there. He saw me once there with a friend of mine and got pissed ... for what ever reason..." He said smirking to himself "... Anyway, there was a bar fight. After it i came out with a few broken ribs while protecting my bud that was already down. Lucky though he was alright cause he helped me get back..." He smiles a comforting smile at Tori. "Its gonna be alright... How about if i tilt your head a bit and get you a straw? Would that be alright?"

"I think that would work...... The straw." Tori nods slightly after listening to his story, trying to smile slightly, "It will help the pain...... And its going to be ok?" She looks at him for confirmation. She stops and frowns slightly for a moment, while looking at Jason "Why did you come after me?" She looked genuinely confused, unable to make sense of this. "You didn't have to put yourself in danger because I was stupid and got caught.."

"Honestly,... I couldnt stop thinking about you.. if you were safe. Then when I saw you I... nothing else mattered to me." He smiles and gets a straw from a drawer in the room and walks back to her. "Its gonna be ok..." He puts the straw in the cup and helps her lift her head to sip, then gives her the pill to swallow. Tori pulls the mask down, and takes the pill before closing her eyes again, poking out her tongue slightly "I'm not that unforgettable, you know." She murmurs as she puts the mask back on.

She sighs "I'm sorry I screwed up.... I shouldn't have mentioned you, but he....." She stops and shakes her head, not wanting to finish the sentence. "I don't see why your sorry. If you hadn't said anything then who knows what he'd do...." He gets up and gets an IV fluid bag, sets it up on a stand and pulls it over to her. "Im gonna have to poke a needle in you... its just gonna sting ok? Nothing major."

"I still shouldn't have mentioned you there.... That could have... he might have hurt you, and I don't think I could deal with that...." She shrugs weakly. "Needles are ok" She moves her arm from her ribs and straightens it so he can put the IV lure into it. He takes some rubbing alcohol first and cleans her arm, then sticks the needle in and covers it with a band-aid. "Yea he could have hurt me... but that possibility didn't really matter much to me. I had worse things done to me anyway than whatever he could have done...
All that mattered was to get you out of there."

She flinches as he puts the needle into her arm, and looks at it, shaking her head. She didn't like being unwell at the best of times and hated this. "I still dont understand why..." she says quietly. "Where are we?" She asks, trying to change the topic. He hears her quiet voice and sits back next to her. He slowly takes off her mask, pulling it up, and then leans and kisses her. He sits up again and smiles looking into her eyes. "That's why I came... I love you."

Tori bites her lip when he pulls back. "I.... Really?" She frowns and falls silent for a moment. "I love you too" She says quietly. She still didn't know where she was, but didn't care about that anymore, she tries to stop smiling, but can't. She thinks for a moment and shakes her head "Since when?"

"That one time when you sang that song on your guitar. You sounded amazing, but when I tried to compliment you, you kept saying it was nothing really." He smiles warmly. "I still think you sounded beautiful."

Tori smiles sheepishly, "I'm not that good, really.... It's just something I do to take up time."

"yea keep saying that too yourself." He says teasing her. He then turns and walks over to one of the drawers."I gotta get that leg now looked at... For now I'll make a splint." She watches him wondering what he was going to do, hoping it wouldn't hurt too much.He finds three pieces of stiff cardboard and some bandage fabric. He gets one of the extra pillows lying around and walks back to Tori, putting the things on the bed next to her leg. "Which one is it again?"

"The left one..." She tries to pull her jeans leg up a little bit, but deciding not to. the little bit that she had showed bruising starting to come out, and dried blood. She shook her head "My foot has pins and needles now. "

"Hmm... I need to take a look at it... I'm gonna have to cut it open." He places his hand on the handle of his smaller dagger on his chest's strap. "You can close your eyes if you don't wana look at it, but i promise I wont even scratch you." Tori nods hesitantly seeing him reach for the knife.He takes it out, his blade reflecting a bit of the light as he does, then moves to place the tip of it halfway between her knee and her waist. He then presses ever so gently on the dagger and moves it towards him, only slitting the fabric and not what is underneath. Tori closes her eyes, and tries not to think about the knife and the memories it brought back with it. Just below her knee a piece of bone was sticking through the skin, blood had pooled and dried around, her leg was almost entirely bruised. Tori hadn't looked at this yet, she knew it was bad but didn't want to see it.

"Yea Tori, I don't want you to look alright?" Jason stared a bit at her leg looking at what he could do but then decides to stick with the splint for now. He presses down on the bed in the middle of where her leg is and starts to move the pillow underneath. He watches to see her reaction as he does so. Tori nods and flinches as he moves the bed and puts the pillow under her leg. She bites her lip trying not to let on with how much it was hurting. He finishes moving the pillow under her leg and then slides the first board under it. He the places the other two pieces of cardboard on both sides of her leg an takes the bandage fabric in his hands thinking of how to do it without moving her leg too much. He grabs a bit of tape, sticks one end of the bandage to one cardboard side, pressing it the pillow against her leg and starts wrapping it around, keeping in mind to get the other side pressing on her leg as well. He tries to move her leg as little as possible when moving the bandages under her leg when wrapping. He then finishes and looks at his work. "Alright... that's good for now..."

Tori didn't realize she was holding her breath until he was finished. "That really kinda hurt...." She says quietly. "Is it bad?" She looks up at Jason, looking slightly concerned. "Its not really THAT bad.... You'll recover." He looks at her smiling a bit weakly, trying to hide his worry for her. "I gotta get you some ice though. I'll be right back alright? After this we are taking off from here." He turns and walks out from the room. Tori shivers, not sure if it was from the cold or the pain. She smiles slightly back "Alright"

She watches him walk out and looks up at the saline fluids, watching it slowly drip into tube and ultimately her system. She wasn't sure if it was that that was making her feel better, or the fact that she knew she was safe. Either way, the fuzzyness in her head was starting to fade. Jason returns wit a small bag of ice and places it next to her on the bed. "I'm gonna check where it hurts. I'm gonna have to press a bit on your chest so just tell me where you feel the pain alright?" He starts to do so, pressing with his palm gently, enough for her to tell him where it hurts.

"Yep.... It hurts there......" She says quietly when he gets to the lower right side of her ribs. "Does it get a bit worse now?" He presses on it a bit more watching her reaction. She nods, staying silent, trying not to tear up again. "Really really sore...." He stops pressing on it and nods. "Im not gonna get you any ice then on it then...." He watches her in pain and feels sad for her. "Hey... we are getting out of here... Jackson's got his ship jsut outside of this system in Texas. When we jump he'll be there to picks us up... as well as Siren." His tone gets a bit serious when he says Siren's name. He sighs heavily when he notices Tori frown at the seriousness in his voice. "Too much going on.... I just....... We are getting back to the Scylla." He turns to leave.

"Jason....." Tori frowns. "Don't go...."Jason looks back with one hand on the door frame. He seems a bit worried and with a bunch of stuff on his mind but still manages a slight smile. Tori see's his stress, and tilts her head sideways slightly, with a slight grin. "Don't worry too much alright....." She pauses for a moment. "I love you.."

"I love you too..." He smiles a bit more warmly. "I gotta get the ship running or we'll be here for a bit since you know... There's only three people on board." He walks out but you can still hear his footsteps. he leaves the door open. Tori nods slightly, not saying anything more as he walks away.

---

Some time passed, and the ship began to move. The occasional jolts hurt her. Jason poked his head through the door, "Hey, how are you holding up?" Tori keeps her eyes shut "I'll say I'm doing fine...." She says quietly.He stays quiet for a bit as he hears sometimes the ship getting his by a space rock or two. "It hurts really bad doesn't it?..." She nods "really bad." She tries to smile slightly before opening her eyes and looking over to see where he was. "I'll be fine though..." She adds sounding unconvinced. He walks to the bed and sits down, taking a hold of her hand. "You have no choice BUT being fine." He says this with a weak smile. "I know....." She nods. "I can't not be ok now."

She smiles a bit and squeezes his hand slightly. "Thank you." He squeezes back gently. "You don't have to thank me... I just didnt like seeing you that way and... Hey, you got really soft hands."

"It was my own fault anyway" She shrugs before giggling at his change of topic "Really?" He grins. "Yeah really." He says teasing her and starts moving his thumb rubbing the back of her hand gently, ignoring her as she argued what he was saying. "You know, sooner or later your gonna accept one of my compliments." Tori's cheeks go slightly pinker then they were. "I don't have to, you know....." He runs his hand up from her's, running up her arms to her shoulder as he leans to kiss her. She kisses him back with a smile on her face, bringing one of her arms up and resting it on his shoulder carefully, in a sort of hug. It was the best she could manage with the pain. He pulls back a bit and frows worryingly. "I'm not making the paint worse am I?" Tori shakes her head looking slightly disappointed. "Cant be any worse then it is already, you know."

He sits back next to her and is quiet for a moment looking down but then looks back to her. "So.... what actually.... happened. You know... with caterpillar face over there." Tori looked away for a moment and bites her lip. "I don't really remember....." She starts before pausing trying to collect her thoughts. "I know he shot my ship.... I don't think its salvagable.... And took in my escape pod. It kinda went bad from there." She thinks for a moment, and motions to her ribs "This happened when he was trying to find out who to talk to.... to, I don't know, I guess he wanted money. He kept saying that you just didn't care, and that you weren't going to pay up, so he would have to make money another way... But you did..."

She rubs her forehead, looking like she didn't really want to talk about it. "He, um, he wanted me to stand up, so he made me, with the cuffs." She held her left wrist, marks were visible on both of them. "I really don't know.... I know he hit me in the head, hard... At least I think he did. I don't know if that's making me not be able to remember or something...." She shrugs apologetically. Jason nods. "Don't worry about it, i'll squeeze it out of him." He looks at her wrists and runs his thumb over he raw marks while holding her hand again."Does it hurt?"
She shook her head and looked down, watching him run his thumb over the marks on her wrists. "Honestly, that's probably the one part that is bearable...."

"I think I should wrap a bit of bandage on your wrists just to be safe. Is it just soar or does it really hurt when u move them?" She tells him her left one is worse, and watches as he takes the bandage in one hand and her left wrist in the other and starting to wrap it. "Just let me know if there is anything else alright? I wana know whats hurting to I can take care of you well." Tori shrugs "my head.... but that's everything, i think..." He stops and looks at her, frowning with concern. "Cause he hit you there right? Thats probably bruised up a bit. Does it hurt real bad still though or just like a head-ache?"

"Just a little bit" she thinks a bit " my mind is a little bit.... fuzzy? I think thatd be the best way to say it." He looks back seeing the ice-pack still in the room. "How about I put some ice on it for you? That should help a bit." She nods and once he finishes wrapping her other wrist in bandage then places the ice pack on her head. "Hows that? A bit better?" She complains about the cold, making Jason laugh. "I'm pretty sure we are nearing the Jump Gate... I gotta go check and get us back quickly. Your gonna be alright for now? If you need anything just press that button over there right under that speaker and i'll hear you."

[align=justify][color=#d0cec2] Tori closes her eyes, and it doesn't take her long to fall into a deep but restless sleep. After Jason docks he walks back to the Med-bay and sees her asleep. He smiles to himself and checks the IV fluid before leaving the room not wanting to disturb her. He goes then to his weaponry storage room and replaces is crossbow with a shotgun and locks the door behind him as he then makes his way down and out of the ship. Two and a half hours later, Tori wakes with a fright and goes to sit up. She cries out in pain and covers her face with her hands.

"Jason?" she says sounding wounded, she soon realized he wasn't in the room and moved her hands to guard her ribs having a quick look around the room. happy she knew where she was, she relaxed a little while trying to remember what that man had done to her. She flinched as she remembered hearing what she thought was Jason and then struggling to breathe after he hit her with a metal bar. Tori shook her head slightly, there must have been something she could have done differently, something to stop herself from getting caught by him. A tear rolled down her cheek as she thought about how much her stupidity could have put Jason at risk.