lie to me → s.d.

.33 | don't bother knocking

A searing, galvanic electric shock was what awoke Theodora from the sleep she had already resigned herself to. It reached down through the darkness and grabbed her by the collar, yanked her upwards with no remorse nor patience for her to realize what was happening. One moment she was nothing, and the next she was blinded by the sudden light invading every corner of her mind. Her body responded before she could even think, and she instinctively gasped for a deep, stuttering lungful of breath. Undecipherable noises slowly melted into sense as she blinked, the fuzziness before her eyes taking shape like images sitting on the surface of rippling water.

She was staring up at the metal ceiling of a charter plane, the details in the bolts and the windows allowing light to spill inside coming into focus the longer she looked at them. Figures hovering over her morphed from blobs of color into faces she recognized, and she was able to gain control enough of her arm to reach up and run a hand over her face.

" - enough to get back to the states," the old, crotchety voice of Sully was saying from somewhere near the front of the plane. "How's she doing? You got a pulse?"

A touch met the inside of her wrist and she stiffened, trying to pull away. The last thing she was able to conjure up was the burning, smoldering image of the ship collapsing in a smokey dream around her. Had it all been a dream?

"Yes, thank god," Elena's voice chimed in. "It's weak, but it's picking up. She's awake."

Theodora allowed hands, belonging to she didn't know who, to pull her up into a sitting position and lean her against one of the seats along the sides of the plane. She looked down feebly, mind still a spiraling mess trying to iron itself into a straight line. Her shoulder had been cleaned and patched up with a new, sturdier bandage, and there was a small butterfly bandage stuck to her chin. Something cold, metallic, was pushed gently to her lips and she decided it was an offering, taking large, greedy gulps of the water within. She felt it rushing, quick and cool, down her throat and into the cavern of her chest. A few more seconds' worth of thought finally allowed her to put the world into place around her.

"There she is," said Nathan with a smile from her right. He gingerly shook her shoulder in a sort of welcoming gesture and nodded to her other side. She followed his gaze slowly, tiredly.

Sitting beside her, Sam had his own share of wounds and bandages stuck to his face, but they seemed like nothing compared to the devastating grief in his irises. When she met his gaze he gave her a small, tight-lipped smile, one that wobbled slightly with emotions trying desperately to be held at bay. He released a loud, almost sob-like sigh from the back of his throat and wrapped her in a secure embrace, tugging her close and refusing to let go for anything else in the world.

Theodora's eyes widened for a moment as a tingling sensation sprouted across her skin, and she exhaled as she relaxed, melted, against him. "Hi, handsome," she croaked out, and he laughed, reaching up to wipe at his face.

When he finally released her, Sam shook his head woefully and rubbed a finger against his temple. "You sure know how to play a game of revenge, honey," he said.

"Technically dead for seven minutes," announced Nathan and checked his watch, as if confirming the time for himself. He nodded once. "Thank god Sully had a defibrillator on board, huh?"

Theodora searched the back of her mind for what had led up to her sudden 'death,' the last things she could remember and verify as true. "Rafe... he-"

"He's dead."

She stared at Nathan hard, and only closed her eyes when they started to hurt too much. She didn't have the strength to really ask what had happened, who killed him and how. So she switched back to the first topic and lifted a hand to the side of her head. "So... it wasn't the Fountain of Youth that saved me?" she joked quietly.