Once inside the maze, a strange sort of muscle memory saved Sasha again. From what she could now label as her long-term memories, she knew where in the maze to turn, which directions to take – and that was all even before she heard the sound of men's voices up ahead. It didn't even take understanding the words to recognize Lloyd. He was here, in the maze, just as Suzanne had said.
And that had only been one of the things she had said...
During their short journey to the maze, Suzanne had relayed to Sasha the full summary of all that Lloyd had done for her, as gleaned from the notes along her bed baseboard. Sasha had heard about her accident in Sao Paulo and the damage done to her memory, how Lloyd had nursed her back from death and left (admittedly) tender notes on her bed. Suzanne had also revealed all the lies Lloyd had told Sasha while knowing full well that she would believe anything he said. He had manipulated her perception of everything around her, and he was directly responsible for at least some of the destruction he had caused her beloved house. How could he be such a contradiction? The contrast – the clashing black and the white – of Lloyd's actions made no sense to Sasha. What was she supposed to make of everything? Did Lloyd have other plans for her? Had other things happened that she and Suzanne had no inkling of?
Did Lloyd somehow still love her somewhere, in the gray of everything good and bad?
Sasha's mind whirred as she held her gun tightly and silently led Suzanne through the maze. She swore that she would do what she had to in order to get Claire Fitzroy back to safety without clinging too tightly to any feelings about Lloyd other than betrayal – for above all, he had done anything but stick to the straight and narrow. She motioned to Suzanne to slow down as they approached the first well in the maze – an open space with a beautiful fountain that she somehow knew she and Lloyd had visited before – and peered around the corner of the last hedge before the clearing.
The image before her was the final blow shattering her trust in Lloyd: he stood opposite Six across the fountain basin, holding what looked like a flare gun to Claire Fitzroy's head.
And then suddenly it was as if someone had thrown a blanket over Sasha's head. She shivered with the failure of her short-term memory and swayed on her feet as her mind reset itself and she came back to the moment with new, surprised eyes.
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A Gray Llove
FanfictionFor five and a half months, Lloyd Hansen was in the CIA. He got out when his partner, a woman he had come to unexpectedly - and ferociously - love, was injured in the line of duty and could no longer retain anything more than short-term memory. The...
