bullets and bouquets

68

"Sadie, don't do this," Bella pleads, "Please, there has to be another way."

Z watches the two converse, knowing she's going to make Bella hurt in the same way Sadie hurt her.

"Cara mia, there's no way. She'll kill you," Sadie says, "I love you."

"Sadie..."

"All right, that's enough," Z interrupts her. She walks in front of Sadie and releases her wrists. The redhead falls to the floor again, "Oh, stop it with that. Get up."

Sadie weakly pushes herself to her feet.

"Back up," Z commands. She scoots herself back next to Sabrina. Z keeps her pistol trained on Natalia, Bella, Dacre, and Finn. She walks over to Sadie and pulls out another pistol, "You try anything... I kill them all."

***

"They've been down there for a while," Jenna comments. She radios the Estate, "Florence, help me out here?"

"We're looking with thermal cameras, one second," she answers.

"We should just go in," Joe says.

"Wait!" Jenna stops him, "Just give her a second."

"I don't like this, Jenna. What if they were ambushed?" he asks.

"Florence will be able to see that," she points out, "I don't like this either, but if we go down there without thinking, we could be killed."

"They're all in a room in the back, looks like someone has Natalia, Dacre, Finn, and Bella cornered," Florence radios back, "Move in."

"Copy that," Jenna answers.

"Be safe," she says. Jenna turns off her radio as Joe begins going down the ladder into the bunker.

***

"Okay, who's next on the list... Stefan," Gianna reads the next name. Briar looks at the name and realizes he's in the infirmary.

"We can't take him home hurt," Briar says, "We'll have to wait until he gets better."

Gianna sniffles, "and if he doesn't?"

Robin looks down. Briar takes a deep breath.

"We cremate him and give his parents closure."

"Closure? Returning an urn is closure?" Gianna exclaims.

"It's better than having them think for the rest of their lives that he's still out there," Briar argues, "Look, I know it's sad, but we can't return him hurt like that. Taking him out of the infirmary will put him in danger."

"She's right," Robin adds, "Maybe you should go check on him while we take the next group out?"

Gianna sighs. She nods, "Yeah, maybe you're right."

"Hey," Briar grabs her shoulder, "It's gonna be okay. Everything's going to be okay."

Gianna nods with tears in her eyes, "I know, I'm sorry, I just..."

Briar pulls her in for a hug, "You don't have to be sorry, I know this isn't the ideal situation you want to be in."

"I just want Sabrina to be back," she sobs. Briar rubs her back and Robin joins the hug.

"She's coming back, Gianna," Robin whispers, "Say it."

"Sabrina's coming back."

"Sabrina is coming back," Briar agrees, "Say it again."