I'll Save You - Spirk

Chapter Seventy Three

*Spock's POV*

Stupid.

I have allowed myself to lose track of how long I have been here.

From what I have been able to gather, they bring us food and water every 12 hours.

I managed to keep track for the first four weeks, then I began forgetting.

How long has it been? A few days since I lost track? A few weeks? Months even?

One reason for my forgetfulness was perhaps the periods of unconsciousness. They seemed to be lasting longer and becoming more frequent.

The three men holding us drastically varied with how they treated us.

The quiet one, Jared, tended to just stand there, glaring around the dark surrounding and generally ignoring us.

The one in charge, Thomas, tended to pace the small space, occasionally hurling verbal abuse and threats at us.

The third one was the worst, Karl. He had an extremely quick temper and a very dark sense of humour.

He constantly mocked us, and would often come into our cells to physically abuse us.

He carried a wickedly sharp dagger that Carol and I quickly became very acquainted with.

Carol always suffered more than I did, and it killed me to just stand aside and watch, but there was nothing I could do to protect her.

Sometimes I would taunt him, try to aim his anger at me rather than her, however there were orders to keep me alive so he was always careful. Carol wasn't under that protection.

Whoever the 'boss' is, they clearly frighten Karl, which made me fear them even more.

They came in occasionally to give the other men orders, and sometimes came to look at us but rarely spoke.

I still had no clue who they were.

Thomas was on guard duty and Jared was already waiting to replace him, which I was immeasurably grateful for.

Karl hasn't had a guard shift for a while but I still ached from his last visit. Carol was fairing even worse, I didn't miss how quickly her health was deteriorating.

She had begun to sleep more and eat less, and the light in her eyes had completely died. She had given up.

Thomas left and Jared took his place, glancing at is briefly before staring at the wall opposite him.

"How long have we been here?" I was surprised by the question, and even more surprised that it had crossed my lips without my permission.

Jared looked even more surprised, studying me intently for any sign of an ulterior motive.

He sighed, and returned his gaze to the wall and I slumped back, assuming he was going to ignore my question.

"Six weeks."

I glanced up sharply, but he was still looking at the wall.

"Where's Karl? What's he doing?" I asked after a brief pause, mostly just to see if he would answer more questions.

He sighed again. "He has a few days off to see his family. He comes back tomorrow than I get a few days off."

"Ah," I replied, slightly taken aback. I didn't realise this was the sort of job where you got time off to see family, and I had trouble conceiving the thought that Karl had a family to go and see.

I was silent for a while before risking the big one. "Who is your boss?"

"Enough questions," he snapped and I flinched away at his sudden anger.

He sighed once more. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm.... Im not like them, okay?"

He feels guilty, I was surprised by the realisation but it made sense. He wasn't exactly nice to us, but he was never cruel and he always looked  uncomfortable when he saw our injuries.

Yet he did nothing to stop it, to help us. I may hate him slightly less than the other two, however I still hate him.

I returned my gaze to the stone ground in front of me and pulled my knees up to my chest, shivering slightly.

It was always cold here, and it made me long for Jim's warm embrace even more.

I wonder what he's doing right now, is he looking for us? It must be almost Christmas time, maybe he has gone home for the holidays.

What about my parents? Six weeks is a long time for someone to be missing, have they given up and gone back to Vulcan?

I can almost see it, Amanda in the kitchen - she always loved cooking - and Sarek hovering over her, worrying about his emotional human mate.

My thoughts quickly went back to Jim.

Six weeks...... Has he moved on from me yet? Has he turned his attentions to the dozens of other people who would love to have even just a night with him?

Or am I on his mind, as he is constantly on mine?

Questions filled my head but there was no way to find the answers.

Will they ever find us?

Will I ever lay eyes on my beautiful T'hy'la again?

Or will we die here, forgotten and alone?