Ha!

Scarlet would've snorted at her own thoughts if her lips weren't sealed.
Epiphany? Please! As if she hasn't known all along how she felt about Theo. In fact, Scarlet knew she liked him before they parted ways from the hospital. She was only keeping herself in check, it isn't ideal to acknowledge liking a taken man. Besides, being in denial made the guilt trip that much lighter.

But now, as Theo kisses Scarlet as though trying to win a sword fight, their heartbeats flying from their chests to their mouths, mixing with the synchronised movement of their feverish lips- she knows she cannot deny it any longer.

They're backing up against the wall, her legs coming around his torso, she flinches and her back arches when it comes into contact with the cold wall, making her chest collide with Theo's.

For what seems like forever, they kiss, alien sounds emanate from the back of her throat. She should be revolted, but she barely registers them. The things she's thinking of doing in the moment should be illegal. She wants to wrap herself around Theo, into Theo. Lose herself in every crevice of him. Just feeling his hands on her, and her running her fingers through his hair is like realising all she's ever wanted is right here in front of her.

Or is it?

No it's not. Celine isn't here.

"Theo!" Scarlet practically moans out. Theo's eyes are clouded and they're both breathing heavily as he pulls away.

"Ah," Theo gasps. "Fuck!" He whispers as he gently places Scarlet's feet on the ground but his hands stay wrapped around her. "I'm sorry Scarlet, I didn't ... I lost control!"

"Shhh!" Scarlet cuts him off. Her voice is breathless. "You've done nothing wrong." It's not as if she never wanted this. She stands on her tippy toes and pecks him on the lips for good measure.

Theo smiles, his eyes lighting up the darkness of the room. Scarlet stares, and it's all she can do to collect her thoughts and make an intelligible sentence.

"We gotta get out of here," she says breathlessly. "Why are you here anyway?" Theo glares at her and Scarlet sighs. "Well all right then, but how did you get in here?"

Theo unwraps his hands from around her waist and moves a few steps back. "I used to work here," he says. What? "And for some reason, my ID still works." There's a finality to his voice.

Oh okay, that explains the knowing Victor part. Scarlet thinks. She doesn't press. Why isn't she pressing? She should be! She should ask him questions. She should get away from him, he used to work here, he could be one of them but the idea of running from Theo sounds as ridiculous as can get. If he is the enemy, then she might as well just hand her head over on a silver platter and get it over with.

Theo magically produces the lamp and holds out his hand to Scarlet but she just stares at it. Not that she doesn't trust him ... well she doesn't, it's confusing really. "What were you doing?" she asks, finally deciding on what she wants to know. "When you were working here, what were you doing for them?" What if he was one of those back there? Forcing people to be their lab rats?

Theo stares at his empty hand hanging in the space between them, then his eyes travel up to Scarlet's face, he looks horrified and hurt but he covers it up and take a few steps closer to Scarlet. "Don't you trust me Scarlet?" he asks, his hand reaching for her face, his beautiful eyes staring deep into hers. That line brings back a lot of memories, memories of a betrayal so fresh it's still burning beneath her skin.

She has to remind herself that this is Theo, he's not Vic. He's not going to deceive her, he's not going to promise to stay through the night but somehow disappear before it ends.

He's not going to use her as a lab rat. Theo would never hand her over to people who can proficiently hurt her, he can't sit comfortably somewhere knowing she's in there getting tied up like something inhumane.

"Scarlet?" He grabs her face in both his arms. "Answer me, babe." His voice is soft, velvety, it momentarily makes Scarlet forget what she was trying to say.

Babe? That's new!

Yes, babe! Her subconscious is so bored. Now gather up your senses and answer him.

She blinks. "Well, you have given me nothing to work with!" she says petulantly. She does trust him if she's being honest. But how many times have people been proven wrong by blind trust? And she's not about to let him have her trust so easy.

"I could never hurt you, Scarlet," Theo's voice is barely a whisper, it's like saying the words is taking a toll on him. There's so much sincerity in his eyes that Scarlet's eyes can't take it. Her gaze drops down to her shoes, making his hands fall from her face. "Please look at me!" Theo tips her chin so that she's looking up into his eyes again. "I ... I care about you Scarlet, so much so. I wouldn't bear it if something were to happen to you. Please believe me. Tell me you believe me." He's pleading.

Scarlet gives a small nod. She's not so oblivious as not to notice that Theo feels something for her, even if it could be a flimsy attraction. But hearing him say he cares about her, it makes a lump grow in her throat. To clear her head, Scarlet gulps and does a little shake of it. She does believe him, she believed him before he even asked her to. Theo sighs and kisses her forehead, then softly on the lips.

She melts in a puddle at his shoes.

"Come on, there's just a slight chance that they'll catch us if we hurry. We gotta move fast." he whispers, unlocking the door.

"How are we going to get out?" Scarlet can't help asking as Theo looks up and down the hallway.

"Like I said, my ID still hasn't been blocked so we can get out if we're quick enough. If they notice that you've escaped they'll activate the ELD, not even the most loyal employees can get out then." They trot down the dark hall, Scarlet following closely in Theo's footsteps and clutching his hand tight.

"What's the ELD?" she asks.

"Emergency Lock Down."

"Oh. Why aren't we walking normally then?" she wants to know. "Surely, if someone saw us..."

Theo sighs. "We don't want to be seen Scarlet. Besides, time, there's an OE at the end of this hall, if we're fast enough we can catch it and it'll take us straight to the ground, no security protocol required. In here! Someone is coming!" Theo places a palm on a small screen on the door, his name and a tiny green picture appears on it, along with smaller words that Scarlet can't read from behind him. There's a small bar on the screen and as it loads its approval, Scarlet thanks God that this door doesn't talk. It opens and they step in, Scarlet can feel the panic arising again. There's footsteps outside, if her breathing doesn't go down, they'll hear her as they pass. She backs up against the wall and closes her eyes, concentrating on calming her breathing.

"Hey," Theo is with her in seconds. "Hey, we're going to get out of here. I'm getting you out, safe. Do you understand?" He holds her jaw in his palm, his other hand resting against the wall as he leans in, his warm lips resting on her throat, kissing all over her neck. Scarlet's eyes involuntarily close, his fingers set her face on fire, the panic disappears as the footsteps and voices grow louder outside. Yet her breathing doesn't go down.

"Is this your way of calming me down?" she whispers, she's feeling hot but is trembling at the same time. "Because if so, it's not working."

She feels Theo smiling against her neck and she shudders. "Let's try this then." He kisses her full on the mouth, her hands fly to his hair and before long they're back where they left off. Outside, the voices pass by the room and they immediately pull away from each other. "Clear," Theo says, regarding her with a hooded lustful gaze before doing a little shake of his head. "They're gone, come on." He takes her hand and unlocks the door.

They walk past a few more doors and stop at a glass one. "Is this the OE?" Scarlet asks, it's glass, transparent and really leading to nowhere. "But ... "

"Officials Elevator, yes," Theo answers. "But we've missed it, it seems. Come on." He's taking another door. "The stairwell."

"Won't it come back? We could wait a bit?" Scarlet asks.

"No, it works in intervals. The next one is in three hours. We don't have that long do we?" But there's a ding just as Scarlet turns to follow and the elevator comes back and the doors open.

Scarlet beams at him complacently.

But there are people inside, she stiffens. Theo squeezes her fingers thrice behind her back and lets go. Scarlet watches as he walks into the elevator, there's three suit wearing men inside. She wants to scream at him, but she trusts his judgement.

"Are you coming Miss?" Theo is standing at the back of the elevator, grinning at Scarlet's panic.

It takes everything in her not to just keel over from the beauty of a smiling Theo. In fact, she has to remind herself to panic again.

Scarlet hesitantly steps over the threshold and the doors close. One of the men, browsing away on a tablet looks up at his mate and says. "Still think this is a good idea Bryce?"

Bryce, an old dirty blonde man who looks like he's tasted something bitter nods curtly."I believe in Grayson, and so far his inventions and ideas haven't let us down." Scarlet looks away from them.

The other man hums thoughtfully. Scarlet feels like she might pee herself but Theo's palms rests at the small of her back, giving her more comfort than he knows and sending her entire being into a frenzy all at once.

"I'm getting off at one first," Bryce says. "Still gotta confirm with the source." The elevator dings and Bryce and the other man get off, but not before eyeing Scarlet curiously.

A moment later, it dings again, announcing the ground floor. Theo's hand presses into her back as soon as the other men offload and Scarlet takes it as a sign to follow. She does, the reception is empty as it was when she had arrived and the glass doors appear at the entrance and open automatically for the men.

Theo's hand urges her forward. "Go on, hurry!" He hisses in her ear and Scarlet hastily follows, the doors almost close on her.

Holy shit! The two men continue up the driveway, oblivious to what they're leaving behind. Scarlet doesn't know if that's a good or bad thing.

She uses her leg to stop the glass doors, her hands grab it too, but it's not stopping. It's pressing into her skin, it's painful and she could get out but Theo wouldn't. Scarlet has no idea what she's doing all she knows is that she's not leaving Theo behind. An alarm goes off and she has to fight the instinct to cover her ears. Why isn't he getting out? The edges of the glass door are cutting into both her palms, fore arms and hind legs. It hurts. Too much. She's fighting back tears.

"SCARLET! What the!" There's an effortless but powerful push and Scarlet nearly falls out of the small death space but manages to steady herself. She's on the steps outside, Theo is inside looking horrified and livid. The doors have closed in on him. But that isn't why, it seems.

"Oh shit!" She cries, limping back to the doors, hot liquid is pouring from her glass wounds but Theo is inside, that's all that matters. Yet, beside the murderous glare he sends her way, Theo doesn't seem bothered.

"Theo?" Scarlet calls. What is wrong with him? He's standing on the other side of the door, hands in his pockets. Please don't tell me this is the scene where he gives himself up for me, "THEO!" she calls again,

Theo's gaze is now somewhere to the side of the door, he's saying things Scarlet can't hear but she's sure as hell not leaving him behind. She's remotely aware of the little sparks of light her wounds are emitting again but she finds she doesn't care much anymore. She bangs on the door repeatedly, the alarms have not stopped. Theo casts a quick glance at her but looks away quick. What's he playing at?

"THEO!" she calls again, fists banging the door until it opens and Theo walks out. Scarlet practically falls into his arms. "Don't," she says breathlessly. "ever do that to me again!"

Theo holds her tight and exhales in her hair. "I told you I was coming Scarlet, the security was putting up a bit of a fight that's all. Come on." We gotta get past the guard dogs."

Sure enough, the two men, cold and hard as stone from the gates are coming at them, behind them, a commotion is going on inside the building but thankfully, others can't seem to come out. "ELD activation in progress," the disembodied voice announces through an invisible intercom. "Fifty, activated," it continues. "Forty nine, forty eight, forty seven ... " It continues announcing as Theo and Scarlet charge toward the long but short walk down a driveway to the main gates. "Main entrance, activates in ten seconds," the repeats. "Main gates, activates in fifteen seconds."

Theo is tugging at her hand, he runs towards the gates and Scarlet limps off in his wake. The two mountainous guards are charging in their direction too. The disembodied voice's announcements have become a noise in the background as Scarlet tries to concentrate on their journey out, she can hardly breathe, but the adrenaline isn't letting her acknowledge that fact. They're going to collide with the guards.

And they do.

The white man charges towards Scarlet, but Theo effortlessly pushes him off of her and the black man tackles him from the back. Scarlet has fallen to the ground, baffled. She has no idea what to do, until the man is coming at her again. He grabs her forearm, trying to restrain her but Scarlet somehow wiggles out of his iron grip. She turns around to get away from him, but his arm wraps around her waist. Scarlet cringes and on a very unnatural instinct, she plants her hands to the ground, offering support to her lower body which smoothly lifts itself, she's suddenly upside down as if she's going to somersault and kicks him on the chest. His arm lets go and Scarlet flips back onto her feet. Leaning onto the hind arms again, she sits back with outstretched legs, slides and twirls in a fluid motion on the paved floor and double kicks him in the shins, making his legs give out as he topples and falls down.

Oh wow! Scarlet observes, her eyes narrowed on the paved ground she's seated on. That was very uncharacteristic. She's not the kind to jump around, at least not like that. And she'd have bet on tripping if she knew she was going pull a stunt like that.

That was almost expert, almost.

He's about to get up when Scarlet leaps like a bat and settles on top of him. The man grabs two handfuls of her butt, Scarlet tries to jiggles herself but he has iron grip. She raises a punch aimed to his face before remembering ... swiftly reaching into her pockets, she gets out one of the syringes she'd gotten earlier from the laboratory and stabs him right in the shoulder. "Fuck!" he growls and relaxes.

Theo is still fighting with the black man, his movements are fluid and calculated. He punches him in the midriff, but the man is too strong he barely hunches over. Theo's eyes seemed to be glued to Scarlet as he fights, as if waiting to see when she can't handle it so he can take over but when he sees the other man on the ground, he smirks and pays full attention to his opponent.

They don't have time, she has one more tranquiliser.

Scarlet runs to Theo's rescue, only to get severely kicked in the stomach by a leg aiming at Theo. "Hmmfphhh!" She clutches at her stomach in an attempt to breathe.

"Scarlet!" Theo's cry resonates against the wall fences as he moves towards her. She wants to tell him to concentrate . She's okay, but can't find her voice. The man is lunging again, Theo is distracted. "Are you okay?" he asks and ducks in time for the punch aimed at him to pass him in a blur of knuckles, grazing Scarlet's ear. "Motherfucker!" Theo growls, turning around.

"I'm f-" Scarlet watches in horror. She hadn't noticed up to now that the guards weren't using weapons, and now. And now ... he's coming at Theo's back ... With a pocket knife! "Theo!" Scarlet has no idea where the strength comes from, the next moment she has pushed Theo to the side, he falls, more from surprise than the force of her push, the guard is in her face but rigid. He's going to fall, and squash her. But Theo is suddenly on his feet and pushes him to the side. He collapses. She has injected him.

"Run!"

The gates are seconds away from closing completely. Theo is running to them, he darts out in a move so fast it's pyrrhic, Scarlet on two wobbly left legs at his heel. Theo's arm backtracks, there's a jolt in her own arm and her jacket is gone with the closed gates.

But she safe in Theo's arms.