Day Twenty

Hunter + Toni

Toni groaned as she slumped back on to the bed, the scrunched up paper balls lying scattered around the room from the failed attempts at getting them into the little basketball hoop the agents had brought her to keep her occupied.

It kept her physically busy, but her mind was constantly racing. She couldn't even remember how many days she'd been in that room for, how many days since she had seen the rest of the girls and Hunter too. She just wanted to see them. She just wanted to see anybody.

Almost as if her prayers were answered, the soft buzz of the door being unlocked caused her to sit up in surprise. She hadn't really been getting visits from anyone but the nurses delivering food three times a day but she's already had her lunch and it wasn't time for her dinner yet.

Dr Faber stepped into the room with a soft smile, allowing it to click shut behind him as he leaned against it. Toni was very aware he was likely putting distance between them on purpose but she was too drained to even question it. The man gave her strange vibes and she would have been lying if she said she wouldn't have preferred Agent Young to visit instead.

"Toni, how are you holding up?"

"When can I see the others?" Toni asked, not bothering to answer his question but instead providing one of her own.

Faber hesitated for a second, not having expected her to get to her point that quickly. She had been a lot less tense during their initial investigation and it was clear she was losing the plot by now.

"The quarantine order is still in place," Faber reminded her as she groaned loudly, clearly agitated. "But I assure you, as soon as it's lifted you'll be able to see Hunter and the others. Until then, I just have a few questions I wanted to ask you of the record - about day twenty."

"I don't have anything to say," Toni said, immediately putting up a front that gave away that she had a lot to say about day twenty but she just didn't trust the man sitting in front of him. He knew that would be the issue with himself approaching Toni while Agent Young handled Hunter that afternoon, but he was drastically aware that no part of Hunter Boyd liked him. Toni however wasn't about liking people, she was about respecting them enough to answer them.

"We spoke to Hunter, Toni. She told us a lot but we wanted to hear it from your point of view," Faber lied through his teeth, knowing fine well Agent Young was yet to even arrive at the other girls room.

Toni studied him for a moment before pulling her knees to her chest as she shrugged from where she sat on the bed. Her point of view likely wasn't that different from Hunter's but she had no reason not to trust the man sitting in front of her. Yet there was a nagging at the back of her head that Hunter wouldn't have willingly shared what happened on Day Twenty with the man.

"I can tell you what I remember," Toni said, her fist clutched a little. "But I don't think it was as eventful as you seem to think."

Toni knew fine well that day twenty had been eventful - but she didn't trust the man after telling her that Hunter had told them all about the day. She might not have known Hunter for years but she knew her girlfriend well enough to know she wouldn't have just told anybody. Not about all of that.
____

"Wait, so you gave up lacrosse for cheer?" Toni asked Hunter as they sat on the ground, Hunter laying down with her head on Fatin's legs as the girl plucked her eyebrows with her tweezers. The blonde flinched a little as Fatin tugged a little harder than expected on one of her eyebrow hairs, but shrugged as she addressed Toni.

"Yeah, I was pretty bad at it," Hunter admitted as Dot scoffed, walking by them with a handful of branches and logs that her and Shelby had collected to keep the fire going. The plane hadn't came back for them yet - and Hunter was trying to ignore the dread that it wasn't going to. Five days had felt like forever to them all, and she was aware that they were slowly beginning to run out of food.

"Oh she was horrific," Shelby admitted, the first time any of them had seen even a small smile on her lips in a  few days. "Almost blinded Becca at a game."

There was a slight pause as Hunter and Dot shared a glance as Shelby turned around to put the twigs down, knowing that Becca Gilroy had been Shelby's best friend before she had been found dead in her car by the girl's mother. Suspected suicide, but Hunter never knew the details - it wasn't something she thought was respectful to ask about.

"I can't imagine you doing like, a sport," Fatin said before noticing how Hunter narrowed her eyes slightly. "I don't mean like cheerleading isn't a sport, I just meant like a full on running and contact sport, yanno."

"Yeah, well, we can't all be miss basketball over here," Hunter laughed it off, Toni smacking her shoe as everyone laughed at Hunter's impression of her voice. They locked eyes for a second and Hunter smiled warmly before Fatin broke the moment by patting her on the side of the head and signalling that she was done hacking away at her overgrown eyebrows. 

Rachel, Leah, Martha and Nora were away to the waterfall for their baths and to bring back some water but Hunter wasn't entirely sure that it was wise for them to let Leah go anywhere these days when she'd been prone to some pretty epic freak-outs recently - but then again after Shelby's hair cut moment Hunter was sure that someone else was bound to also have one soon, little did she know.

"Besides, I reckon Shelby could give Toni a run for her money when it comes to who is more fit," Hunter said casually, everyone looking at her in interest while Shelby looked slightly panicked for whatever she was about to say. "Hey, I've walked by that spin class your father takes and if you can survive that I'm sure you can easily do a lap or two of a basketball court."

Shelby laughed as she relaxed a little, shooting Hunter a slightly appreciated look for not mentioning what had happened between her and Toni. She trusted the blonde but she was still struggling so much with her own internalised homophobia that she didn't know what to make of the whole situation.

"Hey, when I'm going pro and earning millions then you'll be sucking up to me," Toni joked, everyone chuckling and moving on with the conversation. Hunter felt her shoulders tense a little bit, her mind instantly starting to drift off.

"Why can't you just be grateful that scouts are coming to see me? Why does everything always have to be about fucking Hudson!?" Riley yelled, slamming the car door as they walked up the drive towards the entrance to the house party one of the guys on the football team was throwing.

"You KNOW that I emailed them about him, not you! Riley you had no right to go through my emails and make out like I meant to ask about you and not him!"

"Listen here," Riley snarled, turning on his heel and grabbing on to her forearm as he got up in her face, the alcohol on his breath that she hadn't noticed before now suddenly apparent. She had thought he was breaking heavier than usual and the realisation that it was because he had been secretly drunk driving her filled her with a cold dread. "You'll be fucking thanking me when they see how good I am. I'll go pro and make millions of dollars and you'll be begging me to keep you around. You're nothing without me Hunter, but I've got everything I need whether or not you're in my life."

"HEY!" Hudson yelled, standing at the door of the house with two drinks in his hands as he noticed how close Riley was standing to his sister. Usually he'd have ignored it, but he could tell from the front porch that they had been arguing. "Hunter, I got you a drink. Everything good here?"

Riley noticed the underlying threat in Hudson's tone. The boy might not have known the truth about his and Hunter's relationship at this point, but Hudson was aware that Hunter did not look comfortable in whatever situation was occurring.

"We're fine," Riley spoke, a laugh falling from his lips as he looped an arm around Hunter's shoulder and started walking towards Hudson as if nothing had happened. "Just a little couple bicker, nothing to worry about."

It didn't matter what Riley said. Hudson saw the look in Hunter's eyes and knew that he had everything to worry about. But here wasn't the place and now wasn't the time to ask her. So he simply nodded, squeezing Hunter's hand as she passed and followed them back inside.

"Hey, Hunt," Dot asked as Hunter snapped back to reality, noticing how the other four were looking at her like she had gone insane. She maybe had. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Hunter muttered, so unconvincingly that everyone looked at her in a slight disappointment for lying to them when she clearly wasn't. Something that had been said had suddenly upset her and they hadn't noticed it until they realised the girl's eyes had glossed over a little as she zoned out. "I need some air."

The girl jumped up to her feet abruptly, stumbling a little as she lost balance before turning on her heel and instantly breaking into a run. The four that remained on the sand all shared panicked glances as both Fatin and Toni rose to their feet, the former knowing that as much as she loved Hunter, it would always be Toni who would move the earth for the blonde Texan. Fatin nodded to her before slowly sitting back down, watching in silence as Toni too suddenly took off after Hunter.

"Sometimes I forget how far we've came," Dot admitted, talking about how Hunter went from not letting them sleep near her to letting Fatin sit and pluck her eyebrows while the blonde had her eyes shut. Her trust for the girls was so unbreakable compared to what it had been from the moment they all met on the plane, and it was almost heartbreaking to see that they maybe hadn't came as far as they thought.

"Trauma," Shelby murmured, Fatin and Dot looking at her in surprise at how cynical she sounded for a change. "It comes and goes."

____

"So, Hunter just ran off because Fatin said cheerleading wasn't a sport?" Faber asked, not buying it at all. Him and Agent Young hadn't been filled in on everything that Gretchen knew about the island and it seemed that she hadn't bothered to mention anything about the events on day twenty other than a small argument between the girls.

Toni shrugged, the lie falling easily off her mouth as she stretched her arms out above her head as she let out a soft yawn. She wasn't tired, but she was incredibly bored of seeing the same grey walls day after day.

"Yeah," Toni said with a small smile. "Kinda funny now but at the time it was so dramatic. I think we were just getting a little desperate since the plane hadn't returned yet."

"And then what?"

"Oh, nothing really. Once I got to Hunter, I helped her to calm down and then we went back to camp. Not much to say there."

Faber quirked an eyebrow as he looked at the girl, now knowing that she was lying. While Gretchen hadn't told him a lot about the argument he knew fine well that it had resulted in Toni returning back to their camp, bloody and without Hunter.

"Interesting. Cause Hunter seemed to think she gave you a bit more of a fight. Maybe you've forgotten since you were so...desperate for a rescue but she admitted earlier that she gave you a bloodied nose - did she not?"

Toni knew then that she was right to not trust the man. Hunter would never have told a stranger about their conversation, because she would never have just told a stranger about the things she had been through. What Toni didn't know was why he was lying to her to get the story: but one thing was certain to her, he wasn't getting any more of it from her.

"Nope, think you're mistaken. Is that all? I'm getting tired and I want to shower now. Unless watching teenagers shower is your thing now."

Faber forced a tight lipped smile on to his face as he rose to his feet, not wanting to push her the way he had pushed Leah. He could sense the sudden shift in Toni and certainly didn't want to get her angry to the point where it might ruin the experimental results. He nodded as he left the room, hearing the mechanism lock behind him as he began the walk back to his office.

He only hoped that Agent Young would have more luck with the other one.

____

Hunter sat down on a rock, her head in her hands as she tried to get rid of the sudden memories that had began flashing in her head again. She had been so distracted from it all over the last few days that she thought it was no longer a burden, that she was free from the pain that Riley had caused her.

Turns out, she was just learning to live with it a little more. 

But she wasn't fully healed, maybe she never would be. That only became even more apparent to her when she barely noticed the pounding of footsteps approaching her and the sigh of relief that fell from Toni's mouth as she noticed the girl was safe and hadn't done anything stupid.

"Hey, there you are," Toni joked as she moved towards her, a gentleness in her tone that she reserved only for Hunter. She wasn't even this soft with Martha usually. "I'm not gonna let you go through this alone."

Toni reached out her arm, not having even noticed that Hunter hadn't seemed to hear what she had been saying. She had just assumed that the girl didn't have anything to say, but that wasn't the case. Hunter was so wrapped up in her thoughts to even have noticed Toni approaching. What she did notice was the sudden hand that rested on her forearm.

Spinning around like a whippet Hunter instinctively slammed her elbow directly into Toni's face, sending the girl tumbling backwards with a yell of pain and shock into the wet sand. Hunter heaved for a moment in anger and panic as she looked at Toni before everything suddenly seemed to click back into place and she was one with her surroundings again.

"Toni... I'm so sorry - I didn't mean it," Hunter breathed out before the words echoed in her ears, looking down at where Toni was crouching with her hand holding her nose. The girl pulled her hand back to reveal the stream of blood gushing from it, her hands coated in the red liquid. Toni's first instinct was to get angry but as soon as she looked up and saw the look on Hunter's face she knew that she couldn't get angry at her.

"Hunter, look at me," Toni said, placing her hands on either side of the girl's face and forgetting about the blood pouring from her nose and coating her hands. "You didn't mean it, Hunter, it's okay - Hunter!"

Hunter shook her head as she pushed Toni's arms off her, shaking her head frantically as she mumbled under her breath, spooked in a way that Toni had never really seen her. This was different to when she freaked out about people touching her, this wasn't an offensive freak-out but rather one where she was realising exactly what she had just done. She was no better than Riley.

Toni couldn't say anything else before Hunter had taken off again, this time going towards the woods as she panicked. The basketball player wanted to go after her, but the blood loss was making her want to sit down for a moment and she wasn't sure that Hunter was going to be able to calm down when she was covered in blood.

So she turned around with a heavy heart and heavier feet, rushing back to their camp to get the one other person that Hunter might listen to. She needed to do what was best for Hunter, and if she couldn't get Hudson, she would just get the next best thing.

____

"Hey, Hunter," Agent Young said as he opened the door to the blonde's room, noticing how the girl was completing a jigsaw puzzle at the desk of the room. "You want to go a walk with me? There's a few things we need to clear up about the investigation - off record."

Hunter swivelled the chair around to face the man, hiding the distrust on her face as she looked at him. He didn't seem to be accompanied by Faber and for that she was glad, the man put her on edge.

"What, no visit from Shelbald today?"

"Shelbald?"

"Bald Shelby," Hunter replied unfazed, turning around and placing another piece of the puzzle into place. She sighed before standing up and stuffing her feet into the slip on shoes they had given her, grabbing her itchy grey sweater as she looked at the man. "So, are we going or what?"

_____

"Dude, why the FUCK are you covered in blood?"

"Where's Hunter?"

"Toni, are you okay? Oh my god!"

Toni nodded at Martha as she reached the group of girls, the others having returned from where they had been away collecting water and bathing. Fatin was scowling at her as her mind raced through scenarios, everyone else just looking genuinely confused and concerned.

"That better not be Hunter's blood," Fatin snapped, not meaning to lose her usually chill demeanour. Toni turned to face her with a rage in her chest, angered that Fatin thought that Toni was ever capable of hurting Hunter to that extent - after everything they'd been through on the island together, Toni thought she had proved that Hunter was the one person she'd never be able to hate.

"The fuck did you just say?" Toni snarled, moving closer to Fatin as she felt her temper rising, expecting the other girl to back down. For once, Fatin refused to see any humour in the situation and simply squared back up to the smaller girl, until Dot and Rachel shared a look that signalled it was time for them to step in.

Dot tugged on Toni slightly as she pulled the girl backwards, Toni flapping around as she shrugged off Dot's hand but continued to glare at Fatin from a distance. Rachel didn't even reach Fatin to pull her back, the Californian having told Rachel to not even consider it.

"Look, SHE did this to ME!" Toni snapped back, running a hand frantically through her hair. "She took off after it, like she looked at me and I just know she was thinking that she had became...him."

"I'll go get her," Leah said before everyone all let out slight noises of disapproval at that. Leah turned to face them all annoyed that no one seemed to trust her enough to go after her friend. "What?"

"No offence Leah," Shelby said, the voice of reason amongst them all. "But you literally punched her like five days ago - I don't think seeing you is gonna help right now even if it was an accident."

Leah stopped bristling, sighing as she realised that Shelby was right - she was maybe the worst person out of them all to go see Hunter if she was freaking out about her trauma. They all looked at her for a moment before Nora spoke up, just cutting off Fatin from speaking.

"I can go," the girl admitted, trying to hide her own unease at the suggestion. "I'm sure she'll be fine with me."

"No offence, Nora," Rachel interrupted her, a raised eyebrow as she looked at the girl in surprise that she was volunteering. "But have you and Hunter even had like more than ten minutes alone since we even crashed here?"

Nora deflated slightly, knowing that her sister had a point. But Nora also knew that Hunter couldn't be allowed to wander off and potentially disappear, the way that Fatin had. It couldn't happen again.

"GUYS!" Dot exclaimed, everyone turning to look at her in surprise. She rolled her eyes as she pointed to Fatin's retreating figure in the distance. "Fatin has already gone. The best we can do now is just wait for them to come back - hopefully in one piece."

____

"So, you're saying you just argued about sports and got a little overwhelmed?" Agent Young asked Hunter with a raised eyebrow as the girl munched on a bag of Fuego Taki's from the vending machine despite having previously told them she didn't get the hype in them. 

"Yup," Hunter admitted as she continued to munch through the bag, closing her eyes and shifting her head a little as she sniffed in some of the fresh air. Young had taken her to a small outside courtyard and Hunter almost felt herself literally just relaxing from having some fresh air. Her room had been getting a little suffocating recently - especially since she now knew that Leah and Shelby also believed these men weren't who they said they were. "No drama here."

"Even with Toni's bloodied nose?"

Hunter paused for a moment before her eyes slowly turned to look at Young in slight amusement and curiosity. She rolled her eyes and scoffed slightly before looking back at the bag of crisps in her hand and continuing to eat them.

"Wow," Hunter breathed, shrugging her shoulders just for show. "She really told you that?"

"Yeah," Agent Young admitted, lying through his teeth. He hadn't seen Toni since their day in the interrogation room and he knew for a fact that Toni wouldn't have brought it up to them without a push. Gretchen had told them about Hunter elbowing Toni in the face, but they didn't know what the argument was about. "She did."

"Huh, what a bitch," Hunter muttered in annoyance under her breath, huffing and binning the rest of her Taki's as she rose back to her feet. "Yeah, maybe she deserved it then. Is that all? I'm getting rather tired now and think I have a migraine coming on."

Agent Young nodded slowly, not sure how much of her recounting of their twentieth day on the island that he believed. It was clear that the girls didn't want to discuss what had happened but Faber had made it clear he needed to find out. They remained in silence as they walked back to the room, pausing at the door to Hunter's dorm before she turned to look at him once more.

"Sorry, do you have like a napkin or a tissue or something? I can literally feel the taki's on my lips."

Young smiled gently as he pulled out a small tissue packet from his jacket pocket, letting Hunter help herself to one of them. The girl wiped her face as he opened the door for her, wishing her a good luck before he allowed it to swing shut behind her.

As soon as the door closed, Hunter turned so that her face was hidden from the security camera and allowed her pretend pissed of facade to drop. She knew that Toni wouldn't have told them about their fight and Young had made it very clear that none of the other girls had been asked about day twenty other than her and Toni.

Which left her with one question in her mind: how did they know about something that they'd only have known about if they had been there on the island with them? 

And suddenly, Leah's theory wasn't seeming far fetched anymore.

____

It was late that night when Toni woke slightly in her sleep as she felt the sand beside her shift a little as a body curled up beside her. The girl opened an eye, peering into the darkness and instantly recognising Hunter's petite frame at her side.

"Goodnight Hunter," Toni grumbled out gently, barely awake as she pulled the girl in closer to her. Hunter snuggled up closer to her, having had a long talk with Fatin to calm her down. She would have time to talk things out with Toni in the morning but there was no need to freeze tonight. "Love you."

Hunter watched as Toni instantly fell back asleep with her arms around the blonde, the words ringing around in her head as she stared at Toni in surprise. Just as her eyes started to close as she wrapped herself around Toni, Hunter found a smile breaking out across her face as the butterflies in her stomach fluttered and danced in celebration.

"I think I love you too, Toni."