Relief (Ben, Open)

[~ ADMIN]

It took Anna over 24 hours to come round once the sedative had worked its way through her system. When she did, her eyes cracked open slightly only for her to close them tightly again. The light was blinding. She was lying down, and she could feel wires both at her wrist and her nostrils. The muscles in her abdomen were aching, the center of the pain dull, but still evident. Opening her eyes again, she suffered the light for a moment while her eyes worked to adjust, and everything came into focus.

She was in the medical bay, she could see that now. The SWAT team had obviously been successful in getting both her and... Ben. Ben, Ben, Ben; where was he? She craned her neck to the left and only saw one of the medical officers working at a computer. Lifting her head slightly, she managed to twist her head the other way, and as she did so, Ben fell into view. Relief, once again, washed over her. Even with the extent of his injuries. His face looked pretty badly bruised from the hits he'd taken to the face, his shoulder was bandaged, and she was sure his leg was too.

His eyes opened, she didn't know how long he'd been awake before her, but he didn't seem to shy away from the light like she had. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she managed a, "hey," in order to catch his attention. They'd been through a lot, one hell of a lot, but the one saving grace was that they'd both made it out alive. And as soon as she was able, she would show him just how appreciative of that fact she was.

[karen2]

By the time help had, thankfully, shown up, Ben had been dizzy and lightheaded, both from all the blows to the face he'd taken and from the blood-loss. The only thing that stood out was Anna's small, cold hand clutching his fearfully. That was all he was able to hold onto, all that kept him from slipping under. When her hand had been torn away, the sedative had only hurried what had been unavoidable.

When he'd come back around, it was a long moment before he could register anything beyond his own body and the pain that wracked him from the inside out. There wasn't a single part of him that didn't seem to hurt--his face, his shoulder, his ribs, his leg, all screaming in pain. After a while he finally managed to open his eyes and give himself a short once-over. Aside from a lot of bandages and an IV in his arm, he seemed to be okay.

Where's Anna? came to the fore-front of his mind, and he glanced around, grimacing as his neck ached. Doubtlessly a result of his head being snapped to the side multiple times. He breathed a silent sigh of relief at seeing Anna on the bed next to him. She looked pretty bad, and she was still unconscious, but she was alive. Thank the heavens for that much.

Since she was still out, Ben simply turned his eyes back to the ceiling and tried to remember everything that had happened so that he'd be able to give a detailed mission report. Idly he wondered what had happened to the binder, but then figured that Henry had probably taken it. Henry Blake. Ben glared coldly at the fluorescent light above him. He'd just have to have a little... chat, with Will about this later.

He heard Anna's voice then, and looked over to see that she'd come around. "Hey," he offered back, coughing a little when his throat stung and his ribs throbbed. "I'd ask how you're feeling, but if you're anything like me at the moment then the answer would involve a few too many curses and violent adjectives to be very reassuring."

[~ ADMIN]

Anna hadn't forgotten a single thing that had happened that evening. The thing that was really plaguing her mind, and had been while she was sleeping, was that Henry Blake had been behind everything. He was the financeer for the terrorist group, not Kelly, Kelly was just a front man. And yet Henry Blake was supposed to be dead. Will had said it, and meant it. He believed his father was dead, he had been glad to see the back of the man. And now Anna understood why. If Henry had treated his son that way while he'd been 'alive', then Anna could imagine Will had a few scars of his own.

When she heard Ben reply, she attempted to smile, but her mouth only twitched, pain shooting through her cheek. Her face must have been pretty badly bruised, rolling with the punch obviously hadn't worked as well as she had hoped. Ben had taken a more severe beating to his poor gorgeous face, his lip was busted, his eye black, his cheek swollen. It was almost hard to look at him in that sort of state, but she managed - she'd seen worse after all, and she... well she... loved Ben.

"If someone could read my thoughts at this moment, they'd need a bleep machine to censor out all the cursing," she mustered a smirk, "and even then, they'd just hear a continuous string of beeps." Was the morphine, or whatever painkiller she was on, even working? It didn't feel like it. Maybe they were worried that if they gave her too much she'd go a bit goofy. Or worse yet, maybe she'd hallucinate that the doctor was her brother and break their nose. Just what they'd need.

There was no point asking him how he was either, then pain on his face was evident. "How much do you remember?" she asked him. He probably remembered everything, he hadn't taken a particular blow to the head that would cause him memory loss, but she wanted to be sure that they were on the same page.

[karen2]

Anna seemed to have to force herself to look at Ben at first, and for the first time he wondered how bad off he'd come. Considering how many times Henry had smashed his fist into the side of Ben's face, bets were "not so hot". Truly curious now, he shifted a little to catch his reflexion off the glass cabinet at the far end of the room. He grimaced slightly at the sight of his face and sighed. Not that it truly mattered--he'd heal.

He turned then to look at Anna, glad to see that at least her face had gotten out okay, more or less. It was her side that worried him. Anna spoke again then, distracting him. "Too much," he grumbled in response to her question, leaning his head back against his pillow.

"We landed, went in, met Senator Kelly, went up to his computer room, got compromised, shot at, ran into the trees, took cover in a shed, shredded my jacket for bandages, tried to escape, got caught by Blake, shackled up somewhere, were beaten for our names, didn't give them, got beaten some more, and then rescued," Ben summed up quickly. "I miss anything?"

All in all, it wasn't exactly a Hallmark memory for either of them. Snorting a little, he wondered if this was one of those times where, if their lives had been a movie, Anna would say "You really know how to show a girl a good time, don't you?". But, of course, considering this was reality and they were both lying there in the medical bay, things weren't looking so good. Humor would come later.

[~ ADMIN]

Anna must have tipped Ben off by the look on her face, because his eyes flickered to his reflection, and he didn't like what he'd seen. She honestly couldn't think of anything to say that would make any of this better. Their night had been pretty craptastic to say the least. Honestly, right now she wished that it had all gone to plan, that she and Ben had been back on the ship hours ago in one piece, with the intel, destroying another supply closet. But this is what they got instead.

"Not a detail," she said, nodding as he finished his brief, straight forward account of the evening. Blake would be the main thing they had to deal with now. They would need as much information about the man as possible, and the best place they could start would be Will. He may have hated his father, but he could give them a clear picture of the state of his affairs before his 'death'. He'd know a lot of things they didn't. In fact, they didn't really know anything.

Even though she'd just woken up, she felt like she needed more sleep. She couldn't do anything till she was up and out of the bed anyway, and she didn't know how long it was going to be before she was allowed to get up and move around. Part of her wanted to try now, to get up and go over to Ben, but she knew she'd just set all the machines off into a beeping frenzy, and the pain would increase tenfold. Her body didn't really give her a choice. Before she knew it, she was out again, the last thing she saw was Ben's bruised face.

-x-

It took a good few days for both Anna and Ben to get to the state where they were able to get up and move around. Luckily, with the new technology these days, the medical team were able to repair the damaged tissue in Ben's leg and shoulder, and in Anna's side. They were still constantly on painkillers, but at least they were able to walk around again. Anna hated lying around doing nothing, so being on her feet again was like heaven. She couldn't do anything vigorous, but she certainly took a few laps of the ship - walking, not running - to help her realise how glad she was to be able to do that again.

The first thing on their agenda now was to investigate what happened, and that immediately led to questioning Will. Anna thought that it was questioning that they were going to do, she didn't realise that Ben had other things in mind. There was still tension surrounding what had happened back on the planet, and she and Ben hadn't really touched each other in days, apart from a hug when they both were freed from their beds. Now they were almost at engineering, and Ben looked determined. Hopefully he wouldn't do anything stupid.

[karen2]

As soon as Ben and Anna had both give given the okay to get out of bed, they'd almost immediately found one another's arms, but aside from that contact between them had been fairly limited. To say that the pain was completely would be lying, but at least it wasn't excruciating anymore, and Ben was able to function normally again. And his first course of action was going to be to beat the living hell out of Will.

Anna had some idea of talking to Will, to figure out all they could about his father, but Ben couldn't care less. Henry had hurt them, had hurt her, and Ben was going to make someone pay for it. Seeing as Will had claimed that his father was dead, he deserved to find out that that wasn't true--assuming he didn't already know. Ben just made the decision that he deserved a few punches along the way.

Together he and Anna entered engineering, and he scanned the room through narrowed eyes, pinpointing the Chief Engineer. When he found him, he stormed over, brushing passed the other engineers carelessly and pushing a bewildered looking Natalie aside. "Hey there, Will," he said, his voice unusually cold as he gripped the front of Will's shirt. "You read our mission report? If not, let me enlighten you.

"Anna and I went to gather evidence against a certain Senator Kelly. While doing so, we ended up getting shot at, and as we tried to escape with our lives, who should turn up but Henry Blake. Now, tell me, how is it possible that a man who's been 'dead' for the last four years was able to beat us for information? How was it that your father was still alive, and funding R4 without you being aware of it?!"

The fire in Ben's eyes was down right fear-inspiring, and his free arm was winding up to swing forward and clock Will one just like Henry had done to him. It was only fair that he returned the favour, after all. Not that it was exactly Will's fault that what had happened had, but since Henry was who knew where he would just have to do.

[William Blake]

Will hadn't been having a particularly bad day actually. Things on the work front were surprisingly slow, especially with Tayze picking up a lot of the slack now that she was on board, so he was taking the chance to chat with Natalie while he idly fiddled with a console. The night after the awards ceremony had been nothing short of amazing, and he was completely infatuated now - not that he hadn't been before. Natalie was very special.

So, it was needless to say that Will hadn't really expected Ben to come up, stick his face into his and scream at him before taking a fist to his face. Will's cheek smarted as he reeled back, Ben's hand still tightly clasped onto the front of his shirt. "What the hell?!" he shouted, shoving Ben away hard. He hadn't had time to fully process all of what Ben had just told him yet. Surveying the two, they were in pretty bad ship. He'd heard that their mission had gone south, but not that badly.

Forcing his brain to recall what Ben had just said, he shook his head. No, it wasn't possible. Henry Blake was dead. His body had been burned to a crisp. Will had said terrible things about him at his funeral. And yet... that glimpse he'd had of the man at the ceremony. He could have sworn at the time that it had been his father, but he'd convinced himself otherwise. But now here Ben was, bellowing in his face about his father financing R4. "What do you mean how could I not be aware of it?" Will said loudly, "Up until two seconds ago, I was pretty convinced that we'd burned the son of a bitch to cinders four years previous. I was HAPPY that he was gone. And now you're telling me he's alive?!" It was like his worst nightmare come true.

If Anna had known what Ben had been planning to do, she would have cuffed him in his sleeping quarters and gone to talk to Will herself. She hadn't realised that he was going to go completely bonkers on the guy when it wasn't really his fault. Ben's fist collided with Will's face and she gasped, immediately reaching to grab Ben's arm. "Ben, no!" she said, trying to pull him back. She'd been caught off guard by all of this. So had Will and Natalie apparently. Will turning red with annoyance, Natalie's eyes wide with surprise. Will looked like he was going to deck Ben in return for what he'd just done. "Ben, stop."

What was this sudden burst of anger really about? Sure, she was annoyed about what had happened, but Will wasn't the one to blame. Ben didn't see her going crazy at him, now, did he? Then she remembered back to how protective Ben had got back in that basement when Henry had gone to torture her, and she realised. Oh jeez.

[karen2]

"Oh please, don't play stupid with me," Ben growled, shaking Will's shirt. "Like you had no idea that he was still around! Like he wouldn't have tried to contact you!"

He heard Anna tell him to stop, but he didn't listen. She wanted answers, and he was going to get them--just not the way she'd intended. He knew that this course of action was irrational, but he was already pumped with adrenaline and seeing red. Stopping now would be weak. Pathetic. At least, that was the way Ben saw it, and he was too enraged to listen to what anyone else had to say.

"Even if he hadn't contacted you, you knew him better than anyone, you knew all his friends! If you didn't know he was still alive, then how the hell is it even possible?! How could he have faked his own death and not tip off his own god-damned son?!" Swinging his arm back, Ben brought it around to wallop Will across the face again.

Natalie watched with wide eyes, stunned, as Ben shoved passed her to get to Will, his eyes burning. What the hell was going on?! Each word he shouted was like a stab, and her mouth fell open in horror towards the end. How was that possible?! How the hell could Henry Blake possibly be alive?! He'd been cremated for crying out loud!

The sound of a fist colliding with flesh made her flinch, and she was grateful when Anna tried to stop Ben from hitting Will again. As if finding out his father was alive wasn't enough, now Ben had to go around and pepper it with punches? Despite how shocked Will had to be, he managed to yell back at Ben, and Natalie bit her lip worriedly.

Forcing her feet to co-operate, Natalie wove hastily around to stand behind Will, wanting to break this up before it got too far but not knowing how. Maybe if they got the two men away from one another, Anna could talk Ben down and Natalie could get Will out of there before Ben was at his throat again. But to do that, she still had to get passed square one. And soon, she thought, cringing as Ben hit Will again.

[William Blake]

Will cracked. Up until that point, he'd actualy been keeping his cool - yes, that was Will calm. He hadn't tried to hit Ben back, the man was already injured and didn't need any more bruises added to his already black and blue face, but to suggest that Will was colluding with his father, that he knew the man, almost making it sound like they had been a real father and son. He couldn't have been further from the truth, and that tipped Will over the edge.

Taking the next punch, Ben pulled his arm back for another, only for his fist to meet the palm of Will's hand. Will closed his fingers around Ben's clenched fist and applied immense pressure, immobilising the man's hand. He used his three inches of extra height to tower over Ben. "You think I knew my father, huh?" he said, a frightening fury present in his eyes, "you think I knew that bastard? You think that we had a real father son relationship, that we were pals? HUH?" Will's grip tightened. "You weren't the one that had to live with him. The only thing that man shared with me was his distaste for my existance, and the pain of his belt slicing into my skin."

[/i]

Letting go of Ben's fist suddenly, he had no need to prove himself to this arsehole, but he'd already let his secret slip, and despite his fury, he would much rather Ben's attack desisted. Lifting the shirt that Ben had been shaking him with, Will bore his scars to all. Natalie had already seen them, but now Ben and Anna both knew too. "Are you satisfied?"

Ben was so enraged that he completely ignored what Anna said, his fist laying waist to Will's handsome face. Soon they'd be a right pair if Ben didn't stop. She'd been going to say something else, bellow at Ben most likely, when Will seized Ben's hand in an iron grip. It looked painful from where she was standing. She'd never seen Will, nor Ben for that matter, this angry before. Ben had clearly hit a nerve, and Will looked like he was verging on dangerous.

Frozen to the spot, she merely watched with wide eyes was Will verbally laid waste to Ben. It was frightening.

A gasp escaped her mouth as Will lifted his shirt. His otherwise tanned skin was completely covered in white scars of varying length and sizes. She couldn't believe it. Henry Blake truly was a monster. She had believed that when he had been making her howl with pain back in that basement, but now it was ever more true. What sort of man did that to his son?

Eventually, some sense snapped back into her, and afraid that Ben would continue his attack, she grabbed his arm, pulling him back from Will with some force. It couldn't go on any longer. It shouldn't have happened in the first place. "Leave Will alone," she ordered Ben, managing to find her voice, "otherwise you'll be suspended from duty." It wasn't just her that meant that; if their superiors heard about this, they would drag his arse off this ship faster than he could choke out an excuse.[/blockquote]

[karen2]

After the first two punches, Ben wound back for another, only to have his fist find Will's hand as he brought it around again. Despite the pain that shot through his arm as the other man gripped his hand tightly, he kept his carefully composed mask of anger in place as Will shouted back at him. At least, he tried to. But then Will pulled a line he wasn't expecting, and lifted up his shirt to add emphasis to his words.

Gods, he'd known before that Henry was a monster, but how could he do that to his son? Ben shook his head a little, throwing a half-hearted glare at Will. He never enjoyed being talked down to, but he had enough tact to accept that he'd been wrong and that, because of that, had lost this argument. Anna grabbed his arm once Will released his fist and pulled him back, but all he really heard from her was her authoritative tone of voice.

What the hell are you doing, Braun? he thought to himself tiredly, staring down into Anna's eyes without emotion. He'd just gone and attacked Will for practically no reason at all beyond what his father had done. But that was his father, not him. Why hadn't that registered before? Why was he so mad at the Blakes as a unit? Henry was the one he hated. Will had never done anything to him. Hell, he seemed to hate his old man just as much as Ben did.

Glancing back at Will, an unspoken apology in his eyes, Ben gently pushed Anna aside and left engineering, not able to stand the guilt that replaced all the fire in him. Maybe he should go for a session with Julia, the ship's psychologist. Something was clearly wrong with him. Maybe he had bipolar disorder or something.

When Will pulled up his shirt to show Ben and Anna his scars, Natalie bit her lip again and reached out to put a hand on Will's shoulder but stopped herself before she made contact. If Ben got another shot in because she'd distracted Will, she'd hate herself. Thankfully, Ben seemed to get a grip and let Anna pull him away before glancing at Will and marching out of engineering.

It wasn't like Natalie thought that Will would go after him--after all, he'd refrained from attacking back, even when Ben started pouring salt into old wounds--but she didn't want to take any chances. She stepped around Will, placing herself in front of him, and hugged him quickly before pulling back a little to get a read on his expression.

Already there was a bruise growing on his face, and she ran her fingers across it gently before meeting his eyes. They were impossible to read, giving nothing away, but Natalie knew that he was doubtlessly wondering the same thing she was: Could Henry possibly be alive? Swallowing hard, she turned back to Anna, who was still standing there looking a little lost.

"Was Ben telling the truth?" she asked softly, afraid her voice would shake if she rose it any higher. "Is... is he really alive?"

[William Blake]

Well, it worked. That display of emotions and truth stopped Ben's pointless attack on him, leaving everyone in the close vacinity reeling after what they'd just seen. Anna tugged Ben away, and slowly the expression on Ben's face changed from one of anger to one of guilt. Yes, that was right. To be honest, Will didn't care much if Ben felt guilty at the moment. His cheek was aching from the hits it had taken, right on the wrong side of his face - it was going to make sleeping interesting.

Will just about the caught the look on Ben's face before he stormed from the room, and Will let out a deep sigh, his whole body untensing. Natalie hugged him, probably because she wanted comfort after that just as much as he did (deep down), and also to stop him from going after Ben. He had absolutely no intention of continuing this matter with Ben, the man was wrong, and that was that. Continuing would just be futile. But there was something he wanted to know, even though he feared it was true, and Natalie asked the question for him. Was his father really alive?

Anna almost lost her balance as Ben shoved past her in order to get out of there, but quickly regained her footing, watching him go. He felt terrible, she could see it in his eyes. Obviously, he'd realised that he'd been attacking the wrong person, overcome by emotion. All of this had been painful in more ways than one, and now Will and Natalie had been dragged into it. Turning to them both, especially Will, whose cheek was now swelling and turning purple, she said, "I am so sorry. If I'd realised what he was going to do then I wouldn't have let him anywhere near here, I swear." She couldn't be more apologetic. She was responsible for Ben, and for him to go off at Will like that was just unacceptable.

She unfortunately had to nod in response to Natalie's question. She wished to God that she didn't. He seemed like he'd been a terrible man right from the start, and having him alive and back in business as one of their enemies, certainly wasn't what anyone wanted. "He admitted to it," Anna said, "and he had Will's jaw and nose... I wouldn't have recognised him otherwise." Delivering bad news was never fun, and although she still needed to question Will, now wasn't the time. Casting a glance over her shoulder, she looked back at them both apologetically. "Get some ice for that cheek," she said, "I've got to go." Turning, she called back another apology as she jogged after Ben, determined to see if he was okay.

Will's head physically dropped as Anna said it was true, his father was alive. He waved a hand at her apology, she had nothing to apologise for. "I'm sorry you had to meet him," he said, only able to imagine the pain and torture both Anna and Ben must have gone through back there. "Go." Once she had hurried away, he looked back at Natalie. This was probably the worst news he'd ever got in his life. That horrific man was alive and torturing. He tried to swallow back any and all emotion. "I don't know what to do." Words that he probably had never uttered in his life before. He was lost.