EIGHT.
WATCH OUT

"Eggsy, what's your opinion on ditches?"

"Wha- um, I guess they're all right. Why?"

"Because that's where you are going to end up. Oh sorry, where your rotting, decomposing corpse is going to end up after I murder you."

There was a moment of silence and a crackle of static on the other end of the phone.

"So, you're still mad then? About the-"

"The way you bought a corndog when you were supposed to be keeping watch and left me exposed, which led to my subsequent kidnapping?" she panted.

There was a sudden rustling like he had dropped the phone. "You got kidnapped? Bex, what the hell! I thought you went to the bathroom or something!"

"No, but I'm just about ready to shit my pants now."

A note of panic had crept into his voice, but Bex could barely pick up on it at this point. Her breathing was coming in short, sharp gasps from the pain radiating through her shoulder. Her vision was starting to blur slightly and her ears were ringing. All dead giveaways that she was teetering on the edge of a panic attack.

"Where are you?"

"If I knew, do you think I would be calling you? My phone has GPS, you can track it from your phone-"

She stopped for a moment to let out a grunt of pain, burying her face in her shoulder so Eggsy wouldn't hear.

"My phone is about to die, but I just want you to know two things. One, I'm going rip your intestines out and strangle you with them. Two, I've been-"

The line beeped once, signifying the call had been ended. She glanced down to see the screen of her cracked phone was black and lifeless. Bex let out a muffled groan as she shifted, the phone falling out of her shaking hand. The screen was smeared with blood from her fingers.

Two, I've been shot.

She closed her eyes, feeling her chest rising and falling far too quickly. The claustrophobia of being trapped in the trunk of a car, combined with blood loss was making her woozy. Bex's eyes were starting to feel heavy.

Snap out of it, Alden, she urged herself.

Bex needed a plan. She could barely move within the trunk of the car she had been unceremoniously dumped into, but she did her best to roll over to her side. She ripped a strip of fabric from the bottom of her t-shirt and, using her teeth and free hand, wrapped it tightly around her upper arm to form a tourniquet. It wouldn't be a permanent fix, but it would have to do.

Judging from the amount of blood covering her hands and seeping through her denim jacket, the bullet might've hit her brachial artery. Which, coupled with the fact that she was trapped in the trunk of a car headed to an unknown location and was nearing a panic attack, was turning out to be a major pain in her ass.

And general pain everywhere.

It had happened so quickly she had barely been able to turn around before they had shoved a black cloth sack over her head. She was scoping out a coffee shop Harry had disappeared into. They were supposed to be tailing him, undetected, in order to steal something of his to give to Merlin. A test of stealth. Eggsy was supposed to be keeping an eye out, but he had bought a fucking corndog instead. Next thing she knew two sets of hands were dragging her away, kicking and screaming, until they put a bullet in her shoulder.

Bex focused keeping her breathing even and ignoring the tiny, dark space she was trapped in. She needed a way out, not a breakdown. She hadn't been able to break the lock, and she had nothing to pick it with. Trunk locks were notoriously tricky, and Bex was nowhere near in her right mind.

She remembered a day she had spent with Vick in the garage. Vick was one of the boys that liked to hang around May's place at night, smoking cigarettes and eating the biscuits she brought them. He was six feet of slicked back hair, muscle, and black leather, but he had a soft spot for Bex. He owed her for getting him out of doing a three year stint in prison, and in exchange he promised to teach her how to hotwire a car. She'd persuaded him to teach her a little more than that.

"The weakest spot on car is the tail lights, right?" she could remember him saying, bending down next to the popped lid of the trunk. "Nothing between the trunk and the outside 'cept the tail light. So, you bust that open, and boom. Instant access."

Now, Bex ran her foot against the side of the car, searching for the brake light blindly as her head jostled against the floor with every bump and turn. She felt a small groove beneath the rubber toe of her sneaker and kicked, hard. With a crack and a thud, the tail light popped loose. Bex grinned as she was greeted with a small window into her surroundings.

She made mental note as they passed a street sign. Now she knew exactly where they were. It was a good start, but she still trapped. The back was closed off, so there was no chance of crawling into the backseat.

Bex closed her eyes for a minute and listened. With every bump in the road there was a clatter like something was loose, and a grinding sound from the engine. The brakes squealed when they rounded a curve, and it smelled like exhaust. So, not a new car. It was old, at least ten years judging by the level of disrepair. And there was no manual trunk release, which would pop the trunk instantly, meaning it was a car dating past 2002 at least. That meant there had to be a trunk release cable she could cut somewhere.

She pulled up the carpet lining the floor of the trunk with her good arm and felt around in the area next to her head. Vick had taught her that it was almost always on the driver's side. She grimaced in pain, and frustration when she felt the smooth surface. No cable. That meant it had to be along the side of the trunk, which was going to be excruciatingly painful to maneuver.

Bex took a deep breath, steeling herself, then pushed herself onto her injured arm. Immediately, white hot pain shot up her shoulder, and Bex felt her eyes water. She reached out, flinching, and ran her fingertips along the seam of the trunk. Sweat dripped into her eyes and she had to wipe it away with her shoulder. Just when she thought she was about to pass out, her hand met the cable.

Without pliers she would have to rip it out with her bare hands. Bex pulled at it, straining. Her arm was warm with fresh blood, and her fingertips were starting to go numb. She bit her lip and braced herself. She yanked on it as hard as she could, feeling her finger nails tear.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then there was a soft hiss and a pop as the seal of the trunk broke and the lid opened. Bex let her head fall back, breathing a sigh of relief. She gave herself a few moments to rest, feeling the cold air from outside wash over her.

Then she grimaced and pushed herself up into a cramped sitting position. She scooted over to the edge of the trunk, peering out. Then, Bex lined her body up along the edge. She took three breaths, in and out, quickly, to steel herself.

This was going to hurt.

When the car hit the next bump, she threw herself out of the trunk. She hit the pavement of the street below, hard. Her vision went white as a fresh wave of agony seared up her arm. She rolled two, three, four times into oncoming traffic before coming to a rest. She lay on her back, groaning and doing her best not to curl up in the fetal position. Cars honked and swerved around her.

That's when she realized the car she had just escaped from wasn't speeding off without her. It was stopped. And she could hear the murmur of voices and the click of a car door lock. Every muscle in her body was screaming move, but half her body was numb and the world was blurry. Two men were walking over to her slowly, like they had all the time in the world. Bex started to drag herself away from them frantically, gasping, but they were already standing above her.

The taller one grabbed her under the arms and lifted her up. Her fingers scrabbled on the asphalt, but she was already being dragged away back towards the car. His gloved hand was under her chin. Without a moment's thought, Bex bit him as hard as she could.

He let out a grunt of pain but didn't drop her.

"Let me go," she wheezed. "I'll make lasagna out of your internal organs."

The men just chuckled. The second one, who was shorter and wearing a black ski mask, leaned down. He put two fingers under her chin.

"Such a pretty face. And such a shame we'll have to ruin it."

"Or, just an idea, we don't ruin my face. That sounds fairly ominous, and I'm really not in the mood."

The man pulled a glass syringe from his coat pocket, the sharp tip glinting in the sun.

"See that's the problem with you Kingsman agents. You never seem to know when to shut up."

Bex's mind was racing. None of this made sense. They shot her, which meant they were willing to hurt her, but they refused to knock her unconscious. Why use a needle to subdue her? A needle meant they had resources. A needle meant they were taking their time. A needle meant this wasn't their first kidnapping.

This wasn't an isolated incident.
Someone was doing everything in their power to make sure that Kingsman agents weren't making it out alive.

Before she could think anymore, the needle was plunging into her neck. She opened her mouth, but the world was already crumbling away to reveal nothing but black.

☂

When Bex came to, blinking groggily, she discovered that she had been tied up to something. She'd been expecting that, but she still felt her stomach drop. She couldn't undo knots with only one functional hand.

Her head pounded painfully. There was a spot behind her left ear that throbbed, sending dull waves of pain through her skull. As she rolled her head to the side, Bex felt the sting and fresh blood and realized there was a gash in that spot. Someone had had taken a knife to the soft spot behind her ear. It was a bizzare place to cut someone, but Bex was too disoriented to give it much thought.

As she gained consciousness, her surroundings began to sharpen around her. As Bex wiggled her wrists, she realized that her hands had actually been zip tied together, along her her knees and ankles. The plastic bands cut into her skin painfully, and she stopped moving.

"Will you cut that out?" a familiar voice complained.

Bex froze. Then she realized that the "something" she had been tied to was actually a someone. And that someone was none other than Eggsy Unwin.

"Eggsy?" she said carefully.

"Yeah, it's me," he sighed.

Bex counted to three before she began to thrash in her bonds.

"You complete and total asshole! How dare you leave me like that! I am going to give you a piece of my mind and then after that I'm going to give your ass a piece of my foot!"

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down!" Eggsy yelped. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"Oh, you're going to be as soon as I get out of these zip ties," Bex said in a low, dangerous voice.

Eggsy was quiet before he spoke.

"I-I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to, I just got distracted. I would have never, if I knew it was going to get you hurt."

He turned around as best he could, which meant Bex could see his profile in the low light.

"Bex, I'm really sorry," he said earnestly.

She sighed. She stopped writhing and slumped down against him. They were back to back, hands zip tied together. His fingers were barely brushing hers, but she could still feel the warmth from them.

They sat in silence for a moment. Usually Bex hated the quiet. It felt suffocating and awkward, the air filled with unsaid words. But with Eggsy, she didn't mind as much.

"So," she finally said. "How did you end up here? And where is exactly is here?"

"I was, uh, tracking the GPS on your phone like you told me to. And it led me to this abandoned warehouse and there were these two guys in all black inside, and I was like 'Seriously? Warehouses are way overrated. Find a cooler place to kill Bex.' And then they knocked me out and tied me up."

Bex groaned. "Really, Eggsy?"

"Hey!" he protested. "I was trying to defend your honor. If you get crazy murdered, it should be somewhere awesome, like Mount Everest."

"Okay," she said flatly. "Next time I get kidnapped, I'll ask them to fly me all the way to Tibet before they dispose of my body. That's a fantastic idea. I'm sure they'll go for it. There's really no reason they wouldn't want to kill me on Mount Everest. I'm sure if I asked nicely-"

"Ouch, okay. That's enough sarcasm for now. Sheesh."

"So how do we get out here?" she asked, ignoring his pouting.

He shrugged. "No idea. I'd already been trying to get out of these bindings for an hour before you woke up."

Bex looked around the warehouse for something that could set them free. It was completely bare, lit by only one bulb. They were sitting in the middle of the concrete floor, and there was no visible exit.

She was having trouble focusing anyway. She wasn't used to having Eggsy so close. She could feel his back rising and falling in time with his breathing, and the heat of his skin seeped through the thin fabric of her shirt. When he moved his hands would brush hers, sending little shocks up her fingers. Maybe there was static electricity or something.

"Wait!" Eggsy suddenly cried out, startling her. "I have a pocket knife in my boot. If I can just reach it-"

"You had a knife?" Bex exclaimed. "You had a knife the whole time and you didn't use it?"

"I, um, forgot."

"You forgot."

"I was distracted!"

"By what? There's literally nothing in here that could possibly distract you!"

Eggsy muttered something under his breath that sounded like 'blue'.

"Never mind that now. Just get me out of here."

Eggsy began to saw through the ties carefully, and soon her hands were free. She let out a sigh of relief, the cool air soothing the chafed skin on her wrists. Bex looked down and realized nearly all of her was covered in blood. Her hands were caked with it and the denim of her jeans stiff with dried blood. What was really worrying though, the fresh patch of damp red on her right side. Her bullet wound was still bleeding.

As Eggsy turned around to face her and cut the bindings on her ankles, he froze. All the blood drained out of his face, leaving him pale as bone.

"Bex," he whispered. "Bex, you're bleeding."

"Yes, I am," she said faintly. She was staying to feel lightheaded again. "That's what happens when you get shot."

Eggsy looked like he was having a seizure. "You didn't tell me you were shot," he choked out, rushing over. "I couldn't see you, I had no idea! Bex, y-you're covered in blood, it's everywhere-"

"I'm fine, Eggsy."

He let out a strangled laugh. "The last thing you are right now is fine. We need to get you to a hospital immediately."

Her head felt heavy, and Eggsy's voice was echoing like it was coming from somewhere far away. She was so, so sleepy. All she wanted to do was just lay her head down, and just close her eyes for a second or two...

But her thoughts wouldn't let her drift off. Something wasn't right. Something about this whole thing seemed off. Escaping was too easy. There was no one, nothing to stop them. It was almost like the masked men wanted them to get away.

"Bex, we need to go," Eggsy said, urgently. He put one hand behind her head and another begin her knees and scooped her up in his arms. "Those guys could be back any minute to finish us off."

"They won't," she whispered.

"What?" he said, voice laced with confusion.

"They're wearing masks. They don't want us to see their faces so we can't identify them later. If they were going to kill us, there would be no point in hiding their faces." she said hoarsely.

Bex coughed, wincing at the metallic taste in her mouth. Her lips were coated in blood. Eggsy's concerned face above her was starting to become hazy.

"This is a kidnapping, not an execution," she said. "Something else is going on here. We were tricked. And I don't think we were the first ones."

"Bex what are you talking about?"

A familiar rush of static was overtaking her brain. Her heartbeat was slowing and her vision was fading once again.

"Not again," she groaned, before blacking out again, head falling back against Eggsy's chest.

☂

The steady beeping of the heart monitor woke her up. Bex blinked a couple times, then struggled to sit up. She licked her chapped lips, then gagged. The inside of her mouth tasted like a dirty sandal covered in steaming dog shit that had been left in the sun for a week.

So, pretty bad.

She cringed as soon as she had pulled herself halfway into a sitting position. Her whole body ached, especially the wound behind her ear. Bex's head felt like it was filled with cotton, her mouth was dry, and her hair was matted to the side of her head. At least she wasn't covered in blood anymore.

Instead, someone had clad her in a pale blue hospital gown. A thin IV snaked out of her arm to a bag of clear liquid. Bex was laying in a hospital bed, legs covered with paper-thin cotton sheets. Four other beds were around her, all empty. The walls were tiled, like a subway, and Bex began to realize where she was. She smiled a little, ignoring how it stung her dry lips. She was in the medical wing of the Kingsman complex.

She was home.

"Bex! You're awake!"

Bex turned to see Eggsy jogging over. His blonde hair was matted almost as badly as hers, and he was still wearing the clothes he had been wearing when they had been abducted. There were dark circles under his eyes and a nasty cut on his chin, but he was grinning widely.

"Hey," she smiled. "Have you been here the whole time?"

"Not the whole time," he said defensively. "I just wanted to make sure you got through surgery okay."

He sat down at her bedside. She began to cough and he quickly handed her a glass of water. Bex drank it gratefully.

"How long was I out?"

"A while. Like, eight hours. Still, it's incredible that you're even conscious right now. The doctor said you'd be out at least a day."

"Yeah, well, I heal fast. And it wasn't even that bad of a bullet wound. It was just my shoulder."

"You lost a lot of blood."

Bex rolled her shoulders back.

"Eggsy, I feel fine. If I was gravely injured, could I do this?"

She wiggled her shoulders in a little dance and grinned.

"Yeah, that's the painkillers kicking in."

Eggsy crossed his arms sternly, but she pushed her blankets back, rolling her eyes. He began to protest as Bex got out of bed. Eggsy moved to stand in front of her.

"No," he said stubbornly. "You're not going anywhere. The doctor said you need rest."

"Okay, fine," Bex said. "I'll go rest. At the shooting range."

She tied her hair up in a ponytail, wincing only slightly as she felt the stitches in her shoulder pull. Eggsy was watching her, slightly open mouthed.

Bex snapped her fingers.

"Speaking of which! The last challenge. How did we do? Did we get the watch?"

Before Bex's kidnapping, they had been trying to retrieve a watch from Harry without him noticing. It sounded simple enough, but Harry was hyper paranoid of being followed, and wore the watch on his wrist at all times. Eggsy and Bex had been forced to partner up since they shared the same mentor, not that she minded. Eggsy wasn't just her best friend; he had quickly become her most trusted ally in the complex.

Eggsy had a funny look on his face.

"Yeah, um, I nicked it. We did fine. Merlin was kind of impressed actually."

"Okay, great. We did it. Watch out world," Bex grinned.

Eggsy didn't even roll his eyes at her pun. His eyebrows were creased together. Bex looked at him tentatively.

"What's wrong?"

He looked down, then pulled the watch from his pocket.

"I didn't want to do it before because you were all half-dead and stuff, but... Merlin wanted me to give it to you. He said you should have a look."

Eggsy held out a hand, uncurling his fingers to reveal a dingy watch in his palm. Bex took it, confused.

It was just a watch. It was a cheap one you could buy anywhere, covered in flaking gold paint to mimic real gold. It didn't even have the right time. It wasn't the kind of watch Bex had expected Harry Hart to wear. If it didn't work, why was he carrying this thing around? What sentimental value could a crappy old watch have to Harry?

Bex looked closer, frowning when she realized the normal numbers on a clock had been scratched away. Someone had scribbled different numbers in their place. The hour, minute, and second hands were frozen in place, pointing.
Three, twelve, ninety six. Bex froze.

That was her birthday.

She flipped the watch over. Someone had carved two letters into the back.

K.C.

Initials. But who did they belong to? Certainly not Harry's. Suddenly Bex began to piece it together. The way Eggsy had handed it to her like a ticking bomb, the scratched plastic surface, how Harry had worn it everyday. How he'd worn his best friend's watch everyday.

K.C. was Killian Castillo. Her father.

Bex took a step back, her mind reeling. Her hands started to tremble, and the watch clattered from her fingers. She barely noticed. Eggsy knelt to grab it before she could. She stared at him. He put one warm hand on her shoulder and used the other the press the watch into her shaking hand.

"I- Uh, Merlin, thought you should keep it. Since it was your dad's," he smiled.

She ran her fingers over it. A sharp edge pricked her finger. Something had come loose when it had fallen, and a small piece of metal was jutting out the side. When she tried to press it back in, the face of the watch popped open. Eggsy looked from her to it, bewildered.

It wasn't a watch at all, Bex thought, a lump forming in her throat. It was a locket.

She opened the front of the watch gently to reveal two small pictures, one on either side. They were grainy and faded and black and white, but Bex would know those faces anywhere.

"Who is it?" Eggsy asked gently.

"It's me. I-It's us," she said faintly.

On one side there was a portrait of her mother, radiantly beautiful even in the torn, low quality picture. It had been taken years before. Before alcohol had hollowed her cheeks, before the light had dimmed in her eyes, before her husband had died. And on the other side was her. Bex. She was sticking out her tongue, her brown eyes sparkling. The picture didn't have color, but Bex remembered. She'd been wearing purple overalls.

"The color of royalty," her father had said. He had scooped her up onto his shoulders, laughing. "Your throne, milady."

His British accent had been terrible. Bex had loved it. She had loved everything he did. She had loved him so much, and she missed him. She missed the notes he used to leave her around the house. She missed his homemade pozole he made for her when she was sick and the way he would kiss her forehead before bed and the silly songs he invented to cheer her up.

There was a message written at the bottom of the picture in messy blue ink. The hollows behind her eyes ached as she read it.

Te amo.

Eggsy's hand hovered above her shoulder.

"I-I'm sorry. I thought it would be a good idea, I didn't mean to make you upset. I just thought you might want it-"

Bex threw her arms around him before he could finish speaking. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, squeezing him tightly. Eggsy froze, standing stiffly. Then he softened, lifting his arms and wrapping them around her gently.

"Thank you," she whispered into the soft cotton of his shirt. "Thank you."

Eggsy rested his chin on her head, listening to her heart beat. They stayed that way a long time. Bex was starting to realize that it was hard to let him go.

───────

a quick note:

i actually really like this chapter?? bex kicks ass but i feel like she's at her most badass she's being clever and deductive. as per usual, i included lots of bex+eggsy. i'm trying to go for slow burn here, but i'm failing horribly because i want them together asap. i know the time jumps are messy, but basically they've been in training for a while so it's not like they're falling in love instantly.

ps: i've decided to start dedicating chapters to readers! you guys vote and leave me the sweetest comments, so i'll be returning the love by picking the most active reader/whoever's comments made my day/whoever is a beautiful little bean. stay tuned and vote or comment! (or don't. it's a free country)