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Bella wakes up a day and a half later, a medical miracle with a splitting headache. (Between what she knows about her own construction and what the doctors mutter to the nurses, the demon stepped on her, it broke her spine, she passed out from pain and shock, and she could have easily died if she weren't blessed or the Slayer - both were probably called for.)

[Sherlock? Giles?] she attempts, when she's solicited and received pain medication.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

cross_and_bow

She giggles. [Aww. Poor Charlie. Don't let on too smugly.]

From:

eversomuchfun

[Wouldn't dream of it.]

In fact, he declines to respond at all, smugly or otherwise.

From:

cross_and_bow

Charlie has nothing further to say.

"You can find her from here?" he asks, when he's pulled the cruiser over at the mile marker.

From:

eversomuchfun

"Oh, yes. Thanks for the lift," he says cheerfully.

From:

cross_and_bow

"Don't mention it," Charlie says. "I assume she'll drive you home, but you can call if something comes up."

And he waits for a gap in traffic, hangs a U-turn, and promptly pulls over a speeder.

From:

eversomuchfun

Sherlock laughs his way into the grove.

From:

cross_and_bow

Bella's right where she's been sitting for the last forty-five minutes, and she hops out of the truck when Sherlock approaches to kiss him on the cheek and gesture at the hole in the ground.

From:

eversomuchfun

He hands over the can of gas and the flashlight, then inspects the hole.

"If they're there, they are not visible from ground level," he concludes.

From:

cross_and_bow

"...Very deep, then?" She flicks on the flashlight and shines it down.

From:

eversomuchfun

It's not so deep, at least in the visible part, but it curves away to a more horizontal inclination.

From:

cross_and_bow

"I might be able to climb down that far enough to be able to walk down the slope," she says, unsure. "If I braced against opposite sides and was patient about it."

From:

eversomuchfun

"I could do it. Getting out again would be the more interesting proposition."

From:

cross_and_bow

Bella reaches into the hole and pats the sides. "Could gouge handholds in the side on the way down?"

From:

eversomuchfun

"Potentially. If only I'd thought to bring a rope."

From:

cross_and_bow

"I should've thought of it when I was telling you what to bring." She goes to pour the gasoline into her tank, thinking. "I didn't see any fallen orange branches, or anything, and those might not come in large enough sizes to help anyway."

From:

eversomuchfun

"No, I don't believe they do."

From:

cross_and_bow

Glug-glug-glug tank is full. Bella puts the spent can in the back of the truck. "Try the handhold-gouging idea and hope for a better exit to the place?"

From:

eversomuchfun

"All right."

From:

cross_and_bow

Bella stashes the flashlight in her bag, swings the bag around to rest on her back, and reaches into the hole. She digs her hands into the wall of it until a decently deep gouge has been made, and proceeds down rather gymnastically, using her bracing idea to make slow progress and often freeing up one hand to make new holds for the way back up. She makes it down to the sloping part, where she can stand, without incident, and flashlights into the tunnel.

From:

eversomuchfun

Sherlock follows.

From:

cross_and_bow

It's a straight tunnel, not branching or, after it reaches a level trajectory, sloping.

It leads into a tremendous cavern.

This tremendous cavern is full of not six, not a dozen, not even one hundred Defenders.

But several thousand.

Doing a complicated dance of some kind, in rings and rings and rings around the center of the cavern.

The Defenders don't notice them, flashlight or no.

The man lounging on the thronelike chair in the cavern - does.

From:

eversomuchfun

"Fuck," mutters Sherlock.

[Plan of attack, love?]

From:

cross_and_bow

[...Let's try running, first?]

And she conferences in Giles. [GILES THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF THEM AND THE DUDE WHO'S MAKING THEM DANCE AROUND HIM SAW US WE DON'T HAVE THAT MANY SQUARES]