Chapter Text

Reade needed to find Zapata, and the only person she could count on was Caudia. It would be very risky to involve the team in this searcht. Along with Claudia, he got a clue as to where she would be. They had been driven all afternoon and it had been dark for about three hours. They were arriving at the site tracked as being the blacksite that she would be being held.
When they arrived at the place indicated the two dressed their masks and went down in the darkness. The place looked like an abandoned shed. They found a door and broke into it, avoiding making noise. There was a guard against the wall, and Claudia stopped him. Reade followed with Claudia on her back. There was no noise at the scene and they found what looked like a door, they unlocked the door and there was a table with a guard, Reade hit his head with his gun and fainted the guard. Claudia showed that there was another door that could be where Tasha would be.
Reade came in and there she was, lying on the floor, unconscious, her clothes was dirty, and there was blood on her face. He felt a mixture of compassion, relief, and pain. He came over and found she was breathing.
"Zapata! Hey, can you hear me? "He called softly close to her ear.
He saw her move her head and murmur something unintelligible. Reade took her in his arms to get her out. She spoke again.
"Reade ... Is that you?" She spoke so softly that he could barely hear her. - Forgive me...
"It's all right. We'll get you out of here." She was silent again.
The three of them left and went back to the van heading for New York.
Claudia drove and Reade stayed with Tasha in the backseat. She had her head on his lap and hadn't opened her eyes or said anything else since leaving the shed. Her breath was tired and she looked so fragile that Reade couldn't recognize the strong, determined woman she was. That same woman he fell in love with and trusted with all his life. The one he held in his arms and he loved with all his soul.
Reade had done everything he could to find her, not only because he told her that he would be commanding her mission instead of Keaton, but because of everything they had already lived and felt for each other. He had been very hurt when she told him that she was working undercover for the CIA, because of what they had lived through, for all they had built over the years, he thought it unfair that she hadn't told him. Damn, she knew she could trust him. But the CIA was the CIA.

Reade was in the waiting room some time ago when the doctor on duty came to talk to him.
"She's very weak, but she's stable, we've taken care of the injuries and medicated her. If you want to get in she should wake up soon." The doctor told him.
Reade entered the room and saw her so serene lying on the hospital bed, her clothes had been changed and the facial wound was a cut on the forehead that had been cleaned and bandaged. He came over and took her hand. How did this happen to her? She was so fragile. He didn't even want to think what might have happened if he didn't find her.
It had been about half an hour since he was with her, he pulled the chair up from the bed and stood beside her holding her hand when he saw she open her eyes.
Tasha opened her eyes and took a moment to realize where she was, then saw him by her side. A thousand things went through her mind, and she vaguely remembered hearing Reade and been loaded into a car. She had been tortured and told them everything but they didn't believe her, so they continued to torture her until she lost all her strength and couldn't continue, she was giving herself up, because there was no point in keeping alive, for everything she believed was going down. She had lost Reade's trust, Keaton in a coma, and the CIA didn't believe her, Madeline had probably found another way to knock that plane down.
Seeing Reade there beside her, her heart filled with joy, but at the same time she knew he wouldn't trust her anymore, after all he was right, she wasn't trustworthy, for he had placed the mission in front of your whole life. She knew she could have trusted him, but it would be too risky to put him in danger. The loneliness she felt each day she was working undercover was immense, the urge to call him, to tell, to talk, to hear a friendly voice.
"Hello. It's okay, we're in the FBI, you're being cared for". When his eyes met, he saw relief in her eyes. He couldn't even imagine everything she had gone through, all the torture, the pain in her body and soul, there was no one there for her, he wasn't there, the loneliness she must have felt, it was too much for him to know that they could have the killed her.
"Reade, they didn't believe me. I told them the whole truth, but it was all in vain, they hurt me, if you hadn't arrived..." In her voice he could see all the pain she was feeling. A tear trickled from her eyes.
"I'm here and I won't let them close to you again. Never. Hear? Never." Reade touched her cheek and wiped the tear from her eyes. He took her hand to his lips and kissed it affectionately.
Tasha couldn't express the amount of relief she felt at Reade's affectionate gestures. When he touched her face she closed her eyes and allowed herself to be carried away by all the sensations that touch had. He kissed her hand and she felt that maybe all wasn't lost, maybe they still had a chance to restore what they had lived and that at that moment seemed so far away but at the same time so close because he was there beside her.