Author's note: Hunter's thoughts during episode 2x13 "One of Us" as he is chained up in the bathroom.

I already published two sequels to this, called "Trapped In A Maze" and "Kept In The Dark" that deal with scenes from the following two episodes.

Credit for the title goes to the wonderful Llwydyn, who shares my love for the amazing character that is Lance Hunter.

Chained To A Sink - Chapter 1

Even as he's pulling at the chain, he knows it's useless.

The pipe underneath the sink is far too sturdy to loosen anytime soon and each time he pulls, the metal cuff cuts painfully into his wrist. That doesn't stop him, though. Instead, he doubles his efforts, as the pain actually manages to intensify his already burning anger and that's the only one of his feelings he's willing to deal with right now.

Anger is good. It keeps him distracted. Because if he's busy being angry at the two people responsible for all this – for attacking him, dragging him off the base and keeping him chained up like a criminal in this pathetic bathroom – he doesn't have time to feel betrayed by them. Then he can't think about just how much it hurts to have two of the only people in the world he actually trusted turn against him and do this to him.

Hunter gives his chain another yank, but his efforts are as futile as before. He lets out a groan as he falls back against the wall to catch his breath for a moment before he would try again.

If he really is gone, then the number of people I trust on this planet just plummeted. His words to Bobbi after Mack had gotten possessed by the alien city and fallen down that shaft come back to him now, sounding absolutely laughable. Mack is a spy, a secret agent, so how could he have ever thought he was able to trust him? One would think he would have learned his lesson by now.

And Bobbi...

At this point, however, Hunter stops himself, not allowing his thoughts to go there. Instead, he resumes his efforts to get free once again, clenching his teeth against the pain, grateful as it washes away everything except his anger.

He only stops when Mack comes back into the room, bringing him pizza and beer, both his favourite. Maybe that's going to be his last meal, he muses briefly and calls his former friend out on that. He denies it, though.

"If you were supposed to be dead, you'd already be dead," he says and Hunter has no doubt about that. He doesn't believe a single word coming out of Mack's mouth any longer, not without suspecting lies and manipulations behind each of them, but this one thing he does believe.

If someone had ordered Mack to kill him, he definitely would be dead by now. The man with whom he was laughing and joking only a few days ago and who he considered one of his best friends, would have killed him most likely without so much as batting an eye. Hunter would have choked out his last breath back in the cargo hold of the Bus, his body never to be seen again.

Which might still be how all of this is going to end, he reminds himself, making it all the more infuriating that he now has to listen to Mack as he's trying to get back on his good side. As if any of this talk about the 'good old days', back when they first met, would make him forgive the other man for kidnapping him.

Hunter has the brief impulse to attack Mack with the bottle standing next to him, but in the end he decides against it after all, not wanting to waste a perfectly good beer. He isn't going to let him get away with some cheap bullshit like that, though, and so he replies accordingly. His voice is dripping with spite and sarcasm as he reminds Mack that, even though he still has a lot to learn as far as deception goes, he has at least been in this game long enough to see through his weak attempt of using their years of friendship to manipulate him.

When Mack is finally about to leave again, after realising that he won't be able to stockholm-syndrom his prisoner, Hunter holds him back for another moment. His voice is entire nonchalant at first, but it becomes more strained with every word as the entire weight of his anger seeps into it.

"I'll tell you what I remember, Mack. Dubai was a cover and because I wasn't SHIELD, you didn't tell me. Lies. That's what I remember."

The expression on Mack's face shows regret, even guilt, but Hunter doesn't buy it. Not anymore. Even if he did, it doesn't matter. He and Mack are done and no amount of regret is going to change that. Whatever friendship they used to have died in a choke hold back in the garage of the Bus.

When Mack closes the bathroom door behind him, Hunter throws the bottle after all, watching it splinter apart into a thousand sharp pieces, his favourite beer spilling all over the floor.

As he goes back to pulling at his chain, back to the numbing pain, he briefly feels regret, too, but he only regrets not doing this earlier, when he still would have had an actual target to hit. Someone to hurt like he has been hurt.