Author's Note: Time to pull another story off the iPhone and get it posted. Enjoy.

Round Two

Jaz couldn't believe this was happening. Different place, different year, but once again she had been captured and was being tortured. Using humor to keep herself calm, she wondered if there was a lifetime limit on job related torture. Perhaps a twice a lifetime rule? She could totally get behind that limit.

This round of torture was different for two reasons. Number one these guys were enjoying what they were doing to her just for the sheer pleasure of doing it. Cutting her with a knife seemed to make their day. They weren't even bothering to ask her questions anymore but they sure hadn't stopped cutting. Number two she wasn't alone this time, and she really wished she was, because watching Top being beaten was worse than being worked on herself. Based on his expression, he shared her feelings, but unfortunately for him, their captors were focused primarily on torturing her.

She had been trying to ignore the sensation but she could feel warm blood slowly rolling down her arms and belly. Looking down she could see a puddle of red forming around her on the dirt floor. Not good. She hoped McG, Amir, and Preach hadn't been late for the scheduled rendezvous because she and Adam could certainly use their help. The boys would have been surprised to find that their teammates weren't in the building they had planned to use for operational readiness. They would have been even more surprised to see that the building had collapsed on itself. Most of the buildings in town looked like they were about to collapse. What were the chances that she and Top would pick the one that was actually ready to go up in a cloud of dust? Apparently surprisingly good. If she didn't have bad luck she would have no luck at all.

Adam looked at Jaz who was strapped to a chair about 10 feet away from where he was strapped into his own. He wondered what she was thinking because he could have sworn she was about to smile. He couldn't imagine what she could possibly be finding funny considering her pants were soaked in blood and a puddle had begun to form underneath her.

They both needed medical treatment. Her more than him. So far his injuries were limited to severe bruises and a couple of surface cuts. On the other hand, Jaz needed sutures for most, if not all, of her injuries. Not that she acted like it. She never made a sound when they were working on her. Even her breathing pattern didn't change. He knew the cuts had to sting and burn but she behaved as if she didn't even feel them. It was like she was somewhere else. He wished they really were somewhere else.

Their captors had stepped out of the room about ten minutes before. Now it was a waiting game to see what happened next.

"Hang in there, Jaz."

"That's the plan," she replied quietly.

Unfortunately sometimes the plan didn't work. Case in point. They were now up to the improvise stage again. It hadn't worked out so well for Jaz the last time and this time her wounds looked more severe than the ones she'd sustained in Iran.

Time passed in silence as sweat beaded on their skin in the extreme heat of the room. He spent the time creating three men rescue missions in his head. When he focused back on the present he realized Jaz's head had fallen forward. She was either asleep or unconscious. He tensed as he felt hands touching his where they were tied at the back of the chair.

"We need to get you two of here, Top," Preach said quietly.

Sure enough two other dark shadows started moving around the room. The taller one crouched at Jaz's side to check her over quickly. Everyone they wouldn't have much time to get out unseen.

Adam watched as McG positioned Jaz over one shoulder and stood with her. She was definitely unconscious if that didn't wake her but the pressure on her abdomen might slow the blood loss. Preach got him to his feet but he was none too stable and ended up leaning his weight against the taller man for a few seconds to get his bearings. He was more than happy to have the sidearm he was handed. No matter how he was feeling he could definitely keep his arm steady enough to shoot.

They formed up and began exiting the hut. Amir in the lead, McG and Jaz in the middle, and he and Preach in the rear. An explosion over in the far left of the compound caused men to rush in that direction allowing them to exit undetected. Once they were in the heavily forested area Preach issued an update.

"Command, we have successfully retrieved Top and Jaz."

"Understood. Status?"

"One alert and ambulatory. One unconscious."

"Mission target status?"

"Mission goal completed."

"Your exfil is in place as previously arranged."

"Copy. Proceeding with exfil."

Once Preach turned off coms he heard Top mutter, "Show off."

"Nah. We're just that good. Plus once we realized what you were likely going through, we were motivated to cause some pain of our own."

"Payback's a bitch, huh?"

"Something like that. Care to tell me how the building you were in suddenly came to it's end?"

"Not sure. We had both just crept up to the second floor when it gave out under us. I was knocked out and when I came to Jaz and I were being pulled away. Apparently Jaz managed to kill two and incapacitate another three before I woke up. The soldiers were none too pleased that the leader of their small group refused to allow them to kill her. He wanted intel instead. She refused to say anything so they started slicing into her. It just made them more angry that she wasn't responding how they had hoped. I'm pretty sure they were expecting her to scream, cry, or beg me to help her."

"They clearly don't know our girl," Preach said with a chuckle.

"Easy enough to laugh about it now but I didn't think it was very funny when blood started to pool under her."

Preach squeezed his shoulder, "No, I don't expect you did."