Authors Note: I have no idea whatsoever how or when this happened. I just found it saved in my computer and thought: why not? Hope you like it!
"SPIKE!"
A crying shout, the sound of feet forcefully slammed on the cement, the darting of dark eyes, the pumping of blood through her body absorbing every other sound in the world.
"DOWN, JULES! DOWN!"
A jump, the feeling of her body flying in the air a second before crashing on the floor. Hands flying over her head to prevent injury. Pain flashing through her limbs as she reached the uneven concrete, slamming her body onto it forcefully.
All that was left was darkness.
/
"Guys."
Everyone stopped talking at the same second, listening to Sam's voice on their ears.
"I think I found Jules."
And he had found her, of course. Throw his binocular he could see just how still she was, her back at him, how her tiny hands were hovering over her knees but not quite touching them; he could make out how she was slowly breathing. What he couldn't make out was why she wasn't trying to stand, nor moving at all. He felt an icy shiver running down his spine and tried to ignore it, unsuccessfully. He took a deep breathe and walked through the rooftop, trying to get a different angle, always keeping an eye on her with his binocular. He stopped in his tracks as he found himself in a position where he could see her profile, struggling to breath. Everyone else was talking to him throw his headset, but he couldn't figure out what they were saying; he could only let their voices enter his brain without processing them.
"Samtastic! We're here already! Where-?"
Spike's voice woke him up from his unresponsive state. Spike. He needed Spike.
"I'm right here, bud!"
Had he said it out loud? He wasn't thinking straight. "Bomb" he just said, struggling to let the words escape his lips. "She has a bomb strapped to her chest."
/
"Jules, easy, it's just me, okay?"
Spike's voice approached from behind her, startling her ever so slightly.
"Spike? What are you doing here?" she said, voice hoarse from not speaking for long, trying to relax as much as she could. She felt him moving behind her, much closer than he normally would when he used his girlfriend.
He came in her vision field in that moment, crutching in front of her. "You okay?" he asked, purposely ignoring her question. His eyes briefly checked her out for injuries and, finding none, he relaxed a bit, before focusing on the thing strapped on her chest.
"No BabyCakes?" she briefly wondered out loud, noticing his loved machine wasn't in sight. She studied him for a moment, taking in how his hair was more ruffled than ever and how his eyes shined with a strange flare. After making sure that she was unharmed and uninjured he had had eyes only for the bomb.
"Nope, don't tell her but I'm better than she is." He smirked at her, tearing his eyes away from the bomb only for a moment, meeting her gaze. "I'll be right back."
She watched as, a smile plastered on his lips, he stood up, walked a few steps away from her and unpacked his bag, talking softly with the other members of Team One in the process.
He walked back towards her, the same encouraging smile he had held before on his lips. "We're lucky you're the sniper I always bet on, Jules! I know you're as still as a stone." She held up an inquiring eyebrow at him, making him let out a chuckle. "Yeah, you got me. I did bet on Sam once, but that was an accident, okay?" He shook his head at her indignant expression, before continuing: "Hold as still as you can as I work through this mess, okay?"
Their eyes met for a moment, as she gave a small nod. He came closer to her then, tools in hands and ready to defuse the bomb. She tried not to mind what he was doing, focusing instead on the place around her. She had been studying it for what felt to her like months, years maybe, unable to move and slowly accepting that she was going to die; they had probably just been minutes, half a hour tops. She saw with the corner of her eyes Ed, physically dragging people away from a skyscraper not really near where they were, obviously clearing it out. Far away in the distance, farther than what she would have liked, she could make out the shape of their command truck, as well as what looked like one of their SUVs.
"It's that bad, uh?" she mentioned, not quite realizing Spike had been talking nonstop until that moment just for her own benefit.
"What's bad?" he asked, playing dumb, eyes still fixed on whatever he was doing to defuse the bomb.
"Spike, come on. I know protocol." At that he pried his eyes away and spared her a look, sighing.
"It could be worse" he reasoned, getting back at work. Jules watched him work for a while, studying his controlled and focused features, the way his forehead wrinkled as he cut one more wire. Jules fixed her gaze on him, slowly letting it fade out as exhaustion took over.
"You should get away" she murmured, more for her own sake than his. She was getting more and more tensed as time passed by, knowing they could blow up anytime.
"You trust me that much, uh? Not very optimistic of you." He must have spared her another look, since she felt him stiffen for a second, stopping in his tracks. "Jules, I know you must be exhausted but you gotta focus okay? Need ya to stay as awake as possible."
"No sleeping on the job" she said, her gaze focusing again as she blinked a couple of times. "Got it."
"Good girl" he smiled up at her. He took his hands off her and brought them to his pockets, looking for something. "Here" he exclaimed then "let Team One harass you as well, okay? They're driving me crazy." He put a spare headset on her, and instantly she could hear Wordy's soft voice answering to Spike's accusation.
"Us harassing you? Whoa man, you've been going around for fifteen minutes straight without giving her time to register you were actually talking and we are harassing you?"
"I can smell your jealousy from 30 km away, Wordy!" Spike laughed out loud, moving his head no.
"Nice to hear you, guys!" Jules said, somewhat relieved by the comforting banter of Wordy and Spike.
As soon as she talked, everyone started to talk to her at the same time, and she giggled, cautious to also being still, as the chaos of their voices reached her ear.
"Spike, how's it going?" Ed all but ordered, in a firm tone that overcame the noise.
"So far, so good" answered the younger man eagerly. "I'm almost there."
He shot a look at Jules and he stopped moving as his eyes reached her hands. Jules followed his gaze until hers too was fixed on her own - now somewhat shaking - hands.
"Spike, you shouldn't-"
He cut her off, reaching for her hands with his own, and pushing them slowly on her knees, careful as not to move any other part of her body. "It's okay. Almost done."
"What's going on?" Greg asked, disturbed by the change of tone of his two agents.
"I'm starting to-" Jules started, but Spike cut her off again, sending her a quick glare before turning once again to the wires on her chest.
"-get tired of waiting for me to clean this mess" he finished for her. "But I'm there, really." He leveled his eyes to hers one last time. "Last wire" he told her, a little smile curving his lips. "Hold still until I tell you to move, okay?" She nodded once, her eyes fixed on his. "Good, here we go!" Spike left her gaze only for a moment, looking down at the bomb and finally cutting the last wire. She heard the sound it made and, without realizing it, she let out the breath she had been holding, slowly opening her lids that had closed without her noticing. She was struggling to move now, wanting to feel the blood running through her body, to feel her muscles move in unison with every other part of hers.
"Holy shit."
A buzzing sound started roaring in her ear, and only in that moment did she register what Spike had just said. All the team members - except her and Spike, that is - had started to talk at the same moment, wanting a clarification. Jules looked at Spike, at how he was quickly brushing his palms on his knees and followed his gaze downward her own body, not knowing what to look for until she found it: a timer, green light numbers flashing back at her. 01:57.
A strangled sound escaped her lips without her realizing it. Not moving his gaze from the bomb, Spike started to cut off wires randomly - or so it seemed to her at least. "Whatever you have to say, don't. I can tell I'm not gonna like it."
She took in a big breath, trying to steady her voice. "Spike, you have to go. Now."
"Yeah, good luck with that."
"What the hell is going on, you two?" Ed barked, his voice even more firm than usual.
"There's another bomb, and it's going off in less than 2 minutes" Jules spoke matter-of-factly, in a calming tone. "Spike has to go."
She felt strange, empty all of a sudden. She didn't feel terrified anymore, she really was calm. Happy, even. Since she had to die, at least she would do it exactly how she wanted to: saving people. She felt relieved to be able to accept it without struggle: she was going to die; she didn't have any choice anyways. She was content it was her there, and not one of her team, she was content to know they at least were safe. She would even get to tell them goodbye, to tell them how much she loved them, how proud of being part of that team she had been. She would tell them they were her real family, the family she choose and the one she would always choose.
There was a palpable pause, as her thoughts took over her brain. It was Greg who spoke next, slowly: "Spike?"
Spike pointedly ignored him, cutting wires at such a speed Jules was beginning to think he wanted to let the bomb go off earlier than it should. She fixed her eyes on his firm hands and she quickly realized she couldn't pry them away, as she was fascinated to watch how they expertly moved and pried and touched, by how still they were, even in such a situation. She realized she had never thought about how difficult it must have been for people like Spike, who defused bombs, to keep their nerves firm even in the hopelessness situations, to keep their head clear and to know that just with a wrong move they could go off and become ashes. It was even worse than with guns, she realized.
She focused her attention again on the man before her eyes, and she shivered - more internally than externally - as her eyes catches his, as she saw just how determined he seemed.
"Spike you have to go. I'm sorry."
"Can't hear you over there" he murmured, and with a swift move he took his headset off and launched it away, under the unbelieving gaze of Jules.
"What have you- Spike, please" she pleaded, desperately trying to get him to leave her.
"He did not just take his headset off, did he? Damn it, Scarlatti!"
"Spike, please. Don't- I don't want you to die with me" she continued, ignoring the panicked voices in her ear that kept arguing. As soon as she talked they stopped and silence fall around her.
"Wow, pessimistic much, aren't you?" She swore she had seen a flash of hurt coming across his eyes. "I need you to trust me."
Her gaze went down on the timer again. 50 seconds left.
Panicked, her eyes shifted back to where Spike was, to where her team was, to the space around her. "Of course I trust you!" she half screamed half sobbed, desperate to get him going. "If anyone could do it, it's you. But there's nothing else you can do, and … and it's gonna be okay, Spike."
She regretted it as soon as her tongue finished rolling it up. She hadn't even been thinking, the words coming out of her mouth before her brain could process them.
She heard the static in her ear, where before there had been the buzzing of multiple voices on top of each other. Her eyes moved to reach the still person crouched in front of her; she could see how every muscle, every nerve of his body completely froze, how the tension in it suddenly felt more palpable. She saw his hands moving away from her body - from the bomb covering it -, a subtle shake letting them tremble. Her eyes couldn't look anywhere but at his hands: she had never seen them tremble, not once in the long time they had been colleagues. She remembered him telling her, years before, that he depended on his hands, on their stability, even more than any of the team did. She had argued a sniper also needed his hands to be very still, at which he had put a smile on his lips, raised an eyebrow and told her, giggling, "and that's why I'd also make a gorgeous sniper!" She had smiled and shrugged it off, but after that conversation she had spent years noticing how his hands were really perfectly still - when he wasn't moving them around obviously. She came back to the present as she heard his strong intake of air. She blinked, opening her mouth a couple of times and ending up closing it, not knowing what to say. His fingers were now clutched into fists, as he tried to regain his composure. He flexed them, finally opening his fists as he let out the shaky breath he had previously taken. Straightening his fingers completely, she could now see that his hands were once again still, steady. She finally lifted up her eyes, studying his features. He spared her a quick glance, so full of pain that totally broke her heart; his pain was so palpable, his eyes watery, yet he came closer to her, working again his way throw the wires after what felt to her like an hour. "I can't believe you just threw Lou's words back at me like that", he mumbled under his breath, voice slightly catching as he pronounced his best friend's name. Jules had to physically restrain herself from shifting: Spike always said that name sounding like he was being dragged through broken glass, even more that day. Jules fixed her glaze right behind his shoulder, swallowing the lump in her throat, hoping the pain would subside. As it finally did - a little, at least - she brought her eyes back at the timer, surprised to find out only 25 seconds had passed.
Guilty, she tried again. "Spike, I didn't mean to… Just please. Don't risk your life for-"
"So" he cut her off "listen real careful, okay? When I tell you to run, you run. When I tell you to get down, you do."
Confused, Jules shifted her unfocused gaze back at him. "What-?"
"I'll be right behind you okay? Don't look back. Trust me. Please." He held her gaze for two seconds, before returning it down. Jules followed it, focusing on the timer: 10 seconds to go. Almost all the wires were now cut off, only a few were left. Spike seemed concentrated in one of them, but he wouldn't cut it for reason she couldn't really understand. Without holding her gaze, he went on: "I think there's a third bomb. It's not attached to you, though, I think it's somehow under you. If we're lucky it's gonna have a timer as well, and we won't blow up as soon as we start running. We gotta run. Okay?"
Not waiting for her answer, he got on his feet, holding his hands in place, ready to cut the wire at the last possible second. Jules saw the timer shift toward 01 second and then Spike cut the wire off. Almost instantly, she heard a not so joyous beep starting near her, as Spike roughly bring her up from the ground, yelling at her. "GO JULES, RUN! I'll be right behind you!"
Jules started to run, slowly at first, because her muscles were stiff from being unable to move for a long time, getting then faster and faster with each stride. After a while she turned, checking on Spike while keeping her pace as steady as possible. The young man wasn't anywhere near her, though: he was still near the bombs, launching the defused ones as far away from the one coming off as possible. "SPIKE!" she shouted, desperation and worry clear in her voice. In that exact moment the bomb expert started to run as fast as he could, trying to put as much distance as possible between him and the unexploded - and much undetonated - bomb. "KEEP RUNNING!" he kept screaming, while managing to count down in his head. "DOWN, JULES! DOWN!" he screamed then and he watched as Jules did as he said, smashing to the ground, covering her face in the process. He kept running and he was about to jump down himself too, when the bomb exploded. The force of the explosion of the three bombs - the last one had triggered the other two, even if they were already defused - caused him to jump in the air like a puppet, only to fall some meters forward, slamming back up on the ground. Only half consciously he let the shockwave roll himself over and over, until he finally stopped, landing on something soft. Not quite sure how he was still conscious after the crash he just survived, he cover his face some more, as rubbles flied around him.
His ears went from not hearing anything at all to only hear a noisy ringing sound. He felt like a hundred years have gone by when he finally dared to open - slowly - an eye. Dust was still flying ahead of him, slowly easing down on the ground. Something below him moved and he realized in that moment that he had somehow managed to land on Jules. He rolled over, taking in the flash of pain that went throw his spine as he pulled weight there, until he was in the same position he had once been, only not on top of his colleague. He put some weight on his knees and on his elbows, moving his head slowly from one side to the other, letting it brush on his arms as he tried to clean his head and vision. Since it wasn't working, he reached out and gently squeezed Jules on the shoulder, trying to understand if she was conscious. The girl slowly turned to face him, putting in the end her hand on top of his own and resting it here, as they both lost consciousness lying on the ground.
/
"Sir, please, stay put, you've been unconscious for some minutes. You may have a concussion and even though we have already medicated your back we will need to take you to the hospital, to check on you."
Spike shrugged the blonde ME off, putting on his cocky smile and looking up at her. "Nah, I'm fine. Let's go." He stood, but as his knees lost the battle and buckled away against his weight, Ed pushed back, letting him fall sat again.
"Give it a rest, Spike" he growled, annoyed as it was the third time he had seen the same scene take place.
"Spike?" Jules walked over him. She seemed perfectly fine, only a few scratches on her hands and arms. She studied him for a second. "You're a mess," she murmured, her hand lingering in the space between them, as if she'd though about touching him, reassuring herself he was fine. "I mean," she started again, trying to lighten the mood, "it looks like you just survived an explosion!"
Everyone started to laugh, only Spike's laugh quickly turned in a cough fit. Wordy wordlessly gave him a bottle of water to help him get through it, as Jules returned serious, a worried look written in her eyes.
"Okay, that was fun. Next time you wanna spend some time alone with me, just ask me okay? No bomb have to be involved!" he smiled at her, suppressing another cough.
"Noted" she said smiling as she started towards Sam again.
Spike stood up again, pretending not to hear the sighs of all the people around him and fighting against the feeling of passing-out, he finally stood upright. Flashing a smile at Ed, who was shaking his head at his stubbornness, a hand strongly planted in his shoulder to give the man support in case he collapsed once more, he took a step in the direction where Jules was headed, just to prove Ed that he was in fact fine. He was taking another - more secure - step forward, a 'I told you so!' expression written all over his features and meant to be for Ed only, as Jules rapidly spun around and, without saying a word, hugged him so tight he couldn't breath. After a moment of confusion, his arms went around hers, as he hugged her back. As the team slowly circled them, they kept holding on each other as tightly as they could, finally letting the fact that they were both fine sinking in their bones.