Ack! I meant to have this up yesterday O.o I really wanted to do this chapter from Cougar's POV so I'm sorry if it drags :S Hope you all like it! :D
The downside of most of their missions was the dead time. And there was a lot of it. Preparing for the initial mission, gathering information, feeling productive, all of that wasn't too bad. But the downtime, the silence and surveillance, the stakeouts for days when nothing happened, that was the worst. Cougar didn't mind it so much, the other didn't seem to either, but Jensen hated it. He hated being still, silent, everything that came wrapped into one big boring package when they played the waiting game. That's why nearly everyone was ready to tranq-dart him by the time the actual mission took place.
Pooch and Aisha made actual threats, though Aisha was usually more serious about it than Pooch was. Clay ignored him for the most part, finding other thing to occupy his time with than listen to Jensen babble on about whatever random topic happened to hop into his head. Cougar kept his thoughts to himself as he usually did. He didn't mind it so much to be honest; talking (no matter how irritating or obscure the topic) meant breathing which meant he was still alive. In their line of work, silence usually held double meanings, one of them being the permanent kind. And if it ever got down to a choice between the two, Cougar would prefer the younger man to talk his ear off than be silent. A silent Jensen wasn't good in any situation.
He can hear him talking through the earpiece now. He's chattering on about something, Cougar isn't sure what; hell, he's pretty sure Jensen doesn't even know what half the time. He talks to pass the time, the fill the silence, he talks when he's bored. Breaking into an insurance building with direct connections to GOLIATH shouldn't have been a boring job but Jensen was talking anyway. From his position on the roof across the street, shoulders pressed against the steel and glass outcropping on the building, Cougar couldn't see him but he could hear him perfectly.
Clay, Aisha, and Pooch were on the other side of town, staking out another building that had some kind of link to GOLIATH and Max. Cougar had stayed behind, covering Jensen from the building across the way. The younger man had a habit of landing himself in some unpleasant situations and Cougar was trying to make sure that didn't happen again.
Jensen's voice broke through the transmission again; he was talking to someone. Apparently the office he was aiming for a was a little more occupied than he originally thought. He made a couple of loose excuses, feigning innocence and he tried to get the other person out of the room. There was a brief moment of contemplative silence and then, "Hey, is that an Apple MacBook?" Cougar suppressed a smirk, leave it to Jensen to break of into techno-babble as a way of distraction.
Apparently, the man in question was less impressed by the questions the younger man was asking becuase Jensen apologized airily. "Sorry, just geek talk." There was another brief pause, a shuffle of movement as someone stepped closer. Jensen hesitated, saying the fake name he'd swiped from one of the other employees with a very slight stutter in his voice.
Judging by the reaction, his cover had been all but blown. The man had either caught on or knew something was off about the situation. Jensen laughed slightly, no humor in his voice, and continued. "Wow, what are the odds, huh?"
Another silence filled the earpiece, this one slightly longer, and Cougar sat up a bit straighter, listening carefully. If Jensen's cover had been blown, the man would know someone had infiltrated his building and was searching for information. This was going to get bad in a hurry.
There was a loud noise, a thus, like something slamming into a padded wall. Cougar stiffened; he wasn't sure what the noise was or what had caused it but he was pretty damn certain it involved Jensen. There was another thudding noise, this one a bit louder, and he felt his jaw clench in anticipation.
"Clay, he's on the move." Jensen said suddenly and Cougar felt a bit of the tension release. He sounded unscathed for the most part but he still couldn't see him from his vantage point. It was frustrating and did nothing for the growing apprehension he felt with the blond out of sight range. "I think he has the files in his briefcase."
Clay told him to stay close, get the files no matter what. It was a typical Clay-response. Not that he didn't care what happened to his team but those files were important; anything that wold lead to Max and his eventual downfall was their main goal. "You're covered on the East side of the building." He added and Cougar immediately dropped into position, looking down into his scope and catching a blur of movement almost immediately. Then things took a turn for the worse.
Cougar felt the muscles in his shoulders tense the minute he saw the man round the corner, nearly colliding with the young woman in the hall. In the blink of an eye, he'd grabbed her roughly around the throat, swinging her in front of him and keeping a firm grip on her, a gun appearing in his hand from an unknown source. The girl was crying, trembling in his grip, but the man was ignoring her as easily an an intrusive housefly. He was either incredibly smart or incredibly lucky; from his position in the hall and Cougar's position on the roof, he was completely shielded by the young woman in front of him, making the shot all but impossible unless they wanted to be responsible for two bodies in the hallway by the end of the night. And then Jensen walked in. Cougar felt the rest of the muscles in his body go rigid, his dark eyes locked on the blond. Well this had gotten out of hand in a hurry.
"Ah shit..." Jensen's voice came over the ear piece, exasperated and tinged with frustration. His hands were held up, showing he had nothing on him, and he eyed the man with a look of suprise and resignation.
"What's going on?" Clay's voice came over both of their ear pieces and Jensen managed to answer before Cougar did.
"He'd got a hostage..."
Cougar heard Clay curse softly over the frequency and he couldn't blame him, he felt about the same. He shifted his position slightly, trying to get a clearer shot of the man, but no matter how he moved (save getting up and finding a completely different location) the girl was still in his shot.
"Okay, just stay calm, we're working on it. Don't do anything stupid." He was glad Clay said something; he knew that was on everyone's mind. Jensen was a smart kid but he tended to make some pretty rash decisions without giving much thought to them. Hostage situations were no different, if it meant life of death for someone else, Jensen usually put himself in the middle of the equation.
He could see the younger man holding his ground, keeping his hands up and trying to talk to the man, trying to convince him to let the girl go. "This doesn't involve her, its just you and me. You don't want to do anything stupid, alright? No one has to die today." He was trying to buy time, prevent the unthinkable from happening, but time only gets you so far. Eventually, the watch is going to stop.
Cougar shifted again, trying desperately to get a clean shot. He didn't want this to escalate further than it already had and he definitely didn't want Jensen in the middle of it all. The fact the the younger man was even in this situation to begin with was making him anxious and he hated that feeling.
The man was saying something about Max; he couldn't hear the words but judging by Jensen's reaction, he knew that's who they were talking about. "Jesus, why do you people work for him? He's such a dick!"
"Can you take the shot?" Clay's voice suddenly filled his head and he blinked through the scope again, still trying to set it up. If he was even a fraction of a millimeter off..."No...the girl's in the way." He knew that wasn't the reaction they'd hoped for, it certainly wasn't the one he wanted to give. He'd been a Sniper for years, he was one of the best in the world, but he couldn't make the shot...not without killing the girl as well.
"Dammit! Have you tried moving your location?" Clay demanded, his voice taking on a biting edge it only had when he was worried. Clay cared for his team like they were his family and when one of them was in the line of fire, he didn't handle it very well.
Cougar sighed, angry at himself more than anything. "If I moved, I wouldn't have a clear shot. This is the best angle I can get." The words felt like acid in his mouth, bitter and sharp, and he wanted nothing more than to have a better answer. Unless the man moved, shifted the girl even the slightest bit, he couldn't take the shot.
He looked back through his scope, watching Jensen's face carefully. He knew the younger man had heard everything they'd just said, he knew their options. Something flashed across his face, a look barely noticeable had Cougar not been paying attention. He felt something cold settle in his chest.
"Alright, look-" In the blink of an eye, the man had turned the gun on him, firing twice. Cougar only needed to fire once. The movement had been just enough for the girl to be far enough away that she wouldn't get him. Right as the second bullet was leaving the chamber, Cougar pulled the trigger.
Through his scope he could see the window breaking only a few feet from the man's head, the cracks that spread through the glass sheet. He saw the slight swish of the girl's hair as the bullet whizzed past her face, burying itself in the man's forehead only millimeters from where she'd been a second ago. She was screaming, breaking away from him just as his body began to slump to the floor Cougar was on his feet and running to the fire exit before he ever hit the ground.
"Jensen!" Clay was yelling over the ear piece and Cougar almost couldn't hear it over the pounding of his feet as he ran across the roof top. He'd seen the bullets hit, saw the burst of blood and the startled look on the younger man's face. He needed to get there and now.
"Can't talk right now boss..." Jensen gasped, his voice broken and pained. "Bleeding."
Clay cursed again and Cougar felt a few words tumble out of his mouth before he could stop them. Talking was good though, it meant the wounds weren't fatal. Yet. He pushed that thought out of his head and ran faster, taking the stairs three at a time.
Clay was telling him to hang on, telling him they were on the way, but it wasn't helping as much as he'd hoped. They were still a few miles away and it would take time to get there, time that Jensen didn't have. Cougar muttered a few more curses, landing on the second level of the building. "You're going to be fine." He said loudly enough for Jensen to hear him, not sure if he was trying to convince himself or Jensen. "I'm almost there, just hang on."
Nothing but silence greeted him. He half-expected some kind of silly remark, a sarcastic retort, anything. But there was nothing. Nothing but the cold, remorseless silence. Jensen wasn't speaking...he wasn't rambling on about some random thought that popped in his head...he wasn't making any noise at all. Cougar felt like someone had punched him in the stomach, "Jensen!"
It was still silent.
Poor Jensen, he's still shot! Oh no! It'll pick up next chapter, I promise! :D
