A/N: Howdy fellow fanfictioners! (Fanfictioners?) Sorry about the whole chapter 3 fiasco. I realized I posted it incorrectly immediately and deleted it. However, because of the obnoxiously long time it took me to update in the first place – my profound apologies about that – I'm posting the story to completion today to hopefully make up for it. Thanks for the reviews so far. :) Enjoy.

Chapter 3

Mac hung up the phone and stealthily made her way down the stairs and back to the guest suite. She opened the door a crack and whispered, "It's Mac," before opening the door fully. Good thing too, she decided, because Colonel Jenkins was standing about five feet away with his gun trained on the door.

"How'd it go?" Harm asked.

"Good. I got through to the General. He's on it. Expect a SEAL or Recon team sometime soon…Is your arm okay?"

"Yeah. We re-bandaged it…We should move."

"I don't know Captain, we've been safe up here so far," Jenkins offered.

"Exactly. It's only a matter of time before they come back for you. They wouldn't have singled you out if they didn't plan on coming back up here at some point."

"I agree. We need to keep moving. What if we used an empty office?" Mac volunteered while helping Harm put his sling back on. "There are several on the fifth floor."

"Too dangerous. We don't know what office or offices they're downloading intel from."

"Probably mine and the ambassador's," Jenkins put in.

"Do you think we could get to the basement, sir?" Mac asked. "There's enough stored down there to hide out for months."

"Will the phone be able to get through?"

"I got a call down there yesterday when I was looking for a file. I think it'll be all right."

"Sounds good to me," Harm offered, "Can we take the elevator all the way down?"

"We can. Let's get moving," Jenkins ordered.

The trio stepped out into the hall. Mac was about to press the button for the elevator when it announced its arrival on the floor with a soft ding. Making a mad dash for the stairs, the three officers barely managed to make it out of sight before the doors slid open. They didn't stop until they descended two floors.

Coming out of the stairwell first, Mac peaked out from around the corner. The halls were empty; there was no one in sight. Waving the others forward the trio emerged. Mac picked the third door on the right and went inside.

"That was close."

"Tell me about it," Harm panted glancing down at his arm.

Jenkins shut the door behind him and they looked around the room. "We only have a few minutes before they find those guards tied up in the closet."

***

Sergeant Brown did not like to be kept waiting. It had been fifteen minutes since two of his men had gone to look for Smith. When no one had been able to find him, Brown had ordered all his units to check in. That was ten minutes ago. Five other men hadn't checked in yet. Brown had sent half of his small army upstairs to check up on them.

Seven men poured out of the elevator weapons drawn, but saw nothing. Shadows from the three officers had disappeared around the stairwell corner just seconds before. A few seconds after that, they found the ropes used to tie Colonel Jenkins on the floor in the VIP suite, along with the two men in the closet.

Downstairs, Brown put his finger up to his ear as the call came in over his radio. "What do you mean they're dead?! All of them?!" Well, no, one was still alive. "Who?" Johnson. "Tell him to get his ass down here right now. I want to know what the hell is going on!"

This was not the way the plan was supposed to work. They were supposed to be in and out, and then with the money they got, Brown was going to be able to disappear forever. Maybe to Cuba, he'd figured. No extradition treaty there, and white sandy beaches were just fine with him.

His men were slowly disappearing. If he didn't do something soon, nothing would work out the way it was supposed to. He swiftly clicked his radio on. "Drake?"

"Yeah boss?"

"Are you close?"

"Another ten minutes to finish this download, then I've only got one more. Thirty minutes tops."

Gates strode back into the room. "We finished counting the hostages. Rabb and Mackenzie are missing, plus Jenkins somehow managed to Houdini out of his ropes upstairs. They said there's blood all over the sofa up there."

"They found him."

"Rabb and Mackenzie? There's no way they could have made it all the way-"

"Did you put guards on the freight elevator like I told you?"

Silence. Gates gulped. "Oops."

"Oops? Oops!!! I've got three military officers roaming around this embassy, who just so happen to know every nook and cranny of the layout of this place, threatening to blow the lid off of our perfectly planned operation and all you can say is OOPS!?"

Gates knew better than to dig himself in any deeper, so he just stood there meeting Brown's gaze.

"Find them! Have the free men down here move up while the men on the top floor move down and leave a guard on every staircase exit. I promised we'd have Rabb by the end of the night, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

***

The room was pretty bare. There was a desk with two inches of dust on it, several empty bookshelves, and a large window overlooking the courtyard outside. Mac pulled out the desk chair and dusted it off with her palm as best she could before wheeling it over to Harm. "Sit," she commanded.

Harm opened his mouth, but seemed to think better of whatever he was going to say and promptly closed it again. He sat. Mac gently put her fingers to his forehead and brushed them down his cheek. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got shot." He barely managed to maintain eye contact as his Marine leveled her finely honed glare at him. "I can't move my arm," he confessed quietly.

"At all?"

"It's been cramping. I think my biceps finally decided they'd had enough for the day…I'm sure it's fine. Just sore and tired."

That wasn't good. Mac exchanged a nervous look with Colonel Jenkins. "Tell me what I can do, Harm."

Before he could answer, a voice boomed down the corridor from the other side of the door. "Look in every room and leave all the doors open!" All three of them immediately sprang into action and dove for cover behind the door, which promptly swung open at full force. Much to everyone's surprise, Harm caught the door with his good hand and pushed it shut, breaking the soldier's nose as he came into the room. He screamed in pain as blood poured off of his face before Harm landed a solid blow to his temple knocking him out cold.

Mac and Jenkins drew their weapons, but it was too late. Two more soldiers stormed through the door and tackled Harm to the ground. Mac and Jenkins rushed forward to pull them off, but three more men came down the hall with their guns drawn. Mac glanced over just in time to see one of their captors zap Harm with a stun gun.

"No!" she cried out and ran forward, but one of the men caught her in a tight bear hug, holding her still. Watching helplessly as Harm fell limply to the ground, Mac let one of the men take her sidearm. Jenkins, finding himself hopelessly outnumbered, did the same.

It took three men, swearing and grumbling the entire way, to carry Harm to the ballroom downstairs. Sergeant Brown stood, waiting patiently for his captives to stop near the lookout post. "Ah, they arrive at last." Mac tore her gaze away from Harm long enough to catch Brown smirk at the three of them. Before Mac even caught the movement on her side, the man holding her put the stun gun to her neck, rendering her unconscious. "About time, Colonel," Brown said as the other man placed Mac gently on the floor. "You've caused quite a bit of trouble tonight, sir."

Jenkins just glared.

"Brown, you want us to pack up?" Gates asked, trying to redeem himself.

"Yeah, Drake just finished, he's on his way down right…now!" Brown finished as their compatriot walked into the room holding up a flash drive.

"I've got it. We can go."

"Excellent. Colonel, I want you to tell me honestly how the Captain is doing," Brown demanded, nudging his gun into Jenkins' chest. Jenkins didn't respond.

Brown let out a heavy sigh and pointed the gun at Mac, lying unconscious on the floor. "I won't ask again."

Jenkins pursed his lips before saying reluctantly, "His left arm is useless."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," he ground out.

"That wasn't so hard was it?" He pointed at two of his men. "You, take him and lock him in with the other hostages." As Jenkins was pulled out of the room, two of the soldiers took care of Harm while the others packed up the equipment. Both removed their belts and secured Harm's wounded arm to his chest, while the other put a belt around Harm's waist and then took Harm's good hand and put one end of the flex cuff around his wrist and the other through the belt before tightening the band. Harm groaned as he started to regain consciousness. "Let's go, we don't have much time. They were able to call for help."

Harm slowly opened his eyes and vaguely wondered why the world seemed to be sideways until he felt something soft and textured on his cheek and realized he was lying on the floor. As his vision cleared, he saw Mac come into focus lying only a few feet away. He tensed and pulled his arm forward, but realized belatedly it was secured behind his back.

"Mac!" Harm called. She didn't move. It wouldn't have mattered. Two of Brown's men yanked him to his knees. Harm nearly lost his balance since his hands weren't free. Brown yanked his head up forcefully by grabbing a handful of Harm's hair.

"Quiet, Captain. You wouldn't want to wake her now would you?"

"You son of a – Oof!" Harm couldn't finish the sentence before Brown landed a punch squarely in Harm's gut. He pulled a needle and vial of liquid out of his pocket.

"Captain, I promise you'll learn to be much more cooperative in the next few days." Harm just stared daggers at Brown as he stuck him in the shoulder with a syringe. "Have a safe trip, Captain." A hood was placed over Harm's head, and he tried to struggle, but everything faded too quickly to black.

A few men picked Harm up off the floor and dragged him out the back door of the embassy to a waiting, inconspicuous looking SUV.

Brown looked thoughtfully at Mac lying on the floor. "You'd better take her with you."

"What the hell for? He's the only one we need," Gates argued.

"He won't cooperate unless she's with him. Trust me."

"The boss called. He's got all the information he needs. I'm telling you, we don't need her. She'll just be a nuisance. 'Sides, he's hurt too bad to be able to get away from us."

"You're missing the point, Gates. You need to be able to control him. You can't do it on your own, and this will ensure that you do."

"And you think she can?"

"I would think that if you threatened her, he'd get polite rather quickly." Brown smirked, and with a snap of his fingers Mac soon joined Harm on the trunk floor of the SUV.

The last duffle was zipped up a few seconds later, and the group made a clean getaway.

***

Mac woke up feeling like a ton of bricks was resting on her head. Her vision finally cleared and adjusted to the dim light. She groaned aloud as she realized she was in some kind of metal bunker. The walls and ceiling were a darkish gray color, while the floor was simply cement. She sat up on the cot they had left her on and looked to the other side of the room. Harm was lying on another cot up against the other wall.

"Harm!" She rushed over to him. "Harm, wake up!" He didn't answer. He was no longer wearing his dress uniform, but black fatigues with the sleeve rolled up on his left arm. Mac was surprised to see their captors had treated his gunshot wound, and Harm now sported a metal splint from his wrist all the way up to his shoulder that bent at the elbow and was nestled in a sling. Aside from the splint and being unconscious he seemed to be okay.

There wasn't much else in the room, besides the big heavy metal door that only had a metal plate where the doorknob used to be. 'So much for finding a way out,' Mac mused to herself. Some kind of plug with an extendable cord that pulled out of it was on the wall next to Harm's cot. Mac looked around again and this time she saw four more of them on the walls. She didn't even want to think about what those were for.

Her eyes eventually came to rest on a set of black fatigues sitting at the end of her cot. Thankful they hadn't decided to change her themselves, she quickly changed out of the now filthy borrowed clothes and into the fresher, better fitting ones.

Harm groaned softly in his sleep.

Mac shook his shoulder gently and called his name, but he didn't stir again. Figuring it could be hours until either Harm woke up or someone came for them, she decided to get more comfortable. Mac climbed up onto Harm's cot and gently lifted his shoulders so she could sit down with her back against the wall. Just as gently, she let his head rest on her lap and started slowly rubbing her fingers through his hair.

And the waiting began.

***

Bud was slowly going insane. He was on his 27th lap around the bullpen. Cresswell had called Harm, but there was no answer. He had originally been pacing around the General's office while they waited for Harm and Mac to call back, but after a few short minutes, the General had ordered him out of the room in a huff for driving him crazy.

That had been over an hour ago.

Something must have gone wrong. Bud didn't want to think anything had gone wrong, but by now it was pretty obvious that something had most definitely gone wrong. After trying Harm's cell phone twice and not getting an answer, the General had contacted every law enforcement agency in Great Britain and demanded something be done, or he would send in a SEAL team as soon as the President approved it.

They'd gotten the approval from the President an hour ago, but with it came an agreement with the British Prime Minister's office that local law enforcement would try and solve the problem first, and if that didn't work, only then would a SEAL team be ordered in to diffuse the situation. They assured the General that everything was being taken care of. Teams were already in the area and they'd have an update for him soon.

The phone in Bud's office started ringing and he all but flew across the bullpen and dove for the receiver on his desk. "Lt. Commander Roberts."

"Sir, it's Coates."

"Jen! How are you?" Bud heard the words coming out of his mouth and realized what a stupid question that was.

"Sir, the Captain and the Colonel went to the Embassy this evening, and now a hostage situation there has been all over the news. Mattie called me in a panic, and we can't reach either of them on their cell phones. Do you know what's going on, sir?"

Oh, no.

"Sir?" Jen paused. "You know don't you." It wasn't a question.

"We got a call from Colonel Mackenzie a while ago, they were both okay, but we haven't been able to reach them since." Bud glanced up at the panel of monitors displaying various news channels above the desks. ZNN was now showing hostages coming out of the American Embassy, but he didn't recognize the Captain's familiar, tall form. The General chose that moment to walk into the bullpen, and seeing Bud on the phone made his way toward his office.

"They're right in the middle of this aren't they, sir?"

Bud saw the General come in. "Is that them?"

"No, sir, it's Petty Officer Coates…Jen, as soon as we know anything I'll call you back okay?"

"Okay, sir. What should I tell Mattie?"

"Tell her we love her and to hang in there…Bye." Bud hung up the phone and snapped to attention. "Sorry, sir."

"Don't be. I just got off the phone with Corporal Martins; he was second in command at the embassy. Apparently their Sergeant went rogue on them and helped outside forces take over the embassy."

"Sir, with all due respect, please don't make me defend him…"

"You won't get the chance, Commander, no one will. He's gone. So are Rabb and Mackenzie. No one can find them anywhere and they haven't returned home or back to the base. Colonel Jenkins seems to think they were kidnapped since they were singled out from the rest of the hostages."

"They don't have any leads do they." It wasn't a question.

"None. They sent in a K-9 unit to search for them."

"That could take hours, sir."

"If they can even find a trail to follow."

"Why do you think they took them, sir? Ransom demand?"

"I hope so."

"Sir?"

"That would mean they're still alive, Commander."