I can only apologize deeply to anyone I may have disappointed with the ridiculously long wait, and I hope you can enjoy the fic.
This one is for DJ, who held out hope for me long after I had given up, and broke a writers' block I thought would never end.
Also thank god for Avril Lavigne, cause I had nothing until I started listening to When You're Gone over and over again.
Also…. Yes, yes! I see it now! - I still don't own flashpoint.
Jules sat in the SUV as the team drove towards the location Desantos had given them. The passing roadside barely registered on her eyes. Instead she saw a crackling blue light, and heard a man scream in pain. She saw the blood and sweat mixed together in his hair from where she had hit him, and slammed his head into a steel table. And she saw that blood on her hands. She smelled it most of all. The burning flesh from where she had touched the exposed taser head to his neck. The blood of another human being on her hands. But try as she might she couldn't bring herself to feel anything in that moment. She couldn't feel remorse, or guilt, or anticipation, or love, or sadness or pain. She had lost part of herself along the last four months, and spent them trying to feel again, or trying not to feel anymore. In that interrogation room she had given up her chance of getting it back. She had crossed a line, and in doing so had become a different person. She didn't know what she had lost there; she just knew she didn't care. She knew what she had gained there in exchange. She traded it for Sam Braddock. She traded it for a chance to rescue him, for even a chance to have him back again.
The SUV took a sharp corner that jerked her out of her thoughts, and brought her back to the present. She forcibly kept her focus on the present and the mission where it belonged. She could worry about the consequences later, for now she had to rescue Sam. The team was silent for once, no one filling the radio with idle chatter or even important information. She was grateful for the silence, because she didn't have to pretend. She used the pain and loneliness of the last several times one final time, bringing them up around her like armor to keep her mind where she needed it, and to stay focused on the task. She calmly checked her M4 carbine, making sure the magazine was clear and would feed properly, and she chambered a round. She checked the holographic sight and made sure it was zeroed in properly. Next she drew her sidearm, a Beretta Px4 Storm. She checked the magazine, ensured there was a loaded round, and checked the iron sights one more time. She found no mistakes or problems in either of her weapons, but knew better than to triple check. The only thing worse than a problem with your weapon in a firefight was arriving to a firefight and trying to put your gun back together while being shot at. Unfortunately her thoughts drifted back to Sam. A scream of pain that only he could make sound defiant, the months of torture he must have endured for her sake all flashed through her mind. She was reminded of his… "NO" she thought to herself with an iron will. If they were going to live through this, she couldn't afford to let her mind drift. Mercifully her radio sparked to life, with information on the address they were headed to.
Spike's voice suddenly filled her ear as he spoke. "All right Desantos told us that Sam was being held underground, in an old abandoned factory. Problem is that building doesn't have a basement according to the plans. The way he described it, it sounds like they linked into something underground there, and we have no idea what. Could be we're dealing with a mouse hole system but even if we're not we're heading into very perfect ground for an ambush."
Suddenly Ed's voice cut in on the radio "Team Three is cutting short its patrol to meet with us, and team's two and four have been called in but we don't have time to wait for them. Same thing with uniforms, they are on their way to secure a perimeter but we will arrive first, and we don't have time to wait for anything. They know this location is compromised and they might try to move Sam if they haven't already. We have no time for preparation people, so we are going in blind and unprepared. They could hit us with anything so be ready for it." Ed finished his inspiring speech just as the SUVs pulled up in front of the building. The team piled out of the vehicles and advanced in formation and in silence. The team was prepared for a full scale assault, they had no one to negotiate with yet so they could employ the entire team. They maintained a silent profile as they breached and quickly spread out over the empty factory floor, watching for a potential ambush.
Their diligence did not go to waste, at least spike's didn't as he suddenly yelled "FLASHBANG" a few moments before it went off, releasing a blinding flash of light and a deafening bang. Fortunately those few moments made all the difference in the world as automatic weapons opened fire. Instead of ripping into the team, immobilized and disoriented in a killing ground, the shots all went high above the team that had managed to flatten themselves on the floor. There they were shielded from the worst of the blast, and began firing back along tracers racing toward them. Jules fired back with her M4 as well, despite not seeing the shooter. When she stopped shooting for a moment, a sudden thought distracted her, and for the first time in her life she was glad someone was shooting at her. If someone was defending this place, then there was still something here to defend. She felt her lips pull back into a hunter's smile. Sam was here, alive. And these men were in her way.