Chapter 17: I Got Shot
Disclaimer: My ideas don't bring in millions of dollars a year…
A/N: This will be the last chapter I post for at least 10 days, because I'm going away for Christmas and I won't…*sob*…have access to a computer!
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"Damn it!" Jack growled.
"Bitch!" he heard Taylor scream.
Jack reached the doorway with barely enough time to take in the scene before disaster struck. Irina standing motionless, her eyes wide and scared, making no move to reach the gun Jack knew she must have. Taylor pointing his gun at her shakily. The young Russian man standing off to the side, out of Taylor's view. Then suddenly a gun erupted, and Taylor fell to the floor, shock registering on his face. The Russian man held his gun straight out; a lucky shot.
Irina turned slowly to look at he shooter. He seemed frozen in fear. "Get out of here!" she shrieked suddenly, hysteria rising in her voice.
The man not only left, but ran. His departure released Jack and Irina from the spell they were under. They both moved simultaneously to kneel beside Taylor.
"Damn idiot," Jack muttered under his breath. He'd holstered his gun and noticed that Irina still had made no more to even suggest she had the weapon he knew she did.
Irina reached for Taylor's wrist. Her face fell, and she slowly released his arm. "He's dead, Jack," she said simply, and not at all in the detached manner he'd expected.
Jack, refusing to believe her, pressed his fingers to Taylor's neck. No pulse.
"Go, Jack. Just go. I'll…" Her voice faltered for just a second. "I'll send him somewhere and let you know." When he just stared at her, she added, "The CIA never had to know how he died." She closed her eyes for a moment, showing no fear of him. "If you and Vaughn can keep Danny out of it all."
Finally Jack nodded. "I'll be waiting," he said simply.
"I promise, I'll let you know," she said softly.
Jack jogged all the way to the van and climbed in the back, knowing Michael would be in the drive's seat. He was pulling away even as Jack pulled the door closed.
Danny gave him a look and asked, "Where's Taylor?"
Where Lorrie's eyes had been weary and relaxed, they were quickly alert and anxious.
"My dad? What happened?!?" she cried.
"Lorrie, may be you should wait…" Sydney began, throwing Danny a disgusted look.
"No! What happened?!?" she cried again, looking at Jack.
"He…ho got shot, Lorrie," he said with surprising gentleness. "He's dead."
Sydney gasped, Lorrie gave an odd little cry and buried her face in her hands, Michael tighten his grip on the steering wheel until he was in danger of breaking it, and Danny looked anywhere but at the people in the back of the van.
Jack looked at Danny. He could see the bullet wound high in his left shoulder as clearly as he could see his lack of empathy for Lorrie.
Sydney gathered Lorrie in her arms. After several minutes, she asked, "Where's Jaime?"
When Danny didn't answer, Michael said, "The daycare. That woman--Kaitlyn?--agreed to keep him until we could get back."
Sydney nodded. "Danny, are you okay?"
"What the hell do you think? I got shot!" he snapped.
"But you're still alive!" Lorrie yelled sharply, spinning angrily to face him. "Don't you dare complain, because you're still alive!" she threatened.
Sydney put her arms around Lorrie and pulled her close. "You're going to be okay, Lorrie. You're going to be okay," she whispered.
Danny was irritated by his wife's siding with Lorrie and remained silent, much as an angry child might, all the way to the hospital. Everyone, whether they would admit it or not, enjoyed his silence.
"I'll take him in," Jack muttered. "Vaughn, you get in back so the van looks empty."
Jack practically dragged Danny out of the van, and Michael climbed in the back and pulled the door closed. In the sudden silence and without the whirring of the van's engine, Lorrie's sobs could be heard quite plainly. Instinctively, he settled in front of Lorrie and Sydney. He put a hand comfortingly on her shoulder.
"It's hard at first, put you, uh, get used to it," he said gruffly, not sure how to phrase what he meant.
Lorrie fell silent and sat up to face him. Her control was held onto by a mere thread, and at first Michael wondered if he'd said something wrong. Then to his surprise, she gave him a quick hug.
"Thank you," she whispered, offering a small smile.
"Uh, no problem. I, uh, my dad got killed too, when I was a kid," he said awkwardly.
She took a deep, steadying breath, and thought that f it had been anyone but him she might have lost it again. Knowing his story--if only a piece of it--made that dreadful word bearable. "I know. That's why it means so much that you said that," Lorrie explained shakily, but determined to keep a very firm grip on her control. She hated to cry.
She calmly leaned against the wall of the van, Sydney on one side and Michael in front of her. She surprised herself when she nearly giggled when both Sydney and Michael both went to put their arms around her shoulders at once, and he wound up putting his arm on top of hers. He jerked his arm away as though burnt, and she withdrew her arm and turned red. She chalked it up to a delayed shock or something. She leaned her head back and soon fell asleep.
Sydney, very uncomfortable with Michael all of a sudden, also leaned back and closed her eyes. After a few moments, Michael thought she seemed asleep and allowed himself to move over nest to her, and he too closed his eyes, quite content with his current position.
When Jack opened the door some thirty minutes later to allow Danny, shoulder wrapped in white bandages, to climb in, he saw Sydney and Michael leaning against each other, fast asleep. It didn't anger him, as he thought it should have, to see the agent near his daughter, and he found he had to hide a smile. Deciding there was nothing wrong with letting Michael get a little sleep, he climbed into the front seat.
"We had to go a little out of our way to get here," he told Danny as he pulled out. "It'll be a good hour before we get to the airstrip."
Danny didn't comment. If he had taken anything for pain, Jack might have simply made an allowance for the man's attitude. But Danny had angrily declined the doctor's offer of some pain pills.
Jack was willing to bet Sydney hadn't caught more than brief glimpses of this side of Danny. In her opinion, Jack had sulked all through her childhood, and he found it unlikely that she'd have remained married to a man who sulked like Danny did.
May be she'd gain something out of this ordeal; may be she'd see Danny for what he was before he turned her into a cold, apathetic person.
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Michael was awake, but not enough so that he was ready to open his eyes. He was sure Jack would make a very clear announcement when they got to the airstrip. And he was very comfortable where he was. Which was…against someone…Sydney! Oh, God, and Danny and Jack had to know it, too…
""We're pulling into the airport now," Jack said flatly a few minutes later. "Start waking them up."
Michael noted a tone of dislike that he'd never even heard Jack use on him before. As soon as he heard Danny start crooning to Sydney, "Wake up, honey. We're at the airport," Michael sat up and had the distinct urge to puke.
He watched as Sydney reluctantly sat up straighter and reached over to gently shake Lorrie's shoulder. Suddenly, Michael reached over and grabbed her wrist.
"Why don't we just let her sleep?" he said gently.
"But…" Sydney began.
"I'll carry her to the plane," Michael said. "She's fairly small; it'll be easy," he added when Sydney started to object.
"You'll probably wake her up," she warned.
"I'll be careful," he promised, smiling at her.
To his surprise, and pleasure, she smiled back.
"I know you will," she said softly, hoping her voice sounded more matter-of-fact to them than it did to her.
Apparently not; Danny gave her a suspicious look that stirred fear in her gut. And that scared her more than his expression.
"How's your shoulder?" she asked in an attempt to change her train of thought.
"Killing me. Damn doctor didn't even give me anything for pain," he muttered.
Jack opened his mouth to say something, but decided that confronting Danny might not be a good thing for Sydney. He'd speak to her privately about Danny's behavior.
"I'm sorry," Sydney said carefully. "Is it really that bad?"
"Damn it, Sydney, I got shot!" he roared. Lorrie woke with a cry of surprise, and Michael subtly shook his head at her. "Of course it really that bad!" Danny mocked her.
Sydney glanced at Michael fearfully, almost as if looking for help. "I…just meant that…I…Thank you for coming after me," she finally sputtered quietly.
"Yeah, this is what I get for running to your rescue," he growled.
For a second, Michael wondered if Danny was referring to something other than his injury, but quickly discarded the idea.
"I'm sorry," Sydney murmured again, clearly trying to placate him for a time.
Michael vowed to talk to her once on the plane. Until then, however, he made Lorrie his project. He stood and moved to sit next to her. She was staring tearfully at Sydney. She looked like she was about to say something, so he gently turned her to face him.
"We'll talk to her later," he whispered.
"She's…scared of him," Lorrie whispered back.
He nodded. "We'll talk to her."
She nodded, too, and turned her back to him. He saw her slip a hand up to wipe her eyes.
Michael felt sorry for her. Her life had been emotionally difficult, and just when she and her dad could have gotten past all that, he'd had to go and get himself killed. Jack hadn't said as much, but Derevko had been involved in whatever had happened, and that wouldn't help any when Lorrie found that out. Now, she was practically watching the marriage of the woman she'd come to look to for support crumble to the ground.
He shifted and put his arm around her. She looked up at him in surprise briefly, then seemed to accept the comforting gesture.
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How did they manage to corner her without her noticing? And why?
Sydney sat in one of the window seats on the jet that she figured her father's connection to the CIA had helped him secure, and her father, Michael, and Lorrie all stood blocking her only escape.
"Uh…is something wrong?" she asked carefully, noting their grim faces.
"Sydney, I'm not going to dance around the issue," Jack said quickly. "I…We think Danny is…off."
Sure sounds like dancing to me, Sydney thought.
"Off how?" she asked out loud.
"He strikes me as someone with potentially violent tendencies," Michael said before Jack could stop him. "I've had some training in profiling," he added, as much for Jack's benefit as for Sydney's.
"Is he always so touchy, Sydney?" Lorrie asked in concern.
"He lied to you before," Jack continued quickly. "The doctor offered him some pain medication. He refused. Angrily."
"You looked scared when he started yelling," Lorrie commented pointedly. "Where you?"
This time, no one jumped in and kept her from answering.
"I…yes," she said softly.
"He doesn't hit you, does he?" Michael asked at the same time Jack asked, "Has he ever hit you?"
"No, he wouldn't." Michael didn't think she sounded as sure of herself as she should have. "He was…his eyes were…" She looked at Lorrie apologetically, then looked up at the two men. "I don't really want her to hear this," she pleaded. She didn't want Michael to hear it, either, but she thought she'd be lucky to get Lorrie away.
"I'm not leaving," Lorrie said steadily, looking only at Sydney. "I have as much right as they do to hear what you say," she added, jerking her thumb at Jack and Michael.
Sydney threw one more pleading glance at Jack and Michael, then answered softly. "His eyes were weird. And his voice was…I don't know, harsh. I've never heard him use that tone before. He's never been set off that easily, either. For a few minutes…I was afraid he would hit me," Sydney confessed.
Michael looked at Jack, but he shook his head.
"Do you trust him?" Jack asked.
The same fear Michael had seen earlier flashed in her eyes.
"No," she said quietly, looking at her hands in her lap.
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Yay! I found another way to get rid of Danny! I told you Danny wouldn't get off with that one little hole in his shoulder…