Soon after, all of them were sitting at Sarah's dining table. Food was all over the place, and in spite of the situation, everybody ate hungrily. Chris was able to sense some sort of calm emanating from everybody as they ate. And then he felt Sarah. Inquiry. Curiosity. "So what," she began, "is the big deal, Cass. What's..."

The other girl, Cass, swallowed. "Well....I mean." She shrugged, taking a bite of the pizza in front of her. "It can't be that big...I'm just a lowly airforce chick, not an academy ..."

Chris caught Sarah's glance with his own, raising his eyebrows. The stress that emanated from Cass almost knocked him to the ground. He was rewarded with a smile before Sarah turned to Cass herself. "And you're here...in uniform." She picked up her cup of tea, and he watched her. "Something's going on, " she finished, her voice filled with the ease of someone used to being in command.

At that moment, Ed Tate, the man who lived upstairs from Sarah, looked up from his plate, slowly, cautiously. Nervousness, fear, but not too strong, Chris noted with a degree of relief. "What's going on?" Ed asked.

For his own part, Chris wished he knew what Cass did. He felt her nerves hit him hard. It was big. He could tell, not just from what he sensed, but how she held herself. Too close to her chest, as if she was protecting someone or something. He watched her turn to Sarah, and the emotions he sensed from the two of them had him holding on to the table for dear life. "MACC 97 is under attack," Cass finally made out.

Fear beyond anything he'd sensed before had him screaming for relief, blocking anything and everything, massaging his temples, rubbing his eyes. Trying to clear himself. He pushed everybody, everything out. He knew not a thing about what MACC was but the fact of the matter was that it was something sensitive...something...

***

He slowly opened his eyes to find so many standing over him. He held up his hands, still rocked from the pain of the emotions, in a gesture that hopefully meant stay away...give me space.

He saw Sarah move away, understanding but not at the same time. It just hurt...to sense anything.

"What happened?" Sloan asked as she dabbed his forehead with a cloth that, in his opinion, was cold enough to freeze an ocean, but did nothing for the pain he felt inside. He wondered if there was a drug that could numb his senses...

But, as they still stood over him, he blinked his eyes and looked up at her. "Overwhelming blast of fear," he made out. He looked at Sarah. "What could be so..."

"So why are you two so scared?" Sloan interjected on his behalf.

"MACC," Cass began slowly, letting out a breath, and Chris rubbed his temples again from the sheer volume of emotion he was able to sense from the young woman, even though he was trying to block her. "Is a sorta secret organization, alligned with the military academies. The composition changes every year. The group that finished their term in 97..."

Chris watched nervously as Sarah bowed her head, her eyes glistening with what looked like tears. "Has tight connections with a large group of important people, including the president and the vice president, as well as an international reputation." She swallowed, and Chris had the distinct impression that she was holding back not only the tears, but also a great deal of information."

When she'd finished speaking, she turned to Cass, and his suspicions were confirmed. "You were a part of the group," he mumured, as he tried even harder to block the furious and strong emotions that came his way. "And they have someone. Whoever they are is important."

Cass nodded, pain in her eyes. He'd hit something, but he knew he had to push, in spite of it. They had to untangle this mess. "Yes, I was." Chris wasn't surprised when she paused, turning towards Sarah. "They have Carmen."

Ed gasped and turned towards the two young women, simultaneously hitting Chris with a wave of disbelief he wasn't prepared for. He swallowed as Ed began to speak. "Carmen...Santiago?"

"The vice president's daughter Carmen Santiago..." Sloan Parker's disbelief was a bit more focused than Ed's had been, but it still pained Chris. He resolved to lock himself in some sort of an isolated room for at least a week after this was over.

Sarah couldn't even begin to answer the questions when she saw Cass pick up her cell phone and start to talk. Despite the pain in his head, temples and all over his body, Chris found himself fighting the impulse to go over and put his arm around her. Of course when he opened his senses, trying to keep them focused on Sarah herself, he found assurance that if he tried, he'd be pushed away.

"What's going on???" Sarah asked, her eyes wide, filling with tears.

Her nerves screamed out to Chris, and he grimaced, rubbing his temples in agony. He raised his eyebrows, and then turned towards Cass as she hung up the phone. Onslaught wasn't enough to describe the fury, the fire of emotions that grabbed his senses and almost slammed him against a wall. Terror. Unease. Compassion. Confusion. Worry mixed with ....and then he swallowed. "They..."

"That was Dave, Sar," Cass began, interrupting Chris and the words he'd started to say. A wave of protection, protectiveness, compassion, worry. But this time, he didn't grab his temples. He was holding her hand instead, and Sarah smiled somehow at him. "They have Mike."

Sarah gasped and Chris felt her pushing him away, both physically and by the force of the immediacy in her emotions. She ran to the phone in the kitchen and picked it up. She sobbed, and he felt her pain...saw her tears. "Hello…oh my god…you have to get here… now. I don't care how you do it…I don't want to know…just get here…NOW. I love you too…" She swallowed, as she hung up the phone, attempting to fight back tears.