***
He told her he had handled worse; that was an outright lie. While on several lively occasions he had been interrogated, injured and seriously beaten, nothing could compete with the level of brutal pain his body was tirelessly being subjugated to. This was the kind of mind numbing agony that made a person want to crawl in the fetal position and die.
After the first run through with the car battery their captors had so assiduously zapped him with, Webb found himself seriously re-evaluating his life. There was nothing like a few volts of electricity running through the body to jump-start the brain.
It was here in his somewhat lacking accommodations as they dragged him to the room holding Sarah, he was finally able to be entirely truthful to himself.
He was ridiculously in love with Sarah.
He knew it was love when his thoughts were plagued with half assed plans to keep Sarah safe as his body was tested beyond endurance.
He knew it was ridiculous when he found himself inordinately happy to rest his head on her lap, her hands soothing the hurt away like a much prayed for sedative. It was straight out of a damn movie. Her long slim fingers stroking his forehead as she whispered words of endearment into his ear, filling his heart with an indescribable joy. Right. Except for the little scenario that had them in the custody of terrorists hell bent on zapping him until they got an intelligible answer to whether or not their mission to pepper the air with stinger missiles had been compromised. Very romantic. Next time he'd take her to Cuba and get them kidnapped by drug lords.
This whole damn mission had been so abhorrently unprofessional.
Before he had been able to overlook his pitifully weak excuse for recruiting Sarah- there was a mole, he needed someone he could trust. He trusted Colonel MacKenzie, wonder woman extraordinaire. Right? Wrong.
Since he seemed to have live in denial for so long, he wasn't exactly sure which moment marked his fall into Sarah MacKenzie's fan-club. He must have loved her for years judging from the force of his feelings attacking him so vigorously now that the gates of denial were nudged open.
Now that he knew he was in love with Sarah, he could see his underlying reasons for getting her involved in his mission and it had little to do with the lack of qualified female field agents. He could name five off the top of his head that he trusted to do the job.
How did he convince any one to clear her for this mission? How did he convince himself?
Somewhere between A.J.'s office and Langley, the Colonel became Sarah and he was coveting every opportunity to touch her. Let me put that on for you, come this way, one bed we must share- his actions were becoming downright unprofessional and rapidly they only spiraled down.
What a mess he had gotten them into.
Yet through it all she managed to keep her head, filling the painful silence with light hearted conversation that managed to spring enough hope in him to fight the darkness threatening to engulf him. Had he been alone, it is unlikely he would have held on for so long.
Then again, had he been alone, Harm wouldn't have ripped off his gold wings on hearing of Webb's disappearance to blindly charge in and save him. No, Webb was fairly sure that was a service rendered only to Sarah and every other helpless blonde female in the western hemisphere. And Harm rode up on his white horse not a moment too soon.
Bile rose in his throat as he remembered the coldness of the cement floor seeping into his cheek after they led her away. He wanted to die then, loose consciousness and forget he ever brought her to this hellhole to suffer and die. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. If Sadiq chose that moment to walk through the door, Webb would have told him anything he wanted to know to keep from hearing her screams.
"Hey, how are you holding up?" asked a voice from the door, interrupting Webb's dark thoughts.
"Peachy," Webb replied, his voice hoarse from disuse. "How are things on the home front?"
"Well a couple of the guys back at the company are impressed at the way you handled yourself out there," started Ted, a stocky middle-aged man that occupied the office across from Webb's.
"Is that so," answered Webb, his throat scratchy. Slowly his hand inched out for the cup on the small portable dinner table next to his bed. "Damn it," he cursed, the frustration evident in his irritated voice. His stiff hand had been unable to hold onto the yellow plastic cup and it tumbled from his hand onto the floor, ice chips splattering against bland tiles. "Can't even hold a damn cup," he mumbled under his breath.
Ted wordlessly picked up the cup and tossed it into a small garbage bin, grabbing another cup off the counter and filling it with ice chips. He handed it to Webb and continued the conversation without skipping a beat. "Yeah, sure. It was impressive, and stupid," he added, waving a hand in the air to dismiss their comments. "What I'd like to know is how much of Edward's liquor made you think you could single handedly take on a small army of armed terrorists."
"I wasn't alone," muttered Webb.
"That's right, you had a lawyer with you, didn't you." He sighed, "Jesus Webb, it was a crazy thing you did. I've known too many men who died from less."
Webb stared blankly at the closed mini blinds covering the small window. The light hurt his eyes and most days he spent his time in the dark, trying not to think about his hellish month. He could still see her standing in front of him, eyes glittering with anger as she took his gun. "She would have gone alone," said Webb in the empty silence.
Ted had the decency to look away. There was nothing he could say that Webb didn't already know. Ted knew enough of the facts of Webb's mission to make an educated guess of the predicament that cornered Webb. Who knew what he would have done in Webb's situation? "Count your blessings Webb, I don't know how you did it, but you're both still alive."
"I did nothing," said Webb, voice bitter.
"You didn't let her go alone," Ted pointed out. "That's got to count for something." There was no response from Webb. Ted glanced at his watch, hating the schedule that forced him to leave Webb in this condition. "I've got to go and clean up your mess," he was half-serious. About to leave, he briefly placed a hand on Webb's arm, "Hey, you did all you could, that matters."
"I got her involved for all the wrong reasons," said Webb, voicing what truly disturbed him.
"Look, the company isn't some day care program run by an idiot. To get the green light from above, somewhere or somehow you must have made a somewhat convincing argument that someone up there agreed with, whatever your private reasons were." Ted hoped that would help ease Webb's inner demons. Hell, they both knew Webb had made some big mistakes, but he'd suffered enough. And even Ted knew the biggest control freaks couldn't dictate every facet of their lives.
Ted worked with Webb for enough years to recognize the symptoms he suffered from. It was love, and it consumed entirely. His voice was wry, "Take care Webb. I'll see you when you're back in the states."
"Yeah," Webb managed to muster up a half-hearted grin. "And I'll want my parking space back."
Ted chuckled, "It'll be a cold day in hell."
Webb leaned his head back into the uncomfortably pillow and stared at the ceiling. There was an ancient yellowish stain in one corner of the room that always caught his eyes. His mind began to drift and he felt the drugs kicking in. His eyes drifting shut, he saw her again, this time a warm smile lighting up her face as she clasped his hand.
"And I won't leave you behind."
Had he not already been in love with her, he would have fallen right then.
***
I also have a semi new Webb/Mac site with my fanfics. You can reach it at
He told her he had handled worse; that was an outright lie. While on several lively occasions he had been interrogated, injured and seriously beaten, nothing could compete with the level of brutal pain his body was tirelessly being subjugated to. This was the kind of mind numbing agony that made a person want to crawl in the fetal position and die.
After the first run through with the car battery their captors had so assiduously zapped him with, Webb found himself seriously re-evaluating his life. There was nothing like a few volts of electricity running through the body to jump-start the brain.
It was here in his somewhat lacking accommodations as they dragged him to the room holding Sarah, he was finally able to be entirely truthful to himself.
He was ridiculously in love with Sarah.
He knew it was love when his thoughts were plagued with half assed plans to keep Sarah safe as his body was tested beyond endurance.
He knew it was ridiculous when he found himself inordinately happy to rest his head on her lap, her hands soothing the hurt away like a much prayed for sedative. It was straight out of a damn movie. Her long slim fingers stroking his forehead as she whispered words of endearment into his ear, filling his heart with an indescribable joy. Right. Except for the little scenario that had them in the custody of terrorists hell bent on zapping him until they got an intelligible answer to whether or not their mission to pepper the air with stinger missiles had been compromised. Very romantic. Next time he'd take her to Cuba and get them kidnapped by drug lords.
This whole damn mission had been so abhorrently unprofessional.
Before he had been able to overlook his pitifully weak excuse for recruiting Sarah- there was a mole, he needed someone he could trust. He trusted Colonel MacKenzie, wonder woman extraordinaire. Right? Wrong.
Since he seemed to have live in denial for so long, he wasn't exactly sure which moment marked his fall into Sarah MacKenzie's fan-club. He must have loved her for years judging from the force of his feelings attacking him so vigorously now that the gates of denial were nudged open.
Now that he knew he was in love with Sarah, he could see his underlying reasons for getting her involved in his mission and it had little to do with the lack of qualified female field agents. He could name five off the top of his head that he trusted to do the job.
How did he convince any one to clear her for this mission? How did he convince himself?
Somewhere between A.J.'s office and Langley, the Colonel became Sarah and he was coveting every opportunity to touch her. Let me put that on for you, come this way, one bed we must share- his actions were becoming downright unprofessional and rapidly they only spiraled down.
What a mess he had gotten them into.
Yet through it all she managed to keep her head, filling the painful silence with light hearted conversation that managed to spring enough hope in him to fight the darkness threatening to engulf him. Had he been alone, it is unlikely he would have held on for so long.
Then again, had he been alone, Harm wouldn't have ripped off his gold wings on hearing of Webb's disappearance to blindly charge in and save him. No, Webb was fairly sure that was a service rendered only to Sarah and every other helpless blonde female in the western hemisphere. And Harm rode up on his white horse not a moment too soon.
Bile rose in his throat as he remembered the coldness of the cement floor seeping into his cheek after they led her away. He wanted to die then, loose consciousness and forget he ever brought her to this hellhole to suffer and die. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. If Sadiq chose that moment to walk through the door, Webb would have told him anything he wanted to know to keep from hearing her screams.
"Hey, how are you holding up?" asked a voice from the door, interrupting Webb's dark thoughts.
"Peachy," Webb replied, his voice hoarse from disuse. "How are things on the home front?"
"Well a couple of the guys back at the company are impressed at the way you handled yourself out there," started Ted, a stocky middle-aged man that occupied the office across from Webb's.
"Is that so," answered Webb, his throat scratchy. Slowly his hand inched out for the cup on the small portable dinner table next to his bed. "Damn it," he cursed, the frustration evident in his irritated voice. His stiff hand had been unable to hold onto the yellow plastic cup and it tumbled from his hand onto the floor, ice chips splattering against bland tiles. "Can't even hold a damn cup," he mumbled under his breath.
Ted wordlessly picked up the cup and tossed it into a small garbage bin, grabbing another cup off the counter and filling it with ice chips. He handed it to Webb and continued the conversation without skipping a beat. "Yeah, sure. It was impressive, and stupid," he added, waving a hand in the air to dismiss their comments. "What I'd like to know is how much of Edward's liquor made you think you could single handedly take on a small army of armed terrorists."
"I wasn't alone," muttered Webb.
"That's right, you had a lawyer with you, didn't you." He sighed, "Jesus Webb, it was a crazy thing you did. I've known too many men who died from less."
Webb stared blankly at the closed mini blinds covering the small window. The light hurt his eyes and most days he spent his time in the dark, trying not to think about his hellish month. He could still see her standing in front of him, eyes glittering with anger as she took his gun. "She would have gone alone," said Webb in the empty silence.
Ted had the decency to look away. There was nothing he could say that Webb didn't already know. Ted knew enough of the facts of Webb's mission to make an educated guess of the predicament that cornered Webb. Who knew what he would have done in Webb's situation? "Count your blessings Webb, I don't know how you did it, but you're both still alive."
"I did nothing," said Webb, voice bitter.
"You didn't let her go alone," Ted pointed out. "That's got to count for something." There was no response from Webb. Ted glanced at his watch, hating the schedule that forced him to leave Webb in this condition. "I've got to go and clean up your mess," he was half-serious. About to leave, he briefly placed a hand on Webb's arm, "Hey, you did all you could, that matters."
"I got her involved for all the wrong reasons," said Webb, voicing what truly disturbed him.
"Look, the company isn't some day care program run by an idiot. To get the green light from above, somewhere or somehow you must have made a somewhat convincing argument that someone up there agreed with, whatever your private reasons were." Ted hoped that would help ease Webb's inner demons. Hell, they both knew Webb had made some big mistakes, but he'd suffered enough. And even Ted knew the biggest control freaks couldn't dictate every facet of their lives.
Ted worked with Webb for enough years to recognize the symptoms he suffered from. It was love, and it consumed entirely. His voice was wry, "Take care Webb. I'll see you when you're back in the states."
"Yeah," Webb managed to muster up a half-hearted grin. "And I'll want my parking space back."
Ted chuckled, "It'll be a cold day in hell."
Webb leaned his head back into the uncomfortably pillow and stared at the ceiling. There was an ancient yellowish stain in one corner of the room that always caught his eyes. His mind began to drift and he felt the drugs kicking in. His eyes drifting shut, he saw her again, this time a warm smile lighting up her face as she clasped his hand.
"And I won't leave you behind."
Had he not already been in love with her, he would have fallen right then.
***
I also have a semi new Webb/Mac site with my fanfics. You can reach it at