AN: So, no reviews for my last chapter? Wishing and hoping for this one!!!
We're coming down to the wire, believe it or not.
"Come along, Agent Bristow. Time to rise and shine. We're out of here." Jeanette came running into the torture chamber. Sydney had passed out long ago from the pain medication. She stirred slightly at the sound of the voice but her vision was severely blurry. Her lip twitched slightly and felt the lactic acid build in her muscles. She felt a pair of hands fuss around her, unbinding the restraints. "Sydney!" She tapped either side of her cheeks, trying to revive her.
She started to become a touch more coherent. She started to pull herself out of the fog that surrounded her. Her eyes fluttered slightly and she could clearly see Jeanette standing over her, her eyes wide with adrenaline pushing through her. "What?"
Jeanette was all business. "We're getting you back to Fleury. There's a van waiting outside to take us to the airport and from there, we're going back to the Vaughn estate."
"Vaughn?" Sydney slurred. She felt the drool escape down her face and her entire left side of her body go numb.
Jeanette leaned forward and started to help Sydney up to her bare feet. The poor thing was still dressed in that ugly white outfit but her shoes had been lost long ago. Sark could have at least found some decent clothes for the poor child. Jeanette swung Sydney's arm over her neck and slowly started to drag her out of the room. They ran past corridors of cold white gray cement walls. All the while, Jeanette whispered encouraging words. They would be safe. She had called all the guards to Sark's office. He had been mysteriously found dead upon her arrival for their meeting. She found it necessary for her to leave to "make sure the prisoners were still there." Little did they know that she was liberating them.
There was a little black van waiting outside the warehouse. It was nothing but a van to transport cargo. Jeanette threw open the back doors and aided Sydney into the van. Sydney found refuge on the floor and curled up tightly in ball. "Here. Full clip." She tossed her a gun and slammed the door tightly as she bolted towards the warehouse. There were still two more people she needed to save.
"Agent Vaughn! Agent Vaughn!" Jeanette undid the metal restraints. "My name is Jeanette Stokes and I'm intelligence agent. I'm getting you out of here. Please, I need you to work with me."
But Claire had passed out long. The paleness of her complexion had peaked and she looked as though she was basically dead. She was no conditioned to being under such conditions. This was the most intense experience she had ever been under. Now she could truly say that she was an agent.
Somehow, Jeanette managed to pull Claire into the car and as she pulled open the van, she was met with the business end of a gun. "Whoa, Sydney! It's me, Jeanette!" She threw her hand into the to show she was unarmed. Sydney had managed to sit up and draw the gun, panting from the intense motion. When she saw who was standing there, she collapsed back down muttering, "Thank G-d" under her breath.
The doors were slammed shut once more and Jeanette made her most dangerous extraction. Questions started to race on whether or not the guards would realize that Sydney and Claire were no longer there.
But thankfully, she managed to get Vaughn out with no problem. He had been sitting upright in his cell, his feet crossed up close to him. "Jeanie!"
"We have to get you out of here!" She cried and pulled his hands.
But he resisted, "Sydney? Claire?"
"I have them in the van. C'mon! We've got to go!"
Vaughn was thrown in the van and she gunned it. They were escaping now.
As she pulled away, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She dialed a distinct number. "Yes, this is Rising Phoenix. Agent number KR-19384-3840308. Confirmation bleeding sun. Get me Kendall, now."
"Please hold." The operator replied.
"Where the hell are you?" Kendall snapped back, his voice crackling over the poor connection.
"Odessa. We're catching a flight to Fleury. Have agents standing by at the Vaughn estate."
"Why the hell aren't you going to our safe house in Russia? Fleury is too far off!"
"Because Sark's men are going to be looking for me. I just killed their boss and then took off with three captives. Do you want me to stay in Russia? Besides, the Vaughn estate is the safest place I can think of." Kendall seemed to think for a moment and stopped. "What is Agent Vaughn's condition."
Her eyes glanced over her former boyfriend sitting beside her. "Not well. Multiple lacerations and bruising. Possible collapsed lung. We need medical attention!" She managed to shriek as she glanced at all the mirrors, checking to see if she was followed.
He sighed heavily and Jeanette could almost see him leaning into the phone, frustrated beyond belief. "We'll send Agent Weiss with a medical team to the Vaughn estate. Make sure they get there safely, Agent Salve. These agents are important to the agency."
She almost smiled at that. Vaughn was always destined to be great and do great things. "I promise you that I will."
"ETA?"
"Fifteen hours."
A sharp ring punished through his sleep. Weiss rolled over and grabbed his cell phone, "Weiss." He managed to gargle. He was completely incoherent. The bed sheets were wrapped around his body tightly and he was suffocating from the heavy comforter of the safe house that he was staying at. He had been working around the clock trying to figure out how to extract Vaughn, Claire and Sydney.
"Get your ass on the plane that's leaving in twenty minutes." Kendall's voice barked over the phone, thousands of miles away.
"Why?" Weiss managed to stutter. "Did we find something about Vaughn? About Sydney?" The hope flooded over in his voice.
"No." And the stark reality began to set in.
"Then what is it?"
"We're sending you back to Fleury and to the Vaughn estate. Agent Salve is arriving with Agents Vaughn and Agent Bristow in a matter of hours. We need you to be there when they arrive. Is that understood?"
"Yes, yes, sir, of course." Weiss managed to stammer as he rose tentatively from his bed. His limbs were shaky from his drowsy state.
It was early in the morning and the world was coated in a deep fog. He got from the black car and surveyed the scene for a brief moment. Everything seemed so peaceful and now, it would all change. He hated being the bearer of bad news but there was nothing to avoid this. There was no way to avoid this. This was their destiny. He cleared his throat uncomfortably and looked to others getting to their feet from the car. "Wait." He barely whispered. "She's not going to be happy when she finds our why we're here. So just hang tight for a minute." He pulled his black jacket around his body around his body a little tighter to keep out the chill. She probably asleep, safe in her bed with her "daughter" sleeping beside her. He ran up the stairs and pounded loudly on the door. There was no answer for a while. Then, as if by the hands of a god, the light from the upstairs bedroom came on. Flashes of light started to pour down and then, the foyer lights came on. The door hesitantly pulled open.
"Eric?" Isabelle gasped, pulling the door open and dropping her jaw. Isabelle pulled back and looked at the truck, gathering the robe tighter around her waist.
"I don't understand. How?" She pulled the door open and ushered him in. She lunged at him, letting her robe flap open as she embraced him passionately and captured his lips in hers. They parted for a moment, dizzy from lack of oxygen and she rested her head on his shoulder. "What's going on?" Not wanting to stand still for a moment, she pulled back and looked into his honey colored eyes. "Eric? Baby, what's wrong?"
He pulled her hands off of his body and held them closely in his. "Isabelle, please. There's no time. I'll explain later?" He turned to motion for the medics to follow.
"What's wrong? What's going on? Is it Michael? Claire? Oh my lord, it must be Claire. I knew something wasn't right with her." Isabelle ushered them into living room and collapsed down onto the couch. She kept her hands near Weiss at all times. She felt like he was her rock and could not stand the out of control feeling that had rushed over her body.
Jeanette parked the van in the driveway and hesitated slightly as she got out. Gone was her business suit and I its place was a casual black sweat suit with her hair pulled into a pony tail. She had stripped away her make up and pulled on her running shoes. And as beautiful as she looked, she had never been more nervous. She hadn't seen Isabelle in five years and she hadn't seen her daughter since birth. The butterflies were coursing through her so hard that she felt like she was going to snap in two.
But she needed Isabelle's help.
She was probably the only one right now that could help her. Vaughn was doing considerably worse and desperately needed medical treatments. The plane ride, across the continent had not done him well. They traveled under aliases. They were a family traveling home for a family reunion in Fleury. Jeanette had rented a car and sped to the Vaughn Estate. Panic spread through her and she started to shake violently. Her hands groped around waist and she found her gun. She tapped it softly, to reassure herself that it was there. She couldn't stand how badly she was shaking. The thought that someone had followed them and then beaten them there made her pulse race. Why was there someone here? Cautiously, she pushed the car door open and made her way towards the house. Her feet treaded carefully along and before she even realized it, she made it to the house. She knocked softly, winced slightly at her indecisiveness, and then knocked harder.
Without realizing the fury behind it, the door came flying open and there was Weiss standing there, "Identify yourself." He answered gruffly.
She inhaled deeply, suddenly happy that it was an agent's car parked outside-a good agent's car. "I'm Agent Jeanette Salve-"
"Jeanie?" Weiss cut in quickly, the shock setting in quickly. "You're suppose to be dead."
Jeanette smiled softly, "That's the third time I've gotten that today." And chuckled slightly to herself but then it set in. "Agent Weiss?"
Weiss felt the edges of his lips start to pull into a small smile. "Yup."
Part of her wanted to stand her on the poorly lit porch and stroll down memory lane but then she promptly realized, "Agent Vaughn's condition is worse. I need your help." She pleaded. Suddenly, she found tears coursing through her face as she reached forward and embraced the best friend of her boyfriend for the first time in half a decade.
"How's Agent Bristow and Claire Vaughn?"
Jeanette didn't even bother to respond. She just turned around and raced back towards the van. She had stopped breathing and thinking a long time ago. Everything was absolutely robotic and each practiced move was coming in handy. Weiss followed her, calling to the other agents to follow. The cool early morning air numbed her body and played with the loose strands of hair that played about her face. She threw open the doors to the van and watched the early morning moon light stream into the back. Sydney was curled up in a ball with Vaughn resting on his back, his head resting near her abdomen. Claire was huddled in a corner, very much awake and very much afraid. She was shaking violently with the tears coursing down her face.
Isabelle had bolted from the house, keeping in pace with rest of the agents. She ran like nothing else mattered in the world. She knew something was wrong. Weiss had explained the situation lightly but she had a gut instinct that he was terribly wrong about something. Grant it, she didn't know what but she knew something wasn't right.
"Oh my G-d, Claire!" Isabelle managed to scream and lunged forward into the small black car with the tinted windows. "What happened?" Her voice cracked through still air. She ignored the fact that Jeanette was standing there and focused on her battered siblings, one sitting in the front and one sitting in the back.
Jeanette ignored this, "You two, get Agent Claire Vaughn out of this car and bring her to the upstairs bedroom. Ms. Vaughn will direct you." She pointed to two agents and then to the front seat. "You!" She pointed out the remaining agent, "Take Agent Bristow into the guest room. Agent Weiss and I will take Agent Vaughn into the house. After that, we'll regroup in the living room and we'll discuss what's going on." She quickly walked around to the passenger side door and pulled Vaughn out into the French soil. She tapped his face softly in attempt to wake him up. She had drugged him on the plane.
Weiss ran around to the front and supported the weight of Vaughn's body on his. Together, he and Jeanette made their way towards the house. "Isabelle, get into the house! We need to tell these people where to put them."
"Oh my G-d. Oh my G-d." They reached the house and immediately held the door open, her eyes wide in absolute panic.
"Please don't ask me that right now. We've got to get them into bed- " Jeanette responded.
"Michael's bedroom is the first door on the left." She instructed them, her body shaking with absolute terror. She wasn't mentally equipped to handle with this.
"Agent Vaughn's?" The strong agent had Claire's frail body flailing in his arms.
"Second door on the right." Isabelle responded soberly.
Sydney was pulled out next and she quickly regained consciousness from her sleeping form. She started to panic, kicking and throwing her feet around her. One particularly young looking agent tried to restrain her but he was given a hard blow to the cheek bone.
"Come along, Agent Bristow. Time to rise and shine. We're out of here." Jeanette came running into the torture chamber. Sydney had passed out long ago from the pain medication. She stirred slightly at the sound of the voice but her vision was severely blurry. Her lip twitched slightly and felt the lactic acid build in her muscles. She felt a pair of hands fuss around her, unbinding the restraints. "Sydney!" She tapped either side of her cheeks, trying to revive her.
She started to become a touch more coherent. She started to pull herself out of the fog that surrounded her. Her eyes fluttered slightly and she could clearly see Jeanette standing over her, her eyes wide with adrenaline pushing through her. "What?"
Jeanette was all business. "We're getting you back to Fleury. There's a van waiting outside to take us to the airport and from there, we're going back to the Vaughn estate."
"Vaughn?" Sydney slurred. She felt the drool escape down her face and her entire left side of her body go numb.
Jeanette leaned forward and started to help Sydney up to her bare feet. The poor thing was still dressed in that ugly white outfit but her shoes had been lost long ago. Sark could have at least found some decent clothes for the poor child. Jeanette swung Sydney's arm over her neck and slowly started to drag her out of the room. They ran past corridors of cold white gray cement walls. All the while, Jeanette whispered encouraging words. They would be safe. She had called all the guards to Sark's office. He had been mysteriously found dead upon her arrival for their meeting. She found it necessary for her to leave to "make sure the prisoners were still there." Little did they know that she was liberating them.
There was a little black van waiting outside the warehouse. It was nothing but a van to transport cargo. Jeanette threw open the back doors and aided Sydney into the van. Sydney found refuge on the floor and curled up tightly in ball. "Here. Full clip." She tossed her a gun and slammed the door tightly as she bolted towards the warehouse. There were still two more people she needed to save.
"Agent Vaughn! Agent Vaughn!" Jeanette undid the metal restraints. "My name is Jeanette Stokes and I'm intelligence agent. I'm getting you out of here. Please, I need you to work with me."
But Claire had passed out long. The paleness of her complexion had peaked and she looked as though she was basically dead. She was no conditioned to being under such conditions. This was the most intense experience she had ever been under. Now she could truly say that she was an agent.
Somehow, Jeanette managed to pull Claire into the car and as she pulled open the van, she was met with the business end of a gun. "Whoa, Sydney! It's me, Jeanette!" She threw her hand into the to show she was unarmed. Sydney had managed to sit up and draw the gun, panting from the intense motion. When she saw who was standing there, she collapsed back down muttering, "Thank G-d" under her breath.
The doors were slammed shut once more and Jeanette made her most dangerous extraction. Questions started to race on whether or not the guards would realize that Sydney and Claire were no longer there.
But thankfully, she managed to get Vaughn out with no problem. He had been sitting upright in his cell, his feet crossed up close to him. "Jeanie!"
"We have to get you out of here!" She cried and pulled his hands.
But he resisted, "Sydney? Claire?"
"I have them in the van. C'mon! We've got to go!"
Vaughn was thrown in the van and she gunned it. They were escaping now.
As she pulled away, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She dialed a distinct number. "Yes, this is Rising Phoenix. Agent number KR-19384-3840308. Confirmation bleeding sun. Get me Kendall, now."
"Please hold." The operator replied.
"Where the hell are you?" Kendall snapped back, his voice crackling over the poor connection.
"Odessa. We're catching a flight to Fleury. Have agents standing by at the Vaughn estate."
"Why the hell aren't you going to our safe house in Russia? Fleury is too far off!"
"Because Sark's men are going to be looking for me. I just killed their boss and then took off with three captives. Do you want me to stay in Russia? Besides, the Vaughn estate is the safest place I can think of." Kendall seemed to think for a moment and stopped. "What is Agent Vaughn's condition."
Her eyes glanced over her former boyfriend sitting beside her. "Not well. Multiple lacerations and bruising. Possible collapsed lung. We need medical attention!" She managed to shriek as she glanced at all the mirrors, checking to see if she was followed.
He sighed heavily and Jeanette could almost see him leaning into the phone, frustrated beyond belief. "We'll send Agent Weiss with a medical team to the Vaughn estate. Make sure they get there safely, Agent Salve. These agents are important to the agency."
She almost smiled at that. Vaughn was always destined to be great and do great things. "I promise you that I will."
"ETA?"
"Fifteen hours."
A sharp ring punished through his sleep. Weiss rolled over and grabbed his cell phone, "Weiss." He managed to gargle. He was completely incoherent. The bed sheets were wrapped around his body tightly and he was suffocating from the heavy comforter of the safe house that he was staying at. He had been working around the clock trying to figure out how to extract Vaughn, Claire and Sydney.
"Get your ass on the plane that's leaving in twenty minutes." Kendall's voice barked over the phone, thousands of miles away.
"Why?" Weiss managed to stutter. "Did we find something about Vaughn? About Sydney?" The hope flooded over in his voice.
"No." And the stark reality began to set in.
"Then what is it?"
"We're sending you back to Fleury and to the Vaughn estate. Agent Salve is arriving with Agents Vaughn and Agent Bristow in a matter of hours. We need you to be there when they arrive. Is that understood?"
"Yes, yes, sir, of course." Weiss managed to stammer as he rose tentatively from his bed. His limbs were shaky from his drowsy state.
It was early in the morning and the world was coated in a deep fog. He got from the black car and surveyed the scene for a brief moment. Everything seemed so peaceful and now, it would all change. He hated being the bearer of bad news but there was nothing to avoid this. There was no way to avoid this. This was their destiny. He cleared his throat uncomfortably and looked to others getting to their feet from the car. "Wait." He barely whispered. "She's not going to be happy when she finds our why we're here. So just hang tight for a minute." He pulled his black jacket around his body around his body a little tighter to keep out the chill. She probably asleep, safe in her bed with her "daughter" sleeping beside her. He ran up the stairs and pounded loudly on the door. There was no answer for a while. Then, as if by the hands of a god, the light from the upstairs bedroom came on. Flashes of light started to pour down and then, the foyer lights came on. The door hesitantly pulled open.
"Eric?" Isabelle gasped, pulling the door open and dropping her jaw. Isabelle pulled back and looked at the truck, gathering the robe tighter around her waist.
"I don't understand. How?" She pulled the door open and ushered him in. She lunged at him, letting her robe flap open as she embraced him passionately and captured his lips in hers. They parted for a moment, dizzy from lack of oxygen and she rested her head on his shoulder. "What's going on?" Not wanting to stand still for a moment, she pulled back and looked into his honey colored eyes. "Eric? Baby, what's wrong?"
He pulled her hands off of his body and held them closely in his. "Isabelle, please. There's no time. I'll explain later?" He turned to motion for the medics to follow.
"What's wrong? What's going on? Is it Michael? Claire? Oh my lord, it must be Claire. I knew something wasn't right with her." Isabelle ushered them into living room and collapsed down onto the couch. She kept her hands near Weiss at all times. She felt like he was her rock and could not stand the out of control feeling that had rushed over her body.
Jeanette parked the van in the driveway and hesitated slightly as she got out. Gone was her business suit and I its place was a casual black sweat suit with her hair pulled into a pony tail. She had stripped away her make up and pulled on her running shoes. And as beautiful as she looked, she had never been more nervous. She hadn't seen Isabelle in five years and she hadn't seen her daughter since birth. The butterflies were coursing through her so hard that she felt like she was going to snap in two.
But she needed Isabelle's help.
She was probably the only one right now that could help her. Vaughn was doing considerably worse and desperately needed medical treatments. The plane ride, across the continent had not done him well. They traveled under aliases. They were a family traveling home for a family reunion in Fleury. Jeanette had rented a car and sped to the Vaughn Estate. Panic spread through her and she started to shake violently. Her hands groped around waist and she found her gun. She tapped it softly, to reassure herself that it was there. She couldn't stand how badly she was shaking. The thought that someone had followed them and then beaten them there made her pulse race. Why was there someone here? Cautiously, she pushed the car door open and made her way towards the house. Her feet treaded carefully along and before she even realized it, she made it to the house. She knocked softly, winced slightly at her indecisiveness, and then knocked harder.
Without realizing the fury behind it, the door came flying open and there was Weiss standing there, "Identify yourself." He answered gruffly.
She inhaled deeply, suddenly happy that it was an agent's car parked outside-a good agent's car. "I'm Agent Jeanette Salve-"
"Jeanie?" Weiss cut in quickly, the shock setting in quickly. "You're suppose to be dead."
Jeanette smiled softly, "That's the third time I've gotten that today." And chuckled slightly to herself but then it set in. "Agent Weiss?"
Weiss felt the edges of his lips start to pull into a small smile. "Yup."
Part of her wanted to stand her on the poorly lit porch and stroll down memory lane but then she promptly realized, "Agent Vaughn's condition is worse. I need your help." She pleaded. Suddenly, she found tears coursing through her face as she reached forward and embraced the best friend of her boyfriend for the first time in half a decade.
"How's Agent Bristow and Claire Vaughn?"
Jeanette didn't even bother to respond. She just turned around and raced back towards the van. She had stopped breathing and thinking a long time ago. Everything was absolutely robotic and each practiced move was coming in handy. Weiss followed her, calling to the other agents to follow. The cool early morning air numbed her body and played with the loose strands of hair that played about her face. She threw open the doors to the van and watched the early morning moon light stream into the back. Sydney was curled up in a ball with Vaughn resting on his back, his head resting near her abdomen. Claire was huddled in a corner, very much awake and very much afraid. She was shaking violently with the tears coursing down her face.
Isabelle had bolted from the house, keeping in pace with rest of the agents. She ran like nothing else mattered in the world. She knew something was wrong. Weiss had explained the situation lightly but she had a gut instinct that he was terribly wrong about something. Grant it, she didn't know what but she knew something wasn't right.
"Oh my G-d, Claire!" Isabelle managed to scream and lunged forward into the small black car with the tinted windows. "What happened?" Her voice cracked through still air. She ignored the fact that Jeanette was standing there and focused on her battered siblings, one sitting in the front and one sitting in the back.
Jeanette ignored this, "You two, get Agent Claire Vaughn out of this car and bring her to the upstairs bedroom. Ms. Vaughn will direct you." She pointed to two agents and then to the front seat. "You!" She pointed out the remaining agent, "Take Agent Bristow into the guest room. Agent Weiss and I will take Agent Vaughn into the house. After that, we'll regroup in the living room and we'll discuss what's going on." She quickly walked around to the passenger side door and pulled Vaughn out into the French soil. She tapped his face softly in attempt to wake him up. She had drugged him on the plane.
Weiss ran around to the front and supported the weight of Vaughn's body on his. Together, he and Jeanette made their way towards the house. "Isabelle, get into the house! We need to tell these people where to put them."
"Oh my G-d. Oh my G-d." They reached the house and immediately held the door open, her eyes wide in absolute panic.
"Please don't ask me that right now. We've got to get them into bed- " Jeanette responded.
"Michael's bedroom is the first door on the left." She instructed them, her body shaking with absolute terror. She wasn't mentally equipped to handle with this.
"Agent Vaughn's?" The strong agent had Claire's frail body flailing in his arms.
"Second door on the right." Isabelle responded soberly.
Sydney was pulled out next and she quickly regained consciousness from her sleeping form. She started to panic, kicking and throwing her feet around her. One particularly young looking agent tried to restrain her but he was given a hard blow to the cheek bone.