Chapter 4 Flinch
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,
It's just a spring clean for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on.
And it makes me wonder.
Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know,
The piper's calling you to join him,
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.
Light
Warm
Soft
Protected
Loved
Peace
Perfection.
The choice is yours'
Choice? What choice? There's never been a choice.
"What choice?"
"Where to go next. You have given much. We wish for you to choose"
"Choose what? What choices you want me to make now?"
Frustration
"You can go back, to where you were, continue to walk the path you are on. You could start again, with no destiny but what you make of it"
Destiny? It all came down to a destiny that no one really wanted but someone had to get.
"And the third one?"
"Go back to the place your soul longs for"
Heaven
"Hurry, you do not have long, you must decide now or we will have to do it for you, put you where you are needed most"
Finally the choice is mine..
No one in control of my destiny but me.
She chooses.
Hyperion Hotel
Los Angeles, California
"Dawn"
Why did the voices sound so funny?
"Come on Dawn, this isn't funny"
Yeah, sure it's not funny, I feel like I'm gonna barf, sneeze and faint all at once. Just like when
"Dawn, open the door"
Just like No not again she wouldn't
Would she?
"Dawn?"
Great, just cause I'm feeling sick doesn't mean it has to become a production
You know she would do it
It's her job
That's the way it is
"Would every one please just leave me alone? I feel like shit and want to suffer in peace"
Peace there was that word again
"Dawn, please open the door"
Great, now Giles was here
Please don't leave me again. Not like this
"Dawn, we're worried"
So am I
Helicopter over California
Jack turned to face the back of the helicopter from his spot in the pilot's chair. Now that they were off the ground in a fairly stable flight he could check on the rest of the team.
"Everyone ok?"
Janet was leaning over Mac, trying to stop the bleeding slash that ran the length of her midsection right hip to left shoulder. She looked up at Jack and grimaced.
"Not really. We need to get to a medical facility ASAP."
"Come on Faith" Sam tried to keep the brunette conscious. She batted her face lightly while trying to fight dizziness herself. Hopefully it'd pass.
Damn her leg hurt.
Jonas eyed her worriedly as he wrapped gauze around the knife trying to slow what little bleeding there was.
"Slap me again, I flatten you" Faith finally muttered, and brought a hand to the bolt wound that had re opened during the battle.
"Carter?" Jack tried to get her attention.
"Carter?"
Sam finally looked up her eyes slightly glazed over.
"Yes Sir?"
Jack ran his eyes over her, trying to ascertain if she was injured anywhere other than her thigh where the Bringers knife was still sticking out of it.
"You ok?"
Sam shook her head slightly trying to clear it "A little banged up Sir, but I'll live"
"Carter" he called exasperated "You have a knife sticking out of your leg, for crying out loud. That does not mean you're fine."
"Would you two cut that shit," Spike's unmistakable British accent sounded from beneath a slightly smoking blanket. "Jack meet Sam, Sam meet Jack. Now the two of you go have a nice shag and put the rest of us out of our misery."
"Doc?" Jack ignored the Vampire "Will she make it to Colorado?" He looked concernedly at the bleeding Marine lying in the back of the chopper
"That depends on how long it will take us to get there."
"T" Jack spoke to the pilot "How long?"
"I believe the trip may take a little as two hours and thirty minutes, however we can divert to a closer medical facility if Major Mackenzie's injuries are severe enough"
"Two thirty?" Jack relayed.
Janet looked over Mac again "She should hold out, the bleeding isn't as bad as it could be, but if I say divert, we divert" She commanded, when there were injured concerned she was in charge.
"Jacob, keep as much pressure on the wound as possible" Janet turned to Sam who looked like she was going to pass out any second. "Sam let me check out your leg"
"No" Sam shook her head again trying to clear it "I'm good check Faith's shoulder" Sam's lower lip trembled.
They had left her behind
She had done the one thing she swore she would never do. Never leave a man behind. But if Faith was telling the truth then there was nothing to bring out.
Buffy was dead
She had died to save the world
Again.
Hyperion Hotel
Los Angeles California
"Dawn"
Oh no, not the geek.
"Whenever I'm feeling bad, I like to sing a song"
No please anything but that.
"Rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens"
"If you can't sing in key monkey boy"
Thank you Anya
"Don't sing at all"
Silence.
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with string
These are a few of my favorite things
Dawn sat in a corner curled in a tight little ball. Her sister was gone.
Again
No one had to tell her.
She knew
But she was going to be damned before she told the others.
Helicopter
Jacob hurt all over, those Uber-Vamps, well that was what Buffy called them, but Jacob was sure that that wasn't their real name, packed a nasty punch.
Selmak told him that he had three cracked ribs, and a concussion. Jacob trusted her to heal him.
They all had some kind off injury but it hurt more to know what had been willingly given only hours before.
She hadn't flinched.
This young woman did what had to be done. Jacob looked over at his daughter, she was sitting there next to Faith one hand pressing against the wound in her own leg, the other holding Faith. The Brunette was just sitting there staring at nothing. Everything seemed to have faded away for her.
She knew that Buffy had died before.
You know what they say third times a charm, but what about fourth time
Maybe she'd get to stay dead this time.
Good for her.
Bad for everyone else.
Jack turned in his seat again and signaled to Janet "We're about 20 minutes out of Cheyenne. General Hammond has given us clearance to go straight to the mountain but Faith, Mac and Spike have to stay in the infirmary. There'll be a med team waiting"
Janet nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She knew she should have mentioned her own injuries to someone, but she was more concerned about Mac.
She could wait.
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, Virginia
"Tiner" Admiral AJ Chegwidden was not happy.
He had received an e-mail from Mac saying that she was going to California with a friend and that she would have her Cell Phone on in case of an emergency.
That had been three days ago.
They hadn't been able to reach her.
Tiner had been trying for nearly 24 hours.
Even though he didn't like the spook, AJ was nearly ready to call Webb.
"Yes Sir" The boy still got nervous around him; he was nearly as bad as Bud Roberts used to be.
"Any luck?" AJ pulled his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. Even on leave that woman could give him a headache.
"No Sir, but a General George Hammond called and needs to speak with you urgently"
"Hammond?" AJ frowned he knew that name.
"I believe he is the Commanding Officer of the Air Forces Deep Space Radar Telemetry Facility out at Cheyenne Mountain"
AJ sighed and glared up at his increasingly nervous Yeoman.
"Fine give me the number. I'll call him"
Tiner turned and walked out of the office Aye Ayeing' AJ as he went. As soon as the door closed AJ's head dropped down and thumped against the desk.
What the hell did CO of DeSRaT want with him?
Picking up the phone he dialed the number that Tiner had left with him, hoping to get the probably unpleasant call over with.
Tiner was trying Major Mackenzie's cell phone again when the scream permeated through his office and into the bullpen making everyone freeze.
"What the hell do you mean she's injured?"
Cheyenne Mountain
Colorado Springs, Colorado
General Hammond held the phone away from his ear. He'd heard that the Navy JAG could scream with the best of them but really he didn't like it when it was directed at him.
"She was holidaying in Sunnydale California with one of my Officers when it collapsed. Major Carter contacted me, and I'm having both of them transported to our Infirmary as we speak. ETA is 10 minutes"
"General, correct me if I'm wrong but Sunnydale only just collapsed 3 hours ago. You're telling me that you've had time to send a transport locate our people and bring them back already?" AJ asked his voice lowering dangerously.
"That is exactly what I'm telling you Admiral" George hated dealing with other brass, it was harder to intimidate them and they mostly knew all of the divisional tricks, and how to not give out information but hide the fact that you were hiding something. "Now I have to get a med team ready, there is eight people coming in on that chopper and from what I've been told all of them are injured in one way or another. I will keep you appraised of the Major's condition"
Before AJ could sputter out anything else the phone had been disconnected from the other end.
Helicopter over Colorado Springs.
It happened so suddenly that none of them knew exactly what had happened. One minute Faith had been sitting there staring at nothing, deadly still not even attempting to stem the flow of blood from her shoulder. When she sprang up and hurled herself at the cockpit.
"Let me out" She demanded, her eyes darting round the land below them.
Looking for something.
Or someone
"What?" Jack managed to sputter out.
"Let me out put me down." Jack could see the desperation in her eyes "or fly low enough for me to jump out. I don't care All I know is a gotta go"
She looked at him beseechingly, unbidden tears welling up in her eyes.
Closing his eyes in indecision he opened them again and brought them up to meet hers.
"I won't land, if you want out you'll have to jump" Jack didn't really want her to jump, but hoping she would chicken out and knowing that they had to get Mac proper medical attention immediately he didn't really have a choice.
Faith continued to stare wildly out of the helicopter. The images she had seen still flashing through her head. She didn't know what to expect or whether it was real or not, but she did know that she had to check
If there was any chance at all
Faith had to know.
They had gone as low as Jack dared as they were in residential area, looking out over the area they were flying over he recognized the neighborhood as the one that Carter lived in. Thinking it ironic that she was so close to home but couldn't go yet
Without a word of warning Faith jumped out of the side of the helicopter and onto the roof of a house. Jacob stood and shared a look with Jack.
"Go, call me when you've found out whatever the hell it is she's doing" Jack held the helicopter in a hover low enough for Jacob to follow Faith out onto the roof. Unfortunately Faith hadn't waited for anything or anyone. Scanning the street he saw the brunette running towards a familiar house.
Sam's house.
Whatever she was looking for was in there.
And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul.
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.
And she's buying a stairway to heaven.
