Sam coughed as the acrid smoke seared her lungs. Jack heard footsteps near them, but he couldn't see anything through the dense smoke. "Sam, honey, stay with me, please. I need your help." Sam coughed some more, but nodded weakly as she fought to stay conscious. "Ok, when I say go, open fire in that direction." He aimed her hand out towards the living room. "Ok, go!" Both Sam and Jack pulled their triggers as fast as they could and shot at anything that they could see. Jack heard several moans and thuds as bodies fell to the floor. They must have hit at least two of them.

He emptied his clip and reached in his pocket to get another, when he felt Sam's body go limp at his side. He knew the smoke affected her first because she weighed less than he did. He coughed and realized he didn't have much time before he too would succumb to the effects of the smoke. His lungs burned as he tried to hold his breath. He couldn't leave Sam here, and there was no other way out than the back door. He was stuck. He reloaded and fired again. He thought he got one more of them before his world went hazy and then black.

LA SWAT Officer Jim Street's unit was the first on the scene at the tiny isolated cottage by the ocean. When they found two FBI agents shot in the head in the car out front, he knew that they were dealing with professionals. They tried to break through the front door first, but it was barricaded by something. He left several men to guard it, and then proceeded cautiously around back. He noticed the smoke wafting out of the shattered glass doors off the back deck and ordered his men to put their masks on. They had not encountered any hostiles yet, more men were canvassing the area, but it was obvious a firefight had erupted here recently.

The house was dark, so he radioed to his team to turn on their night vision goggles. Three men approached from either side of the deck. Street put up his hand when he noticed the trip wires strung across the deck. They would have been almost invisible with the naked eye, but they were illuminated with the green light of the goggles. He told his men to watch out for them and they continued toward the shattered door, machine guns in the ready position.

Street was first through the remnants of the sliding glass door, and searched the small room. There were two bodies splayed on the floor ten feet in front of him. He kicked their guns away although they were obviously dead. His men fanned out behind him and checked all corners of the room. He pushed a button his radio, "Back room is clear."

He took a few more steps into the front of the house and found two more bodies with several bullet holes each. One of them was moaning softly. He radioed, "Got a live one, we're going to need paramedics and coroner. Give us a minute to secure the rest of the house." He motioned to his team to search the rest of the house. They all came back momentarily, since there was only a small kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom left to cover. They gave him the all-clear signal. "House is secure, do you copy?"

A voice answered him, "Copy that. Sir, CTU is here, can I send them in?"

"Just give us a minute to move the barricade and we'll open the front door." He motioned to his men to move the armoire. He removed his goggles and turned on the lights for the paramedics, who came rushing in with a gurney. They attended to the injured man, when Agent Tom Baker entered the room.

He introduced himself to the SWAT leader, then asked, "Any sign of Agent Bauer or Agent Murphy?"

Street shook his head, "No sir, except for the four bodies, we haven't spotted anyone since we got here. I have men canvassing the area, but so far, no traces. It looks like they used some kind of smoke bomb, then disappeared."

Baker put some gloves on and picked up one of the canisters, "We'll take these to the lab and try to get some prints and a chemical analysis." He surveyed the room and examined the bullet holes, "Looks like they took Bauer alive and kicking."

"What makes you say that?"

"You mean besides the fact that he isn't here on the floor dead?"

Street glared at him.

"Well, it looks like all the bullets originated from area around the kitchen. That's where Bauer and Murphy must have been. There aren't any holes in the kitchen. It looks like whoever took them didn't fire a single bullet at them."

"Jack!"

They turned around when heard the yell. Chase came running through the door, followed by Kim. "Where is he?"

Baker put his hands on both of Chase's shoulders. "They're gone."

"Damnit! We're too late. This is all my fault. I should have made Hammond put more security on them."

Kim hugged him, "We'll find him honey."

Chase grabbed his cell phone and dialed, "Chloe, did you get everything on satellite? Ok, Kim and I are on the way."

Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing, I really appreciate it. This is only about halfway through of what I have so far, so expect more action, a pretty "steamy" scene, and a close call. We'll see more of Chase, Kim, and definitely Temple (as he is my favorite character to write now) and Jack and Sam have much more to go through before it is all over. In case you haven't noticed, my writing is pretty bare bones and I don't include a lot of extra description, but to me right now, it is all about the story, thanks for sticking with it.

Oh--and I borrowed the character of Jim Street from the movie SWAT