"Please, Mr. Almeida, briefly run us through what happened again, for the sake of the people here who do not understand."
Tony sighed, it was the third time he was repeating himself since he had arrived back. "I went to the hospital, as instructed. Jack was injured pretty badly, and was heavily sedated. I had the doctor stop his drugs so I could speak to him about the mission. Once he came round we discussed it at length. After this the agent I was co-ordinating with radioed me, with news that the Salazar brothers had entered the hospital. I left the room, so I wouldn't be spotted, as we couldn't risk blowing Jacks cover. After roughly an hour, I was informed that they had left. When I returned to the room Jack was gone. We later found out that a nurse had helped the Salazars in moving Jack, but we were told their intention is clearly not to harm him, since they cleared the hospital out of a lot of medical equipment and drugs he will be needing."
The six suits all looked at each other thoughtfully, before Hamond spoke. "So where does this lead us Tony?" He sounded annoyed.
"Well, its pretty much down to Jack now, sir."
"But I thought he was.... injured. How is he going to deal with that?"
"Sir, I don't know, but Jack will figure something out. He is aware of the deadline, and all we can do is hope for the best. If anything, the ball is in the Salazars court."
"Which is exactly what we didn't want!" Chappelle interrupted, angered.
"Sir the events happened unexpected, but they happened. All we can do is deal with them, so lets let Jack continue doing what he has been doing for the past months."
"Fine Almeida, but if this fails, its your and Jacks necks on the chopping board.
"And I wouldn't want it any other way, sir." Tony said under his breath as they all filled out, to go back to their desks and thumb twiddling.
Tony say back down at the now empty desk. He hoped everything would end up okay, or more specifically, he hoped Jack wound up okay; he didn't like the odds.
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Claudia stood over the plates as she dished mounds of food onto them. She watched as the two brothers tiredly slumped into their chairs at the large pine dinner table.
"Been working hard?" She asked, genuinely concerned.
"Yeah." Ramon replied, Hector seemed elsewhere.
"I though you were going to bring Jack back today?" She tried to make her voice sound curious, not concerned.
"We have." Ramon said bluntly, not wanting to think about the mess he was in.
"He is? I bet he is ready for a big meal." She said laughing as she pulled another plate from the cupboard to fill for him.
Ramon sighed, he didn't want to tell Claudia, he knew the two had a close friendship, and she always worried about him whenever he got hurt.
"He wont be eating, he's... still pretty messed up."
"What?" She said, her eyes glazing over.
"He will be okay, but its going to take a while." He said trying to minimise the damage.
Claudia rushed over and plonked their plates down before them both before pulling her apron over her head, messing up her hair. "Where is he, I want to see him." It wasn't a question, it was a statement, Ramon realised.
"He is in one of the guest room," He said, "Just be careful in their, he is hurt bad."
Claudia nodded before rushing off to find him, not caring about her dinner going cold on the kitchen side, while Hector continued to stare into space.