"Hey! Helloooooooo, mean kidnapper guys!" Rachel called. It had been over a day since her kidnappers yanked her off the street and not once had she been given food or a bathroom break. She felt a gust of air blow past her as the door whooshed open and footsteps sounded carrying two people to her.
"What?" the low voice demanded.
"I have to use the ladies room," she said sweetly turning her head to where she thought the man was.
"No"
"Oh come on, I've been here for like a day… a person can't hold it forever you know" she whined.
"Fine. Take her. Give her something to clean those cuts with too." The man ordered leaving the room. Leigh rolled her eyes. The ropes around her were untied and her hands were brought around in front of her and retied. She groaned in pain as her shoulders protested moving from the position they'd been in for hours. The bruises and scrapes on them didn't help any. She was pulled from the seat to her feet, but promptly fell to her knees, her legs numb like her arms from being stationary for so long.
"Ow" she grumbled. A hand pulled her to her feet once more, holding on tight as she regained the feeling in her legs. Soon they began moving down a hallway and she was pushed in a room that had what felt like a tiled floor. The bathroom she surmised.
"There are bandages on the counter. You have twenty minutes" She recognized the voice as belonging to the man who'd held a gun on her on the ride to where she was now. The door shut and she heard it lock from the outside. Pulling off the blindfold she winced at the harshness of the bright light. Looking around she saw it was a small bathroom, with just a toilet, sink and counter along one wall.
"First things first" she muttered doing her business. After, she opened the small first aid kit on the counter and saw it contained antiseptic, a pair of tweezers, Band-Aids and a roll of white bandages and tape. As she cleaned her hands and shoulder she took the opportunity to look carefully around the room. She could see a fairly large vent in the wall along the floor and a small window high up over the sink. Bandaging the cut on her shoulder, by wrapping it under her arm and over her shoulder, and putting a Band-Aid on her hand over the largest cut, she walked over to the sink, looking up at the window. They wouldn't be stupid enough to leave it unlocked would they? She stepped in the sink and pulled herself up so she could see. The window was frosted but she could clearly see blades of grass pressed up against the glass. Pushing on it she sighed. It wouldn't budge. Rachel assumed it was locked somehow.
She glared at it for a moment before taking a closer look. It wasn't locked - it had just been painted shut! She quietly jumped down from the sink realizing she probably had ten minutes or so left. She grabbed the tweezers from the first aid kit and broke them so she only had one half. She got back up and carefully pushed the paint in where window met windowsill. She didn't want them to be able to notice it right way. Finally she was able to push the window open. It would be a tight fit but she was certain she could make it.
"But they'll know I got out that way" she frowned. Running a hand through her hair she stifled a groan as her hand rubbed over a painful spot that was sticky. Bringing her hand down she saw blood on her fingers, guessing it was from when they knocked her out. Rubbing the blood off her fingers onto her pants she knelt down to the vent. She undid the screws with the tweezers and shifted the grate over, looking inside. It was very dusty inside the vent and she knew if she wanted them to believe she went down it, she'd have to at least crawl down it a little bit to leave hand and knee prints.
After crawling just far enough that it looked convincing she emerged from the vent backwards and purposely replaced the grate over the opening haphazardly. She was careful not to leave any clumps of dust anywhere as she climbed back up to the window and started to pull her self through. It was a little higher then her own height, so she was forced to pull her self up. Ribs, both shoulders and her hands protested the awkward movement but she knew that in any minute her time would be up and she was definitely not going to stick around to get beat up some more. Finally through the window she hung from the window's ledge, pushing it shut tightly, before dropping the ground.
Rachel remained crouched below the window as her eyes roamed the area. The building she'd been in seemed like an office building compared to the storage buildings to the left.
To the right were trees. Lots of them. Ignoring the pain in her side, Rachel bolted for the forest. She reached the tree line and ducked behind a thorny bush. Gazing around cautiously, she watched for any sign that she'd been seen. Seeing none, she turned and continued running through the trees, not caring when the occasional branch would slap against her.
After twenty minutes she finally came to a stop, breathing heavily. She leaned on a tree and sunk down to sit for a moment. Closing her eyes she wondered how long it would be until she was caught. Her kidnappers would have noticed she was missing. Hopefully they'd taken the bait with the vent though, and were searching the air ducts not the forest. Getting up, not feeling comfortable still so close to the storage facility, she began moving once more, this time at a jog. No sense in completely wearing herself out.
Rachel walked for hours going downhill. It had gotten dark and now shadows played among the trees and the sounds of small - hopefully small - animals could be heard. Her best guess was that she'd been near the top of the mountain, and was making her way down. Eventually she'd have to hit a road. Roads wound around mountains they didn't go straight up. Yes. She was certain a road would appear soon.
-
"Thor? Thor was your great idea?" Daniel raised his eyebrows. "The alien that is never around and very rarely answers our calls?"
Jack's idea had been to call Thor and get him to beam Rachel from wherever she was to the SGC. They'd deal with her finding out about aliens later. Jack had just gotten off the phone with General Hammond who'd said he'd try to contact the Asguard, but thought it was doubtful. Daniel shared his sentiments apparently as he tapped incessantly on the door of Jacks truck. They were on their way to meet Rachel's kidnappers, and only hoped that Thor would come through for them yet again.
"Hey it was better than nothing." Jack shrugged. It hadn't been his best idea but a battalion of guns wouldn't be their answer either. Not when the captors were so big on the 'killing' Rachel thing.
Sam and Teal'c drove behind Jack's truck in Daniels car, considerably farther back. That way if there were any traps on the road left for them, at least half of the team would be able to continue and get Rachel back.
-
Rachel began running faster as she saw a road up ahead. She stumbled over a large rock and cursed as her already scraped hands grazed the bark of a fallen tree. She was only yards from the road, the ground sloping up above her head hiding her from view. She got up and brushed the dirt from her self, head shooting up when a pick-up truck drove by her position. She scrambled up the incline to the road and again tripped in her fatigue, falling to her knees on the gravel shoulder of the road. Taking a breath she nearly fell back down into the forest as a car slammed on its brakes in front of her. She looked up to see a tall black man wearing a hat emerge before her. She scrambled off to the side trying to regain her footing. She prayed it wasn't one of the men who'd kidnapped her.
-
Jack slowed to a stop as he saw Sam stop Daniels car.
"What? Why are we stopping?" Daniel demanded. His nerves sure had been getting a work out the past week. He watched Jack as Jack watched his rear-view mirror with a frown. Suddenly he smiled and put the truck in reverse.
"Wha-" Daniel began as he looked behind them. He saw Teal'c get out of the car to stand over a girl who was getting up off the ground. Even in the dark he could recognize the form.
"Rachel" Daniel whispered, undoing his seatbelt as they got closer.
"Rachel?" a woman spoke getting out of the drivers seat of the car. Rachel frowned. The car looked like Daniels, but where was he? "It's okay we're friends of your fathers"
Rachel watched the woman carefully, trying to gauge if she was telling the truth. She was tired, hungry, in pain and so badly wanted to believe the woman, but Daniel would have come to get her himself wouldn't he? She saw the truck that had passed her before reversing down the road.
The truck stopped and the passenger door swung open, Daniel jumped out. He jogged over to where Teal'c was standing stoically beside the car.
"Rachel" he said carefully, not knowing if she would freak out or not if he moved towards her. She looked pretty beat up and was still watching Sam and Teal'c warily. Her eyes flickered towards Daniel now only a few steps from her. She bounded over to him and threw her arms around his neck, not letting go when he tried to pull away to get a better look at her. He rubbed her back soothingly and shot the others a look, not knowing what to do next. Finally she pulled away mumbling a 'sorry' as she glanced to the ground, pulling at her sleeves self-consciously. Looking up she shot Sam and Teal'c questioning looks.
"That's Sam and Teal'c" Daniel supplied gesturing to each of them. Rachel nodded before looking back at the forest nervously.
"Were you being followed?" Jack asked hoping they had enough time to get farther away.
"No"
"They let ya go?" Jack asked, wondering how she got away from people that most likely had guns. Rachel snorted,
"I escaped from the bunch of dumbasses"
"Really." Jack stated doubtfully. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest instantly regretting moving at all. She hissed in pain as both shoulders and her ribs made their displeasure known.
"Are you okay?" Daniel frowned realizing the extent of her injuries may lie beyond the bruises and cuts on the surface.
"Super"
"We should get going Sir" Sam suggested looking around the area. There were too many hiding places for the enemy and not quite as many for them at the moment and the soldier in her was shouting to get a move on. Jack nodded and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed a number and waited until someone picked up.
"Move in" he spoke and then hung up.
"Sir?" Sam turned to her commanding officer.
"Well we couldn't send reinforcements in with the chance of the kid getting hurt, but now it's fair game. I wouldn't let us go in without some sorta safety net anyways" he winked before getting in his truck, waving at Daniel to bring Rachel over so they could leave. Sam and Teal'c got in the car and back up enough so they could turn around and go back the way they'd come. Jack followed closely, not wanting to be too far separated from the rest of his team.
-
Jack waved to Sam as she and Teal'c drove to drop off Daniel's car at his apartment. A car was being sent to pick them up from there and bring them back to the base. Meanwhile, Jack and Daniel were on their way to take Rachel to the Air Force Academy Hospital to get checked out, much to her protest. Both men would have been fine with just letting her go home but after Daniel noticed a head wound he insisted that they make sure it was nothing serious.
"I'm fine" she tried one last time as they parked near the entrance to the hospital. Neither man responded as they all got out of the truck.
"You guys suck."
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Well there's a pretty long chapter for y'all…
I have exams right now so I may a little slow putting up the next chapter… but it will be up eventually.
And I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes in this chapter… I wrote it in between writing papers and studying, so it didn't have my complete attention.