Please see part 1 for disclaimers.

Feedback greatly appreciated.g

Becky

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Part 13

Up until now, everything has happened so fast, but now, it isn't happening fast enough. I'm trying not to think about what could be happening on the other side of these walls, but standing here waiting as they use the torch on the steel door, I find I can focus on nothing else.

I know I should be thinking about what will happen when we're on the other side of that door. Going over the plans, both the one Kendall gave us and the one he doesn't know about. And I'm trying. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I can see all of this playing out. How we'll go in. How we'll take control. How we'll all come back. All of us.

I close my eyes for just a moment in an attempt to calm the nerves and emotions that threaten to overwhelm me. As I open them, I take a breath and look at Vaughn. And I see the waiting isn't getting to just me.

Glancing around, I see the rest of the team shifting uneasily, glancing from one agent to the next and then all eyes fall back on the door before the process starts all over again. Except for me. All I can do is watch the progress of the torch and wish this was all over.

********

I know I should be doing something. Or at the very least, look like I'm doing something. But I can't. I can't do anything but wonder what is going to happen now.

I emailed Sydney with the code close to three hours ago. I know that whatever is being planned is going to take time to implement. But the waiting is driving me insane.

I shift uneasily in my chair, moving a bit closer to my desk. I'm tempted to just get up and go home. I want to wrap my arms around my wife, ruffle my son's hair, watch my daughter's sleepy smile as I pick her up from the couch where she fell asleep as she waited for me to arrive. I want to pretend this day didn't happen.

But I can't. It has happened. It is happening. And the only thing I can do now is let it. And maybe, just maybe, when it's all said and done, I will be able to go home to my wife and kids. And when I'm finished explaining the lies, I can only hope I'll still have a family to go home to in the future.

********

I can hear his voice, but his words mean nothing and everything at the same time. On the one hand, they are just an annoying buzz in my ears fighting with the searing pain coursing through my body for my attention. On the other, the fact that I can still hear him means I'm still alive. And that is both a blessing and a curse.

I had heard rumours of Geiger's expertise in the field of information extraction. I just never imagined that I would discover first hand how true those rumours were. His style differs dramatically from that of Arvin Sloane. He has patience where Sloane does not. He is willing, more than willing, to try more than one method of torture in order to persuade his subject to reveal what he wants to know. With Sloane, it was always the same thing over and over again. With Sloane, for the most part, death came quickly. With Geiger, it doesn't come quickly enough.

It would be so easy to just give up, to just give in to the pain and tell him what he wants to know, but I can't. I won't. He continues to speak but I don't pay attention. I think about the fact that Sydney will finally be out of this insane life. I know they'll have to place her in Witness Protection, but she'll still be out. My hope is that she'll finally be safe and that one day, she'll be happy. I have to believe that and I am forced to rely on one man to make sure it happens.

While I may not like leaving this task in the hands of Michael Vaughn, I have no choice. Obviously I have no choice... I will just have to trust Sydney's judgment and trust that he will continue to protect her no matter the cost to him, personally or professionally.

Somehow, Geiger's last words filter through the thoughts I've used to block the pain and I know that his patience and my time have both run out. As I hear him switch the power back on, suddenly I realize I'm not ready. I'm not ready to let someone else protect my daughter. I'm not ready to let him end my life. I'm not ready to die.

********

The door is removed and we quickly file out of the room, forming two lines on either side of the hall. Sydney crouches in front of me and even though I know the answer she'll give me, I can't help asking if she's okay.

She answers as I knew she would, and I have to force myself to believe that she is telling me the truth because if I didn't, I know I'd be dragging her out of here, taking her someplace safe, and keeping her there until the dust settles. And even then, I'd probably keep her there longer, just to make sure.

As I'm thinking this, I hear the command to standby and I know it's too late to do anything but go forward. I reach for my mask and pull it over my head. I take the gun from my holster and chamber a round. And then I wait. We all wait.

In those few, impossibly long seconds that we have to wait for Kendall's authorization, I glance at Sydney and I remember the woman with a swollen jaw and that crazy red hair who walked in and thought I was playing her. I remember our first meeting in the bloodmobile where she told me she'd give me the plan and that if we followed that plan, SD-6 would be brought down in record time. Two months and she thought she'd be out. Done.

It's been longer than two months, but I wonder if she realizes that she's about to do exactly what she said she'd do. If all goes well with this mission, she, and Jack as well, will have helped bring down SD-6, the entire Alliance, in record time.

Kendall gives the order and we move in and then everything seems to happen at once. We meet little resistance at first, but that changes quickly. As we slowly gain control, I see Sydney break from the group, heading towards a corridor on the far side of the room. I do my best to cover her and when she disappears around the corner, I can only pray that she'll be okay as I continue to make sure no one follows her.

TBC…