Chapter 14

Resolutions

"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support

of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me." Abraham Lincoln, 1839.

Back in Qumar, they held their breath. They had passed through the corner of Xhundi territory and this was the first patrol they'd seen. There was enough cover that they'd hidden and just let the six men pass unaware. Though this was a different group, Josh felt fury at them as if they had been the ones to hold him hostage. He couldn't see Hamilton but turned, carefully to locate Steven. Steven was quivering with either fury or terror, Josh wasn't sure. He looked rather as if he would either wet himself or jump out in a berserker rage and attack everything in sight. Neither would have a great outcome for them. He carefully edged over, behind the large convenient boulder and kept a grip on the ex-captives arm, to try keep him in the real world and not get them all killed.

But those few tense moments passed as the soldiers marched on. Josh closed his eyes briefly and released Steven who had suddenly relaxed. The group moved back together again.

"So now what?" asked Hamilton, who, Josh noticed with a sideways glance at Claire who grinned back, was standing protectively near Kitty. She seemed just as protective of him.

"Now we wait." he replied. "The word went through, Sam will pass it on to the President. We will be rescued." he answered.

"How long will that take?" asked Geraldine, sitting down on the sunbaked mud with a sigh. Josh shrugged. Claire elbowed him surreptitiously. First rule of being leader- don't show uncertainty. He thought furiously.

"It's hard to say. They may need to negotiate entry. They will come- before tomorrow morning, I'd say."

"Better." whispered Claire.

They followed Geraldine's example. Josh was sitting between Claire and Lisa. She looked at him and away again.

"When you vanished…" she started, obviously uncomfortable.

Josh put two and two together fairly fast. "You though we'd done a runner." The young Chinese girl flushed, embarrassed. Josh noticed that everyone was listening- glad that someone else had said first what they were all thinking.

"Yeah. I did." she answered, looking him straight, before continuing. "I'm sorry. I was surprised- we all were. Out of the whole group- you would have been one of the last people I'd've expected to do that." she said bluntly. Normally, most people wouldn't have said something like that, that bluntly. But a week of close quarters and constant relying on each other had made them more concerned with saying what they needed too- not dressed up. In some situations immediate clarity was vital.

"Yeah, Lyman, Hamilton, what happened to you?" Josh looked at Hamilton, who looked away, ashamed. This was where it would all come out, was it? He glanced at Kitty. Oh God- she'd hate him now. He would see the same look of disgust in her eyes- the one he knew he would always see in the mirror. He opened his mouth to admit what he'd done but Josh was already speaking.

"Jessie and I were on watch- coming up to the change. They got the jump on us. We were captured coming down. I assume they thought that Jesse, Hamilton and Daniel made up all the rest of the group of survivors. We were just unlucky." Hamilton looked up, whitefaced and started to open his mouth. Josh shook his head almost imperceptibly at him. This was not the time to say that part of the group had gone rogue, captured the 'leader' and sold him out to a group of militant nutters. There would never be time for it. Hamilton sat back, confused, but grateful. Someday, maybe he'd tell Kitty. Someday when he'd come to terms with it himself.

"And you, Steven? What were you doing in there?" asked Tim, interested.

"I…it's hard to say." said Steven slowly. "I was a hiker. Wanted to climb Kilimanjaro and was getting some training in here- second highest peak in Africa is around this area. While the Code were in power." He paused. This was obviously hard work for the traumatised mind.

"The take-over? I don't know. Anyway- I too, just got 'unlucky', I guess. They caught me near the compound. I'd just reached the valley. I was a prisoner there ever since. They said…" he shook his head. Then his eyes narrowed, and he looked at Josh.

"How do you know the people in the White House?" he asked. Josh groaned inwardly

"I work there," he said simply. " I'm the Deputy Chief of Staff." Whatever the others were expecting it wasn't what happened next. Steven leaped to his feet and looked like was about to attack Josh, who stayed sitting, partly to calm the man and partly because he wasn't sure if he could stand. It was just dawning on him that there was a reason he'd been ordered to take those damn pills at regular intervals. Stevens breathing had harshened and when he spoke it was in a hiss.

"You are part of them! You didn't care that I was there- I died in there and the American Government - my government- didn't give a damn!" Josh felt his own breathing change too as he tried to keep it controlled and his voice calm.

"Stephen- we didn't know. The Qumaran rebels never told us." Steven jerked back as if the words had been physical blows.

"They didn't tell…? Then why? WHY! What did I ever do to them? They hurt me- I was beaten and they told me that my government knew and would get me out- and then that they'd abandoned me and IT NEVER STOPPED! And all along no-one knew? Why? What was the point?" Everyone sat frozen as the words, pent up by months of solitary confinement and cruel treatment poured out. He sank back on to his knees and put his head in his hands. He was weeping silently.

"Steven…I'm sorry. We did not know they had you." Josh said slowly and clearly, tryin to let the manunderstand thathe had not just been abandoned. " I can't imagine what you've been through. We were there for forty-eight hours. You were in there for…"he finished with difficulty through the roaring in his ears.

"Oh God…six months…." whispered Reid, who had been adding up the time since the Code had been in power.

"Steven- we are going to get out of here. You are never going back there- none of us are. You, me and Josh- we survived that place. We're going home now. Back to America." It was Hamilton talking now, quickly but seriously. Steven had recovered control of himself, though Hamilton suspected that he had serious issues that would need to be addressed before the man could ever put this whole horrific ordeal behind him.

Josh wasn't hearing what was happening now. Oh shit, this wasn't good. He tried to get the images of flashes out of his head, the screaming, the loud explosions. He found himself clutching where he knew he had a large scar that he would bear for the rest of his life. It had been too long with out his medicine! His chest hurt and he was light headed. No! This wasn't fair! He couldn't get this far- get out of…of that place and keel over of a bloody heart- attack! He… just couldn't! He rode out the attack- it wasn't going to be serious- dammit! He was okay- he was okay. Keep breathing. He took long measured breaths and tried to keep calm and gradually his vision widened again and the ringing in his ears faded. Claire was looking at him, worried.

"I'm okay…" he muttered. He wasn't, and he knew it. He had gotten all his medication back but it had been too long. He needed proper medical treatment to treat the results of not taking his pills combined with the beating he'd taken earlier on and exacerbated by the soaking and the chill of that horrible cell. He noticed with a certain amount of relief that his clothes had dried off pretty well. Now, if he was lucky, he might just avoid getting a chill and would escape the whole ordeal relatively intact, he thought with more wishful thinking then expectancy.

They stayed in hiding most of the day. They'd moved to the highest area- close to the Pass. If things went pear-shaped and they had to make a run for it they needed to be as far ahead of their pursuers as possible. Josh, Hamilton and Stevens worried and fretted as they grew increasingly paranoid and anxious about the Peoples Code people following them, not knowing that the Peoples Code compound had fallen to the new Government and lay silent and empty, with no-one to tell of the dark things that had happened behind its doors. Claire too, worried about the possibility of being followed although she knew that fretting about it would do no good. She found a good spot about half- way up to the Pass, overlooking both her own people- some lying nervously in wait, some taking the time to sleep- and kept watch. After a while, Josh, unable to stand just sitting there and waiting, joined her watching over the green rolling valley, circled by mountains.

"Beautiful, isn't it…" she said as he sat down.

"Yeah…" He glanced at her as he spoke. She caught the glance and looked at him enquiringly and he blushed, looking away quickly. Her eyebrows went up and she turned her face away, trying to keep it straight. Of all places…of all times for this to happen…? Or was it what she thought it was? She blushed too, and glanced in confusion at the third finger on her left hand where a pale line was still visible on the tanned skin. Josh's eyes followed the glance and his face went even redder with embarrassment.

"I…I'm sorry…" he muttered, sounding like a teenager. "I…eh…" She smiled, suddenly certain and, leaning over, kissed him on the cheek. Josh nearly fell over in surprise but before he could do anything started coughing again- ear-splitting hacking sounds that had a couple of people glancing upwards in alarm. Claire pulled off her jumper and gave it to him as a 'coughing-pillow' He grasped it blindly and automatic reflexes- ingrained in him a year ago- took over. He rode out the attack, and sat for a couple of minutes, completely winded, with tears running down his cheeks, still clutching the makeshift 'pillow'.

"Well, I don't usually have that effect on people," joked Claire, gently rubbing his back to help soothe the impulses to cough. Josh raised a weak smile at the joke, but was too out of breath to respond.

When he'd recovered he looked at her in a certain amount of confusion, before self-consciously turning away a bit and wiping his face of the remnants of the fit of coughing- the tracks down his cheeks.

"You're not okay, are you." sighed Claire. "I hope they come pretty soon, 'cos you need proper treatment." Josh nodded. It wasn't really any point trying to hide the seriousness of the situation. There was an awkward pause.

"Look…eh, about before…" muttered Claire, embarrassed. Josh realised that he certainly didn't want her to apologise to him about that! Before she could finish, he turned to her and kissed her back. Claire started a little, but responded and they didn't notice anything for a minute -or several!

"It's 'bout bloody time…" muttered Hamilton who'd come to take over on watch before moving away again to give the two oblivious 'sentries' some privacy. He sat down, downhill from them and watched the sun sinking over the valley. It was warm and they were free. Even as he sat he felt someone come up behind him. Kitty. She sat down and he smiled at her. She looked at him warmly, without reproach and suddenly he knew. She'd known what he had done all along.

"He told you?" he whispered in shame.

"No. I…I just knew. The way you looked when Geraldine asked what had happened. The way you wouldn't look at Josh. I don't know. I just knew. But I know you're a good man. I know you had a reason to do what you did."

Hamilton looked out over the valley again and told the woman that he now knew he loved, why he had betrayed them all. When he finished he sat silent, unsure of what would happen. He didn't look at her. She took his chin in her hand and gently turned his head to her.

"You did what you had to do, Tony. And I don't blame you for it. And you know what? If it hadn't happened, Steven would still be going crazy in a horrible dark cell, with everyone who ever knew him thinking he was dead."

He didn't say anything, but Kitty thought she saw a bit of hope in his eyes. It would be a long time before he would get over it himself but she hoped she had made a start. They sat together, and he suddenly knew that this was right, with an arm around the others waist, watching the sun set.

Luckily they were watching for enemies too and twice everyone had to go into hiding from troops passing perilously close to their positions, but both times they were lucky. It was morning before they heard a new sound. A distant whumwhumwhum that magnified into a dull roar. They scattered and hid automatically and kept watch on the sky. Claire was on duty and was highest up the slope. She also recognised the sound.

"Chopper!" she mouthed to Josh, eyes shining. They stayed down anyway and hoped, prayed that this would be the one.

As the beautiful bird roared into sight Claire stood up and shouted joyfully.

"It's one of ours!" She waved and jumped up and down to get the helicopters attention and one by one the others struggled up to her position as they whooped and hollered for the 'copters attention. It saw them and made a sweep over their heads, looking for somewhere to land. It found a plateau, near the pass and set down. They fell silent again, their moment of abandon taken over again by their strained nerves and fear of capture. Some wept and supported each other, some stood alone drinking in the sight. Rescue.

I'm sorry people! I know people wanted this to have a Josh/Donna ending but…I just couldn't do it. I originally wanted to do another story- a Josh/Claire and this was going to be a 'how they met' story. Then the plot bunny took over and forced me to write a big long thing instead. I don't know if I'm going to do the sequel I had originally planned but I'm keeping this ending so my options are open…

Anyway- this chapter was originally meant to be 'Homecoming' but other stuff happened- I didn't really expect the Hamilton and Kitty scene for one thing. So my next chapter will be the 'Homecoming' chapter and then the epilogue.

At some point, maybe I will do a J/D fic but for the moment- this is my offering!