Well, finally, here I am updating. I'm sorry it took so long! I was on vacation with my family, and distraction is not a friend of my muses!
Thank you all, by the way, for your wonderful reviews. You make me smile.
Abby pulled her lips into a pout, their red lipstick contrasting nicely with straight black pigtails, accenting her wide puppy-dog eyes. Inside, she was giddy. This face always worked. She knew this, because even Gibbs had fallen prey to…(dun dun dun)…the look.
"C'mon, McGee! Please? You know it'll be fun!" Abby's whisper was barely audible as she kept her eye on the front door of Fornell's house.
"Abby. We're on a stake out."
"You've got to loosen up a little, oh comrade of mine. It will only take a minute!"
McGee sighed, rolled his eyes and attempted to ignore her; he looked intently at his radio, practically willing Gibbs' voice to issue forth an order and save him from his deranged coworker.
"See, Timmy? They don't need us in there at all. Here, I have a quarter."
"I am not playing Strip Coin-Toss with you."
Abby tossed the silver disc anyway, laughing with delight when it landed on heads. "Ha! I won! You have to take something off!"
"You know, for someone who never gets to go on stakeouts, you're amazingly uninterested in being here. We're backup, remember?"
"Well, I didn't realize it would be so boring just standing here by the car. Take off your hat."
"My hat?"
"Your hat. Seriously, McGee. You didn't think we'd be playing for shirts and pants, did you? Take off that hat." She scrunched up her face at him as he huffed and complied. "That's better anyway. That color does absolutely nothing for you." She tossed the coin again.
"I won again! Take off your shoe."
"No."
"McGee. Shoe."
"No."
"Take it off."
"Absolutely not."
"Fine, I'll do it for you." And with that, she reached down grabbed the heel of his shoe and yanked. He barely kept himself from falling.
"Ow! Abby! Give me that back."
"Not yet, my friend. You've still got one shoe left."
As she drew back her hand to toss the coin again, though, she saw something out of the corner of her eye, behind the bushes to the right.
"Shh! McGee, there are people around the corner of the house…over there!" She crouched behind the car's trunk and pointed.
Tim quickly squatted and pulled his gun. He wasn't fast enough, however. By the time he'd located the interlopers, the two NCIS agents were surrounded by at least fifteen black-clad men with guns. And all the barrels were pointed at them.
Slowly, frowning heavily, Tim stood, set his gun on the ground, and raised his hands. Abby, intrigued and suddenly thrilled by this change of events, followed his lead. They were being abducted by military insurgents! Wow, she wished Gibbs had given her a gun.
Sam grunted as the shot from her pistol forced her back away from Zehuti. She caught barely a glimpse of his warm blood spraying in her face and onto the bookshelf behind him before a set of rings fell from the ceiling, engulfing them both in white light. A sinking feeling suffused her torso. Whatever damage she might have done to the Goa'uld in front of her, he'd succeeded in transporting her to his ship. Hopefully, no one else was home.
It wasn't until the rings had reintegrated her, and her previous momentum continued to throw her backwards, that she realized she hadn't been abducted alone. The person behind her, obviously a man by his weight, fell into her, tumbling them both to the ground. The anxiety of just a few seconds earlier lessened slightly at the thought that either Daniel or Teal'c had managed to come with her.
A familiar haughty laugh dispelled any relief she might have felt, however.
"Colonel Carter, what a pleasure. It seems my unworthy vassal has managed to salvage something from his foolish scheme."
Sam tightened her lips to keep from displaying her momentary fear, a jolt of surprise preventing her from fighting the Jaffa who wrested her from the ship's rough floor. Not until she was standing upright did she comprehend Baal's position; standing tall in triumph, looking her in the eye, he postured with his foot balanced precariously on Zehuti's neck. Zehuti, seeping blood on the floor and wheezing in the throes of Goa'uld pain, blankly stared at his liege, his eyes glowing at half-mast. He was too far gone to feel the terror of his impending death.
Doing her best to yank herself free from her heavy-muscled and armored captor, and unsurprisingly failing miserably, Sam steeled herself and met Baal's gaze. The man smirked, as predicted. He turned his dark eyes to Zehuti beneath him, studied the fool as he gasped for breath, and turned to regard Sam's teammate, who had been seized behind her. She hadn't been able to sneak a peak at who had traveled with here, but it was no matter; both Daniel and Teal'c were capable. With their help, they'd be sure to escape eventually. And, if Jon happened to be a captive of Baal as well, they'd rescue him as well.
It wasn't until Baal's eyes glowed at her companion and his smirk widened that she began to worry. Struggling against her guard, she turned just enough to see the object of Baal's scheming.
"I shall not dispose of him yet." Baal lifted his foot from Zehuti's neck. "He might still be of some use to me."
Sam gasped. The prisoner behind her was Agent DiNozzo. It wasn't Daniel; it wasn't Teal'c. It was DiNozzo – a damn civilian. She felt the gulf in her gut widen apprehensively. There would be no help in this. She was now responsible for freeing not only herself, but a teenage Jack O'Neill and an ignorant, and by the looks of it, terrified, innocent as well. All by herself, no less, unless the General could locate Baal's ship and send a rescue party, which was unlikely. Baal was probably light-years away from Earth's airspace by now, and without the help of either the Tok'ra or the Asgard, the SGC would have no way of tracking their position.
Sam lifted her chin, knowing that if she said anything to Baal, she would aggravate their situation. With ten Jaffa in the ring chamber, the best thing to do was silently take the Goa'uld's taunting and save her strength for an escape effort once they were left alone in their cell.
Unfortunately, DiNozzo did not know this.
"What the hell his going on here? Who are you? How did we get here? What are…" he looked around the room at the Jaffa, struggling against the hands that held him, face white and eyes wide in fear, "they?"
Baal bared a few teeth in amusement. Without raising his voice, he spoke his command. "I am your god, Baal! Kneel before me, Tau'ri."
Sam bit back another grunt as the goon behind her kicked her in the back of her right knee, forcing her onto the ground in submission. DiNozzo yelped as both of his knees smacked the golden deck. He seemed, however, to comprehend that further questions might get them both in deeper trouble. For his silence, Sam was grateful.
"That is better. Now," Baal turned his conceited countenance back to Sam, "Colonel Carter. Or should I call you Samantha?" His multiphonic chuckle echoed through the silent room as he stepped forward to crouch before her. She crinkled her nose in discomfort; it bothered her that Baal had somehow found the most alluring cologne in the galaxy. "You will be my guest, and you will help me find what I am looking for." He ran a fistful of her short hair through his fingers, pausing for a moment in thought. She tried to pull her head away, but a Jaffa behind her pushed his staff weapon into her back in warning.
Baal released her and stood, leaving her to stare stubbornly at his immaculately tailored breeches and polished boots. "Yes," he continued in a half voice, "you'll tell me everything I want to know." He waved his hand as a signal to his soldiers before turning to leave.
Sam threw all her might into struggling against her constraints. This scenario was beginning to sound all too much like a briefing she'd had to endure from the General years earlier. A sudden urge to fight took over.
"We won't tell you anything, Baal! This is a dead end!"
Baal stopped, turned back towards her, and motioned for his men to pause. He thought for a moment. "What is the address to the chappa'ai on the Tau'ri world, Samantha?"
Sam clenched her teeth and refrained from answering. She understood what this was; he knew the address already, but he was proving a point. And because of this, she would have to prove her own point as well. The silence stretched.
"Once again, Samantha. The address?" Baal took a staff weapon from a nearby Jaffa and aimed it at DiNozzo. To his credit, the nearly hysterical agent stood quiet and still. Sam swallowed the bile in her throat.
This time, however, Baal did not follow his silence with another prompt. He merely armed the weapon, smiled with saccharine sadism at Sam, and shot DiNozzo in the leg.
Sam blanched, struggling to keep her face from betraying her fear and her guilt. Baal's message was as loud and clear as DiNozzo's agonized screams: her silence would have harsh consequences.
In a sudden rage, Gibbs turned a one-eighty and pointed his pistol at the man he knew was most likely to give him answers.
"Dr. Jackson, where is my agent?"
The dark living room resounded with the clicking cacophony of ten P-90s swinging in Gibbs' direction. In addition to Dr. Jackson and Murray, there were several marines and Air Force personnel crammed in the house, their attention now fully resting on him.
Good, thought Gibbs. I want their attention.
"Agent Gibbs," Daniel began as he put down his weapon and raised his hands in the universal sign of I-won't-hurt-you-just-listen-to-me, "Put down your gun."
Gibbs did not lower his arm. Instead, he took off the safety, hearing with satisfaction the telltale echo of ten soldiers doing the same. "Hold your fire!" Jackson called to the officers, waving his hand slightly to pacify them.
"My agent, Dr. Jackson. Where is he? And what the hell just happened here?" Gibbs' voice was clipped and sharp, demanding a succinct answer. Murray changed the subject, however, before Jackson could provide one.
"Agent Todd, you must put down the zat'nika'tel. I do not believe you know how it operates." There was a short hiss and a click, and Gibbs smirked. That's my girl. He assumed Kate had it trained on Murray, whom she was already covering with her pistol.
Sensing Gibbs' resolve, the good doctor decided to try his charm on Kate, instead. "Ahh, he's telling the truth, Agent Todd. If you don't know how it works, you could kill someone without meaning to." He paused. "I'm assuming that's not your intention."
"Our intention is to get some answers, Doctor," Gibbs barked, "not the bullshit about national security you used on us last time."
Dr. Jackson had the grace to look sheepish at that comment, taking a moment to come to a decision.
"It is a matter of national security, but," he added, as Kate swung her new laser gun towards him and kept her pistol on Murray, "there's a possibility we can give you the answers you want. You just have to let me call my superiors." When Gibbs still didn't lower his gun, Jackson continued quickly. "It's more than likely he'll give us clearance to bring you to the base and debrief you, but I need to call him now. For Agent DiNozzo's sake, I need to call him now."
Gibbs considered for a second, and then lowered his weapon. Before it had even reached his side, two marines hurried forward to relieve him of the pistol and place his wrists in handcuffs. Gibbs didn't resist, and Kate, with a blank expression on her face, followed his lead. "You didn't say anything about cuffing us, Doctor Jackson."
Because Dr. Jackson was already talking into his cell, Murray stepped forward to answer. "Is this not the proper course of action after having de-armed an unreasonable opponent, Agent Todd?"
In the back of a non-descript, yet highly fortified van, Agents Gibbs, Todd, McGee and Sciuto found themselves disarmed, silently under the guard of two hard-looking Marines.
McGee had only one shoe.
Well, there it is! Not as fun as last time, but the subject matter warranted a little more seriousness. I do hope you enjoyed it.
One quick note: I was informed by a kind reader (thank you, Mris!) that the NCIS headquarters was in Washington DC, not Florida. Okay, I just have to claim ignorance and late-night, online researching as a defense. That was a completely un-cool mistake on my part.
And, does anyone know how to spell chappa'ai? Is that correct?
Happy trails, everyone!
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