Complications, chapter 7

A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to get this last chapter up. I hope it was worth the wait. Thanks for all the encouragement so far. Happy holidays!

Kate screamed in agony as Hector's booted foot connected with her back. The moment her head had connected with the wall, tears had sprung to her eyes and they flowed freely now. Choking sobs replaced her scream as the initial shock of the pain waned. Hector's boots moved before her, stopping in front of her face.

"No. No. Please don't. Please." She barely managed the words between gasps of breath.

He tapped his foot against her chin, prodding her to look up at him. "You better hope that Jack doesn't need any more encouragement to move quickly. I really don't want to have to give it to him. But, make no mistake, I will do what I have to do."

He stepped over her and she strained to watch his footsteps as he left the room. The door closed behind him and it was then that she realized that he wasn't going to punish her any further. Her mind accepted the true precariousness of her situation and her body started to quake in fear. The man holding her had no morals. There were no lines he wouldn't cross.

Taking slow, deep breaths, she fought the waves of nausea rolling over her, fighting to control her body's response to the pain and fear that seemed to grow more intense, rather than ease with time. The general throbbing along the right side of her body was superseded by the sharp, stabbing pain from her back. The discomfort of having her arms tied behind her seemed inconsequent in comparison. But, because of this, she couldn't move and was forced to continue lying on her side, almost facedown on the dirty, tile floor.

Fresh tears welled in her eyes. Tears of frustration and despair. 'Jack, please,' she prayed. 'Please help us. Please save us. Please get us out of here.'

Suddenly, the pain in her back strengthened and radiated outward, ripping around and through her abdomen. She gritted her teeth against its intensity, holding her breath until it passed.

"This can't be happening," she mumbled to herself. "I know you don't want to be here any more than I do, little man. But this isn't how you get out. You need to wait for your Dad, okay?"

Kate closed her eyes and prayed to every god she could pray to, in every language that she could pray. Then she remembered the camera and twisted awkwardly so she faced the ceiling light where she assumed it was located. She didn't know if the people watching could hear her as well, but hoped they could read her lips if they couldn't.

"Jack!" she yelled at the ceiling. "Hurry! I need you now! Please hurry!"

Her prayers and pleas said, she relaxed her body, resting her head back against the floor. There was nothing left for her to do, but wait. She just hoped that the wait didn't prove to be too long.

Michelle had remained on the other line throughout Hector's conversation with Jack. Once the call ended, she buzzed Adam at his station. "Did you get anything more this time?"

"No, the signal's scrambled. I can keep working on it, but I think it's a waste of time."

"Nothing is a waste of time," Michelle snapped. "We need to make sure that we've done every…" Her voice broke as she watched Hector kick Kate in the back.

"Michelle?" Adam interrupted the silence when she didn't continue.

"We need to get her out of there."

"I know that Michelle. I'm not an insensitive prick who has something better to do. I'm just saying that tracing the calls isn't going to work, no matter how long I work on it. I think I might have a trace of something through the IP address though. I just think my time would be better spent working on that."

Michelle was still focused on Kate. Hector had just left the room, ending his abuse, for the time being. Coming back to the phone conversation, she realized that Adam was silent on the other end of the line. "I'm sorry, Adam. What did you just say?"

"I think I might make better progress through the IP address. I've got a trace of something, so far. I don't think Hector, or any of his people, know enough to completely disguise their location while doing a live broadcast for such a long time. I think we need to focus on this."

"Alright, work on that. And send what you have so far to the station next to mine. I'll do what I can to help you from there."

Michelle turned the monitor to face the next work station and set that station up to receive the information from Adam's computer.

"Michelle!" Jack roared her name as her raced down the stairs to her work station. Tony followed closely behind. "Is she okay? What's going on?"

Confused, she backed away as the two men crowded around her monitor. Jack leaned in so close to the screen that she thought he might try to climb inside to be next to Kate. She didn't know what he was looking for or what she might have missed. 'Maybe there had been a clue to their location and I didn't catch it?'

Tony turned to her before she could voice her questions. "Jack's computer went out after Hector kicked Kate. What happened next? We didn't see anything after that."

"Nothing, really." Michelle answered and then realized what Jack was looking for. He didn't know if Kate had been hurt further, if she was conscious, if she was still breathing. She laid a comforting hand on Jack's shoulder, but looked at Tony as she continued. "She's conscious. Hector didn't hurt her anymore than what you saw. I think he spoke to her because he turned her face to him."

She didn't add that he had done so with his boot. That moment had unsettled her more than the kick had. She hadn't anticipated him hurting her. Until that moment, she hadn't believed that Hector would physically harm Kate. She had believed that her condition would serve as protection. But when he had touched his foot to her chin, she really thought that he might be lining her up for another good boot.

Her hand shook as she removed it from Jack's shoulder and she crossed her arms in an effort to disguise the trembling. "She watched him leave, Jack. I saw that clearly."

Jack relaxed slightly. Because of Michelle's reassurances and because he had already seen Kate move. He could tell she was breathing almost immediately and then he had noticed her stiffen. He prayed inwardly that her injuries were just superficial and that other than the pain, everything was okay. Either way, he couldn't stress about something that was completely out of his control. He needed to focus on getting her out of there and out of there quickly.

He was about to return to his office when Kate started to move more forcefully. She somehow managed to face the ceiling and he knew that she had just yelled his name. He didn't know what followed after, but he knew that he had better have a concrete plan in place for Hector's next phone call.

Chapter 8 is coming soon! Please R&R. Reviews make me type faster:)