When A Hero Falls - Chapter 4
by lesleyp
Author Notes: Would love feedback (good, bad, indifferent)
please.
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"Yes...I think you would," Jack used his most soothing tone. "But you'd be dead before you could see the outcome of your handiwork. And since you have only one, maybe two rounds left in that thing...I have another suggestion."
"What is your suggestion, Hero?" Guierra spat out derisively.
"It's me you want. You can have me. I'll recall the other three and order them to stand down. You can even lock them all in here. Then you and I take a walk. You can do whatever you want with me," Jack offered.
Sam gasped and Landry shook his head.
"Sir," Sam started to speak.
"Shut up Carter," Jack ordered without looking at her. "Please."
Guierra thought for a moment. He didn't trust O'Neill, but he wanted his revenge. The most viscous he could come up with. Killing the man's friends was his plan; however, his enemy was correct. If he shot the woman he wouldn't live to truly torture the object of his hatred. He would first torture O'Neill, then come back and finish the others off. This General was not very smart. Not very smart at all.
"Agreed. Get them in here. Against the wall. No weapons. They leave them outside," Guierra said with a smile.
Jack spoke into his radio, "Everyone fall back to my position. No weapons. Leave them outside in the corridor. Not joking kids, just do it."
Turning his attention to the two SFs with him, Jack spoke, "Toss your weapons out the door, then go kneel by the wall."
"But sir," one objected in a distinctively feminine voice.
"Follow my order seaman," Jack said tersely. Then in a whisper, his lips barely moving, "complete your primary mission."
The SF's removed their weaponry and tossed them into the corridor outside. Jack followed suit, unclipping his P-90 and throwing it out the door. In the process, Guierra never noticed Jack passing a small silver device to the soldier on his right.
"Now go to the wall," Jack again ordered.
"Not so fast," from Guierra. "You!" Guierra indicated to the SF who had objected to Jack's order.
"Tie your hero's hands behind his back. Turn around Jack so I make sure she do it right," Guierra sneered.
Jack turned and allowed the SF to secure his hands. He'd figure a way out of this later...he hoped.
The two soldiers then went and did as ordered. They knelt at the wall closest to Mitchell and laced their fingers behind their heads. A few moments passed until three more figures in black appeared. The three looked at the scene in the room, then at their CO with his hands tied. As they passed by him to join their comrades, one slipped a small switchblade into Jack's cargo pocket.
"Kneel with the others," Guierra yelled at them.
When all five were lined up, Guierra spoke to Jack. "Now you, go into the hall and sit on your hands. Do not leave my sight."
Jack complied, kicking weapons as he went so that they would not be in Guierra's easy reach when he exited. He leaned his back against the wall so he could face the room and slowly slid down until he cold sit. Guierra watched closely.
Guierra thought briefly of shooting the woman now, but knew Jack had been right. He had only one round left. The others would rush him and it would be over too fast. Slowly he came around from behind them, and with his gun now fixed toward the SF's, he made his way out of the room. Carefully he made sure to stay well out of Jack's striking distance.
Closing the door Guierra smiled and said to all of them, "I will be back for you later."
The door locking mechanism clicked into place.
The SF"s all stood and one spoke, "How long?"
"Ten minutes," one of the new guys answered, "and this place will be little more than a gravel pit. How we gonna get the hell outta here?"
"Untie them," the first responded. "We proceed with our primary mission. Just hope one of them knows how to use this thing." he finished, taking the locator beacon from his pocket.
"Go for any of them," Jack warned Guierra as he glanced at the weapon's, "and I will go for you. One of us will get hurt, and if you don't manage to kill me..." Jack left it unsaid.
"Stand up, and move," Guierra ordered Jack.
"You know, I'm the one used to giving the orders," Jack responded not moving.
"Too bad for you," Guierra replied aiming the gun at Jack's head.
SG1 and General Landry were quickly relieved of their binds. Sam found it hard to stand as her legs had begun to cramp. Mitchell stood and shook out his dried pant legs.
"We must escape from here and go assist O'Neill," Teal'c stated simply.
"Negative," one of the SF's spoke. "Our primary mission is to extract you people out alive, at any cost. We will proceed with that objective."
"We're not leaving him behind," indicated General Landry, "Now find a way out of here, and let's go get him."
"Negative, sir. Will one of you activate this thing? Now please, we are running out of time," said the SF with the locator.
"That was an order!" Landry yelled.
"We don't take orders from you sir. And we're following the ones from the only General we do on this mission, now please activate this or we're all dead," came the calm response.
Landry was about to say something else, but was stopped by the sound of a gun shot nearby.
They all stood watching the door. Nothing happened.
"You know how these mission protocols work," the SF who seemed to be in charge spoke quietly to Landry.
When Landry still made no move to take the beacon, the SF grabbed him by the shirt and yelled menacingly "Now, sir!"
Landry took the beacon, his hands moving over it almost sadly, and then he ordered them all to step in close. A bright white flash, then the room was empty.
"Na... I think it's too bad for you," Jack answered as he threw the open switchblade at Guierra's neck from his now free hand. His aim always good, Jack hit his mark dead on. Emilio Guierra's eyes opened in surprise and rage. He took a shot, then fell to the ground. Blood jettisoning out of his body from his jugular, he was dead almost immediately.
The bullet missed Jack's head by mere millimetres. The cement flecks caused by the ricochet burned into his cheek. He felt the hot blood begin to flow from his face. Jack looked at the door lock and saw that it was the combination kind that bank vaults usually had. He'd never be able to crack the code and make it back inside in time.
Jack carefully crawled over to Guierra and checked the man for a pulse. There was none.
"Target acquired and taken," Jack whispered out loud to himself as he stood up.
Checking his watch, he took off in a run down the cement corridor.
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SGC
It had been a long and sleepless night. Having been returned to the Mountain, and after being cleared from the infirmary, the four members of SG1 spent the night at the base. The team attempted to eat at the Commissary together before heading for their quarters, but no one had much of an appetite; not even for blue Jell-O.
General Hank Landry spent most of the night in his office, catching short cat naps before waking and going over every memory of the previous day. He had spoken to the Chief of Staff and given a brief over view, with a promise for a written report the following day. Hank's thoughts kept returning to the last few minutes on the Daedalus shortly after his rescue.
The masked female had saluted Landry, and advised him that it had been an honor "saving his ass," just before they'd been sent back by the Daedalus to wherever they had come from. She had promised him that General O'Neill's uniform and any other effects would be returned immediately to the Pentagon.
One thing bothered Landry. Nagged at him really. Not one of them had given the Mission complete' call. He wondered who they would give it to since Jack was gone. Probably dead. The Daedalus confirmed massive detonations in the area they'd been picked up from only minutes after coming aboard. There was little chance of escape. But then again, it was Jack. So there was still some hope.
Hank also wondered what he was going to tell his people. What could he tell them? What should he tell them? Dr. Jackson still seemed to be taking it hard, although he wasn't speaking. Hank knew what Dr. Jackson needed most was for Jack to explain but, if the worse had occurred, that would never happen.
Morning arrived. 0930 SG1 gathered in the briefing room as General Landry had ordered the night before.
"I've spoken directly to the Chief of Staff," Landry began the briefing hesitantly. "He won't tell me anything. It is his position that General O'Neill is likely not alive and that's all he'd give me."
Landry felt all of their eyes burn into him as he looked down at his briefing folder.
Slowly he began again, "I've been ordered not to discuss the original black ops mission with you. I intend to break that order."
Mitchell nodded, then asked, "So was it a gun or a knife?" he looked in Sam's direction and gave her what he hoped was a supportive smile.
"Both," Landry answered. "But it was the pistol she was going for. They struggled for it as you saw. It discharged, and killed her. Jack was trying to apprehend to bring her in alive."
"What really happened to the baby?" Daniel whispered. "Was it in that bag, or did Jack kill it like he admitted?"
Landry looked over at Daniel sadly and thought for a moment. He then looked in turn at Teal'c, Mitchell, then stopped at Sam. She'd never seen the General look so forlorn.
"You were there, weren't you sir?" Sam asked. "You were the ordinance man?"
Landry didn't answer her.
"Sara couldn't have children," was all he said before standing. "Take some time off after you submit your written reports. Dismissed."
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Flash back, Mid 80's, San Diego
Jack pulled into his driveway relieved to see Sara's car still there.
They hadn't been married very long when they'd discovered Sara couldn't have children. All the plumbing was there, it just didn't work the right way. Jack wasn't comfortable with all the details so hadn't really listened when the doctor tried to explain it.
It wasn't long after finding this out that Jack had been approached to join an elite special ops team. He had agreed. Way too cool to pass up. The decision however was killing his marriage. Sara had wanted children very badly. So did he if he admitted it to himself. But that's not the way things were going to work out, and rather than dwell on it, Jack thought they should just move on and get over it. Sara on the other hand wanted to adopt. Given Jack's career path choices, he didn't feel it was a good idea.
Sara was being left alone while he went off on missions. She wasn't adjusting well as the wife of an Air Force officer and she was making no secret of it. Worse, when he was home, she wanted to talk about where he'd been and what he did. He couldn't discuss these things and as a result Sara was feeling shut out. He knew it was happening, he just didn't know what to do about it. More and more often they didn't speak, and when they did it was her yelling at him and him going to putter in the garage with something.
He sat momentarily in the car wondering how best to approach her with his plan. He knew she was thinking of leaving him, and hoped this would change her mind. He loved her more than he could ever admit to her. If this didn't stop her he was in big trouble. It'd been months since they touched, since they'd made love. Maybe this would change things. Sitting there he let out a chuckle. More than likely it would make it worse. With a huge grin he opened the car door and stepped out.
He turned and opened the rear door of the car just as he saw Sara coming from the house toward him. She did not look happy. Oh boy,' he thought to himself, here we go.'
"Hi babe," he said toward her, a huge smile on his lips.
"We need to talk Jack," Sara responded.
"We sure do," he said chirpily as he lifted the small baby from the car seat.
Sara stood stunned looking from her husband to the small bundle he was now holding.
"What's going on?" she asked, shocked.
"Hey little guy," Jack spoke gently to his charge, "I'd like you to meet your mommy."
Jack looked hopefully up at Sara who was still standing there, her mouth now dropped open. Slowly Sara took a few steps toward them.
"What's going on?" she choked out again.
"I can't explain much. You just need to trust me. But it's legal. He's ours. I had to give him a name for the paper work. Hope you don't mind. Charlie." Jack explained all he could as he coo'd down at the slumbering infant.
"Ours?" Sara asked incredulously, tears forming in her eyes.
"Ours," Jack said decisively.
The tears now coming freely, Sara held out her arms to take the baby from him. For the first time in a long time, she wasn't asking questions.
"Come on babe, let's get him in the house then talk," he hesitated as he put his arm around his wife as she held their son. "Later, we got shoppin to do."
That night, as he held the small baby who sucked contentedly at the bottle, Jack placed a gentle kiss on his forehead and promised, "Don't you worry about anything little guy, Daddy will protect you. Always."
TBC - One more ch. to go. Please leave a review if you liked.
DISCLAIMER: "Stargate SG-1," "Stargate Atlantis," and its characters are the property of MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko Film Corp., Showtime/Viacom and USA Networks, Inc. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations and story are the property of the author(s), and may not be republished or archived elsewhere without the author's permission.
Archived on July 10, 2006