I just had to get this chapter on paper as it was not letting me concentrate on anything else. Six or so re-writes of this one...hope you like it

Cory did not really think about what she was doing; there was no time. At any moment the guns that were clearly trained on her brother would fire and he would be dead. There was no time to call out or consider options, she could not let Mac be hurt; especially since it was her fault he was there in the first place.

Without further thought, Cory ran directly at her brother, hoping to push him out of the way, her only thought was keeping him safe. As she ran, she called out a desperate warning to Mac.

Everything happened at once and, it seemed, in the blink of an eye. As Mac turned toward the sound of his sister's voice, Cory noticed that the targeting lasers disappeared from his chest. Relief rushed through her as she met her brother's eyes. It was his eyes, widening with horror, that was the last thing she clearly remembered as all her senses were overwhelmed by an all-consuming pain.

Mac heard the twin guns fire and saw Cory's body arch in agony as two bullets entered her back and tore through her body. "Cory," he heard somebody cry out in an anguished shout and realized that the sound was torn from his own throat as he ran toward his wounded sister.

Cory stumbled forward, propelled by her remaining momentum and the velocity of the bullets. Her legs were not working very well any longer, but she was still struggling to get to Mac – if she reached him, she knew, everything would be alright. She continued to stumble forward every step a painful effort.

Mac reached Cory in a matter of seconds, although the time had seemed to stretch into infinity. He caught her as her knees buckled, lowering her gently to the ground and dropping to his knees beside her. He could not help but see the front of her pajamas soaked in blood.

Jack's reaction was instantaneous, but it came too late. One moment he heard Cory call out and the next he saw the targeting lasers on Mac's chest. He immediately understood what was happening and grabbed Murdoc's wrists; but it was too late and could not prevent what happened next. He saw the bullets hit Cory and heard Mac call to her. He viciously clubbed the man on the side of the head, leaving him in an unconscious heap on the ground and ran toward his friend.

"Mac," he called desperately and was stopped in his tracks as his friend lifted stricken eyes. "Oh, God, Mac," Jack whispered and reached for his phone. "This is Dalton. Agents down. We need Medivac. Now!". Jack gave the location and hung up, kneeling next to Mac to see what help he could provide to his friend.

Mac had seen gunshot wound before; he had served in a war zone in the Army. But that was different. Those were soldiers. This was his little sister; somebody he had promised to always protect. He had failed her..he had failed…

"Jack," he whispered, sounding very young and very lost.

"Keep it together, buddy," Jack's voice was calm and quiet. He needed Mac to focus if there was any hope for Cory. "Help will be here in a few minutes...You've done this before. You know what to do. Tell me what you need from me, I'm here to help."

It took a moment for the words to cut through Mac's shock, but his scientific mind was starting to recover. Cory needed him and he needed to focus; he could help her. He quickly removed his jacket, using it to elevate Cory's head. Jack was looking around for clean, or at least semi clean cloth and when he couldn't find any took off his shirt, tearing it in half and used it to staunch the blood flow as best as he could. A slight movement caught Mac's attention and he looked at Cory's face realizing that her eyes were open and focused on him. It seemed to him that she was trying to say something.

"Hey," Mac soothed her, stroking her hair. "don't try to talk. It'll be OK. Help is on the way. I'm here. It'll be OK. If his voice was hoarse or cracked with emotion, nobody noticed.

Cory reached out a blood stained hand and Mac took it wishing that he could pass his strength to her through that connection. He continued speaking to her while Jack, did what he could to stop the bleeding. Thornton, helped by Riley, reached the seen, but stopped a few feet away so as not to interfere with what the men were doing.

Cory knew that she was badly hurt, although oddly the pain was no longer that intense; in its place overwhelming cold. Cold so intense that she began to shiver in the California afternoon. She was having trouble drawing a breath which made it hard to talk, but she had things that she needed to tell Mac. She needed to tell him not to worry – she hated when he worried…she wanted to promise him that she would be OK and to tell him that she was sorry for not listening to him. Unfortunately, she could not get enough air to form the words, and soon the world began to fade and grow dark at the edges. She tried to hold on to his hand, but found that she had no more strength left.

Mac saw Cory's eyes close. "Hey," he said urgently, cupping her face. "Hey Cory, open your eyes. Stay with me. Please stay with me." Mac continued to call to his sister, but his voice was soon drowned out by the rotors of the medivac helicopter.

Mac and Jack shielded Cory from the dirt being kicked up while the helicopter landed in the clearing. Three paramedics and several agents jumped out. Two headed toward Cory and one went to Thornton, but she waved him off indicating that he should go and assist the other two with Cory. The heavily armed agents carefully approached Murdoc who was just regaining consciousness, cuffed him and pulled him away toward a car that had just arrived.

The paramedics worked furiosly, getting an oxygen mask on Cory's face and inserting an IV. They worked to slow down the bleeding, but from Mac's perspective, it did not look like they were having much luck.

"She's bleeding out," the senior paramedic yelled. "We gotta get her out of here." o The other two paramedics lifted Cory's now limp body on to the waiting gurney. They wheeled it to the helicopter, locked the wheels and lifted it inside. Jack was helping Thornton into a waiting seat.

"See you at Cedars-Sinai," Jack told Mac as the younger man climbed in last, taking a place next to Cory. One of the paramedics was about to protest, but Jack put a hand on the man's shoulder and just shook his head; the look in his eyes discouraged any more debate.

Jack and Riley stood back as the helicopter lifted off. Jack put his arm around the young woman. "They'll be OK," he said and hoped he sounded like he meant it. He remembered the haunted look in Mac's eyes as Cory was loaded into the helicopter and realized that he was including his friend in the "they". "They will all be OK," he repeated again and prayed fervently that he was right.

This was one of those chapters that sounded really good in my head, but needed tons of adjustments and re-writes. I wanted emotion, but not schlock or melodrama (well not too much melodrama). Please let me know what you think. I am grateful for the time and the reviews.