"All right teams, secure your firearms," Sergeant Foster called.
Thirty uniformed men and women obeyed, unloading ammunition from the weapons they held and placing the guns back on their storage shelves. Sergeant Foster glanced down at a list in his hand and issued his next instruction.
"Live disarming exercises will be held outside. All teams, proceed to Yard #3 for buried explosives training."
The men and women of the SRU filed dutifully through the door, accompanied by their respective sergeants. Sergeant Parker, however, held his team back until they were alone.
The members of Team One stood around him - silent, stoic, and resigned.
"Look, this is going to be difficult, I'm not going to lie to you," Greg said bluntly, shaking his head. "We're going to go outside in a minute and join the other teams in an exercise where we practice doing what you'll think might have saved Lewis's life." He looked around at the somber faces of his team. "We did everything we could for Lew," he said emphatically. "That's not what this is about right now. This is about being able to go out there and handle any situation that comes up, and not let emotions get in the way of saving lives." He waved his hand towards the door. "Let's get out there and do this."
Perhaps it was out of respect for the members of Team One that the SRU officers were a bit more sedate than usual during this exercise. The demonstrations and practical exercises were completed quickly, carefully, and for the most part, correctly.
Sam found himself searching out Jules from amongst the knot of officers that was Team Four. As the only one from her team who had been witness to Lewis's death, he was pretty sure that she had not been granted the courtesy of a speech preparing her for this exercise.
Her appearance, when he spotted her, did nothing to ease Sam's concern for her welfare – her skin looked strangely patchy as she watched the proceedings with an odd expression on her face. A team mate was systematically clearing sand from around a demo mine, but she wasn't watching his progress. Instead, she closed her eyes and appeared to be breathing deeply.
As Sam's head lifted in concern, one of her teammates – Johnson, a good cop, that one – bent over Jules solicitously, obviously inquiring after her welfare. He was dismissed with a hand wave that clearly signaled "I'm fine."
By now craning his neck to watch Jules and completely ignoring his own team's actions, Sam watched Jules lean against the wall behind her, looking ashen, even as the wind carried her words to him – "No, no, keep going, I'm fine. Everything's okay."
Everything's okay, he struggled to convince himself. She's fine.
He couldn't concentrate – how could he? – Jules looked sick, she shouldn't be here. And now it was his turn to step into the sand box, but how is Jules, is she still okay?
The metal clicked loudly under his heel, and he bent down to follow the protocol, the steps he knew by heart and could complete even while blindfolded and wearing mittens – but is Jules okay, is she all right? He looked over at her through the crowd, and she was watching him, ashen-faced. His fingers fumbled where they should have been precise, and the next moment he gasped in pain as the demo mine "exploded" beneath him, sending a small electric shock through his hand and emitting a puff of smoke.
Sam straightened in chagrin to chorus of disappointed sounds. Someone slapped him on the back as he raised his hands in defeat – but there was a commotion of a different sort over by Team Four. Sam looked over curiously, and in the center of a cluster of concerned officers, Jules was lying on the ground.
.
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.
Time stopped.
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.
.
.
.
No, no, Jules – he was fighting, he was pushing his way through the knot of officers – Jules! Jules! Wake up! his brain screamed, and why were they all looking at him now, they should be looking at Jules – Jules, sweetheart, wake up – she was lying so still, but she was breathing, and Sam began to breathe too – for he couldn't have breathed if she did not, from where would he draw air? And people must have been talking – mouths moved, hands gestured – but only deafening silence pressed against Sam's temples from every direction. And then Jules was in his arms, and then she wasn't anymore, she was lying on the bed in the medical office, and how they had gotten there Sam did not know.
"Are you okay? You look terrible."
Was she asking him that?
He supposed, on second thought, that he must look nearly as bad as she did.
"You scared me half to death," he said, and his voice was hoarse from disuse, for hadn't it been a thousand years since he had seen Jules on the floor?
"What happened?" he asked finally. Jules shook her head.
"I just got a bit scared," she said dismissively. "You know, when that demo mine popped – it startled me."
People don't faint when they're startled. Jules doesn't faint.
"I'm fine," she insisted, seeing the doubt on his face. "I was just a bit dizzy."
"You were dizzy," Sam repeated. There was some emotion pooling within him, rising rapidly, threatening to flood his organs – and he knew what it was, and wasn't prepared for it, and couldn't deal with it, and the effort to keep it at bay was just too much.
"Jules, I saw what you looked like," he said sharply. "A geisha would've looked sunburnt next to you. Something is not fine, Jules."
He was getting more and more upset. The flood waters were beginning to churn. Jules closed her eyes.
"Sam, I'm really tired, and I don't want to talk about this."
"What is this?" Sam asked angrily. "You're a sniper, Jules, you've been through all kinds of hell more than once, and –"
"Leave it, Sam!" Red splotches had had appeared on her cheeks, a sharp contrast against the pallor of her skin.
Sam stood up from his seat and began pacing furiously.
No, I will not leave it. Something Is wrong with Jules, and I'm scared.
He stopped short, and the flood within threatened to burst out from his every pore.
I'm so scared.
FP*FP*FP*FP*FP*FP
Author's Note: I had some serious doubts about posting this chapter. My original idea for the story went straight from chapter "Dr. Jekyll" to chapter "Mr. Hyde", but then I reconsidered and wrote this chapter as a buffer between the two. Then I thought that it might be too much... maybe skipping it, maybe posting it at the end of the story as a deleted chapter... anyway, that's why I haven't updated this story in a while. Sorry about that. So yeah, please let me know what you think about this chapter!
