I"m going to try to email everyone personally, once the epilogue is up tomorrow, to thank you all for the wonder ful reviews. I know everyone's freaking out about the fate of Mac and Sophie, so I'm not going to keep you in suspense any longer...
Chapter 14
May 24, 2006
2247 Local
The first thing Mac became aware of was the throbbing pain in her head. It felt like someone had replaced her brain with a bass drum, banging on it repeatedly and mercilessly. Her eyes practically vibrated behind their lids with each beat. Moving definitely wasn't an option yet, so she lay still, attempting to get her bearings about her. She cautiously opened one eye, just a crack, confirming that it was in fact, a tiled kitchen floor pressed against the side of her face. Now, the obvious question to ask next was, how did she get there?
She froze, her body becoming still as stone, when she heard footsteps coming in from the garage on the other side of her prone body. A man's voice filled the room, speaking in heavily accented English. Mac could only hope he was on a phone. One guy, she could take down. But in her condition, two would be a problem.
"I realize I am late." There was a pause and then, "Sharaq did not show, so I must complete his mission as well as my own."
'Okay', thought Mac, '…this is good. So far it's just him. I can handle this asshole.' She held her breath as he passed by her head, waiting for an opportunity to present itself.
"She had the photograph of my father in her hand. She must die. I will go ahead with the plan"
With those words, it all came rushing back to her. Sophie's car seat, the envelope with the picture and the documents, the blinding pain when she was hit from behind. Mac quickly conferred with her internal clock, relieved when she realized that only five minutes and forty-eight seconds had passed since she lost consciousness.
"Yes, I have the documents as well... Yes, it is taken care of. I will be on my way shortly."
Realizing he'd found the rest of the papers, Mac's gut clenched at the idea that a monster like Mahlik had been in the same room as Sophie. She kept one eye cracked open, watching as the feet of Ali Mahlik- she was assuming that's who she was dealing with- paced back and forth by her head.
Hearing the phone snap shut, she braced herself for attack. Not being one hundred percent, she knew that the element of surprise was her best advantage. Waiting until she saw his feet pass by her head again, she sprang into action. Like a striking snake to its prey, Mac's arm shot out, catching Mahlik's ankle and yanking it out from under him. With the skill and swiftness of a true marine, Mac was on her feet and battle-ready in half a second. Her head was spinning, and her stomach was threatening mutiny, but outwardly, she showed no weakness. Tense and ready for a fight, she waited for retaliation from the younger man.
Nothing happened.
She approached his form cautiously, nudging him with her bare toe when she was close enough. When she got no response, she nudged him harder; forcing his body onto it's back. He was out cold, the massive amount of blood covering the bottom half of his face telling her he'd broken his nose when it had met with the rust colored ceramic tile of the kitchen floor.
"Well that was anti-climatic," Mac said rather loudly as she kicked him lightly and watched his face for any indication that he was faking unconsciousness. Seeing none, she bent over the terrorist to check for weapons, coming across the papers and picture from upstairs as she did so. After confiscating the documents as well as his firearm, Mac glanced around the kitchen for some thing to tie up her prisoner.
That's when she noticed it. Suddenly she remembered her last memory before being attacked from behind. She'd smelled gasoline; and now she smelled smoke. Whipping around quickly, she stood up and rushed to kitchen doorway, tucking the papers in to the back waistband of her pants and pulling her shirt down overtop of them. When she reached the swinging kitchen door, all of her 'incase of a fire' training went right out the proverbial window. She slammed it open with such force that it hit the wall with an almost deafening 'crack'.
The livingroom was thick with black smoke, the furniture nothing more than kindling, and the flames already working there way up the thick curtains framing the front window. Mac forced down her initial panic, noting that the dense cloud was definitely not coming from up the stairs where Sophie was sleeping. Turning back toward the kitchen, Mac rushed over to the sink, grabbing the towel she'd used earlier while making Sophie's bottle.
She heard him a split second before he would have lunged at her back. Mac spun around, the weapon in her hand aimed at her assailant's head. With a condescending grin, he slowly raised his hands and took a step back.
"Ali Mahlik." Mac tried to make it more of a statement than a question. She needed to confirm his identity, but didn't want to lose even the slightest bit of the upper hand.
"Sarah Mackenzie," he replied with a nod and an unsettlingly bloody smile. Well, she wasn't quite expecting him to know her name, but she wasn't about to let him know that. At least he'd verified who he was for her.
"Move away from the table, please," she flicked the barrel of the gun toward the far corner of the room and away from the kitchen table where her cell phone lay.
"You will not use that on me, woman," he sneered wickedly in reply, the blood from his nose coating his lips and staining his teeth a sickening pinkish color.
"Wanna bet?"
He backed up three more steps, his obvious goal being the door leading to the garage, and by extent, his freedom. His movement ceased with the sound of Mac cocking his gun. She glanced toward the door, seeing smoke seeping in from underneath. Mahlik saw her eyes shift and knew exactly where her thoughts were leading her.
"I am very good at starting fires. It is what I am best at, what I love most," he laughed, a cold, hollow sound, "I am what you call a...pyromaniac? Which I do not understand, I would not consider myself a maniac, if I understand the translation correctly." The casual way in which he seemed to converse, while a fire blazed not fifteen feet away, was proof to the contrary as far as Mac was concerned, but she really didn't have the time to argue.
He nodded his head at the door, "You have an infant upstairs, yes? So you have a choice to make, American. Stay here with me," he gave her a leer that actually made Mac feel dirty, "or go save your child." Obviously thinking he'd won the battle, Mahlik took two more steps backward and made a move to turn and flee.
With speed and precision, Mac dropped the barrel of her gun slightly and fired twice, one shot hitting Mahlik's right thigh, the other, his left knee. The man dropped to the floor, a scream of agony escaping his mouth before he clamped his lips shut tight. Not wasting any more time on him, Mac sprinted out of the kitchen and headed toward the stairs, never giving a second thought to the terrorist writhing on the floor.
Using the towel as a mask against the smoke, Mac raced up the stairs toward the guest room. The smoke wasn't as thick up there, but it was curling up to the second story at an alarming rate. She burst through the door to the bedroom, coming to a stop at Sophie's bedside. Not taking the time to feel relief that the little girl seemed completely unharmed, she dropped the towel and snatched her daughter up, grabbing a receiving blanket to cover her tiny head.
Mac began making her way back down the stairs cautiously, the baby wailing unhappily, secured against her chest with one arm. The other hand steadily held the gun out in front of her, preparing for the highly unlikely possibility that her attacker had actually made it up off of the floor. A large part of her relaxed when she heard the sirens that seemed to be getting closer.
Reaching the bottom of the steps, Mac choked on the thick smoke, more dense than it had been just moments ago. It was near impossible to breath, and she was becoming increasingly concerned that Sophie was inhaling smoke with each of her heartbreaking sobs. It was quite obvious that she was getting fairly fed up with the violent interruptions to her sleeping schedule.
Mac made her way away from the stairs, toward what she thought was the front door. However, being in an unfamiliar house full of smoke, Mac found herself becoming disoriented almost immediately. She held the baby close, trying to keep the blanket over her head. Unfortunately there was nothing she could do, for either of them, about the intense heat. She was sweating profusely, and it was becoming impossibly harder to keep her grip on the gun in her slippery palm.
Mac the Marine was warring with Sarah the Mom for control, but she knew that it was the marine who was going to get her daughter out of that house. Quickly estimating how far she'd moved from the staircase, she knew that she couldn't make it to the front door. By now, almost the entire first floor was engulfed in flames and using the front door was no longer an option, so Mac was forced back toward the kitchen again. She wasn't too keen on the idea of having Sophie anywhere near Ali Mahlik, but if she had no other choice...
The porch. Mac turned sharply away from the swinging doors, and worked her way around the room, staying close to the wall so as to not get turned around. She mentally smirked at the idea that the admiral's porch, the porch, would be her saving grace that night. 'Harm's going to love that.'
The sirens where right outside as she made steady progress around the room, her eyes darting from the fire blazing up the stairwell, and the still clear exit on the other side of the room. She could just make out the door through the black cloud, red and blue lights penetrating the dense smoke and assuring Mac that help was there. She just needed to get to it.
And then, as if in answer to her prayers, the doors seemed to explode from the outside, and two men, dressed in yellow and black fire retardant suits, suddenly emerged from the smoke and flames. One man rushed towards her, throwing some sort of heavy blanket over her and Sophie, guiding her toward the now nonexistent door. She saw the other man head toward the kitchen and wanted to warn him as to what he would encounter in there, but everything happened so fast, and then she was outside.
Once at the end of the front yard, Mac felt her rescuer pull the blanket off of her and she finally felt the crisp, fresh night air. Taking a deep breath, Mac immediately bent over at the waist, still clinging to her baby, and let loose with a torrent of coughs, so deep she thought she'd lose a lung. Mac's continuous coughing began to jar Sophie, who was letting the world know that she was beyond irritated and reaching boiling point. She felt someone pull the screaming infant from her arms, and wanted to protest, but couldn't stop coughing long enough to even shake her head.
After being helped to an ambulance for a cursory check, an EMT following close behind with her baby, Mac found herself sitting just inside the back of the vehicle, a calmer- though not much- Sophie in one arm, the other hand pressing an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. They had given her some Tylenol for her head, but it was still pounding horribly. The paramedics had seemed to think that the baby was none the worse for wear, but both mother and daughter needed to get a thorough check at Bethesda before they could be cleared.
"I understand that my daughter and I need to be looked over by a doctor," Mac explained patiently, pulling the mask away from her face and earning a glare from Gabe, the EMT taking her blood pressure. "All I'm asking is that you find me a phone so I can contact my fiancé. If he comes back here to this, he's going to panic." Panic was putting it lightly. Mac knew he'd freak out, and the last thing she needed after a night like tonight, was a freaked out Harmon Rabb.
"And I explained, Ma'am, that you'll be able to call him as soon as we get you to Bethesda. They have plenty of teleph-"
He was cut off by the squealing of tires. Ever ready for an emergency, Gabe hopped out of the ambulance and walked around its side to see if he was needed. Mac followed behind quietly, hoping to avoid being chastised, again, for not using the oxygen mask. She almost felt sorry for him, she wasn't being very cooperative when it came to that mask; she just couldn't argue efficiently with it on. Paramedic and patient both stopped short when they caught sight of the car that had careened up onto the front lawn, watching in muted amazement as two men took off running across the yard, one seeming intent on racing right into the burning home. Luckily, the other stopped him.
"Told you he'd panic," Gabe jumped when his patient spoke from right over his shoulder. Walking around beside him, she held out the fitfully sleeping baby. "Would you mind?" she asked tiredly.
After he accepted the tiny bundle, Mac wearily headed toward Harm and Clay, who both seemed to be drilling holes into a local sheriff with their eyes.
"Harm!" her attempt to yell fell short, her throat still irritated from the smoke. He heard her however, his head swinging around and his eyes searching wildly for her. Once he spotted her, his whole body seemed to deflate. He turned away from Clay and the police officer to head in her direction. Mac met him halfway, falling into his embrace. She felt him shudder as his arms pulled her close, one under her arms with his hand at the base of her neck, and the other around her waist, lifting her up until her feet barely touched the ground
"Ohgodohgod, thank you," he breathed into her hair.
"Breathe Flyboy," she tried to jest, but the cracking of her voice betrayed her. So she just held on tightly, both arms locked around his neck and her face buried in his shoulder. She let a few tears fall, the first that weren't caused by acerbic smoke or blows to the head.
"Are you okay?" his concerned voice whispered close to her ear, probably feeling the moisture on his skin. She nodded her head into his neck, not ready to move yet. She knew that she must look a mess, all sweaty and dirty. At least Gabe had cleaned up the blood from her head wound.
"Sophie?" he asked in a choked whisper.
Mac pulled back quickly, realizing that she was scaring him. "She's fine Harm, we're fine." Slipping her hands from around his neck and up to cradle his face, she caught his eyes with her own. "We're both just fine," she reiterated emphatically before pulling him down to kiss his lips lightly, feeling the tension roll off of his body. "I'm sorry, I'm scaring you," she murmured against his mouth, "I'm just a mess at the moment and-"
She was cut off when he began kissing her back, deepening the embrace, turning it from comforting to passionate. She fell into him, letting his lips and arms and hands pull her away from reality, if only for a moment.
"Ehm," they turned in unison, their lips tearing apart almost painfully, as Gabe approached with Sophie, now awake, and still not looking to pleased with her current situation. He happily relinquished her to her eager father. "I really should be getting you and the little one to Bethesda, Ma'am."
Mac watched as Harm's overprotective radar kicked into high gear. He turned to her with Sophie resting comfortably on his shoulder. "I thought you said the two of you were fine?" Not waiting for her answer, he turned to the paramedic. "Are they okay?" he asked, and Mac watched as all that anxiety washed over him again.
"It's standard precautionary procedure, Sir," Gabe replied with an easy smile. He'd apparently dealt with worried fathers and husbands before. "They both have some smoke inhalation, but the little one's seems very minor. She's effectively demonstrated that she has a healthy pair of lungs," he added dryly.
Mac smiled as Harm breathed a sigh of relief and turned his head a fraction to place a kiss on his daughter's soft head, his hand rubbing up and down her back in a soothing gesture. However, his intense stare never wavered from the EMT in front of him. "What about Mac?" he asked as if she wasn't standing right there. She rolled her eyes affectionately, knowing what was coming next.
"Well, she definitely breathed in more smoke than the baby, but she's up talking and having no trouble breathing, so I don't think there are going to be any long term problems." Just as Harm's face finally seemed to relax, Gabe continued, "It's really the head wound we'd like to have looked at. While they do tend to bleed-"
"What head wound!?"
"Harm, you'll frighten Sophie," Mac state calmly, not wanting to add that his yelling wasn't helping her head any, either. She was certain that that wouldn't go over well. Seeing his gaze switch from Gabe to herself, she hurried on to explain. "I was hit here when Ali Mahlik caught me by surprise," she indicated the damage to the back of her head, no longer bleeding thank goodness.
Harm was behind her in an instant. She could feel his free hand hovering around her head and his fingers brushing her hair, not sure where to touch without causing pain. "How bad?"
She knew that his question was posed to the man with the medical training and not her, so she stayed silent and still, letting Harm fuss over her for a few minutes. Once upon a time she would have thrown a fit, giving him some speech about being a marine and surviving head wounds way before he came around; and that was all true. However, Mac knew now that his fretting was just his way of showing her how much she meant to him, how much he needed her...how scared he'd been. Plus, it gave him something to focus on so he could come down off his adrenaline high. Tuning out the conversation going on behind her, she took a minute to contemplate just how far they'd come since that Hollywood-esque adventure through the Arizona desert.
"Mac. Mac!" Harm was suddenly in her face, staring from one eye to the other, as Gabe watched on in amusement. She jerked back involuntarily.
"What?" she asked innocently.
"You wouldn't answer me. Are you sure you shouldn't be on your way to the hospital?" he was watching her warily, his hand wrapped around her upper arm as if he expected her to fall over any minute.
"I'm sorry, I was just lost in thought," she assured him, rubbing a hand up and down Sophie's back. "We'll head to Bethesda in a few minutes. What was your question?"
"Um, how about what the hell happened?" She knew he was frustrated with the whole night, not with her, so she let his tone slip.
"Well, Ali Mahlik somehow gained entry to the house and hit me hard enough to knock me out for a few minutes-"
"How long is a few?" Harm interrupted.
"Five minutes, forty eight seconds," she stated patiently. She ignored Gabe's confused look and focused on Harm's contented one. For some reason unknown to her, he always seems to relate her health to her ability to tell time. She continued on, "When I came to, I tripped him up, and broke his nose. When he tried to run, I shot him. Once in each leg." They both knew that there was much more to the story, but that would wait until everything calmed down.
Harm's whole demeanor swelled with pride. "That's my Marine." Pulling her to him by her arm, he leaned in for another kiss. They separated just as Clayton Webb walked up to them, a firefighter two steps behind him.
"Good grief Mac, did you leave anything behind for us?" He approached the little family with a swagger, pecking the woman in question on the cheek before taking a respectable step back. "I'm glad you're okay," he said sincerely. "Both of you," he nodded toward Sophie. Having finally exhausted herself, she was sleeping soundly against her daddy's chest.
Clay turned to the gentleman standing slightly behind him and gestured him forward. "Mr. Bruester, meet Captain Harmon Rabb, Colonel Sarah MacKenzie, and..." Clay gave Gabe an expectant look.
"Paramedic Gabe Andrews," he introduced himself with a smile.
Webb continued, "Everyone, this is Wes Bruester. He's the…."
"One who pulled us out of the house," Mac finished for Webb as she recognized the man. She was amazed at how young he looked, probably only twenty-four or so. "Thank you," her voice held a note of awe. She knew that her appreciation couldn't be expressed with a simple thanks, but she honestly didn't know what else to say.
"You did real good, guy," Gabe added.
Wes blushed slightly as he replied, "It's all part of the job, Ma'am, Sirs," he nodded to Harm, who reached out and shook the younger man's hand.
"It was more than a job to me, son. It was my family..." Harm glanced down to Sophie and then over to Mac. Finally, his eyes slid back to the firefighter, and Mac saw so much gratitude in his gaze, it was almost painful. "I owe you my life," he finished simply.
"You're military, Sir, Ma'am?" At Harm and Mac's simultaneous nods, he continued, "Well then, let's just say I'm returning the favor. Now if you'll excuse me," he looked back at the house, "I'm not off the clock quite yet." With another handshake, and a hug from Mac, the young man, who suddenly didn't seem so young, went back to work.
"Huh. Just when I start think that his generation just doesn't get it..." Clay shook his head in wonder.
Looking around, Mac realized that the yard and the still smoldering house were now crawling with agents. "When did they get here?"
Clay glanced of his shoulder. "Oh, them. They were right behind me and Harm. They'll be taking care of our friend with the two bullet holes and busted face," he looked at Mac meaningfully.
"He pissed me off," she replied with a shrug. "How did you guys know to come here?"
"Sharaq…"
"Excuse me," Gabe cut Clay off, raising his hand to get everyone's attention. "As interesting as all of this is, and believe me, it is, I need to get the ladies to the hospital for a few tests. Plus, I've worked around here long enough to know CIA when I see them, and I have a feeling that whatever you people are involved in, or about to discuss, is not something that I 'need to know'," he used his fingers to air quote his last three words, further substantiating his claim that he knew a little something about the shady workings of the Company.
Webb seemed particularly disgusted with himself as the three of them gave one another penitent looks.
Webb nodded his acquiescence to Gabe, who then turned and headed back to his truck. "I'll meet you folks over there when you're ready."
"Wow," Mac said into the silence, as the paramedic walked away, "we are just not good at this whole spy thing." She looked at the two men in bemused astonishment.
"Speak for yourself," Clay attempted to scoff, but when both Harm and Mac shot him outrageous looks, he gave them a half shrug and a Clayton Webb smirk. "Hey, I've been riding a desk for a while. I'm rusty."
"Yeah, well, my last 'need to know' discussion concerned my mother's birthday," Harm smirked as well, his hand once again rubbing up and down on Sophie's back. He turned to Mac, raising his eyebrows.
She looked from one man to the other, both apparently waiting for her own defense. "What? I'm the one who bagged a bad guy single-handedly, remember? I need no excuses. Oh, and by the way," she reached behind her, under her shirt, and pulled out the documents she'd found in Sophie's car seat, "I think you might be looking for these." She handed the papers to Webb with just a small amount of flourish. Then, without so much as an explanation, she turned on her heels and headed for the waiting ambulance, leaving behind two befuddled men and one sleeping baby.
She heard Webb sputter a couple of times before he called out, "I assume we'll be talking about this at your debriefing," which she answered with a wave of acknowledgment without turning back.
She felt Harm come up behind her as she made her way around to the waiting ambulance. When he placed a hand on her shoulder, she spun around and hugged him tightly, careful not to disturb the baby now tucked safely in the crook of his arm.
"Hey, you're okay," he assured, stroking her hair lightly, mindful of her injury, "I've got you." She knew he wasn't totally unprepared for this. She may have been playing the cocky marine in front of Webb, but Harm knew better. "Everything's okay now."
"I was scared," she whispered after a beat.
"God, so was I," he whispered back, and she felt his nose nuzzle comfortably into her hair.
"I love you," she said softly, pressing her face into his chest. Wearing nothing on her feet but slippers had her at a slight height disadvantage that she hadn't noticed earlier, probably due to the fact that Harm had all but hauled her up to him. Now, Mac was enjoying being somewhat dwarfed by him. It made her feel safe.
"I love you too. Both of you, so much," she heard him reply, as he held her with his free arm. Mac turned her head to the side, resting her cheek against Harm's strong chest. She then reached out to Sophie, safe in her daddy's embrace, and cradled the baby's head with her hand.
Harm and Mac watched as the gawking onlookers returned to their homes; as firemen and police officers began the long and tedious clean-up process; as CIA agents scurried about the smoking ruins of the late AJ Chegwidden's home. In the midst of all the pandemonium, they held tightly to one another, and to Sophie, each silently swearing never to let go.
TBC in the epilogue
And you guys thought that I'd actually do something horrible to them :)