Chapter 9 – Rookie Bravado

To Daniel's credit, he managed to pretty much hold it together as far as the walk through the corridors went. He looked sleepy but was mostly walking without assistance. Every now and then, he would slow down and Sam would gently push him onward from behind, trying to hide the need to do so from the marshals.

Jack and Teal'c had their eyes well and truly peeled for any kind of gap in the guards vigilance or opportunity for escape, even if just into an empty room, where they could wait until the coast was clear.

The marshals lead them along familiar corridors. There were a great number of testing rooms, depending on the product. Jack made sure that he knew the way back to the residence hall inside out. If they needed to sneak Daniel out, and couldn't find an empty room along the way that would be their port of harbor.

The group arrived at the double doors to the largest testing labs. Marshals flanked the doors as the testers were ushered inside. The room was spacious and unlike the last time they had seen it, the long walls down the side had been been padded out, with large crash mats fastened against it, up to head height and along the edge of the floor.

"In pairs!" The marshal began bellowing orders. "Each pair by a pair of crash mats!" Jack ushered his team to some crash mats as far from the marshals as possible. He had his arm around Daniel's waist, trying to help him while being as subtle as possible. This was not helped by the stares and whispers of the other testers, following them as they passed. Jack gritted his teeth and glared at them. No other tester would ever bring Daniel's condition to the attention of the guards but their blatant curiosity was not helping.

Daniel flopped onto the nearest mat, once Jack let him go. His aching brain retaining enough sense to remain sitting up, despite the stabbing pain in his chest begging him to lay flat. He needed more water.

Sam quickly moved closer to Teal'c as the marshals passed, checking pairs. The guard gave save a lingering look. All the marshals had heard the stories of what had passed between Sam and Hyden and she attracted more than a few unpleasant glances and comments ranging from derogatory to lewd. She never paid them much attention. Being constantly surrounded by three men who she knew would fight to the death for her meant that she never felt threatened and her confidence was hardly low enough to be affected by passing comments from men who worked as little more than armed gorillas. Nevertheless, she was glad when, as the guard looked her slowly up and down, Teal'c stepped in front of her, shielding her from the marshal's view and with a gaze that had made gods shake in their shoes, persuaded the man to back off.

Jack watched the silent exchange and felt the knife of guilt twist in his gut. He had seen the way some of the marshal's looked at his major, and he didn't like it. More than that, it made him hate himself more very time. Why the hell did he just let them walk into that van. He just wanted to protect his team, protect her. And right now, because of the mess he had gotten them into, he couldn't even be the one to do that.

He was glad of Tealc's actions to deter the man but wished it were him. Watching the marshal eyeing Sam's long legs had set a fire inside him. The urge to beat the man senseless and claim her as his own was clawing at him but the fight went out of him when he saw his tough; unbreakable; take-no-shit; reproductive-organs-on-the-inside 2IC cower behind their bulky colleague. There was nothing in her eyes but defeat. When had her spark been extinguished?

Jack swallowed the lump in his throat as he watched her, then turned to Daniel. Catching Tealc's eye, he saw the knowledge in the jaffa's face too. His team was falling apart. His 2IC had been reduced to a frightened, vulnerable woman he had never seen before, and Daniel was sitting wheezing on the mat behind him, barely conscious. Jack saw the same thing reflected in his young friends face before Daniel looked away again. Defeat. Both of them had resigned themselves to this place.

Well, that's gonna change. Jack pushed his self deprecation aside. It was not helping their situation and he was furious with himself for allowing t to continue so long. He had to focus on his team. Teal'c was a rock and Jack knew he could count on him to get the other two back. There was no way in hell he was going to let Daniel die here, and there was no way he was going to let Carter give up. They were both too good for that.

A second marshal was walking around the room, distributing—Were they serious?- weapons. A further marshal followed behind, passing, what looked to Jack, like bullet proof vests to one member of each pair.

"Each pair has a weapon and a vest. One of you stand 2 paces from the wall and brace yourself." The marshal allowed himself a nasty sneer. "The rest of you, take aim at your partners and hope the clever scientists made the vests resistant enough." He paused and looked directly at Jack. "And in case any of you get any dangerous ideas. The weapons you have been provided are remote primed and can be shut off remotely They will not fire shit until me and my boys are safely in the viewing gallery. After that, you can have at each other...Ramin?" A younger marshal stepped forward. Clearly a trainee, given all the grunt jobs but by the look on his face as he addressed the testers, you'd think he'd recently been made king of the galaxy.

"Ok, you bunch of worthless shits..." Jack rolled his eyes- rookie bravado- for cryin' out loud! "Take five shots at the first vest and then fetch a new one from the rack on this wall " He waved an arm to a back wall covered in hooks. "Each vest has a number on the right shoulder indicating which prototype you'll be testing. Once you've tested each one, there are 40 altogether, stand to one side and keep your mouths shut."

AN I had wanted to go a lot further with this chapter but it was taking a lot longer to figure out the second part than i expected and school work got on top of me. So eventually I gave up on trying to do the long chapter I had hoped for and I'm posting this to keep you going. Anyway I hope to get the next part up soon, the tension mounts so I won't keep you waiting too long.

R and R please :D

prometheus246