Chapter Sixteen

Moore

"Reece! Put the gun down… Reece!" Her hand wavers a little, and her eyes clear to the point where I can see that she's really terrified. Well, I would be, too, if I was in her situation. "Reece, put it down.", I repeat a little calmer, but her gaze has already glazed over again and the gun is firmly pointing at me again. Crap.

"Don't even try it, Moore. This one's ours, head to toes.", Robbins smirks, and I want to hit him squarely in the face again. We'd been so close. And what's worse is that it's all my fault. I should have listened to Reece, and I shouldn't have let my arrogance prevail and believe Robbins wouldn't manage to lose these restraints fast enough. But I did, and now we're all in the danger of having to pay the price for it. And yes, there comes the order again. "Shoot him, Lieutenant. And when you're done with that, take the other two down."

Her finger creeps towards the trigger again, but before I can say anything, Laura speaks up from behind me. "Maureen… listen. You don't have to do this. You can shake this off. I know it." The hand with the Beretta shakes again. Come on, Reece, you can do this. If you make it, I'm never gonna yell at you again. Well, much.

Reece's hand is still shaking and she's blinking her eyes as if trying to clear the fog in her head away. "Lieutenant!", Robbins bellows and she jumps. I get a glimpse of her eyes, and it gives me a stab. She's suffering and very near her breaking point. In fact, I'm astonished she hasn't already reached it. We need to get her out of here, and fast. "Lieutenant, do as you're told, dammit!"

A sound escapes her throat, something between a whimper and a moan. Something's gonna happen, I know it. And I've got a real bad feeling about it. She closes her eyes and shudders. It looks like inside of her, there's a battle of epic proportions raging on. "Lieutenant. You'll be never released before it's "mission accomplished"!" Something inside her snaps and she whips around to face her tormentor. Faster than he can react, she's pulled the Beretta's trigger and pumped two bullets into his head.

A curious expression of surprise appears on his face before his eyes break and he falls down. I… can't believe this. My little timid, tormented linguist just shot the guy who'd been holding her reigns.

After a shock second or two Laura wants to rush forward and take care of Reece, but the Lieutenant turns around again, suddenly with the Beretta's muzzle against her – my – head. What the…?

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry…" Tears are streaming down her face now… holy crap, I guess this is the first time in decades my eyes are shedding tears. The Beretta's muzzle is still pressed firmly against the temple. Don't you dare shooting my brains out, Reece.

"Put the gun down, Reece. Everything is okay now. He's dead and we'll get you out and to the SGC. I promise, Lieutenant. Now…" A sob escapes her throat.

"No. I'm a danger to the team and to the SGC. I have to. I'm not reliable. I'm…" She's in shock, certainly. Laura, do something!

But it's not Laura who speaks, but Dee, who managed to hobble over from his corner. "You just proved very well how reliable you are, ma'am. You're just in shock. Let us… let us help you as much as you just helped us." I've seen Dee's remarkable strength and calm during difficult missions time and again, but he still manages to surprise me now and then. Today is surely one of those times.

But Reece doesn't listen to him. She just shakes her head. "I can't. I dishonoured the Corps and I'm an unpredictable danger. I need to be put away. I…" Okay, enough of that. We can save the emotional repercussions for later, because right now we have a lot more pressing problems.

"Shut up, Lieutenant." Mh. What I wouldn't give for my own imposing voice right now. "Listen up now. Put away this fucking gun and follow us to the 'Gate. No buts. I'm your fucking CO and you will do as I tell you. Get it?" The hand shakes more violently now and her gaze clears a little further. But she still doesn't lower the gun. Okay, this calls for desperate measures. "Dammit, Lieutenant! This is an order from your CO! Put down this gun now."

She closes her eyes and for one long terrifying moment it looks like she's finally pulling the trigger and rob me of my body forever. But then suddenly a shudder goes through her body again and very slowly she really lowers the Beretta. Then, from one moment to the next, she collapses to the ground. Immediately, Laura rushes forward.

Greenspan

Multiple level brainwashing. I should have thought of that earlier. After that za'tarc thing, the SGC's medical personal, including all us team medics, had extended training on everything to do with brainwashing. The whole thing took one week and then the following four weekends as well. And then the one case I happen to stumble upon takes me much too long to diagnose. Should really brush up on the psychiatric side of my job.

Anyway, at least she's still breathing on her own and her pupils are reacting normally, even if she's unconscious. So most probably no brain damage as an after effect of her breaking through at least one level of brainwashing. But I have two people now who need an infirmary. "We need to get going, Tom. There's no way to say if Reece is going to suffer some brain damage from this. And I want Dee hooked up to a blood transfusion as soon as possible."

The Sergeant in question wants to protest, but a look from me – and probably the first effects of pain and blood loss – silence him even before he can say something. Tom, on the other hand, simply nods, drags up Reece and signals me to go and help Dee. I'm glad he didn't want me to wake her up, because something tells me that this would be a bad idea. I guess the fainting was a kind of mechanism to protect herself from further psychological damage, induced by the shock she went into after shooting Robbins.

Or maybe… maybe it was induced by something Robbins said… the sentence with the "message accomplished" struck me as pretty odd, but I have this feeling that it would be better to find out what exactly it meant in a controlled environment with lots of medical back-up and probably a few SFs.

Anyway, I just hope Tom had a look at this place's maps as well, just to double-check Reece's work. He's that kind of guy who doesn't trust an inexperienced junior officer like Reece to do her job right, so he usually memorizes whatever they should have memorized, just in case something went wrong. And well… something did go wrong.

"You know how to get out of here, right?" Trying to find the right position for his burden, he just rolls his eyes.

"'Course I do. Piece of cake, compared to… this." Yeah, well, at least now you know what it means for me when I have to drag your hide through the scenery when you decide to be unconscious, mister. But before I can answer, my other patient thinks he has to say something and somehow gets out of my grasp.

"With all due respect, ma'am… I think I can walk very well on my own." What? No! I'm the doctor here, and if I say you can't walk, you very well can't walk, Sergeant! "Someone needs to help the Major, and that someone is not me." Yeah, well, at least he sees that. Okay, fine, this isn't the place and the time for a lengthy discussion on who knows more about human physiology and statistics on blood loss after bullet wounds.

"Fine. But don't blame me when those infirmary doctors give you a hard time for not listening to your team medic." And let's just all hope that the infirmary doctors can still give you a hard time when you arrive at the SGC.

But anyway, with that it's settled and I move to help Tom with moving Reece, while Dee is giving his best to watch our sixes. Tom didn't lie when he said that he knew how to get out of here – still doesn't mean that I will stop telling him off for this unnerving habit of second-guessing junior officers' decisions and skills at every possibility he gets – and he manages to manoeuvre us through the complex. There's no more hostile activity, and that probably means that this was either an almost abandoned outpost… or so secret that not even all rogue NID-agents knew about it and it was understaffed. And the fact that we knew about it… "The intel about this was planted on us, wasn't it?"

Tom grunts. "I knew there was a reason why I wanted you on my team." Idiot. In the body of a girl, dragging a fully trained USAF SF's body with him, not even half out of some top-secret research facility… and still acting the big shot. One day… one day I'm really going to kick his ass for his attitude. I know I've been saying this for maybe 30 years now, but one day…

Anyway, got a job to do. "Good to know that there was a reason." And another door… oh… that's something new. Before us, there's a snow, snow and even more snow. At least as far as I can make it out with the pitch black dark. "Huh. Please someone tell me we took some flashlights from that armoury."

"'Fraid… 'fraid we didn't, ma'am." Crap. We need to take the fastest way to the 'Gate, because Dee won't survive some long stumbling around through the snow and the cold. "But I may have something else to light us the way to the 'Gate." I turn around to see the same grin he always displays when someone lets him play around with C4. See… that's what I don't get about Dee: He's one of the quietest persons I know. Not in the sense of being shy, but just not a great talker. And possessing a kind of inner calm and composure he probably earned hard in the years he's been serving. Just like nothing could really tip his equilibrium. But give that guy some C4 and a detonator and he shows you quite a different side of his personality, if only for a few seconds.

"What do you have in mind, Sergeant?" The grin stays on.

"How about a nice big fire, sir? After a nice big explosion?" Now Tom is grinning as well. God, guys and their little goodies.

"Sounds great. Do it." Not if I have to say anything about it. "No, Laura. You know I trust your judgment infinitely, and that's exactly why I don't want you to voice it now. Just let's get this over with." Yeah, sure, it's not like the bandage on your Sergeant's leg is already soaked with blood or anything. Or like I'm your fucking medic and my word is fucking law when it's about medical… oh… wait. I get it. If I don't say it, there's no law. We'll definitely talk about this, mister. "Get it on, Sergeant."

Dee nods. "Yes, sir." And then he moves down the corridor to place a few charges and hobbles back. It pains me, and not just because he's a patient. He's a friend and I don't like to see friends suffer. When he's back, he looks at me again… and gives me a look that can't quite decide between an encouraging smile and a deeply embarrassed apologetic frown. Huh. About time we get away from this planet.

Seems like Tom had the same thoughts on his mind because he shoos us all away from the building, far away that the blast won't get us too much. When Dee pulls the remote's trigger, the whole complex goes up in flames, building after building. How the hell did he do that? I really need to get behind those tricks he's using.

But maybe… later. It's freezing cold, and the light from the burning remains of the complex is lighting up the flat snow covered plain far enough that we can make out the 'Gate in about a mile's distance. Time to get our asses back home.

A/N: Okay, here's the deal: Because I just gave you the conclusion to the cliffhanger (courtesy of mac and her throwing some cookies instead of something hazardous at me :D), you'll give me a little time for the following chapters. I gather there will be at least three more, because there are some lose threads I definitely want to tie up before moving on to follow-up stories. But I want those threads to be tied up in a very careful way, so I really might need quite some time to wrap it all up nicely. How's that?