In the complete blackness, Jen couldn't see… but she could most certainly hear.
Inside her ear, commands for teams to proceed to their objective.
Outside her ear, curses and footsteps, and muffled whimpers.
Oh thank god, they were here!
She nearly collapsed out of relief.
But she was not free yet.
They might be here – wherever here was – but where exactly were they and how soon before they could get to her? Too many questions left too many unknowns.
With absolutely no visible light source there was nothing she could do but feel forward with her feet and fingertips.
Carefully locating the beakers, she clutched them tightly, sliding them along the smooth surface of the counter top until she reached the end by the far wall. She wanted to call out – to tell John and Evan and whoever the hell else was listening that she was here… but she couldn't speak for fear of being discovered.
"Doctor!" A thick baritone called out. "It will do you no good to hide."
Jen held her breath, and kept her mouth clenched shut, trying to decide just how quickly she could do what she needed to do. The Marines would have night-vision, but she did not. If this concoction of Laura's worked… it would burn... giving her a distraction to perhaps escape. And, it would also create a lot of light.
Light that would let her see… and also be seen. It was dangerous. But she didn't want to wait – she wanted out. Now.
"Doctor!" Kotko called, a little louder this time. Jen could hear him moving into the room. "You will regret hiding from me."
As the little girl began to cry, Jen's ear hummed with orders and commands. Something about guards, an airplane, fuel tanks, and a package. She ignored the voices… ignored the fact her heart stopped beating when she recognized Evan's voice in the mix. Ignored the terrified whimpers of the little girl. All to concentrate on putting one foot firmly down beside the other, without making any noise.
"Shut up!" Kotko ordered. "Damn wailing child."
Jen moved along the back side of the counter, still gripping the beakers, still praying she wouldn't drop them. She knew her hands were shaking but she couldn't think about it. Sliding her bare feet across the floor she side-stepped until she could feel the wires from the back of the computer monitor.
"Doctor…" He warned coldly from the far side of the counter. "Answer now, or I will make you feel pain."
Jen was almost back around to the head of the table. Close to the door, close to the girl, close to the hallway and potential freedom.
It would have to do.
Any further and she might not be able to throw them properly.
She just needed to distract him long enough to grab the child and run…
A loud crash and the sounds of smashing glass to her left told her that Kotko was definitely now at the back of the lab. He'd just knocked over the cart containing the sterilized beakers.
Jen took a deep breath and willed herself to take one more step back. Sending said a prayer to the heavens and furiously shook the beakers, counting to three. She could feel the concoctions bubbling vigorously, making a soft hissing noise. On three, she threw one after the other towards each corner of the back of the room as hard as she could.
And ducked.
The explosion hit with a concussion wave so powerful it knocked her right off her feet.
"What the…" Rodney muttered, the vibration shaking through the floor he was kneeling on. He glanced at Sheppard.
Along with a contingent of Marines, Evan, John and Rodney were crouched behind a counter, staring down the long hallway towards the elevator. Flashlight beams from P90's zigzagged across the cement floor of the hanger as several other Marines dragged their incapacitated prisoners into the corner.
"What the hell was that?" John turned towards the scientist.
Rodney looked up, his eyes wide in the pale blue glow of the screen. "Some kind of explosion."
"Where?"
Rodney pointed at the floor.
"Shit." John cursed.
"We need to move." Evan urged, stomping down the panic trying to bubble to the surface.
John turned towards the open floor of the hangar.
"Major Shannon. Take your team and cover the back. Make sure we're not about to get any more company. There's a secondary entrance back there. Watch your six."
"Roger, that!" The Major nodded, leading his team across the hangar bay and disappearing into the night.
"Effingham, on my mark I want you to blow the fuel tanks."
Effingham grinned. "Yes sir!"
"Lorne, you're with me."
Evan nodded and stepped in behind John as they moved quickly down the hallway. One Marine reached for the handle and on John's nod, ripped open the door. P90's aimed at all angles covered a mop bucket, several brooms, and a box of cleaning supplies.
"It's a closet." One of the Marine's frowned.
"So you say." Rodney brushed past him and stepped inside. He opened the fuse box and ripped the panel off the small keypad. Prying the face plate off, he quickly connected two cables to his tablet.
"Can you get us down there?" John asked quickly.
Rodney made a sound halfway between a snort, and a pfft.
"There's no power." A Marine Lieutenant frowned.
"Ah yes." Rodney nodded, making calculations on his tablet. "Because power makes the world go round. Well, my uneducated friend, let me introduce you..." He moved the cable to another connection inside the panel. "To a little thing…" He made another calculation on his tablet. "I call…" Rodney looked up and made a face at John. "Gravity."
Everyone's stomach lurched as the floor began to drop. One of the Marines who'd been standing outside the closet quickly jumped inside to ride the silently dropping elevator.
"How do we stop?" John said quietly, glancing at Rodney.
Rodney blinked. "It has brakes."
"Without power?"
"Do you really want me to go into it?"
He was met with a chorus of harshly whispered "No's".
They watched the bottom edge of the closet door disappear above their heads. After dropping close to fifteen feet their movement slowed with an audible click, everyone exhaled. After a moment, all eyes turned to McKay.
"What?" Rodney frowned.
John rolled his eyes. "The door?!" He whispered dramatically.
"Oh!" Rodney nodded, returning to his tablet. "Right."
Jen coughed violently against the cloud of dust and particles raining down around her. She rolled onto her back and lifted her head to stare at the destruction. Fires burned in both corners. Wires and rebar bent and twisted out of the wall, wrapped around misshapen hunks of cement. A portion of the ceiling had collapsed, dumping a small mountain of cinder blocks and mangled equipment onto the floor, and exposing the innards of the ceiling.
There was no sign of Kotko.
"Holy shit, Laura!" She whispered. "You said a small… what the hell's your definition of big?"
Jen rolled onto her stomach and forced herself to her feet. The toddler was wailing long and loud, a beacon to anyone within miles. Staggering towards the cot, Jen quickly confirmed the little one had been sheltered enough with the cot tucked in beside a large filing cabinet. Other than being terrified, the little one was unharmed.
Jen cocooned her in the blanket and lifted her up. The child's arms immediately shot out and hooked Jen's neck with a strangle hold. Jen shushed her, begging her to stop crying, and the little girl's wails turned to wet snuffles as she buried her wet cheeks against Jen's neck.
Jen reached for the com.
"Colonel Sheppard this is Dr. Keller, can you hear me?" She whispered as loudly as she could chance. Leaning her head around the corner she stared into the hallway.
"Doc?!" Came John's shocked reply. "How'd you…" A pause. "Right… Never mind. Are you okay?"
"You're late." She whispered, peering left and right down the hallway. Elevator – no power.
"Well, you know how traffic is this time of day…" Evan's voice came back and she couldn't stop the smile. "I see you found the radio."
"No, actually I'm projecting a psychic link." She hissed. There had to be a secondary exit. She tried the door right across the hall. Locked. Moving to the next one. Also locked. "Where are you? Are you in the lab?"
"McKay's working on getting us out of the closet." Evan muttered.
"You're in the closet? You might have mentioned that before we got married…" She muttered, hoping she remembered the direction of the elevator. The ambient light from the fire in the lab was almost gone and she could barely see more than the vague outline of the corridor.
"Uh, Doc. This is an open com…" John muttered.
"You're the one who said you were coming out of the closet." She countered, the shrieked when a secondary explosion vibrated the floor. She staggered and bounced into the wall, dropping hard on her knees. She hunched her shoulders to shield the child.
The little girl began to cry again in earnest.
"Doc!" John's concern pierced her ear. "Doc, you okay? What the hell's going on? Who's crying? Is that a child?"
Jen couldn't answer. Not with a hand pressed so tightly around her throat.
"Get up." Rousseau ordered from behind. "It's time."
Jen staggered to her feet, half lifted by the strangling pressure around her throat. She gripped the little girl tightly, willing herself to move without dropping the poor child. Rousseau shifted his hand to the back of her neck and squeezed. She cried out against the sharp press of his fingers, ignoring John's and Evan's frantic attempts to get her to acknowledge them.
"Move!" Rousseau ordered, shoving her forward.
"Time? Time for what? Where are you taking me?" She asked, fighting to split her concentration between the voices in her ear and the man dragging her down the hallway. John was ordering someone named Effingham to get into position, and yelling at McKay to hurry up with the doors. The doors to the elevator? But she wasn't going in the direction of the elevator.
"No, wait! Shouldn't we get out of here?" She staggered, and Rousseau shoved her even harder. "The elevator is back that way!"
Rousseau switched his grip from her neck to her upper arm as he dragged her back towards the destroyed lab. "You'll pay for that." He hissed.
"Pay... pay for... for what?" She staggered, trying to keep the child upright while he kept pulling her left arm. The little girl clung so tightly Jen was having issues swallowing.
"Liar." Rousseau stopped and swung her towards the firelight glowing in the open doorway. Flames burned brightly, licking up the walls, finding anything they could to use for fuel. Paper, chemicals. If the fire hit the oxygen tanks in the corner…
"I… didn't... I didn't do anything." She shuddered.
Rousseau snarled, shoving her past the lab and further down the hallway and into the darkness. Several turns later she was nearly blinded by the glowing white beam of a flashlight.
"Take the child." Franks sharp voice snapped from behind the light.
"No!" Jen gripped the little girl tightly but Rousseau pulled so hard Jen was afraid the child would be hurt. The little arms struggled to hold onto Jen's neck but they were snatched away. Rousseau dropped the child unceremoniously onto the floor.
With her pink-footed feet tangled in the blanket, the little one sat between the three of adults, her face upturned into the light, tears flowing freely down her little cheeks. Jen reached for her but Rousseau yanked her back towards Franks.
Jen raised her arm, shying away from the light that blinded her eyes. Her heart was slamming behind her rib cage with such force she felt the pain through her spine. She desperately wished to hear their voices - Evan's voice. John. Rodney. Anyone! But the com in her ear was deathly silent.
"You have disappointed me Doctor." Franks spat. "And I am not a man who tolerates disappointment. You will pay for your insolence."
"No, please! I didn't d-"
Blinded by the flashlight, Jen didn't see the hand coming.
Her head snapped with such force she slammed into the wall and slid to the floor, stars exploding behind her eyes. The sharp taste of copper filled her mouth, and tears stung her eyes. The world swam and swayed, the glow from the flashlight splitting into several beams before blurring and returning to just one.
"It is a shame, Doctor." The voice came from somewhere above her. "I had high hopes for our… partnership."
Jen tried to rise but her head was spinning to violently for her to get her bearings long enough to determine which direction was up. She could see the little girl crawling towards her so she closed her eyes against the nausea that was rolling through her stomach, and reached blindly towards the wailing toddler.
"Go to hell." She cursed Franks, and Rousseau, and Kotko, and any person or being in the universe who could harm a child.
A hand twisted in her hair yanking her roughly to her feet. She cried out and clamped her hands down on her hair, trying to keep whichever man it was from ripping it off her scalp.
Franks face hovered in front of hers.
"I have been to hell and can live there quite comfortably." He sneered, then shoved Jen back down to the ground. She braced herself but still landed hard on her side. Rolling, she reached for the little girl and pulled the wailing, frightened child against her.
"Kill her." Franks ordered coldly. "Kill them both."