Chapter X: The First Wave
A/N: Massive thank you to IzzieStar. Hope everyone enjoys this chapter!
As Elizabeth crumpled, clutching the doorframe for support, Officer Clayton Webb narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He'd expected denial, defiance even, but certainly not this. Seeing Elizabeth Weir like this unnerved him, and the confidence and anger which he had mustered on his journey to Sedona were suddenly shrouded in uncertainty.
"I have a few questions to ask you about your activities over the last week, namely your relations with certain members of the Stargate program." Webb barked.
Through her tears, Elizabeth rose to look at Webb, with disgust. It was all so clear now; the lack of official letter, the absence of an urgent voicemail...and she felt nausea clawing at her gut.
"This is your punishment?" Elizabeth spat.
"This is protocol." Webb replied, coolly, "Now shall we step inside, or would you like to conduct this interview under the watchful eyes of your neighbors?"
Webb gently placed a hand under Elizabeth's arm to guide her into the house, but at the feeling of his touch on her body, Elizabeth flinched and pulled her arm away, angrily turning her eyes on the cool-blue irises of Webb.
"You will get nothing from me until I get them back."
At this Webb, couldn't help but laugh, "Surely that would be defying the point?"
It had always been apparent to Elizabeth that the IOA didn't have a conscience when it came to the protection of 'national security', but this was...for her this was torture. The experiments, memories blurred in a fusion of white coats, had been nothing to this.
"You return my children to me, and I will give you any information you want." Elizabeth persisted.
Webb squinted against the rising sun to study Elizabeth's face, "Your children?"
"Yes. I want them back and I guarantee that I will not be cooperating with anymore of your inquiries until you ensure that."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm suddenly very concerned that you have somehow allowed two six-year olds to disappear." Webb said, angrily.
Elizabeth shook her head violently. Even in her emotional state, she wasn't going to allow the IOA to manipulate her into accepting that this was her fault in order to force her into submission. Her former experiences with the IOA, both as the leader of the Atlantis expedition, and as Project A, had taught her that letting them taking them assume control of any situation inevitably meant that she would face sacrifices, and she wasn't prepared to sacrifice the wellbeing of her children, as temporary as it may be.
"I will be waiting." Elizabeth said with a conviction that certainly didn't reflect her inner turmoil.
With that, Elizabeth moved to slam the door, but inches from the latch, Webb slammed his hand into the gap and rammed the door open. With his eyes burning into her, Webb moved towards her, taking one further step until she was backed against the wall with fear pulsing through her veins.
"I think it's time we had a little chat." Webb said.
As he turned away towards the lounge, Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief and her eyes fell on a photograph of Olivia and John Junior, taken the previous Christmas. Moving to follow Webb, Elizabeth paused for a second and gently touched their faces with her finger tips, silently promising to bring them home. When she entered the room, she found that Webb was vacantly fingering a carelessly strewn leaflet from the hotel, with a look of disappointment on his face.
"Now I'd like to know what exactly has happened with your children." Webb asked, looking up at her.
"I'm sure you could give me a better explanation."
"I assure you, I couldn't. Maybe we should start from the beginning." Webb said, raising the leaflet in his hand.
Elizabeth shook her head, "This is not how this is going to work. You return my children and I will give you the information that you so desperately seek."
Tiring of Elizabeth's attitude, Webb angrily threw the leaflet onto the table and turned his eyes on Elizabeth, "I'm afraid that you're children aren't in IOA custody, so I really do think it would be in your benefit to start talking if you'd like our cooperation in finding them."
"Y...you don't have them?" Elizabeth asked, unsteadily.
"No. We don't have them. It isn't our MO to take little children from their Mother's, as dubious as that Mother's claims to humanity are." Webb sneered.
Despite the calm, collected way Webb drawled this; Elizabeth simply couldn't find it in herself to believe him. If anybody was capable of maintaining his poker face in times of great emotional trauma, their history has taught Elizabeth that is was Webb.
"There is no other explanation...you've taken them to stop me seeing anybody from my former life again." Elizabeth said, "Is that what you want? My promise to never see them again? Fine, you have it. You can move us...out of the country even, just please give me my children back."
For the first time, Webb felt a twinge of sympathy as he witnessed the desperation of a Mother who had lost her children. Awkwardly, he reached out to hold Elizabeth's hand. This time she didn't flinch. Instead, she looked at him wearily, with the hopelessness of her life finally hitting her.
'You really don't have them, do you?' Elizabeth asked, weakly.
"No. I'm afraid we don't."
"I need to call my superiors. We're going to get the children back, but that means you're going to have to trust us and cooperate with us." Webb said.
Elizabeth nodded, "Of course. I'll give you some privacy."
Pulling her robe around her shoulders, Elizabeth left the living room, pausing at the door to ensure that Webb was occupied before hastily tiptoeing to the kitchen and grabbing her lifeline. With a final glimpse at the living room, Elizabeth eased open the back door and gently let it close behind her. As she desperately tapped the numbers, Elizabeth found that her hands were shaking and leant against the cool exterior of the wall to calm herself.
"Hello." Jack O'Neill said, in a bored tone.
"Jack...oh god, I don't know where to start. It's the kids; they've been taken, and the IOA have turned up...and I just don't know what to do."
"Hey, hey, hey, Elizabeth calm down. The kids have been taken?" Jack said, suddenly sounding very alert.
"Yes," Elizabeth said, in a hollow yelp, "Webb says it wasn't the IOA, but I don't know what to think, I'm so scared...I need you Jack, I need you to come back and I hate to ask, but..."
"You don't even need to ask Elizabeth. This is Livie and Johnny we're talking about, I'll be on the next available flight to Phoenix."
"Thank you Jack."
Before Jack could reply, Elizabeth ended to call and stuffed the cell into her pocket and quickly slipped through the kitchen door. As much as she knew that she needed Jack, she wasn't sure that the IOA would agree. Once she was in the kitchen, with nothing or no one to take her mind off the desperate situation she found herself in, Elizabeth found herself welling up again and she reached for the packet of fruit loops which her children should have been eating breakfast from, but was stopped in her tracks as Webb entered the room.
"My superiors have authorized the resources in order to search for the children." Webb said.
"Thank you." Elizabeth said weakly.
"They also appreciate that this is very difficult for you, but the circumstances of this...crime must stay between you and our organization. Do you understand?"
"I do." Elizabeth said, without a flicker.
At this point, Elizabeth really didn't care if she was defying the IOA or not. What she cared about was her children, and Jack was the person who she trusted to bring them home, not the men in the suits.
For the rest of the day, Elizabeth was very tense and edgy. She did her best to do things that would not remind her of the twins. Which she wasn't doing very well at.
Webb was in and out all day. While he was there, she answered the questions he asked her clearly and to the point. Elizabeth wasn't in the mood to bandy about words while her children were missing.
At around six, Webb left for the night. Elizabeth barely noticed his leaving. A short time after he left, she heard a knock at the door. Immediately she jumped up from the sofa, realising that, unless Webb had decided to return for more interrogation and awkward silences, the person on the other side of the door was Jack.
Except it wasn't.
The people on the other side of the door were Jack and John, and seeing him, was a painful reminder that she simply wasn't ready to face. Folding her arms across her chest, Elizabeth's eyes fell, accusingly, on Jack.
"How could you bring him? Do you want to make things worse?"
"Quite the opposite actually; whether you like it or not, he is their father and he has a right to be here." Jack said firmly.
"And the IOA already know about our little 'vacation'. It isn't going to take them long to work out that you're here again." Elizabeth said urgently.
"Excellent. If the cat's out of the bag, we can camp here for the night. We're more used to you here than stuck in some hotel." Jack said.
With that, Jack smiled at Elizabeth and walked past Elizabeth into the house with a bag in his hand. Elizabeth looked to John and opened her mouth to say something...anything, but without looking at her, he followed Jack into the house knocking her aside with his own bag. As she watched his retreating figure, Elizabeth felt a small pang of longing to feel close to him, but this was overshadowed by the realization that she had let him down in an unforgivable way.
Instead of following the men, Elizabeth busied herself with organizing blankets, too exhausted to put the effort or emotion into trying to gage how John currently felt towards her. Clutching the blankets, she found that every turn held some reminder or memory of the twins and, begrudgingly, she was relieved to have the company of the two men who were waiting pensively for her, in the basement with their bags already placed individually on each sofa. After throwing the blankets into the arms of each man, Elizabeth perched on the arm of the sofa, staring at a small worn patch on the carpet and told them everything in a tone that didn't register her true emotions, because if she allowed those emotions to register in her monologue, there was little chance it would be completed. Despite this, the watery glow in Elizabeth's eyes and the grey complexion of her cheeks gave away her true feeling to both men, and rather than ask her the questions they so wanted the answers to, they both bid her goodnight, letting down their guards enough to each embrace her.
A/N 2: Help has arrived. Could you all participate in a poll on my profile which will help me decide whether something may happen at the end of this story?