Disclaimer: Neither Stargate or Harry Potter belongs to me, I am only playing with their characters and worlds for a bit of fun.

Diving into a bush at full speed probably wasn't her brightest idea, but at the moment Hermione was a little too distracted trying to dodge her pursuers to think the move through. When she had exited the stairwell of the hotel, she had found several guards waiting to grab her and Eloise as she stepped out of the elevator. Pulling out her gun, she had fired haphazardly toward the trio as she grabbed Eloise and dragged her out of the building. Her ammo quickly ran out and the momentary surprise only lasted so long before the pursuers opened fire of their own.

Landing hard, she helped Eloise to keep low to the ground and scramble further into the foliage. Knowing they wouldn't have long until they were captured, Hermione was shocked by the sight of the security guards suddenly being tackled from behind. As she watched, Kyle took down one, then another, as Davik took out the last. A firm hand latched onto her arm, hauling her up, and she came face-to-face with her CO Scott Taylor. "I'm so glad you guys are here," she said, giving the man a hug, relieved by the last-minute rescue.

Helping Eloise to stand, he replied, "Don't thank me just yet; it looks like we have company."

Looking at what had caught his attention, Hermione spotted another group of guards rushing out of the hotel.

Shit.

Latching onto Davik, who was still pounding on his guy at her feet, she spoke, "I think we need to get out of here. Run!"

Following the rest of the group into the trees away from the hotel, Hermione noticed that Kyle now had a hold of his soon-to-be mother-in-law and was making sure she kept up. Burning with curiosity over how they had escaped, but realized it wasn't the best time to be asking them about it, Hermione put her breath to better use, increasing her speed even more.

Time ticked by and they eventually found themselves alone in the middle what she thought might be the seventh hole fairway. Huffing with exertion, Eloise gasped out, "Alright, I want to know...what is going on now. Hermione...said you had been kidnapped...What happened?"

Receiving some pointed looks from the guys, Hermione was relieved when Kyle took over explaining. "Ah, about that; we kind of escaped. I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but even if I did, I'm sorry; it would be classified." After seeing the frown forming on Eloise's face, he went on the defensive. "What are you doing out here, anyway? You shouldn't be here, it's dangerous."

Glaring at the younger man, Eloise fought back. "Don't give me that, young man. I hear that my daughter's fiancé had gone missing the night before the wedding, along with a group of his friends, and you expect me to do nothing about it..."

As Eloise continued to chew out Kyle, Hermione's attention was grabbed by Scott. Pulling her off to the side, he asked, "Granger, would you like to tell me what Mrs. Holm is doing out here?"

At the anger in his voice, Hermione bristled and began to explain in a professional tone. "There was a misunderstanding, sir."

"Go on," he prompted.

"Earlier this evening, Eloise came to me and implied that I was a danger to her family. She indicated that she knew something about me, rumors of some sort, and would be keeping an eye on me," reported a flustered Hermione.

"Why didn't you report this?" demanded Scott.

Defensively, she replied, "I wasn't sure what she was talking about; most of what she said didn't make sense at the time. After I was attacked, you lot were taken and my local team proved to be unreliable, I thought that she might know who was behind this whole mess. I kind of threatened her and we both yelled a lot. Turns out she overheard a conversation I had with Janet the other day about Kyle's project and jumped to the conclusion I was some corporate spy, come to destroy her family."

Clearly puzzled over what she had said, all he could utter was a strangled, "What?!"

Shaking her head at the absurdity of the suggestion, she elaborated. "She had an investigator look into my past, and apparently an old roommate of mine from college works for her husband's competitor. Therefore, in her mind, I wanted to see her downfall and was plotting blackmail or something while Kyle and Mary were on honeymoon."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Scott looked like he was fighting the urge to either laugh or have a meltdown. Hermione stayed silent, waiting for him to say something, occasionally wincing at the language that Eloise was continuing to berate Kyle with, while he tried to defend himself.

"...just because you are the one taking the risk doesn't mean that my daughter isn't still affected. I don't need to have her heart get broken because you come home in a body bag..."

Finally composing himself, Scott chose to ignore the issue for the moment and move on to his previous concern. "That still doesn't explain what she is doing out here."

She knew he wouldn't like her answer, but spoke anyway. "Well, I needed some help and she offered." Seeing the expression on his face, she quickly added, "It's kind of hard to say no to her. Sir."

Turning his attention back on the arguing pair, he let out a sigh of resignation. "I guess not. We don't have the time now, but we'll talk more later."

Before he could rejoin the group, she quickly jumped in with a question of her own. "Ah, where are the others? Did they get away?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, they went to find a phone and report in. Let's get back to the others and see if we can find a way back to the others." Stepping into the middle of the argument, Scott whistled, gaining the attention of both parties. "Here's the game plan: we need to stay out of sight of any patrols heading this way, but we also need to hook back up with Blake and William before they are re-captured. Everyone stay in the trees and we will slowly make our way back to the hotel. Hopefully they have called in back-up and it will be waiting for us. Head out."

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

At the sound of gunshots, Kurtis dropped the phone he was holding and took cover along with Major William. It didn't take long to determine the source of the sound was the hotel they had left their friends at. Not needing to say anything, both men began to run back toward the disturbance, leaving the payphone swinging behind them.

Taking cover, they watched as a group of armed men began pursuit of a group who was likely comprised of their teammates. Damn. Running through several potential possibilities in his head, Kurtis finally came up with an idea. Using a hand signal to grab William's attention, he gestured for the Major to follow his lead. Keeping low, they slowly retraced their steps back to the clubhouse they were previously held in. He planned to apprehend one of the golf carts to expedite a search of the area to find the others.

Ducking out of sight of a couple guards who were searching the area, they were able to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"There is no sign of where they have gone."

"Should we head back and help out with the rest of the search?"

"No, our orders are to secure the area out by the tenth hole as a landing pad for Mr. Stern's helicopter."

Sneaking away from the pair, Kurtis and William avoided notice as the guards got into a golf cart and drove away. Not wasting any time, both men slid into the other cart and followed.

"Who's this Mr. Stern?" questioned William.

"No idea, but did you see how quick they were to obey his orders? He's probably the one in charge of this whole mess, and I for one would like some answers," replied Kurtis, pressing the gas pedal further down.

"What about Colonel O'Neill and the rest of the back-up? Shouldn't we wait for them?" asked William.

Shit.

He had forgotten about that. Stopping the cart, "Look, you head back to the hotel and tell the teams what is going on when they show. I'm going to keep going; somebody has to keep an eye on the situation, otherwise the bastards are going to get away." Jumping out of the cart, the Major gave a nod of agreement before beginning to sprint back to the hotel.

Putting his foot down once again on the gas, Kurtis found himself flying down the dark faraway determined to reach the copter before it took off with its passenger.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The sound of soft footfalls was soon overpowered by the blades of an approaching helicopter coming in low to their location. "Hide," was his quick command, and Scott was satisfied to see his group taking cover in the tree line. They had been stumbling through the dark trying to avoid patrols for only a few minutes when the disturbance arrived.

Staying low in the brush, he watched as the helicopter touched down not even 30 meters away from their position. Trying to get a better look, he crawled forward and peered over the tall grass. The lack of SG personnel told him it wasn't their backup. The craft had powered down and was obviously waiting for someone to arrive, but he didn't know who.

"What's going on?" hissed Granger who had also moved forward toward his left.

Keeping his voice low, he replied, "I'm not sure; they're waiting for someone."

Just then, the headlights of a golf cart arrived. They ducked out of sight of the light and watched as several men stepped out of the cart. The lead figure was wearing a business suit, while the others were outfitted like the other guards in the area, armed to the teeth.

Another voice intruded into the silence at that moment. "That's the man. That's Mr. Stern," exclaimed Mrs. Holm, who, it appeared, had also moved forward for a closer look.

Scott was confused. "Who?"

Granger took up the explanation. "The one in charge of this whole operation. The one who we were running from," she clarified.

He knew he had asked her to hold off the explanation for later, but it seemed that was no longer an option, and he waved at her to continue. Granger managed to give a brief summary of what she had learned about this Mr. Stern, leaving him to begin organizing their next move. There wasn't much he could do about it now; his first priority was to try and get back to the hotel and find the rest of the team. They could wait for the backup Granger had called in to arrive, not try some half-cocked plan at apprehending some NID agent without any weapons and an unauthorized civilian tagging along.

He was about to continue their retreat when another golf cart came crashing through the area out of control. The thing struck a tree head-on and stopped. Two of the guards rushed to the cart and grabbed the driver, who had stumbled out of the thing after the crash. Pulling him forward, they dumped him at the feet of Mr. Stern and pointed their guns at the man. Scott finally got a glimpse of the guy when he lifted himself onto his knees.

Blake. Shit.

"Well, what do we have here? Who are you?" voiced Mr. Stern, but Kurtis kept silent. With a gesture at one of the guards, the butt of a gun was brought down onto the closed-mouthed figure. They all heard a grunt of pain as Mr. Stern repeated his question. "Who are you?" Again silence.

Signaling to everyone that they should fall back, Scott watched as the group proceeded to crawl back into the shadows before following. This was bad, really bad. It wouldn't take long for the men to tire of asking questions and just kill Blake. Staring at the faces of the others, they knew it as well; something had to be done now. "We don't have much time; any ideas?" he asked the group at large.

The uncertainty in Hermione's tone was obvious as she spoke up. "I'm not sure how much time it will buy for a distraction, but I still have this," she lifted up the case she had been toting around, showing them the vials lying inside. "I could try to trade it back for Kurtis while you either try to sneak around and surprise the guards."

It wasn't the best plan, but they had no other options at the moment. Scott mapped it out in his head before handing out assignments. "Davik, stay here and keep an eye on Mrs. Holm just in case. Kyle, you're with me; we're going to have to be quick and circle around from behind." Turning his focus onto Hermione, he sent her a measured look, "Buy as much time as you can and try not to get killed. We don't know what is in those vials. They are not going to give you Blake, so try and figure out some other way to hold their attention."

With a nod, she stood up and walked out of the trees toward the heated confrontation in front of the chopper.

He didn't stay to watch as she interrupted the interrogation, but he caught her voice as it rang out. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I believe we have some business to attend to."

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The ride over to the hotel was spent with Jack issuing instructions to the various teams in regards to what their objectives were. SG-4's primary task was to secure the ground floor, while SG-5 did a point-by-point search of each level, and SG-1 would be left looking for the location of Mr. Stern and his group. He had hoped they would be able to use some of the local personnel for backup, but after Granger's call, they knew that until an investigation was conducted that would be a bad idea. At the moment Jack's priority was to secure the location before continuing the search for his missing people.

Pulling into the back of the hotel, Jack double-checked that his radio was secured before jumping out of the vehicle, followed by his team. They had to act fast before the enemy caught on to what they were doing.

The sounds of gunfire reached his ears as the other teams arrived and proceeded to take out their targets. Carefully, his team approached the security station and took out the guards. Knowing her role, Carter began to search for answers on the system while everyone else stood at watch.

Keeping an eye on the corridor, his attention was grabbed by the approach of two armed men who also took notice of him and opened fire. Sending off a few rounds with Teal'c providing cover with a Zat, Jack noticed that Carter had started yelling from behind him. "There are five more moving towards this position!" she announced.

Keeping up the fire, he yelled right back, "How much longer do you need?"

The pause was barely noticeable as she completed typing on the computer. "I just finished, Stern has already checked out."

"Fall back," was Jack's only command as the enemy fire increased. The retreat didn't take long; SG-1 had plenty of practice in working under extreme circumstances. Teal'c fired off Zats, Daniel held his own with a gun, while Carter jury-rigged the elevator after someone cut off power. It turned out that Mr. Stern had already left the building, and judging by the radio reports Jack was getting of a helicopter showing up on radar, he knew they were retreating.

The activity around the hotel slowly tapered off as the teams finished securing the area. Before Jack could start reorganizing a team to be sent out to stop the man's escape, a commotion in the front of the lobby caught his attention. The missing Major William ran into the room and started kicking up a fuss about Blake going off alone while the rest of the missing personnel were all running around the golf course trying not to be shot.

Leaving SG-4 and Daniel in charge of completing the cleanup and to face the mob of hotel guests that had already begun to descend into the main lobby for answers, Jack ran followed by William and the rest of SG-1.

Not bothering to try a stealth approach, the team sprinted across the grass toward the landing chopper, hoping to get there in time. Whoever this Mr. Stern was, Jack wanted to know what the hell was going on and why his weekend had to once again be ruined by some emergency because of the NID.

He really hated those guys.

The sudden impact of a body sent him crashing to the ground as gunshots once again rang out in the dark. William, who had pushed him out of the way, was staying low as Carter returned fire and Teal'c began to try and move around the group for a better angle. Handing the Major his handgun, Jack joined in the firefight as well.

After taking out the last guard, his team took off running once again, increasing their speed as the sound of the chopper blades once again picked up.