A/N: Thanks for the reviews so far guys, I hope you continue to enjoy it.
"Team One, status!" Greg demanded as soon the shaking and noise of the explosion around him had died down enough for him to at least him himself think.
"No harm," Ed and Wordy responded in unison, always in sync with each other.
Spike gave Greg thumbs up while stating "no harm" for the benefit of the others.
They waited for a response from inside the igloo but were rewarded only by a near deafening silence.
"Sam, Jules, status!" Greg tried to cover his growing concern with impatience. As the seconds ticked by without a response, he took a peak at the screen in front of Spike, noting the panel in the corner showing the positions of each of his team members. The almost superimposed blips of Sam and Jules weren't moving.
"I'm sure they're fine," Spike tried to reassure his boss. "Do you hear that?" he asked, pointing at the comm. link in his ear, referring to a slight high pitched whine.
Greg nodded as he took off his cap and nervously ran his left hand over what little hair he had left.
"Interference," Spike stated. "Depending on how close the source of it is to them, they may not be able to hear us at all."
"Get EMS on standby just in case. There's no way to know what's happened in there."
"Copy that, boss"
"What's going on up there, guys?" Greg's voice asked in Ed and Wordy's ears as they watched squad cars arriving to disperse the growing crowd.
"Other than the guy with the grenade, this looks like a crowd of curious civilians. Maybe one of them saw something," Ed paused, noticing a security guard jogging toward them from the front doors. "Hang on, boss, we might be about to get some intel."
"Mike Rand, head of security," the man introduced himself, extending a hand to them.
"Officers Lane and Wordsworth, SRU," Ed responded, ignoring the man's extended hand and instead directing him back inside as they followed.
"What can you tell me about what's going on out there?" Ed asked as soon as the glass entrance doors closed behind them. "Has anyone worth noting come through the lobby here in the last little while?"
"Yeah, that's just it," Mike began. "Just after those explosions in the garage started, this guy came through here carrying a black duffel bag and talking on his phone."
"Did you hear any of what he was saying?" Wordy inquired, taking in how young the man standing in front of him looked.
"Not very much. I heard him say something about a foreclosure and a CEO, then something that kinda sounded like 'he's gonna get it', but I can't be sure of that. He was mumbling as he passed the security desk over there," he paused, pointing toward the now empty desk, "he sounded pretty calm, but it was an eerie calm. It was weird. He was headed straight to the elevators over there, though, so it seems like he knew exactly where he was going."
Ed stepped away to update Greg and Spike while Wordy pressed Mike for any other information that might help them and a description of the subject.
"Boss, you and Spike had better get up here quick, looks like we might have a hostage situation in the works."
Jules yanked the comm. link out of her ear and looked at Sam, still lying on top of her.
"Sam," she said softly. He looked peaceful, his head on her shoulder and his face next to hers.
She tapped him on the cheek, trying to get his attention, but his eyes remained closed. "Sam," she tried again a little louder.
She scanned the now darkened area immediately around her, looking for any new hazards. The situation had changed now that Sam was unable to protect himself from any impending danger.
"Well that might explain the interference," she thought, seeing a thick wire hanging down from the wall of debris a few feet away from them. "Might also explain the lights," she mumbled out loud as her eyes continued to adjust to the new lighting conditions. Most of the lights in their little igloo had gone out in the last explosion.
Putting her hand behind his head, Jules rolled Sam off of her and onto the dusty concrete floor. It wasn't that she didn't usually enjoy him lying against her with his head on her shoulder, but it was much more comfortable when he was conscious and supporting his own weight.
Sitting up next to him, with her left hand still behind his head, she placed two fingers on the side of his neck, just below his jaw line. She waited a moment and then let out a sigh of relief. His pulse was strong, so she decided that he probably wasn't seriously hurt, but that didn't tell her anything about what knocked him out in the first place.
She still wasn't sure if she had passed out momentarily as well, but that fact wasn't going to help Sam at all, she reasoned, refocusing on his limp form.
"C'mon, Sam, wake up!" she said a bit more urgently as she lightly slapped him on the side of the face.
As she continued to watch him nervously, she noticed that his hair felt wet and sticky in her hand. She gently pulled her hand out just enough to see a small amount of his blood in her palm before sliding it back to continue supporting his head, unsure if he may have also injured his neck.
She had just started looking around for the offending piece of debris when the screeching coming from their comm. links, his still in his ear and hers dangling from her vest, suddenly got much louder. She shut them both off before resuming her search.
Just as she caught sight of the slightly bloody piece of concrete about the size of a baseball about three feet from them, there was a bright flash on the other side of the small space as the wire began to spark wildly.
"Great," she mutters, "just what we needed." She managed to grab the strap of Sam's backpack that was just within reach and slid in under his head as a pillow. She got up and retrieved his riffle from where he had left it on the floor and brought it back to the far end of the igloo, as far away as she could get its live ammunition from the sparking wire and a source of ignition. She then returned to the center of the room where Sam was lying.
"I'm sorry, babe," she whispered as she looked down at him, "but this is probably going to hurt a bit." She took a deep breath, grabbed his wrists and dragged him across the dust and concrete covered floor to what she had decided was the safest place for them.
She sat back down next to him, placing his hand in hers. With her other hand, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and typed a text message to Sergeant Parker.
A/N: This wasn't how I originally planned for this chapter to end, but it seemed like a good place to stop. The extra stuff floating around in my head might lead to the next chapter being put up sooner rather than later. :)