What's this? Another chapter? Just a short one to tide you over until the longer chapter tomorrow. Enjoy and please review!
Rose xx

Steve was in Russia. That was the only reason to explain the fog around him; Russian was the only place he'd ever been with fog that thick. Why was he in Russia, what was going- oh. The op had gone bad. Steve had led them through the forest of Siberia. The team had been young, it was only Mericho's third op, Jamison's first. Steve himself was the oldest but he had no problem taking command. Everything had been going well until Jamison stumbled. A boot in the wrong place and there was a crack like a gunshot but Steve knew it to be the crack of the lake they had been circling. The fog was thick so Steve dived towards where he thought he'd last seen Jamison, feeling the daggers of ice water as they penetrated his skin. He could make out a dark shadow he knew had to be the rookie and reached out, pulled, felt the two of them break the surface. Like a well-oiled machine, the rest of the team pulled Jamison out. Steve tried to follow but another crack echoed and Steve knew that that time it was a gunshot. Knew it by the searing pain in his gut.

"Move out, evac point is half a mile, abort the mission and go. I've got Jamison now go." Nothing mattered but his team. They listened without hesitation, moving and Steve heaved himself the rest of the way out of the water, ducking around the whizzing lead and hauling the shivering rookie into his arms.

"Commander I'm fine." Jamison's voice was quaking, the glimpse of his lips Steve had seen was blue and when he'd pushed him from the water he'd seen the way his ankle stuck out the wrong way, likely the result of the fall that had led to the whole mess.

"No, you're not Jamison, but you will be. Stay still now mate, we'll be out of here soon." The fog was thick, and his stomach was burning but he could still see the tails of his team. He counted his steps in his head, cataloguing each as part of the half-mile that lay between them and the helicopter. He could finally hear the thwack of the blades over the gunfire and then he could see the chopper too, his team giving cover-fire as one of them held hands out for Jamison. Grateful to relieve himself of the weight, he made his men load up, last in s was his duty. He slammed the doors closed, strapped himself in. Jamison was laid on the floor as they took off, blankets piled on him as the medic began looking over the ankle, splinting it.

"Commander." Steve looked up, confused to see the second medic handing a blanket to him.

"Huh" The fog must have followed them up on take-off because it was still clouding Steve's vision.

"Commander you went in too. We need you to take off your clothes and get you warm."

"Wha'? "m fine." The medic, Kyle, looked suddenly worried.

"Commander I'm going to help you alright?" Kyle reached for his belt and Steve was suddenly worried. What the hell was going on? He tried to push Kyle away but his hands were heavy.

"It's alright Commander I'm just getting you warmed up." Steve watched as he turned away to face the other medic, Casey, who had finished up with Jamison. "Case I need help over here. There's something wrong with the Commander."

"Huh?" The unintelligible sound was once again the only thing Steve could force past his lips as the other medic made his way to them. Powerless against the two men, Steve was lowered to the floor against his will, suddenly aware the rest of his team, including Jamison, were watching on with worried eyes.

"It's alright Steve. Can I call you Steve?" Casey was pulling his clothes off. A first name hardly seemed more intimate. He nodded.

"It's going to be alright Steve, we'll figure out what's…oh shit, Kyle we're in trouble." They'd removed his top, as well as his pants and Steve was shivering as blood slipped down his stomach. The team were now leaning in to help. They looked like they had it covered. Steve was pretty sure he could close his eyes, he trusted them. He let his lids slip.

There was a hand on his face, warm on his freezing skin, which would have been nice if it hadn't slapped him. "Come on Steve, stay with me. Eyes open." Steve was really cold. He didn't want to open his eyes. "Fight for me, Steve. Come on you idiot fight for me. You got to stay with us, babe." That wasn't right. He'd worked with Kyle and Casey before but they weren't friendly. Not enough to call him babe. In fact, the only person who called him that was Danny. But he didn't know a Danny. The fog was thick again and the Danny man was still talking to him. The fog was settling deeper. Steve let it.

"Fight for me, Steve. Come on you idiot fight for me. You got to stay with us, babe." Danny sighed, slumping next to Steve as the ventilator hissed. The brunette had never looked worse. He'd lost too much weight; his hair was lank and thinning. There was three days-worth of a beard and circled deeply bruising underneath his eyes. Johnson had given a location three hours north of the palace in their earlier interrogation, to a small shack in the forest he'd taken Jemima camping at. He'd given his word there was a vial of an antitoxin in a cupboard at the back of the bathroom. Given his word didn't mean shit Danny still had him in interrogation until such a time that Steve himself could confirm he was okay. Chin and Kono had taken the drive. Danny had taken vigil with the friend who doctors said would be lucky to survive the six-hour round trip to get the cure.

"Come on babe. Fight with me."

The trip there was meant to take three hours. Chin made it in two. He and Kono stormed the tiny log cabin. Any other day they would have taken a second to admire the drawings taped everywhere, clearly the work of a young girl. Instead, they ran through the cabin, tearing through the first bathroom they found with no luck. The second bathroom was further back. They moved through it more carefully.

There was a vial, in a sealed bag on one of the shelves in the bathroom just as Johnson said it would be. There was no list of ingredients, no name on the vial. Just two words in neat script. Mua Hala. Chin bagged it up and sighed. The Hawaiian phrase for revenge.

Hope you like it. Until tomorrow!
Rose xx