AN: Here we go :)

Sam didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to hold on, how much more he could stand without finally letting out the cries that had been threatening to escape at each touch of the cattle prods. He could taste the blood in his mouth from where he had bitten his cheek and tongue in an effort to remain silent. As the electricity coursed through him yet again he lost his battle to be silent and stoic as a blood curdling scream wrenched from him as the men kept the cattle prods in contact with his skin for what seemed like an eternity.

The pain was too much. Sam's body finally went limp as the darkness consumed him. As he dropped into the blackness he hoped never to return. He deserved this death. He just hoped that his death would allow his team to be freed.

Sam's head dropped to his chest and blood trickled from his mouth as he fell into unconsciousness.

Chapter 5 – Treatment

Mark's men released Sam from his restraints and he fell to the floor with a thud. They grabbed him by his arms, drug him across the room, and threw him unceremoniously on the metal plate where they shackled his hands and feet. This time he was spread eagle in the middle of the room with no slack in the chains for movement. They then left the room with Mark right behind them. The door closed with a click as it locked behind them.

Greg looked intently at Sam. He could see Sam's muscles still twitching from the electric shock and there was blood drying on the side of his mouth from where the young man must have bit himself. Greg could not imagine how his rookie had remained so quiet through so much pain. Sam's last, blood curdling scream had undone him. The pain and agony in that one scream was enough to affect even the most heartless person.

Greg knew that Sam had gone through extensive training as a JTF2 soldier. However, he had never given thought to the fact that he would have gone through training to resist torture. For a brief moment he couldn't help but wonder if Sam had experience with torture outside of his training. The possibility saddened him.

Wordy was extremely concerned for Sam. He could remember the pain of the electric current passing through his body when he did his Taser training. Sam had experienced it much more intensely with the cattle prods and Wordy could see burns on Sam's skin from where the cattle prods had made contact. Wordy knew that Sam would feel the pain from those shocks for quite a while yet.

Wordy was also concerned for Sam's mental state. He had seen what Sam had done. How Sam had appeared to completely ignore what had been happening with Lou and Spike, but Wordy hadn't missed the almost imperceptible changes in Sam as his teammates were shocked. It was hurting Sam to see them in pain as much as it was hurting them to experience it. He couldn't help but wonder if Sam would be the same once this was finally over.

Spike was still seething. He couldn't believe that Sam would allow him and Lou to be shocked like that. Didn't the man care at all for his team? Any decent human being would do what they could to stop another person from being tortured like they had been. That was what SRU was all about, helping people who needed it. Sam had not once tried to negotiate their way out of this, nor had he attempted any sort of tactical solution either. It was as if Sam was just waiting to die by the hands of the brother of the man he killed in Afghanistan. At this moment Spike felt like that would be the fitting end to this ordeal. At least then they wouldn't have to deal with a crazy ex-soldier who didn't care at all about his team.

Jules was so mad at Sam right now that she would probably Scorpio his ass if she had a gun. They were supposed to protect each other, look out for each other, and defend one another. But what had Sam done to protect his team? Nothing. Nothing at all. Her best friends, Spike and Lou, were in pain because Braddock didn't have the balls to own up to his own mistake. If they made it out of this alive she was going to hand Sam his ass.

Jules was brought out of her thoughts as the door opened and two men walked in. Both had side arms and one was carrying a box.

"Our boss isn't ready for anyone to die tonight so we've brought a few supplies." One of the men stated as he approached Jules. He pulled something out of the box before kneeling down in front of Jules. "I am going to put this shock collar on your neck. If you try anything, anything at all, while I am doing so then my buddy here is going to put a round into one of your friends. Do you understand?"

Jules nodded her head in understanding. She refused to be the reason one of her team was injured, unlike Braddock.

Once the collar was firmly on her the man undid the shackles on her wrists and replaced them with new ones. These had a chain about a foot long between them. It was enough that she would be able to use her hands for whatever was needed, but not enough to give her too much freedom. The man stood and stepped back as his comrade put the box on the floor in front of her.

"There are supplies in there for you to clean any wounds and water for you to share around. If you try and talk about a plan of escape, do anything other than clean wounds and offer water, or attempt to hurt either of us in any way you will feel a nice little shock to the collar." The man smirked as he and his friend moved to either side of the door. "You better get moving because I'm not going to give you freedom forever."

Jules nodded and slowly rose from where she had been seated on the floor. Her muscles were stiff and sore from sitting in the same place for so long. She tried to work some of the kinks out of her sore muscles as she moved to the box to survey its contents.

Inside the box there were eight bottles of water as well as some clean cloth that she could use to clean the burns on Spike and Lou. She was glad. She knew the burn marks from the Tasers would be hurting and she wanted to make sure that infection wouldn't be an issue.

"How are you Spike?" Jules asked as she knelt beside him. She could see the pain etched in his face.

"I've been better." Spike answered simply.

"Here, drink this." Jules handed Spike one of the bottles of water. "This might hurt a bit but I need to clean the burn marks so you don't risk an infection."

Spike simply nodded as he opened the bottle of water and took a long drink. His throat was dry and his voice hoarse from the screams that escaped during the torture. The water felt good going down.

Jules worked quickly and carefully to clean the burn marks on Spike's chest. She cringed each time he let a sound of pain escape. Jules felt horrible that she was causing him pain. As she worked on Spike then Lou she knew that if she had been in Sam's position she would have done absolutely anything that she could to spare the guys the pain that they went through. Once again she wondered if their ex-soldier had a heart underneath that tough exterior.

Once both Spike and Lou had their own bottle of water and their burns had been cleaned Jules walked around to the other side of the room.

"You holding up okay Wordy?" Jules asked as she handed him a bottle of water.

"I'm fine Jules. Please, don't waste time on me. Check on Sam. He's hurt the worst." Wordy encouraged. He didn't like the flash of anger he saw in Jules' eyes at his comment. What is going on with her? He thought as she moved on the Ed.

"Ed, you okay?" Jules asked as she knelt down in front of him and handed him a bottle of water as well.

"I'm okay Jules. I'm sore but nothing some down time won't and an aspirin won't fix." Ed answered. His chest still hurt and he suspected that he had a couple of cracked ribs. But, it wasn't important at this time. What was important was getting out of here with his team still alive.

"How are the ribs?" Jules asked. She had a feeling he wasn't being completely honest with her.

"Fine. Are you guys doing okay?" Ed asked, needing a status on the rest of the team.

"Spike and Lou are still hurting. That won't change for a while." Jules sighed. "Why do you think Sam didn't do anything to help?"

"Move along!" One of the goons called when Jules spent too much time talking to Ed.

"Later." Jules whispered as she stood and moved on to Greg. "How are you holding up boss?"

"I'm fine Jules. You need to check on Sam. Please." Greg pleaded. He had no idea why Jules hadn't gone to Sam first.

Greg had a feeling that he and Jules were going to need to have a serious talk when this was all over. He could sense the hostility towards Sam brewing under the surface and that would not be acceptable on his team.

Jules reluctantly stood and turned to where Sam was shackled spread eagle on the floor. He looked like he was still out of it. She paused for a moment and looked for the rise and fall of his chest to see if he was still breathing.

Sam could still feel the white hot pain coursing through his body. He had awoken when they dropped him on the floor but his body hurt so bad, his muscles still reacting to the shocks, that he didn't even have the energy to open his eyes.

As Jules tended to Team One Sam heard every word, said and unsaid. He knew that the team was still in pain. Sam knew that they blamed him for what was going on. He couldn't blame them. It was his fault after all. He wished the shocks had been enough to stop his heart. At least if he was dead his team had a better chance of getting out without too much more pain.

Sam began to feel a change in his surroundings as Jules talked with Wordy. The metal plate beneath him was lowering in temperature. He wasn't sure if the rest of the team had figured it out yet but they had also lowered the temp in the room. It was going to get cold in here.

When Jules placed her hand on his shoulder he didn't even more. He didn't know if he had the energy even if he wanted to.

"Sam, are you awake?" Jules asked, not really caring one way or another.

Sam simply nodded his head ever so slightly. The throbbing headache he was dealing with didn't appreciate it.

"I'm going to clean the burns on your chest. It might hurt." Jules explained. What she didn't say was that she wasn't going to be too careful either.

Jules went straight to work when Sam didn't acknowledge her. She was irritated at the fact. The least he could do was blink or something. Instead he had closed his eyes and seemed to be ignoring her. She was less than careful when cleaning out the multiple burns from the cattle prods. At this point she didn't care if she was hurting him or not.

Sam did his best to ignore the stabs of pain where Jules was cleaning his burns. Between that and the killer headache it was all he could do to keep his focus and not cry out in pain, especially as she worked on the worst of the burns.

Sam knew from the pain in his head, and the fact that his vision blurred each time he tried to open his eyes, that he had a pretty good concussion. He just added that to his growing list of injuries.

Jules was surprised when Sam finally opened his eyes. It took him a long moment but he was finally able to focus on her and she was caught off guard by the look of pain in his blue eyes. She wasn't expecting it after the way he so easily seemed to dismiss the torture.

"How are you feeling Sam?" Jules asked as she wiped away the dried blood around his mouth.

"Fine." Sam whispered. He didn't need the team worrying about him when there were other more important matters.

"If I help lift your head some do you think you can take a drink?" Jules asked. She hadn't missed the hoarseness of Sam's voice and knew a sip of water would work wonders for his sore throat. However, she wasn't sure why his voice was hoarse if he only screamed once.

Sam blinked once slowly in answer.

Jules reached under his head and raised it up some as she held the water bottle to his mouth. Sam took a small sip and closed his eyes as he rinsed the blood out of his mouth with the water. He turned his head to the side opposite Jules and spit the combination of blood and water out. Now that Sam finally had the blood out of his mouth he would be able to swallow some water.

Once again Jules lifted Sam's head just enough to allow him another drink of water. She had been surprised when he spat out the last drink, that was until she saw the amount of blood that he spat out. It seemed as though mister big bad Special Forces bit his tongue.

Sam swallowed the drink of water and held in a sigh. The liquid helped to sooth his sore throat.

"Give the rest to Spike and Lou." Sam said softly as he eyed the rest of the bottle of water. He wanted to make sure the guys were taken care of as much as he could.

"Fine." Jules then stood and took the water to Spike and Lou.

"Back to your place." One of the goons stated. He followed her and re-shackled her to the wall before taking off the shock collar.

Both men then left without another word and the room descended into silence. Ed drew in a deep breath as he wondered what torture was up next, and who it would be directed at.

Ten minutes later Jules shivered.

"Does anyone else think it's getting cold in here?" Jules asked as she looked around at the team.

"I thought it was just me." Spike answered. He had noticed the temperature change but thought it was somehow a side effect of the electric shock.

"Sam?" Wordy called softly. He had seen how hard Sam had hit his head, twice, and knew that Sam had to be battling a headache from hell.

"Yeah Wordy?"

"How are you holding up? How bad is your concussion?" Concern could be heard in Wordy's voice.

"I'm good Wordy." Sam was getting cold. Not only had the temp in the room dropped but now he was convinced that the plate below him was getting colder. They must have rigged it ahead of time just for this.

"We're going to get out of here Sam. Just hang in there. We're all going home, together." Wordy believed with everything in him that they would get out. One way or another.

"We're in this together Sam. We are here for you just as you are here for us." Greg added. He needed Sam to know that he had someone on his side.

Any response to Greg and Wordy's words were drowned out as the sound of gunfire suddenly erupted in the room. The sound was almost deafening. It didn't take but a moment for Sam to realize what was happening. He closed his eyes tight and swallowed hard and sounds of explosions were added to the noise.

Mark's next form of torture was going to be with sound and cold which would also cause them to not get any rest whatsoever.

Sam simply hoped that the sound of a war zone around him wouldn't mentally send him back to Afghanistan. Even as he had those thoughts, however, he knew the flashbacks were imminent.

Sam took a deep breath as he was transported back to Afghanistan, to one of the worst firefights of his life.

AN: I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well :D I would love to see a review with your thoughts!