AN: I just love it when life gets in the way of a chapter update. Hopefully this chapter will make up for the delay.
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.
Chapter 6 – Flashback
Lou hurt. Every bit of his body was in pain from the Taser torture that he and Spike had endured. However, his thoughts weren't on his own pain, but on Sam.
He knew how much it hurt to be electrocuted with something more than a Taser. Lou had helped his dad do some electrical work in their house one summer and they had missed flipping a breaker. Lou had gotten quite a jolt from the socket that they had been working on. He could still remember how his body had hurt for days after that.
This is precisely why his thoughts weren't on himself, or even Spike, but on Sam. He knew that his teammate was in a lot of pain and the drop in temperature wouldn't help Sam relax any time soon. Sam was going to be in a good deal of pain, and for quite a while.
When the sound of gunshots and explosions started Lou knew that Mark was trying out a psychological torture. The cold and loud sound would ensure that they suffered from sleep deprivation. Not to mention, depending on how cold it got, they could be dealing with hypothermia.
But the sounds would provide another level of torture for their Army vet. Lou knew that the team was not enjoying the sounds of gunshots and explosions at the volume level they were being blasted at. But, he knew that the sounds and previous torture could potentially send Sam back mentally into the warzone that he had left behind. Lou was afraid that Sam would have a flashback and how that would affect him.
Lou wished he could go to Sam and talk with him, remind him that he wasn't back there in the desert and that he wasn't alone. But that wasn't possible. Which is why, in his weakened state, he wanted to actually cry when he saw Sam's eyes slam shut and his head jerk from side to side. It was evident that a flashback wasn't just going to be a possibility. It was a reality!
As Sam lay shivering on the metal plate his head whipped from side to side and Lou could see that he was muttering something. He was too far away, and Sam's words were too soft, for him to know exactly what was being said though.
Glancing up Lou met Greg's eyes. Both men had the same train of thought and both wished that there was something that they could do to comfort the young rookie on their team. But there was just no way. They couldn't go to Sam; they were still shackled to the wall. They couldn't call out to him; the noise in the room was at such a high volume that they would have to scream loudly to be heard even a little bit. All they could do was sit and wait, and be there for Sam when it was over.
During the cold hours that followed Lou couldn't help but think about everything that had gone on since they had arrived and something that Mark had said was plaguing him. Mark had said that the team was there simply to provide more psychological torture for Braddock. The man was trying to do more than break Sam physically. He was trying to break him mentally too. As Lou watched Sam's movements he knew that it was working. If something didn't happen fast Sam would break and Lou didn't know if they would be able to put all the shattered pieces back together again.
Lou simply sat and watched as Sam clearly struggled with whatever memory was plaguing him. He hoped that the sounds would stop soon and that he would be able to reassure Sam that they were there for him. Lou just didn't know how long it would be, or what state they would be in when silence once again reigned.
"Matt! No!" Sam screamed as he attempted to sit straight up but was caught short by the chains on his wrists.
Suddenly the room went eerily quiet. The team was shocked not only by the sudden silence in the room, but by the pain filled scream that came from their teammate. No one had been expecting it and whether they wanted it to or not it had shaken each of them to the core.
"Sam?" Lou asked tentatively after several long moments of silence.
"Sam? Are you with us?" Greg asked, his worry clear in his voice.
"I'm fine." Sam answered simply, his voice hoarse and his body shivering.
"Sam, we're just worried about you." Lou said softly. He hated the pain that he could see in Sam's face.
"Just a bad memory is all."
"From when Matt died?" Lou asked cautiously.
"No." Sam took a deep breath. "From the day he almost died right next to me because of a decision I made."
Wordy closed his eyes and sighed quietly. He knew that had to be a bad memory for Sam.
"Want to talk about it?" Wordy asked carefully.
Sam thought for a long minute. No, he didn't really feel like talking about it. But, at the same time, he had never really forgiven himself after that mission. Matt had almost died because he thought it was a good idea to go out in the field that day.
"We, uh…" Sam swallowed hard. "We had just finished helping the American's with a mission. We had a day before our ride back to our base was to pick us up when we heard what was going on. A platoon had gotten cut off and was surrounded by hostiles. The helo that went in to get them out had been shot down in the middle of the chaos. They were gearing up to go back out and attempt a ground assault with helo cover and I suggested to Matt that we hitch a ride and see what we can do from the air."
Sam paused for a moment as he took in as deep a breath as his bruised ribs would allow.
"When we got there we realized that the helo pilots were in trouble. They were separated from the rest of the platoon and hostiles were coming in hard and fast towards them. Matt and I asked for permission to insert ourselves and provide cover for the helo until either help arrived, or we could rendezvous with the platoon."
"What happened when you got on the ground?" Greg asked curiously as he guided Sam through the memory.
"We worked our way to the helo and provided cover. It was about five minutes later when a rescue helo came in and we helped them lift the pilots out." Sam answered simply.
"But it didn't end there." Lou stated. It was clear to him that there was more to the story.
"No. Once the pilots were lifted to safety Matt and I made our way to the Platoon where we helped with cover sniper fire until the standoff was over." Sam answered as he stared at a spot on the roof. "It was about thirty minutes before the cavalry arrived that Matt was hit in the chest. By time we got back to the U.S. base and Matt got help he was almost dead."
"But he survived." Greg stated.
"No thanks to me. It was my idea to go in. If we had just minded our own business then we wouldn't have been there, and Matt wouldn't have almost died." Sam said quietly.
For once Greg wasn't entirely sure what to say. He could hear that Sam was still beating himself up over the incident. However, Greg didn't think that anything he said right now would alleviate the guilt. After all, they were in this situation due to Mark wanting revenge on Sam. Now wasn't the time to deal with past guilt over the same issue, someone getting hurt due to something Sam decided or did.
"Does anyone have any idea how long it's been?" Ed asked after a long moment of silence. He didn't want to talk about Sam's flashback any longer. It was making him start to feel guilty over his behavior towards Sam and he wasn't ready to admit that he was wrong yet.
"Not a clue." Spike piped up. He was usually a good judge of time but he in this case he was baffled.
"Eighteen hours." Sam stated simply.
"What?" Jules asked, speaking for the first time since the sounds started.
"It's been eighteen hours since the sound began." Sam replied, keeping his gaze on the roof.
"And how would you know that Braddock?" Ed asked, not believing Sam for a moment.
"Because…" Sam took a breath before meeting Ed's gaze. "That's how long the firefight lasted on that mission. The sounds he blasted, that was a recording from the mission with the communications scrubbed off of it."
Lou closed his eyes and took a deep breath. That would explain why Sam had that particular flashback. He was reliving it because it was the actual recording from that mission.
"I think we need to be prepared for Mark to come back." Wordy commented sadly.
"Yeah, he always shows up when you least want him to." Jules added irritatedly.
"You mean like right now?" Mark asked as the door swung open. "Man, it's chilly in here." He stated as he entered the room, his three goons close behind. "Let's warm it up a bit shall we."
The team knew that it would take time for the room to warm, but that didn't mean that they weren't grateful for the reprieve.
"Now, I think it's time for another chat Braddock, what do you say?" Mark asked as he knelt down above Sam's head and smirked at him.
Sam simply met Mark's gaze and kept his comments to himself. He had vowed to remain silent when Mark was in the room and he wasn't about to break that vow now.
"Chain him up." Mark commanded.
The three men came forward and roughly unchained Sam from his place on the cold plate on the floor. They positioned him below the hanging chains and forced his hands over his head to chain them up once again.
Sam swallowed a groan as his body protested being stretched in such a way yet again.
"Braddock, you look a bit thirsty." Mark turned approached Sam with a large bottle of water in his hands. "Let's get you a drink shall we."
One of the goons stepped forward and jerked Sam's head back while pinching Sam's nose shut. This forced Sam to breathe through his mouth if he wanted to get any air at all. Mark then proceeded to pour the bottle of water into Sam's mouth.
Jules cringed as she watched Sam deal with the copious amounts of water being forced down his throat. She knew what it was like to feel like you were drowning. There was a time when she was a child that she had gone swimming with her brothers and she had almost drowned in the deep end before her brothers rescued her.
She knew that Sam's lungs would be burning for air even as he swallowed as much water as he could. Jules also knew, however, that despite his best efforts Sam would most likely end up with water in his lungs. If they didn't get out of here soon Sam would risk getting pneumonia.
For the first time since this ordeal had started Jules started to wonder if they had somehow been wrong about Sam.
As soon as Mark finished pouring water down his throat Sam started coughing. Despite his best efforts he knew that some of the water had entered his lungs. After several deep coughs Sam's body reacted to the massive amount of water forced upon him and he began to vomit. All the water that he had just ingested ended up on the floor of the cell as Mark chuckled nearby.
"Looks like you weren't thirsty after all." Mark sneered.
Sam finished heaving, took several deep breaths, and then forced his gaze to meet Mark's once again.
"Well, I've spend some quality time with Ed Lane, your Team leader. As well as Scarlatti and Young, the teammates that are as close as brothers." Mark put his hands together, touched his fingertips to his chin, and slowly looked at each member of team one. "Who shall I chat with next?"
Sam was careful to keep his gaze from meeting any of his team. He knew that at least half of them were beyond pissed at him, and he wasn't sure how long the other half would stay in his corner if the torture continued.
"Constable Wordsworth." Mark walked over to stand in front of the man. "How close are you with Braddock here?"
Wordy simply met the man's gaze. He knew what Mark was doing and he wouldn't let it work.
"You have a beautiful family Kevin. I wonder what your daughters would think if they knew that you were letting their Uncle Sam be tortured right in front of you and yet you weren't doing anything." Mark grinned. "Would they still think that their father was a superhero?"
Mark turned and walked across the room.
"You know. I had planned to have some one on one time with Mr. Wordsworth. But, I think I'm going to change my plans a bit." Mark stopped in front of Jules. "Let's move this feisty piece of ass to the center of the room."
Two of the goons stepped forward with a bar that was about two feet long. On each end were shackles that they quickly attached to her feet. Jules wanted to lash out at them but the third was holding a gun to Spike's head and she didn't want to be the cause of him getting shot.
Once they had her feet shackled they released her hands and pulled her to a standing position. They then carried her over to where Sam had been shackled and forcer her on her back. She couldn't keep in the gasp as her back made contact with the metal plate. It was freezing cold.
The goons shackled Jules' hands above her head and to each corner of the metal plate. They then attached another chain to the bar at her feet to the bottom. She was effectively chained spread eagle on the chilled metal plate just as Sam had been.
"Now, before I have my chat with miss Callaghan I have a few things I want to do over here." Mark turned to one of his men and accepted a large machete from him. "Did you know that a person can be stabbed in several places and it not be lethal. Well, usually that is. You just have to know where to go. In fact, there are a lot of things that one can do with a knife without killing the subject."
Mark walked around behind Sam and slowly drew the tip of the knife across his back. Sam sucked in a breath as the pain radiated from the cut, but once again managed to keep all sound from escaping.
"The key is to know where all the major arteries are."
Again the knife made contact with Sam's body. This time on his side.
"You don't want your subject to bleed out before you're done having your fun."
A cut across Sam's chest was added to the collection.
"In fact, if a person knows what they are doing they can actually slide the knife between a couple of ribs…" Mark placed the tip of the machete to Sam's chest. It was to the left side of Sam's chest, but not over the heart. "…and not even hit anything that would kill a man." Mark slowly slid the machete into Sam's chest.
Sam's eyes slammed shit as he bit his cheek in an attempt to keep his cry of pain from escaping. He managed to keep most of the sound in, all except a long, low groan of pain as the blade entered his body before being slowly withdrawn. He took several quick, deep breaths as Mark smirked at him.
"In fact, these cuts won't kill Braddock. He won't even bleed out from them. Well, at least he shouldn't." Mark chuckled. "But I think I'll add a couple more just for fun."
Mark then added a few small cuts to Sam's arms, chest, sides, and back. Once he was finished he stepped back to admire his handiwork in the cuts all over Sam's body.
"I'm not done with you yet Braddock, but, I can't wait any longer to get to know your Sexy Sniper Chick."
Mark turned. He didn't see it but the men of team one saw the deadly glare that was hurled at the back of Mark's head as he turned to Jules. Each one knew exactly what was about to happen, and all were helpless to stop it.
"Don't you dare touch her, you sick bastard!" Spike yelled as Mark approached Jules.
"Or what Scarlatti? Are you going to come over here and beat the living daylights out of me?" Mark sneered as he glanced at Spike. "I didn't think so. You're still chained to the wall. You couldn't save her even if you tried!"
Mark took a knee at Jules' side.
"Cut off the chiller under this plate, it's freezing." Mark commented as he gazed at the beautiful woman bound spread eagle before him.
Wait, that metal plate is chilled? No wonder Sam was shivering so much. Spike thought briefly. He had been wary of that metal plate from the beginning and now he knew why.
"Julianna Callaghan, sexy sniper chick and only woman in the SRU." Mark took the machete in his hand and slowly popped the buttons on Jules' shirt. "I know you've been with plenty of men before, you're too beautiful for you not to have been. But now it's time you see what a real man can do."
Mark's grin widened as he gazed at the woman. Her shirt now lay off to the sides as he had effectively popped each button up her blouse. As he gazed at her chest, clad only in a bra now, he couldn't help his body's reaction. This was going to be sweet. He leaned down to kiss Jules only to have her snap out at him in an attempt to bit him. Mark smirked.
"Now, now, now. We can't have you biting me now can we." Mark placed a hand around her neck, restricting her airflow, as he leaned down and claimed her mouth.
Jules thrashed around as much as she could as Mark kissed her. But her attempts were futile. She wasn't going anywhere, and she wouldn't be able to get him off of her the way she was bound. Jules knew she was at his mercy and that thought scared her more than anything.
Sam was fuming mad. He had forgotten the pain that radiated from most of his body as he watched Mark with Jules. It killed him to see her at Mark's mercy and there not be a damned thing he could do about it. Sam would snap Mark's neck right now, no hesitation, if he could.
Lou cringed as he watched Mark kissing Jules. He could clearly see the man's hand that wasn't choking her groping her chest. He wished that there was something that they could do to help Jules, but there wasn't. Each of them were still chained to the wall. Or, in Sam's case, the roof. Not that there was anything Sam would be able to do either.
"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt but the General is on the line for you." A man stated from the doorway. The team had thought that there were only three men helping Mark. Now they knew that there were at least four.
"Damn. And just when things were getting good too." Mark growled as he took his hand off of Jules neck. He was pleased at the hand print that was now on her neck. He would have to add to that later. "It seems I must go for now my dear Juliana. But don't worry, we'll pick things up right where we left off."
At that Mark stood and grinned at Sam.
"It's time to go see what General 'Badass' Braddock wants. I wonder if your dear old daddy knows that you're missing yet."
With that Mark and his goons left the room, leaving the team angry and confused.
AN: Please don't hate me... leave me a review instead :D