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PART 1
Chris heard their muffled calls to each other echo through the hallway. He clenched his teeth against the icy chill that ran through his bones as he heard them stop in front of his hiding place, their indistinct voices barely audible through the closed door. Chris flexed his finger on the trigger as he watched the door begin to open, holding his breath until he could identify the gunmen on the other side as Powers’ or his own.
Chris’ question was soon answered as the door exploded inward and a barrage of bullets ricocheted off the cement blocks above his head. In the same instant, Larabee returned their fire, the shooter and his two buddies dropped to the floor like marionettes with their strings cut. Chris scooted to the threshold and quickly scanned the hallway, ducking back in and shutting the door when he neither heard nor saw anyone else.
"J.D.?" Chris struggled to catch his breath as plopped down beside J.D. and put one hand back on the boy’s wounded side.
"Uhhh." J.D. mumbled weakly and opened his eyes.
"Don’t tell me you slept through that." Chris tried to force a smile.
"I thought…" J.D. stiffened, his knees drawing up toward his body as Chris pressed harder. "I thought…we were dead."
"Not this time." Chris watched the play of agony on his young friend’s face and cursed himself for putting the kid in this kind of danger. It was one thing to live like this himself, quite another to allow someone as impressionable as J.D. to think it was an exciting way to live.
Chris turned his concentration back to keeping J.D. from bleeding to death, as the kid’s pained breaths moved the flesh under Chris' palm forcing more blood through his fingers. "Sorry, kid. Just hang on."
He watched sympathetically as J.D. nodded and swallowed hard. The boy’s eyes squeezed shut and his fists clenched and Chris tried not to think about how the heel of his hand drove brutally into the boy's side.
The door jolted against his foot and in one fluid motion Chris had his rifle up in one hand, its sights trained on the intruder.
"Chris!"
Buck's anxious face came into view as he pushed open the door, instantly dropping to his knees beside J.D.'s still form. His roving eyes took in the blood covering the young man's belly and he looked into Chris’ eyes. "Oh, my God."
Buck's stricken voice sliced through him and Chris choked back his own grief. "He took out their sniper, Buck." And he might die because he just had to save my sorry butt. The thought ran through Chris’ head, but he wasn’t ready to share it yet.
Buck's shock widened eyes fell back to J.D. "Is he hit anywhere else?"
"No." Chris watched as Buck lay his gun on the floor and reached out for J.D. with his right hand. Buck’s other arm hung uselessly at his side, the entire sleeve covered in blood.
"Everybody else all right?" Chris nodded toward his friend’s stained shirt.
"Just a scratch, everybody else is fine." Buck’s eyes never moved from the wounded agent in front of him "J.D.? Can you hear me?"
" -- ohhh --" Heavy lidded eyes opened and both Chris and Buck grimaced at the pain they saw there. J.D. curled his fingers around Chris hand where it still pressed into his belly. "Oh, god, it hurts so bad…" The boy's breathing caught and he squeezed his eyes shut and ground his teeth together, obviously riding out a wave of pain. Tears escaped down the sides of his face and Buck tenderly brushed them away.
"Help’s on the way." Buck’s voice cracked with emotion and Chris felt his own chest tighten with sympathy for them both. Chris heard heavy footsteps and looked up to see Josiah in the doorway.
"Ambulances are here." Josiah stopped short, his breathing hard and fast as he looked anxiously down at the boy’s bloody form. "Vin was afraid one of you had been hit too."
"You’re gonna be all right, son. Don’t you worry none." Buck’s optimism sounded false and Chris could read tremendous worry and unspeakable pain written in his friend’s eyes.
"Out of the way, please." Paramedics edged their way into the tiny room and Chris pulled himself to his feet. Buck blinked his eyes, the color visibly draining from his face as he tried to stand. Chris caught his arm and helped Wilmington into the hallway.
Buck leaned heavily on Chris as they watched the medics work with J.D. Chris heard a weak groan and turned in time to see Buck’s head loll back as he collapsed into Chris’ arms.
"I need some help here!" Chris’ call brought the second pair of EMTs to his side and Buck was carefully taken out of his hands and lowered to the floor. Chris stepped back and watched the scene unfold before him. Two of his men were down, one directly because of his own carelessness. He couldn’t help but feel responsible as he watched Buck and J.D. loaded onto gurneys and wheeled down the emptiness of the warehouse. The sounds of panicked voices, the wheels of the gurneys as they clacked on worn concrete filled Chris’ head and he closed his eyes from the agonizing images of his suffering friends that continued to crowd his mind.
PART 2
J.D. could faintly hear the sirens from where he lay inside the speeding ambulance as it raced down dark Denver streets. Instead of focusing on the blaring noise, he latched onto the swirling red lights reflected through the interior of the vehicle.
He could hear voices if he concentrated. One was barking orders, another whispered reassurances in his ear, but J.D. wasn’t fooled by the man’s calm tone. The pain that had been numbed by shock and adrenaline was coming back full force, and he screamed as pressure was applied to his wound and he felt the blood soaking through the bandages. J.D. hurt so bad that staying conscious was an effort. His mind argued with him and he felt the darkness of oblivion calling loudly, but he resisted, afraid if he gave in he’d never wake up again.
Despite the tremendous burning in his side, he still flinched as an IV was inserted into one arm, then the other. The normally mild discomfort of the needles taxed his drained body and he felt every nerve in his skin protest the intrusion. Cool liquid spread through his veins and he gasped slightly at the unpleasant sensation.
J.D. tried to focus on the men’s faces over the mask covering half of his own. He searched for the source of the voices, trying to reassure himself he was in good hands, that he’d be ok, that he wasn’t going to die today. Yet he was still terrified that each exhale was forcing the life out of his traumatized body.
The doors swung open and J.D. groaned at the jolt as the gurney was removed from the vehicle. Bright lights assaulted his eyes and he shut them tight, a mental barrier to the pain and terror threatening to overwhelm him.
More muffled voices as he was lifted and placed on another bed. He could feel the pull of material as it was quickly cut from his chest and legs and suddenly the sensation of what had to be a hundred hands groping every part of his exposed body. Fiery pain shot through his side all the way through his belly and down his legs and he reflexively jerked away and screamed in protest when he felt fingers probing deep inside the wound.
"No." J.D. pleaded, still not really wanting to see. He couldn’t catch his breath enough to tell them to just let him rest a minute, just for a minute. He wanted them to slow down. Their urgency and the debilitating pain was overwhelming his senses, but their frantic pace never stopped.
What are they asking me? He saw the concerned face, heard the questions, but he couldn’t seem to keep a coherent thought. He felt dizzy from the strain of trying and he was sure he was going to be sick. Please, just leave me alone a minute!
Another needle jab. "Uhhhnnn…" J.D. cried out and tried to wiggle away from their touch and whatever other unspeakable torture they were planning to inflict on him, but he didn’t get far.
More voices, some yelling, the unnerving rapid beat of his heart mirrored by the beeping near his ear. Buck? He could have sworn he heard Buck calling to him, but he just couldn’t tell. The paramedic from the ambulance leaned over him, the same message he’d been spouting all along, "you’re going to be fine, don’t fight us son."
"Please, I just wanna rest." J.D.’s voice was weak and he barely got the words out before more hands rolled him on his side and roughly examined the exit wound on his back and he let out a hoarse scream.
God, he was so tired. He cried out again as they laid him flat. At least give me something for the pain! Why couldn’t they knock him out– couldn’t they see all this was unbearable?
The sensation of a hand on his groin stopped his weak struggles and his eyes popped open in absolute horror.
"What are you doing?" J.D. tried to sit up, but the pain and more hands stopped him, the stark realization of their purpose sinking in the moment he asked the question.
"We have to put a tube into your bladder, ok?" He could hear the woman’s familiar disembodied voice float over him like a dream, but the agony searing through every inch of his body let him know how real this was.
"No, please!" It took all the strength he could muster to shout, but he couldn’t bear this, not now, not after all he’d been through already, this was too much to ask of him.
"I understand you might not want this, but it’s very important for us to be able to take care of you. It doesn’t hurt and you won’t feel it after it’s put in." The woman’s sweet voice only magnified J.D.’s mortification.
"Damn it, I said NO!" J.D. jerked upright, then immediately felt drained, his burst of defiance thwarted by his physical limitations. Hot tears rolled down his face as his muscles gave out and he had no choice than to let his head be eased back onto the table.
In a rational part of his brain, J.D. knew these people were trying to help him, actually stood between him and death. But J.D.’s rationale was shoved aside by the primal instinct to get away from the pain, yet he couldn’t run and he couldn’t fight.
"Please." His plea was reduced to a weak request, his eyes filling from the pain and the humiliation he was being forced to endure.
"It’ll be ok." The voice above his head tried to soothe him.
"Just relax." The woman said matter-of-factly and J.D. squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away from the nurse. His whole body shook and he wondered if she realized the absurdity of her request. Yeah, right. He hurt so bad he’d run out of adjectives to describe it anymore, his body felt like he was being probed by alien invaders; he was cold and naked in a room full of strangers and now…now ‘she’ had his most private part in one hand and a rubber tube in the other and was telling him to relax!
Every muscle tensed tighter as he felt the thin tube slide into his body and he couldn’t control a weak cry of total anguish mixed with overwhelming agony. He heard the soothing voice again, but his focus was on the indignity he was being forced to endure. J.D. had never felt so helpless, so totally ashamed and out of control in his whole life.
"Ohhhhh." J.D. cried out and bucked slightly, but another hand pressed on his lower belly to keep him still.
"You’re going to have to relax, honey."
"Can’t…" J.D. groaned softly, tears seeping from his tightly closed lids.
"Just for two seconds, ok? I’m almost done, just take a deep breath and it’ll be over."
The nurse’s words sunk in and J.D. concentrated, forcing himself to pretend he wasn’t on a hard table, wasn’t scared out of his mind and especially that he wasn't out in the middle of a busy room, naked and in agony having a catheter shoved in. Sure, no problem, sweetheart.
J.D. pushed out a breath and let go for the two seconds.
"Uhhnnnnn!" J.D. cried out and opened his eyes, his muscles contracting as he felt the tube move and a sharp pinch deep within his belly made his body spasm again.
"There! You did great!" The nurse tried to sound cheerful, but the words only made J.D.’s tears flow harder. He shut his eyes again, ignoring her, ignoring all of them as he withdrew into his own misery.
A hand brushed his face and he pulled away, but the touch followed him.
"Kid, you’re gonna be just fine." The voice wasn’t the paramedic’s and J.D. slowly looked up into Buck’s worried face.
J.D. had a hard time focusing on his best friend through the tears filling his eyes. J.D. hated the look of desperation Buck tried to hide as he smiled down at him.
"You’re going to have to leave now." An older woman’s agitated tone broke through.
"In a minute." Buck didn’t look up, didn’t budge from his spot next to J.D.
"I said…" she started again and J.D. felt Buck tense.
"Lady, I heard you, did you hear me?" J.D. couldn’t see it, but he knew the defiant look that was in his friend’s eyes and he would have smiled except it hurt too much. He grabbed Buck’s wrist, his fingers too weak to hang on and the older agent lay his hand over J.D.’s.
"It’s ok, son. Just lie still and let these people help you, ok?"
J.D. tried to speak, but his voice was raw from screaming and the strain of emotion. A shiver ran through his body It’s so damn cold in here. and he moaned at the renewed pain the slight movement caused.
"We need to take him to OR, sir." A male voice stated and J.D. saw Buck nod then look up.
"Get him a blanket will ya, he’s freezing here." Buck smiled down at him.
"Thanks." J.D. whispered, his voice so raspy he wouldn’t have recognized it himself.
"No sweat, kid." Buck moved aside and J.D. felt the warmth of a heavy sheet as it was draped over him. Buck’s form grew smaller and smaller as J.D. was rolled toward the elevators. He’d never been so tired and he was finding it impossible to hold his eyes open any longer. The bright lights that still shone through his closed lids finally faded. The pain and grief overwhelming him began to seem like a vague nightmare and he smiled as he drifted into nothingness.
*******
Buck watched until the elevator doors closed and his best friend disappeared from his sight. Tears welled in the agent’s dark blue eyes and he jumped when he felt someone gently grab his forearm.
"Mr. Wilmington, you need to come back to the exam area." The young nurse looked at him with such sympathy that he had to comply. He allowed her to lead him back to the gurney and obediently climbed back onto the sheets and lay down. The tears slowly rolling down the side of his head.
"We'll give you something for the pain, ok?" Her voice was sweet and Buck nodded, not wanting to break it to her there was nothing she or anyone could give him for he misery he was feeling.
"If this is only a flesh wound, when can I get outta here?" Buck needed to see Chris, ask him what happened, but mostly he just needed to be with his friends right now.
"Well, Dr. Langston wants to check on you again. He was a little worried that you passed out like that."
"I’m ok, honey." Buck tried to smile, but he just couldn’t force it on his face.
The nurse drew up a syringe and injected the painkiller into Buck’s hip, then finished re-wrapping the agent's wounded shoulder.
"Just rest for now. I’m sure you’ll be able to go home soon."
Buck squeezed his eyes shut. The pain from his wound nothing compared to the horrid sound of J.D.’s panicked cries still reverberating in his ears. Buck had yelled to him, told him he was here, everything would be ok. He knew J.D. was going through hell and it ripped his heart in half that they tried to stop him from going to the boy.
Buck couldn’t remember how exactly he’d finally escaped, but he had been determined to let J.D. know someone was looking out for him. Normally he would have complied with the doctors, especially the nurses, most of whom the seven knew by name, but he couldn’t let J.D. suffer alone.
Buck felt a warmth flow through his body and his mind began to drift, confusion mixing with the morbid facts floating in his brain. The memory of Chris valiantly protecting J.D. and trying to keep him from bleeding to death at the same time. The look of sheer terror in the kid’s eyes just five minutes ago.
He said a silent prayer that he would hear J.D.'s laugh again, see his friend alive and whole and driving everyone crazy once again, because if J.D. didn’t make it, well, there would be nothing on God’s green earth to alleviate that kind of agony.
