Because the Fall Took All the Good out of Me...
Certain Methods
Word Count: 2,531
Rating: PG-13
Pairing/Characters: Okay, definitely going down the Dani/Nico route, definitely some Harriet/Bud. Not sure about the Harm/Mac angle yet. But Chegwidden features heavily/centrally to the story, too.
Spoilers: Although I reference something from 1x12, I'm actually going to set this after 1x10 for Necessary Roughness. For JAG? Um... season two, definitely related to that season. Specifically "Secrets" and "Ghosts," and a lot of this won't make sense if you don't know those eps. Otherwise, the spoilers/timeline from JAG is kind of... vague.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just break things.
Summary: Direct, indirect. Legal, illegal. Military, Civilian. Every person has a different method for handling situations. Some are better than others.
Author's Note: And... pretty much as labeled. :)
Mayhem Everywhere
"AJ."
"If you called to tell me that you got yourself hurt again, and if this is any kind of a goodbye-"
"I know. You'll follow me to hell and make me pay," Nico interrupted, and AJ stopped, not liking the other man's tone. He held up a hand to signal Roberts to stop. The younger man looked almost relieved. Charging into the latest compound to rescue another name on the list wasn't something that Roberts felt up to-no matter what his training or who he was with. That probably had to do a lot more with who he'd left behind.
"What is it?"
"Lost the sense that Osborne was watching me. More convinced this is a distraction. A feint. I think... Go after Francesca, AJ. I think he's making a move on our people."
"You sure about that?" Chegwidden demanded, his chest tightening at the idea of his daughter being in real danger. If anything happened to her, he would make sure that everyone paid. Everyone. He would find them, hunt them down, and kill every last one of them. He didn't care about principles or honor. That was his daughter. His blood. He'd already lost enough without losing Francesca.
"Best guess," Nico answered, hanging up, and that was enough for AJ. Nico's best guess was usually dead on, only failing on a few occasions, and now was not one of those times. AJ just hoped that he'd changed his mind in time, that they still had enough time to get to Francesca.
"We have to go," Chegwidden said, putting the phone away. Roberts stared at him, unsure how to react. "You already told the security team, didn't you?"
"Yes, but I thought we were going in to take care of people. We're not? Okay. So... what, then?" Roberts asked nervously. He frowned. "What did Careles say? Is it bad? How bad? Will Harriet be okay? I knew I shouldn't have left..."
"Lieutenant," Chegwidden snapped, pulling the younger man with him as he headed toward the car. He needed to get to his daughter right away. He was sure of that. He would calm Roberts down on the way. "Nico is convinced that Osborne and his teams are making a play for our people. That means we are going to go get my daughter and make sure that she's safe."
"Sir, if I may-what about Harriet? Doctor Santino? Juliette? Harriet?"
"She'll be fine, Lieutenant," AJ insisted, trying to ignore the guilt he felt immediately after saying that. He had no guarantees where that young woman was concerned, and he couldn't tell Roberts that, not without lying a bit. Was it right to leave Sims in harm's way and go after his daughter? Chegwidden was supposed to put his own feelings aside, supposed to make the impartial choice. "Nico is on his way there, and there are a lot of men between them and Osborne.
"Yes, sir," Roberts agreed halfheartedly, not nearly as certain as AJ's words had seemed a minute before. Chegwidden couldn't blame him, but he was going to have to trust that Nico and his people would keep the others safe.
AJ got behind the wheel, letting Roberts get in on the other side. The younger man put on his seat belt as Chegwidden sped out of the driveway. He had to get to his daughter. After that, he needed to back up Nico at the safe house. "Call Rabb and Mackenzie. Nico would have warned them as well, but we need to talk to them."
"Can't we call Harriet?" Roberts almost whined. "Shouldn't we have done that first?"
"Call Sims, too," AJ told him, though now that he thought about it, he was convinced that Nico already had-and the situation there was not good, a fact that Nico had conveniently left out of his warning to Chegwidden. AJ pushed down on the gas, speeding up further. At least they didn't have to go into the city center. He would not have been responsible for his actions with anymore traffic blocking him from getting to his daughter. Now was not a time for a gridlock.
"There's no answer, sir," Roberts began, looking down at his phone. "Sir-"
"We're almost there, and then we'll go straight to Sims. I promise you that."
"Yes, sir."
"Call Mackenzie and Rabb, too."
"Yes, sir," Roberts said, still in a worried daze. Chegwidden would have to snap him out of it, but that would wait. Let him have a few minutes to get the panic out of his system. He would need to be focused in a minute. "Sir? No answer there, either."
"Damn it."
"I don't like this," Webb said. "We should let the CIA handle the rest of this."
"I don't think so, Webb. Someone in your organization compromised this whole operation and put a lot of good people's lives at risk," Harm disagreed. Mac sighed. The last thing they needed was to fight about this, not right now.
Her phone rang, and she moved away from the still arguing boys to answer it. "Mackenzie."
"Major, I need you to stop whatever you're doing and get to the safe house where Santino's children and mother are. Immediately. This cannot wait," Careles began, and even though she probably could have argued with him, she wasn't going to. She needed more information, but the urgency was clear. Careles was worried.
She looked back at Harm and Webb and frowned. They weren't going to be convinced easily. Both of them were so damn stubborn. "What's going on?"
"I said I had about two hours of distracting Osborne-but he's been distracting us. The list and killing people on it-that's not what he really wants. Maybe it's what his protector wants, but Osborne would rather settle a bunch of old grudges. He's going to do this his way. The others will deal with the names on the list. He's going for Santino-but he'll hit everyone else if he can. I sent AJ to his daughter, but I need someone on the rest of the Santino family."
Mac nodded. She agreed with his assessment. "And Santino? What about her and your daughter? Are you sure you don't want us there?"
"If you can split your group, that's one thing, but someone is going to the Santino children."
Careles hung up, and Mac shook her head. She didn't think he was thinking this through all the way. The man was not really planning on going into rescue the others completely on his own, did he? That was a bad plan. It would never work. "Webb. Harm. Change of plans."
"Oh, what now?" Webb demanded.
"Careles says Osborne is going after our people. We need to get to the Santino children-and someone needs to go after Santino and Juliette, too, because I think he was planning on doing that alone, and while we all know he's supposed to be good, he shouldn't have that to himself," Mac said, looking at the two men. "How do we want to split this?"
"Webb should go to the kids. If he shows up where Careles is, it won't be a help to anyone."
"Same with you two going together, huh?" Mac asked, and the boys exchanged a look, both of them giving her a slight shrug. She knew that they could get along, could work together, but sometimes it was like watching children or wild animals. "We don't have much time to debate this choice."
"What about the admiral? I thought he was with him."
"Careles said he sent Chegwidden after his daughter."
"Makes sense," Harm agreed. He took a moment to think. "What about the list? They're still going after those targets, aren't they?"
"Them and our people. This is one hell of a mess."
"Our people have to be our priority," Harm said. "Webb, looks like you get what you wanted. You can let the CIA handle the rest of this. We'll go after the Santinos."
Webb looked toward the house doubtfully. "We're talking someone with a lot of pull and a lot of loyalty to get teams to do this kind of work, this fast, with these many casualties..."
"Whoever let Osborne free is having a good laugh at all of our expense, and people are dying because of it," Mac shook her head. It pissed her off, and if she got her hands on that man, there was no telling what she would do. "Osborne should never have been free in the first place, but the lengths that he's been able to go to... We need the man who did this, but we might not get him."
"This takes a lot of coordination and planning and most likely, someone on the inside," Harm muttered, annoyed. He took out the keys. "We're going. Now."
The ground shook, and Mac turned, just in time to see the estate behind them erupt almost like a volcano, covering the sky in smoke and hurling flaming debris through the air as the building burned. She felt another tremor and was thrown to the ground as something hit her in the back.
"What are we going to do?" Juliette asked, none of her usual bravado in her voice. Dani had to figure that the situation hadn't been real for her, not until right now, with shots being fired in the other room and men breaking in. She hadn't really believed her life was in danger before, and now there was no denying it.
"Push the bed in front of the door and get behind it," Dani said, fighting her own panic to think with a clear head. She didn't like leaving Harriet behind, and she didn't like knowing what Harriet had been forced to do to save them. This might not even work.
She threw her efforts into pushing the bed, joining Juliette on the other side and pushing it forward, trying to make it close off the door as much as possible. She was aware that they were blocking Harriet out, trapping her with the men, but Dani had the feeling that if Harriet couldn't handle what was already out there, it wouldn't matter.
The thought made her wince. Juliette grabbed Dani's arm. "It's going to be okay, right? We're due a last minute save or something. We have to be. It's Nico, and Nico knows everything, and he'll come for us."
If he wasn't already dead or injured again, Dani couldn't help thinking. There had to be some kind of way out of this situation, something that she and Juliette could do instead of waiting for a rescue that might not come. They were up high enough to where there was no way they could use the window to escape. The balcony was outside the other room, not this one, and even making a rope out of sheets, they probably wouldn't make it to the floor below.
Still, it had to be the only option that they had at the moment. She couldn't think of anything else. "Grab the sheets."
"Are you kidding? That only works in movies."
"Do you hear any more gunfire? Harriet could be dead out there, and we don't have anything else at the moment, so move," Dani ordered, reaching for some of the sheets herself. She didn't like her plan anymore than Juliette did, but at least it gave them something to do.
The door banged against the bed, and Juliette let out a scream. She covered her own mouth and fought tears as she went back to her work with the sheets. Dani touched her arm, trying to calm her even as the bed was bombarded from the other side. That wasn't even as bad as when the bullets started impacting the door. The men had silencers, and Dani was worried about Harriet.
The wood finally splintered, and she wrapped her arms around Juliette as the first man made his way into the room. Juliette leaned over and grabbed the lamp, yanking out the cord before passing it to Dani, and she threw it at him, getting him to cry out and double over.
Another man shoved him out of the way, a cruel smile on his face. "So we finally meet, Doctor. And young Juliette. How good to see both of you. The last two things that Nico Careles cares about. He thought he could keep you from me. That was a mistake."
Juliette bit her lip, and Dani held onto her as she faced the man. "So, you're Osborne. I'm not impressed."
"Everyone in this building is dead besides you and that girl. You'll join them, of course, but not until I've made sure that you have suffered a little," Osborne went on. "It wouldn't be complete if he didn't get to know that you had felt your death."
"I think we'll pass," Dani said, backing up a little. She needed something that she could use as a weapon. The room didn't have much in it, unfortunately. Maybe the sheets they'd tangled up could be a sort of noose, but that wasn't going to work all that well, and he did have a gun. "Besides, I can already tell you that you made a mistake."
"Oh, really?"
"Well, first, you hurt Harriet, and that makes me very angry," she began, only getting laughter out of the sick bastard. "But if you really want to know what you did wrong... You left Nico alive so that he could hear about our deaths before he died. That means he can still stop you. And he will kill you, one way or another."
"I should think that you wouldn't be so proud of that. Shouldn't it bother you, the idea of him killing someone?"
"After all the people you've killed, not really."
She heard a small ping and pushed Juliette down, and then something stung her shoulder, and she covered Juliette's body with hers as the gun went off again. Nothing hit them. After a moment, Dani lifted her head, trying not to whimper as she saw someone moving across the bed.
He crawled close to her, letting out a small curse as he stopped, looking at her arm. She let out a breath she didn't realize she'd started holding. "Nico. Is... I... Harriet?"
"She's all right," Nico told her, and Dani let out a breath in relief. Really? Harriet was okay? After the gunfire stopped, it had been easy to assume the worst. "Knocked cold, but it could have been a lot worse."
Dani smiled gratefully, hugging him. Her hands slipped on his shirt, and realized that it was wet, and there could only really be one thing covering him-blood. "You're hurt again, aren't you?"
"Not all of it's mine," he answered quietly. "What I do might be quiet, but that doesn't mean it's not messy, though."
"Let me look."
"Doesn't matter. It's over."
Juliette pulled herself out of Dani's arms and wrapped herself around Nico. "I don't care what any tests say. You are my father."
He smiled tiredly, and Dani leaned against him, letting the adrenaline wear off. "Thank you for coming for us, Nico."
"Should have been here sooner."
"Don't start that now."
Chapter Eighteen