Springboard 24
Ever have a moment on the job when time seemed to stand still? What about a moment when it went too fast and there just wasn't enough time? Talk about one, or both.
The first case I ever worked on the X-Files, time went backwards. I've dealt with alternate dimensions. Things that were supposed to be just dreams. Time is a much more fluid thing for me now than I ever expected it to be. But I don't want to talk about those things.
When I think of moments where time stopped I think of moments where my life changed. Beckner and I used to talk about them: those seconds where it dawns on you something irreversible is about to happen, no matter what you do, and all you can do is watch or move forward or brace for it, knowing you're powerless.
In 1999, we were dispatched to Washington state with several other agents as part of a manhunt which later turned into a hostage situation. Having previous experience (albeit a little gunshy, thank you, Marissa) I agreed to step up and act as the negotiator. I also later had the genius idea to trade myself for one of the hostages. Cue everyone around me, including my partner and Agent Jon Kelley, who normally has balls of steel, telling me this is a bad idea. I didn't listen. I really should listen.
That was how I ended up in a car with a gun screwed in one ear. In my other ear as I'm scared out of my damn mind was my earpiece and John trying to keep me calm. Obviously he was right and I was wrong. It all came to an end in a standoff at SeaTac Airport. Gun in my throat and my partner standing there. I trusted that he could shoot the guy standing behind me without hitting me. Time felt like it stopped while I tried to will him to pull the trigger and to see if I lived. I didn't look when he fired, but I felt the bullet graze my cheek and hit the perp behind me.
One of the longest minutes of my life. Sometimes I think I have scars from that day there, even though I know I don't. Whenever he happens to touch that spot I still shiver thinking about how close I came to death and how much I trusted him with my life.
I didn't have that feeling again until we were ambushed in Mexico. I was trapped in that stupid overturned bus with my partner and Agent Reyes, surrounded by corrupt cops: nobody needed to tell me those were losing odds. My father had been shot and killed in an ambush, protecting some of his agents so they could escape with their lives. I knew, looking at my colleagues, that I was going to do the same thing. I wasn't going to sit back and wait to be killed, and I wanted to save the lives of my colleagues if I could. I heard my father there with me as I unholstered my gun and checked the chamber. John barely remembered who he was, but he was telling me not to. Monica was telling me not to. But somebody had to make the first stand, for all we knew it could be the last.
It was a long minute as I pulled my gun and got ready to emerge from the cover of that bus. I was surprisingly at peace. Then A.D. Skinner rolled up with reinforcements and saved our lives.
There never seems to be enough time when it matters. Up until the moment you have to stand for something, and then that last moment seems to go on forever.
Muse: Stark Patrick
Fandom: The X-Files (OC)
Words: 592
The first case I ever worked on the X-Files, time went backwards. I've dealt with alternate dimensions. Things that were supposed to be just dreams. Time is a much more fluid thing for me now than I ever expected it to be. But I don't want to talk about those things.
When I think of moments where time stopped I think of moments where my life changed. Beckner and I used to talk about them: those seconds where it dawns on you something irreversible is about to happen, no matter what you do, and all you can do is watch or move forward or brace for it, knowing you're powerless.
In 1999, we were dispatched to Washington state with several other agents as part of a manhunt which later turned into a hostage situation. Having previous experience (albeit a little gunshy, thank you, Marissa) I agreed to step up and act as the negotiator. I also later had the genius idea to trade myself for one of the hostages. Cue everyone around me, including my partner and Agent Jon Kelley, who normally has balls of steel, telling me this is a bad idea. I didn't listen. I really should listen.
That was how I ended up in a car with a gun screwed in one ear. In my other ear as I'm scared out of my damn mind was my earpiece and John trying to keep me calm. Obviously he was right and I was wrong. It all came to an end in a standoff at SeaTac Airport. Gun in my throat and my partner standing there. I trusted that he could shoot the guy standing behind me without hitting me. Time felt like it stopped while I tried to will him to pull the trigger and to see if I lived. I didn't look when he fired, but I felt the bullet graze my cheek and hit the perp behind me.
One of the longest minutes of my life. Sometimes I think I have scars from that day there, even though I know I don't. Whenever he happens to touch that spot I still shiver thinking about how close I came to death and how much I trusted him with my life.
I didn't have that feeling again until we were ambushed in Mexico. I was trapped in that stupid overturned bus with my partner and Agent Reyes, surrounded by corrupt cops: nobody needed to tell me those were losing odds. My father had been shot and killed in an ambush, protecting some of his agents so they could escape with their lives. I knew, looking at my colleagues, that I was going to do the same thing. I wasn't going to sit back and wait to be killed, and I wanted to save the lives of my colleagues if I could. I heard my father there with me as I unholstered my gun and checked the chamber. John barely remembered who he was, but he was telling me not to. Monica was telling me not to. But somebody had to make the first stand, for all we knew it could be the last.
It was a long minute as I pulled my gun and got ready to emerge from the cover of that bus. I was surprisingly at peace. Then A.D. Skinner rolled up with reinforcements and saved our lives.
There never seems to be enough time when it matters. Up until the moment you have to stand for something, and then that last moment seems to go on forever.
Muse: Stark Patrick
Fandom: The X-Files (OC)
Words: 592