[Fic] The Agency: Troubles Compounded
Chapter Twenty-Three: To Geminon And Back
Rating: M
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Pairing: Adama/Roslin
Author's Note: For summary, categories, disclaimer and warnings, see Chapter One.
Extended Author's Note: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Back now. Never going away again, missed you all too much. Promise. No, I wouldn't believe me either, but I plan on proving it to you. And, to make it up to ya'll, I'm going to work uber hard on finishing the sequel to this and getting it to you quick-smart.
And a big thank you to all those people who let me know they were still thinking of the fic and hoping I'd be back to finish it. And an even bigger one to the few who tried to give me a good kick in the arse. I totally needed it and you've thoroughly guilted me into getting back on track.
Chapter Twenty-Three: To Geminon And Back
It was getting difficult to breathe. Whatever the noxious green gas was, it was filling the shipping container at a rapid speed and there wasn’t any sign of ventilation. Lee could feel his throat closing in with every breath he took; both his eyes and his lungs were burning.
He and Kara tried in vain to muscle the door into opening, but it was sealed tightly. Her phone in her hand, Kara quickly sent off the emergency signal, but Lee knew, by the way each intake of air was getting harder and harder, by the way his head was beginning to spin, that they’d never get to them in time.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” he gasped, swaying on his feet, reaching back with a hand on the wall to attempt to steady himself.
“You think?” Kara grunted, her voice weak as she made one last, desperate slam against the door, then pitifully slipped down against it onto the ground.
Frantically, Lee searched his surroundings, but he was barely able to see in the darkened container, the only light coming from the abandoned flashlights they’d dropped. The blinking box caught his eye and, sliding to the ground himself, he tried to move towards it, but progress was slow, too slow.
He withdrew his gun. Firing it into an unknown gas was stupid, it could light it and they’d light up with it. There was also the risk of ricochet, but he didn’t know what else to do. They were dying, Kara was already unconscious and he was fading fast. Risk it, or die anyway were his only two options.
Taking unsteady aim, he pressed the trigger. The shot was deafening, and the bullet went wide, but they weren’t engulfed in flames and that was encouraging. Flat on his stomach now, barely able to see, completely unable to breathe, he steadied the pistol as much as he could and fired off three quick shots and prayed that at least one of them hit the mark.
One of them did. There was a crackle as electronics were destroyed, sparks taking the place of the flashing light, and then something clicked. He swung his head towards the door and there was the sweet hissing of fresh air rushing in.
With a strength he thought he no longer had - everything was blurry, his bones felt like bricks, darkness was beginning to surround his vision - Lee dragged his body over to Kara and then pulled the both of them closer to the opening. He was able to jar the door open just a touch more before he mercifully slipped into a warm slumber, completely forgetting the fact that he may never wake up from it.
~~~~~~~~~~
Bill had waited anxiously in Life Station for the gurney’s to roll in. The call he’d gotten had pulled him from one of the deepest sleeps he’d had in his life and thrown him into one of the biggest panics. An emergency signal had been broadcast from Kara’s phone. That alone said it was bad; if the agents in question could only get off a signal, instead of calling in and reporting a dire situation, then things were a mess.
He’d listened to the teams move in from the conference room, pacing restlessly, his mind running through so many scenario’s - they could be bleeding out somewhere; they could be captured, being tortured and brutalized and Gods know what else; they could both already be dead.
His heart was in his throat the entire time and, for the first time since he was a boy and his mother had still been alive to encourage faith in the Lords, Bill Adama had prayed. Not Lee, please Gods, I’ll do anything, please, let my son come home, let them be safe. Not again, not again, not again - -
Laura’s hand on his chest had stopped his pacing and her quiet instruction, “Breathe,” had prevented him from hyperventilating. She stood in front of him, tense and worried herself, but her mere presence was calming.
They stood in silence, the warmth from her palm over his heart keeping the panic at bay, their eyes not wavering from each others, as the emergency response team reported over the loud speakers.
“Approaching signal,” a youthful male voice commented. “The car is empty, the signal’s coming from inside the shipping yard.” A long pause. “We’ve found their point of breach, moving in now.”
Several tense moments passed and then the speakers crackled to life again. “We’ve found them! Gods, they’re not moving. Get the medics in here, now! They’re at the entrance of the targets container, neither of them are moving,” he said, short of breath, as if he was running.
Bill’s eyes dropped away from Laura’s and he literally stopped breathing, waiting, waiting ... it seemed for an eternity. “I’ve got a pulse! Starbuck’s got a pulse.”
“So does Apollo,” another voice claimed, relief evident.
“Medics have moved in,” the first voice claimed. “Get them both on gurney’s and then back to the homestead. Chopper, Farmboy: secure the site. Clean up team requested.”
“Go,” Laura told Bill softly. “Go wait in Life Station, they shouldn’t be far away. I’ll take care of everything else.”
Bill was moving before she’d even finished speaking, which was how he found himself watching his son and Kara being rolled in. He’d never been more relieved in his life then when he found Lee’s blue eyes looking up at him and Kara trying to smile through the oxygen mask.
As they were examined by the doctor, Bill sunk into a chair and dropped his head into his hands. He’d have to get used to it, he supposed, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to. He wanted to beg Lee to quit, to actually go and serve drinks full time in the bar upstairs, but again, he’d never be able to.
His son was too much like him in that regard, born an adrenaline junkie with a frakking hero complex. Lee put himself in danger for the thrill of it, and also so that others could stay out of it, and damned if Bill didn’t understand that, it was precisely why he wasn’t enjoying his retirement like he should be.
Bill looked up as Cottle made his way over, standing and quickly asking, “How are they?”
“They’ll live,” the old doctor stated.
“Good,” Laura said from behind Bill, startling him as he hadn’t even heard her come in. He watched as her eyes lost the worried look, anger replacing it. “I’d hate to have lost the opportunity to kill them myself.”
“I’m running some tests now,” Cottle went on, “but from the looks of it, they’re damned lucky.” Then his eyes flicked over Laura’s stone cold face. “Or unlucky, depending on how you wanna’ look at it.”
“The clean-up team is moving fast, they’ll be bringing in a canister of gas for the lab to take a look at. From what we’ve so far been able to ascertain, they entered the cargo container and set off one of Leoben’s booby-traps,” Laura informed them. “The door sealed itself and the gas was released. More than likely lethal.”
Cottle nodded. “A few more minutes in it and we’d be having this discussion outside the morgue.”
“A bullet through the locking mechanism was the only thing that saved them. Lee’s gun was found just inside the container. Looks as if he got the door opened and then dragged Kara and himself into fresh air.” She met Cottle’s eyes. “When can I talk to them?”
“Now, if you really want to. But I’ll be keeping them in here for a day or two, and then I want them out of commission for at least a week. I’ll have a better time frame once I know what the gas is and their tests come back.”
Laura was already moving to the other side of Life Station, flinging aside the curtain and approaching the beds her agents lay in. Bill decided he didn’t need to hear her hand them their asses. His son was going to be okay, Kara was going to be okay, he was emotionally and physically exhausted, he was going to go back to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~
Lee knew they were in for it the moment the Director stepped through the curtain. In fact, he’d known they were in for it the moment they’d entered the cargo container, but her eyes when she first looked at he and Kara had told him that perhaps the near death thing was not going to be the most unpleasant event of the night.
She stood between the beds, seemingly passive, as she let them retell, their throats burning with each word, their side of events. Then she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and started slowly extricating their innards with her words.
“If you two were any other agents in this facility, I’d have you tossed out on your asses so fast that your heads would spin.”
Foolish, reckless, and a myriad of other words were used to describe their stupidity. Her sharp eyes had them both resisting the urge to pull the covers of the bed up over their heads. She even threatened them with dungeon duty, the job of cleaning the barracks, shower and toilets included, until your comrades were satisfied - which, bastards so smug that it wasn’t them having to do it, they never were.
“You are damn lucky that Doctor Cottle outranks me when it comes to matters of your health, because if he didn’t, you’d both be hauled out of these beds and pistol whipped all the way to the dungeon, where a bucket of water and a toothbrush would be waiting for you.”
The verbal reaming continued for ten whole minutes until she seemed satisfied that Kara and Lee felt like small children. Then her shoulders slumped somewhat and for the first time in a while, Lee saw just how very tired the Director was.
“I don’t know what’s coming,” she told them quietly, her tone resigned. “But I do know that whatever it is, I need the both of you with me. I’m not ready to bury another agent just yet, let alone two, and certainly not the two of you. No more frak ups.”
The order in her last words was undeniable and Kara and Lee both nodded, Lee’s neck moving so fast that he actually dislodged his oxygen mask.
As she was speaking, Billy had slipped in beside her, giving the two of them a sympathetic smile. Once she was done, she turned to him and he silently handed her a piece of paper and then was gone again. She opened it, her head dropping for a moment before she looked up at them.
“The clean-up team has just finished with the container. The bomb is gone.”
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Rating: M
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Pairing: Adama/Roslin
Author's Note: For summary, categories, disclaimer and warnings, see Chapter One.
Extended Author's Note: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Back now. Never going away again, missed you all too much. Promise. No, I wouldn't believe me either, but I plan on proving it to you. And, to make it up to ya'll, I'm going to work uber hard on finishing the sequel to this and getting it to you quick-smart.
And a big thank you to all those people who let me know they were still thinking of the fic and hoping I'd be back to finish it. And an even bigger one to the few who tried to give me a good kick in the arse. I totally needed it and you've thoroughly guilted me into getting back on track.
Chapter Twenty-Three: To Geminon And Back
It was getting difficult to breathe. Whatever the noxious green gas was, it was filling the shipping container at a rapid speed and there wasn’t any sign of ventilation. Lee could feel his throat closing in with every breath he took; both his eyes and his lungs were burning.
He and Kara tried in vain to muscle the door into opening, but it was sealed tightly. Her phone in her hand, Kara quickly sent off the emergency signal, but Lee knew, by the way each intake of air was getting harder and harder, by the way his head was beginning to spin, that they’d never get to them in time.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” he gasped, swaying on his feet, reaching back with a hand on the wall to attempt to steady himself.
“You think?” Kara grunted, her voice weak as she made one last, desperate slam against the door, then pitifully slipped down against it onto the ground.
Frantically, Lee searched his surroundings, but he was barely able to see in the darkened container, the only light coming from the abandoned flashlights they’d dropped. The blinking box caught his eye and, sliding to the ground himself, he tried to move towards it, but progress was slow, too slow.
He withdrew his gun. Firing it into an unknown gas was stupid, it could light it and they’d light up with it. There was also the risk of ricochet, but he didn’t know what else to do. They were dying, Kara was already unconscious and he was fading fast. Risk it, or die anyway were his only two options.
Taking unsteady aim, he pressed the trigger. The shot was deafening, and the bullet went wide, but they weren’t engulfed in flames and that was encouraging. Flat on his stomach now, barely able to see, completely unable to breathe, he steadied the pistol as much as he could and fired off three quick shots and prayed that at least one of them hit the mark.
One of them did. There was a crackle as electronics were destroyed, sparks taking the place of the flashing light, and then something clicked. He swung his head towards the door and there was the sweet hissing of fresh air rushing in.
With a strength he thought he no longer had - everything was blurry, his bones felt like bricks, darkness was beginning to surround his vision - Lee dragged his body over to Kara and then pulled the both of them closer to the opening. He was able to jar the door open just a touch more before he mercifully slipped into a warm slumber, completely forgetting the fact that he may never wake up from it.
~~~~~~~~~~
Bill had waited anxiously in Life Station for the gurney’s to roll in. The call he’d gotten had pulled him from one of the deepest sleeps he’d had in his life and thrown him into one of the biggest panics. An emergency signal had been broadcast from Kara’s phone. That alone said it was bad; if the agents in question could only get off a signal, instead of calling in and reporting a dire situation, then things were a mess.
He’d listened to the teams move in from the conference room, pacing restlessly, his mind running through so many scenario’s - they could be bleeding out somewhere; they could be captured, being tortured and brutalized and Gods know what else; they could both already be dead.
His heart was in his throat the entire time and, for the first time since he was a boy and his mother had still been alive to encourage faith in the Lords, Bill Adama had prayed. Not Lee, please Gods, I’ll do anything, please, let my son come home, let them be safe. Not again, not again, not again - -
Laura’s hand on his chest had stopped his pacing and her quiet instruction, “Breathe,” had prevented him from hyperventilating. She stood in front of him, tense and worried herself, but her mere presence was calming.
They stood in silence, the warmth from her palm over his heart keeping the panic at bay, their eyes not wavering from each others, as the emergency response team reported over the loud speakers.
“Approaching signal,” a youthful male voice commented. “The car is empty, the signal’s coming from inside the shipping yard.” A long pause. “We’ve found their point of breach, moving in now.”
Several tense moments passed and then the speakers crackled to life again. “We’ve found them! Gods, they’re not moving. Get the medics in here, now! They’re at the entrance of the targets container, neither of them are moving,” he said, short of breath, as if he was running.
Bill’s eyes dropped away from Laura’s and he literally stopped breathing, waiting, waiting ... it seemed for an eternity. “I’ve got a pulse! Starbuck’s got a pulse.”
“So does Apollo,” another voice claimed, relief evident.
“Medics have moved in,” the first voice claimed. “Get them both on gurney’s and then back to the homestead. Chopper, Farmboy: secure the site. Clean up team requested.”
“Go,” Laura told Bill softly. “Go wait in Life Station, they shouldn’t be far away. I’ll take care of everything else.”
Bill was moving before she’d even finished speaking, which was how he found himself watching his son and Kara being rolled in. He’d never been more relieved in his life then when he found Lee’s blue eyes looking up at him and Kara trying to smile through the oxygen mask.
As they were examined by the doctor, Bill sunk into a chair and dropped his head into his hands. He’d have to get used to it, he supposed, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to. He wanted to beg Lee to quit, to actually go and serve drinks full time in the bar upstairs, but again, he’d never be able to.
His son was too much like him in that regard, born an adrenaline junkie with a frakking hero complex. Lee put himself in danger for the thrill of it, and also so that others could stay out of it, and damned if Bill didn’t understand that, it was precisely why he wasn’t enjoying his retirement like he should be.
Bill looked up as Cottle made his way over, standing and quickly asking, “How are they?”
“They’ll live,” the old doctor stated.
“Good,” Laura said from behind Bill, startling him as he hadn’t even heard her come in. He watched as her eyes lost the worried look, anger replacing it. “I’d hate to have lost the opportunity to kill them myself.”
“I’m running some tests now,” Cottle went on, “but from the looks of it, they’re damned lucky.” Then his eyes flicked over Laura’s stone cold face. “Or unlucky, depending on how you wanna’ look at it.”
“The clean-up team is moving fast, they’ll be bringing in a canister of gas for the lab to take a look at. From what we’ve so far been able to ascertain, they entered the cargo container and set off one of Leoben’s booby-traps,” Laura informed them. “The door sealed itself and the gas was released. More than likely lethal.”
Cottle nodded. “A few more minutes in it and we’d be having this discussion outside the morgue.”
“A bullet through the locking mechanism was the only thing that saved them. Lee’s gun was found just inside the container. Looks as if he got the door opened and then dragged Kara and himself into fresh air.” She met Cottle’s eyes. “When can I talk to them?”
“Now, if you really want to. But I’ll be keeping them in here for a day or two, and then I want them out of commission for at least a week. I’ll have a better time frame once I know what the gas is and their tests come back.”
Laura was already moving to the other side of Life Station, flinging aside the curtain and approaching the beds her agents lay in. Bill decided he didn’t need to hear her hand them their asses. His son was going to be okay, Kara was going to be okay, he was emotionally and physically exhausted, he was going to go back to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~
Lee knew they were in for it the moment the Director stepped through the curtain. In fact, he’d known they were in for it the moment they’d entered the cargo container, but her eyes when she first looked at he and Kara had told him that perhaps the near death thing was not going to be the most unpleasant event of the night.
She stood between the beds, seemingly passive, as she let them retell, their throats burning with each word, their side of events. Then she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and started slowly extricating their innards with her words.
“If you two were any other agents in this facility, I’d have you tossed out on your asses so fast that your heads would spin.”
Foolish, reckless, and a myriad of other words were used to describe their stupidity. Her sharp eyes had them both resisting the urge to pull the covers of the bed up over their heads. She even threatened them with dungeon duty, the job of cleaning the barracks, shower and toilets included, until your comrades were satisfied - which, bastards so smug that it wasn’t them having to do it, they never were.
“You are damn lucky that Doctor Cottle outranks me when it comes to matters of your health, because if he didn’t, you’d both be hauled out of these beds and pistol whipped all the way to the dungeon, where a bucket of water and a toothbrush would be waiting for you.”
The verbal reaming continued for ten whole minutes until she seemed satisfied that Kara and Lee felt like small children. Then her shoulders slumped somewhat and for the first time in a while, Lee saw just how very tired the Director was.
“I don’t know what’s coming,” she told them quietly, her tone resigned. “But I do know that whatever it is, I need the both of you with me. I’m not ready to bury another agent just yet, let alone two, and certainly not the two of you. No more frak ups.”
The order in her last words was undeniable and Kara and Lee both nodded, Lee’s neck moving so fast that he actually dislodged his oxygen mask.
As she was speaking, Billy had slipped in beside her, giving the two of them a sympathetic smile. Once she was done, she turned to him and he silently handed her a piece of paper and then was gone again. She opened it, her head dropping for a moment before she looked up at them.
“The clean-up team has just finished with the container. The bomb is gone.”
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