Aftermath  Part 12

Alec watched the two med-techs that had been spared to help the wounded
they'd brought back with them.  The young woman had worked diligently on
a Neosapien with a rather nasty looking chest wound for the last half
hour.  The man, who looked to be about 40, had bandaged scrapes and
cleaned bloody noses, all Terrans, while there were Neosapiens waiting
whose wounds were in need of immediate attention.  Alec couldn't believe
what he was witnessing.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to find Sean behind him, "It's
never going to end, is it?"

Sean caught his meaning.  He, too had been watching the two doctors,
"Maybe someday; but I'm afraid it's further away than any of us would
like it to be."  Alec nodded solemnly in agreement.  "Why don't you go? 
I can handle things here; and I'm sure you have somewhere better to be."

One look at Sean's expression told Alec that is was more of a request
than an order.  Greatful for the reprieve, Alec left the tent that
served as a temporary sick bay.

He hadn't gotten ten steps before he heard someone calling his name.  He
spun to find J.T. heading toward him.  Alec offered him a weak smile,
"How was your trip?"

J.T. noticed Alec's troubled mood, "It was...interesting."

"And Eve?"

"Home, safe and sound," he paused, causing Alec to frown.

"Is something wrong, J.T.?"

Meeting his friend's concerned gaze, J.T. replied, "I don't know.  I
can't seem to find Colleen.  One of the med techs said that there were
jumptroops caught in a cave in when they went to call for help.  He said
that they'd only pulled out three of them so far..."

Alec bit his lip before he spoke, "We were there when they pulled out
the first two.  She wasn't one of them."

Relief flooded through J.T. only to be replaced with dread once more.  

"I'm sure she's okay..." Alec began before he was interrupted by a shout
from across the way.

"Be careful!  She's not a rag doll, you know!"

"She's dead, she don't care none."

The two men looked to see a man lifting a body covered with a white
sheet from a cot; an older woman stood next to him.  They exchanged a
glance before moving toward them, "Excuse me, where are you taking the
wounded?"

The woman looked up at him, "I'm not sure, I'm just in charge of 
getting the fatalities to the morgue...or what's left of it."

J.T. was about to thank her when the man groaned loudly and dropped the
body back onto the cot, "She's freakin' heavy for a dead girl," he
mumbled.

"Have you come across any jumptroops?" J.T. asked in a choked voice.

"I think this little lady here was a jumper.  She got a roof dropped on
her.  Poor thing didn't have a chance..." the woman shook her head.  "Do
you think you might know her?  It would make my job a lot easier if I
had a name."

J.T. glanced at Alec, "I...maybe."

The woman moved forward and untucked the sheet, pulling it back.  J.T.
closed his eyes and Alec turned away.  The woman was right, she hadn't
had a chance; the left side of her skull had been crushed.  She had been
pretty, now her blond hair was matted with dried blood and her face was
badly battered and bruised.  She couldn't have been more than 18 or 19.

"Kodi Evans," the name came out as a choked whisper.  "She was just
assigned to Charlie-Five a week ago,"  J.T. informed them.  Alec shook
his head sadly.

"You knew her?  I'm sorry..." the woman began.

"No, not very well; she was a friend of a friend."

Pulling the sheet back over the girl's body, the woman jostled the cot. 
One of Kodi's hands slipped from under the sheet to hang over the side,
peeking out beneath the edge of the untucked sheet.

"J.T., we should be going."

J.T. stared at the girl's hand.  Slowly, he knelt down on one knee and
took ahold of it.  After a few moments he tucked it back under the sheet
and stood, "Were there any other jumptroops?"

She frowned, "One other that I've seen so far.  Male, Caucasian, middle
age..." but neither of the men were listening to her.

Alec's brow creased, "What's that?" he inquired, indicating the object
J.T. held tightly in his hand.  Slowly, his fingers uncurled.  Alec
looked at the glove and then up at J.T. in confusion.  And then it hit
him.  The stricken look on J.T. Marsh's face was so close to the look
he'd seen on Colleen O'Reilly's when she'd realized he was going to
die.  He remembered reaching out to touch her hand through his cracked
shield and seeing her gloved hand pressed against the glass.  And he
knew what was running through J.T.'s mind at that moment, "I'm sure
Colleen wasn't caught with her..."

"Yeah...I'm gonna go see what I can find out about that third person. 
You coming?"

"No," Alec replied.  He felt bad, but he wanted to check on Maggie as
soon as he could.  "I hope you find her," he said sincerely.

Alive.  The unspoken word was conveyed by his sympathetic look.

"Thanks," J.T. said absently as he walked away.


Jade left Admiral Jensen's office after nearly an hour.  It hadn't
escaped his notice that Able Squad had left with only 8 people, yet
returned with 9.  In fact, she'd been ordered to his office only twenty
minutes after their return.  And it hadn't taken him long to figure out
who the ninth member of their group was.  Of course, he'd wanted to
question Jade about his suspicions first since she was new and hadn't
had time to develop friendships and, most importantly loyalties, within
the squad.  Or so he'd thought.

She'd told him the truth, of course.  They'd been in Mexico on a routine
flight exercise.  Eve had been in one of the small towns scattered
around the area and had heard that there were Exofleet members camped
out nearby.  Thinking that she might be able to catch a ride home, or at
least let the fleet and her squad know where she was and that she was
alive, she'd come looking for them.  They had been as surprised to see
her as she had to see them.

Unfortunately, she was afraid she may have gotten J.T. in trouble.  When
the admiral had asked her why only two members of their squad had
returned when they had received O'Reilly's call for help--a question she
kicked herself for overlooking when she'd anticipated her
interrogation--she hadn't known what to say.  She'd simply told him that
she didn't know because she didn't question the orders or decisions of
her superior officers.

He'd given her a disgusted look and dismissed her with a wave of his
hand, already having gone back to work on the neat stack of paperwork in
front of him.

She was wondering why he was so worried about such a minor thing with
the destruction of the majority of his base to worry about.  But her
thoughts were cut short when a hand closed around her wrist and jerked
her through one of the multiple doors that opened off of the hallway and
into a storage room.  The door slid shut, leaving them in total
darkness.  Jade's first instinct was to take out her attacker and ask
questions later; if he was still breathing.  Her second was not to obey
her instincts.  She held perfectly still, pressed tightly against a hard
body by an arm around her waist and a hand over her mouth.  After a few
seconds the man leaned down and said softly, "You will be quiet if I
uncover your mouth?"

She gave a curt nod and his large hand was instantly removed from her
face.

After a few moments she asked indignantly, "Are you going to let go of
me?"

"I don't know," he said slowly, "I kinda like you right where you are, 
gata."

He found himself on the floor at her feet a second later.  "Don't call
me that," she bit coldly as he stood, cursing in Spanish.

"You haven't lost your touch, have you?"

"Apparently not," she returned succinctly.

The lights came on and Jade stood with her back against the door, one
booted foot pulled up and planted against it in a gesture that told him
he wasn't leaving.  Good, he hadn't intended to.  With her arms crossed
over her chest, she stared expectantly at the man before her.  He stared
back.  

No one had ever accused Jade of having patience as a virtue, and she
didn't, "What the Hell do you want, Gil?"


J.T. was about to resign himself to the fact that Colleen could very
well be still buried under the remains of the communications room.  Only
two people had heard that there had been a third jumptroop found, but
neither of them knew whether they had been dead or alive.  The second
man had told him that Hollis had been the one to pull the jumptroop out
of the debris, but Hollis was nowhere to be found.

"Commander?" Torres stood beside J.T., who was sitting on an e-frame
that had been disabled in a small explosion.

He looked up, "What is it, Torres?"

She took a deep breath before she began, "I know this is a bad time, but
this is gonna nag me until I say it," she shook her head, declining his
motion for her to sit.  "I've been thinking about what you said, what
you asked me to do," J.T. nodded.  "I can't.

Rita felt like she'd failed him.  She hadn't been able to live up to his
expectations of her, and it hurt to think that she had disappointed yet
another person in her life.

J.T. managed an encouraging smile, "Don't worry about it."  At her
surprised look, he continued, "I didn't actually think you'd want the
job to begin with.  But I had to offer; you do deserve it, you know."

He could've sworn she blushed, "I'm sorry, J.T., I..."

He held up a hand and shook his head, "You don't have to explain and you
definitely don't have to apologize.  I understand..."

"Commander Marsh!"

Both of them turned toward the voice to see Hollis running toward them.


Colleen O'Reilly squeezed her eyes shut as another sharp pain knifed
through her lower back.  She could hear Alec's voice, but she couldn't
seem to concentrate on what he was saying; all she could think of was
the pain.  What a way to die.  In a mess hall turned emergency
room, she thought as the pain began to ease.

When it finally dulled, she looked up at him, "You know, I tried.  I
really did."

Alec's forehead creased, "You tried what?"

"To tell J.T. how I felt about him," the pain in her eyes no longer had
anything to do with the injuries she'd sustained in the accident.  "By
the time I got up the nerve to try again, the time never seemed right. 
Now..."

"Don't talk like that, Colleen.  He'll be here any second and you can
tell him.  Hollis will bring him."

She looked away from Alec.  Less than a year ago, she'd been the one
doing the comforting.  But Alec had been dying; she wasn't going to be
so lucky.  She could feel herself drifting in and out of consciousness. 
The painkillers were kicking in.

A few minutes later she felt Alec's hand slip away from where it had
been resting on top of hers.  She could hear voices.  She couldn't make
out who was talking, or what they were saying, but she felt a hand take
ahold of her own and her eyes fluttered open dazedly.  She saw J.T.
standing over her talking to Alec, his eyes focused on her face, a frown
marring his brow.  She tried to concentrate on what they were saying,
they looked so grim.  Words filtered through her layers of consciousness
and she tried to make sense of them.

"But she's okay?" J.T. asked worriedly.

"She'll live, if that's what you mean.  But..."

Alec looked helplessly at Hollis.  The young pirate took over the
explanation, "The doctor said that there was extensive damage to her
spinal cord.  He...said that, more than likely, she'd  never be able to
walk again."


Alec was standing outside of Maggie's door.  Hollis had said she would
probably be there when he and Alec had finally left J.T. and Colleen. 
He raised his hand and rang the buzzer next to the door.  When there was
no answer, he tried again.  After the third try, he pressed the switch
to open the door.  It wasn't locked, and slip open easily with a slight
swoosh.  Alec stared at the mess that covered the floor.  Papers,
pictures and various other items were scattered all over.  He saw the
empty box on the floor and frowned, had someone been looking for
something?

A noise from across the room drew his attention.  He looked up to see
Maggie just sitting up and stretching, her attention turned to something
outside of her window; or maybe she was just thinking.  She did look
rather preoccupied.  He stared at her for a moment, wondering if he
should bother her.  No, he had to make sure she was okay.  Besides, he'd
already decided that he needed to talk to her, and he was going to do
it.

"Maggie?"

She turned toward him, "Oh.  I'm sorry, how long have you been waiting
there?  You should have woken me up."

"I just got here a minute ago."  He glanced down, "What happened in
here?  It looks like a hurricane went through."

"I was just going through some things I found," she said noncommittally.

Alec's brow shot up, but he didn't push the subject, "I just stopped to
see how you were doing."

She looked puzzled, "I'm fine, it's really not that bad.  I don't know
why everyone's making such a big deal of it."

"Are you sure, you were hit pretty hard."

"Positive, but you can take a look if you'd like to check it out just in
case," she watched him expectantly.

Something wasn't right.  Maybe she was just a little out of sorts from
her injury.  A little confused, that's all, "Why would I want to look at
it?"

The look she gave him was amused, "I've never met a doctor who didn't
have to see an injury to treat it."

Alec blinked.  Okay, maybe she was a lot confused.  "Maggie, I'm not a
doctor."

She regarded him for a few moments, her forehead creased in thought,
"It's me, Alec."

Frowning, she shook her head slowly, "I'm sorry, do I know you?"



Ta-da! You'll all hate me for life, but that is THE END!  Of this story,
at least.  I'm not that cruel, there are at least two more that come
after this one.  I'll try to get started on them as soon as I can! 
Comments are always welcome, just be nice about 'em!  Criticism is good,
but make it constructive, K?  Also, if I left anything off that's really
big, let me know.  It either goes in the next stories or I forgot it cuz
I lost my notes I wrote to myself!  Thanks!

Always
~Montage~