SquidgeWorld Archive

Brothers lie in shallow graves,
Fathers lost without a trace

And I see no bravery, no bravery
In your eyes, anymore, only sadness.

James Blunt - No Bravery.

"Carmen? Carmen? I need you stay with me." I tilted my head up coughing to find myself staring into sombre face of Mac Taylor. I found my back pressed against small mountain of debris. I looked around dazed at our surroundings. Lose electric wires hung from different places in the ceiling, sparking as they touched. A mix of plaster, wood and metal coated the ground.

As far as I could see there was no exit only rubble, and varying degrees of it. Mac was crouched on his heels in front of me.

I tried to open my mouth, to speak, but no sound came out, the roaring in my ears drowning out his voice as he spoke again. I shook my head trying to clear it. I lifted my hands staring at them as they began to shake. Mac's hands were on my arms; my eyes were on his face again, catching his words.

"Hey, stay with me, your going into shock, Carmen, I need you stay with me." I nodded, grinding my teeth together to calm the shaking. Mac's gaze was strong and overpowering as he began to talk again.

"Are you hurt?" That was when I realized that my whole entire body was numb, I could feel nothing, also realized that the roaring in my ears had gone and I could hear Mac's words clearly.

"The roaring's stopped." I said bluntly, I bent over putting my face in my hand and then raking my hair with them, somewhere in the explosion my long auburn curls had come loose.

"Ok...I'm back." I said pulling through the daze; I glanced around us seeing no sign of our partner.

"Where's Flack?" I asked suddenly afraid of Mac was going to say. Mac turned his head, and scanned the wreckage as I did.

"I don't know, but we need to find him." I blinked momentarily, suddenly remembering how'd we'd ended up in this situation.

A bomb... Flack was shouting... I couldn't hear him... I was slipping away, and then darkness. A whole lot of darkness.

"I think you hit your head on the way down." Mac told me climbing to his feet, and glancing around the remnants of building around us.

I also rose to my feet, my hand going to the side of my head. It was sticky, I pulled my hand away staring at it...Blood, not to much, but enough to temporary faze me. I let out a sigh shaking off the fear that was rising in my chest. We needed to find Flack. I cleared my throat.

"He was in front of me when the blast hit." I told Mac, snippets of memory returning to me. Mac scanned the wreckage.

"You look over there, and I'll take here, he's got be in this area." Mac murmured the last part of the sentence, pulling back a ceiling tile.

I followed suit starting my own search in my designated area.

"Flack?" I called as I tore away a sheet of metal from what I guessed had been a photocopier, which would explain the blue ink that covered the ground around us.

I let out a tiny cry as I threw the metal away from me, a splash of blood following it. My eyes went to the gash in the palm of my hand.

"Be more careful next time. One wrong move could bring the place down on top of us." Mac growled at me. I nodded wiping the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand; it was really beginning to heat up in here. Following the path of a solid piece of wood in front of me, I decided to move it.

Carefully I put my shoulder underneath it pushing the huge wooden beam to the right. Something groaned behind it. My heart beat sped up.

"Don?" I called. There was a tiny moan of what I could only guess was pain.

"Mac! I think I've found him! I can't get this beam out of the way, I need help." Between us we both managed to move the beam into a leaning position against some rubble.

I threw myself forward as I saw Flack's pale face etched in pain from beyond a jagged metal sheet. I reached forward, yanking it back away from Flack's body.

"Carmen wait..." Mac's voice trailed off as all the air rushed out of my lungs. The gaping hole in Flack's chest stopped me in my tracks. I found myself fixated on it; nausea rolled my stomach as I realized that I was staring at the vivid insides of Flack's chest. I could see his heart beating, the blood flowing into his chest cavity.

I was rooted to the spot unable to tear myself away. Mac was there by his side automatically, rolling his sleeves up to the elbow. I couldn't move, I couldn't breath, couldn't think. Mac's gaze swept up towards me, his eyes met mine.

"Carmen I need you here." The seriousness in his tone snapped me into action forcing the police officer in me to react.

"What do you need?" I said dropping to my knees on the other side of Flack, rolling the sleeves of my own white shirt upwards. Mac's eyes scanned the area surrounding us.

"Just keep him calm for the moment." He told me, "Let him know we're here, I think I spotted some bottled water over there." I nodded in response, finding Flack's hand I gripped it tightly, looking at his face instead of his chest.

"Hey Don, we're here." Don's head lolled towards me, his eyes focusing on me. Vibrant blue and very much alive, I spent the next few seconds thanking God.

"Can you hear me?" I asked, Flack managed a tiny nod. This was bad; I could see him losing blood quickly.

"Good man." I reassured him, my eyes flitting back to Mac as he returned armed with a bottle of water. My attention was drawn back to Flack's face as his breathing became ragged and more erratic; It took me a second to realize he was trying desperately to speak. I pushed away the tears that had begun to well in my eyes.

"Shh...Don't try and talk, save your strength." I said softly, keeping his hand clasped firmly in mine. Don's eyes began to dull I saw them flickered closed. I turned my head panicking to Mac, who was now crouched down next to Flack rinsing his hands in water, he pushed the bottle towards me, I released Flack's hand taking it urgently and doing the same.

"I need your shoe lace." He said, dipping his hand into Flack's chest and pinching the artery closed with his fore finger and thumb. I shook my head.

"Zip up." I declared referring to my boots.

"Get it off mine." Mac said, I reached forward untying the lace as quickly as I could.

"Hurry. He's bleeding out." Mac stated calmly, I gave a final tug, tearing the shoe lace form Mac's shoe and handing it to him.

"I need you to hold it." he said , I found myself staring into Flack's chest cavity. I hesitated.

"Carmen, he needs me to do this now." Mac was yelling now. I plunged my hand into his chest, seizing the artery following Mac's example. My fingers almost slipped as I grasped it as tightly as I could.

"Your doing great Carmen, just hold it there." I cringed at Mac's words. I was not doing great...Flack could of died because I wasn't responding fast enough. I steeled myself against the array of feelings that were surrounding my hand, and concentrated on the knot that Mac was tying with the shoelace around the artery. I watched as the blood flow became a trickle instead of a gushing river.

Mac pulled his hands out of Flack's chest, rinsing them with some of the left over water.

"You can let go now." I shivered pulling my hands away from the wound and wiping them on my shirt.

"You worked well Carmen, I'm proud of you." Mac told me checking Flack's pulse. A swell of guilt rose in me, pushing away the pride I knew should occupy the space. I slipped back off my knees into a sitting position, taking deep breaths and fighting the vomit that was rising in my throat.

Quickly I was on my feet and moving away from Flack as fast I could. My stomach lurched again as I leaned against the wooden beam we'd previously moved for support. The sickness got the better of me as I bent over, hurling my guts into the gap between it and some more of the rubble. I took a deep breath, sensing Mac behind me, before he reached out rubbing my back soothingly. I tilted my head forward waiting in case there was more to come out.

"Don't worry about it, I'm surprised you didn't throw up earlier." He told me as I straightened; he was standing next to Don now, peeling off his shirt. I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand.

"How did you know what to do?" I asked curious. Mac tore a strip off his shirt, and then another.

"I've lived this moment before." He said concentrating on his task at hand. I frowned, surveying the knowledge I knew about Mac, and then suddenly it clicked.

"From your marine days?" Mac merely nodded, I decided not to push it. I looked around at the hole in the ceiling above us.

"You think their going to find us?" I asked studying Flack's breathing, on each out breath I found myself panicking until he took another one in.

"You better start making some noise, pick up that plank there, and start banging on the walls, if we get lucky maybe they'll find us." I closed my eyes for a second before following Mac's orders. From time to time I caught myself watching Mac take care of Flack and wondering how he knew what to do...His words came back to haunt me.

He'd lived this moment before. Something moved in the debris next to me causing me to start.

"Mac, you in there?" The broad New Yorker accent called through the gaps in the debris.

"Danny!" There was more rustling. A piece of wood was torn away from the rubble in front of me, revealing the alarmed face of Danny Messer.

"Carmen?" he frowned, surprised to see me. I wasn't even supposed to be working today.

"Are Mac and don in there with you?" he asked peering at me through the debris. He coughed into the back of his hand as a piece of plaster fell exploding right in front of him.

"Flack's hurt though, it's really bad, we need rescue down here immediately." Danny nodded calling it in.

"What about you and Mac?" he asked.

"We can wait until we get to a medical pint, but Flack can't, it's bad Danny really bad." Danny let out a deep breath backing off and surveying the mixed wreckage before him.

"Hang in there, we'll get you out." He continued to reassure me as him and the other members of the rescue team began to dismantle the mess before them.