Not by blood, but by fire and water

Chapter 22

"What took you so long? I thought, I thought they had you, brother." Jack deflected.

Mac observed the lines of worry still apparent on his partner's abused face and in that moment all his frustration dissipated, his concern, on the other hand, was still very much intact.

I stranded one of the elevators on the third floor in hopes of slowing these guys down. I have the remaining elevator waiting for us. We should hurry." The young Phoenix agent motioned for the group to follow him.

Mac took one last peek through the crack in the door before pushing his friend out of the room and across the hall. The three women followed him, anxiously looking around for a threat.

Just as the surgeon stepped into the elevator gunfire erupted and slammed into the metal of the elevator wall. Mac frantically punched the door close button repeatedly, even though he knew it wouldn't make it close any sooner. The bullets peppered the closing doors then the gunfire ceased once they were closed.

Jack raised his hands as far as the straps would allow. "Mac, you gotta get these off me." Jack pled. "As long as you don't do anything stupid. Mac replied. "Who, me? Never." Jack shot back in mock innocence. "I'm serious, Jack!" The blonde scolded. "I know kid. I don't think I could get off this bed if my life depended on it. I'm just a little sick of restraints is all." Jack confessed.

The young Phoenix agent sighed and let his shoulders drop. "Oh man, Jack I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking." He felt like such a jerk as he loosened the first wrist strap and saw blood starting to show through the white gauze. Sinclairs zip ties had cut deep into his wrists and the pulling Jack had done during his flashback had opened them back up again. Jack winced as Mac pulled the leather strap out of the buckle. "Sorry." he mouthed to his friend.

"Thank you." Jack said horsley as the other one fell away.

The doors on the elevator opened announcing their arrival on the fifth floor.

"Hurry tell the pilot to fire up the engines." Mac ordered no one in particular.

The blonde slid the red button, on the instrument panel of the elevator, over to stop. "That should slow them down a little." Mac looked around for something to jam the double doors that led outside to the helipad. Across the hall he spotted a fire ax locked up in a glass case. 'That just might work.'

Mac crossed to the glass case. He grasped his left fist with his right and forced the back of his elbow into the front of the case. The thin glass broke easily and the shattered pieces clinked onto the smooth tile floor. Mac reached in and grabbed the ax and laid it on the gurney next to Jack, freeing his hands to push the bed outside.

Once outside he heard the whirring sound of the helicopter starting up. He pushed both the doors closed, then slid the ax through the handles.

The blades on the chopper started to pick up speed. Mac wheeled his friend around to the back of the medflight helicopter, where the doors were already open for Jack and his gurney.

The young Phoenix agent heard gunfire even over the increasingly loud helicopter blades. Mac looked toward the heavy doors that he had just barred with the ax handle, he saw splinters flying from both the handle and the doors.

Just as the wheels on Jack's bed found their tracts on the chopper, the hospital doors exploded outwards and the mercenaries flooded out. Mac was pushing the gurney in, at the side of Jack's bed near his legs and facing the gunmen, who were about fifty yards away. Medicine and saline sprayed all over the two agents when two of Jack's iv bags were hit by a stray bullet. Half a second later The blonde heard his best friend shout in pain and at the same moment fire lanced through his left hand causing him to yelp and stumble.

Mac didn't have time for pain or to access the damage. The agents didn't have any cover. They were sitting ducks until they were away from that rooftop. Bullets pinged off the metal frame of Jack's bed and the back door. Mac nearly stumbled forward again when the gurney became much easier to push. He looked up to see the nurse and the surgeons assistant pulling his partner the rest of the way into the chopper.

With Jack inside, Mac yelled to the pilot to take off and pulled the back doors shut.

The pilot quickly rose the helicopter off the cement helipad and shot forward as fast as the rotors allowed. The gunfire that peppered the side of the chopper became less frequent until it stopped completely.

Mac sat on the bench seat, that ran alongside the wall of the chopper, next to the nurse. He was in a daze and looked absently at the blood dripping onto the floor of the aircraft.

"Mac, you okay? Pain and worry laced into the words Jack spoke.

"Huh? Ah yeah, I'm fine." Mac stated, finally snapping out of it.

Mac looked through the hole between his thumb and forefinger in his hand.

"Uh, I know our lives are pretty messed up buddy, but that doesn't look fine to me." Jack tried for lighthearted but the concern in his eyes betrayed him.

The nurse who sat next to him dug through the med kit. She pulled out gauze and began wrapping the cloth snuggly around the oozing wound.

Jack felt the warm liquid leaking out from the gunshot wound in his right thigh. He didn't know how bad it was he just knew Mac would be pissed at him if he kept quite much longer.

"Hey Mac…" the younger agent instantly stiffened and started looking Jack over for visible injuries, when he heard the tone in his partner's voice. In his experience that tone meant Jack was injured and was afraid to tell him. "I think the bullet that got you, went through my leg first." Jack admitted shakily.

To be continued...