A Bittersweet Victory

Ashley, Jack, and Johnson all rushed over to Foothill Hospital, to check on Sarah and Mike's condition. As soon as they came through the hospital doors, Jack immediately rushed up to the nurse's station, while Ashley and Johnson sat down. "I am here to see Sarah Jenkins and Mike," he said anxiously. "May I have your name sir," the nurse asked. "My name is Jack Taylor," he answered. "Are you family of theirs?" the nurse asked. "Yes, are they okay? What's with all the questions?" Jack asked, agitated. "Calm down sir, I'm just doing my job. It is our policy to ask questions to make sure we are giving out information to the right person or people," the nurse stated." I am sorry ma'am, I just need to know if they are okay and if I can see them," Jack said sadly. "I understand your frustrations sir, give me a moment while I look up their names," the nurse says calmly. "Thank you," Jack said politely.

Jack anxiously waited for the nurse to find their information. "I'm sorry sir, but we don't have anyone here by those names," the nurse said apologetically. "What!!!," Jack yelled. "There must be some sort of mistake, they have to be here," Jack replied. "I'm sorry, but I can't find anyone in our system with those names," the nurse said. "Is there any John or Jane doe's that has come in the last hour?" he asked urgently. "Let me check for you." The nurse looked through their system to see if anything came up. "Yes, we had two unidentified male and female patients that were transported here by ambulance about an hour or so ago. One with a gunshot wound and the other suffering from other injuries," the nurse explained. "Ok, that has to be them. Can I go in and see them?" Jack asked. "Unfortunately for the female patient she is in critical condition and is undergoing surgery, but the male patient should be just now getting out of surgery, so you can see him in about 30 minutes," the nurse said.

"Thank you," Jack said, as he walked back to where Ashley and Johnson were sitting. "Are they alright?" Ashley asked. "Did they give you any information?" Johnson replied. "Unfortunately Sarah is in surgery, but she's in critical condition," Jack said sadly. "What about that guy we went in to save?" Ashley asked. "Mike?" Johnson asked, a little annoyed. "Oh yes him," Ashley said, while shaking her head in agreement. "He just got out of surgery, we can go see him in 30 minutes," Jack stated. Jack sat down, placing his face in his hands. Jack looked defeated, as he beat himself up for not getting there sooner. "I should have gotten to her faster," he said, hitting himself. Ashley grabbed his hands and looked up at him. "You did everything you could. You gave her a fighting chance, had you not shown up when you did it would have been a worser outcome," she said, as she tried to comfort him. Johnson walked over to sit on the other side of him, placing his hand on his shoulder. "You can't beat yourself up over this, let's just hope she pulls through," Johnson said.

"Mr. Taylor, you can go up and see him. He is in room 302," the nurse says, as she walks over them. "Thank you," Jack said before they headed upstairs. They all headed to Mike's room to see if he was doing okay. As soon as they walked into his room, the doctor was just finishing up. "How is he, doctor?" Jack asked. "Oh hello, are you family of his?" The doctor asked. "Yes, how is he?" Johnson asked, a little aggravated. Jack raised his hand to hold Johnson back. "Well, the surgery went well, but we won't know the extent of his condition until he wakes up," the doctor explained. "And when will that might be?" Ashley asked. "I took him off the anesthesia a few minutes ago so he should be waking up here pretty soon," the doctor stated. "Call me using this button if you need anything," she said, as she showed them the call button and left.

It was about a half an hour before Mike woke up. When Mike woke up he immediately jumped up, trying to take the IV out of his arm, after seeing Johnson in his army uniform, and believing he was one of the Russian soldiers. Johnson, hearing Mike monitor loudly beep, looked over at Mike to see if he was alright. Before he could get close to check on him, Mike tried to attack him. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Johnson said, while trying to restrain him. "Jack!!" Johnson yelled. Jack calmly walked out the bathroom. "What's with the—" he stopped mid sentence, as he saw Johnson and Ashley trying to restrain Mike. "IM NOT FUCKING GOING BACK!," Mike yelled. Jack rushed over to calm him down. "MIKE!," he yelled. "You are ok, it's me Jack, you are in the hospital." Mike turned his head to look at Jack and started to relax. "What happened?" He asked. "One minute I was locked in a dark room and the next I'm waking up here." "Me, Sarah, Ashley, Johnson and his team, came to rescue you and take down the remaining Russian spies," Jack explained. "Dimitri and a few of his men were taken into custody, the rest were killed," he added.

Mike slowly scanned the hospital room finally taking in his surroundings. "Where is Sarah?" He asked. Jack, Ashley, and Johnson all looked at each other, all debating if they should tell him the truth. Jack proceeded to pull up a chair next to Mike's bed and took a deep sigh. "Sarah was shot while trying to get you to safety and is undergoing surgery," Jack said disappointingly. "She's going to be okay right?" Mike asked, looking at everyone's face for answers. "Mike, he pauses, Sarah is in critical condition right now and we don't know if she's going to make it through," Jack added. Mike stared at Jack in disbelief, as the tears started to stream down his face. "She has to be alright," Mike said distraught. "We are praying that she is," Ashley said, stepping forward. "We just have to wait on the doctor to see how the surgery went," Jack said. Mike hung his head low, not wanting to believe that he might not get the chance to ever see Sarah again. They all sat in silence hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

Back in the operating room the doctors worked quickly to save Sarah's life. "There is so much scar tissue and we need to stop the internal bleeding," the surgeon said. "Can you find where the bleed is?," he asked. "No I can't-" "Patients BP 120/30 and dropping," the nurse said interjecting. The surgeon scanned Sarah's body to find the bleed, before her heart stopped beating. "I found it, pass me the clamps," he said, reaching his hand out to grab the tool. The surgeon quickly took the clamps and twisted his hand to clamp down on the artery that was causing the internal bleeding. Just as he was about to clamp down, Sarah flatlined.

Amanda woke up in the interrogation room handcuffed to a chair. "Ugh what happened," she said, shaking her head, still dazed. Checking out her surroundings, Amanda quickly caught on to what was happening. "Oh you're awake," director Birmingham said smugly, as he walked in and sat down. "Please let me explain, it's not-" "Save it," Birmingham interjected. "You infiltrated our program, gave up top secret intelligence to your "friend" Dimitri and to the Russian government. You set up our sleeper agents to be killed and came in to work like nothing happened," Birmingham explained, as his eyes darkened.

Amanda shuttered at the coldness of his tone. Knowing she was caught she needed to think quickly on her feet, so she could make it out alive. Amanda sinisterly smiled at the director. "Do you think you have won or something," she said, leaning back in her chair. "You might have caught me, but it won't be for long. We're bigger than you know." The director laughed and snapped his fingers. Amanda looked on in confusion. "What's so fucking funny," she thought to herself. Another agent came in, handed him a computer, and walked back out, closing the door. Birmingham typed for a few seconds on the keyboard.

"What are you fucking doi-" Amanda words caught in her throat, as she finally focused on what was playing on the screen. Amanda stared in shock, as she saw Dimitri and a few of their men locked up and being brutally tortured. "We have more men than this," she said, trying to play it cool, as her heart was beating out of her chest. "The rest of your team that I'm sure you're hoping is going to come save you," he paused, "has all been brutally murdered," the director said coldly. "Now let's see how long you last," he said, as a sinister smile crept across his face. Amanda watched in horror, as the director slowly walked over to her with something in his hand. "What are you going to-" before Amanda could finish, Birmingham swiftly opened her mouth and ripped one of her teeth out.

Amanda yelled out in pain, as blood filled up in her mouth. She aggressively struggled against her bindings, as the director ripped out a few more teeth one by one, placing them down on the table. Stepping back and admiring his work, "just kill me," Amanda said, gurgling on her own blood. "Oh no, I'm going to bring you to the edge of death and then throw you in prison, and they can finish my work then," he said, as he leaned down, looking her in the eyes and snickering to himself. "I'm just getting started," he smiled as he prepared for the long hours of torment.

Sal searched for Sarah and Harrington for the last two days. As his 48 hour deadline was coming to an end, he sat in his car sulking. "Damn it man! I don't want to die. Why is it so hard to find them?" he asked himself. As Sal sat and contemplated on if he should just go on the run or die, his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. Sal took a deep breath before pulling his phone out and checking the caller ID. Boss ran across his screen and Sal could have swore he felt his heart stop beating. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck," he said, as he beat on his steering wheel. Debating on if he should answer, he reluctantly swiped his screen. Trembling, he brought the phone to his ear. "He.. hello," he said, as he cleared his voice. "Your time is up," the boss said coldly through the phone. "I know boss, but just give me more time," Sal begged. "I suspect to see you in my office in 15 minutes and if I have to come find you, you will regret it," the boss said before he hung up.

Sal hung his head in defeat, as he pulled out his phone to call his mom. "Hello," a soft voice came through the phone. "Hey mom. How are you?" He said, trying to fight back tears. "I'm doing good. I made your favorite dinner you should come over," she said smiling through the phone. Sal silently cried to himself for a few seconds. "Sure mom. I'll see you tonight," he said. "I love you son." "I love you too ma," he replied before hanging up. Sal broke down the minute the other line went dead. Wiping his tears he gripped his steering wheel and said "fuck it," as he pulled out of his parking spot and headed towards his mom's house.

When Sal pulled up into his mom's driveway, he sat in his car for a few minutes taking in his new reality. His mom, excited to see him, came out to check on him. She quickly went outside with a smile on her face. "Sal are you okay sweetheart?" His mom asked, as she got closer to his car. Sal looked up at his mom with a smile, as a tear rolled down his face. As soon as he stepped out of his car he heard a loud pop. As Sal turned his head, he saw his mom stiffly fall over with a bullet hole in her head, and a smile still plastered across her face. "MOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!" Sal screamed, a gut wrenching scream, that would shatter anyone's soul if they heard it.

As he ran over to his mother's lifeless corpse, scooping her up into his arms, he began to cry like a baby. As he was sobbing, he could hear footsteps approaching. Lifting his head up, his heart immediately stopped beating, as he stared into his boss's dead eyes. "I told you, don't make me have to come look for you," he said evilly, as he snapped his fingers. Before words could even escape Sal's lips, something was placed over his head and everything went black, as two men dragged him back to the car and roughly threw him into the backseat. "Take him to happy land," the boss said, as he took one last puff of his cigar and flicked it onto the ground. "You got it sir," they said, as they got in the car and drove away.