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dopescotlandwarrior · 4 years

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Unforgettable-Chapter Five

Previous chapters on AO3 A special thanks to @statell for all your help

Chapter Five

“Finally! I thought Friday would never come. How are ye Sassenach?”

Claire tried to smile and laugh but it was a pathetic attempt and Jamie’s trained eye was instantly sending a warning that something was wrong. Her eyes darting around the room, pale skin color, hand at her neck, and pupils dilated.

Claire watched Jamie look at his lap for a minute, he was writing something and quickly held the note to the camera. IS SOMEONE THERE?

“No.”

“What has ye so wound up Claire?”

Jamie wasn’t smiling. He was watching all the subconscious indicators of Claire’s health, body and mind.

“Probably nothing. It feels weird around here the past couple weeks. We usually see patients from morning till night, with a line clear out the door sometimes. The villagers stopped coming. It’s like we are a medical staff with no people to treat. I’m a little scared by it is all.”

Jamie’s voice took on a tone she had never heard, and it sent shivers up her spine.

“Claire, I want ye to leave and head for the airport as fast as you can, understand sweetheart?” You have good reason to fear. All of you need to move out at first light.”

“Why are you trying to scare me, Jamie!”

“Sassenach, listen, I know something about this, it was my job for six years. If ye’ve ever taken a leap of faith, do it now.”

“Why? Tell me why, and I’ll do it, Jamie.”

“Because I love ye Sassenach, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. I know I canna keep ye so don’t get scared and run away.” Jamie lowered his voice and stared into her eyes. “This isn’t about getting you back to Scotland, it’s about getting ye and yer friends out of the country. You must hurry and send me updates every hour so I can track ye.”

Claire watched his mouth move but heard nothing after “I love ye.” She watched his clear eyes get close to the camera as he was making a point about something. She giggled at him with stars in her eyes. Jamie stopped his tirade and looked at her face blushing like a spring rose, teary eyes, a big white smile, he knew then she was on a different page than he was, maybe a different planet by the looks of her.

“Sassenach, what’s the last thing I said?”

“You love me, Jamie?”

“Oh my God, lass, yes.” He spoke just above a whisper, “and by the looks of ye, that makes ye happy, does it nae?”

She almost seemed catatonic but shook her head yes.

“Listen to me, Claire. I need another seventy years to tell ye I love ye and I promise I won’t hold ye down, but ye have to survive getting to the airport. Promise me ye will do as I say.”

Claire seemed to snap out of her reverie. Her eyes got wide and panicked, “What do we do Jamie.”

Jamie repeated the instructions to leave at first light for the airport, take the first flight out of the country, anywhere safe, and send her location hourly if she could.

“Charge yer phone right away then keep it on you in a secure pocket. Get Joe, Kevin, and Cutter ready to leave with you. Take the keys for one of the vehicles so it canna be taken by others and fill the tank tonight. Passport, money, credit cards, and phone, leave the rest. Do you understand, love?”

“How do you know all this stuff?”

“If ye promise to follow my orders, I promise to tell ye. Go and get yer friends ready. I love ye Sassenach.”

Holy shit she thought! Feeling her hands shake, she forced herself to push away from the fear and jumped into fresh field pants, black wife beater, pulling a black t-shirt over that. She zipped her freshly charged phone into a pocket.

Claire opened Joe’s door and crept into the room squatting next to his bed she called to him quietly. He jumped violently and she immediately silenced him holding both his arms.

“Please Joe, shh! You must wake up. Something bad is happening…”

As Claire woke Joe and gave him instructions, the front door of the hospital opened and something like a bowling ball rolled into the hallway, silently making its way until it stopped, made a clicking sound, and exploded.

The sound was deafening, and Claire was slammed into the wall and dropped to the floor. She screamed until her lungs were empty, grabbing at Joe and pulling him out of bed. Two more explosions were heard toward the other end of the building, and then the screaming started, followed by machine gunfire.

Claire was so scared she couldn’t move. They were trapped in Joe’s room with Kevin who had just entered. It would be like shooting ducks in a barrel, so any chance they might have was worth the risk. Kevin grabbed Claire pulling her screaming out of the room seemingly directly in the line of fire. She struggled against him and felt him pick her up by belt and arm as he launched her into the laundry shoot headfirst.

Claire was in utter shock, grasping for the slippery sides of the chute, trying to slow her descent until she was free falling into a large pile of bed sheets, towels, and gowns. She rolled off feeling the pressure of the two men falling onto the laundry after her. They had all done many shifts down here and ran for the only exit door from this level.

Again, Kevin grabbed Claire and ran with her outside toward the edge of the vegetation. There was a twenty-foot gap between the building and the jungle. Claire ran, hearing the screaming from inside the building and several shooters outside to pick off runners.

She expected it, she waited for it, just as the vegetation touched her lower legs, Joe threw her to the ground and laid on top of her, ”sh!”

They were much too close to the hospital. When Claire felt Joe yank her arm up, she knew to bolt. Joe held her and Kevin’s hand to prevent separation as they took off. With every step, he felt more confident until Claire’s hand was ripped away from him. The jungle lit up like it was daylight and Claire was in the air, spinning until she came down in the brush.

Kevin yanked Joe hard to the ground and put his hand over his mouth. They were frozen that way until the giant light went off and men were yelling in Spanish. The rebels pulled the light for another fifty feet and lit up the dark looking for running bodies.

Joe was crying and whispering, “they shot Claire.” Kevin begged him not to move and stay quiet. He put his arms around Joe for a minute and squeezed with all his might. Joe rolled away from him, crawling in the direction she was moving. Kevin stayed low as he searched close enough to hear Joe. The unmistakable sound of fabric ripping brought Kevin close to Claire, he felt the ground and found her body.

Kevin was choking on his need to sob. It was right in his throat and if he took one more breath it was coming out. Just before he felt he would pass out from holding his breath, a tiny voice bounced off his eardrum and he exhaled quietly. She was speaking to Joe! He felt Joe flat on the ground, Claire was inching towards him. Kevin grabbed her hips and hoisted her on Joe’s back. In minutes, they were running again, except Claire, who was hanging on for dear life with one arm.

They stopped to rest, and Claire climbed off Joe’s back, telling him no when he tried to get her back on.

“It’s not bad Joe, it went straight through and missed the bone. It hurts like bloody hell so I’m going to make a sling if you help me. I can run.”

She got her t-shirt off and handed it to Joe, who created a tight sling in a matter of minutes. It eased the pain in her shoulder, and she started running forcing the men to follow and stop nit-picking about her injury. Kevin pointed them toward the rocky hills, praying they were going in the right direction. The night was so black they could easily get turned around and run right back into the hospital. None of them knew how long they ran but when they stopped to rest, Claire pitched forward unconscious.

“Listen to me Joe, Kevin’s mouth on Joe’s ear. I know there is a cave along this side, I’ve seen it. Stay with her, lay flat if you hear anyone coming, and wait for me. He kissed Joe hard on the mouth and took off along the hillside. Joe held Claire in his arms and pushed her hair away, praying Kevin would hurry.

Jamie went from one site to another on the dark web, looking for news about Honduras and there was nothing. So why didn’t Claire answer his text messages and calls? It started out with a desire to calm her down after his show of force during their Skype call, but when she didn’t answer he became concerned.

He was about out of his mind with worry when the Central America Hot Zone site jolted him to his feet. “Christ,” he whispered. It was a preliminary report about an attack on a hospital. He read a little more and knew it was Claire’s hospital. Jamie ran outside and jumped in his truck.

Hearing the door slam shut, Geneva sat on Jamie’s bed fuming with anger. Did he forget she was here? She looked down at the new teddy she purchased today for this very night and planned to keep a low light on just for him. She could feel he was somewhere else for weeks. At first, she played her usual card, nose in the air, pissed off, no communication. Then he started leaving on the weekends to camp or something. The little time he gave her during the week was rushed and he was in no mood for sex. “This is ridiculous.” Geneva changed her clothes and left the teddy on his bed, then went home. She figured he would be at her door in the morning with flowers and an apology.

Jamie headed for Lallybroch at triple the speed allowed and parked away from the house so he could approach in silence. He pressed against a fake wall in the barn and grabbed his bug-out bag, then replaced the wall. He left as he came, in silence.

Jenny stood in the dark of her room and watched her brother run away from the barn. Somehow, she knew and crossed herself praying for his safety.

Hot cocoa and a blazing fire was Jenny’s cure for insomnia and worry. She deployed both and rocked herself into memories of the past when Jamie’s life changed forever. Since he was a lad all he wanted to do was be a doctor and heal people. He had the intellect but sadly not the money to fund his education. When he learned that the government would pay for his training, he made an appointment at the local recruiting office. Ten hours the first day, and ten hours the second day, testing the whole time.

She remembered him sitting with their da at the kitchen table explaining the benefits of the program, how he scored, and how many different people he had to test for. Most importantly, they would send him to college and medical school. The arguing raged for days and then one morning when they got up, Jamie was gone. It would be two years before they would see him again. In the interim, there were extravagant gifts for Christmas and birthdays, and cards sent from all over the world.

Jenny knew nothing of what Jamie did, no one did. She assumed he was a soldier of some kind because he left soon after his military testing. The one thing he would say when asked is that he worked for Scotland. Why is he goin again, she wondered and pulled a shawl across her cold shoulders.

Jamie pulled everything out of the bag on his kitchen table and shoved batteries into his communication device that would encrypt the code he entered and continue to morph the code until it was received. He scribbled his questions, writing the code below the letters. His fingers flew over the keys on the device, request ground extraction Honduras 3 male, I female, deadly force. gr-ex-hdrs-m3,1-df Send. He watched and waited. With wide eyes and a ramming heart, he saw the response, N, NS. Neg, no sanction. Jamie was stunned. It took a full minute to consider the alternative and called the one person who might agree. Jamie needed a sniper to clear the way so he could find Claire and the others.

“Low, sorry …meant... heeelllo.”

“Christ are ye drunk?”

“No.”

“CAH support, NS”

“Ahh, Mexico is so beautif…. damn phone drop, oh, shit I kick it, where did it go?”

Jamie had clicked off. The drunk idiot better show up in Mexico in six hours, ready to fight, he thought. He gathered his gear and headed for his clinic. It was almost light; the babysitter would be there soon.

She was vetted by four countries, hired and paid by someone unknown. Gorgeous, with a full set of attributes that made her job doable, if not easy. She knew all the doctors in the area on a first name basis and would reschedule Jamie’s patients among them for as long as he needed to be away. Speaking of the invisible group they both worked for had a penalty second to shooting your commanding officer. Still, Jamie teased her once. They were alone, the clinic was locked so he asked how he would know she wasn’t working for the other side. He was joking, she was not. “Because you would be dead…long time ago.” she said as she walked back to her desk.

He kept dialing Claire and looked up as the office manager came in. She looked at him, “How long?”

“Five days, I hope.”

“Have a nice trip doctor.”

Jamie put his ball cap on, and the physician gave way to the soldier.

Joe was getting scared because he couldn’t wake Claire. He felt the pulse in her neck, it was weak and thready. He could see the glow of the sunrise on the horizon and knew they would be exposed in a very short time. He felt a hand grab his shoulder and pull him up.

“Jesus I’m glad to see you. Did you find the cave?”

“I did. It’s a bit of a climb but it will be a safe place to regroup and get Claire on her feet. Let’s go.”

When Joe laid Claire on the ground in the cave, he took his first look at her shoulder. It was serious, and her wife-beater was soaked with all the blood she had lost and was dripping onto the ground. They were exhausted, so when Kevin pulled him to the ground, they slept.

Claire's vibrating phone pulled Joe awake and he scrolled through the numerous calls from Jamie. He answered the call.

“Who is this! Joe! Is that you? Please tell me who ye are.”

Joe heard the voice on the other end, in Scotland, safe, no idea what they had been through during the night. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t bridge that gap. He knew Jamie loved Claire and here she was dying. How could the world get so fucked up so fast?

“STATE YER NAME,” Jamie roared into the phone.

“Joe.”

“That’s a good lad. Is Claire there with ye?”

“Yes, but she’s in a coma, Jamie. She’s been shot and she won’t wake up. Tremendous loss of blood. She will die and we can’t get out of the cave.”

“Yes ye can laddie, I’m close. I’m on a fast boat from Mexico, very close, with ground transport waiting. Put the phone on the ground, please, and step away from it. I’ll lock yer coordinates and be there in less than an hour. Tell Claire I’m comin.”

Joe backed away from the phone just as Kevin came rushing into the cave after doing some reconnaissance.

“Jesus, Joe they are everywhere, combing through the vegetation. I think they’re looking for us. They’re gonna know about the caves.”

“Quiet, before you scare yourself to death.” He nodded toward the phone on the ground, “Jamie will be here in an hour. We’re saved.”

Kevin had to actually walk in front of Joe to see if he was joking or just lost his marbles during the night.

“If he doesn’t have an army behind him, how is he supposed to save us, Joe?”

“He didn’t say, but he sounded pretty confident.”

The men sat near Claire and quietly waited, both expecting to die in the next few minutes as they could hear the voices of the rebels shouting in Spanish.

Joe looked at Kevin, “I feel so bad we couldn’t get to Cutter. Do you think he got out?”

“No, he’s dead Joe. I saw them shoot him as I ran to your room.”

Joe felt like he was coming apart. It was too much for him to process and he couldn’t stop the tears from coming. For Claire, for Cutter, for everyone they knew and worked with all these months. He broke down and Kevin held him fiercely asking him to be quiet. Kevin knew their time was short, so maybe it didn’t matter.

The rebels were getting closer. Kevin heard the loud directive from someone, “bomb the caves.”

Kevin pulled Joe close and kissed him like it would be his last.

“I’ve fallen in love with you, handsome. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, deal?”

Before Joe could respond the first grenade went off below them, then another, then another. They heard the loud machine gun fire pinging on the rocks and dirt flying outside the entrance.

“They want to scare us into running, makes it easier, and uses less resources.”

“Well, it also works, it’s taking all my strength not to run out that opening.” Joe looked down at Claire. “I would never leave you,” he squeezed her calf.

The gunfire stopped, and in the silence, the men harbored hope they were saved. The next explosion was so loud it made them both dive for the ground as dirt and rocks from above rained down on them. Joe covered Claire with his body while Kevin watched the shadow of a man walking toward them.

He prayed to God and filled his mind with his mother’s face, he still had so much to say to her. Both men watched the shadow on the rocks moving closer. The man was tossing a ball in the air and catching it, but it wasn’t a ball, it was a grenade. The other hand came up to pull the pin and the man lurched forward landing face down right in front of their entrance.

“What the fuck?” Joe was looking at the half-headed dead man with the grenade still in his hand. “Did you hear a shot?”

“I heard nothing. Joe, I’m scared shitless.”

A large man dropped down from above with his arms raised.

“I’m unarmed, lookin for my girl and her friends, I’m Jamie Fraser.”

When he saw Claire on the ground, he dropped to his knees asking questions about the injury. She was burning up, so Jamie put a small round piece of plastic on her cheek and a minute later had a read on her dangerously high temperature. The velcro of his pockets ripped and a syringe was being filled with life-saving antibiotics. Jamie unclasped her pants and rolled her to the side where he plunged the needle into her scorching ass. He rolled her back and looked at her beautiful face for just a moment, then he was moving again.

He stuck her finger and filled a stick of blood. Placing it in a special container to keep it upright. Connecting the container to a string, he stood up, spinning the tube of blood at the end of the string. He spun as hard as he could for five minutes until Joe jumped up and took the string, Kevin was next and after ten minutes they had a rough idea of her blood volume.

Jamie typed Claire’s blood and called out the entrance of the cave, “what’s yer blood type?”

Joe and Kevin almost fainted, pleading with Jamie to be very quiet.

Jamie stopped moving holding tubing and catheters. “Why, what’s amiss?”

“We’re surrounded by rebels Jamie, they want to kill us.”

“They’re gone, dinna worry.” He was moving fast again but felt the sudden tension in the air. He looked up and slowly behind him. The stock and silencer of a very large sniper rifle was inching into the cave.

“Put that gun down, ye dolt. This is my future wife in here fightin for her life and these brave men have protected her. What’s your blood type.”

The tip of the rifle suddenly pointed down and John Gray moved into the cave.

“Sorry, I’m a bit cranky with a hangover gentlemen. Meant no disrespect.”

Jamie was winding a strip of silver fabric around miniature forceps. He washed the wound and then packed it with the spirals of silver material. Joe and Kevin watched wide-eyed as he worked. When the wound was packed from both sides, he gingerly released the tourniquet and they all held their breath. No bleeding after five minutes, Jamie exhaled and sat next to his love.

John wanted to give Jamie some time alone so he pulled Claire’s friends outside. “Come out here and I’ll show you where I killed everyone.”

Jamie looked at the girl who stole his heart in under twenty-four hours and thanked God he got here in time.

“Sassenach, I’m here to get ye away safely. The guys are here, unharmed, so as soon as ye can, wake up. Ye need to drink whatever we can find. I’ll be givin ye a transfusion here in a couple minutes and ye’ll feel so much better after that.”

The absence of Cutter Anderson was not lost on Jamie. “Rest in peace,” he whispered.

By nightfall, Jamie had given two units of blood and needed to eat and rest for a few hours. John offered to find the hospital and steal whatever food he could find, and then he was gone.

“How can he do that? Just walk into the enemy territory alone?” Joe was in awe of both of these men.

Jamie gave a lazy half-smile, “I pity the blokes that are still there. And by the way, ye owe me, aye?” Jamie laid on the ground next to Claire and closed his eyes. “Yer gonna promise me that if she follows ye again, it will be sandy beaches, perfect weather, culture, and things to learn”. He looked directly at Joe, “where she will never be scared like this again. Otherwise, I leave ye here.”

John came back loaded with food and water. As expected, the rebels had cleared out quickly, taking most of the medical supplies with them. The men ate in silence, each fighting the fears in their head, wondering how they would ever get out of there.

“Why are they so determined to kill us for Christ's sake? Haven’t they had enough with all the dead at the hospital?”

Joe looked at the ground, not expecting there could be an answer, hoping it would become too risky to keep hunting them. John had killed at least a dozen of their men. Maybe it was enough to scare them away.

“Plausible deniability,” Jamie’s voice was low and exhausted. “Ye witnessed the massacre. If anyone wanted to prosecute, which they won’t, you could hang them all with what ye saw. In other words, it’s not over.”

Later, John sat next to Joe who was shaking hard, teeth chattering, and a glazed look in his eyes. When he felt for a pulse, Joe looked down like he didn’t understand.

“Don’t be mad, dear boy, this is the cure to what ails you. Look up!” The knee jerk reaction to that command was to look up, and John blew white powder into his nose from an outstretched palm.

Kevin launched into the cave after relieving himself. “I fuckin hate going out there, I can’t see anything!”

“And they cannot see you,” John told him. “I am taking my post outside to give you all a secure lullaby. Can you sleep, or do you need help?”

Kevin looked up at him, mid-yawn, “what?”

“Never mind.”

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