Sometimes Goodbye is a second chance

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It would be hours in a scorching hot desert and an even hotter vehicle before they would reach their destination. An old bunker that had been the last place special agent Charlie had been seen. Maybe there Clark would find the necessary keys to unlock this giant mess. Taryn would secure the perimeter with her men before hunkering down for the night. She kept her face unreadable, best poker face there was yet his words rumbled in her mind. A little much for a nobody like me.

Is that what he thought she thought of him? She wouldn't blame him. If whatever it was they had couldn't even survive this... maybe this was the best way before she ended up hurt again. She stole a glance at him, working away at one of the notebooks, his face flashed with understanding and her eyes narrowed. What had he found out.

"Make sense of anything Mr. Ketworth?" she asked her eyes boring into him.
 
Clark looked up, wiping a bit of sweat from his eyes. He hadn't written down his message from Charlie and yet the words bounced around his head like tigger. "Algorithms and history...he's been giving me math and history lessons for twenty two pages." He wrinkled his nose, holding up the book.

"If I wanted that then I would go back to college. Seriously, Charlie was such a weird one." He looked back at the book, scowling as he continued looking it over. The next few pages were somewhat of a will in case he was killed and Clark shuddered.

"Clark...I hope for your sake that I faked my death. If not then they'll throw you into hell and laugh about it."

Isn't that what happened? Wasn't he already being dragged through hell? "Okay Charlie...you knew how stupid I can be so why did you choose these riddles?!" He yelled at the book, finally showing frustration with his situation. He leaned his head back, his neck hitting the metal of the helmet. "Somewhere your ghost is laughing you sick bastard..." He whispered to himself.
 
Taryn watched him. She wanted nothing more than to reach for him, massage his neck, kiss him till the frustration dissipated but she knew that Taryn was long gone, the moment they both showed up in Qatar. She said nothing and when the Sgt accompanying them looked as if he was going to make an improper joke about Clark she shot him a glance that made him audibly smack his mouth shut.

Nearing the three hour mark outside the wire Taryn became antsy... for them to have made it this far without any interception just wasn't normal. Her eyes scanned through the window. Something just wasn't right.

"Deviate." She said to the man driving. He looked over his shoulder confused.

"But T... there's no one there." he argued. "We'll lose another two hours!"

"Deviate to route C master Sgt. Don't make me tell you again." She stated. Her eyes widened as a glimmer off the horizon caught her eye. She flew between the two front seats and slammed into the steering wheel giving a sharp right turn that nearly made them tip. The men shouted just as an explosion blew to the left of where they were now, exactly where they would have been had they continued on the route. The sound was deafening but Taryn and two other of the company focused on their sniper rifles.

"I see two T, one atop one driving."

"They're not alone. Deviate to D, now. Do not go under sixty do you understand?" she barked orders. She moved throughout the cabin of the humvee readying the machine gun atop to go out.

"No T, let me take uptop, we need you to stay alive." The youngest of the bunch said ready to climb up the three steps. Taryn eyed him. "If you can shoot better than me have at it... if not stand down." she shouted, there was no time to waste. The Sgt took the challenge, moving to climb up before Taryn did and begin shooting at those in pursuit.
 
Clark felt his body go numb and he grew cold. His face fell into an emotionless pit. This was the nasty Clark that came out when things got bad. This was the version of him that had become a part of him whenever his father beat him.

He kind of glanced around the vehicle, a cold and calm aura radiating from him. He calmly placed the journals back into the briefcase and watched Taryn climb. Some dark part of his mind started laughing uncontrollably and he snorted.

Charlie did this. He did all of this and he was probably on a beach somewhere laughing. He had forced them to switch places. But for what reason? Maybe Clark had always been better at handling the pressure than Charlie?

His mind whirled and shifted and he suddenly knew what lay ahead at Charlie's little haven. "The sick bastard planned on this..." He hissed. He pulled out another journal, having already decided the map. "Do what Taryn says but with one exception..." He unbuckled, waltzing through the cabin of the vehicle as if he was simply walking across a room. "When we get to the destination don't go around back. Don't deviate from whatever path there is leading from the front door."
He knew he sounded crazy, normal procedure would be to take the least known path to it. "I think Charlie laid some mines outside of the place..."
 
The soldiers eyed Clark and then Taryn who nodded in agreeance to the new plan. Taryn figured he had finally understood something from those journals. The man above continued to shoot, succeeding in blowing out one of their tires. Taryn grabbed hold of the man's vest yanking him down in one quick swoop. The others in the cabin watched as Taryn emerged atop. She threw her helmet down even though her team fought instantly. Without her helmet her head was an easy target. Taryn ignored and time slowed the moment her eye focused the scope.

Her breathing stilled, she could no longer hear her team, the road or the wind whipping around her seventy plus miles an hour. She slowed her heart rate with her slow breathing and when she saw the man's face perfectly in her scope she pulled the trigger. The recoil, a familar one at that barely moved her and she reloaded her weapon that sat atop the machine gun. She had always been a better shot with her sniper rifle. The bullet made contact, the vehicle coming to a stop as the driver slumped over, his face blown from the bullet. She slammed on the top of the vehicle, the driver turning and driving towards the vehicle. When he was within her scope she took out the second insurgent. With that the humvee made a bee line to route D and towards the bunker.

Taryn came back down from uptop, closing it up and moving to sit in her seat. Though those around her cheered her shaking began almost immediately and her knuckles turned white as she held onto her rifle. Her eyes were closed and she tried to still her breathing once more. She did her job but there wasn't a life she took she didn't feel guilty for. Killing people in the name of serving one's country was just murder glorified. That's how she saw it and that's how she felt.
 
Clark tuned everyone else out. He stayed up near the front, journal in his hand. The cold him always scared him, but in this case it helped him separate from everything.

He stood there silently and completely still until he sensed the change in direction. They were nearing the bunker. "Remember to stay on the path no matter what." He looked back at the journal, his face lacking emotion.

"Once we get there I need to go in first." He said, loud enough for the whole vehicle to hear.
 
Taryn stood then, shaking her head. "The hell you will. You will not leave this vehicle until the perimeter is cleared." she was face to face with Clark. Something was different. He wasn't the same he had been before. It pulled at her heart but she shut that down. This was her job. She didn't know if they would survive the night, the next few weeks, months or even the year she was to be deployed let alone of whatever had begun would be able to continue after this. She shook her head once more. "I don't care what those books say, civilian." It hurt her to talk to him that way but there was no way she was going to allow him to go into an unsecured area.
 
Clark blinked. "Trust me when I say our only chances of getting in there alive is if I go in first." He looked down at the journal coldly. "Charlie has made that abundantly clear. I'm the only one that knows him well enough to know what traps he has planned." Clark stared her down, eyes cold and distant.

He had gone to his dark self and it had consumed him.

When was the last time he had slipped into this? Years? Months? Very little could bring him out of it now he was in it. This was more than survival this was keeping the past from touching him. He walked to grab the briefcase, heading towards the door of the vehicle in total preparation of being the first out
 
Taryn's anger nearly tripled at his insubordination. She glared at him and when the humvee came to a stop she grabbed his vest and yanked him back away from the door. "You are not going alone." she snarled. The rest of the team watched with wide eyes. There was more than just the consultant pissing off the leader... they didn't know what but this was personal. Taryn pointed her weapon, placing her helmet back on her head she opened the door and made sure everything was clear before heading out, just her and Clark. She secured around the front of the bunker sending signals back to the others.

They nodded and took off in the humvee to secure the perimeter. Taryn opened the front door and pointed her gun inside, using her scope to clear the area before allowing Clark to enter.

"Tell me where to head, I clear, you warn." she said stepping infront of him after closing the door. She didn't move waiting for him to tell her which way to go.
 
Clark rolled his eyes. "First of all, don't do that." He pulled her back from the door just as a spring snapped and sent a dart headed across Clarks face to thud into the door beside him.
He let her go and sighed. "Watch out for trip wires. Charlie loved those." He moved inside, ignoring her now that all his senses were attuned to the bunker.

He was caught being weeping and laughing when he saw how Charlie's bunker had been decorated. Silly trinkets that took him back to his childhood were scattered everywhere. "Be careful." He mumbled, bee lining exactly towards the desk
 
Taryn huffed and puffed. The man was insufferable and incorrigible and insubordinate all at once and so damn sexy she could rip his clothes off right then and there. Her anger was apparent and she followed suit watching as he tripped trap after trap. She shook her head. Charlie was a giant man child... and Clark was enjoying all of it. When the area was secured she left Clark alone, moving to rejoin her team. The humvee was secured and they all filed into the bunker, closing the door for the night. They each moved about to set up their sleeping bags and get some rest while they still could.

Taryn found her own nook behind wooden crates. She sat down, reaching into one of her pockets and pulling out a small leather bound journal that had seen better days. She opened it up, her eyes tearing up as she saw the last pages, blood stains on them. She wiped at her eyes as she began to write.

Day 1...
 
Clark set up at Charlie's desk. A cold breeze swept over him as he sat there and spread out the journals. "So what exactly are we looking for?" He asked.

Maybe Charlie had stumbled upon an ancient civilizations wrapons
 
Taryn wrote in her journal until she got heavy eyes. She closed it, placing it in her pocket and looking out the bunker's small window.

"P, you have first watch." she called from her spot behind the crates. "Two hour rotations." she said as she stretched. Being in the military you learned to never remove your boots or anything from your person. You'd sleep standing if need be. She settled back, pulling her helmet down so that it covered her eyes from the fluorescent light bulbs above and tried to fall asleep.
 
Clark worked for hours until he found something. He cussed under his breath, unable to sleep with the information he had just found.

"Excalibur...." He hissed, standing and beginning pacing. His childhood friend had pieced together information on Excalibur. And not just Excalibur but also an item called the "eye of cleopatra".

Clark nearly chocked and he made sure that he kept those portions still in code.

"Clark finish our dreams and don't let them take them this time. You can't run from your father forever."

Charlie...he had seen into the future somehow. He knew what would happen.

Clark snapped. He slammed the books on the desk and started moving around the bunker. No stone went unturned in his frantic search. There had to be more! Had to!
 
Taryn jumped from her light sleep at the sound of someone slamming things and then rummaging through items. K had taken over P's spot and he too jumped. "what in the hell are you doing?" Taryn said as she jumped over one of the boxes and head towards where Clark was rummaging through things. He looked like a caged animal, disoriented and not all there. The sight worried her. She had thought about supplying him with her smaller firearm but seeing how he was quickly becoming the mad hatter she was glad she hadn't armed him.

"Mr. Kentworth... everything all right?" she asked standing right in his line of vision to keep him from turning more things over without having to physically move her.
 
Clark glanced up. His eyes met Taryn's and for a moment the old Clark was back. "Taryn he hid it." He whispered. "He hid it knowing I would come here..."

Charlie knew something. Lack of sleep, the heat and memories of abuse from his father
 
Taryn's eyes never left his. What was going on with him? Had he lost it already? Day one outside the wire and Clark had gone bat shit crazy. She frowned, rubbing at her neck. "Why... why don't you get some rest. Maybe you can find whatever "IT" is once you've recharged your batteries." She said pulling the journal from his hand. She figured if she kept the journal from Clark he couldn't continue searching frantically.
 
Clark scowled at her and gave her a derisive snort. "Sleep?" He sat on his heel, considering it. Maybe he was losing it. Was he losing it?

Clark sighed and looked at the journal with longing before moving to the space he had cleared. He flopped down, closing his eyes and trying desperately to slip into oblivion.
 
Taryn went to her corner. She flipped through the pages trying to make sense of Charlie's crazy writings. Of course he probably wrote then so only Clark would understand.

Nothing was making any sense. Why all this secrecy? Why all this military planning... was this really a matter of national security or was this something more worth preserving? Nothing made sense and the more Taryn focused on the scribbles the harder her head pound. She closed the journal sitting atop it and closing her eyes once more drifting into a light sleep again.
 
Clark woke a few hours later, back to his normal self. At least he always had felt like his normal self. Was he going crazy and just failed to recognize it in himself? He groaned, sitting up with a pounding in his head.

He was hazy on the previous day's activities but felt like he should be glad about that. He recognized the haze from when the dark him came out and he sighed. He must have freaked everyone out.

Clarks mind flashed with a memory of his father slamming him against a table and he squeezed his eye shut. This wasn't good...if he was having flash backs already...

He turned on his side, facing the wall and away from everyone. He managed to keep from sobbing but he couldn't help the silent tears. If he stayed strong then no one would learn about his ugly past. No one had to know what happened in that household or how he was never good enough. No, instead he could find Excalibur and become that person he fought so hard to be
 
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