02/18/2013 author´s note : When I started to write this fanfiction, I had no idea where things would actually go. Because the movies had been rated "R", I also decided to rate this story accordingly, just in case. Because the story doesn´t contain any explicit content so far, I just decided to change the rating. If any upcoming chapter will contain strong violence or other explicit contents or , you´ll find a warning at the beginning.

Disclaimer : I don´t own any of the Expendables characters and this fanfiction is only for fun, not to gain any money!

I am sorry for any poor English (not my first language :-) ) and other mistakes, but this had to be published as a first chapter right now :-) Being a fan of the good old action days for years, the second part of the movie was just what it took ':-) Have fun reading and please review!

Ross ducked and turned at the same time, opening fire.

„Out of here - NOW!"

„Only a handful of useless guards, huh ?!" mumbled Christmas to himself, firing back while bullets kept battering the walls around him.

„Fuck! Fuck this! O my god!"

Cathie cursed, trying to stay close to the middle aged guy in the worn business suit in front of her and the man leading the way to them. Concrete splittered right next to her where a ricochet had just hit the wall.

„Shit!" she barked.

„Shut up and keep going!" barked their leader back over his shoulder.

„I don´t feel very good", mumbled their companion, staggering slightly.

„This is really not the time to hit the wall, Sam!" advised the younger man in the military fatigues.

„I really feel..."

Samuel weaved. It forced Cathie to stop in her tracks. She turned her head, searching for any followers in the dim light of the old factory building. The shooting hadn´t stopped but nobody seemed to have made them out as the main target so far. She froze as she heard steps closing in.

Then the large figure was suddenly in sight.

„Go, go, go !" he shouted, waving towards the exit. He returned fire out of an overlarge automatic gun while running.

„Get your asses out of here!"

More firing started around them, the hits closer this time. The boom of a massive explosion somewhere behind them shook the whole building. She turned her head instinctively to see where the noise had come from.

„DOWN !" a voice roared behind her and in the next second, she got jostled away, going down in the process. Out of reflex, she grabbed for hold, taking Samuel and Kingsley with her down. Bullets pierced only air where she had stood an instant before. Somebody swore bitterly behind her while she got grabbed and put back to her feet.

„Run !" came the next shouted order and she obeyed immediately, dragging the almost fainted business guy forward while their escort scanned the twilight to eliminate the gunmen. She heard the sound of his return fire. Then there was another unmentionable curse. The merc lost grip on his weapon when two shots hit his arm.

„This gets better and better!" he groaned. More hits too close around forced him forward, with no chance to get hold of the weapon again. He ducked when more shots fell, now from three different directions.

Then he actually saw one of them.

He took a deep breath and concentrated for a second on the biting pain of his wounds. Another wave of adrenaline flooded his blood while his eyes never left his target.

Not only that these freaks would keep him from watching the Super Bowl that night.

Not only that they had ruined his day by chasing him and his teammates through this whole fuckin´ hellhole like rabbits.

Not enough that they had never been hired to fight some madman´s private army.

Now one of these losers had ruined his latest tattoo.

There had not been any chance to really kick one of these guys´ asses face to face so far.

And now it was about time.

Lee Christmas panted heavily, keeping pace with Road and Caesar on their way out. They returned fire only from time to time by now, the exit close by. From there, the rest should be mere child´s play.

„What the..." Caesar barked next to him.

Someone was wreaking havoc in front of them.

Christmas swore, then exchanged a short glance with his companions.

„Great, Gunnar found somebody to play with!" he barked, watching his teammate fight three men at the same time. Luckily, the Mexicans seemed as crazy as their opponent. They had dropped their guns and had gone into a knife combat.

„Shall we join the party ?" Caesar barked.

„And spoil his fun ?" Road shouted.

Christmas only sighed - then grinned, jumping right into the chaos in front of them.

Cathie tried to concentrate on her breath for a moment, trying to realize that they made it.

The had finally made it.

After they had stumbled safely aboard the military plane waiting for them and had escaped the men still firing at them, she had done her best for Samuel Wilton. The guy looked bad enough though he had somehow managed to stay uninjured during their escape. Still, the trades man had surely not eaten properly for some days, and together with the shock and fear and surely not too gentle treatment of his kidnappers, the arrogant fool was done by now. Besides, he was a diabetic and not very healthy in general, which was the reason she was there. Regarding that, he looked great compared to the guys who had been hired to get him back home.

She herself had come through unharmed as well. Still, she was shaking from their run and the shock of the fight. Besides, she was seething with rage.

She tried to concentrate to the things at hand, checking on the rest of the men for injuries which needed immediate treatment, ignoring her own bosses curses behind her.

Ross and Christmas had been lucky and paraded only some mere scratches, the same went for Yang. The others had suffered one wound or another, but nothing too serious.

While she had taken care of Road´s heavily bleeding lacerations, it had fallen to Caesar and Christmas to get Jensen back to reality. He looked the worst from all of them, blood all over the torn fatigues. He was still raging, roaring surprisingly bloody curses, half the time in his mother tongue. Though she didn´t understand those, the shouting couldn´t mean anything else.

„Now come on, Gunnar, cool down!" eased Lee.

Cathie understood only half of the answer, but his teammate obviously wished the guy to hell and back.

Cathie took a deep breath and grabbed her first aid kit.

„Let me have a ..."

Her last patient gave a growl so dark that she stopped talking.

„This nice little lady is going to look after your arm, buddy, alright ?!"

Caesar pronounced every word as if he was talking to a half-wit.

„Alright ?" he repeated.

The blond stared at him, bloodlust in his eyes.

Caesar patted his comrade´s face in a way that would rather have sent anyone else to sleep than bringing him back to consciousness, but it seemed to work.

„You´re listening, Northman ?"

Finally, the fellow merc nodded and seemed to relax at least a little. The piercing blue eyes found Cathie. Caesar nodded to her to get started.

She held his gaze, her outer appearance calm. She had seen worse injuries and men and women in worse states of body and mind. As far as she knew, these men had been a team for years, if not decades. She could trust them to know if it was safe for her to look after their comrade. Christmas, on the left side behind Jensen, signalled her clearance - and that they would stay right at hand to help if necessary.

She put her equipment down right next to her and went down to one knee, now looking up to her patient who sat on one of the benches at either side of the plane, and mustered him quickly.

„You know, darling, I would prefer if you would take care of me first", snapped Kingsley behind her back.

Cathie ignored Kingsleys comment.

„How bad is it ?" called Ross from the cockpit.

„Well, which of that blood is yours ?" Cathie asked the man in front of her.

He grimaced, and after a moment, showed a rather mad grin.

„Check for yourself."

She chuckled.

„I take that as a good sign. Let´s get you out of that jacket."

„Are you deaf, or what ?" Kingsley interrupted harshly.

„Let me do my job", she answered, her voice still calm, while she took a first look at the grazing shots on Gunnar´s right arm.

„Your job is looking after Wilton, honey! You seem to forget who´s paying you!"

„Only grazing shots", she muttered, cautiously examinating the wounds, doing her best to keep her hands from trembling. „Nothing too bad."

„Great", her patient retorted.

„What about your leg ?" she asked, more to distract him, her eyes fixed on the injuries on his arm.

„Stab wounds", came the flat answer.

„Plural ?"

She made careful use of the antiseptic.

„Two."

„Still bleeding ?"

He didn´t answer, closing his eyes and clenching his fists in reaction to the stinging pain of the antiseptics.

She threw a worried look at the bloodstained trousers, then handed Lee a bandage.

„Put this around it", she told him, nodding towards Gunnar´s arm. „Doesn´t need to be pretty, just make it hold."

She threw a look at Caesar.

„Lend me your knife."

He handed her the blade and she sliced expertly through the drained fabric, exposing the stab wounds. They were not too dangerous, but surely hurting like hell.

„I´ll give you something against the pain", she stated, turning towards her kit.

„No !"

The contradiction came as a shout.

She looked him in the eyes, irritated.

„You´re sure ?"

He gave a single nod.

„This will be painful", she insisted patiently.

„Boys ?" Gunnar asked, exchanging quick glances with Caesar and Christmas.

They signalled silent agreement.

„We´ll hold him if necessary", Christmas explained, realizing Cathies puzzled expression.

„Okay. Let´s see then..."

„You know", a voice from behind her back interrupted. „What about throwing a look at the guy who´s paying you instead of wasting your time on that addict!"

„Shut up", she muttered under her breath.

Kingsley threw her a dark look behind her back, but didn´t interrupt again. A look at the faces of the men around him told him clearly that it would be better not to say anymore right now, though Cathie belonged to his own crew and not the Ross´ illustrous gang. Nothing had worked as planned and it was more than obvious by now that he had withheld information to persuade Ross to take the job.

After all, the bounty hunter managed to keep his tongue until she had finished the treatment.

„Sure you don´t want a barb at least ?" she asked.

The blond merc nodded, his face white from exertion.

„Just hand me my little friend over there", he said flatly, nodding towards his backpack.

„Don´t care", Christmas told her and grabbed the pocket bottle for him.

„Rest", she suggested lowly.

„Are you finally done over there ?" Kingsley grumbled.

Cathie closed her kit slowly and threw a last look at her patient. Contented with her work for the moment, she took a deep breath, locking eyes with the man in front of her for a second.

The next things happened so fast and unexpected that none of the tired men around were fast enough to catch up with in time.

The former military medic spun around. Her hands grabbed a large automatic gun somebody had carelessly dropped right next to the bounty hunter and in the next second, she swung its at the man in front of her. She would probably have bashed his head in had he not reacted in the last moment. He managed to move aside, but was not fast enough. His nose broke with a disgusting noise and blood started to pour out of it.

There was a short scuffle. Large paws grabbed Cathie and wrested the gun out of her hands.

„What the hell is going on back there ?" Ross barked from the cockpit.

„Now you got something to complain about!" Cathie spat into the following silence.

The men around her only stood, watching in surprise while she freaked out. Kingsley struggled to stop the bleeding. Nobody seemed willing to assist him.

„Look what you did to me, crazy bitch!" he barked.

„Go to fuckin´ hell!" Cathie shouted, struggling against Yangs firm grip. „You told me this would be an in and out job, all easy, just taking care of the guy´s blood sugar level!" Her voice rose to an impressive level, her tone coarse.

„Instead, I get almost killed! People died as flies over there and there were goddamn bullets flying everywhere!"

„Crazy bitch!" Kingsley snapped. „Shut up and do what I pay you for! You promised you would be able to stabilize the guy, now he´s in a coma!" He gestured towards the unconscious man they had rescued.

„He IS stable!" she barked back. „There´s nothing else I can do here against the shock!"

„They were doing right not giving you a licence", Kingsley snarled. „You´re goddamn crazy!"

„Whatever´s up back there", Ross interrupted,"where going to land soon! Find yourself a safe place now, will you!"

Cathie had stopped struggling and Yang loosened his grip on her carefully.

„You´re alright ?" he asked stoically.

She nodded silently.

Christmas suppressed a sigh and touched her arm. „Sit down over there", he ordered lowly. To his relief, she did as told. He threw a last look around, then climbed in his seat right next to Ross at the cockpit.

Ross threw him a questioning look, but he only shook his head. This job had simply been a catastrophy, and he only wished for a hot shower, a cold beer and his girlfriend in his bed.

„Take me home!" Christmas muttered.

Ross shrugged.

„Somehow refreshing that we had not to hold Gunnar back from killing our own people for a change", he commented cynically.

Christmas only grinned wearily.