Isle Avenue 1
Part One
The waiting room of Ailen General was painted a fluorescent yellow, the paint faded in sections and others patched up with a bubblegum pink colour that perfectly match the plastic chairs arranged haphazardly around the space. Apart from John, Madison and Jake it was completely empty, the only sounds were the gurgling of the water cooler in the corner and the occasional sigh from the solitary nurse reading a gossip magazine behind the bullet proof glass.
“Daddy … daddy!” Madison's voice echoed around the empty room and she flashed a toothless, bloodied smile up at him. “Look.”
She held up the tattered old colouring book she'd been carrying around with her since Jake had been born, showing him a picture of a clown which she had messily coloured bright green.
“That looks beautiful angel,” he said, pulling her into a tight one-armed hug.
Throwing him another bright smile she hopped down from her seat and hurried over to the triage desk, colouring book dragging along the ground behind her.
“Damian!” Climbing onto the chair in front of the desk she pushed the book underneath the glass.
It had taken a long time for Madison to start talking again, let alone actively seek out friends, after Di had succumbed to breast cancer and John had to fight back his need to protect as she talked animatedly with the young nurse. Closing his eyes he placed a gentle hand on Jake's shoulder and his eighteen month old son snuggled closer into his thigh. The nurse, Damian his name badge had read, didn't seem a bad sort, mid-twenties with floppy brown hair and wire rimmed glasses. The kid looked more like a college professor or librarian rather than a nurse and Madison had fallen for him straight away.
“Madison Bradwell.”
Opening his eyes John turned to see a petite woman with bright red hair wearing a pair of blue scrubs standing by the entrance to the A&E with a file in her hand.
“That's my name!” Madison jumped down from the chair, a lollipop clutched tightly in her hand along with the colouring book and ran over to the woman. “Bye Damian.”
“Bye sweetie.”
John gave the male nurse a quick smile which was easily returned, then scooped the still sleeping Jake into his arms and followed Madison to where she was eagerly showing the woman all the pictures in her book.
“This way please,” the nurse, her sticker encrusted name badge read Jackie, tousled Madison's blonde curls before turning and leading them into the department.
The smell of the hospital hit John with the force of a sledge hammer, making him tighten his grip on Jake, which made the boy squirm in his footie pyjamas and make a small noise of protest. It didn't help that Ailen General, like every other hospital in the world, was lit by halogen lights, its walls painted off-white with a strip of mint green about half-way down and faded mint green linoleum on the floor. His breath caught in his throat as the memories of the three months Di had spent dying slowly in Royal Prince Alfred back home in Melbourne and he shook his head rapidly to push aside those painful memories to focus on what was happening here and now. The department itself wasn't particularly large to say that it was the only one in the city centre, nothing more than a group of curtained off beds around a central raised area which contain a huge desk, several computers and a handful of bored looking doctors and nurses.
“Here we go.”
Jackie had stopped in front of one of the empty cubicles and with her free hand she helped Madison climb onto the bed. “The doctor will be with you in a minute.”
With that she gave Madison one last smile before walking away into the main part of the department and up onto the raised section, letting John take several moments to appreciate her slender legs and shapely curves. It was times like these that he remembered that the last time he had gotten laid had probably been when Jake had been conceived, and releasing a deep sigh of regret he hoisted Jake further into his arms and arranged them both on the bed beside Madison.
They had only been in Ailen for a week, England for less than a month, and it didn't surprise John in the slightest that his hyperactive three year old daughter had managed to break her two front teeth jumping off the stairs in an attempt to see if she could fly. He really should have known better than to let her watch Dumbo after the Aladdin incident but he had been tired and careless, really it was his own fault they were here.
“Da,” mumbled Jake, one green eye half-open as he took in their surroundings.
“Its alright Jake,” he said, placing his son on the bed and covering his small body with Madison's discarded bright pink dressing gown. “Go back to sleep.”
Giving a sleepy smile Jake wrapped his arms around John's leg and settled back down, clearly ignoring his big sister who was bouncing excitedly on the other end of the bed. At the desk Jackie was talking to an exhausted looking man wearing a wrinkled blue dress shirt, a battered stethoscope hanging around his neck. John watched as she handed him what could only be Madison's file and pushed him in their direction. She was clearly the hot headed, pushy kind of woman which was usually just John's type and had they been in any other situation than at the hospital with his injured kid he would be flirting up a storm. Unfortunately he had to put his sadly mistreated libido to one side at the moment and focus on the harried looking man who was fast approaching them with a scowl on his face. Up close he was a lot younger than John had originally thought; maybe mid-thirties, so not much younger than John himself, with deathly pale skin and platinum blonde hair.
“I'm Dr. Weston,” he said, walking into the cubicle with his head buried in the file. “What's the problem?”
“Hi Dr. Weston, I'm Madison.”
The Doc looked up from the file at the sound of Madison's voice, and the moment he caught sight of her bright smile and frantic wave he seemed to melt. Gone was the scowl and harshness in his blue eyes and in its place was an almost relaxed and welcoming expression. John couldn't help but be amazed at the seemingly magical powers that his children possessed, it was almost as though they could turn even the most evil human being into a pile of mush. Not that he was ever planning on testing that theory; he had experienced enough evil during his time as a TRG officer for the Australian Federal Police to last his entire family a lifetime.
“Hello Madison, what have you done to yourself?” Weston asked, putting the file in the basket at the end of the bed.
“I wanted to fly just like Dumbo,” she said, excitedly waving her arms around. “But I fell down the stairs and hurt my teeth.”
At that she bared her gums at the doctor who turned to John with a harsh look on his face. “Is that what happened?”
Not liking where Weston's train of thought was clearly going, John did his best to appear relaxed and unassuming.
“Pretty much,” he answered, shrugging his shoulders. “Madi hasn't quite worked out that Disney isn't real.”
Nodding his head, seeming pleased with whatever he had seen in John's facial expressions, Weston moved in front of Madison and switched on the overhead light.
“Okay sweetheart I need you to look up at the light,” he said, placing a gentle hand on her chin and helping her tilt her head in the right direction. “Thank you, now open your mouth.”
Madison followed his instructions perfectly, barely even flinching when he softly pressed his glove covered fingers against her exposed gums.
“Hurts,” she whispered, voice muffled by Weston's hand and John gave her shoulder a soft squeeze in support.
“Did you bring the teeth that were knocked out with you?” Weston switched off the overhead light and turned to John.
With a quick nod he rummaged through his khaki pockets until he came across the two teeth he had stashed in their as they had hurried out of the house.
“I don't think there's anything left in her gums,” he said, dropping the teeth into the doctor's upturned hand.
“How about you let me decide that huh?” muttered Weston, the gruff angry tone of the man's voice made John smile. “We'll just send her to x-ray...”
Whatever he had been about to say was cut off by a choking scream from beyond the curtain, something which brought John to his feet immediately, making sure that he was physically between the rest of the department and his kids.
“Daddy?” Madison's voice wavered and for the first time since they had arrived at the A&E she actually sounded afraid, which was something that cut right into John's heart.
“Its okay baby,” he said, eyes fixed on Weston who had stripped off his gloves and was walking out of the cubicle. He wasn't even two steps away before he froze, staring at something out of John's visual range and whatever colour he did have in his face quickly drained away.
John felt as if his heart had stopped beating and signalling at Madison to be quiet he snuck to the edge of the curtain and peered around. At the other end of the corridor a man had a tiny woman with auburn hair in a headlock, knife at her slender throat. He was wearing a long leather jacket and John could just glimpse the wires which probably made up the components of a bomb through the opening. Turning back to the bed he silently hit the brakes and swung it around against the wall, pulling Madison into his arms at the same time.
“Madi I need you and Jake to stay behind this bed and be very, very quiet ok sweetie?”
Picking Jake up he placed him on Madison's lap and arranged the blankets on the bed so that it hid the two of them from view. That done he edged around the curtain to stand beside Weston who seemed to have frozen in place, eyes barely even tracking as he stared at the scene in front of him. Just great if the situation wasn't bad enough now he had a doctor with PTSD on his hands as well.
“I want the Prime Minister on the phone now!” the man with the bomb was saying, his grip on the woman's throat tightening and John saw her eyes widen in panic.
Movement off to John's left made him look quickly in that direction to see a dark haired man stand up from the desk, hands held out in front of him in a non-threatening manner.
“Look man this is just a small county hospital,” he said, shrugging slender shoulders. “We don't exactly have Number 10 on speed dial.”
The woman held in the mad-man's grip started mouthing 'shut up' desperately and John had to agree with her.
“Listen to me you little shit,” said the man, pressing the knife closer to the woman's throat until a small trail of blood ran down her ivory skin. “You do what I tell you or I'll kill her nice and slow.”
Weston gave a full body shudder at that and John reached out to grip the man's wrist; they didn't need him to go catatonic in this situation. Giving it a tight squeeze, John let out a breath of relief when he turned to look into his eyes.
“Are you okay?” he whispered, getting a short nod in response.
John knew that there was a story behind this man's odd reaction to what was happening, but they didn't have time to get into it now.
“... I can't just call him!” the man at the desk was saying when John finally re-entered the conversation.
“Shut up Paul!” Jackie grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him down into the chair he had recently vacated. “Don't make this worse.”
The man dragged his hostage further into the department, crazy eyes taking in everyone assembled there. “Yeah Paul don't make things worse… listen to your pretty little friend.”
With those words the man leered at Jackie who managed to look disgusted and roll her eyes at the same time. She was almost fearless, but unfortunately John had seen her kind in high pressure situations like this before and they were generally the first ones to crack.
“Why don't you just let ...” John stepped forward, but not knowing the woman's name he looked back at Weston questioning.
“Julie,” answered the doctor.
“... Julie go,” he said, holding up his hands and moving slowly. “You have to know the police are on their way, that somebody would have hit the panic button the moment they saw the knife.”
The man looked around wildly as if expecting police officers to just appear out of the walls and start shooting.
“Then why the fuck would I let her go?” he demanded, but John noticed that he pulled the knife away from her throat. “And who the fuck do you think you are?”
John hesitated with his answer, not knowing whether to admit that he was a police detective, one who was due to start working at Ailen PD's major crime unit, or whether he should make something up to try and get the man's guard down. In the end if was probably better to just tell the truth because if he needed the man's trust at a later date it wouldn't do to have it come out that he'd been lying to him. John had his kids lives in this maniacs hands and he couldn't let himself get reckless like he normally would.
“My name's John Bradshaw I'm a detective with the Ailen PD,” he answered.
“You expect me to believe that!” hissed the man, pressing the knife back into Julie's flesh making her gasp in pain. “You're not even from around here.”
John had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. “No I'm not from around here.”
“What do you want?” Julie had a strong Welsh accent that was distinctly croaky which probably had something to do with the bruises beginning to appear on her throat.
The man's dark eyes seemed to appraise John as if seeing him in an entirely new light, before turning back to the woman in his hold.
“I want to talk to the fucking Prime Minister is what I want,” he hissed.
“What's your name?” asked John, trying to make his voice soft and non-threatening as he took a careful step forward.
Tightening his grip on Julie, the man took a step backwards and the wild look came back to his eyes; clearly a man that had been cornered.
“Rick,” he answered. “Don't come any closer or I'll kill her.”
Throwing his hands up John came to a quick stop and caught Julie's eye in what he hoped was a reassuring manner, and he saw a bit of the panic leave her.
“Alright Rick,” he said, stepping back and making sure that Weston was safely behind him. “Why don't we have a chat?”
With Rick's full attention on him, John gave a subtle motion with his fingers to let the people behind the desk that they should move back. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jackie's tiny nod and the woman carefully began to gather up her colleagues and lead them down toward the exit.
“Chat?” Rick gave a hysterical laugh. “What the fuck do you want to chat about?”
It was obvious that he was quickly beginning to loose it, making John wish that he could get closer to check the man's pupils and see if there was any evidence that he was under the influence of anything.
“About why you're here and what you want to speak to the Prime Minister about,” answered John.
Rick's eyes flicked to where Jackie was silently leading everyone to the door and, holding Julie in front of him like a human shield, he moved forward, shouldering John out of the way until he was standing in front of the terrified hospital staff. The young ward clerk Paul immediately stepped in front of the others and John heard Weston gasp in horror beside him as Rick backhanded the man across the face.
“Where do you think you're going?” he yelled, pushing Julie roughly down on top of Paul who immediately wrapped his arms around her and grabbing Jackie by her hair. “Little bitch you're staying with me.”
**
“Detective Cotton?” Mike barely heard the Special Police sniper call his name over the sound of the helicopter rotor blades and he ducked as the down draft nearly knocked him off his feet. “This way please sir.”
The black police chopper lifted off the helipad and into the night sky as he hurried across the tarmac to where the small task force were gathered around Inspector Jamie Richards on the hospital side of the pad.
“What do we know?” Mike asked the sniper, who had fallen into step with him. “How many hostages?”
Mike was head detective for Ailen PD's major crime unit and this wasn't the first hostage situation he had dealt with; in fact this wasn't the first hostage situation in Ailen General that he had attended. However he could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest and adrenalin pumping through his veins at the thought of innocent lives in the hands of a mad man with a bomb strapped to his chest.
“At least twenty in the department itself,” answered the sniper, adjusting the shoulder strap of his rifle. “But hundreds if you include all the essential staff and the patients we weren't able to evacuate on the helicopters.”
“Crap,” muttered Mike.
“You've got that right sir,” the sniper nodded his head and then joined the other members of his team as they began to dissipate into the building.
Jamie, her greying hair falling around her face and stress lines around her eyes, gestured for Mike to join her as she started setting up base with several members of the specialist IT team. All around them computers, monitors and pieces of equipment that Mike didn't even have names for were piling up on cartons and make-shift tables.
“MI-5 have agreed to let us take jurisdiction over this situation since it doesn't seem like its got anything to do with terrorists,” she said. “They have however recommended that once we get snipers inside the hospital we take any shot we can get.”
“I take it you don't agree?” said Mike.
“Our suspects name is Rick McNamara,” Jamie nodded to the nearest computer monitor where the major crime unit's computer technician Sarah Hilton was bringing up the image of a young
Caucasian male. “His older brother Clint was put away four years ago, life sentence for one count of murder and three counts of manslaughter.”
Sarah turned around from where she was sitting on a plastic crate, tucking a strand of her dark red hair behind her ear as she did so. “Apparently he's been sending letters to number 10 for months now, threatening to cause a major incident if Clint isn't released and given a pardon.”
“And nobody paid any attention to him?” demanded Mike, settling his hands on his hips. “I thought MI-5 were taking these kind of threats seriously.”
Shrugging her shoulders Sarah rolled her eyes and turned back to the screen. “Yeah but neither of the McNamara brothers are in any way connected to a terrorist organisation and were therefore determined to be a low threat, basically they were being remotely monitored and this must have taken them completely by surprise.”
Mike turned to stare at Jamie in disbelief.
“Surprise!” he exclaimed. “The man has enough explosives strapped to his chest to level Bristol and it caught them by surprise!”
“Mike,” admonished Jamie, her grip on his shoulder so tight he knew that there would be bruises the next day. “You getting in one of your moods isn't going to help.”
“Moods,” he hissed. “I don't have moods.”
Despite the situation he heard Sarah snickering and he found himself glaring at the back of her head.
“You kinda do Cott,” she said.
Suddenly the sound of the radio sparking to life stopped Mike before he was able to respond and all three of them turned to the tech in charge of communications.
“Inspector Richards,” said the tech. “We've got a request to land.”
Jamie's eyebrows rose in surprise, which meant that she clearly wasn't expecting any reinforcements up on the top of the building.
“From who?” she demanded.
Looking up into the sky Mike could distinctly make out what seemed to be three news helicopters circling overhead, none of whom would be stupid enough to try and get people into the hospital; especially with Big Balls Richards on the case.
“MedAir One,” answered the tech. “They say its an emergency.”
Mike found it difficult to contain his snort of amusement, of course it was an emergency since MedAir One was the leading search and rescue team in the county. In fact Mike had been involved in a brief liaison with the team's pilot which had been a one night stand and an awkward morning after in which the man's flatmate had greeted him at the bathroom door with a plate of pancakes and a hazelnut latte.
“Tell them to go down to County,” yelled Jamie.
“They won't take no for an answer Ma'am,” said the tech, pointing to where the landing lights of a helicopter was coming closer.
“What the fuck does she think she's doing?” demanded Jamie, descending on the terrified looking technician. “I'll have Black's arse for this.”
As the large red and white Blackhawk began its descent onto the helipad, the techs dived over their equipment to save it from the down draft and Mike turned his head to save his eyes from the stinging wind.
“How do they expect to get their patient into the A&E when its in lock-down?” yelled Mike over the sound of the rotors.
“If I know Sean Black she hasn't actually thought about it,” Jamie yelled back. “I don't have time to deal with this shit.”
As the helicopter started to power down the back door slid open and a young, dark skinned man jumped out, unstrapping a stretcher as he did so.
“We kind of need some medical help here,” a tall woman followed the man and stretcher out. “Or is that to much to ask.”
Jamie looked like she was about to blow a fuse, so Mike hurriedly stepped forwards to meet the woman as she charged across the 'pad dragging both the stretcher, with patient, and the young man with her.
“Yes its to much to ask,” said Mike, blocking their entrance into the building. “You were told to turn around and take your patient to County.”
“Yeah I know,” answered the woman. “But we don't have enough fuel to make it all the way to County, we've barely got enough to get back to the airport.”
“We have a hostage situation!” Jamie all but threw Mike out of the way so as to stand in the woman's face. “Have you got that Sean? We have twenty-five people in the A&E being taken hostage by a man with a bomb strapped to his chest… have you got that?”
“Oh man Jamie, I'm sorry is...”
Mike had been so caught up in the drama happening between Jamie and Sean that he hadn't noticed the other man coming up behind them, his voice had a velvety Tennessee quality to it.
“Yeah,” answered Jamie. “He is.”
“Great,” said Sean. “What about my patient.”
“What departments do we still have fully staffed?” Jamie asked, turning away from Sean to prod sharply at Sarah's shoulder.
Quickly typing at the keyboard in front of her Sarah swung around to face them.
“OR has full staff still,” she answered. “It was decided that they were far enough from the A&E not be a target and it was important to keep them operational for the patients we weren't able to evacuate.”
“Woods!” Jamie barked, making the tech by the radio jump in surprise. “Call the OR and get them up here, this patient is being transferred down there.”
Woods nodded quickly and turned back to her station.
**
Miho heard the brakes of her 2008 Mondeo screech as she pulled to a sudden stop in the main carpark of Ailen General and she flung open the door before the car had really even come to a stop. Ripping the keys out of the ignition she hastily climbed out of the car, high heels clipping loudly on the bitumen despite the chaos going on around her. A barrier had been set up to keep the small crowd of interested spectators away from the large number of heavily armoured police officers milling around aimlessly. She had been to several scenes just like this where nobody really knew what was going on let alone how to deal with the situation, basically it made for a complete cock-up of astronomical proportions.
Walking quickly up to the barrier she pulled her ID out of her blazer pocket and held it up to the uniformed officer guarding the only way through.
“Detective Morioka, MCU,” she said, not even waiting for his nod of approval before pushing past and into the fray.
“Miho!” the voice of her partner Gillian Saunders rose up above the general hum of conversation and she turned to face the other woman.
Gillian was looking exhausted; her usually perfectly made up face was painfully devoid of cosmetics and her mocha coloured skin almost looked ashen.
“Gill,” said Miho. “You look like shit Aka-chan.”
The look she received was decidedly dark.
“I was on a stake-out all last night with Cott, then I had to do a mountain of paperwork today and now this,” Gillian tightened the band holding her straight black hair into a ponytail, then turned and gestured for Miho to follow her to where several sharp-shooters and a negotiator were standing. “I feel like shit.”
“So do we have any news from the Cap?” she asked, walking quickly to try and keep up with Gillian's decidedly longer strides.
“Yeah our bombers name is Rick McNamara and apparently this is all an attempt to force the Prime Minister's hand at releasing his brother from prison,” answered Gillian.
“Well that's not going to happen,” said Miho. “This guy could blow up half West Yorkshire and his brother would still be behind bars.”
“You and I know that,” said Gillian. “But I don't think McNamara has all cylinders firing.”
“Gill please Hun, not the car metaphors at this time in the morning,” Miho crossed her arms across her chest when they came to a stop. “I can't handle it.”
With a snort Gillian gave her a hard slap on the back which nearly made her fall forwards.
“Inspector Edwards,” at the sound of Gillian's voice the uniformed negotiator stopped the conversation he was having with one of the armed officers and looked at them. “This is Detective Morioka.”
Edwards was a large silver haired man, with enough height and bulk to show that he had been a formidable force in his prime and could probably take on an entire sleeper cell single handedly if the need arose even in his advanced years.
“You with major crimes as well?” Edwards extended an enormous hand to her which Miho shook gingerly.
“Yes sir,” she answered.
“Good. Richards is on the roof with my snipers,” Edwards tipped his head in the direction of the building. “They're trying to infiltrate now, though she doesn't want them in the A&E yet … any idea why that might be?”
Miho felt amusement welling up in her at the thought of their hard headed Inspector dictating to the SP exactly what they could or couldn't do in a situation they had been trained in.
“She's more than likely concerned for the safety of the hostages,” she said. “If this guy is completely off his rocker then he'll probably blow the moment he catches sight of one of your officers.”
“My officers are highly trained to get into situations like this without being seen,” hissed Edwards. “He'll be dead before he even figures out what's happening.”
“Can you guarantee that?” Miho stepped into the man's personal space, tipping her face up to keep eye contact. “100 percent guarantee that?”
His silence was all the answer she needed.
“That's exactly why she's done it,” said Gillian.
**
The moment that Jake started crying John's heart quite literally stopped beating and from the horrified look in Weston's eyes from where he was sitting across from John with his back leaning against the nurses station, his had as well.
“Fuck,” he heard Paul whisper somewhere to his left.
“What are you hiding in here bitch?” Rick's voice cut through the sudden silence like a knife, quickly followed by a high pitched whimper and he came into John's line of sight dragging Jackie by her hair. There was a growl from Paul and he felt the other man move as if to get to his feet, reaching out with his left hand he grabbed the man's arm.
“Don't do anything stupid,” he breathed and he saw Paul nod in his peripheral vision.
“You!” Rick kicked Weston sharply in his side and the man cried out in pain.
“Hey leave him alone!” yelled Jackie which earned her a particularly violent tug on her hair.
“Go and get the brat,” Rick said to Weston and when he didn't move kicked him again. “Now!”
At that Weston scrabbled painfully to his feet and all but ran to the cubicle where John had hid his children, reappearing a minute later with Jake safely tucked in his arms and Madison clinging to his pant leg.
“Daddy,” Madison let go of Weston and climbed into John's lap, flinging her tiny arms around his neck. “I'm scared.”
“I know baby,” he answered, holding her close but keeping his eyes on the furious looking Rick.
Up to this point John knew that he had been relatively well behaved, willing to let the police do their job unless things looked like they were going downhill but if this bastard so much as touched his kids he would rip his head off with his bare hands.
“That was a really stupid thing to do,” said Rick, but he loosened his grip on Jackie and backed away from them again. “You better not be hiding anything else from me.”
At that moment the phone on the nurses station started ringing making them all jump and Julie uttered a choked cry from where she was sitting on the floor near the door with Damian patching up the cut on her throat with a wad of gauze and some tape.
“Get the phone,” Rick waved the knife in Damian's direction, and with a quick glance at John he got to his feet and walked to the nurses station.
“Hello,” said Damian after he picked up the phone, there was a few moments pause as he listened to whoever was speaking on the other end. “Okay.”
Taking the phone away from his ear he held it at arms length in Rick's direction. “It's an Inspector Edwards.”
“About fucking time,” he gave Jackie a forceful push and she fell almost on top of Paul, who immediately wrapped his arms around the now sobbing woman and held her against his chest. “Give me that.”
John watched as Damian quickly retreated back to Julie after Rick snatched the phone out of his hand and they shared a brief look and nod.
John tuned out whatever was being said between Rick and this Inspector Edwards, whoever he was, probably a police negotiator or something similar, and turned his fully attention to his children.
“Is he ok?” John asked Weston, eyes trained on the still whimpering form of his son cuddled tightly in the doctors arms.
“Yeah,” whispered Weston. “Just hungry I think.”
Taking a moment to glance at Rick who had half turned his back whilst talking on the phone, John slowly slipped his hand into the deep pocket of his coat and pulled out the six ounce bottle of milk he had brought with them in case Jake wanted something before they got home. It wasn't what he would really want but it would do in a pinch.
“Here,” he handed the bottle over to Weston and watched as Jake all but snatched it out of the man's hands.
“I'm hungry to daddy,” said Madison, her voice muffled by his shoulder.
Holding his daughter closer to him John kissed her blonde curls. “You'll just have to wait 'til we get home baby.”
She gave a unhappy whimper but didn't start whinging or, God forbid, have a tantrum.
“If we get home,” muttered Paul, causing him to turn and glare at the other man.
“Shut up Paul,” hissed Jackie and John heard a grunt of pain as she elbowed the man in the side.
**
Inspector Edwards' face was becoming more and more grave the longer he spent on the phone with McNamara and it was honestly making Miho feel quite nervous. Not much could get to a police negotiator, especially one with Edwards' distinguished record and so for him to be looking as pale and horrified as he was doing something had to have gone severely wrong.
“Just let them go McNamara and then we can talk,” Edwards was saying, pacing the length of the same parking bay and talking into the mobile phone he had been given. “No you have my word.”
Clearly his word wasn't good enough for Rick McNamara because a moment later he snapped the phone closed and swore under his breath.
“What's happening?” demanded Gillian, her hand covering the mouth piece on the headset she was wearing to communicate with Sarah who was set up on the roof.
“The bastards got children,” said Edwards. “Children are in there.”
Trying her hardest not to appear as a cold hearted bitch Miho shrugged her slim shoulders. “Its a hospital, I'd already assumed there were children involved.”
“Well I had assumed that if there was I would have been informed,” said Edwards, running a hand through his hair.
Miho awkwardly patted Edwards on the arm before turning back to Gillian.
“What does the Cap say?” she asked.
“She's having problems with the paramedics right now,” said Gillian. “Apparently they've just flown in and as you can imagine sweetie, the Cap isn't impressed.”
**
The doctor which came up from the OR was called Chris Watts, a handsome Scottish man in his early forties with a kind face who suitably admonished the crew of MedAir One and then with a few words had eased Jamie out of her 'red zone'. Mike wished he had Watts' magical powers when it came to women … Christ when it came to anyone really because he had been informed by his co-workers on many occasions that he wasn't exactly a people person.
“Alright lets get this man down to OR and see what we can do for him,” said Watts, plucking a file out of Sean's hand and gesturing for the paramedics to follow him through the sliding doors into the building.
“So what's the plan?” asked Mike, settling himself carefully on the box beside Sarah.
Jamie ran her long fingers through her hair and then turned her tired grey eyes onto him. “Currently Inspector Edwards is attempting to negotiate with McNamara.”
Mike tried his hardest not to roll his eyes at that comment, in all the years he had been on the police force the SP had never been able to talk someone down in a hostage situation. It wasn't that he meant any disrespect to the small team of negotiators in the Ailen PD, but he would rather have a team of sharp-shooters at his back than someone with a megaphone.
“And when that doesn't work?” he demanded, blatantly ignoring the sharp elbow that Sarah dug into his side.
“At this point we have to hope that Edwards can talk him 'round,” answered Jamie, though her eyes narrowed at him in warning.
“And then there's always Colonel Bradwell,” said Sarah.
Turning slowly to look at her Mike raised an eyebrow. “Who is Colonel Bradshaw?”
“Well,” said Sarah, directing a look over his head to Jamie. “Its Bradwell.”
There was something strange about this, almost as if something was being kept from Mike and he didn't like it. This was the problem with working in a department with a majority female presence, they tended to gossip and plot behind his back and he often found himself in the dark.
“Whatever,” he muttered. “Who the hell is he?”
Sarah was still looking over his head and Mike knew that there was a whole conversation going on between the women that he would never by privy to nor ever understand.
“As of tomorrow he's your new partner,” said Jamie from behind him.
Swinging around he levelled her with his best glare, he couldn't believe she had been keeping this from him.
“Excuse me?” he knew that his eyebrows had disappeared somewhere into his mop of dark blonde curls but right now he didn't care. “My what now?”
“Don't give me that look Mike you knew that you were due another partner since you drove Alison to transfer to traffic,” said Jamie, folding her leanly muscled arms across her chest. “And this will be the fifth partner this year, don't fuck it up.”
Unable to stop his eyes rolling at her insinuation that it was his fault that every idiot they decided to drop on his lap inevitably couldn't handle the pressure. This Colonel Bradwell or whatever his name was probably wouldn't even last 'til the end of the month if Jamie didn't think he could deal with a simple hostage situation.
“I don't need another partner Jamie, I'm doing perfectly fine on my own,” he said, refusing to lower himself to pouting. “Or why can't you partner me with Gillian and this Inspector ...”
“Colonel,” said Sarah.
“...whatever, can go with Miho,” Mike nodded at his own, frankly genius, suggestion. “Everyone wins.”
“Except me,” the look in Jamie's eyes was almost murderous. “This isn't up for discussion Mike.”
Part Two
The waiting room of Ailen General was painted a fluorescent yellow, the paint faded in sections and others patched up with a bubblegum pink colour that perfectly match the plastic chairs arranged haphazardly around the space. Apart from John, Madison and Jake it was completely empty, the only sounds were the gurgling of the water cooler in the corner and the occasional sigh from the solitary nurse reading a gossip magazine behind the bullet proof glass.
“Daddy … daddy!” Madison's voice echoed around the empty room and she flashed a toothless, bloodied smile up at him. “Look.”
She held up the tattered old colouring book she'd been carrying around with her since Jake had been born, showing him a picture of a clown which she had messily coloured bright green.
“That looks beautiful angel,” he said, pulling her into a tight one-armed hug.
Throwing him another bright smile she hopped down from her seat and hurried over to the triage desk, colouring book dragging along the ground behind her.
“Damian!” Climbing onto the chair in front of the desk she pushed the book underneath the glass.
It had taken a long time for Madison to start talking again, let alone actively seek out friends, after Di had succumbed to breast cancer and John had to fight back his need to protect as she talked animatedly with the young nurse. Closing his eyes he placed a gentle hand on Jake's shoulder and his eighteen month old son snuggled closer into his thigh. The nurse, Damian his name badge had read, didn't seem a bad sort, mid-twenties with floppy brown hair and wire rimmed glasses. The kid looked more like a college professor or librarian rather than a nurse and Madison had fallen for him straight away.
“Madison Bradwell.”
Opening his eyes John turned to see a petite woman with bright red hair wearing a pair of blue scrubs standing by the entrance to the A&E with a file in her hand.
“That's my name!” Madison jumped down from the chair, a lollipop clutched tightly in her hand along with the colouring book and ran over to the woman. “Bye Damian.”
“Bye sweetie.”
John gave the male nurse a quick smile which was easily returned, then scooped the still sleeping Jake into his arms and followed Madison to where she was eagerly showing the woman all the pictures in her book.
“This way please,” the nurse, her sticker encrusted name badge read Jackie, tousled Madison's blonde curls before turning and leading them into the department.
The smell of the hospital hit John with the force of a sledge hammer, making him tighten his grip on Jake, which made the boy squirm in his footie pyjamas and make a small noise of protest. It didn't help that Ailen General, like every other hospital in the world, was lit by halogen lights, its walls painted off-white with a strip of mint green about half-way down and faded mint green linoleum on the floor. His breath caught in his throat as the memories of the three months Di had spent dying slowly in Royal Prince Alfred back home in Melbourne and he shook his head rapidly to push aside those painful memories to focus on what was happening here and now. The department itself wasn't particularly large to say that it was the only one in the city centre, nothing more than a group of curtained off beds around a central raised area which contain a huge desk, several computers and a handful of bored looking doctors and nurses.
“Here we go.”
Jackie had stopped in front of one of the empty cubicles and with her free hand she helped Madison climb onto the bed. “The doctor will be with you in a minute.”
With that she gave Madison one last smile before walking away into the main part of the department and up onto the raised section, letting John take several moments to appreciate her slender legs and shapely curves. It was times like these that he remembered that the last time he had gotten laid had probably been when Jake had been conceived, and releasing a deep sigh of regret he hoisted Jake further into his arms and arranged them both on the bed beside Madison.
They had only been in Ailen for a week, England for less than a month, and it didn't surprise John in the slightest that his hyperactive three year old daughter had managed to break her two front teeth jumping off the stairs in an attempt to see if she could fly. He really should have known better than to let her watch Dumbo after the Aladdin incident but he had been tired and careless, really it was his own fault they were here.
“Da,” mumbled Jake, one green eye half-open as he took in their surroundings.
“Its alright Jake,” he said, placing his son on the bed and covering his small body with Madison's discarded bright pink dressing gown. “Go back to sleep.”
Giving a sleepy smile Jake wrapped his arms around John's leg and settled back down, clearly ignoring his big sister who was bouncing excitedly on the other end of the bed. At the desk Jackie was talking to an exhausted looking man wearing a wrinkled blue dress shirt, a battered stethoscope hanging around his neck. John watched as she handed him what could only be Madison's file and pushed him in their direction. She was clearly the hot headed, pushy kind of woman which was usually just John's type and had they been in any other situation than at the hospital with his injured kid he would be flirting up a storm. Unfortunately he had to put his sadly mistreated libido to one side at the moment and focus on the harried looking man who was fast approaching them with a scowl on his face. Up close he was a lot younger than John had originally thought; maybe mid-thirties, so not much younger than John himself, with deathly pale skin and platinum blonde hair.
“I'm Dr. Weston,” he said, walking into the cubicle with his head buried in the file. “What's the problem?”
“Hi Dr. Weston, I'm Madison.”
The Doc looked up from the file at the sound of Madison's voice, and the moment he caught sight of her bright smile and frantic wave he seemed to melt. Gone was the scowl and harshness in his blue eyes and in its place was an almost relaxed and welcoming expression. John couldn't help but be amazed at the seemingly magical powers that his children possessed, it was almost as though they could turn even the most evil human being into a pile of mush. Not that he was ever planning on testing that theory; he had experienced enough evil during his time as a TRG officer for the Australian Federal Police to last his entire family a lifetime.
“Hello Madison, what have you done to yourself?” Weston asked, putting the file in the basket at the end of the bed.
“I wanted to fly just like Dumbo,” she said, excitedly waving her arms around. “But I fell down the stairs and hurt my teeth.”
At that she bared her gums at the doctor who turned to John with a harsh look on his face. “Is that what happened?”
Not liking where Weston's train of thought was clearly going, John did his best to appear relaxed and unassuming.
“Pretty much,” he answered, shrugging his shoulders. “Madi hasn't quite worked out that Disney isn't real.”
Nodding his head, seeming pleased with whatever he had seen in John's facial expressions, Weston moved in front of Madison and switched on the overhead light.
“Okay sweetheart I need you to look up at the light,” he said, placing a gentle hand on her chin and helping her tilt her head in the right direction. “Thank you, now open your mouth.”
Madison followed his instructions perfectly, barely even flinching when he softly pressed his glove covered fingers against her exposed gums.
“Hurts,” she whispered, voice muffled by Weston's hand and John gave her shoulder a soft squeeze in support.
“Did you bring the teeth that were knocked out with you?” Weston switched off the overhead light and turned to John.
With a quick nod he rummaged through his khaki pockets until he came across the two teeth he had stashed in their as they had hurried out of the house.
“I don't think there's anything left in her gums,” he said, dropping the teeth into the doctor's upturned hand.
“How about you let me decide that huh?” muttered Weston, the gruff angry tone of the man's voice made John smile. “We'll just send her to x-ray...”
Whatever he had been about to say was cut off by a choking scream from beyond the curtain, something which brought John to his feet immediately, making sure that he was physically between the rest of the department and his kids.
“Daddy?” Madison's voice wavered and for the first time since they had arrived at the A&E she actually sounded afraid, which was something that cut right into John's heart.
“Its okay baby,” he said, eyes fixed on Weston who had stripped off his gloves and was walking out of the cubicle. He wasn't even two steps away before he froze, staring at something out of John's visual range and whatever colour he did have in his face quickly drained away.
John felt as if his heart had stopped beating and signalling at Madison to be quiet he snuck to the edge of the curtain and peered around. At the other end of the corridor a man had a tiny woman with auburn hair in a headlock, knife at her slender throat. He was wearing a long leather jacket and John could just glimpse the wires which probably made up the components of a bomb through the opening. Turning back to the bed he silently hit the brakes and swung it around against the wall, pulling Madison into his arms at the same time.
“Madi I need you and Jake to stay behind this bed and be very, very quiet ok sweetie?”
Picking Jake up he placed him on Madison's lap and arranged the blankets on the bed so that it hid the two of them from view. That done he edged around the curtain to stand beside Weston who seemed to have frozen in place, eyes barely even tracking as he stared at the scene in front of him. Just great if the situation wasn't bad enough now he had a doctor with PTSD on his hands as well.
“I want the Prime Minister on the phone now!” the man with the bomb was saying, his grip on the woman's throat tightening and John saw her eyes widen in panic.
Movement off to John's left made him look quickly in that direction to see a dark haired man stand up from the desk, hands held out in front of him in a non-threatening manner.
“Look man this is just a small county hospital,” he said, shrugging slender shoulders. “We don't exactly have Number 10 on speed dial.”
The woman held in the mad-man's grip started mouthing 'shut up' desperately and John had to agree with her.
“Listen to me you little shit,” said the man, pressing the knife closer to the woman's throat until a small trail of blood ran down her ivory skin. “You do what I tell you or I'll kill her nice and slow.”
Weston gave a full body shudder at that and John reached out to grip the man's wrist; they didn't need him to go catatonic in this situation. Giving it a tight squeeze, John let out a breath of relief when he turned to look into his eyes.
“Are you okay?” he whispered, getting a short nod in response.
John knew that there was a story behind this man's odd reaction to what was happening, but they didn't have time to get into it now.
“... I can't just call him!” the man at the desk was saying when John finally re-entered the conversation.
“Shut up Paul!” Jackie grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him down into the chair he had recently vacated. “Don't make this worse.”
The man dragged his hostage further into the department, crazy eyes taking in everyone assembled there. “Yeah Paul don't make things worse… listen to your pretty little friend.”
With those words the man leered at Jackie who managed to look disgusted and roll her eyes at the same time. She was almost fearless, but unfortunately John had seen her kind in high pressure situations like this before and they were generally the first ones to crack.
“Why don't you just let ...” John stepped forward, but not knowing the woman's name he looked back at Weston questioning.
“Julie,” answered the doctor.
“... Julie go,” he said, holding up his hands and moving slowly. “You have to know the police are on their way, that somebody would have hit the panic button the moment they saw the knife.”
The man looked around wildly as if expecting police officers to just appear out of the walls and start shooting.
“Then why the fuck would I let her go?” he demanded, but John noticed that he pulled the knife away from her throat. “And who the fuck do you think you are?”
John hesitated with his answer, not knowing whether to admit that he was a police detective, one who was due to start working at Ailen PD's major crime unit, or whether he should make something up to try and get the man's guard down. In the end if was probably better to just tell the truth because if he needed the man's trust at a later date it wouldn't do to have it come out that he'd been lying to him. John had his kids lives in this maniacs hands and he couldn't let himself get reckless like he normally would.
“My name's John Bradshaw I'm a detective with the Ailen PD,” he answered.
“You expect me to believe that!” hissed the man, pressing the knife back into Julie's flesh making her gasp in pain. “You're not even from around here.”
John had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. “No I'm not from around here.”
“What do you want?” Julie had a strong Welsh accent that was distinctly croaky which probably had something to do with the bruises beginning to appear on her throat.
The man's dark eyes seemed to appraise John as if seeing him in an entirely new light, before turning back to the woman in his hold.
“I want to talk to the fucking Prime Minister is what I want,” he hissed.
“What's your name?” asked John, trying to make his voice soft and non-threatening as he took a careful step forward.
Tightening his grip on Julie, the man took a step backwards and the wild look came back to his eyes; clearly a man that had been cornered.
“Rick,” he answered. “Don't come any closer or I'll kill her.”
Throwing his hands up John came to a quick stop and caught Julie's eye in what he hoped was a reassuring manner, and he saw a bit of the panic leave her.
“Alright Rick,” he said, stepping back and making sure that Weston was safely behind him. “Why don't we have a chat?”
With Rick's full attention on him, John gave a subtle motion with his fingers to let the people behind the desk that they should move back. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jackie's tiny nod and the woman carefully began to gather up her colleagues and lead them down toward the exit.
“Chat?” Rick gave a hysterical laugh. “What the fuck do you want to chat about?”
It was obvious that he was quickly beginning to loose it, making John wish that he could get closer to check the man's pupils and see if there was any evidence that he was under the influence of anything.
“About why you're here and what you want to speak to the Prime Minister about,” answered John.
Rick's eyes flicked to where Jackie was silently leading everyone to the door and, holding Julie in front of him like a human shield, he moved forward, shouldering John out of the way until he was standing in front of the terrified hospital staff. The young ward clerk Paul immediately stepped in front of the others and John heard Weston gasp in horror beside him as Rick backhanded the man across the face.
“Where do you think you're going?” he yelled, pushing Julie roughly down on top of Paul who immediately wrapped his arms around her and grabbing Jackie by her hair. “Little bitch you're staying with me.”
**
“Detective Cotton?” Mike barely heard the Special Police sniper call his name over the sound of the helicopter rotor blades and he ducked as the down draft nearly knocked him off his feet. “This way please sir.”
The black police chopper lifted off the helipad and into the night sky as he hurried across the tarmac to where the small task force were gathered around Inspector Jamie Richards on the hospital side of the pad.
“What do we know?” Mike asked the sniper, who had fallen into step with him. “How many hostages?”
Mike was head detective for Ailen PD's major crime unit and this wasn't the first hostage situation he had dealt with; in fact this wasn't the first hostage situation in Ailen General that he had attended. However he could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest and adrenalin pumping through his veins at the thought of innocent lives in the hands of a mad man with a bomb strapped to his chest.
“At least twenty in the department itself,” answered the sniper, adjusting the shoulder strap of his rifle. “But hundreds if you include all the essential staff and the patients we weren't able to evacuate on the helicopters.”
“Crap,” muttered Mike.
“You've got that right sir,” the sniper nodded his head and then joined the other members of his team as they began to dissipate into the building.
Jamie, her greying hair falling around her face and stress lines around her eyes, gestured for Mike to join her as she started setting up base with several members of the specialist IT team. All around them computers, monitors and pieces of equipment that Mike didn't even have names for were piling up on cartons and make-shift tables.
“MI-5 have agreed to let us take jurisdiction over this situation since it doesn't seem like its got anything to do with terrorists,” she said. “They have however recommended that once we get snipers inside the hospital we take any shot we can get.”
“I take it you don't agree?” said Mike.
“Our suspects name is Rick McNamara,” Jamie nodded to the nearest computer monitor where the major crime unit's computer technician Sarah Hilton was bringing up the image of a young
Caucasian male. “His older brother Clint was put away four years ago, life sentence for one count of murder and three counts of manslaughter.”
Sarah turned around from where she was sitting on a plastic crate, tucking a strand of her dark red hair behind her ear as she did so. “Apparently he's been sending letters to number 10 for months now, threatening to cause a major incident if Clint isn't released and given a pardon.”
“And nobody paid any attention to him?” demanded Mike, settling his hands on his hips. “I thought MI-5 were taking these kind of threats seriously.”
Shrugging her shoulders Sarah rolled her eyes and turned back to the screen. “Yeah but neither of the McNamara brothers are in any way connected to a terrorist organisation and were therefore determined to be a low threat, basically they were being remotely monitored and this must have taken them completely by surprise.”
Mike turned to stare at Jamie in disbelief.
“Surprise!” he exclaimed. “The man has enough explosives strapped to his chest to level Bristol and it caught them by surprise!”
“Mike,” admonished Jamie, her grip on his shoulder so tight he knew that there would be bruises the next day. “You getting in one of your moods isn't going to help.”
“Moods,” he hissed. “I don't have moods.”
Despite the situation he heard Sarah snickering and he found himself glaring at the back of her head.
“You kinda do Cott,” she said.
Suddenly the sound of the radio sparking to life stopped Mike before he was able to respond and all three of them turned to the tech in charge of communications.
“Inspector Richards,” said the tech. “We've got a request to land.”
Jamie's eyebrows rose in surprise, which meant that she clearly wasn't expecting any reinforcements up on the top of the building.
“From who?” she demanded.
Looking up into the sky Mike could distinctly make out what seemed to be three news helicopters circling overhead, none of whom would be stupid enough to try and get people into the hospital; especially with Big Balls Richards on the case.
“MedAir One,” answered the tech. “They say its an emergency.”
Mike found it difficult to contain his snort of amusement, of course it was an emergency since MedAir One was the leading search and rescue team in the county. In fact Mike had been involved in a brief liaison with the team's pilot which had been a one night stand and an awkward morning after in which the man's flatmate had greeted him at the bathroom door with a plate of pancakes and a hazelnut latte.
“Tell them to go down to County,” yelled Jamie.
“They won't take no for an answer Ma'am,” said the tech, pointing to where the landing lights of a helicopter was coming closer.
“What the fuck does she think she's doing?” demanded Jamie, descending on the terrified looking technician. “I'll have Black's arse for this.”
As the large red and white Blackhawk began its descent onto the helipad, the techs dived over their equipment to save it from the down draft and Mike turned his head to save his eyes from the stinging wind.
“How do they expect to get their patient into the A&E when its in lock-down?” yelled Mike over the sound of the rotors.
“If I know Sean Black she hasn't actually thought about it,” Jamie yelled back. “I don't have time to deal with this shit.”
As the helicopter started to power down the back door slid open and a young, dark skinned man jumped out, unstrapping a stretcher as he did so.
“We kind of need some medical help here,” a tall woman followed the man and stretcher out. “Or is that to much to ask.”
Jamie looked like she was about to blow a fuse, so Mike hurriedly stepped forwards to meet the woman as she charged across the 'pad dragging both the stretcher, with patient, and the young man with her.
“Yes its to much to ask,” said Mike, blocking their entrance into the building. “You were told to turn around and take your patient to County.”
“Yeah I know,” answered the woman. “But we don't have enough fuel to make it all the way to County, we've barely got enough to get back to the airport.”
“We have a hostage situation!” Jamie all but threw Mike out of the way so as to stand in the woman's face. “Have you got that Sean? We have twenty-five people in the A&E being taken hostage by a man with a bomb strapped to his chest… have you got that?”
“Oh man Jamie, I'm sorry is...”
Mike had been so caught up in the drama happening between Jamie and Sean that he hadn't noticed the other man coming up behind them, his voice had a velvety Tennessee quality to it.
“Yeah,” answered Jamie. “He is.”
“Great,” said Sean. “What about my patient.”
“What departments do we still have fully staffed?” Jamie asked, turning away from Sean to prod sharply at Sarah's shoulder.
Quickly typing at the keyboard in front of her Sarah swung around to face them.
“OR has full staff still,” she answered. “It was decided that they were far enough from the A&E not be a target and it was important to keep them operational for the patients we weren't able to evacuate.”
“Woods!” Jamie barked, making the tech by the radio jump in surprise. “Call the OR and get them up here, this patient is being transferred down there.”
Woods nodded quickly and turned back to her station.
**
Miho heard the brakes of her 2008 Mondeo screech as she pulled to a sudden stop in the main carpark of Ailen General and she flung open the door before the car had really even come to a stop. Ripping the keys out of the ignition she hastily climbed out of the car, high heels clipping loudly on the bitumen despite the chaos going on around her. A barrier had been set up to keep the small crowd of interested spectators away from the large number of heavily armoured police officers milling around aimlessly. She had been to several scenes just like this where nobody really knew what was going on let alone how to deal with the situation, basically it made for a complete cock-up of astronomical proportions.
Walking quickly up to the barrier she pulled her ID out of her blazer pocket and held it up to the uniformed officer guarding the only way through.
“Detective Morioka, MCU,” she said, not even waiting for his nod of approval before pushing past and into the fray.
“Miho!” the voice of her partner Gillian Saunders rose up above the general hum of conversation and she turned to face the other woman.
Gillian was looking exhausted; her usually perfectly made up face was painfully devoid of cosmetics and her mocha coloured skin almost looked ashen.
“Gill,” said Miho. “You look like shit Aka-chan.”
The look she received was decidedly dark.
“I was on a stake-out all last night with Cott, then I had to do a mountain of paperwork today and now this,” Gillian tightened the band holding her straight black hair into a ponytail, then turned and gestured for Miho to follow her to where several sharp-shooters and a negotiator were standing. “I feel like shit.”
“So do we have any news from the Cap?” she asked, walking quickly to try and keep up with Gillian's decidedly longer strides.
“Yeah our bombers name is Rick McNamara and apparently this is all an attempt to force the Prime Minister's hand at releasing his brother from prison,” answered Gillian.
“Well that's not going to happen,” said Miho. “This guy could blow up half West Yorkshire and his brother would still be behind bars.”
“You and I know that,” said Gillian. “But I don't think McNamara has all cylinders firing.”
“Gill please Hun, not the car metaphors at this time in the morning,” Miho crossed her arms across her chest when they came to a stop. “I can't handle it.”
With a snort Gillian gave her a hard slap on the back which nearly made her fall forwards.
“Inspector Edwards,” at the sound of Gillian's voice the uniformed negotiator stopped the conversation he was having with one of the armed officers and looked at them. “This is Detective Morioka.”
Edwards was a large silver haired man, with enough height and bulk to show that he had been a formidable force in his prime and could probably take on an entire sleeper cell single handedly if the need arose even in his advanced years.
“You with major crimes as well?” Edwards extended an enormous hand to her which Miho shook gingerly.
“Yes sir,” she answered.
“Good. Richards is on the roof with my snipers,” Edwards tipped his head in the direction of the building. “They're trying to infiltrate now, though she doesn't want them in the A&E yet … any idea why that might be?”
Miho felt amusement welling up in her at the thought of their hard headed Inspector dictating to the SP exactly what they could or couldn't do in a situation they had been trained in.
“She's more than likely concerned for the safety of the hostages,” she said. “If this guy is completely off his rocker then he'll probably blow the moment he catches sight of one of your officers.”
“My officers are highly trained to get into situations like this without being seen,” hissed Edwards. “He'll be dead before he even figures out what's happening.”
“Can you guarantee that?” Miho stepped into the man's personal space, tipping her face up to keep eye contact. “100 percent guarantee that?”
His silence was all the answer she needed.
“That's exactly why she's done it,” said Gillian.
**
The moment that Jake started crying John's heart quite literally stopped beating and from the horrified look in Weston's eyes from where he was sitting across from John with his back leaning against the nurses station, his had as well.
“Fuck,” he heard Paul whisper somewhere to his left.
“What are you hiding in here bitch?” Rick's voice cut through the sudden silence like a knife, quickly followed by a high pitched whimper and he came into John's line of sight dragging Jackie by her hair. There was a growl from Paul and he felt the other man move as if to get to his feet, reaching out with his left hand he grabbed the man's arm.
“Don't do anything stupid,” he breathed and he saw Paul nod in his peripheral vision.
“You!” Rick kicked Weston sharply in his side and the man cried out in pain.
“Hey leave him alone!” yelled Jackie which earned her a particularly violent tug on her hair.
“Go and get the brat,” Rick said to Weston and when he didn't move kicked him again. “Now!”
At that Weston scrabbled painfully to his feet and all but ran to the cubicle where John had hid his children, reappearing a minute later with Jake safely tucked in his arms and Madison clinging to his pant leg.
“Daddy,” Madison let go of Weston and climbed into John's lap, flinging her tiny arms around his neck. “I'm scared.”
“I know baby,” he answered, holding her close but keeping his eyes on the furious looking Rick.
Up to this point John knew that he had been relatively well behaved, willing to let the police do their job unless things looked like they were going downhill but if this bastard so much as touched his kids he would rip his head off with his bare hands.
“That was a really stupid thing to do,” said Rick, but he loosened his grip on Jackie and backed away from them again. “You better not be hiding anything else from me.”
At that moment the phone on the nurses station started ringing making them all jump and Julie uttered a choked cry from where she was sitting on the floor near the door with Damian patching up the cut on her throat with a wad of gauze and some tape.
“Get the phone,” Rick waved the knife in Damian's direction, and with a quick glance at John he got to his feet and walked to the nurses station.
“Hello,” said Damian after he picked up the phone, there was a few moments pause as he listened to whoever was speaking on the other end. “Okay.”
Taking the phone away from his ear he held it at arms length in Rick's direction. “It's an Inspector Edwards.”
“About fucking time,” he gave Jackie a forceful push and she fell almost on top of Paul, who immediately wrapped his arms around the now sobbing woman and held her against his chest. “Give me that.”
John watched as Damian quickly retreated back to Julie after Rick snatched the phone out of his hand and they shared a brief look and nod.
John tuned out whatever was being said between Rick and this Inspector Edwards, whoever he was, probably a police negotiator or something similar, and turned his fully attention to his children.
“Is he ok?” John asked Weston, eyes trained on the still whimpering form of his son cuddled tightly in the doctors arms.
“Yeah,” whispered Weston. “Just hungry I think.”
Taking a moment to glance at Rick who had half turned his back whilst talking on the phone, John slowly slipped his hand into the deep pocket of his coat and pulled out the six ounce bottle of milk he had brought with them in case Jake wanted something before they got home. It wasn't what he would really want but it would do in a pinch.
“Here,” he handed the bottle over to Weston and watched as Jake all but snatched it out of the man's hands.
“I'm hungry to daddy,” said Madison, her voice muffled by his shoulder.
Holding his daughter closer to him John kissed her blonde curls. “You'll just have to wait 'til we get home baby.”
She gave a unhappy whimper but didn't start whinging or, God forbid, have a tantrum.
“If we get home,” muttered Paul, causing him to turn and glare at the other man.
“Shut up Paul,” hissed Jackie and John heard a grunt of pain as she elbowed the man in the side.
**
Inspector Edwards' face was becoming more and more grave the longer he spent on the phone with McNamara and it was honestly making Miho feel quite nervous. Not much could get to a police negotiator, especially one with Edwards' distinguished record and so for him to be looking as pale and horrified as he was doing something had to have gone severely wrong.
“Just let them go McNamara and then we can talk,” Edwards was saying, pacing the length of the same parking bay and talking into the mobile phone he had been given. “No you have my word.”
Clearly his word wasn't good enough for Rick McNamara because a moment later he snapped the phone closed and swore under his breath.
“What's happening?” demanded Gillian, her hand covering the mouth piece on the headset she was wearing to communicate with Sarah who was set up on the roof.
“The bastards got children,” said Edwards. “Children are in there.”
Trying her hardest not to appear as a cold hearted bitch Miho shrugged her slim shoulders. “Its a hospital, I'd already assumed there were children involved.”
“Well I had assumed that if there was I would have been informed,” said Edwards, running a hand through his hair.
Miho awkwardly patted Edwards on the arm before turning back to Gillian.
“What does the Cap say?” she asked.
“She's having problems with the paramedics right now,” said Gillian. “Apparently they've just flown in and as you can imagine sweetie, the Cap isn't impressed.”
**
The doctor which came up from the OR was called Chris Watts, a handsome Scottish man in his early forties with a kind face who suitably admonished the crew of MedAir One and then with a few words had eased Jamie out of her 'red zone'. Mike wished he had Watts' magical powers when it came to women … Christ when it came to anyone really because he had been informed by his co-workers on many occasions that he wasn't exactly a people person.
“Alright lets get this man down to OR and see what we can do for him,” said Watts, plucking a file out of Sean's hand and gesturing for the paramedics to follow him through the sliding doors into the building.
“So what's the plan?” asked Mike, settling himself carefully on the box beside Sarah.
Jamie ran her long fingers through her hair and then turned her tired grey eyes onto him. “Currently Inspector Edwards is attempting to negotiate with McNamara.”
Mike tried his hardest not to roll his eyes at that comment, in all the years he had been on the police force the SP had never been able to talk someone down in a hostage situation. It wasn't that he meant any disrespect to the small team of negotiators in the Ailen PD, but he would rather have a team of sharp-shooters at his back than someone with a megaphone.
“And when that doesn't work?” he demanded, blatantly ignoring the sharp elbow that Sarah dug into his side.
“At this point we have to hope that Edwards can talk him 'round,” answered Jamie, though her eyes narrowed at him in warning.
“And then there's always Colonel Bradwell,” said Sarah.
Turning slowly to look at her Mike raised an eyebrow. “Who is Colonel Bradshaw?”
“Well,” said Sarah, directing a look over his head to Jamie. “Its Bradwell.”
There was something strange about this, almost as if something was being kept from Mike and he didn't like it. This was the problem with working in a department with a majority female presence, they tended to gossip and plot behind his back and he often found himself in the dark.
“Whatever,” he muttered. “Who the hell is he?”
Sarah was still looking over his head and Mike knew that there was a whole conversation going on between the women that he would never by privy to nor ever understand.
“As of tomorrow he's your new partner,” said Jamie from behind him.
Swinging around he levelled her with his best glare, he couldn't believe she had been keeping this from him.
“Excuse me?” he knew that his eyebrows had disappeared somewhere into his mop of dark blonde curls but right now he didn't care. “My what now?”
“Don't give me that look Mike you knew that you were due another partner since you drove Alison to transfer to traffic,” said Jamie, folding her leanly muscled arms across her chest. “And this will be the fifth partner this year, don't fuck it up.”
Unable to stop his eyes rolling at her insinuation that it was his fault that every idiot they decided to drop on his lap inevitably couldn't handle the pressure. This Colonel Bradwell or whatever his name was probably wouldn't even last 'til the end of the month if Jamie didn't think he could deal with a simple hostage situation.
“I don't need another partner Jamie, I'm doing perfectly fine on my own,” he said, refusing to lower himself to pouting. “Or why can't you partner me with Gillian and this Inspector ...”
“Colonel,” said Sarah.
“...whatever, can go with Miho,” Mike nodded at his own, frankly genius, suggestion. “Everyone wins.”
“Except me,” the look in Jamie's eyes was almost murderous. “This isn't up for discussion Mike.”
Part Two