The Hostage

A rather peaceful day at county general took a turn for the worst when there was a gun shot that echoed through triage. A nurse with a gunshot wound to the head fell face first onto the tile floor and screams from the people who were waiting echoed through out the hospital walls. A gorgeous woman with piercing green eyes stood with a 9mm sig Sauer in her hand and she was aiming it directly at Kerry Weaver’s head.

“You, Kerry Weaver is it?” She growled as she took a step towards the woman who was standing behind the desk, “Drop the phone or I’ll make you drop it.” Weaver took one look at the gun and hung the phone up before realizing that the first bullet had actually hit some one. Carter and Abby had come to her aid because they were the ones closest to the injured nurse. The blond woman turned and fired the gun at Abby missing her head by an inch and hitting the wall instead. Abby cried out and fell back and Carter moved so he was in front of her just incase the weirdo decided to squeeze off another round.

“What exactly do you want?” Weaver asked trying to keep her voice as calm and rational as possible but it seemed like this woman had a plan and it was obvious that she had no problems killing to accomplish it. Behind her came in a rather tall man and he was holding a camera, he was filming every move that the blond woman was making.

“We just want to make a movie, a documentary to show how high and mighty you doctors are when you have a gun pointed at your head.” The woman replied with a smile as she turned to train the gun back on Weaver’s forehead. “And don’t help that nurse let her die, if I so much as see one of you doctors trying to help her I’ll shoot you, and next time there won’t be a warning.” The man with the camera moved forward, he had a black leather bag slung over his shoulder and as he continued to film everyone he placed it on the front desk.

“C, I need a moment to set up can I stop filming?” The man finally spoke and the woman now known as C nodded. She then walked right up to Weaver and kicked her cane violently out of the way before throwing her to the floor and getting rid of it all together.

“Alright…anyone who is in here that ain’t a doctor get your ass out and don’t try to be a hero neither.” C shouted at the people who were looking on scared for their lives, Weaver remained on her hands and knees on the floor it was enough to be humiliated but she was also terrified. Everyone who wasn’t a doctor in the immediate area scrambled to get out of the door. The remaining doctors were Carter, Luka, Susan, Weaver, and Corday, Abby had stayed because she was a nurse and she wasn’t sure if she would get shot if she tried to leave. The man stepped behind the desk rudely kicking Weaver out of the way as he did so and he began to set up computer equipment.

“Why are you doing this?” Luka spoke up as he took a few steps towards C, the woman shot him a warning glare and clicked the safety off of the gun that she was aiming at Weaver’s head which was now hanging down slightly.

“Don’t mess with me, I shot that nurse and I sure as hell won’t hesitate to shoot this one.” C replied before kicking Weaver hard in the ribs, hard enough to cause her to fall to the floor with the wind knocked out of her. Abby winced slightly and put her hands on Carter’s shoulders peeking up behind them slightly to see what was going on. At this point they were both seated on the floor by the puddle of blood that was slowly oozing out of the dead body of the nurse that they couldn’t save. “Get up bitch!” The woman grabbed Weaver by the hair and yanked her up so she was back on her hands and knees. Corday had backed herself into a corner hoping that she would go unnoticed, and Susan remained behind the desk watching Weaver take all the abuse that the hostage taker could dole out.

“Just tell us why you are doing this” Lewis begged she certainly wasn’t about to play hero but an explanation might help them understand the situation and prevent any one else from getting shot in the head.

“All news stations and internet sites are hacked C, we are good to go.” The man said looking up from one of the computers at the desk, she nodded at him and he picked up the camera and started to film again.

“Get her, she’s the chief of staff I believe.” C ordered him pointing at Weaver who was still on her hands and knees with a gun positioned right at the back of her neck. The camera man got down so he was at eye level with her before grabbing a handful of her hair and lifting her head so he could get her expression on film. “Isn’t that sweet she’s crying.”

“Screw you…” Weaver growled but that comment was only met with another kick to the ribs, it was harder this time and she fell to the floor and curled up. C rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers and pointed at Corday.

“Lets talk to her for a moment.” She headed towards Corday keeping the gun aimed on her now as the camera man followed her with a huge smile on his face. “What’s your name?”

“Elizabeth Corday…” She whispered feeling like if she spoke to loud then she would get hit in the face or stomach.

“Alright Lizzie, how are you feeling at this exact moment?” C asked as she placed the gun right up against Corday’s neck. Elizabeth took a deep breath and tried to keep her eyes away from the camera and the gun, she felt a tear escape her eye which she quickly wiped away. She didn’t think she was even going to cry but then she saw the tears streaking Weaver’s face and that scared the living hell out of her.

“Scared and confused.” She stuttered now turning her head away from the camera, but the man behind it was relentless and he moved to film her face again. “Please just tell me why you are doing this.”

“Because, every day you sorry excuse for doctors face situations that are scary and you have to make split second decisions that can save or end a life. No one sees how scared you are then, no because you are too good for that but now we can reveal the truth. My friend here has hacked into the local feed of the news station and all of this is being broadcast across Chicago, so now everyone will know how you really act when you are scared…you know real emotions.” C announced to the rest of them before she walked over to the TV that was hanging in the corner of the ER and turning it on to a local station. Sure enough there they were on camera except there was a thirty second delay so they could literally watch themselves. C walked over to Abby and pulled her to her feet violently before slamming her into the nearest wall, Carter made a slight move to help her which was only met with a foot to his stomach.

“Whatever you are trying to prove…it’s not going to work.” Abby said in a completely fearless tone she didn’t know how she did it because she was completely terrified but when in danger her defense came into play and she didn’t want to act how they expected her too.

“Oh really?” C got down by Carter as the camera man backed up so he got both Abby, Carter, and C in the shot. C jammed the gun up into Carter’s head as hard as she could, “I’m no doctor but I do believe if I shoot him here it will kill him.”

“NO!” Abby cried and started to move towards Carter to help him, Carter put up a hand trying to urge her to stay where she was. “Stop just STOP!” the terror in her voice was now surfacing and C smiled in her direction.

“Whose scared now?” She then turned and looked at Luka who seemed quite suspicious to her, he seemed like the kind of guy who just might try something in this situation. She quickly aimed the gun at Luka and out of the corner of her eye she saw Abby move down to be with Carter again. “What’s that in your hand?”

“Nothing.” He replied even though he was lying, he had managed to grab a pair of scissors off of a near by tray when she was busy scaring Abby. C didn’t believe him and she took another step forward before dropping down by Weaver who was now sitting on the floor leaning up against the front desk. She put the gun right between Weaver’s eyes and looked at him again, this time with an evil grin on her face.

“Show me your hands.” She commanded and reluctantly he held up both of his hands in his right hand he held the weapon. “Drop it…and kick it towards me please.” He hesitated for a moment but soon they dropped and he kicked him towards her as hard as he could. She picked them up and smiled before putting them in her pocket.

“Now get the gun off of her.” He commanded and she got the feeling that he had probably been in this type of hostage situation before. She shrugged and stood up dropping the gun to her side but before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief she moved it up again and shot Luka in the right leg. He cried out in pain and then fell and everyone watched in horror, he wasn’t fatally injured unless she wouldn’t let him get help. When she saw the look on everyone’s face she looked towards Lewis, who looked like she was about to go completely into panic mode.

“You help him…and if I even SUSPECT you are doing something wrong I’ll kill this one.” She waved the gun in Weaver’s general direction, Susan nodded and quickly went to help Luka if she could slow the bleeding and bandage the wound that would buy them quite a bit of time but if there was no exit wound he would probably need to go into surgery in the near future. C looked up at the television and smiled slightly, everything was going just as planned…for the time being.

C watched Susan attend to Luka for a moment before turning her attention back to Weaver, she seemed to have a very personal vendetta towards the woman. Weaver was still sitting on the floor with her back against the front desk, and for the life of her she couldn’t figure out who this woman was. It was obvious to her that C wanted some kind of revenge involving her, but why? And why was she taking this out on everyone else if this was just about her?

“You don’t even remember do you?” C asked as she got down to Weaver’s level, and the truth was she didn’t remember C or any events surrounding her. Weaver shook her head slightly as she saw the gun drawing closer and closer to her face. “You killed my girlfriend and you didn’t cry a single tear.”

“What?”

“Two weeks go my girlfriend was attacked by a bunch of homophobes, she was stabbed several times in the chest and back and you…you let her die.” C explained, Kerry thought that there must have been some miscommunication here, she would never let some one purposely die. Of course if this C woman had a problem with her mental processes already then the situation could certainly be misconstrued as such.

“I didn’t let her die, she was too severely injured she had lost too much blood.” Suddenly this was all coming back to her and she remember who C was because she now remembered having to break the news to her, “I’m sorry we did all we could.”

“Bull, you wanted her to die because she was a lesbian and even if you didn’t LET her die you didn’t care you just shrugged your shoulders and said to hell with it.” C said as she pressed the gun back up against Weaver’s neck. Weaver shook her head slightly and looked over to Abby and Carter who were huddled together in the corner by the dead nurse, she wasn’t exactly sure what she was supposed to say at this point.

“How is this helping? This isn’t going to bring her back.” Weaver said as she turned to look C right in the eye, “Hurting us isn’t going to bring her back.”

“I know that, I’m not stupid! This is all about revenge and how you only care about danger when you are the ones in it.” C stood up and looked around, “You are all ER doctors but none of you give a damn until it’s one of your own.” She walked over to the doors that looked out on the ambulance bay only to see that there were at least five police cars parked outside, and a swarm of officers trying to figure out how to get inside. Suddenly the phone rang and C looked in that direction, she knew that it had to be one of the hostage negotiators. She walked over to the phone and picked it up letting her companion film the reactions of the rest of the hostages.

“Hello?” She answered the phone rather calmly considering the situation she was in, “No I don’t want to talk and if I so much as SEE a police officer take one STEP towards the entrance I will shoot Kerry Weaver in the head!” And then she slammed the phone down and looked at Weaver, “It doesn’t matter anyway because that’s what’s ultimately going to happen to you.”

“Look, Ms. C,” Corday started her voice shaky along with her hands, “If you just want her then at least let Luka and Susan out of here so he won’t bleed out…”

“I already killed one nurse, do you think I have a problem with him dying?” She replied before taking a pack of cigarettes out of her coat pocket and lighting one up. Weaver sighed loudly, she couldn’t see what Luka and Susan were doing because they were behind her and she was too scared to move.

“Wait a minute, you are angry with us for not caring when some one dies on us, yet you just killed this innocent woman with out blinking.” Abby said still hiding behind Carter slightly, he wished she wouldn’t speak up like that because he was pretty sure he would be the one who ended up getting shot. C turned towards Abby the camera was right behind her, it wasn’t true that she didn’t care. She did care that she had just taken a life and she cared that she had just shot a doctor but she didn’t care enough to cry over it.

“I’ve already cried my tears for the innocent just like you claim to have but the difference is I’ve only killed one…how many have you lost?” C sneered at her and then she looked around the room, “How many people huh? You…Elizabeth Corday…don’t I remember reading about you a few years ago for paralyzing a man because you wanted to get off of work early.”

“That’s not exactly how it happened…”

“BULL! That’s EXACTLY what happened weather it was subconscious or conscious you hurried on a procedure so you could run off to a romantic getaway with your husband.” C aimed the gun at Corday and for a moment it looked like she might actually shoot her but then she backed down and looked over to Weaver again, she was caring less and less about the other people in the room she just wanted to get her revenge on the doctor that let the love of her life slip away. “And you Kerry Weaver…where the hell do they get off letting a cripple run the damn ER?” She walked over to Weaver and kicked her in the stomach hard, Weaver doubled over in pain and curled up on the floor again.

“If your problem is with me then let the others leave…” She managed to get out as she felt tears of pain spring to her eyes. C looked around the room at the other five that remained, she guessed that if she didn’t want Luka to lose too much blood then she should send him out at least that way she would only have one death on her conscience.

“Okay the guy with the leg injury and the blond can leave.” C motioned to them and they looked at her for a moment almost as if they thought it was a trick, “You got 30 seconds to get your asses out of here so MOVE IT!” Lewis quickly got up and helped Luka to his feet and slowly walked him outside where the police officers made sure that they were okay. C kept her eye on the police making sure that they weren’t going to try anything when the doors opened up, so she aimed the gun back at Weaver until the doorway was clear.

“I’m going to charge at her.” Carter whispered to Abby over his shoulder, she couldn’t believe that he had just said that and so she put her hand on his shoulder. C seemed to know her way around a gun and Abby was willing to bet that she was a good shot, and that she didn’t miss her target. C got down by Weaver who was still curled up in pain and pulled her into a sitting position.

“You…pretty boy…how many times do you think I can shoot her before she dies?” C asked Carter with a very evil smile on her face. Carter turned and looked at Abby who in turn looked at Corday, he couldn’t figure out if that was a real question or she was just being rhetorical. “ANSWER ME!”

“It…well it depends on where you shoot her…” Carter blurted out hoping that would buy Weaver a few more moments before getting shot. It was a correct answer in the fact that she could be shot in the arm or the leg or the shoulder in a few different places and not die right away but the amount of blood that would be lost would be rather large.

“Okay this is what we are going to do…” C looked over at Corday, “You get over here!” Corday hesitated but then took a deep breath and walked over to where C was crouched down next to Weaver. She then motioned to Carter who looked at Abby before he joined them by Weaver. “She’s a surgeon and you are a doctor right?” The two of them nodded Corday’s eyes were fixed on the gun that was gripped tightly in C’s right hand hoping that she wouldn’t decide to use it any time soon. C grabbed Weaver and forced her to her feet so she was standing against the desk.

“What are you going to do?” Weaver said looking C dead in the eye, Carter and Corday kept wondering why Weaver didn’t just tell this woman she was a lesbian too but they also didn’t know how it would cause her to react.

“This…” C took a step back and lifted the gun, before Carter could even think to shield her or move out of the way she pulled the trigger hitting Weaver in the very upper right shoulder, “Now fix her up…and have that smart ass nurse get you the things you need.” Weaver had fell to the floor and after the two had gotten over the initial shock of what just happened they started to administer the best first aid they possibly could.

After about 15 minutes it seemed like they had done a rather good job at slowing the bleeding and bandaging the wound. C smiled at the both of them they had traces of Weaver’s blood on their clothes and completely stressed out expressions on their faces. Weaver was slowly starting to come to when C noticed the needle that Abby was loading with pain medication.

“Oh no, none of that.” C snapped at her and she raised the gun in Abby’s direction, “You might want to wait to give that to her.”

“Why? She needs it now…” Abby snapped back at her and C just shook her head and took a step back and fired another round into Weaver’s right thigh. Weaver cried out in pain as Corday and Carter rushed to fix that wound too, if this was why she had asked about how many times you could shoot some one before they were killed then it was a pretty sick plan.

“No, now she needs it.” C smiled as the camera continued to film every single thing that was happening. C grabbed a chair and pulled it up so she was a few feet away from them watching with a glint in her eye trying to think of where she wanted to shoot Weaver next.

“Two…two gun shots she could have killed two people by now!” Susan yelled at one of the police officers. Because of the position that Carter, Corday, and Abby were in they couldn’t exactly see what was going on but since C had moved to sitting in a chair they could just make out the back of her head.

“Don’t worry the sniper is gonna take care of this…” The police officer motioned to a guy who was standing behind a police car door with swat team armor on, “We’ll be taking her down at any minute.”

End Part II

C sat in the chair for a moment but then she got the sinking suspicion that someone was watching her, some one other then the four she was holding hostage. She turned her head to look out of the window behind her only to confirm what she thought, a sniper was out there aiming a gun to the back of her head. She got up and moved so she was standing behind a pillar in the wall making the shot impossible from that angle at least.

“Didn’t I read about an incident here a few years ago?” C said suddenly as she laid her eyes on Carter. He looked up at her wondering what she could be referring to, hoping that it wouldn’t have to do with the stabbings. “Oh yeah that’s right, some girl was killed wasn’t she?”

“Lucy…”

“Yeah that was her name, it was Lucy.” She smiled at him and holstered her gun, she was very well trained in hand to hand combat from the time that she had spent in the army and now she wanted nothing more then provoke someone into a fight. “Tragedy isn’t it?”

“Yes it is a tragedy, I’m glad you can actually recognize it as such.” Carter replied his tone a lot calmer then before. He eyed the gun that was now in her holster, his body tensed up getting ready to lunge at C to try and disarm her. If she didn’t take the chance now then he might never have the chance and Kerry could end up in worse shape then she already was.

“No that’s not it…I was just thinking it was a tragedy that he wasn’t able to finish the job.” As soon as the last word left her lips Carter came at her swinging but it seemed that for every move he had she had a counter move. She was moving lightening fast and it was hard to believe that she was actually fending him off. Soon she spotted a weakness in his attack and she took the heel of her palm and slammed it up under his chin causing him to fall to the ground completely knocked out. “Anyone else want to come at me?” Abby rushed to Carter trying to see if he was okay, from the looks of it he had a broken jaw and would probably need his mouth wired shut for a period of time. She took off her jacket and folded it before putting it under Carter’s head. She stood up looking at C for a moment before racing towards the desk where she found a letter opener, it wasn’t exactly a knife but it was sharp and had been known to accidentally cut people on occasion.

“Alright come on you and me.” Abby growled clutching the weapon so hard that her knuckles were turning white. C drew her gun and laughed it was quite stupid to think that you could take out a woman with a knife when she had a gun.

“I have a gun you stupid bitch…” She laughed again this time harder and Abby saw her opportunity and threw letter opener at C as hard as she could. In a split second before the blade would have pierced her shoulder she brought her hand up and caught the weapon by the handle, “Nice try…anyone else?”

“Look why don’t you just kill me and get it over with so they can go home.” Weaver said all of a sudden of course she didn’t mean it but she didn’t know what C was trying to prove by letting this drag on for so long. C stepped up to Weaver still holding the gun in her hand and then crouched down so she could talk to her.

“Cause that’s what you want.” C replied, behind her Carter opened his eyes and brought a hand to his jaw rubbing it slightly, but C’s back was too him which meant she didn’t know that he was awake. “I just want to have a little fun before I kill you…what’s wrong with that?” Abby sighed slightly and turned her gaze to Carter when she noticed that he was awake. He motioned for her to stay quiet about it so she turned her head so she was looking at Weaver again.

“Yes I do see something wrong with that…please just…leave…” Kerry was tired from the loss of blood and she knew that she was probably going to have to get some serious trauma help in a short period of time or the wounds could be lethal. Corday moved in and started to change Weaver’s bandages wondering how long this charade was going to last. C took a look around at how the others were caring so deeply for Weaver and then made a face as if she had a sudden change of heart. She stood up and backed away from the wounded and took a deep breath.

“Have you ever seen some one kill themselves?” C asked Weaver softly as she raised the gun to her temple. Weaver didn’t like this woman, but she certainly didn’t think that suicide was going to be the answer to this problem.

“No, I haven’t…but killing yourself isn’t going to solve anything.” Weaver replied before looking at Corday trying to get her to help out a little. Corday nodded in agreement and so did Abby, Carter was slowly getting up to charge at C since she still hadn’t noticed that he was awake.

“Oh yeah and staying alive is? So I get to go to jail or spend my life in a psych ward? No way.” With a slight flick of a finger C released the safety to the gun and rested her finger on the trigger. “By the way my name is Christina.”

“Okay Christina…” Corday said slowly before standing up, “How about you put the gun down and we can talk about this””

“NO! Don’t you get it? You all go live your perfect happy little lives…you’ll go home after this and you’ll never even think about me again…sure you’ll think of the incident and how terrible it was but you’ll never EVER stop to think what kind of a person I was before all of this…I’ll always be your nightmare!” C yelled at them, Carter held off on attacking for just a moment, “I was like you I had the love of my life, a good job, a dog and a house and one day it all disappeared because you freaks didn’t work hard enough to save her.”

“I told you that’s not how it happened Christina, her injuries were too severe…” Weaver tried to explain again hoping that this wouldn’t end with some one blowing their heads off, “We did everything we could.”

“And I did everything I could not to snap but that didn’t work now did it?” A tear ran down her face as her grip on the gun tightened. Carter looked at Abby wondering if he should try to attacked her but most likely the gun would go off and he could get hit…and so could any one of the others in the room. “Goodbye Dr. Weaver, I’ll see you in hell.” That’s when she pulled the trigger blowing a hole clear through her head and the bullet exited on the other side lodging itself in the wall. She remained standing for another moment before falling to the ground. The four just looked on in stunned silence before Abby thought to run outside and alert the cops.

Months had passed and there was now snow on the ground. Kerry’s injuries had healed and aside from still having nightmares from the experience she was doing okay. It was the sixth month anniversary of the hostage situation which left Weaver thinking about what could have happened. She then remembered what Christina had said, how she was just like them at one point but things hadn’t gone her way and she had just lost it. Weaver did feel sorry for her on some level, a young woman who had lost everything because her soul mate was taken away from her in a tragic turn of events was quite sad.

After she finished her lunch she stepped out towards the front desk to see what her next assignment was. That’s when she noticed a man in very dirty clothes trying to sell roses for a dollar each to people in the waiting room. She saw Carter and Luka trying to get him to leave and then something came over her and she walked over to them.

“If I buy all of your roses will you leave?” Weaver said reaching into her pocket to get her wallet, Carter and Luka could barely believe what they heard, Weaver most certainly wasn’t one to help someone with a crack addiction. The guy nodded and she handed him twenty dollars and he handed her the roses. She watched him leave and smiled slightly before looking up at the board. “Carter can you handle things for a bit I have something I need to take care of.” Carter nodded and then got back to work with Luka close behind him. Weaver went back into the lounge and set the flowers down on the table, as she pulled on her coat she knew she was about to do the right thing. Christina would not be forgotten, and Weaver had the flowers to prove it.

END