Disclaimer: Don't own the show or have any wild ideas about profiting from what I'm writing here.
Author Note: Just taking it out for a spin because I liked the relationship between Kyle and Nicole and his protectiveness of both her and Amanda, and thought there weren't enough stories about those things. This is my version of what happens on Prom night.
It was late afternoon and Nicole was in her office catching up on file notes and paperwork. Josh, Kyle, and Lori were upstairs getting ready for tonight's big event. Prom night was finally here and Steven was out getting another memory card for the camera and picking up some snacks to tide everyone over until the kids headed out to dinner with their dates and he and Nicole could catch some quality time at home snuggling on the sofa with pizza and a movie.
Hearing the doorbell, Nicole came into the living room and opened the door. Amanda was there, fresh-faced and in a comfortable pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Clearly, unlike Nicole's own brood, Amanda hadn't started getting ready yet. Nicole smiled. The child was beautiful just the way she was, both inside and out. Nicole was certain Kyle would happily take her anywhere, whether she ever got ready or not.
"Hi, Amanda, Kyle's upstairs if you'd like to go on up."
"No, that's OK." Amanda smiled brightly. "I really just stopped by to talk to you for a second."
Nicole placed a hand lightly on Amanda's shoulder, drawing her into the living room. As she was shutting the front door, Nicole's attention wandered out to the street where she saw the limousine glide up to the curb across the street from the house. 'Now that's odd,' she thought, "the limousine isn't supposed to be here for another hour at least.' Then, the thought was gone and she turned back to Amanda, "So! What can I do for you?"
"Oh, it's nothing, really," Amanda blushed slightly and looked down at the floor. "I…I guess I just wanted to ask…"
She stopped, shook her head, then looked up at Nicole Trager a bit desperately. This was sort of embarrassing. "Well, you know how my Mom can be," she started again. "I mean, it's great that she's letting Kyle take me to dinner and the dance and everything, but she's still not comfortable around him, and, well, I'm afraid to ask her for anything more, but I really want to have a picture of Kyle and I together before the prom."
She stopped, breathless. Her face reddened, but she'd made a fool of herself this far, so she plunged on. "And, well, I was really hoping that, if we came back over here for a few minutes after Kyle picks me up, you or Mr. Trager would take a picture for me?" she finished. Then, swallowing the nervous lump that had formed in her throat, she smiled weakly and proffered the camera she'd been holding behind her back.
"Oh, Amanda," Nicole grinned, pulling the girl in for a quick hug, "of course we'll take a picture of the two of you! We'll take as many as you'd like! And if they turn out as well as I think they will, we'll get some copies enlarged for you AND your mother!" "Now, go on," she said gently and with a smile, "Don't you think it's time to stop worrying and start getting ready?"
Amanda smiled back, first in relief, then in joy. This was going to be a great evening! "Thank you!" She practically bounced. "You're right, I better go get ready! But I think I changed my mind; I would like to say hi to Kyle since I'm here."
A sound from the kitchen made them both glance in that direction, each thinking the noise was likely to be coming from a teenager raiding the fridge for a pre-prom snack. Amanda, starting forward to see if it might be Kyle, stopped in her tracks as a man in the dark suit of a chauffer stepped into the kitchen doorway.
Startled by the stranger in her home, Nicole moved toward him. "Hi, you must be here with the limousine for tonight," she said, "but you see, you're an hour early and the kids aren't ready yet. So, if you'd like to do some errands or make a dinner run, you could come back in an hour."
"I don't think so," the man said, reaching into his jacket. "That would be too late for our purposes" he continued as he pulled out a gun and trained it on Amanda. "Come with me now, both of you. Zyzzix has a use for you and I won't take no for an answer. With both of you at headquarters, Kyle will come to us with no hesitation. All we'll have to do is ask, politely." He smiled maliciously and waved the gun to intimidate them further.
Stunned, Nicole reached forward, placing her hands on Amanda's shoulders, and pulled her back. Then released her grip, stepping beside and then in front of Amanda as she realized just how much danger they were all in.
"Come. Now, or we take this upstairs and it gets a lot more complicated," he threatened.
Surprise turned to fear on Nicole's face and she reached behind her, trying to make contact with Amanda. Amanda reached out and grabbed Nicole's hand…both feeling more secure with that bit of physical contact.
At that moment, Steven pulled up into the drive and Kyle started down the stairs two at a time, fiddling with a tie. "Nicole could you show me how to…" He stopped mid sentence and mid stairs as he saw Nicole and Amanda. "Amanda…" he started to smile, then he saw the expressions on the faces of the two women he loved and his heart started pounding. He followed their eyes to the kitchen doorway, seeing just the side of a face and an arm clad in a dark suit holding a pistol.
The gunman's gaze shifted toward Kyle and as his gaze shifted, so did the trajectory of the pistol in his hand. "You are needed at Zzyzzix headquarters young man; come with us quietly now and I have no need to harm them. Do as you are asked and eventually they will be released."
Kyle glanced quickly from the gunman to the two women; he locked eyes with Nicole, willing her to be quiet, to let him keep her and Amanda out of harm's way. "Let's go then…" and as he took a step forward…
"Kyle, No!" It was Nicole. Fear turning to determination to keep her child safe, she took the moment to run toward the gunman, intent on knocking the pistol now trained on Kyle from the man's hands. She shouldn't have called out; the gunman turned, fired.
Nicole's world changed in an instant. She was stunned by the loud noise; so loud it pushed her back, spinning her sideways…breathless…thoughtless for a moment before she regained enough sense to quickly look for Kyle and Amanda to make sure both were OK. They were. Both still standing; both unhurt. Then everything seemed to stop, and she let out the breath she didn't know she was holding.
There was no sound now…or at least she couldn't hear anything. It was as if she were looking through a tunnel at the scene before her; her awareness focused in on what would happen next, but bizarrely unable to will her body into further action. She watched as Kyle's face changed in that next instant; a mixed look of fear and fury that she had never seen from him before crossing his features. That look was frightening and directed squarely at the gunman. Lights began to flicker throughout the house, bulbs popping. Loose objects on tables and shelves vibrated, some falling over or off onto the floor. The gunman's eyes went wide, pupils dilated…gun falling from his hand to the floor as he clutched his chest. Kyle's stare intensified, focused, blocked out everyone and everything…flashes of vessels, blood pumping through, heart valves opening and closing rapidly but in oddly disjointed rhythm, replaced the world around him. The gunman dropped to the floor, spent. Gone.
And then, silence for a moment longer before Amanda heard Josh and Lori call in alarm from upstairs and felt, more than heard, Steven fling open the front door a few feet behind her and run toward his wife.
It had all happened in less than 30 seconds. The new presence in the room broke Nicole's focused attention and brought her into the moment, her hearing returning at the same time. She transferred her gaze from Kyle to Steven. She registered the absolute panic on her husband's face… "Steven!"…and made an effort to step toward him. She could hear her own voice echo in her head. It sounded weak. Distant. Odd. As Steven closed the space between them, she followed his eyes as they traveled downward from her face. Oh, God, blood...so much blood…where had it all come from? She looked again at Stephen then down at her stomach, placing her hand over a rapidly growing red stain as she began to take in what her mind could not yet fully comprehend. She had been shot, she reasoned, but she felt nothing. Confused and beginning to panic, her knees buckled as Steven reached her side. And she began falling sideways, Steven reaching toward her waist, letting her fall heavily against him, putting his arms around her and easing her descent to the floor.
Steven looked up from his wife momentarily to see that Kyle was standing half-way down the stairs, still in a daze. Amanda had taken several steps toward Nicole but had stopped, fear taking over, and had begun to shake and cry quietly, looking so small as she stood with her arms straight at her side. Then Josh and Lori were running down, pushing past Kyle to get to Nicole. "Josh, 911!" Steven yelled in a voice that brooked no alternative action. Josh spun off to do so and Lori continued on until she was standing a couple of feet from her parents. She looked down; blood was everywhere. Her mother's blood was gushing from the open gunshot wound in her abdomen. It had already spread across her stomach and down her thighs before she fell, soaking her jeans and the hem of her top. Now it was pooling on the floor under her. Steven gripped her shoulders in one arm to support her as she leaned into him; his other hand stroked her face gently. He never stopped talking in a loud whisper, his lips pressed to her temple as he told her she would be OK, as he begged her to hang on. A few seconds later, Lori shook the abject fear from her mind and in one rapid movement, knelt by her mother, pressing her hand tightly to the wound, covering one hand with the other in order to push even harder…she had to make it stop…stop the bleeding before her mother bled out on their living room floor. Nicole raised her head sharply and pulled back from Steven's grasp, gasping at the unbearable pain caused by Lori's pressure on the wound. Her head spun from the sudden movement. Dizziness and nausea took over as her vision clouded and her face paled. Energy gone, she sank back into Steven's chest, concentrating on breathing and keeping her eyes open.
It was then that Kyle returned to himself. He shook his head to clear his thoughts as his vision and other senses refocused on his external environment rather than the images in his head. He first searched the room for Amanda, running to her, pulling her into a hug. She melted into him, but was unable to focus enough to really respond back. She sniffled, then put one hand flat to Kyle's shoulder, pushing herself back from him a few inches so she could turn him toward Nicole. Josh returned to the room, "ambulance is on its way; 10 minutes." His face turned white as he made it into the room far enough to see Nicole.
Before Josh could respond, Kyle turned back to face Amanda. Hands on her shoulders, "Stay here. You're safe now." Then he turned and rushed to Nicole, kneeling beside her next to Lori. His hand rested momentarily on the side of Nicole's head just under her ear, palm toward her cheek, fingers extending around the back of her head, thumb stroking her face gently. He closed his eyes and felt it all: fierce thumping of her heart as it pumped blood so fast to get oxygen out to her extremities for a fight or flight response that her body could not muster, blood streaming through her veins and escaping her body, synapses firing rapidly as she realized what was happening to her, breaths becoming shallow as shock set in. And then, mere seconds later: heart slowing as the volume of blood left in her system became too low to circulate properly, breath becoming irregular, brain shutting down. Time was running short. Kyle opened his eyes.
"Steven."
He got no response.
"Steven, listen to me. The ambulance is too far out. She needs help now. Give her to me. Trust me."
Steven's eyes finally focused on Kyle's face. He nodded, releasing his iron grip on his wife and allowing Kyle to pull her toward himself, lifting her slightly to scoot her sideways onto his lap so she was close enough to lean into his body for support. Lori's hands, still pressed to the wound, followed the movements until she felt Kyle's hand next to her own and heard his voice gently telling her to "let go, Lori. You've done good, but now it's my turn."
As Nicole settled to his body, her eyes closed, her breath caught in her throat, and Kyle could feel her slip from consciousness. They were losing her. He was losing her. And he couldn't let it happen. This family, this woman, had given so much to him. He would do anything in his power now to make things alright. As before with the gunman, he felt his mind closing out his surroundings, this time focusing only on the life still barely present in his arms. As before, his mind filled with images of blood and heart; imaging movement replacing stillness. Imaging blood cells forming, bullet rising to the surface of the skin, plasma knitting together to clot near the wound, T cells congregating to begin staving off infection.
The others in the room first watched in horror as Nicole's face went blank and her body crumpled in on itself as she lost all muscle tone. Then they watched in stunned and disbelieving silence as the hand Kyle laid across her abdomen began to tremble and glow. Something small and hard and hot was suddenly in his hand, but he paid no attention to it, instead he focused only on Nicole.
Minutes passed as Kyle imagined body cells regenerating near the edges of the raw opening, seeing it over and over until the edges came together and caught fast, healed over. He imagined synapses that had almost stopped firing begin to send messages again as he willed muscle tone and shallow breaths to return.
Each of the others in the room held their own breaths and tensed their own muscles rigidly while praying that Kyle was somehow going to be able to do something to make a difference. They watched as minutes passed and the glow from Kyle's hand spread outward until first Nicole and then Kyle became bathed in the soft light. They watched as Kyle's entire body shook from effort and concentration and blood began dripping slowly from his nose and ears, mixing with Nicole's blood, falling on his hand and seeping down into the wound itself. Something small and hard tumbled from the spot where hand and body joined, making a small clatter on the wooden flooring.
Then the glow began to fade and Kyle, too, lost consciousness, slumping forward into Nicole so that the only thing keeping them both sitting upright was the pressure of leaning against one another. Then, just as quickly, Kyle came to and raised his head. He had no idea how long he had been that way, desperately holding onto Nicole, eyes shut, hand over the wound, head bowed in concentration as he willed her to live. But he knew he had succeeded. She was weak and sick, but she would live. He looked up to find five pairs of eyes staring into his: Josh and Lori, crouching one on either side of Steven, arms around one another with the first hints of relief playing across their faces; Amanda, still shaking, but with a small smile of understanding forming on her lips; Carol Bloom, frozen where she stood just inside the front door which was still standing wide open as Steven had left it, eyes staring and mouth open as she realized what she had just witnessed.
Mrs. Bloom collected herself as she heard the ambulance coming down the street. She turned and ran out the front door to wave the driver up toward the house. When she rushed back into the room with three medics racing behind her, she realized everyone else had remained frozen where they were. Glancing toward Amanda and satisfied she was safe for the moment, Mrs. Bloom moved toward father and siblings, reaching down and putting her arms out to all of them, tugging gently, entreating them to rise and move farther back so the medics had a clear path. That taken care of, she moved to her daughter's side, hugging her with all her might.
One medic rushed toward the gunman's body and, feeling no pulse, used his radio to call the coroner. The other medics checked Nicole's vitals and satisfied, lifted her from Kyle's arms onto the gurney where they worked to stabilize her and get an IV of fluids and plasma started before they tried to transport her to the hospital. One of them was running his hands over her head, neck, arms, then cutting her clothing back, to continue probing her abdomen, then torso, then legs. They started calling in her information as they prepped her, (radio static) "adult female, mid 40s; pulse and respiration low but steady; lost a lot of blood, wound to the…" The medic doing the once-over of Nicole's body let out a low whistle and threw his partner a bug-eyed stare, shrugging his shoulders. They moved as one to carefully turn Nicole onto her side so they could check her back for wounds, but found none. The medic's voice cracked as he continued his radio chatter, "Christ, it's…there's blood all over her, all over the floor; looks like it originally came from the abdominal area…but...but…we can't find a wound anywhere." "No, no, Sir…one dead but no blood from him. No! No one else is hurt!" "Yes, sir! On our way…she's weak, but she's going to be fine once we get her there and the docs get a transfusion going and get some scans." Everyone listening had been holding their breath until that last sentence. And EVERYONE was listened intently…except Kyle…
With Nicole's warm weight removed from him, Kyle felt suddenly cold and hollow. He could hear the medics talking, but couldn't understand their words. He began casting about for something to fill the void. But before he could do anything to help himself, Lori and Josh were on him with kisses and back-slaps and Steven was only seconds behind them, pulling everyone into a big hug. A set of four relieved sighs escaped before they separated just in time to see the medics begin wheeling Nicole toward the door, telling Steven he could ride with them to the hospital. Steven rushed to Nicole's side and grabbed her limp hand as the medics raised the sides on the gurney. It was then that Steven felt Nicole squeeze his hand. He looked down as she opened her eyes and stared up at him. "Steven." It came out weak, barely a whisper. If he hadn't seen her lips move, he wouldn't have known what she said. "Shhh. Nicole, you're going to be OK. You're alright, do you hear me?" Nicole's eyelids fluttered before opening again. She moved her lips, her mouth dry, "Kyle? Amanda?" "They're fine, just fine…it's you we're all worried about. We need to go…to get you to the hospital and make sure you stay OK. Do you understand?"
One of the medics cleared his throat and caught Steven's eye. "Sir, we have to go…now.
Steven nodded, then glanced back at his children.
"Go, Dad. We're right behind you. See you there," said Lori. "Josh, keys." she demanded.
There was a race to the kitchen counter, then "Found, 'em!" as the keys dangled from Josh's outstretched hand. "Can I drive?"
"Forget it," Lori growled, "Now give me those keys." She snagged the keys from Josh's hand.
Josh looked at Kyle and jerked his head toward the back door, "Kyle, come on, bud…let's go."
Kyle hesitated, glancing first at Josh, then Amanda, then back to Josh. Mrs. Bloom spoke quietly, but with authority, "I think Kyle needs a few minutes to adjust. It's OK, go on. I'll let Kyle and Amanda use my car and I'll stay behind to deal with the coroner and police. Don't worry, they won't be long."
The others left, shutting the door behind them, and Kyle needed no prompting to know what to do next. He crossed the living room and pulled Amanda into a strong hug, feeling her shudder against him as tears began to fall. "I was so afraid he would hurt you, too."
"I..I'm OK, Kyle, really. I guess it's all just now sinking in."
Kyle shifted back slightly, one hand still on Amanda, the other gesturing toward the gunman's body. "I didn't want to," he rambled on, "but I had no choice. Oh, Amanda! Why didn't Nicole just stay put; I could have gone with him, reasoned with him to let the two of you go; those guys at Zyzzix really only needed me. I could have convinced him I'd cooperate."
Until that moment, no one but the medics had even given a second thought to the body of the dead gunman, curled slightly in on itself, eyes open and blank, lying to the left of the kitchen doorway, his gun a few feet farther away where it had fallen. All three of them now stared at his body. Kyle looked down at his feet, ashamed of what he'd done.
"Kyle, I don't know what exactly you did to him, but I do know you had to do it. Don't blame yourself for that. That guy wasn't going to stop. He shot your Mom once; he wouldn't have hesitated to shoot her again, or me. Besides, with him in control, you couldn't have gone to Nicole. He wouldn't have let you, I just know it." Amanda's voice got quieter, and what came out next was barely above a whisper, "And without you, she would be dead now."
"Without me?" Kyle said, looking up at last with indescribable pain in his eyes, "Without me she wouldn't be hurt at all. And you wouldn't have been in danger, either. I've made a complete mess of things and I don't know how to fix it."
"No, Kyle. She's right." Carol Bloom sighed and finally pulled her eyes from the gunman. She stooped down, reached to her right and picked something small up off the floor. Whatever it was, she held it in her open palm, staring at it in amazement. She looked up and straight into Kyle's eyes, "And, I…I have been so foolish…so wrong about you." "Don't misunderstand me, you really do scare me at times. Make me afraid for Amanda when she's with you," she hesitated as she saw how much her words hurt Kyle and heard how Amanda's breath hitched as she got ready to protest on Kyle's behalf. Then she continued, "make me afraid for you as well." Her eyes softened, crinkling at the edges, as tears crept in and made them shine. "I don't know who you really are, or what you are, Kyle. I can't even pretend to understand what you did to stop the gunman, but I know that today, you saved my daughter's life and after watching what you did with Nicole, I have no doubt that Amanda is safer with you than with anyone else on this earth."
Kyle opened his mouth to protest, but Carol was quicker. She shook her head, raised her fingers to his mouth to silence him, and just as quickly moved her hand to stroke the side of his face. Then, hand shaking, she patted his hair as the first tears tracked silently down her face. Kyle was stunned, and reacting without thinking, he pulled the older woman into a hug, whispering in her ear, "I will do my best to keep Amanda safe, always." "I believe, you," she breathed back.
Just then, the coroner's vehicle pulled up. Kyle released the woman and she stepped back, visibly shaken by his kindness. Then, realizing what was coming next, her face transformed back to its typical, closed-off expression. "And now, we've been standing here long enough. Kyle, your mother needs you; and you," she turned to look at Amanda, who blanched slightly at what appeared to be her mother's usual demeanor; "I suppose he needs you, so go, stay as long as you want. Stay until they kick you both out of the hospital, and then come home to me…please? Because your mother needs you, too," and with that, she hugged her daughter, brushed the tears from her eyes, and pressed the small object she'd been clutching into Kyle's hand, closing his fingers over it. "And this, this fell from your hand while you were holding Nicole. Don't think the coroner or the police need to know about it," she said, amazement glowing behind a faint smile. Kyle looked down at the bullet in his hand; the bullet he had somehow managed to remove from Nicole's body. She moved to the sink, grabbed a damp cloth and handed it to Amanda. "Clean him up before you go in," she said, gesturing to the dried blood beneath Kyle's nose and ears. Then she shoved them both toward the back door. "Now go, before the coroner comes in and starts asking questions you don't want to answer. I'll deal with him. Oh, and on your way to the hospital, start thinking about how you all are going to explain what happened to the police as well as to the medical staff. They aren't going to give up trying to figure out how to explain what happened to Nicole," she said. With that, she turned on her heel and walked back into the living room.
"Hello? Coroner? Yes. Thank you for coming so quickly, how can I help…?"