A/N - Am writing this loosely based on an idea provided by my good friend, Kimberleah (a fellow whump fan). Hopefully all you WAT fans are coping without our favorite show. This might tickle your fancy although I know nothing will replace the real deal.
It was another busy day at the Missing Person's Unit of the F.B.I. Jack Malone and his team were gathered around a table in the bullpen, discussing their approach to their latest case. Janet Carpenter, a 31 year old married woman had disappeared after a night out with her workmates. Her husband had reported her missing after he woke up the next morning and there was no sign of her. He tried calling her cell phone but it kept going to voice mail. He had contacted her friends but they all said that she had caught a cab from outside the bar that night. That was the last they had seen of her.
Jack and his team were tracing the last movements of the missing woman. Samantha and Martin were going to interview her work colleagues while he and Danny were planning to visit the restaurant and bar in which she and her colleagues had drank on the night she disappeared. Elena and Vivienne were following up on her cell phone and credit card activity. She had already been missing for eighteen hours. Time was running out.
Samantha and Martin left immediately to travel downtown to the office building where Janet worked. Jack asked Danny to wait for him as he had a quick call to make. It was his daughter, Kate's, birthday and he wanted to call her and wish her a happy birthday. He hated having to do this over the phone. He had hoped to fly to Chicago that weekend so he could hand her the gift he had bought for her, but they had caught this case and it looked like it was going to mess up his plans. He phoned her from the privacy of his office. She sounded so happy and excited, as every ten year old should on their birthday. He apologised profusely for not getting to see her this weekend but she wasn't too upset, especially when he told her that he would see her the following weekend. Once he hung up, he grabbed his overcoat, apologised to Danny for the hold up and then the two walked to the elevator. They took the elevator to the third floor where they got off and walked to the car pool parking garage.
As they walked along they discussed the case and they each offering a theory about what could have happened to their victim. As they headed towards their town car, something unusual caught Jack's eye. There was a white van pulled right up to the elevator door on the other side of the parking structure. At first it didn't strike him as alarming, it just didn't sit right with him. It took him a few moments to realise why this sight was so unusual. Then he remembered that the service area for all utilities and deliveries was on the ground floor and that only government tagged vehicles should be able to access any higher level. He stopped and turned back around to see what they were doing. They appeared to be unloading something into the elevator.
"Hey, does that seem odd to you?" he asked Danny as he gesticulated in the direction of the van.
"Kinda," Danny replied, obviously not overly concerned. But to Jack it just didn't seem right.
"You go ahead and get the car," he said tossing Danny the keys. "I'll just see what's going on."
With that Danny continued over to the black sedan parked in the centre of the parking area. Jack walked in the opposite direction towards the two men who still hadn't noticed the two agents. As Jack got closer he called to the two men.
"Hey, you know you should be using the service elevator on….." he started to say when one of the men turned around obviously startled and without warning, opened fire with an automatic weapon.
Jack reacted quickly and scrambled towards a line of parked cars in an attempt to take cover. He felt a sting and then a burning sensation in his side and he knew he had been hit. He stayed crouched down, protecting his head, as shards of glass rained down on him from the shattering car windows above. He reached for his own weapon and keeping his head down, raised his arm above the hood of the car and fired a burst of five or six shots in the general direction of the elevator.
Danny had just started the car when he heard the first burst of automatic fire. His thoughts immediately turned to Jack. He looked over to the area where he had left him and couldn't see him anywhere. Using his cell phone he reported shots fired and requested immediate assistance before getting out of the car and running in the direction of the gun fire. He had only taken a few steps when the white van erupted in a ball of bright orange flames and there was a tremendous explosion. Even though he was over thirty metres from the van, the force of the blast lifted him off his feet and flung him into the side of the car he had just exited. The force of the blast and the impact of the collision rendered him unconscious almost instantly.
Vivienne and Elena were at their desks when the ground beneath them shook and they heard the unmistakable boom of an explosion. They both looked at each other in shock and surprise. Seconds after the explosion, fire alarms and evacuation procedures swung into action in the FBI building. Sensibly, they and all others who were on their floor, left the office using the stairwell. They had only descended two floors when they were met by rising smoke and fumes. Others from the building were telling them to use the stairwells on the opposite side of the building. They were hearing chatter that there had been an explosion in either the elevator shaft or the parking garage. Once Elena heard that she took hold of Vivienne's hand.
"Danny and Jack were on their way to get a car from the car pool," she said reaching for her cell phone. Automatically she found Danny's phone number and tried to call him. It was ringing but he wasn't answering. She tried Jack's. She kept getting a message that his cell was out of service.
"Neither of them are answering, Viv," she said getting extremely concerned.
"Don't worry, Elena. I'm sure they're fine," she said painting on a smile to hide her own fears. "Let's get out of here first then we'll get in touch with them."
Elena knew there was little she could do. She could hear the sirens on the street as the emergency services vehicles arrived. Their descent to the ground floor was slow as the stairwell filled with people trying to escape from each of the lower floors. There was no panic however and they all were calm and organised in their evacuation of the building.
When they finally reached the street level, they were met by FDNY officers who directed them to a cordoned off area away from the building. As Viv and Elena turned around they could see the dust and smoke billowing from the third floor of the parking structure and parts of the adjoining FBI building. An orange glow was visible through the smoke from the street as a number of cars burned inside. Elena felt sick at the thought that Danny and Jack could still be up there. She prayed with all her might that Danny, the love of her life, would not be taken from her. The area was swarming with emergency personnel but she seemed oblivious to them. She kept trying Danny's cell, willing for him to pick up.
----------------
Inside the parking structure, Danny was starting to come around. He coughed violently as the air he gulped was heavy with concrete dust and acrid smoke. He opened his eyes and everything seemed grey. He moved to get to his feet and his head began to spin. Then he realised that he had taken a heavy knock and was probably concussed. There was a constant ringing in his ears. He looked around him and for a minute or two he had no idea where he was or how he got there. He clambered to his feet and brushed thick layer of dust from his clothes. He felt the lump at the back of his head where he had hit the bodywork of the car. Then it started to come back to him as he saw the shattered dust covered skeletons of cars in front of him. He was in the parking garage. He could see the orange glow of the burning chassis' of several vehicles on the other side of the lot. Then it hit him. Jack!
"Jack! Jack!" he yelled as panic set in. The last time he had seen Jack, he was walking over towards the elevator. Now there was only a gaping hole and a smouldering fire where the elevator used to be. Frantically he stumbled across rubble and around the shattered remains of cars. His vision blurred intermittently and his head ached but he had to find Jack. He called continuously but there was no response. Part of the level of the parking structure above had collapsed onto the level on which he stood. Cars lay crushed under massive slabs of concrete and twisted metal. Danny searched tirelessly and his efforts were rewarded eventually when he discovered Jack lying between the shattered remnants of two cars. He was laying there on his back, motionless, his body caked in a layer of grey dust and grime, reminding Danny of pictures he had seen of the victims of the volcanic eruption in Pompeii. There was blood oozing from a nasty looking head wound. Part of a support beam had collapsed and had landed on one of the cars but it was also trapping Jack. A section of it lay parallel to Jack's body, while more of it appeared to be crushing Jack's left leg and abdomen. Danny was distraught seeing Jack in that situation.
"Jack? Can you hear me Jack?" he said as he tried to climb over the beam so that he could reach Jack's neck to check his pulse. It took a couple of attempts before he satisfied himself that Jack indeed did have a pulse, albeit a very weak one. He tried to clear the rubble and dust away from Jack's mouth and nose so that he could at least breathe a little better.
He then turned to the broken pillar that was pinning Jack. Using all his strength he endeavoured to lift it off him. His distress grew as he realised that he couldn't free his boss. It was too heavy for him to lift by himself.
"Help!" he yelled. "We need some help in here," he shouted aimlessly. His cries for help were drowned out by the incessant drone of car alarms which had been set off by the concussion of the blast. He could also hear the fire alarms ringing in the adjacent building. He stood up and ran his hands through his hair, unsure of what he could do to help Jack. He knelt down beside him and told him that help was on the way and prayed that he was right.
Meanwhile Martin and Samantha had arrived at McCann and Gayles, the realtor's office where Janet Carpenter worked. They entered the building and explained who they were and why they were there. Everyone was extremely co-operative and willing to be of assistance. They interviewed all of Janet's colleagues who were with her at D'Acampo's Restaurant the night she disappeared and those who continued on to the bar close by after that. Soon they wrapped up and as they left the office which was given to them to carry out their interviews, they noticed many of the staff had gathered around the t.v. in the reception and waiting area. Curious about what was so interesting, Samantha joined them and saw that they were watching a news broadcast. She turned and asked a woman standing beside her what was going on.
"I'm not sure. They say that there was a bombing in Manhattan," she replied. Samantha strained to see the t.v. The reporter was standing outside a police cordon and Sam was unable to immediately identify what street they were on. Then one of the men she had interviewed earlier turned to her.
"Is that your office?" he asked curiously.
"What?" Samantha asked still straining to see the t.v.
"The F.B.I. building in Manhattan. A bomb exploded there," he said standing back and allowing her a clearer view of the t.v. screen. Martin joined her to see what was keeping her.
"Oh my God, Martin. There's been an explosion back at the office," she explained getting out her cell phone and trying to call Jack. She just got a message saying that the cell was out of service.
Martin tried Viv's cell. It rang and she answered quickly.
"Viv, are you alright? I just saw the report on the t.v.," Martin told her.
"Yeah, Martin. We're fine. It looks like the explosion was in the parking garage. Have you heard from Jack?" she asked in hope.
"No. Sam tried his cell but is getting and out of service message," he explained.
"Elena's been trying Danny's phone but it keeps going to voice mail. I think they might have been in the garage, Martin. They had only left the office minutes before the explosion. It doesn't look good," Viv said.
Martin looked at Samantha who was unable to conceal the worry she felt. He hung up and took Samantha to one side. She needed to know.
"Sam, I was talking to Viv. The explosion was in the parking garage next to the office. She's pretty sure Danny and Jack were in there when it happened. They had just left the office and now they can't get in touch with either of them," he explained. A look of horror traversed Sam's face. She put her hand to her mouth and looked at Martin desperately.
"Oh, God, Martin. We have to get back," she said anxiously. "Maybe there's something we can do."
Martin knew that there would be little they could do but he followed her as she hurried out of the building and towards their car. They drove hastily through the city in the direction of the office. Eventually they hit the traffic jams as the traffic was being diverted away from the scene of the explosion. Martin decided to park the car and they continued on foot towards F.B.I. Headquarters. As they neared the block they noticed the increased crowd and the smoke and dust still billowing from the parking structure. Martin called Viv to find out where she and Elena were. They eventually were able to meet up just outside the police cordon.
"Have you heard anything?" Samantha asked desperately.
"Nothing. Elena is trying to speak to the Fire Chief and see what's happening. So far, the ambulance crews are on hold. I guess their trying to make sure the building is safe," Viv told her.
Samantha looked up at the damaged building. Please be okay, Jack.
A/N - any comments always appreciated. Should I continue or give up now?