AN : Just one of those muse things! This will be a short story, no more than 5 chapters. Please review. I love to read your comments good or bad. This is set after Lou dies, Jules and Sam are not dating. Enjoy!

##### her perspective 1300 hours (1pm) #####

Her chest was heaving. How did she get herself into this damned mess, she asked herself for the umpteenth time today. Oh god, how could she get out of this? The blonde man was trying to talk to her, he said he wanted to help her, but how was he going to help? He couldn't, she was going to die if she didn't get out of this bank in the next fifteen minutes.

She looked to the exits again, her heartbeat kicking up when she saw three people in tactical gear near the front. Shit. Her eyes darted back to the blonde when he said her name. "How do you know my name?" She frowned. Dammit. I'm screwed.

"It's what we do. We like to know who we're talking to." The blonde said calmly even though she had a knife pointed towards him. It wasn't up which was good, that meant their sniper wouldn't have to shoot. "You don't look like you want to be here." He kept his hands up, showing her he wasn't a threat.

"Don't move." She growled. "I need out of here." She looked at the clock.

"Somewhere you have to be Sherry?" The blonde gained her gaze again.

"Just shh." She shushed him and looked towards the rear. She knew they'd probably have someone or several someone's at the back entrance, but that seemed like her best bet to get out of here. She looked at him and tried to convey her apologies with her eyes. "Stand up."

"Ok." He stood slowly and waited while she picked up the black backpack and slung it on her shoulder. "Boss." He whispered.

"What? Who're you-?" She frowned at him and pointed the knife to the side of his neck, but several inches away. She leaned to one side and seeing nothing leaned to the other. She grabbed the earpiece from his ear and put it on hers. "Listen, your officer and I are walking out of here. No funny business, nothing stopping us."

"I'd really like to try to help you Sherry." A caring male voice said over the headset. "Is there some reason you have to leave soon?"

"Yeah, I don't want to be shot." She said tearing up. Oh god, please don't let them shoot me, she thought. This is the only way. She put her free hand to her mouth and sniffed. She took a deep breath and motioned for the blonde to walk to her.

The blonde hesitated, but knew it was better to comply with a subject. He stepped forward and stood in front of her, waiting.

"We don't want to do that either Sherry. We want everyone to go home safe. How do we do that?" The voice in her ear said.

"Let us leave!" She yelled into the earpiece then grabbed the blonde's shirt and started walking towards the back door. "That's all I want. Once we're clear and no one tracks us, I'll let the officer go." When the blonde looked at her she ignored him. "Get me?"

##### 0730 hours (7:30am) #####

"Fabre! Let's go! Get your stuff and get out here!" Sherry yelled and looked through the doorway to her oldest son's room, a spatula in her hand. When her youngest son bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen she gave him an exasperated look. "Can you please go see what is keeping your brother?"

"Um, he's in a wheelchair?" Ian said sarcastically and walked towards his brother's room.

"Ian!" Sherry said in mock shock.

"Oh mom." Ian rolled his eyes, smiled and ran to Fabre's room. "Fabre! Mom says to get your lazy ass up!" He sing-songed.

"Language!" Sherry looked up, asking for strength. She smiled when her two middle children walked into the kitchen, side by side in matching outfits. "Well don't you two look cute?"

Kylie, older by a minute and a half, looked up with annoyance. "It's hot mom. We look hot."

"Yeah." Miley looked up from her iPod, rolled her eyes and went back to looking at the device.

"First of all, put the iPod's down for breakfast, you know the rules." Sherry waited while they reluctantly put the iPod's on the counter and climbed onto the stools in front of them. "And second of all, I will not be calling my daughters 'hot', especially not my ten year olds. You guys have been watching way too much of the E! Channel."

"No we haven't." Kylie shook her head. She loved watching the Kardashians. It was her favorite show, especially since she had the same name as one of them.

"Well, we'll talk about it tonight with daddy at dinner." Sherry scooped some eggs for each girl onto two plates, waited for the toast and then added a slice to each plate before setting them in front of the girls. She smiled when Fabre rolled out of his room. "You're gonna be late Fabe." She scolded as she made up two more plates.

"Just because I'm in a wheelchair doesn't mean I have to look like crap." Fabre said then used his atrophied hand to work the robotic hand attached to his wheelchair to scoop the eggs on the plate she just put down.

"Oh?" Sherry lifted a brow as she moved to the end of the island with a plate for her and Ian.

Fabre shook his head and concentrated on eating. It was something he did all the time, but it still took a lot of concentration.

Thirty minutes later, the kids were on their various buses to school and Sherry was alone. She loved her kids dearly, couldn't imagine her life without them, but she craved this time to herself. She went to the living room, laid on the couch and sighed. Ah, sweet silence, she thought. Feelings of guilt came next, but she pushed them away. She deserved to have this precious time to herself.

She stretched and lavished in it. After a few minutes her eyes fluttered closed. Suddenly, she was awakened by a hand over her mouth, stifling a scream. She tried to turn and look at the person, but they held her head in place. Lips brushed her ear and she tried to pull away.

"Sherry Crayson. Keep still and I won't kill you." He whispered. When she nodded slightly he continued. "You have a beautiful family Sherry. I'd hate for anything to happen to them, don't you agree?" Another nod. "Good. Now, close your eyes."

Sherry stayed very still.

"No? So which one is the first to go then? The oldest? Your precious, wheelchair bound little freak?" When she shook her head vehemently, he laughed. "I didn't think so. No, what about one of the twins? Or the baby? Little Ian? I know all about them, what they like, what they don't like. Their schedules."

"No." She said through his hand.

He landed a punch to her stomach. "Then you better do what I say!" He yelled in her ear. "Non-compliance will get them killed Sherry. I can go to Kylie's soccer game today and break her neck in the locker room. Now, time for lights out." He switched hands and waited while the chemical soaked rag put her to sleep. Once she was asleep, he went to work.

#####

Sherry opened her eyes groggily. She blinked several times, trying to get things to focus. Her stomach hurt where he punched her. A light turned on near her face, making it hard to see beyond it. "Who are you?" She asked the darkness. "What do you want with me?"

The darkness answered with laughter, deep and a little maniacal. "Look down."

She looked down and realized that she wasn't restrained, but something was wrong. She looked at all the wires, sticks of dynamite and in the middle, a timer. "Oh my god." She stood and turned, trying to look at the whole vest.

"Sit down." The voice said.

"Oh god." Sherry sunk back into the chair, put her head in her hands and started to sob. "Why?" She asked weakly. "Why me? I haven't done anything to anyone."

"Ooh, that's not true now is it?" The voice said eerily. "Doesn't matter right now. There is something I need you to do. You do the task and follow the rules, you and your family are free. No harm, no foul. But cross me, or break a rule and.. Boom."

"What do I have to do?" Sherry asked, resolve in her voice. She had no choice, he said he would harm her kids. He knew where they would be, he could hurt them.

"You have to rob the First Canadian Bank in Toronto and bring the money to me before 3pm today or I kill your children in front of you." When she whimpered he smiled and continued. "Rules: do not take the vest off. If you attempt to remove it, it will go off. I will be watching. If I see you trying to take it off or anyone else try to disarm it I will set it off. Do not contact the police. If you do, it blows and I kill your husband and children. I will also be listening. If you try to signal anyone, you and your family die. If you aren't at the rendezvous by 3pm, you all die. Do I make myself clear?"

Sherry nodded numbly. "Where is the rendezvous?"

A hand emerged from the dark and handed her a cell phone. He laughed at the look on her face. This was going perfectly. "Do not attempt to use this phone, if you do you die. I will call you and tell you the rendezvous point. You will leave this phone in the car when you go into the bank. Remember that I'm watching." He turned on a light over the door. "It is 10am. You have until 3 to get to the bank, get me 200 thousand dollars and get to the rendezvous point."

"Ok. What am I driving?" She asked as she hurried to the door. Her mind was reeling as she tried to think of a way out of this mess. He said he was watching and listening, she couldn't risk her family could she?

"The only car out there. There's a jacket by the door. Put it on. If anyone sees the bomb, well, you know. Now get going."

She found the coat, put it on and looked down at the vest before she closed the jacket. She stepped into the light of day and cringed. She waited for her eyes to adjust and hurried to the blue ford hatchback. What a POS she thought. She flipped the visor down and the keys fell into her lap. She looked around, trying to get her bearings. She found a sign that said, five miles to the junction with Gardiner Expressway.

Ok good, she thought, I'm close to Toronto. She took the phone out and wondered if it had GPS. She'd checked her pockets on the way to the car and found them empty. He must have her phone. Damn. She hit the button for the phone and was relieved to see an app for GPS. She typed in the name of the bank and hit go.

##### his perspective 0730 hrs #####

Winnie answered the 911 direct line and after talking to someone for a moment hit the klaxon alarm.

Team One looked up from their varied conversations, rose and walked to Winnie's desk from the briefing room.

"What's up Winnie?" Ed said as he stopped at the desk next to Greg.

"Jumper on the Gardiner, distraught female threatening to jump." Winnie reported as she looked at them.

Sam looked at Jules. "Ride together?"

Jules lifted a shoulder and smiled at him. "Sure."

"Gear up guys, let's go." Ed nodded to them and they headed out.

"So.." Jules dragged out the word and looked at Sam who was grabbing gear next to her. Now that things had shifted to them being best friends, it was so much better. It was so hard when they broke up. She knew she'd hurt him and it killed her. That was the last thing she wanted.

When he came back from his time off and she from her injury, it'd been tense and awkward at times. She knew she needed to talk to him, but put it off. Unfortunately, they were biting each other's heads off during a call one day and the Boss made them sit down together and talk. It was good actually. She'd apologized for hurting him and they'd agreed that being friends, best friends, would be the most they could do.

"So?" Sam looked at her and finished loading his remi.

"How was your visit with Nat this weekend?" Jules loaded her MP5 and clipped it to her chest.

"Oh, uh." Sam rolled his eyes and looked away, concentrating on clipping his MP5 to his chest. He turned and put the headset on and in his ear.

"That bad huh?" Jules looked at him questioningly. She followed him, put in her earpiece and caught up with him. When he didn't say anything and his ears got red she frowned. "Sam? What happened?"

Sam kept looking ahead as they got to the garage and double checked their gear with the rest of the team. He was hoping Jules would forget about Nat's visit. It was a total disaster and he didn't want to talk about it. He got in the SUV on the driver side, looked at Jules and pointed to his headset. The Boss was getting the details from Winnie and he wanted to listen. Anything to keep from talking about his sister's visit.

Jules listened to the details, but she was covertly studying Sam. Apparently something happened with Nat and it must've been bad if he didn't want to talk about it. She'd have to ask him about it later.

As Sam rode to the SIU two hours later he was going over the call in his mind and none of it was good. It seemed like everything about the call had gone wrong. Spike had a hard time getting into the security system because it was a newer system and anyone with the password was at a conference in Hamilton.

While they were running up the stairs to get to the subject, Wordy was tripped by one of the people being evacuated. He caught the woman and took the brunt of the fall but slammed his knee hard into the edge of several of the stairs. EMS had to take him out on a stretcher, his leg wrapped in blood soaked gauze and his face bruised.

The subject was hard to contain because he kept taking the hostage from office to office to try to hide from them. When they finally cornered him, Sam almost didn't get to a new Sierra One position in time to keep the subject from blowing up the hostage, the Boss, Ed and Jules. He'd had to take the shot as soon as he was in position which almost wasn't fast enough. He ran a hand through his hair at that thought. If he'd lost them, lost her it would be his undoing. He didn't know what he'd do without her.

Spike had started work on defusing the bomb when the Boss had negotiated it, but the design was intricate and he almost didn't get it diffused in time. Sam wanted to talk to Spike before SIU took him away, but he couldn't. It was obvious Spike was upset about the things that went wrong and was blaming himself.

#####

As Spike rode with Jules back to the barn, his knee bounced nervously and he looked out the window.

"You ok Spike?" Jules looked over at him, concerned.

His head whipped to her and he frowned. "Just peachy." Spike said sarcastically.

"We saved the hostage." Jules frowned. "I know things didn't exactly go as planned, but-"

"Go as planned?" Spike turned on her. "Go as planned?! Jules, I almost didn't even get us in the building! And,"

"Spike. You got us in." Leah said over the headset and shook her head. She was new, but she wasn't blind. Spike was visibly upset when they were standing near the SUVs. She was glad to see and hear Jules force him to ride with her.

"Save it for debrief guys. We're almost to the barn." Greg interrupted and looked at the roof. That call had nearly been a disaster in so many ways. They'd nearly lost the hostage and everyone in the room, including members of his team.

Several minutes later they sat in the briefing room, except for Spike who was pacing.

Greg lifted his chin and watched Spike for a moment. He let the younger man pace and turn before he spoke. "Spike." He said gently.

Spike shook his head. "I screwed up. I'm sorry you guys. I screwed up and you-" He turned and continued pacing, rubbing the black band on his wrist. He turned to the window, head down and sniffed.

Wordy hobbled into the briefing room with a cane and his knee wrapped. He looked at Greg, walked silently to the window, stood next to Spike and put a hand on his shoulder. He started talking quietly to Spike while the others looked on.

He took a breath and nodded. "You need to get off your leg." Spike looked down at Wordy's leg, turned and walked him to the table.

"Thanks Spike, but I'm ok." Wordy smiled and looked the techie in the eye. He sat gingerly in a chair while Jules held it to keep it from moving. He looked at her. "Thanks."

"How's the leg?" Sam asked Wordy as he walked in, sidetracking them from Spike who was a little calmer now.

"It's good." Wordy looked at the table.

"Wordy?" Sam raised a brow at his friend.

"Ok, ok. Twenty-seven stitches and it's already very colorful. They said there wasn't anything broken or torn, I just need to be on light duty for a few days."

Jules leaned forward and gave Wordy the evil eye when he looked at her. There was no way that was the truth.

Wordy grumbled at her stare and threw up his hands. "Fine! They said two weeks." He glared at Jules.

"Thank you." Jules smiled and nodded at him.

Sam chuckled and leaned back in his chair.

"Ok, let's go over this call." Greg opened the file in front of him.