Hello!

I see you are interested in this story. If you are wondering, I got the idea from a book I read recently. Though I have to say (unfortunately) that the characters -with exception of Lea- aren't mine. They all belong to the people who thought up Numb3rs. I don't make any money out of this, I just do it for fun. I hope you like it.

Have a pleasant reading!
How ever did it happen?

They had been there for two hours. There were eight people there, including the robber. She would never have thought that a quick stop at the gas station would turn out to a hostage situation. Her father's words rang in her head: "do what he tell you to do. Don't take any chances." If only he was here now. It would've felt very much safer.

"Why don't you let us go?" a lady asked pleading the robber. The answer she got was a gun pointed at her head.

"Don't!" the words came out before she could stop them. The robber turned his attention to her. "Please," she said. The phone at the counter started to ring. The robber's hand shook, his finger close to the trigger on his gun.

"You!" he said harshly pointing at her with his gun. "Answer the phone." She nodded and slowly got up. "Slowly. Or I'll shoot his head off." She looked at the guy he was pointing his gun at now. The guy's dark curly hair shook, from what exactly was hard to tell. There were many factors after all. She reached the phone on the counter, making sure the robber could see her hands and making slow steady movements.

"Hello?" she asked into the phone. "It's the police," she told the robber. He answered by waving his gun at the guy's head again. "There are eight people in here, sir," she answered the question. "He wants to know what you want," she said looking at the robber.

"What I want?" the robber seemed confused. She didn't want to make him angry so she merely hinted that the police was talking about a ransom. "Money," he said, "lots of it. One million." She repeated his words to the police officer on the other side.

"They need a little bit of time."

"They get half an hour before I start shooting people."

She obediently repeated the words to the officer and then hung up. She made sure her hands were visible though not moving more than that. The robber made her sit down by the guy he threatened to shoot a little earlier and went to check the windows.

"What's your name, young man?" an elderly woman asked the robber.

"Matt," he answered and said nothing more for a little while.

A sudden flash of light and he held the guy she was sitting next to in a choking grip. Matt dragged the guy across the chequered floor while pointing his gun at him.

"Please, sir," she said. Why did these words jump out of her mouth without her consent? 'Don't take any chances.' The words seemed distant now. Someone's life was at stake. She couldn't just let the robber kill the innocent guy. She just couldn't. "Please. Has he done anything to harm you in any way?" she asked gently, showing her empty hands at her sides. Matt looked at her cautiously.

The phone rang again and he told her to pick it up. She did as told.

"Hello?" she asked. "You need more time?" she asked looking at Matt who was shaking his head. "You don't get more time. Any injured? Not at this moment. He wants a car as well," she told the officer repeating Matt's words. A shot was suddenly heard. "No!" she cried. Another shot was heard. She lay on the floor her shoulder bleeding. The phone hung by its chord down the counter's side.

Matt released the guy in his arms. The shots had gotten the elders upset and it was hard for them to calm down. Matt didn't seem to care though, he carefully checked the windows and for a possible way out.

"Are you okay?" the guy asked who had been in a choker.

She didn't answer his question, only told him what needed to be done. "We need a pair of scissors."

"You give it back to me when you're done cutting." Matt kicked a pair of scissors across the floor.

"Thank you, sir," she said. "Cut around the bottom of my shirt and my right sleeve."

The guy worked as fast as he could. He cut and cut and suddenly half her back was showing. "Sorry," he said. She only shook her head telling him to finish it. When he did he moved on to her sleeve. She could see his brown eyes were scared. He was sweating.

"Fold the sleeve and put it over the wound. Now tie the long one around it to keep pressure on it." The guy did as he was instructed and then slid the scissors back to Matt. "Pretty good," she told him in a whisper.

"Thanks…" he said. He seemed to be shaking.

While she was getting patched up he had hung up the phone, which now was ringing again. She slowly stood up, and picked the phone up for the third time. "Hello? One is injured, only a flesh wound though, nothing too serious. I'm becoming very worried about the elders. They practically had a heart attack when the shots went off. To set them free?" she looked at Matt who told her to hang up, which she did. 'Do what he tell you to do.' "Sir, please. Can't you let them go? They can't help you get your money."

"They're staying!"

"Sir, if they die it'll be on your head. I don't think you want that."

"What do you know what I want?"

"Not much, sir. But if I were you, I would not want to have dead people on my shoulders when I got out of this. The guilt's unbearable."

Matt ordered her to sit down and fifteen minutes went. She had only hoped, though not expected, for him to release the elders. Which he then did very slowly.

"How long do you figure we have to stay in here?" a blonde girl asked her.

"You can never tell. It's different from case to case," she whispered back. "You're going to get out of here alive though. I will do everything in my power to see that happen, okay?" she added this when she saw the tears flowing down the girl's cheeks.

"You have experience in this?" the curly brown haired guy asked her.

"My father was a copper," she told him.

"I'm Charlie," the guy said after a moment. "Charlie Eppes."

"Lea…" the phone rang yet again and Matt told her to get it. By this time the pressure that was applied to her wound had bled through and it was throbbing like mad. She managed her way to the phone. "Hello? You have the car and the money? The car is waiting outside with the money inside. He wants the car driven up to the door. No shooting. Good," she hung up the phone, "they're doing what you've requested."

He told her to sit down again. Matt checked the windows again and slowly moved to the door. He turned and looked at the hostages once more before turning to the door. Lea pushed Charlie to the floor as she saw Matt letting the gun linger only enough to let a bullet fly. The bullet squeezed in through flesh, the pain was horrible. It felt like someone was jumping on her already bruised ribcage. Charlie's brown eyes looked into hers with a shocked expression. She closed her eyes slowly and everything went black.

The sound was annoying to her, although familiar to her. She knew she was in a hospital and she knew why. She remembered everything about the robbery, the phone calls, the elders and the shots.

"You were lucky," a nurse said as she stepped in seeing Lea awake.

"How long have I been sleeping?"

"Two days. You know what happens now Lea." The nurse said. Lea nodded and waited.

"Do you have any idea how many Charlie Eppes there are in this town?" she asked one week later. She was standing in a doorway and in the room was Charlie, the guy who had helped her at the robbery. "It was somewhat hard to find you, though obviously I managed." She smiled at the surprised expression on Charlie's face and especially at his co-worker's.
Please review your thoughts.