Disclaimer: See chapter one
A/N
This wasn't part of the plan
Chapter Two
Friday 9:36 A.M.
How did this happen? This wasn't part of the plan! Well, that is if they had a plan in the first place; this would not have been part of it. Gus thought as he looked up at the now empty sky. He thought back to earlier that day; It had started out a little rocky but then Shawn had solved a case that the police had thought was already closed...again. They had rushed to the airport to stop Lindsay Leikin the FTD's Psychic consultant from getting away with murder and all the missing counterfeit money. What happened next was all kind of a blur, one minute Shawn was flailing about having a 'vision' and Lindsay was trying to throw him off by announcing to everyone that they had slept together, and the next Shawn had a gun to his head and was being used as a human shield/bellhop.
Oddly enough this scene was not all that uncommon to Gus so he had not been all that concerned at these turn of events. It wasn't until Lindsay had forced Shawn onto the plane that it struck Gus with sickening clarity that he was actually watching his best friend being kidnapped. He saw Shawn reach for the cords on the side of the stairs to close the hatch and yelled at Shawn to stop. And for one split second he thought Shawn was going to make a break for it, but then he saw it, that nearly imperceptible change in Shawn's demeanor. He knew with horrifying certainty that Shawn was not going to be getting off the plane and if he didn't do something now he may never see his best friend again.
He yelled at Shawn again and started to run toward the now rapidly closing plane hatch but almost immediately Lassiter came out of nowhere and grabbed him. He had been so focused on Shawn that he had nearly forgotten that the others were there. He fought Lassiter to get free and had almost succeeded when Juliet came and grabbed hold of him as well. She tried to calm him down and reason with him but he was well beyond seeing reason.
He continued to fight with them until he heard the plane engines power up and saw it start to taxi out. Gus stood there frozen as he watched the plane moving down the runway. Now that he wasn't struggling to get free, he was able to hear Ewing and Chief Vick yelling on their cell phones; one with the control tower demanding they ground the flight and the other with the airport security ordering them to drive out and barricade the runway. But neither the Tower nor the security had acted fast enough to stop the plane from getting airborne.
As soon as they saw the plane take flight Gus felt Lassiter and Juliet's hands fall away. Ewing had cursed a blue streak. Chief Vick had sighed sadly and looked as if the weight of the world had just been placed on her shoulders. Juliet just stood there trying desperately to prevent the tears that had gathered in her eyes from falling. Lassiter stared at the rapidly disappearing aircraft with a montage of emotions flashing across his face; worry, fear, confusion, concern and finally settling on anger. Lassiter stiffened, spun around and stomped over to the Chief muttering something about 'stupid interfering infuriating psychics that didn't have the good sense God gave a gnat.' under his breath.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
So now here he stood staring at the sky willing the plane to come back and drop Shawn off safely. He was Shawn for Pete sake he was supposed to just be able to walk away from any situation so he could tell everyone about his 'near death experience' for the next ten years. Nothing really bad was ever supposed to happen to Shawn.
Gus was pulled from his thoughts when he felt a hand come to rest on his forearm. He turned to see Juliet looking at him with concern. "Gus, we are going to go up to the control tower and see if we can track the plane. If you want, I could sneak you in?" Juliet barely gave Gus time to answer before she jerked him around and started to jog toward the building dragging Gus behind her. "We have to hurry. If Lassiter or Agent Ewing gets there before us, I might not be able to get you in." Juliet paused a moment and gave Gus a mischievous grin. "Well, maybe just Lassiter; I think I could talk Ewing into it."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Juliet and Gus made it into the tower without any trouble. When Lassiter had finally found out Gus was there he grumbled a bit but let the pharmaceutical rep be. The Tower had set them up in an office with huge maps covering one entire wall and another wall was just glass with a view of the runway. In the middle of the office was a large desk with bunches of computer equipment on it. Everyone waited impatiently for the tech seated there to tell them anything about the plane.
"Have you found anything yet?" Chief Vick asked again. The tech took a deep breath trying to keep his irritation from showing. They had all asked him that same question at least twice in the forty-five minutes they had been up there. His patience with them was starting to wear a little thin. "No Ma'am. I haven't even been able to find their signature yet."
Lassiter looked at the tech questioningly. "Signature?"
"It's kind of like a license plate for planes. It helps us to identify specific planes." At seeing the less then comprehending faces looking at him he typed in a few commands into his computer. Almost instantly hundreds of green dots with letters and numbers next to them appeared on a giant screen opposite the wall of maps. "You see the letters and numbers next to the dots? Those are signatures. The radar bounces off the planes and sends back their signature. Once we find the signature we are looking for we will be..."
Just then a short man with blond hair rushed into the room interrupting the tech "Greg, I think we may have found your plane. We just got a relay from Morris Airport. Just hook up with the main system and Marta will play it back for you."
"Thanks, Luke." Tech Greg called out as he began typing away on his keyboard. Everyone gathered around the desk, including Mildred and Ewing, waiting to hear this relay hoping it will give them the information they need to find Shawn and the others. Tech Greg reached over and flipped a switch next to the monitor. "Marta, this is Greg go ahead and playback the relay please."
There was a brief burst of static then the message began to play. "...ayday Mayday...anyone...ere?"
Gus smiled excitedly and whispered to Juliet. "That's Shawn, that's Shawn." Juliet smiled back at Gus and mouthed 'I know.' Both quickly turned back to listen to the rest of the recording.
"This is Morris Airport what is your Emergency?"
A different voice answered back. "This...flight...been hijacked...gun...copilot dead...plane now secure...trapped...cabin...last known coord..."
"Unknown flight, repeat last known coordinates." They waited a moment but got no response.
"Unknown flight, we did not copy please repeat last known coordinates."
"...out...fuel...engines are gon...prep...ash...anding."
The Morris Tower tried to hail the plane again and again but all they got in reply was static and some unintelligible sounds and then there was nothing. It was like it had suddenly been cut off.
Everyone just stood there in silence as the realization that they had just listened to the last transmission of a plane that had just crashed sank in. And that one of those people in that crash was a very good friend. You could see on their faces that everyone in that room was thinking the same thing. They were trying to figure out what the chances were of someone surviving a plane crash and none were happy with what they came up with.
Ewing walked over to the wall of maps. "Can you show us where they most likely went down?"Tech Greg got up and walked over to the map as well. He grabbed a dry-erase marker from the ledge under the map and drew a huge circle on the glass protecting the map on the wall. "That is the normal range of an Air traffic control tower."
"That's almost all of southern California and part of Nevada. How in the world are we supposed to find them?" Ewing groused as he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Tech Greg gave Ewing and the others a sympathetic smile. "I said that was the normal range, but Morris is a very small airport their range is quite a bit more limited." Tech Greg drew a smaller circle inside the larger one.
They all stared at the map for a moment then Chief Vick turned to tech Greg. "That is still a considerable area to be searching. Is there any way you can narrow it down any further?"
"I'll see what I can do." Tech Greg said as he made his way back to his desk.
Friday 11:02 A.M.
Shawn slowly came round as he felt someone keep on poking him in the shoulder. It was really starting to hurt. Shawn tried to swat at whomever it was that was being so painfully persistent, but the moment he moved searing pain shot through his neck and shoulders and made his head pound mercilessly. Shawn instantly shifted back to his previous position hoping that in doing so it would make the pain go back to where it came from. It didn't work. But thankfully the pain lessened after a minute of remaining still.
Shawn tried to move once again but this time much more slowly and heard a groan. He was pretty sure it hadn't come from him. 'Maybe it was Gus, maybe he was hung over, but I don't remember me and Gus drinking last night. What did we do last night? Mmm...Oh well. Maybe Gus just ate too many sour patch kids again. Ouch! Note to self, do not shrug shoulders. What the heck happened? I feel like crap.' Shawn thought as he cautiously opened his eyes and looked around. 'Oh yeah.'
The whole front of the plane was ripped open like a tuna can. A huge tree branch stuck through the windshield and jutted out between the two pilots seats. Shawn hesitantly turned to see what was poking him and found that it was part of the control panel swinging from its wires. He released his seatbelt and moved out of its path. Shawn heard the groan once again and glanced over at the other pilot's seat. He found him slumped forward in his chair with blood running down the side of his head. Shawn reached over the pine tree branch being mindful of his own injuries as he gently tapped Cox on the shoulder. "Cox? Hey captain Cox, are you ok?"
Cox slowly lifted his head and looked around a little disoriented. "What? Jim?"
"Cox. Paul. Are you ok?" Shawn asked a little more firmly hoping to get the older man's attention.
Cox turned to Shawn and winced as he brought a hand up to the cut on his head and tried to focus on Shawn. "What? Uhh? Yeah fine. Just a little banged up. What about you? You ok?"
"Relatively. We need to get ou..." Shawn trailed off as they heard metal and wood scream under stress and then felt the plane jerk and settle again. Cox quickly reached for his belt buckle and found that it wouldn't give. "My belt's jammed. I can't get out."
Shawn took a deep breath and pushed his pain to the back of his mind he then stood up and started to climb over the tree branch. "Just sit tight. I'm going to find something to cut you free with."
Cox nodded and continued to try to free himself.
Shawn's foot slipped as he put in down on the other side of the tree branch and yelped in surprise and pain as he fell roughly to the floor.
"Hey kid, are you all right." The pilot asked as he pulled at his restraints and tried to turn and see the younger man.
Shawn hissed out a less than convincing 'yeah' as he looked around to find what he had slipped on. His stomach rolled when he realized he had slipped on a pool of Jim's blood and he was now sitting on the crimson-soaked carpet. Shawn sat up and saw Jim's body awkwardly jammed behind the copilot's chair. It was obvious that the copilot's neck had been broken in the crash as well as his left arm. Shawn quickly looked away and got up he needed to find something to cut Cox free with and fast. He searched the cockpit but found nothing that would work.
Shawn tiptoed over to the bulletproof door and quietly unlocked it and peaked out at the main cabin. At seeing there was no movement he slowly opened the door enough to stick his head out. Shawn held the door in such a way that if anything so much as twitch in the main cabin he could slam it shut and lock it.
Still, seeing no movement. Shawn opened the door all the way and stepped into the other cabin. He found the plane hatch open and the cabin empty. Lindsay was gone which in some ways was more disconcerting then if she had been standing there with a gun pointed at him. At least then he would know where she was. Shawn looked out the hatch and saw that she cut all the seat belts off the chairs and tied them together to make a rope.
They were hung up in the trees at least twenty-five to thirty feet off the ground. He saw that the 'rope' fell short of the ground by a good fifteen feet. He sure hoped Captain Cox was a good tree climber. Shawn found one of the metal cupboards next to the cockpit door had a red cross painted on it. Shawn picked the locked metal cupboard door with a couple pieces of bendable wire from one of the chairs. The first aid kit was huge and seemed to have everything except the kitchen sink in it. Shawn smiled and grabbed the scalpel from the kit and pushed it back into the cupboard.
Shawn had no sooner gotten to his feet when he heard the scream of metal and wood grinding against each other. He jumped to the nearest chair and held on as he felt the plane start to tumble from its perch. Shawn's terror-filled scream was lost in the roar of grinding metal and breaking wood. The plane slammed and bounced off the trees before it crashed onto the ground.
