Disclaimer - I spy with my little eye a story full of things I don't own.
A/N - I really miss Taggart. I wish for him to show up when Eureka returns this summer.
Chapter Two
Nathan tapped his foot impatiently as Carter and Lupo walked into GD's main floor. "It's about time you got here," he snapped, more irritated with Allison using him as a glorified gofer than with them.
Lupo opened her mouth to retort, but Carter cut her off. "Oh, you know how Eureka's traffic is… at six in the evening."
A corner of Nathan's mouth twitched as he tried to keep from smiling. He could already feel his mood lifting. "Taggart's latest experiment escaped and left him in some kind of coma. We've sealed off the floor Taggart's lab is on, but we don't even know what this creature looks like."
"Coma?" Jo questioned, looking worried. Even though she was dating Zane now, Nathan knew – thanks to the Eureka grapevine – that she'd once had a thing with Taggart and was still good friends with him.
"Allison thinks he'll be fine once we find the animal he made and figure out what it did to him," Nathan told her.
"So we'll need to get the tranq guns from Taggart's lab before we start tracking this thing," Jack observed.
"Where's Doctor Blake?" Jo demanded.
"She's analyzing a compound the animal left behind on Taggart; we don't think it's a toxin, but…" Nathan shrugged. "We'll know more when she's done running tests." Jo nodded, looking mollified. "We should get down there as soon as possible," he added.
"If it's dangerous enough that it got the best of Taggart; you should probably stay here, Stark," Carter objected, appearing worried.
Quirking an eyebrow in surprise, Nathan shrugged. "Whatever it is, it chewed through some of the cabling connecting Taggart's computers to the rest of GD's mainframe. I need to go back down there and retrieve his research."
-=-=-=
Startled awake, Nathan realized he'd fallen asleep at his desk in his office and was very lucky not to have a crick in his neck. Glancing at the clock, he saw that he had about ten minutes before he needed to head back to the lecture hall for his last class of the day (and the week – Fridays were all his).
He was so not staying after this year was up no matter what Allie did.
"Dr. Stark?"
Looking over at the door, Nathan saw his TA, Douglass Fargo, standing there looking kind of nervous. "What is it?"
"Umm… there's a…" there was a loud noise outside and Fargo jumped through the doorway, shutting it firmly behind him.
At first, Nathan couldn't place the noise. He just couldn't imagine something like that happening at this university of all places. It was sleepy, boring, and… and… it was Allison's university, for God's sake. But there was no mistaking the sound of a gunshot for anything else.
"Are there any other students in the hall?" Nathan demanded, standing up and crossing to the door in order to stop Fargo from locking the door prematurely.
"I-I don't think so." Fargo was shaking in fear. "There might have been, but not in this hall…"
"This is a first floor office; go out the window and get help," Nathan commanded.
"Sir? What about you?" Fargo's fear seemed to fade a little and his expression grew determined.
"I have a responsibility to my students to make certain they're safe," Nathan responded, a feeling of calm descending on him. Oddly enough, this felt familiar… like he'd been in a similar situation before. He couldn't for the life of him actually remember when he'd been in this sort of situation, but he knew it hadn't been in a school…
-=-=-=
Jack pulled his car into the university's parking lot and practically leapt from the car. Jo was mere steps behind him. Though their assignment had been to look into a series of burglaries in one of the local neighborhoods but they were been redirected here once the call went out that there were students on campus shooting people.
They hurried over to two of the grad students, one of which was comforting the other. One of them spotted the detectives and relief shone visibly on his face. "Jo, thank god you're here," the guy taller of the two students said.
"Zane, you're okay!" Jo's hugged the guy and Jack realized that this must be the Zane she'd been on the date with the previous night. Belatedly she blushed and pulled away, but Zane looked rather pleased. "Uh, Zane, this is my partner, Detective Carter."
"Despite the circumstances, it's good to meet you, Carter," Zane greeted. "This is my friend, Fargo."
There was something familiar about the duo, something that reminded Jack of his dream that morning. Given the circumstances, though, Jack shoved the dream out of his mind. It wasn't important just now.
"Dr. Stark is still inside the building," Fargo interrupted.
Stark… that was familiar, too…
"Dr. Stark's been getting the students out," Zane chimed in. "My class was on the second floor and he helped us sneak out through a fire escape."
"SWAT is on the way," Jo began.
"Someone needs to get him out now," Fargo interrupted. "He could have gotten out when it first began, but he sent me out through his office window to call in what was happening. If anyone deserves help now, it's him. Please detectives…"
"We need to get an idea of what's going on inside the building, anyway," Jack responded slowly. "The report we received indicates a conflicting number of shooters… Jo, stay here and coordinate with the campus police force and administration. I'm going to take a look around inside. If I find Dr. Stark," he added, giving Fargo as reassuring a look as possible, "I'll convince him to leave with me. Okay?"
"Thank you, Detective Carter."
"Jack… be careful," Jo cautioned.
He couldn't help the grin on his face, though. While he called her Jo all the time – and Josephina when he wanted to irritate her – she had never called him by his first name until now. Looks like he was finally starting to grow on her.
"I'll do my best," Jack promised her. Moving towards the nearest entrance, Jack pulled out his gun and ducked inside.
The door opened and shut with a minimum of noise, which was good. He didn't want to alert anyone to his presence, after all. Grabbing his cell phone, he texted Jo with 'front hall – clear'.
Checking around the corner, Jack heard voices further down the hall.
"Did you hear those gunshots upstairs?" one voice asked.
"You don't think… they haven't found Dr. Stark, have they?"
Jack went around the corner and they froze at the sight of his gun. "I'm Detective Jack Carter of the LAPD," he announced. "The front hall is clear, my partner and the campus police are outside."
"There are three guys with guns; they've taken classes hostage upstairs," one of the two girls told him, both of them looking relieved.
"Good luck," the other one added. They then scurried past him.
Deciding to take them at their word, he pulled his cell out again and texted '3 guns confirmed – 3 classes upstairs hostage' to Jo. Then he took the nearby stairs to the second floor. Carefully peering around a corner, his gun taking the lead, he found himself face to face with someone he never could have expected to see.
The name should have prepared him, but the time that had passed since his dream had dulled the memory. Now, though, everything came rushing back. Jack knew that there was shock written on his face.
He wasn't the only one staring in shock, though. Surprised recognition was written across Doctor Nathan Stark's face as well.
-=-=-=
The gun lowered slowly. "You must be Dr. Stark," Carter said slowly.
"Y-yeah."
"I'm Detective Carter." Jack looked curious, "have we met before?"
"No, but then… you seem familiar to me," Nathan admitted. He didn't mean to admit that much, but the dream he'd had the night before was suddenly weighing all too heavily on his mind.
"SWAT is on its way, Dr. Stark," Carter said after a momentary pause. He seemed as thrown by the familiarity between them as Nathan was. "You should get out of here."
"There are still students up here…"
"You're a civilian, Stark. I'll get them out of here while you get yourself to safety."
"I can't just leave my students," Nathan began to object.
"There are a lot of students out there," Carter gestured to the window, "who want to see for themselves that you're safe." He gave Nathan a look that the scientist now recognized from his dreams. "You're an unarmed civilian. You have no means to protect yourself if they decide to shoot you."
"I know that, Carter. As a professor here, these students are my responsibility. I have to help them get out if I can."
"None of the other professors are taking their duty to the students this seriously," Carter objected.
"I'm not other professors," Nathan snapped.
"No… you aren't are you?" Jack shook his head slowly. "I need to identify the classrooms that have been taken by the gunmen."
"This way."
A/N - I admit I was a bit iffy on the plot of a school shooting. I've never experienced one personally or known anyone who has, but I do know that the experience can be pretty harrowing. School is a place, much like home, where most people expect to be safe. I decided to go ahead with this and must simply hope that it won't offend anyone. The whole idea was inspired by a recent episode of Numb3rs (the one with the guy who was kind of crazy and wanted to stop animal testing at Cal Sci because he sort of worshiped animals...) and I must say that I absolutely love that show.
If anyone is wondering what university Nathan works at, it would probably be Cal Sci... but that's assuming that everything going on in the LA sections are real. For now, I'll let you be the judge of that, my dear readers. Anywho, I'll try and update again tomorrow, but don't be surprised if I don't remember until Tuesday.
