Chapter 9

"Tao get us off this floor!" shouted Provenza.

Tao pulled opened the elevator box and flipped the override switch. Suddenly the doors closed and the elevator lurched forward.

"What the hell is going on?" Sharon from the floor, still covering Rusty with her own body.

When the elevator doors opened on the 2nd floor, Julio and Amy stepped out first clearing the area. Once it was deemed safe Tao and Provenza followed, "Barricade the stairwell Julio, we don't want the shooter coming up the stairs. Tao pull the emergency switch on the elevators." Provenza continued to shout orders.

"Ma'am, Lieutenant, everyone okay?" Amy asked entering the elevator.

"Rusty?" Sharon asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay, I can't breathe with everyone on top of me, but I'm okay." Rusty replied causing Sharon to let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Lieutenant, you can get off me now." Sharon stated a bit more harshly than intended.

"Lieutenant?" Amy asked kneeling closer to Andy. She saw the blood an immediately called it out to the others, "Call it in, officer down! I repeat officer down!"

The other rushed back to the elevator and helped move Flynn off Sharon and Rusty. Julio quickly pulled off his jacket and handed to Amy who was applying pressure to his right side. Sharon crawled over to his side, pale with shock causing the others to look at her with concerned eyes, "Ma'am is that your blood? Are you okay?" Mike asked of his Captain.

Sharon looked down at her black jacket and noticed it was soaked and tinged with Andy's blood, "No" she said with a shutter, "I wasn't hit," was all she could say.

"Since we don't know who the target was, I think we need to wait here until SWAT comes. Rusty, I want you to stay here," Provenza said pointing to the front corner of the elevator it was mostly shield from outside view and would make for a very difficult shot. No one wanted to say that Rusty could be the intended target, but after the previous attempts made by Stroh it wasn't outside the realm of realistic possibility. Rusty nodded and scrambled up to his feet and hurried over to the corner.

"Andy can you hear me?" Sharon asked the words barely higher than a whisper.

"He's losing a lot of blood," replied Amy looking up at Tao for suggestions. Julio's jacket was nearly soaked through.

"Is it just the once entrance wound? Any sign of an exit?" Tao asked going into medical mode.

They ripped open his shirt and pulled back his jacket feeling and inspecting the area for any sign of multiple gun shots, "It looks like just the one to the upper right side of his chest." Tao finally said, "Provenza give me your belt." He shouted as he pulled off his own jacket. The old man gave an initial look of confusion, but took it off nonetheless. He snaked the belt around Andy's torso and pushed his coat up to the wound and sinched the belt down as tightly as he could mange, "Where the hell is back up?" He shouted as he remained on the ground next to his friend.

Provenza got back on the phone, "Where the hell are you guys? We have an officer down, in need of immediate medical attention!" There was a pause before he continued, "Yes we are on the second floor in the elevator." He paused again before gesturing at Julio and Amy, "SWAT says they've got the guy surrounded, they're sending up a team from the back stairwell go down the hall and rendezvous with Officer Perez."

Amy got up from the elevator floor and headed down the hallway with Julio. Sharon remained on the floor clutching onto Andy, pushing the jacket against his side in an effort to stop the bleeding. She looked up briefly at met Rusty's eyes, she saw the panic and tried to offer a look of strength and confidence, "It'll be okay." She mouthed to him even if she didn't know if that would be true. He was loosing a lot of blood and needed to get to a hospital immediately. Moments later, they heard SWAT coming down the hall clearing the other rooms as they moved closer to the elevator bay. "Paramedics are on their way, we can't get the stretcher up the stairs, we'll need to carry him." Shouted Officer Perez.

When the paramedics arrived Provenza and Tao had to pull Sharon up and away from Andy's side to let the EMTs do their jobs.

"I want you on him the entire way to the hospital," Sharon barked out to SWAT as she pointed at Rusty. Officer Perez was familiar with both the boy and the Captain, and merely nodded in response.

The EMTs got up, "We will need another set of hands to get him down to the ambulance." Officer Perez gestured to one of his team members and brought them over, "Officer Galen will assist. Please follow the team," he pointed at the rest of the Major Crimes squad as they made their way out of the elevator and back down the hall.

The next several minutes were a blur. The courthouse had been flooded with first responders. Sharon followed the EMTs into the ambulance with Andy, refusing to leave his side. She gave a nod to Provenza as he and Rusty got into one of the LAPD SUVs to follow the ambulance to the UCLA trauma center. Sharon jumped as they closed the doors. She heard them asking Andy questions, but he had been unresponsive since the shooting began. The EMT was calling information into the hospital, but she couldn't get her brain to focus on the words. She stared at the EKG machine, there was a pulse. His heart rate was low and so was his blood pressure, but he was alive. As long as the dot kept blipping up and down she knew he was still with her, she grabbed his hand and squeezed "Andy, hang in there. I need you to stay strong. We finally have a chance for that real first date, you can't leave me now. Andy do you hear me?"