"Frank, is there something going on between you and Ellie?" Cheryl corned the HRT agent in a corner of the bus, seconds after her left the woman in question.
"Define something." Frank replied, his face expressionless and voice deadpan.
"Don't be a smart-ass, answer the question."
"I don't kiss and tell, Cheryl. I'm not Matt." He grinned at that.
"Modesty has never been an issue for you, and if Ellie is anything like Emily, it won't be much of an issue for her either."
"Are you saying Emily doesn't mind her sexual escapades spread all over the office?" He asked, evil grin on his face.
Cheryl rolled her eyes at him. "No, I'm saying I would have expected her to be more pissed at him after that, but she wasn't, she married him."
"Sure, after a couple years."
Cheryl went to answer, but stopped and shook her head. "That was not what I wanted from this conversation, how did we get there? Never mind. Are you seeing Ellie?"
"Whoa, too many thoughts at once, Boss. And yes, but there is no need to tell anyone that yet."
"Mr. I-have-to-tell-everyone-after-I-bang-a-twenty-five-year-old-stripper wants to keep his romantic life to himself all the sudden? I'm impressed, the Lehman women really do have grounding abilities."
"We're taking it slow okay?" Frank's voice took on a defense tone, surprising both himself and Cheryl.
"Cheryl, we just got confirmation from Medicare. They've reached an agreement with Gloria's doctor's, she's going in for surgery for her eyes this afternoon, and they agreed to heavily subsidize her prescriptions from now until the end of her natural life." Temple interrupted them with the very good news.
"Isn't that what Medicare is supposed to do anyway?" Frank commented.
"Newsflash Rogers, the government can't budget for shit."
"Okay guys, we need to make a plan to call him. Where's Binder?" Cheryl cut their conversation off with a hand in the air, and marched back to the control center of the bus.
"What's going on?" Matt made it across the bus and over to Cheryl, before half the agents on board realized anything was happening. His heart was pounding, and his conversation with Ellie and Maddy completely forgotten. The two women had followed him at a slower pace, approaching them with almost trepidation.
"We can meet their demands for now. This is good news Matt, but remember that Mickey said they want more." She spoke slowly, as she explained it to him, hoping to keep him calm.
"This is good though, maybe he'll let us take her out." He tried not to get too excited, but he really couldn't help it.
"Yes, it's possible." She said to him, her mouth set in a firm line, trying to hold back all of her own emotion. "How many people do we think we can get out of them?"
Temple and Binder looked at each other, contemplating her question. They would want to aim high, but would plan on getting low. The question was, where do they draw the line?
Lia looked up at the clock, while Greg examined Emily to see how far she'd dilated. The negotiator's body was still tense, seconds after a contraction hit, but it was slowly easing, allowing her to relax back against the floor. Sweat ran down her forehead, over her cheeks and nose, to her chin, and her tired muscles quivered after every burst of pain. Lia was beginning to sweat also, as she kept one arm around Emily to help brace her through the pain, and the other was in her friend's hand, being squeezed rather painfully.
"You're doing great Emily, you gained four centimeters in those three hours, and your contractions are down to five minutes apart. This is good news, the baby should be here by lunchtime." Greg smiled at her, as he allowed her dress to fall back down, covering her.
"Easy for you to say," Emily panted, somehow still maintaining her sense of humor.
"Yes, it is. And, when we're done here I'm getting some roses for my wife." It was really said only half-jokingly; he'd forgotten how painful childbirth was until right then.
"Before you do that, go find Mickey for me, so I can beg him to let them send in an epidural. I can't do this anymore."
"Sweetie, you're doing fine and like he said, it won't be long now." Lia rubbed her hand.
"She's right, and I couldn't give it to you anyway, without an anesthesiologist."
"Damn it all." Emily cursed, before lurching up, arm around her abdomen, other hand squeezing Lia's, as she yelled in pain.
The hostages on the other side of the wall were cringing at the same time as Emily, hearing her agony. None of them had slept, except for maybe a few nods here and there. Even if they could forget where they were, and the three heavily armed men threatening to kill them, none could sleep through Emily. Just as everything would seem tranquil, screams and moans would sound from behind them, and they were getting progressively worse.
Their bodies were tense now as they heard her, some sat with their hands over their ears, other covering their mouths, and one young woman sat staring blankly ahead of her. Appalling as those sounds may have been to them, especially under the circumstances, most still worried about the woman causing them. They didn't know her or her friend, but they were caught in the same unlucky position, in the same fight against death. They were kindred's, connected together in a way few could ever understand.
"Do you think she'll make it out of here?" A young female patron inquired of the group. She introduced herself earlier as Trish, a kindergarten teacher on only her second year in LA's public schools.
"Oh god, don't say things like that!" Nervous sixty-five year-old Dotty had only gone to the bank to deposit her husband's pension check, and was barely controlling her breathing, she was so terrified.
"Easy Dotty, just cause she's asking it, doesn't mean it will happen. I'm sure that woman and her baby will go home with the rest of us." Gus, a trucker in his forties tried to ease the woman he'd spent the better part of the last eighteen or so hours talking with.
"How can you be so sure? Didn't you hear her sobbing before? Something has to be going wrong." John, the lawyer Mickey had taunted earlier, whispered hostilely at them.
"And didn't you hear Mickey yelling at her? She was crying because she was scared. She'll be fine, we all will be fine." Gus's voice held a finality that John wasn't prepared to argue with, even if he wasn't convinced.
"That poor thing, having her baby like this," Dotty shook her head sadly. "My children were all born in the hospital, and that was scary enough, I just can't imagine…"
"How many kids do you have?" Trish asked, eyes lit up by the comfortable topic.
"I have five beautiful, healthy children, Of course they're all grown now, and I have six grandkids and counting. What about you? And Gus?"
"I haven't found the right man yet, but I'm looking."
"I have two kids, but with my job, I don't get to see them as much as I'd like."
"That's a shame, but I'm sure they understand their daddy has to provide for them," she offered comfortingly. Gus was about to respond, when another pained cry emanated from behind them, lasting a few seconds before it tapered off with a moan.
"Jesus, I don't think I could ever do that." Trish was staring at the wall behind them, her eyes large with fear.
"Oh, Trish honey, it's all worth it when it's over." Dotty's promise did very little to comfort the scared teacher. The foursome was distracted from each other by Mickey issuing a curse.
"Damn it Dee, get a grip!" He thrust his weapon toward the younger man.
"Sorry Mickey, but that screaming just doesn't sound right, it's really freaking me out!" Dee bounced around nervously on his feet, his eyes darting behind him to the alcove where Emily was in labor.
"She's having a baby you dolt! How the hell did you expect her to sound?"
"I don't know, man! I just keep thinkin' Rosemary's Baby, ya know?"
Mickey shook his head, "Dee you are a complete moron. Rosemary's Baby is fake, this is real and it's just an average lady having an average baby. Now, grow some friggin balls and get your ass back over there to keep an eye on her, alright?"
It wasn't really a question, so Dee swallowed and still bouncing around nervously, he walked back over toward the alcove.
"Don't except less than six, unless he agrees to release Emily, then ask for four." Cheryl drew the line far lower than she would have liked, but figured they weren't going to get better out of the HTs.
"So where should we realistically start the bidding? Fourteen?" Binder threw out a guess.
"No, too high, he'll think you aren't taking him seriously." Matt pointed out, going into negotiator mode without realizing it.
"Good point. Twelve?"
"No, still too high. Gives him too much wiggle room to work it down." Cheryl was beginning to feel anxious, the familiar feeling of an active negotiation
"Okay, so I don't think we should go lower than ten. Then we won't have enough wiggle room to get it down." Temple jumped back into the conversation.
"Ten is good. Go with ten." Temple and Binder nodded at their boss, and grabbed up their earpieces, as did most of the bus. Max Binder could see Emily's sisters out of the corner of his eye, looking at Matt worriedly, and asking him what was going on. He took a deep breath before nodding to the tech's to make the call.
"If you're calling me just to beg me to release this lady screaming here, you can hang up now. She's not going anywhere."
"Uh, she's screaming? Is she okay?"
"Her contractions are starting to get real bad. Yo, EMT man, what's her stats or whatever!" The bus was silent as they listened for Greg's response over the speaker.
"She's dilated eight centimeters and having contractions every five minutes!" Greg called back unhappily.
Matt's eyes went huge and his head swung toward Cheryl, as if she knew better what that meant. Ellie grabbed his hand and squeezed it, while staring nervously toward Frank, who mouthed something at her.
"Okay, sounds like she's coming along pretty fast then, so how about we talk about getting her to a hospital?" Binder spoke into his mouthpiece.
"What? What did I just tell you!" Mickey was getting very angry now.
"We have what you want, we're about to give the green light to go ahead with your demands. Gloria is scheduled for surgery this afternoon, and Medicaid granted her drug coverage until she dies. But, before we give that green light, we need hostages."
"As I expected, how many are you asking for?"
"Ten, we want to see ten people walk out of there, and one of them needs to be Emily."
"No, and no. Let's talk a realistic number, let's talk four, without pregnant lady."
"No way, four won't work, and Emily is part of the deal. She walks out, or you get nothing."
"Then I get nothing, and you get lots of dead bodies, because she's not going anywhere."
"Fine, but that won't get you anything. You're better off working with me on this."
Mickey was quiet, thinking for several very long minutes. Matt could hear his heart pounding in his veins, and hadn't realized he wasn't breathing. Duff stood by much calmer, they weren't fighting to get his girlfriend out at the moment, and he didn't expect her to walk out until the end of this.
"Okay, how does six grab you?"
"For everything we gave you? Come on Mickey, you really need to work with me here. We want eight, including Emily, or you can kiss this all goodbye."
"I told you she isn't going anywhere. But, I'll tell you what, I will work with you on this. But this is it, take this, or you get nothing. Seven hostages, including FBI, and I give you a play by play over the phone when Emily here starts delivering. Either that, or you get nothing."
"Seven including Lia, and a play by play?" Binder looked toward Cheryl, who nodded readily. "Yeah, we'll take that. First, we see them, then I make the green light call."
"No, you make that call, then I release. If I have to trust you, you should have to trust me too." Binder looked toward Cheryl again.
"Okay, I'll make the call now." Binder hung up, and Cheryl got on the phone, giving the go ahead for everything they set up. Duff was standing stunned beside Frank. He'd actually get to see Lia in only a few minutes.
"It's all set up Max, call him back." Cheryl nodded to her negotiator.
"Mickey, we just made the call, Angela will call you from work, as we promised earlier, and we'll try to get Gloria on the phone after her surgery."
"Good, I'll release the hostages, but we have a change of plans."
"Mickey, we had a deal remember?" Binder avoided looking at anyone else, and allowed his nails to take out his anger on his scalp.
"You won't be getting FBI, she refuses to leave her friend. There's nothing I can do." Mickey seemed as annoyed by the change as Binder was.
"Okay, well, you have plenty more to choose from, send out someone else in her place."
"Alright then, Dun is herding them out as we speak."
"That's great. Look can you keep Dun at the door a minute longer, so one of my guys can drop off some things for Emily?" He looked to Matt, who'd shown him the bag earlier and asked him to find a way to get it inside.
"What kind of things?"
"Clothes, um, baby clothes, diapers, a blanket for the baby, that kind of thing."
"Yeah, but Dun is going to search it first. If he finds anything, I'll put a bullet in that kid before it takes it's first breath. Got it?" He didn't even flinch as he spoke, as if killing an innocent child meant nothing to him.
"Yeah, I got it." He hung up and turned to the rest of the group, who had certainly flinched at Mickey's comment. Matt had slid into a seat, wearing a look of complete helplessness.
Nice long chapter again, and the writer's block seems to have abated for the moment, nothing watching an episode of Standoff can't fix, usually. I'm going to try to get back to regular updates, sorry about the earlier wonkiness. Thanks for reading! Thank you for the reviews Keavy, Isabella, TJ, and Standoff4ever!