Chapter Fourteen: Plans For the Future

Author's Note: Dinkyboo, you are totally awesome. I love all of your comments. I hope you have a good hold of that edge because you'll be teetering there for a while...lol . I hope you enjoy this latest chapter. Please let me know.

Carter Pov

"Dr. Carter, how has your day been?"

I glance up from my charts smiling at Dr. Banfield. "It's been going well so far. Are you just coming in?"

"I am in three hours. I was actually looking for Lucy. She was supposed to meet me twenty minutes ago."

I glance at my watch. It was odd for Lucy to miss an appointment. Especially if that appointment involved being allowed to work. I grab my phone and dial her number. My stress level starts to increase hearing her voice mail message.

"Something is wrong."

"I suspected there was. That's why I brought this to your attention."

"Dr. Banfield, I need..."

"Go... I would need to do the same thing if it was my family. It's slow right now, and I'm here if a trauma comes in."

"Thank you, I'll finish these charts..."

"Don't worry about those charts right now, Dr. Carter. Go find your family and take care of them."

I nod my head and rise to my feet. My heart is pounding in my chest as I walk quickly from the doctor's lounge heading for the ambulance bay doors. The thought on my mind all day was marrying Lucy and making our life together official. Now my only thought was just to get to her and the kids and make sure they were all right.

"Dr. Carter, there you are."

"Jerry, I don't have time..."

"It's Lucy."

That gets my attention. I stop dead in my tracks and turn to face Jerry. "What about Lucy? Do you know where she is?"

"She's here in the hospital."

"What? Why didn't you page me when she got here? Are the kids with her?"

"Ah, yes, the kids are with her. And I didn't page you because she asked me not to."

"Why would she do that?"

"I don't know. I thought it was strange when she asked me, but who am I to question doctors."

"Where is she, Jerry?"

"Curtain three... She said her friend needed some stitches and didn't want to bother you or any of the other docs."

"Her friend... Lucy doesn't have any friends here. She hasn't been out much with the twins... You should have paged me, Jerry. She's not even a doctor here yet. I'm going to go see if I can give her a hand."

"All right," Jerry said smiling his goofy smile.

I shake my head while pulling off my jacket. I didn't like the sound of this at all. Lucy would never come to the hospital and not want to let me know she was here. And where were the kids? Jerry said they were with her. Why would they be with her if she was stitching someone up instead of being in the daycare center up stairs?

I enter curtain three and my eyes are drawn to the bed. Lucy and Noah were sitting on top of it tied and gagged. I look over to my left, and my eyes widen in shock and fear. This isn't possible. Everyone said he was dead. Where are the twins?

"I can see you're very surprised to see me, John. I can call you John can't I?"

"Where are the twins, Paul?"

"Oh, they are safe right here by my side."

I look over the bed seeing the baby carriers sitting on the floor. "What do you want?"

"What do I want? What kind of question is that, John? I thought you were smarter than that. I want you...or rather I want you dead."

"Okay, so why don't you let Lucy and the kids go. Then you and I can have a man to man conversation."

"Now why would I want to do that? Don't you realize it's more fun for me having them here?"

"Because this is between you and me. They have nothing to do with it."

"But that's where you're wrong, John. They have everything to do with this. They don't belong here anymore than I do. They need to go home."

"That's not for you to decide. Just let them go, Paul."

"I'm sorry, but it is. Your little boy will just have to get over the traumatic scene that will soon befall him. Watching you die."

"I'll yell out."

"You do that and I'll kill these precious babies right now. The choice is yours, John."

"Okay...okay, just don't hurt my family. Lucy, are you and Noah all right?" I watch her nod her head as tears slide down her cheeks. "It's going to be all right. We'll get out of this."

"How sweet, John. They might get out of this alive, but you won't."

My mind is spinning, but I could no solution to this problem. Paul Sobriki had me surrounded on all sides. But how did he and Lucy go unnoticed for so long? I knew Jerry had seen them, but surely someone else had as well. Jerry knew I was coming into this room to help Lucy, so hopefully he'd send someone soon. Not that I wanted anyone else to get hurt, but just maybe they'd hear me talking and figure out I was in trouble.

"I want them to live, Paul. Just tell me what you want me to do."

Paul smiled at me before looking up at the ceiling. He took a deep breath then laughed. His eyes focused on me, and I could see they had dilated fully. "There isn't much I want you to do, John. It won't be long now before you'll be dead and we'll be back where we belong. And who knows I might have the family you stole from me."

I take a step forward then stop seeing Paul pull out a gun. He had this all planned out from the beginning. I raise my hands and he nods his head in apparent approval. "If you're wanting to be quiet that gun will make a lot of noise."

"That's true, but I'm not going to use a gun, John."

He puts the gun away as he walks across the room grabbing me by the front of my shirt. Before I even have time to react, I feel the sharp searing pain of something entering my stomach. I suck in a sharp breath realizing I'm going into shock. So this was his plan to kill me the same way he'd tried before. I grab Paul's hand that's still holding the knife in my stomach. I don't know where I get the adrenaline or the strength to do it, but I let my fist fly connecting with his face.

I needed to keep the knife right where it was to stem my blood loss. The punch clearly took Paul by surprise as he stumbled away from me. I shake my head as a wave of dizziness and black dots blur my vision. I couldn't pass out...not now. If I could free Lucy or Noah they could get us help. I move toward the bed when I hear the clicking sound of Paul's gun.

"You aren't thinking about freeing my prisoners are you, John? It's almost time to go. Can't you feel that energy? I only wish I had more time to play, but alas time is up. Turn around and face me."

I slowly turn around to face him, and my heart sinks seeing a silencer attached to the barrel of the gun. I shake my head again as more black fits blur my vision. It wouldn't be much longer before I was passed out on the floor. I love you, Lucy. The thought barely registers before the first slug enters my body. A second then a third slug enter my chest and stomach knocking me to the floor.

"I love you," I whisper as Paul steps up to me pointing the gun at me.

"You're so sentimental, John. It's so sweet it makes me sick."

I glance up at him wanting to kill him. I had nothing to use against him except for the knife still patruding from my stomach. Pulling it out would cause me to bleed out faster, and I wouldn't be able to cause him much damage. The knife would cause him some pain and that was better than nothing, but I never get the chance to follow through with my plan. He suddenly unloads his clip into my all ready bullet ridden body.

"I think this will open that tear we need to go home. Good bye, John Carter," he says reaching down and ripping the knife out of my stomach.

The pain barely registers as the room begins to spin out of control. What was happening? Was Paul right? Was there a tear in our two realities forming? I try to move closer toward the bed. If this tear was forming bleeding to death or not, I wasn't about to lose my family again.

I grab the bed sheet only to slip back onto the cold floor. I hear Lucy and Noah calling out to me through their gags. I try to answer their worried cries, but I'm too out of breath to get anymore than a horsed whisper out. I blink quickly as the room blurs to the point of causing me to feel nauseated. My eyes look under the bed once the room stops spinning to find the twins gone. I'm alone once again and with that realization I succumb the darkness clawing at me descending into it's icy grip.