Hawaii Five-0
Caught In The Crossfire
Chapter 25
April slept for another hour or so before she woke up to find her husband Michael by her bedside. He was sleeping, resting his head on her bed by her hand; Michael looked exhausted from the long trip home, though he did smell refreshed, leaving April feeling appreciated that he actually showered before coming to the hospital. April lifted her hand and placed it on top of Michael's head, combing her fingers through his brown hair; this was enough to awaken Michael from his sleep. Alerted by someone touching his head, Michael opened his eyes and lifted his head to find it was his wife's fingers in his hair; he smiled.
"Hi" said Michael, looking up at April.
"Hi" April said back as Michael rose to his feet before leaning over to kiss her.
After the welcome home kiss, they embraced; though Michael did most of the work as April remained lying down with her arms around her husband. As the couple hugged, April began to sob with all the emotion from the last twenty four hours finally catching up with her; the kidnapping, almost losing her family, her baby, the blood and now her husband coming home from a six month deployment overseas.
"It's okay" Michael assured her. "I'm right here, everything's okay"
"I missed you so much" April stated as continued to sob into his shoulder.
"I missed you too" Michael stated. "But I'm back and we can pick up where we left off with an extra addition to the family; a beautiful baby girl"
"Yeah" April agreed as they pulled from their embrace. "Have you seen Jessica yet?" she asked.
"No not yet, I've been waiting for you" Michael stated. "I want it to be the three of us"
"Me too" April agreed, grimacing as her dreaded nausea returned and Michael could tell something was wrong as her face started to turn a shade of white.
"April, you don't look too good" Michael stated. "Are you feeling alright?" he asked as he placed his hand on her forehead to find that she was a bit warm.
"I feel like I'm going to be sick" April stated before Michael grabbed a kidney dish from the bedside table; just in time too as April lost what little stomach contents she had.
"I think that's it" she said as Michael handed her a tissue to wipe her mouth before pressing the call button.
"You're burning up April" Michael explained. "I think you might have an infection" he stated as a nurse came into the room.
"I was afraid you would say that" April stated.
"Is everything alright?" the nurse asked.
"She's just been sick and she's running a temperature; I think April might have an infection" Michael explained.
"Alright, we'll run some vitals and check your wounds and we'll find out what's going on" the nurse replied.
"Michael" said April. "Go see Jessica while she's doing this" she suggested.
"Okay…okay I'll go and see her" Michael agreed. "And I'll if I can bring her back here"
"Come and get me if you find something" he asked of the nurse who nodded in reply.
April hadn't noticed it before, but as she leant back into her pillows as the nurse got to work, she felt a bulky object on the left side of the pillow. Reaching behind the pillow to find out what it was, she then felt it; it was a gun, and to be more specific it was her gun. It also didn't take long to for her to figure out who had brought it here. 'Steve' she thought.
Walking through the emergency room doors at Queen's Medical Center, Nathan headed straight for the elevators. Knowing his face was probably all over the news after his prison escape; Nathan had taken extra precautionary measures to conceal his identity. After escaping the pier before Five-0 and HPD got there, Nathan managed to keep himself hidden from sight as he walked along the Kalanianaole Highway to get away. After what seemed like an endless walk, Nathan had made it into town. Still keeping himself scarce, Nathan jumped somebody's back fence and helped himself to some clothes that had been left on clothes line. After that, Nathan then headed straight for his secret hiding place on Oahu to construct his plan. Nathan had managed to steal a black cap, a t-shirt and some jeans where he stashed his gun in his belt. This was it he was going to get his revenge, finally. Everybody was so busy looking for him before he got to April, Michael and baby Jessica, thinking that there would be a slim chance he would try to enter the hospital undetected; this is exactly how Nathan Anderson entered Queen's Medical Center with nobody stopping him.
After following through with Raphael's arrest and booking, Chin had headed back to the hospital. He took the elevator up to the floor where the ICU was located. As the elevator came to a stop and the bell rang, Chin heard two loud bangs, the kind of bangs that resembled gunshots along with broken glass hitting the floor and people screaming; things that you would never think of ever hearing in a place like a hospital. Suddenly, Chin's cop instincts kicked and pulled out his weapon, checked to see if it was clear and ducked into a room across the hall so he could call for back up. As he reached for his pocket to grab his phone, Chin poked his head out the door to see what exactly was going on and where gunshot had come from. As he poked his head through the door frame, there was no sign of the gunman but he did see a nurse was lying on the floor of the hallway clutching a bleeding from a gunshot wound to her leg. There was also broken glass on the floor from when the second shot was fired. Then he heard it, a cry for help.
"Help…help, please someone help" a woman's voice yelled, which Chin then recognised as April's voice; it was weaker than usual, but it was definitely hers.
Chin then saw Michael walk around the corner at the other end of the hallway with baby Jessica in his arms who was then stopped in his tracks when he saw the nurse and the broken glass on the floor. The gunman then suddenly reappeared from behind the desk of the nurses' station and pointed his gun at Michael, catching him completely off guard. Michael stood there, frozen in shock at what and who he was seeing.
"Nathan" said Michael as stared down the barrel of Nathan's gun.
Chin then dialled Steve's number to get him and Kono up here because the situation was now escalating. Steve picked up after only two rings.
"Hey Chin are you at the hospital yet? Steve asked after answering the phone.
"Yeah, but we've got a situation" Chin replied.
"What are you talking about?" Steve asked.
"I'm pretty sure I just found Nathan" Chin replied. "And I think he's already shot two people"
"Alright, where are you?" Steve asked in a panic.
"I'm in the ICU" Chin replied.
"I think I'm near April's room; I just heard her calling for help so I think she's okay"
"Okay good" said Steve. "We're on our way up, just sit tight"
"Alright" said Chin.
"But you better hurry, Michael's staring down a gun right now and he's got Jessica"
"Roger that" Steve replied before disconnecting the call.
"What's going on?" Danny asked as he sat in his bed.
"Nathan's here" Steve stated.
"What do you mean he's here?" Kono asked in disbelief.
"I mean he's in the hospital as we speak" Steve replied.
"Well where in the hospital?" Gabby asked.
"Upstairs" Steve replied.
"Where upstairs?" Danny asked and was met with Steve hesitating to answer his question.
"Steve?"
"Nathan's made his way up to the ICU" Steve explained.
"He's already shot two people and he's got a gun on Michael and the baby, so we've got to go" as he gestured Kono to follow him just as Danny pushed down his blankets to get out of his bed.
"Whoa, whoa wait what are you doing Danny?" Steve asked.
"What do you mean what am I doing?" Danny asked back. "I'm going upstairs with you"
"No you're not" Steve told him. "You're going to stay here with Gabby and rest"
"Rest?" Danny asked, clearly frustrated.
"Are kidding me right now? There's psychopath up there trying to kill my family and you want me to stay here?" he asked.
"I understand Danny, but you've got to stay here" said Steve.
"You're in no shape to do this; I'll call you and Gabby when we've sorted this out, okay?"
"Okay" Danny reluctantly agreed. "Okay, I'll stay here, just go" he said as Steve and Kono ran out of his room.
"You gave up way too easily Danny" Gabby stated. "I know what you're up to"
"You see that's why I love you, you know me so well" Danny explained. "Now, let's go"
"Should I even bother trying to stop you?" Gabby asked.
"No probably not" Danny replied as he got out of his bed.
"Okay, so what you going to do?" Gabby asked. "You don't even have you're gun; Nathan has it"
"That's true but Steve gave me another one for protection until this whole thing blows over" Danny told her as pulled the gun from behind his pillow and placing it in the back of his pants.
"How did I not see that?" Gabby asked.
"Well considering the situation, we didn't want to scare you even more okay" Danny replied.
"Thank you, I appreciate that" Gabby replied, leaning in to kiss him as he stood up.
"But you probably should've told me"
"Yeah I know" said Danny. "Everybody's a bit on edge right now, I understand"
"Alright, are you good to go?" Gabby asked.
"Yeah" Danny replied.
"Good because I'm coming with you" Gabby stated.
"Gabby…" Danny started.
"Don't even bother trying to talk me out of it" Gabby told him.
"Like Steve said you're in no condition to do this, you need me there to make sure you don't fall over; and this stays" she said pointing at his IV.
"Okay fine" Danny agreed. "Just please stay out of the line of fire; nobody else needs to get shot"
"You don't need to tell me twice" said Gabby as they both left his room.
After the elevator comes to a stop, Steve and Kono walk out to see Chin across the hall in the hospital room and quickly make their way over.
"Have they moved?" Steve asked.
"No, they've standing there like that for a couple of minutes now" Chin explained.
"Nathan's starting to get nervous"
"Does he know we're here" Steve asked.
"I don't think so" Chin replied. "But I think Michael might have seen me"
"How do you guys want to handle this?" Kono asked.
"Kono and Chin you go around the ward and get up behind Michael" Steve told them.
"I'll stand behind Nathan"
"Got it" said Kono as she and Chin nodded before taking off quietly and heading around the corner.
Steve then pulled out his gun and emerged from the doorway and slowly headed towards Nathan. Chin was right; Nathan was starting to get a little nervous as he started to fidget.
"Five-0! Put the gun down!" Steve yelled standing behind Nathan just as Chin and Kono came around the corner.
"You've got nowhere to go!" Steve told him. "You're surrounded!"
"Damn it!" Nathan exclaimed. "You're ruining everything, go away!"
"We're not going anywhere Nathan" Kono stated.
"We're going to stay right here until you put that gun down"
Emerging from the elevator, Danny and Gabby could see that the situation had definitely escalated. It was that situation that prompted Danny to get Gabby into the room across the hall, out of the way of potential bullets. Once he was sure Gabby was out of harm's way, Danny slowly made his way up behind an unsuspecting Steve and Nathan.
"April has to pay!" Nathan yelled. "She ruined my life!"
"No she didn't" said Danny before Steve glanced over his shoulder. "You did that all by yourself!"
"I knew you wouldn't stay away" said Steve. "Should've handcuffed you to the bed"
"Should've but you didn't" said Danny. "Is April okay?" he asked as he glanced over at the broken window of April's room.
"I don't know" Steve replied.
April was down on the floor of her room, kneeling by the other nurse that Nathan had shot in his effort to get to her and her family. April was lying in her bed when the shooting went down. The nurse who was now lying on the floor bleeding from a gunshot wound to her side was checking her wounds for potential infection when she was shot from behind. As soon as she went down, April pulled out her IV lines, tubes and everything else that was keeping her in bed so she could help her; leaving blood spattered all over her hospital gown. In an effort to stop the nurse from bleeding to death, April pulled the blankets and sheets off her bed and put pressure on the wound and desperately yelled for help, hoping someone would hear. April heard the yelling between Nathan and Five-0 in hallway and could hear Nathan's nervousness and anger escalate as he tried to get rid of them so he could execute his revenge. April knew she had to do something before someone else got shot. Thankfully the nurse, named Evelyn, was still conscious and talking, so before grabbing her gun, April made sure she was okay and assured her that she would be okay.
"Are you going to be okay while I take of this?" April asked.
"Yes, I'll be okay" Evelyn nodded. "Just be careful"
"I will" April promised.
"I've seen this before okay, you're going to be alright; just keep pressure on that and I'll be right back" April assured her before easing herself up off the floor, being careful not to slip in the pool of blood on the floor.
When she got her bed, April reached underneath the pillow and pulled out her gun which Steve had given Michael to give her. The wound on her stomach pulled as she reached over. Once April had her hand on the gun, she slowly stood back up to try to avoid getting dizzy. Her legs were pleading for her sit down as they shook beneath her and her stomach hurt like hell, but April was too determined for this whole situation to end. April quickly composed herself slowly before she headed for the door of her hospital room.
"He's right" April agreed as she readied and raised her gun with her blood covered hands; leaning back against the door frame for support.
"Like we keep telling you, you did this to yourself"
"April what are you doing?" Danny asked as he saw April emerge from her room with blood all over her hospital gown and hands.
"Get back into bed" Michael said just Nathan suddenly turned to point the gun at her.
"Whoa, whoa hey!" Steve yelled.
"Relax!" Chin yelled.
"Relax it's just me Nathan" April stated.
"Now are you going to shoot someone or are going to put that gun down?" she asked just as Nathan changed the trajectory of his gun.
"Put the gun down now!" Danny demanded.
"And if you point that gun at my sister again and I will shoot you!"
"What's the matter Nathan? Can't make your mind?" Kono asked.
"April needs to know what it feels like to lose everything she loves" Nathan explained.
"What's the plan Nathan?" Danny asked. "You're going to shoot Michael and take Jessica?"
"That's exactly the plan Danny" Nathan replied.
"Nathan you and I both know that isn't going to happen" said April as she felt her legs begin to weaken even further and everyone could see she was struggling to stay standing.
"You promised me you wouldn't ever leave me April and you left me anyway" said Nathan.
"Come on Nathan, you left me no choice" April explained.
"You hit me, you hit me while I was pregnant…you…you forced me to…to sleep with you so until I fell pregnant…thinking that it would fix everything"
"You son of a bitch!" Michael exclaimed as he tried to settle Jessica as all the commotion upset her.
"Steve, if someone doesn't end this soon I think I will shoot" Danny stated as he kept his gun raised with the one hand.
"Easy Danny" said Steve. "I think April's getting to him"
"You ended up killing that baby anyway" April explained.
"And just so you know, I'm sorry your mother left you and when I told you I wouldn't leave you I meant it; but that was before all of this, before you hurt me"
Just as April said those last few words, Nathan began to lower his gun. They all thought that April had gotten him to put the gun down; perhaps she had made him realise what he was doing was wrong. But they had all thought wrong. As quickly Nathan had lowered his gun, he raised it just as quickly with figure sitting on the trigger. Nathan did that because he knew that they would've slowly begun to let their guard down; but not entirely. The next thing they all knew two shots were fired and everything went quiet.