Chapter 26

Every cop in the ER, and there were several, immediately employed their training. Stella was about to order Adam to stay with Mac when two things happened simultaneously. First, she remembered that he wasn't hers to order around and second, Adam dropped to the floor and crawled under the curtains between "rooms" to reach Emi's bed only to find her missing.

"Dammit." He wanted to yell her name but didn't think it was the greatest idea given the chaos and resulting danger.

Suddenly someone ripped back the curtain on her "room" and Adam found himself facing the barrel of a gun being held by Jenifer Scott. Not good. Seriously not good.

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Emi should have known it wasn't over. She'd dealt with the Scott family enough to know they didn't know how to stop, that it simply wasn't in their nature; their brand of crazy ran too deep for that. As soon as she'd heard the first scream and then the gunshot she'd jumped out of the hospital bed she was in and started to move. Emi's rationale had been that a moving target was harder to hit. Unfortunately, she made a serious tactical error; she'd forgotten that Adam would be looking for her and that if she left where she was he wouldn't know where to find her. She also didn't stop long enough to consider that her move would do the exact opposite of what she was hoping for.

Sticking her head out briefly she saw Jewel and Jenifer Scott. They were coming down the hallway tearing back every curtain and opening every door, obviously looking for something … someone … specifically. Emi knew what they were looking for … her. She slipped into the room next to where she'd been, meaning to get as far in the opposite direction of the two women as she could get, maybe draw them off and away from the others, several of whom she knew were hurt. Instead she was horrified when she watched Adam crawl passed her heading for where she had just escaped from. Oh god.

She started looking around frantically for a weapon, anything. Everywhere she looked everything was made of plastic … food tray, pitcher, trash can, even the bed pan was made of blasted plastic. Then she realized the bed wasn't attached to the wall and in fact wasn't really a hospital bed but was a stretcher like out of the back of an ambulance. She quickly made sure that the wheels weren't locked, maneuvered the stretcher and then using all of her strength started barreling with it towards the sounds of the two women. Her only thought as that point was to at least startle them enough that someone … security or the multiple law enforcement officers all over the place … could get a drop on one or both of them. Yes, it was a crazy thing to do but Emi's brain process it that way therefore Emi didn't see it that way. To her she was simply evening the odds the best she could because the situation was her fault to begin with. She was the Scott family's target, anyone else they hurt were collateral damage and Emi could not abide even the thought of more of it happening.

Jenifer's gun went off right before Emi hit her with the stretcher. From the corner of her eye she saw Adam begin to fall and in that moment Emi gave the piercing wail of a banshee. She even looked the part of Badhdh in her gray sack hospital gown, curly raven-black hair flying every which direction, and eyes of green fire. Her grandmother, in her more lucid moments, had sometimes told her stories of the Morrigan, three sisters of whom Badhdh was one, that were warrior goddesses of Irish mythology; and warned Emi she'd wind up working for them if she didn't learn to control her temper. Well Emi at least partially learned to control it but at that moment she focused all of it she could draw up on the sisters who had dared to once again try and steal her life, because without Adam she wouldn't have one.

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To Adam it felt like he'd been clipped by a hockey puck without any pads on. He lost his balance and fell to one knee. He watched in amazement as a stretcher barreled through the curtain and knocked Jenifer Scott's next shot well wide of its mark, taking out a ceiling light instead.

Jenifer screamed as she was first run over first by the stretcher and then had her face vicious stomped by a barefooted woman. It didn't do as much damage as Emi obviously had been attempting but it did enough that Adam and several others could dogpile the woman and wrench away the gun still held in her hand.

But there was no catching Emi, she was already on the attack against Jewel who was so startled by what was happening that the shot she'd tried to aim at the ferocious woman coming straight for her that she completely missed. Then they were down and more than one man in the vicinity thought it had to be fiercest cat fight they'd ever witnessed.

All that was left in that moment for Emi was an instinctual need to protect those she loved and cared about, to fight and win. Personal cost didn't matter. Personal cost didn't really exist, not for her. The only end result could be that one or the other finally triumphed and the nightmare came to an end.

Several times there was an attempt to intervene but Jewel still held the gun and would discharge it randomly. Part of Emi's mind continued to catalog information as it always did. The gun was a Glock 22 which meant the woman had probably taken it from a New Orleans police officer. Tha model Glock was a .40 caliber weapon and there would be 15 rounds in the clip if it was at full capacity … and possibly and additional one in the chamber. Therefore, at most she had 16 bullets. Emi tried and failed to figure out how many had been shot from the gun so she decided to always assume it was still loaded as they fought. Certainly she was partially deaf from where the gun had gone off close to her ears at least twice.

People were running and screaming and in general being a nuisance to the officers attempting to stop and subdue the fighters, causing them to be occupied more with protecting the civilians that were in danger. On their latest roll Emi felt the floor change to plastic mat and then the cool night air as the automatic doors slid open. Emi maintained their momentum and out the door they rolled causing even more people to run. Concrete instead of linoleum or rubber let Emi know it was time to really fight.

Using her nails to inflict as much pain as she could Emi gained control of the hand that Jewel held the gun in, forcing it to extend out, away, and down over the curb. She got her finger over Jewel's that was on the trigger and forced the gun to fire until all Emi heard and felt were clicks. That meant the gun was out of ammo. At that point Emi had to fight even harder because of Jewel's psychotically-fueled anger at being thwarted. She felt the woman grab her hair and roll over to try and slam her head into the concrete. Emi released her hold on Jewel with one hand and reached up and raked her nails from the woman's scalp and down across her eye to her cheek. Pain and shock caused Jewel to release Emi as she grabbed for her ruined face, still screaming.

Emi scrambled backwards and then felt herself pulled further back as several law enforcement officers grabbed and restrained Jewel Scott. It took multiple tries to get cuffs on her and they finally resorted to using the ties normally used during riots. She was also eventually wrapped in the physical restraints used by the hospital for violent mental cases.

Emi's voice was hoarse, both because she still suffered from dehydration and because she'd unknowingly been screaming during the entire fight. Still she tried to call, "Adam! Adam! I want Adam!"

The arms around her finally managed to turn her so that she could see that it was indeed Adam who held her but she panicked for a moment when she couldn't hear what he was saying. He put a hand on either side of her face and said, "I'm right here. You're safe."

"No! You … they're going to keep coming for you … because of me. We have to find Mac. We have to …"

"Mac is fine," he said, helping her to stand though not letting go of her. He directed her back into the ER even though she kept turning back to stare at where Jewel still struggled and screamed in impotent fury.

Emi turned around and saw a knot of people, then recognizing who stood amongst them all but dragged Adam in that direction.

Trying to warn the man Adam said, "Uh Boss, she's not going to calm down until …"

Mac was nearly bowled off his feet when Emi ran to him and gave him a huge hug. "Mac … Oh Mac … I'm so sorry. You're hurt and Christine is going to be so upset and …"

Mac in his surprise stood stiffly for a moment until awkwardly returning her hug for a moment before forcing her backwards enough for her to see what he was saying. "I don't want to hear sorry out of your mouth again. You didn't cause this. Understand? I'm fine. Now let Adam make a fuss over you so he'll be fine. Go on. I need to talk to Detective Bonasera. Adam? Her hearing is probably blown from all of the gunshots. Make sure the doctor takes a look at it."

Adam grinned despite the fact that he had planned on doing that anyway. "Sure thing Boss. I'm just gonna be over there."

Mac nodded before turning back to Stella who just stood there looking at him.