One of the parents carefully pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.

"Hello, 911. How can I help you?" came a woman's voice.

"We have a problem here," he told her.

***

The phone began ringing at the main desk of the hospital as Matt and Rae were just about to leave. The two were still very worried about Nick.

"What if he's hurt Matt? The report said a shot was heard from on the bus," Rae asked him.

"We can't be certain it's him Rae. It could've hit anything or anyone," Matt told her.

"Doctor Brennan, Doctor Slingerland, could you stay a bit longer? That call was from the police. Thay say there's school bus full of students and a few adults in the high school parking lot that's been taken as hostages. They told us to be prepared for anyone who's injured that come in," the nurse called over to them.

Matt and Rae looked at each other with worried looks on their faces.

"Nick!" they cried before they hurried back upstairs.

***

Nick was pretty much laying in the seat, semi-conscious as Patrick knelt beside him, still trying to stop the flow of blood from his shoulder. Sarah sat on the other side of him, nearest to the aisle.

"Nicky, come on. Come out of it. We wouldn't know where to go if you left us," Sarah quietly sobbed.

"He's not going to die Sarah. Not yet," Patrick told her as he looked up at her.

One of the two men walked up beside the seat and glared at them.

"What's the matter? You afraid? You should be after all," the man sneered at them.

The two didn't answer him. When the silence continued, the man shifted the gun on his shoulder.

"Ha. You don't know what to do now. Don't worry, you're getting off the bus though you're not going to be alive when you do. I'm sure you must remember us along with Max," the man said, refering to him along with the other man.

"I'm sorry, we don't. We only remember Max. We've met many people over the years," Patrick coldly replied.

"We were also a couple victims of your treachery. We all turned to Henry Smith for everything we needed. Then he was put away a few months ago and we found out you two were the cause of it. Even better than that, you two were related to him. We should've known," the man said.

"We had no choice! Henry forced us to do those things before he went into drug dealing," Sarah protested.

A gun in her face immediately shut her up.

"Be quiet or else you'll be tasting bullet real soon," the man warned her.

Sarah nor Patrick said anything more as his hand staying on the wound. The man walked away as the other man stayed to keep an eye on them.

***

Max was enjoying himself outside. He was reveling in the attention he was getting when all the police cars drove up. A couple of ambulance were stationed nearby for any injuried parties.

"Put the gun down and let the hostages go before someone gets hurt," one police officer called out to him.

"I think it's a little late for that. There's already one person hurt and there could easily be more," Max yelled back at them.

"Great, we have injured already," mumbled the police officer.

"Put the gun down and let them paramedics tend to the injured," yelled another police officer.

"Never! I want them to suffer just like I did!" Max yelled at them. "I'm not letting them go just yet!"

***

In the bus, the still scared students were watching the whole thing, wondering when they'd be let free. Mrs. Tand slowly made her way up to the front of the bus, hoping she could help Nick.

"How is he?" she asked.

"I don't know but we do have to get him to the hospital soon," Patrick replied.

"Get back to where you were right now or else," the man ordered once he saw the teacher.

She hurried back to where she was sitting before.

***

Harriet was watching the television set when a news report broke into the signal.

"We have breaking news. A school bus at the local high school has actually been taken over by three men with guns. It looks like they are not giving up the students or adults as of yet. They have made no demands as of yet except for one man making the statement of that they will suffer just like he did," the anchorperson said.

Harriet couldn't believe what she was hearing. So much could she not believe it, she dropped the mug that she was holding, the drink spilling all over the floor.

"Nick. Sarah. Patrick," she said to herself. "What's happened now?"

She hurried out of the room and soon met up with Letty.

"Harriet, what's wrong? Is it about the alert we just received about the school bus hostages?" she wondered.

Harriet nodded.

"I just heard it on the news. I fear Nick's going to do something stupid and get himself hurt again," Harriet replied.

"Really? What makes you think that?" wondered a surprised Letty.

"Letty, you've seen how much he cares for those two. You know he'd much do pretty much anything for them," Harriet told her.

Letty thought about that as the two hurried down the hallway.

***

Max looked over the crowd before him, consisting of the parents, police and paramedics. He laughed to himself before walking back onto the bus.

"Hello everybody. Nice night, tonight, isn't it? Listen, I'm feeling really gracious at the moment. All of you can go except for these three," Max told them, pointing his gun at Nick, Patrick and Sarah. "I don't feel I have the need to keep you in here any longer and these are the ones I really want anyway. Now get going before I change my mind!"

The students and other adults slowly climbed off the bus. Jesssica was the last one in line. She turned her head to look at them when she was roughly grabbed by the arm.

"But I think you'll do as well. Hold her!" she heard Max say as she was thrust into the arms of one of the other men.

***

The parents were happy to see their children. The students hurried to their parents and hugged them. Paramedics hurried up to them and started to look over them for any physical injuries.

Jessica's mother ran through the crowd, looking for her daughter.

"Jessica? Jessica! Where are you?" she cried.

The woman looked back at the bus and she saw Jessica still on it.

"Jessica, no," she said.

***

"Get them out of the way, now!" Max ordered.

Hands grabbed the brother and sister away from Nick. The bigger of the two men was keeping the two females back as the other was keeping Patrick back. The three were shoved into seats and a gun was put into their faces.

They helplessly watched as Max advanced towards Nick, who was more aware now and was trying to move away from Max but all he got to was bus. His back now against the side of the bus, he watched as Max became closer. The man put his leg between Nick's in order to keep him from going anywhere.

"You will pay dearly for helping them," Max told him menacingly.

He lifted the gun and slammed the butt of it right into Nick's stomach. Max kept hitting him in the stomach area until Nick couldn't handle it anymore and threw up all over himself from lack of anywhere else to go.

TBC...