Beauty Can Be Deadly

Chapter 14

Mark gasped as Steve appeared in the door.  He noticed the blood on his son's face and watched him sway slightly.  He looked at Cheryl and saw a look of horror on her face as well.  He focused intently on both his son and the man behind him.  "Cheryl, I don't like the look of this.  I can't believe that they would let him go this easily," Mark told her worriedly.

"Dr. Sloan, I agree," Cheryl responded.  She then used her handheld radio to instruct a sharpshooter that had taken up a position across the street.

As Steve started to move down the steps Mark saw his pace quicken and then saw him drop to his knees and shift to one side.  It was then that he heard the gunshot and his thought was, Please don't let my son die in front of me.  His pulsed quickened and he closed his eyes.  As he opened them back up, the figure in the door staggered and moved towards the edge of the porch. The man lifted his hand and aimed the gun at the prone figure on the ground and another shot rang out.  The figure jerked and fell down the remaining steps to land beside his son.  "Steve!" Mark screamed as he broke from behind the car and headed towards his son.

"Stop him," Cheryl shouted as two officers moved to impede and halt Mark's flight.

Mark turned eyes that were welling with tears towards her.  "Cheryl, please he's hurt."

"I know that Dr. Sloan, but we still have armed people in that house and you won't do him any good if you get yourself shot."

Mark's response was interrupted by movement at the front door.  He also saw his son begin to stir on the ground.

~~****~~

Steve had flinched when he had heard the gunshot.  He had lain quietly waiting for the impact of the bullet.  When the expected bullet never struck, he considered moving, then another shot rang out and very shortly he felt a body fall beside him.  He was considering whether he should try and get up when he heard his father frantically calling his name.  That was followed by a shout from Cheryl.  He knew he had to get to them both.  He slowly began to try and rise to his knees it was then he heard the door open behind him again.  He had no time to consider his options this time as he again heard a gun cock and when he heard the gunshot, he felt the impact almost immediately.  As he dropped back towards his new found friend the ground, he heard two more shots in rapid succession.

~~****~~

Being cradled in the officer's arms was all that kept Mark from dropping to the ground as he watched the dreamlike events play out in front of him.  "Steve," he sobbed quietly as he saw his son's body jerk with the force of the bullet.  His head dropped and his eyes closed and his body flinched in unison with the next two shots.

"Move in," Cheryl ordered as she moved towards Mark.

"Dr. Sloan?" she spoke softly.  "Steve needs you."

Those words pulled Mark from his stupor and he looked up with wet eyes.  "Yes, he does," he replied simply.

Cheryl steadied him with a gentle hand on his elbow. 

"Detective Banks, the house is clear.  It looks like she shot Lt. Sloan and then shot an older man and then herself.  The older man is still alive," one of the officers informed Cheryl. 

They had ambulance crews standing by and Cheryl radioed for them to be allowed through, then continued on with Mark towards Steve.  As they reached him,Mark broke away and knelt by his fallen son.  The back of his powder blue jacket was covered with a growing dark stain.  "I need to get these cuffs and this jacket off him," Mark informed her.  Cheryl nodded her head and had just finished removing the cuffs when the ambulance crew arrived. 

"What have you got?" asked the paramedic.

Mark shook himself.  "Gunshot wound, I was just getting ready to try and remove the jacket to see how bad."

"This is Dr. Mark Sloan from Community General Hospital," Cheryl indicated as she pointed to Mark.  "And the gunshot victim is his son, Lt. Steve Sloan."

The paramedic placed a gentle hand on Mark's arm.  "Let us do this, sir."

Mark nodded and dropped back on his heels and watched as they began to cut away the jacket.  He breathed a slight sigh of relief when he saw that the bullet appeared to have hit Steve high in the right shoulder.  Though not out of the woods, it meant that the chance was slight that any internal organs had been compromised.  His relief was short lived as the paramedic made his next statement.

"I think we have a bigger problem than the bullet.  His breathing is raspy and shallow."  Having removed Steve's jacket he was now working on his shirt.  As he cut it away from his side, he noticed the dark blood red bruising that covered almost his entire side.  "I think we may have a punctured lung.  Let's get him loaded, Now!"

Mark found himself unable to keep up with the rapid activity around him.  He felt Cheryl take him by the elbow and heard her murmur something in his ear.  He felt oddly detached from the entire situation.  The next thing he knew, he was being helped from Cheryl's car and entering Community General.  Suddenly, the spell was broken and everything came back like a wave crashing on the beach.  He looked around the room and saw Amanda's concerned face.

"Mark?" Amanda questioned.  "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I think I am now," he responded.  "How's Steve?  Where is he?"

"He's in surgery.  He's got a couple of cracked ribs and one broken one.  It punctured a lung.  His kidneys are banged up and he has a bullet wound to his upper right shoulder.  Jesse said that all things considered he was in pretty good shape.  He'll be down as soon as the surgery is complete."

Mark nodded his understanding and attempted to pull his thoughts and emotions under control.  Steve was alive and that was all that mattered.  "What happened to the other people in the house?" he asked Amanda.

"I'm not quite sure," she responded.  "Cheryl said she would be back once she got things settled at the scene.  We can ask her then."

"Yes, we can."  It was all so surreal.  "How can judging a beauty pageant turn into something like this?" Mark asked.  "It just makes no sense."

"I know, Mark, I wish we had never talked Steve into it," Amanda responded with a sense of guilt.

"Amanda, he wanted to do this.  For all his fussing, he truly cares about the burn unit and was glad to help.  He won't regret being a judge and none of us could have foreseen the twists and turns that would take place," Mark explained with a gentle smile.

Amanda allowed the logic of what he said to wash over her and felt her sense of guilt ease.  He was right of course.  Steve was a good man.  One of the best.  He had agreed to be a judge because of his concern for the children.  He always tried to hide behind a tough exterior but she had seen his eyes when he looked at CJ and Dion.  He melted in their presence.  It was one of the qualities she loved about him.  Her thoughts were interrupted by the sweat stained figure that came flying into the lounge.

"Jesse?" Mark asked his voice emotionally charged.

Jesse moved to sit beside Mark and place a hand on his arm.  "He looks good.  The bullet wound wasn't that bad.  We repaired the lung damage.  His kidney is bruised but should be just fine.  He has a slight concussion from a blow to the head but all in all he's not too bad.  His ribs were also pretty banged up."

As Mark absorbed the laundry list of his son's latest injuries, he was oddly quiet.  Amanda and Jesse shared a look before Amanda spoke.

"Mark, he's going to be alright," she smiled encouragingly.

Mark looked up at the hopeful faces in front of him and smiled.  "I know he is.  I was just thinking about the number of times he has been banged up through the years.  As a child I would place him on my lap and kiss away his tears and put a band-aid on the latest cut."  Mark paused and dropped his head.  When he looked back up his eyes glittered with the moisture that lurked there.  "He will always be my little boy but I can't seem to fix his injuries as easily now."

"Mark, you are always there for him and he counts on that," Jesse responded sincerely. 

In those few words, Jesse spoke a truth that Mark couldn't deny.  He had always been there for his son just as Steve had always been there for him.  "Let's go see him," Mark responded with a smile.

~~****~~

Mark quietly entered the recovery room and moved to stand beside Steve's bed.  He took note of the external signs of injury.  The split lip, the bruising around the temple, and the bandage on the right shoulder.  He reached a shaking hand toward his son and gently cupped his face.  Though his eyes never opened, Steve turned his head so that he could move closer to that comforting touch.  Mark smiled and leaned over the bed to place a kiss on the forehead of the man in the bed.  He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a band-aid that he very carefully placed on the cut that marred Steve' temple.  With one last brush of his fingers down his son's face, Mark moved a chair close to the bed and waited for him to be moved to a room.