Title: Touchstone
Author: Evidence
Chapter: 2
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: Thanks to D (who BTW doesn't beta these so any errors are my own don't blame her but she cheerleads me along) and Maple Street.
"Oh God, what's happening?" Shauna asked beginning to shake.
Thomas swiftly threw the table over that Shauna and Samantha had been sitting at. "Get behind it okay."
"Tommy, don't do anything foolish," Shauna said as both Thomas and Samantha helped her get behind the table.
"I won't, don't worry. I'm not leaving you now that I found you," he said trying to smile and hoping it wouldn't be the last time he smiled at her.
Chaos had erupted throughout the cafeteria. The ladies serving the lunches in their hair nets had vanished. Lawyers were running about trying to find a way out of the building. A judge was praying in the corner.
Thomas and Samantha moved swiftly to the outside corridor. In the middle of the floor a let off bomb sat, smoke streaming from it. There was no major damage but down the backend stood a man, explosives on his chest. A man with big rimmed glasses and a black suit.
"I saw him Sam, I saw him earlier today." Thomas whispered in her ear.
"It can't be…" Sam said staring at the figure.
"You recognize him too? I thought I knew him but I couldn't place where."
Sam swallowed. "Thomas, that man was Susan Shepard's boyfriend. He was on all the news when she went missing."
"Franklin Podena killed Susan Shepard. I saw it happen. That's where I saw him- on the news." Thomas felt his mouth go dry.
"Jeffrey…Jeffrey Gibbs. He had a breakdown after she was never found."
"Sure looks like he's still having a breakdown now," Thomas said staring at the man.
The courthouse security were moving into position.
"Okay, Sam what should we do?" Thomas asked but Sam never got to answer the question.
"I do his bidding! I do his will! I die for all of you!" And with those words Jeffrey Gibbs pulled a cord and soon the world around was red, yellow, and bright.
Thomas and Samantha fell backwards, the blast sending them back into the cafeteria. Thomas's eyes opened before closing to the dark.
The room was white so pristine white. No windows to jump from, no shades to hang around your neck. Nothing to hurt yourself with except memories and feelings that one could not get away from. Jack Malone sat in his daughter's room holding her hand as she mumbled in her sleep from the drugs she had been given. He looked at her so young but now so old as well as she ventured into young adult hood the hard way. He didn't now what to tell her, what to say. He needed to leave. He needed to be with Sam. But he loved Hanna so much. It was ironic- drugs were calming her and helping her to sleep when they were what almost killed her.
i "Hanna? Are you here? Mrs. Holstein said you left her daycare. Hanna?" He called from the bottom of the stairs.
He looked around – not in the kitchen, not in the living room. He bounded up the stairs not really fearing anything yet- figuring she probably had her head phones on and couldn't hear him. He moved to her bedroom door and saw first the bottle of pills and then her body lying still.
"Hanna!" He yelled falling to his knees next to her. She had a pulse- thready though. He somehow dialed 911 from his cell and held his baby in his arms until the ambulance arrived.
It was hell all over again but this time this Malone woman survived. /i
Jack kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes leaning back in the green chair, the only amount of color in the room.
"Tommy, wake up!" He heard Shauna's voice drifting through the darkness.
His eyes opened slowly but he felt no pain. He looked at Shauna staring down at him, tears on her cheeks running like rivers. "I'm okay," he said softly, lifting his hand to wipe away the tears. He turned his head, Sam was just coming awake.
"Damn it all!" Sam said moving to a sitting position.
"He probably was infected with armacase," Thomas said sitting up now too.
"Armacase?" Samantha asked.
"It's a mind altering drug used by foreign diplomats to gain control of the United States of America."
"Oh Tommy…" Sam said half laughing and half sighing.
A crashing sound was heard in the distance.
"What was that?" Shauna asked.
"We have to get out of here; the building is probably unstable due to the explosion." Samantha looked around- the hall leading out to the cafeteria was rumble. "Come on, there has to be a back entrance."
"Come on people," Thomas called, grabbing Shauna's hand and following Samantha out the back.
Through two metal doors the survivors ran covered in dust, tears and fright into the afternoon light.
"How did this happen?" One lawyer asked. "There are metal detectors everywhere."
Thomas looked at Samantha, she shook her head. Somehow, someway one man had just gotten away with murder and suicide.
Jack walked down the corridor sipping a cup of water. He could hear muffled yelling from one of the rooms on the pysch ward. Instinctively he peered into the small window of the room. Two hospital staffers were trying to hold down a man. As they moved away from the man's face- Jack got a clear view of who was in that bed. He then heard his own name yelled in a muffled tone.
To be continued…
