Chapter Seven

The Useless Rescue

Sam's eyes remained fixed on the spot where Laura had disappeared only moments earlier, as though he still expected to be able to pick her out among the shadows. But there was no denying it, Laura had gone with the rest of the floor and he was staring at nothing. His mouth was dry again, his heart seeming to forget to bet as he felt his legs begin to buckle and his head begin to spin. He must have stumbled, because the next thing Sam knew, Brian was gentling helping him sit against the jagged wall, asking him if he was all right in a voice that sounded far away.

Elsa was shouting something from inside the clothing store but her voice, too, was far away and Sam had a hard time making out her words. But he knew that she was yelling about Laura, making everything even more real. Sam blinked, trying to clear his head and get everything in order but his head was pounding and he had to squeeze his eyes shut once more. But all he could see was the look on Laura's face seconds before she disappeared, her eyes wide with fear; she had been expecting him to save her, to get there just before it was too late and pull her out of harm's way, just as he always did. I wasn't fast enough, he thought, balling his hands into fists. I couldn't save her, I was too late. I let her down.

Sam opened his eyes again, lifting his head and struggling to get to his feet. Brian looked at him with surprise on his face. "Where are you going?" He questioned, standing up as well. "Sam...?"

"To Laura." Sam answered, putting his hand against the side of the building when he felt his legs begin to buckle again. He didn't know if there was still a chance that she was alive, but he wasn't going to leave this building without knowing for sure. And he certainly wasn't going to leave her inside with the other abandoned, unidentifiable corpses.

Brian's eyes went wide. "Sam, but..." He trailed off, searching for the right words. "Sam," his voice was steady as he looked into his friend's eyes. "Laura's dead." He had seen the floor collapse too, taking the girl down with it, and knew that there was no way anyone could have survived a fall like that, not with the debris falling from above. And, he knew that Laura had been injured before.

Sam glared at Brian with such a fire in his eyes that Brian thought about taking a step back; he had never seen such a look on his friend's face before. "She is not dead." He declared through clenched teeth, looking for a moment as though he believed those words without a doubt. "Laura is not dead." Sam wondered if repeating the words over and over again would make them true. It seemed impossible to him that Laura could be dead.

Brian didn't have to heart to protest, but he hoped that Sam was right.

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Lucy tapped her foot impatiently on the packed dirt outside a sun-bleached bungalow as she waited for her knock to be answered. The sun was hot on her back in spite of the light snow that was falling and she pushed her hair off her skin, a sigh escaping her lips; she didn't have time to wait around.

The door finally swung open and a young boy, no more then twelve, peeked out at Lucy. Even though she had only met this boy once, she didn't have a hard time remembering him, since Tori Walters looked just like his older brother. "Hi Dr. Hall." The boy greeted, coming out from behind the door once he had recognized her.

"Hey Tori." Lucy smiled at him. "Is J.D. home?" Tori nodded and scampered off, disappearing back inside to retrieve his brother. Lucy crossed her arms over her chest as her impatience returned and she found herself tapping her foot once again.

The door was nudged open again and J.D. Walters appeared, looking as though he had just woken up even though it was nearly three in the afternoon. "Hi Dr. Hall." He motioned for her to come inside but Lucy remained where she was.

"J.D., I'm sure that you've seen the news reports on the earthquake." She began without any further introduction. "So, I'm sure that you know that Laura is in one of the buildings that collapsed." J.D.'s eyes went wide as though everything she was saying to him was new information. "Frankly," Lucy pursed her lips, "I need your help."

J.D.'s eyes remained wide. "My help?" He repeated. "With what?"

"Sam went to that building to get Laura." Lucy explained. "He has a concussion, but he wouldn't stay and what for the rescue workers to get to the building. So-"

"So you want me to go to the building to get Sam." J.D. finished, trying to process the doctor's words. Going to rescue Laura with a concussion was just something that Sam would do and he wasn't surprised in the least.

Lucy debated for a moment. "Not exactly. I want you to come with me to the building to get Sam." She clarified.

J.D. raised an eyebrow. "You, Dr. Hall?" Lucy narrowed her eyes and he instantly changed his tone. "Sure." He agreed quickly. He turned to go back into the house, then paused, turning to look at Lucy with an uncertain look on his voice. "What exactly are we talking about here? A mission of certain death into a collapsed building or just a routine rescue mission?"

Lucy couldn't resist. "Certain death. Definitely."

J.D. sighed. "I should have known." He mumbled. "You Halls are all the same."

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Elsa scrambled over the cracked shelf, joining the others outside the clothing store. Her eyes were wide, and they settled upon Sam's face. "What are we going to do?" She asked breathlessly. "Laura-" She stopped herself when Sam's eyes clouded. She didn't know what to say, didn't want finish her sentence for fear of giving him false hope; she knew just as well as the others that there was no way Laura could have survived.

Sam cleared his throat. "We're not going to do anything." He said, looking at the group of survivors that had emerged from the shop. It tore his heart into pieces not to see Laura's face among them. "You're going to go with Brian, out of the building and to the Embassy, they have a hospital set up there." Brian was watching him closely. "I'm going to find Laura."

"No, Sam." Brian said, putting his hand on his friend's arm, a gesture that was meant to be comforting. "You can't stay in this building anymore, you need to get to the hospital yourself. Laura's dead, there's no use..."

Sam pushed Brian's hand away and grabbed the collar of his friend's jacket, shoving him back into the wall and staring into his eyes. "Laura is not dead." He hissed, his voice low. He let go of his friend and turned away, staring down at the cracked floor. In spite of what he had seen, he could not believe this his beautiful, sweet, perfect Laura was dead.

Brian watched his friend for a moment, remaining with his back against the wall. "Sam," He began, realizing he had never addressed his friend with such force in his voice. "I loved Laura too, she was like a sister to me but what good is it going to do, you killing yourself for nothing? And you know that's going to happen if you try to get to her, you can barely stand. Do you think Laura would have wanted-"

Sam whirled to face him once again. "Do not talk to me about what Laura would have wanted." He said and Brian fell silent. "I'm not asking you to come with me this time; I don't need you now, Brian."

Brian and Sam stared at each other for a long moment, silence hanging heavy between them, speaking in ways that words never could. Finally, Brian shifted his weight and turned to look at Elsa and the other survivors who had remained silent through the confrontation. "All right, we can go back down the way we came up." He said, not looking over at Sam as he spoke. If Sam wanted to kill himself while trying to find his dead girlfriend, then it wasn't his concern.

Sam didn't look at Brian as he passed, carrying on of Kate's twin boys, leading the group toward the nearly dilapidated staircase they had climbed up earlier. Elsa paused and turned back to look at him. "Sam," She seemed indecisive. "Just be careful." She said finally, turning away and following the others before he had the chance to reply.

Sam watched them until they had disappeared and found himself praying that they would be all right, that they would make it out of the building even if he didn't. He looked away, peering into the dark clothing store as though there was still something inside of there that he hadn't seen, some clue that would led him to something he didn't even know he was looking for.

But there was nothing inside of the store aside from broken shelves and discarded merchandise. There was no sign that Laura had ever been there and Sam wished that she hadn't, that she had never come to work that day and was still safely down in Mexico with them. He wished he hadn't waited so long to ask her to marry him, wished that he had proposed that very morning when they were still together and happy.

Listen to yourself, Sam thought as he slowly climbed over the shelf, holding onto the jagged metal as his head spun, you're thinking as though she really is dead. But, as much as he loved Laura and prayed that she was alive, it was getting even more difficult to talk himself into believing that he was going to see her alive once again.

Sam entered the store, which was as eerily silent as the rest of the building and paused, giving his head a chance to stop spinning. He thought of Laura, the way that her eyes always seemed to lit up when she saw him, or how she always smiled mischievously whenever she was planning something that she wanted to keep a secret from him but always ended up telling him anyway. And as he stood, alone in the middle of a crumbling shop, Sam realized that his eyes were filled with tears; he couldn't bare the thought of never seeing Laura smile again, of never hearing her laugh, knew that his heart couldn't take it. He had to find Laura, that was the only thing that mattered.

Blinking his tears away, Sam carefully navigated his way around the cracks and holes in what remained in the floor, attempting to make it to the largest section missing, the hole that Laura had fallen through. He squinted his eyes, vision foggy because of the pounding in his head, unable to see anything through the darkness.

"Laura." Sam whispered, his voice choked with emotion, praying like he never had before that somehow he would get an answer. There was no answer, the building remained silent.

Sam knelt at the edge of the hole, shifting his weight when the ground beneath him started to give way and crumble. He couldn't see Laura or where she had fallen to, it was impossible even to see what was left of the floor below. He thought he just barely make out twisted rebar and chunks of plaster but it didn't capture his attention for long. He wanted to see Laura, he needed to see her, needed to know that somehow Brian was wrong, that she wasn't dead after all.

By the time Sam realized that the floor was going to crumble beneath him, it was too late and he was falling toward the level below. The second he hit the ground below, everything was swallowed by darkness.

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Bed rest had never suited Jack Hall and soon, he was up, hobbling around the lobby of the American Embassy, not getting any better at balancing himself on his crutches. People were going in and out of the glass Embassy doors, government officials and worried family members alike, leaving as soon as they got an answer to whatever question passed their lips. As the time passed, Jack saw more and more people leave with tears in their eyes or running down their cheeks and he knew that some of the rescue missions hadn't gone as many people would have hoped. He just prayed that workers hadn't already come back with bad news about the building where Laura worked, the building that his son had surely gone to.

Jack pushed all thoughts of Sam being crushed by the collapsing building aside as he scanned the crowd for his wife. Lucy was usually around somewhere, tending to those that needed it, always in somebody's way because she was taking care of someone. But now, he couldn't see her; perhaps she had gone back upstairs to the actual hospital level to look after her young patients. Jack hoped that she hadn't because he knew the elevator was out of service and there was no way he could make it up the stairs.

Jack's eyes settled on Janet, who was sitting beside the makeshift mattress Jason had been set upon, talking to her fiancé, who was just barely conscious. He managed to hop over to them, nearly stumbling over Jason's out stretched legs. Janet reached out the steady him. "Have you seen Lucy?" He questioned as soon as he wasn't wobbling.

Janet shook her head. "No. The last time I saw her she was with you." She said, looking down at Jason, who was looking at his boss. "Has Lucy been by to check on you?" She asked him.

Jason told them that he hadn't seen Lucy all day. "Where could she have gone?" He asked, looking at Jack.

Jack thought about an answer to his question, his mind going over all the places that she could have gone to. Then the answer hit him and he sighed, groaning beneath his breath; he knew that he shouldn't be surprised that Lucy had more then likely gone after their son. Daring and ultimately stupid rescues seem to run in the family.

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When Sam opened his eyes again, the first thing he was aware of was how his entire body seemed to be throbbing with pain, from top to bottom, he felt like one giant bruise. He groaned, resisting the urge to close his eyes again, realizing that the entire right side of his head was slick and damp with blood. He touched the spot on his head gingerly where he had been hurt from the first earthquake and found that there were several of gashes and bumps to add to the bleeding.

Sam lifted his head, looking around him, trying to figure out where he was and what shape he was in. Aside from his pounding, bleeding head, he didn't think he had been hurt too badly in the fall; at least, nothing was broken. He had landed in a nest of debris, chunks of plaster and twisted metal had been the only things to break his fall. Sam knew he was lucky, considering where he had landed; he could have fallen on one of the pieces of metal.

Sam groaned as he pulled into a sitting position, his back aching, head spinning. He waited a minute, to see if the spinning would stop but he didn't and figured that it wouldn't until he actually laid down in an actual bed and didn't get up for at least forty-eight hours. But that wasn't going to happen until he found Laura.

Thinking of Laura made Sam slowly check his pockets, making sure that her engagement ring hadn't fallen out during the fall. The box was still in his pocket, along with the miniature flashlight, which he pulled out and twisted on. He kept his fingers closed around the velvet box, still hoping that he would be able to slip to the ring on Laura's finger.

Sam shown the beam of the flashlight around the building, the light bouncing on the crumbled fronts of stores, on split beams hanging from the ceiling, on other piles of debris. He slowly got to his feet, holding onto his head with one hand, still shining the flashlight with the other.

The beam of the light settled on something he recognized from the clothing shop: the heavy wooden counter that Laura had been resting upon when the floor had collapsed. Sam's heart starting to hammer in his chest, almost painfully, as he played the beam around the counter, hoping to find Laura.

Laura's pale and bloody face was illuminated by the beam, and Sam saw that she was laying beside the desk, her eyes shut, skin an unnatural pale color. Sam hurried forward, but he stumbled over something and went crashing to the ground, nearly impaling his hand on a piece of rebar.

The flashlight dropped to the ground, rolling away from him, the beam bouncing wildly around the building before coming to rest on Laura once again. Sam lifted his head, looking at her, praying for a reaction, any reaction from her.

"Laura!" Shouting her name increased the pain in his head but Sam would have shouted it a million times over if it would have caused her to open her eyes. He got to his feet, picking up the flashlight again and slowly making his way toward her.

Sam called her name once again but it was no use, Laura remained motionless.