Both Chandler and Joey froze when they heard the voice over the bullhorn deliver the messages. Their two captors immediately began to squabble among themselves again. Chandler ducked as the second man waved his gun in his direction.
"He really needs to be more careful with that thing," said Chandler in a nervous voice with a bit of humor. He was trying to make a joke. Neither of them laughed. The police were still yelling through the bullhorn, and the crooks still didn't seem to know quite what to do. "There's no way we're going to get out of this if we can't find some way to communicate with them out there," Chandler pointed out quietly.
"I know," Joey stated and then paused for a moment before asking, "Do you think the others are out there?"
Chandler hesitated with his answer, "They might be, we have been gone for three hours, but my guess is that they're all sleeping up at Monica's. In a way I guess that's better, I wish I could see them again though." Chandler looked away from Joey as he finished his sentence. It was the first time he realized that he may never see his friends again.
Joey let what Chandler said sink in, and before he could be stopped, he had risen to his feet. "Call them." Two guns were immediately leveled at his chest. Joey did not so much as flinch. Instead, he pointed to his cell phone, which was partially visible under one of the shelves. "They want to talk to you, and the only way any of this is going to be resolved is if you let them. I know I want to get out of here just as much as you do."
"Right, they talk to us, and we get arrested," Thief Number 2 spat.
"If you don't , it's only a matter of time before they bust their way in here and we all die," Joey pointed out. They glared at each other for a moment, and Chandler waited for the shot that he was sure was coming. It didn't. Instead, he heard the sound of someone scrambling for the fallen phone. Joey sank back down to the floor, shaking.
"Serves you right," Chandler whispered, "What the hell did you think you were doing?"
"Trying to save our assess, because obviously they don't know how." replied Joey. Chandler was annoyed with Joey's boldness, but only because he didn't want to watch him die.
"What number should I call?" Thief Number 2 asked his partner.
"How the hell should I know? But wait, don't do anything yet," Thief Number 1 said menacingly.
"Why not?"
"I want them to sweat it out a little more."
"Why don't you just cut the bullshit and call someone?" Chandler growled to himself, or so he thought.
Thief Number 2 lunged towards him, startling all of them to death. Chandler tried to scramble out of the way, realizing too late that he spoken louder than he thought. The criminal grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt, and slammed him against the wall. Chandler's head crashed into it, and stars exploded in front of his vision. It took all of Joey's self control to keep from leaping to his friend's defense, he knew that that would only make matters worse.
"Now you listen and you listen good," he breathed hideously, his nose inches away from Chandler's. For added measure, he shoved the barrel of his pistol into the side of his temple, and gave a sick smile of satisfaction when he flinched. "We are running this show, and if you want to come out of it alive, you will sit down, shut up, and do exactly what we tell you. Got it?"
Chandler swallowed nervously, and nodded. The gun was removed from his head as the man grabbed him by the throat and threw him to the ground before returning to his partner.
"Chandler!" Joey cried. He was sure that his heart stopped for a moment, as he ran to friend.
Chandler laid on the ground staring up at the ceiling shocked and petrified. He slowly tried to pick himself off the floor, but found it quite difficult after the recent attack inflicted upon him. Joey reached him in a flash and extended his arm, which his dazed friend accepted gratefully. He hauled him to his feet, his eyes ablaze with concern and fear. "Are you ok?"
"I'll live," Chandler muttered, still looking shaken and his voice has a scared tone in it.
Before either of them had the chance to say anything else, Joey's cell phone began to ring in Thief Number 1's hand.
----
"They aren't making any effort to contact us, we need a way to communicate with them. If we don't we're going to have to barge the door down, which would put the hostages in more danger than they are already in," said Lt. Daniels to his partner.
Monica was standing close by and overheard their conversation. "Excuse me, sir. My friend has his cell phone in their, he tried to contact us with it earlier. That's how we knew that something was wrong."
He stared at her for a moment then turned to the other police officers who he was previously talking to. They discussed this new option for a few minutes, as Monica and the others waited, and then fell silent as Daniels turned back to Monica. " That will work, can you give me his number?" asked Lt. Daniels as he got his cell phone ready.
The four of them stood by anxiously awaiting the phone call. As much as they wanted to know Chandler and Joey's condition, they were also terrified of what that condition might be.
----
"Who is this?" Thief Number 1 demanded.
"I'm Lt. Daniels of the New York Police Department, who is this?" he asked.
"That's not important. What is important is that I am holding four people hostage in here, and unless we get what we want they are all going to wind up dead."
"Ok, let's stay calm here. Our priority here is the safety of the hostages. Are all of them all right? Do any of them need medical attention?"
"It doesn't matter. No one's getting it, because no one is coming in here."
"What is it you want?"
"Sixty grand and a way out of the country. Add ten thousand to every person I have to kill because you couldn't get your shit together."
"That's a tall order."
"Take it or leave it."
"What happens if we leave it?"
"Well, you may be able to take us out, but I can promise you that there will be four others laid out right behind us. And I don' think you want that. Face it, we don't have many options here, so if we go down, we're going to take as many people as we can with us, understand?"
"Can you identify the hostages?"
"Two men, two women."
"No."
"Can I talk to one of the hostages?"
"No."
"You're asking for an awful lot. It would be a nice gesture if we could talk to one of the hostages. Perhaps the owner of the phone?" asked the cop as he looked at the perturbed group standing next to him. Before anyone else could react, Ross spoke out.
"Let me talk to him," Ross said urgently. The officer waved him away sharply.
"I want to talk to him damn it!"
"Can we speak to a hostage?" he repeated, "A token of goodwill on your part you could say? It might make it easier to meet your demands if you are willing to cooperate."
"Fine."
The cop handed him the phone. "Find out as much information as you possibly can, understand?"
"Yes," Ross said, snatching the phone away from him.
"Hello?" he said anxiously. "Joey?"
"Ross?" a familiar voice came over the line.
"Oh thank god." Ross felt like crying, he was so happy to hear his friend's voice, "Are you all ok? What's going on in there?"
"Chandler and I are fine, a little shaken up but everything is ok for now." Joey didn't go a great job of keeping the tremor out of his voice, and Ross has heard it. He could tell when his friend was scared, but right now he was terrified.
"What does it look like in there?"
"They're keeping us all..." He was cut off suddenly, and Ross could hear a scuffle going on over possession of the phone. The thief grabbed the phone as he threw Joey to the ground. Ross could hear his friend's painful yell on the other end.
"No!" Ross yelped. "Joey, are you there?" The cop seized the phone, wrestling it out of Ross's panicked hands.
"Joey!"
Rachel reacted swiftly, stepping in between the two of them. She clamped her hands down onto Ross's should, pushing him away from the others and the cop.
"Ross!" she yelled, shaking him. She put her face as close to his as possible. "It's going to be ok. They are going to be alright!"
Ross stared at her for a moment, and then backed away from her embrace. "Damn it," he swore. He walked a few feet away, resting his elbow in one hand while putting the other up to his face. Rachel started toward him, but then thought better of it. Ross was ok. He was no happy, but he was ok.
"What happened?" asked Phoebe.
"Something happened to Joey," said Ross, "I heard him yell when the phone was taken away."
Everyone looked away from each other, worried about what could happen next.