Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, although I wished I owned Jesse. I do own Becca, as well as the assailants.
Chapter Six: Hot Situation
Steve was beginning to get worried. His dad should have been back half an hour ago. He looked to his companions.
"Look. Dad might be in trouble. Beck, is your arm well enough to steer your chair?"
"It's well enough. I'll be able to deal with the pain."
"Good. Jess, how about you?"
"We'll need to detach the IVs,
but concerning me—I'm up to it."
"OK. Amanda?"
"I'll stay here. I'd love to help, but I just woke up and I don't want to chance it."
"Okay. Jesse, Becca, follow me."
The three left the room, and shut the door behind them. Once in the hallway, Steve turned to his two companions.
"Here," he said as he handed them each a walkie-talkie. "This way you can keep in touch if you find anything. I'll take this way, Jesse, take the left, Becca, the right. Meet back here in half an hour if we haven't found anything."
The three went their ways, looking everywhere for the doctor. Jesse happened to pass the OR. He looked through the door, and saw a rather tall figure leaning over something. He glanced at the figure's hand, and saw a gun. Quickly, Jesse backed up, and called Steve and Becca via walkie-talkie.
"Steve, Becca, don't say anything. Just listen. I'm by the OR. I think I've found Mark. I see a rather large male inside, with a gun in his hands. Hurry up, please!"
As soon as Steve and Becca heard this, they took off for the OR. Once they got there, they found Jesse sitting outside, waiting anxiously for their arrival. Steve took his gun, raised it, and told Jess and Becca to back up. He then raised a leg, and brought it down on the door, opening it. The noise made the assailant spin around.
"Freeze! Police! Drop your weapon!" Steve shouted as he entered the room. The assailant dropped the weapon, and Steve managed to cuff him. Steve looked over his shoulder, towards the door.
"Jesse, Becca, get in here now!"
The two wheeled in, and saw Mark on the floor. He had several gunshot wounds, none that looked too serious, thankfully. Jesse and Becca managed to edge themselves out of their chairs and onto the floor. Jesse took his pager, and paged the nurse's station, while Becca tried to bandage Mark's wounds. A nurse entered, saw Mark, and backed up, saying that she was going to get a stretcher. While she was gone, Steve left with the perpetrator. The nurse came back, accompanied by a male nurse, and the two got Mark onto the stretcher. She left with Mark, while the male helped Jess and Becca back into their chairs. The two wheeled back to Amanda, and told her everything. The three sat in Amanda's room, waiting for news on Mark. Finally, Katherine, a nurse, came in, pulled up a chair, and sat down.
"Well, how is he?" Jesse asked.
"He'll be okay. He took one bullet to the upper arm. It might hurt a lot, but he should be able to deal with it. He'll wear a cast for a while, but other than that, he'll be his old self."
Jesse and Becca made their way to Mark's room, where they found him asleep. They were about to leave when Steve walked in.
"How is he?"
"He'll be fine. Katherine said that he took a bullet to the upper arm. He's going to hurt a lot, but he'll be fine," Jesse told his friend.
"Then I guess it's a good thing that you found him when you did!" Steve told the young doctor.
Steve stayed with his dad, while Jesse and Becca made their way back to Amanda's room, where they spent the night. The next morning, Amanda was well enough to get out of bed, and Jesse was walking again, but slowly. They all made their way over to Mark's room, where they found the old doctor standing up, ready to take on the world.
Steve looked up as the trio entered.
"I've got to leave for work. Will you guys be okay?"
"Yes Steve. I think we're all feeling much better. Go on to the station. We'll be fine here. But if anything does happen, we'll be sure to call you."
Steve smiled, and left. The four made their way down to the parking garage. Mark's arm was in a cast, which was in a sling. Katherine let him go since she knew he could take care of himself. Although his arm still hurt, it didn't bother him enough to stay in the hospital. Since all three of the doctors were injured, they weren't on duty, so they decided to go out for lunch. Once in the garage, Amanda realized she had forgotten something upstairs. She walked over to the door, but found it was locked. She turned back to the group, fear on her face.
"What's wrong Amanda?" Mark asked.
"The door's locked. It's never supposed to be locked. Something's up."
Becca had been sitting patiently, when she suddenly noticed something on the ceiling.
"Doc, could you come over here?"
Mark made his way over to the young teen.
"What is it?"
"There's smoke coming from the ceiling."
At the word "smoke," Jesse and Amanda hurried over to the two figures.
"Mark, I don't like the look of this," Jesse said warily.
Just then, thick smoke clouds came pouring down on the group. Amanda became lightheaded and fainted. Mark spotted her and knelt on the ground beside his coworker.
"She'll be fine, as long as we can get out of here. She only fainted from the amount of smoke."
The smoke got thicker, and it became very hard for all of them to breathe. Upstairs in CGH, the fire alarms were blaring. Everyone was pouring out of the hospital. Katherine remembered that Doc Sloan and the others were in the car garage. When the fire department got there, the hospital had been emptied. Katherine pulled one of the fire fighters aside, and told them about Mark and the others. After he left, she got on the phone and called Steve. Down in the car garage, Mark couldn't see Amanda and Jesse anymore. He was completely separated from them, and his only way of staying in touch was to talk. They had to keep their comments short, because of all the smoke around them. Without warning, the beams of the ceiling caught on fire, while Mark and the others were completely unaware below. Suddenly, one of the beams broke off, and hurtled towards the group.