A.N.: Once again sorry for the extra long delay, but I just returned from Kenya yesterday

evening. So now you get the next three chapters. Please R+R.

Chapter 19:

Silence followed the ended call as Miranda was no longer in contact with them. They had lost her – probably not only for the moment, but permanently. She wouldn't get on the phone again and as she probably smashed it against a wall, there wasn't a chance even if she wanted to.

There was need to make a final decision now – they couldn't lose any more time on this matter. The SWAT team had been waiting to be sent to the scene of event for over the past hour and they were definitely necessary now.

However Jack wasn't sure about it, at least not completely. There was still a slight chance that Miranda would give up and get down from the tower. He didn't want her to get hurt, she hadn't deserved to. The one thing she needed from them was their help, not to be threatened to death or to be even shot.

He didn't get any more time to think about it for the chief of the police was approaching him once again. He was still angry with Jack, because of his decision to talk to Lukas and Miranda and Jack exactly knew what he wanted right now – a rightful decision, the decision which meant for the SWAT team to go in there.

„What are we going to do now?"

It was the one decisive question to find an answer to right now and actually he didn't get why the police captain was asking him after all. He wasn't in charge of this investigation and it hadn't had to be his decision after all. But as he had been the one talking to Miranda, he probably was more qualified to make a decision. Still it wasn't his investigation – at least not considering the current situation.

"It's your decision."

The expression on the police captain's face told him that this had been the very last answer he had wanted to hear from him. He seemed to have actually expected a decision from Jack, had wanted him to take over responsibility in this case, which he wouldn't do. However the other man wasn't willing to give up so soon.

"Look – you have been talking to her, you know what she was like, what her mental state is. Just tell me what you think."

He needed to be careful right now... Whatever he was about to tell him now would result in the decision that was made - and the fate Miranda Thomas would end up in. If anything went wrong he was absolutely sure the police captain would blame it on the information given to him, information he had received from Jack.

"She's definitely dillusional, but she was willing to talk to me and what's even more important – she was listening to me. She's suffering from a mental illness – that's definitely true, but she was able to control herself."

"But she hung up on you?"

The police captain was directly getting to the point – to a very crucial point actually. Jack knew exactly what he was trying to do – the captain wasn't really interested in his opinion, he just wanted someone to confirm the decision he had already made. He wasn't still thinking about it – he would sent that SWAT team in there – no matter what.

"That's true, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything. There has been no more shooting since she hung up the phone, so the fact that she ended the call doesn't mean she is going to hurt someone."

"Agent Malone – she yelled at you. She was yelling No´. What does that say about her mental state?"

He was really not willing to admit it, but the captain was right. The fact that Miranda had yelled - and he for himself was pretty sure that she didn't yell at him after all – pointed very much to the conclusion that something about her mental state had changed, that she had no longer been able to control the emotions, the mental illness caused her to have.

"It's possible that her illness caught up on her, that she was no longer able to control it."

"Would you consider her still a potential danger then?"

"As we cannot reach her and talk to her anymore, I really cannot answer that question. According to the school psychologist's record she has been a potential danger for the past eight months, but nothing ever happened..."

"Until now."

Why was he still questioning him after all? Jack really wished the police captain would finally stop his attempt of justifying what he was doing and just make his decision. He himself was slowly starting to lose his temper on this guy. There definitely were more urgent things for him to think of.

"You're right, until now she hasn't been a danger to anyone... Look I can't help you with your decision, it's not my investigation, it's yours. The only thing I can tell you is that she is mentally unstable and that I for my part cannot predict what she will do next. It's your part however to decide what to make of this."

The captain took some more long moments of chewing on his lips and thinking about the words he had just heard. Jack could somehow understand him – he had been in similar situations before and deciding something like this always meant to put lifes at risk, which definitely wasn't an easy thing to decide on. But as the police captain had already made up his mind even before they had started their conversation...

"Alright then – I'm sending SWAT in there. We don't know what she's going to do, we need to take her down."