A.N.: Asd you're all so very excited and curious to get to know what happened to Danny – I'll let you now. Please R+R.

Chapter 23:

They had been quick, extremely quick. Not even five minutes after the last shot in the school's tower had rang out they had been inside the building and up the stairs. An elite SWAT team had been send inside the school to check the tower and see if the shooter maybe had survived.

They carefully moved up the stairs, trying to not make any sound on the old wodden stairs. They didn't want to alarm the shooter, if she was still alive. But actually it was just a measure of police tactics. Nobody actually believed that the girl had survived. The last shot had not been fired out of that room and everybody getting up the stairs right now, knew what that meant.

Slowly, very slowly and absolutely careful they opened the door to the tower and secured it with their guns they held stretched out at length. But there was no need for this, no more need after all.

The sight in front of their eyes was pretty disturbing and one would suspect that they had already seen a pretty big deal of disturbing things. As to expect Miranda was in the tower's room, but she no longer was able to do anything in favor or against the policemen coming up the stairs and into the room right now.

She was lying in a pool of her own blood in the middle of the little room, her eyes wide open and a gunshot wound to her chest. One of the police squad's members knelt down by her unmoving form and unsuccesfully felt for a pulse. If he wouldn't have been wearing the black mask above his face one would have been able to see him swallow hard.

Their interference had come to late and it was of no use any more. There was no one left to take down to clearify the situation, no one to protect from himself anymore. They couldn't help this young woman any more – she was far beyond their reach now and out of their jurisdiction...

Samantha wasn't able to react for a few seconds as she realized she had just lost her co-

worker to unconsciousness. The ambulance was still about a minute away and she had the responsibility to take care of Danny until the medics were finally able to help him. She tried to think, tried to fight back the feelings and fought some reason back into her mind.

She kneeled above her fallen co worker, closing in to listen for his breathing and reaching out two fingers to feel for a pulse. It was some kind of automatic reaction – making sure he was still okay apart from his unconscious state. She had dificulties detecting his pulse, but it was there, it was pretty weak, but it was steady. His breathing on the other hand she didn't like after all – it was shallow and raspy. He seemed to have extreme difficulties to get some air at least.

She knew there wasn't much she could do about this, nothing after all actually. She wasn't a medic and her basic knowledge would not be of any greater help... The only thing she was able to manage was being there for him. For his physical condition this wouldn't mean anything – but she hoped it would be a mental comfort for him at some rate.

She just realized that she was still holding her cell phone in hands, still being in contact with Jack. The situation around her had overwhelmed her for a few seconds and she hadn't even thought about anything but her co-worker's condition. But right now - finally coming back to awareness – she heard Jack's voice, full of concern, saying her name over and over again.

"Samantha?"

"I'm here, Jack, I'm still here."

"What happened? How is he? Is he alright?"

"He's unconscious, Jack - I lost him, and he's not well. I was barely able to detect his pulse, and his breathing is laboured. He needs help, Jack – now!"

She was agitated and she was afraid, which she had all reason for, but it wasn't a very good combination to get her, get both of them to the final step of this disasterous, hostile situation. She needed to calm down, he needed to find a way to make her to, at least until the EMT finally arrived at the scene of the shooting.

"Sam, I need you to calm down – for Danny's sake. Just stay with him, keep him monitored. The ambulance is on it's way and it will be there in no time. Please don't worry, they are going to help him..."

"You don't get this, Jack! He's in a bad shape, he's losing too much blood... There's nothing I can do for him."

"You don't need to do anything more for him, Sam. You did nothing wrong – you have been there for him. There will be help for him in nothing more than a few minutes, they're going to take care of him. He's going to be fine Sam – he's strong. So don't you worry."

The fact that she didn't answer immediately told him that she was thinking about his words and that he had probably reached her, had managed to convince her. He could actually hear it, her breathing – which had quickened while she had agitatedly yelled at him - had calmed down again.

"Okay, Jack. I'm gonna try to stay calm..."

Something made her stop in the middle of the sentence and he could feel his own fear and concern rise. Taking the situation into consideration it couldn't mean any good. Why hadn't she finished her sentence? What had stopped her? What had happened? He knew he was getting irrational right now, but he couldn't really help it.

"Sam – what's wrong! What happened?"

"They're here, Jack. EMT just arrived at the scene. They are taking care of Danny now.

She wasn't in need to do anything for Danny any more, as the medics arrived right at that moment. They were taking control of the situation and she actually welcomed it – she was no longer responsible. She stepped aside right now, leaving them some space to work. But she couldn't step away, she couldn't leave him alone, couldn't get her eyes of the scene in front of her. Holding her hands tightly clutched around her body, trying to protect herself from the cold – she just stood there and stared down on him.

One of the medics – detecting how she was trying to shield herself from the cold – handed back her coat to her, which she took gratefully and huddled herself into it. It was barely warm, which caused her concern to grew even more – it was another hint of the bad shape Danny was in. Still she probably had made a good decision in giving the coat to him. He would've felt way more cold and probably would've lost consciousness earlier, if she hadn't done so.

"What did he tell you about his condition before he lost consciousness?"

Sam was taken out of her thoughts and back to the scene as one of the medics addressed her. So far they had stuck an IV line to Danny's forehand to provide him with liquid to balance the blood loss for the moment and had given oxygen to him to help him with his laboured breathing. So far they hadn't yet turned him to his side to have a look at the gunshot wound to his back and the question the medic had just asked her, told her why. They didn't want to aggravate Danny's injuries even more.

"He said he couldn't move his legs..."

"Alright, then – we need to be very careful when moving him to the gurney. From what you just told me it indicates an injury to his spine and if we move him to forcefully we may aggravate this injury even more..."

She followed the actions of the two medics as they – in an absolutely professional manner – carefully moved him to his side, crudely bandaged the wound for the moment and moved him back onto the gurney, especially designed for cases like this, where a patient was suffering from a potential injury to the spine. Afterwards they quickly moved him to the ambulance, Samantha staying by their side.

"You wanna come with us?"

"Yes, of course."