Stranded

Chapter Three: Amanda Bentley

Dr. Amanda Bentley was completely alone in a corridor of Community General Hospital. The clicking of her heels echoed metallically as she paced slowly to the doctor's lounge. At 2:37 in the afternoon, her shift was long over. But Amanda Bentley, Jesse Travis, and Mark Sloan were workaholics. They spent most of their free time in the hospital, working on some case or another. Now they were trying to solve the murder of a man who had died of arsenic poisoning. At least helping with the case was what Amanda used as an excuse to stick around until her four-o'clock appointment.

She entered the lounge to find Mark sitting alone. He had the stereo turned on, playing Glen Miller on low volume. He was humming to the music, his feet sliding bit by bit across the floor in his roller skates as he paged through the case file. Amanda smiled and took a chair at the table, paging through a newspaper that had been discarded nearby.

"Look at this," she said, pointing at an article in the center of the paper. "The Seven Deadly Sins, famous diamonds of the Romanov family, were stolen from a museum in Tokyo." Mark shook his head.

"Figures," he said, turning back to his file.

A few minutes later, Jesse and Alex Martin came in. As Alex poured them each coffee, Jesse made a face at the CD player, switching it off, and then sat down with the others.

"Did you guys hear about the missing airplane?" he asked.

"What airplane?" asked Amanda, who was about to scold him for playing with the stereo.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..

"I can't believe that you signed that paper," Amanda said, glaring down at Jesse.

Both Mark and Amanda agreed that Ellen was too far in her pregnancy to be flying, but she insisted on it. Ellen's brother, Kevin, had been murdered, and her way of dealing with it was to help Steve catch the man who did it. After three months, they finally figured out whodunit, but he had fled to Tokyo. Steve was going to try and talk to the local police and Ellen was adamant about going along.

Steve knew that any efforts to talk his wife out of it would be futile, so instead of arguing with her, he used their combined efforts with his ability to intimidate Jesse to get him to sign a release form for her.

Now, as Amanda verbally reprimanded Jesse for putting the little Sloan baby in danger, Mark sat, silently, looking out the window. Jesse glanced between him and Alex for help.

"Chances are that everything will be fine," Alex tried. Amanda started to say something, but Mark interrupted her with a sigh.

"No," he said. "It won't."

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..

"A plane went missing in the middle of a flight. They think it crashed, but they can't find the sight," Jesse said.

"The worst part is that our new gynecologist, Joyce Walters, was onboard," Alex continued.

"What was the flight number?" Amanda asked, her heart sinking so that she could feel each beat in the pit of her stomach.

"Three-fourteen," Alex answered. "United Airlines Flight 314."

Amanda gasped, and the others looked at her, confused.

"What is it, Amanda?" Jesse asked quietly.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..

"No," Mark said with a sigh. "It won't."

"What is it, Mark?" Amanda asked quietly.

"The baby has developed a heart condition," he said in a low tone. "He won't live longer than three days once he's born."

"Why didn't you tell them?" Alex queried.

"I don't know," Mark said slowly. "I guess I thought that if I ignored it, maybe it would go away. Or I just didn't want to be the one to tell my only son that his first child is going to be born so that he can die painfully over a few slow days."

"Its okay, Mark," Amanda said, reaching over to give her friend a hug, "I understand."

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..

"Steve and Ellen," she said, her voice breaking, "They were on that flight."

"How?" Mark asked her. Amanda jumped slightly at the sound of his voice, although it had been just seconds since she had spoken herself. She did not answer directly, just looked over at the plain off-white telephone, the one that was just like the one on her desk in the path lab.

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..

Amanda lifted up her head at the loud ringing. She had been sitting at her desk, doing paperwork, and she guessed that she had fallen asleep. The right side of her face felt tingly from resting against the cool metal. As she lifted the phone to her right ear, a paperclip clattered to the desktop, brushed from where it had been stuck to her face. Amanda sighed inwardly, annoyed with herself for falling asleep, as she groggily answered the phone.

"Hello?" She was jolted to consciousness when she heard Steve's voice. From his tone, she could tell that there was something funny going on.

"Amanda," he said quietly. "We're heading out tonight. Would you pick us up at LAX around four-thirty this afternoon?"

"Sure," Amanda said with a yawn, glancing at her watch. 6:02 a.m.! She had been asleep for almost four hours! But Steve's tone made her worry, and she put aside thoughts of herself. "Hey, is everything alright?"

"No, Amanda, nothing is," he said. "I'll tell you everything when I see you."

"Wait, what's your flight number?" she asked, increasing her voice volume to catch him as he was hanging up.

"314."

…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..

"How, Amanda?" Mark repeated.

"He called me last night, to ask for a ride," she said, keeping her voice even and low. "I could tell that something was wrong, although he wouldn't say what. And now-"

Amanda closed her eyes and put her head in her hands, letting the tears flow down her cheeks. Mark picked up the telephone, determined to find out what happened to the plane, and Alex and Jesse just sat, keeping eye contact with the floor.

"We'll find you," Amanda whispered.

A/N: Well, I hope you liked chapter three. I have chapter four, "Danietta Coleman,"almost done, so that's coming soon. In the meantime, why don't we play I Spy. Me first:

I spy something purple. It's kind of shiny. It says "Submit review." It would be great if you could spy it too.