LEGAL A/N: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. The Dead Zone and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. Monk and all characters belong to Andy Breckman, Mandeville Films, Touchstone Television, NBC Universal Television and USA Network. Psych and all characters belong to Steve Franks, Tagline Pictures, NBC Universal Television Studios, GEP Productions and USA Network. The 4400 and all characters belong to Scott Peters & René Echevarria , Renegade 83, American Zoetrope, Paramount Network Television Productions, Viacom Productions Inc. and USA Network. Final Destination and all characters belong to James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick & Glen Morgan, Hard Eight Pictures, Zide-Perry Productions and New Line Cinema. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended or implied. All ownership not mentioned here is acknowledged and respected.

4: No Escapes

"Pl-please," Adrian asked with a nervous, tight throat. He stood in the middle of a doctor's office on the twenty-ninth floor of the American One office building in downtown Los Angeles. Johnny, Xander and Shawn joined him, still moist from their impromptu swim, and stood anxiously behind him. Adrian stood in front of a desk where a glasses-wearing secretary with her blonde hair pulled back in a bun stared up at him in confusion. "I-I need to talk to Dr. Cogdel, it's an emergency."

The secretary shook her head apologetically. "I'm sorry, but you don't have an appointment and you'll have to wait—"

"We don't have enough time!" Adrian exclaimed, slowly slipping into panic.

"I don't know if we should be here, Adrian," Xander leaned in and whispered.

"Would you let me handle this?" Adrian declared, glancing back at him in tense agitation. "I'm next, so I feel I should be handling this."

Shawn nervously gazed around the room, taking in every aspect – but never did he do it with such fear in his heart. The name of the secretary was Jessica, the potted plant in the corner was a fake hibiscus, there was a fifty-gallon aquarium in the corner with thirteen fish inside, and there was a yellow-haired, four-year-old girl wearing a light blue dress standing next to the window which overlooked the L.A. skyline with a Sharpie marker in her hand. Unattended, she drew aimlessly on the window with the permanent marker, but no one was around to pay attention to her wrongdoing.

Adrian turned back to the secretary with wide, apprehensive eyes of urgency. "You must get Dr. Cogdel now," he stressed. Jessica gazed down at his hands with a peculiar expression.

"Sir," she began with a distressed look, "you're shaking—"

"We-we need to be screened," Adrian stuttered, his heart racing. He pulled his eyes away from her face and gazed at the room around her. "All…all of us need screening for diseases, cancer, poisoning, bacteria…"

"Bacteria?" Johnny repeated. "Adrian, there's no way to rid ourse—"

"The doctor!" Adrian shouted, his voice breaking under the tremendous stress. "We need to be sure…"

"Well, now that you mention it," Shawn shrugged, "I do feel kinda woozy."

"Maybe that's just the impending doom," Xander answered grimly as he gazed with blank eyes, deep in thought.

"Do not fall into this," Johnny ordered them sternly. "We have to stay calm; it's the only way we'll make it through this." He turned to Adrian with the expression of resolve. "You have to understand that we can't stay here and be screened for everything. It's imposs—"

"No, it's not," Adrian said with a breathless voice. "I-I-I have a-a doctor in every major city in… in California just for this purpose…"

Johnny stared at Adrian worriedly as he watched him come apart at the seams before him. His hands shaking, he was beginning to break out into a nervous sweat, which terrified him even more. Anxiously trying to blot his face with his white linen handkerchief, he continued to gaze around the room and began to mumble his fears incoherently.

The door from the hallway opened up as a tall, thin, tired-looking woman wearing a skirt suit entered and rested her eyes on the four-year-old. Shawn glanced over to see the mother's eyes go wide. "Janet Lynn!" the mother snapped. The small child jumped in mid-stick figure as she stared up at her angry mother with the marker in her hand. Jaw agape, she watched as her mother rushed over and snatched the small child's hand and pulled her out of the room. "I told you not to do that!" the stressed-out mom sighed as they disappeared.

Shawn glanced over at the window to see the sunlight shining through a male stick figure and a female stick figure with a giant heart in between them. The roofs of the surrounding skyscrapers could be seen in the distance as the sun hung low above them.

"Is… Is the room getting sm-smaller?" Adrian stuttered.

"Sir," Jessica shook her head, now almost more scared than Adrian was, "I really have to ask you to—"

"Just get the doctor!" Adrian snapped with a voice full of rage and terror. The startled secretary nearly fell out of her seat as she leapt up and rushed out of the room through a door to the back office.

"Maybe it's the heat," Xander sighed, "but I think we're starting to crack under the pressure."

"Heat?" Adrian exclaimed with a new terror entering his mind. "Oh, god – what if it's heat exhaustion? We shouldn't have been outside so long…"

"Adrian, you need to stay calm," Johnny said slowly.

"Calm?" he repeated with a strained voice. "How can I stay calm! It's after me now! I'm next! Death could be coming from anywhere!" He gazed around the room and began a delusional list with barely any breath left to finish it, "Sn-snakes, lawn mowers, germs, orange juice, nuclear bombs!"

"Nuclear bombs," Xander repeated as he considered it to be reality. "I didn't even think of that!" He turned to the others hopefully. "You guys have police ties? You're able to deal with that, right?"

"Dude," Shawn shook his head, staring at him strangely. "We're police informants. Not Jack Bauer."

"We-we have to make sure," Adrian stuttered fearfully. "We ha-have to p-protect ourselves…"

"Just breathe," Johnny pleaded, placing a hand on his shoulder. He turned to Xander with worry. "He's about to lose it, man."

"Guys!" Shawn called, getting their attention. They looked over to Shawn's point of view – back to the four-year-old's drawing. "Look at the heart," he explained. Their eyes narrowed as they noticed a tiny crack in the window cutting across the heart drawing.

"We-we don't have time!" Adrian shouted, his pitch raising and his breaths becoming short. He backed away from the desk as Johnny refocused his attention on the panicking man. "It's… it's happening right now! It's all around… around u-us!"

Shawn and Xander glanced at Adrian with worry, then turned back to the window. "It means something – it's a clue," Shawn declared.

"I know," Xander nodded. "But what?" They studied the picture as Adrian continued to back away from all of them, rambling off broken words that made no sense anymore.

"Something's happening to him," Johnny nervously stated, staring at Adrian with wide eyes. "He's freaking out…"

"Go figure!" Xander replied in frustration as he tried to crack the code in front of him.

"Heart break?" Shawn suggested.

"Heart crack?" Xander shook his head in confusion. "He's on crack?"

"That sounds about right," Johnny said, staring at the man about to melt down before them. "I think we need that doctor now."

"Heart hurt…" Shawn continued, at a loss. "Heart pain… heart cut… heart… attack?" He looked over at Adrian as he trembled in place, his mind shutting down as his heart raced faster. "Heart attack!" Shawn announced. "He's gonna give himself a heart attack!"

Xander, Johnny and Shawn snapped over to his side and faced him away from the window, afraid the skyscrapers and the fear of heights would add to his peril. "Calm down!" they all began to shout. Adrian was unresponsive to the outpour of orders. "Calm down! Breathe! Close your eyes!"

"It's coming!" Adrian shouted back. "It's coming! It's coming now! We're dead!"

"This isn't helping!" Johnny yelled over their voices. "Everyone stay calm!"

"Stay calm, Adrian!" Xander screamed.

"Stop shouting!" Johnny yelled.

Shawn pulled back his fist and slammed it against Adrian's jaw as he fell back into a sitting position on the floor with his back against the safety glass of the window, knocked unconscious. They stared at Adrian's limp body as their own hearts began to slow back to normal speed. Shawn grimaced with pain as she shook his aching fist out.

"Well that calmed him," Xander noted and cracked a smile. Shawn nodded proudly as he glanced over at Xander and John and then they turned back to the glass… which began to crack under Adrian's weight. With a smash, the glass behind Adrian gave way as he fell backwards through the window. The three others leapt for the window and grabbed Adrian's arm and caught him, leaving him hanging out of the window as the pieces of glass rained down from the twenty-ninth story.

Shawn panicked, "Bad idea! Bad idea!"

"You did not think that through!" Xander snapped.

"Pull him back!" Johnny ordered. "Pull!"

The tweed sleeve of Adrian's jacket began to tear at the seams, dropping Adrian down another inch. Dangling out of the window, Adrian slowly began to come back to consciousness, opening his eyes and staring down in horror at the street below. He let out a horrified shriek, then gazed up at the three others who were desperately trying to get a better hold on him.

"Close your eyes!" Shawn yelled. "We won't let you fall!"

"Trust us!" Xander called. "Close your eyes!"

In terror, Adrian managed the courage to close his eyes and reach up with his other hand, grabbing Johnny's wrist. The three of them pulled Adrian up and back through the window, tugging him to safety. They backed all the way across the room to the other wall before they stopped and fell back against it, sinking to the floor.

Staring at the gaping hole, they sat in silence for what felt like forever as their hearts slowed to a normal pace and they calmed themselves down. Adrian swallowed hard and let out a sigh of relief.

"Broken window," Shawn replied, embarrassed by his inability to solve the puzzle. "Broken window was the clue." The three others turned and gave him a look as he glanced away sheepishly.