Hide and Seek

Part 5

Claire Leyland

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers: Series 5/6/7

Thanks to everyone for their continued support!!!

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As Peter Benton swiftly steered his car out of the hospital car park, he frantically searched around in all directions for any sign of Smith's van. He knew he could not have been more than a couple of minutes at most behind Smith so he could not have got that far. After a few miles he took a left turn at the lights and felt himself tense up when he witnessed the van up ahead.

By now the rain was pouring down at an incredible rate causing Benton to grip the steering wheel even more tightly than he had been doing. It was not helping that Jackie's Aretha Franklin tape was pounding into his eardrums and he reminded himself never to let his sister borrow his car again. In one fluid motion he slammed his fist into the radio, quickly silencing the racket, however increasing the burning pain in his right shoulder. The surgeon did not know what injuries he might have sustained from his tumble and he did not care. As long as he could walk and drive that was enough for him. The factor of his pain was tolerable; the image of Carter's pain and suffering was not.

After moving his shoulder around, testing to see his mobility, the surgeon grabbed one of the main causes of his pain from the radio and threw the tape out the window, only feeling a twinge of guilt towards the cyclist he hit with it. The rider's suffering could not have been worst than his.

He quickly switched his wipers onto high speed uselessly hoping that the bad weather would ease off. Trying to keep track of a dark van in poor visibility would not be easy, but that was not going to impede Benton.

As he wiped the sweat from his forehead he noticed out of the corner of his eye his mobile phone cast unceremoniously in the compartment next to the gear stick. Benton cursed himself for not noticing it sooner. With one hand on the wheel he gleefully swiped it up and dialled 911 for the Police. *Any minute now there will be cops all over Smith! * He chuckled. After a moment however his smiled faded when he heard the familiar beeps of a flat battery. He wildly threw the contraption over his shoulder feeling some satisfaction when he heard it smash hard against the plastic next to the rear window.

He remembered now that he had been talking to Cleo last night on the way home from work and kicked himself for not charging his phone when he arrived at his house.

After a few moments Benton suddenly realised that he was the only person aware of the situation that Carter and himself were in and he had no way of changing that unless he stopped the car, but that was not really an option as he would lose sight of Smith. He only hoped that Romano would have now raised the alarm at the hospital when he realised that Benton had not arrived for work, but then again he grimly mused the arrogant surgeon would probably have just made some sort of sarcastic comment and fired him all over again.

He wondered if Carter's family would notice that he had not arrived home from work yet and then sorrowfully laughed at the absurdity of that thought. With Carter's family's track record it would probably be weeks before they noticed he was missing. Keeping that thought in mind Benton made a promise to himself that if he and Carter were to get through this unscathed the surgeon would make more time in his life for his former student. The hospital staff was probably the only real type of "family" that Carter had and Benton being part of that staff meant that Carter and himself were, on some levels, family too. Benton was going to changes things if life returned to some sort of normalcy. No one should lead the lonely and solitary life that Carter did because of the type of family he was born into.

The surgeon stepped up the pressure on the accelerator desperately trying to think of another plan before he reached his target.

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Carter was feeling increasing uneasy as he sat unmoving in the back of the van. He had repeatedly tried to talk to Smith in the vain attempt that he could get him to open up and share how he was feeling about his mother. Carter had hoped that once Smith was talking he could convince him to stop what he was doing and turn the van around. However Smith had just completely blanked him and kept his dark eyes on the road in front of him. Carter did not want to force the point too much as he had a direct view of Smith's gun lying flat on the dashboard.

As the young doctor leaned dejectedly against the side panel he caught brief images and muffled sounds from the outside. He swallowed hard as he painfully realised that they were travelling on the highway bordering the river, the highway that took you directly out of the city. This made Carter's stomach churn as he apprehended that the chances of someone seeing the situation that he was in would be more remote once they had left the city. At least while they were in Chicago there was a minute chance that someone would stumble across them, but once they were outside then…….

Carter lowered his head despondently and closed his eyes. He could feel his hope evaporating and despair replacing it instead. It was like a poison oozing through him destroying his optimism.

He wondered how Dr Benton was and mentally apologised to him for getting him involved. He only hoped that he was all right. Smith had reversed the van extremely quickly making it difficult for his friend to get out of the way. If anything had happened Carter knew that he would never forgive himself. He could not cope with another death on his hands; they were blood red enough already. First Dennis then Lucy, he was barely handling his role in their deaths, if anything had happened to his mentor Carter knew that he would not be able to cope. *Hell* he chuckled grimly *I'm not coping now. *

A sudden bang shook Carter from his thoughts. The back of the van abruptly started swerving from side to side throwing Carter painfully hard into the opposite side of the van. With his hands behind his body instead of by his side he had nothing to break his fall and the pain of his shoulder and chest colliding with the panel was indescribable. Carter tried to lift himself into some sort of sitting position to see what was going on but gravity was not complying with him. His balance was precarious at the best of times, but with his hands tied firmly behind his back there was little possibility that he would be able to maintain an upright position.

He struggled to raise his head, desperately trying to ignore the fresh bouts of pain radiating from his injuries. After a moment he was slowly able to make out Smith fighting a losing battle with the steering wheel to keep the van on the road. The poor weather meant the vans' tyres had little grip on the road already, but with the added danger of a puncture Carter knew the severity of the situation. He heard a string of profanities being yelled out by his captor from the front compartment and comprehended that they were in serious trouble. The vans back wheels again skidded to the right but this time the momentum caused the vehicle to smash through the neighbouring safety barrier and plunge down the embankment in the direction of the river. As Smith venomously slammed on the brakes to prevent the van from its deadly course Carter felt himself being flung hard against the back of the driver's seat. The doctor shook his head in a pitiful attempt to get rid of his dizziness and, as blood

started to trickle down his forehead, he could only watch and pray as he witnessed the van failing to stop in time and the river swallowing them up whole.