I JUST WANT TO TELL EVERYONE HERE THAT I'M SORRY IT TOOK ME A BIT LONGER TO GET YOU THE NEXT CHAPTER. IT WAS NOT MY INTENTION TO LEAVE EVERYONE ON A CLIFFHANGER LIKE THAT. BUT I NEEDED SOME SLEEP AND FOOD AFTER WRITING FOR WHAT FELT LIKE 48 HOURS STRAIGHT - IT ONLY FELT LIKE 48. IT WAS 39.
SO THERE IS MORE TO COME. PLEASE ENJOY THIS. REVIEWS WELCOME - AS ARE PM's ABOUT ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE OR COMMENTS :) THANKS EVERYONE FOR BEING SO INVOLVED IN THIS STORY THAT IT KEEPS ME WRITING CRAZILY.
"Feed is live."
The computer screen in front of him drew those in the room.
The phone call had dropped.
He heard the radio reports from the agents on the ground.
"… down the ravine. Gunshot. Agents approaching."
The body cams from the lead agents were live.
And Henry watched without moving. Probably without breathing.
Please He prayed.
Around the west side of the ravine. Lights from multiple agents filled the screen as they scanned the ground. Henry recoiled at the sight of the rocks and tree stumps littering the hill. And he willed the darkness to leave, watching for any sign of his daughter in…
And he heard.
Meooooooow.
And the lights jumped.
There. Against the base of a tree. Zazu meowed again. Sitting by the bodies.
Bodies.
As the camera got closer, Henry saw the trail of blood he only assumed came from up the hill. The bodies were gnarled, but from the placement of what looked to be a leather jacket, it appeared the bigger body was on top. Sterling. His hand tucked weirdly under his torso was moving.
Henry shook his head and looked at Isabelle. And his lips started to quiver. Then he said, "I need to see her." It couldn't be.
"Oh, Henry." She breathed out and set her hand on his arm, squeezing an empty comfort. "You don't want to see her."
"Put your hands in the air." The loud command came from the agents who were surrounding the scene.
Even through the commotion, Henry saw the cat. Shoot towards the moving hand. And it was then that Henry saw the gun, right under Sterling's hand.
"DROP THE GUN AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP."
Zazu pushed his nose under by the gun. And sat there. His tail moving. While an agent pressed a gun to Sterling's back and yelled, "PUT YOUR HANDS UP."
And then Henry saw it. Right by where the cat had inched under the body. Movement. And it was something small. And he watched Zazu's paw extend out, tapping.
And he heard it. A whimper.
And then he saw. A hand. A tiny hand. Covered in blood but moving. In a way he'd seen almost everyday for the last few weeks. Cupping over the soft ears of the cat.
He didn't remember much else.
Isabelle and Russell caught him before his chin hit the coffee table. He could feel the movement from those in the room, the authority from Director Ware communicating with the rest of the officers there on the scene.
He watched as Sterling's limp body was pulled away, revealing his little girl covered in blood. Henry had seen combat. He was used to seeing blood. This was a lot of blood. She favored her right shoulder as she tried to stand up. Agents reached out to her, and he watched her mouth move, "I can walk."
"She need to be seen by the medic." Henry whispered. "She might not be ok."
"We need to secure her along with the President until we can rule out any secondary attacks." Director Ware instructed the officers on scene.
"Ma'am we need to go." One of the agents said to her. "We have a medic at the motorcade. Come with us."
They pulled Emma to her feet, and Henry could hear the pain as she yelped when she set her left food on the ground. But she took a breath and said, "I'm fine. Let me walk."
"Sir," one of the agents reported to headquarters, "Medical transport arriving at the helipad. ETA twelve minutes."
"Get her to the car and move to the helipad." Director Ware said, "Backup agents are arriving for a full sweep of the area." He looked down at Henry, and, after switching off the microphone, said, "She is one lucky girl."
Henry watched her limp – watched an agent on each side of her – helping hold her up – but she refused to be carried. Through tears of relief, Henry shook his head, "I don't think there's any luck involved in this."
And he heard one of the agents talk to his daughter, "We're almost there. You can make it." Emma nodded as she limped on. And he added, "We've got someone who's going to be very excited to see you."
The lights from the motorcade had flipped on about thirty seconds after the shot rang out. Blue and red flashing lights. Elizabeth couldn't move from where she'd fallen to the ground. She could feel the gravel digging into her knees and her palms. Time passed only in rotations of blue and red lights. She couldn't hear anything. The gunshot ringing. Over and over through her head. She could hear her own screams, the gunshot from that moment, and then her screams again, like a cruel time loop in her head. Watching the bodies tumble out of sight. Down the horrifically steep and dangerous ravine.
Over again. Screams. Shot. Screams. Lights. Scream. Shot. Screams. Light.
She grabbed pieces of sharp gravel in her left hand. And she held them up so she could see the lights flashing against the dull and dirty pieces of rock.
Scream. Shot. Screams. Lights.
She couldn't get her brain to stop the loop. She didn't even know how she was breathing. All she could hear and see.
Scream. Shot. Screams. Lights.
Clawing to hold onto reality and not allow the loop to imprison her within her own mind, she dug the gravel into her palm.
And she could feel her hand. And her feet. And the movements of people around her. She could feel her chest. And her chest moving. She was breathing. And she could hear commotion around her. Not just the screams. But direct radio chatter, and she could feel Matt's hand on her forearm.
He hadn't let her go. She'd just lost touch with reality for a second.
And she found her voice. Only a part of it. Enough to barely puncture the noise around her. But she turned her head towards Matt, and breathed through trembling lips, "Is she…"
And she saw Matt's eyes move straight ahead and said nothing. Her nose wrinkled, and she shook her head and closed her eyes. She didn't want to read his face. She didn't want to know. It couldn't be. But she had to know. Matt…" She begged, "Just tell me…" And she opened her eyes, searching his face again. Then he looked at her before turning his head and pointing into the distance.
Elizabeth turned to follow where he was pointing. And at the perimeter of where the blue and red lights broke the darkness ten feet away, Elizabeth saw her.
And everything else fell away. Matt helped her to her feet. And Emma called out. "Mom!"
And then she was holding her baby. Pulling her close to her chest. "Emma… Emma…" She couldn't stop repeating herself. She held her there, feeling her breathe against her.
Then she needed to see again, and she stepped back, only to take Emma's face in her hands, and stare into her eyes. Searching them for life as lights confused and flashed around them. And she was there, Emma's blue eyes tore into Elizabeth, breaking through the fear of losing her.
"We've got to get you to the car, Ma'am."
She allowed them to secure them inside the car, but she never let go of her daughter.
"What were you thinking?" Elizabeth asked, not really needing an answer, just needing to hold onto Emma. "I'm so glad you're here… what were…"
Emma laid her head in Elizabeth's lap, holding tight to Elizabeth's legs. And Elizabeth held tight.
"We're flying you right to the White House from the helipad, Madam President." Matt said. "Director Ware is afraid of a possible secondary attack."
The car started to move, and Emma sat up quickly. "No wait, we need to make sure we have…" And she opened the car door, the agents, both inside and outside the car, to jump and surround the door.
But all she had to do was open the door, and in jumped the tiny mongrel that had brought Elizabeth to be this close to the whole thing. And Emma laid back down in her lap, the cat taking up residence on the floor next to Emma's feet.
The car started to move and Elizabeth asked, "How far are we from the…"
"Five minutes."
"Henry" Elizabeth said, "I need to call…"
And she reached into her pocket, trying to remember where she'd put her phone, when, on her white coat, she saw the blood. Streaks of wet, warm blood clung to her coat and smeared across both her hands. With her fingers shaking, Elizabeth turned Emma over, so she was facing Elizabeth.
"MATT!" Elizabeth called out, seeing what she'd been unable to distinguish from the lights outside the vehicle. From the lights on the road coming through the window, Elizabeth could see it. The only thing looking up at her that wasn't red was Emma's blue eyes. The blood went from Emma's hairline down to her chin. Scratches littered Emma's skin, and while clumps of dried blood hung around her nose and lip, around the lip was where fresh blood ran down the side of Emma's face towards Elizabeth's coat, where the blood was pooling. "Turn the lights on in here."
Elizabeth ripped her scarf from around her neck and pressed it to Emma's mouth, causing Emma to jump back in pain, but she held it there. Elizabeth ran her free hand down Emma's neck, down to her shirt, and felt the warm stickiness. The lights flipped on, and she saw Emma's chest submerged in wet, fresh blood. Her hand began to shake, dripping blood down into the sea of red already on Emma's body. "Medic." Elizabeth called out. Then to Emma, she said, "Emma, where are you hurting?"
And Emma shook her head, "Mom…" And Elizabeth looked down where Emma sat in her lap, the scarf holding back the blood from Emma's mouth. "It's not my blood. It's his."
Elizabeth searched Emma's eyes. And Emma nodded, reassuring her. Then she tried to sit up, but winced in pain. "Emma, I think you're in shock. You don't know…"
"Mom." She said again, stronger as she sat up and looked over at Elizabeth, "I shot him. But he was too heavy to push off." Emma readjusted the scarf on her lip while she talked. So he just bled on me." Then she grabbed at her side, "My shoulder. And it's hard to breathe, but I think that's cause of the ribs." And Emma looked at Elizabeth, who was still in shock about all the blood. "Mom, I'm ok. I promise. I just look worse than I am."
Elizabeth shook her head, her heart starting to beat a bit more normally listening to Emma talk to her. Getting past the blood in her mind was taking time. "You scared me so much, Em."
"I'm grounded for life, aren't I?"
"Most definitely."
