Chapter Seventeen: Kicking For the Surface
The air rushed out of him as Charlie slammed into floor, sliding several feet on the polished hardwood. Colby rolled his body, landing awkwardly on his side to avoid smashing the professor with his full weight. And Tabitha Karney hit the floor like she had been dropped from the ceiling.
A single moment of absolute silence filled the room and it seemed as if everyone were holding their breath.
Then suddenly, the spell was broken.
David moved forward, keeping his gun leveled at the suspect as he approached her. She stared at him looking disoriented and she didn't move as he kicked the .22 caliber pistol farther away from her outstretched arm. He could see two oozing bullet wounds in her right shoulder where both he and Don had hit her. The perfect shot to disarm a suspect. Reaching around his back, David pulled his cuffs out of their case on the back of his belt. She was wounded, but he wasn't going risk leaving her un-cuffed. He lifted his eyes to where Colby and Charlie had hit the floor as he began to read the still conscious woman her Miranda Rights.
Don reached the spot just as Colby pushed himself up onto his knees, his right arm wrapped around his ribs. Charlie rolled off of his side, staying on his back, staring at the ceiling and trying to catch his breath.
Sparing a glance for the younger agent, Don raised an eyebrow in a silent question and Colby nodded dismissively to let his boss know he was fine.
Despite the cast on the lower part of his left leg, Don managed to kneel on the floor next to his brother.
"You okay, Buddy?"
Charlie took a shuttering breath, unsure of how to answer. He felt like running his hands over his body to check for any unnatural holes, but he resisted the urge.
Don however could not.
He pulled the flaps of Charlie's jacket aside and then he ran his hands over the back of Charlie's head, checking for blood.
"Are you hurt?"
Charlie looked up at Don's furrowed brow and concerned eyes, but still couldn't bring himself to answer verbally, so he just shook his head.
"Charlie?"
Nodding slightly at his older brother, Charlie started to move and Don grabbed his left arm and helped him into a sitting position.
Once David had Tabitha Karney in handcuffs, Robert Whitney had wasted no time rushing around the group and into the alcove where David had hidden his daughter. He walked back into the center of the room with Hannah holding tightly to his neck and sobbing. Only then did he stop to look at the woman who had tried to kill his family. She lifted her eyes to him as if expecting him to say something, but he chose to remain silent. Shaking his head in disbelief, he moved to the corner of the room and turned away from scene. Dropping onto one of the fluffy sofas, he held tightly to his daughter murmuring reassurances to the child under his breath.
Movement from the stairwell door got his attention and David jerked his head around to see Megan standing there with her weapon drawn.
"Everybody okay?"
David shrugged his shoulders as he grabbed his phone and made the call for an ambulance and Megan moved over to where Colby remained kneeling on the floor next to Don and Charlie.
"You alright, Granger?"
Megan put her hand out and Colby grabbed it, grateful for some help in pulling himself to his feet. Brushing his pants legs off and straightening his jacket around his broad shoulders, Colby nodded.
"Fine. Just hit the floor funny, that's all."
He jerked his head in Charlie's direction.
"What about him? He okay?"
Pulling his eyes away from Charlie, Don lifted his head to look at the other agents.
"I think so."
As Don rose to his feet, a sharp pain in his lower leg reminded him of the cast he was wearing. Wishing he had his crutches now, Don reached out his hand for his brother.
"Can you stand?"
Nodding, Charlie extended his left arm and Don pulled him swiftly to his feet. Charlie's knees buckled and he staggered a little, but Don grabbed his arm to steady him.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Nodding, Charlie turned to look at Colby in admiration. Pain was searing up his arm from his elbow and his right side ached as if he had been hit by a two hundred pound linebacker. Which is essentially what had happened. In fact, his arm beneath his cast was pounding and aching as if it were a fresh break. As he tentatively tried to readjust his cast back into the sling around his neck without wincing from the pain, Charlie finally managed to get words to come out of his mouth.
"That………….was a hell of a tackle, Granger."
Hearing Charlie speak seemed to release some of Don's pent up anxiety. A loud exhale of relief escaped him and Don grasped Colby firmly by the shoulder in an expressive gesture of gratitude.
"Yes, it was."
The sound of sirens could be heard in the distance and Don lowered his eyes to look at his brother again.
"I'm okay, Don."
With that reassurance, Don limped over to where David stood next to their bleeding suspect. Biting his lip against the increasing pain in his leg, Don stopped to look at Tabitha Karney.
"We both get her?"
"Yeah. Two hits, right shoulder."
Glancing at the floor, Don noticed a small bullet casing not far from the injured woman. Picking up the palm sized pistol from the floor, Don lifted it to his nose.
"She did fire. I wasn't sure if…………."
Don's eyes got wide and at the same time both agents turned to look at Charlie and Colby. The two men were standing together staring at a spot on the floor. Megan knelt down and put her fingers out toward the spot. She lifted her head, tilting it slightly as she looked at Colby. Don couldn't see her eyes or hear what she said, but suddenly Colby took a step back and shook his head.
When he saw Megan jump to her feet and grab a very startled looking Charlie by the shoulders, Don felt as if a cold hand had wrapped its fingers around his throat. But her question set his feet in motion, regardless of the pain shooting through his leg.
"Charlie? Where are you hit?"
Trying to pin point every sensation in his body even slightly resembling pain, Charlie glanced at the front of his shirt and looked up at her in confusion.
"I….I…I wasn't?"
Don reached the huddle and glancing at the splatter of blood on the floor where Charlie had landed, he looked back at his brother's frightened face. It wasn't that much blood, but quantity was not always significant and a .22 caliber bullet might not have an exit wound…entry wounds didn't always bleed profusely…not right away.
Hell, Charlie might not even feel it yet. With this thought, Don stepped right in front of his brother.
"Charlie, does anything hurt?"
Without waiting for an answer, Don grabbed Charlie's jacket. As he yanked it from where it rested over his right shoulder, Colby grabbed the back of the coat and pulled it off his left arm.
Revealing the cast on Charlie's right arm in its entirety, Don stepped back. Glancing at Megan then back to his brother, he narrowed his eyes looking over his brother's body.
"Charlie?"
"Don, I………"
Before Charlie got to finish his sentence, Colby stepped up behind him.
"Don. Here."
Charlie's eyes got wide at Colby's words and he turned his head as if to look at the back of his right arm.
"But…."
Before he knew what was happening, Don, Colby and Megan had moved him over to one of the couches and shoved the short sleeve of his shirt up over his shoulder.
"Don't move, Charlie."
When Don grabbed the upper part of his cast, Charlie winced.
"Sorry, Buddy. I just want to see……….."
Looking at the top of the cast, Don realized that if it were anyone else but Charlie and he hadn't been scared half out of his mind, he might have found this funny.
The bicep of the cast had a small hole just a few inches above Charlie's elbow where the bullet had entered. A slightly larger hole in the front of the cast showed the exit wound. From the angle of the entry and exit points, Don guessed that the bullet had passed directly through Charlie's arm beneath the cast. The blood on the floor had drained out of the hole in the back of the cast when he had been lying on his back.
The blood was beginning to saturate the interior lining of the cast and the crimson stain was starting to show around the end of the plaster at Charlie's hand. Terrified by the sight of his own blood, Charlie tried to careen his head around to see what his brother was looking at. Spotting the hole in the upper part of his cast and the pink tinge that the plaster around the hole was starting to take on, Charlie felt a rush of panic that made him feel simultaneously flushed and light headed.
"Don?"
Charlie's voice contained more than a hint of panic and Don moved back around the couch so he was in front of his brother. Seeing the blood that was now dripping from the end of the cast and the look of horror in Charlie's dark brown eyes, Don tried to keep his face as calm and impassive as possible.
"You'll be fine. Okay, Buddy?"
Two LAPD officers entered the front door and Megan pulled her badge from where it had been clipped to her pants and turned to go meet them.
"Hang in there, Charlie."
Raising her voice as she crossed the room, Megan held her badge high in the air.
"FBI, Agent Reeves. We're going to need a second ambulance here. We've got a man down."
………………………………
Authors Notes: Sorry you had to wait! I got the chance to write a little over the weekend, but it's hard to look at white paper when the sun is shining that brightly! HA! Thanks for all of the notes of encouragement and sympathy! I survived the weekend and as it turns out my in-laws love me. I plan to post more later in the week! Hope this chapter was worth the wait!
Chapter Eighteen: Now Everybody Breathe
