CH 2 of 5 today ...

*STEAM ALERT*

+ Trigger warning – minor violence at the end of the chapter. Next chapter follows so I haven't left you with a cliffhanger. If you don't like the topic, skip to Chapter 69.

* Also I'm not a pro on military anything so don't take too much offense if you are and this isn't factually correct. It is a made up story :)

(12/6/2019)

CHAPTER 67

Jack was due to leave on Thursday that week and before they knew it, Elizabeth woke early and content until the thought of what day it was hit her. Immediately, she turned to seek comfort in Jack's presence, pressing her body to his side. Her movement woke him and it took him a minute before his arms wrapped around his wife.

The tears began to spill and Elizabeth let out a small sob.

"Ssssh it's okay."

Jack rubbed his hands over her back, before pressing his palm to her cheek and leaning in to press his lips to hers. He kissed her slowly and then his lips moved to chase her tears away. When his lips came back to hers, she could taste the saltiness on them.

The kisses were gentle at first but became more desperate as the thought of Jack's impending departure overwhelmed them both. The kiss deepened as they both clung to one another and in no time, Jack was rolling over on top of her, their lips still pressed together as their hands discarded their pyjamas until there was no longer anything separating them.

Jack's lips descended down Elizabeth's jaw to reach her neck, the sensation making her whimper as he drew her skin into his mouth, nipping and sucking as he went. She gripped his hair in his fingers as the heat built up between them until they couldn't take the separation and their bodies moved together in unison. Elizabeth felt him move over her, but this was different to all of the other times between them – both of them attempting to drag out the inevitable.

When they finally peaked together and the euphoria surrounded them, they clung to one another, neither one wanting to release the other. Eventually out of fear of crushing his wife, Jack pulled back, leaving a trail of kisses along her neck and jaw before capturing her lips in a breathtaking kiss that he attempted to communicate all the feelings he had about leaving her for the next month.

As Jack pulled Elizabeth to him, to rest on his chest again, both of their hearts still racing, it was the memory of that kiss that Elizabeth clung to.

Almost two hours later, the family was standing on the front driveway saying goodbye. Shane had driven over and was loading Jack's bag into the back of his truck. He had offered to drop Jack off at the hangar and Elizabeth thought it was best to say goodbye at home as a family.

Jack and Elizabeth had already spent the morning barely separated. Now he was on his knees saying goodbye to each of his daughters.

"Come back soon, Daddy" Eve said, her little hands wrapped around his neck. Grace was on one side hugging him tight and Halley was on the other. All three of them were hugging him as best as they could.

"And you look after Mommy and the baby, won't you? No fighting or arguing, okay?"

The three girls all nodded.

Jack pressed a kiss to each of their heads as he moved to stand up, letting them all go reluctantly. As he stood, he glanced up at Elizabeth who stood behind them, tears filling her eyes. Jack wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her close.

"Don't cry, Beth. I'll be home soon. It will go so fast."

"I hope so" she whispered.

He pulled back, pressing his lips to hers. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

"See you soon."

Elizabeth nodded as the tears ran down her cheeks. Jack moved away and patted each of his daughter's heads.

"Love you, girls."

"Love you Daddy" they all sang back to him as he went to the passenger door of Shane's truck. He got in and leaned out the window. His eyes were locked on Elizabeth's as he waved goodbye. The girls clung to her side and as the truck pulled out onto the street, Jack raised his hand before they disappeared from view.

Jack let out a sigh.

"It's tough, hey?" Shane asked.

"Yeah. It's unbelievable. If you had have told me I would have felt like this a few months ago I would have never believed you."

"I understand."

"I feel like I've left half my body behind."

"Well, you have. A fair chunk of your heart and soul is back there."

"I think you're right. I know it's only for a month, but this feels horrible. Does it get any easier?"

"No. If anything, I think it gets harder. Luckily you will just be interstate and not on a tour of duty."

"Thanks for the lift, Shane."

"Anytime, Jack. And give me a call if you're struggling over there. I'm always available for you, Jack. No matter what it's for – work or personal – I'm here."

"You're a great friend, Shane."

"Well, so are you Jack" he said with a grin.

"Look out for Beth and the girls for me while I'm gone?"

"Always, Jack. You have my word."

Jack had been gone now for a week and a half. He called every night, sometimes early enough to talk to the girls, but other times it was later once he knew Elizabeth had put them all to bed. On those occasions, she lay on their bed in a state of exhaustion and had more than once fallen asleep to Jack's voice and woken up in the morning on top of the bed covers and fully dressed.

Now Elizabeth made every effort to have the kitchen clean, laundry hung out and lunches packed before she put the girls to bed. She normally showered at the same time as them so she was ready for bed as soon as they were asleep. That worked once. Every time after that, Elizabeth would fall asleep waiting for Jack to call. So no matter what she did, she couldn't win.

On Monday afternoon, her job share partner, Cassie called in a panic.

"Elizabeth, I'm so sorry but are we able to swap days this week? Bailey is sick again and I need to stay home and look after him tomorrow."

"That's fine. I will just need to call my sister and check that she can mind Eve for the day."

"Okay, well give me a call back if there's a problem."

"Sure. I hope Bailey's better soon."

"He will be. It's just the flu I think. He has a temperature and chills at the moment."

"Alright, I'll talk to you soon."

Elizabeth hung up and called Viola but she was unable to mind Eve.

"I'm so sorry, Beth, but I have an appointment with the obstetrician and Lionel's sister-in-law was going to watch Lara."

"It's okay. I will find someone else. Don't worry about it."

Elizabeth hung up and sat there for a moment thinking. There was still Katy, Abigail or Rosie who might be available but considering Katy lived the closest and would be at school in the morning, she tried her first. She only had Phillip at home with her now and Elizabeth knew she wouldn't mind. It was just the short notice that was the problem. She dialled her number.

"Hi Elizabeth."

"Hi Katy. I have a huge favour to ask you …"

"Anything, Elizabeth."

"I need to work tomorrow if I can."

"Would you like me to watch Eve?"

"Yes, I know it's late notice …"

"No, that's fine. I'm glad to help."

"Oh, you're a lifesaver. Thankyou."

"No problems. Should I get her from school in the morning?"

"Yes, that would be a huge help. Thanks!"

They chatted a bit longer about how everything was going before hanging up. Elizabeth sent a text back to Cassie saying it was all fine before she began running around the house getting ready for the next day since she had to get ready earlier now.

She missed Jack's call that afternoon and evening and Elizabeth sighed in annoyance. She tried to call him back but the call went to voicemail. Huffing, she hung up without leaving a message and got ready for bed.

Jack had been busy with his training course and found that if he kept busy, although his thoughts were often on his family, they didn't paralyse him when he had too much time on his hands.

The most frustrating thing had now become playing phone tag with Elizabeth. He would call her and not answer. Then she would call back and he would miss it. For the last three days, all they had done was miss each other and he had had enough. He needed to hear her voice.

Elizabeth arrived at school and was able to hand off Eve to Katy well before classes started. She still had enough time to review her lesson plan before the students arrived. The bell rang and she went to stand at the door to see her children beginning to line up along the wall of the hallway.

As she brought them in, a few of her students sounded surprised to see her and asked where Cassie was but many didn't even notice the change or didn't really mind.

Elizabeth began by asking the students what they did the day before, right before she began their maths lesson. The morning went quickly and they were packing up their maths workbooks to pull out their grammar ones, when loud voices were heard in the hallway.

Elizabeth paused at the front of the classroom and tried to hear what was being said when a loud male voice was heard.

"I'm here for my boy! Get out of my way!"

At that exact instant, the sound of a gun shot rang through the air. Her students froze at the sound and immediately Elizabeth jumped into action.

"Everyone stand up now and move to the back of the room into the reading corner behind my desk. Keep your voices down and hurry please" she said.

Elizabeth spoke calmly and the children reacted quickly as they hurried to the corner of the room. Thankfully they had practiced this drill before and even though the gun shot was different to their practice sessions the children moved quickly. There was only one door in and out of her classroom so they were in the safest place out of view at the moment. Elizabeth heard some tears and her heart broke that she couldn't get down and comfort them.

"Now be brave and stay together. You need to be quiet. Don't move until I come back."

As soon as they were quiet she moved toward the door just as it swung open and Elizabeth came face-to-face with the man from the playground who was waving a gun in front of him.

Elizabeth immediately put her hands up in front of her.

"Don't shoot!" she begged.

The man ignored her, his eyes sweeping the room quickly looking for something.

"Where is she?"

Elizabeth was confused knowing the man mentioned his son only moments ago when he was yelling in the hallway.

"Who?" she asked confused.

"Cassie!"

Elizabeth's eyes widened in surprise and then suddenly everything made sense. The son he was after must have been Bailey.

"I don't know" Elizabeth spoke quietly, her voice trembling. She was unsure how he was going to react when he realised Cassie wasn't here like she normally was.

"Don't give me that!" he yelled at her. "This is her classroom!"

"Yes, but not today. She called in sick."

The man's face flashed with a look even angrier than he already was, in no time he grabbed Elizabeth, pulling her roughly until her back his chest and his arm wraped across her arms and shoulders under her neck. The gun was held in his other hand, close to his side.

"Where are your kids?"

Elizabeth assumed he hadn't noticed the students huddled in the back corner. She had heard soft whimpering every now and again but his judgment must have been so clouded in fury that he hadn't heard them. She decided to risk lying to him, hoping he couldn't see through it.

"In the library" Elizabeth said hurriedly and a little too adamantly. "They will be back any minute though", she added, trying to emphasise the tremor in her voice.

"You know Cass though right? You can call her now."

"How can I when you are holding me at gun point? She will be able to tell something is wrong and then what would I say?"

The man gritted his teeth as he pulled her out of the classroom and Elizabeth almost sighed in relief knowing her students were safe.

"Well, we're going to Cassie's place then. You will get me into her apartment or I will kill you." He nudged her with his gun as he spoke, as if in emphasis.

"I haven't done anything" Elizabeth said, her voice breaking as he pulled her down the hallway. She had been trying to delay the man a little longer, knowing that someone would have called the police at the sound of the gunshot.

"Ahh, but you have. You noticed me watching the school and now you can be my hostage. Fair's fair."

"That's not fair at all. I have children."

"Would you prefer I take one of them as a hostage instead?"

Elizabeth stayed quiet.

"Good. Shut it. Let's go."

Elizabeth saw a few people further along the hall quickly vanish into doorways, but the man didn't seem to notice as his attention was on pushing Elizabeth towards the exit and holding his gun in front of him.

As they approached the main exit doors, she saw Jimmy through one of the closed doors as they passed. His eyes were full of panic as he saw Elizabeth pass him. The only good thing about seeing a glimpse of him, meant that security and as a result, the police, would have been notified.

The man pushed open the main doors before shoving her through in front of him, Elizabeth stumbled down the two steps in front of her, almost landing on her knees before the man swiftly pulled her to her feet and pushed cold metal against her temple.

Only then did Elizabeth look up to see that they were surrounded. Several police cars sat in front of the school with guns pointing at them from every direction. Elizabeth whimpered when she saw the scene in front of her, like something out of a movie.

A voice reached them from a megaphone near one of the police cars.

"Put the gun down and release the hostage."

The man growled behind her.

"You give me my son and I will!" he yelled back.

"We need time to find him. Where is he?"

The man nudged Elizabeth, indicating he wanted her to speak.

"Cassie _'s son, Bailey. She's a teacher here."

The man suddenly landed a jolt to the side of her ribs, with the butt of his gun. Elizabeth whimpered at the force of the contact, crossing her arms in front of her and clutching her side with her hand. Up until then she thought she would get away unharmed. Now she wasn't so sure and her thoughts immediately went to her unborn child.

"I don't know her address. She lives in Summerville" Elizabeth continued.

"Give us an hour and we will get him here" the policeman called out.

The man pulled Elizabeth close, walking backward toward the doors. Elizabeth realised this man wasn't thinking logically at all. For one, he believed the policeman was going to hand over a three year old boy to his deranged father who was currently holding a gun to a woman's head. On the other hand, he knew to keep her close to him.

The man went through the school doors first and Elizabeth was about to attempt a break for it but his hand shifted to her throat as he yanked her inside. His hand tightened and cut off her air supply as he shoved her against a wall.

"Don't even think about it" he yelled into her face. "Try again and I won't think twice to get rid of you and find another hostage."

His eyes were frantic as he stared at her before he loosened his hand and Elizabeth slid down the wall, choking and gasping for air.

Shane was at work in training room when the PA system erupted with an announcement.

"Squads Cactus and Trident please report to the quad immediately."

Knowing that type of announcement usually meant some type of emergency, Shane shot out the door as the officer in charge. He arrived in the quad quickly and moved in front of his squad and had them stand in formation.

Major Gowan appeared immediately with two officers beside him. He called Shane and the other Sergeant forward. They saluted and stood at attention.

"There's a gunman at the elementary school with at least one hostage. They want as much help as possible to evacuate the students to safety until backup arrives from the city. Get over there ASAP. Drill Sergeant Yates is on his way over there now to liase with the police. He will hand out your orders when you get there. Dismissed."

Shane turned to his men. "Hostage situation at the school. Get ready to move out ASAP." Everyone ran to their lockers knowing the urgency of the situation to throw on their clothes and equipment. They were at the trucks in minutes and were pulling out.

It was times like this, Shane would like to call Katy but he knew she would be safe and instead worried about his daughters hoping they were far away from the danger.

Elizabeth had been dragged into a classroom near the main doors. The man had turned off the lights and shut all of the blinds, leaving just one slightly open so he could keep an eye on the front of the school. Elizabeth had just been relieved that the classroom had been empty. Jimmy must have evacuated the students from here as soon as the man had shoved Elizabeth outside.

She had now been sitting on the floor against the wall as far away from the man as possible. Her rib ached from where he had hit her, but she was just glad it hadn't been anywhere near her belly. Her baby bump was more pronounced now, having popped out in just the last week and even though with all the amniotic fluid the baby was relatively well protected, she wasn't sure what would happen if the butt of a gun intruded into that space. Her arms remained wrapped around her mid-section and her knees bent in front of her in any case.

Her thoughts wandered to Halley, Grace, Oscar and her students knowing that they should be safe by now but they would all be scared when Elizabeth wasn't there with them. Elizabeth put her forehead on her knees and willed herself to be strong. Her thoughts went to Jack and the tears welled in her eyes.

The security guard Jimmy had not made it to the gunman in time. Instead he had been swarmed by panicked students. After ushering several out the front doors of the school, he saw the police cars arriving and told the older students to run toward them.

After getting an entire class out, he turned to move and saw the gunman step out of a classroom with someone held in front of him. Not knowing what the man wanted and knowing there wasn't much he could do at that moment, he saw some children panicking behind a door and rushed inside the room before the gunman saw him.

As the gunman swept passed, Jimmy's eyes met those of the hostage. The pretty blue eyes that belonged to the first grade teacher. Elizabeth. Then it all clicked into place. The gunman was that man that she warned everyone of.

Jimmy watched as she was shoved out the front doors and the doors slammed behind them before the police began yelling. Taking that as his cue, Jimmy opened the classroom door and ushered the small group of students back along the hall to a rear exit.

Another teacher saw him pass and she rushed her students out after them. When they reached the door, they had the children running for the trees. Jimmy got ready to return when he heard the yelling between the negotiator and the man that had Elizabeth.

"Give us an hour and we will get him here" the policeman spoke over the megaphone.

Jimmy ran along the outer fence toward the police car at the entrance. A policeman tried to stop him.

"I'm the school security officer. I need to speak to who is in charge."

The policeman relented and showed him the way to where there were several senior police officers and a man in military uniform huddled and talking tactics.

"Excuse me. This is the school security officer. He wants a word."

Their conversation stopped and the four men looked over at him.

"What is it?"

"Do you have information on the hostage?"

"Not yet."

"Her name is Elizabeth Thornton and she is a teacher here."

"So she works with Cassie _?"

"Yes. I believe she job shares with her. She wasn't supposed to be here today though. She doesn't work Tuesday's."

At that moment, some army officers arrived. One of them walked hurriedly in front of the others.

"Is there anything more you can tell us about Elizabeth Thornton or Cassie _?" the officer in charge continued questioning Jimmy.

"Elizabeth Thornton?" the approaching army officer asked, a worried expression covering his face.

The police chief turned to the approaching man.

"You are?"

"Sergeant Cantrell, sir."

The police chief looked at him warily for a moment. "The hostage is Elizabeth Thornton."

"Oh shit!" Cantrell said.

"You know her?"

"Yes. She's my best friend's wife, Sergeant Jack Thornton. She's four months pregnant too."

"Can you get a hold of your friend?"

"He's interstate on a training course." He turned to the other military man who was already there. "Do I have permission to contact Major Gowan about this new information?"

"Go ahead, Sergeant."

Cantrell broke away to make a call as the police chief addressed everyone nearby.

"If she is pregnant, this complicates things further but there is nothing that can be done right now. We have an hour to evacuate the children where possible and try and immobolise the threat. I need a plan, people."

"I know the school layout. I need to go speak to the school evacuation officer for student numbers" Jimmy spoke up.

"Yes. Do that now and report back."

Jimmy hurried off to find Molly. Rushing back along the fence line where he found Molly and Florence rushing around.

"Do we have a student count yet?"

"Yes and no. We are missing Mrs Thornton's entire class plus a handful of other students."

"Were they in her classroom when the incident occurred?"

"I believe so. She probably hid them and told them not to move. They are only six year olds."

"Alright. The army is here now so they will be going in for further evacuations until police backup arrive. I will let them know. I need a list of missing students as soon as I return."

Jimmy reported the information back and by that stage Cantrell was back and awaiting instruction. Already there were army personnel now spaced out around the perimeter, taking over where the police line finished. Since it was a majority military town, there was more cooperation between the groups than normal. Especially considering the closest SWAT team was 90 minutes away.

"The SWAT team is still ETA 10 minutes" the police chief said. "I think it best that you send your squad in for Mrs Thornton's missing students. We're guessing they are still hiding in their classroom."

After a few quick words, Cantrell's squad was instructed to go in. Cantrell addressed Jimmy directly.

"Which classroom is it?"

"Room 108. Midway along the corridor, south side."

Cantrell took off with his squad members following.