Title: No Easy Task

Chapter 5

"Whoever you are in there, my name is Jim Brass. I'm with the LVPD. We'd like to talk to you. We're going to be calling you. You can pick up which ever phone rings in the lobby. We want to make sure everyone's alright. We're ready to hear your demands."

Jack stood frozen for a minute as the detective's voice echoed from across the parking lot outside. He breathed heavily and his appearance exuded an air of anxiety almost as if the mess he had gotten himself into was finally hitting him. The cops were right outside. There were only two ways to get out of this mess: dead and in a body bag or arrested and thrown in jail for the rest of his life. He wasn't stupid. There was no way they'd just listen to his demands and let him leave. And for what? To spend the rest of his life on the run? If he left with one of the hostages, they'd catch him eventually. How far was he going to get with a pregnant lady or a bleeding cop? They'd just add kidnapping to the charges. He definitely wasn't going to get sympathy from a jury for kidnapping a pregnant woman. This was it. His life was over, any way you looked at it. All he and Tommy wanted to do was get some cash. They had nothing and had been desperate. They figured they'd just scare them a little, get some cash and run. Heck, in all honesty, they had been petrified themselves. But they had had enough of living on hard times. It was the only life they knew. It wasn't fair. When possible, they did odd jobs to earn buck. But everyone tried taking advantage of them, considered them punk-ass kids who didn't know better. Didn't help that they had no place to call home. Just made them assume they lived on the streets because of something they had done wrong. They had resorted to petty thefts here and there to get them through, but it wasn't enough anymore. Petty theft escalated to breaking and entering. Few days before they had waited for some yuppie to leave his Seven Hills house before breaking through a back door. They hoped they'd find some cash, maybe some jewelry, but didn't find anything other than some guns to pawn. Asshole had nothing but some kindergarten artwork and minimal boxy furniture. That was the last straw. He had been the one to think up the bright idea of robbing a bank. Tommy had been hesitant but he had talked him into it only after he told him he'd be the one to get the money from the teller, Tommy would just stand near the entrance as the watch-out. He knew Tommy had his doubts about it. He probably only shot the guard thinking the old man was getting ready to blow him away. He was trying to protect him. Now his friend was dead. Okay. So maybe he was stupid.

"Jack, they want to talk to you." The wounded cop's voice brought him back to the present.

Now he noticed that a telephone was ringing. He looked around, wondering how long he'd been out of it. The cop and the lady were still sitting on the floor. Two uneasy expressions staring back at him. The cop was pale and sweaty from his injuries. The woman, she was just frightened, but he noticed there was an almost air of anger coming off of her. Jack looked to the other side of the room and saw his dead friend. A feeling of suffocation came over him and he hastily shed his overcoat. He yanked the baseball cap along with it and threw them to the floor. With the cap went his long hair. Mary and Nick now saw that the wig of long dark hair had been just part of his disguise and obviously his partner's too. Jack took a few strides over to his friend and covered the top half of the lifeless man's body with the coat. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

Nick took in Jack's appearance. Now getting a clearer look at his face, he didn't think it was possible for him to be over 24 or 25 years old. He wore an old tattered black "Metallica" t-shirt, worn and dirty blue jeans and work boots that appeared years old, at the very least. The man's face appeared to be freshly shaven except for some stubble over his lip, but seeing him disguise-free, it was most likely that the young man was just a kid. He almost had a baby face. A kid that made a very unwise decision and had gotten himself into a terrible mess. Hopefully one that didn't cause anyone else to lose their lives. The only menacing thing about him was his size. He was maybe an inch or two taller than Warrick, but carried more weight than his lanky partner. Jack rubbed his left hand across his forehead and back through his short brown hair. This was no longer the angry, ruthless bank robber he appeared to be before. He could hear the wheels turning in the man's head. He was weighing his options on the situation. Jack clenched his jaw over and over, almost as if trying to hold back tears that threatened to fall out of anger at himself and out of loss for his friend. The gun he held in his right hand trembled slightly.

The criminalist hoped the empathy for which he was so often criticized would benefit them. Jack wasn't the victim here and Nick wasn't confusing him for one. But maybe showing him some understanding would help the man and in turn, help him and Mary. And he knew he couldn't totally understand wherever he was coming from, but he would try. Jack seemed to be looking for someone to walk him out of this mess.

Nick eyed the still ringing telephone. "Jack, they want to know everyone here is okay, know what you want so that no one else gets hurt." His voice was soft and encouraging. He kept stressing the theme of 'no one else needs to get hurt.'

Jack looked at him and shook his head. "I don't know what they can do to help me. Think they'll just let me walk out of here?" Uncertainty screamed from his first statement, only to be followed by the hopeful question, even thought he knew it wasn't going to happen.

"Honestly? No. But you need to show them you'll work with them." If he wasn't going to pick up the phone, he was going to keep talking to him.

"Way I see it I'm dead or in prison at the end of this. Not sure which is better. Can't figure it out." The man approached the closed blinds on one side of lobby and carefully peered through them, muttering a curse at seeing the activity outside. "You're a cop. What do they know already?"

"I don't know. I know about as much as you do about what's going on out there."

"You know something. What are they trying to do? Would they know we killed someone already? Are they gonna come storming in here?" The last question coming out urgently.

Nick swallowed and opened his mouth to speak. He was unsure of how to answer the question and not upset the man. "I don't know. If any of the tellers or employees from the back got out or called them and if any of them saw what happened out here, then they may know. They may know how many people are in here with you. Mary here, she's an employee. If she's not accounted for, they'll assume she's in here, I guess. Chances are they surrounded the building, but now they just want to establish communication. You should talk to them, man. Jim Brass, the guy you heard? He's a good man. Won't yank your chains. You can trust him." That took a lot out of him.

"And say what? I shot a cop. I tell them that, there's no way I'm outta here alive." He was getting upset again.

"No, Jack. No. That's not true. They won't shoot you if you turn yourself in unarmed. You need to show you are no longer a threat. I won't let them shoot you or anyone else. I'll do it with you. We'll show them you're not a threat."

That last word set him off. "I was never a threat! We weren't going to shoot anyone! We just wanted to get the money and run, but that stupid old man fucked everything up!" Jack's face flushed. He had gone from anger to insecurity back to full blown agitation. He rushed to the hostages and leaned over Nick, swinging the gun down in his direction as if it would make his point clearer.

Mary jumped as the man approached. Her eyes brimming with tears again. Nick reached over and placed his right arm across Mary's chest in an effort to protect her from the unstable man.

"I know. I know you weren't a threat!" Nick replied.

"If you knew that, why'd you shoot him, huh? If you knew we weren't a threat you wouldn't have shot him and I wouldn't have shot you! It's your fault too!" Jack brought the gun down in one swift swoop hitting Nick across the side of the head. Jack hit Nick so quickly that he fell onto his left shoulder without a chance to pull his arm out to catch himself. The impact left Nick dazed momentarily, but his shoulder and ribs were what were causing him the most pain. He did his best to not vocalize the pain.

In his fury, Jack looked down to the floor between Nick and Mary saw it. A cell phone. He reached down and looked at the screen as Nick slowly sat back up.

"What is this? Is this yours?" He directed the question at Nick without taking his eyes off the screen. "This has been connected for over an hour. Did you know this was on?" Spit shot out of his mouth with every word and his eyes finally glared back at Nick.

Still a little dazed, Nick stammered. "Wha-…I was on before you guys…it fell. I didn't know…" He silently prayed he wasn't going to get hammered again.

"Son of a bitch!" Jack threw the offensive device across the lobby were it hit the far wall and clattered to the floor in several pieces.

Yet the lobby phone continued to ring.

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Catherine, Greg and Archie sat mesmerized in the A/V lab, listening to the exchange taking place on the other end of the line. For a moment, they felt a ray of hope that this would be resolved quickly and peacefully. Nick was talking to the guy. He was calm and soothing. And for a second, it seemed that this Jack guy was responding to that. But it all seemed to go to hell in a hand basket in no time at all. This guy was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, going from one extreme to another.

Catherine shuttered when they'd heard a sick thud. Someone got hit again and most likely, that someone was Nick. She angrily swiped the loose strands of hair from her face and looked at Greg. His expression was unreadable. But he was nervous. He couldn't sit still in his chair. It reminded her Lindsay when she needed a bathroom break.

The redhead stood abruptly, her breathing speeding up when Jack asked 'What is this?' His voice got louder and clearer and they knew he was holding Nick's phone in his hands.

Nick's voice sounded so far away. And confused. That broke her heart. Her chin wrinkled up as she got the urge to cry. Then the line went dead.

Greg gasped and looked to Catherine, his eyes wide. "What do we do now?"

Catherine grabbed her cell phone, yanking it from where it had been connected to Archie's equipment. "We're going over there." With that she started dialing her supervisor and stormed out of the lab. Greg looked at the stunned tech and ran after her.

Tbc

Thanks for all of the positive reviews and encouraging words. Just got sucked into the whole CSI and CSI fanfiction thing last year. First time writing and posting anything for others to read. Glad people are enjoying this.

As always, more comments welcomed…