Part 6 - Friends to the Rescue?

Regardless of her own safety, Rachel quickly moved over to John and gently eased his head onto her lap. His lack of response worried her. Blood poured from the wound at an alarming rate. She could feel it soaking into her jeans as she gently parted his hair. There was only one wound, which meant that Wade had struck him in exactly the same spot. Taking the hem of her cotton top, Rachel tried her best to stem the flow. It was useless. All she achieved was to turn the bottom of her garment red. Looking towards Wade, she sent daggers in his direction. "Why did you do that?"

"He was getting…on…my…nerves."

"So you just had to hit him…again." Mr. Franks added. "I should think your best bet is to give yourselves up before this goes any further."

"Oh you do, do ya! You should have thought of that before you went and pushed that button, fucking dumbass."

Clive turned to his brother. He knew the manager was right. "Wade, we're not going to get out of this, so we might as well surrender."

"No, we ain't! We ain't come this far to end up in jail."

Clive looked truly terrified, he shook his head. "Like I said before, I don't wanna die."

Wade glared at him but said nothing more as he grabbed a handful of paper towels and threw them at John's prone body. Rachel gathered up the ones she could reach and pressed them firmly onto John's head wound hoping to stem the flow of blood. Eventually it worked but it must have been at least another ten minutes before Rachel felt John stir. She gently placed a hand on his chest and whispered for him to remain still.

John opened his eyes and gave her a bleary look. He was never good at taking advice and, although he felt like shit with a pounding headache, he struggled to sit up. It took several attempts before he managed to get upright, only to promptly keel over, like an unsteady toddler, a moment later. Rachel shook her head at his stubbornness and despite her misgivings she helped him until he was half propped against the wall.

The room spun alarmingly and his stomach threatened to rebel. John struggled to keep it in check until the dizziness lessened. The feeling of nausea remained, but his main concern was the fact that he couldn't see too clearly. At this rate, John reasoned that he wouldn't be able to walk out of the bank even if Wade wanted him as a hostage. The only problem was did Wade realize that?

-oOo-

Outside the heat of the afternoon slowly gave way to a cooler breeze as the sun sank lower in the sky. In three hours it would be dark and Sheriff Richards was not a happy man, mainly due to the fact that the siege hadn't ended yet. In less than four hours he was supposed to be taking his wife for an anniversary dinner. Then there was the fact that the so called experts had yet to come up with a way to resolve the crisis. Even though the Air Force major had been joined by a guy called Bates, who claimed to be a special operative or something like that, nothing had been done. Oh, they'd talked enough about it, including the possibility of storming the bank but it was considered far too dangerous because of the reinforced doors and small windows. In the end, they decided to wait. Making claims that the best man to end the situation was actually inside the building.

-oOo-

Not so far away as the crow flies, Dr. Rodney McKay was enjoying the late afternoon drive as he and Jennifer headed up towards Wisconsin. They could have taken a plane but somehow the idea of a leisurely drive up to see the sights, and nights spent in different hotels, had been far more appealing. So here they were having just crossed the Colorado border on Highway 70 and heading towards Denver, where they planned to spend their second night.

McKay turned to his companion and smiled, she appeared to be dozing. Probably had enough of hearing his voice, he thought. So wanting some entertainment to while away the time, Rodney fiddled with the radio to look for some decent music. Instead of music, he found a news station and was just about to change it when the word Bracton was mentioned. Intrigued, he decided to listen further. Up until yesterday, when Sheppard had mentioned the place, he'd never heard of it and now, here it was again. He turned the volume up but only slightly so that he wouldn't wake Jennifer.

Jennifer had been well away in dreamland when her head suddenly bobbed forward and the seatbelt cut painfully into her shoulder. She looked around blearily wondering why Rodney had applied the brakes so recklessly, only to find that they had left the highway. She glanced at him. He looked very pale and concerned. "Are you alright?" she asked, thinking that he'd been taken ill.

Rodney didn't answer as he pulled to a stop. Grabbing the GPS unit, he started entering some information. Jennifer noted that his hands were shaking, so she rested her hand on his arm to calm him. "Rodney, what's wrong?"

He finished entering the data and set the GPS back on its stand. "We have to go to Bracton right now because…because Sheppard's got himself caught up in a bank heist. He's being held at gun point by two criminals."

Jennifer looked incredulous. "How do you know that?"

"It was on the radio. They didn't say it was Sheppard, just some Air Force officer, but…I…I…just know it's him."

"Okay why don't we try and find out for sure before we go rushing off on some wild goose chase."

"It's not a wild goose chase. I…" Rodney stopped and grabbed his phone.

Jennifer listened as he spoke to someone on the other end and nearly jumped out of her skin when Rodney suddenly bellowed. "Why wasn't I told!? Oh…never mind we're heading there now…and goodbye to you too!" He threw the phone down in disgust before turning to face her. If possible, he'd gone even paler. "Told you, it's him."

"Okay then. Do you want me to drive?"

Rodney looked uncertain but he'd been driving for hours now so letting Jennifer take over was probably for the best. He nodded and said. "You need to take 70 east. I've set the GPS to tell you when to leave."

Jennifer nodded and they quickly exchanged places. "So how far away are we?"

"About thirty miles."

"Not so far then." Hitting the gas peddle, Jennifer quickly headed back towards the highway. Hoping that by the time they arrived, Sheppard would be safely out of the bank.

tbc