A/N: Sorry this took so long, I'll try to be faster with the next chapter... as always, enjoy reading and review if you feel like it ;)
The hours were passing slowly. Danny and Lindsay had been sitting on the floor all night, whispering words of comfort to each other every now and then when they weren't watched that closely. The clerk had already fallen asleep on the floor next to them, his day had been long enough.
All the time it had been Terry who watched them, while Gus had been sitting next to the telephone, waiting for the police to call and tell him they got everything he had demanded. It was two o'clock in the morning now though, and Terry was getting tired.
"Tom… Tom, wake up!" Terry carefully kicked Tom, who was lying on the floor asleep.
"What?" Tom asked, still sleep-drunken. He had to orientate first, he seemed to have no idea where he was. He looked at the guns lying near beside him, then raised his head and saw the hostages that were kept covered by Terry. He also saw that Terry couldn't carry on for much longer anymore and realized that it was his turn to watch over the two cops and the clerk. Slowly he stood up and took Lindsay's and Danny's guns – he would have felt uncomfortable with these firearms lying around there unwatched.
"Alright, I'll take over."
"Good. I really need some rest." Terry laid down where Tom had been lying before, whilst Tom took over Terry's place, pointing his two guns at his hostages. Once he was standing and seeing clearly again, his nervous twitches came back. Lindsay grabbed Danny's hand, staring at the boy's shaking hands. Danny looked at her, and then followed her look up to Tom.
"Hey boy, you okay?" he cautiously asked.
"What do you care?" Tom obviously didn't want to talk about his problems.
"I just thought… I mean, you don't look too good, maybe you wanna talk…"
"Oh, shut up, stupid copper!" Gus intervened, he didn't want Danny to talk himself into Tom's mind. "The boy's fine, just leave him alone and let him do his job." Gus turned around, back to staring at the phone.
"Yeh, I couldn't be better!" Tom stepped from one foot to the other. "See, no-one can harm me as long as I got these," he wildly waved his two guns.
"Tom, it's alright, just ignore them." Now even Gus could see how nervous and uncomfortable the boy was, and that he was about to snap any minute.
"No, it's not alright, Gus! I won't take your crap anymore, my life's over anyway. The cops outside won't just let us walk out there like nothing happened if we let them free," with Danny's gun in his right hand he pointed at Danny and Lindsay.
"Better be careful with that." Danny spoke in a calming voice, he was aware of the fact that Tom was about to pull the trigger, one wrong word and it would be over for them. As he saw that the gun was pointed more towards Lindsay, he slowly got up and moved in front of her, still trying to calm down Tom.
Lindsay squeezed Danny's hand, she didn't want him to risk his life for her. She'd rather be risking hers for him, but she was to afraid to actually do anything. Did she really just think about risking her life for this guy she met not even half a day ago? She started sweating, Lindsay had this sixth sense in cases like this one, it told her that something was going to happen and turn this around, make it stop… it only didn't tell her whether it would end good for any of the parties involved, and right now it didn't appear to go well for anybody in this room. Danny squeezed back, as if to say she shouldn't worry, he had this under control.
The voices got louder, Gus tried to persuade Tom to give him the weapons, whilst Danny wanted Gus to stop and let the boy think clearly for a moment. Tom was only standing there, confused, angry, and ready to shoot.
Even though the argument hadn't woken up the clerk or Terry, this next noise did: Closing his eyes and crying out loudly Tom fired the guns, both aimed in different directions. The shots were echoed through the forest behind the gas station, followed by a silence soon broken by Lindsay's screams:
"Danny! Danny!" He was hit, a bullet went through his left shoulder and let him fall down, his head hitting the counter, onto Lindsay who was holding him now, trying to stop the wound from bleeding. Danny had lost consciousness.
After he realized what he had done Tom immidately dropped the guns and stumbled outside. The police, also waken up by the shot, finally took action and stormed into the gas station. Terry and Gus were paralized, staring at Danny's motionless body and offered no resistance upon their arrest.