A/N: Yay for excitement! Thanks to singdance and bluebear48 for the great reviews!
Than To Ever Live Without You
Chapter Twelve
After returning to New York from Florida Kaelyn was completely tired and ready to spend an entire week resting, but she was faced with lots of work when returning home so her prospect of resting was smashed. Upon returning Chuck had come to pick up Katherine to spend a few days with him and that was fine by Kaelyn who simply wanted to rest and dealing with a one year old and resting didn't quite go together. This did leave her and Damien a lot of time to spend together even with all of her work she had to do. Wednesday morning she awoke in her bed alone. Sitting up and stretching she slipped out of bed and started to get ready for work. She wasn't going to see Damien for a few days because he was being honored with a photography award in Atlanta, but she couldn't go with all the work she had to do at her office.
Turing on the news Kaelyn walked into the closet to pick out something to wear to work. It was something she did every morning. She would listen to the news while she got ready for work. Standing in the closet she noticed that they had started to talk about Bass Incorporated which was Chuck's father's company. She walked out of her closet and into her bedroom and sat on the bed while she waited for the story.
"Early this morning upon arriving to work nearly five hundred non-union employees of Bass Incorporated were told that they had to attend a meeting and at that meeting they were informed by company Vice President Charles Bass that they were being laid-off. When asked to comment the workers expressed their anger in that they now had no jobs and they had families to feed. When asked to comment the press secretary of Bass Incorporated said that they were extremely sorry that they had to let go of the employees and that they had been in talks for a very long time in order to decide if they were going to lay off these employees and they tried their hardest not to, but the numbers were not working and they had to do what they could as a company and the decision was to lay them off. We will have more on this story later." The reporter said and then the story switched to something about a troop of dancing dogs in Wyoming.
Kaelyn was surprised at the story because normally Chuck always told her these kinds of things, but then she thought it was because they didn't live together and having conversations wasn't something they had been good at. Finishing her preparations for work Kaelyn went on with her day and to work. She sat in her office making phone calls for nearly an hour when Nadine ran into her office out of breath.
"Something wrong?" Kaelyn asked Nadine who was out of breath and had a very terrified look on her face.
"Turn on your TV." Nadine said out of breath as she grabbed Kaelyn's remote and turn on the flat screen that hung on the wall of Kaelyn's office.
"We are still getting word on how many hostages there are…For those who are just tuning in we are across the street from The Palace Hotel here in New York City where a hostage situation is taking place in the head offices of Bass Incorporated. From what we know one very upset now ex-employee of the company who was laid-off this morning returned to let the President and Vice President of the company know how he feels about being laid off…just a second…I am hearing from police that they know for sure that there are nearly twelve hostages and of those twelve two are the President and Vice President and one of them is the only one year old daughter of the Vice President Charles Bass…" before the reporter could say anymore Kaelyn was hysterical. Quickly grabbing her coat and her purse she ran from her office and instead of taking the elevator she jogged down the stairs.
The Palace was only a few blocks from Kaelyn's office and she ran the entire way there. Making it there the entire street was blocked by police and reporters were all across the street. She ran straight to the barricade where she was pushed away by an officer.
"You don't understand!" she screamed while tears were flowing down her face. "My husband and daughter are in there!"
"Ma'am all hotel guest have been evacuated." The police officer said.
"They aren't guest. Charles Bass is my husband." She cried and suddenly the officer looked at her with wide eyes.
"This way ma'am." The officer said as he let her through the barricade and over to a small area there were computers set up under a canopy. There was a chair that he led her to, but Kaelyn wouldn't sit.
"No, No, my husband and my daughter." She cried.
"Mrs. Bass we are trying to negotiate with the hostage taker now, but for now all we can do is wait. Just sit here and I promise I will keep you informed." He said to her calmly. Kaelyn nodded and sat in the chair. She was shaking as she sat. Looking up at the hotel she just wondered how everything was going inside and she felt like she couldn't bare it. The thought of Chuck and or Katherine being hurt or killed broke her heart into pieces.
Nearly two hours had passed and Kaelyn was still sitting and waiting. They had gotten the hostage taker on the phone a couple times, but each time they only had him for a few minutes before he hung up and refused to speak to them. It had gotten really quiet until the police decided to sent officers in. Kaelyn watched as a SWAT team of officers entered the hotel. She was now standing by a wall looking terrified. It was quiet for a moment until she heard gun shots and everything got crazy. It was like to her that everything had gone so fast even though it had taken nearly 45 minutes after they heard shots until there were more and hostages were now coming out of the building. She then saw and officer with a baby and she knew right away it was Kat. Kaleyn ran right over to the officer.
"I'm her mother." She cried and the officer nodded and handed her Kat who was crying. Kaelyn rocked her in her arms waiting to see Chuck walk out, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. She then seen Mr. Bass' assistant Marylynn.
"Marylynn where is Chuck?" she asked as she continued to rock Katherine who was still crying.
"He was shot." Marylynn said in a soft, but frightening tone.
It seemed like everything had stopped for Kaelyn when she heard it. She suddenly was on the ground still holding Katherine and she was now also crying. The paramedics entered the hotel and the second person they brought out was Chuck. Kaelyn got up and ran to him.
"Chuck!" she screamed as she got to him.
"Kay, Kat's okay. That's good." He said as if he was in another universe. The paramedic continued to wheel him.
"I have to ride." She said suddenly.
"Only direct relatives." The paramedic said.
"I'm his wife." Kaelyn said angrily.
"Oh sorry, follow me." The paramedic said.
Kaelyn sat in the hospital room with Katherine asleep in her arms and Chuck asleep in the bed. He had emergency surgery to have the bullet removed from his abdomen, but other than that the doctor said he was fine. Kaelyn was extremely happy that he was okay because in the end she realized she didn't know what to do if he had died. It was three in the morning and she had started to drift asleep, but she fought it because she wanted to be awake when she woke up. Her arms had gotten tired from holding Kat so she sat her in the free space on the free space on the bed with Chuck and then she couldn't fight off sleep. Waking up she felt something on her head and opened her eyes to see that she had leaned over with her head on the bed and Chuck was stroking her hair.
"Morning sleepy." He said with a weak smile.
"Mmm morning." Kaelyn said with a yawn as she stretched. When putting her hands on the bed Chuck took her hands in his.
"I love you." He said in barely a whisper.
"I love you." Kaelyn said with tears falling from her eyes. "When I thought I was going to lose you my life for those moments had turned upside down. I know we had our problems and made our mistakes, but I don't want to live without you and the idea of you being gone forever scared me out of my mind." She said with tears that were continually flowing. He took a finger and wiped her tears. "Chuck I love you so much and I want you to come home when you get out of here."
"I'd be glad to…I love you, too." He said with a smile and then a yawn.
"I'm going to let you rest. You need it. Aunt Lily said she would keep Kat so I am going to take her there and come back." Kaelyn said with a kind smile at her husband.
"Alright. I'm pretty sure I will be back asleep in a few minutes." He said softly.
"I love you." Kaelyn said happily as she stood and picked up Katherine who was still fast asleep. "Be back really soon." She said happily. The bending down she kissed him quickly before turning and leaving the room.