I'm back with another chapter! I'm sorry it's taking so long to post every chapter, but I don't want to push the story and I haven't had a lot of time this week!

I know this chapter is like super short, and that chapters in this story in general aren't that long either, but I hope you find it interesting enough!

Time to bring some action to the table!

Enjoy!

This was not how he had wanted this day to go. Now he would never hear the end of his partner's ranting about him being at fault for the events that were currently taking place inside the museum.

The one day; actually, the last day of the exhibition at exactly the last hour of work, and the place gets taken by four armed men in creepy masks? Yeah, Danny was going to totally blame this on him.

Speaking of Danny... Where the hell was he? And where was Annabeth?

One of the reasons he had hidden Grace and then gotten caught leaving the bathroom on purpose was to find his team mates and make sure they were alright. There had been no possible way for him to leave the museaum with Grace without beeing seen because they would've had to pass right in front of the entrance to the big oval room to reach the front door of the museum.

So, as soon as he had heard the gunshot, he had gone inside the women's bathroom, not caring that he was actually going inside because of the nature of the emergency, to instruct Grace to finish her business quickly and not make any sound.

He supposed the place would be searched so his mind had switched from "Loving Uncle Steve" to "Overprotective Uncle Commander", quickly studying the bathroom searching for any places to hide Grace. He figured that leaving her inside one of the cubicles would be too risky; anyone could come in and register everyone of them. He needed to hide her where no one would think to look, and so his eyes had landed on the vent. It was the best place they could afford given the circumstances and so she had crawled inside with his help to lift her up and had promised not to make any noise or leave her hiding place until one of them came back for her. Then, he had flushed one of the toilets and waited a reasonable amount of time before stepping out of the room to make sure he would get caught while leaving.

The plan had worked. Shortly after the flushing noise, he went out and a few seconds later, a masked man carrying a gun had appeared from behind the corner and forced him to walk with him back to the oval room where he was now kneeling on the floor. He counted four attackers and something close to 20 hostages all aranged in a wide circle on the floor. Annabeth and Danny weren't upon them.

Where were they? They had been inside the weapon's room when he and Grace had left for the bathroom, and he had to assume the room had been cleared when the attackers had made their move. Could they have gone out in the amount of time between them leaving for the bathroom and the attack? He definitely hoped so, and his gaze went to the entrance of the weapons room also thinking that, maybe, they had managed to hide and were still inside.

His gaze returned to the apparent leader of the robbers who had started talking again.

- I'm gonna ask again. Can anyone tell me where is Mr. Andrews? – he received no reply. The man let out a grunt of annoyance; he was getting tired of these people. The hit was supposed to be quick and the longer they stayed there, the greater the chance of the police finding out what was going on. Taking a decision in his mind, he turned to one of his men – Goofy, take that one – the man followed the order without a second thought and approached a child that had been clutching to his mother the entire time. The man bent down to pick him up and the woman started to go crazy.

- NO! – she screamed – don't take him! Please! – the kid was crying now and the scene was getting worst and worst until the point the mother had to be hit across the face to get her to let go of the child. Steve wanted to jump right at the guy, but the gun now poining towards the little boy halted his intentions.

- Now, listen up everybody... unless someone can give me some information about Mr. Andrews's whereabouts, i'm gonna start shooting this place up, starting with the little kid over here – he pressed the muzzle of the gun into the boy's right temple and he started crying even harder in fear. Steve couldn't take it anymore.

- Who is Mr. Andrews? – he asked aloud with just the right amount of tremble in his voice to conceal the fact that he had dealt with situations like these before. He didn't want the bad guys finding out he was a cop yet.

- Excuse me? – replied the guy.

- Most of us don't work here and if you're going to threaten the life of a little kid then at least you could tell us who the hell are you asking for so we can say if we know where he is or not – the masked man walked towards him with the little kid still gripped firmly at his side and studied Steve's face with suspicion.

- You don't seem very nervious, do you? – Steve dropped his gaze trying to look frightened. Maybe he had pushed it too much, too soon.

- Look, I just want to get home with my family. I was asking so you could actually find what you want and leave us. No sense in anyone getting hurt, right? – if his face hadn't been obstructed with the mask, everyone could have seen the smug amused smile that crept up the robber's face.

- You do have a point there – then he adressed the rest of the room – Mr. Andrews is the manager of the museum and he's supposed to have the key of the room where they keep the real exhibits. I want that key, so I want Mr. Andrews and nobody is getting home to their families until I get what I came looking for.

- Alrigh then – said Steve softly – does anyone know where he is? Does anyone else have a key? – he asked the frightened crowd – if we give him what he wants, he'll let us go, right? – he directed the last bit of the question to the man still only a few feet away from him and the guy tilted his head in a real creepy way showing only the expression his mask permanently wore.

- Right – was his curtly reply.

Steve focused his eyes on the staff members of the museum sitting to his left. If anyone knew anything about the museum manager or the keys, it had to be one of them; the visitors, like him, would have absolutely no idea who was who and who had what. He thought he recognized a middle age woman trying to supress the guilt and fear from her face. She was only half succeding.

- I'm getting tired of this – said the man, throwing the kid on the floor and pointing his gun towards him in the typical stance that said he was going to shoot his victim. Steve tensed himself up, ready to launch between the gun and the kid since he was just at a jump's distance; but the colective scream of terror and surprise by what was about to happen, prompted the middle age woman to speak, shouting out what she knew in a desperate attempt to get the man with the gun to stop.

- He left! Mr. Andrews left early because he got a call from his wife! – Steve closed his eyes half in defeat and half in annoyance. "Well, this isn't good news" he thought. He opened them again when the masked man apprached the woman with a dangerous wave of his gun.

- And why didn't you SAY SOMETHING!? – he asked in a shout, pointing his gun at her and making her shriek in fear.

- I-I didn't want to upset y-you! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I was scared! – she was crying now. He couldn't blame her; having a gun tossed at your face could be pretty intimidating.

- And how am I supposed to open the vault now? I can't just come back another day! Someone else has to have the key. Who does? – he asked the lady.

- N-no one – decided to answer the woman because he didn't want to aggravate the guy any further by staying quiet.

- Who has the key!? – he asked again, stepping out of his bondaries and actually hitting the woman with the but of his gun. She went crashing all the way to the floor, holding her now bleeding forehead and crying in pain and fear – tell me who has another key! – the man made a move to hit her again but was interrupted by a harsh statement.

- She already answered! No matter how many times you hit her the answer won't change! If you can't have what you came here for, I suggest you take a hike – finished Steve, satisfied because the man's focus was now on him and not on the poor woman on the floor. The guy came closer to him with just three long strikes and pointed the gun at his face. He was tired of this arrogant hostage and his untimely interruptions.

- If you want to play knight and save the damsel in distress, then you have to gamble with the consequences – the sound of the safety being cliked off was the only warning everyone got before a shot was fired and the deafening sound left them all hearing a buzz in their ears.

Steve, not totally unprepared for the impulsive reaction of the man, actually flinched when the burn from the gunpowder hit his face from being fired so close to it and the room fell into an uncomfortable silence when a loud swear made it's way out of the stunned man's lips.

And there you have it. Anothe little piece of the story! Did you enjoy it? I hope you did! I look forward to reading a few reviews!

I can't promise when i'll post next chapter... I also hope it won't take that long!

Until next chapter!