I APOLOGIZE. This would've been up DAYS ago, but then I lost my flashdrive. BUT I FOUND IT! \o/ Anyways, I kind of laughed when someone (an anonymous someone) mentioned that I should shoot someone the boys didn't know. I was already going to do that. xP GOOD PSYCHIC SKILLS ON YOU, MATE!

Enjoy!

...

"Dad!" the twins shouted in unison.

The man dressed in regular clothes fell over from his kneeling position and stared, seemingly shocked, at the ever-growing spot of red on his sweatshirt.

Logan leapt to his feet at the same time both twins darted past Rick to kneel at their father's side. Rick raised an eyebrow, completely calm about the shooting.

"I can help him," Logan managed to stammer out. "I'm a doctor. Sort of."

Rick's lips twisted into a wicked smile. "Well, if you think you can save his life, doc, be my guest."

Logan flinched. He sounded too patronizing, like he knew Logan would crack under pressure. And Logan probably would, too. He'd never even looked at a gunshot wound, let alone tried to treat one. What if he messed up? What if he made it worse?

Rick chuckled. "If you can't do it, doc, don't try."

"Logan," Kendall called as Logan stared at the robber. Logan looked over his shoulder, catching Kendall's serious green eyes. "You can do this."

He felt a rush of gratitude. Kendall seemed to know exactly what to say when Logan needed the encouragement.

Logan approached the man and gently nudged the younger boys out of the way. "What's his name?"

"Anthony," one of the boys said. His voice was tight, and he kept shooting furious glances at Rick's back as he made his way to his group of robbers.

"I'm Brian," the other twin said, looking calmer but still tense. "This is my brother, Jack."

"Hi, guys," Logan said. "I'm Logan. I have first aid training, and I think I can help your dad." He had the boys help him take off Anthony's sweatshirt.

"Anthony?" he called as once the sweatshirt was off. "Can you hear me?"

The man's lips moved, and Logan had to lean over to hear what he said. "Call me Tony," he whispered.

"Tony," Logan said, smiling shakily. "Nice to meet you. I'm Logan."

"I heard."

"Right." Man, he wasn't doing a very good job of this. "Tony, can you sit up?"

Tony's eyes opened and he blinked up at Logan. He looked like he was going to respond, but he frowned at him, gaze raking over Logan's young face. "Jus' a kid," he slurred blearily.

Logan nodded. "Hopefully, a smart kid." He winced slightly as the blood poured over his fingers as he tried to clamp down on the wound.

Tony struggled to prop himself up on his elbows, and Logan helped with one hand on his back and the other pressing hard onto the gunshot wound, sliding him to a sitting position. He tried to ignore the pained gasps Tony let out and focus on lifting up his undershirt.

"It went straight through," Logan said with a sigh of relief.

"Is that good?" Brian—or maybe Jack, Logan had lost track of which was which—asked him anxiously.

Logan hesitated. "All things considered, yes. It could've been worse. If the bullet was still in him, we would've had to dig it out or the wound would become infected." He didn't tell them that the hole could still become infected even with the bullet removed. "Anyways, he still needs a hospital, but we can help it out right now by putting pressure on both sides."

He demonstrated by balling up Tony's sweatshirt and helping him lie back down on the padded material. Then he took off his own sweatshirt and had Brian—or Jack, whoever—press it on the entry wound on Tony's chest.

As soon as the twin's hand came into contact with the entry hole, Tony tensed up in pain and let out a grunted swear word. The boy immediately released the pressure and looked at Logan, a terrified, trapped look on his face.

"It's going to hurt," Logan said, to both Tony and his sons. "But that's a good thing. You need it to hurt, because that's going to stop the blood flow and keep him from going into shock."

"I don't want to hurt him, Brian," Jack said, looking at his brother.

"We have to," Brian said, biting his lip. "Logan said so. It'll help, I promise. Do you want me to do it?"

"No," Jack said after a second.

"You got this, Jack," Tony whispered, raising a hand to clasp it in his son's.

Logan felt awkward sitting there, and was about to get up when Tony fixed his gaze on him. "You did good, kid," he rasped, nodding once in Logan's direction. "Go on back to your friends. I'll be okay."

Hesitating, Logan asked, "Are you sure?"

"I'll call you when I need you," Tony said, trying for humor.

Logan cracked a smile and nodded. He got to his feet and started to cross the room again, inching around Rick—who, no doubt, had been watching with that wickedly amused gleam in his eye—and back to the left of Carlos.

"He needs a hospital," Logan murmured to no one.

Carlos looked over and gave him a smile. "You're the next best thing," he said simply.

The little girl in his lap nodded seriously. "You're gonna save him," she said. "Don't worry, Logie."

"Logie?"

Carlos blushed. "I may have called you that when I was telling her what you were doing."

"Is that not okay?" she asked, looking worried.

"No, it's fine," Logan assured her, smiling a little. "It's nice coming from cute little girls."

She beamed. "I'm Becky."

"Nice to meet you, Becky," Logan said, putting on a charming accent for her. She giggled, and Logan felt his spirits lift a little. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Rick."

The lead robber turned to see one of the others—Logan thought he heard Rick call him "George"—wave at him.

"Don't go anywhere," Rick warned the captives, before turning and jogging to him.

Kendall scoffed from the other side of Carlos. "As if we could if we wanted to."

"What do you think they're doing?" James wondered as he sat on his hands. "They swept the grown-ups from their money and didn't even bother coming over here. They haven't even demanded for the manager to open the safe."

"That's because they know it's on a timer and can only be open at a certain time of day," Logan said, arching an eyebrow.

"It's creepy how you know that, dude," James said.

Logan shrugged. "It's protocol. But besides that, haven't you noticed that five of them came in here and there's only four we can see?"

He saw them look up and take count. There were two at the front doors, one in the middle of the room, Rick, and the guy who called Rick. The other one had gone straight to the backroom and they hadn't seen him since.

Kendall opened his mouth to say something, but a noise made him freeze. His eyes widened and he tilted his head. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" But then Logan could make out the quiet wail of a siren, getting louder and louder. And not just one siren, either. There had to be at least three of them. "Cops."

The two men at the door heard it, too. "Rick!" one of them shouted.

Rick appeared in an instant, charm and amusement evaporated. "Come on, people, just like we practiced."

What?

Logan didn't have time to think about what that meant. Max—the one standing in the center of the room—walked to the kids' side of the room and told everyone to stand. Logan got to his feet, eyes drawn to Anthony as one of the men tried in vain to move him.

Brian and Jack stood defensively in front of their father, refusing to move.

"You can't move him," Jack—Logan learned that he was the one with the blue baseball cap on—said firmly.

"It'll make his injury worse," Brian agreed.

Logan watched as the man grew impatient with them, and lifted his gun to strike them across the face. Without even thinking about it he was moving to place himself between them.

"If you want to make it out of here alive you need to let this man live," Logan said, standing his ground.

The man glared at him.

Logan licked his dry lips nervously, suddenly realizing how stupid of an idea this was. "Statistically, all bank robberies in which a civilian is shot and killed end with the shooter and the accomplices with a bullet in their head." He shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "It's your choice."

"Leave him," Rick snapped, coming over and grabbing Logan's arm. "Kid, you're really pushing your luck." He shoved him over to where a line was forming: adult, kid, adult, kid. Logan was placed between a woman who worked at the bank and a businessman, facing away from the windows. The line cut right through the center of the bank between the front doors and the counters, and they were forced to stand.

It was like a barricade, Logan realized as the robbers placed themselves between the line and the counter.

As soon as the thought popped into his head the patrol cars pulled up to the bank. Logan peeked over his shoulder out of the window and saw how police officers immediately ushered the onlookers behind a yellow makeshift fence, guns drawn and pointed at the bank. As he turned back around he caught Carlos' relieved look directed at him. The police had come, alright. But Logan was starting to suspect that that was exactly what Rick wanted.

"I'm gonna make this easy for you and not throw in any big words to confuse those of you who can't comprehend them," Rick said, pacing in front of the line and waving his gun around for emphasis. "If you sit down, we shoot you. Sound simple enough?"

A cacophony of protests rose to answer him.

"That's not fair!"

"How long are we going to stand here?"

"My legs will get tired!"

"Tough," Rick said, glaring at them. "Think of it this way: at least now you're all developing a spine. Now, sit down and die. As you can see with poor Soccer Dad there, I'm not afraid to shoot people." He gave them all warning looks and left them with Max and another man that Logan didn't know to guard them.

"They're looking for something," Logan muttered under his breath, watching as Rick and two others disappeared into the backrooms.

The business man stirred next to him. "You're right, son," he said, low, rumbling voice complementing his dark chocolate skin. "They're definitely stalling. By the way, that was some good things you did to that man."

Logan looked up at him and gave him a faint smile. "Good practice," he said. The joke fell flat when he realized that it wasn't something to joke about.

The man put a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it," he said warmly. "Everything is going to be okay."

Logan nodded. But even as he did, he couldn't help but doubt that.