Shit Hits the Fan & Cavalry Called

Hospital – Recovery Room

Vanessa was getting frustrated. She has tried to reach Vera or Jasmin at the nurses' desk extension ever since Ron left. The internal intercom extension was finally answered and she said "This is Vanessa."

["Hi Vanessa, Vera here. What do you need?" Vera answered brightly.]

Urgency filled Vanessa's tone as she said "Vera, you and Jasmin need to have all the patients lock their doors. Situate yourselves with the most critical patients. If you have to, group a few in the same room."

["Vanessa you are scaring me. Why?" Vera asked as she stood up slipping her shoes back on.]

Vanessa nervously twisted her long hair on her index finger "No time to explain everything. But Officer Barton is not a cop. We think he is a dangerous criminal. Ron is telling Spike, he is a cop. We are going to let him handle this. We need to take precautions though. So please do what I asked quickly."

[Vera's suspicions about the creepy cop were confirmed. She had just known something was not right. But then her worry skyrocketed as she said "Oh no. Jasmin just went down to get meds and food."]

Taking a deep breath Vanessa said "Do what you can by yourself. Do it quickly. I'll go find Jasmin and bring her here with me. Call the recovery room and give Jeremy the details as who is in which room and which room you end up in."

[Vera nodded but then realized Vanessa couldn't see that on the phone and said quietly "Okay. You be careful Vanessa. We need you here."

She hung up and quickly looked at where each patient was. She raced off to have those that could be alone lock their doors. Then she would move the three patients that needed the most attention into one room.]

Vanessa hung up and looked at Jeremy "I need you to stay with Ethan and his parents. I need to go find Jasmin and bring her here. If the doc needs any help with Sam let him know I'll be right back. But lock the door after me."

Hospital – Cafe

Noah finished his snacks and finally felt full. He needed to check on his brother. The doctor should be done with the brat by now. He needed to get Jonas fixed up so they could get out of here.

He stood and left his mess on the table. He saw the nurse named Jasmin pass the entrance. He assumed she was going to get meds because she did not enter the cafe. He had struck up a short conversation with her and found out that the meds were located on the first floor near the ER.

Quickly Noah left the café. Perhaps he had time for a little diversion before checking on Jonas. Jasmin was a pretty little morsel.

He sidled up next to Jasmin as he said "Well hello again."

Jasmin jumped. Where the heck had he come from? She stopped just short of entering the pharmacy area. Her voice was a little unsteady when she responded "Officer Barton I didn't see you there. You startled me."

Noah leaned in close, trapping Jasmin against the wall and heavily breathed out "How bout taking a break with me?"

Barely suppressing the shudder Jasmin responded by putting her hands on his chest and pushing against him. He did not budge. She said in a clearly shaky voice now "I have patients that need me."

"They can wait a few minutes while we get to know one another, intimately" Noah replied as he started to press his body against Jasmin's.

They were interrupted by a scream from the ER. Noah's head whipped toward the ER entrance. That was Jonas, he was in trouble. His hand seized Jasmin's and he drug her towards the ER as he unholstered his gun.

Hospital – ER Treatment Area

Even though Spike said 'what could happen', he was not stupid and he was cautious as he approached the prisoner. Noah and Jonas Barton were cold-blooded murderers and if either of them had the slightest inkling that they were on to them or that they were cops, well things could get ugly quickly.

Spike was glad that Sam was safely away from the ER. He wished Scott could be too, but then again, having backup would be good. He went to the closet that Minna indicated contained the soft restraints they kept on hand for uncooperative patients to keep them from harming themselves or others. Spike pulled out three restraints. He would not need to restrain the hand of the shoulder with the bullet because it was already strapped to his chest to prevent possible movement of he bullet.

He turned to the bed and eyed the prisoner. All appearances indicated Jonas was still out. But looks could be deceiving. Spike approached slowly. He considered whether to restrain his hand first or his legs. Legs might be best if he first moved anything within Jonas' reach.

Spike quietly set the restraints on the rolling exam table and moved it out of reach. One last look at Jonas and he drew a deep breath. He attached one leg restraint and was busy attaching the other when Jonas yanked his leg away.

Jonas had actually drifted off to sleep after hearing Spike and Ron talk. He hadn't meant too but he was feeling weak and in a lot of pain but mostly the blood loss made him very tired. He hadn't felt the first leg restraint go on. But as Spike began to attach the second one he was roused.

He yelled "What are you doing?" as he yanked his leg away from Spike and began to struggle.

Spike grabbed at Jonas' leg and with great difficultly got it secured around the prisoner's ankle as Jonas let out a loud scream. Spike grabbed the wrist restraint and said "Just be calm and you will not get hurt."

Jonas yelled at the top of his lungs "Noah! Noah! Help! They know who we are. They have guns. Noah help me."

Spike got the restraint on and wished he had thought to gag Jonas first. He was making such a ruckus Noah was bound to hear. Spike grabbed a cloth and shoved it in Jonas' mouth.

He then took his gun from the back of his pants and undid the safety. He glanced at Scott and both nodded. The gig was up. Noah would be storming in here soon. The shit just hit the fan.

Spike hurried to Scott and helped him off the bed and behind some cover. Scott leaned heavily on him and that made Spike worry more. He handed Scott the satellite phone after he was situated in the chair. Then Spike went to the opposite side of the room and took cover as best he could. This was not the way he wanted it to go down.

Scott hated being incapacitated when Spike clearly could use some help. The situation had just gotten bad. He hoped it would not get worse. In preparation he dialed in the direct number to Uncle Will but did not hit the call button yet. The sat phone was low on battery so he would not waste the call until he knew he had to make it.

If the shit hit the fan, Uncle Will would be the best bet to get help here quickly. As quickly as this storm would allow that is. But he knew from Jeff and Sam that the Special Forces had specially trained arctic weather units. This weather was as close as you could get to arctic weather.

Scott also knew that the Air Force also put their best pilots through rigorous all-weather flight training. In fact Zach had just completed that course a month ago. He had learned to fly in many different types of weather from sand storms to hurricanes to arctic blizzards. They taught him how to push the equipment to the limit to be able to fly into such weather.

Hospital – Surgery

Ron moved Sam's bed into place next to the surgery table and Minna locked it in place. Then the two of them moved Sam to the table since he was still out. With Ron's help they got Sam positioned properly. Both were glad Sam was still out because his leg would probably hurt as they moved him around.

Minna directed "Ron can you move the gurney outside then come back in. I need you to gown up and stay here in case Doc Landry needs some strong arms."

Doc Landry snorted "I may be old my girl but I can still stand."

Maisie patted Landry's back and said in a conciliatory manner "You've already been on your feet for several hours dear. Your knees are not what they used to be. For Sam's sake don't make a fuss."

Landry grumbled under his breath but said nothing more as the four of them scrubbed up. Landry hated to admit he might need assistance standing. But he was not too proud not to accept the help, his patient was more important than his pride.

Minna finished scrubbing in and then set about laying out the surgical instruments the doctor needed. She looked at Ron and smiled behind her mask. She was seeing a different side of him. She liked it. A small thought entered her head for the first time, perhaps they might just get a chance to be more than just friends.

Ron followed the instructions of Maisie on how to properly scrub up. He'd never been in a surgery room. He hoped he could handle whatever they needed from him.

Maisie handed Ron a mask and said "You need to wear this. We have not ruled out whether the infection is MRSA or not so it is for your protection as much as it is for Sam's."

Putting on the mask Ron looked back at Sam. He could see he was slowly waking but had that glazed feverish look again. Ron moved to the table and asked Minna "Is there anything you need my help with?"

Minna answered "For right now just stay close. Sam's fever is increasing. If he becomes disoriented or combative I may need your help to restrain him before the nitrous takes effect again."

Ron nodded and stood a little ways away from the table as Maisie pushed Doc Landry to the table.

Doc Landry hated that Minna and Maisie were right. He needed Ron's help to stand. His knees were killing him. He looked at Ron and said "Ron my boy, give an old man a hand up. I don't want to touch anything with my hands and I need leverage to rise. These knees are not what they used to be. It sucks getting old."

Ron grinned and said "Sure beats the alternative though" as he came forward to help. Ron put his hands under Doc Landry's armpits and lifted him up from one side as Maisie pulled the wheelchair away. He held on until the doctor got into a good stance. Then he let go.

Minna was working on sterilizing and draping Sam's leg as the doctor did a visual inspection of the wound. He then double checked the instruments and nodded at the efficiency of Minna. She was a damned good nurse. Paying for part of her tuition had been one of the best things he and Maisie had ever done.

Sam's head moved back and forth as he mumbled under his breath. They only caught a few words that made no sense to any of them. But none of them missed the sound of fear in his voice.

Maisie looked at Landry "Should we put him out with a general?"

Landry shook his head "No not after Spike shared that file with me. Sam really does not do well on general and I'd prefer not to do it without a qualified anesthesiologist here. With his previous lung problem I do not want to depress his breathing anymore than it already is. If it gets too much we can always use a little more nitrous. He seems to tolerate that okay."

Maisie asked "Should I start him on oxygen as a precaution?"

Doc Landry nodded "That would be good. Start a very low-concentration and put a oxygen saturation monitor on him."

Sam's mind was not in the present. It was swirling around and events from so many parts of his life were mixing up. He saw Yankee holding Sara as Sara cried. That could not be. He saw the One standing over him with a scalpel instead of needles. He saw Buzz, Dutch and Wilson skiing down a hill trying to outrun terrorists with machetes and an avalanche. Then there was a pack of plaid elephants flying through a blizzard and his dad was riding the lead elephant. It was all so confusing.

He mumbled out "Help me Matt" as he was drowning in a vat of hot pink Jack Daniels. The he murmured "Watch out Blaze" when the image in his brain shifted to killer koalas wearing parachutes and jumping out of a plane.

"Duck. Duck. Goose. My turn to buy again. Damn" slipped out as Sam's mind conjured an image of his team, unit and cousins surrounding him holding beers as he sat at the bottom of a muddy slope covered in mud and milkshake mix and blood flowed freely from a huge hole in his chest.

His mind shifted and Sam saw Jules wearing his uniform pants. Somehow he had managed to get into hers and the guys were laughing at him while Jules yelled at him for stretching out her pants. Then he was trapped in an elevator and was running in circles trying to get away from gumballs with glass teeth. It switched to four men with raccoon faces drooling white foam as they beat the crap out of him in a basement. One of them was a really fat raccoon that crushed a chair as he sat on it.

As his mind conjured up a corn field maze full of body parts Sam mumbled "Spike get to the tank. They can't dismember us in a tank. I can crash it, Matt taught me how to crash a tank. I'm good at it."

Ron slightly chuckled "Um Doc you so sure Sam tolerates nitrous? I'd sure hate to see him on general if this is tolerating it."

Landry sighed "I think this is mostly the fever. Minna my girl are you finished prepping the area?"

Minna nodded "Yes."

Doc Landry picked up a scalpel and started to operate.

Hospital – ER Treatment Area

Noah had his gun to Jasmin's head as he pushed her into the ER area. He said "What to you see?"

Jasmin stammered out "A patient in a bed restrained with a gag in his mouth."

"Who else?" Noah demanded.

"No one. I don't see anyone" Jasmin croaked out.

From his position Spike could see Jasmin and the gun at her head. Her eyes were wide with fear and her voice was unsteady. Damn. He did not want it to turn into a hostage situation. But it had.

Spike eyed Scott before he said "Noah Barton, this is Spike. No one needs to get hurt. I need you to lower your weapon and release Jasmin."

Noah yelled back "Not happening."

"None of us are going anywhere due to this storm. You have no place to go. Your brother needs care. Lower the weapon or else the doctor will not be able to tend your brother" Spike said.

Noah was about to push Jasmin into the room when he saw the female doctor. What was her name again, he thought. It popped into his head and he yelled "Vanessa come here or I blow Jasmin's brains out."

Vanessa had seen Noah with Jasmin and heard him yell. She had tried to quietly retreat down the hall without being seen. There was no place to hide. Her luck ran out. Reluctantly Vanessa started forward like instructed. Her heart was racing with fear. Fear for herself, fear for Jasmin, fear for everyone except the Barton's.

"Move it" Noah yelled as Vanessa slowly came toward him.

Spike and Scott shared a look. Things just got worse. Scott pointed to the sat phone. Spike held up a hand indicating wait a moment. Scott nodded.

As Vanessa and Jasmin were pushed into the ER in front of Noah Spike called out "Noah what do you want? How can we end this without anyone getting hurt?"

Noah ignored Spike and looked at Jonas then he glanced at Vanessa and said "Ungag him and release those restraints. Then you tell me how he is doing."

Vanessa moved forward to do as she was instructed. She would rely on Spike to handle the situation and he did not tell her not too. She pulled the gag out first and then undid the restraints.

Jonas called out "They cops Noah. How are we gonna get out of here?"

"Quiet Jonas. Let the doc examine you" Noah stated in a calmer voice.

Spike knew he had to slow it down. No one could go anywhere right now so getting Noah calm was the best thing he could do at the moment. He seemed to deescalate a bit when his brother was unrestrained.

Scott whispered "When you speak next drop clues. We need help to many civilians at risk." He pointed to the sat phone.

Spike nodded. How to do that without giving things away? He whispered back "Follow my cue."

Then Spike put up five fingers and slowly put one after another down.

Scott watched and then hit the call button when the fifth finger went down. He listened for it to connect and heard Uncle Will's voice then turned it outward so it would pick up sounds better. He gave Spike a thumbs up.

Spike spoke loudly "Noah Barton, your brother Jonas needs surgery to get that bullet out. Doc Landry is the only surgeon here. He, Maisie, Minna and Ron are busy with Sam right now, he could lose that infected leg without surgery so the doc took him first. Why don't you put the gun down and Doctor Vanessa and Nurse Jasmin can get your brother prepped for surgery. You can't go anywhere in this storm. We are all stuck here in the hospital."

"You are forgetting the sno-cat Officer Spike" Noah yelled back. "Once Jonas is taken care of we will leave in that."

"Okay I hear you. But there are people here that do not need to get hurt in the meantime. Scott for one. He cannot harm you. He can barely walk. I know you checked on all nine of the patients and their families on the second floor. I did too. They are no threat to you. In fact you should let Jasmin go. That is too many patients for Vera to take care of by herself" Spike said trying to get as much information across as he could.

Noah wanted to pace but he could not give Spike a clear target. The cop was not coming out. He called "Show yourself or I blow Jasmin's head off."

Spike moved slightly from behind cover "I'm here."

"Where is Scott?" Noah yelled.

Scott moved the sat phone behind him to hide it and tucked his gun under the pillow of the bed within reach. Then he moved the curtain aside just enough so he was visible sitting behind a bed. He called out "Over here."

Noah's eyes whipped to the opposite side. He saw Scott seated in a chair behind a bed and he called out "Stand up."

"I'd like too but I've got a bum leg. Impaled by a ski pole" Scott answered.

Noah cocked the gun "I said stand up."

Scott overplayed his injury and screwed his face up as if he was in a great amount of pain as he used the bed to push himself to a standing position and leaned heavily on the bed. "Okay I'm standing." He was in pain but not as much as he portrayed. It would suck to walk though if he was told to do that.

"Walk over to Spike" Noah demanded as he pushed the gun to Jasmin's temple.

Scott saw the terrified nurse and took a step. He faltered. That was not fake. Damn. He braced himself and took another step. He took three more and then collapsed to the floor as his leg gave out.

He called out "Damn my wife is gonna be pissed at me. I told her it was just a minor injury when I called her earlier."

Noah snorted "Lying to the wife is never good." Noah was satisfied that Scott was incapacitated as he lay on the floor.

Scott replied "You don't know my wife. If she had known how bad it was she would have found a way to get here, blizzard or no blizzard. Perhaps she would even go so far as getting my cousin, who is an all-weather pilot, to fly her here. She is a formidable woman."

Spike moved out to cover Scott. He did not like the pallor of his face. At first he thought he was faking it but the sheen of sweat on his forehead told a different story. Spike wondered if Scott reacted the same way as Sam to antibiotics. Or if Sam had MRSA, perhaps Scott was exposed when he cleaned Sam's leg at the cabin. He had no idea, he wasn't a medical doctor, but he had eyes and Scott was not doing well.

He looked at Noah and said "I'm going to get Scott back into a bed."

"If I let you do that then you need to slide your weapon to me" Noah stated.

Spike hesitated. He saw where Scott had put his weapon.

Vanessa took that moment to say "Your brother is in pain and the blood transfusion needs to be changed out. I'd like to give him pain medication and another bag. He needs to have enough blood in him to survive surgery. I have to go to the pharmacy to get those things."

Noah asked "Jonas are you in pain?"

Jonas nodded "Yeah it hurts like hell. Let her go, I don't want to die. If she doesn't come right back shoot the bitch you have in front of you."

Noah nodded and Vanessa hurried out. Spike quickly took the opportunity of Noah's distraction to help Scott back to the bed then moved in front of it using his body to protect Scott in case Noah started shooting.

Scott looked at the sat phone and saw it was dead now. He wondered how much Uncle Will heard. He hoped it was enough for him to plan accordingly and get help to them as soon as possible."

General Braddock's Office – Kandahar

General Braddock listened and called to his aid to get Colonel Sutton to join him and to have the techs trace the call. He was worried but could not afford to allow emotions to play into his thinking right now. Time was of the essence. Samuel and Scott were injured, badly from the sounds of it, and they were in a hostage situation.

Colonel Sutton entered the General's office quickly and the call was now on speaker so that tech could hear what the General heard. For a brief moment Tom closed his eyes. This was not good.

William ordered "We need an arctic weather unit scrambled immediately once the location is established. Include a fully equipped emergency medical team. I'm not sure exactly what injuries we are dealing with but it sounds bad. There are at least two hostiles, one armed, one injured."

The call dropped. The tech tracing it said "Sir I did not get a location. I did not have enough time to trace it."

Sutton said "Scott said he called Laura. Perhaps she knows his exact location."

William dialed Laura directly. He did not want to worry her with the infants, so he pitched his voice calmly. When she answered he said "Hello Laura. How are you and the babies?"

["Doing well" Laura responded surprised by a call out of the blue from William.]

William got right to the point "Laura I need to get ahold of Samuel. He is not answering his phone. I know he is on that ski trip with Scott. Has Scott gotten a hold of you?"

[Laura grinned "Yes in fact he called a little while ago. He asked me to call Sergeant Parker for Sam and Spike. With being snowed in by that huge storm in the Blue Mountain area they are not going to make it back to work on Thursday. Those two are never going on vacation again together without supervision. They ended up at the hospital. Apparently an aggressive snow-bunny ran Sam into a tree and Scott said he hurt his leg with a ski pole too. I swear those two are accident prone. Yvonne told me about the oil pan sled they made."]

"Did Scott happen to mention which hospital? If their cell phones are down perhaps the hospital has a line for emergencies. It is important that I reach Samuel quickly" William stated.

["Scott called me on a sat phone. Said it was low on battery and had to keep it short because it was the only emergency communication option they had and it had no charger. He said they were at the Craig hospital" Laura shared. Then she asked "Is there something I should be concerned about?"]

William lied by deflection and omission "Sorry Laura, duty calls I gotta go. Thanks for the information." Then he hung up and turned to Sutton "Craig hospital. That is near where they went skiing. Samuel was treated at that hospital after he was caught in an avalanche as a teen. It is a small two story hospital. It was run by a Doctor Landry Craig."

General Braddock and Colonel Sutton worked quickly to identify an available unit and secure transportation and the medical team. Given the weather conditions the best they could do was to scramble an arctic unit that would halo jump into the area and secure it with two unit medics.

The full medical team would drop at the closest RCMP location with sno-cats and trek in. They simply were not well enough trained to do a halo jump. Besides it was important to secure the facility and neutralize the threat before the medical team arrived.

William's last order of business was to call Norm and Erik. He needed to find out who the Barton's were from Norm and to inform him of the situation Samuel and Spike were in and what was being done to assist them.

His call to Erik was important because he needed family support for Yvonne, Laura and Ann. He wanted Erik to coordinate to have Kimberly, Connie, Yvonne and Ann to meet at Laura's house and then be told about the situation in person together. He trusted Erik, Kimberly and Connie to make sure that the other three were taken care of until further information was available.

Tom looked at William and said "I assume you are on the next flight home."

"You assume correctly" William stated as he dialed Norm's number.

When he hung up he looked at Tom "Christ, the Barton's are mass murdering bank robbers. We need to arrange for the rest of Team One to be transported to the area as soon as possible. They were already contacted by the local RCMP to make a prisoner transfer to Toronto. Norm is in the process of informing them of the situation."

Sutton nodded "I'll make the arrangements. The next transport leaves in twenty minutes. I've called to have them hold for you."

William blew out a breath. He hated trips like these, he never seemed to be where he needed to be when Samuel was hurt. It was a hazard of his job though since his job was half way around the world from his son. Before he left he stated "If you need assistance with anything while I'm gone, pull in Captain Blain."