A/N: Here is chapter 3. Hope you are all enjoying the story. There is more to come. If you have time drop a review. Happy Reading!!!!
His cell phone rang and he knew exactly who it was. It was the people who paid him to do a job. A job that he hadn't completed yet. He knew that would not make his bosses happy that the target was still breathing. After all, they paid for the best and this certainly was not his best work.
He started to get upset because the phone kept ringing. He took a deep cleansing breath then answered the phone.
"Is it done?" the computerized voice asked.
"No. There were complications." he said.
"What complications?" the voice asked.
"Nothing I can't handle." he said.
"We didn't pay you for complications. We paid you to do a job. We are very disappointed." the voice said.
"It would have been done but I was interrupted by a cop. The police arrived faster than I expected." he said.
"Are those excuses I hear? You should no better than that. Maybe this job was too much for you. Maybe we need to get some else to complete this mission." the voice said.
"No! No. No one else needs to come in. I can still complete the job. I just need more time." he said.
A few seconds past by and nothing was said by the voice. That got him nervous. He knew they didn't tolerate failure from anyone. Not even from someone who had proved themselves over and over like he did. He was hoping that tonight wouldn't be his last night on earth.
"I have talked with the others. You will have that chance. But, know this, if you fail, there will be no more chances and your death will be an example to anyone that cannot do the job. Are we clear?" the voice said.
Even though the voice was computerized it still had an edge to it. There weren't many things in the world that scared him but he could now add this voice to the short list of things that made him shutter.
"Crystal." he said.
"Good. Now what do you propose to do to complete this job?" the voice asked.
"Well since the direct approach didn't work. I propose a Plan B." he said.
"And what does this Plan B entail?" the voice asked.
"I will infiltrate from within. I will be the wolf in sheep's clothing. My plan is gain the trust of the people of Port Charles and then once I have it I will strike. They will never see it coming." he said with a smile.
"E-mail what you need and you will have it in the morning. In the mean time, meet at the rendezvous point for your debriefing." the voice said.
"Understood." he said.
"Remember my friend, failure is not an option here. We must complete this hit if we are to move forward with our plans." the voice said.
"I will not fail." he said with determination in his voice.
"I know you won't. Above all others...." the voice said.
"We rise." he said completing the mantra he had heard his whole life.
He closed his cell phone and placed it back in his pocket. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He was angry that the job did not go as he had so careful mapped out. He spent months working on this hit. He watched, he planned, he waited. All those countless hours of preparation were waisted. Now he needed to come up with a way to make Plan B work. It had to be good. No, not good. It had to be extraordinary if he was going to pull this off. His life was on the line so he was going to use all his resources to make this plan come to fruition. He tried to think of how to make this work but he was too tired and too mad at himself to think. His brain was shutting down and fatigue was now setting in taking away all the adrenaline he had depended on earlier. All he wanted to do now was close his eyes.
"Where are we heading to sir?" his driver asked.
"To the rendezvous point. My presence has been requested and our services are still being retained." he said.
He yawed and stretched his arms out. He then tried to find a comfortable spot to try and get some sleep.
The driver nodded his head. "Right sir."
"I'm going to shut my eyes back here and try to get some sleep. It's been a long day. Wake me when we reach the rendezvous point." he said then closed his eyes.
The last thing he heard before going to sleep was the driver saying yes sir and then nothing.
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Alexis and Nikolas walked through the automatic doors of the ER and started to look around for a familiar face that might have some answers on what was going on with Ric. As they walked past all the other sick people waiting to be treated they heard someone calling them over to them. Alexis looked over to see Robin making her way over to them.
Robin walked over and gave both Nikolas and Alexis a hug. She told them to follow her and that she would take them upstairs by elevator to the fifth floor surgery ward.
Robin noticed how quiet the elevator ride was. No one had said a word since getting on which made the ride up to the fifth floor longer than it should have been. Robin decided couldn't take the silence and more and decided to break the ice.
"How have you been doing Alexis?" Robin asked.
"I take it day by day. No more, no less. How's that baby girl of yours?" Alexis said.
Robin couldn't help but smile thinking about her little girl Emma. She was the apple of both her parents eye. A little miracle that she was thankful for everyday.
"She's doing great. Patrick and I have a hard time leaving her before we go to work. We drive the babysitter crazy because we call every twenty minutes to see how she is doing. The babysitter just laughs at us when we call. She says all parents go through separation anxiety. " Robin said.
Alexis shook her head and smiled. She remembered those days all too well with Molly and how Ric didn't want to leave her after she was born.
"I know exactly how you two feel. When Molly was born, Ric was constantly by her side. He hated leaving her alone with the babysitter. Our first night away from Molly which was a "date night". Ric took me to the Metro Court for a nice romantic dinner. It started out great until his cell phone kept going off every ten minutes. Turns out, he was so nervous that something would happen while we were gone that he set his cell phone to ring every ten minutes, thus reminding him to call and check on Molly." Alexis said.
"Ric really did that?" Nikolas asked.
"Oh yeah. At first it was funny. After the first thirty minutes not so much." Alexis said.
"So what did you do?" Robin asked.
"I told him if he called the house one more time I was going to throwhis cell phone off the nearest balcony." Alexis said.
"So did you?" Robin asked as the elevator doors opened.
"It rang. He called. It flew." Alexis said with a smirk.
"You didn't?" Nikolas asked laughed.
"Do you know me not to keep my word? That thing flew and hit the ground so hard it sent pieces everywhere. Ric was so mad." Alexis said laughing now. She remembered the look on Ric's face and it made her laugh even harder as they walked out of the elevator.
"Ric's face was so red from being so mad, I thought steam was going to come out of his ears like some cartoon character. To his credit, he never said a word." Alexis said.
"Ric never said anything? That doesn't sound like him." Nikolas said.
"I said he never said anything. I never said he didn't do anything." Alexis said.
"What did he do?" Robin asked.
"He walked back over to our table, grabbed my purse, took my cell phone out, made a call to the house, then threw my cell phone over the same balcony. I was so mad I was seeing stars. He on the other hand laughed his ass off. Then ordered champagne to celebrate. The funny thing was is that we had a better time without our cell phones on us. We talked and laughed. It was really a wonderful night." Alexis said with a hint of sadness in her voice.
Nikolas looked at his aunt after she was done telling her story. He could see through the brave face she was putting on now that it was really hurting her to remember those good time. He took Alexis' hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze, letting her know that he was here for her and that she could use his strength if needed. Alexis nodded her head at Nikolas letting him know she understood his gesture and appreciated it.
Alexis and Nikolas followed Robin over to the nurses desk where she picked up a chart. Most likely Ric's Alexis thought. They then followed Robin over to one of the surgical lounges where Lucky, Mac, and a couple of other uniformed officers were waiting.
Mac walked over to Alexis and gave her hug.
"I wish we were seeing each other under better circumstances." Mac said.
"Me too Mac. Me too." Alexis said.
"Why don't you get with Robin and then I'll let you know what we have so far." Mac said.
Robin was sitting in the back of the lounge with Nikolas and Lucky waiting for Alexis.
"Here Alexis, you can have the seat closet to Nikolas. I've got to talk to Mac anyway." Lucky said moving out of the way so Alexis could sit down.
After thanking Lucky Alexis sat down in his seat. She began to mentally ready herself for what ever Robin was going to tell her.
"I can start whenever you are ready Alexis." Robin said.
"I'm ready." Alexis said.
Robin opened up the file and started going over Ric's medical condition.
Meanwhile Mac and Lucky stepped outside to give the others more privacy.
"Alexis, I don't know how much you know so I'll start from the beginning. Ric was shot four times. He was shot once in the shoulder, once in the abdomen,and then once in each leg. One of the bullets hit his left knee cap and shattered it. The bullet to his shoulder did some damage but not anything major. So that's good. We are going to have an orthopedic surgeon repair Ric's knee and shoulder but not until we deal with the more serious injuries." Robin said.
Robin watched as tears started flowing from Alexis' eyes. She hated to go on seeing how much pain this was causing Alexis but there was more that she had to know. Robin waited until Alexis let her know she was ready.
"I'm ready Robin. Please continue." Alexis said.
"Ok, just let me know when you need to me to stop and I will." Robin said.
"No, you keep going. I'll make it through." Alexis sobbed out.
"Alexis, Ric's most serious injuries are from the wound to his abdomen and his right leg. The bullet to the right leg nicked an artery. Ric was loosing a lot of blood by the time the ambulance arrived. His heart had stopped before he even made it to the hospital. The paramedics did an excellent job getting him back. They got most of the bleeding to stop but once he arrived in the ER we saw that he need to get into surgery immediately. We're also worried about the wound to his abdomen. When the bullet entered it ripped a hole through the lining of his stomach, then traveled to his lower intestine causing some internal bleeding. The bullet is still lodged in there so we also needed to get him into the OR quickly to remove the bullet quickly and stop his internal bleeding. Now, I want you to know Alexis we have some of the hospitals best people working on Ric. Monica is heading up the surgical team with Emily and Patrick. Elizabeth is also in there and she is the best surgical nurse we have." Robin said.
"Patrick? I thought he was a neurosurgeon? Why is he working on Ric? Is there something wrong with his brain?" Alexis asked trying not to get more upset.
"Ric was hit in the face pretty hard. It caused a clot to form and it traveled to his brain. The clot has caused some swelling so Patrick is going to have to go in and relieve some of the swelling." Robin said.
Alexis was about to ask more questions when the door to the lounge opened and Emily walked in. She was wearing her surgical mask and scrubs. Emily walked over to where Alexis and the others were sitting.
"Alexis, Monica asked me to come in here and give you an update on Ric's condition. We managed to repair the artery in Ric's leg and that stopped the bleeding. We are still working on stopping the internal bleeding." Emily said.
"What about Ric's brain? Robin said something about swelling." Alexis said.
"There is still swelling in his brain. The problem is that Ric is very weak. I'm sure Robin already told you that Ric's heart stopped on his way to the hospital. Well it stopped again while he was on the operating table. Monica and her team were able to get Ric back but it's taking a toll on his body. Having Patrick do surgery on his brain right now would be ill advised." Emily said.
"So where does that leave us?" Alexis asked.
"Well, what we hope is that after the surgery is done, that while Ric is recuperating that the swelling in his brain will start to go down on it's own." Emily said.
"Will he make it Emily?" Alexis asked.
Emily smiled. She knew she could easily dash Alexis' hopes by saying the wrong thing right now. She had seen it done plenty of times by other callous doctors. They would crush the hopes of waiting families by using medical jargainthat the families wouldn't understand. Leaving them in some of kind of word limbo. Then when it's was all said and done, when the doctor couldn't give the families any more of their precious more time, they would just simple walk off with an un-heartfelt apology, never offering any kind of hope that their loved ones would make it. She was not going to do that to Alexis. Emily had seen many miracles in her life time and who was she to take that possibility away from Alexis or Ric. They both deserved a fair chance at the promise of miracle, no matter how bleak the situation was.
"Ric is young, healthy, and strong Alexis, and that's a good thing. He's a fighter and fighters like to win." Emily said.
"Your sugar coating the truth Emily. He's not going to make it is he?" Alexis said.
"You call it sugar coating, I call it giving some much needed hope. If your not strong for him Alexis, who else will be?" Emily said.
Nikolas looked at Emily and smiled. He fell in love with Emily all over again in that one single moment. The way she is always able to see the good in things never ceased to amaze him. Nikolas looked over at his aunt and for the first time since she learned of Ric's condition there was a glimmer of hope that sparked in her and he could see it. He would have to thank Emily later for bringing some much needed positive energy into what easily could turn into an even more tragic event.
"I know this was a lot to take in Alexis and I'm sorry but please don't lose faith." Emily said.
"I'm not sure I have any left Emily." Alexis said sincerely.
"You do. You do. Now, I have to get back into the OR. I will come get you as soon as the surgery is over. I'll see you all later." Emily said.
"Thanks Em." Nikolas said.
"Yes, thank you Emily." Alexis said.
"Anytime." Emily said as she winked at Nikolas. Then headed out the door.
"Would you excuse me for a second?" Nikolas said.
"I'll be fine Nikolas go ahead." Alexis said.
Nikolas nodded then headed out the room after Emily.
"Emily!" Nikolas called.
Emily stopped when she heard Nikolas call her. She turned around to see her handsome prince walking towards her.
"Emily I know you have to get back so I won't take up to much of your time." Nikolas said.
"I can spare a moment for you. What is it?" Emily asked.
"Em, you can tell me the truth. Is he really going to make it? Should I be preparing Alexis for the worst?" Nikolas asked.
"It's bad Nikolas. There's no denying that but like I told Alexis, Ric has a lot of things going for him. One of the best things is that he has a kick ass surgical team fighting to save his life and we are going to do everything in our power to make sure he comes out of that OR alive. The rest will be up to him." Emily said.
"Ok. Will I see you later?" Nikolas asked.
"I hope so." Emily said.
"I love you and thank you." Nikolas said.
"I love you too. I'll see you later." Emily said then started back towards the OR.
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Mac was standing with Lucky not to far away from the surgical lounge discussing the case when Mac's cell phone started to ring. He pulled his phone out and looked at the caller id. He thought it would be Rodriguez giving him an update but it was a number that came up blocked.
" I don't know who you are but I want to know right now how you got the cell phone number to the Commissioner of the Port Charles Police Department?" Mac said angrily.
"Maybe I got it because I'm the brother of the Police Commissioner and I'm a damn good spy." a raspy Aussie voice said.
-TBC-