Caught In The Middle

“Okay, people! Time to get outta here!” Artie yelled, running into the vault.

Jay and Jake both looked at him. “What?” Jay said.

“We are about to make our escape,” said Artie, slinging the stuffed-full-of-money duffle bag onto his shoulder. “Get him up,” he said, gesturing his gun to Frank.

“’Get him up’?” Jake echoed, incredulous.

“Yeah! As in ‘on his feet’.” He pointed the gun at Frank’s head. “Do it! Now! Any wrong moves and he gets it.”

Having no choice, Jake and Jay carefully pulled Frank up, who they found was semi-conscious. Frank gasped with pain, unable to stand. His head spun as they held onto him tightly.

Artie pointed the gun at Jake. “You, move away.”

Jake didn’t budge, so Artie pointed the gun at Frank’s head again. With a glance at Jay, Jake backed away slowly, and Artie moved forward and roughly grabbed Frank out of Jay’s grasp, and into a headlock, his arm around Frank’s throat.

Frank weakly tried to grab Artie’s arm, to push it away, but hardly managed to get his arms up halfway before they dropped again.

Artie pointed his gun at Jake again. “Walk.”

Jake obeyed, and looked behind himself to see that Jay was behind him, and Artie behind Jay. Artie was having a hard time pulling Frank along, who was too weak and not quite conscious enough to walk. Artie still had the gun to Frank’s head.

They all left the vault and waited for Artie’s next order.

“Jay, take him to the car,” Artie said, walking well behind Jake and Jay as they started to walk to the back door of the bank. When they reached it, Jay opened it and they walked into an alley behind the bank where a late model black 4 dr Honda Accord was parked.

“Stop there,” Artie said, pulling Frank along.

Jake obeyed, wishing Artie would come closer, so he could jump him and end the situation now, before they got into the car, and into more danger.

“Over there,” Artie said, motioning for Jake to move away from the car, Jay following. Artie reached the car and opened the back door, practically throwing Frank inside, who tried unsuccessfully to stifle a cry of pain. Artie fished keys out of his pocket, and threw them at Jay, who caught them, nervously.

“Get in,” Artie said to Jake, pointing the gun at him.

Seeing no way out, especially now that Frank was in the thief’s car, he got in, helping Frank—who was limply laying across the seat—into a more comfortable position.

Jay got in quickly, and whispered to Jake, “Put your seatbelts on!” before Artie got in.

Jake complied, putting Frank’s on too—as loosely as he could safely make it, with the horrible stab wound in the way. He held onto his barely-conscious boss tightly as Jay started to drive, wondering what Jay had in mind.

                                                                         ********************

“Where are they? It’s been more then five minutes,” Chief Morgan said.

Monica shook her head. “Something’s not right.”

“I agree,” Alex said, taking out a walkie-talkie. “Cody?”

“Yeah?”

“Have an officer try to take a peek into a bank window.”

“Will do.”

They stood there on the roof, waiting for Cody’s reply.

“Uh,” they heard.

“What?” Alex asked.

“There doesn’t appear to be anyone in there, they said.”

Morgan muttered something under his breath, and yelled to the SWAT team. “Go in, now!”

By the time Morgan, Alex, and Monica got back to the ground, some of the SWAT team was coming out.

“The bank is empty sir.”

“HOW did they get away?!” Morgan roared, taking off his hat and throwing it to the ground.

“Probably by car!” said Alex. “It was a trick, so they could escape while we were on the roof!”

Morgan grabbed a bullhorn, and yelled to all the officers to make chase, hoping to somehow find the car and rescue Frank and Jake before it was too late.

                                                                         ********************

“Where are we going?” Jake asked Artie, who was turned around in the front passenger seat, holding the gun on them.

“You’ll find out,” he said.

Jake sighed as he watched the scenery zip by. They were going fast, over the speed limit. He could not believe that no policemen had been at the back door of the bank, and he made a mental note to ask Morgan why, if they got out of this. When, he thought to himself, not if. He sighed, wondering what Jay was going to do; the ball was in his court now, with him being at the wheel.

Jay was waiting to come to a more secluded area away from people and cars before he made his move. He was scared at what he was about to do, and hoped he wouldn’t kill Frank or Jake, in his attempt to save their lives. Finally a quiet stretch of road appeared, and he looked in the rearview mirror, hoping to get Jake’s attention.

Jake saw him, and realized that he was trying to tell him something. Jay looked at Frank, and then back at Jake, and Jake figured it out. He gripped Frank tightly, and braced himself.

When Jay saw that Jake was ready, he took a deep breath, and wrenched the steering wheel to the right, as hard as he could.

The car flipped over onto its back and rolled once, landing on the side of the road.

Jake opened his eyes, in shock that Jay had pulled it off, and tried to see if Frank was all right.

“Frank?”

Frank was alive but unconscious, whether from the stab wound or some new injury, he wasn’t sure.

Jake took off the seatbelts and dragged Frank out of the car, where he laid him on the ground. He then went back to the vehicle, realizing that Jay hadn’t come out, and neither had Artie.

He saw Artie unconscious, thankfully, and Jay fumbling with his seatbelt, looking dazed.

Jake opened the door of the now-mangled car for him, and helped him climb out. “You okay?”

Jay nodded, shaking like a leaf in the wind. “Y-yeah, I think so.” He saw Frank lying on the ground, and stumbled over to him.

“He’s alive!”

Jake nodded, as he dialed a number on his cell phone. “Yeah, he is, thanks to you.”

                                                                      ********************

Alex’s cell phone rang, and she almost ignored it till she saw a familiar number on the screen. “Jake!” she yelled. “Where are you? Are you and Frank all right?!”

Morgan jammed on his cruiser’s brakes, waiting to find out which direction to go in.

Alex was shaking her head at what she was being told. “All right, we’re near there, be there in a couple minutes.” She hung up. “Jay flipped the car to take out Artie! They’re on Illinois Road.”

Morgan continued driving, grabbing his radio and asking for an ambulance to meet them there.

                                                                           ********************

Jake and Jay pulled Artie out of the car, and laid him on the grass, far away from Frank. Artie’s head was bleeding, but not badly.

Jake took Frank’s gun back, looking forward to returning it to him. He stuck it in his waistband with a sigh, as he went back over to his boss.

Frank looked worse. Jake wasn’t sure if it was because of the different lighting—sunlight rather then the artificial lighting in the bank—or if he really was worse. He felt his pulse and found it even weaker now.

“Frank,” he whispered. “Don’t do this to us! You made it this far, hold on a little longer!”

He didn’t expect a reply, so he wasn’t surprised when he didn’t get one. Suddenly he heard sirens, and sighed with relief when a herd of police cars came flying down the road. They screeched to a halt, and the officers all jumped out, pointing their guns at Jay.

“No!” Jake yelled.

Morgan walked over, with a frown. “What?”

Jake shook his head, not sure how to explain.

“It’s all right, Jake,” Jay said, holding his wrists out for the handcuffs. “It’ll get sorted out.”

Jake nodded. “Chief, he helped us, if it wasn’t for him, Frank would be dead, and probably me too.”

Morgan digested his statement for a minute, and then nodded and put his gun away.

The ambulance pulled up, and the medics jumped out and ran over to Frank and Artie.

“Forget about him!” Alex yelled, to the medic that knelt beside the thief. Pointing to Frank, she said, “He’s the one who did this!”

Morgan nodded at them, and called for another ambulance over his radio.

Monica took Alex’s arm and pulled her away from Frank, so the medics could do their job.

The four of them watched nervously, as the medics knelt beside their boss, and started to treat him.

“Pulse is weak and thready…”

“BP 55/20! He needs blood yesterday…”

“Can’t find a vein for the IV…shoot…”

“Respiration shallow…gimme the oxygen...thanks…”

Faster then the team thought possible, the medics had Frank on the stretcher, and were loading it into the ambulance. Jake jumped in, to go with them.

“Jake, wait!” yelled Morgan.

“What?” Jake said, peeking out the doors.

“We need your…oh forget it, we’ll get your statement later. Go.”

Jake gave him a half smile, and shut the doors.

As the ambulance sped away, Artie started to come around. He didn’t stay conscious for long, for as soon as Alex noticed, she punched him in the face.

                                                                         *******************

Jake sat in the hospital waiting room, his head in his hands. The relief at being out of the bank, and having gotten Frank out alive, was dulled by the uncertainty of Frank’s future. Will he survive this? Was I too late? Is he even still alive, at this moment? He tried not to look at the clock, knowing it would say that only five minutes had passed since he last looked at it.

Suddenly his cell phone rang, making him jump. He fumbled with it, nearly dropping it. “Hello?”

“Jake, heard anything?”

“No, Alex, I wish.”

She sighed. “Okay. We’re gonna try to get up there ASAP.”

Jake nodded. “Okay.” He hung up, and heaved a huge sigh. Sitting back against the couch, the situation finally caught up with him, and he unexpectedly dozed off.

“’Scuse me?”

Jake jumped, again. Standing before him was a doctor, wearing a surgical gown. “Are you the one who brought Mr. Donovan in?”

Jake jumped to his feet, trying to ignore the inevitable bloodstains on the doc’s scrubs. “Yeah, how is he?”

The doctor hesitated.

Jake felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. No…he’s dead, I was too late…

“Unfortunately, the knife did some extensive damage…”

“No…” Jake shook his head.

“I’m sorry…”

“No!”

“We had to remove his spleen.”

Jake blinked. “What?”

“We removed his spleen,” the surgeon repeated. “The knife…”

“’Caused damage’, I heard you. You mean Frank is alive?”

The doctor nodded.

Jake was so relived he felt dizzy. “Thank God!”

“I imagine you want to see him?”

Jake nodded.

The doctor motioned for Jake to follow him, which he did, all the way to the ICU, where Frank had a private room.

Jake sighed at the sight of his boss; pale and surrounded by machines. Jake stepped closer, and cringed when he saw that Frank’s breathing was being helped by a respirator.

“He’s gonna make it, right? What will his life be like without a spleen?” Jake asked, not sure how vital the organ was.

The doctor nodded. “Yes, he’ll make it.” Then he sighed. “The spleen is our body’s fighter; the largest lymph node in the body. Without it, he will have a greater chance of infections, colds, and the like, especially pneumonia, which is very common in people without spleens.”

“Wow,” Jake said, with a sigh. “When will he wake up?”

The doctor shrugged. “Could be tonight, could be tomorrow. He’s been through a lot.”

Jake nodded. “He has.” He saw a chair and dragged it over to the bed, not intending to leave.

The doctor was apparently used to cops never leaving their colleagues, and said to him, “I have to go make my rounds. If anything happens, just press that button on the wall, and the nurses will come.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Less then a minute after the doctor left, Alex, Monica, and Cody came barreling into the room.

“Frank! Oh no…”

“He looks terrible!”

“Yikes!”

“Shhh!” Jake said. “This is the ICU, people.”

They all tried to calm down, and lower their voices, knowing that there were some pretty sick people in the adjoining rooms.

“What did the doctor say?” Alex whispered.

Jake sighed. “They removed his spleen.”

“They WHAT?!” Cody exploded.

“I heard that that’s not good, when someone loses their spleen,” Monica said, worriedly.

Jake shrugged. “The doc told me that the spleen is the body’s fighter. Without it Frank’ll catch colds and stuff easily.”

Alex sighed. “I can’t believe this…”

Jake echoed her sigh. “I know.”

They were all silent for a few minutes, lost in their own thoughts as they watched Frank.

“Where’s Jay?” Jake asked.

“At the PD,” said Monica. “He’s still charged with attempting to rob a bank.”

“With what you said, though,” said Cody. “He might get off easy.”

Jake nodded. “I hope so. If it wasn’t for him, Frank and I both would probably be dead by now.”

                                                                           ********************

The next day, the team was assembled in Frank’s room, still waiting for him to awaken. The doctor had been in a few minutes prior, and told them that Frank was doing as well as expected, and not to worry, that he should wake up soon. Nonetheless they were all startled when one of the machines started beeping.

Alex jumped up and hit the button on the wall, and the doctor ran in with a nurse behind him. He figured out the problem, and hit a button on the ventilator.

As the beeping stopped, they all looked at the doctor anxiously. “What happened?”

The doctor smiled. “He’s waking up.”

Just then Frank opened his eyes slightly, looking alarmed. The ventilator squawked again.

“Take it easy, Mr. Donovan, don’t try to breathe, let the machine do it for you.”

Machine? Frank thought, groggily. He tried to obey the doctor, as the squawking was hurting his ears. It was the weirdest sensation he ever felt, an artificial source causing his lungs to inflate, and deflate.

When the ventilator stayed quiet, the doctor smiled. “There now, that’s better. Would you like me to remove that for you?”

Frank nodded, weakly, blinking his eyes tiredly.

The doctor turned to the rest of the team, who were staring at Frank, in sympathy. “Could you all step out for a minute?”

Reluctant at first, they all nodded and filed out the door. A few minutes later the doctor opened it again, and let them back in.

“He’s not fully coherent,” the doc told them. “If you talk to him, try to keep it short. I’ll be right back.”

They all went back to the bed, grateful that the doc had left, so they could be alone with Frank.

His eyes were closed, but when they approached, he opened them.

“Hey, Frank,” Alex said. “How you feeling?”

Frank just blinked at them for a minute, before saying, “All right.” His voice sounded scratchy, no doubt from the presence of the ventilator.

“Sure you are,” Cody said, not believing him.

Jake sat in the chair nearest Frank. “Do you remember what happened?”

Again, Frank just lay there blinking, his eyes closing more and more.

Jake looked to the others and sighed. They all shook their heads or shrugged at him.

“The bank, Frank. You were a hostage, remember? We got you out.”

“Bank?” Frank whispered, sounding confused.

Jake nodded, smiling. “Yeah.”

“Other…hostages?” Frank asked.

Jake nodded. “We got them all out safely. No one else got hurt.”

Frank smiled slightly. “Good…job…” he said, and fell asleep.

                                                                           ********************

Frank slept the rest of the day, and awoke more coherent the next morning. This time the team’s clue that he was awake was when he tried to move, and winced.

Monica was the first one to see. “Frank! Stay still!” she said, grabbing his arm.

They all crowded around the bed, reaching out to hold him down and prevent him from hurting himself.

Frank winced again, trying to stifle a groan.

They all waited for him to open his eyes again before they spoke, knowing anything they said would probably go over his head.

When he finally looked at them, he spoke before anyone else got the chance. “The bank…what happened?”

“You mean the outcome?” Jake asked.

Frank nodded, not remembering what was said the previous day.

“We got all the hostages out safely, and took out Artie,” Jake said, opting to save the details for later, when Frank could process them a little better.

Frank sighed with relief. Then his eyebrows went up.

“What?” Jake asked.

“Didn’t think…I’d make it.”

The team smiled at him.

“Looks like the ol’ Donovan Luck is still going strong,” said Cody.

Everyone shared a smile over that one.

“What did the doc say?” Frank asked slowly, trying to stay awake.

Jake hesitated for a second, not sure how Frank would react. “Uh, well…luckily the knife just missed your intestines and such, but…”

Frank frowned at him, waking up a little more at the implications of Jake’s hesitation.

“They had to remove your spleen, it was too damaged to fix.”

Frank’s eyes opened wider. He was surprised, for sure.

They all waited for him to say something, but he didn’t…or couldn’t.

“Oh,” he finally said. "Just a spleen." He said it nonchalantly, a mask of unconcern wiping away his shocked expression.

"Well, it could've been worse," said Cody. "You could've lost your wonderful sense of humor."

Not expecting that, they all started laughing, including Frank who gasped and stopped quickly.

“Sorry,” Cody said, making a face as if to say ‘oops’.

Frank sighed, allowing his eyes to slip shut. He hoped they'd take the hint and leave him alone for a while so he could digest the news.

“Frank?” Monica said, quietly. “You okay?”

Frank knew it was hopeless, getting them to leave him alone, so he opened his eyes and nodded. “Tired,” he said, knowing they’d shut up once they’d heard that. It wasn’t a lie, either.

They all looked at him sympathetically. “Get some sleep, Frank,” Alex said. “We’ll be here.”

So much for being left alone, Frank thought. He gave her a weak smile, nonetheless appreciating their concern.

                                                                       ********************

Frank jumped, hearing whispered voices in the room. A hand suddenly touched his arm, and he opened his eyes and blinked, disorientated.

“Frank?”

He looked up to see Jake there, and Chief Morgan, of the Chicago PD.

They both looked at him worriedly when he just blinked at them for a minute.

“Frank? It’s Steve Morgan,” the chief said, afraid that he didn’t recognize him.

Frank nodded. “Steve.”

Morgan smiled. “Whoa, Frank, you scared me for a minute there! How you feeling?”

Frank smiled. “Could be worse,” he said. Could be better, he left out.

“Glad to hear it! I hate to do this to you, but I need to know what Jay’s role was in the robbery, he’s saying he helped you get out, and Jake agrees, but we don’t know what went on before Jake went in the bank.”

Remember to ask Jake why he went in there in the first place! Frank tried to think. “I don’t know…” he shook his head. “I was stabbed…right after…it started.”

Morgan nodded, somberly. “That’s what we figured. We’ll have to rely on the witnesses only, then.”

“Maybe he’ll remember more after he’s out of here,” Jake said. “And not on so much pain medicine!”

Morgan shrugged. “Good point. Now, you’re sure it was Capone who stabbed you, not Jay?”

Frank frowned. “Capone?”

“Artie Capone,” Jake said. “That’s the jerk’s name.”

Frank nodded. “Yeah…he was in front of me…in the bank line…”

Their eyebrows went up. “All right, then, this is good enough for now. I’ll leave you to your rest, Frank. Take it easy, huh?”

Frank nodded. “Thanks, Steve,” he said, knowing the Chief had had a hand in his rescue.

Morgan nodded. “Anytime.”

As Morgan left, Frank looked at Jake, trying to remember what he wanted to ask him.

Jake could see the question on his face. “What?”

Frank sighed, having forgotten. Stupid painkillers! “Forgot,” he admitted.

Jake sat in the chair next to the bed. “Was it about the case?”

Frank nodded.

“You wanna know how we took Artie out?”

Frank felt like that wasn’t it, but he wanted to know that too, so he nodded.

“Well, after I got in the bank—”

“That!” Frank said, to tired to say much. “How’d you…get inside…”

“Oh,” Jake said, sheepishly. “Well, I. uh, offered to trade myself for you—”

“Jake…”

“And he agreed, but when I went in, he wouldn’t let you out, so we were both stuck there.”

“Jake…”

“So then the chopper came, but Artie didn’t intend to use it, it was a trick to get out of the bank while the police were on the roof waiting for us to go up there…”

“Jake…”

“So he forced us into a car, and Artie made Jay drive. Jay purposely flipped the car, and we got out. Artie was the only one not wearing a seatbelt, and got knocked out.”

Flipped the car?

“Well?” Jake said, breaking the silence a minute later.

“Well what?”

“What were you gonna say?”

Frank sighed, in frustration. “Don’t trade…yourself…for me.”

Jake frowned. “You expected us to just let you die in there?”

Frank sighed again, realizing that he would’ve done the same for the members of his team.

“Thanks,” he said. “But don’t ever do it again.”

Jake smiled. “Anything you say, boss.”

                                                   ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

                                                        Caught In The Middle - continued