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“No! Stop, don’t do it!” Sawyer screams again at Beau. Sawyer runs as fast as he can to try to get to Hannah in time. He reaches the stage just as Beau smiles evilly at him as he thrusts the sword into Hannah’s chest. He can easily hear her screams of pain above the pandemonium of the room.
Sawyer jumps onto the stage, leaping over Hannah’s body to land on Beau. He brings the blonde down to the ground, pounding his fist into Beau’s smirking face. Sawyer grabs the robe draped around Beau and twists it around his throat, holding it tight.
“You’re too late lover boy. Funny isn’t it, you should know that I always get what I want. You can’t stop us, someone else will take our place,” Beau laughs. Rage overtakes Sawyer as he pulls the robe even tighter, surprising Beau as he begins to try to pry Sawyer’s hands off the fabric.
“You know what’s really funny, you piece of crap? I’m going to kill you. Now that’s hilarious.”
Beau’s face turns a dark red as his eyes water. Soon his fighting stops and his breathing ceases. Sawyer quickly releases the robe and jumps off Beau’s body. He looks down at the man that he has just killed. He thought he would feel relief, to kill the person who harmed Hannah but he doesn’t. Remorse slaps him in the face. He then remembers Hannah. Sawyer swiftly turns around to see Hannah staring at the sword sticking out of her chest.
“Hannah, baby look at me. I’m here to save you. Don’t worry anymore, I’m here. Baby, look at me. Hannah! Hannah, don’t leave me, I love you. Don’t leave me!” He shakes her shoulders, trying to get her attention. She looks up, but her gaze pierces through him as if she can’t see him. He shakes her harder, trying to get her to stay with him, as her eyes close.
Sawyer takes the sword, pulls it out and throws it to the floor. He quickly loosens the rope and removes it from her frail body. Sawyer carefully cradles her frame to his chest and rushes toward the exit. He dodges bullets still flying through the air as he runs as fast as he can. He rams into many people, knocking them to the ground. He never looks back, he only looks straight ahead to the door.
When he finally arrives, he kicks the door open and rushes out, still with an unconscious Hannah in his arms. He runs past the officers firing shots at the building. He runs blindly through the warfare, trying to get to the cruiser he came in. If he can just get her to the car, everything will be okay. He can save her if he can just make it.
***
“MONSON, GET YOUR REAR back here! Monson!!” Office Lee yells at the tattooed man on a death mission, running through gunfire to the gray building before them. To his amazement, the fool makes it inside the building.
“Idiot is never going to see the light of day again,” he says to himself only to realize that Mr. Randoff is standing next to him. The older gentleman gives the officer a look of disgust then returns his gaze to the building.
“Why in the world did that fool run in there? Could you not hold him back or something?” Officer Lee questions.
Mr. Randoff shakes his head as he looks down. “He was running toward there before I could get any words out.” Both men return their eyes to the building, now peppered with bullet holes.
The scene before them resembles war. The air is heavy with gunpowder and hazy with smoke. Their hearing is deafened by the thunder of gunfire. The ground is littered with empty shells and blood. This is what nightmares are made from, and they are a part of it. Little Lawton, Oklahoma, part of a deadly siege. After today, the world would know about their small town.
Mr. Randoff’s mouth falls open as he takes a few steps toward the building. He stops, then falls to his knees, bringing his hands up to cover his mouth. Officer Lee steps carefully forward to get a better look at what the man is staring at. To his disbelief, he sees Sawyer running with a woman dressed in white cradled in his arms. That must be Hannah, he thinks to himself.
“Hold fire, hold fire, let him through!” Officer Lee shouts, trying to be heard over the commotion.
Sawyer never stops running, he runs past the two men over to the cruiser they arrived in. Mr. Randoff scampers after the pair, while Officer Lee calls in that Hannah is out of the building and requests that the medics come to their location. When he reaches them, he is shocked to find Hannah still cradled in Sawyer’s arms, bleeding.
“What happened to her?” the officer shouts.
“Beau stabbed her as soon as he saw me. He was about to force himself on her. She was tied down to some altar or something on a stage. I don’t know what was going on in there, I saw Hannah and started running to her. Then Beau stabbed her, he stabbed her right in front of me. I jumped him then choked him with his robe. Then I took the sword out of her chest and untied her and just ran. I ran until I could get her to this car. She will be okay now, she’s safe now. She’s safe now.” Sawyer continues to repeat the last few words, over and over.
“He’s in shock, they will want to check him out at the hospital too,” Officer Lee explains to Mr. Randoff. The older man shakes his head, keeping a strong hold on his daughter’s hand. He won’t let go. He must touch her, to make sure she is real.
The medics arrive and try to take Hannah out of Sawyer’s grasp.
“No! You can’t have her! You can’t hurt her! I will protect her,” he yells to them.
Mr. Randoff quickly puts a hand on Sawyer’s shoulder, “Son, they are here to help her. You did good Sawyer, but let them fix her up so she will be okay. Let her go, you can still stay with her. All of us will stay with her. Just let the nice boys fix her now, okay?”
Sawyer stares at Mr. Randoff, then slowly removes the vice grip he has on her. Officer Lee nods at the medics, and they carefully remove Hannah from Sawyer and place her on the nearby gurney. They immediately place her in the ambulance and begin their assessment. Mr. Randoff pulls Sawyer to his feet and leads him to the ambulance and they both get in. Officer Lee escorts the ambulance to the hospital with lights and sirens. The county hospital is aware of the situation, as they have already had eight officers brought in with gunshot wounds.
The fifteen-minute ride to the hospital is the longest ride that Sawyer can remember ever taking. He watches in horror as each gauze pad is thrown to the floor, saturated with Hannah’s blood. One medic is pumping her full of different medications, while the other is putting an oxygen mask on her face and EKG leads to her chest. Hannah’s breathing is gurgled, almost like she is being held underwater. The medics are talking to each other in medical lingo that Sawyer doesn’t understand. The driver is relaying all that the two medics say back to the hospital for further instruction.
Sawyer hates that he can’t do anything right now to help her. He is gripping his knees, trying to focus on breathing. He is trembling with fear as he suffers, watching blood from the gurney drip to the floor. He feels a hand on his back. He turns to his right to see Mr. Randoff patting him on the back, not as much out of comfort, but also to ease his own suffering as he watches the same scene.
“Lost her pulse,” the medic yells. One man begins to frantically inject Hannah with more medications while the other starts chest compressions. Sawyer’s breathing stops as he watches in horror. He can’t move, he sits trembling. The seconds feel like days as he continues to stare at her hand that is hanging off the gurney. He hopes that if he stares hard and long enough that it will move. He begins to pray to God that He brings her back to him. “Got a pulse, its weak but its back,” the medic shouts. Sawyer sighs in relief as tears of thankfulness fill his eyes.
The ambulance pulls to a stop in the emergency bay of the hospital. A team of nurses and technicians open the doors and grab the gurney. They quickly push Hannah into the hospital as Sawyer and Mr. Randoff hurry to keep up. The men are stopped in the waiting room, just before they entered through the guarded double doors of the emergency room.
“Gentlemen, we need you to wait here. We will update you as soon as we can,” a gray-haired older lady in green scrubs tells them. The badge dangling from the lanyard around her neck reads A. M. Mathis, RN. She gives a kind smile, that doesn’t reach her eyes, to the men as she turns to join the team working on Hannah. Sawyer doesn’t put up a fight, he walks dejectedly to a hard chair in the corner of the room next to a window. Mr. Randoff takes a seat next to him. The two men sit in silence.
“Here, take this. Don’t say anything snide about me being nice to you either, or I’ll dump it on your lap,” Officer Lee tells Sawyer and Mr. Randoff as he hands both men a cup of coffee.
“We have some men outside to keep the press away. They caught on and want details and passed it on to the national level. Just be prepared when you try to leave, they are going to be swarming soon.”
The waiting room of the hospital begins to fill with friends and officers. Several officers were transported to this hospital along with Hannah, and their families are slowly being brought in to wait for news also. Bryce, Shelley, Chelsea, Elise, and Scot come to wait with them. The atmosphere of the room is stressful, they have had no updates on Hannah’s condition yet. The families of the officers that were brought in after her have been talked with by the doctors working on them. It makes Sawyer feel even more desperate. He keeps thinking about how he will handle life if she doesn’t make it. The thought makes him sick.
Gradually, the waiting room begins to empty out. Soon, just Sawyer, Mr. Randoff, Officer Lee, and their friends are left. Several hours have passed and they still haven’t heard anything. Just when all hope seems lost, a doctor opens the double doors, walking toward them.
“Mr. Randoff? May I speak with you in a private room?” she says as she gestures to a room behind her.
“No, whatever you say can be said in front of everyone here. We are all her family,” Mr. Randoff calmly replies. The doctor shakes her head and continues.
“I’m Dr. Rogers, the surgeon on Hannah’s case. As you know, she was brought in with a massive penetrating chest wound. Her injury punctured her left lung, broke two ribs on the right, and caused some damage to her diaphragm. Her lung filled with blood. We inserted a chest tube which resolved that issue. I stitched her diaphragm, and luckily the wound didn’t include her heart. She had some hemorrhaging that we controlled, she is receiving blood transfusions. Her injury is not life threatening, but due to her poor health status when she arrived, her body is reacting below par to treatment. It appears from her weight and blood work that she has been severely malnourished. That will cause her to heal very slowly. At this moment, it’s touch and go. We have her stabilized in the ICU. Only two can see her now. Be warned, she is sedated and is on a ventilator to give her lungs time to heal. There is a waiting room up there where your family and friends can wait. I will keep you updated through the night. Do you have any questions?”
Sawyer and Mr. Randoff are in shock. There is a chance that Hannah won’t come back to them. They shake their heads at the young doctor.
“Okay, if you think of any the nurses up there can page me. If you would please follow me.” Dr. Rogers guides the group to the elevator to take them to the third floor. When they arrive, the doctor leads Sawyer and Mr. Randoff through a wide hallway to room seven. They can see Hannah lying on the bed through the glass door of the room. Sawyer’s breath hitches as he stares at her lifeless, pale body.
The doctor slides open the door, walking to Hannah to check her vitals. Sawyer and Mr. Randoff cautiously follow, careful to avoid touching any tubes or leads attached to her frail body.
“The next twenty-four hours are critical. There will be either doctors or nurses in here often to check on her condition. Please talk to her, and touch her. She can hear and feel you. If you have any questions, please ask the nurse to page me,” Dr. Rogers informs them as she leaves the room.
“You can stay with her first, I’ll wait out here. You need to be with her,” Sawyer tells Mr. Randoff as he leaves to stand outside the room. The older gentleman nods his head as he takes a seat on the bedside chair.
Sawyer stands for a while in the hallway before sliding down the wall to sit on the floor beside his love’s door. Occasionally he glances behind him through the door. He feels like he is intruding on a special moment between father and daughter. He observes Mr. Randoff tightly grip her hand in his and lovingly caress her cheek. He can tell that the father is softly talking and singing to the small woman.
Sawyer thinks to himself how bittersweet this moment must be for her father. This may be the last time he sees his daughter alive, and she is in this condition. He may never see her gorgeous, bright, lively eyes open and excitedly looking at him. He may never hear her sweet voice talk with passion to him. It makes Sawyer’s heart break for the man, to know he has experienced more with this woman than her own father has.
Suddenly a monitor blares piercingly. Sawyer thinks it is coming from the room next to them, but to his alarm, it is Hannah’s. He jumps to his feet and panics as he looks through the door. Mr. Randoff is shaking Hannah, begging her not to go. People in scrubs push past Sawyer into the room with a red cart. More nurses arrive and escort Mr. Randoff out of the room. They draw a curtain across the room to shield the men from looking in, but it doesn’t block the desperate shouting of the nurses and doctors. Both men stand in shock, shaking as they wait for Hannah to come back.