BEAST (26 page)

~***~

Ashleigh was talking on the phone with a member of her analyst staff. Her eyes kept darting to the clock. Damnit! It was already 11:17 and Gloria was still going on and on about non-work related stuff. Why did people go into details about their personal business?! Why couldn’t she understand that no one in their right mind needed a detailed accounting of your weekend when all you did was hang out with the same man that you’ve been married to for twenty years and go out to eat at the same restaurant you went to each Friday???

Gloria wasn’t exactly her boss but high enough on the food chain that Ashleigh had to consider her exit strategy very carefully.

“...so the bartender is single and he’s such a nice guy. I think his wife died in ’07…
wait
, maybe it was ’08. Because it was the same year that Bob and I bought the Tahoe--”

“OH MY GOD!”

“What?!”
Gloria exclaimed.

“There’s a…fire! FIRE DRILL! I
gotta
go. Talk to you later!” Ashleigh quickly disconnected the phone and then she sighed and shook her head. Her eyes darted to the clock. 11:22! Damnit! She darted out of her office.

“Where are you going?!”
Kendra yelled as she rushed past her office.

“Lunch with Christopher!”

“Tell him we said bye!” Lance yelled.

But Ashleigh was already down the hall pressing the button to bring the elevator. Gloria had ruined her plans to have lunch already purchased and set up at one of the corner tables where no one ever sat. It would have given them more time to spend sitting with each other instead of standing in line waiting to make their purchase. She rushed to the line and grabbed a tray, loading it with things that she knew Christopher enjoyed. She kept glancing at the entrance so that she wouldn’t miss him, happy that her plan appeared to be working. He hadn’t arrived yet. She had time to quickly set their meal out and when it was all set she glanced at the clock. 11:35. Oh hell! Now he was late.

At 11:40 her anxiety had built. This was eating into her time with him! Worse is that she had darted out of her office without her cell phone. He probably got held up and had left her a message. But at 11:45, when he still hadn’t shown up Ashleigh forgot all about the food that she’d purchased. She went straight for the elevators to take her down to the subbasement. Maybe he’d gotten preoccupied. She should get her phone but decided she’d head downstairs and knock on the security doors just in case he got sidetracked. If she didn’t get an answer then she’d go up and check her messages.

Ashleigh used the elevator in the back corridor near the nurse’s station. When she pressed the button to bring the lift, the door immediately opened and she was happy that she wouldn’t have to wait for it. She pressed the button for the subbasement nervously, knowing that it was stupid to be worried. But she couldn’t help it. Christopher had never been late before…god…what if he’d been forced to ship out early?!

“No no
no
,” she moaned. When it reached the subbasement the elevator doors didn’t open. She looked around quickly. Why weren’t the doors opening? She pressed the button indicating ‘door open’. Nothing happened. Real fear hit her and she quickly pressed L for the lobby. Nothing happened. She quickly pressed 7, for her floor. And still nothing happened.

The air froze in her chest. She was stuck in the elevator! Ashleigh had a very real fear of small enclosed spaces. Elevators were bad for her, but made tolerable only due to the fact that she would be in one for less than a minute.

She looked around the small compartment frantically as if another exit would magically appear, and then she slammed the sides of her fists against the closed elevator doors. “Hey! I’m locked in the elevator!”

Was this a lockdown? Well why hadn’t she heard any alarms or seen any flashing light? Well that was easy; they didn’t put lockdown warnings on the main floors.

“Hey!”  She
bammed
on the door again, feeling panic well up inside of her. Then she saw a control panel near the buttons and she opened it expecting to see a telephone like in the movies. There was a button that said PRESS IN CASE OF EMERGENCY.

She pressed the button three times. “Hello? Is someone there?” Ashleigh did that for the next five minutes but there was no one on the receiving end.

She began to feel as if there was no air and had to close her eyes and convince herself that just because she was trapped in a small, enclosed area didn’t mean there wasn’t any air.  And how long did that lady say lockdown was in effect? Five or ten minutes as they transported prisoners?

Okay. She could probably do a few minutes. Oh why had she not gone back for her cell phone?! Idiot! Ashleigh rubbed the tension from her neck as she prepared to wait it out.

~***~

Five minutes passed and the doors still didn’t open; well what she assumed was five minutes. She didn’t wear a watch and yep…the cell phone was still upstairs on her desk.

And that’s when she began to worry. Was there a real emergency? Yes because lockdown was only a few minutes and it had already been more than that considering how late Christopher was. What if there was a real fire??? Had karma come back on her for telling that lie to Gloria?

Oh Jesus! She was trapped in the elevator during an emergency. The panic crept up on her like wicked little fingers. Sweat began to roll down her body and the air in the elevator suddenly became hot and stale.

“Help!
Someone, I’m trapped in the elevator!” She began
bamming
on the door again and this time she didn’t let up.

“Christopher!” She screamed. “I’m in the elevator!”

After five minutes of that she was exhausted and she moved into the corner to sit down and hold her knees tightly.

Calm down, calm down. She chanted to herself as she began to rock. No one has ever died due to being trapped in an elevator. Even if…god forbid, I’m trapped for a few hours, someone will eventually have to wonder why this freaking elevator is still locked.

She tried to rationalize her way through the panic. Christopher is expecting her. Yes. He was going to find her and he wouldn’t like knowing that she’d been scared of a little old elevator. She began to relax by small degrees. He was going on a dangerous mission, and she could tell that he didn’t want to go. How much faith would he have in her if she couldn’t even handle something like this?

She opened her eyes and unclenched her fist, taking in a soothing breath. Yes…better. Have faith in Christopher. He’ll get you out.

Time stood still, becoming endless to her. The only thing she could do was to think about pleasant things; Christopher and her
friends,
the love fest that she’d had this past week...Her head was buried in her hands when the elevator door finally did open. She
jumped
to her feet immediately only to be surprised by a man wearing army fatigues standing in the entrance with a concerned look on his face.

It wasn’t Christopher but she’d seen him before. He had been one of the men present when she had fainted; some type of commander. It didn’t matter to her, he was in Christopher’s troop and she recognized him. She gripped him in relief, clinging to him as if he was a lifeline.

“The d
oors didn’t open. I was trapped,
” She explained
nearly hysterically
while physically shaking
. She felt his
hand patting her shoulder stiffly.

“Yes, Ma’am.”
He cleared his throat, seeming uncomfortable. “There was an incident at The Federal Courthouse.”

“Is Christopher okay?!”

The man
gave her back another awkward pat. “He
’s okay. Everything is okay. Shots were fired but we controlled the situation. Everyone is okay with no casualties.”

She looked past him out into the empty corridor. He had somehow caus
ed the doors to be frozen open and she wanted to be on the outside of this elevator, but more than that she didn’t understand why Christopher wasn’t here now.
“Where is he?”

“Lt Jameson came to me earlier today and requested that I take him off t
his mission and that I
give him another.” Her eyes got big, hopeful. Bruce resisted his urge to smile as he continued to stare down at her. He didn’t think that she was aware that she was touching his shirt fronts, but he was…very aware.

“I complied with his request.”
Bruce
didn’t feel as if it was his place to give her the details. That was between her and Beast. “I spoke to him
right before he shipped out
and he
asked me to tell you that he explained everything in a message on your phone
and that everything is going to be okay…” Bruce cleared his throat and bl
ushed, “and that he loved you. I’m sorry that he couldn’t give you the message himself but h
as already shipped out. Once I notified his new team of the change they were able to assemble quickly. They’ll be able to get started later this evening.”

She stared at him in horror.  Christopher…was gone?

“I didn’t say goodbye to him…” She stared at him and the anguish in her eyes melted his military stiffness. Bruce rubbed her shoulders gently and gave her a sympathetic look. When he spoke again his voice was gentle.

“
Lieut
--Christopher was going to explain everything during lunch with you and due to the incident at the Federal Courthouse he missed that lunch. He
did ask me personally to tell you not to worry and that he is
going to be okay and that he loved you. Unfortunately, that’s all I have. I need to prepare my men to ship out…but I want
to
tell you personally.”

Ashleigh came to attention. “I have to get upstairs! I left my phone on my desk. And may I have your name please?”

“Chief Warrant Officer Bruce Koepke, Ma’am.” He used a card to scan into the security box and pressed the 7
th
floor, surprising her that he knew which floor she worked on. He made no attempt to leave the elevator, riding up with her and she was thankful. He must have seen the panic on her face.

Once the doors opened she dashed out and remembered to thank him just as they began to close. He was big, gruff but his expression softened momentarily before he nodded and disappeared behind the closing doors.

Ashleigh hurried into the office. Lance craned his neck at her and Kendra came out of her office.

“God, Ashleigh…if you and Christopher are going to do it at work can you at least clean yourself up afterwards?”

She paused long enough to yell over her shoulder. “I was trapped in the elevator!”

Lance and Kendra came into her office while she was searching for her cell phone.

“You’ve been gone for nearly two hours.” Lance said. “Gloria called asking if the fire drill was over. I told her yeah but we had to attend a safety meeting—
what are you doing
?”

Ashleigh looked at him frantically as she pulled items from her purse. “I missed seeing Christopher! He shipped out already!”

“Oh no…” Kendra said.

She located her phone and quickly dialed into her voicemail. She heard Christopher’s voice and held up her finger for her friend’s to be quiet.

“
Babe
?”
The reception was cutting in and out, which is the reason they normally texted. The subbasement jus
t couldn’t get a clear signal. “
Call
me back as soon as you get this
!”
Then the phone went dead. She went to the next message which was just a minute later.

“
Sweetheart, where are you?
”
He was cutting out bad. “
Babe…emergency Federal C…house. Ashleigh…mission! Baby, DON’T WORRY! OKAY? I got my mission…so you don’t have to worry.
I…active.
Can you…me, Sweetheart? I’M NOT…! I
gotta
go, they…my phone. I love…and
sorr
…you! Two…okay? I love you!”