Chapter 28.5B: Not Even In Pouncefield The Boys Are Safe – Not to be released [This occurs when Dr. Leary arrives at the train station with Fernando, Jorge and Rachel in her rented minivan.] The grey minivan parks across the street from the train station just a couple of minutes after 8. The sounds of a train pulling into the station is heard. The rear passenger door slides open and Jorge steps out. “I’ll be back with the girls!’, he says as he slides the door closed. He trots around the front of the minivan, runs across the street and into the train station. “Do we have to wait?”, Fernando asks from the front passenger seat. “Just in case they were not on that train, we could take Jorge home before we go. Besides, don’t you want to see your friends again?”, Dr. Leary says and asks. Inside the train station, the girls gather on the platform, finding a rough map of the area. They look at it for a while. Not far from them, a black squirrel take note of their actions. A grey squirrel steps out of the train station building, running towards the girls. “FRANCIS!”, he yells as he approaches the group. The smaller of two red squirrels run towards him, “JORGE!”, she squeals back. They catch each other midway from their starting point. They embrace and start kissing each one another as the others gather around them. The black squirrel inches up to them, keeping the distance between them constant. A taller red squirrel puts her arms between them and separated the two. “That’s enough you two. You can have the whole day with him in the privacy of his room if you want. And you better not get my little sister pregnant.”, she says to the two. “Remember, we are here for somebody else.”, the grey squirrel says. “Where’s Fernando?”, a white mouse steps to them and looks up at Jorge with her hands folded under her chin as if she were praying. Jorge separates from Francis, though not liking it. “Oh, him. That’s why you are all here.”, Jorge started to say. “He wont be here long, he has to go somewhere, but… follow me and lets see if he’s still there.” He walks towards the train station building with Francis in tow and the other girls following. A certain black squirrel follows the group, closing in on the distance but stays far enough not to be noticed. Together they leave the train station building at the street side. Jorge sees the grey minivan and points it out, “They are still here.” Though traffic was almost non-existent in this part of town, those waiting for those who were on train has already left, leaving the minivan the only vehicle around. Inside the minivan dr. Leary notices Jorge with the girls. “Those were your girlfriends? They are really cute.”, Dr. Leary comments as she toggles the switches to roll down the front windows. Fernando just bows his head slightly and shakes his head. The girls run across the street, stops at the driver’s side. They all say almost together, “Is Fernando in there?” Jorge and Francis catches up with the rest of the girls. The black squirrel waits across the street. “Before I answer that, who are you ladies?”, Dr. Leary asks with a smile. “We’re his friends from New York.”, the grey squirrel answers. “I’m Grace, that’s Rachel, her sister Francis and Jeanie.”, as she points them out. “Well, he’s on the other side. But he’s not feeling well, if you are his friends then you must know what that means.”, Dr. Leary explains. “And who are you, Miss?”, Jeanie asks. “I’m doctor Leary. I take care of him when he is not feeling well, like right now.”, Dr. Leary answers. The Grace tries to sneak over the front of the minivan to the passenger side. The others notice and follow her around. “Jorge!”, Dr. Leary calls out to him. He returns to the driver’s window with Francis in tow. Dr. Leary goes through her purse, and hands him four sets of twenties. “You take care of these girls as a favor for me and I’ll take care of you one day. OK?” Jorge can only look at the money handed to him, smiles and then nods, “I’ll… I’ll do that for you!”, he says. “Jorge, can we go?”, Francis whines. “Alright…”, he says. “I’ll see you later, Dr. Leary.”, he adds before walking around the front of the minivan. “Alright girls…”, he almost yells, “…they have to go and so do we!” Upon hearing this, the black squirrel walks across the street, “Must we!!!”, they all say at the same time. “Yes, we must.”, Jorge tells them as he starts to lead them away from the minivan. The black squirrel tries to see through the windows to see where everyone is going but the tint on them makes it difficult for her to see through the van. In fact, other then Jorge, none of the girls knew the Rachel was in the minivan. The black squirrel hesitates for a moment then proceeds to cross in front of the minivan. She walks right up to the passenger door as soon as she sees that the others had some distance behind the minivan. She looks up at Fernando as she reaches inside her pocket book, finding a Raven .25 pistol inside. She calls him by name to get his attention, “Fernando…”, as she pulls out the Raven from its hidden place. “Mary?”, Fernando asks as he turns to her. The very mention of the name sends chills down Rachel’s spine. She pushes against Dr. Leary’s seat to get her attention, yelling, “Get Us Out Of Here! Drive!” But the parking regulations and emissions code forced Dr. Leary to have the engine off as they waited for Jorge to return. Dr. Leary turns the key to start the engine. It cranks over several times but to no avail. Mary raises the gun upwards, taking a shooter’s stance. “Fernando… If I cant have you, nobody will!” The engine starts as the first round is sent to his temple, going through his brain, bouncing off but fracturing the opposite side of his skull. The .25 bullet is one used by most professional assassins, as it bounces around inside the body, creating damage along the way, making emergency surgery difficult as the patient bleeds out during transport. His brain becomes Swiss Cheese from the first round as it bounces around inside his head. Jorge and the girls heard the shot, and turn around. “Mary?”, Grace asks. “What is she doing here?”, Rachel asks. Then they realize what she is doing there. They see Mary still in the shooter’s stance, she fires a second round, hitting him just below his ear as the force from the first bullet moves his head. It crashes through the fracture on the other side cause by the first bullet, spraying blood and brain matter all over Dr. Leary as she reached over to put the car in gear. The bullet misses her by mere fractions of an inch, hitting the ‘c’ in ‘Pouncefield Train Station’ where it will be found by police later. The minivan lurches backwards then stops with wheels screeching for half a second. Dr. Leary undoes her seatbelt and turns to give Fernando First aide. Rachel in the back seat yells “NOOOOOoooooo!!!” Jorge pulls his pistol and runs to the minivan, Mary lets off one more round, hitting Fernando on the side of his forehead. It shatters the plastic and metal of his glasses off his face, what remains bounce off the windshield and lands between the font seats. Like the first, this round bounces inside his head. He slumps over to the side, towards Dr. Leary who finally undoes his seat belt. Rachel curls up into a ball and cries. The hole on the side of his head oozing with blood and brain matter says it all, though the tiny primitive part of his brain stem still tells heart to beat and lungs to take in small amounts of air. She knows that there is nothing anyone, not even her, can do. Mary steps back from the passenger door. She says to herself, “Three to the head, makes sure their dead.” “YOU BITCH!”, Jorge yells as he stops just at the rear of the minivan. He takes aim to put her down. She turns and aims at Jorge. “You Don’t Understand!”, Mary yells back at him. She takes another step back from the minivan while still aiming at Jorge. At the last second possible, she presses the muzzle of the gun between her developing breasts, bit to the left of the breast bone. A muffled “BAMF!” was heard before she falls down. The force of the recoil of the shot makes her arms go out with the gun still in her right hand. The bullet rips apart the Aorta and its Aortic Valve, traveling though the space inside where it shatters the Fourth Thoracic Vertebrae and left side attacking rib, severing the spinal cord inside. It makes a 95 degree downward toward turn, blowing out the Spleen and ripping up Hepatic Veins on the back of the Intestines along the way, bouncing off the pelvic bone and 105 degree turn, going through the small intestines and rests inside her uterus. Lucky for her that in severing the spinal cord, she did not feel a thing afterwards. Jorge runs to the front of the minivan, and opens the passenger door. It was too late for anyone to do anything, except make Fernando comfortable, as Dr. Leary does her best. He puts away his gun in its hidden holster as he continues to watch for the moment. The girls gather behind Jorge, he opens the rear passenger door, and gets in. He reaches over to Rachel and unbuckles her safety belt. Dr. Leary reaches up to a button on the driver’s side sun visor. “OnStar, this is operator Medina. What is your Emergency?”, a voice says in the device inside the sunvisor. “This is Dr. Aiesha Leary, somebody just shot up our minivan and then shot herself, we need 2 ambulances! Immediately!” “OK. Is anyone in the car hurt?”, Operator Medina asks. “I WOULD NOT HAVE PRESSED THE BUTTON IF NO ONE WAS HURT!”, Dr. Leary yells at the sun visor. “Look, lady- my brother was shot up pretty badly, he’s dying here! We’re at the Pounefield Train Station.”, Jorge partially climbs over the driver seat to be hear. Typing on a keyboard can be heard in the background from the sun visor. “Pouncefield 911. What’s the Emergency?”, another voice says from the sun visor. “This is Dr. Leary. We’re at the Pouncefield Train Station and somebody shot into the van! We have wounded here!”, Dr. Leary tries again. “Police already received the call of shots fired at the vicinity and are on their way.”, the operator says. “We need two ambulances!”, Dr. Leary says. “Are there injuries?”, the operator asks. “I have one Pteromyini Sciuridae puppy with multiple gunshots to the head and another Sciuridae puppy with a self-inflicted wound to the chest!”, Dr. Leary explains loudly. For a moment there was dead silence on the other end. “Understood.”, the voice came back on. “Dispatching two ambulances for the wounded. Are you yourself hurt?” The sounds of police sirens get louder as several police cars arrive at the scene. Two officers go inside the train station and shuts down all services to and from Poucefield during their investigation. Another closes off the scene with yellow “Crime Scene” tape. An unmarked car parks across the street from the minivan, as a fox and hound dog in trench coats step out of the car and walk to the scene, badges and IDs hang around their necks on thin metal ball chains. The driver’s and driver’s side door opens, revealing the scene inside: Jorge holding onto Rachel as she cries, and Dr. Leary holding Fernando as he bled on her lap. They also see the girls on the other side, and then nod at each other. The hound dog walks over to the other side through the front of the minivan, and was about to move the girls, but instead finds Mary bleeding on the floor. He walks over to her and checks for a pulse, finding none. He finds her gun still in her hand. Putting on gloves, he calls for his partner. “Yo Red. I got a dead perp and a weapon.”, the hound dog says. The fox walks over to the other side, putting on rubber gloves and pulling out a digital camera. He takes a few pictures of the scene. By the van, he finds empty shell casings, and after putting a ruler next to them, he takes a picture before gathering them into an evidence bag. The gun is also put into an evidence bag and put away. The ambulance arrives, being allowed to enter the crime scene. The crews walk over minivan. One goes to deal with Fernando, the other with Mary. The hound dog shakes his head at the ambulance crew working on Mary. Though dead she may be, if there is a change to regain her life, they have to do so somehow. She is put on a gurney and sent on her way to the hospital along with her personal effects that the police did not take away (her purse). Fernando was second to be put on a gurney and sent to Pouncefield General Emergency. After the statements were taken down, were they told to leave and go about their business. Dr. Leary and the children were taken to Pouncefield General Emergency by squad cars, as the minivan is now taken in by the police as evidence. Mary was declared dead on arrival, though they worked on Fernando for a long time. Doing what they could, they patch him up and put him on a ventilator, placing him in ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Dr. Leary manages to take the children up to ICU, and wait for Grandma to arrive. Somehow a faint heart beat still registers on the life monitors, as the ventilators pump air into his system. Grandma arrives hours later upon hearing the news. Jorge and Rachel explained to her that Mary had followed the girls from New York, and then killed herself after ‘killing’ Fernando. Grandma will forget this as she tries to accept reality. Grandma calls for the head nurse and medical floor supervisor. She tells them that Fernando has a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) form on file. They look for the form and finds it. They take their time coming back with it. Meanwhile Grandma looks at Dr. Leary, who was still splattered with her grandson’s blood and bits of brain. “I do not fault you for want happened. Somebody wanted my boys dead, now they succeeded in taking one of them. I’m sorry you had to be there to see it happen.”, Grandma tells her. “The one who did this is in the morgue.”, Dr. Leary says. Grandma turns to Jorge, “You managed to kill him?” Jorge shakes his head. “It was a girl.”, Dr. Leary adds. “Give me your gun.”, Grandma says with her hand extended. Then she turns to Dr. Leary as Jorge puts his gun into her hands. “A girl?”, Grandma asks as she puts away the gun in her purse. “A black squirrel, they says its Mary.”, Dr. Leary answers. Grandma turns to the girls, each of them nods at her. The ward doctor, a young feline just out of residency, walks into the room with the DNR forms attached to a clipboard in his hand. He looks at Dr. Leary and then at Grandma. “When would you want this done?”, he asks her. “Now.”, she tells him in what few English words that she knows. “Now?”, the doctor asks. Dr. Leary walks to him and takes the clipboard from him. “She said now”, as she flips over the pages. The last page requires a set of signatures, which she begins to sign off on. “We’ll do it ourselves.” “You cant do that!”, The doctor tells her. Grandma walks over to Dr. Leary, looking at what she has signed off on, she adds her signature to the page on the appropriate places. Then she takes the clipboard and presses it against the doctor’s chest. “Get out.”, Grandma tells him. The stare she gives him was enough to puff out his tail. With a shove, he steps out of the room backwards, the ward room door closing behind him. Grandma and Dr. Leary stand around Fernando bed. They both nod at each other. Grandma undoes the IV’s in his arm as Dr. Leary disconnects the ventilator connected to the tube that was shoved into his mouth and down his throat. She then removes this tube afterwards. The defribulator is turned off along with the ventilator, setting off alarms on the main ICU observation desk. Several doctors, nurses and security guards charge into the room, finding Fernando disconnected from all the machines but the life monitor. “Dr. Leary, what have you done!”, the floor medical supervisor almost yells at her. “Fire me, I don’t care. I’m granting this family’s DNR request on this patent.”, she tells him. “In Front Of All These Cubs?!!”, the floor medical supervisor yells. A very tired and run down Rachel gets up out of the seat by the bed and walks to the floor medical supervisor. “Mister, that’s my brother. If you can tell me that he can be what he used to be without problems, then reconnect him. But if you are just keeping him alive with machines because you can, we don’t want that. He has a right to live and a right to die in peace. Don’t deny him that.” “We have rules and regulations here.”, the floor medical supervisor says. “I already signed off on the forms.”, Dr. Leary throws back at him. A group of parents come in, brought in from New York by Pouncefield Police. A couple of Police officers stand behind them. “Miss. You have a lot of explaining to do.”, an older red female squirrel says as she looks at the other Rachel. “You wait until I get you home.”, an older grey female squirrel says to Grace. “Mrs. Rodriguez, Mrs. Crambrilian. Don’t fault your girls. They just wanted to see my boys. You can understand that. And if it were not what happened, they would be home right now and you non-the-wiser. But somebody followed them here and did this to my boy.”, Grandma starts to explain. An older white female mouse walks to Fernando’s bed. She takes hold of his hand for a moment. “Jeanie. Is he the one?”, she asks. Jeanie could only nod, then says, “Yes mother.” “You know who did this?”, her mother asks. Again, Jeanie nods, then says, “Yes mother. It was the black squirrel Mary. She killed herself after she shot him.” “Trying to regain honor after a dishonorable deed like this will give her no honor.”, her mother explains. Then she looks at Grandma, “You have a very honorable son here. One we would have liked to have joined the family.” “Speak for yourself, Susi. No daughter of ours will ever marry outside her race!”, the older white male snaps at her. “Kevin, dear. This boy saved our daughter’s life last year from drowning at the pool. She owes him everything.”, the mother says. “He did? No! He could not have!”, the father says. “He did, daddy. He’s the one.”, Jeanie says. “Aren’t I bound by tradition, like you often tell me?” “You owe him nothing. And you better still be a virgin!”, the father says, grabbing her arm and taking her out the room. Jeanie could be last heard saying, “I still am!” The mother looks at this as it unfolds before turning back to Grandma. She hands her a card, “We’ll be at the Pouncefield Grand Hotel. Call us if anything changes. Our prayers are with your boy.” Grandma takes the card and pockets it as Jeanie’s mother leaves the room. Grandma receives a couple of more cards. “The police wants to talk to the girls in the morning so we’ll be in the hotel waiting with them.”, Mrs. Crambilian explains. “Grace, lets go. You have a lot to answer too, not just to the police.” Mrs. Rodriguez nods at Grandma, before putting her hands on the backs of her daughters necks and escorts them out the room. The police leave with them. “Get some chairs. We’re staying here until the end.”, Grandma tells Jorge and Rachel. Jorge leaves and gets some chairs from another room. He sits on one of them , giving the other to Grandma. Into the night they wait. Occasionally his heart would stop but restart once again. Both Jorge and Rachel sleep in the chairs they were in, but not Grandma or Dr. Leary. Around 3AM his heart finally stops. Grandma looks at her watch, 30 seconds had past. She wakes up Jorge and Rachel, telling them that its happening. Dr. Leary shuts off the volume on the life monitor, ending the shrill of the alarm. Hospital staff arrives with a crash cart but stand about the bed. “Two Minutes.”, Grandma says as she continues to look at her watch. A moment later, Dr. Leary speaks. “Four minutes. Time of physical death 3:07AM, following 17 and 1/2 hours after brain death.” The medical staff writes down what she says. Another hospital personnel arrives at the scene with a gurney. Fernando’s body is placed inside a black morgue body bag and is taken away. Rachel begins to cry, though Jorge tries to hold her, he cries louder. “Lets go home, children. We got a funeral to prepare for,”, Grandma tells the kids. The last to leave was Dr. Leary. She puts her hand down on her lower abdomen before taking out an EPT (Early Pregnancy Test) stick from her pocket. Its indicator was showing a bright blue, meaning positive result. She wipes a tear from her face before it can roll down on her cheek, then puts the EPT stick back in her pocket and leaves the room. - - - - - - - - - - - - - End of Chapter 28.5B - - - - - - - - - - - - -