Donna was so startled when the landline phone in the bank started ringing that she nearly screamed. Bernard and the shorter robber, who’d been scurrying around like mice since the patrol cars had gone by, began heatedly discussing whether or not the call was meant for them. She smiled to herself humorlessly. The best-laid plans of mice and men...

Finally, the ringing stopped, only to start again after a few seconds. The intensity of their conversation increased, too. Now they were trying to decide whether to answer it.

“Guys,” Fred whispered beside Donna. “You’re done. It’s over. They know you’re here.”

“The police?” Donna whispered to him.

Fred nodded. “They’ll try for a while to make contact. It’ll be better for them if they talk to the negotiator now.” He watched as the discussion continued. “They’re finished, and they know it. It’s just a matter of how long it takes them to accept it.”

“Maybe they think they can still get out of it,” Donna offered.

Fred shook his head. “They can’t. Both exits are covered at this point. They might be thinking they can wait until dark to try to make off, but the guys’ll bring in lights or a chopper if they can’t keep the area covered completely.”

“Were you with the police?” Donna asked.

A smile tugged at Fred’s lips. “Retired. 27 years on the job, the last 14 with MPDC.”

“So...those are your buddies are out there, then.”

“More like my buddies’ sons,” he chortled a little.

“So what’s gonna happen next?” Donna asked.

Fred sighed silently. “It’s best if they answer the phone.”

Donna’s face showed every ounce of her anxiety. “And if they don’t?”

Fred turned his head to her slightly. “Then the guys’ll try something else.”

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

“But we don’t know that she’s there for sure?” Leo said.

“We...no, we don’t know that, but if she’s not there, Leo, then we’ve got another problem, because she’s gone missing,” Josh said.

“Who’s your guy at MPDC?”

“Bob Linden, a detective,” Josh ground the heels of his hands into his eye sockets as he leaned forward on the couch. “He’s Sam’s guy actually, but he’s been good about keeping me in the loop.”

“What are they gonna do now, try and get somebody in there on the phone?”

“Yeah,” Josh said as Margaret knocked and opened the door a little.

“CJ, Sam and Toby,” she said.

Leo glanced at Josh. “Yeah.”

The three of them filed in, all business, but their faces didn’t hide their worry.

“What’s being done?” Toby asked as CJ perched on the arm of the couch by Josh, draping an arm around his shoulders.

“They’re gonna try and get somebody in there to pick up the phone,” Leo said. He looked to Sam. “This guy, Linden, he’ll keep us updated?”

Sam nodded. “Yeah.”

“Good. Anything he needs, make sure you tell me as soon as you know,” Leo said, then turning to CJ. “This is a possible crime in progress, and we can’t even technically confirm Donna’s involvement, or even the nature of the crime, for that matter. So right now we’re not saying anything.”

“Nobody has it right now anyway,” CJ confirmed as Josh continued to scrub his face with his hands. “It’ll be hours after it’s wrapped up, at the very least, before there are names or anything to connect it to Donna or Donna to the White House.”

“OK, we’re gonna keep it in this room for now,” Leo said. “Hang around for a while. Sam, help Josh keep track of things with Linden. Josh, do what the man said. Go back to your office and wait for a call.”

Josh looked up, panic-stricken at the thought that he may have missed an update from Linden. “They could find you if they needed you, Josh,” Leo reassured. “But don’t make it any harder on anyone. Go back to your office.”

The four of them filed out silently, shoulders slumped. Leo dropped into his chair, then slowly turned and looked out the window.

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

At one point, Donna thought she didn’t need the robbery. The ringing phone alone was enough to drive her certifiably nuts. But she’d gone back to watching the clock and counting the seconds and minutes and had slowly managed to reduce it to background noise. 7:39. It was getting pretty dark outside.

The megaphone shouldn’t have surprised her, but it did. A disembodied voice identified itself as the District Police, and asked anyone inside to pick up the phone.

After a few more seconds of frenzied discussion, the shorter man convinced Bernard to talk, if only to buy them time. Bernard snatched the phone up and spoke heatedly to the person on the other end of the line. The discussion went from bad to worse in seconds.

“What do I WANT? What the hell do you care what I WANT?” Bernard screeched. “You don’t know me, and you don’t want to help me get what I need. You’re trying to get what YOU need. You need the people that I’ve got in here back, safe and sound, and that’s the only reason that you’re pretending to care what I WANT.” He gestured blindly to the group with his gun, without even looking at them. He was still for a moment as the voice on the other end of the line tried to placate him. “Tell you what. Why don’t you think about it. Why don’t you spend some time thinking about what I could possibly WANT.”

He slammed the phone down with such force that Donna jumped. Beside her, Patti did the same.

Bernard stomped away from the group in a huff. The strong one tried to ask what they were going to do. “Just let me think for one fucking minute!” Bernard screamed. “Just shut up!”

After a few seconds, Donna looked over at Fred. “That could have gone better.”

Fred nodded. “Yeah.”

“So...”

“They’ll try to get him back.” Fred whispered, never taking his eyes off Bernard’s pacing form.

“And if it goes the same way next time?” Donna asked.

“We’ll see,” Fred said. Donna stared at him, wide-eyed. “Donna, I’ll tell you when to worry.”

Donna took a beat to think about that. “You mean I shouldn’t be worried already?”

“Fair enough,” Fred whispered. “I’ll tell you when to worry more.”

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

“And what did he say?” Josh was literally on the edge of his seat, taking another call from Det. Linden. Sam, Toby and CJ were all in his office, listening intently to his side of the conversation. “He didn’t? Well then, what the hell do they want?” More silence. “Yeah, I suppose so. What about Donna?” They all looked at each other. “Yeah. No, that makes sense. Do you know how many of them there are? OK. OK. You’ll call me when — yeah. OK. Thanks.” He forced himself to place the receiver back in the cradle gingerly.

Three faces looked at him expectantly.

“It’s confirmed,” Josh choked out. “They got the guy on the phone. Only for a minute. They asked him what he wanted, but he just went on a rant and hung up without saying. He didn’t make any demands.” His voice was very quiet. “He hung up on the negotiator. They’re letting him cool down a little while before they try back.”

“And no news on Donna specifically,” CJ guessed.

Josh shook his head. Tears were beginning to pool in his eyes. “They don’t have any information on any of the hostages,” he said, his voice catching on the last word. “And they don’t want to tip them off they’ve got somebody with this kind of connection,” he gestured around the room. “They don’t even know how many of them there are. Robbers, I mean. Although I suppose it’s also true that they don’t know how many of the others there are either.”

He sat in silence, looking at nothing in particular on his desk, unwilling or unable to speak any more.

Toby cleared his throat, “I’m gonna go give Leo an update.”

“I’ve gotta do the evening gaggle. We’re putting the lid on?” CJ asked Toby.

“Yeah, go ahead. As far as anyone outside the five of us is concerned, this isn’t a thing yet,” Toby confirmed.

The two of them went their separate ways, leaving Sam and Josh both staring at the same spot on the desk in total silence.