“OK, you know what?” Bernard said to the other two after a long silence. His calm facade seemed to have resurfaced to some degree. “I think we have to look at this as an opportunity. I think we have to see this as a situation with potential.”

“With potential?” The shorter man said incredulously. “Potential for what?!? Potential to screw our lives up even worse than they already are? THIS was your brilliant plan? THIS?!?”

“We need a new plan,” Bernard assured him.

“REALLY?” the shorter one almost shouted. “I would never have guessed, what with the complete and total failure of the last plan!”

“SHUT UP!” Bernard was toe-to-toe with his colleague now. “We need a new plan and I’ve got one.”

“What?”

“They want to know what we want,” Bernard said proudly.

“I’d like a time machine so I can go back to when you first convinced me that this would be a good —”

“Hank,” Bernard cut off the shorter man mid-rant. “They want to know what we want. Let’s tell them.”

Hank looked down for a second then said in a whisper, “What we wanted was to get this stuff, get the hell out of the country and disappear.”

“And why can’t we do that?” Bernard asked.

“Why can’t we...because the police aren’t in the habit of helping people commit crimes, Bernard!”

“No, no they’re not,” Bernard agreed. “But we have something they want.” He swept his gun at Donna and the group, still being covered by the strong one. “Right now, they’re better than all the money in this place. When the police call back, let’s spend a little. Get ourselves something nice.”

Hank looked to the group, then back to Bernard, as if in total disbelief that the idea could work. “What the hell,” he muttered. “Why not?”

They hunched together by the teller counter, working out the details of their demands for when they received another phone call.

“Well, I don’t mind telling you, Donna, I feel a little cheap,” Frank hissed sarcastically.

“Don’t like being referred to as human currency, do you?” she whispered back.

He didn’t answer. The strong one had his eyes cast in their direction and he didn’t want to attract attention. After a few moments, the strong one turned to his pacing again.

“This is good, though,” he assured her. “This will get things moving.”

“Are they actually going to give them what they ask for?” Donna asked, disbelieving.

“No,” Frank said. “But they’ll give them enough of it to get us out of this. Remember, it’s already over. They just haven’t accepted it yet. You gotta trust the guys out there, Donna.”

“I don’t know anybody out there, Frank,” she said, a little more harshly than she’d meant to. “And this feels to me like it’s a long way from over.”

“Well, I’m sure I know some of them. And you know me, so if you trust me, even a little, you trust them by proxy.”

She took a moment to consider that. “I do trust you,” she said, a small smile threatening to surface. “But only a little,” she added.

Back to the clock. 8:17. Her mind turned to Josh. She was long overdue at the office. He had probably been confused, then pissed. But by now, he was probably starting to worry. She wondered if anyone had put together that this is where she was. If he got her note about dinner and had heard about the standoff, he might. God, if he thought she was in here, he’d be out of his mind. She decided that she hoped he hadn’t pieced it together. Sometimes the truth was worse than what you imagined.

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

Sam’s thoughts had drifted to an unpleasant place. He kept seeing Donna, terrified, hysterical, being threatened by this bastard, who’d chosen at random to walk in and disrupt her life and the lives of everyone else in that bank. It was just beyond fathomable. Donna was one of the best friends he’d ever had. They’d shared a special closeness, almost from the beginning. Donna could handle Josh, and that earned her Sam’s respect pretty quickly. But she was funny, loyal, caring, smarter than anyone realized, and self-deprecating. That was what made him love her. And after the shooting, with Josh, and the recovery...no one had ever known she was that strong. Probably not even Donna. And that had earned her Sam’s admiration. And now this guy, who didn’t know any of those things about her, probably had her frightened out of her mind, was probably threatening to hurt her, and maybe, he admitted to himself regretfully, maybe had hurt her already. It was just...Donna deserved better.

He took a deep, cleansing breath and looked at his watch. 8:17. He looked over at Josh, who was still staring at the desk. The look on his face was heartbreaking. No, the look on his face was heartbreak. For all Josh and Donna’s combined brilliance, why couldn’t they just see clearly when it came to each other? He shook his head quickly. Not the time for that.

“Josh,” he said, barely above a whisper. Josh didn’t seem to hear him. “Hey,” he said, getting a little louder. Josh’s eyes slowly tracked over to Sam’s face. Sam took another deep breath. “Listen, buddy, I know you just wanna, you know, curl up and just...but you can’t. You’ve gotta be strong for her. When she gets out of this, she’ll need you to be strong, so she doesn’t have to be.”

Josh swallowed hard. When he spoke, his voice was barely audible, but filled with emotion. “But what if she doesn’t —”

“When she gets out of this, she’s gonna need you, okay? You have to be ready.”

Josh thought about that for a moment and then nodded. “’Kay.”

“Okay. I’m gonna make a fresh pot of coffee,” Sam said, and made his way into the bullpen.