[b]Buck Bradley - Methodist Emergency Medical Center - Farren/Jonathan [/b]

Buck clenched his jaw.

When he first saw the man through the glass doors he had been relieved. Finally something had gone his way after so much had gone wrong. His joy had quickly turned to fear and anger, however, as the man ushered the in at gunpoint. What was wrong with him? Did he really think they were a threat? Couldn’t he see the desperate situation that they were in? He kept pushing them and telling them to keep moving. Buck was getting really irritated.

When they finally stopped and the man said he had questions Buck was about to respond that he had a few questions of his own. Then the man asked for their weapons. He still had the gun pointed towards them. Buck made eye contact with Farren, then moved strategically between her and the stranger, the gun almost touching him in the chest. He kept his hands out to his sides as he spoke in as level a voice as he could manage. “Listen, friend. We all want the same thing. We saw the lights from a distance and thought this might be a place that could offer some safety for us.”

He took a deep breath before he continued. “You want us to put our weapons down? I get it and I’m cool with that. You don’t know who I am any more than I do you. So I’m going to take this hammer off my belt and set it down real slowly, ok?” He looked the man square in the eyes and narrowed his glare. “But first, you gotta stop pointing that gun at the girl and her boy or you and me are gonna have a big problem, understand?” Buck tried to sound as menacing as he could, hoping that the man would listen to reason. At this point he didn’t know what to do. With his left hand he pulled out the hammer and began setting it on the floor while at the same time reaching out his right, intending to gently guide the man’s aim downward as well. He hoped no one could see how badly his hands were shaking. One wrong move and there would be a disaster.