Everest looked at Rubble with fear in her eyes. "Go get him, Everest, it will be okay," said Rubble. Everest turned and walked over to the door leading to the deck.

She stepped out on the deck. "C-Chase?" She tried to control her voice, but it wasn't going so well.

"Hey Everest what..." Chase turned and saw the fear in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"T-there's a man inside wanting to speak with you." She gulped. "H-he has a gun p-pointed at Rubble."

"Where's Rocky?" Skye gasped.

"Rubble told him to go to his room."

"You two head down stairs and call PD." Chase stood from his seat, looking at his watch. "Have them respond quietly. Everest, give them the best description you can," said Chase instantly in police mode.

He took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen where he found the man and Rubble. Chase looked the guy over, sizing up the threat. He himself was not armed but he had his training. 'Wow, hell of a first day back there, Shepherd' Chase thought.

"Sir," he said, clearing his throat. "I'm Officer Shepherd," Chase said calmly. "Let's talk. Please let Rubble go and we'll discuss this like adults."

"Sir?" said the man. He laughed. "I take it you don't remember me?" Chase thought for a moment and his eyes went wide. "Mr. Rogers?" It was Diane's father. Chase gulped. 'This is not good,' he thought.

"Oh, so you do remember me? Do you even think about her anymore? Well it looks like your lack of action is going to cost another precious life."

"Mr. Rogers, it doesn't have to end this way. This won't bring her back. And to answer your question yes, I think about her. I think about her every moment of every day."

"Shut up! You have no idea what I feel. You don't have children, you don't know loss until it's your child."

Chase was as calmly and slowly as possible moving toward the two looking for any way to separate him from Rubble. The words hurt him, but he had to focus. "Mr. Rogers, you're right. I don't know how you feel. I don't feel your pain. I can't imagine what you are going through. But I want to help. Please give me the gun and we'll talk."

Marshall and Zuma walked up the stairs from the bay laughing. Zuma punched Marshall in the arm as they opened the door. Marshall turned the group standing in the kitchen "Hey, guys what's..." Marshall froze and Zuma looked into the room. "Holy-!"

"You two get in here now!" yelled Mr. Rodgers pointing the gun at Marshall. "Sit!" Marshall and Zuma nodded and sat down against the wall, looking at Chase with wide eyes.

"Mr. Rogers, this is between us. They weren't there." Chase had gone cold, he was now in the negotiation mindset. 'Give a little, get a little,' thought Chase. "Let them go and you still have me, we can work this out."

~~~

Everest was on the phone and had finally calmed down enough to provide the dispatcher a vivid description of the suspect and the pistol he was holding. Officers and SWAT were already rolling and would be there shortly. Skye was trying to think of a way to get Rocky's attention without alerting the bad guy.

Skye walked around to Rocky's window. She picked up a small rock and threw it at the window. It bounced off. 'Come on Rocky, come to the window please.' Nothing. She looked for another way.

~~~

Mr. Rogers had now placed Rubble on the ground next to the others and was still a good distance across the room from Chase. "Mr. Rogers, please. Let's sit down here at the table and talk about this."

"I've talked enough. I'm tired of sleepless nights, I'm tired of hearing 'It will be okay'." The gun shook in his hand. "I'm tired of walking into her room and Diane not being there to hug me."

Marshall, Rubble and Zuma instantly realized what was going on. It was Diane's father. The same girl Chase had watched fall to her death when he tried so desperately to save her.

Rocky had heard Chase's voice and emerged from the hallway. "Dad!"

Chase's heart sank. Marshall acted fast. "Son, it's ok. Go back to your room please." Rocky gave him a puzzled look, then noticed the man with the gun. He gasped.

"Is this your son?" Mr. Rogers asked Marshall.

"Yes, he's my son and I would be ever so grateful if you would let him go back to his room." Chase prayed that Rocky would be left out of this.

"You see, Mr. Shepherd? That is the love of a parent. Something you may never get to understand. No, I think you should go sit by your father for now." Mr. Rogers motion with the gun for Rocky to join Marshall.

Chase gave Marshall a subtle nod of thanks. 'At least he tried,' he thought as Rocky rushed over to Marshall. "Mr. Rogers. As I was saying, let them go as a sign of good faith."

Rocky was doing everything in his power to not scream out. He too had realized what Marshall had done. Tears filled his eyes. "Mister, please don't hurt Mr. Shepherd. Please let us go."

Mr. Rogers turned toward Rocky and it almost appeared for a moment that he had softened. His resolve returned and he quickly returned to his rage. "Shut up kid, this has nothing to do with you," he snapped, waving the gun around once more. Marshall grabbed Rocky and pulled him close, protecting him with his own body.

~~~

The Police Chief arrived and began getting a briefing from Everest. He then put them in his vehicle and told them to stay put. He walked over to the SWAT van and began briefing the commander. "Get me a line into that building, I want to talk to this SOB now!" yelled the chief.

"Already on it sir," said one of the technicians.

"Commander Wolfherd come here." The commander a tough looking officer came running over to the Chief. "Apparently we have a hostage situation. We have one known armed male, at least 5 hostages one of them is our's and his son is in there also. We aren't sure if the boy has been put with the others or not. The mother said she tried to get his attention but could not."

"Do we have a green light to take him down, if possible? Sniper doesn't have eyes on yet but is working on it," said the commander.

"Not yet, let's try to talk to him first, but have your guys ready," the chief replied.

"Got the feed, Chief!" yelled the technician.

~~~

In the kitchen the phone started ringing, causing Mr. Rogers to jump. Chase looked to the phone. "Can I answer it?" Mr. Rogers held his gun toward Chase and motioned for him to pick it up. Chase did so. "Yes, this is officer Shepherd?"

"Chase, this is the Chief. SWAT is on location. Are you secure?"

"No, sorry sir. We already have one," replied Chase. Mr. Rogers looked confused, walking closer to Chase.

"Okay, we won't make a move yet. We'll have a negotiator on scene shortly. We'll call back. Stay safe, Chase."

"Thank you sir. Have a nice evening." Chase placed the phone down and turned, face to face with Mr. Rogers.

~~~

"Sir, what was that about?" asked the tech recording the conversation.

"Come, on a first day rookie should be able to decipher that. Chase said he's not secure and there's only one suspect." The chief turned to the commander "Let's let this play out for now, but be ready."

"Yes, Sir!"

~~~

"Who was that?" asked Mr. Rogers.

"Salesman, we're a fire station, we get them all the time," answered Chase. It was a simple lie he had rehearsed time and time again. Not that he was in hostage situations often, of course.

"Sit down and shut up, now!" said Mr. Rogers motioning Chase to the table.

"At least let the boy go," said Chase.

"I said shut up!" Mr. Rogers started pacing obviously trying to decide what to do next.

Chase's mind was racing, all the ideas he came up with seemed to result in one or more people getting hurt.

Rocky was sitting there his mind racing also, he thought of ways to remedy this and what would be needed. He tried different scenarios in his head and came coming up with ultimately someone getting shot. He felt defeated. He tried to look to Chase for an idea and noticed that Chase was intentionally not looking at him.

The phone rang again. This time Mr. Rogers grabbed the phone. "Yeah, what?"

"Hello, may I ask who this is?" said the voice.

"That is none of your concern. Who is this?"

"This is Lieutenant Sheffield of the Adventure Bay Police Department. I am calling to speak with the one in charge."

"That's Me, what do you want?"

"May I have a name of the one whom I'm speaking?"

Mr. Rogers hesitated. "Dusty, Dusty Rogers. I don't want to talk to you, I want to talk the Chief of Police and him only."

"Okay, I'll get him, but you have to give me something, that's how this works."

"What do you want?"

"Let the hostages go and we'll discuss this whole thing."

"You're not getting the hostages, I'm not that stupid."

"I'm not saying you are. Just give me something and I'll get the chief to come talk to you."

"Fine, you two," pointing to Zuma and Rubble. "Get out!" They looked over to Rocky who was now trembling.

"Please let him go, you can keep me," said Zuma.

"Or me," said Rubble.

"If you two don't get out of here now, I'll shoot the kid." He went as far as to aim the gun at Rocky. Marshall pushed the boy behind him, a scowl on his face.

Zuma and Rubble quickly scrambled down the bay stairs where they were quickly grabbed by the awaiting SWAT officers and whisked away to be debriefed on the situation. Now they knew the suspect had Rocky as well.

"There, that's all you get. If you don't have the Police Chief here in ten minutes, I'll shoot one of these guys." Mr. Rogers slammed the phone down.

Chase was doing his best to keep his composure. It was one thing to threaten him, he had threatened Rocky and without knowing it, Chase had decided he would suffer for it. Chase took a deep breath and continued surveying the situation.

Marshall could see what was going through Chase's mind, he had known him too long. Marshall decided to try his best to relieve some tension. "Dusty is it? Talk to me, tell me what we can do to help you."

"Nothing, you can do nothing," shouted Dusty.

"Come on, I understand that you're hurting. You don't want to talk to him. Talk to me." Dusty looked at Marshall and could see the sincerity in his eyes.

He took a deep breath. "Can you imagine what it would be like to send your son there to school and they never return?"

"Mr. Rogers, I can only imagine it would be the worst day of my life."

"It was until the next day came and then the funeral and then the day after that..." Chase's heart instantly changed back to that of a father. He felt sympathy for him, guilty for what had happened.

"Mr. Rogers," said Chase quietly. "I have not had a full night's rest since that day. I regret not being fast enough to stop her. I tried my best to talk her back off the edge, I quit law enforcement for a while because of it. I would give my life to get her back for you, but it doesn't work that way. Please let us help you."

"You can't help me," Mr. Rogers hung his head. "You just can't understand..."

The phone rang again.

"This better be the Police Chief or one of these guys is going to die." He said as he picked up the phone.

"Mr. Rogers, this this Chief Taylor of the Adventure Bay Police Department. How can we bring this situation to a close today?"

"Chief, I don't know if you know me. But my daughter died because one of your officers didn't do his job." Chief Taylor looked over to the tech, who held up a note pad. 'Diane Rogers father! The one that jumped when Chase was trying to talk her down.' Chief Taylor nodded.

"Dusty, I am truly sorry that you feel that way. Is there someway we can end this peacefully?" "I'm hungry, get me some food."

"Okay sir, what do you want?"

Dusty looked over to Rocky, who hid his own face in Marshall's shirt. "Since there's a kid here, send a pizza."

"Okay, you got it. Just give me a few minutes to get it here."

"You got 30." Mr. Rogers slammed the phone down. Lt. Sheffield was already on the phone calling the nearest pizza place and sending an officer to pick it up.

The pizza arrived and was set at the door of the deck. Mr. Rogers had Marshall get up and get it. They all came to the table. Mr. Rogers remained standing. Before anyone could have a bite, the phone rang. "What?"

"Mr. Rogers, we fed you now. How about you let the kid go?"

"Maybe, let me think about it." Dusty hung the phone up, looking over at Rocky.

~~~

"This is Chief Taylor, SWAT Stand By, I get the feeling this isn't going to end well."

~~~

Mr. Rogers turned to the guys at the table. "I think I might let the kid go, he doesn't need to see me get my revenge anyway." He grabbed Marshall by the arm, who was holding Rocky. Chase stood, fists clenched. Dusty kicked the door open, shoving them both towards. "Take your son and go!" He turned his attention to Chase and raised the pistol, cocking it.

Rocky couldn't take it anymore. "Dad, NO!" Marshall tried to grab Rocky, but it was too late. He ran to Chase, jumping into his arms. Chase hugged him tightly as he cried. Marshall fled the room, taken by other members of SWAT.

"So you lied to me!" screamed Mr. Rogers. "He's your son?!"

Chase looked him straight in the eyes. "Yes. Yes he is."

"Perfect. You take my child's life for your own." He raise the pistol toward the Chase and Rocky. "Well I'm taking it back."

*BANG*