Return to the Bay

[Skykat]

Sorry it' been so long. I'm a bitch aren't I? Anyway I've updated but I can't promise you answers soon, I want to devote at least a couple of chapters to how characters react to the situation rather than the situtaion itself. As for the spoiler...I'm not saying but it is one of the five trapped in the bank and maybe even more than one and it'll be a couple of chapters before you find out who. I just hope nobody gets bored waiting!

Thank you Jess for proofing and for convincing me that my chapters aren't as bad as I think they are.

SIXTY THREE

“The cordon’s been set up and the blast area evacuated Sir.”

“Good work John, what of the walking wounded?” Sergeant Bellmore looked towards the park benches where a number of people with injuries were gathered.

“Not many, five or six, mainly bumps and bruises from fallen rubble and cuts from the glass. One guy’s losing a bit of blood from a gash in his arm but Fitzy’s got it bandaged up. We’ve got a woman with chest pains, we think it’s a suspected heart attack, and we're just trying to keep her calm until the ambulances arrive. Becky has a really nasty cut on her head which she’s refusing to let anyone look at, but other than that the officers seem fairly okay.”

“That’s good. How far into the evacuation where we before the bomb went off?” Sergeant Bellmore wanted to know.

“Pretty far, we’d evacuated the whole outside of the Bank. The only people who never emerged where those in the back offices. As far as I know that’s Jack and Kane from our lot, the Branch Manager and one other employee, I’ll have to double check with the assistant manager Richard Brigg, hang on a sec.” He disappeared in the direction of the crowd. Sergeant Bellmore took a deep breath, he still could not quite believe things had come to this. And where was Peter Baker? John returning interrupted him from his thoughts. “Yep that’s right, the only bank employees unaccounted for are Martin Shaw and Robbie Hunter. Brigg is certain that there were no civilians in the back area except for Jack Holden and Kane Philips.”

“So we have four confirmed missing then?”

“Five, you forgot Peter Baker.”

“Peter Baker? But he was outside when the bomb went off.” An icy chill was beginning to run through the Sergeant’s body.

“No, sorry Sir I thought you knew. The minute you called through that they were still headed towards the safety deposit box he raced inside the Bank, he had only been gone a few seconds when the bomb went off.”

“Dammit! I didn’t know. S^$T, so we have two officers and three civilians trapped in there.” Sergeant Bellmore looked hopelessly at the mass of rubble that had been the Commonwealth Bank. The front of the building looked relatively intact except for the windows having smashed outwards, but beyond the main foyer there was an obvious mass of destruction. Fallen beams, chunks of rubble and further in, assumedly in the back offices where the bomb had gone off, there was signs of fire and smoke and no obvious way of getting near enough to put them out.

“What do we do now Sir? We tried to get close enough to the fire to put it out but we were too scared of the whole building collapsing.” John was only confirming what Sergeant Bellmore had feared was the case.

“There’s nothing we can do until the trained professionals get here. We’d only endanger more lives if we attempted anything. We just have to hope and pray.”

“What do you think their chances are?” John looked towards the Bank, his own level of hope fading with the more he saw.

“For those in the back offices? Really slim, there’s a fire in there that we can’t get to, collapsed building and rubble. I can say one thing for certain though, we’re dealing with at least one fatality. There’s no way the person who opened the door of the box will have survived, it was an incredibly powerful bomb. We’ll be lucky if anyone in the near vicinity survived.” The deadpan way he delivered his comment showed nothing of the gut wrenching sickness he felt in his stomach. He was the Officer in charge of this operation and it had gone disastrously wrong with devastating consequences but there was nothing he could do to change things.

“You mean Kane Philips…” John began.

“Is almost certainly dead,” Sergeant Bellmore confirmed, finally voicing the fear her had suppressed since the second the bomb had gone off.

Dan Baker pulled his car haphazardly into a parking bay and hurriedly turned the engine off before racing full pelt down High Street in the direction of the Bank. Equally concerned, Sutty was hot on his heels and quickly enough they reached a crowd of people gathered round a police cordon. Roughly Dan pushed his way through the crowd, and Sutty followed gingerly behind, apologising to all those Dan hastily shoved aside. Reaching the cordon Dan slipped under it and immediately ran straight into a Police Officer.

“Back behind the lines!” PC Neil King had not been at Yabbie Creek Police Station long and this was the first major disaster he had ever attended.

“Where’s Peter?” Dan demanded, angrily.

“I said get back!”

“Lara!” Dan shouted over to where Peter’s female colleague stood, reassuring worried victims. She looked up and then headed over in his direction.

“I said get back!”

“It’s okay Neil this is Peter Baker’s brother and…” she looked at Sutty.

“The person who warned you the bomb was going off,” Sutty replied, sharply.

“Right, come under. Sarge, you might want to hear this.” Sergeant Bellmore headed in their direction.

“Look Dan I…” he began.

“This gentleman says he placed the phone call at the Station warning about the bomb,” Lara interrupted.

“You did? How did you know?” Sergeant Bellmore was taken aback.

“I was at Dan’s place with him and Jesse McGregor phoned. He was desperate, he said Gus Philips told him there was a bomb planted in the safety deposit box and he couldn’t get hold of Peter. He begged us to try and reach him. We tried Peter’s mobile but when he didn’t answer we phoned the station and the girl on the desk called us back to say Peter had got the message. So what I’d like to know, sir is, if you received the warning, why the hell did the bomb go off?” Sutty could not keep the contempt he felt towards the police, from his voice.

“We did get the message. We ordered a complete evacuation of the Bank but for some reason those in the back offices didn’t hear the message, we kept trying to reach them but then the bomb went off. Assumedly they never got our warning and opened the box.” Sergeant Bellmore ignored the anger in Sutty’s tone.

“You mean Kane Philips?” Sutty began.

“I’m afraid so.”

“Who else was back there?” Dan demanded, his face ashen.

“The Branch Manager, Jack Holden and Robbie Hunter.”

“Christ. What the hell was Robbie doing there?” This situation was getting worse by the second.

“He’s a bank employee,” Sergeant Bellmore explained.

“Jesus. So where’s Pete then?” Sergeant Bellmore exchanged a glance with Lara. “Well?” Dan prompted, fear making his voice sharp.

“I’m afraid when the warning wasn’t relayed Peter raced into the Bank to try and warn them.”

“You’re saying Pete’s in there?” Dan looked at the crumpled building and felt sick to his stomach. “Why aren’t you doing something!” He raced forward in the direction of the crumpled bank.

“Dan, the building’s unstable for God’s sake!” Lara cried as Sergeant Bellmore held out both arms to restrain him.

“The Fire Brigade and Search and Rescue are on their way, we’ll be able to do more then. You have to sit tight Dan.”

“How can I?” Dan fumed, shaking Sergeant Bellmore’s hands off but making no further attempt to move towards the building. It was obvious that the Sergeant was right, the building looked terribly unstable and if Peter was in there, there was no way that Dan was going to risk it.

“I think you should try and warn the families of those trapped inside,” Lara suggested.

“I doubt there’ll be any need. It was announced on the radio while we were driving here. I reckon half the town already knows,” Sutty replied.

“Christ that’s all we need. Lara set up a separate cordon for the family members of those trapped inside, away from the main crowd will you?” Sergeant Bellmore instructed. “We need to be prepared for the hysterical relatives that are bound to arrive.”

“I think you might be too late,” Sutty whispered as a frantic Kirsty Philips pushed her way through the crowd.

“Oh my God!” Kirsty had pushed her way under the cordon and was standing staring at the mess that was the Commonwealth Bank. An out of breath Angel caught her up but as she reached out to put an arm around the younger woman’s shoulders Kirsty crumpled into a heap. Angel managed to catch her before she hit the ground and Sutty and Dan raced quickly to help her.

“Kirsty,” Dan touched her face gently but she was already beginning to stir.

“He’s dead isn’t he?” she whispered.

“We don’t know that,” Sutty reassured her.

“I do,” Kirsty replied, shutting her eyes in an attempt to block out the pain.

“Lets get her over to the other cordon,” Dan suggested, pointing to where Lara was just finishing up. Sutty quickly scooped Kirsty up into his arms and carried her across to the cordon, setting her down on a rug that Lara had placed on the grass. Dan made to follow but Angel took hold of his arm and, knowing what she was going to ask Dan, turned slowly to face her. Angel’s face was pale and drawn, fear was in her eyes yet there was something about her that seemed to radiate strength and Dan felt comforted by it.

“He raced in there to warn them just before the bomb went off,” Dan whispered. Angel had expected it but her breath still caught in her throat and her whole body shook. Dan gently placed his arms around her.

“Dan I…” Angel could not begin to think of what to say.

“He’ll be okay. We need to hold onto that, he’ll be okay, he has more reason than ever to come through this,” Dan reminded her gently.

“You know?” Angel stepped back.

“Yeah I know. He was so excited, he just wanted to tell someone. You’re not angry are you?” Dan looked at her, anxiously.

“No of course not, I just…I need him to come through this,” Angel whispered, the tears threatening.

“He will,” Dan assured her.

“You don’t understand. I lost my husband Shane while I was pregnant with his daughter. I can't raise another child alone, I just can’t.” The tears finally escaped their barriers and rolled down her cheeks.

“You won’t have to because Pete’s going to be okay. I just know it and if the worst does happen you still won’t be alone because you’ll have me. Alright?” Angel managed to nod and allowed Dan to hug her tighter. She took a few deep breaths and then drew away from him and wiped the tears from her face.

“I never told him you know,” she paused, “that I loved him.”

“He knew and he loved you too. He loves you too and you’ll both get a chance to say it. I promise.” Dan squeezed her hand and a smile of understanding passed between them.

“We should go check on Kirsty,” Angel suggested and Dan nodded, leading the way to where Kirsty sat in the cordoned area with Lara and Sutty fussing over her.

“You alright?” Angel asked, settling herself on the rug beside Kirsty and putting a comforting arm around her shoulder.

“As well as I can be. What’s taking the rescue trucks so long?” Kirsty demanded, clenching and unclenching her fingers into a fist.

“Sounds like they’re on their way,” Sutty remarked as the sound of sirens filled the air. The fire trucks and Search and Rescue Vehicles pulled into the vicinity and people hurriedly jumped out. Angel spotted several familiar faces amongst the crew. Alf managed a small wave in her direction as he headed towards Sergeant Bellmore and the Fire Chief. Tony, Kim, Ric, Steven, Barry and half a dozen others were quickly joined by Dan and Sutty.

“Dan what’s going on? Is Jack in there?” Tony demanded instantly.

“As far as we know they managed to evacuate most of the bank but there were a few still inside. Sorry Tony but Jack was one of them, also the Bank Manager, Peter, Kane and Robbie. Five in total.” Dan concluded.

“Oh my god!”

“We don’t know anymore than that except that the building’s really unstable and that they’re most probably near the back of the building,” Sutty added.

“Except Peter, he entered the Bank just before the explosion so it’s possible he’s not as far into the Bank,” Alf added, rejoining the group.

“What’s the deal Alf?”

“The fire crews need to try and get at the blaze from the back of the building to try and put that out. Our job will be to try and make our way in through the front. We need to remove the rubble and try and make as clear a path through as possible. We need to be damn careful though, one brick at a time or the whole lot’ll come down.”

“Got it. What now?”

“Now we have to wait while the Fire Crew assess the building and then they’ll get back to us.”

“More waiting!” Tony was pacing anxiously.

“It’s for their safety Tony,” Barry assured him.

“My son’s in there Barry, do you think I’m not concerned about their safety?”

“Hey calm down alright, my brother’s in there too but Alf’s right, we need to be patient,” Dan cautioned.

“If I’m right the women have just arrived with food and drink, we should probably all get something now, save us having to stop in a little while,” Sutty suggested.

“Good idea,” Alf replied.

“Kirsty love, are you okay?” Irene set down the tray she was carrying. Kirsty nodded dumbly and Angel took Irene to one side.

“She’s okay,” Angel reassured her.

“Yeah she looks it, you were meant to look after her,” Leah snapped.

“How would you be if someone you loved was in there?” Angel shot back, furiously. Leah opened her mouth to retort but Irene interrupted her.

“So Kane’s definitely in there then?”

“It seems so,” Angel replied.

“Angel did you find out what happened? Is Robbie in there?” Beth pleaded. Angel nodded sadly.

“I’m sorry Beth, Robbie’s one of the missing. It looks like there’s five in total, the Bank Manager, Kane, Robbie, Jack and Peter.” Beth’s face drained of all colour and beside her Matilda burst into tears and Tasha clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Jesus!” Irene took a shaking Tasha into her arms.

“Come on guys, we need to stay positive. They’re going to come through this. In the meantime the rescuers are all going to need food and water so lets keep busy with that hey?” Angel suggested.

“Yes Miss,” Leah snapped tersely. Angel took a deep breath but Irene’s hand on her arm stopped her responding. The older woman shook her head and Angel took a second to calm herself down.

“Good idea Angel. Looks like the guys have had the same idea.” Sally tried to smooth over the tension. She was not sure what was going on between Leah and Angel but she was determined to keep the peace, for everyone’s sake.

“Anyone for tea?” Angel offered as the rescuers approached.

“Has it got brandy in it?” Dan joked.

“Nope, you're going to need a clear head in there,” Angel replied, teasingly.

“Dan I was trying to phone you!” Leah stepped in front of Angel.

“So what?” Dan snapped.

“Dan please don’t be like that,” Leah began.

“Like what Leah? My brother’s trapped in there and thanks to you the last words I said to him were said in anger so if you don’t mind I have better things to do than argue with you. I will have some tea Angel, if you don’t mind.” Angel offered him the flask and Dan, like all the rescuers around him drank and ate as much as they could manage. Leah stood back the whole time sending venomous looks in Angel’s direction.

“Okay guys, we're good to go.” Sutty called over from where he had been standing with Alf and the Fire Crew.

“Yep.” Came the reply as the rescuers finished up what they were eating and drinking and headed back towards where Alf was outlining his plans as the rescue started to get underway.

[Sunny Girl]

I'm so happy you updated Kat!! I was beginning to worry that you wouldn't ... Now I'm hanging for the next chapter ...

[Gypsy & Will Fan]

Brilliant SkyKat!

[ldscott]

Brilliant chapter, well worth waiting for.

Can't wait to read the next!

[I love music]

So you're still keeping us all in suspense, Kat! And you've got me really worried now. I thought he'd be safe, but I'm very, very concerned about one of the five who's missing...

Dan Baker pulled his car haphazardly into a parking bay and hurriedly turned the engine off before racing full pelt down High Street in the direction of the Bank.

I loved that description, it painted the scene so well.

Another great, fast-paced chapter. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this story turned up as an end-of-season storyline in H&A one day...

[bay girl]

Yay and update. I have a feeling you're going to kill of my precious Jack. Poor thing.

Greta chapter. Can't wait to read more.

[Chair]

Thank you for writing this wonderful story, Kat.

Wow! That is a bit of an understatement but this is such an amazingly written story, I can't put it into words. It is just really, really good. I'm sorry I haven't kept up with it.

It is lovely to see Steven and Selina back in Summer Bay. They are my favourite all time 2 characters. I have always daydreamed about their life together, but I have never put it into such amazing words. It is lovely to see them happy but I am sorry to hear about their son, Tommy. Can I suggest a name for their kid as well, please by PM?

I am worried about all the people who are inside the bank and I am really worrying about them all. I hope that Gus will get what he deserves!

By the way, back in 1997, I wrote down Steven and Selina's relationship as a story, but from Selina's point of view. I have thrown it out, but I can remember most of it. I would be happy to send it to anyone who hasn't come across the characters before.

[Skykat]

Thank you for writing this wonderful story, Kat.

Wow! That is a bit of an understatement but this is such an amazingly written story, I can't put it into words. It is just really, really good. I'm sorry I haven't kept up with it.

It is lovely to see Steven and Selina back in Summer Bay. They are my favourite all time 2 characters. I have always daydreamed about their life together, but I have never put it into such amazing words. It is lovely to see them happy but I am sorry to hear about their son, Tommy. Can I suggest a name for their kid as well, please by PM?

I am worried about all the people who are inside the bank and I am really worrying about them all. I hope that Gus will get what he deserves!

By the way, back in 1997, I wrote down Steven and Selina's relationship as a story, but from Selina's point of view. I have thrown it out, but I can remember most of it. I would be happy to send it to anyone who hasn't come across the characters before.

Wow thanks! You finally read the lot then?

Feel free to PM me your idea, I'm useless with baby names! I think Vikkysmile was going to send me some too but never got round to it I'm open to suggestions.

What I can't promise is that I'll actually get round to Selina's pregnancy anytime soon though. I have so many storylines in mind and I have this thing about keeping to a realistic timescale so it may be a while yet but please feel free to send me anything you have.xx

[tasha7905]

Just read your last update and its was fantastic, You wrote the feelings of the loved ones outside so well, although I really wanted to slap Leah . Hope you update again soon I love this fic.

[Skykat]

Shock horror and update is coming...it's with Jess at the moment. I was very unhappy with it so she's helping me make it better. It should be with you soon and I am not giving anything away as to who dies. It could be anyone trapped in the Bank, no-one is safe and the revelation as to who dies will be gradual with characters found one by one and lots of twists and turns so be prepared!