The man staggered into the hospital, almost collapsing several times. "I...I've been shot!" He called out before falling to the ground. He had two bullets in his abdomen.

They were back again, except this time it was neither Bonnie nor Mikhail that needed help. It was Lark.

Ethan led the brigade inside, followed closey by Mikhail, who was carrying the Russian woman. As they crossed through the doors and headed for the emergency room, the two stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of Mike. "On dolzhen byt' mertvym! He should be dead!" Mikhail gasped, his face taking on the look of utter surprise.

What was worse, they had told the authorities that Mike had been killed by the CS. "What- how are you here?" Ethan stammered, stunned beyond belief. How could Ben have been this careless?

Lark was nearly unconscious by the time they arrived at the hospital. Bonnie, Andrea and Shasta followed their friends in.

As soon as they saw the injured people, several doctors filed out. Jeremy Townsend and some nurses took Lark from Mikhail's arms and set her on a guerny. They then began wheeling her into the ER, while one of the nurses stayed behind to ask a few questions. The short woman looked up at Mikhail. "Alright, sir. I'm going to need to know the patient's name, what happened. and any allergies she might have." She said politely, but urgently.

Mike still lay on the floor, but looked up at Ethan. "Your friend failed to kill me..." He mumbled. Rachel, a friend of Mike, rushed into the hospital after him. "Jesse!" She called out. "Mike's hurt!" Immediately, a tall man came down the hallway and lifted Mike onto a guerny. He took the injured man into another room, leaving Rachel and Samuel there.

Rachel looked around at the other people in the room. Her eyes stopped on Shasta. "So you're the slut called Shasta?" She snarled, stepping up in front of Mike's sister. Shasta glared at Rachel, staying still for a while before speaking. "Yeah. And I'm unfortunate enough to be his sister." Shasta shot back. Rachel stared at the other woman, until neither could take it anymore. Just as Rachel was turning around, Shasta punched her square in the face. Rachel scurried off like a scared dog.

Samuel stepped up now, keeping his eyes on Shasta. "I've heard you've been bothering your brother, Shasta. Nobody bothers our leader and gets away with it." He said hatefully. Shasta stomped over to the man. "He's been doing all the bothering, you dirty pig!" She spat. "Do you know what he's done to me?!"

Mikhail handed over the woman, watching as she was placed on the stretcher. And then came the questions, which had prepared himself for. "Nadia Bakunin. She was attacked by robber." Having testified to two gang attacks already, Mikhail decided it would be to suspicious to name a third attack in such a short time. "No allergies."

Ethan scarecly heard Mikhail speaking - he was still looking at Mike. He could only hope that no one else had heard what the young man said. Being too stunned to know what to say, Ethan could only watch as Mike was wheeled away, and hope that he didn't survive surgery. The last thing they needed was word of Ben's death pit to get out.

Having answered the nurse's questions, Mikhail turned to Shasta and the others. When she lashed out at Rachel, he moved to grab her shoulder and pull her back, "Not here, Miss Wild." He warned, before listening to Samuel speak. "You do not want to cross us right now."

For a long moment, Ethan tried to figure out just how Ben could have managed not to kill Mike. But that didn't really matter now. Unsure of what to do now, Ethan took out his phone to dial his leader.
"Ben... ....
Ben, Mike's alive. ....
At the hospital, with that Russian woman. ...
Yeah, he said something. He said that you tried to kill him! ....
I don't know, they just wheeled him away... Ben? ...
Ok."

The nurse nodded, writing something on a paper. With that she moved away.

Shasta stepped back, staring at Rachel. "She's the slut. She's probably gotten pregnant like twelve times." She grumbled. Samuel looked at Mikhail. "I really think I do want to cross you right now" He said arrogantly before looking at Shasta. "Hey, Shasta. How's the kid doing. Oh, wait. Nevermind. She's dead." Immediately after this, Shasta pulled out her pistol and aimed at Samuel's chest, seeing that another piece of her story was leaking out. "I'll kill you if you say another word!" She shouted. And she would kill him, too. Samuel knew this and kept his mouth shut. Rachel turned back, blood dripping from her nose. "You don't want your friends to know about baby Erin?" She said, an arrogant smile on her face.

Things were getting quite dangerous now, "BWild! I must remind you that this is a hospital..." He hedged, but was afraid to grab for the pistol, lest he cause her to shoot in response. "This can happen later, elsewhere. Not here." Mikhail hissed quietly to her. If Shasta were put in jail for opening fire in a hospital, it would be near impossible for them to get her out.

Mikhail was surprised to hear of this Erin baby; he hadn't come across that in his research. As curious as he was on the matter, he had to contend with Samuel now.

The tall man took a step forward, his single eye narrowed as it glared at the younger man, "Did you see what your friend looked like? That is what happens when people cross me. He is lucky he is alive." Not the best thing to be admitting outloud, but Mikhail was determined to put this fellow in his place.

Shasta hesitated for a moment, but eventually put the gun back in her pocket. "As soon as we get out of here I'm shooting a hole through him." She said quietly. Just as Shasta pocketed the gun, Samuel reached up and put his hands around her throat and squeezed, blocking any air from getting to her lungs. He didn't seem to mind that Shasta had friends who could maul him.

When things got dangerous, Bonnie stepped in. She didn't know Shasta very well, but she knew that she was a fellow ATHA member. She knew they had to protect each other. "HEY! Get your hands off of her!" She ordered. Samuel simply turned his head to face Bonnie. "I don't think I will." He replied arrogantly. Bonnie took a few steps closer and stared coldly at Samuel. "I'm not new to killing people. I think you should back off." She said quietly. Samuel backed off, a cocky smile of his face. "I'm not afraid of you." He retorted.

Shasta fell to the ground, gasping.

He was pleased that Shasta had obeyed, and gave a nod to her statement. They would have to be careful, but he didn't see any problem with killing any of these friends of Mike's.

And then Samuel had to start trouble again. Mikhail's face adopted an intense look, with his mouth drawn tight and single eye glaring with a fury of anger. Just as Bonnie forced Samuel to back down, Mikhail strode forward with two quick steps of his long legs and reached out to grab the front of Samuel's shirt. "You are trying my patience, boy! You are lucky we are in a public place, or you would have a bullet in your head already."

While all this was going on, Ethan was off to the side, finishing up a second phone call with Tom. The older was to guard over Aralyn, in case Mike decided to try his hands at revenge and seek out the 'daughter' that Benjamin had mentioned.

Shasta slowly got to her feet, almost falling at first. She had bruises on her neck now. She was tempted to pull out her gun and kill Samuel right here.

Samuel grinned at Mikhail. "Yeah. I'd like to see you try." He chuckled. Rachel glanced at Shasta. "Our leader said that if we saw you we should kill you. If I had a gun, I'd do it right here." She hissed. Shasta narrowed her eyes. "I wasn't aware that apes could use guns." She shot back. Rachel tried to punch Shasta, but Shasta simply stepped aside. Samuel pulled his jacket away, showing Shasta the gun that he carried. "You'd better come with us, or I'll be forced to shoot every one of you." He ordered.

But before Samuel could do anything, the nurse came back down the hallway and looked at Mikhail. Rachel and Samuel immediately stopped what they were doing, so as not to be suspicious. "Nadia has a large cut on her side and a few broken ribs. We've already finished the stitching. She'll be in pain for a while, but she should be fine other than that." The short woman said.

Oh, how he wanted to just slug the man right then and there! But for the sake of keeping their profile low, Mikhail had to restrain himself. When Samuel made the last threat, Mikhail moved his hand towards his belt, where his pistol was concealed neatly under his loose shirt. But as Samuel was forced into silence, Mikhail was too.

"When can she leave?" He asked quickly, not trying to hide the fact that he was in a hurry.

Ethan returned to the group now, having made all the neccessary calls. "Shasta, Andrea, get back in the car. I will be there in a moment." He ordered, not wanting Bonnie to leave his sights. He was ready to leave as well, but had to wait for news on Lark's release time.

Ethan's eyes settled on Samuel now, casting nothing but muderous intentions in their wake. Here was a threat that would have to be dealt with appropriately. He only wished that he had informants that worked at the hospital, so that Mike might 'accidentally' be given a deadly dose of medication or something. Unfortunately, they had no such members working here.

The nurse didn't seem to be suspicious of Mikhail's behavior. Most people wanted to get out of the hospital as soon as possible. "We want to keep her here overnight. You can come and pick her up tomorrow morning, if that's a good time." She replied.

Shasta nodded to Ethan and went out to the car. Andrea followed hesitantly. Samuel glared at Ethan when Shasta was gone. "You bastard." He said quietly as he passed, walking to the other side of the room. Rachel sneered at Ethan and followed her friend.

The Russian nodded, "That will be fine." Phew, he was glad this nurse wasn't persistant with details! He was pretty sure he could cover his tracks well enough, but ATHA already had so much to worry about that it helped when this nurse didn't ask any more.

Mikhail turned to leave, but gave Samuel a shifty glare, "Why don't you ask your friend what happened when his father dared to bother us." A simple little threat, but he wanted to let Samuel know just who he was getting tangled with.

As Mikhail headed out to the car, Ethan followed along, making sure that Bonnie was near him. "I don't think things can get much more complicated than this." He sighed, trying to figure out just what they were going to do with Mike. He had to be killed as quickly as possible, or else some very dark secrets could get out, and ATHA would be in some serious trouble...

Bonnie followed Ethan, not once looking back at the hospital. Shasta and Andrea were already in the back seat of the car when the others exited the building. They needed to find out a way to get rid of Mike, and very quickly. But right now, they just wanted to get out of here.

Once everyone was safely in the car, Ethan got in himself. It wouldn't be long before Tom arrived, but he doubted Mike's posse would know who the old man was. After a troubled last look at the hospital, Ethan pulled out of the parking lot and headed away from the facility.