Remember My Name Part 8

Elizabeth Sherwood once again finds herself looking down the barrell of a gun. Having thought that she was safe and despite her friends attempts to rescue her, they were now outside the room and she was now being held hostage by a crazy ex student who believed she had ruined his life.

Shaking the gun at her Archie orders her to move tables and chairs in front of the door to block the doorway. Reluctantly Elizabeth complies.

Outside the door feeling helpless are Elizabeth's friends and ex colleagues, Lydia Grant, David Reardon, Mrs Berg and Quentin Morloch.

Morloch believes he is the person who should take charge: "Okay everybody we need some kind of plan to rescue Miss Sherwood. Until the police arrive I'm putting myself in charge. Don't do anything until you've run it by me."

Lydia is unimpressed: "Who died and put you in charge?"

Morloch sighs: "Oh Miss Grant I can see you haven't changed have you. You've still got an axe to grind with me?"

Lydia mutters to herself: "I wish I had an axe right now!"

David overhears and smiles at her.

Morloch asks: "What did you say?"

Lydia shakes her head: "No nothing at all. I just don't see why you should be in charge."

Morloch can't believe her resistence: "Well I would have thought with my military background, my years of captaining sports teams and my executive roles in the Education system, that I would be the natural choice. What are your credentials tinkerbell, head cheerleader or lead ballet dancer?"

Morloch laughs and is surprised that none of the others are laughing with him.

Lydia gives him a stern glare, absense had certainly not made her heart grow any fonder of Morloch. However she chooses to ignore his bating: "I'll deal with you later Morloch because now our number one concern has to be Elizabeth."

David has been watching Morloch closely and starts to feel uneasy. He unbuttons the collar of his shirt and fans himself with his hand. Morloch is losing a lot of blood from his gunshot would in his arm. David is not great with the sight of blood and start to feel queasy. He asks: "Mr Morloch, I'm not one to question your leadership skills..."

Lydia shoots him a look of disdain as David continues: "...but your arm. There seems to be..."

David swallows hard and continues: ".... a lot of erm....blood."

Morloch looks at his arm and becomes concerned: "Well to be perfectly honest I do feel a little woozey. Maybe I should sit down for a moment."

Morloch moves over to towards the wall and sits down. He's barely on the ground before he passes out.

Mrs Berg tuts: "So much for his leadership skills. I always knew he'd cave under pressure!"

David feels nauseaus he hands his gun to Lydia: "Here, just in case you need it. I've got to find the bathroom."

As He hurries off Lydia stares at the gun in her hand feeling very uncomfortable. Mrs Berg picks up Morloch's gun: "How exciting , it looks like we can't count on the men for any help, so it looks like it's just you and me kid."

Lydia isn't feeling so positive.

Mrs Berg continues in an attempt to raise her friends spirits: "Yes, The girls save the day. I know I'll be Cagney and you can be Lacey!"

Lydia is still looking at the gun: "I don't know Mrs Berg, I don't know if I can fire one of these things, certainly not at another person. Could you?"

Mrs Berg smiles: "Oh yes dear. I grew up on a farm way back West. My Daddy taught me to shoot when I was just a girl. I'm a pretty good shot, even if I do say so myself."

Lydia is shocked: "I never knew that about you."

Mrs Berg looks around the corridor to see if anyone can hear her and mysteriously lowers her voice: "Oh Miss Grant there's a lot of things people don't know about me. They think I'm some ditzy old woman but I have a surprise or two up my sleeve!"

With that she moves towatds the closed door and bangs on it with her fist. She then shouts in a harsh loud tone full of attitude: "Hey Punk, this is the police. You've got ten minutes to give yourself up or we're coming in. Give yourself up and no one gets hurt. Put us to the test and things will get nasty!"

Lydia is shocked by the older woman's outburst and whispers: "Mrs Berg: "What are you doing? Won't that make things worse?"

Inside the room Elizabeth doesn't realise it's her friend who was shouting and believes the police are outside. She looks at the clock on the wall and then back at Archie. she can see beads of perspiration forming on his brow. She's not sure if he's just out of his depth or if it's because of the bullet wound to his leg. She spies some water on a nearby table. Pours some into a glass and then puts some on to one of the napkins. She takes the glass and offers it to Archie, who quickly takes a drink. She then mops his brow with the damp napkin.

Archie is surprised by her actions: "Why are you helping me? Don't think I'm going to go easy on you just because you're being nice to me."

Elizabeth shrugs and explains quietly: "I don't know. I guess it's hard for me to see someone in pain and not try to do something to help. It doesn't matter if that person is trying to hurt me. I just see someone lost, someone scared, someone who has bitten off more than they can chew and is out of their depth."

Archie feels vulnerable as he realises what his ex english teacher is saying is true.

Elizabeth continues: "You don't really want to hurt me and I certainly don't think you want to kill yourself. Why not do as the police say and give yourself up?"

Archie knows she is right but refuses to admit it and becomes angry: "Stop it! I can see what you're doing. You think if you sweet talk me, I'll give myself up and you'll get out of here alive."

Elizabeth shakes her head: "Believe what you want to believe. I'm not going to try and change your mind but I'm just speaking honestly."

Archie gulps more of the water that Elizabeth has given him.

There is silence for a couple of minutes until there is a loud banging on the door.

Mrs Berg yet again puts on her fake police accent: "Five Minutes Kid. Make this easy on yourself and do the right thing!"

Lydia shakes her head and whispers: "Mrs Berg, what are you going to do in five minutes? What if Archie calls your bluff?"

Mrs Berg looks at the dance teacher not sure what her next course of action will be.

Back in the conference room Elizabeth takes a deep breath and mutters: "Not long now!"

Archie snaps: "What? Do you think the cops are going to come in here and rescue you?"

Elizabeth shrugs: "I don't know, but one way or the other this is going to be over. Either the police are going to come in here and rescue me or you're going to kill me. So as I say there's not long now."

Archie snarls: "Well they won't be able to rescue you so you better start to say your goodbyes!"

Elizabeth swallows hard and notices that her hands are trembling with fear. She puts her head in her hands and she starts to think about her life, what she's done and what she still has left to accomplish. Tears well up in her eyes. She's not ready to die just yet.

A further couple of moments pass and Archie can feel himself becoming light headed. The napkins that Elizabeth had tied around his leg are soaked in blood. Momentarily he closes his eyes.

Elizabeth notices the change in the sound of Archies breathing, looks over to him and sees that his eyes are closed. Slowly and quietly she moves closer to him. Soon she is right by his side and Archie still has his eyes closed. Slowly Elizabeth reaches out with her hand for the gun. Just as it's within touching difference Archie opens his eyes wide and they glare at her.

Elizabeth is scared but knows she has to act. She reaches that little bit further and grabs the gun and the two start to struggle over it. Ordinarily Elizabeth wouldn't stand a chance against a fit young man but in his weakend state she is holding her own.

Outside the room Mrs Berg looks at her watch and yells: "Okay Kid your time is up, we are coming in."

Lydia watches paralyzed as Mrs Berg moves towards the door. As the older woman's hand reaches the door handle a loud shot is heard coming from inside the room.

Lydia gasps and jumps in fear: "Oh my God he's shot her."

Tears start to roll down Lydia's face: "Mrs Berg you've pushed him too far."

Fear sweeps through Mrs Berg's body: "Oh My, Oh Dear, what have I done? It always works in the movies. Why did I get so carried away."

David comes running down the corridor and calls: "What happened I heard the shot?"

Lydia sobs: "Oh David, Archie has shot Elizabeth."

David puts his arms around Lydia to comfort her but also in an attempt to comfort himself too.

In front of them they can hear noises from the other side of the door like tables being moved.

They all stand open mouthed waiting to see what happens. A few minutes later the door handle turns and the door opens. Elizabeth is standing there tears running down her face and blood on her clothes, gun in her right hand.

Lydia is relieved that her best friend is okay and rushes to hug her. They stay in a long embrace for a few moments both sobbing with relief.

David walks in to the room Archie is lying on the floor with his hands tied behind his back with a table cloth. He calls back: "He's alive! I thought that shot was you shooting him Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth seperates from her embrace with Lydia and sighs: "No David, I didn't shoot him. We were struggling over the gun and it went off. Thankfully neither of us was hit."

Elizabeth looks around and is puzzled: "Where are the police, I thought they were here?"

Mrs Berg stands and clears her throat to attract attention and then announces: "Oh that was me dear?"

Elizabeth is shocked and questions: "You were the Police?"

Mrs Berg nods: "Yes I was dear and for a moment there I thought I'd got you killed."

Elizabeth shakes her head: "No Mrs Berg, you didn't but what were you going to do if the gun hadn't gone off?

Mrs Berg shrugs: "I don't know dear I hadn't thought that far ahead!"

After a puase Mrs Berg asks: "Will I get to be in your next book now?"

Lydia, Elizabeth and Mrs Berg laugh.

At that moment the Police arrive . The lead officer yells from the other side of the corridor: "Ok you can leave it to us now, we'll take it from here."

Morloch starts to come round: "What?.... What happened? Did I get him?"

Elizabeth smiles: "Yes Mr Morloch you got him."

A huge smile spreads across Morloch's face as everyone laughs again!

A month later Elizabeth and Morloch sit at a table in a restaurant they'd been to a couple of times since their friendship had been rekindled.

Morloch smiles: "May I say how lovely you're looking tonight, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth smiles: "Thank you Quentin, that's so nice of you to say."

The waiter arrives and greets them with a warm smile: "Good evening Mr Morloch and Miss Sherwood. How are my favourite customers tonight?"

Elizabeth suddenly feels uncomfortable. Those are the words that Pierre used to greet her with and suddenly the events of the previous month come flooding back into her mind which makes he feel uneasy. She asks politely: "Could you please not say things like that?"

The waiter is confused: "Things like what Miss?"

Elizabeth explains: "Well the last waiter that called me his favourite customer, sent threatening letters, broke into my home, held me at gun point and tried to kill me. So as you can probably imagine it just makes me feel a little uneasy."

The waiter nods to confirm his understanding: "Of Course Miss, I'm very sorry to hear that but can I just say on behalf of all the waiters in New York, that we aren't all crazy pyschopaths and nothing like that will happen to you here."

The all laugh, the waiter takes their order and leaves them alone.

Morloch is concerned: "Are you okay?"

Elizabeth smiles: "Yes Quentin I'm fine."

Morloch says: "There's no need to be afraid. I am here and I will protect you. After all I did rescue you from that Archie guy!"

Elizabeth's recollection of the events were slightly different but it wasn't worth arguing over symantics and she agrees with him: "Yes you did. I wonder what will happen to Archie now?"

Morloch shrugs: "I guess he may spend some time in prison or maybe a pyshiatric ward."

Elizabeth sighs: "Oh well I guess if nothing else he'll finally have the time he needs to write his novel now."

There is a slight pause in conversation and Elizabeth notices that Morloch seems to have become nervous. She wonders what's wrong: "Are you okay Quentin?"

Morloch takes a gulp of water from the glass that's in front of him and then takes a deep breath: "Elizabeth, these last few weeks, we've been having a good time haven't we?"

Elizabeth had to admit that since he came back into her life that she'd actually enjoyed spending time with Quentin Morloch. Outside of work she'd found him to be interesting, funny, sensitive and attentive. She nods: "Yes Quentin we have?"

Morloch gives a nervous smile: "It's just that I really like you."

Elizabeth smiles warmly: "And I really like you too."

Years ago when they worked at the School of the Arts together Elizabeth could never imagine herself saying those words. There had certainly been times when she's felt sorry for him but rarely could she actually say she really liked him.

Morloch nods: "That's good because there's something I'd like to ask you."

There is a long silence and Elizabeth waits patiently for Morloch to continue. He has started to perspire and he uses a napkin to dab his forehead and asks: "Is it hot in here or is it just me?"

Elizabeth finds the temperature is just right: "I think it's just you. Surely that's not what you want to ask me, is it?"

Morloch shakes his head: "No, no of course not!"

Again there is silence, which eventually Elizabeth breaks: "Well then, what is it?"

Morloch fumbles for something in his pocket and stands up: "Miss Sherwood.."

Elizabeth laughs and interrupts: "Quentin, I thought we'd done away with those formalities?"

Morloch nods: "We have but there are times when it's perhaps appropriate."

He bends down on one knee and at first Elizabeth thinks he's dropped something, then he looks up so that their eyes meet. Elizabeth starts to realise what is going on. Other people in the restaurant realise too and start to watch what is happening. Elizabeth starts to feel uncomfortable, she wasn't really one for such spectacle but the events were out of her hands. She gives a weak nervous smile.

Morloch opens the small box he had found in his pocket, displaying a diamond ring. He has a tears welling up in his eyes and says: "Elizabeth Sherwood, would you make me the happiest man alive and do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

Elizabeth had known what was coming but even so felt shocked that Morloch would make such a public display and even more shocked that he wanted to marry her. She liked him and yes there had been a hint of romance about their dates in the last few weeks but she wasn't sure she was ready for marriage.

Morloch looks up at her trying desperately to hold back his tears. Elizabeth can't help think that he looks like an adoring puppy looking up at it's owner awaiting praise.

The other people in the restaurant also look at Elizabeth expectantly waiting her answer.

Morloch becomes a little worried about the time she's taking to respond and fears he has made a fool of himself: "Well Elizabeth, Please don't leave me down here waiting too long I've got arthritis in my knee and I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to get up again."

The waiting crowed laughs as Morloch continues: "Well, What do you say?"

Elizabeth looks round at the sea of faces watching her and then looks back to Morloch. Tears now well up in her eyes as she struggles to find the right words: "Well... Erm .. Quentin, I..."

To be Continued in the next Elizabeth Sherwood Investigates Adventure.......