A Bump in the Road -- Watty Awards 2011 --

Chapter 16: Hostage

The next morning Joseph had Nicole stay in bed, only letting her up to use the bathroom, asking every time she went if there was any spotting- which at almost 8 months pregnant meant a bathroom trip every 10 minutes. They had 6 days left in Paris before they would leave to go back home to Toronto.

Meanwhile Nicole was thrilled that her bevy of physicians had maintained that she was still tentatively allowed to try a natural birth, only because they did not want to have to put her under by the board as of yet, seeing as her blood pressure was already so unstable.

The chauffeur and housekeeper had seen them off before they went to the airport the day of their departure back to Canada on September 7th. The flight took 16 hours. This time however, when the car pulled up to the airport Nicole didn’t protest as she saw the wheelchair that would take her the 200 ft. across the tarmac to the waiting 747 that was being refuelled before takeoff.

Nicole was absolutely humongous now, her belly lay like a ginormous beach-ball across her lap and she stroked it absentmindedly as the luggage was loaded into the plane. She winced as the wheels of the chair jolted as she was pushed up the ramp.

Ever since the beginning of her eighth month, the pressure in her back had felt like it was pushing her pelvis apart, but she’d read online that it wasn’t uncommon to feel stretched and achy in the last trimester so she had just walked through it. ‘Ugh I guess all the jolting today has tired me out a little more than I thought it would. Oof! I guess this pregnancy really has changed me” Nicole muttered trying to push down on her belly to get the baby’s foot from going up any more into her ribs. At the top of the boarding ramp a first class flight attendant took the back handles of her wheelchair.

Joseph greeted the captain warmly, an old buddy from the reserves who had also trained as a paramedic with Joe back during their college years. They had often joked that it was so that if one of them in a alcohol and testosterone increased state did something stupid the other would be able to bail them out.

Joseph turned around to help Nicole out of the chair. He saw that the flight attendant was wearing sunglasses which joseph thought was odd, seeing as it wasn’t part of accepted uniform. He looked for a name badge like all the other attendants wore but saw none.

As he focused his attention back on Nicole the boarding ramp shuddered as a car tore across the tarmac, skidding to a stop a few metres away from the plane. The minute the car engine could be heard he saw the suspect flight attendant jerk back on the wheelchair handles in which Nicole was no longer sitting and shove the wheelchair into Joseph, the captain and the rest of the stewardesses.

The attendant grabbed Nicole roughly by the upper arm and with one hand and pulled a gun with the other shooting once just past joseph into the aluminum roof of the airplane. The perp shoved Nicole down the ramp so that she stumbled and then made his own way down half dragging his screaming wife into the unmarked black van and tearing away again in a cloud of exhaust.

Nicole screamed and felt rough gloved hands pull her into the truck and strap her in to the seat with a gag stuffed in her mouths so that her screams were muffled. Her last sight before the van door slid shut was Joseph running down the ramp screaming Nicole before the van swung around a corner and he disappeared from sight.

Joseph dropped to his knees as the van turned a corner, not caring in the least that the pavement he had fallen on so roughly had almost torn through the fabric of his suit. “God, no, Nicole-Nic my god”. He looked around wildly as though it was some sick practical joke, but the faces of the air crew told him it was all too real.

He felt his old friend, the captain lift him up by the arm and tell him he had already radioed the police as well as security to close the gates but the van had already disappeared.