Standoff

Another tale, another theme it seems! This one came together after I lost the battle of sleep on night and just had to write.

Again I would like to thank my wonderful editor jacuzzigal for her help and assistance.

After you read the story, comment!

I hope you enjoy.

*

Oh God, don't let this be true, I thought as I weaved my car in and out of traffic.

He can't be serious.

Or can he?

Just a half hour ago, I was working at the bank helping a family secure a loan for their first house. Then the call came. The police. My husband had been seen with a gun in the house.

"A gun?"

"Yes Ma'am, a neighbor came over to elpingborrow an item and saw him. Seems he's threatening suicide. We need you here to help us talk him out of it."

Suicide? But Conner loved life. He has always been so happy go lucky. Why would he––?

It can't be about. . .

I pushed that thought away as I turn onto our street. It was a circus. Several police cruisers lined the road, as their former occupants surrounded the house. There was even a live truck from the local TV station set up in Old Man Parker's yard.

I tried to maneuver the car to get by all the commotion, to get to him, but an officer stopped me.

"Miss, you have to go around. We have a situation here and––"

"That's my house, Officer! My husband!" I interrupted him, my voice a scream. The man looked at me for a second then waved me in. I parked the car and then exited, only to be attacked by the local media.

"Is your husband overly violent Mrs. Richards?"

"Has he tried to kill himself before?"

"Is he wanted for any crimes elsewhere?"

I had no idea how to answer these people. Why can't they just leave me alone? My husband. My love. He needs me but they swarmed around me, preventing me from getting to him.

An officer grabbed my arm and rescued me from the vultures. She led me to van across the street from my home. Outside it, several men were talking around a small table.

"I can get a man in the house right there. Should be able to get a good shot from there."

"We're not here to kill him," another man answered. "We have to help him."

"He's a danger to himself and us. If he attacks my men then––"

"NO!" I yelled at them.

They all turned to me. As they started to ask who the hell I was, the young lady officer answered them.

"This is Mrs. Richards."

"Oh! Thank you Carrie." The second man approached me. "Ma'am, I am Toby Curtis. I am the negotiator for the local PD. Can I talk to you for a second?"

The first man stopped him "We need to know how many weapons he has. Could be a damn militia man in there and––"

"We don't own a gun!" I interrupted. "I don't know where he got the one you say he has."

"Must have just gotten it. That's good, we can case the local gun shops and––"

"Rick, could you let me do my job first before you start shooting?"

The look on my face seemed to stop this Rick guy. Are they serious about shooting my husband?

"Come here, Mrs. Richards." Toby led me away. "I have to ask you some questions. Has your husband been depressed lately?"

"No, not really." Liar, I told myself. I have to tell them about. . . No they don't need to know that.

He sighed. "Ma'am––may I call you Jennifer?"

I nodded.

"Did you know that your husband quit his job two days ago?"

"No he couldn't have. We were just talking last night. He was so happy and––"

"You mean he was happier than normal?"

"Well we had been having problems but I got us past them and we were better. He was happy."

"What kind of problems?"

"Sir, that doesn't have any bearing on––"

"Jennifer, I hate to pry, but the more information we have, the more we can help your husband."

Another officer came running up to us.

"Hey Toby. We have made contact with the individual."

"How? I thought the phone wasn't working."

"Somehow he's got a signal going to the live truck across the street. They say we can use their equipment if they can get an exclusive to broadcast."

"I don't like this. How could he get a signal to them?"

"My husband used to work at the station. He was the engineer for their truck. He installed half that gear in there so if anyone could he could," I answered. I don't think I hid my pride in his intellect from my voice.

They led me to the news truck. It was much like I remembered it. Oh a different carpet on the floor but there was still all those buttons and stuff. How Conner kept it all straight in his head, I don't know.

Inside, one of the pretty reporters that assaulted me before was talking into a microphone while looking at one of the screens. To my horror Conner was in the screen.

His appearance had changed so much it scared me. He was bare-chested and had cut his normally shoulder-length hair into a near buzz cut. But the thing that scared me the most on the slightly fuzzy picture was the gun in his hand. Conner hated guns. He knew that I was afraid of them. Why did he have one? Unless...fear gripped my heart.

Toby grabbed the mic away from the lady. "Conner, this is Toby Curtis. I am here to help you."

"Shut up!" Conner's voice was unlike anything I had ever heard before from him. It was filled with anger, pain and even hopelessness. A Voice that I would have expected to come from some deranged lunatic, not my loving husband.

"I know what you are doing. You are trying to stop me! But I can't be stopped. I HAVE to do this! I can't go on. I can't live for what I've done. I can't take it any more. She can't forgive me. I can't forgive myself!"

"Conner, who's 'she'? Is it your wife? Jennifer is here. I can put her on if you want. You can talk to––"

"OH YOU CAN'T FOOL ME! She's not there. You'll just trick me––she wouldn't come."

"How can we prove that she's here, Conner?"

"Show her to me. Let me see her."

"We can't do that, Conner. Not with your having a gun. Her safety––"

"Then put her on the air! Put us in a split box!"

Toby turned to the girl. "What is he talking about?"

"Oh it's a common thing for TV news. He'll be on one side of the screen with her on the other. They can talk to each other that way."

"Set it up."

"Give us...oh three minutes and we can be on the air."

"The air? You mean live?" I asked, wondering what is going on.

"Deary, how else is he going to see you?"

The next few minutes were a blur with them setting up a camera and talking on the phone with the station. Next thing I knew I was in front of a camera with this weird gadget in my ear, all mic'ed up and waiting for ... something.

Anything.

Suddenly I heard a voice in my ear, Connor's voice.

"Is that you honey? Are you really here?"

"Oh Conner! What are you doing? I –"

"I'm doing what I should have done two weeks ago. When I woke up next to Sherry! I should have ended it all then. But I didn't. Now I have to pay. I can't stay here. Not after what I did."

No, he was still on this. I told him it was over. I had gotten back at him. What, what will I do if he––

"Honey, that's all in the past. We have moved on. I forgave you."

"You forgave me but I can't forgive myself. I was a good husband. But after the party. After the party I had to mess it up. I had to ...to..."

He was still guilty about this. The thought started to eat away at me, my own guilt joining it. I can't let him end it. I love him so much. Damn Sherry and her ideas...if she hadn't––

"You know the funny thing dear? I can't remember it. All I can remember is being so sick the next day."

"It was all that you drank, honey. You were out of your mind. Drunk. You couldn't help what happened."

"But I could! And look what I did. I broke my vows and made you break them too!"

I could feel the eyes of the people around me, staring at me. But I had to press on. He was so agitated. So animated. He was serious!

"Oh honey I should have never done that. But I thought I had to get revenge on you. Paul didn't mean anything––"

"But you enjoyed it. I know––you made me listen! I made you whore yourself out. What kind of man does that?"

"Honey, we can get past this. My revenge was stupid. I should have never listened to Sherry about—n"

"Sherry? I thought you didn't talk to her anymore!"

Oh shit... I had to cover this fast...

"She came to me. She apologized. She told me I had to get back at you. I think her own hurt was getting her to say it."

"Jen, I love you but I ... I ...I can't do this ... I slept with another woman. I broke your trust. I deserve to die. I can't live with that knowledge."

His words cut me to my heart. Then, to my horror, he lifted the gun to his head.

No, he's going to... I can't let him. The words were out of my mouth before I could even get a response to him.

"You never slept with Sherry!"

Everything was quiet. I think everyone was shocked. None more shocked that Connor or myself. I can't believe I just told him the truth, I thought. I swore I would never tell him.

"What do you mean? I woke up next to her. We were naked. She told me we––"

I couldn't let it go on.

"She lied."

"Then how did––"

"We drugged you, Conner. To make you think you cheated. I knew you never would but we thought if you thought that you'd cheated you'd let me sleep with Paul. I'm sorry, honey, but I just wanted to sleep with him. Nothing more. I had––"

"Why would you do that? What did I do?"

"Nothing! It was all me! Sherry kept telling me how great of a lover he was. We were virgins when we got married. I just wanted to see what I missed out on. I'm sorry honey. You never broke your vows. You are a good man."

"You were going to let me think I cheated on you? How long had you planned this? How did you drug me? Didn't you care? I could have died!"

"Oh honey I know you wouldn't have. I almost called an end to it when you were so sick for all those days but when you got better, I decided I could go on with the plan. We just came up with it a month or so ago. We couldn't get you interested in Sherry, so we came up with this. I just had to sleep with Paul. It was something new and I was so excited––"

"What did you give me?"

"Sherry stole some stuff from the hospital where she volunteers at. I don't know what it was. But it worked. Too well. She tried to get you up but you didn't. She was really looking forward to you."

"How long, Jennifer? How long were you going to let me live in this hell?"

"Oh honey, I thought that if we just did it once and then I got back with you a few days later we could get past this. We

can

get past this honey. I still love you!"

"Love me? Love me?!!!"

Conner disappeared from the camera. As I waited for him to return, panic began to set in. Then I heard our front door slam. Connor was marching out of the house.

His eyes were wild and he still had the gun in his hand. The police started to shout at him, but Toby calmed them down.

"YOU LOVE ME? Love doesn't mean you try to kill me, Jen! You don't try to get the one you loved raped by some slut!"

Many officers continued to scream at Conner to put the gun down and surrender; Toby was running back and forth trying to quell them.

"I was wrong, Conner!" I shouted back. I have to get him to calm down, I thought. To forgive me. He always does. "I was just obsessed. I never meant to hurt you."

I started to run to him but an officer held me back.

"You made me think I was some fucken adulterer. Do you have any idea how that killed me? Thinking that I had hurt you so bad that you would sacrifice your fidelity to some stranger to get back at me?"

Conner started to pace back and forth in our yard.

"I can't do this Jen. You betrayed me. You could have killed me! Then you tried to kill my heart. My soul. My love! Then you think that we can just go back to normal? What was going to happen when you got obsessed again? Would I eventually wind up brain-dead so you could have an affair guilt-free?"

The world had compressed around us. There was nothing but the two of us, and the pain that I had caused.

"No, it was just that once. I would have never done it again. Conner, I love you so much!" I yelled. I could just see my life disappearing before my eyes.

"It's over Jen. I loved you and you did this! Goodbye."

I screamed as he placed the gun in his mouth. I turned away as he started to pull the trigger. I couldn't watch the love of my life end it all because I had needed a new cock. How could I have been so stupid?

I waited for the explosion, for the bang. But I didn't hear anything, if I didn't know any better; I would swear the cop holding me was ... was ... laughing.

I looked up at him. He was chuckling. I looked at several other officers and they were all repressing a laugh. What were they doing?

Terrified, I turned back to my husband, to see him with a look of disgust on his face. He started to cough; the image of our cat removing a hairball came to mind, as he removed the gun from his mouth.

"Lemon? LEMON? Whose bright fucken idea what this?"

Connor placed the barrel of the gun into his hand and pulled the trigger several times.

"They are ALL lemon! You fuckwads!"

At this all the cops broke out in laughter.

"Good one, guys, but I always carry a reload!" Connor ejected the clip from the gun. Funny, I always thought that firearm clips where...bigger. He took a new one out of his pocket and inserted it. Then he placed the gun back in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Stunned, I watched as he started to chew.

"Cherry. LOVE that flavor." He looked at me, then to the shocked TV reporters. "Pez!"

Connor's laugh echoed in my mind.

"Oh did you think that you get one up on me honey? Remember last week when I was testing out all that new security equipment for Max? Well, one of them was an electronic ear. And guess what I heard. You and that whore Sherry talking about your little plot. You had me good. I was at the end of my rope. But then I heard you. And then I got mad."

The officer holding me took my arms and placed them behind me. I could feel the handcuffs as he put them on.

"Now we couldn't charge you with anything, honey, because it was just my word against yours. That's when the officers and I came up with this," Connor gestured to the circus around us. "We just didn't expect the news van but hey, we adapted."

He let out a chuckle. "You were so easy. Now we can charge you. My 'loving' wife. I wonder exactly what they will come up with? I think we talked about, what Toby? Aggravated Assault? What about misuse of a controlled substance? And of course they will be charging Sherry too. Thank you for the confession. And we got it all on live TV. Do you think your parents were watching?"

The sarcasm in his voice chilled me to the soul. An officer approached me and put a blue paper in my jacket pocket.

"You have been served at 2:18 pm on the 8

th

of June. Thank you."

"Served?" No, this couldn't be happening. I just wanted to try another man. To feel younger one more time. To have one last fling before we had kids. Before I became a mother.

"What? You think I would stay married to a slut like you after this? Oh dear, you do think I am a fool." Connor turned to the reporter. "Sorry to have fooled you, my dear, but it was the only way."

My world was crashing down. This couldn't be happening. I was going to have kids with Connor this year. I was going to be a little soccer mom with little soccer kids. We were going to have picnics and barbeques.

I have a husband who loves me. Or did. Oh no...dear God, let this be a nightmare that I haven't woke up from. What have I done? It wasn't even that good. How can I get him to forgive me?

As the officer led me away to read me my rights, I could hear her reply.

"Oh that's ok? Ah, could we get an interview? Maybe just the two of us? Over dinner perhaps?"

It was then that I knew it was over.