Dark Star

18. Upshot

While Damien's attention was distracted for a moment, as he pushed Vesper over the edge, Carter ran forward and tackled him. They began to struggle, Carter trying to seize Damien's gun. Josef saw his opportunity and ran forward to help Vesper, hoping he wasn't too late. He had watched as she fell of the railing, and disappeared from sight.

As he looked over the edge, his heart almost stopped. Somehow while she was falling, she had managed to catch ahold of part of the bridge, and was now hanging on for life with both hands. With despair, he realized she was just out of his reach.

"Vesper!" He called down toward her, and she looked up towards his voice in return. "I need you to let go of the bridge with one hand and reach up towards me."

"I can't!" She called back, panic in her voice. "I won't be able to hold on with one hand."

"Listen, I can't reach you from where I am unless you help me, help you, Vesper."

"What if I fall?" Vesper screamed, as she felt her grip slipping on the bridge. "I don't want to die."

"You won't, I promise. If you give me your hand, I promise you, you won't fall. I'll catch you."

She looked up into his eyes, and he saw a small light of hope appear.

"Okay."

She carefully let go of the bridge with one hand, and reached towards him with all the strength she had left. He leaned over the railing, trying to be able to strech as far as he could. He grabbed ahold of her hand, and began to pull her up.

Vesper had been using her free arm to help pull herself up, when suddenly or grip slipped and she was left hanging, the only thing from keeping her falling was Josef's grip on her. For a moment the despair on her face seemed to almost overwhelm her. Josef could read her thoughts, almost as if she had spoken aloud. She was considering letting go.

"Don't you let go of my hand," he said, worry straining his voice. "You can do this. Don't you dare let go."

His hand had almost slipped when she lost her grip, not expecting the sudden extra weight, but he had held firm. At his words he saw determination return to her face. With that, she grabbed ahold of the bridge again and continued climbing.

"You're okay, I've got you," Josef said, once she was climbing over to the safe side of the railing. "I told you I wasn't going to let you fall."

Vesper's feet landed on the ground of the bridged, and they finally were able to breath. Josef checked to see if she was injured at all, but she seemed unharmed. They stood looking at each other, forgetting for a moment where they were. She was about to speak, when they were intrrupted by the two struggling men.

Carter had been struggling for Damien's gun the whole time Josef had been saving Vesper. He had almost succeeded, but Damien had somehow managed to throw Carter to the ground. Although Carter seemed like he wasn't majorly hurt, he even still had his weapon, but he had failed to get the gun away from Damien.

Damien raised his weapon so it pointed at Josef. Josef saw what he was about to do, and pulled out his gun at the same time, ready to shoot if it meant keeping Vesper safe. At the same time, from the ground, Carter also aimed his gun at Damien. They had him cornered.

"Damien, there's no way out of this," Carter started, trying to talk sense into him. "Drop your gun."

Damien and Josef locked eyes. "It's over, Damien. You've lost, just do as the detective says."

"Oh, I've lost, have I?" Damien asked, mockingly. "I don't think so."

"We're not going to let you hurt her," Josef replied. "This is the end of the line."

Damien stood there for a moment, and began to lower his gun, seeming to surrender.

"I have had quite enough of this," Damien said, turning towards Vesper quickly. "This ends now."

With those words, he raised his gun and pointed it straight at Vesper. Without a moment of hesitation, he pulled the trigger. Josef saw her freeze, panic keeping her still, but he had realized what Damien was going to do a split second before he did. He managed to push Vesper out of the way, just in time.

He felt pain rip through him, starting at his right shoulder and spreading throughout his body. He looked down in shock, to see blood coming out of a wound in his arm. He had saved Vesper, but had gotten shot himself. His head spun, and his knees buckled, and he landed on the ground with his back leaning against the railing of the bridge.

Damien aimed once again at Vesper, anger evident on his face that Josef had stopped him once more. Unfortunately for him, he had stopped paying attention to the detective on the ground, and David saw the opportunity and took it. Right before he pulled the trigger again, Carter aimed and shot him in the back of his left leg.

Damien cried out in surprise and pain. He fell to the ground and lost his grip on his pistol, which dropped a foot away from him. Vesper ran and picked it up, keeping it trained on him.

"Don't move," she told him. "Or I'll shoot you."

Josef saw there was a hardness in her eyes. She was considering shooting him anyway. Not that he could blame her. No one could, after the day she had.

"Vesper, don't," Josef whispered, his voice strained. "He's not worth it."

Carter walked over to her, and carefully took the gun out of her hands.

"It's over now, Vesper. You're safe now. He can't hurt you anymore."

---------------------------------

After that, everything went by in a bit of a blur to Josef. Carter called for backup, explaining everything that had happened, and not long after police cars and ambulences arrived. All four of them were taken away to be treated.

Carter and Vesper only had minor injuries, scrapes and bruises. Josef saw them talking together before he was loaded into a ambulence on his way to the hospital. Both Damien and and himself were to be treated for their gunshot wounds.

Carter's shot hadn't fatally hurt Damien, to Josef's unhappiness. He would be in pain for a long time, though, and it would take awhile to heal. Josef would take what he could get. They had also recovered the money from the bank robbery.

As for Josef's injury, he had lost a lot of blood, or so he had been told. He fought to stay concious through everything. He tried to stay in sight of Vesper, but once he was put in the ambulance that was the end of that. After everything that had happened, the cops were keeping her away from him. Although, Josef knew deep down he couldn't blame them.

The police were still confused about what went down, and were sorting out the facts of everything that had happened. For the time being, both he and Damien were being handcuffed to their hospital beds. Until they got statements from everyone involved, they weren't going to take any chances.

While his future was being decided by strangers, all Josef could do was lay back and wait.