Intertwined

We Did It

The moment Bradley steps away, she immediately feels cold. Gaga watches Bradley quietly jump into the trap door and disappear. She breathed through her anxiety and waited exactly 2 minutes just like Bradley told her before she snuck over to the sprinklers backstage. She struggled to light the small towel on fire. The lighter wasn't strong enough. Gaga shook it vigorously, her shaky hands accidentally dropping it on the floor. She paused waiting for someone to find her out but luckily no one came. Gaga finally lights a small portion of the rag and waited until a small fire spread and started to smoke. She raised the rag tied broom stick high towards the sprinkler, failing to realize how small she was for how far away the sprinkler was.

"What's that smell?" One of the gunman sniffs around.  

"It's smoke!" Someone in the crowd yells and the rest of the tied celebrities start to panic. The sprinkler behind the crowd goes off, surprising the crowd and the gunmen. Gaga heard the panic as soon as Bradley's sprinklers went off. 

Gaga stretched and the smoke rose and rose until her set of sprinklers were finally triggered. She put out the fire and smiled knowing they did it. She hesitated, not wanting to leave but finally ran to the exit. Alarms went off and lights started to flash. Stuck. Gaga pushed and pushed but the exit was locked. "No, no, no!" She pushes harder but soon hears movement near her, she goes to hide. 

Bradley ducks once the sprinklers were triggered. Upon hearing the door alarm, Bradley finds a small comfort in knowing Gaga left. Bradley army crawls behind the last row of seats. He hides in the audio box and sees someone curled up in a ball crying. He touches the woman's shoulder. "Bradley Cooper?" 

Bradley smiles hearing his whole name and nods. "Are you Stefani's sister?" Natali is confused but nods through her tears, the drops over head continue to fall. Bradley looks around making sure they are still unseen. "How are you? Are you hurt? Are you ok?" Bradley can't help but see the resemblance and think how cute she was. A worry crept into his skin thinking about Gaga alone. 

"I'm fine. Just scared. This is all so insane. I can't-do you hear that?" Bradley listens for what Natali hears. Sirens. 

"It worked!" Bradley quietly exclaims. Natali looks at him confused. "Stefani and I did this. We set these off in hopes of the fire department coming. We did it!"

"Where's my sister?" 

"She left. She went to go get help." Natali cried but this time for joy feeling that all this will finally be over. 

"What the fuck now?" The leader of the gunmen paced while the group continued to point their guns at the tied up crowd as they all continue to get drenched. "What the fuck is the plan-"

"Shut the fuck up, while I think!" The leader grabbed Laura Dern. "Grab one. We're out, we got what we needed and we're out. Ace, call J and have him pull around back, ready to leave." Ace makes the contact as the men each pick a person as a shield, causing the group to continue to scream and panic. The leader runs to the backstage, while the others wait for the sign. Gaga watches the man try to open the door. "Fuck! Someone come help!" 

A masked man joins the leader to help with the door. He sees movement in the darkness backstage and reaches into a dark corner, pulling Gaga out by her leg. He laughs and continues dragging her out until he is center stage. "Ace! I found your girl! Looks like someone likes to play with fire." The man doubles back to help with the door. 

Ace approaches Gaga on stage, bending down to see her soot stained cheeks and her blonde hair getting soaked with the falling water. Bradley and Natali poke their heads over the audio equipment to see Gaga. "Is that true, babygirl? You like to play with fire?" Gaga tries to crawl back and away. "You know what they say about playing with fire..." He grabs her leg pulling her in towards him. "...you get burned sooner or later." He lifts her up by the throat just as the leader yells that the door is open. Bradley is up and running towards them the minute he places his hand on her throat. The sirens outside get louder, get closer. The gunmen back out one by one with their hostage. Bradley tackles Ace to the ground and the two fight, constantly slipping with all the water on the floor. They each get in a few punches.

"Ace!" The leader yells. Ace pushes off of Bradley, realizing he needs to leave. Before Ace runs out of the exit, he turns and aims his gun at Gaga. The bullet flies through the air and Bradley turns Gaga away at the last minute. Their eyes connect as the exit door slams shut. Loud yelling and banging can be heard, the chains from the doors are finally broken, revealing several firefighters making their way inside accompanied by a group of police officers. The officers are quick to call in for backup seeing the scene before them.

Bradley and Gaga look at each other as time stands still as if no one else is around. The drops of water slowly falling down. Gaga looks down at his white shirt, soaking wet, watching a red spot on his right abdomen start to form. His wet hair makes him look like a young boy, his sad eyes meeting hers. Her voice is almost nonexistent and raspy and her eyes fill with tears. "Bradley, you're bleeding." Gaga quickly places her hand over his wound. "Help, someone help!" She screams, getting dizzy, her vision getting blurry.

Bradley sees her angelic before him; wet, her hair down and perfectly framing her face and he can't understand how she can still look so beautiful. Before he can look to see what she sees he notices the wet, white button down she was wearing. "Baby, so are you." Bradley is confused and catches her just before she falls to the ground. The pain running through his body was second to the pain of seeing her unconscious in his arms. "Stef... Stefani!! Somebody help!" Bradley falls to the floor giving into his pain. He laid her down among the chaos surrounding them. His mind turned white, just as a paramedic rushes towards them.