Smithy woke up, he rolled over and saw Elizabeth lying next to him. Her dark hair was spread in a wave over her pillow, she looked incredibly peaceful. Smithy smiled as he saw her hand clutch at his side of the bed, he walked his fingers up her arm towards her face. She frowned and muttered "Gerroff." in her sleep.
Her brown eyes opened and Smithy stroked her cheek gently, "Morning," he said quietly as she looked over at him. She smiled and wriggled under the duvet, Smithy felt her slide her hand over his back, "Not now," he said, his smirk evident in his voice.
Elizabeth surfaced next to him, "Why not?" she asked pouting.
"We've got to go to work." he said getting out of bed and pulling his clothes on. Elizabeth didn't look pleased but got out of bed herself and went down into the kitchen to get herself some breakfast. Smithy followed her down and wolfed down his breakfast. Elizabeth went back up to the bedroom and was sitting on the bed when Smithy came up to offer her a lift to her work.
"Call in sick." Elizabeth said as Smithy entered the room. "Why?" asked Smithy, "I'm not sick."
"Please, please just for me." Elizabeth pleaded.
"I can't." said Smithy firmly, "We're working on a big project, I need to go to work."
"Smithy. Do it. Call in sick." Elizabeth said, a hard edge creeping into her voice. "No, Liz." said Smithy turning away and going to leave. "Don't leave me." Elizabeth cried as he went down the stairs. Smithy came up to see if anything was wrong with her. "Liz, are you sick? Is that why you want me to stay?" he asked his voice showing his concern.
Elizabeth shook her head after a moments thought. "Right, well I'm going to go to work." said Smithy. Elizabeth heard the door shut as he left.
Smithy drove to Sun Hill police station his mind still going over why Liz could possibly have wanted him to stay at home that particular day. He parked his car and went into the male changing room. He changed into his uniform and went to the briefing.
"We've had several reports of a large group of 20-25 youths moving through the streets, they haven't shown any signs of trouble yet but the residents are nervous..." Smithy zoned out, he had just hit on a potential reason for Liz wanting him to stay at home. She had come home with bruises on her arms last night and she said that one of the guys who worked at the same nursery as her had grabbed her. She was probably nervous about him.
He was pulled back to the briefing when Gina called his name, "Smithy? Smithy, you're with Gabriel." Smithy groaned inwardly. "Right, move all of you. And keep an eye out for those teenagers."
Gabriel came up to Smithy as he waited next to the patrol car, "Alright Gabriel?" Smithy asked out of politeness. "Yeah, fine thanks Sarge," replied Gabriel as he got into the patrol car.
Smithy spotted one of the other patrol cars surrounded by a massive group of teenagers, the same group that they'd been warned about during the briefing. Gabriel accelerated towards the group and screeched to a halt as Smithy leapt from the car and started yelling at the group to disperse and back off. A couple of youths advanced on Smithy, who flicked out his asp while shouting to Gabriel to call for back up. Smithy saw a brick smash through the other patrol car's windscreen, then he saw a youth brandishing a crowbar shoving his way through the crowd towards him. The youth broke through the throng and swung the crowbar at Smithy who dodged and tried to memorise the youth's features. "Police!" he shouted, it was obvious who they were but the youth paused and lowered the crowbar.
He could hear patrol cars racing towards the scene, the youth with the crowbar dropped it and legged it. Smithy caught hold of his arm as he sped past and twisted his arm behind his back, the youth hit out catching Smithy on the jaw. Smithy ignored it and handcuffed the youth before marching him to the patrol car and pushing him into the back seat leaving him in Gabriel's care.
The group dispersed and ran off in all directions, "Damn!" said Smithy fervently as he felt blood dripping from his jaw, he hastily wiped it away.
Callum came over, "Everything sorted here?" he asked. "Yep, I'm gonna head back to the nick with that kid. Can you follow up on the ones that got away?" Smithy replied.
"Will do." said Callum.
Smithy took the youth into the nick and signed him in.
Smithy finished filling in the incident report and then rejoined Gabriel by the patrol car.
Their shift was fairly uneventful from then on