After Greg helped Hayley into the police car, he watched for a moment it as it drew away and then looked back at the team. For once he didn't go to see if they were okay, he felt guilty and inside it hurt.
They've had a hell of a day. Going for a Hot Call was something, going for a Hot Call when your Sergeant and friend was the one in danger was another thing altogether. They were professionals, yes, they knew how to act as such even when they were personally involved with the person in danger but it was much more demanding emotionally.
As the SUVs all began to leave, Greg hesitated. There was only one left, Eddie's. That meant the man wasn't going to leave without Greg but he didn't want to face him. He wanted to be alone. Turning, he began to walk down the road his hands deep in his pockets.
Eddie's eyes scanned around him in search for Greg. He knew the man didn't have a ride back and he probably needed some support. If they've had a bad day, his had been way worse.
Spotting him further away, walking in the opposite direction of the mayhem, Eddie quickly jogged in order to catch up to him. "Greg!" he called out and soon reached his side. "Come on buddy, I'll give you a ride."
Greg didn't turn to face him but he slowed his pace knowing better than to try and outrun him. "I'm not going back to HQ," he replied softly. He wanted to think things over before he headed over to debriefing and he knew the team couldn't start without him - he figured by the time he got there on foot everyone would have cooled down enough, including himself.
Eddie put a hand on the man's shoulder to make him stop. He moved so he was standing right in front of him.
Greg stopped abruptly when Eddie stepped in front of him and met his gaze with his own questioning eyes.
"Come on, you can't possibly walk all the way back," the Team leader said.
"I can't go there right away, Eddie," he tried to butt in but then Eddie continued.
"I'll drop you home first."
Greg shrugged before nodding. "Fine," he relented before turning and heading back to the SUVs - his head was pounding and all he wanted was to lose himself.
The walk back to the SUV was silent between the two men. Reaching it, Greg slid into the passenger side and belted up before sitting in silence.
Eddie took his place behind the wheel and turned on the engine, pulling off on the street. After a moment, he glanced sideways at Greg. "You wanna talk about it?" he asked. Out of them all, Eddie was the one who knew him better. He had known about his life before the SRU, about his previous alcohol problem, about the son and wife he had lost because of it… However, Greg had never been forthcoming on the reason why he became an alcoholic in the first place and Ed had never pushed to know.
Greg shook his head then sighed. "I didn't want you guys to find out this way," he said softly. He didn't need to finish - Eddie would know what he was trying to say. Greg felt guilty for never telling anyone and now they all found out about the reason for his alcohol problem the wrong way and he hated it.
Eddie kept his eyes on the road for a moment even after Greg spoke. He knew this wasn't how Greg would have liked things to turn out. It was as if they had violated his privacy unwillingly to dig up old demons. "You know that doesn't change how we look at you, right?" he said after a moment.
Oh it did and Greg knew it deep inside. He was ashamed of his own past, ashamed of what he used to be and had never wanted to be reminded of it again. He had known his past would come bite him someday - but not like this.
"You don't know that, Eddie," he said softly. His heart hurt from the words Jules had spoken to him. His mind was filled with the images of Hayley who was beyond distraught. And Kevin's voice ran riot around his mind.
"I do know that, actually," Ed retorted quickly. He looked at the man next to him again as they reached a red light, studying him carefully. He wasn't as good a profiler as Greg or Jules were but he knew the man enough to see he was hurting deep inside. "Greg, we're like family. We're human and so are you. The past is the past and who you are now is a completely different man." A break as he looked at the traffic light turning green and carried on driving. "The whole team knows that. They're not the ones to judge."
Greg fell silent, he didn't believe Eddie - he trusted the man with his life but at this moment he couldn't find it in his heart to believe him. Looking up at the scenes before him as they passed by, he sighed and pulled his guard up. "I know Eddie," he said, trying to reassure him that he was fine despite it.
His response wasn't convincing enough but Eddie decided to let it pass. Greg needed a moment to think things through and of course at the moment he was too emotionally distraught to be told otherwise. He would learn in time that the whole team was still there for him and that nothing changed, no matter what he may be thinking at the moment.
That same night back at the Barn, they had their usual debriefing. What was unusual about it was how little anyone spoke.
Eddie lead it, seeing as he had the full command on this one. Greg spoke only when he needed to add details for the time line and the events before the SRU got there. Jules probably spoke a total of 7 words throughout the whole thing, responding only when she was asked a question directly with as little words as possible. She was desperately avoiding Greg's gaze which often lingered on her and as soon as Ed called the debrief over, she left in a hurry and headed back home. Greg was also gone like a shot taking with him the transcript of his own hostage situation to try and make sense of it all.
Greg was already back at HQ early the next morning but clearly quiet and withdrawn.
The team had been doing their usual workout in the morning. The tension between the members of the team had been dense and most of them had pretended to be well into their workout to explain their lack of excitement for Spike and Wordy's usual banter, especially Jules who had barely spoken a word all morning.
They were getting dressed for drills sessions when the Hot Call alarm blared.
"Team One Hot Call!" Winnie called out.
Eddie quickly moved over to Winnie's desk in Greg's tow to listen to what she knew about the situation so far.
"What do we got, Winnie?" Greg asked approaching the desk quickly.
"Got a shooting at a high school, address on your PDAs."
Eddie quickly exchanged a look with Greg and darted over to the weapons' rack. Spike, Wordy and Sam gave him a quick look as they approached. "School shooting, let's move!" he urged and they went to gear up.
Jules got out of the women's locker room along with Leah right in time to hear what Ed told the rest of the team and without asking anything further, they quickly followed along.
"What do we know?" Greg asked Winnie as he followed the team to gear up.
"Got a lone shooter, no ID yet. School is locked down," Winnie added.
"On our way." This was the kind of situation that would get under his skin as well as Eddie's seeing as they both had sons attending high school.
Within minutes, they were geared up and heading over to the SUVs. Greg decided to go with Eddie, avoiding his usual riding with Jules routine.
Similarly, Jules quickly moved along with Spike and Leah while Sam got in with Wordy.
"We know anything else?" Greg asked once they rode along full pelt down the highway.
"Nothing yet, police on scene are trying to control the crowds and half of the kids managed to get out before lockdown," Winnie replied quickly as she worked.
"We're talking social network crisis, get on the networks see what's there," Greg instructed. "Maybe a kid saw or heard something."
"Copy that," Winnie said before being interrupted by a grunt from Spike.
"I can do it too," Spike replied, seeing as Leah was driving.
Sam winced and glanced at Wordy, he could sense the tension and he didn't like it. Wordy just shook his head, it was better not to say anything.
Ed listened carefully. This was going for the national news, they'd have to deal with civilians, parents, kids, other uniforms and the press along with the mayhem that was probably in there already. "Spike get me the floor plans first, we need to find our points of entry fast or this might get ugly," he said.
"Copy that," Spike obeyed, turning his attention down to his tablet.
"I could check the networks," Jules proposed.
Greg didn't seem to hear her. Eddie looked at Greg, waiting for him to speak.
In the other SUV, Sam glanced at Wordy again. "Do it Jules" Sam said simply butting in .
The moment of silence before she got her answer was enough to let her know that things were definitely not settled between her and Greg. Of course, she was also to be blamed, she had made sure to avoid him at all cost the whole morning. She was still mad and she didn't want to go back on the previous day's events. Not yet. Rolling her eyes slightly when Sam's voice finally replaced their boss', she grabbed an iPad and started working.
"Winnie," Ed continued. "Any uniforms in the school so far?"
"Only three, they were evacuating during the lockdown. They're in the principal's office now."
"Loading it up!" Spike chorused about the floor plans.
Sam looked at Wordy once more. "Guys, I know I'm probably overreacting here but there's some tension among us and that's not gonna help..." He hoped he wouldn't regret his own words but the tense atmosphere was obvious and it could make things go south if they weren't going in with clear heads.
Greg glanced at Eddie as he heard Sam and they exchanged a look. He wasn't wrong but the problem was that they lacked time to patch things up. They have had a bad previous day and they were already back in action, it was obvious they weren't all mentally ready for this, especially not Greg.
As silence grew between all of them, making the tension seem even worse, Jules tore her eyes from the iPad and looked out the window.
"We're a team here, we're all professionals," Ed finally butted in. "Let's act like it," he said for everyone's sake. Everything could not be resolved right now but they needed to get passed it, at least until the matter at the high school was settled.
"Copy that," Sam, Spike, Leah and Wordy answered almost in unison.
Jules' answer took a little longer to come. "Copy," she said simply.
"Copy," Greg replied a moment later.
As the school loomed into view, the crowd was already in full throttle. Kids, parents, teachers and cops were everywhere - even the firemen and ambulances had arrived.
The SUVs stopped and the team members were all quickly out and gearing up. Eddie looked down at the floor plan Spike had transferred to their PDAs. "Alright Team, Sam and Leah, West end. Wordy, Jules, on East with me. We go in together then split. The more ground we cover the better." He intentionally left out Spike who already had gone to the command truck as well as Greg as he knew the man would stay on the ground. Besides, with what happened the day before, Ed prefered to keep him out of the line of fire for now. "So far we know we have one shooter in there, there could be more so be cautious," he continued.
"Get to the principal's office. The sooner we talk to those cops the better," Greg said, heading over to Stainton.
"Principal's office is on the west end," Eddie said, giving Leah and Sam a look.
"We'll get it," Leah responded with a nod.
Ed looked over at his whole team. "Alright let's move!" he said quickly, seeing as they were all ready. There was no time to waste, they needed to get in there as fast a possible, the time it took for them to drive there was already long enough and he was afraid they might have been too late.
He took up the lead and they went in a triangle formation as they headed for the door. Cautiously making their way inside, they broke into their two respective teams. Ed took the lead towards the East.
"Jules, anything on the social networking?" Sam asked quickly.
"I didn't gather much," Jules said in response to Sam's question, keeping her voice low. "Mostly kids sharing what was going on in a general matter. A few of them mentioned the gunman was looking for someone, didn't have a name."
They cleared a few areas. The high school was big, however and if they didn't have a particular location to look for, this might take awhile. Too long. "Spike, eyes on the subject?"
Spike was already accessing the security cameras. Inside, the kids were all locked down into rooms. "Looking," he said as his eyes quickly scanned the cameras. Something caught his attention. "Hang on guys. Got something, give me a sec." His eyes followed a youth in black clothing and hoodie as he walked down the hallway, the rifle in his hand swinging ominously. He was glancing around as if looking for someone. "Got him. Heading east." A beat. "There's not much more than lecture halls, the library and the cafeteria on that side. Plus a few offices."
"Anyone else down there?" Leah asked.
"Yeah, lots more kids..." Spike replied darkly.
"Alright let's go. Sam, Leah, clear the other areas and join us," Ed said and suddenly, he was going much more rapidly, Wordy and Jules still following him closely. If they were right and there was only one shooter, then they had nothing more to clear, but they couldn't really oversee anything, not when so many kids were involved.
"Copy," Sam responded.
"No Sam, find the officers," Greg said finally speaking.
A frown appeared on Ed's features as Greg butted in, giving a contradictory order to the one he'd just given.
"But boss-" Sam started to object but he was cut off.
"Go Sam," Greg answered firmly.
Sam looked to Leah. It was obvious what they were both thinking at the moment. "Copy that," he finally said.
"Copy," Leah answered as well and they quickly headed over to the principal's office.