The silence in the squad car was oppressive as Sgt Jaycey Matthews and her partner and fiancé Lt Steven Nelson patrolled the streets of Chicago. Every so often Jaycey felt Steven's eyes stray to her before returning to the road. He's probably wondering what anniversary he forgot.
"I've been thinking about trying out for S.W.A.T." Jaycey suddenly blurted.
The car lurched before resuming its smooth cruising. Steven carefully chose his words before answering. "I think you'd be happier there. But tell me something, Jayce." He darted a quick glance at her. "Does this have anything to do with the silent treatment I've been getting all day because if it is, that's so not cool?"
Jaycey turned in her seat to face him. "I didn't know how you would react so I tried to find the best way to broach the subject, not that you could tell by my very tactful approach." She grinned self-derisively.
Steven turned on a side street and stopped the car. "What do you mean you didn't know how I would react? You are the one person who understands me best so if you really think about it, you know exactly what I'll say."
He was right of course. If there was one thing Jaycey could count on, it was Steven's unrelenting support. At seven, having just lost her father and for all intent and purpose her mother, Steven had represented stability, a shoulder she could cry on when life got tough and she missed her dad so much she thought her heart would break all over. Their innocent friendship had slowly blossomed into love when she was seventeen and she realized that Steven – the boy next door – was the single most important person in her life. It was more than just his good looks even though his tall muscular body, golden blonde locks and piercing blue eyes could easily land him the cover of GQ. Beyond the pretty façade was a depth of character that made Steven an exceptional cop, friend, brother and lover.
"I think you should do it," Steven said just as she knew he would. "You're just wasting your talent on patrol work and for what? So Sandra can sleep better at night?"
Jaycey snickered at the mention of her mother. "Are we talking about the same Sandra? Because the one I know would rather have me selling lingerie at Fredericks of Hollywood than sitting here in this uniform. In fact, I think she might even prefer me working one of those hotlines we busted last month."
Steven's laughing blue eyes looked her up and down. "I don't know. I think you look pretty hot in the uniform," he said, meaningfully.
"To all units, officers request backup at the corner of W. Adams Street and Ogden Avenue. Officers under fire, I repeat, Officers under fire...requesting backup at the corner of W. Adams Street and Ogden Avenue."
Steven had started the car even before the end of the call. "Central this is unit 35. We're about four minutes out." Jaycey called, bracing herself as the car did a U-turn and careened down the road. She fastened her seat belt before picking her gun, making sure it was ready to see some action. Jaycey just hated those calls requesting backup; not because of the work, but because it reminded her how her father had not even been given the chance to request backup the day he was killed. A junkie had opened fire on his partner and him, leaving her mom a widow and her, an orphan at the tender age of 7.
"Don't do this," Steven said, speaking to her for the first time since the call came. She looked at him and noticed his eyes were on the road, his movements sure and efficient as he maneuvered the car in traffic. "Don't think I don't know what is going through your mind, baby," he added, darting a quick look her way. "It's the same thing every time."
"I just can't help it. I don't want some other kid going through what I went through, that's all," Jaycey said defensively as Steven halted their patrol car next to another one. They burst into action, the conversation forgotten as gunshots resonated in a back alley. Running to the trunk of the car, they each pulled out their Kevlar vest and donned them in record time, joining two other patrolling officers who'd answered the dispatched call.
"What's the status?" Jaycey asked them, her gun drawn and at the ready.
"Perp seems to be on the roof of one of those two buildings," Lt. Jimmy Kelso, as his nametag read, answered. "Officers Cornell and Jamieson are ambushed in that alley, behind the dumpsters there," he pointed.
"Are they hurt?" Steven asked peering around the wall. A shot rang out and he took cover again, swearing.
"We don't know for sure. The shooter has gone a bit gung-ho on us and they're not answering their radio. I think it best if you try to sneak up on him from the other end of the alley. We'll cover this end and try to draw him out. He's bound to run out of ammo sometime."
Jaycey and Steven took off at a dead run only slowing their steps when they neared the back alley. They could hear the gunshots a lot clearer now, but there was still no sign of the crazy shooter anywhere. "Come on, show your face, you crazy bastard," Jaycey muttered under her breath. An eerie silence stole over the area as the gunshots stopped as abruptly as they started.
"Do you think he's run out of rounds?" Steven asked softly, muting his voice so only she could hear him.
"I don't know, maybe. But it might also be a trick." She looked towards the dumpster and saw the blood staining the front of one of the officer's uniform. The poor man had not been wearing his vest and she knew, even from this distance, that he had not survived. She felt the grief slam into her, quickly replaced by fresh anger. "We're just going to have to find out," she ground out, hugging the wall as she stepped towards the downed officers.
"Jaycey," Steven swore under his breath. Sighing, he followed her, his eyes searching for movement on the rooftop and finding none. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked her, his back to the brick wall.
"Helping them… If there's anything we can still do to…" she halted herself mid-sentence, her ears pricked. She put a finger across her lips and took the safety off her gun, waiting for another sound to guide her. There it was again, the crunch of pebbles under the sole of a boot."
"Get out of there, he's on top of you," Kelso called in the radio just as shots rang out from seemingly everywhere.
It all happened so fast it took a moment for Jaycey to take it all in. She felt something slam into her and heard the sickening thud of a body as it hit pavement. She glanced down in shock at the body of the lone shooter who'd fallen from the roof to his death, downed by a shot from Officer Cornell - who'd been shielded from her view by his fallen comrade. She also knew Kelso and his partner had fired a few shots as they called out to Steven and her to take cover, but that didn't explain what had hit her… She felt no pain and she knew from experience that you felt a healthy dose of it when a round slammed into your protective gear. So what had hit her then if not a projectile? She turned towards Steven to ask if he was okay, but the words stuck in her throat at the sight of Steven's blue eyes, wide with shock and pain. She saw the rapidly spreading crimson stain across the shoulder of his uniform and felt cold, hard panic slam into her.
"Officer down! Send the paramedics!" she screamed in her handset, applying pressure on his neck wound. "Please, tell me they're here," she pleaded brokenly, feeling the warm stickiness seep through her fingers. Steven's eyes were starting to glaze over and his breathing was getting shallower by the minute, his body dropping into shock. "Stay with me Steven. Don't you dare die on me or I swear I'll kill you," Jaycey tried to joke in an attempt to keep her terror at bay.
Steven's hand fluttered to her, softly brushing against her face and the tears she hadn't known were there. She felt the fine tremors go through him and willed him to hang in there and not leave her like this.
Jaycey heard footsteps hurrying towards her and nearly slumped with relief. "You hang in there baby, they'll patch you right up," she urged him, her gaze meeting his unseeing blue eyes. "Steven?" she prodded tentatively, hoping to rouse him from his shock-induced stillness, but her trained brain already knew what her heart wouldn't accept: the man she loved more than life itself - the one she should have married two months later - had been taken away from her just as surely as her father had been. Everything blurred and she started to scream…