Detective Sergeant Steve Arnott was ashamed to admit it but he was terrified as he was held down in the chair as he was beaten for information. All he could think of was his daughter, Livvy, who was supposed to be spending the night with him because her mother, Emma, had a business meeting in Edinburgh. As he was being beaten he could only hope that someone told Emma before Livvy arrived at his flat from her after school club. The idea that his ten year old daughter may end up terrified and all because he was being held and tortured by a kid and a couple of thugs all because of that bastard Gates. Steve knew that Livvy got nervous when put in an unexpected situation like that one she was about to be put in.
He wanted to be brave, to show that they couldn't make him talk, but all he could do was scream in agony. He wanted nothing more for them to stop. And then it did and Gates had a gun pointed at him and he just knew that it was going to be over, but then Gates was walking away.
He managed to phone for back up, but when he phoned Emma to find out if she could get someone to look after Livvy for the night, that was when he broke down. The pain from his hand and the shock at still being alive was just too much for him.
"Em, you need to… to get someone else… to… uh watch Liv," he choked out as he tried to hold back the tears. He was so ashamed to phone Emma when he was in such a situation, especially since he had put her through so much stress due to him standing up against counterterrorism.
"Steve, what's wrong?"
"I'll… I'll fill you… uh… in later," Steve promised before he hung up the phone as backup arrived at the warehouse.
Emma Ryan was on her way to Edinburgh, for an interview for a new company that would take her back closer to her family, when she got what was probably the shortest phone call she had ever received from her ex. It worried her enough that at the next slip road she left the motorway and doubled back towards her ex-husband and daughter while phoning the company in Edinburgh to let them know that she would not be able to reach Edinburgh in time for her interview.
It was two hours after she received the phone call from Steve that her phone rang for a second time.
'Is this Mrs Emma Arnott that I am speaking to?'
"It is Miss Emma Ryan, but yes this is she. With whom am I speaking?" Emma replied as she felt dread begin to fill her when she realised that she had received a phonecall of a similar tone when she and Steve were still together that ended with her sat next to an ICU bed for three days. That was one of the final straws in their relationship.
'I am Detective Constable Kate Fleming, but you can call Kate. Miss Ryan, you are listed as Steve's emergency contact, and as such I have been asked to inform you that Steve was injured and is currently being checked at the hospital before being sent for surgery,' Kate answered Emma as the young woman pushed her car to the speed limit. Kate's voice was full of worry, which made Emma wonder what had actually happened.
"Which hospital has Steve been taken to?"
"Livvy!" Steve could not help but smile as his wife shouted on their three year old daughter. He had expected to be a police officer by this time in his life but he had not expected to become a father at eighteen or a husband at nineteen, before he even became a police officer. "Stay where we can see you!" Emma yelled after her daughter so that Livvy wouldn't run off too far.
"Emma?"
"Steve, I can't do this anymore. You are my best friend but I can not watch you go to work everyday knowing you might not come home. I loved you when we got married but we never would've got to that point if it was my for us having Livvy,," Emma explained as she and Steve watched their nearly three year old daughter play. Everything Emma said was the truth, they never would have been married. Steve understood Emma's fear, he had been off work for fourteen weeks before he spent eight weeks working desk and answering the phones, but soon he would be back to full duty. It was something that he knew Emma was firmly against.
"I promise to move out as soon as I can, Em," Steve reassured his now ex. It didn't really surprise him that he and Emma were separating, they had not been a real couple for a long time. He did not doubt that he loved Emma but it was more as a best friend than a wife.
Emma arrived at the hospital just as Steve was being taken to recovery. She was honestly relieved that this time everything was okay and straight-forward with Steve. They had broken up seven years previous but she had never tried to raise Livvy alone, they did it together and she had no idea how she would ever do it alone; Steve was the one who could calm their daughter when she ended up stressed and upset from unexpected situations.
The doctor who operated on Steve let her and his boss, Ted Hastings, into see him before they began to wake him up. He was pale but fortunately not as badly as the last time had been.
"Steve, I swear you are trying to kill me with stress!" Emma muttered as she took his hand between both of hers. "You know that you arent't superman, you have to be careful," she added before pressing a kiss to his forehead.
"I didn't know Steve was married, but I can tell he's lucky to have you," Hastings commented after watching the interaction between his DS and the young woman in front of him. There was an easiness from Emma that was rare to see.
"We're not married," Emma admitted, but there was no malice in her statement. "Well, legally we still are but that is just because there hasn't been any need to get divorced and it lets me yell at him sooner when he does get in this sort of situation," she explained, there was humour in her voice at the realisation that Steve hadn't been kidding when he said that work was work and private was private.
They sat in silence watching Steve's machines and the man that, although under different circumstances, had grown to be cared about by both of them. The silence continued until the doctor appeared an hour after they had taken Steve into recovery.
"Mrs Arnott, I'm Dr Grace. I operated on your husband and I am pleased to say that we are ready to take Mr Arnott off of the sedation," the doctor said after she had checked his vitals and his hand.
"Daddy! Daddy!" The screams of his daughter woke Steve Arnott up from the first sound sleep that he had had in a week. It was his weekend to solely have his daughter, it wasn't that he and his ex, Emma, had a custody arrangement but on weeks that the case or cases had been difficult, Emma would give up a whole weekend with Livvy for him to decompress. What was worrying him was the Livvy sounded terrified.
"DADDY! I CAN'T HEAR!" Livvy yelled as he shot up from his bed and pulled his jeans on. He had never been as terrified other than the day that Livvy was born.
By the time that Steve got to the five year old she was sobbing with her hands covering her ears. He picked her up as soon as he reached her bed. He wanted to sooth his daughter but the moment he spoke she began to panic, so he cradled her head against the bottom of his throat.
Once Livvy's sobs had lessened, Steve sat her back on her bed so that he could get a jumper before he took her to the hospital. He knew that this situation was not one where he hesitated on taking Livvy to be checked medically. He put Livvy's jumper on before he carried her or the front door, where he quickly slipped his trainers on before he carried his daughter down to his car.
Steve managed to wait until Kate had filled him in on what was going on before he asked the question that was really on his mind. A question that he could only hope they managed to answer.
"Livvy?"
"Emma has gone to pick her up. She is going to bring her here to see you," Hastings assured him before Kate could ask who Steve was talking about. He was pleased when he saw the relief flood his DS's face at the knowledge that he would soon see his daughter.
It was only twenty minutes after he had woke up that Steve felt his daughter's weight against his chest causing him to stir again. He brought his uninjured hand up so that he was embracing his daughter for a moment before she sat up.
"Dad, okay?" Livvy asked slowly and deliberately without so much as glancing at anyone else in the hospital room. She felt guilty that she had woken her father but she needed to know that he was okay.
'Okay.' Steve signed left handed with some difficulty. He wanted to make it easier for her but he knew that it was not going to be easy; when Livvy lost her hearing both he and Emma had learned how to sign along with Livvy but he used his right hand as his dominant hand. "Livvy, I am okay, I promise," he assured his daughter before he gave her another hug and then met the eyes of Kate and Hastings whilst Emma watched in the background.
Livvy pointed to Kate and Hastings before raising her eyebrows. "Who?"
"This is my boss, Superintendent Hastings," Steve told Livvy slowly before he pointed to Hastings. "This is Kate. We are working together," he explained just as slowly as previously whilst pointing at Kate. "This is my daughter, Livvy, and my ex, Emma," he explained to Kate and his boss whilst Livvy buried herself into his side. It was one of the most relaxed moments he had felt since he went to check the warehouse.