A Cop Not a Killer
A cop, not a killer. Those were the words Greg Parker had spoken to Agent Delia Semple, he may as well have been speaking to her. After all she'd just shot another human being to death.
Strategic Response Unit member, Donna Sabine, stood naked in her shower crying into her hands as the spray of the water cascaded over her shaking form. Never in her ten year career had she had to discharge her weapon, but today that moment had come. Not only had she fired it, but she'd actually killed someone and not just anyone, but a fellow police officer. When she'd applied to become an SRU member she thought she knew what she was in for. Heck, mostly everyone on the force talked about getting the cool pants. The SRU was a highly trained specialized force within the department. They were the elite. She had resoundly congratulated herself when Sergeant Greg Parker had told her she could join his team temporarily while his only female team member, Jules Callaghan, recovered from a gunshot wound.
She'd been so happy to move up as she saw it. She'd dreamed of a time when her days on the vise squad were over and she'd finally made it. Now, as her body continued to tremble and tears spilled down her face along with the beaded shower droplets, she wondered why she'd been so gung ho to join this squad. She was feeling pain as she never had before. It overwhelmed her. How did the squads snipers deal with this? No matter how hard she had tried in the last hour she couldn't seem to regain control of not only her body, but her emotions as well. She'd become a cop to uphold the law and protect her fellow man, and yet today she'd taken the life of another. How could it be justified? Especially when the life she'd snuffed out had taken the very oath she had and the man she'd protected by taking the life of a fellow police officer had been a serial killer! How was that fair?
Finally her legs couldn't take it any longer and she lowered herself into a squatting postion on the bathtub floor. She remained that way for several minutes before an anger she'd never felt before took over and she once again got to her feet and began pounding the wall beside her with her fists, shrieking at the top of her lungs as she did so. How did this happen? Nothing had seemed to go as planned. Instead of Greg and Ed making contact with the subject it had been her and Wordy. Both rookies in the situation really. At least Wordy had some experience, hell he'd even had to tell her to lock onto the target as he shifted in behind her to start his negoitations. He shouldn't have had to do that, even a true rookie walking the beat would know that. She hadn't even realized she wasn't locked onto her target until Kevin told her to do so. She remembered feeling a wave of relief when Greg and Ed had shown up moments later. In the end she hadn't even been given the shoot command by the boss. He hadn't spoken that famous word that let anyone who had the solution know they were cleared to take the shot. That had surprised her, she hadn't known there would come a time when she would have to make that call on her own, let alone her very first time. It seemed Parker had become emotionally involved. Instead of keeping his emotions in check he'd screamed, "Delia, no!" He'd lost his focus. She hadn't. She could still smell the powder from her weapon. It was nauseating.
Moments after beating her wall, she noticed her body had stopped trembling. She turned off her shower and pulled open the curtain, grabbing a towel from the nearest bar on her wall. Stepping out of the tub she felt a chill against her wet skin and looked up to see the window above her toilet open. She walked over and closed it before toweling herself dry. She wrapped a towel around her hair throwing the remains on the top of her head and stepped into her bedroom wrapping herself in her house coat hanging behind her bedroom door.
She walked into her kitchen and began to pour herself a drink when her doorbell rang. She looked up towards her living room, her arm stopping in mid air as she did so. Who could that be she asked herself while trying to decide whether or not to go and open it to whoever stood on the other side. She certainly was in no mood for company. She just wanted to be left alone.
