"What about Tom?" Mared said to her boss Chief Superintendent Prosser. Her face was racked with worry. Her blue eyes sparkled in fear.
"We'll do all we can." Prosser responded.
After an agonizing hour at the scene at the farm surrounded by the special forces team, the standoff came to an end.
The rescue team stormed the house where Tom Mathias was held hostage. Mared followed in close behind-her heart pounding. She did so against the wishes of her boss-Prosser. She was told to stand down but disobeyed. She needed to get in there to know Tom was safe-to see for herself. She wore no armor-no bulletproof vest, carried no weapon. She rushed in with full focus on getting to Tom. She would not wait another anxious moment outside.
The team checked that the home was clear. Mared came upon Tom first on the floor, wrists bound to the stove.
"Tom," her voice cracked with feeling.
She immediately worked to untie the binding at his wrists. Once freed, Mared caressed his wrists tenderly. Then she ran her fingers over his face to examine it, seeing the spots of blood created from the earlier shattering of his car windshield.
"You're Ok." She seemed to be reassuring herself as well as him with that tone. She brought both of her hands to his face and then leaned in to nuzzle her face very delicately against his unable to restrain her emotion. In that moment, her reaction was involuntary. There was no hesitation to contemplate whether Tom would welcome it. She actually didn't care. A rush of relief overwhelmed her. Before she met Tom, she prided herself on being able to separate emotion from the job...With and concerning Tom, her emotion was always palpable. She embraced him-held him tightly to her. Tom could feel Mared's heart was pounding. He closed his eyes.
"Thank you, Mared." He spoke to her in the quietest whisper. Sound seemed to be drained from him, and with his exhaustion, he lost the ability to annunciate.