Title: No Mercy (2/?)
Author: X_tremeroswellian
Email: X_tremeroswellian@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I own nothing. The characters belong to John Wells, Edward Allen Bernero, NBC and a bunch of other people I've never met before in my life.
Rating: R for language, violence and content: deals with the issues of rape
Spoilers: Up through and including "Act Brave."
Summary: When one of their own is attacked by a serial rapist, the third watch crew sets out to find him before he strikes again.
Distribution: If you want it, take it. Just let me know the link. Otherwise, its permanent home is at my site, Only Time: www.geocities.com/angel_roswell/onlytime.html.
Category: Story
Subcategories: Angst, angst, angst, drama, angst, friendship and did I mention angst?
Author's Note: I'm not an expertise in the medical or legal fields. What knowledge I do have comes from: Lights and Sirens: A Writer's Guide to Emergency Rescue Professions by James and Lois Cowan, Police Procedure: A Writer's Guide to the Police and How They Work by Russell Bintliff, and years of watching E.R. and Third Watch. However, if everything isn't accurate, please don't flame me.
Feedback: I crave it. And it tends to make me write faster.
No Mercy (Part Two)
"You're wrong," David said, shaking his head.
"No, I'm not," Sully said stubbornly.
"Yes, you are."
"Look, Davis, I'm older and wiser."
"Well, you got the first part right."
Sully gave him a look.
"I'm telling you, the third movie was better than the first two. Ask anyone."
"No, no, no. The t-rex was the most terrifying dinosaur to walk the earth. If you try to out-do the t-rex, it's just stupid. Plus they made the velociraptors too human. It didn't make any sense."
"Okay, you have me there. But that scene with the pterodactyls was awesome. And it leaves things wide open for a fourth one. Sheer brilliance."
"There were pterodactyls in Jurassic Park."
"No, there weren't. Not in the first one."
"There were in the book."
"You read the book?" Davis turned his head to look at Sully.
"I like Michael Crichton," he replied with a shrug.
"This is Central to 55-Charlie. Come in 55-Charlie," the dispatcher said over the radio.
"This is 55-Charlie," Sully responded.
"55-Charlie, there's been a possible domestic dispute at 2084 West Oakland, apartment B212."
"We're on it," he answered.
"10-4, 55-Charlie."
Sully started the car and glanced at the clock. It was 3:27 a.m. "Only three-and-a-half more hours."
"Let's take the elevator," Carlos said, yawning as he pushed the up button.
"Do you know how long that thing probably takes? It's only one flight of stairs," Alex said in exasperation.
"So? We need to wait for the police anyway."
She stared at him.
"What? You think I'm walking into the middle of some domestic dispute without police protection? Not likely."
"Whatever." Alex turned and walked up the stairway. Everything was silent. She glanced up and down the dimly-lit hallway, then started to her left, clutching the jumper kit in her hand. She read the apartment numbers untili she came to B212. Alex looked back at the elevator, but realized that Carlos really wasn't coming up.
She turned away, disgusted, and started to knock on the door when she caught sight of the keys dangling from the lock. She hesitated for a moment, then decided to knock anyway.
When no one answered, her stomach tightened. She reached for the door handle just as the elevator dinged.
Carlos joined her a moment later. "What are you doing?" he demanded as she started to reach for the door handle again.
"Someone in there may need help."
"Yeah, us, when we walk inside someone's apartment uninvited when they're in the middle of a fight!"
Alex paused and leaned closer to the door. "I don't hear any fighting."
"Maybe they made up."
She shook her head and strained to listen. "Do you hear that?"
"What?" he asked, annoyed.
"That whistling," she said with a frown.
"I don't hear anything."
"I've got a really bad feeling about this," she said quietly, curling her hand around the door knob.
"All the more reason to wait for the cops."
Alex's gaze locked on the keys dangling from the lock. "Do whatever you want. I'm going in."
Carlos folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the wall. "Fine."
She twisted the handle. The moment she opened the door, the whistling got louder. She winced as the high-pitch sound stung her ears. She frowned deeper and stepped inside. "Hello? I'm an E.M.T. Does anyone need help?" she called.
When no one answered, she swallowed hard and moved further inside. Everything was dark. Alex fumbled around, running her hand along the wall in search of a light switch.
She finally found one and flipped it up. Light flooded the room and she stared at the scene before her. The room was completely trashed and a woman was lying in the middle of the floor amidst the remains of what Alex thought might have been a wooden table. Her clothes were torn, and though her face was turned away, Alex could see a huge bruise on the left side of the woman's head.
She didn't hesitate before rushing to the woman's side and kneeling down next to her. As soon as she did, her eyes widened. "Oh, my God. Carlos!" She immediately felt for a pulse, feeling only slightly relieved when she found one. She looked over her shoulder to see Carlos lingering in the doorway. "Get in here!"
"Are you sure it's safe?" he asked, his eyes darting around the apartment.
"Yes," Alex lied, turning her attention back to Faith. She quickly removed a stethescope from the jumper kit. "It's Faith Yokas."
"Bosco's partner?" Carlos asked, looking shocked.
"Yeah. Go check the rest of the apartment," she commanded, listening to Faith's lungs.
"I thought you said it was safe!"
"Dammit, she's married and has kids! Make sure they're not back there somewhere!" Alex snapped.
Carlos reluctantly disappeared down the hallway, returning moments later. "No one's back there."
"Her airway's clear. B.P.'s 100 over 68." Alex removed a gauze pad from her bag. "She's bleeding from a head wound."
Carlos positioned himself on Faith's other side. "Damn. She's lost quite a bit of blood," he added, noticing the small pool under her head.
Their eyes met briefly but neither one of them said another word.
Sully pulled the car to a stop on West Oakland. He and Davis both climbed out and went inside the apartment building. They quickly took the stairs to the second floor and headed for apartment B212.
When he saw the door was already open, he frowned. Keeping his hand on his gun holster, Sully stepped inside the apartment and saw Carlos and Alex Taylor working on someone.
"What've we got?" Davis asked.
Taylor looked over her shoulder, her face sullen. When she moved, Sully got a good look at the woman they were working on.
"Is that Yokas?" he asked, stunned.
Davis looked at him with wide eyes.
"Yeah," Carlos answered. He stood up. "I'm goin' down to get the stretcher." He moved past them and out the door.
"She gonna be okay?" Davis asked.
"Her lungs are clear and her heart's steady. B.P.'s down from loss of blood. Lots of bruises and cuts. There are some around her throat; it looks like she may have been strangled. But it's the head wound I'm worried about." Taylor hesitated for a moment. "I think there's a pretty good chance she was raped."
Sully closed his eyes and swore under his breath.
"Jesus," Davis muttered.
"Where's her husband? And kids?"
"They weren't here when we got here. There were keys in the door. And that tea pot's been going off for awhile."
Sully walked into the kitchen and turned off the stove. Most of the water had boiled down the sides of the teapot and splattered all over the stove-top. He glanced around the room but didn't see anything else out of place there. He returned to the living room.
Davis was squatted down amidst the rubble, holding up a gun holster. He looked at Sully. "Her weapon's gone."
"Bastard probably took it with him. We need to get a team in here."
"I'll call it in," Davis answered, standing up.
"Somebody should call Bosco," Sully said grimly.
"There's a payphone downstairs," Taylor told him.
He nodded and headed for the door just as Carlos returned with the stretcher.
Alex remained in the back of the bus with Faith while Carlos drove. She'd managed to stop the blood flow from the wound on Faith's head, but there was no doubt in her mind that the other woman had a pretty serious concussion.
Sully and Davis had stayed behind to wait for the crime scene search unit to arrive.
She leaned forward to check Faith's pulse again. Her heart was beating a bit faster than it had been only moments before. Alex glanced worriedly at her pale face, and was surprised to see that Faith's eyes were opened. "Faith? Can you hear me?"
"Is she awake?" Carlos called.
"Yeah!" she called back. "Don't try to talk, okay?" Alex readjusted the oxygen mask covering Faith's mout and nose. "If you can understand me, I want you to try and squeeze my hand." Alex waited, motionless, and was relieved when she felt a brief amount of pressure on her hand. "Good. That's great. We're taking you to the hospital, Faith. We'll be there in a couple of minutes. You just try and stay awake, okay?"
Alex looked out the back window of the ambulance and said a silent thanks to whomever might be listening.
"Still haven't gotten a hold of Bosco?" Davis asked as Sully returned to Yokas' apartment again.
"Not yet. Either he's a heavy sleeper or he's shut off the damned ringer," Sully muttered.
"Or he's not there," he replied with a shrug. "He may not have even gone home."
"Maybe." Sully watched as the crime scene investigators collected evidence and photographed the scene.
"Where do you think her husband is?"
"I don't know," he said, shaking his head.
Davis bit his lip. A thought suddenly occurred to him. "Who made the call?"
"What?"
"Someone called and reported a domestic dispute. That's what the dispatcher said. So...who placed the call?"
They looked at each other.
"That's a damn good question," Sully answered. "Let's start investigating the neighbors."
"Hold it."
Davis and Sully both turned around to see the detective in charge.
"We'll take care of that," he said.
"We know how to interview people," Sully informed the younger man, irritated.
"I'm sure that's true. But this is my crime scene. I'll handle it."
"Yeah? And the victim happens to be a friend of ours."
"Which is exactly why you shouldn't get personally involved in this case."
Sully narrowed his eyes and glared at him.
"Sully, come on," Davis urged. "We need to find Bosco, anyway."
"Listen to junior," the detective told him.
He turned around to go, gritting his teeth together. "Yeah, and you're one to talk sonny," he said under his breath.
Bosco was awakened to the sound of loud pounding. He groaned and pulled a pillow over his head.
The pounding continued. A moment later, it was followed by muffled shouting.
He lifted his head and squinted at the alarm clock on his nightstand. The glowing read digits said 4:09.
"Go the hell away! The sun's not even up!" he shouted angrily.
When the pounding still continued, he set his jaw, pushed himself out of bed and stomped across the floor to the door. He unlocked the deadbolt and the chain lock. "This better be good or somebody's going to get an ass-kicking!" He swung the door open and found himself staring at Sully and Davis. "What the hell are you doing here?" he asked, feeling confused.
They exchanged a look. "We tried calling, but you didn't answer."
"I turned off the ringer. Some ass kept calling and hanging up." He rubbed his face sleepily. "What's going on?"
"Something happened tonight, Bosco," Sully began, his voice low and his eyes downcast.
Bosco's eyes widened. "It's my mom, isn't it? She took that sonofabitch back and he hurt her again." He turned and headed to get a shirt and some shoes. "I'll kill him."
"Bosco, it's not your mom."
"What? Then what--"
"It's Yokas."
He froze in his tracks, and then turned around slowly. "What?"
"She was attacked," Davis said quietly.
"Attacked?" he repeated.
Davis looked away, but Sully met his eyes. "We think she may have been raped."
Bosco stared at him in disbelief. For a moment, he couldn't speak. "May have been? Either she was or she wasn't. How the hell can you not know? What did she say?"
"She didn't," Davis answered. "She was unconscious when we got there. Carlos and Taylor took her to the hospital."
"Is she gonna be okay?"
"Taylor said her pulse and lungs were fine, but she had a pretty nasty head wound," Sully informed him.
Bosco turned and walked back to his bedroom, grabbed the first shirt he saw out of his closet and pulled it on. He stepped into a pair of tennis shoes and headed back towards Sully and Davis. "What hospital?"
"County General."
"We're headed over there now. We'll give you a ride," Sully said.
Bosco was the first one out the door.