Distration

Chapter 2

Bosco caught a movement out of the corner of his eye at the same time that the gang of kids in front of him tensed up, seeing the same thing. Quickly unholstering his gun and aiming it at the group, he took a couple of steps back and glanced in his partner's direction.

Meg registered Bosco's sudden movement, but not in time to notice the man alongside her as he swung a pipe at her and hit her solidly in the side, knocking the wind out of her. She started to go down, but grabbed tightly onto the doorframe and steadied herself, struggling to get a breath. She tired to grab for her gun as the man brought the pipe back again to take another swing at Meg, but a shot rang out and the pipe fell to the ground alongside the now motionless man.

"What the hell...?" yelled a number of the initial group of kids, obviously alarmed themselves at what had just happened.

"Man, that guy is nuts! Is he dead?" another one yelled out, trying to look over the hood of the RMP to see.

"Shut up! Riley! Are you alright?" Bosco yelled over to his partner, his gun trained back on the group in front of him as he keyed the microphone of his radio at the same time. Meg had disappeared below his view on the other side of the RMP. He didn't get an answer and before doing anything else, he transmitted a distress call over his radio.

"55-David! 10-13 my location. Officer down! Repeat, Officer down!" he finished, making a mental note of the dispatcher's acknowledgement of his transmission even before he was able to release his hold on his microphone.

"Alright, everyone just stay put!" he said, taking steps back around the RMP to get to his partner, the gun still holding the group of kids at bay.

"Yo! Officer Bosco! We got nothin' to do with that! Man, we ain't never seen that guy before!" one of the boys yelled out.

"Well, just stay put until I figure out what's going on!" Bosco ordered them all as he reached his partner, who was laying on the ground, propped against the side of the car, gasping for air and holding her side. He looked quickly at the man lying on the ground alongside her and saw that he was no longer a threat, but reached down to make sure there was no pulse just to be certain.

"Riley!" he said, turning his attention back to his partner, while stealing glances at the group of kids to make sure they were staying put. Sirens wailed in the background, getting closer fast. Help was imminent.

Meg Riley had an ashen look on her face and Bosco thought she was about to pass out. Suddenly, she was able to make a gasp and get in some air, but she held her right arm tight to her side. "Help's coming," Bosco told her calmly, unbuttoning the buttons of her uniform shirt. She was wearing a t-shirt between her skin and vest, so he loosened the vest to alleviate the constriction. "Just concentrate on breathing," he said calmly.

"Dammit!" she told herself as she lay on the ground, looking at her partner who had just rounded the corner of the RMP to check on her. "You let yourself get distracted," she chastised as she tried to get a breath. She felt the strain of a lack of oxygen in her chest and on her brain, and noticed things starting to get blurry. She felt Bosco's hand at her throat, as he began unbuttoning her shirt and felt the relief of pressure as he unfastened her vest. She was able to get in a breath of air, and the blurriness cleared slightly.

She heard the sounds of approaching sirens and the squeal of braking tires right next to them.

"Bosco!" yelled Davis as he and Sully exited their RMP, the first to arrive. Another unit pulled up behind them and another from the other direction that was followed by the medics.

"Hold on to those guys, Davis!" Bosco told him, holstering is gun. "I'm not sure if they're involved or not." Davis immediately turned his attention to the group of kids who looked as shocked as anyone at what had just happened.

"Everyone of you, turn around and grab the wall," Davis ordered them.

"Yo! We didn't have nothin' to do with all this!" a couple of them protested.

"Yeah, well, we'll figure out what happened in a minute. Until then, turn around and grab the wall," Davis ordered them again as the officers from the other unit assisted him. The group was disgruntled, but complied.

Sully bent down to check on the guy lying on the ground. He had a single gunshot wound to his chest - right to the heart. He looked at Bosco and then over to Riley.

"You okay, Bosco?" he said, taking in the pale face of Meg as she tried to breathe.

"Yeah. It's Riley. She took a shot to the ribs from that pipe," he told him, looking in the direction of now useless weapon. "That guy's dead?"

"Uh, yeah. A bullet to the chest'll do that to you," Sully said with his usual sarcasm.

"Yeah, well, he was getting ready to take another swing at Reilly here," he said. "Where's the medics?"

"Waiting for us to secure the scene first," Sully answered. "Kim! C'mon over. Everything's secure," Sully called to the medics.

Kim and Carlos ran over with their equipment and Carlos started checking on the dead guy as Kim started taking care of Meg.

"Bosco. You need to back up. Bosco!" Kim yelled to him, trying to loosen Bosco's grip on Meg's left arm. He didn't even realize he was holding onto her until then.

"What? Oh, sorry," he said, backing up a couple of steps to let Kim get in and assess.

"There's no ID on this guy," Sully said, standing up after checking the dead man's pockets.

Carlos had finished checking him for vitals, called for another bus to transport him, and was now assisting Kim with Meg.

"Yeah, well it looks like he hasn't bathed in a while either," Bosco said, glancing again quickly and then returning his attention to his partner. Kim had cut Meg's t-shirt to get a look at her side and Bosco could see the bruise already forming over her ribcage. He also noticed the toned look of her body and quickly returned his gaze to her face.

"She okay?" he asked Kim and Carlos.

"Yeah, she will be. But, she'll be sore for quite a while. She needs x-rays - she probably has some broken ribs at least. They'll check her for any internal bleeding too, but as long as her vitals are stable, we won't need an IV," Kim reported. Carlos had given Meg an oxygen mask to hold to her face and then went to get the stretcher.

Bosco followed Meg to the ambulance and climbed in alongside her, leaving his RMP to be driven over the hospital by another officer.

TBC...