Breaking Point

Chapter Two

Meanwhile…

Much later that evening, Travis sat at his dining room table, with two lit candles in the middle, across from his latest fling, one of their precinct's newest crime scene techs, holding up a dessert covered fork in front of her mouth as he waited for her to finish her last bite of one of his foster mother's famous coconut cream pies. The young woman made a cry of satisfaction as she swallowed and then leaned forward to take her next bite as Travis fed the little slice of Heaven to her.

He smiled as he bragged, "I told you that nothing can beat my mamma's coconut cream pie."

The woman responded, "You were right. You know, Travis, a few of the girls from work warned me not to come here tonight."

"Was it because of how cluttered my trailer was?" Travis asked as he acted hurt. "Because none of them have seen my new apartment and as you can see, it's perfectly clean."

"Actually, I think the word they used was sloppy or messy and this is not clean," she replied as she got up and walked toward the door. "This is still cluttered, but that isn't the only thing they warned me about you. They said that you were quite the lady's man and I'm afraid that that's not what I'm looking for in my life. Would you really be willing to give me more?"

Travis hesitated and then stuttered as he answered, "I don't… don't think that would be too big…"

The woman scoffed as she cut him off saying, "See, I knew it. You're cute, Travis, but this isn't going to happen. I won't be just another one of your conquests."

"Then, why exactly did you come over here tonight?" Travis asked as she walked out the door.

"So that I could take a picture of your face just as it is right now for the girls," she responded as she pulled out her camera phone and took a shot. "It's the look of complete humiliation and rejection. "Perhaps you should stick to picking up women from the bars, who aren't quite as bright to see through your handsome features and phony charm."

Travis was about to make a retort until his phone suddenly rang and he quickly replied, "Captain, your timing isn't so great and in case you hadn't noticed, it's past midnight. We're done for the night."

The detective could hear the grim tone in Sutton's voice as he answered, "Travis, you need to get over to Good Samaritan Hospital right away. Wes was attacked by unknown assailants shortly after he got home."

"I'm on my way, Captain," Travis said as he quickly hung up his phone, grabbed his leather jacket he had hung earlier over the arm of a chair nearby, grabbed his gun, badge, and motorcycle helmet, and then ran out the door.

Traffic was still terrible in the middle of the night, as everyone that lived in Los Angeles knew, which was one of the main reasons why Travis decided to buy his bike in the first place. It gave him the mobility to be able to weave in and out of the traffic much easier, especially when he needed to get to places in a hurry.

"Captain, what's going on?" Travis quickly called out as soon as he ran in and found their boss standing across from the receptions desk. "Is Wes all right? What the hell happened?"

Captain Sutton responded, "I'm not sure how he's doing, but what I do know, is that Wes was shot twice from behind; one bullet in the top of his right shoulder and the other bullet lodged itself lower in his left shoulder. The doctors are working on him right now, but the paramedics assured me he was stable; at least when they brought him in. His neighbors called in the disturbance. Apparently, Wes managed to fight off at least one of his attackers as they first heard a gunshot, but then heard a struggle like there was a huge fight going on. Until this whole mess is solved, your other case has been moved to the backburner, unless we discover the attack has something to do with it."

Travis ran his hand through his hair as anger and concern appeared across his face as he replied, "All right. Uh, do you have any idea it'll be before he's out of surgery?"

"No, but I promise, I'll keep you informed," Sutton answered. "I take it you're heading over to his place to check out the crime scene? I've got other officers and the techs over there now as we speak. Let me know if you find anything. And Travis, your partner's going to be just fine. I think we both know he won't let a couple of bullets take him out."

"Yeah, I do, but I suggest you call Alex to let her know," Travis said solemnly as Sutton nodded. "This was exactly what she was afraid of when he became a cop; the reason why she left him. She won't take this well at all. I'll be back."

Within twenty-five minutes later, Travis arrived at Wes' house and walked inside to find that his place was trashed, especially the living room. Their captain was right about Wes giving his attackers hell, which he couldn't help but smirk as he thought about it. That was until Travis walked over to stand above where his partner had finally gone down. Two different red stains now covered the areas with blood; the larger and more saturated spot indicating the blood loss from the worst of the wounds that was no doubt the one in his lower left shoulder. From the amount of blood that soaked into the carpet, Wes had obviously lost more than what Travis suspected a person could lose from a shoulder wound.

He walked away and continued to search the room, hoping to find something that would give him a clue as to who had attacked his partner. He looked down on the floor near the room's entrance and found a bunch of papers that had been strewn all over and as he began to pick them up to look them over, Travis found that it was information regarding his last case he had spoken to him about earlier. He figured Wes had been reading through the papers before the attack began. Just as Travis finished picking up the rest of the papers, he was suddenly interrupted by the last person he expected to see at that time of night; his and Wes' therapist; Dr. Elise Ryan.

She was the first to speak up as she said softly, "Hello, Travis. I can only imagine how surprised you must be to see me standing here right now."

Travis looked at her as he responded, "Yeah, just a bit. I didn't realize you made house calls, Doc. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here because your captain asked me to come here to talk to you; to make sure you are level headed enough to work through this," she replied. "Mostly, I wanted to make sure you were doing all right."

"I'm just fine," Travis answered quickly. "As you can see, I've got work to do. Someone shot my partner and that doesn't sit well with me."

The doctor spoke up again saying, "And you have every right to feel that way. After all, even though neither one of you would ever admit this, especially to each other, the two of you are more than just partners; you're friends. Can you do what needs to be done, without losing your head as you get close to whoever has done this?"

Travis responded, "No matter what you think, Doctor Ryan, no one hurts my partner and gets away with it. Whether I'm level headed, as you call it, or not, I'm going to track down the son of a bitch and make him and his cronies find out what happens when they attack a cop here in LA."

"Detective!" one of the techs suddenly called out and then saw Travis speaking with the therapist. "Ma'am, I'm sorry for interrupting. Detective Marks, I found a few of the bullet casings that come from a gun other than the gun that your partner carries. We've bagged them up and maybe we'll get lucky enough to find a finger print of two. We've also found one of his attacker's masks down on the ground beside the broken coffee table. It appears that there are some hairs inside of it. If we don't get any finger prints, we should get DNA from that. If the guy's in the system, we've got him."

"I hope your right, Kid," Travis replied as he looked back at Doctor Ryan. "I appreciate you being here, Doc, but it isn't me, who needs you right now. Go home and get some sleep. If you still want to help tomorrow, come to the hospital and be there for Wes after he wakes up. He may be more inclined to talk to you as he'll be all doped up on morphine and other fun drugs."

Doctor Ryan nodded and smiled as she answered, "You may be right. Good night, Travis. And good luck! Go and find the men who did this."