Wow, I've came up with a hypothesis, the Ed fics don't get much hits since it's only based on Ed and not Sam and Jules. Hrmm . . . ah well! I'm writing another masterpiece here! (At least I think that . . .) Okay, just a heads up, I have to go to Yellowstone for 10 days, that means that I won't be able to update since I'll be somewhere in the middle of nowhere! (gawd that sounds like a good title –writes down- ) :) lol, I'll go plug my laptop into a tree and try to get a signal, oh, wait, nvrmnd! I don't have a laptop.
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Greg got into Ed's car the next morning and saw the sleep deprived sniper at the wheel, and a hastily taped on rear-view mirror. "Car trouble?" he asked motioning to the mirror.
"Yeah," Ed answered, "knocked it off last night by accident."
Greg looked at Ed plainly not believing a word he said. "Ed," he began.
"Look, sarge, I'm fine, it was an accident," Ed interrupted.
Greg looked at Ed, clearly not believing a word he said, but he said nothing, he just looked out the window.
They arrived at headquarters and got into uniform, then Sam proposed to Ed a challenge.
"Hey, Ed, Jules and I were going down to the firing range for a bit of target practice. Wanna join? 20 bucks to the most accurate person there."
Spike looked up, "Hey I'll bet Ed will beat both of you guys' asses, 40 on Ed."
"Let's mix this up then," Lou added with a smirk, "60 on Sam."
"I'm going with Jules," Wordy stated, "100 on Jules."
This statement was followed by "oohs" from the rest of the team.
"Greg, you're the banker in this round as you didn't make a bet," Wordy said handing him a 100.
"Aww, come on guys," Greg said, "we're the SRU, not a pool hall!"
"But bets are fun!" Spike protested pushing the 40 dollars into Greg's hands.
They both left and followed the three snipers down the hall to the range, Greg sighed angrily, "Alright, just this once!"
Lou gave Greg his ante, "Thanks Sarge."
In the firing range, Jules aimed the remmy at the human paper target. She sat there for a few minutes, making minute adjustments to her form and the gun.
"C'mon, we haven't got all day!" Spike complained, he was quickly elbowed by Sam.
"Shut it, she needs to concentrate." Sam whispered back.
Finally, Jules squeezed the trigger, then ejected the cartridge, then squeezed it again, and followed the same routine again and again until she fired 10 rounds into the target. All of them were closely grouped in one enlarged hole, only a little bit bigger than the bullet itself.
"Wow," Spike said staring wide eyed at the target and then at the small sniper.
"Never mess with sierra one," Jules said with a smirk as she unloaded the gun and took off the ear muffs.
"I'll say," Spike replied.
"She hasn't seen anything yet," Sam retorted, he grabbed the gun and put on his ear muffs. Quickly loading the gun, he aimed it at the target and in only about 30 seconds of adjustment time, he fired off 10 shots. One of the bullets went wide, but the rest made a perfect circle about 3 centimeters in diameter.
"Samtastic isn't so Samtastic anymore," Lou looked down in mock sadness, "And now I'm 60 bucks poorer."
"Well, there's one more sniper who can break this tie, let's go Eddie!" Spike said in a patronizing tone, he looked towards Ed. "Eddie?"
Ed started as if snapped out of a trance, and he said, "What?"
"C'mon, it's your turn Ed."
"You okay?" Jules asked.
"Yeah, fine," Ed answered automatically and grabbed the rifle from Sam.
When Jules had fired her first shot, Ed flinched and the ghosts came back to him.
"So you think this is a sport??! Killing people??" a voice hissed inside his head, filled with distaste and contempt.
"You're no worse than that rapist the other day,"
Ed wanted to shout out, so badly, "Why are you blaming me for doing my job?!" he would have if he was alone, if there wasn't the whole team within earshot of him.
Ed shook his head to clear it and he tried to focus on the target through the rifle scope, but instead of seeing the target, he saw the father he had shot the day before. But the father wasn't holding a gun, glaring at the rapist with contempt. He was smiling happily with his wife and daughter.
Ed's first two shots went wide, and he had to shake his head again and focus on the target, the room was silent. His eight other shots where all over the target, but never hitting the head. With each shot, he saw different people he had killed over the years, all staring at him accusingly. Finally, the ten shots were up and Ed got up abruptly and left the room.
The whole range was silent, you could hear Babycakes dropping a bolt onto the floor it was that quiet.
Finally Spike spoke up, "So, Wordy, I guess, uh, you're 100 dollars richer now. I guess it is Jules day today."
Nervous laughter sounded inside the range. Greg automatically paid Wordy and the team left.
Sam and Jules sat in the gym, and talked about Ed.
"I never seen Ed miss before, not once," Sam said looking towards the locker rooms where he was 100% sure Ed was.
"That's 'cos he never misses," Jules said, "not in the time I knew him."
"I hope he feels better,"
"Look, Sam, I think you should talk to him," Jules said seriously.
"What? I'm the rookie, I'm not going to connect," Sam said, "you've been on the force longer, you know him much better than I do."
"Okay, not one to play the gender card here, especially since it's against me, but I'm a woman, I won't connect to him as well as a man would. You'd be better, and you've been in the army, as a sniper. I think you can talk to him."
Jules's logic was air tight, but Sam couldn't bring himself to talk to the sniper, he wasn't the best at negotiations, and how would he start the conversation? "Hey Ed, I was wondering why you made a fishing net out of that target this morning." Yeah, that wasn't going to work, not at all.
The shift ended peacefully, no calls, and nobody dead.
Ed again stared at himself in the mirror, trying to hold on to his sanity. 'C'mon Ed, this is your job, it's not your fault, it's not your fault,' but he could see the ghosts glaring at him, accusing him in the mirror.
"DAMMIT! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Ed slammed his fist into the mirror and the sound of breaking glass resounded through the quiet and almost empty building.
"Ed?!" both Greg and Wordy burst into the locker room. Ed was clutching his bloody fist in his other hand.
Greg stayed a safe distance from Ed, he wasn't sure what his friend would do now, "Hey Eddie, bud, it's me, Greg. Your friend, let's just get your hand checked out."
Ed glared at Greg, "I'll get it checked out at the hospital, just leave me alone."
"Look, maybe I should come with you."
"No, don't alright? Don't." Ed managed to make his way past Wordy and Greg, "I just need some time alone to sort things out." Ed walked out of headquarters and down the street, not even glancing at his car.
He finally stopped a distance away, far from any hospital, and checked his hand in the light of a street lamp. It was bleeding badly, so he wrapped it up in his shirt, and he was now walking around in a t-shirt and jeans. It was chilly but he managed, he finally paid attention to where he was going when he saw the light of a bar and the dark alleys around it.
Three kids in hoodies and jeans were standing around. One of them was smoking while the others were just leaning against a wall talking.
"C'mon guys," one of them was saying, "we have finals coming up, I think we should go."
"You can go Cody, but I'm staying here with Darren the whole night, right Darren?" the man who was smoking slurred. Obviously he was drunk.
"Yeah," Darren agreed, he then looked at Ed, who was walking by. Ed had already seen the three kids and he was on red alert now, even though they were most likely harmless.
The drunk man also had noticed the sniper, and he shouted out, "Hey gramps! What's the time?!" He started moving in towards Ed.
Cody tried to warn the drunk man, "Brandon, drop it, I don't want to go to jail."
"It's the geezer's fault he's being rude," Brandon slurred, he motioned for Darren to block off Ed. A mistake that soon proved to be nearly fatal.
As soon as Darren had moved in front of Ed, Ed attacked, he punched Darren in the jaw, and a crunching noise was heard, Darren fell to the ground, trying to speak, but could only make gurgling noises. Stupidly, Darren tried to get back up, and Ed grabbed the man's arm and twisted it and this time, Darren passed out as his arm made a sickening crunching sound.
"Darren!" Brandon yelled, he launched himself at Ed, and Ed yelled out in fury. He kicked Brandon in the ribs, as Brandon fell, Ed kept kicking him in the head, the back, anywhere exposed. Then he snapped back his fist, hitting Cody who had come up behind him. Cody's nose crunched and he fell to the ground, and Ed fell upon him too, until Cody was still. Ed ran off into the night and down the streets of Toronto. He finally reached a hospital, dazed and confused and wondering what happened. He got his hand treated and left as if nothing had ever happened.
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Is this turning into War and Peace? Hrmm . . . well, first of all, Ed has PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) if you didn't ALREADY know . . . and hypervigilance is one of the symptoms.
Okay, and also, I have a new poll up on my profile, and I'm really wondering what I should name the town in my novel (which takes place in Canada btw) so if you don't mind :) I would really appreciate votes! So I can write more of this thing. And one of my characters looks like Jules :).
