Part 4
Kelly awoke the next morning with the blankets of Matt's bed wrapped thickly around her. At first, her mind was fuzzy and refused to process anything, but finally she remembered watching Matt's family movies before announcing her 'like' to him. They had started drinking at that point, as they reminisced about their families and 'the good old days', as Matt had called them…before Matt's father had turned violent…and well before Kelly had ever found the letter. It had been nice to open up so much to someone like Matt.
She sat up and took in her surroundings. Lying in a sleeping bag on the floor was Matt, snoring away despite it being nine that morning. In typical Matt fashion, he had let Kelly take the bed while he settled for the floor.
"Good morning, Sunshine," Kelly said quietly with a smile as she climbed out of bed and knelt down beside Matt. She kissed him gently on the cheek and left, deciding that she was ready once and for all to go back to work.
Kelly dressed hastily, not wishing to spend too much time in her own room, which was still a pigsty from the attempt she had made yesterday to give it a make over. It still reminded her too much of Estelle.
She returned to Matt's room, to find that was still sleeping. He had a rostered day off, so Kelly saw little point in waking him up...opposed to her early shift, which she was already late for. She scrawled a note on a scrap of paper hanging from a half-opened drawer and left it on Matt's dresser in front of the broken mirror.
Smiling to herself, Kelly left the room and headed downstairs for breakfast.
Alex looked up, quite surprised, as Kelly entered the station, looking rather contented and pleased with herself. All thoughts of Tom had abandoned Kelly for the moment, and she was enjoying the freedom to revel in her relationship with Matt.
"Hey…what are you doing here?" Alex demanded as he watched Kelly sit down at her desk. Kelly regarded Alex with confusion and rose her eyebrows.
"Working, check the roster, Alex," Kelly responded as she looked over her desk. She tried to work out where to start on the four or so piles of paperwork that had grown there.
"Uh, no you're not." Alex said as he pulled out the roster and waved it centimetres in front of Kelly's nose. "The Boss said you might want some down-time, and I rostered Susie on instead. So you're free to go home."
Kelly fixed Alex with a glare, which answered him better than any words could. It was one of those glares that said 'I'm staying, get over it'. He drew back and flopped down into his seat. Kelly presumed that he was sick of people undermining his authority. In particular, her.
She set to work on reducing the pile of paperwork sitting on her desk. It had appeared to have grown higher in her absence, and now Kelly had to wonder whether she would ever catch up.
Then again, Kelly realised; there was no such thing as catching up on paperwork in the police force. People would always be committing crimes, and the police would always have to fill out a report as a consequence of solving those crimes. It was simply a fact of life that they had to deal with.
Susie and Joss walked in from patrol, and both seemed surprised to see Kelly sitting there, ploughing through paperwork calmly. Word of Matt's outburst with the Boss had spread fast, confounding their puzzlement and curiosity. Kelly hadn't really been working properly since the whole incident with Estelle and Spongebob…not that they could blame her, of course.
"Hey, Kel, good to have you back," Joss remarked as he approached her slowly. "Didn't expect to be seeing you so soon."
"I'm a copper, I have a shift…therefore I'm working," Kelly explained. Her good mood was sinking fast – everyone at the station still seemed to think that she was some sort of invalid who couldn't handle a little stress…unlike Matt…
Joss drew away and sat down at his desk, but cast Kelly constant glances. As much as Kelly valued her friendship with Joss, she remembered just how much it annoyed her as well. He was too…protective. A little too obsessive about her. She dreaded the moment when he'd find out that she was starting a relationship with the new cop.
The day wore on, and Kelly was getting bored. She hadn't really returned to work to do paperwork, and although she was pleased that the pile was slowly going down, she was itching for some action. So, it stood to reason that she was jumping to go out with Susie to handle a domestic on the outskirts of Mount Thomas.
The drive out to the farm was a silent one, as Susie had learnt from Joss's failed attempts to start conversation or convey concern. In a way, Kelly kind of wanted to talk to Susie…perhaps just to gain some female input into the whole situation. But then again, what could Susie really tell her that Tom or Matt hadn't told her already?
The domestic was hard to miss, as Kelly and Susie could hear the shouting before they even reached the dusty country road. Kelly noticed Susie casting her a concerned glance from the corner of her eye as they pulled up, and knew instantly that her reaction to Spongebob at the train yards was far from forgotten.
Kelly and Susie approached two people, a mother and her son presumedly, with caution. The knife in the son's hand glinted with the afternoon rays, and Kelly braced herself for a flashback to Estelle and her knife…but one didn't come. Perhaps she had so much on her mind that Estelle had been forgotten…
"Who are you?" snapped the son as he spun to Susie and Kelly with his knife. Susie drew away and rose her hands slightly.
"I'm Senior Constable Raynor, and this is Constable O'Rourke," Susie said gently as she took several steps towards the pair, "now, could you please tell us what's going on?"
Kelly watched as the mother tried to make a run for it, but had her wrist grabbed by her bulky son, and was jerked to his side.
"None of your beeswax," the son responded coldly, "but if you must know, my mother's a dirty slu…"
"Don't use that language…" the mother began, in a typical mother fashion, but her son pushed her to the ground before she could finish.
Susie took another three steps towards the pair and reached out towards the knife discreetly.
"Now," Susie said, remaining level headed and calm, "I'm sure we can talk this over at the station…"
"No!" the son – who Kelly picked to be no older than 17 – cried, grabbing his mother and pulling her close to him. He jerked the knife away from Susie's hand and held it to his mother's neck. "I'm sick of talking! Bugger it, I'm sick of listening, too. I want action…I want payback."
Susie drew in a deep breath and took another, far more cautious step.
"No closer!" the boy yelled. "You come near me, and none of us will be leaving here today!"
Susie placed her hands on her hips and paced around the patrol car, squinting her eyes against the afternoon glare. Kelly approached her and folded her arms.
"We have to do something, surely we can do something." Kelly said in a hopeful and determined voice.
Susie shook her head and sat down in the driver's seat, letting her legs hang out the open door.
"Nothing we can do. Boss's orders, I'm afraid…wait for backup." Susie explained as she tapped the dashboard to the beat of some popular song. Kelly grabbed the roof of the car and leant into Susie's face.
"I didn't join the force to sit around doing nothing on 'Boss's orders'." Kelly told her as she headed back towards the son, who still held that knife to his mother's neck.
"Kel!" Susie called helplessly as she watched her younger colleague approach the situation.
Kelly watched as the son regarded her suspiciously.
"What do you want?" he demanded in a harsh and impatient tone.
"I'd like to know why you have a knife to your mother's throat," Kelly said gently, mimicking Susie's tones perfectly.
The mother closed her eyes, while the son considered what to tell Kelly. She waited for him to speak, but didn't expect what she was about to hear…
"Turns out my mother had an affair when she fell pregnant with me. Dirty bitch, she deserves to die!" the son shouted, tightening his grip on the woman in his arms.
Kelly covered her mouth in shock and backed away…this was just about the last thing she needed.
Susie watched as Kelly returned to the patrol car.
"Any luck?" she asked, despite knowing what the answer would be.
"Mother slept with some other guy when she fell pregnant…poor guy doesn't know who his father is…can't say I blame him for getting angry." Kelly explained.
"I can," Susie said quietly. "All his mother was trying to do was to protect him from something he couldn't deal with…as we can see here. She was trying to look after his reputation and his emotions. If the truth came out by accident…then, well, that's not how she meant it to be. You can't honestly tell me that he should kill his mother over it."
Each and every one of Susie's words hit Kelly hard. The older blonde had a point…and Kelly had been so blinded by her own feelings that she couldn't see it. She now had a different perspective on her own situation…perhaps Tom didn't need to suffer anymore…maybe he didn't deserve it…
Another patrol car carrying Joss and Alex pulled up behind them, and Kelly immediately saw the panic fill the son's eyes.
"What are they doing here?" he demanded, and pressed the knife against his mother's neck. "That's it, I'm going to kill her."
"No!" Kelly cried as she raced back over to them. She jumped on the mother and son, and managed to hit the son over the head with her gun. Problem was…it was too late for the mother, who had been wounded by her son in struggle, despite Kelly's attempts to protect her. "Oh, crap." Kelly mumbled as she sat back and regarded what had become of her efforts to 'protect' people.
"I need an ambulance…" Kelly could hear Susie say into her radio. Kelly sat back on her knees and began to sob. This was a Joss Peroni-level stuff-up.
Kelly sat in the mess room, trying to drown her guilt in a cup of coffee. She remembered Susie's words, and kept them ringing in her ears. The mother didn't deserve to die…but she did anyway. And then there was the son, fatally wounded by Kelly…
"I shouldn't be on the force…" Kelly told herself as she stirred her coffee again miserably.
"Drowning your sorrows?" asked a kind and warm voice. Kelly turned to see none other than Tom standing in the doorway, arms folded across his chest. He was so much like a father; Kelly realised, as she took in his stance. The look in his eyes conveyed concern and love for her.
"I messed up." Kelly told him. "I had my orders…and I disobeyed them. And now I have the blood of two people on my hands."
Tom noticed Kelly on the verge of tears and walked into the room. He enveloped Kelly in a hug, and Kelly didn't fight against his warm and father-like grip.