Chapter 11

"I don't want to ride in an ambulance," Steve protested as he grimaced. He had managed to move himself into a sitting position and away from the offending, albeit squashed, rosebush. "Someone can drive me..."

Rudy rushed out with a blanket he pulled from the closest bedroom and dropped it down to Mike who in turn draped it around the young man's shoulders.

"Thanks, Rudy," he responded shakily. The weak response was not lost on Mike or Rudy, who glanced at each other with concern.

Looking around to his partner and captain, Steve asked in a sudden panic, "Where's Norm?"

"He went after them, along with Officer Webster," Rudy answered. Realizing Steve didn't understand who Webster was, he added, "He was in the unmarked car I had parked in front." Wanting to be more effective, Rudy turned quickly to Mike's front door. "I'm going to get on the horn with Dispatch and see what's going on!"

Seconds later, an ambulance roared up the street, stopping in front of Mike's home. Quickly, the ambulance driver and an attendant hopped out of the front cab and retrieved a gurney from the back.

"Aw, Mike, I don't need a gurney," Steve protested.

"Now you listen to me, you've been shot and I don't like the looks of that arm either. Did you do something to it when you fell?"

Steve looked down at the wrist that was quickly swelling. "Aw, man," he whispered.

"Up here!" Mike yelled out to the attendants.

"No, wait!" Steve pleaded. "Help me up. I can at least walk to the ambulance." Thinking quickly, he added, "I don't want to cause further problems for you with your neighbors. It's bad enough there was a shooting here, let alone having them see someone carted away on a stretcher."

It was at that moment that Mike took his focus off of Steve and saw the eyes of many of his neighbors peering through their front windows and doors looking terrified at what had just unfolded. "Ah, the perils of having a cop for a neighbor," he thought to himself. "All right, all right. No sense in getting the neighbors more stirred up. If they see you walking to the ambulance, that will at least give them some relief. Are you sure about this?"

"Just help me up," Steve said as he held out his good arm for Mike to grab onto.

Three hours later, Mike paced back and forth in the surgery waiting room at San Francisco General. Upon their arrival, Steve had been swept into an available ER cubicle for triage. Immediately he was hooked to an IV and evaluated for surgery to remove the bullet that was lodged in his lower back. The ER doctor made note of the swollen wrist and ordered an X-ray to be done after the surgery. In the meantime, the wrist was splinted and secured.

Rudy returned to Bryant Street when it was learned that Norm and Officer Webster were among the officers who had nabbed the suspects just a mile away from Mike's home. Brothers Joey and Rick Damon had led the officers on a fairly short and ineffective high speed chase.

After losing control, the pair plowed into two parked cars. Stunned, they attempted to flee. For the second time that day, Norm muttered, This is bull shit! and bolted from his car in foot pursuit. Officer Webster joined the detective and in no time, the Damons were tackled and arrested.

Norm and Webster proudly escorted the pair into a holding cell in the Homicide unit. Realizing where they were, the gravity of the situation hit the Damon brothers. While no one was killed, the pair were quickly charged with two counts of the attempted murder of a police officer. The fact that the pair were being held in the same unit where the would-be murder victims worked only made the situation worse as they were met with the hostile glares of Tanner, Healy and Lessing from outside of their holding cell.

Norm walked over to his desk and only then reached up to touch the stinging sensation he felt in his arm. Lee Lessing walked over and saw the torn material of the detective's sport coat.

"Man, what happened to you? Were you hit?" Lessing asked.

"Ah, it's nothing. Just a scratch," Norm replied.

"You'd better get that looked at. It needs to be documented anyway," Lee implored.

"Yeah, I know," Norm said as he stared down at his desk thinking. "You know, I guess I can't let the kid have all the fun."

"Rudy said Steve was hit, but that it wasn't life threatening. Want me to drive you over to General to have that arm looked at?"

Norm nodded. "Yeah, let's go. We can catch up with Mike then." He chuckled as he added, "I imagine Old Mike has worn a trench into the waiting room floor."

Lee laughed. "Doesn't he always?"