Stef killed the siren in the cruiser as they approached the school. They parked a block away and moved in on foot. Surprisingly, they were the first two emergency officials to respond to the call.
"Dispatch, be advised that Adam 110 is first to respond and is going into the school building."
"Negative, Adam 110, you're to wait outside and help emerging students, faculty, and staff to safety."
"Dispatch, be advised that gunfire can be heard and Adam 110 is responding by entering the building."
"Negative, Adam 110, control units will be arriving shortly to organize the response efforts."
"Dispatch, this is Officer Adams Foster, my wife is Vice Principal at Anchor Beach, and I will be going into that building to protect the lives of the faculty, staff, and students in her care."
Stef looked at Mike, and they cautiously entered the building. Someone had pulled the fire alarm, and sprinklers were spraying throughout the building. The siren made it difficult to communicate, but Stef and Mike worked well together. Thankfully, the building was mostly empty of people moving about. Slowly, they began progressing through the school, entering one room and then the next to secure them. When they came across anyone hiding, they quickly ushered them out the way they had come. Suddenly, their radios started to relay static. Quickly, both reached down to turn them off, not wanting to alert anyone as to their presence. They cleared the library, the cafeteria, and the gymnasium before progressing on toward the classrooms and administrative offices. As they entered the classroom belonging to Timothy, they saw one of the assailants, a young man who appeared to be in Jude's grade. He had his back to the open doorway and was holding Timothy and two students hostage. Mike nodded to Stef, knowing that this could get very messy very quickly. Thankfully, as the sprinklers and sirens continued to make noise, Mike was able to sneak behind the assailant. Stef had her weapon trained, ready to fire if necessary. Mike quickly reached around and grabbed both the butt and the barrel of the gun as he pulled it flush against the assailant's body, making it impossible for the young man to fire a shot. As he dragged the boy out of the classroom, Stef quickly grabbed her handcuffs and attached one end to the boy's wrist. They wrestled him, together, to the ground, disarmed him, and secured his hands behind his back. He looked frightened, like he didn't know what was going on around him. Quickly Mike and Stef lifted him from the ground, turned to Timothy and the students, and began walking all four out of the building. When they turned the corner back by the gymnasium, they encountered reinforcements heading the other way. Stef wanted to turn and go with them to find Lena, but she knew that she and Mike needed to walk this boy out first.
"Timothy," Mike shouted, "when we leave the building, you and your students need to have your hands very high in the air. Stef is going to walk out in front of you, but you need to make it very clear to those guys with guns outside that you are not a threat. Understood?"
Timothy and the students nodded and prepared to exit the building behind Stef.
She exited shouting, "Police! Survivors in tow!" as loud as she could, making sure to stand in front of the group in case anyone was anxious and potentially took a shot." She escorted Timothy and the students to the safe zone before returning to Mike.
"Peaceful takedown, no shots fired," Mike told the Captain in charge. "As far as we'd come, no bodies either. Victims were all alive."
"Good work, you two," she said. "Now stay out here and let SWAT handle the rest."
"With all due respect, Captain, my wife is still in there, and I can't just stand by-" Lena started.
"Oh, but you will," the Captain said, "Listen, Adams Foster, if you're out here, you're not in there potentially getting shot, And if you're not potentially getting shot, you're not dying on your kids who may have already lost one mother today."
Stef's stomach lurched at the thought of Lena's death. She spun and spilled the contents of her stomach behind the cruiser.
"You'll stay right here. I won't have you going back in there."
Suddenly, the alarm stopped. An eerie silence filled the air. The sprinklers could still be heard running, but the blaring alarm had ceased. Stef waited with bated breath, her eyes trained upon the entrance. Suddenly, she saw a figure in the doorway, a SWAT officer clad in full protective body gear. As the train of officers exited the building, Stef wondered what was going on. She remembered having turned her radio off, and reached back to turn it on.
"Building secure, suspect apprehended, no shot takedown."
Stef breathed a sigh of relief that this nightmare was over before realizing that she still didn't know the fate of her wife.
Stef watched the entrance, and when she saw her wife emerge, arms raised, she felt her world stand still and her breathing stop. Before she knew what she was doing, she was running across the lawn toward the entrance of the school, to her wife.
She crashed into her wife in a forceful embrace, her lips seeking her wife's while her hands cradled her lover's head. Her hands explored her wife's body, ensuring she wasn't hurt and that she wasn't a figment of the blonde's imagination.
"Oh, God!" Stef said through kisses and tears, "I thought I'd lost you. I thought…"
"Shhhh, Stef, I'm here. I'm here." Lena embraced her wife, not caring who saw them. "It's over. No fatalities. Everyone is accounted for and alive."
The two women stood in an embrace for a long while, clothes soaking from the sprinkler system. Soon, Mike approached with an emergency blanket for them. "C'mon, let's get you home to your kids."
Stef and Mike dropped Lena off before heading to the precinct. There were going to be mounds of paperwork, but they were most happy that everyone, gunmen included, had escaped unharmed. Somehow, whether they were just bad shots or what, no one had caught a bullet, and that in and of itself was a miracle. As they entered the precinct, the Captain was going an overview of what they knew.
"Two people with guns, a young woman and a young man, were apprehended today successfully. Apparently the parents of the two children, siblings, had received unflattering reports during parent/teacher conferences, and the two individuals in question were desirous of some revenge against their teachers. They have been handed over to SWAT and the FBI who will run an in-depth investigation. Fir right now, give yourselves a round of applause that this didn't turn out worse."
As the officers of the precinct sat stunned from the day's events, the Captain continued, "And each officer will be undergoing a mental evaluation with the psychiatrist before returning to work, no questions about it."
Mike and Stef looked at each other before turning to take a seat.
"You okay?" Mike asked.
Stef shook her head. "No, I thought I'd lost one of them today. Mike, I couldn't bear it. I was so scared when that call came in, and I was scared to enter that building. All I could think about was a kid rounding the corner in escape and getting shot, one of my kids."
"Stef, go home. Hug your wife. Hug your babies. Tell them you love them."
Stef nodded and stood from her seat, "Thanks, Mike." She started to walk to the door and paused, "Hey, Mike?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad you had my six today."
Mike nodded with a smile as Stef turned to leave.
