Because Prawn Crackers asked so nicely, with puppy eyes, here's the next chapter. Only one more chapter and an epilogue left. I promise to finish it before 2014.
Becker stared in awe at his wife who was standing at the top of the stairs, calmly holding her tiny black and pink PPK. Jenkins was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor with a large pool of blood spreading out around him from the large cavity in his chest. He startled back to reality when he heard Sam screaming in his room upstairs and scrambled to his feet so he could get to his kids. He stopped to pick up Jenkins' knife so Jess could cut him free when he got close enough to her. The zip ties had cut into his skin enough to leave blood dripping down his hands and he had to stop so Jess could get the knife to cut him loose. When he was free, he moved to take the gun from his wife, but she shook her head minutely.
"Becker darling," Jess said sweetly, "Can you take care of the babies while I have a little chat with your sister?" Becker nodded dumbly and thumbed the number for the police as he walked into the nursery.
"I need police at my flat for armed intruders," Becker told the operator when she asked for the nature of the emergency, before looking down at the sluggishly bleeding gashes that ran across his abdomen and arm, "and an ambulance." He wasn't really looking forward to being fussed over by the medic, but he ran the risk of Jess getting a little frantic if he didn't. He gave the dispatcher the address and hung up before they could ask him anymore questions so he could turn his attention to his children. Sam's cries had quieted to whimpers by the time Becker picked him up, and the little boy immediately laced his fingers into Becker's shirt for comfort. Becker shifted Sam so that he could hold the infant with one hand and moved to scoop up a confused Paige. The doctors had warned Becker and Jess that, while Paige would never hear without a cochlear implant, their baby girl would be more sensitive to the vibrations from sound then the average person. Sam might have been startled by the loud snap of the gunshots, but Paige had only felt the vibrations that hadn't been familiar.
Headless of the blood that was soaking through the matching shirts the twins were wearing and walked over to the long, squashy couch Becker had gotten in place of the rocking chair when they realized they had twins.
When Jess found him nearly thirty minutes later, after letting the police in and explaining what happened, he was stretched out of the couch with both babies asleep on his chest, acting as unintentional compression for the slashed across his abs.
A knock at the door made Becker tense up, and the babies squirm, until he realized it was just the police and medics. With a put upon sigh, Becker handed the twins to Jess one by one so she could change them into non-bloody clothes and let the medics treat his cuts. He refused to go to the hospital, but the medic didn't fight him on it much as the gashes were all relatively superficial, and made his way over to where a bobby was talking to his wife. The man looked up when Becker walked over to the pair.
"Captain Becker," The officer held out his hand for Becker to shake which he did, "I was just informing your wife that most likely there won't be any charges pressed. Mrs. Rutledge has corroborated your wife's story, though she seems to think she hasn't done anything wrong, and we have the video footage your wife gave us."
"What footage?" Becker asked with a small frown, glancing at his wife for clarification.
"The nanny cams," Jess told him, making eyes go wide in surprise, "I put them in a few weeks ago. I told you I was putting them up." Becker shook his head and Jess frowned.
"How long do they keep the recordings?" Becker asked her, remembering the things they'd done in full view of the camera that he really didn't want anyone to see.
"Right now I have them set to erase after forty-eight hours," Jess informed him, much to his relief, "But the exterior cameras save recordings for a week." That got the officer's attention and he grunted in interest.
"Any way we could get a copy of those as well?" He asked, "It could help the case if we can get them casing your home on video."
"Of course," Jess said as she scurried off to make a copy. Becker watched her go until the officer got his attention again.
"Do you have anywhere you can go while we finish our investigation?" he asked.
"Hotel," Becker told him, though Becker made a mental note to ask Lester to use the company flat. Anything else either man was planning to say was halted when Jess reentered the room with a small hot pink jump drive in her hand.
"Here you are," she said cheerily, handing the small piece of electronics and plastic over to the rather tall and burly officer. Becker very nearly snickered as the man slid the little thing into an evidence bag and his pocket as fast as he could to avoid being seen with something so pink.
"That should be all for now," he told the couple, "You're clear to take thing from the master bedroom and nursery, but we can't allow you to touch anything downstairs."
"We understand," Becker assured him and moved to start packing a bag for himself and Jess, while she made up one for the twins. It took less than ten minutes for them to stuff as much clothing as they could fit into rather small bags, luckily Becker still had his large duffle out so they wouldn't be short on clothes, and begin heading downstairs. The same officer met them at the foot of the stairs to walk them out, and Becker made sure to stand between Jess and the bloody body lying on their dark hardwood floor.
"We do ask that the pair of you not leave London until the investigation is complete," the officer told them when they'd finally made it out the door, "and that you update your contact information with us when you've found place to stay."
"Of course," Jess told him, and led her family the few feet to where Becker's large SUV was parked in the driveway.
At the first decent hotel they came across, Becker checked them into a decent sized suite in case they'd have to stay there for a while. Once in the room Becker settled the twins into the playpen they'd brought to serve as their crib until they could get back to their home, and watched them sleep peacefully for a few minutes while Jess showered away the events of the day. Hell, the year. Making a snap decision, Becker pulled out his phone and called Lester again.
"Yes, what is it Becker?" His boss sighed in his all too familiar tone.
"I'm taking a month off," Becker told him flatly, "I'll be back at the same time Jess is done with her maternity leave." Lester snorted in disbelief.
"And what prompted this decision may I ask?"
"Jenkins and my sister broke into our flat, armed," Becker told him, "They planned on kidnapping Sam and killing the rest of us." There was a long stretch of silence as Lester absorbed the shocking information.
"I knew we should have thrown those two through and anomaly," Lester said finally, "Ah well. I assume things went well and those cretins have been dealt with?"
"Jess shot Jenkins twice," Becker told him, "and my sister is in police custody." That little nugget of information seemed to give Lester a bit of a pause, which might have made Becker smirk in any other instance.
"Yes, well," Lester stammered, "If you must, I suppose I can find someone to cover your duties until you return." As strange as it sounded, Becker actually found Lester's adherence to his normal personality comforting.
"Of course sir," Becker replied and waited for Lester to hang up, but he was surprised when Lester continued.
"Everyone is alright I take it?" Lester's voice only betrayed a hint of the concern he felt, and Becker was once again grateful to have such a man as his boss.
"I was the only one injured Sir," Becker told him, "Just some lacerations and possibly broken ribs."
"Can't you have one fight where you don't manage to break those?" Lester said with a small huff, "Well, as long as everyone important is unharmed, I'll have my P.A. send you the paperwork regarding your enforced holiday." Lester hung up before Becker could gather his senses again after realizing just what Lester was going to arrange for them. After tossing his phone onto his bag and checking on the twins once more, Becker painfully crawled into the sinfully soft bed to wait for Jess to get out of the shower.
"Becker," Jess' soft voice woke him and he popped up from the violent dream he'd been having, only to wince when the movement jarred his ribs.
"Are you alright?" Jess asked, wiping her thumbs across his cheek and Becker was shocked to realize that he'd been crying in his sleep.
"No," Becker confessed and seemed to shrink into himself in a way he hadn't since the first time he'd had to kill a man in combat when he was barely nineteen. Jess crawled into bed beside him so that he could wrap her in his arms as best he could without causing himself pain.
"It's okay," she told him softly, "We're okay."
"I'm so tired," he admitted softly, and the statement itself was proof of just how tired he was, "First King, then my sister and now this. We need a fucking break."
"Then we'll take one," Jess told him leaning up to kiss him slowly, "but you're going to hospital in the morning for those ribs."
"Yes dear," Becker couldn't help but tease, and was rewarded with another kiss from his perfect wife.