Lockdown
"I gotta go." Punk shook his head, buttoning his shirt up whilst AJ sat on the kitchen floor in her underwear.
"What?" AJ shook her head tiredly.
"Dean got another note, from our friends." Punk shook his head, "Says it's bad news."
"I thought they'd disappeared." AJ shook her head, picking her t-shirt up from the floor and pulling it over her body.
"Apparently not." Punk shook his head, "They know we're onto them. They're panicking now." He said as AJ just sighed to herself and stood up, sliding on her sweats as she watched him get the rest of his clothes on.
"What if they… come back and… try and finish what they started?" AJ asked, "I uh… I don't wanna be here alone." She shook her head honestly. She wasn't a scared person, she never really was. She put it down to growing up in such chaotic ways, and she knew her boyfriend shared similar experiences. But after what had happened, even though she felt like she could start moving on, especially with the comfort she had found in Punk, she still felt nervous every time he left during the night.
"Why don't you come with me and stay at Dean's." Punk said, "His girlfriend is super nice, they got a baby that always cries but she's cute, you'll like her." He smiled as AJ just shook her head and looked down at the ground.
"N-No… I don't… I don't even know her." AJ shook her head at the idea.
"She's easy to get along with, trust me. I'll only be gone for… an hour at the most maybe." Punk nodded, "Dean said she's real worried too."
AJ thought about it for a few minutes and realised that she couldn't be so against making friends and getting close to people, and plus, she really didn't want to be alone in the house herself.
"Ok, as long as… I'm not intruding on anything." AJ nodded, folding her arms as Punk smiled.
"Lia would welcome anyone into her house, trust me." Punk said as AJ nodded.
"How long have they been together?" AJ asked him, walking down out of the kitchen with him to head out of the house, grabbing whatever she needed and putting her sweater on.
"A lot of years." Punk nodded, "She was his councillor."
"Councillor?" AJ shook her head.
"Yeah, Dean is uh… recovering addict. Drugs and alcohol." Punk said as AJ raised her eyebrows, "I know, you'd never think it but… he's been there. His rehab was followed up by counselling, him and Lia just hit it off. She's more like a councillor for addicts. She knows what she is talking about." Punk nodded, "They've been together ever since."
"That's a sweet story." AJ nodded, "Dean's so… calm and collected, I never thought for a second." She shook her head.
"Yeah, shows we never really know a person, not really." Punk said as AJ nodded.
"What age is their kid?" AJ asked, closing the front door over and locking it up before heading to the car.
"She's coming up for… eight months I think." Punk nodded, "She's cute."
"I hate kids." AJ shook her head, "Especially babies. They just… seem like such hard work." She said as Punk nodded.
"Yeah, she definitely is. She's a crier." Punk nodded, "Cute when she giggles though." Punk said, getting into the car as did AJ.
"So did Dean say what that letter said exactly?" AJ asked him.
"Just another threatening letter." Punk said, "Said something about the boy with the hit and run. I swear if it's linked then I'll go out of my mind." He said as AJ turned to him, "He said I was probably sent one but… I've just not been home to get it."
"Don't you get worried?" AJ asked him.
"Yeah, I do. Of course I do. These aren't fuckers I wanna mess with." Punk made clear, "But… it's been going on for this long now, I feel like… in a strange way, I'm used to it. And that shouldn't be the case." He said, "They're clearly watching our moves and what we're doing, they know we're onto them, and they think threatening us with letters is gonna make us step away." He made a face, "Not the smartest logically, are they?"
"No, but they are smart, clearly. If they've got away with this for so long." AJ shook her head, "How can they keep it up? How can they continue to want to hurt people?"
"Because they're evil. Trust me. There's a lot of them out there." Punk nodded as AJ sighed.
"Hopefully this gets wrapped up sooner than later." He nodded as AJ sighed, reaching over for his free hand and taking it in hers as his other one stayed on the steering wheel.
They eventually got to Dean's house and Punk took AJ in where Dean was sitting on the couch with Lia.
"Hey." Punk nodded to them both as they watched AJ follow behind, "Uh… I hope you don't mind, AJ… didn't wanna be alone, I said she could maybe… stay here for a bit whilst we go out?" He turned to Lia who looked at AJ.
"Of course." Lia nodded, "Here, come sit down." Lia said, taking AJ's hand and guiding her over to the couch as AJ walked with her and sat down.
"Let me read it?" Punk asked as Dean extended the letter to him. Punk read over the short note and shook his head, looking up at Dean with shock, "I was… I was supposed to get hit by that car?" Punk said as Dean nodded.
"Makes sense." Dean said, "Must have been timed, someone following you, the kid cycled out in front, misjudged the lights, something went wrong." Dean nodded, 'But yeah, that's what the letter insinuates." He sighed as Punk just shook his head.
"So what… now they're fucking… paralysing kids?" Punk shook his head, "They're clearly here, in town, they know what we're doing, what we're planning." He said.
"We should go to the station." Dean nodded as Punk sighed.
"Yeah." Punk said, turning to AJ who just looked up at him, "We won't be long, like… an hour at the most." He assured her again.
"Yeah, I'm fucking tired." Dean sighed. It was a lot of stress and exhaustion that came with their job, especially when working on a case like this.
"We'll be fine here." AJ nodded, turning to Lia who just smiled. She didn't know the girl, hadn't met her in her life, but she felt like they could bond over being nervous, because just like anyone would be in that situation, it was pretty nerve wracking.
Punk and Dean left the house and headed to the station. At certain points, sometimes they didn't really know what to do, they were in a difficult position of not really knowing who they were actually looking for still, and that was frustrating above anything else.
They arrived in the station which was completely empty with just the night porter on reception, walking into the back and heading to their office whilst discussing what they could possibly do and how they could speed things up.
However, when they opened up their office that they shared, they both paused as the entire crime board they had, with all their notes and files had been ruined, ripped apart and rubbed out, with pieces of paper shredded everywhere.
"What the fuck." Dean shook his head, walking further into the office and looking around, "Are you fucking kidding me?!" Dean yelled, kicking the desk angrily whilst Punk's ears picked up outside the office.
"Wait a minute-" Punk put his hand up as Dean looked over at him, "Do you hear that?" He asked as Dean quietened down, walking over to him and listening closely to what sounded like someone typing really quickly.
They both stepped out of the office, standing in the empty room with all the rows of desks and offices surrounding them.
"Who is in here?!" Dean yelled out, hovering his hand over his gun whilst Punk walked further forward to where the noise was coming from, waving his hand for Dean to follow as they slowly crept forward. They knew no one would be working in the offices at this time. Most guys on their shifts would be out on patrol.
Punk tilted his head around the dip in the corner where Seth worked at his desk, arching his brows as he saw him sitting typing.
"Seth?" Punk shook his head, walking another step further as he saw a person standing to the side of Seth, dressed in complete black, with a black hood covering his face, and a gun pointed at Seth.
Punk immediately raised his gun and pointed at the guy as the guy pointed his across to Punk.
"Bit dumb coming here, don't you think?" Punk asked whilst Dean joined him and pulled out his gun.
"Phil, he hasn't spoken a word." Seth shook his head nervously as the man turned his gun back to him, this time pressing it against his neck as Seth put his hands up.
"Hey!" Dean yelled, "Hey, you're going to prison anyway, but you don't wanna do any more stupid things, trust me." He nodded. It was very hard to speak when they could only see his eyes out of his entire body.
"There is three of us and one of you." Punk said, "So you're gonna drop your gun, and we're gonna arrest you." Punk nodded as the man just tilted his head.
Suddenly they jumped as they heard the alarm system ringing through the police station loudly, the lockdown alarm shrieking through it as Punk turned to Dean.
"Who the fuck put us in lockdown?" Dean gritted his teeth, knowing that the lockdown system in the station was legit. Windows got locked, every door, every crack that was possible to get out, got locked.
"Dean." Punk nudged Dean as he watched another man in a black hood walk into the back office area. Dean turned around and raised his gun over at the approaching man whilst Punk kept his on the one who was threatening Seth.
"Seth, what are you doing?" Dean asked.
"I uh… he wants all the files from Sofia's case deleted, and the… and the credit cards." Seth answered.
"Where is the rest of you?" Punk asked, "We know there's four of you." Punk nodded as the man looked across at him in the eye, "You know that when the station goes into lockdown every investigator, detective and cop gets a notification." He said.
"I think they want that." Dean whispered to Punk, "Where are the other two guys?" He gritted his teeth.
"Phil, what… what are we doing?" Seth shook his head, feeling the gun press harder to the back of his neck whilst Punk looked from one of the men to the other, standing beside Dean whilst the alarm continued to ring.
It wasn't like anything he'd ever faced. It was just two shadows were attacking them. No words were muttered from them, no expression, yet they represented so much fear and damage that he wasn't sure how to approach the situation.
"You do anything, we will shoot." Dean warned them both, "There will be cops on their way. This isn't going to work out for either of you." He told them.
Punk then watched as the man standing beside Seth reached for the paper and pen on the desk, writing down something and showing it to Seth only who looked over at Punk and gulped.
"Talking to us isn't going to make a difference." Punk reminded them.
Meanwhile Seth closed out everything on his computer and done as the notepad told him, not sure he had a choice with a gun pressed so hard against the back of his neck.
Punk then watched as the man nodded to Punk at Seth, meanwhile Dean kept his gun aimed at the second man who stood over by the back door.
Punk watched Seth swallow a nervous gulp, turning his laptop around where there was a picture of AJ from her files after being kidnapped. Punk looked at the picture whilst Dean also looked, watching as the man lowered his gun against the laptop where AJ's face was.
"Did you say just milk in your coffee?" Lia called in from the kitchen. Her and AJ had been chatting about the case, about their significant others work and AJ couldn't remember the last time she'd actually enjoyed another females company to the point of having coffee together. Lia was super sweet, and she did feel at ease with her.
"AJ?" Lia called again after not hearing a reply, pouring milk into the coffees and stirring it, shrugging to herself as she assumed there wasn't any sugar necessary.
She then suddenly heard a loud crash from in the living room, like glass shattering, followed by loud commotion. She took the coffees and walked on into the living room, not possibly thinking the complete worst.
She dropped the coffees immediately, staring on in shock and disbelief as she saw a black hooded figure with a hold on AJ, his hand around her mouth as she tried to squirm, meanwhile another man stood beside, the full window broken with glass everywhere.
Lia, as much as she would have helped anyone, could only think about one thing, and that was her daughter, so she quickly ran back out of the living room into the hallway, attempting to go for the stairs when she felt her ankle grabbed, pulling her back down as she tried to kick the man away, "Get off!" Lia yelled, but he grabbed her, pulling her back down the stairs and into the living room whilst she watched the other man tying AJ up, looking over at the black bag in the corner which looked fully packed, gulping whilst AJ looked across at her with an equally terrified face.