The Wooden chair creaked as Aeris leaned back against it, her hands clasped firmly in front of her.
"Look," She turned her attention to the man standing across the rickety table from her. "I'm going to ask you one more time. How did you meet him?" His blue eyes were tired but his ears were lowered giving away his frustration.
"And I'm only going to say this one more time," She kicked the floor leaning the chair back dangerously close to tipping it. "I want my lawyer,"
The detective lowered his head. "Aeris you aren't under arrest,"
"And that matters how?" She sat the legs of the chair back down. "You basically kicked down my door, you're asking me incriminating questions, and by answering those questions I would be breaking HIPPA," She closed her mouth quickly, realizing she'd said to much.
"So you met him at work?" The blonde's blue eyes sparkled at the revelation.
"I'm a paramedic Link," She tapped her fingers on the metal table. "I meet a lot of people at work,"
He of course already knew this, the two had been on several scenes together, though the two had never spoken before. "You've been seen with him multiple times by multiple people" Link pushed a stack of files across the table to her.
"Ok and?" She pushed the file back onto the stack.
Link opened his mouth to ask another question but the door to the interrogation room swung open and the best defense attorney in Castle City strode into the room. "I suggest you stop speaking to my client," He flipped his asymmetrical bob and turned to her. "Aeris darling we're leaving,"
Ghirahim Kardas was quite possibly the most flamboyant man Aeris had ever met but he was a damn good lawyer.
She flashed the blond man a sweet smile as she unlocked the metal cuffs around her wrist. She waved to the baffled detective as she followed Ghirahim out of the police station. He guided her to the curb and a sleek black car pulled in front of the pair.
He opened the back door and she stepped inside. "Get her straight home, boys," The two men sitting in the front seats nodded and the door was closed.
"Boss wants to know if you want the detective dealt with?" The one in the passenger seat spoke without turning around.
She sighed and shook her head. "No, lay low for now,"
The man nodded and the driver pulled away from the curb. Aeris looked out the window watching the city pass by, wondering just how she'd ended up here.
Six months ago
It had been a quiet day, the only call that she and Mipha had been on so far was a mom freaking out over her kids tumble down the slide. They were sitting in their rig having lunch, Aeris shook her head as she watched the Zora woman take a delicate bite out of one of the sushi rolls in her lunch box. "I don't see how you eat that everyday,"
Mipha smiled softly. "My brother makes them for me," Her pointed teeth glinted in the sun light.
"Rig 02 what's your position?" Mipha put the container back in her bag and buckled herself into the passenger seat.
Aeris grabbed the radio. "What you got?" She balanced her salad on her lap.
"Code four, multiple GSW's PD at the scene," Aeris looked to Mipha.
So much for a slow day.
The scene was chaos, police cruisers were scattered around the abandoned docks, their red and blue lights cast eerie shadows on the empty shipping containers. Her jump-bag bounced heavily against her side as she jogged to the nearest cop. "What's the situation?" She scanned the area. Mipha was already kneeling next to an injured cop her hands glowing with her healing magic.
"Shoot out with a group of mobsters," The older cop panted lightly. "Multiple of our guys got hit, the perps scattered,"
"Are you hit?" She put her hand on his shoulder and looked him over.
"No, just having some trouble breathing," His face was rapidly turning a deep shade of scarlet.
Aeris scanned the area again and spotted a young EMT, she waved the young woman over. "Chest pains, no visible GSW," She helped the cop to sit. "Give him a work over," She patted the woman on her back. "If you're in over your head, call for help,"
She hoisted her jump-bag up higher on her shoulder and scanned the area, a crash nearby caught her attention and she moved toward it. She stepped between two containers and a pair of hands wrapped around her.
"If you scream, you'll be dead before they get to you," A deep voice whispered in her ear.
She nodded and pulled his hand down off of her mouth. "Are you hurt?"
"Not me," His hand gripped her shoulder and pushed her forward. "Move,"
She did as she was told and let him guide her deeper into the maze of containers. "Can you at least let me know what I'm walking into?"
"What did you call it?" Aeris' heart sank. "A GSW,"
Her mouth went dry as they rounded another corner, several men crowded around a man propped against the side of a container. Black hair fell across his face in matted tangles, and his eyes were screwed shut, but Aeris was focused on the rapidly expanding pool of blood he was sitting in. One of the other men had strips of a torn shirt held tightly in his hands, but seemed unsure of what to do with them.
"Move!" She was instantly in work mode, the world around them faded away. Her sole focus was the wounded man, she deposited her jump-bag and tentatively reached out to touch the man. "Where are you hit?"
The man cracked one eye open and she was taken aback by it's crimson hue. "Right shoulder,"
"This is going to hurt," She grabbed a pair of scissors from her bag and cut the front of his blood stained shirt open.
The bullet seemed to have hit just below the clavicle, the entry wound seemed to be clean enough. The man groaned as she moved him to get a better view of the exit wound, mud and grit had become enmeshed with raw pink flesh it was going to be very painful to clean.
"If he dies the boss is going to have our heads," One of the other men, a young hylian who was likely way in over his head, leaned over her shoulder.
"He needs to go to a hospital," Her voice waivers.
"No hospitals," The one who had grabbed her spoke. "Patch him up and we'll handle the rest,"
"I'll see what I can do," She dug through her bag and pulled out a vial and needle. "Are you allergic to anything?" The man shook his head. "Ok I'm going to give you morphine for the pain,"
She filled the syringe and shook her head, she really wasn't supposed to be doing this, but she highly doubted that these men would hesitate to shoot her. She steadied her shaking hands and inserted the needle into the muscle of his shoulder. "I'm going to pack the wound as best I can, but he really needs to go to a hospital,"
"I said no hospitals," She groaned and continued to dig supplies out of her bag.
She grabbed as much gauze as she could and ripped open the packaging. "I can't stitch you up, because there may be bullet fragments," She began wading the gauze into the entry wound. "Can one of you grab the bottle of distilled water from my bag?"
The young one nodded and reached into her bag. "What do you want me to do with it?"
"I need you to clean the exit wound," The young man paled as Aeris pulled the injured man toward her, exposing his back. "Nothing serious just pour the water over it slowly and gently wipe it away with this," She handed him a pack of gauze.
She talked him through the process of cleaning the wound while she continued packing the entry wound. "Ok that's good," She grabbed another pack of gauze and handed it to him. "Now I need you to help me apply pressure to his shoulder. Pack as much of this as you can into the hole, like this," She carefully folded another piece of gauze and showed him how to place it. "Yeah just like that,"
The raven haired man groaned at the new sensation and she tried her best to murmur words of encouragement to him, in that moment she didn't care that he was likely a dangerous criminal, he was hurt and she was the only one that could help him.
"I can't fit anymore," His arms were covered in blood up to his elbows and red stained the crisp white shirt he wore.
"That's good," She held both hands against her side. "Now hold pressure against it as hard as you can," She looked around. "I need someone to take my place, so I can wrap him up,"
One of the other men stepped forward and easily slid to take her place, not caring about the blood that quickly soaked into his black slacks. The injured man was dangerously pale and she was growing more and more concerned for his well being. Her uniform pants clung to her legs comfortably sticky from the man's blood. "He's lucky I think the bullet missed the axillary artery,"
"Am I supposed to know what that is?" The one who grabbed her crossed his arms as he watched her dig through her bag for a roll of coban.
"If it would have hit that he'd probably be dead by now," She began wrapping his shoulder as tightly as she could causing the man to wince. "I think that just about does it," She sat back and admired her work. "Is anyone else hurt?"
Each of the men stepped forward and she treated them each for minor scrapes and bruises. "Thank you," The man that thanked her seemed genuine.
She waved him off. "Just doing my job," She watched as the group picked up the raven haired man and carried him away.
She stood there for several moments wondering how in the hell she was going to explain this to her supervisor.
The next day she'd woken up to a bouquet of desert roses and pink daylilies sitting on her doorstep with a handwritten tag. Thank you for taking care of my boys ~ G.
She looked up and down her apartments hall but no one was there.
Two weeks later she was just coming off of a night shift standing in her kitchen in a pair of sweats, a tank top, and fuzzy socks heating up a frozen burrito when there was an urgent knock at her door. She looked at the clock on her stove and frowned, it was five thirty in the morning, who could be knocking on her door?
Her burrito was left completely forgotten when she opened her door and four men in suit vests and slacks burst through carrying a fifth with blood seeping through his white shirt. "Sorry to barge in like this," A sixth man sauntered into her apartment, his right arm securely bound in a sling.
"What the fuck?" She hissed as she closed the door behind them. "Are you crazy?"
"Jury's out," His crimson eyes twinkled.
"NO! Not the couch," She rushed to clear the kitchen island and directed the men to lay the injured man on it. "What happened?"
The injured man groaned as he was placed on the table. "He got stabbed,"
She shot the red eyed man an incredulous look. "I see that," She waved the crowding men away and carefully unbuttoned the mans shirt. "Why did you bring him here?" She thought for a moment. "How did you know where I lived?"
"We've been keeping an eye on you,"
Her mouth went dry, the mafia was keeping an eye on her. "My bag is in the back room, can someone go get it for me?"
The dark haired man nodded and one of the men darted into the back room. He returned several moments later with a smaller version of her jump-bag. "I'm not going to end up in a ditch somewhere am I?" She took the bag and carefully began pulling supplies from it.
"We'll see," The man's wicked smile sent chills down her spine. "I see you got the bosses flowers,"
Her eyes darted to the vase sitting on her counter. "They're lovely,"
"The Boss does have excellent taste," He winked at her and she scoffed.
She began working on the injured man, the faster she was finished with him, the faster these men would be out of her home.
She held the small bag of rupees in her hand. "We'll be in touch," Remembering the way that he'd smiled at her as he placed the bag in her hands and left with the group of men, made her shiver.
She turned the bag upside down and gasped as the contents hit her counter. Three golden rupees and a silver one. One thousand rupees sat on her counter top, and she was struggling to breathe.
She was sitting in her kitchen that was covered in a mobster's blood, with a thousand rupees sitting on her counter as payment for saving his life.
What was her life becoming?
A/N:This was supposed to be a oneshot... I don't know what happened. I checked my word count and had 10,000 + words and the end was no where in sight, so we have a new story! If all goes according to plan it's going to be around 10 chapters or so, but it could be longer or it could be shorter.