Revenge

Chapter 23

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Trisha was sleeping fitfully. She was tossing and turning. Finally she awoke and sat up in the bed, turning on the bedside lamp. She looked around the room - the room that Maurice had grown up in. Rose had insisted that Trisha come and stay with her to wait for news, so they had all made the trip to and from the 55th Precinct each day to await news.

She sat on the edge of the bed, trying to figure out exactly what it was that her mind was trying to tell her during her sleep. There were bits and pieces of pictures that flashed in her dreams, but she was unable to put them together.

Her thoughts wandered back to the last time she had seen him. She had come in the front door of Haggerty's and looked around. She found him at the bar, ordering a beer, his back to her. She thought that odd since he had always managed to situate himself, nonchalantly, so that his back was against the wall and he could watch everything going on. She had asked him about it once and his simple reply with a smile was, "It's a cop thing." She remembered thinking as she approached him now at the bar, with his back to her, that in a cop hangout, not everyone could have their back to the wall or they'd all be lined up around the room and laughed again at the thought. She had watched him while she approached. She always loved watching him - so sure of himself - so confident. And when he held her she always felt safe in his arms. And warm. She remembered lying next to him talking quietly to each other about anything and everything, his arms around her, feeling safe and warm. She'd thought she could stay that way forever. Now as she approached, he acknowledged friends that would walk by, an easy smile coming to his face.

Suddenly, she felt another presence in the room and looked up to see Rose standing in the doorway.

"You couldn't sleep either?" Rose asked her quietly, holding a cup of tea for her.

"On and off. I keep having pieces of a dream. I can't help but think they mean something," Trisha told her, standing up and taking the steaming cup from her.

"You mean like a vision or something?" Rose asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed. Trisha sat back down again too.

"No. I don't think so. I don't know if it's a dream, or something I remember Maurice telling me about," she tried to explain.

"Well, what do you see in the dream? Maybe we can both work on piecing it together," Rose offered.

Trisha began relaying what she'd been seeing. "Something about kids. Hurt kids. Maurice was upset," she said. "That's all I have," she said in frustration.

"Hmm. Kids and Maurice is upset. Well, Maurice never likes it when kids are hurt or being abused," Rose relayed to her. "I don't know if he ever told you, but he had a pretty hard time when he was growing up. Both he and Mikey did. Their Dad - is a drunk. And, he was a mean drunk. He used to beat me up regularly and Maurice would try to step in and ended up getting beat too," she said with shame.

"I don't know why I didn't leave him. I blame myself for that every day," Rose said sadly.

Trisha put a hand on Rose's arm. "He knows you have regrets. He doesn't blame you as much as you might think, Rose. If anything, I think he still blames himself for not being able to make his father stop."

Rose looked at Trisha. For Maurice to have opened up like this with someone, she must be pretty special. "You're good for him, Trisha. A calming influence in the violent world that he lives in."

"Thanks," she replied. "He's good for me too. I feel... safe with him. You see my childhood was nothing too great either. I was passed around from foster home to foster home."

"I didn't know that," Rose said tenderly. "Well, welcome to our family - such as it is." Rose stood up, took the empty cup from Trisha's hand and said, "You try to get some more sleep. Maurice is going to need us when we get him home."

Trisha watched Rose walk out of the room and smiled to herself. The feeling of finally belonging somewhere was great. She just hoped that she could have Maurice back soon. She turned off the light and went back to bed, hoping for peaceful sleep. But, she started with the same scenes running through her head as soon as she fell asleep and tried to make sense of them.

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The dog wandered up onto the front steps of the house. Unable to awaken anyone inside to be let in, Bailey lay down on the steps in front of the door, facing the house that Lucas and Tommy had entered and not come out of.

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The boys remained under the bed where Bosco lay unconscious, trying to figure out what to do. It was quiet in the house for now and they were considering trying to make their escape.

"Should we go?" mouthed Tommy to Lucas. Lucas shrugged and then tried to creep out to the edge of the bed to see if he could tell if anyone was still awake. As he got to the edge and poked his head out, he was startled as he heard the man above him make noise. He shrunk back out of sight and both boys remained still, listening.

"55-David to Central. We're approaching 103rd and Arthur. Is there any more information on a direction of travel for that hit and run vehicle?" Bosco called out into the darkness.

The boys looked at each other and assumed that the man above them was talking in his sleep. They felt the bed shaking above them, obviously from the man thrashing about.

"10-4. We have the vehicle in sight and are in pursuit south on Arthur. Advise the Sergeant that this vehicle is traveling at a high rate of speed. Request permission to 'pit' this vehicle when able to do so safely," Bosco said, a more tense edge to his voice.

Suddenly, they heard the man above them yell out, "Faith! Hold on!"

"No! Faith, oh my God! Are you alright?!" he yelled with dread in his voice.

"55-David to Central. We need buses forthwith! We've been hit. There are civilian injuries. Repeating, there are civilian injuries. Help me. Faith, help me!" he yelled out.

The boys heard the man from the other room get up and walk down the hallway. They saw a light come on from the hallway and his shadow in the doorway.

"Shut up!" yelled the man as he walked over. "You've caused enough trouble!" he yelled again, shaking Bosco and scaring the boys.

"Ahhhh!" Bosco cried out in pain. "No! You're wrong. It wasn't my fault. I didn't mean it," Bosco told him, trying to make sense through his pain.

"No! You could have stopped. Instead you chased that car and hit another car. You should have stopped!" said the man, tears forming in his eyes.

"Not a day goes by that I don't think of them - the people that I...," he paused, unable to say it.

"KILLED!" the man finished for him. "The people you killed! My wife! My daughters! They were only babies! You KILLED them," he yelled again, the tears and sobs flowing freely now. The man felt the rage coursing through him and looked around the room for something to lash out with.

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TBC...