Helping Hand
Chapter 15
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"Ow!" he said in a loud whisper as the extent of the pain set in. He felt the burning pain going down his right arm and the slow, warm trickle of blood as it seeped out of the wound and ran down to his hand. He felt his grip on his gun get slippery. He switched the gun to his left hand, but Faith wasn't too concerned as she knew that he always practiced shooting at the range with both hands in the event of just this situation. She'd always teased him about it before, but she was thankful for it now. She was sure she'd hear the "I told you so" from Bosco when all was said and done.
"Bosco! Are you okay? How bad is it?" she asked in a nervous whisper, moving around to get a better look at his wound. She began to try to unbutton his shirt so that she could have room to pull it back and try to see how serious the wound was. Bosco was flinching at the pain the movement was causing. Their attention was again brought back to what was going on as more gunfire erupted despite the sounds of numerous approaching sirens.
Both officers froze as they heard whoever was firing at them come cautiously through the front door. Bosco turned to peek around the corner of the desk and noticed that they were members of the gang that was attacked earlier. Apparently, they had decided to come into a police station and try to exact their revenge on the members of the rival gang that were in custody.
"What are they, stupid?!" Bosco said, looking back at Faith. "You okay?" he asked, seeing the nervous look on her face and remembering that today was her first day back.
She quickly nodded that she was fine and he realized that the look was that she was actually trying to formulate a plan to keep them safe and get Bosco to medical attention.
Faith looked over at Bosco. He obviously didn't realize how badly he was bleeding according to her perception of his reaction to being shot. But, she knew that it wouldn't be long until he started feeling just how much blood he was losing. She just hoped that things would be under control before he lost consciousness and she could get him out of here. She resumed her attempts at looking at his wound. The bullet went in just to the side of his vest, under his arm. She looked around behind the desk, but there was nothing she could use as a makeshift bandage.
They heard numerous police vehicles screeching to a halt outside the building and the gang members that had entered had gotten out of their sight and they weren't sure where they were.
"I see at least two of our guys down out by the front door. One of them is moving, but the other isn't," he called over his shoulder to her as he took another look around the corner of the desk.
"Did you see how many of them there were?" Faith asked, pivoting around to cover the other side of the desk in case someone came from that side. They could hear the sounds of the officers outside calling into the building for the bad guys to surrender and come out. Even though there was very little noise inside the Precinct, it didn't mean that those inside had given up control of the situation to those in command on the outside.
"No," Bosco answered as he cautiously peeked out again and looked toward the front then tried to get a look up the stairs to the booking area and offices located behind the desk. Bosco barely peeked out, but one of the gunmen had seen him. He fired back at Bosco, missing him, but stupidly giving away his position to all of the officers inside the building. No one had a clean shot at the kid though, so no shots were fired.
Bosco ducked back behind the desk and felt his head spin a little. He looked down at his hand and noticed that blood was now dripping from the end of his fingers. "Faith," he whispered. She turned to look at him. "We gotta do something to get those injured guys out of here."
"I know," Faith said, noticing the pale color of his face and the slowly growing puddle of blood on the floor under his arm. "How're you doing?" she asked him.
"Well, my headache's gone," he tried to joke, but he was hit with another wave of nausea and lightheadedness. "I'm starting to not feel too good. We gotta do something fast," he told her.
She nodded to him and holstered her weapon to take off her uniform shirt, leaving nothing but her vest over the t-shirt she wore to avoid the vest chafing her skin. She moved closer to Bosco and, tearing the shirt in two began to try to use it as a bandage to slow the flow of blood. She pulled him forward a little and looked at his back. There was no exit wound, so for all they knew the bullet could have ricocheted and hit something internally.
"Just sit there and relax. I'll get us out of here," she told him. She knew when he didn't argue with her that he was definitely not doing too good. She watched as he leaned back against the desk, leaning his head back and closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again a few seconds later, she noticed that it seemed to take a moment for them to focus properly. "He's gonna pass out soon," she thought to herself.
Bosco put his gun down momentarily on his lap and reached to his radio with his good arm. "Central, this is 55-David from inside the 55th. Put me through to command outside on a closed frequency," he requested.
A moment later, the dispatcher's calm voice came over the radio. "55-David, go with Incident Command on emergency channel." Despite their desire, the other officers in the building knew not to change their radios to the emergency channel as that would broadcast the information Bosco was relaying to the outside to within earshot of the gunmen.
In a quiet voice to try to avoid from being heard by anyone close to him, Bosco said, "Command, this is 55-David. We've got two officers down by the front door. One's moving, one isn't. I don't know how bad they are," he said, pausing as he felt the room spin again. He closed his eyes to stop the nausea and continued. "The perps have moved past me and my partner," he said without thinking, "at the front desk. I think you have a clean shot at getting those officers out and to the hospital. Let me know when you're gonna move and we'll try to cover you from in here."
"10-4, David. Stand by," responded the Commander.
Lieutenant Swersky had switched his portable radio to the emergency channel from his cover point and listened to Bosco's plan. He again tried to peek out from where he was, but was unable to move as the shooters were within his direct line of vision - if he stuck his head up or moved, they'd start shooting for sure. He had turned the volume very low and turned his radio to the emergency channel and heard Bosco's voice over the radio, however, and didn't like the sound of it.
Keying the mike on his radio, he barely whispered, "Swersky to 55-David. What's your situation?"
Bosco was trying to conserve his energy for when he would be needed to cover the men down by the front door. He handed the microphone over to Faith. As she took it, she felt how cold his hand was from the shock that was setting in from the blood loss.
"Lieu, my partner's injured. Holding steady for now, but we need to do something to get him some medical attention. He's losing a lot of blood," Faith whispered back.
"10-4, David," the Lieutenant responded, helpless to do anything right now, but noticing that they were referring to each other as partners again. "There's hope for them after all," he thought to himself. He knew that ESU was already working on a plan to get into the building and search out the shooters.
Suddenly, the silence was interrupted by the sounds of gunfire inside the building. The gunshots were simultaneous with loud profanity directed at the gang members inside the holding cells. The Lieutenant saw the prisoners fall to the ground and took that time to make a stand against the gunmen. He fired a shot, hitting one of them in the leg. "Police! Put your weapons down and show me your hands," he ordered, standing a little taller. He wasn't sure if there were others in the building so he tried to keep an eye out for movement in his peripheral vision.
At the same time that the Lieutenant fired on the men, one of them quickly jumped back and over the banister, landing right behind the desk with Bosco and Faith. He immediately swiveled and turned his gun on the two officers.
Faith looked quickly over at Bosco and saw that he'd lost consciousness. He was lying in a half-sitting position against the base of the front desk, his eyes closed. He had a gray pallor to his face, but Faith could see he was still breathing, although it was labored. The perp saw this too and quickly trained his gun on the officer that could cause him the most harm at the moment - Faith. Luckily, he didn't notice or think to get Bosco's gun away from him.
"Give me your gun," ordered the gunman, who appeared to be only a kid. Faith kept her gun trained on the kid, refusing to relinquish it. She could see the kid was a nervous wreck - probably his first real gang activity. He still had the bruises that Faith had assumed were from being beaten into the gang not too long ago. She wanted to ask him if this is what he'd bargained for when joining the gang - a trip to Ryker's and probably a death penalty if any of these injured officers died. She looked over at Bosco again and then quickly back to the boy.
"Look. I'm not gonna put the gun down and I'll bet I can still take you out if you shoot at me," Faith said. "So, just drop the gun and I'll see what I can do to help you when this is all over."
The nervous kid just looked at her without saying anything. "I can't. I gotta do this," the kid said, slowly pulling his arm straighter and aiming the gun at Faith.
Out of nowhere, they both heard the click of the safety being released from a weapon and without a sound, Bosco had his gun stuck in the kid's ear. Faith could see he was fighting to remain conscious and she took advantage of the boy's shock and grabbed for and got his gun away from him. Not a moment too soon either as Bosco fell back against the desk again, unconscious.
"Move over here," she told the kid and he did. She moved closer to Bosco and without taking her eyes or her gun off the kid, she reached down with one hand to check Bosco's pulse. It was weak and rapid, a sign that he was in shock. His breathing was still loud and labored which worried her. She thought that maybe he had a lung injury for the bullet that had gone in. She told the kid to grab a stack of the papers that were under the desk and put them under Bosco's feet to elevate his legs for the shock.
"Lieu!" she called out. "I've got one at gunpoint here."
"I got one too. ESU's coming in. I think that's all of them, including one that was shot as he came through the door. Just stand by until ESU sweeps and gives us the all-clear," he called back. "Are there any other injuries?" he called out and was relieved to hear that there weren't.
"Faith. How's Bosco?" he called over to her.
"Not good, Lieu. Tell ESU to hurry up," she answered.
"We're right here," one of the ESU officers said as they came around the desk and took the young kid into custody. Faith holstered her weapon and went to Bosco's side. Two other officers came in and grabbed Bosco. Faith followed them out of the building to the waiting Paramedics from the firehouse across the street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TBC...
Chapter 15
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ow!" he said in a loud whisper as the extent of the pain set in. He felt the burning pain going down his right arm and the slow, warm trickle of blood as it seeped out of the wound and ran down to his hand. He felt his grip on his gun get slippery. He switched the gun to his left hand, but Faith wasn't too concerned as she knew that he always practiced shooting at the range with both hands in the event of just this situation. She'd always teased him about it before, but she was thankful for it now. She was sure she'd hear the "I told you so" from Bosco when all was said and done.
"Bosco! Are you okay? How bad is it?" she asked in a nervous whisper, moving around to get a better look at his wound. She began to try to unbutton his shirt so that she could have room to pull it back and try to see how serious the wound was. Bosco was flinching at the pain the movement was causing. Their attention was again brought back to what was going on as more gunfire erupted despite the sounds of numerous approaching sirens.
Both officers froze as they heard whoever was firing at them come cautiously through the front door. Bosco turned to peek around the corner of the desk and noticed that they were members of the gang that was attacked earlier. Apparently, they had decided to come into a police station and try to exact their revenge on the members of the rival gang that were in custody.
"What are they, stupid?!" Bosco said, looking back at Faith. "You okay?" he asked, seeing the nervous look on her face and remembering that today was her first day back.
She quickly nodded that she was fine and he realized that the look was that she was actually trying to formulate a plan to keep them safe and get Bosco to medical attention.
Faith looked over at Bosco. He obviously didn't realize how badly he was bleeding according to her perception of his reaction to being shot. But, she knew that it wouldn't be long until he started feeling just how much blood he was losing. She just hoped that things would be under control before he lost consciousness and she could get him out of here. She resumed her attempts at looking at his wound. The bullet went in just to the side of his vest, under his arm. She looked around behind the desk, but there was nothing she could use as a makeshift bandage.
They heard numerous police vehicles screeching to a halt outside the building and the gang members that had entered had gotten out of their sight and they weren't sure where they were.
"I see at least two of our guys down out by the front door. One of them is moving, but the other isn't," he called over his shoulder to her as he took another look around the corner of the desk.
"Did you see how many of them there were?" Faith asked, pivoting around to cover the other side of the desk in case someone came from that side. They could hear the sounds of the officers outside calling into the building for the bad guys to surrender and come out. Even though there was very little noise inside the Precinct, it didn't mean that those inside had given up control of the situation to those in command on the outside.
"No," Bosco answered as he cautiously peeked out again and looked toward the front then tried to get a look up the stairs to the booking area and offices located behind the desk. Bosco barely peeked out, but one of the gunmen had seen him. He fired back at Bosco, missing him, but stupidly giving away his position to all of the officers inside the building. No one had a clean shot at the kid though, so no shots were fired.
Bosco ducked back behind the desk and felt his head spin a little. He looked down at his hand and noticed that blood was now dripping from the end of his fingers. "Faith," he whispered. She turned to look at him. "We gotta do something to get those injured guys out of here."
"I know," Faith said, noticing the pale color of his face and the slowly growing puddle of blood on the floor under his arm. "How're you doing?" she asked him.
"Well, my headache's gone," he tried to joke, but he was hit with another wave of nausea and lightheadedness. "I'm starting to not feel too good. We gotta do something fast," he told her.
She nodded to him and holstered her weapon to take off her uniform shirt, leaving nothing but her vest over the t-shirt she wore to avoid the vest chafing her skin. She moved closer to Bosco and, tearing the shirt in two began to try to use it as a bandage to slow the flow of blood. She pulled him forward a little and looked at his back. There was no exit wound, so for all they knew the bullet could have ricocheted and hit something internally.
"Just sit there and relax. I'll get us out of here," she told him. She knew when he didn't argue with her that he was definitely not doing too good. She watched as he leaned back against the desk, leaning his head back and closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again a few seconds later, she noticed that it seemed to take a moment for them to focus properly. "He's gonna pass out soon," she thought to herself.
Bosco put his gun down momentarily on his lap and reached to his radio with his good arm. "Central, this is 55-David from inside the 55th. Put me through to command outside on a closed frequency," he requested.
A moment later, the dispatcher's calm voice came over the radio. "55-David, go with Incident Command on emergency channel." Despite their desire, the other officers in the building knew not to change their radios to the emergency channel as that would broadcast the information Bosco was relaying to the outside to within earshot of the gunmen.
In a quiet voice to try to avoid from being heard by anyone close to him, Bosco said, "Command, this is 55-David. We've got two officers down by the front door. One's moving, one isn't. I don't know how bad they are," he said, pausing as he felt the room spin again. He closed his eyes to stop the nausea and continued. "The perps have moved past me and my partner," he said without thinking, "at the front desk. I think you have a clean shot at getting those officers out and to the hospital. Let me know when you're gonna move and we'll try to cover you from in here."
"10-4, David. Stand by," responded the Commander.
Lieutenant Swersky had switched his portable radio to the emergency channel from his cover point and listened to Bosco's plan. He again tried to peek out from where he was, but was unable to move as the shooters were within his direct line of vision - if he stuck his head up or moved, they'd start shooting for sure. He had turned the volume very low and turned his radio to the emergency channel and heard Bosco's voice over the radio, however, and didn't like the sound of it.
Keying the mike on his radio, he barely whispered, "Swersky to 55-David. What's your situation?"
Bosco was trying to conserve his energy for when he would be needed to cover the men down by the front door. He handed the microphone over to Faith. As she took it, she felt how cold his hand was from the shock that was setting in from the blood loss.
"Lieu, my partner's injured. Holding steady for now, but we need to do something to get him some medical attention. He's losing a lot of blood," Faith whispered back.
"10-4, David," the Lieutenant responded, helpless to do anything right now, but noticing that they were referring to each other as partners again. "There's hope for them after all," he thought to himself. He knew that ESU was already working on a plan to get into the building and search out the shooters.
Suddenly, the silence was interrupted by the sounds of gunfire inside the building. The gunshots were simultaneous with loud profanity directed at the gang members inside the holding cells. The Lieutenant saw the prisoners fall to the ground and took that time to make a stand against the gunmen. He fired a shot, hitting one of them in the leg. "Police! Put your weapons down and show me your hands," he ordered, standing a little taller. He wasn't sure if there were others in the building so he tried to keep an eye out for movement in his peripheral vision.
At the same time that the Lieutenant fired on the men, one of them quickly jumped back and over the banister, landing right behind the desk with Bosco and Faith. He immediately swiveled and turned his gun on the two officers.
Faith looked quickly over at Bosco and saw that he'd lost consciousness. He was lying in a half-sitting position against the base of the front desk, his eyes closed. He had a gray pallor to his face, but Faith could see he was still breathing, although it was labored. The perp saw this too and quickly trained his gun on the officer that could cause him the most harm at the moment - Faith. Luckily, he didn't notice or think to get Bosco's gun away from him.
"Give me your gun," ordered the gunman, who appeared to be only a kid. Faith kept her gun trained on the kid, refusing to relinquish it. She could see the kid was a nervous wreck - probably his first real gang activity. He still had the bruises that Faith had assumed were from being beaten into the gang not too long ago. She wanted to ask him if this is what he'd bargained for when joining the gang - a trip to Ryker's and probably a death penalty if any of these injured officers died. She looked over at Bosco again and then quickly back to the boy.
"Look. I'm not gonna put the gun down and I'll bet I can still take you out if you shoot at me," Faith said. "So, just drop the gun and I'll see what I can do to help you when this is all over."
The nervous kid just looked at her without saying anything. "I can't. I gotta do this," the kid said, slowly pulling his arm straighter and aiming the gun at Faith.
Out of nowhere, they both heard the click of the safety being released from a weapon and without a sound, Bosco had his gun stuck in the kid's ear. Faith could see he was fighting to remain conscious and she took advantage of the boy's shock and grabbed for and got his gun away from him. Not a moment too soon either as Bosco fell back against the desk again, unconscious.
"Move over here," she told the kid and he did. She moved closer to Bosco and without taking her eyes or her gun off the kid, she reached down with one hand to check Bosco's pulse. It was weak and rapid, a sign that he was in shock. His breathing was still loud and labored which worried her. She thought that maybe he had a lung injury for the bullet that had gone in. She told the kid to grab a stack of the papers that were under the desk and put them under Bosco's feet to elevate his legs for the shock.
"Lieu!" she called out. "I've got one at gunpoint here."
"I got one too. ESU's coming in. I think that's all of them, including one that was shot as he came through the door. Just stand by until ESU sweeps and gives us the all-clear," he called back. "Are there any other injuries?" he called out and was relieved to hear that there weren't.
"Faith. How's Bosco?" he called over to her.
"Not good, Lieu. Tell ESU to hurry up," she answered.
"We're right here," one of the ESU officers said as they came around the desk and took the young kid into custody. Faith holstered her weapon and went to Bosco's side. Two other officers came in and grabbed Bosco. Faith followed them out of the building to the waiting Paramedics from the firehouse across the street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TBC...