Above and Beyond

Genre: Family; Friendship; Drama; FUTURE FIC

Pairings: Rosie and Julian, background

Main characters: Julian, Johnnie, Scott, introducing PC Naomi Jacobsen

Julian Bailey thought hazily about that old saying, "He never knew what hit him." Dreamily, he pondered this. He supposed there could be no question, that old cliché definitely didn't apply in this case. He might feel a bit out of sorts – alright, a LOT out of sorts – but he definitely knew he'd just been shot.

Blinking his eyes to clear the fog, he looked down at the young Police Constable, draped over his body, with her both of her hands rather provocatively squeezing his thigh. Didn't seem quite proper, Julian reckoned, until he realized he was sitting in a pool of something warm, wet, and sticky.

He raised his hand to rouse the young woman, who, he soon realized, was quite coherent, and very much awake – she was merely focused, was all. He pulled his hand away quickly as he felt more of that warm stickiness, and with a sickening thud to his gut as the nauseating scent of copper assaulted his senses, realized it wasn't from him, this time.

"Oh, bollocks," he whispered, breathlessly, as he studied his hand – holding it in front of him as if it were something he'd never seen before. "Constable," he said softly, breathlessly, "you've been shot, I think."

"Oh? Sir?" she responded, glancing up to him, a curious look in her sapphire blue eyes. "Oh… THAT," she said lightly. "Never mind that sir, it's just a graze."

"Hmmm," he murmured, in thoughtful agreement, pausing as if in reflection. "Constable?" Julian said suddenly, dimly aware of approaching sirens and the fact that what he sat in was a pool of his own blood. When he received no response, he reached up again. "Naomi," he said, a bit more firmly. "You can let go of my leg now."

Naomi Jacobsen, a Police Constable three quarters of the way through her rookie year with New Scotland Yard, calmly gazed up at her superior. "No, Sir, I'm afraid I can't do that," she said, almost apologetically. "I believe the bullet YOU took didn't simply graze you. You see, Sir," she explained with a comforting tone, "based upon the arterial spray from your wound, I would guess at the very least it nicked your femoral artery. Sir, if I let go of your leg, I'm afraid you may bleed out right here."

"Oh," Julian said dreamily, as his head began to feel light, taking a closer look at her face, now realizing that her freckles weren't really freckles, for they covered not only her face, but her neck and her uniform shirt - but rather they were dots and spatters of what he could only assume now was his own blood. "I see. Well then, in that case… carry on, Constable."

Naomi smiled at him. "Yes, Sir, thank you Sir. I believe the ambulance is nearly here. You've taken a single bullet to your left thigh, a through and through. Well at least they won't have to go digging around for the slug, that's always a good thing, isn't it, Sir," she laughed softly. "Stay with me Sir, I see them turning onto the street now. That's it," she encouraged. "They're just pulling up now, and will you just look at that, you've made it. And I think it's the Lestrade boys too, aren't we both in luck! I've heard they're the best of the best."

Julian opened his eyes at the words, thinking to himself as the sequence of events began to return to him, that this young woman was going to be put in for a commendation once he'd recovered his faculties.

"Oh, bloody hell, Julian," Scott Lestrade said, as he ran over to them, dropping his bag. "What have you gone and done?"

Julian smiled then threw his head back and laughed weakly. "I've gotten myself into a bit of a pickle, it seems. And this young woman has saved my life. In more ways than just one, at that."

Constable Jacobsen blushed at this, or would have, if she hadn't already been pale from shock and her own blood loss, which, to be fair, was relatively minor compared to her superior's.

"Oh?" John said, settling down on the ground across from Naomi. Gently, he encouraged her to let go of the wound as he took over the care of it, while Scott busied himself taking a good look at Naomi's injury, her bleeding already slowed considerably.

"When I have a chance, it will be a point of official record that Police Constable Naomi Christina Jacobsen put herself directly into the line of fire, using her own body as a shield to protect me after I'd gone down with a gunshot wound to the leg," Julian stated, as officially as he could under the circumstances.

"She's a very lucky lass, I reckon," Scott said, as he studied her face, seeing something in her eyes that was hauntingly familiar… yet he couldn't quite place it. "I mean, stab vests aren't designed to stop a bullet." He tried to ignore the sudden icy knot in his belly as a very different scenario flashed through his mind while he expertly bandaged her wound. "I'm going to guess that you were shot after you fell to the ground and not before?"

Naomi, suddenly feeling extremely self-conscious, simply nodded. "DS Bailey went down, and I… I guess I didn't really think. His leg was spurting blood… I knew I had to stop it without delay… I'm not honestly sure at which point I was shot myself, I only knew I had to protect him, whatever the cost. I mean, he's got a wife at home, a baby… I couldn't…" she suddenly teared up.

John frowned thoughtfully, glancing back and forth between his brother and the young woman.

"It's alright, Naomi," John said, in the soothing way he and Scott had while on duty. "You don't' have to elaborate."

"No, you don't understand," she insisted, as she cleared her throat, trying to stop her voice from becoming thick. "I couldn't let her feel what I feel… it's too hard. I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

Scott caught his breath, the memory of a crushing loss punching him squarely in the gut. So that's what it was about her eyes, then. Shaking his head, he looked to John. "Ready?" he asked suddenly, as he rose to his feet.

John, still frowning slightly, shook the distracted thoughts from his mind. With a half-smile and nod in acknowledgement, he watched after Scott as he went to retrieve the stretcher.

Julian, now feeling a bit more coherent, studied both of his friends, then glanced to the young Police Constable who had used herself as a shield in order to save him… and it would seem, save his Rosa from losing her husband. In a flash, he realized the younger woman had the protective instincts of a mother as well - explaining why she'd done what she'd done without a second thought.

"Naomi," Julian said quietly, as he reached up to attract her attention to him. "You've gone above and beyond the call of duty today. I'll not forget it, and I promise you, neither will my wife, and when my daughter is old enough, she'll know was well what you've done today. We owe you a debt I'm not sure we can ever repay."

Naomi took a deep breath, suddenly feeling exhausted. She glanced, speechless, at her superior officer, as Scott returned to her side, helping her to her feet.

"This way then, lass," he said gently, as he took her arm, holding her up from wobbly knees. "You know, it does get easier, in time," he said quietly, as he leaned his face towards her ear, his voice just above a whisper. "It's never effortless, it will never be effortless… and we never forget, but in time… the pain does subside."

"Oh, you've been shot before too?" she asked him curiously, not quite understanding. She looked into his eyes, as was her habit when talking to someone, and suddenly her breath caught. "Ah… no, you haven't taken a bullet, not a literal one, any road," she said.

Scott glanced at her, knowing this young woman he'd only just met understood him better than anyone he knew, apart from Uncle John. With no further words, he helped her into the back of the ambulance. With a signal to John, and a sudden fanfare of lights and sirens, they pulled away from the scene.