With his glock held out in front of him all Ed could hear ringing in his ears was the sound of his heavy breathing and his boots as they rhythmically pounding the concrete, his lungs were burning, and his legs screamed with the build up of lactic acid, the heat of the midday sun made the sweat pour off of him stinging his eyes, but knowing he couldn't give up till this scumbag was in custody Eddie pushed himself past his limits.
"SRU... SRU... stop right there, stop right there!" Ed's angry orders reverberated off the walls of dingy back alley as he continued his pursuit of the armed suspect who had just tried to rob a convenience store.
"Don't think he's stopping anytime soon Ed...it looks like he hasn't even broken a sweat" Sam's breathless voice filtered through Ed's ear piece.
"Eddie...Sam... we need to head this guy off if he makes it to the Eaton Centre we'll have a whole new ball game on our hands"
"Working on it boss" came Eddie's laboured reply as he desperately tried to push air into his lungs keeping himself moving forward slowly cutting down the distance between himself and his prey a little bit at a time.
"Need an update Eddie?"
"We're half way down McCaul" Eddie replied all the time thinking to himself that if this didn't come to an end soon he was going to need EMT to treat him for the heart attack he was about to have "Police stop...stop right there...don't make me shot you son"
"This only stops if you can catch me copper" was the only response to Ed's angry demand making him curse under his breath.
"Ed we've just pulled up at the corner of Queen St West and your location Spike's at Dundas so he's no where to go just keep him coming this way and we will head him off"
"Good to know Wordy but he's decided not to go along with our plan" grumbled Sam as he continued to try and keep up with his team leader "Ed he's heading up the fire escape"
"I can see that Sam"...Ed snapped his frustration starting to show through... "Go around the front and come through the shops back stairway I'll follow him from here" Ed growled not believing he was now going to add a step workout on top of the marathon he felt he had already run.
Standing at the bottom of the ladder and without missing beat Ed took no time in holstering his glock and looking up he saw his suspect disappear onto the roof, grabbing the run of the ladder and taking a deep breathe while wiping the sweat out of his eyes Eddie started to climb following the same route, as he got to the top he slowed his pace, and knowing that he was unarmed he gingerly looked over the parapet hoping that he wasn't going to come face to face with the business end of a gun.
"Eddie where are you?"
"Top of the fire escape" came a hushed reply.
"Where's our subject?"
Looking at the scene in front of him Eddie slowly replied "Standing in the middle of the roof top with his back to me...not moving" cautiously climbed the last few runs of the ladder and stepping onto the roof making sure his sidearm was back in his hand as he did so.
"What's he doing?"
"He isn't doing anything boss, he's just standing there" slowly moving forward trying to quickly recover from the strenuous exercise he had just been through Eddie pulled in lung fulls of air through his nose and out his mouth his chest rapidly raising and falling..."Police show me your hands...show me your hands"
"Careful Eddie Sam's just seconds away"
Out the corner of his eye Eddie caught a glimps of Sam slowly coming through the doorway leading from the shop.
"Copy boss Sam's just arrived" gun raised and his breathing under control Eddie shouted his request "Place the gun on the ground...slowly turn around and show me your hands...do it...do it now"
Grinning as he did so the young robber finally fully complied with Eddie's command.
"That was fun shame he told me I had to stop...I told myself a little way back Aaron you carry this on that big bald officer's gonna have a heart attack...man you were huffiing and puffing but you gave me a good run for my money"
"You call robbing a store fun"? Eddie asked looking over at Sam in disbelief.
"The store wasn't important it was the chase that mattered but like I say I was told to stop, otherwise I would have made you chase me all the way across town...think you could have kept up officer"?
Now Ed's adrenaline levels were dropping it was quickly being replaced with frustration and anger as he started to get the distinct impression he was being made a fool of in some strange way.
"What do you mean you were told to stop"? Ed asked through clenched teeth.
Seeing he was having the desired affect on Ed's emotions a smirk slow developed on Aaron's face "Oppsie said too much, but like I said it was fun" he laughed.
"Well sorry to disappoint you"... Eddie hissed over his shoulder as he placed him in handcuffs and picked up the gun handing it to Sam ..."Aaron...funs over now".
As they walked over to the exit off the roof and down to the shops below Sam following close behind Ed couldn't help but replay the conversation over in his head only making his levels of frustration raise dangerous high.
Outside on the sidewalk Eddie roughly handed Aaron off the the uniform officers "Here take care of this asshat would ya" and not even looking back as laughter once again rung out behind him.
Walking over the where the rest of the team stood nervously watching knowing that Ed Lane this volatile was a dangerous and unpredicatable thing.
"What"? Ed asked as he stopped in front of them
"For your first day back on the job after 5 weeks off that was quite a de-tour of the city you took there my friend" Greg replied trying to take the edge off of Eddie's anger.
"Yeah well you know what Greg next time I'll drive you chase how does that sound?"
Looking at Eddie glaring at him Greg got the feeling he was missing something.
"Sounds like to me Eddie there's something more then this chase with young Aaron over there that's bothering you, so like to enlighten us?"
Placing his hands on his hips Ed turned away from Greg and the team taking a few moments to rein his temper in before he turned back shaking his head.
"He said it was fun but someone told him to stop...it was like this whole incident was a game...I don't know Greg maybe its..." but before Eddie could finish he felt his phone vibrate taking it out of his pocket he looked at the unknown number frowning pushing the answer button "Lane"
"Hello officer Lane nice to see you back at work again and that you seem to have recovered well from your recent injuries"
Looking at Greg Ed instantly place his phone on speaker and gestured for the team to listen in on the call.
"Who is this?" Ed asked in a low meacing voice
"Tut tut Edward I'm hurt you've forgotten our meeting at the warehouse already...obviously leaving you with that rather nasty scar doesn't seemed to have made much of an impression must remember to rectify that the next time we meet, and I must admit watching you today did give me a couple of hours of amusement but alas I decided you had received enough punishment for one day so I put a stop to it."
"Spike trace the call now" Greg whispered
"Yeah well next time we meet I can assure you you'll remember it!" Ed shouted holding the phone so tight his knuckles were white the anger emanating off him in waves.
"Edward...Edward you must learn to control that temper of yours it will get you into trouble"
"You don't know the meaning of the word trouble but you will" Eddie spat the words out like a bad taste in his mouth.
"Well all I can say is I hope you like games because we are going to be playing a few very soon...I hope you'll be ready to move this up a level" and with that the line went dead.
"Spike"?
"Sorry Ed the call wasn't long enough"
"Great" was all Eddie could say as he turned way and venting his anger punched the first thing immediately behind him sending and explosion of glass shards and blood all over the sidewalk.
"Whoa whoa Eddie stop" Wordy grabbed Eddie's arm stopping him from repeating the last performance again..."Breathe I know you're angry and frustrated but you're letting it seriously cloud your judgement here and that's not gonna help" seeing from Ed's face that he was finally registering what he was saying Wordy continued "Don't let him get in your head remember we're in this together and if he wants to play games we'll give him one and believe me buddy it's one he's never gonna win or forget".
Pulling his arm out of Wordy's grasp and letting the pain of the cut on his forearm clear his senses Eddie sighed and nodded.
"Good...now lets go and get that arm checked out and then we'll go back to the barn sit down as a team and set out some game rules."