Megan sat at the kitchen table for most of the night. Tomorrow was going to be her first day as a full-time Officer in Training with Team One.
Spike had let her take a set of lock-picks home, and some practice locks, as she had passed her SRU qualifying tests, but she really needed to work on the lock picking part, which she had only received an "Acceptable" mark on it. She wanted to attain at least an "Excellent".
She glanced at the stopwatch app on her phone that was timing her while she unlocked what was supposed to be a simple interior single pin lock.
Simple…yeah right.
There was a few times during the night where she had looked up and across the table, hoping her father would be sitting there, watching over her, and giving her words of encouragement.
But he isn't there.
Finally, after 45 seconds, she had opened the lock.
She looked at the chart that Spike had written down the types of different locks, and under what time they had to be unlocked in order to get an "Excellent".
She finally found the interior single pin lock in the chart and went over.
45 Seconds- Acceptable. Dammit!
Then her phone vibrated. She picked it up expecting it to be a phone call, but instead it was a text from her mom. Instead of reading it, she immediately deleted it, as she made her way up stairs and into the bedroom that her parents once shared.
Megan looked around. It had been three weeks since her dad died, and everything looked the same.
"Mom- did you text me?" Megan asked Jules.
"Yeah." She responded, "Did you sleep?"
"No- I've been working on the locks all night."
"You changed the locks?" Jules asked with confusion.
"No, the practice locks."
"Oh, right." Jules said, as she made no intentions of getting out of bed, "You should get some sleep."
Megan left the room.
I don't want to sleep. And it's not because I'm working on the locks, it's because I'm still having dreams that my father is still alive, and I don't want to delude myself into thinking that he is.
And I know for a fact that mom isn't getting much sleep. Because when I didn't hear her rolling around in bed, I hear her talking in her sleep. I've never heard her talk in her sleep before until a few nights ago.
It was really creepy- I was sitting up in bed when I heard her start talking. When I got into the hall, that's when I heard it- she was talking to dad. She's obviously having dreams about him too.
She looked up to the clock in the living room.
0603 hours. Dad would be proud- using the 24 hour clock now. I'll change, go for a run, come home shower- should be around 0800 by then. Ask mom if I can take the Jeep, since she still hasn't picked dad's truck up from the SRU parking lot yet, into work.
Ed decided to go into work early. When he pulled in, he noted two other vehicles in the parking lot. One was Greg's and the other was Perra's.
It has been like that since he died, so he thought nothing of it, and went inside.
Instead of going right for the locker room, he went to Greg's office first.
"First day- you excited?" Greg asked Ed, when he came in.
"I'm excited to have her. She's an excellent addition to the Team. Don't know what we're going to do with her once Jules comes back, but I'm sure we can figure something out."
"I don't think Jules is coming back to SRU Ed." Greg said, as he pointed down to a large envelope.
"She quit?" Ed asked.
"No- last week, the day that Megan did her preliminary SRU testing, Jules came in and told me that she wanted to extend her bereavement leave."
"Until when?"
"Until further notice."
"So? People grieve in different ways boss- you know that." Ed replied.
"It's not that simple Eddie," Greg said, as he picked up the envelope and removed two papers from it, "This is a notice that Sargent Gregory Parker and Team Leader Edward Lane are hereby being sued in the sum of $500,000 for the Disregard of Officer Safety in regards to the death of Kristopher Perrasmith by the party of the survivors of Kristopher Perrasmith, represented by Emily Makinson."
"What?" Ed asked, stunned.
"And there's another one- This is a notice that Sargent Gregory Parker and Team Leader Edward Lane are hereby being sued in the sum of $500,000 for the Wrongful Death of a Police Officer in regards to the death of Kristopher Perrasmith by the party of the survivors of Kristopher Perrasmith, represented by Emily Makinson."
"We're being sued."
"Yeah." Greg replied.
"Does she blame us?" Ed asked, "Does she think that we willfully sent him into an unsafe situation that resulted in his death?"
"No, I don't think she does Eddie- like you said, people grieve in different ways. She's just looking for closure."
"What's her defense?" Ed asked.
"Her lawyer is preparing an official statement; it also says that we are to not have any contact with Julianna Perrasmith for the duration of the case."
"So what? This goes to the public? Who is a judge going to side with- a widow in mourning over the loss of her husband, or two police officers?"
"That's why we're not going public with this Eddie; we're keeping this under Internal Affairs."
"So what happens?" Ed asked.
"Well, she's technically suing us, but at the same time SUI won't let that happen, so it'll most likely be SUI that ends up paying for all this. If it helps, Ed, I'm willing to settle. But you need to be prepared, because someday we're going to have to go on record and give a statement on what happened."
"Alright." Ed said, "You're going to take care of all the paperwork for this?"
"Yeah, don't worry Eddie."
Megan drove into work and parked her mom's Jeep carefully.
Once inside, she made her way into the women's locker room, where she had already setup her locker.
The problem was, once she got to her locker, someone was blocking it.
Ed Lane.
"Ed- what are you doing in here?" Megan asked.
"I have a question for you."
"It couldn't wait?" Megan asked, as she unlocked her locker, since Ed had moved out of the way.
"I didn't want anyone to hear what I'm going to ask, you because I'm assuming it's all close-lipped."
Megan turned around. "What then?"
"Do you blame me for your father's death?" Ed asked bluntly.
Megan thought about it. No one had been so blunt with her since…
A tear started to form up, and Ed noticed it.
"I didn't mean to..." he started.
"No," Megan answered, "It's not your fault Ed. Why?"
"You don't know?" Ed asked.
"Know what?" Megan asked, as a few tears fell down her face, "No one has talked to me, Ed. The only person who's willing to talk about things with me is Spike, but he's been keeping his distance since the funeral."
"I'm sorry," Ed said, as he started out of the women's locker room, "Sorry."
Once changed into uniform, Megan met Ed, Spike and Greg in the gym.
"So what's going on?" Spike asked, "We still on for that warrant today?"
"Yes sir. And it is because of that warrant that we're going to drill this morning, am I right Mr. Lane?"
"That's right," Ed said, as he lead us into the section of the building were teams could drill entries into apartments, homes, and much more, "Alpha one- me and the boss, on aggressive main door entry, while alpha two of Spike and Megan on explosive side entry with flash bangs and suppression gas. We have the very lovely Donna Sabeen standing in today as our suspect, Natasha Livermore. We expect her to be armed, but she does not know we're coming. Am I clear?"
"Copy that."
Megan and Spike readied themselves while Greg and Ed got into position.
Megan watched Spike fiddling with his sling attachment to his MP5.
"Attach it to the 2nd position on the firearm Spike, and you should be more comfortable so it won't be pulling on your shoulder, which then causes your vest to slide, resulting in some nasty vest burn."
"You really are a wealth of information, aren't you?" Spike asked, as he switched the sling mount on the MP5 from the rear point to the side point, "Textbook- that's your new nickname."
"So you've decided to call me 'textbook' because I gave you valuable information that is going to help your comfort level as a whole?" Megan asked, as she got antsy with anticipation.
"Maybe" Spike whispered, "Ed- is alpha one in position yet, or should we wait for you to finish your Eggo?"
"Alpha One in position." Ed radioed in, "Alpha two?"
"We were ready five minutes ago." Spike said, at the same time Megan radioed, "Awaiting your signal."
"Dynamic entry in three, two, one…"
In one swift movement, Megan kicked in the door, as Spike dropped in the flash bang and the suppression gas, all of which released when it hit the ground.
Megan entered first, MP5 ready, with Spike right behind her. It was the job of alpha two to secure the premises while alpha one would make the arrest.
"Bathroom clear!" Spike announced.
"Bedroom and kitchen clear!" Megan sounded out.
"Living room clear alpha two," Greg radioed, "Subject in custody."
Once the simulation was over, the workers of the simulation house turned on the main lights.
"Can someone get these cuffs off of me?" Donna asked, as Spike, Ed, and Greg walked away.
Megan got out her handcuff key and unlocked Donna's cuffs.
"Thanks." Donna responded, "I'm sorry about your dad."
"Everybody is." Megan said, as she put her key back on her belt, and ran ahead to catch up with the rest of Team One.
After the drill, the warrant finally came in, so Team One went out to act upon it.
Setting up exactly like they did at the drill house, but this time with radio silence and stealth, alpha one and two got into position.
"Alpha two in position." Megan whispered into the radio.
"Copy that alpha two- alpha one ready. Wait for your signal." Ed responded.
"Go, go, go , go!" came Ed's signal.
At the same time that Greg used the door sledge to slam open the main door, Megan, like practiced, kicked in the small door and entered.
Immediately she entered the kitchen, only unlike in practice, there were additional people in the apartment.
"I got more signatures in the Kitchen! Police, SRU, get on the ground!" Megan yelled out, as she approached them.
They all followed their orders, as they got on the ground and offered their hands, all of which Megan quickly placed a set of zip cuffs on.
"Three persons in custody!" she yelled out, "Alpha two, mark one, entering bedroom!"
"Bathroom clear!" Spike yelled out.
"Bedroom clear!" Megan relayed to the rest of the team.
"Natasha Livermore in custody!" Ed yelled out.
After Natasha Livermore and her house guests got transferred into lock-up, Team One defected back to base.
The rest of the shift- Spike did a practice test of the locks with Megan before the actual test with Greg.
This time she got her "Excellent" mark.
Maybe it's because I'm more confident now. Maybe…I don't know.
At the end of her shift, as she was heading out, she saw a crew putting the finishing touches on a monumental plaque that was placed in the foyer of SRU. It was placed right beside where Spike had once shown her Lewis' picture, a guy who got killed by a landmine in the line of duty.
Megan approached it, and saw the details of the plaque.
At the top was the Toronto Police Services logo, alongside the SRU logo. Underneath it, in italic writing was 'Kristopher Perrasmith', followed by a picture of him, then a few lines- 'Proud and brave Officer, Loving Husband and caring Father. September 2012.'