Callie POV
My probation time ended last week. Captain decided to keep me, so I guess I was doing something right. During the 3 months, I have gotten a lot closer to all of my colleagues and the time spent waiting around at the firehouse seem to pass faster.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Beth waved her hand in the air trying to stop me from rambling further. We were sitting at the fire station long table along with few firefighters, passing time chatting till our next call comes in.
"You are telling me you have a pepper spray, a baton, a taser and a whistle?" My partner leaned onto the table as she tried to specify. All of the guys, who were sitting at the table, were looking at me waiting for me to answer as well, I could see they were all curious as to why I had so many self-defence items.
"Yeah," I nodded back smiling, making my colleagues chuckle at me "My mom got me a pepper spray, my step-father got me a baton, Stef got me a taser, but Lena got me a whistle," I explained as simply as I could, but I could still tell some of the guys were not fully understanding, whose these people were, after all Beth was the only one who had gotten to know my full family.
"Have you ever used either one of those items?" Kyle, the fire fighter, wondered as he leaned back in the chair and put his hands behind his head
I racked my brain for a moment, before I replied "The taser has been used one time," I said before I tried to recall the day it happened
It was just few days after my final exams to become a paramedic. I had received the results and learned that I have passed all of the exams with flying colours. The first small celebration was at my home, with just my mom and Cooper. After that, Lena and Stef insisted on throwing me a little party at their home. At first I tried to tell them that they don't need to throw me a party, that I should be inviting them over, but Lena managed to persuade me by explaining that it wouldn't be a party, just a BBQ like they often used to throw, simply time to spend together and celebrate my achievement on the side.
The day for our small gathering was ideal. It was warm, barely any wind at all, no clouds, Sun was shining bright. Lena and Stef had set a table on the porch. Like always, we had like 10 different foods to choose from, wine for the adults, lemonade for the kids. Jude was acting as a DJ, making sure we always had music playing in the background. The grill was going, Jesus and Cooper were responsible for the meat. Mariana and I had helped make the salads and appetizer. Brandon was taking the time to play with Frankie, knowing he's going to miss out on lot during his time at university. After all, Frankie was starting first grade this year. Big, important event for such a little person. Overall, we couldn't wish for better company, better place and time to spend time together.
After most of the bowls and plates were empty, came a surprise to me. Mom, Cooper, Stef and Lena - all had gotten me a gift for graduation.
"I'm going to go first," Cooper said stepping forward holding a small box in his hand "My gift can knock anyone off their feet. Literally!" he concluded in one descriptive yet secretive sentence making me rack my brain over what was in the box.
I got slightly worried what he had gotten me, so I started to open the small box slowly, while holding my breath. As I got closer to the reveal, I kept looking up to Cooper more often, trying to see if his eyes would give away any more clues as to what was in this little box.
Once I lifted off the lid, I was left with a small, black, fist size, stick like object. It seemed like it was made to fit into a persons hand. At first I didn't understand what it was. I reached for it and took it our for closer examination. There was a small button at the side.
"Whoooooa!" I exclaimed the second I pushed the button. It was a collapsible baton, that revealed itself once pushed the button. Luckily I had been holding the item right, otherwise the small end of the baton would have hit me right in the face.
"This is awesome! Thanks Cooper!" I thanked him as I waved the thing in air, trying it our. It was super light,easy to hold yet I could tell it can do serious damage once it hit someone. I was even sure I could break someone's bones with this thing if I put enough force into the blow.
"Can I try it?" Jesus asked me, eyeing the baton in my hand
"Don't you dare test it on me!" I pointed at him, before I handed the baton over to Jesus.
Lena hurried up to me, with even smaller box and handed it over to me "Open mine next!" It was around the size of ring boxes. Much neater wrapped up. It had a small, red ribbon on top. Only Lena would take the time to wrap up a gift so perfectly, knowing that I was going to rip it open the second I got my hands on it.
I opened Lena's gift more neatly. Made sure the ribbon was intact and that the wrapping paper was not ripped. I even took the time to fold the wrapping paper up.
I burst out in joy laughter once I saw the silver whistle in a red strap attached "Oh my gosh…I love this!" I picked it up and blew into it. The joy on Lena's face that I loved the gift was indescribable. I started to get a sense of theme that was going around.
"You can always wear it around your neck, keep in your purse or even in your pocket. It's small, light, but it will always do it's job - get the attention!" Lena explained to me
"Thank you, Lena!" I said before I blew into the whistle to see how loud it was. It made everyone around put their hands over their ears for a moment, that's how long and long I blew into it.
"We get it, it works! Can you stop now? It's hurting our ears!" I heard Brandon comment from the side with a small smile
I put the whistle back into the box and for now set the box on the corner of the table. Mariana asked if she can check it out, I nodded back before I turned back to the adults.
"Okay…I guess it's mine time now," mom said stepping up holding her arms behind her back. She looked a bit ashamed to me. Her cheeks turned slightly pink, as she said "I forgot to wrap it."
I laughed back sincerity "My own mom couldn't even take 2 minutes of her time and wrap up a gift-I'm hurt mother!" I stated pretending to be hurt
Mom squinted her eyes at me, probably at the dislike that I called her - mother at the end "You will get over it," Mom replied
"Mom once gave me a gift in the plastic bag they had put it in at the store," Mariana chimed in, adding everyone to laugh even longer
"What's the point of wrapping up a brush?" Stef reasoned back, before making a face at her oldest daughter "Besides it's almost impossible to do so of it's irregual shape!"
"You could have put it in a box and then wrap it up," Lena reasoned back "Or at least added a ribbon."
"Hey!" Stef turned to her wife with a hurt facial expression "Are you trying to make me look bad?"
Lena put her palm on Stef's shoulder "Nothing I do can make you look bad, because you already made yourself look bad," she kissed Stef softly on her cheek, before everyone averted their attention back to Amy, who was still standing in front of me, with her hands behind her back
"Ta-daaaa!" Amy sang out as she held a small bottle out in her hands "It's a pepper spray!" she announced
"Are you for real?" I sounded almost too excised as I took it from mom
"Strongest stuff there is. This will burn your eyes for what will seem like eternity!" mom added, while I was reading the label on the bottle "The residue will be on the perp face for 24h reminding to never try to get his hands on you ever again!"
"Too bad I can't try it out," I sulked as I looked up to mom
"Have you ever been pepper-sprayed?" Jude wondered after looking at my gift from over my shoulder
"I have, at the academy. It's part of the training. Your mom has also probably been pepper-spayed as well," Amy replied but then glanced to Stef, who later on confirmed it
"Indeed, I have. It was Mike, actually, who had to pepper-spray me. Afterwards we went on a date," Stef reminisce casually as if that was no big deal. By the look on everyone's face, it was news to all us. Even Lena, who had leaned a bit further away from Stef to have a better view on her.
"Wait…you have never told me that story!" Brandon spoke up "Why haven't you or dad ever told me that?"
"Because it made for a super awkward date afterwards, that's why."
"Yeah…but that's also hilarious and it makes for a super story!" Jesus said as he collapsed the baton by pushing at the tip with his palm. It made a click sound once it was back to the starting position.
"That's from me," Stef stepped forward, handing me a gift bag. I handed the pepper-spray to Jude, who seemed to be very interested about it, before reaching for the final gift.
I peaked into the gift bag, then looked up to Stef all excited after seeing what was inside "My own teaser! Ha, this is so great!" I got the teaser out and pointed it at the ground
"It has 50,000 volts at impact. Enough to paralyze, whoever is bugging you for a second!" Stef informed me as I examined the taser.
"After-wards you can spray him so he won't be able to see for a moment," Jude wiggled the bottle in his hand, then Jesus whooshed out the baton and swung it around "Beat his ass with a baton!" Mariana blew into the whistle Lena had gotten me "and get attention to yourself so someone can come help you!"
Brandon added at the end "In the end just hit him with your purse to make sure he stays down!"
"I'm hoping I won't ever have to use either one of these, but…still, thank you everyone for getting me these. I'll make sure to carry one with me all the time." I said setting the taser on the table, before going over to each one of them to give a hug. I had a feeling mom was going to buy me one of the self-defence stuff, but I would have never guessed she would convince others to do so as well.
"We're hoping you never have to use those," Lena said as I gave the last hug to mom
"Is this the same kind you showed us at the station few weeks back?" Mariana wondered as she picked up the taser "The kind police sometimes use to apprehend suspects?"
"It's similar, but not the-" Stef's words were the last I heard, before I felt something struck my lover back. It was if someone had stabbed me with knitting needles. Hurt like hell. The next instance electricity was running through my whole body. My muscles locked up.
"Ugh….aaarrrhhhh! I heard myself grunt in pain
"Turn it off. TURN IT OFF!" I heard Stef call frantically
For a brief moment, I lost complete control of my whole body. I was paralyzed. Felt myself getting lower and lower to the ground. My knees gave up on me, completely. It must have been my mom, who caught me at first as I had stood right in front of her, but then Cooper must have helped her guide me gently to the ground, where I laid. My muscles still contracting. I felt the burn marks on my lower back despite the fact that I had clothes on.
"It's over! You're okay…you're okay, honey!" Mom repeated to me again and again as I slowly started to recover "Just breathe. Breathe honey!" Those were the worst 5 seconds of my entire life.
It took me couple of more seconds to finally get up from the ground, though everyone insisted that I take it slow and sit on my knees for a moment, till I recover some more.
"I'm so, so, so sorry. I didn't mean to!" A frightened and full of remorse Mariana crouched down in front of me "It was an accident." She leaned towards me to hug me, but I didn't say a a word back, just continued to stare at her, once she ended the hug.
"Please, forgive me!"
I said each word slowly as I stared at her "When I get my hands on you…I am going to kill you," I was not going to be so forgiving.
Mariana got up from the wood floor, but still kept looking down at me, sensing that I won't just hug her and pretend nothing happened "I didn't mean to," She repeated as I slowly started to get up to my feet. Mariana started to back off, one small step at a time, while keeping a close eye on me.
"Callie, don't-" Mom tried to stop me, before I took a step towards Mariana, while holding my right hand on my lower back where the probes had hit me. Mariana was smart. She was not going to wait around to see what I was going to do. Mariana took off running inside the house, screaming out, so I took after her.
Beth wiped the tears from her eyes that she got from laughing so hard. The guys were all enjoying my story.
"It's not funny. It hurt," I tried to say it with straight face, but failed as in the end, I burst out into laughter as well
"You know what makes this 10 times funnier," Beth said once she finally got her breath back "Mariana is so small and innocent looking."
"Don't underestimate her. She is tiny, but she's also really strong," I answered, but sadly our conversation was cut to an end, when a call came in. We all became quiet as we listened carefully, which of us were being needed. The call came in only for ambulance.
"Sorry boys," I clapped my hands as I got up "You will have to entertain yourselves for the next hour or so!"
We arrived at the scene about 5 minutes after we received the call. It was almost the city center. The call originated from an multiple story apartment building. Apartment 35-C was located on the 5th floor. We took the elevator up.
"This is it!" Beth said as we stopped at the doors. No one was there to meet us. It was complete quiet. The call hadn't said much, just that someone needed medical assistance in this apartment. It could have been a heart attack, maybe someone needed insulin or a kitchen accident where someone had chopped off a fingertip. We had no idea what we were dealing with.
Beth took the lead as the main paramedic and knocked on the door "This is the paramedics. Hello! Is anybody there?" she knocked on the door and made sure the people inside knew who we were before we heard someone coming towards the doors. The footsteps were faint and slow.
Someone rattled the chain on the other side of the doors. What we saw, once the doors were opened, made us speechless for a moment, our eyes to grow big and mouths dropped.
A teenage girl standing just in under ware and covered in blood. I wasn't sure if it was her blood or someone else. As I looked over her body, I did not see any cuts or injuries. But still, even thought there was no sign of any kind of injury, she was shaking. Clearly in shock. The girl was hugging herself, either to console her or to try and keep warm.
"Hey, what's your name?" Beth asked trying to form a bond with her
"Kim," she barely got over her lips.
"I'm Beth, this is my partner Callie. You called for help?" The girl nodded her head.
"May we come inside?" Once again, a nod. She stepped aside and let us in, closing the doors behind.
"Are you hurt?" Beth continued to question the poor girl.
This time, she shook her head and raised her left arm up, pointing towards the room inside "There...so much blood," Kim managed to stutter. Beth gave me a nod, telling me to go see, who she was talking about.
While I moved deeper into the apartment, Beth remained with Kim. I saw no one in the first room. It was a small kitchen and living room area. Nothing much, nothing too fancy.
When I looked down, I noticed bloody footprints. They were all over the room, like Kim had been pacing around. Following the blood footsteps, lead me to the other side of the room. There were doors there, which were partly open. They lead to the bedroom. I saw a bed, covered in white sheets and blanket. Out of precaution, I slowly pushed the doors open.
As I took a step inside the room, the white bed covers were no longer so white. There was a pool of blood in the middle of the room. I walked around to the other side of the bed and that was when I stopped dead in my tracks.
On the ground laid a man on his back, with scissors stabbed into his chest. I saw his chest move. He was alive. But just barley. The man only had his briefs on. He was having hard time breathing, his breaths were short, shallow.
But still, he managed to choke out, while staring straight to my eyes "H-help me!" some blood dripped out of his mouth
A desperate plead, from someone, who does not deserve to be helped.
I never thought this would ever happen. That I was going to be the one standing over him and watching him from above; that our roles would be reversed; that it was him, pleading to me rather than me, pleading to him.
His life was at my mercy.
I could let him die a slow, agonizing full death. It would be the kind of death, he deserved.
Or I can help him. I might even save his life. If not, I would have at-least ease his pain in his last seconds and maybe, maybe even held his hand. But does he deserve my help? After all that he did to me.
I also saw that he was scared. More scared than I have ever seen him.
He recognized me, even after all these years. I saw it in his eyes. Liam knew who I was even in the state he was in.
After all a rapist life hangs in the hands of one of his victim.