2x07,i: The Bullet's Out

Mum? Mummy. Mummy! The doctor got the bullet out. You're going to be okay. He said if you get plenty of rest, and if there are no complications, you're going to wake up. You're going to be fine! Mum? Mummy?

Her head was killing her, and her tongue felt thick in her mouth. But she was in hospital, she knew. The bullet was out and she'd be waking up from this nightmare any moment now. She didn't know which was worse, the throbbing in her skull or the ache of anticipation in her chest. She'd said her goodbyes, on paper anyway. She'd steeled herself with the reality that yes, as much as she cared for them all, she was going home.

That's why she was dozing in the back of the van, a miracle really, considering the whole team was on stakeout, waiting for the huge drug deal they'd been tipped off to. So she let him boss her around, make her stay in the back of the van sipping that tepid watery brew that Shaz called tea, listening to them raising a ruckus on the radio. Really, Daddy Bear, Big Bear and Baby Bear? Honestly?

It was the urgency in Chris's voice that made her sit up and take notice.

"Ray! Ray!"

She was out of the van and moving before the conscious thought could register. The construction sight was a nightmare, and she could hear them brawling in the harsh shadows of the sodium lights. One of them had the Guv around the neck and was holding a knife to his throat.

"If one of you so much as blinks, I'll cut his throat so wide, he'll be using his tongue for a tie."

The bastard tries to drag him off around a corner, and he's yammering the whole way, telling her exactly where he is. She picks up a two by four and hits for the six, catching the man right at the base of the skull. The Guv finishes him off with a punch to the gut and she grins as he goes down hard.

( "Say hello to Mummy Bear!" )

[oom] 2x07,iii: It's all shit, isn't it?

[[ cont'd from here ]]

The note was directions for the construction site. It lead them to a cache of guns and ammunition. (Right passed PC Summers' unmarked grave, and how stone cold could her heart feel to cross those same muddy steps again. He couldn't keep her here. No one could. No one.)

Chris tracked the address where he was receiving the phone calls from and she went, alone. She'd sussed out Summers the elder's lair. The entire wall of his make shift flat, floor to ceiling, was covered with newspaper clippings, evidentiary files, photographs of her and the Guv for the last six months. Everything from Kevin Hales onward.

Beneath it was another drawing of a rose and the note, "We're not done yet."

Operation Rose. It all came down to Operation Rose.

~~~

The Guv declined to accept Chris's resignation. Ray storms out, perhaps forgetting times when he'd been the beneficiary of that same beneficent if gruff hand. Shaz looks heartbroken. One by one the team leaves the squad room, abandoning Chris to his fate alone.

~~~

Gene shows up at her doorway, just about closing time, two glasses and a bottle of wine in his hands, too drunk to care what it might look like.

"It's all shit, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is." She can't even begin to tell him how much she agrees with that assessment.

"You and me, Bolly. You and me."