Rescue Me

Chapter Twenty

Today was shaping up to be an ordinary day, as boring as any other. The one highlight so far had been when Bella had made him a bacon sandwich for his breakfast. He had, however, managed to get ketchup on his trousers. Not so good.

Nothing had happened on the way in despite his longing to catch someone speeding or breaking some other traffic law. And unsurprisingly there had been nothing waiting for him at the station, no crime that needed solving, nothing that needed his expert attention.

Within ten minutes of arriving at the station he had been reduced to playing pinball on his computer in an attempt to fight off the boredom. Oh, why couldn't anything exciting ever happen?

"Chief!" his young deputy cried out loudly as he ran into the room, almost giving Charlie a heart attack and completely ruining his perfect streak on the game.

"What?" he asked, sounding a little bit annoyed.

"There's a fight in 'Joe's Bar'!" his deputy all but shouted, struggling not to bounce around in his excitement as he got his gear ready.

"A fight?" Charlie asked in shock, "But…what…how…?"

"A patron at Joe's called it in," his deputy said as Charlie rose from his chair, pulling on his own jacket as he listened, "Apparently a guy came in an hour or so ago, already well on his way to being pissed and he turned nasty a few minutes ago when Joe refused to serve him any more drinks."

"Drunk? But it's not even 12:30…" Charlie mumbled in shock.

"I know," his deputy agreed, "The patron said the guy was getting more and more violent so we'd better hurry Chief or someone's really gonna get hurt…"

"Have you put word out for the ambulance to meet us there?" Charlie asked as the pair of them rushed out towards to the car, yanking open the doors and sliding into the seats. His deputy, Mike, Charlie snapped mentally to himself that he needed to think of the kid by his name, nodded. "Let's go then."

Finally, a bit of action!

~ * ~ * ~

"Give me a fucking drink!" they heard the shout as they stepped into the bar, pausing in the doorway to assess the scene. A man, holding a broken pool cue threateningly, was swaying on his feet as he threatened Joe across the bar. Joe had definitely seen better days, he was bruised and both his lip and his eyebrow were split, trickling blood down his face. Cowering behind him was his young bar main, Annie, poor kid looked terrified. And two of the bars patrons were on the floor at the mans feet, unconscious with nasty cuts and bruises to their foreheads, like their heads had been smashed into the bar..."Give me a drink now!"

"Sir, I've already told you that I will not serve you any more drink today. You've had enough. Now I want you to leave my-" Joe's calm speech was cut off by the man hitting him in the face with the sharp end of the broken pool cue. Annie screamed as Joe dropped to the ground, clutching at his bleeding face.

"Get me a drink, bitch!" the man ordered her as she knelt beside her boss.

"I'll get his attention, you get the cuffs on him," Charlie ordered Mike in a whisper before he stepped into the room, his hand resting on his gun…not that he really wanted to use it. He'd never shot a human being before… "Sir? Sir, I think you should calm down…"

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" the man growled before spinning around, stumbling against the bar as he did so, his eyes glaring towards Charlie.

"My name is Chief Swan," Charlie said calmly, "Now I want you to calm down and come with me quietly…"

"Why the fuck would I go with you? I want a drink," he said, slamming his fist down on the bar, making poor Annie jump and cry out again, "Shut up you stupid bitch and get me a drink."

"Sir, you will be coming down the station with me," Charlie growled, sick of the mans attitude and language already. The man turned to him once more, his face set in a hard glare, a snarl leaving his lips.

"What? Are you arresting me or something?" he demanded.

"Yes," Charlie said shortly, pulling out his own cuffs as he saw Mike moving closer towards the man from behind, his cuffs all ready to snap around the mans wrist. "I am arresting you for-"

"No!" the man growled loudly, almost sounding like a battle cry as he jumped towards Charlie, startling all of them with the suddenness of it. Charlie didn't have time to react before a heavy fist smashed into his eye.

"Chief!" Mike called out in shock as Charlie hit the wall hard, falling to the ground in a dazed head. The man grabbed him by his short hair and smashed his head into the ground once, twice, three times…

He was so dazed he could barely see straight let alone think. Vagually he realised that his assailant was gone but the shouting was still there. Closing his eyes for a few moments he was thankful that his vision was a little less blurry when he opened his eyes the next time…and was met by an amusing sight.

Mike, skinny little Mike who sometimes had trouble opening bottles of Coca Cola had forced the guy to the ground, pressing his knee between the mans shoulder blades and was expertly putting the cuffs on him whilst reading him his rights over the mans shouting and swearing.

"…have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used in court so I suggest you shut the hell up!" Mike finally lost his cool.

"Nicely done, Mike," Charlie muttered, reaching up and pressing a hand to the back of his head. It came away bloody. "Aw damn…Bella's gonna kill me…"

"Stay where you are Chief, you need to get seen by a paramedic," Mike ordered firmly, pressing down on the mans back, "And you stay where you are too so you don't get yourself in even more trouble."

"Get the fuck off me you-" Charlie interrupted, asking,

"What's your name?" For the first time since they arrived there the man shut up, glaring across at Charlie in silence. "Mike, check him for ID."

"Yes Chief," Mike said, feeling the mans pockets and eventually pulling out an empty wallet, empty for all but an expired drivers licence, "Ethan Whitlock."

"Whitlock?" Charlie asked softly, in his concussed state unable to immediately remember why that name was family. "Whitlock…why do I know that name? Whitlock…Whitlock…oh…the kid in the ER…"

Well…this day just got really, really interesting…

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A/N I've updated! Woo! Bit short I know but…well I've been working so hard on 'OLAL' that I neglected this story, poor thing, but here we are with another pain filled chapter…tell me what you think should happen next. I've got a basic idea but suggestions are always welcome.