Priorities || 9-1-1

3. Taking the call

Tw gore ⚠️

"So whatcha gonna do on your day off cap?" Hen asked, looking up from her book momentarily.

"Well i was going to go shopping with Athena because we both had the day off but she got called in last minute so I'm probably just gonna play housewife for the day,"Bobby grunted, shovelling the last spoonful of his pasta down his throat before rolling his eyes at Buck and Eddie who were in the corner of the room fighting over the last custard doughnut like children.

"Break it up you two!" Bobby growled, already in a mood that he had to spend his whole day off cleaning.

"Well for once i envy you Cap i gotta deal with those two for a whole goddamn day without you or Chim"

"Why's Chim not gonna be here?"

Suddenly footsteps were heard making their way up the stairs and Chimney popped up to the lounge.

"Maddie has to work and I can't find a sitter for Jee so i had to take a day sorry Hen" explained Chim as he walked over to Buck and Eddie and took the last custard doughnut for himself.

"Heyyyy" whined Eddie and Buck in unison.

Bobby rolled his eyes and Hen chuckled at their childish behaviour.

The team leaped up as the piercing bell rang once again in the station. Bobby grabbed his coat, Hen ran down the stairs to prepare the engine as Buck laced his shoes and Eddie did equipment checks. Chim grabbed the green first aid bag from the table and followed them all down the stairs.
"Alright everyone in the engine lets go" ordered Bobby

Once they were all in the engine Eddie broke the silence
"So whats the call about?"

"A woman just called from Dalfena road about a break in. Says her husband is dead" Bobby called back.

"Isn't that one for the police to handle?" Buck chimed in.

"Usually would be except that building is so old its got all kinds of pipes and gasses running through it. Not a nice place to live. The intruder has a gun so one wrong shot could send the building up in flames" explained Chim, acting out an explosion with his hands.

"Got it. So what are we-"

"Shhh"

Bobby's radio beeped and a graining voice muttered something. Bobby huffed that he didn't hear it over Bucks talking and called into the radio.

"Please repeat for unit 118"

The radio crackled and then beeped before the same voice reappeared

"There is a child in the building all units please be advised, over"

"Holy shit" Buck muttered and Eddie shot him a sharp look.
"Sorry"

"Well now this is a whole new kettle of fish" Hen mumbled.

No one spoke the rest of the journey. Eddie twisted his fingers together with anxiety and Bobby gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. Buck didn't move and muscle and Chim stared at Hen as they exchanged nervous glances. When they pulled up at the house, Bobby hastily got out of the engine and made his way over to Athena.

"Hey whats going on?"
"Its kind of a stand off right now there's not much we can do"

Bobby and Athena turned around quickly to face the house when shouting and screaming suddenly took over the tense air.
"WE WILL SHOOT" screamed the team of armed officers

"Oh what the hell is going on" Athena said between gritted teeth.
Athena ran towards the entrance of the house, one hand holding her radio close to her face, the other rested pre-cautiously on her gun on her right hip.
As she lined up with the door she focused her eyes and let them adjust to the darkness inside for a moment before gasping and relaxing her face.
In the hallway stood the intruder. A tall man. Approximately 6'1" from what Athena could see. His facial features were covered entirely and well by a black hood. He wore a black tracksuit and black gloves as well as black steel toe cap boots. Not an inch of skin was visible. Probably why it took Athena so long to get a good visual on him. But that wasn't what took Athena by surprise. She had seen all kinds of criminals. His appearance wasn't what shook her to her bones and made her blood curdle. It was what he was doing.

His left foot rested upon the shattered head of a person. Athena couldn't make out who it was. Not because of the light. Because it was so badly deformed she couldn't name a single facial feature. The victims body lay limp on the floor, punctured by several other gunshot wounds, all with rivers of deep red blood flowing out of them and flooding the floor.
Diagonally behind him, a woman slouched on the floor. She wasn't injured. Not yet. Her hair was messy, all over her face, and she dug her nails into her bare ankles in desperation. Athena could hear her sobs as she cowered in fear behind the man. She begged. Not for herself. For her infant daughter, her daughter who was laid over the intruder's shoulder, sound asleep and unharmed despite all the commotion. She was dressed in blue short sleeved pyjamas which had bloody handprints stained all over them from where she had been picked up. She didn't stir even with all the shouting which terrified Athena out of her mind.

"Hand over the child" Athena pleaded, her voice breaking slightly, despite her attempt to hide her emotion.

Behind her the 118 stood shook, processing the severity of the situation they were in.

"Please. Hand her over no one else needs to be hurt"

"No."
The intruder finally spoke.
"I'm gonna kill them both and I will have no regret" the raspy voice announced.
"You don't need to. Please" Athena whispered, trying to not escalate the situation any further.

"Yes... i do."
The mans voice shook. He was scared. There was a sad sound in his voice and he sounded like he was going to cry. Athena noticed him relax slightly as though he had suddenly gotten a feeling of guilt and despair. But that didn't last long. Athena took a step closer and the man was back in his tense state again.

"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!!!"
He yelled.

This woke up the small child who had before been soundly asleep on the mans shoulder. She wriggled slightly before rubbing her eyes and then sitting up straight in the mans arms. She rubbed her eyes again and grunted slightly before suddenly becoming very alert. She first looked outside to Athena and all the officers pointing guns towards her. And the fire engine. And the firemen. A look of fear flashed across her face as she then took a look at the man holding her. She stared at his mask for a minute, trying to figure out who it was. Maybe it was her mama? Or her dada? Maybe it was Miss Maleny who looks after her at nursery? No it couldn't be Miss Maleny she smells like flowers. This man smelt like.. alcohol. And sweat. But mainly alcohol.

Once she realised the person holding her was unfamiliar to her she started to cry. Whining at first as she wriggled against his strong grip around her.
"Stay right there honey don't wriggle okay?"
Athena called out to her.

"No my babyyy" the hysterical woman on the floor called to her.

Athena noticed the man suddenly become even tenser, angry even, maybe overwhelmed. Athena couldn't tell, she was too overwhelmed herself to read this mans emotions, being unable to see his face only made it more difficult. He turned around a few times, keeping a strong grip on the wiggling toddler. He looked back to the woman on the floor, then back to Athena, then to the little girl, then the window and back again. His head darted around the room and he seemed panicked.

The woman behind him leaped at his back, knocking him slightly but not having any great effects. Athena froze. The man dropped the crying child and help both hands on the gun. Before anyone could react, he compressed the trigger and a loud gunshot echoed through the air. Another gunshot went off. This time it was Athena's, a shot into the man's abdomen. Enough to make him fall backwards and drop his gun but, if all went to plan, not enough to kill him.

Suddenly there were people everywhere. The 118 moved in to recover the man and others moved over to the child's mother who they tried to help but was undoubtedly deceased on the hallway floor.

"Eddie take the kid to the ambulance" Athena demanded.

Eddie didn't hesitate and lifted the hysterical toddler into his arms, shushing her, though he knew it was going to take more than shushing to settle her after this experience.
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Authors note:
So that was the first real chapter and i hope its not too bad I'm still getting used to writing lol
I know its pretty dark and I'm sorry about that but i need a super dramatic start for the story to make sense.
If u are reading this and you've got this far thank you so much!!!
Ill try to publish a few more chapters tonight but wattpad is being a bit annoying and not letting me publish easily but ill try and i hope you are enjoying it so far if anyone is reading❤️