Rain On Me

Prologue

DEA Special Agent Gabriel Fletcher, also known as Fletch or ‘Fletchy’ by his best friend's mother and the woman whom he loved more than anything, was not in his element; and that was saying a lot for someone who was trained to be prepared for any kind of situation, day or night. He was always prepared to take down bad guys, bust druglords, or fight his ass out of a building on fire. But this was something life has never prepared him for.

He checked his watch again, scratched his head, and took another look at the tiny thing in front of him.
    “I want my mommy.” His eyebrows shot up, while his blue eyes scanned frantically for someone to show some mercy and help him with this little kid. No such luck.
    “I know you do sweetie, but mommy is going to have to take a small nap just now. She's tired, you see?” A pair of big blue eyes shot up at him, making him even more uncomfortable while trying to find a better position for her in his lap. He felt like he was handling a timed IED or the world's most delicate diamond while hanging precariously from a cliff. A really high one.
    “Why?”
    “What was your name again?” He hasn't forgotten. He was just trying to buy himself some time. Find a way somehow to make her forget about the horror of the last hours. Because if he couldn't forget the way the cars in front of him collided, she sure as hell wouldn't forget the way her mommy looked like while being pulled out from inside the wreckage. Because that was what it was. A wreckage. A tragedy.

    They were on their way back from another drug bust, a successful one, and some of the guys were enjoying some nasty jokes in the back of the SUV  while he and Owen, his best friend were chatting along in the front, happy to have finished another successful operation. And all of a sudden, Owen pulled the brakes, mere seconds before he realised what was happening.

The smoke has been the first thing he noticed, after that chilling scream, and then they stopped. Both of the drivers were trapped inside their cars, along with a small child in the back seat of one of the vehicles. Fletch and the other guys jumped to rescue, adrenaline kicking in, like always, when they were facing death, and before the first responders got there, they managed to calm down the child, even just a bit, looking for any signs of her being hurt. But the child was almost unharmed, miraculously, thanks to being strapped properly in her car seat. It wrenched his heart to see that she was in shock. Crying and asking for her mommy, who was unconscious and fighting for her life.
God, let her be alright.
And after what could've been a second or a lifetime, the firefighters pulled the young woman out of the wreckage, took the little girl out all while he just happened to be right next to the car, and the girl pretty much jumped into his arms.

So he kept her there, rode with her in the ambulance, next to her mom, and tried his best to keep her still enough for the checkups that needed to be done, and her at a safe distance from the woman that needed the paramedic's whole attention.
 
  And here he was now, strapped to a hard as stone chair, his ass sore from so much sitting, with a three-year-old in his arms, waiting for a stranger to come out of the surgery. He hoped and prayed as crazy that the woman would pull through, for the sake of her daughter.
She had no daddy, just her mommy.

God, spare just this one. That's it. Just this one woman. Please!

Being so used to seeing death on a daily basis one would think that a DEA agent would get tough as nails. Well, he was. In most of the cases. Not when it came down to children. It always got to him when kids were involved, no matter their age. They were too young, too fragile, to go through something like this so early in their lives.

A moment later, he caught himself doing something he thought he never ever in his life would do. Pull a child willingly in his arms, and holding her there, safe from the world's harm and cruelty.
And his heart took a little leap, that felt like jumping from that cliff without a parachute the second a small pair of arms wrapped around his neck and a tiny sob escaped the girl's lips, moments before she fell asleep.

But he couldn't. Not when every second of the last hours came back at him with full force, making him remember all the details, every second of that nightmare.

   And somehow, still fully clothed in his uniform, only his bulletproof vest put aside on the chair next to him, Fletch fell asleep holding on to the girl with both his arms, clutching her close, as if she were his only anchor and not the other way around.

   And when the doctor finally had the answers they were both waiting for, the middle-aged man in his white coat took a deep breath and watched them sleeping peacefully before waking them up, wondering how their lives were going to be changed from now on.