Chapter 4: Just In The Line Of Duty
Chapter 4:
Sheridan screamed as she watched Roger tumble to the floor. She stood there in horror and looked up to see Luis standing there with his gun in his outstretched hands. Luis walked over and checked for a pulse. He looked up at Sheridan. “He’s still alive.” Luis stood up, put his gun back in his holster and walked up to Sheridan. She was standing there with a look of total shock on her face. “Sheridan are you ok?” He asked gently as he placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Oh Luis,” Sheridan sobbed as she threw her arms around his neck. Luis returned the gesture and embraced her. She sobbed for a moment while Luis just held her as he caressed the back of her head. He closed his eyes as he was becoming intoxicated by her scent when he suddenly pulled away, realizing what he was doing. “Sheridan, Luis said in a very cop like manner, “I’m staying here until back up and the paramedics arrive. Tina is outside. Go tell her what happened and stay with her for now. I need to call the station.”
Sheridan was hurt by his sudden abrupt manner, but realized she’d brought most of it on herself. She so wanted to take back what she’d done to him, but couldn’t. “Luis,” she said quietly, “Could we talk later?” She asked quietly. “I don’t think we have anything to discuss Sheridan,” he said flatly. “Please Luis?” She implored. “ I have something I have to tell you. Something you’ve wanted to know for quite sometime.” “I don’t know Sheridan,” he answered. “Ask me again later.” Luis turned his back on her and picked up his radio and called in to the station. Sheridan slowly left the kitchen and walked out side. She turned back briefly to look at him, pain in her eyes.
Sheridan emerged from the cottage to find Ethan lying on the ground by the front door. “Ethan!” She screamed. “Ethan, please,” she started sobbing as she fell to the ground next to him. Tina heard Sheridan screaming and ran around the corner to see what was going on. “Sheridan, are you all right?” Tina asked anxiously. “I’m fine, but Ethan isn’t, she cried. “Oh, this is all my fault! Luis was right. I’m stubborn and pigheaded and now Ethan...” “Ethan is going to be fine Sheridan,” Tina said calmly. “He was just hit with a tranquilizer dart. He’ll be asleep for a few hours, but he’ll be just fine.” “Oh, Thank God,” Sheridan exclaimed. “If anything had happened to my nephew, I’d never forgive myself.” “Sheridan, what happened in there? Luis hasn’t come out yet. I heard a gunshot.”
Sheridan explained everything to Tina about what happened with Roger and Pierre in the kitchen. She’d just about finished when she saw Sam approaching in his patrol car followed by several other police cars and several paramedics. “Did you find the other policeman?” Sheridan asked Tina. “Other policeman?” Tina asked. “That must be the man Sam sent over to watch you before Luis got back. Did something happen to him?” Tears welled up in Sheridan’s eyes. “They shot him,” she said. “I thought this was he until I realized it was Ethan. They must have moved him somewhere. He was right here. They shot him right here.”
“Shot whom right here, Sheridan?” Sam asked with a frown on his face as he approached Tina and Sheridan. “The officer that came here earlier. Roger and Pierre shot him. I saw them do it.” Sheridan was still fighting back tears. “Men, spread out. Get your flashlights. Silvano must be here somewhere and he’s been wounded. Find him,” Sam ordered angrily. Then he asked, “Where is Luis? Is he hurt? Where are these drug lords?” “Sam,” Tina said, “Luis is inside guarding the two drug dealers. One has been shot, the other knocked unconscious, but both are alive. He didn’t want to leave them in there in case they regained consciousness.”
The three other policemen that arrived with Sam were searching the grounds around Sheridan’s cottage. Within several minutes one of them shouted, “I’ve found him. He’s here!” Sam rushed over to Silvano. He checked for a pulse. He thought he found a weak one but wasn’t sure. “Get one of those paramedics over here now!” Sam shouted. The paramedics were attending to Ethan. One of them immediately ran over to Silvano when they heard Sam’s call. The paramedic did a quick assessment of Silvano and shouted for his partner to join him. “This man’s in bad shape, Chief,” the paramedic said. “He’s suffered a bullet wound to the chest and has lost a lot of blood. “Jim, get an IV of lactated ringers going wide-open stat!” The paramedic yelled at his partner. He then called the hospital and informed them of the patient’s condition. “Yeah, this is Ray; we have a 32yr old white male, a police officer with a gunshot wound to the chest. Entry wound appears to be close to the apex of the heart. He’s unconscious, diaphoretic, estimated blood loss approximately 1500cc’s, pulse is weak and thready 140’s and bp is 50 over nothing. We’ve started...”
Sam had heard all he wanted to hear. Things didn’t look good for Silvano, but there was nothing he could do to help. He knew Silvano would get the best care possible. It was now in the hands of the medical professionals and God. All he could do was hope and pray. He asked one of the other officers to make sure there were enough ambulances to take everyone in need to the hospital, and had the other two officers relieve Luis inside. He then walked over to Sheridan and Tina. “I’m going to need both of you and Luis to all come down to the station to get this whole story straight for the reports,” Sam said somberly. “But Ethan?” Sheridan protested.
“I’ll take you to the hospital to see Ethan after we get all this straightened out. “Ethan appears to be the luckiest of the group going to the hospital,” Sam said. Sam looked up and saw a figure coming toward them in the darkness. He felt a slight churning on the inside as he watched the figure closing the distance, but he quickly shook his head and continued. “Besides, I don’t think he will be alone.” He motioned to the figure that was flabbergasted by all the commotion. It was Ivy. “What on earth is going on here?” She asked as she tried to take in the various scenes. “Sheridan!” She said in surprise. “What on earth are you doing here? I thought you were in Paris?”
“Oh, Ivy,” Sheridan said as she choked back her tears. She went up to her and gave her a big hug. “It’s been awful. It’s a very long story. Ethan is my concern right now.” Suddenly Ivy went pale. She felt her knees about to buckle. Without thinking, Sam rushed over to her and prevented her from collapsing. “Ivy, listen to me. Ethan is going to be fine. I promise you. He WILL BE FINE,” Sam said emphatically. “He was hit with a tranquillizer dart that’s all. He’ll probably be asleep for awhile and when he wakes up he will have nothing more than a headache.”
“Are you sure Sam?” Ivy asked fearfully. “Ethan means the world to me. If anything ever happened to him, I don’t know what I’d do.” He’ll be ok, Ivy. You have to believe that. The paramedics have already checked him over and he’s going to be ok. Why don’t you ride to the hospital with him? It will make you feel better.” “Yes, Sam, I’ll do that,” Ivy said thankfully. She left Sam’s side and walked over to Ethan who was being loaded on to a stretcher for transport to the hospital. Sam, Tina and Sheridan watched as Ethan and Ivy got into the back of the ambulance and drove away. Silvano’s ambulance had left a few minutes earlier. Two more had arrived to take the two gunmen to the hospital as well. As the paramedics were entering the cottage, Luis finally emerged.
Sheridan’s total attention had been on watching Ethan’s ambulance leave. She had not heard Luis join them. “Luis, there you are,” Sam said as Luis walked up. "Sam, Tina," he acknowledged. He didn't even look over in Sheridan's direction. "What's up now?" Luis ignoring Sheridan completely did not go unnoticed by Sam or Tina. Sheridan felt a lump in her throat when she heard Luis' voice, but was heartbroken when he didn't even acknowledge her presence.
"Now," Sam said glancing back and forth between Luis and Sheridan. (Tina was doing the same thing.) "I need all three of you to follow me back to the station so I can get the whole story of what happened here tonight. All three of you were part of this, so I need statements from all of you."
"Sure thing Sam," Luis said. "Ready to go Tina?" He extended his arm to usher Tina to his squad car. She glanced back at Sheridan who was standing there with a very hurt look on her face. "Sheridan," Sam said as he shot Luis a dirty look, "Why don't you come with me? I don't think you are in any condition to drive right now." "Thank you Sam," Sheridan said appreciatively. She followed Sam to his car. He opened the door for her and she climbed in. The two cars took off for the Harmony Police Department, leaving behind the other officers and paramedics to take care of Roger and Pierre.
Luis was silent as they drove to the police station. Tina kept looking for some kind of reaction from him, but saw nothing. "You know Luis, ignoring Sheridan like that was not a very nice thing to do." "Yeah, well, having me arrested for kidnapping wasn't a very nice thing to do either," he said angrily. "Luis, look," Tina said patiently, "I'm not trying to make you mad. I'm not trying to defend Sheridan's having you arrested. But you need to realize; you aren't totally blameless here." Luis started fidgeting uncomfortably in his seat. He didn't say a word; he just glared at Tina for a moment. Tina continued. "I mean after all, you did bring her back to the States without her permission. Technically, that is kidnapping. She did have a right to be angry."
"Look," Luis said hotly, his face turning red, "I told you. It was for her own good. Those guys meant business. Didn't you see that for yourself tonight? If I had left Sheridan in Paris, she'd be dead right now. She almost ruined my entire life with that kidnapping charge. I could have lost my house, my job. My family would be on the street right now." Luis was gripping the steering wheel in a death grip. Tina knew he was angry and hurt, but also knew Sheridan was hurting very much. For some unexplainable reason, she felt the need to help these two sort through their problems. "Luis, you two are so much alike it's scary. That's what the problem really is here. Neither one of you is willing to let the other one get the better of you. You both keep egging each other on until one of you explodes. Sheridan felt the need to win and she was holding the ace this time. I really think you need to talk to her."
Luis was still very angry, but he said, "Yeah, well she did say she wanted to talk to me. She said she wanted to tell me what has been bothering her all this time." "Didn't you say you wanted to know what it was that was bothering her?" Tina said with a hint of encouragement in her voice. "Yeah, I did," Luis admitted. "Then talk to her Luis. As soon as we finish with these statements, talk to her," Tina urged. As she finished her sentence, they pulled up in front of the station house. "I'll think about it," Luis said. "NO promises though!" He gave Tina a half smile half frown. Tina smiled back at him. She had a feeling she'd at least gotten Luis to think about things.
Sheridan was very quiet in the car with Sam. All she could think about was how hurt she was that Luis was ignoring her now. She was silently chastising herself for feeling this way. Every time she let her guard down with him she found herself hurting. She didn’t know how much more of this she could take. His mere presence in a room had an effect on her like no one ever had before. He made her crazy. One minute she wanted to throw her arms around him and kiss him and the next minute he has her ranting like a lunatic. Why did he make her feel this way? ‘If only he would talk to me,’ she thought. ‘I need to get things out in the air with him. Ethan is right. My pride and stubbornness have only made matters worse.’
Sheridan was deep in thought and didn’t hear Sam the first time. “Sheridan, did you hear me?” Sam asked. Sheridan looked at Sam startled. “I’m sorry, Sam. I was just thinking about something.” “You were thinking about Luis, weren’t you?” Sam asked gently. Sheridan blushed slightly. “Is it that obvious?” She asked. “Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how hurt you were when Luis ignored you earlier. He’s hurt right now Sheridan, and angry. After all, you did have him arrested for kidnapping. That’s a federal crime. It’s not like a traffic violation. He could have lost everything.”
“I know Sam,” Sheridan said in frustration. “I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t really think about the consequences when I filed the complaint. I just wanted to teach him a lesson. I was angry. I’m sorry I did it, but now he won’t even talk to me.” “Sheridan, he’ll come around,” Sam said soothingly. “After all, the first thing he did when he got out of jail, was make sure you were all right. It’s a good thing he did too, or you’d probably be dead. He’ll come around. Just give him time.” Sheridan nodded her head in acknowledgement. She gave Sam a small smile as they pulled up to the station. She and Sam walked into the conference room that was designated for their debriefing and Luis and Tina were already there. Luis greeted Sam and just glared at Sheridan. He said nothing to her, but did at least look at her. A pot of coffee was brewing, and the four of them took their seats, ready to explain the events of the afternoon.
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To Be Continued…
