Evelyn's Tale

-Twenty-

Suddenly the door burst open and Evelyn screeched, flinging herself at Babe beside her and burying her face into his shoulder. The guys were laughing hysterically at Evelyn's fright. Well, they were until they saw the grave expression on Eugene's face.

"Evelyn, I need you to come with me now," he said. "There's been an accident."

"What kind of accident?" she asked worriedly standing up to grab her satchel.

"What's happened?" Skip frowned as the rest of the guys began to gather around nervously.

"Lieutenant Heyliger has been shot," Eugene answered, offering no more information than that. "Come on Evelyn, we've gotta hurry."

... ... ...

Moose was in a bad way when they arrived at the railroad. An ambulance was already on its way. As Evelyn and Eugene set to work on stopping the bleeding, Winters explained to them exactly what had happened. He and Moose had been walking along a railway track when a nervous replacement on patrol had opened fire on Moose, seemingly not realising who it was he was shooting at. Moose was bleeding profusely and was unconscious. In all honesty, it didn't look good.

"You give him morphine?" Eugene asked as they loaded Moose onto the stretcher and into the back of the ambulance which had finally arrived. Evelyn hoped that they hadn't given him any because with the amount of blood Moose was losing, it wouldn't bode well for him. Harry nodded and she felt herself grimace inside. "How much?"

"I can't remember," Harry frowned, scratching his head. "Two, three syrettes maybe."

"Three syrettes maybe? Jesus Christ, were you trying to kill him?" Eugene snapped, his whole demeanour angry.

"I think it was two," Harry stammered nervously.

"You don't think it might be important to know how much medication the man has had? Because I don't see one syrette on the man's jacket," Eugene was livid, his face screwed up in rage. Usually calm and collected, this side of Eugene Roe was one that none of them had witnessed before. "He's a big man, maybe he has a chance."

"We didn't know, he was in a lot of pain," Harry tried to explain himself, but Eugene wasn't having any of it.

"Well you are officers, you are grown ups! You oughta know!" Eugene yelled climbing into the ambulance. "All right, let's go!"

As Winters closed the ambulance door, leaving a bloody handprint on the back window, Evelyn turned to Harry, who in her opinion was in shock. Eugene had been harsh, although he had been completely correct. As officers, she would have expected better from the two of them, but sometimes in the heat of the moment people didn't always do the things they were supposed to.

"You ok, Lieutenant?" she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder and peering into his face. Harry looked so downcast and upset with himself. She squeezed his shoulder gently.

"I didn't mean to make him worse," Harry looked like he was about to cry at any minute. "He was just in so much pain that I panicked. What if he dies because of what I've done?"

"Lieutenant, if he dies it will be because of his wounds not because of you," she tried to reassure him. Alright, so it was a little lie but in that moment she felt it was needed. The man couldn't beat himself up about it. What was done was done and all that mattered now was keeping positive and praying that Moose would recover. Over the top of Harry's curly mop of hair she met Winters' gaze. He gave her a small thankful smile. He knew exactly what she was doing and he was grateful for it. In truth, he felt just as guilty as Harry did but he wouldn't- couldn't- show it.

"I really am sorry," Harry mumbled.

"It's alright. Listen, why don't we get you inside and make you a nice hot cup of coffee?" she suggested before lowering her voice to almost a whisper. "I'll bet we can even find a drop of something to put in it if you get my meaning?"