Persevere

A yellow Camaro squealed to a halt in the driveway of their two story house. John Shaw was in a lot of pain, the adrenaline still pumping fully through his veins from what happened his first day back at the precinct. Burke was done and would be locked up for the rest of his life for what he did. As for all of his accomplices, well – it was either them or Shaw. He fought for his life, surviving somehow and walked out with his head held high. However, that didn’t stop the two bullets lodged in different parts of his body from throbbing, reminding John how truly vincible and human he was. It hurt like hell to step out of the Camaro, but if John could make it inside of his house, he could start the process of removing the bullets. Currently, they stemmed the blood flow and stopped him from bleeding out, which is why he hadn’t tried removing them at the precinct. It didn’t take John long to realize he would need assistance, especially with the bullet lodged in his lower right side. Breathing heavily and drenched in sweat, Shaw pulled his cell phone out that had only one bar of life left, dialing the first person that came to mind.

“Hello?” A sleepy feminine voice answered moments later.

“Mal, its Shaw.” John grunted out, managing to unlock the front door to his house and stumbled inside, fighting off the pain each step produced.

Mallory Stone was a paramedic and worked at the local hospital down the street from the precinct, currently on vacation leave because her sister had flown in from Washington to stay with her. “John? What’s going on?” She was fully awake now, sitting upright in bed and turned on the lamp on her nightstand, glancing at the clock. “Are you okay?”

“No. Need your help.” John kept his voice low, not wanting to reveal too much information and pressed his hand against his wounded side, leaning against the wall. “Come to my house.”

“John…what are you-?” Before she could get the question out, the line went dead and Mallory was on her feet instantly, not bothering with a change of clothes.

Grabbing her cell phone, emergency first-aid kit she kept in her bathroom and purse, Mallory flew out of the house to drive over to John’s. What the hell happened to him? He didn’t sound good on the phone at all. Mallory sent her sister a quick text letting her know she’d be out for a while and if she needed anything to call. There was no reason to worry baby sister unless absolutely necessary. Sighing, Mallory tried not to let the worry consume her, but with each passing minute and the closer she came to Shaw’s, it grew into a massive bubble in the pit of her stomach.

The yellow Camaro stood out like a sore thumb as Mallory pulled into the driveway and cut the ignition, glancing over at the man’s vehicle. Smeared red substance left a streak across the driver door, popping against the yellow and Mallory’s heart leapt in her throat. Hopping out with her medical supplies, Mallory walked around the front of her vehicle to stop in front of Shaw’s driver door and could see what the red substance was. Blood. Shaw was bleeding…a lot. Cursing, Mallory didn’t waste any more time and rushed to the front door, entering without knocking. There was no time for manners, especially if Shaw was as injured as Mallory assumed.

“John?” She called out, closing the front door behind her and walked down the corridor leading to the kitchen, following the trail of blood on the floor without stepping on it.

“In…here…” His pained voice responded, sitting in the living room that was just off the kitchen and tried keeping pressure on the wound on his side. His arm wasn’t hurting nearly as bad.

Following his voice, Mallory rushed past the kitchen into the living room and stopped at the sight of him, her hazel eyes widening. “Oh my god…”

“I wish I was god right now.” John half-joked, looking up at her through agonized pale blues and felt relief course through his body at the sight of Mallory. “Thanks for comin’.”

“Like I wouldn’t?” Mallory tried injecting some sort of humor in her tone, but none came as she settled down on John’s right side, noticing his hand covered in blood. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Shot twice. Hell of a first day back, eh?”

John had been on leave of absence from work for a while due to an accident that resulted in a rookie officer being shot and killed on his watch. He had to take extensive psychiatric sessions and counseling because he too had been shot in the line of duty. How he wished he could go back to that night with the rookie. Instead of letting the boy go off half-cocked trying to bring down a perpetrator, he would’ve done it and taken the bullet instead.

“Jesus, they already put you back in the field your first day back?” Mallory demanded quietly, moving his hand from the bloody wound and lifted the long sleeved thermal blue shirt John wore to examine it. “Christ, you better hope it didn’t hit any major organs or you’re going to the hospital whether you like it or not.” Why hadn’t he received medical treatment? “Tell me what happened.”

John hissed out the moment her fingers began pushing around the bullet wound and shut his eyes, sweat pouring from his head down his neck. “Did you hear about the George Freemont shit?” He asked, knowing it would hurt to have the bullets removed, but if they weren’t the wounds would become infected.

“Who hasn’t? It’s been all over the news…” Mallory’s words trailed off, her eyes once again looking up into John’s face and the ball of worry in her stomach expanded. “What about it?”

“Burke was in on it. He…killed Freemont to protect himself and his band of goons at the precinct. Burke forced Freemont to sell drugs and reaped the profits, giving Freemont whatever cut he wanted. Detective Matthews was in on it too. They’re all…dead…except Burke. Christ that fuckin’ hurts…” John explained through the searing pain, slipping his uninjured arm out of the top and pulled it over his head, keeping the left sleeve on until Mallory uncovered it to remove the bullet.

“But how did you find all of this out?” Mallory’s head spun from the information John just told her and somehow stayed focused on the task at hand, pulling out a bottle of peroxide to sterilize the area. Then she thought better of it, putting it back and stood up. “Do you have any liquor in the house? Whiskey preferably.”

John nodded, grunting again and wondered what Mallory had in store for him. “In the kitchen…” She was the best in her field at the hospital and he trusted her with his life.

“Stay put.” Mallory ordered, walking into the kitchen and ignored the spots of blood on her pale blue nightgown she had on, sifting through the cabinets until she found what she was looking for. “Here we go.” Jack Daniels was in order because it would sterilize the wounded areas and help John through the horrific pain he was in.

Raising a brow when Mallory came back, John took the bottle from her and took a long swig, the liquid feeling wonderful burning down his esophagus. “How’s it lookin’?” He gritted out, handing the bottle back to her and it dawned on him what the woman had planned. “Wanna get me a stick to bite down on or somethin’?”

“Are you joking again or are you serious? Because this is going to hurt like a son of a bitch, I won’t lie.” Mallory informed him, reaching up to dab his forehead with a towel she grabbed out of the drawer and couldn’t believe the man wasn’t crying. “Tell me what you want me to do, Shaw.”

“Remove them. Do what you gotta do and don’t worry about me.” John ordered, feeling the liquid courage taking effect and was prepared for any kind of pain, or so he thought. “Try to do it quick.”

“Then turn on your side a little more and try to go to a happy place.” Mallory instructed, pulling out the pair of tweezers from her first-aid kit along with bandages, knowing she would need them as soon as the bullet was removed. “Here we go…”

John bit down on his black leather cushion as hard as he could the moment Mallory poured some Jack Daniels on the wound, the veins in his neck popping out. His screaming was muffled and John did all he could not to move while the tweezers dug into the bullet wound to remove the piece of metal. Christ, it hurt worse to remove the bullet than taking it! This wasn’t the first bullet John had removed from his body, but he’d been unconscious during the last time and in the hospital. For some reason, he didn’t want to go back and instead called Mallory over, knowing she would help him. It seemed to take hours, but was only mere minutes when Mallory finally clutched the bullet and extracted it from his side, dropping it in a bowl of water on the coffee table in front of them. The blood started flowing out and Mallory stopped it with huge white thick bandages, knowing she wouldn’t be able to sew the wound up until the bleeding stemmed. Her heart broke at the sound of Shaw’s screams and tried working as fast as she could, thankful the bullet hadn’t been stubborn. Then she started pushing around the bullet wound to make sure it hadn’t struck any vital organs, knowing a CT scan was out of the question.

“Still with me, John?” Mallory asked, watching his teeth slowly relinquish the cushion and handed over the Jack Daniels for him to take another swallow. “One down, one to go…” She decided to remove the other bullet from his arm after wrapping his midsection tightly, keeping pressure on the first wound. “Keep talking to me. Tell me how you came across the evidence on Burke.”

“Flash drive from George Freemont was brought over from the morgue. It was on him when he was killed. Showed pictures of exchanges going down with Burke and others in the precinct.” John talked rather quickly, lifting his arm so Mallory could remove the rest of the top and watched her set it on the armrest of the couch. “Shit, this one’s gonna hurt too, huh?”

“Unfortunately. Continue.” Mallory moved to John’s other side and blinked when his hands gripped her hips, settling her on his lap in a straddle. “What are you doing?”

John looked up at her, a small smirk curving his mouth in spite of the pain and luckily the Jack Daniels was slowly numbing some of it. “Your weight helps. Gotta hold me down somehow.” He would not admit how comforting Mallory felt against him, his hands not leaving her sides. “I’m ready, get it done.”

The bullet was lodged deeper in his bicep, so it took Mallory a while to remove it, hating how much agony she was putting John through. His hands squeezed her sides, but not hard enough to hurt her. John would never hurt this woman, not if he could help it and not intentionally. His pale blues looked over and watched the tweezers pull out the bullet, blood starting to pour out of the hole. Mallory quickly poured more Jack Daniels over it, resting her forehead on John’s shoulder and shut her eyes, breathing him in. It was a miracle he survived the attack, which she still didn’t know about fully and eventually John would tell her the full story. The only thing she was worried about was making sure this man didn’t bleed to death and he didn’t die. Wrapping his arm tightly like she did his side, Mallory finally sat back and took a swig of liquor, her nerves shot from the bullet extractions.

“You know I could lose my job doing this.” She finally broke the silence between them, handing over the bottle and didn’t move from his lap, instead checking his side to see if the blood had gone through the gauze. It hadn’t. “So tell me how you got the flash drive in the first place. And how you ended up shot twice.”

John sat up a little more on the couch, his wounds not hurting nearly as bad as they had with the bullets and let out a shaky breath. “I signed the evidence out, the flash drive and looked at it. Saw everything. Burke found out and put the precinct in lockdown so I couldn’t get out. Then tried to kill me and destroy the evidence. Didn’t exactly work out in his favor though.”

“So did he destroy it?” Mallory slid her hand up his arm to where it was heavily bandaged, needing to keep an eye on both areas to see if the blood flow ceased or increased.

“Yeah, he held me at gunpoint and I had to hand it over. The SWAT team showed up and I managed to escape him, thought Matthews had my back, but she was working with him all along like the rest.” John explained, scrubbing a hand down his face and finally stopped Mallory from touching his arm, reaching up to finger her chin to make their eyes lock. “Not scared of me, are you Mal?”

Mallory shook her head, frowning because of everything John had to go through his first day back on the job. “How did you get out alive?” That’s what she really wanted to know.

“Burke confessed and I recorded it on my cell. Nifty little trick you taught me, by the way. He shot and killed Matthews right before SWAT showed up along with the Chief. They let me go after I cuffed Burke and handed him over.” John blinked when Mallory suddenly tossed her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly and he wrapped his good arm around her waist, holding her close. “I cleared my name, thanks to you. Burke was gonna pin the killings on me, possibly even George Freemont’s.”

Pulling back, Mallory cupped his face in her soft hands and pressed her forehead to his, thanking whoever up above for watching over John tonight. “You really should go to the hospital, you know.” She murmured, already knowing how stubborn John was and he’d rather suffer in pain at home than in a hospital bed too small for his huge 6’4, 225 pound frame. “They can do a better job than me…”

“No. I just wanna be here, at home, with you.” John thought he wasn’t walking out alive tonight and he would never see this woman in front of him again. “You’re the only one I trust and you take better care of me than any nurse or doctor. So stop trying to push me away and come here.”

“You stubborn ass.” Mallory whispered and covered his mouth with hers, being careful not to take too much oxygen from him until she was certain he was out of the woods. “Come on, let’s get you upstairs and in bed. Then maybe I can start stitching you up.”

John shook his head, not wanting to move from the couch and instead kissed her again, trying to get her mind off of what happened to him. “Stop worrying about me. I’m comfortable.” He mumbled against her lips, settling further into the couch and rubbed her nose against his. “This is my reward for serving and protecting.”

No other words had to be said between them and Mallory didn’t bother arguing or fighting anymore, doing whatever Shaw wanted. He was survivor and would overcome any obstacle, including two bullet wounds to the side and arm. Hell, the man couldn’t have been in that much pain if he wanted to kiss and touch. His nose and mouth were bruised, a cut on his forehead had dry blood on it too. He was beaten up, bruised, but not broken and possibly the best cop in the precinct. Also, it didn’t hurt John also had the best paramedic as his girlfriend, who would heal his wounds the only way she knew how. Just as he said to Burke before walking out of the precinct a free man, he kicked ass his first day back and once he came back from another vacation, he would do it all over again.

The End.