FRIENDLY FIRE: A 9-1-1 fanfiction

Part Thirty-Eight: Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer

I wasn't gonna publish two chapters today, but Brie_Riddle changed my mind. Thank you for your support.

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EDDIE

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I moved carefully towards the garden door, looking out into the dark. I knew Harry wasn't here, but Emma needed to be sure of that too; if going out and checking was what she needed, I was willing to do that.

"Do you have a gun?" Emma whispered, her arms wrapped around herself as she stood a few paces behind me, peering out as well, "Like in the house?"

My heart sunk at the fear in her voice, and I tried to push away all the thoughts that tried to push me to ask her what had made her so afraid of one man. "I don't, because of Chris."

Emma nodded curtly, looking around the room carefully before darting into the kitchen, the sound of something clattering echoing throughout the house before she returned, kitchen knife in hand. "It's better than nothing."

She was a decorated marine staff sergeant. She served for seven years; she had fought, she had killed, and she had enough scars to tell a dark story without any words.

And she was terrified of a man who had been bullied out of the fire station by an angry nurse. Why?

I moved towards her when she stopped at the end of the couch, seemingly unable to move further, accepting the knife from her hands, "Okay."

Adonis moved towards her, tapping her leg again as I turned back to the door, sliding it open slowly before I closed it behind me again.

The back garden gate was closed, Christopher's bike leaning against it, proving my assumptions that the knocking Emma kept saying she heard was made by something else. 

I surveyed the garden, waiting to hear any of the noises she'd heard, lowering the knife so it hung loosely in my palm.

Crickets sounded, and somewhere nearby, a car passed, the lights briefly flashing into the garden. The wind picked up slightly, a neighbours wind chimes ringing... and then, the knocking started.

My head snapped up, looking at a low hanging tree branch that had tilted down, banging into the top of the garden door every time the wind pushed it. "Culprit discovered."

I looked around the garden, deciding to pull up a lawn chair so that I could stand up on it and grab the branch, using the knife Emma had given me to start cutting it. "I love the environment, this is not personal, I just love..." I paused, my cutting seizing as well, "interesting."

I mean, it made sense in a way. There wasn't really any other reason for me to end up cutting a tree branch at midnight in my pyjamas with a kitchen knife aside from some crazy emotions. It was weird to me though, how oddly calm my conclusion made me feel. 

I sighed, shaking my head, "Inner monologue later, branch cutting now." I managed to twist off the branch off after a minute, jumping down front the lawn chair and making my way back inside the house.

"Well?" Emma shot up from leaning on the couch the second I stepped back inside, the TV shining a light on her face revealing bitemarks on her lip, fresh and bleeding.