A Cop's Duty

Chapter 21

The white glare blinded me when I opened my eyes. When I was able to see, I realized that I wasn't going into "the light". I was in a hospital room. Jack was in the bed to the right of me, asleep. His leg was in a cast. To the left I saw Heather and Kenny sitting in a bench.

"James!" Heather shrieked.

She ran over to me and Kenny was close behind. Heather threw her arms around me and started crying.

"We thought you were dead. You breathed in so much of the smoke you've been out for two weeks."

"What?!" I gasped. "Two weeks?!"

"Yeah we were so worried. We thought you'd never wake up."

Heather was crying so loud that she woke Jack up. He yawned quite loudly before his whole face brightened up.

"Daddy!" he squealed.

"Hey Jack. How are you feeling?"

"Well my leg is killing me, but other than that I'm fine."

Killing. When Jack said that word, all the memories from that night flooded back into me head.

"Where are Jimmy and Billy?"

Heather and Kenny glanced at each other as if deciding who should deliver the bad news. Jack just looked down at the floor. Finally, Kenny took a deep breath.

"No one found anything to prove that Jimmy was dead," he said slowly. "But I wouldn't get your hopes up. There's no way he could've survived that explosion."

"Billy?" I asked quietly.

"He's missing. He wasn't found either."

Then it hit me. The two figures I had seen. It's possible that those two were Jimmy and Billy right?

"I don't think they're dead."

Kenny glanced at Heather nervously.

"James, there is a slight possibility that Billy is alive, but Jimmy..."

"Hear me out guys. When I was crawling through the smoke, I saw two figures. The first one told the second one to come with them. Then he/she dragged him/her away. I think that was Jimmy and Billy."

Heather sighed, irritated.

"You can believe what you want, but don't get your hopes up."

Jack seemed pretty quiet. That's rare.

"Jack are you okay? You haven't said a word at all."

He looked up at me his eyes were glazed with tears.

"Daddy, how do you expect me to be okay?! My mommy's dead, my brother's dead, and soon to be brother is dead! How could I possibly be okay?!" he screamed.

"Billy and Jimmy are not dead!" I yelled back. "I know they are alive. I refuse to believe otherwise."

The room grew silent. Apparently the nurses in the hall heard me yelling because I was soon swarmed by nurses and doctors checking me now that I was awake. They were soon through and left us alone.

"On a different subject, what happened after I passed out?"

"Well we basically had to wait for the smoke to clear. When it did, Semaj's body and the two RHW members were gone. Greg helped us get you out of the white house and into an ambulance along with Jack. We told the FBI about the RHW and they are now doing everything they can to stop them. Right now you are in a hospital in Washington D.C.," Kenny explained.

"What about the cops of the NYPD?"

"We don't know about them yet. We planned on going to New York once you were released."

We talked for a little while before I grew tired. I fell asleep while Jack was talking about snails or something. The dream I had was far from snails.

I was sitting at my kitchen table drinking a cup of black coffee. That’s strange. I hate black coffee. Jimmy and Billy appeared in the room as apparitions.

"Jimmy, Billy are you guys alright?" I called out.

"We're alive, barely, but alive," Jimmy replied.

"Where are you?" I asked.

They started to fade away.

"No!" I called out. "Come back."

I woke up in a cold sweat panting. The room was dark and the only light was from Jack's nightstand. He was reading a book

"Daddy are you okay?"

"Y-yeah just a dream," I reassured him.

"Oh okay."

Jack put down his book and turned off his light. He fell asleep quickly and snored lightly. I was up thinking. Are the cops okay? What happened to Jimmy and Billy? What will happen to me and Jack? Did the RHW get away for good? Was I going to live past 40?

These thoughts filled my head before I drifted off to sleep. Man was my life changing.