A Cop's Duty

Chapter 22

The next couple of days were filled with doctors, nurses, tests, and visits. Heather and Kenny came by every day. We talked and laughed and just enjoyed ourselves. It's been a while since I've been able to do that. Greg showed up one day.

"Hey James, Jack. How are you guys feeling?" he said merrily when he walked in.

"Good," we said in unison.

Greg sat down on one of those metal folding chairs and looked at us.

"Guys I'm really sorry about everything that happened. If I had helped you guys out more, Jimmy and Billy would be here with us. I should’ve let you guys in.”

"Greg it's not your fault. You were just doing your job. You saved the president by getting Heather and the boys out of the wreckage. You did your part. Besides I don't think Jimmy and Billy are dead." I reassured him.

He looked bewildered.

"What!? You think there is still a chance they're alive? That's great!"

"Like I said before to James, don't get your hopes up Greg. There's a very good chance that they didn't survive," Heather piped up.

"Why don't you give Greg the details and he can decide if it's possible or not?" Kenny suggested.

I told Greg about the figures in the smoke. I threw in every little detail I could to convince him. Even more than what I told the others. I told him how the figures looked to be about the same height as Billy and Jimmy and that the smoke muffled the voice so there was a good chance that one of the boys had spoken. I tried to convince Greg, but I think I was trying to convince myself even more.

When I was done, Greg sat there for a minute and pondered about the information.

"It's possible. That's all I'm going to say. I don't want to take sides," he answered.

We sat in silence for a while. Heather was twirling her hair, Greg was tapping his foot, Jack started dosing off and fell asleep, and Kenny started making faces into the glass window, probably thinking no one was watching. I just sat there.

"Let's get off this depressing subject, shall we?" Heather finally said.

"Yeah we should," Greg agreed. "Sorry I brought it up."

"Well since you brought up the depressing subject Greg, why don't we pick on you for a while?" Kenny said grinning.

Heather and I started grinning too.

"What did I do to be picked on?"

"Well let's start on your job performance. It's not that easy to get into the white house, is it?"

Heather started giggling and I soon realized where Kenny was going with this.

"If a bunch of untrustworthy people just tried to get into the white house, wouldn’t you alert the other guards?”

"Well I-I guess-"

Heather and I started laughing hard now.

"It was my first day on the job!" Greg protested.

Kenny joined in the laughter. Greg attempted to look mad, but failed miserably. He started laughing to. We woke Jack up.

"Hey guys. What's so funny?"

"Nothing," I replied.

"Not nothing, there's has to be something. Otherwise you wouldn't be laughing."

"We were just making fun of Greg," Heather answered.

"Oh ok."

We laughed a little while longer before Greg left.

"Hey Daddy, when do we get to leave this hospital?" Jack asked.

"When the doctors tell us we can."

"When will that be?"

"I don't know."

Soon after, Dr. Juan came into the room and Jack didn't hesitate asking.

"You can leave very soon, maybe even later today."

He started to turn away, but stopped.

"Oh yeah, I came to tell you that that someone's on the phone for you," he said turning to me.

"Great," I said.

I got up out of bed and stretched out. Then, I followed Dr. Juan to the old fashioned phone they had down the hallway. I was relieved to hear the voice on the other end of the line.

"James are you all right?" came the voice from the other end.

"Chief Morris? Is that you?"

"Yes James, now please answer my question. We've all been worried about you."

"Well I'm doing pretty well. My nose is still a bit sore after Semaj broke it, but other than that I'm doing fine."

"What about Jack, Jimmy, and Jane?"

I sighed knowing this question would come up. I was going to have to get use to this question.

"Jack's leg is broken along with his nose. Jane and Jimmy however, are not as lucky."

"What do you mean by that?"

"They're dead."

I said it quick and painless, like ripping off a band-aid.

"Oh James, I'm so sorry."

"I don't think Jimmy's dead."

"You don't?"

"I'll tell you the details in person. It'll be better than."

"I understand."

"So what happened to the rest of the cops?"

"No one died. A couple of people are injured, but everyone is alive and well."

"Good."

We sat there in silence for a minute. We really didn't have anything left to say.

"Bye Chief Morris. See you when we get home."

"Bye Officer Smith."

I hung up and walked back to my room.

"Who was it?" Heather asked.

"Chief Morris. He's fine and so are the rest of the cops."

"Good."

Dr. Juan came back carrying crutches.

"Good news. You guys can go home."

Jack started cheering from his bed and tried to sit up. Dr. Juan rushed over to the bed and gave Jack the crutches. He stood up, and would've fallen on his face if Dr. Juan hadn't caught him. He managed to walk forward a few steps with the crutches and soon got the hang of it.

Heather and Kenny agreed to drive us home. We climbed into their car and set out. Man it felt good to be going home.