Too Broken to Love

19

The first night back at work went surprisingly well. It was a night filled with the typical domestic calls and noise complaints. Overall nothing major happened and I was able to fill in my shift on the situation with Chris, as well as inform them of Spencer. While they were cautious of the whole thing, I could tell they were supportive.

After a few shifts I was back in my rhythm. I had spent every minute I could with the kids, and quit the restaurant so I could be home with them more. While my sleep was deprived being on nights and spending time with the kids after school, everything was falling into a decent schedule.

The only downfall was that I hadn't seen Spencer in a few days. We had talked on the phone and texted, but night shift was definitely not the first pick for dating anyone. Still he didn't complain, and reminded me how much he supported my job.

By the time the weekend arrived I had one more shift until three days off. I walked into work after talking to Spencer on the phone. We planned a nice lunch picnic at his mothers house for Saturday. While I hadn't seen him in a while, his mother was also wanting to see him before she left for a trip, so he had asked if we would mind going. As a bargain the kids were promised unlimited swimming in the pool, and of course they had no objections.

As soon as roll call was over we were hounded with calls. I was grateful for my partner Derek Hugens. He was a tank at over 6 ft tall and built with muscles to flip a car. In the space of a few hours we had arrested three people and broke up a fight.

We were sitting writing reports in our cars at around 2am when he looked at me.
"So how are things going since you've been back?" He asked.
"Okay I guess, the kids are good, but I haven't seen Spencer since I came back."
"Yeah this job is hard for the dating scene!" he laughed.

Derek was my work go to for advice. He had dated on and off since I started, eventually he married a dispatcher from our rotation, which honestly worked out well since they had the same days off. He always said that dating a civilian was rough because they didn't understand the ins and outs of the job.

"So how is Spencer taking you being gone?" He asked playfully, with a serious face.
"Better than expected. He doesn't complain about it and we talk a lot on the phone. He even planned a picnic for tomorrow with me and the kids." I explained.
"Well I am happy for you! You seem so much happier away from Chris!" He smiled.
"That's because I am. Spencer makes me happier than Chris ever could and he cares about what makes me happy!"
"That's great! You still never told me what happened with Chris?" He asked.

I was just about to tell him about everything that happened when Dispatch dropped emergency tones for a armed robbery not too far from where we were sitting. Without hesitation I called en route with Hugens and flew to the store.

When I arrived several people were pointing at a male running from the store in a black hoodie. I immediately began chasing him as I conveyed my location to dispatch. That's when the male ran off the pavement and into a patch of woods.

I notified dispatch that I we were now running through the woods. He was only a hundred feet or so ahead of me and I knew that he was getting tired as his pace began to slow down. I took my chance and sped up tackling him to the ground.

He began fighting, and only now that we were on the ground did I realize that he was under the influence of some kind of drugs. He wasn't much bigger than me in size, but as we wrestled it became clear that he had superhuman strength and without help, I wouldn't be able to fend him off much longer.

I did the one thing I could think of and hit my man down button on my radio, and tried to yell out our location in the woods as well as explain we were actively fighting. I could see the blue lights of my co workers flashing on through the trees in the dark, but I knew it would be hard to explain our exact location.