Blindsided

Chapter One

All in all, it had been a normal Monday for Team One. Everyone arrived at 5am for workout and were in the barn by 7am to discuss the day's plans.

"Alright," said Sergeant Parker, leaning over the table, "barring hot calls, we are going to call today a patrol day."

The team grinned; it was their favorite kind of day, next to days where they responded to hot calls, made the right decisions, saved lives, and kept the peace.

"Workouts are done, now shift starts. We'll do a little Team One PR. Keep the bad guys on their toes. Let the city know we're here."

Ed, sitting next to Greg, smiled.

"Spike and Lou," said Greg, "Alpha Team. Get keys out of locked cars for folks and the like. Rescue kittens from trees..."

The team snorted with laughter at the look on the two techies' faces, but Spike and Lou grinned nonetheless.

"Sounds good to me," said Lou, smiling.

"Eddie and I will be Team Charlie on east end, gang patrol and whatnot," said Greg. "Sam and Jules, Team Bravo."

"We'll take west," Jules volunteered, before Sam could open his mouth.

"Rolie and I will patrol south side," said Wordy. "There's always drugs and stuff going on down there."

"Copy that, team Delta," said Greg. "Keep in touch on the com-links. We'll reconvene for lunch, then call it a day at five, if there are no hot calls."

"Copy," said seven other voices.

The morning went by smoothly, so the team met for lunch; then, just as it seemed they had finished eating, the hot call siren blared.

"Team One, hot call," Winnie said quickly. "Shots fired." She quickly relayed an address. "Neighbors reporting an armed fight between Simon Conway and Jack McCoy. Subject is armed with a knife."

"What do we know about the subjects, Winnie?" Greg asked, as they sped to the location.

"Simon's wife told him last week about her being raped by Jack two months ago, while she was home alone. She told Simon that Jack threatened to kill her if she told her husband. A neighbor found her body in their swimming pool this morning, but Simon was at work. Now, according to his work buddies, Simon is planning on killing Jack over everything," Winnie reported.

"On our way, Winnie," said Greg, as Ed pushed the accelerator further into the floor. "Ed, you're Sierra One, Sam, you're Sierra Two. Jules, you're my second."

"Copy."

They arrived at the residence and almost immediately heard sounds of a fight, of shoes and flesh hitting flesh.

"1:48pm, Team One arrives at subject residence," Lou spoke into the microphone. As he spoke, the transcript wrote his words across the screen.

"Bravo, Delta, clear the house," said Greg, before he and Ed split up, he taking the left side of the house, Ed taking the right. Spike and Lou remained in the command truck.

Greg and Ed rounded the corner to the sight of two distressed men; one lying on the ground, bloodied, being kicked and punched by the other.

"She told me what you did to her!" Conway growled, kicking McCoy swiftly in the side. "I'm gonna gut you like the pig you are!"

Conway got down on his knees and placed the knife above McCoy's midriff.

"Drop the weapons, Simon!" Greg called out. "Sergeant Greg Parker, SRU. We'll take it from here."

"1:50pm, Sergeant Parker and Officer Lane begin negotiations," said Lou, interpreting what he heard over the com-link and saw on the CCTV.

"Living room clear," said Wordy and Rolie, over the com-links.

"Bedrooms clear," said Sam.

"Kitchen clear," said Jules. "Heading to the basement."

"Do you know what he did to my wife, sir?" Conway asked Greg.

"I do. We're gonna take him into custody," said Greg.

"He deserves to die, sir!" Conway yelled, thrusting the knife in McCoy's direction. McCoy screamed.

"I can't let you do that, Simon!" Ed commanded, pointing his rifle at Conway. "SIMON!" he yelled sharply, in his best DI voice.

Conway visibly softened and when he next spoke, he sounded broken.

"My house. There was police tape, blood everywhere." He landed a punch hard on McCoy's nose; Charlie Team heard it crunch as it broke. Then Conway stilled. "Siobhan's dead, isn't she?"

"I'm sorry, sir," Greg said quietly.

"You raped her! You beat her to within an inch of her life and you left her for dead! You killed her!" Conway screamed, throwing the knife down between McCoy's legs. McCoy screamed again. Ed still had his rifle trained on Conway, ready to take the shot if Conway showed any sign of attempting to truly harm McCoy.

"What now, Sergeant?" Conway asked, his arms falling limp at his sides. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"First, Simon, said Greg calmly, "I understand that you're hurting deeply from what he did to your wife, to you. But we can take it from here. He's not worth you ruining your life, Simon. Put the gun down."

Conway's body shook, then after a long moment, he dropped the gun. Greg walked forward and pulled the knife out of the ground, holstered it and the gun, then began to handcuff Conway.

"2:18 p.m., subject surrendered weapons. Subject contained."

Then the team heard words they never wanted to hear.

Jules and Sam yelled, "Boss, we've got a bomb!"

With those five words, the entire situation changed, as McCoy stood up and drew a remote control out of his pocket, before Ed could step forward to handcuff him.

"Call them off!"

"I can't do that, Jack," said Ed, holding his hands up in a non-threatening manner.

Spike and Lou glanced at each other, then Spike put a hand to his ear. "Jules, talk to me."

"Basement, Spike," said Jules quickly. "Timer says five minutes even. It's not moving."

"Call them off or we all die!" McCoy yelled, brandishing the remote control device.

"Team, fall back," Greg spoke harshly into his com-link. "Spike, Lou, we have live explosives in the house. Commence immediate evacuation of nearby properties!"

With Wordy covering him, Ed took Conway to the uniformed officers, who placed him in a cruiser. Ed, Wordy, and Rolie began evacuating nearby houses. Then Spike came forward.

"Boss, only one man downrange," said Spike. "Babycakes can't do this one, but we can. I'm going in manual."

"Jules, Sam, get out of there! Be careful, Spike," said Greg.

"Always am," said Spike, before heading into the house with McCoy, as Jules and Sam came out the back door.

Lou ran back to the command truck and watched Spike's location dot on the computer screen enter the house. Spike walked half a pace behind McCoy, well aware that this man could, at any moment, blow himself and Spike to high heaven.

"1:23 p.m., Officer Scarlatti en route to disarm bomb."

When the door closed behind them, McCoy head-butted Spike, then before Spike could regain his senses, McCoy jumped over his handcuffs and caught them around Spike's neck, just tight enough to hold him in place. Spike could feel the remote pressing against his cheek as they crept slowly down the stairs to see two blocks of C-4 wired to a timer that was counting down. Glancing outside, he saw Ed and Sam running forward into position.

Spike returned his attention to McCoy. "Give it up, man. Even with me down here, you aren't getting out of here."

Glancing up again, he saw Ed and Sam in position to take the shot.

"Sierra One, in position."

"Sierra Two, in position."

"Last chance, McCoy," said Spike. "Put the remote down."

"You aren't in a position to be giving orders," snarled McCoy.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," said Spike, swinging his elbow violently and striking the man hard in the gut, then throwing himself clear.

The sound of a single shot rent the air as Ed's bullet met McCoy's head and he fell to the ground in a bloodied mess.

"Spike, you okay?"

"I'm fine, Boss," Spike replied, retrieving the remote from the dead man. Then he looked at the timer. "We've got a problem."

"What?"

"The scuffle must have triggered the remote control, which started the timer. The timer's got less than five minutes on it. That's if it's set to blow at zero," said Spike.

"Boss, we checked neighboring properties within a five-house radius," said Wordy over the com-link. "Nobody's home."

"Good," said Greg. "Spike, get out of there!"

"I'm not done here, Boss!" said Spike. But as he worked and got neither solution nor explosion, and the bomb continued to count down, in the end, he decided it was best to get himself out.

"Coming out, Boss!"

Spike turned and took off running, taking the stairs two at a time. Jules met him at the top.

"Spike, where's Sam?" she asked frantically.

"I thought he was with you? I haven't seen him since before I went in..." Spike said slowly. Over his com-link, he yelled, "Sam, where the hell are you?"

"Trying to disarm the damn thing!" Sam yelled over the com-link.

Spike looked up at Jules in alarm. "He must have gone in another way," said Spike, shaking his head. "Sam, get out of there!"

"Two minutes left on this thing, Spike, I can do this!" said Sam stubbornly, working quickly but carefully.

Spike looked at Greg. "Boss, I should be in there, not him!"

"Sam, get outta there!" Greg yelled.

"I've almost got it, Boss!"

"Sam, drop your tools and get yourself out of there RIGHT NOW!" Spike screamed. "Or I'm coming in after you!"

"Sam, GO!" Jules yelled.

With what he estimated to be less than a minute to go before the timer went off, Spike ran back into the house, bolted down the stairs, and bodily hauled Sam off the bomb.

"Sam! SAM! SAM, GET OUT! GO!" Spike roared at him, pushing him ahead of him, up the stairs.

As if in slow motion, out of the corner of his eye, Spike saw the timer tick down... 0:03... 0:02... 0:01... 0:00.

Spike's breath caught as the bomb exploded. Caught in the blast concussion, Spike felt his body picked up and thrown violently into the ceiling. He then fell hard onto the stairs, rolled down them, and hit a wall. As his head smashed against the wall, his last thought was of Sam, before darkness rushed over him.

Just to clarify, Siobhan is pronounced "shi-vahn." It's Irish.

And I know, I know, Rolie was only in the pilot episode for like, thirty seconds, until Sam replaced him, but I like him too much to exclude him. So he'll be around. ;)