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Okay, even Bobby had to admit that it wasn’t the smartest of plans.
It seemed like a good idea, something they’d done many times before in many situations. Buck was their most experienced rappeler, thanks to the amount of hiking and rock climbing he did on his days off. Sending him down to speak to the distraught woman looked like the best option. He also had a compassionate voice, so he could hopefully deescalate the situation.
Everything was going fine, and then Lola pulled out the gun and shot out the crash pad.
Immediately the situation changed. Every officer at the scene immediately had their weapon trained on the woman. Lola was yelling that she wasn’t moving until Norman arrived. Buck took a single step towards her, and she turned the gun onto him. Immediately he threw his hands up, trying to get her to calm down.
In a perfect word, she would have surrendered her gun and listened to whatever Buck said and waited until her husband arrived and no one would get hurt. She’d be arrested for her desperate stunt to be seen by the man she loved, but everyone would be fine and happy and they’d all go home at the end of the day.
And instead, now Buck had a gun pointed at his throat.
“Lola, you need to put down the gun and let that man go!” Athena’s firm voice drew Bobby from his worried mental spiral.
“No, not until Norman is here!” She screamed back, keeping the gun nearly completely steady and level at Buck. Her finger was firmly on the trigger, which was about the only thing keeping everyone from firing on her.
“Ma’am, please put the gun down,” Buck’s voice, false bravado and calm covering his nervousness, floating down from above. “No one needs to get hurt today.”
“Not. Until. I see Norman.” Her words were filled with sharp anger. She knew what she was doing, what she was risking for herself. “When he gets here, you can go away.”
Bobby watched Buck chance a glance first at Eddie, looking down worriedly, and then towards him and Athena. It was clear that Buck was past just faking calm, and was firmly into nervous, but well hidden, panic. “Ma’am. Norman is on his way. Please put the gun down.”
“All you people are the same!” She screamed, loud enough that some of the officers actually flinched. “Norman hasn’t seen me yet! And I’m not leaving until he finally does!”
“And I get that,” Buck yelled back, stopping her yelling in her tracks. Then he lowered his voice, just loud enough for Bobby to hear over his radio, which he’d left on an open line occasions such as this. “But right now, you’ve got a weapon pointed at a first responder and are actively threatening them. You want Norman to see you, and he has. He’s coming. I’m not leaving this billboard until he does, and even then, it’s so that I can help you down.”
Bobby watched the gun waver a bit, as if Lola was weighing her options. “Not that she really has any,” Athena muttered to Bobby, basically reading his mind. “At this point, it just depends on how many charges are going to be thrown at her by the end of today.”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Lola said, lowering her weapon somewhat. Now, instead of it pointed dangerously at Buck’s throat, it was pointed lower, towards his waist or even leg. “I just want to be seen.”
“I know, and you have been seen.”
Lola spared a glance at her gun. Her hand still clenched the weapon tight. “He’s coming here?”
Buck let out the smallest of sighs. “Yes, he called in. He’s coming right now.”
“He’s coming.” Lola looked right at Buck, a strange expression on her face. Bobby’s stomach dropped. “Just not soon enough.”
Oh, no.
She raised the gun and pulled the trigger.