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He couldn’t help it. How could he? His reaction was completely involuntary.
It wasn’t the first time he’d heard a gunshot since his own wounding. That had been nearly two years ago, practically a lifetime and another near death experience ago. It wasn’t even the first time he’d been forced to stare down the barrel of a gun. No, that was his team’s kidnapping.
But today? For some reason, he flinched.
The sharp crack of the gunshot echoed down the alleyway, not unlike the ones that had preceded it. It was followed by two more wild shots, one pulling wide and into the sky, another striking against the concrete building to one side, leaving a small scar left behind.
TK stood behind the ambulance with Tommy and Nancy about fifteen feet from the entrance to the alleyway, staring at one of their patients who was an unfortunate bystander to the now shootout in the middle of a seedy downtown Austin alley. All three wanted to reach for the poor person, a young teenanger curled up and clenching their abdomen in an crude attempt to keep from bleeding out. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get to her without risking all of their lives, and the teen couldn’t get enough purchase against the ground to crawl away.
SWAT was in route, only a minute or two away, coming to assist Carlos and his partner, who were on the other side of the shooting, trying to talk down the man with the semi-automatic.
It was Tommy who noticed the flinch. She gave him a questioning look, one that he didn’t exactly want to be on the receiving end of, and didn’t seem to want to accept his shrug of yes, I’m okay, please don’t ask.
Another shot went wide. This one actually managed to shoot out the window of Carlos’ police vehicle. Another flinch.
Tommy’s look wasn’t questioning now. She quickly tugged him back, exchanging a nod with Nancy as she did so.
“The gunshots?” She asked without preamble, as soon as they cleared the back of the ambulance.
“Hasn’t been a problem before,” he tried to grumble, before being met with a patented Tommy-hard-mom look. Yeah, he wasn’t getting out of this one easily. “I’ve been to plenty of scenes with gunshots before. Don’t know why today is getting to me.”
Tommy let the slight whine in TK’s voice be her answer. “Anything can be a trigger.” Gunshot. Flinch. “Even years later. Your dad told me what happened that day a few weeks after I started back with the 126.”
Her subordinate nodded. “He told me ahead of time, basically asking my permission. Not exactly something I’m used to when he gets going, but I appreciated it nonetheless.” He sighed and leaned against the sun warmed metal of the ambulance. “Before I returned to work, I asked Carlos to take me to a gun range. He clocked his required time for that month with me by his side. I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t have a problem. And I didn’t. Until-” Gunshot. Flinch.
“Until today. I’m not pulling you if you think you can handle staying. You’ve more than earned that right,” Tommy said. She glanced around the side of the ambulance to see SWAT pulling up and quickly getting into position. “We’re about to move. Are you going to be able to?”
She watched TK take a deep breath before nodding to himself. “As long as Carlos didn’t get himself shot, I think I’ll be fine.”
One final round of shouting and gunshots, one quick flinch, one call of arrest. Time for them to do their own jobs.