My Castles Are Falling

I pulled the trigger five times in quick succession. The noise was blocked by the earmuff and plugs I had in, but I could still faintly hear the shots. I relaxed my muscles as I lowered the gun.

Four bulls-eyes and one just slightly off. Travis whispered lowly, "dang, girl! Not bad." he complimented.

"But I could be better." I sighed, taking off my goggles.

"Don't be like that, Dev." he hit me on the back a couple times.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, only your friends call you that." he rolled his eyes, "do you have friends?" he asked. This was one of his annoying times.

"Don't you have strippers to hit on?" I shot back, exiting the shooting range, "or a report to file? Or something that doesn't involve bugging me?"

"Nope, I have two whole hours of pester Devon time." he replied cheekily. "I am your trainer after all."

"Which I don't get why you're even sergeant." I shook my head, going into the woman’s locker room to change. Somewhere Travis couldn't follow.

I went back to the gym, "you ready?" Travis smiled, in his work out clothes.

"The question is: are you?" I emphasized. For as annoying as he was, Travis was a good fighter. I enjoyed doing tactical training and self defense with him.

After ten minutes, there was already a thin sheen of sweat covering my body. It felt nice to release my frustration and stress through wrestling with him. "Geez, you're tougher than most of the guys on the force." Travis rubbed the back of his neck, wincing after a particularly rough take-down.

"because I'm not afraid to beat you up, serg." I laughed breathlessly, taking a large drink of water.

"Should we call it a day?" he asked, slipping the shirt he had taken off in the midst of our wrestling back on.

I nodded, twisting the cap back on my water bottled as I swallowed. "Shower up and we'll go on patrol." he instructed. Another hour and a half and all I had left for the day was report writing.

I reported to the patrol station half an hour later, hair somewhat damp still.

I patrolling was never all it was cracked up to be, except when we were patrolling the bad areas of Phoenix and Glendale. Tonight, however, was not one of those times. “So, Devon,” Travis emphasized, “I've been meaning to ask you...”

“What?” I asked, slightly annoyed already. Every time he started a conversation this way, he wanted to know something about a part in my file or my personal life. It was too invasive, I don't think he needed to know in detail my whole life.

“In your file...I know what your father did, right? But...I mean, I see how that could be damaging, but...” He took a deep breath, as if he was preparing for something. Considering where I could see this question heading, he was probably preparing for me to start yelling at him. At this point in the day, I was too tired to yell, too tired of personal questions, and even too tired of having all these things piling up in my past that I had to repress and hide from people.

But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing just that.

“You seem too...freshly hurt to have your attitude come from just your father...has something else happened?” He asked. Yep, exactly where I figured this question would go. I rolled my eyes quickly before sighing.

“You know, Travis, I don't see how any of that is your business. If it's not in my file, it's not important, right?” I asked. And, here I was, acting tough, but all the while there seemed to be something off about me that he caught on to and started to question. I need to find out what it is so I can eradicate it. I have no room for weakness in this field. Weakness will get you killed.

God, it kind of sounds like a drug cartel....

“It sort of is, Devon, I can't have an unstable officer on my force.”

“Unstable?” I asked with a raised eyebrow, “Is there anything you've seen from my to suggest that I'm unstable?” I asked him, really wanting to know the answer. Because I can fix that, too.

“Well, no.” He shook his head, “But there are times when you never suspect something and then suddenly, someone you know very well is shooting up a convenience store in Tuscon.”

“You sound like you speak from experience...” I asked, looking at him.

“Four dead, eleven injured.” He replied curtly, “There are somethings a police force can't afford, Devon, and if you end up being one of those things, Devon...you're looking at serious jail time. You won't get off easy just because you're a cop. And, if you're a cop in prison, you definitely won't last long.”

“So, you think I'm going to shoot up a convenience store?” I asked, slightly offended.

“No, but there are other ways to get in trouble. If this problem is something that will drag you into doing something like that, I'm going to have to ask you to either take a vacation until it's under control or just plain quit.”

I was shocked at his bluntness, and again, offended. I was stable. I'm not going to go crazy just because some dickhead used me for money. “Don't even worry about it, Serg.” I sat back in my sit again, giving an air of confidence. “I can handle it. Besides, I doubt I'll have any contact with him for a while.”

“It's a him?” Travis' face lit up in excitement, wanting to know more details. I had a feeling this whole talk was for this moment, to see if I let some little detail slip. I cursed mentally, knowing I had been played.

“Yeah? What of it?” I shrugged, “He was nothing but a stupid little prick.” I wanted to let it go, hopefully he will drop it once he hears the hostility in my voice.

“Oh?” Travis' ears seemed to perk and his posture grew even more excited.

“Drop it, Travis. I'm not talking about this with you.” He immediately deflated at the finality in my tone. I really wouldn't talk about this. Because every time I did, I got so mad at so many different people I couldn't see straight.

I hope he's happy wherever he is, knowing he broke my heart irreparably. Johno, I hope you choke on whatever alcohol you're probably consuming right now. I cursed mentally.

Maybe there was an unstable part of my brain waiting to break through...

I forced the thoughts of that evil little skunk from my mind and focused on the streets, peering closely for any suspicious behavior. None. Whatsoever.