2020-05-14 - The Writing On The Walls - Rose Family, AFD, APD and Kira

Carla Rose walked the streets of Alexandra with her left hand pulling her cleaning caddy. The wheel wells squeaked and the wheels themselves scraped a bit down the pavement. In her right hand she carried a jerry can of gasoline. The locals might assume it was fuel for a lawn mower as was common. Carla had other plans for this can. She was a haggard woman with hollow brown black eyes and her greying black hair swept into a low ponytail. She was an average height and weight but looked shorter because she had a stoop to her as if she carried a great weight. Her skin was sallow and her nose was crooked as if it had been broken in a few places and she was missing half her front teeth. Her eyes were bloodshot and there were track marks down her arms. Carla was a junkie. It was the only thing she had to keep her going. She wore old ripped jeans and a plain black long sleeved t shirt with a few holes in it that looked like cigarette burns. People stared as she passed or moved aside completely.

Soon she was home. She set her supplies in the cupboard with the gasoline. Also in the cupboard was a heap of fabric with lengths of sheets tied together like a long makeshift rope. She could hear her husband in the kitchen opening a can with a little crack and spray sound. Ronald was surely halfway into his bender. It was almost 9 after all. His day off tomorrow from the docks, and a dangerous night ahead for Carla and Jack. She heard Jack moving around the upstairs in his room. Their low life son, home on house arrest. Carla closed her eyes and swallowed hard. When she opened them, Ronald was leering at her.

“Where’s my fuckin dinner you stupid cunt?” He bellowed. She didn’t even have time to answer before his first backhand across her face. He was a red faced angry fat man who was perpetually unshaven. He wore a white undershirt and faded black jeans and his beer gut hung heavy over his belt.

She hadn’t had a hit of anything yet. Motherfucker. She used to just take it from him but at some point she started dishing back. She kneed him in the balls “Up your fucking ass shit eater!” She screamed at him.

He crumpled before her “You fucking bitch….” He moaned.

She kicked him in the face and walked away to the kitchen looking for her gear. Finding her kit she tied off her arm with the rubber band, prepped her needle and shot up. The heroin coursed through her and she soon felt the rush, the invincibility. Tonight was the night. As she was soaring she felt hands in her hair and then her head being slammed into the kitchen sink face first.

Carla had a mouthful of blood and into the sink she spit out another tooth. What was one more now? She struggled with Ronald behind her, hearing him undoing his belt. Not tonight asshole. She grabbed got the knife block and pulled out a formidable kitchen knife. He was too focussed on whipping out his dick to try and get it into her ass again. She suddenly turned on him bringing the knife right down on his weapon of choice. His blood spurted all over and he screamed and screamed in agony. Carla smiled at him and then pulled the knife back and drove it into his chest. They fell, she straddled him and plunged it into his giant chest and fat belly over and over and over until he stopped moving under her. The floor was a pool of blood under him, seeping across the floor. She was covered in his blood but she looked remarkably lucid. As if she was preparing a meal she checked his pulse and nodded as if to tell herself the roast was done. Then she eased herself back and looked at the damage she’d done to his penis. It was only half off. That wouldn’t do. She used the knife like a saw and finished what she started. She held it in her hand looking at it and then tilted his head back and opened his mouth, stuffing it in deep down his throat. Suck that Ronald. The thing that had torn her family apart and ruined their children.

Then Carla dipped her finger in Ronald’s blood and went to the black wall of the kitchen. Very neatly she wrote  You hurt them. You made him

She wasn’t done though. She started to look frantic. Had the neighbours heard the screams? She didn’t want the cops again. They could come...later. She had work to do. For years she’d lived in this hell and it broke her. This man who raped her and beat her for years...and their children. Her daughter had died….maybe at her own hand and her son...he was becoming like Ronald. It had to end. It had to end tonight. Jack was still in his room. He was used to the fighting of course. So Carla took a moment to set up another part of her plan. She pulled out her long rope of sheets and wove it through the hallways of the house and doorway to the kitchen. She walked up the stairs with it and laid it out to the end of the upstairs hallway. Then she went back for the knife and gave it a little wash in the kitchen like she was moving between chopping two types of food and needed to freshen it up.

With a little hum she carried the gerry can along the sheets, sprinkling liberally while the knife was at the ready in her other hand. She had just gotten to the end up the upstairs hallway when Jack’s door opened and he sniffed the air “Mom...we have a gas leak...do you smell that?” He looked down at the sheets in confusion and then saw his mother set down the gerry can. “Mom? Mom what the fuck ar you…..”

She was more merciful with her son slicing his throat right across as she began to cry “I’m sorry baby…..I just can’t let you hurt anyone else….my beautiful boy…” His eyes bulge as  the blood pours like a red waterfall. He chortled trying to talk, reaching for her face with tears in his eyes. She sobs and lays him down, shaking at what she’s had to do. For a long time she sits on the floor with the dead form of her son, keening, rocking him like she did when he was a baby.

Finally she comes back to the moment at hand and as she mutters to herself she dips her fingers in his blood and walks to the blank wall and writes Rapist.

Carla takes a long breath and walks with the bloody knife to the bathroom and washes it again. She dries it on the hand towel even and then walks to the bedroom at the end of the hall. “Amanda” she whispers as if calling to someone. The room is a shrine. A shrine to a young girl, her daughter. She sits on the bed, smoothing the cover and her keening begins again “Amanda…” She wails. She sits up, taking another breath and then looks like she’s remembering something important and dashes downstairs. She leans over the end of the sheet rope where it begins and takes a book of matches from her pocket. Seh lights one and drops it. It catches of course because of the gasoline. She moves long lighting one every 4 or 5 feet as she goes up the stairs, a snake of fire following in her wake. She drops the last and ducks into Amanda’s room, closing the door behind her. Then she pulls up her shirt sleeves and lies down on her daughter's old bed. This was where they had found her after all…..now it was Carla’s turn. She steled herself and then drove the knife into her left hand at the wrist hard, drawing it up. She gritted her teeth and screamed. It really fucking hurt and the blood was of course immediate. She had to work quickly so she frantically forced herself to do the right side. The smoke detectors went off and she could smell smoke. It trickled in under the bedroom door.Carla felt woozy. She had anticipated this. She needed to write but was having trouble standing up. She rolled to the side and with agony and a shaky hand wrote her last message on her daughter’s wall: I couldn’t save you.

The world went black….

Patrick Peterson was lounging on the large couch on the second floor of the AFD station.  In his hands was a paperback novel entitled The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.  He’d already dealt with a little ribbing, as the book cover betrayed the book as something from the current century, which was odd for Patricks interests.  “A friend recommended it to me.”  was what he’d told anyone asking and then ignored all teasing as to the ‘friend’ might be.  That was made easy because the book wasn’t bad, he had to admit.  And that was a good thing because this shift was another nice and slow one.  He’d already noted that the sun had set and the interior lights had come on.  Some of the crew would be downstairs, chatting or watching a movie or playing cards … all of the things firemen did when the shift wasn’t terribly exciting.  Finally, he read the last words of the book and chuckled.  “OK .. you win … but I do too…” He glanced at his watch and noted the time.  7:28 p.m.  Rising, he moved to the bathroom and his locker, where he pulled out his phone and prepared a text to send to Sajani.  ‘I read the book and know the truth.  See you tomorrow @ 7pm’  he sends the text, then puts his phone back in his locker.  He looks at the book in his hand and chuckles at it, then puts it in his locker also.  He is starting to close his locker and maybe see what movie the Chief picked when the klaxons went off.  One long pulse … two long pulses …  a third long pulse that ended with something like an electronic shriek.  They wanted EVERYBODY in the firehouse. He slammed the locker door shut making note of his place and ran down to the Engine as he listened to the night dispatcher tell them that there was a fire on 4th street.  He recognised the address.  Jack Rose’s place.

Logan was downstairs watching … he wasn’t sure what .. some very old movie that might be a murder mystery?  Horror?  It was the Chiefs shift to pick the movie and this one flummoxed him.  It was called Rear Window and it seemed to be about a Peeping Tom witnessing a murder?  His Chief would never cease to amaze him.  But the movie had some promise, he supposed.  However, before he could get too invested, the klaxons gave them the whole song … it was emptying out the station.  He rushed to the ambulance, pausing only to see if he was driving or if Gareth was.

Hank loved Rear Window and wanted to share it with his crew, even though they may be far too young to really appreciate the movie.  Not that it mattered.  It was his night to pick the movie and this is the movie he had picked.  He was settling in with a bowl of popcorn when the klaxons sounded.  He listened and the noise just didn’t stop.  This was going to be bad.  He stood and left the station by the public door.  His SUV was parked and waiting for him.  Getting in, he started the engine and turned the wheel going into an immediate u-turn and heading down Central to 4th.

Jeremy Yakamura heard the call.  In the police station it was much quieter than it was in the firehouse, but in case he didn’t know the klaxons across the street began to wail.  He left the Chiefs office, or in his case Captain, and walked into the bullpen here the night receptionist handed him a small sheet of paper.  He looked up and searched the room.  This shouldn't need more than two officers.  “Lynch.  Taggart.  Back up the fire department.  Traffic control.  Barricade the street, you know the drill.  Keep the crowds at bay.”  he watches them, knowing they will head out and follow orders.  If they need backup, they will call for it.


Buck is in the kitchen . It was his place. Hes sanctuary.  He has his phone prop up as he finishes up the dinner. On his phone, hes engaged  in his ritual night bedtime facetime  with his wife and son. Arthur is in bed and Leslie is sitting on the edge of the bed and Arthur is reading to her Knights of Valor. His favorite..Hes enjoying  the book then the klaxons good off just as arthue read " and the brave knights go of to fight the firey dragon."  He look apologetic  but his family  know that mean hes off to a call. He tries to hide his emotions from his son as he hear 3 go off knowing  it was very serious  if they want everyone " he hangs up as his wife trades a knowing look. He puts down the dishe he was cleaning and runs to gear up and climb in the driver seat of what everyone knew he unofficially considered  his Ladder being a he always  drove it when he was on duty and waits for the rest of the ladder crew. he pulls out the ladder truck out of the station  after Lopez, a curvaceous Latina  and his crew joins and following Hank

Sadie had volunteered for double shift for someone's who had an anniversary  today. She just was nibbling a bear claw as she did reports humming happily  in between biteswhen she hears the command dropping  the claw on her desk and gets up nodding looking for darcy.

Gareth Dunham was playing cards with Dana and Tom. He eyed Tom trying to guess if he was bluffing or not while deciding whether or not to fold. Tom was hard to read and even harder to understand sometimes.

Dana Smith rolled her eyes “Come on Dunham...shit or get off the pot……”She was about to just kick Gareth when the klaxons went off and they all stood up to rush to their tasks. She looked at Tom’s cards as they went down though and laughed “Ha you WERE bluffing!”

Tom O’Leary snapped his head up at the klaxons and then heard they wanted everyone and said “The arse is gone out o’er….” He gives a short nod and smirks at Smith before running off to suit up and get on the ladder truck. He braces himself, hangs on and gets ready for the noise as the truck pills out and tears down the road.

Gareth grabbed the ambulance keys out of instinct and hopped into the driver’s seat , nodding at Logan as he saw him get in. They drove off, sirens blaring as soon as they hit the street.

Darcy Lynch heard the command as she was reaching under her desk to retrieve a pen. She stood and slid her rolling chair back letting it bump the desk behind her. She answered Yakamura as she moved “Yes Sir.” Still the need for masks and gloves she pocketed extra and offers some to Taggart who’s already looking for her. “Let’s roll.” She grabs a set of keys from the hook and heads to the SUY, which has the barricades in it. More sirens flash and blare on the streets of Alexandra as the SUV follows the ambulance and fire trucks to back them up.

Hank pulled up to the scene and stopped the SUV half on and half off of the sidewalk across from the community garden.  Stepping out he slipped into his turnout coat and looked at the building, assessing the situation.  Alexandra was a small town, so he had a pretty general idea of who lived here and when they should be home.  This was the Rose house.  Ronald, Carla and their son Jack.  Since he was on house arrest, Jack would definitely be inside.  Ronald probably was, unless he went out drinking.  Carll was also probably home .. so all three of them.  Next he remembered that Carla was a cleaning woman, which meant she may or may not have cleaning supplies that may explode or cause toxic fumes when they are burned.  He reaches in his SUV, flips a switch and then grabs his handi-talkie radio and inhales as the other vehicles arrive.  Time to earn his paycheck.

“Engine, this is Chief.”  designations were pretty pointless in a town this size.  “Take an inch and a half in the building.  Ladder, hose the Garden, the House and the one next to it with a one point seven five.  EMT search with the other inch and a half.  Hook up at the hydrant.”  Most likely there were people in the building and the faster the EMT’s got to them, the better.

“APD, block the street 20 meters to the south and north of the fire and across to the eastern curb.”  He stands straight and tall, looking commanting and watching to make sure his orders are followed.

Nicodemus Kato pulled the Engine along the northern curb and stopped.  Hopping out, he moved to the side of the engine and stood ready to turn on the water and watch the pressure.  Shepherd, Smith and Peterson would take the hose in the building and fight the fire.

Shepherd jogged to the hydrant and stopped.  There was a car illegally parked.  A beautiful blue 2019 Kia Stinger.  He jogged back to the engine and grabbed the axe and moved with Smith back to the hydrant.  She carried the connection end of the fire hose,  “Sometimes I love this job.”  he told her as he pulled back the axe and smashed the passenger side window of the Stinger.  He then went around to the drivers side and did the same thing.  Smith handed him the hose and he took a minute to open the hydrant and secure the hose to it.  From there he and Smith pulled out a good length of hose before he returned to the hydrant and waited turned the water on.  Then he and Smith returned to the engine to pull out hose from the truck.  They would use the tanks in their engine to fight the fire.

Robin Janesse hopped off of the ladder truck the second it stopped moving  Moving to the side of the truck he worked the equipment, moving the cherry picker to a good height and location for them to do their part of the job; keeping the whole damn block from going up in flames.

Logan Reinhardt climbed out when Gareth stopped and jogged to the hose they were designated to use.  He waited for Gareth, but he suspected Gareth would be ahead of him on the hose.

Patrick hopped out of the truck when they arrived, listening to the Chief give his orders.  He knew from the few fires they had been called to that he would be behind Smith on the hose, which was fine by him.  She was a good strong woman.  He looked at the building and his mind went to Jack Rose.  Being on House arrest, he was probably in that building.  Maybe dying of smoke inhalation.  Waiting for firefighters to clear a path so the EMT’s could work on him.  Save his life.  And with those thoughts, Patrick froze.  For the first time in his career, he faced a fire he wasn’t sure he wanted extinguished.

Buck pulls up to the blaze nodding with Lopez  as he gets his marching order. He parks the truck hopping out seeing Robin already  getting the cherry in position. He runs up climbing the ladder just enough as he meet with Lopez who has grab the house pull it to bucks out stretch hand . She clmbs up behind him as he gets to the top .Buck aims the hose at the  garden then other house  dampening it  to protect it from fire. He slowly turn  to aim it at the house.. that house...the house of that monster.. he almost pauses and Lopez says  while holding the hose what everyone  is thinking  "do we really gotta fucking put it out  "

Buck say "unfortunately.. we do.." his tone says he rather let it burn but he began to aim it at the monster's house


Sadie  pulls up with her partner . She glazes at the horror. It had to be of all houses to be the roses house.. she gets out and squeak  " this rose aint sweet.. now its a trash fire.. she say "whats in a name ?" Making a Shakespeare reference.. so soft only darcy could make out  and anyone very could here" ya know i like romeo must  die version  of that.. more actionn and yummy jet li "

Darcy roughly shifts the SUV into park and sighs at Sadie “Any other name in this town would smell sweeter but ….this is the job.” She jumps out and heads to the hatch pulling out barricades “Sadie, take these barricades to the curb ......I'll get the north side, you take the south. We’ll form a U and then we do crowd control.”

Dana Smith glances back seeing Patrick come up to pair with her on the hose. She’s ready to go but he’s...she looks back and then gives him a shake “Peterson! Get your ass in gear.” Once she has his attention she firms her stance and gets the axe from Shepherd.  She moves to the door of the house with Peterson and checks the door for heat, and finding it OK, checks the knob.  Locked.  So she uses the axe to break into the house.  Nico gets the hose going and, water flowing, directs the stream and holds on, moving the water in the pattern that’s most effective.

Gareth was ahead of Logan on the hose and ready to help direct the spray. He looked back and nodded at Logan who was also ready to help direct the spray. He steeles himself for what they might need to do for the victims still inside the house, the Rose house of all places.

Tom grabs a hose and runs just ahead of the cherry picker spraying low on the hose next door and the gardens in between, He looks back to the others, hoping he’s made the right call.

Hank watches as everyone does their job.  They gear up.  Put on their turnout coats, tanks, masks and gloves.  He watches the probie, who is doing a fine job.  Hank had been hesitant to give him the job, especially given his police record, but he had been pardoned before the quake  was doing a fine job.

Patrick is shaken back to reality by Smith.  He was a professional.  He was better than to let a man die in a fire just because that manhad ….  He shakes himself this time and follows to the door.  Once Smith breaks it down, they head inside, spraying up, down and around to battle the fire.  They turn right into the living room area, but that area seems almost OK … they move through the dining room and then turn left into the kitchen.  He clearly saw a fat  man on the floor, fire all around him.  Glancing up from the body, he read on the kitchen wall in … he didn’t know what … words …  You hurt them. You made him    He freezes …  “Jesus ….”  he speaks louder, so that the EMT’s might hear him.  “Man down!  In the kitchen!”

Logan steadies the hose in his position behind Gareth.  This is not his first fire, only his first in Alexandra.  Where he knew something about nearly everyone.  This was the Rose house and Jack Rose was on house arrest.  Something about pending assault charges.  He’d known Jack from school, but not well and he had nearly forgotten the man when he went to college .. and was cut off from Alexandra.  Now the mans house was on fire.  He hears Patrick’s voice from the kitchen and moves with Gareth to that area of the house.  Clapping Gareth on the shoulder he moves into the kitchen, then claps Smith on her shoulder.  Smith moves to take his position behind Gareth, while he kneels down.  He can see the body alright between the light and the smoke.  He’s been stabbed.  Ripping off a glove, he checks the pulse while Peterson douses the fire around him.  No pulse.  There are also stab wounds.  The man is dead.  Putting his glove back on, he takes the hose, moving close to Peterson.  “He’s gone.”  he shouts over the water and flames.

Patrick nods and grabs his shoulder mic.  “Peterson on floor one.  Fire extinguished.  One casualty.”  He waits a beat, then hears Chief Stanley.  “Ten Four.  Informing police.”

Buck continues to sweep the roof  looking down robin " abit high and to the south still fire on the just far southside of the roof . He says in his in shoulder  mic

Lopez pulls abit on the hose to give him more slank  holding on to the hose

Sadie nods as she help pull the barricade to the cueb. Shw looks little but she was strong for her stature as she pulls them out and start dragging her first  barricade to the far south then goes back and drags her second one next to block of the south side .

May and Jun saigawa are walking hand in hand they had came from a dinner at zabats and were walking the long way around 3rd and up 4th  stopping in front of the academy smooching like they did when they met in japan as teenagers. He looks to say something  to May when the fire then lights and sirens of the firetrucks and police squad car pull up. May takes off running  towards the fire  and the barricades with Jun  just behind May looks panick. She knows the afd will do their job but she still worried. Jun pats her shoulder as the approach  the barricade

Darcy walks towards the approaching couple on her side of the barricade. She recognizes them and looks kind, but also firm “Mr. and Mrs. Saigawa...we have this under control…. please stay back for your safety and so the crews can do what they need to.” She can see other people filing out of their homes and beginning to watch from the yards and sidewalks.

Dana Smith moves around inside the house after the fire is out on the main floor. She can smell traces of fuel, gasoline and there’s a mass of debris in the hallway. She heard Reinhardt yell “He’s gone” and her shoulder radio had parroted Peterson’s dispatch call as he made it.

Gareth was now with Peterson looking for more potentially injured people in the Rose house. He knew it’s reputation, Jack’s reputation and more personally what Jack had done to hurt Brayden. But his ethics couldn’t let a human being suffer or die, despite their ethics. He would do what the job required. He would preserve life.There were two other human beings, human lives, who lived in this house. Maybe they were upstairs. He followed Peterson behind the hose he carried, taking the trauma bag with him. If Carla was home as well as Jack, they might both have a long night ahead of them.

Tom O’Leary had been on a hose spraying the adjoined house beside the Rose house but now suddenly a teenage boy was coming out of it looking terrified and bewildered in a white t shirt and boxer shorts. How the kid has slept through all this and them pounding at the door earlier was a miracle. Tom dropped his hose and ran to the boy, leading him away from the fire to the open back of the ambulance and sitting him down on the tailgate. He grabbed a blanket from inside and wrapped it around the teen’s shoulders and then sat and talked to him as he was very shaken.

Hank acknowledged Logan’s transmission and contacted the police department.  The detectives would be on the scene and could enter with him once the fire was out.  Besides being the fire Chief, Hank was also the towns arson investigator.

Patrick moved up the stairs with Gareth.  One of the first doors they came to was closed.  He felt for heat, then fried the knob, opening it.  He could see that this room was in the best condition yet; smoky bot no fire at all.  On the wall, he saw more writing.  I couldn’t save you.  He blinks at it and then looks to see a body on the bed.  The head moved from left to right.  Turning in the direction of the hall, he called out.  “This one’s alive!”

Logan heads up the stairs with Smith.  They pass the door that Patrick entered and check the other rooms. The bathroom is unaffected, as is the master bedroom.  He’d noted the twisted sheets that lead from the kitchen and up the stairs.  They led into the last unchecked room.  On the floor was another body.  Possibly the last one, as Patrick had found a live body in the room next door.  As  Smith worked on the fire, Logan knelt beside this body.  Throat slit.  No pulse.  He reaches for his shoulder mic.  “Reinhardt on floor two.  Casualty in the second bedroom.  Fire extinguished.”  he waits for the Chief’s acknowledgment.  “Ten four.”

Michael Reinhardt had been helping his son with his composition when he heard the sirens.  That noise was not terribly common in Alexandra, but this was many sirens.  He peeked out of their window and noticed Hank Stanley park directly across the street from the Rose brownstone.  “Fuck.”  he grumbled.  Of course Tristan wanted to watch the fire, but Michael told him to stay on the porch.  From there they watched until Michael’s phone went off.  He was not surprised to see a message from work.  They’d found a body.  And seven minutes … they found another.  He was dressed casually in jeans and a sweatshirt, finally adding his badge on a chain around his neck.  Tonight that was going to be his uniform as one of Alexandra’s  half dozen detectives.  Finally after an hour, he hears Hank’s voice echoing ffom the speakers.

“This fire is under control.”  Hank announces.  “Ladder and Engine out thirty minutes.  Ambulance and Chief still on scene.  Police remain on scene.  Detectives incoming.”  and almost immediately the night dispatcher replies.  “Ten-four Alexandra Fire Department.”

Buck is Lifted higher just as hank calls for them back and then he starts back down along with Lopez as the ladder is pull back down
 He jumps in the cab and waits for his team to board the teuck.

Sadie jusst watches occasional have to tell a neighbor or two that they need to step back and it all uncontrol as she hears the her radio.

Jun nods at darcy grabbing mays hand "thanks officer lynch . He say with his thick Japanese accent "come on hun.. lets go do some rescuing of our own and go relieve Fi of hikaru before he either annoys her to boredom or.. they both team up and go take on the sea witchear " Hw says as they leave waves at darcy "good night officer lynch  they call unison.  May laughing  and adding "wouldn't be a bad thing if they did. It be kinda cool" she is heard going back toward the academy to go around up third street back to the other side of 4th

Dana Smith loads up with the crews leaving the scene. That house was a serious shit show. She’d seen the writing in blood on the wall in the kitchen. She was a little rattled as she climbed into the truck

Darcy patrols the north side, giving Sadie the occasional nod. Her radio is going off too and the now growing gathering of onlookers are gasping at some of the information coming out of it. “Have a good night!” She calls to the Saigawas as they walk away.

Tom assesses that the teen he’s talking to is just wet and scared but he’s ok enough to be released. He gives the kid a form to sign and lends the kid his phone to call his parents working the night shift at the power plant. Knowing the kid has made a connection to the parents he offers to stay until one of them comes but the teen waves him off and then wanders off in his underwear with his blanket towards the plant. Tom smirks and nods and helps to pack the last hoses onto the truck before jumping on and riding off back to the station.

Gareth is right behind Patrick and sees Mrs. Rose on the bed alive, moving slightly. The whole house had been disturbing but he was compartmentalizing, tucking each awful peice of it away so he could keep his focus. This writing on the wall above the woman was impossible to tuck anywhere. There was no compartment big enough to hold it. But he let it hang all around him and dove into the work. He removed his gloves and mask. He could see the wrists bleeding from an attempt at suicicde and her clothes were completely covered in blood. He guessed that she had killed her husband and son.. And as she was still moving blood loss would be his first priority. He opened the trauma bag beside her and then checked her vitals, speaking to her as he began “Mrs. Rose, can you hear me?” He tapped her shoulder and then shook it a little. No response.

Pulse was weak. Breath was  there but irregular. She had more likely passed out from the smoke than the bleeding but it could be both. He quickly fastened the tourniquets, compression pads, and wrapped the wrists. As he moved back up the body she stopped moving, stopped breathing. Gareth tilted back her head and lifted her chin trying to get the airflow going again. He leaned his head down beside her face to feel for breath and none came. He grabbed frantically for his AED in the bag and the mouth guard and while it charged up he began chest compressions, counting out loud at a fast pace “! 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30.” He blew two breaths into the mouth guard and went back to compressions On 5 he called for Logan but kept his count “Logan...7 8 9 …..to 30.” Two breaths. “I need help with the AED. 5 6 7 8...to 30 compressions before he blows again. Logan took out the paddles from the AED. He removed the film and placed one on Mrs. Rose’s chest and one on her abdomen. He connects the cord and then taps Gareth to stand back. The defibrillator administers a jolt. Logan nods at Gareth and he cycles back into CPR, his chest compressions beginning to look desperate. The AED has another round in between and he starts again. Finally, they’ve gone past the limit of what could be tried and she’s still not breathing. Gareth isn’t stopping.

Logan stands after checking the body of the man with the slit throat.  The fire is out … but they have one hell of a mess.  He looks at Patrick.  “Tell the Chief we need you.”  he effectively orders.  “Go to the ambo and bring in body bags.  And call on the radio for the other ambulance.  We’ve got at least three bodies to transport.”  he pauses, hearing Gareth call him.  “Go!”

Patrick nods and turns the hose off, dropping it where it was.  He heads down the stairs, and notices that the hoses are being pulled out of the building.  Exiting the house, he jogs past the ambulance to tell the Chief what he’s been told to do.  Hank nods and Patrick returns to the ambulance pulling out three body bags and a gurney.  He can wheel those in on his own.  Passing by the kitchen, he tosses one in the direction of the father.  Then he manhandles the gurney up the stairs, leaving it in the hallway.  He places one of the bags in the room with Jack, not looking at his body, but at the writing on the wall.  One word.  Rapist.  His emotions were very mixed about it all.  Then he moves into the other room, dropping the body bag in the hallway and hoping they didn’t have to use it.  Of the three in this room, he’d always thought that Mrs Rose was okay.  On the wall, he notices more words.

Logan enters the bedroom and pauses the barest of seconds at the writing on that wall.  Then he is aiding Gareth, but it is no use.  Mrs Rose is dead.  Yet Gareth isn’t stopping.  “Gareth.”  he speaks relatively softly.  Gareth doesn’t stop, so he raises his voice.  “Gareth.  She’s gone.”  His superior looks determined,  More; desperate.  Logan reaches out and grabs Gareth’s arm, to stop him.  “You did everything you could.  But she’s gone, Gareth.”  He knew it was hard to lose a patient.  His first one handed him for a good long time.  But it was part of the job and Gareth had to know that better than Logan did.

Kira Delmonaco has been hiding behind the burning house.  She doesn’t know what happened, but she is giggling like a loon at the idea that Jack is burning in the building.  But she also knew that Jack was slick.  He could be faking it in order to get out of the building.  To hurt someone else.  She fingers a knife on a chain around her neck.  It would help her to stop Jack once and for all.  He’d hurt enough people … including Brayden.  Slowly, she begins to move around the building when the sounds of the engines tells her the bigger trucks are leaving the scene.  At the corner of the house, she peeks around the corner just in time to see the fire chief and Michael Reinhardt enter.

Hank nods at Patrick when he tells him his orders.  Watching the young firefighter get one of the gurney’s out of the ambo and call for Ambo2, he glances around.

Michael steps up to Hank.  “What happened?”  he asks, his voice perhaps disturbingly casual.

Hank barely shakes his head.  “Let’s find out.  Help me with the other gurney.  We’re going to need it.”  He walks towards the ambulance and then with Michael’s help rolls the other gurney into the house.  The interior looks like someone put out a fire using thousands of gallons of water.  He sees the twisted bedsheet.  “Arson.”  he nods to it.

Michael also nods. As they enter, he puts on his gloves.  Leaving the gurney in the small corridor, he enters the kitchen, holding up a small camera and beginning to snap pictures.  Of the sheet, of the body and of the wall with the words.  “You hurt them. You made him.”  he reads, lowering the camera.  He takes out a pan and jots down some notes, including the words.  Then he turns to the body and kneels beside it, taking a penlight that is hanging off of the chain his shield is on, he looks at the body.  “Bunch of stab wounds in the chest.”  he murmurs.  “And here .. and in the groin.”  he nods to Hank.  “Lets bag him.”

Hank helps bag the body and leaves it, for now.  Watching Michael take more notes from the notebook in his pocket, he asks.  “Where’s Ryan?”

Michael makes his notes and heads up the stairs.  “He got delayed.  I’m guessing Jayla.  But it only takes one of us to do the preliminaries.  We’ll be more thorough when you’re done.”  he looks at the sheet that comes up the stairs.  Even he can guess at the cause of the fire.  As they gain the second floor and walk along the short hallway, he heard men talking.  That must be here the survivor is.

Hank scoffs.  He remembers toddlers very well.  His own grandson Robbie as only a bit older than Jayla.  But he doesn’t reply to that, as he is also looking at the sheet.  “Arson.”  he states.  “And very amateurish.  It wasn’t Ronald.”

Michael enters the other bedroom, notebook in hand.  He looks at the wall and reads even as he writes.  “Rapist.”  he now kneels and examines the man he knows on sight.  Jack Rose.  “Throat slashed. And the spray suggests he died on someone.  Maybe on a lap.”  he looks up at Hank.  “Unless we’re missing someone, the survivor is Carla Rose.”  he sighs deeply.  Michael was a deeply cynical man, despite having happiness now for many years.  “And she is probably our murdurer as well.”  he looks up at Hank.  “Let’s bag him.”

Hank helps put Jack into a body bag and, again, leaves the body where he is.  The men leave the bedroom and pause outside of the third bedroom, here he can see the EMT’s clearly.  He looks at Patrick Peterson.  “Help get the bodies out to the ambulance.  The one in the kitchen and then the one in the other room.  Go on, son.  Detective Reinhardt will help.”

Patrick nods and helps, starting with Ronald and then returning for Jack Rose.

Sadie walks along her barricade noding when she saw her partner. Occasionally having to tell people to back up then her side slowly disperse to just a few gore seekers. The rose house was infamous  . She walks to up the barricade  to get closer to darcy

Darcy watches a few kids getting closer than she’d like but then sees them run home and turns to Sadie “I need water…. Taggart we should, hydrate. What a day...It’s gonna be a gin later.” She had seen Detective Reinhardt go in and the the body bags.

Gareth hears Logan the first time but something was blocking his hands from stopping compressions, When Logan grabs hold of his arm he shakes it off “Just one more round...10...11...12 to 30 again and two more breaths. He keeps going into another round looking almost frenzied. The words on the wall reached out to him like a cold dead hand pushing him into the body that was growing cold beneath his fingers. Please breathe. Just fucking breathe. Come back…..

Logan backs off a minute and turns his head, looking at their Chief who has appeared in the doorway looking a little lost as to what to do.

Hank watches his men … in particular Gareth.  He knows his men well and he knows a little about what may be going on in his head.  He sighs slightly and nods to Logan to keep helping.  They had time and miracles sometimes happened.  They couldn’t transport the woman anyway with the first haul being the corpses.

Michael moves down with Patrick to the dining area.  He quickly locks the wheels of the gurney and moves to the body.  “I’ll take the head, you take the feet.” he suggests.  “On three.  One …  two … three.”  and he lifts …. Hard … because Ronald is not a small man.

Patrick lifts on three, groaning loudly because this guy weighs a ton.  But they get him on the gurney and Patrick unlocks the wheels and begins to walk backwards towards the open door.  It takes a minute, but soon the gurney and the corpse are loaded and locked in the ambulance.  They head back in to get Jack Rose.

Kira watches as the first body appears.  It’s huge … clearly not Jack.  She fingers the knife hanging around her neck.  Maybe the next body …

Sadie chuckles  "i know was about to go get some hose she  point to the now closed hydrants  but the bucket boys done took there hoses and left.  But der sadie we got water bottle in the suv " she goes over grabbing  two out and toss one  to darcy "heads up Lynch.

Darcy catches the bottle from Sadie “Thanks Taggart.” She sees the big man come out and sighs. Were they all dead?

Gareth keeps administering CPR to Mrs Rose like she was the last human he could revive on earth and he would be alone in the void without her. Counting, compressions, breathing. He had fallen into the rhythm like it was a trance. Nothing existed but this to him.

Logan leans back on his haunches, atching Gareth work.  He’d never had to see his new partner work on anyone before, but this seemed like it was … not the way he usually did it.  This had an air of desperation … as if this were personal.  Gareth wasn’t willing to let Death have this woman.

Hank watches Gareth with resigned patience.  Unlike Reinhardt, he had seen Gareth fight a losing battle with patients in the past.  Jasmine Paulina had died as Gareth fought to bring her back to life.  And he suspected … he knew … that he would have to end this the same way it ended with jasmine.  And it broke his heart … again.

Michael heads back up the stairs.  He can hear a count … CPR … they are fighting for Mrs Rose and he leaves them to it.  Using the same count, he has Parick help him load a much lighter Jack onto the gurney in his body bag.  The body bends a bit and the zipper slips, revealing his face.  Michael decides they can worry about it later.  He belts the body in for the trip down the stairs and , again he takes the head.

Patrick takes the gurney from the foot end and he and Micheal maneuver the body down the tight staircase.  As they move, he looks at Jack's face.  He still had marks from when Chris tried to kill him, and Patrick darkly finds some comfort knowing this bastard had died with Chris’s marks on him.  He backs out of the door, heading down the concrete steps to the sidewalk.  Micheal’s end of the gurney touches the walk … and then all hell breaks loose, knocking both of them to the ground.

Kira watches as the next body is carried out.  This time she can even see the face and she feels anger boiling in her.  No … rage.  She begins to run around the corner of the brownstone, slamming into the gurney and the scream begins as she vaults onto it.  The jolt is enough that the men pulling and pushing it are knocked away.  Pulling her knife from its sheath around her neck, she turns and straddles the body on the gurney.  The sound coming from her mouth is barely human as she begins to stab Jack Rose in the groin.  It is a sound you might expect to hear from a cat whose tail had been slammed in an iron security gate.  She stabbed him over and over .. for her … for Brayden .. for anyone she didn’t know about .. one stab for each as long as she could keep stabbing.  The scream echos all around .. into any ear even remotely close by.  An animal in pain.  Enraged.  Both.

Sadie is just say something to Darcy  but doesn't have time. She hears the inhuman scream covering up her ears with her hand and looks out . ‘Oh shit someone's mutilating the corpse . she drops her waterbottle and bolts for the gurney .




Darcy tenses up wincing at the unbelievable inhuman sound and then sees the woman stabbing at the corpse on the gurney at the same time as Sadie. She throws her water bottle to the side and sprints after Sadie trying to form some kind of plan in her head. As they get to her she shouts “Take the left side!” Adn runs to the right reaching for an arm and at the same time realizing that it’s Kira Delmonaco.

Michael sets the gurney firmly on the sidewalk and it is jolted so suddenly and violently he is thrown backwards onto the steps he is still standing on.  Being a large man, he does not fall with grace and is tangled up in himself for precious seconds.  By the time he is able to stand, he sees that Sadie and Darcy seem to have things in hand.  If not he will jump in.

Patrick sees a figure jump the gurney.  It came out of nowhere and it turned to face him, sending him scrambling back, even as he is jolted out of his hold on the gurney.  As he falls he recognises Kira Delmonaco as she grabs a knife out of a neck sheath and begins to stab Jack Rose in the crotch area..  He hits the sidewalk and stares in wide eyed astonishment.

Kira screams and stabs.  That is all she knows.  He needs to die, and she will kill him.

Sadie nods as she runs the left of Kira . Her eyes widen as she barely  recognize her . She goes to grab her left arm  "kira its me sadie remember.. from school kira please stop  " she tries to reason with her but still takes force knowing  kira was too unstable to realize  if sadie was even there

Darcy reaches for Kira’s right arm as she gets to her, hearing Sadie try to reason. She hopes their connection helps them talk her down.If she can grab hold of the arm she will try to grab for the hand to force her to give up or drop the knife. The mangled body below Kira is confronting but Darcy has seen worse.

Kira’s scream changes pitch slightly as she is grabbed.  Her dominant hand is grabbed as it plunges into Jack's groin one final time and she is forced to let it go.  She is pulled, screaming … howling almost .. off of the body.  Kicking in protest, her feet catch the side of the gurney and she pushes with both feet, knocking it over.  But she isn't done.  She struggles against whoever is trying to stop her, fighting like a madwoman, her matted hair flying and her face contorted.  She looks certifiable.

Michael blinks as he finds his feed.  Sadie and Darch seem to have it under control.  But then Kira kicks the gurney over and Michael stumbles back, again out of the fight.  The look on Kira’s fice tells him he might do well to right himself again fast.  Kira was usually weak because of her almost constant states of malnutrition, but he could almost smell the adrenaline coming off of her.

Patrick is staring in horrified disbelief as Kira castrates a corpse as if the man were still alive.  And then it hits him.  Kira had to have been one of Rose’s victims.  It all falls into place for him and he feels like a fool to have missed it.  Then Darcy and Sadie drag her off the body and Kira kicks it over,  Patrick gets his leg out of the way in the nick of time.

Sadie attempts to pull her back. "Kira.. hes gone.. so is his dick youre done now " she says calm as she struggles to keep her away. Though honestly  if she wasn't the law abiding cop she was. She let her carve up that violating cock.  Kira had the guts  to do what everyone was thinking. Sadie smells the strong stench of gasoline

Darcy admires Sadie’s determination to reach out verbally to Kira but this woman is clearly not connecting with Sadie’s communication. When Kira kicks the gurney over she braces herself and steps forward at the right time. Holding onto Kira’s right arm with her left, she reaches with her right for her taser. She always uses it on the first mode to pulse, not wanting to cause pain, but to throw off the coordination so a perpetrator can be moved more easily into a vehicle and ideally into cuffs. Darcy sets the pulse and then aims to taser Kira in the left arm she has a hold of. The closer she gets to Kira the more she can smell gasoline.

Kira is still trying to get to Jack.  It’s all she sees.  All she knows.  The only reason she exists.  But then she is convulsing.  It doesn't help that she is wet, but .. at least it distracts her from Jack for a second or two.

Sadie grabs her gently  seeing she is subdued  and start to  direct Kira toward the suv . She reaches out her otherhand and tenderly stroking her dirty dreaded matted hair"were gonna take good care of you " she say in very soothing tone


Darcy walks her from the other side, holstering her taser. She noda at Sadie and then reaches to open the door to the back seat of the SUV and helps try to steer Kira in.

Sadie closes the dooe after they get her in and gets in passenger seat.

Kirs twitches in the back seat a bit more as she feels the vehicle begin to move.  Did she do it, she wonders.  Did she kill him, or will he still be alive to hurt more innocent people?

Michael watches the whole thing go down as he stands again.  Kira is tazed and he sighs deeply.  That kid can’t catch a break.  He’s never known the other Kira .. the girl before her trauma.  He looks over to Patrick.  “Come on .. lets get him in the back.”

Patrick watches what happens to Kira with pain in his eyes.  Finally they load her into the SUV and take off.  He nods at Michael’s instructions and they right, then load Jack Rose into the ambulance.  A second ambulance had arrived at some point and he moves to it.  The driver stays seated as Partick unloads one of its gurneys and wheels it in with Michael’s help.  Through the house and upstairs.

Logan has been watching Gareth work.  Over and over he tries to revive Mrs Rose.  Nothing.  He looks at Chief Stanley, helplessly.

Hank takes in a deep breath.  It was time.  He motions Logan away and moves to Gareth, touching his shoulders.  “Let her go, son.”  he intones gently.  “Let her rest.”  he said the same about Jasmine, and part of him wonders … is he working on Carla Rose … or Jasmine Paulina.

Gareth felt Hank’s touch and  slowly stopped his compressions. He heard the words. Let her go. Let her rest. He looks up and reads the word on the wall: I couldn’t save you.  I couldn’t save you. Mrs. Rose, Paulina….mom….I couldn’t save you, There was no place to put this grief but all around him. But now was not the time. Gareth didn’t say a  word and started packing up the trauma bag. He straightens up ready to help move the body to the body bag, onto a gurney and outside like it’s any other day. He works in silence, walks in silence, retreats into silence.