March 30, 2011; 2:30 PM:

“Thom...” the Chief began, his face solemn, “Sorry... Officer O’Meara. Your previous partner didn’t make it. Nor her new partner. Both died from inhaling too much of the nerve poison. They died while in the ambulance.” The chief of police betrayed absolutely no emotion, his entire body a rigid mask.

Previously on The Cop, The Villain, and The Wet Work:
Officer's Thom O'Meara and Bill Wilson were taken to the hospital after being knocked out by a nerve gas when responding to a bank alarm at Citizens Bank. There, after spending a few hours comatose Mara woke up suddenly, reaching for his service weapon and furiously opening his eyes, only to suffer excruciating pain. After the doctor settled him back down, he immediately asked about Katrina O'Reilly, but the doctor dodged the question. After being assured Bill was safe, he went back to sleep. When Mara next woke, the Chief was there and told him a wild story about a hunt for the descendants of Atlantean survivors. When Mara tried to wrap his mind around that, he suddenly remembered that he still hadn't heard what happened to O'Reilly. How will he react to what he just heard? And what will Bill do when he meets up with his partner later?

“Dammit, Chief. Why?! Why did you put us there in the first place when you knew he had a lethal gas in his possession? You should’ve known he’d use it! You shoulda known...” I began sobbing uncontrollably. “Why *sob* Kat... *sniff* she came *sob* here *sniff* to *sniff* escape all that...” I managed to get out between sobs, then my face turned to stone, and in a tone of pure ice: “She had a family, Chief! That sunnuva Michaels has just signed himself up for a one way ticket.”

“It’s out of our hands, Thom, you know that.”

“No, Chief. It's out of you and your department’s hands,” I said, my voice still ice. “Those Homeland morons have been chasing this guy for over a year and still haven’t caught him!? The monster has racked up a death count that would make Hitler green with envy, and he’s still getting away with it!? No more! When I get discharged from here, I’ll be turning in my resignation and following this Michaels on my own. *Sniffle.* O’Reilly would do the same if it were me...” my voice getting softer and trailing off after the last sniffle, a single tear trailing down my right cheek.

“Revenge isn’t the way, Thom. You should know that better than most.”

“Revenge? It’s not revenge I’m after, Chief. I want that bastard to rot in an isolated cell with no access to any of his toys for the rest of his life. Death would be too kind for the likes of a monster like him.”

“Thom...” the Chief began, and then sighed. “I suppose I should have known you’d respond this way. You and Kat shared a bond I’ve never seen between squad partners before, and I’ve been doing this job a long, long time. It wasn’t really romantic, though very intimate... It was more like long lost sisters who found each other after spending their entire lives apart. I don’t need that resignation, Thom... Just... Be careful.” And then the Chief left.

Dr. Jameson returned moments later while I was deep in reflection. I was thinking about all that Kat and I had been through since that first day, so many years ago. I was just a dumb rookie, straight from the Academy, and a country bumpkin who just barely graduated High School before immediately signing on to the force. Kat was an experienced city cop. A full police detective with a resume decorated with such accomplishments as bringing down huge smuggling rings and drug cartels. She’d fallen in love, and gotten married. Afterwards, having lost the taste for the danger, she decided to pull up her roots and move out here to the more peaceful life of a small town beat cop.

Still, at first, trouble had followed her out here and our first case quickly had us in the line of fire from a drug cartel who decided to use our town as a pit stop for smuggling illicit drugs down from Canada. Talk about a crash course. The academy definitely didn’t prepare me for that. But Kat was calm and plainly in command, she taught me everything I knew on that first case. And, yes, the Chief is right: we quickly formed a strange bond between us. We came to understand each other almost as twins might, but there was never anything romantic between us. Why would there be? She was married, and deeply in love with her husband!

But sisters... I’m a man. OK. True. Despite her marriage and obvious love for her husband, the other guys at the precinct took every opportunity to ogle her and talk dirty about her, and not only did I not join in, but I’d always get all pissed off, even though she’d always just laugh it off, saying that boys will be boys... Boys... I never did get that saying. I’m a boy. Well, a man. But I don’t act like that. Women deserve to be treated with respect, I always thought. They go through a helluva lot more than we can ever even know.

“Well, Mara, gonna have to send you home, I’m afraid.” Dr. Jameson said. “You and Bill are both in the clear. I’ve managed to clean all the poison out of your system and my tests just now show no evidence of lasting nerve damage. Damned lucky, girl. That’s what you are. You and your partner both.”

“No, doc, if I were lucky Kat wouldn’t be dead.” I said as I got into the proffered wheelchair. “Bill already signed out?”

“Naw, yuh ditz. Ah’ehm righ’ ‘er.” Bill said from outside the door. Soon Dr. Jameson had me outside with Bill and two nurses wheeled each of us to the reception desk where we signed ourselves out.

“Yer nuts if’n yuh think yuh’ahr goin’ after tha bastard alone.” Bill said after we were out of the hospital. “Ah’ehm owin’ ‘im a li’l sumthin. Us dee’ sou' blacks alway repay our debts.”