RP/V: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

[SPI]

"Maybe best not to suggest somewhere if you don't think we can actually get a table there," Casey pointed out to her boyfriend in a testy manner. "So where are you taking me then?" She enquired, adamant she wasn't going out for a meal at whichever restaurant had a vacant table.

[Nicky]

"All I was saying Case was that I would want to take you there if I could get us a table. I should have been better prepared and sorted all of this out days ago instead of leaving it to the last minute," Joey said quietly, reaching for his fiancée's hands. He clasped them in his. "I think I have an idea of where I can take you but I would like to leave it as a surprise."

[SPI]

She shook her head. "No," Casey said, "I know how busy you've been - how busy we both have been. Just... don't suggest somehow special to us and then tell me we can't go there." She paused, before striking on an interesting idea. "I know I said you can chose, but what about we do a takeaway from there if we can, and eat it out by the Charles?"

[Nicky]

"That seems the best compromise. We get the food and we get to get out for a while," Joey said nodding his head. "This oaf here can order some local take out food and scoff himself silly as usual." He leant forward and kissed Casey on the cheek. "A very good idea Miss Gillen."

[Rebecca]

"That sounds great. Now that we're all happy and we've all decided, can I watch the tube in peace?" Danny said jokingly, reaching down the back of the couch for the remote control, "Enjoy yourselves and don't stay out too late. Boston's crawling with vicious criminals if you believe the rumours."

[SPI]

"Exactly," Casey said, nodding her head. "Can we do that, Joey? I know exactly where we can go to eat it. And like you said, wherever we eat we'll get to spend time together outside of the hospital - and not slumped on the sofa together."
She turned her head to look at Danny. "Are you implying my kick-boxing skills aren't up to much?" She asked in mock-indignation. She had been learning it since mid-May, but in truth her skills still were not where she had hoped they would be by this point.

[Nicky]

"Any way Casey has me to protect her," Joey said as he kissed her on the cheek before he got up to his feet and held his hand out for her to take. "From both the vicious criminals and annoying big brothers. You know I can't stay out too late anyway."

[Rebecca]

"Wouldn't dream of it. But times were when knowing the right people could ensure you stay protected in Roxbury, and that hasn't been the case since Cassidy Reid died. That's all I'm saying," Danny explained before he laughed at Joey's comment, "I think you mean you have Casey to protect you."

[Nicky]

"We are leaving now Casey," Joey said pointedly as he looked at his brother. "There is only so much friendly banter I can take before I want to try and kill my brother which could be done very easily by just not coming home for a while." He smiled at Danny.

[SPI]

"Ok," Casey said, placing her arm around her boyfriend's waist as he made his way towards the door. She ignored what Danny had been saying; from what she had heard on the local news Cassidy Reid wasn't the type of person she would have associated with even if she was still alive. "Let's go," she said, slipping her feet back into her shoes. "I've got a blanket in my car, and I think we can get everything else we need at the restaurant."

[Nicky]

Sunday 10th January, 2117
"So I will see you back at mine when I have finished my shift. Love you Casey," Joey said finishing off the end of his call with his fiancée. He hung up before chucking his phone into his locker. He slammed it shut before sighing. He hated when he had opposing shifts to Casey and they had to fight to make time for each other. He glanced at the clock and quickly worked out how long he had left. Whatever the result of his calculation it was too long.
"Joey, we've got a GSW on its way," a nurse called out as she stuck her head through the door before disappearing.
"Sure," he called in response before he checked his locker and walked back out of the locker room. He grabbed a set of latex gloves before joining his supervisors in the emergency room yard.

[SPI]

Ollie Hawke looked down at the bloody corpse of the man he knew only as Ferruccio. Ferrucio had been given a single warning for dealing on the Garogyles' patch - on Ollie's estate, to make it all the more personal. The warning had been delivered in the form of a bullet, aimed directly between his eyes to ensure there was no misunderstanding. He wiped a spatter of blood off his cheek with the sleeve of his distressed jacket before returning his shooter to the secrecy of his inner pocket.
He set to work on the thirty-three-year-old's corpse as quickly as he could, checking the many pockets of the dealer's German BDU-style jacket for a cache of drugs. Although the echo of a gunshot was as common to Shark Lane estate as the toll of bells was to some villages, he was aware that at any moment the door to one of maisonettes bordering the alleyway could be flung open to reveal him bending over a bloody corpse. And while there was little threat of the police being called, the dealer certainly had a popular following as Ollie could see from wad of cash padding his pockets, any one of whom might take offence at Ollie having killed their neighbourhood drug dealer.

[SPI]

Casey parked her car a block away from her father's maisonette, of the opinion it would be no safer in plain sight of his second-story window than totally out of sight where the Shark Lane estate was concerned. Pulling her jacket closer to her body and wrapping her arms in front of her she took the journey to her father's home at a brisk pace. She paused as she passed the entrance to the access road which both rows backed onto. Taking an impulse decision she opted to follow the turning, taking the shortcut through the back passages. Perhaps buoyed by having just finished her kick boxing lesson fifteen minutes ago, Casey would get more than halfway alone the passage before realising that its short gains were far outweighed by its isolation. She quickened her pace to a walking run, glancing wildly at each block she passed and mentally checking that it wasn't her fathers. Three blocks on she spotted the tell-tale graffiti which adorned the walls surrounding the block's back gardens: fuck the polic :D She slowed her speed and grasped the steel gate which led between the access road and the block. She went to swing the gate forward only to find it shifting a couple of inches before jarring on the chain which fastened it to the post. "Damn!" She swore uncharacteristically, adrenaline flowing through her veins as she checked that no-one had followed her. She glanced round one final time and placed her hands on the top of the gate and her foot on the horizontal bar, boosting herself up.
Clasping the top of the gate with both hands she swung her feet over and took a gulp of breath before launching herself down onto the other side. She bent her legs as she landed, just as she had been taught, though she overbalanced as she sprang to her feet and ended up lurching forward into a trash can.

[SPI]

Ollie swung round frantically as he heard a clash in the courtyard just through the alleyway. He dropped the body he had been carting in that direction, intending to stash it out of sight until he could have another Gargoyle come round and collect it, and sprinted forward. A girl stumbled into him before screaming. He spun round and aimed a punch at head-height.
Casey felt something connect with her skull, catching her on the side of her head and sending her reeling sideways into a wall. She caught a blurred view of a short, dark figure wearing a grey hoodie as she collided with the wall. Using it to steady herself as much as she could, she spun round and launched a side-kick at the figure. She caught him on his thigh rather than the intended abdomen but still managed to send him careering in the direction of the opposite wall.
Ollie replied with a botched short-straight punch, lunging forward. Physical combat had never been his thing, perhaps going some way to explaining his reliance on weapons to fulfil his regular duties. "Bitch," he spat at the kickboxer.
Casey successfully dodged the punch, realising that she was much more successful with her kickboxing when her combatant was untrained. She glanced at the way she had come, considering the possibility of a retreat, as was always the first rule in self-defence. She shook her head, concluding that climbing back over the gate was no option while this figure was conscious. Her only option would be to slip past him and race into the street. She considered screaming for her father but realised that his portly form was more likely to render him a casualty than pay to her advantage.
Casey darted forward, pivoted and aimed a roundhouse kick at her assailant who charged at her. She landed the kick successfully but fell still with fear as her eyes fell upon the dead body in the alleyway ahead. She put her hand to her mouth automatically as she felt her stomach rising.
Ollie flew into the already-displaced trash can, this time knocking it onto its side and landing sprawled across it. His temper rising, he flailed about, attempting to get to his feet and remove his gun from his jacket at the same time and achieving neither. Tripping forward he threw out his hand to steady himself and caught the wall, grasping it and using it to pull himself firmly to his feet. Snatching the zip on his jacket and violently ripping it down he thrust his hand into his inside pocket and produced his gun, brandishing it before him.
Casey felt her vomit spilling out of her mouth and flowing through her split fingers as she stared at the bullet hole in the corpse's head. The raucous commotion mere feet away from her brought Casey back to her senses. Veering round the puddle of blood she darted forward through the alley, over the sidewalk and into the street, taking a sharp turn to run along the street. A bullet hit her, slamming into her shoulder and jarring her backwards, throwing her to her knees.
Ollie chased the girl, thundering straight through the pool of blood and over Ferruccio's chest, leaving crimson footprints behind him. He slowed to a pace as he hit the sidewalk, ambling over to where she was laying injured in the road, a look of sadistic pleasure on his bruised face. He aimed a sharp kick at her wounded shoulder, causing her to loll onto her back, staring up at him. She tried to scramble to her feet too late as Ollie bore down over her, aiming his weapon at her forehead just as he had Ferruccio's just five minutes ago.
Casey fell still as the figure, now unmasked as a child barely out of his teens, stood over her with his weapon expertly trained on her. "Please," she sobbed. "I... please!"
Ollie titled his head slightly to one side, as if considering the girl's appeal. After a moment he lowered his gun, then squeezed the trigger hard, firing a bullet into her mons pubis. He smiled gleefully as her face contorted as the pain shot through her central nervous system. "Bitch," he repeated calmly. He fired the weapon again, gaining intense pleasure as the girl writhed in agony.
"Why...?" She rasped. "Why would... Joey," she gasped. "Dad... "
Ollie shook his head once, raised his gun and fired his final bullet. He lent over her and spat in her face as he walked off, returning his weapon to his pocket and tightening his hoodie to protect his identity.
He raised his mobile to his ear, commanded it to call a contact and waited for it to connect. "Ye'h, thr's couple more'f em fer you t' get rid 'f. 'S a li'l urgn't..."

[Nicky]

» Ten minutes later
"You do know that you wouldn't have to keep visiting us if you started using the cream we gave you," Joey commented as he redressed Mr Redding's cut on his forearm. "And I wouldn't have to keep having the same conversation with you." He smiled at his patient with a small shake of his head. "So let's not see you again in here Mr Redding."
"A multiple GSW coming in Joey so Tom wants you to take over with the vomiting child in bay 4," a nurse said as she appeared behind Joey. She had a small smirk on her face. "Don't shoot the messenger."
"I wonder when I will stop getting all the wonderful jobs," he retorted back before he pulled off his gloves and took hold of the file off the nurse. He walked away from Mr Redding and over into bay 4 before he pulled the curtains around the bed. "Now, what can I do for you?" he asked the little girl who was puking up into the bowl she had been given.
He heard the usual sounds of an emergency being wheeled into the department but then it went really quiet. He noticed this distinctly. "Just excuse me a minute," he said hurried before he walked out of the bay. All the staff were quiet and just standing there, looking through the windows that lead to the trauma rooms. "What's going on?" he asked the nurse stood closest to him who had given him the girl's file.
She didn't notice that Joey had asked her something for a few seconds but then it slowly dawned on her. "Joey..." she whispered tailing off quietly. "It's Casey."
"What do you mean it's Casey?" Joey asked, he didn't understand what the nurse was saying to him. "She's gone to see her father."
"No Joey...the GSW...it's Casey."
Nothing would have been able to stop Joseph McCoy as he tore across the ER and slammed through the double doors nearly knocking them completely off their hinges. He burst through the doors into trauma room one and just stood there. "That isn't Casey. It can't be Casey," he muttered to himself. He couldn't believe that his fiancée was lying there covered in blood. He tried to fight his way through to try and help before he was shoved out of the way by his supervisor.
"Joey wait outside," Tom said firmly to his junior.
"No! I have to help," Joey said fighting back against Tom. "Let me help her. I can save her."
"Joseph get out now," Tom said again before he waited until Joey, though reluctantly, had left the room. "This isn't good," he said to his staff as they fought to save one of their own though they knew that it was highly likely that they were fighting in vain.
Joey didn't go any further than just outside the doors. What he was watching seemed to be going to slow motion. He tore at his short hair as he stood and waited. He barely noticed that none of the rest of the department were working. They all stood there, frozen in the positions they had been when she was brought in. Casey Gillen was one of their own.
He wasn't sure how long he had stood there. He watched as they tried everything to save her and were performing CPR to just try and give themselves more time. He couldn't hear what they were saying but he could tell as Tom looked at the clock and the rest of them all backed away from the trolley that now just contained Casey's body that they had given up.
"No," he whispered. "No you have to keep trying!"
He pushed the doors open slowly and still couldn't believe that his fiancée was lying there. He took in the bandages and the stuffing they had used to soak up the blood flow. He understood why they normally cleared up before they allowed relatives to come in.
His feet felt heavy as he forced them round to the top of the trolley. He gently stroked away the blonde hair that was lying across her forehead. "I...I..." He was struggling to vocalise how he was feeling and how he could even say anything to the body of his fiancée. His shoulders shook as he slowly broke down as he looked at her.
He stayed there for a few moments before he realised that there was nothing he could do. He had to get out of there, get out of the hospital. He could pretend that it didn't happen that way. Pretend that it was all a horrible nightmare that he would wake up from in just a few seconds.
Nobody said anything to him as he walked like a ghost through the corridor and out into the area with the nurses station. They all just watched him, themselves trying to deal with just a small bit of the grief that Joey was suffering after losing one of their own.
He didn't have much to protect himself from the biting wind that blasted into him as he stepped out into the yard. His white doctor's coat flapped behind him as he just walked. He didn't know where he was going but he just let his feet decide their own direction.
» An hour later
Joey barely realised that his feet had led him home until they stopped outside of his house. He slowly looked up at the building in front of him and he couldn't even describe how he was feeling. He walked heavily up the small set of stairs before he went to get his key to open the door. He only realised then that he didn't have anything with him. It was all in place in his locker, as it always was when he was at work. He sat down hard on the top step and rested his head in his hands. Even through the haze of his grief he knew that his brother would be working. He proceeded to cry as he sat there waiting.