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Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even a way to watch this show now that Peacock decided to make literally everything premium : (

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The Break In

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Vanessa had never been the most peaceful sleeper. Then again, she rarely had ever had the opportunity to sleep in an environment with minimal distractions. There was always the background noise of several roommates, the neighborhood outside, and the bickering of whoever owned the place. In this new phase of life however, and her luck at being a recipient of her partner Detective Hailey Upton's generosity, Vanessa now had her own room in a non too shabby neighborhood. So she couldn't blame her restlessness on her surroundings.

She was a light but continuous sleeper. Noise simply found its way into her dreams and rarely caused her to stir. And so it did on this night, which is why it wasn't until she heard glass shattering inside the apartment that she sat up.

What the hell? Vanessa threw her covers back, straining to hear and place the noise. It was coming from outside her door.

Muffled voices could be heard. ''Hailey?'' Vanessa called. Had she dropped a glass? What time was it? She opened her bedroom door. ''Hailey-''

The sound of a gun being cocked greeted her. ''Hands in the air! Don't move!''

Vanessa froze. The person was across the room, standing and aiming his weapon at her chest. Another person had their weapon trained on Hailey. She was kneeling on the floor in front of him. Her gaze told Vanessa she had done her best to not alert them of her presence at all.

''I said hands in the air!'' The person repeated.

Vanessa raised her arms slowly. Her mind raced, studying the people. Men, donned in all black, faces covered, and gloves for their hands. There were three total, the one not having a weapon out in the open at the moment helping himself to ransacking the apartment, currently emptying another kitchen cabinet and sending it's contents to the floor.

''Don't move,'' the man looking at Vanessa threatened. He began walking toward her.

''Hey,'' Hailey said, causing the person with the gun at her head to bring it closer in warning. ''She just pays the rent, you know? She's not apart of this. Leave her be.''

''Don't tell me what to do,'' the man said cooly.

''She's got friends,'' Hailey continued. ''Connections. People will go looking for her. You got me. You win, okay? Don't ruin a good thing by dragging her into it. It's not worth it.''

The man responded by pushing his gun even further against her temple, making Hailey nearly topple over. Vanessa stifled a shriek in her throat. Hailey righted herself, refusing to move and give the man more room to push her back again.

''Shut up,'' her captor ordered.

''It's not here,'' the man ransacking the kitchen reported with finality.

''No one thought it would be in the kitchen, dumbass.'' He turned his attention back to Hailey. ''Where is it?''

''Leave her out of it,'' Hailey repeated.

''I asked-''

''I answered.''

The man contemplated a moment, his eyes fixed on Hailey that did not give Vanessa good feelings about his intentions. Then he looked towards his other partner. ''Put her back in her room.''

The man tried to grab Vanessa. She refused to go willingly, cursing at him at struggling. Her only weapon at the moment was her nails, and she made use of them, succeeding in finding a bit of exposed skin where his shirt sleeve met his glove and carving thick red lines with her nails. He yelped, and then got rougher .

''Leave her alone!'' Hailey shouted. Her voice was cut off with a grunt, something striking her.

Vanessa thought fast. She toned down her battle, letting the man think he got the upper hand, convincingly kicking past him in the doorway and grabbing at the moulding. To really sell it, she even let him push her to her bedroom's back wall before slamming her door. Something heavy could be heard moving in front of it.

Already his footsteps were retreating. Vanessa dived for her phone and gun.

''This is officer Rojas,'' she said as loud as she dared while throwing on her shoes. ''I'm with Detective Upton. Three perpetrators have broken in. Armed. Requesting immediate backup.''

Praying the window wouldn't squeak, Vanessa opened it and climbed out onto the fire escape. She stealthy followed the outline of the building, knowing she could not risk coming in through the living room. The best option would be to come back in through Hailey's bedroom…

A sound from inside rang out. It was sudden and sharp. Not a gunshot, but someone losing patience.

Vanessa paused, risking a glance inside to assess. She could see Hailey, now on her feet, the man from before still in front of her. Her back was against the wall, face impassive as the man screamed in her face. Her lack of response must've infuriated, for he struck.

He was shaking her and banging her against the wall. The upside was he needed both hands to do that, and his gun fell. Hailey, seeing an opportunity, must've made a move towards it, for something she did brought the attention of the other two men, who rushed to help their partner, and their backs obscured Vanessa's vision. Seizing the moment, she ran as fast as possible across the remains of the fire escape, the commotion inside hiding the sound her feet made against the metal.

By the time she reached Hailey's window and climbed in, sirens could already be heard coming towards their street. They'd already searched Hailey's room, presumably in the interim from when they first shoved Vanessa in her room, or even before that. Vanessa ran through the rummage of Hailey's belongings and burst her way into the living room, gun aimed.

She was just in time to see the front door open, two of the men already in hasty retreat. One was on the ground, injured from Hailey's attack. Vanessa took aim and fired, the bullets missing the last man on his way out and landing in the door, damaging only Hailey's safety deposit.

The sounds of them taking the stairs could be heard. Vanessa did not pursue, hoping the backup outside would catch them before they got far. She rounded on her partner. ''Hailey!''

She was on the floor, struggling to make it on her side. She'd been hit in the face, and blood was coming from her mouth and lip. Vanessa thought her arm across her stomach was because of damage to her ribs, but when Hailey winced and looked at it, she saw the real reason. ''You've been shot!''

Hailey did not react to this obvious statement. She continued her struggled to sit up, and Vanessa got to her knees to help her. The wall provided awkward support to lean against. ''Hang on, help's coming,'' Vanessa promised.

She reached for the coats the hung on their hooks by the door, strangely untouched in the disastrous space. Judging Hailey's sweatshirt to be the most absorbent, Vanessa grabbed it and balled it up, pressing it hard against her partner's side. Hailey groaned, but moved her own hand to help keep it there.

Vanessa's heart was pounding as loudly as the steps from the hallway as officers and paramedics burst in. They took over, one person taking her aside to assess her own injuries. Vanessa couldn't hear their questions from the blood rushing in her ears from all the commotion.

Everything blended together; the noise and chatter from the officers, paramedics, and her own voice answering their questions. Did they ask her questions? Or was she just talking nonsense? Did she go too fast? Did she provide enough detail?

Satisfied that she herself was unharmed, the paramedic joined their co-workers at Hailey's side. Hailey looked as though she was loosing consciousness, her head lolling to one side, eyes unfocused. There were so many words Vanessa could think of to describe the detective, and yet the only one that came to mind in that moment was dead.

Shut up, she scolded herself, and then flinched at her own memory of one of the men from before, how his voice had sounded spitting that phrase to Hailey.

Hailey. Who looked dead right now.

Enough. Vanessa took a step back, trying to do her best to stay out of the way of the people coming in to investigate. Officers she recognized from work were taking in the apartment in all it's disarray, so different from a few hours earlier, when she had bid Hailey goodnight and went to her own room.

Why did that seem like a lifetime ago?

Vanessa perched on the arm of the sofa, too big too be overturned like all the rest of the furniture. She sat stiffly, ready to spring up at a moment's notice if they were to ask her to move. She couldn't stop staring at the place, so different from what it had been. Practically everything Hailey owned was now either broken or damaged. Certainly nothing was in it's proper place.

Staring aimlessly around wasn't helping, but it was better than looking to the door, where they were already getting ready to take Hailey into the ambulance.

''Rojas? Rojas.'' Kevin touched her shoulder. His voice was a shock, yet she knew he was here. And Adam too, right next to him, both looking at her in concern.

''Rojas, you okay?'' Kevin pressed.

Vanessa pried her eyes from a particularly large pile of glass not far from where she sat. It had been a picture of Hailey and her brothers. Hailey didn't have many family photos around. That had been the only one. She hoped it could be replaced. ''Y-yeah. Fine.''

''They're taking Hailey to MED,'' Adam said. ''Let's get out of here, okay?''

''I-I didn't see their faces.'' She was aware they hadn't asked a question, yet it felt important to specify this. ''There were three of them, but they were masked so-''

Adam nodded. ''Okay. Tell us later. Let's just get out of here.''

He took her arm and gently pulled her off the sofa arm. Vanessa's legs felt shaky while her feet felt like lead. She walked between her two partners as they lead her out the door, her arms wrapped tight around her, until she realized her hands were sticky. She looked at them; they were red with blood.

Hailey's blood.

''C'mon, we'll get you cleaned up,'' Kevin assured her. He took her wrists and pulled them down so she couldn't stare at them anymore. ''Let's go.''

Adam's voice became apart of the background at he stayed behind and Kevin walked with her down the stairs. Each step echoed, theirs and the one's of forensics people as they marched up and down past them, going to and fro.

They fled down these steps. Vanessa knew the other two got away. There was no need for this many forensics in a robbery if the perpetrators were already in custody.

''The- the other guy.'' Why was her voice shaking? ''Hailey- Hailey got one of them. Is he…?''

''Handcuffed and in a car,'' Kevin answered.

They were outside now, the night street illuminated by flashing red and blue lights. Another reason for our neighbors to complain, Vanessa thought. She felt a laugh bubbling in her chest and the absurdity of the thought at a time like this.

Another car pulled in, it's driver and passenger jumping out and slamming the car doors mere seconds apart from parking. ''What happened?'' Jay demanded, approaching them quickly. ''Are you okay?Where's Hailey?''

''We heard over the radio,'' Kim explained. Vanessa could feel both her's and Jay's eyes on her as they met them halfway in the street. ''Where are we in all this? Do we have the guy?''

''One of them,'' Kevin answered. ''Ruzek's up there right now.'' Jay started for the door. ''No.'' Kevin grabbed his arm. ''Hailey's at MED. Take Rojas. We'll stay here.''

''No,'' Jay replied.

Kevin must've shot Jay a look or perhaps even said something. Vanessa didn't know. All she knew was that Kevin and Kim left them in the street to help inside, and that she and Jay were now in the car he and Kim had arrived in. Jay made no move to start it.

Her heart had slowed, yet every beat seemed to be pumping something much heavier than blood through her veins. ''What happened?'' Jay asked again.

''I don't know,'' she replied.

''Are you hurt?''

''…I don't think so.''

''Do you have any idea at all who they were? Anything they said? Anything?''

She shook her head. ''I thought she was dead.'' This was not the answer to the question he asked, but just another important statement that seemed to tumble out of her mouth. ''I thought… She looked dead.''

There was a poignant pause before he answered. ''But she isn't dead,'' he reminded her. ''She isn't.''

''But he wanted her dead.'' Vanessa felt this to be fact. The way he looked at her, the way he stood… ''He wanted to kill her.''

She couldn't decipher the look on Jay's face. ''Okay,'' he said, and Vanessa felt a twinge of doubt about whether he was agreeing with her or thought her statement to be an exaggeration. He finally put the car in drive. ''Let's go see her.''

They pulled out of the noisy surroundings, leaving the crime scene and the ones would would decipher it behind them as though it were another world. All that was left was the noise of traffic, and Vanessa wishing that these noises would merely blend into a dream that she could wake up from.

But they did not.

...

Me: Will I add to this? Who knows. I do know I need me more Hailey Upton Whump in this fan fiction life.

If you can, please leave a review!

Happy Writing!