Charlie Foxtrot

by Lani Lynn Vale

But I was a sucker for crying women.

  Just ask my mother and sister-in-laws.

  Turning back, I walked to the car and tapped on her side window.

  “You okay?” I asked warily.

  She turned, rolling down her window, and the tears in her eyes nearly ripped my guts out.

  “Yeah,” she nodded, wiping her tears. “I just got a call that my house was broken into again.”

  She sniffled and wiped her hand across her face, wiping away the tears as best as she could without using a towel.

  My stomach clenched. “Again, how do you know?”

  She held up her phone up, and pressed play with her thumb.

  “Blake, this is Janet Bowers with KPD. We’ve received another complaint that your front door was hanging open, and the neighbor suspected that someone was in there. Upon inspection, we found the place ransacked. We’d like you to come down to the station at your earliest convenience so we can file a report. We’ve locked your house back up, but since we were unable to get ahold of you, we’d like you to stop by.”

  Fuck.

  “Get out, let’s go,” I said suddenly, startling her.

  Chapter 9

  Remember, I’m a police officer. This story will need to have dismemberment in it for me to be surprised.

  -Foster to the rookie

  Foster

  When she didn’t move fast enough, I offered her my hand.

  She looked up at me¸ startled, but nonetheless got out of her car, placing her soft hand inside my rough one.

  My hand engulfed hers as I closed my fingers around it and started hauling her towards my truck.

  It was my pride and joy.

  I’d wanted the truck since I’d been old enough to dream about trucks.

  It was a midnight blue extended cab Dodge diesel with thirty nine inch tires and an eight inch lift.

  It sounded like a large cat purring when it started up, and still made me giddy when I first got in.

  The comical part, though, was watching Blake climb in the passenger side.

  In the end, I offered her a lift up.

  My blood started to pump forcefully to parts that I didn’t want it to be when my hands met the backs of her thighs, but I ignored it, and moved around to my side quickly.

  The climb in was different with a prosthesis, but the concept was still the same. I just had to put all my weight on the real leg instead of the prosthesis. Something I’d had to learn to adapt to.

  “Where are we going?” She asked quietly.

  I started the truck, the rumbling purr vibrating my body softly.

  “I have to go get fitted for my blade; but when I’m done, we’re going to the station,” I told her.

  “Your blade? Like a new knife?” She asked worriedly.

  I rolled my eyes, shooting her a peeved glance. “You don’t get measured for a knife, darlin’. ‘The Blade’ is a type of running prosthesis. I’m getting fitted for it today. Actually, I’ve already been fitted. I’m getting it. I just hope it fits. It’s uncomfortable as hell to run in the other one.”

  I pulled into Dr. Morton Stonewell’s office twenty minutes later, and was sent straight back.

  “Ahh,” Dr. Stonewell said. “If it isn’t my favorite patient.”

  I grimaced. “There’s no reason to be so snotty.”

  Blake giggled, covering her mouth with her hand to cover up the faux pas.

  Dr. Stonewell winked at Blake and patted the padded bench with his hand. “Hop up here, boy. Get that off, let’s see what this fits like.”

  Dr. Stonewell went into his office, disappearing inside. I sat down, took off both shoes, and then stood up once again to shuck my pants off.

  “Eeek!” Blake said, turning around quickly.

  I chuckled as I pushed them down to my knees, exposing my boxer briefs. Taking a seat on the padded bench, I started to work the rest off my prosthesis.

  No matter how hard I tried, it always turned out to be harder than it should be.

  They got caught on everything on my prosthetic leg.

  “Need help?” She asked softly.

  I glared and she held her hands up.

  “Geez, it just seems easier to use your hands instead of kicking your leg to get it off,” she grumbled.

  I barely stopped the smile that threatened to overtake my face.

  So freakin’ logical.

  I got them off just as Dr. Stonewell poured out of his office, my new leg in his hand.

  Blake’s eyes widened as she saw it.

  “That looks like a torture device,” she gasped. “What’s so special about it?”

  “The Flex-Foot was designed to store kinetic energy. Almost like a spring does. It’ll allow Foster to do whatever he wants to do. Run, jump, sprint, climb bleachers, pole vault. He can do whatever he wants to with this particular blade. If he can dream it, he can do it,” Dr. Stonewell said animatedly.

  I pressed the button at the base of my fake ankle, and pulled the old prosthetic off. Followed by the socks that filled in the prosthetic so I didn’t bottom out in it.

  Finally, off came my sleeve that held the pin on my leg with a sort of suction type sock.

  I made sure to keep an eye on Blake, taking in her reaction as I did.

  Maybe if I let her see what she’d really get with me, she’d get over whatever I saw in her eyes, lately, when I was around. As if I was the answer to her prayers.

  I wasn’t and she needed to know it.

  “Wow,” Blake said, dropping down to her haunches at my feet. “Can I touch it?”

  She looked genuinely interested, so warily, I nodded. “Sure.”

  It felt weird, having her fingers running over my scar.

  I didn’t have much feeling at the bottom, where the scar was, but as she moved her fingers up to the sides, I could feel a lot more of her touch.

  Why I’d get turned on by her rubbing her fingers on my stump, I didn’t know, but I did.

  Which was very awkward since I was currently sitting in my underwear.

  “Does it hurt?” She asked.

  Yes, my dick hurt. It was throbbing with need.

  Moving quickly, I covered my crotch up with my pants and started rambling.

  “It did hurt. Now, not so much unless I start having phantom pains,” I said, quickly, to cover up the thoughts in my head.

  “Alright, boy. Let’s get this on.”

  ***

  An hour later had us walking into the police station, Blake slightly in front of me as we moved.

  “Does it feel like you have kinetic energy stored in your foot?” She whispered loudly.

  I barely contained the urge to snort at her question.

  She was funny and I found that I didn’t mind having her around as much as I thought I would.

  She didn’t bother me like my brothers. Or my parents. Or my friends.

  I knew they were only concerned for me, but I was okay. I wasn’t going to go into a deep depression, and I wasn’t going to go off and flip a switch because I was missing a part of my body.

  Sure, I was pissed, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t stupid.

  I wasn’t happy, per se, but I also wasn’t bitter.

  Mostly.

  And Blake treated me like I was normal. She didn’t react anything like I thought she would.

  In fact, she acted like it wasn’t even that big of a deal. She didn’t flinch at the sight of my stump. She didn’t look at me with pity. In fact, I was just Foster to her, and I liked that.

  A lot.

  “It feels weird. I’ll have to go on a run later to try it out,” I told her. “You wanna go?”

  She looked over her shoulder at me, frowning.

  “I don’t think I could keep up with you. I run, but it’s slower than molasses,” she hedged.

  I winked. “Don’t worry. This might be one of those days that I run like that, too.”

  She pursed her lips, and nodded her head. “Okay. After we’re done here and go check
out my tainted house, then we can go.”

  I winced at how she said ‘tainted.’

  As if it was dirty.

  Which I guess it was. At least to her.

  “Where are you taking me?” She asked.

  I nodded in the direction of the bullpen. “Detective Bower’s desk is through there.”

  She nodded.

  “Okay,” she said. “You lead the way.” She grinned. “I just want to stare at your ass.”

  I winked at her and said, “It’s a good ass. You’ll never be able to look at another one the same way again.”

  As I said it, I drew the attention of a female officer at the water fountain as we moved.

  She looked startled that I’d teased Blake.

  Obviously, I was being somewhat surly lately. Something that probably wouldn’t change anytime soon. Not unless Blake was around to pull out the nice in me, anyway.

  I tossed a glare at the young officer as I passed, causing her to look down at her cup she’d been filling.

  I hid the grin and continued to Bower’s desk, stopping just to the right of the desk so Blake could take the only seat.

  She’d stopped just to my right shoulder, hiding slightly behind me.

  “What’s up, Spurlock?” Bowers asked.

  I reached for Blake’s hand, and she moved her hands away so I couldn’t grab them.

  Instead, my hands met her belly, fingers brushing the soft skin of her abdomen.

  Grabbing what I could, which happened to be the waistband of her pants, I pulled her until she moved reluctantly to my side.

  I gave her a quick glance, and she was looking at anything other than the woman in front of her.

  “How are you doing, Blake?” Detective Bowers asked, standing quickly.

  Detective Bowers was a 10 year veteran on the force, and had just recently married another officer on the force.

  She was okay, I guess, but she wasn’t particularly my favorite person, either.

  Which was also the case with Blake.

  “Uhhh,” Blake said dumbly. “Hi, Janet. How’s it going?”

  She smiled. “I’m really good, thank you for asking. How’s life been?”

  So Blake knew Janet. Interesting.

  I made a mental note to ask her what the deal was when we got out of there.

  “Oh, it’s been going. You told us to come down here to file a report on my house?” Blake asked with a raised brow.

  “Ohh! Yes!” Bowers said, sitting down. “I’m sorry, it’s just been so long since I’ve seen you. I forget that you’re here officially. Gosh, how long has it been?”

  Blake ground her teeth.

  I could hear it so well, in fact, that I had a feeling Bowers could hear it, too.

  Moving my hand up to come to a rest on her hip, I gave her a reassuring squeeze, causing her to look at me quickly.

  Her eyes were filled with annoyance and sadness, a double whammy of feelings that made me really feel for her.

  Fucking David. He really knew how to fuck shit up.

  He really had no clue what he was missing out on.

  Oh, well. His loss was my gain, I supposed.

  “Alright,” Bowers said, pulling out some pictures. “Here is what we found when we went over there. There was some blood splatter near your bird cage. We took a sample of that, and we’re going to have the crime techs analyze it. Hopefully there’ll be a match when we run it through the system. The rest of the house was just tossed. Nothing broken, per se, but it’s all out of place from what I could tell. The only other thing that I really saw that was bad, was the fact that they broke your door jam. David was sure to put up a board to cover your front door, though.”

  Blake tensed at the mention of David’s name, but muttered, “Thank you,” anyway.

  “Am I allowed to stay there?” She asked softly.

  Bowers nodded. “Of course,” she said, standing up. “I’ll just need you to sign this report detailing what I’ve told you, and warn you about the fact that, since this is the second incidence, there could be more to the story. Which was why I was given the case instead of just reporting it like what happened last time. Your uncle is aware of what happened as well.”

  Blake nodded. “Thanks.”

  “Hey, baby, are you almost done?” I heard called from my back.

  Both Blake and I turned to see the male half of the relationship, Brandon Bowers, at our backs.

  Brandon was the school resource officer for the area. From what I’d heard, he and Janet had been dating for some time before they’d finally tied the knot. Which also meant that they couldn’t work anywhere near each other. Hence, why the former detective moved departments.

  “Oh, hey! I haven’t seen you in forever, Blake!” Brandon said, patting her shoulder.

  He probably would’ve gone in for a hug, but Blake plastered herself to my side.

  “Brandon,” she nodded her head at him.

  Brandon frowned at her, and pulled back. “How’s it going?”

  “Oh, not too bad. But we have to be going. Thank you for your help, Detective Bowers,” Blake said hurriedly at my side, bending down to scribble her name on the paper in front of her.

  “Oh,” Janet said. “You changed your name back. I didn’t realize.”

  Blake smiled sadly. “No, I’m sure you didn’t.”

  With that, she took off, moving hurriedly through the room and out the door.

  The last thing I saw before she rushed out the door was the tears in her eyes.

  “What was that all about?” Brandon asked, sounding a little hurt.

  I didn’t bother to answer, following my charge as I hurried out the door behind Blake.

  I found her leaning against my truck, her face buried in her hands and her shoulders shaking as she sobbed.

  Something started to ache in my chest as I saw her distress.

  “Blake,” I rumbled softly once I reached her.

  Placing both hands on either side of her head, I leaned down until I could hear what she was trying to say.

  “They left me,” she whispered, brokenly, through her sobs.

  “Left you?” I asked, confused.

  She nodded, turning around allowing me to see her face.

  She nodded, gesturing towards the police station. “Those two. Hell, there’re more. David screwed me over, and not one of them was there when I needed a friend the most. That’s got to be what hurt the worst. David, I could deal with. But everyone left me, choosing him over me. They all knew what he was doing. Every single one of them. I could see it on their faces the moment they realized that I knew. Pity. Sadness. Awareness. They apologized, but the damage was done. And not one of them helped me.”

  I pulled her into my arms, not able to stand the tears anymore. “It’s okay, girly girl. They’re not worth your time. If they’re not there when you need them, they were never there to begin with. And I could tell you now that I know about eight men on the SWAT team that would willingly kick David’s ass for you.”

  She giggled through her tears and wrapped her arms around my chest, relieving the ache that’d taken up a permanent home since I’d been with her.

  “Thank you, Foster. You’re a really great person. And I like your kinetic blade,” she said softly.

  “That sounds…dirty.”

  Chapter 10

  I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. But it’s not my fault you’re stupid.

  -Fact of life

  Blake

  “I hear you went out with a SWAT member. I thought you said you’d never date another cop as long as you lived,” my mother said during lunch the next day. “Your father wants to meet him.”

  I’d talked her into going out, rather than her cooking something at their house.

  I love my mom, but if I went to her house, then I’d be expected to stay longer than I really wanted to.

  I knew she meant well, but I just couldn’t handle her shit right now.

  Especially when she got on the whole
debate over David.

  My mother was old fashioned.

  She had that whole ‘stand by your man’ motto.

  I, on the other hand, didn’t have the ‘stand by your man, even when he cheats’ motto.

  Something she couldn’t fathom.

  She was still upset that I’d left David.

  She was raised to believe that women were made to please their man, and if they strayed, you were to turn a blind eye. Something I was never able to do.

  She was really worried now that I’d be going to hell, too. Something that she made sure to mention.

  “I didn’t go out on a date. He helped me. That’s all,” I said around a mouthful of food.

  My mother gave me a reproachful look. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

  I raised my hands, chewed, and swallowed before I spoke next. “Sorry.”

  “You can bring him to dinner this Saturday. Your uncle and aunt will be there,” she said, taking a bite of her own salad.

  Yay. Sounded like an uber amount of fun.

  Not.

  I loved my mother and all, but there were times that the woman drove me batshit crazy.

  My dad was probably insane just by having to listen to us go at it so often.

  “We’ll see,” I said before taking another bite. “He works, you know. And he’s not my boyfriend; he has no obligation to come.”

  “Uh-huh. I saw David shopping with his fiancé this morning. You didn’t tell me they were expecting a baby,” my mother admonished.

  The salad started to turn to acid in my stomach as I thought about, yet again, how much David had screwed me over. Even my own mother liked him better. Which I guess was okay since David’s father liked me better. It was only fair.

  Only David’s father was dead, and my mother was still very much alive. And still loved David like he was her own.

  I ignored her, hoping she’d give it up, but she didn’t. She never could leave well enough alone.

  She was the match to my gasoline. She knew how to light me up better than anybody, and she proved it with her next comment.

  “I can’t wait to see if it’s a boy or a girl. I’ve been waiting so long for a grandchild,” she whispered happily.

  I froze with the salad halfway to my mouth, looking at her incredulity. “You’re fucking kidding me right now, aren’t you?”