(D6)[EH] Breaking Point

[Emily Wyatt]

Emily breathed a sigh of relief at Paige's assurances that her and her father were okay but the explanation on why she was in her home threw Emily for a moment, "Police car..bone...Ghost?"

Ghost? what the heck-

Then it hit her, finding the bone the dog and making Paige her little Deputy.

CRAP! Paige honey you picked the worst possible time to come over here and play Deputy with me. I need to get you out of here. NOW!

Emily forced a big bright smil, grabbed Paige by the hand and started to pull her towards the front of the house away from the back door and George. "Uh no-er Thomas isn't with me today honey. The car you saw out there actually belongs to Sheriff Woodman. He uh...umm wanted to go over some very boring paperwork with me, totally unrelated to our Ghost investigation."

They reached the front hall out of sight of the yard and George, well she hoped... she hadn't dared look back to see if her boss had followed her inside. She leaned down and in a rushed whisper said, "Paige! What did I tell you about wandering into places without permission? Scared me half to death! I could have seriously hurt you!"

And your father would have killed me...Oh God I pointed a gun at his little girl, he still might...

Emily pinched the bridge of her nose, took a deep breath and then in a calmer voice added, "It would have broke my heart if I had hurt you!" She gave the girl another hug and then pulled back and held up a palm, "Promise me! Promise me, you will never do that again!"

[George Woodman]

George was about to respond to Emily's notion that he wanted to fire her when her attention was taken by something else from the side of the house. "Emily, are you..." but was cut off by her going off to investigate the disturbance. "Fine then, I'll need to check a couple things over here anyways." he thought.

After Emily was out of earshot, he went over to the dead body and eyed the star a bit. "Whoever you are, copycat, you're not laying a single finger on my Emily." he mutter, clenching his fists. On a hunch, he then opened the girl's mouth and noticed her tongue still intact. "Amateur work. You forgot an important detail. Agent Morgan will surely be all over this, unless..." he began to take out a pocket knife and open it up. He then brought the blade towards her tongue and was about to make a cut when he thought he heard something, which caused him to suddenly hide the blade. After seeing it was nothing, he closed it. "Have to make sure Emily doesn't walk in..."

"Emily are you alright in there?" He called out, and eventually stumbled across her hugging a young child, which he recognized to be Paige. "Ms. O'Brian! You're up awful early on a rainy day. Most of the other kids are sleeping in." he chuckled. "Well, it's good to see you are doing well. Unfortunately, Emily and I are doing a very important investigation, so we can't let you play around here."

He then turned to Emily. "Could you please take Paige home. I can handle the investigation for a bit on my own."

[Emily Wyatt]

Emily jumped when she suddenly heard George's voice right behind her, "S-sure, I'll escort Paige home."

Emily gave a small sigh of relief that her boss didn't sound too mad.

Maybe he didn't see me endangering a child's life after all? Thank God, I'm beating myself up about it enough as it is!

She stood and held out a hand to Paige and smiled, "Come on Paige let's get you home, you can tell me how Batdog is doing on the way!" She smiled, "We'll catch up about our on-going case a little latter okay hon?"

When I'm a little less freaked out and that body is gone.

Once Paige took her hand Emily scooped up another umbrella near the front door (this one was covered in a cute puppy pattern), she didn't dare go back for her other one lying in her the backyard and quickly strode out the door and into the downpour.

[Paige O'Brian]

Paige protested as Emily led her away, narrowing her eyes suspiciously as she spoke. She recognised the too-light tone to her voice, and how quickly she spoke. She was hiding something from her! And after Paige had been made Deputy, too!
But then Emily used the Voice - the same type her Mom used to use- so she kept quiet and glowered at the floor while Emily told her off, "I know, but..."

She jumped with Emily as a voice came from behind them, then gave a sheepish grin at the man approaching them, "Hiya Grizzly!" She almost shouted, adding a small 'roar' and raising her arms like bear-paws.
Detecting that now was not the time to argue, with the tough-looking Sheriff watching her and all, Paige sighed and let Emily lead her way from the house.

As she and Emily walked together through the rain, Paige started to whine, "But I don't wanna go home yet! It's boring ! There's nothing good on TV and Batdog and Dad are being lazy-heads and I already ate breakfast so there's nothing else to do and..."
She continued in this manner for some time, occasionally adding her disappointment that she wasn't assigned to this case too- whatever it was, when they approached the front of her house.
As Emily let go of Paige's hand to lower the umbrella, it occurred to Paige that she had left her own umbrella behind at Emily's house.
"Oh right! I'll be right back!" Paige shouted, bolting away from the startled Deputy and running as fast as she could back the way they had come, ignoring anything Emily might've shouted at her as she ran.

She reached the front door, pausing a moment to catch her breath, then bent to pick up her plastic umbrella from where she'd dropped it. She was about to turn and head right back, dreading the inevitable Telling Off she'd receive, when she remembered the door was still open.
This was her chance to see what they'd been hiding from her!
Paige quietly pushed the front door open again, dripping water through the house as she tip-toed past the kitchen. She looked about the lounge-room, suddenly feeling anxious in the eerie quiet, and began to wander if maybe she should've turned back after all, when she turned to the patio door.

For a moment her mind was blank, incapable of completely taking in the sight before her. As her brain slowly caught up with her eyes and began to register what it was she was looking at, her whole body trembled and her grip tightened on the handle of the umbrella she'd dragged with her.
She'd heard about the corpse the murdered girl from before had left behind, but she'd never really thought about what it would look like - not really. No genuine mental image had entered her head. But this was...
Paige took a step backwards, immediately falling onto her backside as her unsteady legs failed to support the small movement.
She didn't know what to do, didn't know what to do, what was she supposed to...?
Bringing violently shaking hands to her face, she closed her eyes and screamed.

[George Woodman]

George made sure that Emily and Paige were out of sight before returning to the crime scene. "Finally, now I won't have any distractions..." he grinned before approached the dead girl. However, he was still glancing around. Even though Emily and Paige were gone and the chance of anyone else being out was slim, he didn't want to take any chances. If he got spotted, then his whole plan would fall apart.

He opened the girls mouth and took out his pocket knife. His eyes glanced around a bit more as he held her tongue out. Finally, he drove the knife down and sliced the tongue clean off, though the blade scraped up a bit by her lips. He quickly pocketed the tongue and put his pocket knife away. "Problem solved. Disposing of the tongue will be easy..."

However, his thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream. He turned around horrified: it was Paige. Was she watching the whole time? He thought that Emily would have been able to get her home. No. Maybe she just got there after he had finished. He ran over to her and took her inside.

"Paige...I'm sorry you had to see that. This is why we couldn't let you get involved." he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It'll be alright. Emily should be back here soon, and I'll make sure she won't be mad at you." However, he was getting annoying at Emily.

"I don't care how shook up you are. There is no reason you should have been able to lose track of her. You better have a good excuse..."

[Emily Wyatt]

Emily had attempted to snatch Paige's arm earlier but as she turned her foot had caught on something and fell to the pavement hard her ankle twisted. This had given the Paige the head start she needed to give Emily the slip.

Heart pounding, adrenaline pumping Emily took off limping after Paige ignoring excruciating pain from her ankle. Her thoughts were only on catching the girl before she saw the body.

She couldn't believe how fast things had happened. They were at Paige's doorstep and she had only took her eyes off the girl a second, A SECOND! And now this...

Please let me catch up, please let me catch up-

She had just entered her home when she heard the scream that shattered her heart.

She was too late, too fucking late.

Emily limped to the back of the house and fell to the girl's side, barely registering George's presence, and held the trembling Paige close while rocking back and forth. With tears streaming down her face Emily kissed Paige's forehead and stroked her head while murmuring comforting words.

"It's going to be okay Paige." Emily buried her face in Paige's hair and choked back another sob of her own, "Shhhhh It's going to be okay sweetie..."

[Paige O'Brian]

Paige scrambled for something to say to the Sheriff- who's name (nickname or otherwise) was currently and uncharacteristically completely absent from her mind, but similarly thought of nothing. She settled for making a strangled whine from the back of her throat and drawing her knees further into herself.

Her mind in a turmoil of confusion and fear, she forcibly shut down thinking about anything except for vaguely wishing she was still lying in bed right now.

She didn't react when Emily wrapped her arms around her, simply accepted the comfort rather than try feign her usual attempted 'tough' approach.
Gulping some air, Paige managed to wrap an arm around one of Emily's, "I... Is she...?" Stupid question, stupid question. She broke off with a sob which rapidly gave way to full-blown bawling, clinging tighter to Emily.

[George Woodman]

George was starting to get angry. He had asked Emily to do one thing. One simple fucking thing: get Paige out of the way. However, she couldn't even do that. Instead, she had almost let her find out that he had tampered with the crime scene and to top it off, now has to explain what she just saw as well as explain to her father why she is crying.

He had let Emily comfort the young girl for a bit before approaching her. "Emily..." he started, then paused to cross his arms. "Did you have any idea how important it was to make sure she didn't see the crime scene? Thanks to your carelessness, she's been traumatized." he scolded, though didn't raise his voice. He sighed. He couldn't fire her: there wasn't enough law enforcement around, and if he cut her pay any more, she would probably quit. No, she'd have to do something else.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish examining before she showed. So now I want you to take her back home, correctly this time."
He ordered.

"Also, you'll have to explain to her father why exactly she is crying..."

[Emily Wyatt]

Emily slowly lifted her head from Paige gave George a pitiful look. He had to be joking was he really going to make her explain to Paige's father why his daughter was traumatized on her own? This was an accident!

George only gave her a hard glare in return.

Emily couldn't believe it! He was serious! He was going to make her do it on her own? She narrowed her eyes.

What a sadistic bastard!

Emily wished he just fired her instead, it would have been kinder.

She reluctantly let go of Paige and attempted to stand, completely forgetting about her injury. Without the adrenaline furiously pumping the effect of putting weight an her ankle was immediate. Emily let out a startled scream at the blinding pain to shooting up her leg and fell back to the floor. Clutching the ankle with her eyes squeezed shut Emily bit her tongue in an attempt to hold back the string of profanities that wanted to fly out of her mouth.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKK!

She lifted her pant leg to examine her injury and saw her ankle was already swollen and purple.

Emily looked to her boss, "It's my ankle George, I tried to grab P-Paige when she bolted." Emily took a deep breath, "B-But when I turned and took a step towards her to take hold of her arm I tripped on something in her yard and fell. It was enough of a delay that I couldn't catch up to her in time...I'm not sure if it's just twisted or broken..."

Emily bit the inside of her cheek in an effort to manage the sudden influx of pain wishing she would just wake up from this nightmare already.

She locked eyes with the Sheriff and in an exasperated voice said, "I-I can't get up on my own George!" She let out a low moan and a frustrated sigh, hating herself and her two left feet. She knew snapping at her livid boss wasn't helping the situation but she was finding it really hard not to go into hysterics right now.

She glanced again at the scared little girl to her right wishing she could turn back the clock and shield her from ever seeing the body.

Some Super Cop she turned out to be. Thanks to her clumsiness Paige would probably be in therapy for years and years to come.

Emily took a deep breath and tried to get her emotions in check she did not want to antagonize George any further. She held out her hand and in a more respectful and calmer voice pleaded, "Sir, will you please give me a hand? She pointed to one of her wooden dining chairs, "Pull me up and help me to that chair over there? I just need to get ice on this...I-I have some ice packs in my freezer if you be so kind as to grab one of those for me too?" She took another deep breath and through gritted teeth added, "And I think I have some old crutches from when Pa-my father broke his leg years ago in still in my hall closet. I can use those to take Paige home."

...and explain to her father how his baby is now mentality scared. On my own.

Emily frowned and looked off towards the patio feeling her anger at the Sheriff return. How could he be so cruel! Here she thought they were partners and were going to face this adversity head on... together.

Well Anna's killer was the least of her worries now. She would be lucky to make it back from Paige's in one piece.

[Paige O'Brian]

Daniel O'Brian

((No picture for him yet, sorry!))

He sat staring at his half-empty mug of coffee, mentally debating whether to fume or worry. It was hardly the first time she'd gone out like this without a word, especially when raining- despite his adherence to the largely unspoken town rule. And her bowl had been in the sink, so at least she'd eaten something. All the same, as he had kept trying to tell her, this was potentially the worst possible time to leave home alone so early, especially if all those far-fetched rumours were even slightly true.

He hadn't heard anyone arrive before the knock at the door and, startled, shot out of the kitchen chair and paused to study the arrival- arrivals, he noted, through the keyhole. He recognised his neighbor Ms Wyatt (Thank God!) and - yes, there was that little head of red hair.

He yanked the door open harder then intended, "There you - I thought you- Paige, where the hell've y--" Daniel's stuttering came to a halt as he registered Paige's tear-streaked face. Oh god, she would never cry like that in front of 'Super-Cop'- too much false bravado. She must've been hurt or, or-...
"Oh god, honey- honey, come here, come here, it's- it's okay," He wrapped her up in his arms, letting her cling around his neck and hugged her tightly to him while she continued to sniffle quietly, "I'm not mad, honey, come on. You..." He took a breath, try to keep his voice steady as he turned to Ms Wyatt, "Uh, Emily - You'd better come inside- out of the rain- I'll... I'll put some more coffee on..."

He set Paige gently down on a chair at the table and took her raincoat off, allowing Batdog to rush up and start licking her face, while he smoothed his daughter's hair with one hand and flipped on an electric kettle, "Just instant crap on me, sorry-- Is..." He took another breath as he looked over Emily, "I should get you some ice too. Your ankle." He added sheepishly.

[George Woodman]

George sighed as Emily fell to the floor in pain. He wasn't sure if she really was hurt or was just making excuses. Right now, he was too pissed off and frustrated at Emily for almost ruining his plan that he couldn't help but be apathetic to her plight.

"Would it really have killed you a be a little less clumsy?" he said to her, with an annoyance in his tone. Still, he saw that she couldn't really move, so he had no choice but to dig up the ice pack and crutches that she was looking for, while still leaving her on the floor. "Dammit, I'm a sheriff, not a nursemaid." he thought, grumbling as he grabbed the items she needed.

He returned and finally helped her onto the chair. He leaned the crutches up next to the chair and handed her the ice packs. "Unfortunately, I still can't be in two places at once. You'll still need to take Paige home. If your leg hurts that much, you can drive her there. I need to remain here and call in some more officers to do a proper investigation."

After that, he stepped out to let Emily do her thing and got onto the radio with police dispatch.

"Dispatch, this is Sheriff George Woodman. I've discovered a murder victim at the Wyatt Residence. I have reason to believe that it's the same person who killed Anna. I'll need a CSI team as well as the coroner..."

[Sasha Desrosiers]

Sasha was determined to relax and enjoy this rainy day. He’d spent too long mentally kicking himself over missing the opportunities the Graham girl’s death and the arrival of the FBI agent that was supposed to be in town. Since then he’d gotten a police scanner and just left it on, sitting next to the toaster. There hadn’t been anything over it other than white noise, and Sasha was close to falling asleep at the kitchen table when it suddenly crackled and blared out:

“Dispatch, this is Sheriff George Woodman.”

Sasha snapped his head up and leaped out of his chair, knocking it over as he dashed to the scanner to turn up the volume.

“I’ve discovered a murder victim at the Wyatt Residence. I have reason to believe that it’s the same person who killed Anna. I’ll need a CSI team as well as the coroner…”

He was grabbing his camera, coat, press badge, and knocking over everything on the table trying to find his keys as he listened. And the next thing he knew he was in his car and trying to remember where the Wyatt residence was; he was sure he’d passed by there a few times on the way to the SWERY 65.

--

Sasha pulled up outside Wyatt’s house and stumbled out of the car. He didn’t see anyone out front, so he decided to make a quick circle around the house before anything else. As he rounded into the back yard, he didn’t see anything but the woman, the strung up and crucified dead woman.

Swallowing hard, he lifted his camera and took a picture of the body. And then, carefully holding his camera out of the way, he turned and threw up in the grass.

[Emily Wyatt]

Emily could still feel her face burning slightly at George's admonishment earlier when Daniel O'Brian opened the front door.

"Would it really have killed you a be a little less clumsy?"

She gritted her teeth, the NERVE! He acted like she had done this on purpose, just to ruin his day. If Paige wasn't crying in the room she would have given George a piece of her mind... Sure it wouldn't have been the smart thing to do as she would have most definitely lost her job for the slap in the face and screaming about what a asshole he was...but it sure would have felt really good in moment.

HE LEFT HER ON THE FLOOR! Now that was stone cold, even for him. No compassion at all! He wasn't the only one having a shitty day here! HELLO! There was a DEAD BODY in HER yard with a clear DEATH THREAT to her! God he acted as if letting her young friend see the gruesome scene wasn't enough of a knee to the gut...that he also had to belittle her in front of said friend for a freak accident. Seriously, fuck that.

God! he was just in the backyard. Did he not hear me call out for her? He should have seen or heard Paige coming. He was that involved staring at a corpse or what?

Emily slowly made her way inside the warmth of the house house and decided that her day couldn't possible get any worse, so if Daniel wanted to kill her for traumatizing his baby so be it. It sure as hell would put her out of her current misery.

She nodded at the man's offer of coffee and ice and lowered herself slowly onto one of the vacant chairs. She knew he won't be so accommodating after he heard what she had to say...

I feel sick. I think I need to start seriously looking for different employment. I can't take this much longer. Seriously Todd you can have it, I'm done.

She took a shaky breath with a glance in Paige's direction, "D-Daniel, is there somewhere we can talk privately?"

If she was going to get another verbal lashing about her incompetence she would rather Paige not be witness to it again. Besides, the less the little girl had to relive her experience the better.

[Todd Thorne]

"A-HA! There's George! I told ya Red!" Todd gave Tamika a light slap on the shoulder as his boss strode into Emily's backyard.

He watched silently for a few minutes as George examined the body and wondered what was going through his mind. Had he already told Emily off for being a weakling inside the house? Is that why he was out there by himself?

Nope.

Emily was back outside umbrella in hand, Todd was a disappointed that she was fully clothed now, and stood next to George. Todd couldn't hear what they were saying but it seemed like it was business as usual between them.

George didn't seem upset or annoyed either even though Emily had to be in hysterics earlier! What gives? He should have already pushed her aside. Why wasn't he yelling at her?!

Todd frowned and his jaw clenched. His plan to have Emily run to his arms for protection wasn't going to work if she had someone as awesome as Sheriff George Woodman at her side!

"Red...this isn't looking good for TEAM TODD. George doesn't seem to mad at Emily...fuck! What are we going to do?! She won't come running to me when-"

Emily had suddenly ran into her house with her gun raised leaving George outside.

"Woah-woah-woah! Where's the fire Emily!?"

Todd squinted and tried to focus his gaze through the open patio door but couldn't make out was was going on inside. It couldn't have been that major as George had not reacted and had stayed by the corpse a few minutes before he followed Emily inside.

"I wonder what that was all about... Man I wish I had a camera inside! Emily could have been freaking out over nothing and George could be yelling at her and we wouldn't know!" Todd gave a heavy sigh.

Turning to his companion he said, "Well...there's not a lot to see now if they are just going to hang inside..."

Suddenly George was striding back outside. "Hey wait! George is coming back out and Emily isn't with him...I wonder if?" Todd leaned forward in his seat and held his breath. He crouched and pulled Tamika with him as George's eyes scanned the area. "Oh man I hope he doesn't see us! I'm supposed to be home sick!"

Luckily George's gaze never fell on Todd and Tamika's hiding spot and his intense gaze was back on the body in the tree. Todd let out a sigh of relief, "That was close huh Re-"

The rest of the sentence died on his lips when George did something very unexpected. It was so shocking that Todd was in complete disbelief.

Did his glorious boss just slice off dead whore's tongue with a
pocket knife? No...why would George do something like that

George then slipped the tongue into his pocket and Todd turned wide eyed to Tamika, "You saw that right? My boss just cut off her tongue!" Todd's voice went up an octave, "HER TONGUE RED!? WHY WOULD HE DO THAT? THAT'S NOT PROTOCOL HE'S-"

A young child's scream from the house made Todd jump. His gaze returned to the yard and his stomach clenched when he saw Paige staring up at his handy work.

"SHIT! Is that? It's Paige- how, why?"

As much as he wanted to scare Emily Todd did not want to scare a innocent little girl. What was she doing at Emily's house this early in the morning?

Todd slammed his fists on the dashboard. "OH GOD RED! THIS IS NOT PART OF THE PLAN!"

Another slam.

"What the fuck?"

Slam.

"Fuck! FUUUUCK!"

Slam.

"We just traumatized a little girl! This is awful!"

Todd frantically ran his hands through his hair has George rushed the little girl back inside. How could this had happened? WHERE was Emily?

[Paige O'Brian]

Daniel O'Brian

Daniel paused awkwardly, and lowered his long-cold coffee mug,"Well I suppose we could go upstairs... Oh, but you couldn't on your ankle could you?" He added quickly, "Oh, uh- there's a spare room just this way, actually. Hold on a second."
He gently led Paige over to the lounge in front of the TV in the adjoining lounge-room, and began rummaging through a cabinet loaded with DVD and VHS cases, "Here we go. You like, um, this one, yeah?" He said lifting out a specific Teen Titans DVD case. Paige's eyes brightened a little and she nodded. After deftly setting the episode up, Daniel called to Batdog to sit with Paige, who complied eagerly.
"Ms Wyatt and I are just going to go talk, okay sweetie?" He said gently, "You just... You just enjoy your show, okay? We'll get pizza for lunch later if you're up to it."

Pausing to glance back at Paige, he led Emily to the spare room, hovering awkwardly as he tried to help support her weight. As he closed the door behind him, he pulled up a chair for her, then sank onto a bare bed frame.

"Alright," He said, after a moment, "What... What happened?"