Tuesday, May 25, 2004

   Cream Filling & Nougat: Third Helping (Chapter VI)
Cream sat demoralized and silent on the simple, wheeled gurney as the doctor applied the last bits of disinfectant and took out the thread.
"Hey, don't worry 'bout it sarge," Losanje said from a chair across from the gurney, "we all got a little banged up, but we got the job done." Cream half-smiled at the comment.
"Cost was a touch pricey this time around, wouldn't ya say?" he asked, staring at the dressings wrapped around Losanje's hand. "And why aren't you resting on your own bed?"
"'Cause we're bored, sarge," Schotse said as he entered the curtained off area, a crutch under each arm. His pant-leg had been cut off and bandages ran around his wound tightly. The leg itself dangled slightly, but no worse for wear. "Sitting alone waiting for nurses to come take your temperature isn't fun." Losanje got up so Schotse could sit down - after a quick exchange regarding ladies first, Schotse was quickly forced down into the chair.

"So why don't you keep Munt company?" Cream asked.
"Doctors wouldn't let me . . ." Schotse answered, ". . . seems a bullet to the stomach is too serious for others to stand around."
"Yeah hey," Losanje said, jumping in, "how is that poor bastard anyway?" To Cream's surprise, Schotse started laughing lightly.
Just as they wheeled him into his part of the E.R., he looked to me and the idiot goes, 'hey, Schotse, I betcha fifty bucks that I can get through the operation wide awake and not freak out!" The young detective couldn't believe what he was hearing - were these people completely insane?
"So what happened?" Losanje asked.
"I couldn't go in, like I said, but from where I was I could hear him . . ."
" . . . . . and?"
" . . . he could've been boinkin' someone in there, for all I knew." Losanje put her face into her hand.
"You don't mean . . ."
"Yup . . . . . 'oh, come on, harder!' 'Give it to me!' 'Is that all you've got?!' It was absolutely utterly improper of him!" Losanje started laughing uncontrollably, almost losing her balance. Cream just sat dumbfounded as the doctor completed the stitches to the side of his head.

"So hey, 'Sanje," Schotse said, looking up at the one officer on her feet, "you're one helluva shot, bad hand or not." Losanje struck a pose.
"Hey, you ain't too shabby yourself, legless." Schotse grinned and extended his fist, which Losanje was quick to pound. Cream breathed in sharply and winced as the needle made a rough pass through his skin. The doctor quickly apologized and Cream went back to his exhausted, agitated demeanour.
"This had to be the worst bust ever . . ." he said quietly. Soon afterwards, footsteps leading towards the sectioned off portion of the E.R. alerted the attention of everyone present.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Nougat said, smiling from the curtains.

"Noug'!" Cream said. The others made their greetings as well.
"Yeah, my team's already back at the precinct. But then my other team got all shot up, so, now I'm here. Wassup?" Cream felt a touch miffed by the comment, though the others were quick to get a rise from it. "But yeah, you guys did good out there."
"What the suck, man?" Cream said, getting the older detective's attention. "You mean good aside from the part where we all got ambushed by a dozen cars full of bad guys, got shot everywhere except our vests, and lost two cars plus a van full of evidence?"
"Look," Nougat said, in as calming a voice as he could at the moment, "I'm not saying it was the best bust ever, but things did work out in the end."

The doctor had finished stitching up Cream's head and left the room. Losanje quickly took a seat on the gurney and eased her feet.
"Alright, after you guys got the hell out of there - freakishly well, might I add - the E.R.T. guys cleaned up big time. Pretty much every gunman was rounded up in one way or another, and we did retrieve all the vehicles . . . including the van you half-trashed, so don't worry about that." Cream just looked away, to Nougat's unease.

What about that Sprinkle guy?" Losanje asked. "I heard you two saying something about that before the van got lit up." Nougat snapped back to reality.
"Oh, right!" Cream turned back to his partner as the others leaned in. "Okay, so we'll all accept that I'm an old, old man? Well, I've gone up against this guy before . . ." Nougat paused for a moment to think. "He was sort of a low-level smack-runner some years back, but through various backstreet happenings - ya know, killings, dealings . . . dumb luckings - he got up pretty high. After a while, he was doing well enough for himself that he was hiring his own men to go out and handle jobs. And, like all good criminal masterminds, has very little we can physically pin on him. You all saw The Untouchables, right?" Everyone nodded to a degree. "Yeah, kinda like that but with more drinking."

Cream hopped himself off the gurney to stretch himself out. Nougat continued.
"Anyway, I pressed hard and got really close to him. But, at the last minute, he skipped town or something, 'cause we all lost him. That was all about five years ago, I think . . ."
"And so now it's time to nail old ghosts, huh?" Schotse added.
"Something like that, yeah," Nougat said. "So, we're gonna keep drillin' the way we are now. We've got the bastard by the balls and all we need to do is squeeze!" Cream shot around, shock all over his face.
"You're . . . kidding, right?"

Nougat's face went serious.
"Something wrong, sar- . . . . . uhm, what's up, Whip'?" Cream brushed his fingers along his new stitches.
"Now, I don't mean to insult you or your ability to command, Noug', because you have indeed gotten us this far . . . but this shortest-distance approach seems to have been what got us into that firefight in the first place."
"Yeah, they did try to ambush us and we still won and took the spoils." Losanje and Schotse looked to each other and grinned.
"Noug', that was way too risky . . ."
"Sergeant! Cool it, okay? We won, that's what matters right now."

Cream paused and slowed his breathing as best he could.
"By the way," Nougat said, breaking the silence in the room, "you said you grabbed some things out of the van just in case, right?"
"That's right, lieutenant, I pocketed as much cryssal as I could along with the pages from that clipboard." Cream realised how sharply that had come out, but struggled with whether he meant it or not.
"Well, I'd like to put those with the rest of the file, if you'd please," Nougat said. Cream started walking away from the gathered officers and stopped before passing the curtains. "Whip'? A little help?"

Immediately, Cream reached a hand into his pant-pocket and another into his jacket. He then spun around and threw every page and every plastic bag at his partner as hard as he could. Nougat blocked the wave of flying pieces and saw Cream leave the area between the floating leafs.
"You two stay here," he said to the other two stunned officers, "I'll be right back . . ."


[Wow . . . . . it's amazing at how long I can take writing exposition, huh? Crazy . . . . .]
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