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- Drop the knife! Leo’s voice booms behind her.
Esther can feel the blade against her arm and looks into the suspect’s eyes. He doesn’t care.
- Drop the knife! Leo repeats.
She groans as the pain hits her. The blood starts pouring down her arm. She watches the splatter as a bullet pierces the suspect’s forearm, and then the sound of the shot echoing through the warehouse reaches her ears. The knife falls to the ground while he screams. Esther turns her head in what feels like slow motion, expecting to see Adam. As much as she dislikes that side of him, he’s the most impulsive member of the team and today she doesn’t mind it. Instead, to her right, Pia is standing with her arms outstretched, gun in her hands.
- He said ”drop the knife”, Pia mutters.
Adam flies past her, grabs the suspect and handcuffs him. Esther sits down on the floor next to the pool of blood spreading around her. Leo brings the first aid kit from his car and wraps a bandage tightly around her arm, while Pia kneels down and strokes her hair.
- It’ll be fine, Esther.
She looks into Pia’s eyes. She hopes it will. Leo tosses a bandage to Adam and then wraps a second bandage around her arm. That’s not a good sign. That means she’s bleeding a lot.
- Get her into my car, he tells Pia. The ambulance won’t do anything anyway. She needs stitches. Adam, are y-
- I’m fine, Adam replies while bandaging the suspect. Go!
Pia fastens Esther’s seatbelt for her and then hurries around the car and jumps in next to her. Leo gets into the driver’s seat and types the hospital into the gps.
- Keep her awake, he says and pulls onto the street.
He calls the station.
- Connect me with the emergency room. … Hey, I’m on the way in with an injured colleague. She’s got a blade wound, upper arm. A little more than a decimeter wide and at least three centimeters at its deepest. ETA 14 minutes. Baumann, what’s your blood type?
- A positive, she groans.
- A positive, Leo repeats into the phone. Thanks.
Pia keeps stroking her hair. A few drops of drying blood run down the side of her hand. Leo’s words actually make Esther worry. She didn’t realize the wound was so serious. For a couple seconds, she considers what she’d do if she lost her arm. Then she slaps the thought away. Whatever happens, happens. Unless she loses too much blood. In which case not much more will happen to her. She closes her eyes.
- Esther! Pia shakes her gently. Stay awake.
- Sorry.
- Tell me why we can’t arrest people just because they looked at us weirdly.
- You know why.
- Tell me anyway.
- It’s not a crime.
- But what if we also think they may have committed a crime? Talk to me!
- Do we have evidence? Or witnesses? We can’t arrest them because we don’t like them. We need some kind of grounds.
- Good, Esther. Why?
- The laws are there to protect everyone. Even potential criminals. Are you cold too?
- Don’t worry, Esther, we’ll be there soon.
She lets her eyelids fall again. It feels nice. She’s tired. Pia shakes her again.
- Esther! Esther!
- Open your eyes, Baumann. That’s an order.
She pushes her eyes open. Leo looks at her in the rear view mirror. He’s so annoying! He knows that’s her weak spot. Wait? Did he order Pia to keep her awake, or was that an instruction? She doesn’t want to get Pia in trouble. That’s the last person she wants to get in trouble. Pia turns Esther’s face towards her own. She looks pretty, even through the worry.
- If I see someone hurt a person I care about, she asks, am I allowed to shoot them?
- Depends.
- On what?
- You can’t shoot your friend’s ex if you found out he cheated on her. Firstly, it’s not a crime, even though it’s morally wrong. Secondly, shooting the ex won’t prevent more harm being done to your friend.
- And if someone puts a knife to my colleague?
Esther looks at Pia. She knows the answer. But what does Pia mean by that? ”A person I care about”. ”A knife to my colleague”.
- You care about me?
- Yes, Esther, I care about you.
She smiles. She’s tired. Really tired.
- Is it okay if I take a nap? she asks.
- No! Pia and Leo respond in unison.
- Not even a little one?
- We’re almost there, Pia tells her. Just stay awake a little longer.
She looks at Pia. At the eyes staring back into hers. At the lips she’d like to kiss. Maybe she should take the opportunity. Just in case she never gets one again. In the background she hears Leo on the phone again.
- … Dropping consciousness. ETA two minutes.
- We’re so close, Pia whispers. You’re doing so well, Esther.
- Am I bleeding a lot?
- No, you’re alright. You’ll be fine.
- Pia, are you lying?
- Yes. But you’ll still be fine. You have to be, okay?
Esther nods. Her vision is getting a little blurry. She tries to focus on Pia’s face. You’re pretty, she says. No, she didn’t. She blinks slowly while she tries again.
- Please stay awake, Esther!
The car stops. She sees people outside the car. She doesn’t recognize them. Maybe she would if she could see them properly. Pia unclasps her seatbelt and pushes it around her. Leo opens the door and lifts her out of the car. He places her down on a stretcher and then she sees the ceiling move above her before she closes her eyes.
- Stay with us! she hears someone say.
- Her ID is usually in her inner pocket, Pia says. Esther, I’m just checking that your ID is there.
Her coat moves around. She feels cold. And tired.
- Pia, nap?
- No!
She can’t stop it any longer. She’s so tired.
- I’m sorry, she mumbles as she drifts off.
She wakes up with her mom by her side. Her dad is sitting on a chair next to the window, brow furrowed. It’s dark outside. She doesn’t know what time it is, other than late. Or possibly early. When her mom notices that she’s awake, she hugs her. Esther can’t help thinking about Pia. Wonderful, amazing Pia.
- My darling girl! You’re not allowed to scare us like that.
Her dad gets up and gives her hand a squeeze. She smiles weakly at them and looks for her phone in her pocket. Only, her pocket isn’t there. She’s wearing a hospital gown.
- Where’s my phone? she mumbles. I have to call Pia.
- No, her dad says, you don’t.
- Don’t tell me what I need.
- I’m assuming that’s her.
He points to the corner next to them all. She leans over the edge of the bed and sees Pia, curled up asleep against the wall. She’s still wearing the same blood stained clothes as in Leo’s car. Her hands are clean, so she must’ve washed them at some point, but her arms are striped with blood from having pushed her sleeves up. A trail of dried blood across her temple and over her ear reveals that she’s pushed her hair out of her face. Esther is so happy to see her. Pia is not only her colleague, but also one of her closest friends and she probably just saved her life. And if that wasn’t enough, she’s the prettiest woman Esther has ever met. Esther needs to know what Pia meant when she said she cares about her. She tries to pull the blanket to the side. Her arm hurts too much to move. Right. Her arm. Only now does she notice the IV port and the bag connected to it. The clean bandage, rather than the ones she bled through on the way here. At least it hurts. That’s probably good.
- I’ll do it, her dad says and crouches down next to Pia.
He gives her a gentle shake and she jolts awake. Her confused expression disappears when he points up at the bed. She throws herself off the floor and wraps her arms around Esther.
- Don’t do that again, she whispers. Don’t ever do that again.
- Thanks for saving me, Esther replies and puts her uninjured arm around Pia.
The hug lingers. She doesn’t bother stopping it. Eventually, Pia seems to realize and quickly pulls away.
- Sorry, she mumbles at the floor.
- It’s okay, Esther assures her.
No one says anything for a couple of seconds. Then her dad grabs her mom’s arm and starts moving towards the door.
- We’ll go get something from the vending machine, he tells her. I’m starving. Come on, let’s go.
Her mom reluctantly follows him out. Thank god he can read a room.
- Pia, she begins, in the car, when you were keeping me awake…
- Yeah.
Pia looks nervous. She’s fidgeting with the zipper of her jacket and slowly backing away from the bed. Esther tries to reach for her, but she’s too late and Pia is too far away already. She looks at the dried blood soaked into the lower half of Pia’s jeans.
- You said you care about me.
- I was hoping you might forget about that.
- Why would you hope that? What did you mean by it?
Pia sighs and turns to the window. Esther waits for a response.
- I meant I care about you, Pia says finally. We’re more than colleagues, right? We’re friends, Esther, right?
- Of course we are. You might even be my best friend.
Pia’s breaths get shakier. Esther wishes she could comfort her.
- What if I cared about you… even more than that?
- Can you please come closer?
- I can’t look at you.
- When you say ”more”, you don’t mean best best friend, right?
Pia spins around, tears running down her cheeks.
- No, I like you, okay? In a romantic way. You don’t have to rub it in. But I still want to be your friend, if you want me to. I can keep my distance, Esther.
- Please don’t. Don’t keep your distance.
- I can handle it. I’ve liked friends before.
- Pia, have I ever told you how pretty I think you are?
- You think I’m pretty? Pia sniffles.
- I think you’re so pretty. The prettiest. I think about kissing you way more than a colleague should. Or a friend.
Esther reaches her hand out again. This time Pia takes it. She pulls her closer to the bed and holds onto her.
- I think you’re great, she continues. You’re my favorite person. I really don’t want you to keep your distance. I want the opposite.
Pia leans in and kisses her softly for a few seconds.
- Thanks for not dying.
- Thanks for not letting me.