Feb 10, 2023 14:46:49 GMT
it wasn't to often anymore that he lit up the cigarettes he still kept in the back of his cars glove box, just there in case he needed them. tonight was one of those nights. he was sitting out on the back steps of the house he now called home while the people who lived there with him slept within it. where his family were safe, the kids he could call his own were deep within the safety of their own dreams and the man he loved, so much it hurt to think about at times, was hopefully sleeping without a care. that's what he hoped anyway, he could only hope for so much as he sat outside in the cold, the bitterness of it welcome on his bare arms as he blew the smoke into the darkness before him. the kitchen light that shone behind him lit up the garden just enough that he could see to where one of the kids had left a ball and beyond that there was nothing but dark, nothing but quiet and that's what he needed at that moment.
he'd gotten home just a few minutes before, walked through the house and dumped his stuff quietly at the back door, walked outside and sat down to light up. to decompress and to try and deal with the shit that had happened over the last ten hours of his life. the last call had been the killer, the one that had shattered whatever hope he'd had of ending the shift on a high note and he knew it would yield images he'd never be able to forget. there had been a sense of the unknown when they'd been driving to the call and while it was easy to say he prepared for the worst, he never really could. what they'd walked into had been more than he'd ever been able to imagine it could have been.
he had no idea how long he'd been sitting there, the open door of the kitchen behind him, when suddenly there was a large shadow approaching. he saw it but didn't have the presence of mind to turn, just took another drag of the cigarette as leo's giant of a dog came to sit himself down beside ranger on the steps. normally he'd have ruffled the dogs ears, greeted him a lot better than he could tonight but it didn't seem to matter to the giant fluffball. ranger heard him lay down with a soft thud and a sigh and then there was a heavy head resting on his lap. his mouth twitched just slightly in the corner as he brought his free hand down to rest on the dog's neck, working his fingers into his coat lightly as they sat their together in the cool of the night.
