The loud sound of shattering glass surrounded me, so I instinctively cradled my head in my hands and knelt to the floor. Pieces flew everywhere, thankfully none nicking me in the process.

After I had finally come to the realization that I wasn’t dead, I quickly opened my eyes only to be met with the blank stare of the robber. His mouth opened and closed as he desperately gasped for air and I just stood in shock. His knees then buckled beneath him and he crashed to the floor face first.

I panicked at first when I found my uniform splattered with blood, but realized it wasn’t mine when a pool of blood had formed around the dead robbers head. It wasn’t too long before a whole team of officers had filled the building to help the hostages and cuff the other robber.

“Officer, have you been shot?” A younger, male cop asked.

“No, I’m fine.” I replied still a little rattled by the situation.

I then stepped over the broken glass and made my way out of the blood bath of a bank. It was really dark outside and the amount of cop cars had increased tenfold since I was last outside. I turned back for a brief moment and watched as the paramedics carried several bodies out on stretchers.

‘That could have been me.’ I thought as a chilling shiver ran up my spine.

“ASHLEY!” Aiden raced over to me and scooped me up into his burly arms.

His warm embrace brought me a sense of security, so I let my guard down and relaxed.

“I thought I had lost you Ash.” Aiden said, his voice shaking. “You really gave me a scare back there.”

“Aiden Dennison, scared?” I teased my partner.

His big, green eyes bore into mine sternly and he continued frowning.

“I was just kiddin’ gaahhhd, lighten up. Plus your sensitive side is really unattractive.” I said then stuck my tongue out at him.

That got him to give me an eye roll, but I think I at least saw the faint hint of a smile.

“Davies, you did a great job in there.” The chief said as he approached me and Aiden.

I turned my back to Aiden, while remaining in his embrace to face the chief. The gray haired man placed his hand on my shoulder then looked at me with his aged, blue eyes.