Rhia's eyes flew open as a rough hand jerked her awake. She pulled out her earplugs and looked blearily up at her partner. Ian's unnaturally pale brown eyes glinted with amusement as he laughed. "We're here." He said as their driver reported something into the radio from up front. "Time to go to work."

She followed him out the back of the ambulance, instantly awake. The ability to fall asleep anywhere and wake up just as fast had come in handy over the years. Every shift, whether it was during the day or the middle of the night, was filled with long periods of inactivity, multiple calls for non-emergency incidents, dull-as-shit paperwork, and very occasional moments of sheer terror, intense action, and adrenalin highs. She wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Outside, two men in police uniforms were stepping out of a patrol car. The older man smiled the moment he saw Rhia. "Hey, kid!" her brother called. "I was wondering if we were going to see you tonight."

Rhia laughed and met his brief hug. His K-9 partner, Nova, was wagging her tail madly in the back seat. "I'm not a kid anymore, Maddy," she teased him with the nickname he hated before nodding to the second cop. "Who's he?"

"This is Edward Brown." Maddox turned to the younger man and clapped him on the shoulder. "Eddy, this is my baby sister, Rhia, and her partner Ian."

They shook hands. "It's nice to meet you." He beamed. "The sergeant talks about you all the time."

"Nothing embarrassing, I hope."

"Oh no, of course not." He glanced between the siblings, concern flickering in his eyes. "Sorry, I didn't realize E.M.S. was called too."

"I called them." Maddox told him. "I find its better to have medical professionals on scene for a mental health wellness check."

"I don't understand."

He sighed and tightened his grip on Eddy's shoulder. "Look, Eddy," he said patiently, like he was sick of having to explain it. "This is very much a personal preference thing, not a standard. They're here because they're trained to handle both physical and psychological health emergencies. We are trained to handle criminals. Mental illness is not a crime. So, in these cases, I refer to them and back them up. Understand?"

Eddy nodded reluctantly as the sergeant looked back to Rhia and Ian. "What do you know about the patient?" Rhia asked, tossing her bag onto the gurney and guiding it onto the sidewalk.

"Her name is Sigrid Landgren." Maddox followed the paramedics up the path leading to the front door. "Three-hundred-year-old dwarven female. She's bipolar and, according to her daughter, has a history of violent paranoia when she goes manic. The daughter lives out of state and hasn't been able to get a hold of her for the last few days. She's worried her mother has gone off her medications again. She should be landing at L.A.X. in a few hours."

"Alright, Ian you take point. You two should hang back."

"You sure?" Eddy raised an eyebrow. "Don't you want us there if she gets violent."

"She's far more likely to get violent if she sees you." Ian said with absolutely no attempt in hiding his irritation with the younger man.

"But we're the police."

"Exactly." Ian reached out and knocked hard and loud on the door. "Matron Landgren," he called out. "Emergency Medical Services. Are you there?" They waited but heard nothing. Ian knocked again. "Matron Landgren, we are coming in."

He tried the doorknob tentatively and pushed the door open. Rhia stood back as her partner stepped inside first. "Why is he calling her matron?" Eddy hissed not quietly enough.

"It's a sign of respect and custom." Rhia whispered. "Dwarven females older than two-fifty are given the title of Matron. If we want her cooperation, we earn her respect. It's the first lesson you learn when dealing with Ancients; never disrespect a dwarf. Their memories live longer than they do."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Shut him up please." Ian called gently from the house.

Eddy looked like he was going to speak again, but Maddox gave him a hard look and he stopped. Rhia reached out to touch his arm. "Is he going to be a problem?" she asked, jerking her head to Eddy.

"He's good." he said seriously. There wasn't a trace of hesitation in his voice or doubt in his eyes. Rhia nodded and followed Ian into the house.

The front door led into the small kitchen and living room of the house. She noticed the stench first and the rats second after her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Filth was strewn across the floor and the rodents darted in and out of the open fridge and cupboards. Leaving the gurney, Ian stepped up to the door with a faint flickering light. Rhia followed until he held out a hand to stop her. "Oh my god," Eddy gagged. "What is that-"

Maddox silenced him with a slashing motion across his throat. "Mouth shut, eyes open, Rookie." He growled.

Ian knocked gently. "Matron Landgren," he called softly. "Are you there?"

"Out! Out!" came a ragged manic voice from behind the door. "Get out! You're not welcome here, you half-lived rabbit spawn!"

Rhia raised her eyebrow at Ian and mouthed; "Rabbit spawn?"

Ian shrugged, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Humans do breed awfully fast." He chuckled quietly before calling out to the woman again. "Matron Landgren. I'm going to open the door now."

An unearthly screech followed as he pushed the door open. "NO! NO! I will not be taken! You will not take me!"

Ian propped the door open with his foot but didn't move inside. He held out his hands, palms up as if offering her some invisible prize. "Greetings, matron. I come peacefully." he said humbly, lowering himself to one knee. "Lest Odin turn his eternal gaze from my favour."

The woman was quiet for a moment. "You know the old ways, halfie?" she hissed suspiciously. She was lucid enough to recognize his half-blood status.

Ian smiled. "I do."

Rhia could feel his magic beginning to seep into the house. As only half fae, he didn't have access to the subtlety or control of his brethren when using magic. Most of the time he didn't bother using it on other Ancients as they would recognize it immediately and counter, but the woman inside the room was in such a state that she probably didn't notice.

Rhia glanced over her shoulder at her brother and Eddy. Maddox gave her a single nod. "They're coming for us, halfie." She lowered her voice to a dramatic whisper, not actually speaking any lower than before. "They come for us all. No one is safe. Here is safe. They can't get us here."

"Do you think my friend and I can come in?" Ian asked innocently. "We can all be safe together."

"Friend?!" She sounded panicked. "What friend?"

Ian gestured for Rhia to step forward and she did slowly, kneeling next to him and holding out her hands the way he had. "Greetings, Matron." She said demurely, submitting herself to the older woman.

Sigrid Landgren crouched behind a barricade of beaten up furniture. At her full height, Rhia guessed she was about four-foot-two and looked to be barely sixty pounds. Given that dwarves had significantly denser bones than humans, she was probably closer to ninety pounds. A heathy weight for an average dwarf was anywhere between a hundred-twenty to a hundred-fifty pounds, so she was significantly underweight. Her long, sandy blonde hair still bore the remains of a thick braid but was now tangled and pulled out in wispy strands, and her deep brown eyes were wide and fixed on the two in front of her.

She flinched when those eyes landed on Rhia. "Cursed fire head." She muttered. "Not welcome. She will draw them here. Halfie only."

Ian gave her an apologetic look and she shrugged a single shoulder. She wasn't screaming anymore, which meant they were making progress. She backed up so she could still see into the room but was very obviously away from the door. She motioned for Maddox and Eddy to inch closer and stay out of sight as Ian stepped slowly into the room, straightening up. "Your daughter called us, Matron." He continued gently. "She's worried about you."

"Daughter? No daughter. They took her. They won't take us. Halfie is safe here with me."

Ian took another slow step forward.

"What is that?" Eddy suddenly burst out. Maddox rounded on him and Rhia gave him a frantic make-him-shut-up look. It was too late. "Oh fuck, she's using magic!" his voice cracked, and he reached for his weapon.

The calming effect of Ian's magic failed the moment Sigrid heard his voice. "They come! They come!" she shrieked. "You brought them here! Never trust a halfie!"

The distressed woman reached for something behind the barricade, and Ian shouted a warning. Maddox moved faster than should have been possible for a human. In a second, he'd cleared the entranceway, grabbed Ian by the back of his shirt, and shoved him out of the way. By then, Sigrid had pulled a large gun with a cone-shaped barrel. She pointed it towards the door and fired. With a metallic bang that rattled Rhia's head, there was an explosion of wood and metal as a dozen projectiles erupted from the weapon. Maddox fell straight back, a gasp barely escaping his lips.

Years of training sent Rhia into movement while her mind was will attempting to comprehend what just happened. She ripped open his shirt, scanned and identified the worst of his injuries, one large wound right over his heart and one in his upper left abdomen, and was applying pressure before she realized that the world was still moving.

Sigrid was screaming incoherently, gesturing wildly with the smoking gun. Ian was struggling to untangle himself from under Maddox's body without causing more harm. Eddy leapt into the room. "L.A.P.D.!" he screamed, aiming the gun wildly over the dwarf's head. "Drop your weapon!"

Sigrid let out a shrieking battle cry and ran around the barricade to charge the officer. Between his inexperience and underestimating of how short his opponent was, his shot didn't come anywhere near her. The woman struck Eddy hard in the hip with the barrel of the gun. The human male screamed in pain and crumpled to the ground. His gun flew across the room in a clatter. The next second, Sigrid had jumped on top of him and slammed the butt of the heavy gun into his face. An ugly crack resonated across the room and he went limp. She raised the gun to strike again.

Ian threw out his hand, shouted an ancient word in an ancient language and power reverberated around the room. Glowing silver chains appeared out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around the dwarf, unbalancing her, and toppling her to the ground.

"Lisa," Ian shouted to their driver over the radio. "Need you now!"

Two seconds later and the third E.M.T. appeared in the doorway. "Stay with me, Maddy," Rhia was shouting, grabbing fresh gauze and pressing it into the hole in his chest. "Come on, open your eyes."

His lids fluttered open, his green eyes unfocussed. "There you are," Ian tried to sound encouraging, but he couldn't hide the panic in his own voice as he ripped open bandages to plug the smaller wounds. "Keep those peepers open for us, okay?"

Maddox managed a single nod but a second later they slid closed. Rhia felt the emotion welling up in her throat and her face felt wet. Ian was shouting over Sigrid's wailing. Lisa had stabilized Edward's neck in a collar and was pulling the backboard off the gurney. Under her hands she could feel his lung struggling to expand from the air building up around it. "Bag!" she shouted, suddenly finding her voice. Lisa was already pulling out an A.M.B.U. bag and fitting the facemask against his mouth and nose. "Hold this!"

Lisa pressed hard against the soaked gauze against the gaping hole in Maddox's chest while squeezing the bag gently in time to her own breathing. Ian was hunting for a vein in his arm to give fluids and keep his blood pressure up. Rhia grabbed a catheter and disinfectant swabs. She scrubbed at his skin, probed at his ribs to find the right spot, and slid the needle into his chest with careful strength. The moment she removed the needle from the catheter, the sound of rushing air met her ears and Maddox took a sudden inhale.

"Let's get him on the bus." Lisa said, putting the bag down to grab his shoulders. Ian stood up, holding the I.V. bag over his head, and Rhia grabbed his ankles. "One, two, three!"

In one swift movement, they slid him onto the board and lifted him onto the gurney. Outside they were greeted by the sight of a second ambulance, a fire engine, and two more cop cars. "Go with the fresh driver." Ian said, placing the fluid bag on Maddox's pelvis. "I have to stay here, or spell will fade."

Lisa nodded while Rhia shouted at one of the approaching officers. "This is Sergeant Maddox Kincaid with the L.A.P.D. K-9 unit. He is in critical condition. We need an escort to L.A.C. immediately!"

The police didn't argue. They turned on their heels and raced back to their cruiser as the paramedics loaded into the ambulance. The doors slammed shut and the driver pulled quickly and smoothly into a blinding pace. Sirens blared outside.

Lisa placed a running oxygen mask over his face and Rhia hung the fluid bag along with a second ready to be changed over if needed. "Abdomen is distended and rigid." Lisa said shortly. She lifted one of the bandages and immediately pressed down again as dark blood gushed out. "Fuck, what happened? This was supposed to be a simple check in."

"Goddamn rookie couldn't keep his mouth shut." Rhia hissed. "The patient was fine, we were calming her down. Didn't know she had a god damned blunderbuss with her."

"Rhia..." Maddox gasped through the mask.

"Hey, Maddy," Rhia moved her face over his so he could see her. "Welcome back. We'll be at the hospital soon, okay? You're going to be just fine. Just stay with me, okay?"

"Rhia," he groaned again. "No... va..."

"Nova's fine. One of the other officers will take care of her."

He shook his head and reached for her hand, gripping it tightly. "Nova..."

His eyes rolled back in his head and the heart monitor started screaming in alarms. Rhia swore, stood up, and started hard chest compressions, pressing her whole weight into his chest and trying to ignore the feel and sound of his ribs cracking. Lisa pulled open the A.E.D. unit, slapped the patches on his chest and side, and switched on the unit. Rhia lifted her hands, giving the machine a chance to analyze the obvious and blare out a stand clear message.

Unlike the dramatic jerking and flailing that T.V. directors loved to show in medical dramas, the only sign that it had worked was the machine beeping loudly, a slight shrug in Maddox's shoulders, and a half second later the machine announcing to apply chest compressions. Lisa rapped on the partition between them and the drive. "What's our E.T.A.?" she shouted.

"Five minutes."

"Move faster!"

Sweat dripped down Rhia's face and neck. The muscles in her arms were already screaming in protest. Morbid seventy's disco music started to play in the fucked-up part of her head. The harder she tried to push it out, the louder the music got until the sounds of "ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive" were blocking out the sounds of the external defibrillator repeatedly reminding her to apply chest compressions.

Two minutes later, she stood back for the machine to assess and apply a second shock. "Vital signs stabilized."

She let out a breath. "That's right, asshole," she snapped at her brother. "Don't you fucking dare die on me."

The doors were pulled open, revealing the emergency room staff ready and waiting for them. "What have we got?" asked one of the doctors.

"Thirty-two-year-old human male, multiple projectile injuries to the chest and abdomen." She said quickly, following the gurney out. "We just had to shock him to get him back to normal sinus rhythm. Blood type B-negative. He has an allergy to penicillin. Otherwise, he's in good health overall."

"You know him?" someone asked.

"He's my brother. Maddox Kincaid, he's with the L.A.P.D. There are two more busses behind us, but not as bad. One human male, unconscious at the scene, one dwarven female in a manic state."

They pulled the gurney up to a bed and transferred him in one smooth motion. "Get hematology on the phone." The same calm male that met them at the bay called out. "Tell them to meet us in O.R. two with as much B-neg and O-neg as they can. Let's move, people."

There was a loud clunk as the breaks were disengaged and the staff started pushing him down the hall. Rhia went to follow but a male nurse stepped in front of her. "You can't go with him." he said gently. "I'll take you to our waiting room."

The dam holding back her emotions and panic burst. Raw emotion erupted from her and she started to cry hysterically. The nurse gently guided her through a door to a quieter area and sat her in a chair. "Easy," he soothed, rubbing her shoulder. "Deep breaths. There you go."

Rhia forced herself to inhale deeply a few times. "Thank you." She sniffed.

"Of course." He smiled.

"Rhia," she held out her hand before realizing she was still wearing the bloodied surgical gloves and pulled back. "Fuck, sorry. Is there somewhere I can clean up?"

~