Chapter 42

Kim held her in her arms as they walked. When they got to the classroom, the teacher looked up.

"Everyone, this is Mrs. Ruzek, Brayden and Hannah's mom. Can we all say hi?"

The whole class waved and said hello to her.

"She's here to tell you what it's like to be a detective." Ms. Webber smiled and then sat down at her desk, letting Kim takeover.

"Do you have your gun?" A little boy asked.

"Yes I do. It's on safety so it won't go off."

"Can we see it?" He asked.

The whole class chimed up, all excited.

"Sure." She smiled, removing her coat and exposing her belt.

"Wow! Do you have handcuffs too?" Another kid asked.

"I do." She said, pulling the handcuffs off her belt.

"Wow!" All the kids had looks of amazement on their faces.

"Auntie Kim, could you show us how you arrest someone?" MacKenzie asked, tossing an evil smile in Adam's direction.

"Would you guys like to see how I do that?" She asked.

"Yeah!" They all said.

She motioned for Adam to come to the front of the classroom.

"I don't think so." He nervously laughed and backed up.

"Go on Adam." Matt nudged him forward.

"Nope."

"You had to do this same thing when you were in the academy."

"That's different, it wasn't my wife pretending to arrest me." He whispered.

"Stop being a baby." Matt dragged him to the front of the classroom. Kim glared at him.

"Introduce yourself, stupid." She whispered.

"Hey kids, I'm uh, Mr. Ruzek. Brayden and Hannah's dad."

"Mommy's gonna arrest daddy." Brayden giggled. Hannah just sat there with a big grin on her face.

"Not in front of the kids."

"It'll be funny. Please."

"Okay fine."

She placed the cuffs on him and read him the Miranda rights, then she made him sit in a chair like it was the backseat of a patrol car. The kids all started laughing like it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. After her presentation, she handed the kids each little gift bags with pencils, pens, erasers, and a little note pad with the Chicago Police Department logo.

"These are so cool! Thank you Mrs. Ruzek!" Everyone said as they emptied their bags out on their desks.

Brayden was talking with his friends while Hannah ran over to her mother.

"Mommy, stay here." She hugged her and laid her head on her shoulder.

"Mommy has to get back to work."

"But why?"

"Don't you want the bad guys to stay away?"

"Well yeah."

"Mommy has to go to work so she can keep them away."

"I miss you when I can't be with you."

"I know and I miss you too."

"If you don't go, you don't have to miss me."

She laughed. "You're funny. Mommy still has to go though."

Hannah hung her head down and started pouting. Kim rubbed her back.

"Don't worry, baby girl. When mommy and daddy get out of work later, how about we go out for dinner?"

Hannah didn't answer her, she just kept pouting. Brayden invited her over to color with him and his friends so their parents could sneak out. Kim put the keys in the ignition, but didn't turn them.

"You okay?"

"I just have a bad feeling about something."

"What is it?"

"When we were down the cafeteria with them for lunch. I could hear a noise that lead to the bathrooms down the hall. It didn't sound too good."

"You wanna go check it out?"

"I told the janitor about it, he said he would check it out."

"Oh, well good."

They pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to the district. Hannah went out to her locker across the hallway from her classroom. She opened it to fish in her backpack for her new box of crayons. As she went to go back into the classroom, an explosion occurred and she was flung back against the lockers. The fire alarms started going off, but the janitor stopped them and called for the fire department. The door to the office was dented and ripped off the hinges from the explosion, so he threw it out of the way.

"Hello?! Call out!" He yelled. He could hear the voice of the secretary, and the other people who had been in the office. The secretary had a head injury, but managed to pull herself off the floor and dial 911.

When they got back to the district, everyone was rushing out and Hank was behind them.

"Sarge, what's going on?" Adam asked, getting out of the car.

"Bomb went off at Central Chicago Elementary."

"WHAT?" Kim yelled.

"A bomb went off at the elementary school and if there's one, it's likely there's more than one, so we need to get down there."

"I was just there..." Kim ran in to grab her back up radio because her regular one was on the fritz. Sergeant Platt was putting her coat on and prepping her gun.

"You don't have to do this."

"No, I want to. Your kids are the closest thing I have to grandchildren. I love them, no way is anyone going to keep me from this."

"T-thanks..." Kim bit her lip to prevent from crying.

"You okay?"

"Not really."

"Come here." Trudy outstretched her arms and pulled Kim into a hug. "Don't worry, we'll find the animal who did this."

"I need you to come take care of this."Commander Fischer said, coming over to the desk.

"I have more important things to do than that right now."

"Like what?" He demanded.

"How about the fact that a bomb just went off at the elementary school?" She barked and then stormed out the door with Kim.

He was shocked by the tone in which she replied, but he backed off and didn't say another word. Everyone took off to the school. The front entrance was destroyed. Inside, wires were hanging from the ceiling, cement blocks all broken up, dust filling the hallway and lots of pained screams and groans. Kelly helped them move cement blocks out of the way to make a walking path. Antonio spotted something laying by the lockers. It was a little girl who had been knocked out. Her head and face were covered in blood. There was no sign any limbs had been propelled off from the blast, but one of her arms was pinned under a cement block. He moved closer.

"What do you got, Antonio?" Hank asked.

"It's Hannah..."