Avery's Desire Pt. 22

"You've ruined my life." Mikey glared at him as he came closer. "You and your stupid friends. I was going to win that competition and use the money to get the fuck out of this town. Now I have no money, no band, and no way out. You think I want to spend the rest of my life in prison you fucking little coward!"

"Just stop where you are." Rick suddenly stepped in front of Avery, shielding him. "You know you're not to be within five hundred feet of us. We can't prove what you did at the concert but there are three of us now. We got you. You're going back to jail and you WILL spend the rest of your life in prison. After what you did to Avery you deserve that and more."

"What I deserve?" Mikey scoffed. "Haven't you done enough to me already?"

"Dude you're out of your mind." Rick starred at him. Almost unable to believe that they were even having this conversation. Was Mikey really that stupid or had he finally lost what ever bit of his sanity that he had left?

"Go on up stairs." Boomer pulled out his cell phone and started dialing a number. "I'll call Hanson and have him take care of this."

"Its your word against mine." Mikey grinned, thinking he had the upper hand.

"That's what you think." Avery held up his phone and Mikey saw the red light flashing indicating that he was recording, a trick he'd done before.

The smile immediately left Mikey's face. "Shut that fucking thing off!" He yelled at Avery. "Shut it off right now or I'll smash it!"

"Go to hell!" Avery yelled back. "You're on private property and you have no business being here. You better get out of here before the cops show up and haul your ass away."

Boomer was already on the phone with Hanson, explaining everything that was happening. Again he instructed Avery and Rick, "Go up stairs and get inside your apartment, now!"

"Don't go anywhere." Mikey took a step closer. "If Avery moves an inch you're all dead." He reached behind, pulled out a revolver, and pointed it at Rick. Avery gasped and tried to push Rick aside but Rick put his arm out, blocking Avery from moving.

Mikey's demeanor was serious, desperate, and very disturbing. He wasn't playing games. He held the gun directly in front of him, his hand shaking as tears filled his eyes.

Boomer hung up and carefully slipped his phone back into his pocket. "I wouldn't be making any rash decisions son." Boomer told him. "Avery has you on camera and the cops are on their way, they'll be here any minute. They see you with that thing and you're as good as dead."

"Let them come." Mikey said. "I never planed to leave here alive anyway. I have nothing left to live for. You've you taken everything from me. My friends, my band, my money. You've destroyed my career and now I'm facing prison because of you. You've ruined everything. All I have left is my revenge. That's why I'm here. I'm going to take everything you love. I want you to watch as the man you claim to love dies in your arms. After Rick's dead, you're next and then I'm going to kill myself." He looked over at Boomer. "I got no beef with you though old man. I'll let you walk away if you leave now, if not, you're dead too."

"I don't take kindly to people threatening me or my boys." Boomer narrowed his eyes as he watched Mikey carefully.

"Then it's your funeral." Mikey told him.

"Mikey just think about what your doing." Rick tried to reason with him. "Do you really want to die? I don't and I know Avery doesn't. Is it really worth it? Right now your facing what? two to five years? You commit murder and you could get life in prison, if the cops don't kill you first."

"Don't you get it?" Mikey growled, waving the gun back and forth in front of Rick's face. "I want to die. That's what I planned all along. I don't want to spend even one day in prison. There's no way in hell that I'll be able to handle it. I'm just not that strong. My death is the only way out of this now."

"No it's not." Avery spoke up suddenly. "Mikey, let Rick and Boomer go and I'll do what ever you want. I'll drop the charges, I'll say I made a mistake that it wasn't you who attacked me. Just let them go."

"Shut up Avery." Rick narrowed his eyes. "You're not letting him get away with what he did to you."

"Rick please." Avery felt hot tears slip down his cheeks. He was scared, but not for himself. If anything happened to Rick then Avery didn't honestly care what happened to him. He didn't want to live without Rick, he couldn't.

"No." Rick said. "Besides, he's not going to shoot anyone. He's too much of a coward for that."

"Don't push me." Mikey hissed. "I will shoot you and then I'll shoot your little bitch."

Boomer was listening to the exchange between the three of them. In the back ground he could already hear sirens approaching. That scared him. He knew that Mikey wasn't bullshitting anyone. He could see it in his eyes. As soon as the police arrived, Mikey would start shooting and anyone who got in his way would fall victim to his madness. Boomer had a decision to make. He reached around behind him and gingerly touched the grip of his revolver with the tips of his fingers.

Mikey was getting nervous, more desperate. His eyes were darting around the lot and then down the darkened ends of the street. He heard the sirens too. Avery was still pleading with him to put the gun down.

"Even if I believed you..." Mikey said to him. "Do you really think Rick is going to let you drop the charges? You think he'd let me go, just like that? I'm as good as dead already. Nothing can change that now, but at least I can take your sorry ass with me."

"Think about it long and hard son." Boomer suddenly pushed Rick and Avery to the side as he pulled his revolver out and aimed it at Mikey's face. "There are three of us and one of you. Even if you get the first shot off I'll still take you out. I'm a damn good shot too. How many times have you fired that weapon, any weapon? Do you think you can take me down before I fire cause I doubt you can. I'll blow your face off before you even pull the trigger."

Two police cars pulled into the lot. Boomer held his ground. Mikey looked from him to the cops. He was trying to decide what to do. Either way he knew he was fucked. He started to lower his gun as the police approached, but then he looked down at Avery who had fallen to the ground when Boomer pushed him. In that instant Mikey knew one thing. If he was going down, he was taking Avery with him. He aimed the gun at him and Avery closed his eyes.

"No!" Avery heard Rick's voice yell. He felt Rick's arms around him, his body covering him, then he heard the shot. It all happened so fast. The sound of the gun fire was deafening. Avery's ears were ringing. He could hear the faint thud of people running then there was yelling. Arms surrounded him, pulling him to his feet, but he didn't know what was going on. He didn't feel any pain. Had Mikey missed or had he..."Oh God." Avery thought. "Oh my God no..." Had Rick been hit? Avery would die if Rick had been shot. He knew he couldn't live without him.

Avery opened his eyes and he saw Rick standing there, holding him. He was okay. Thank God, he was okay. Avery looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. That's when he saw him, Mikey was laying on the ground, curled up on his side, a pool of blood forming beneath him. Boomer was standing off to the side, his arms in the air. He'd thrown his gun a few feet away and the police were running towards them.

"We need a squad." One of the uniforms yelled. He ran over to Mikey and kicked his gun to the side as he knelt beside him. "Someone get me a towel!"

"I'm not armed."Boomer told them. "I threw my weapon down, I'm not armed."

The officer who appeared to be in charge motioned for Boomer to lower his hands. "You want to tell me what the hell happened here?" The officer asked.

"It was self defense." Rick blurted out. "Boomer was protecting us. He brought us home and Mikey came up and pulled a gun on us. He was going to kill Avery."

The cop looked at Avery. "You're Avery?" He asked.

Avery nodded. "Yes Sir."

"I called detective Omar Hanson." Boomer told him. "He said he was on his way. He can explain everything to you. Avery has a restraining order against that piece of shit." He pointed to Mikey who was groaning and clutching his shoulder.

"Alright, you three sit down on the steps there until we get this sorted out." He spoke into his radio to report what had happened. The radio came back that detective Hanson was on route and should be arriving shortly. Boomer, Avery, and Rick all sat down as they were instructed. The reality of what had happened suddenly hit Avery and he began sobbing uncontrollably. Rick held him close and tried to calm him down.

The officer with Mikey was handed a towel that he quickly held over the wound, being careful not to move him much. The officer in charge pulled out a note pad and a pen and told Boomer to start from the beginning and explain to him exactly what happened. An ambulance arrived moments later and detective Hanson pulled in right after.

Hanson walked over and looked directly at Rick. "What did you do?"

"Wasn't me." Rick pointed at Boomer.

Hanson raised an eye brow. "You?"

"That's right." Boomer said. "And when this is all over I want my fuckin' gun back!"

"Yeah, we'll talk about that." Hanson said. "Is it registered?"

"Hell yes it's registered!" Boomer grumbled. "I ain't no damn fool!"

Hanson sighed and rolled his eyes. "Why is it when ever there's trouble I find one if not all of you at the scene."

Rick shrugged. "Just lucky I guess."

"Yeah, you're lucky." Hanson said. "Damn lucky."

"Sir?" A uniformed officer approached Hanson. "What do you want us to do with these three?"

Hanson looked the three of them over. "Did anyone besides them and the vic see what happened?"

"We arrived on the scene right when the shooting took place but we didn't see what happened before, leading up to it, however we did take Mr. Rhoads statement."

"Detective?" Avery wiped the tears from his eyes as he looked up at Hanson.

"What is it Avery?" Hanson asked him.

"Well, Sir, if it would help, I have everything on camera." He held his phone out to him and Hanson stared at it, wide eyed.

"You recorded everything?"

Avery nodded." Yes Sir. I dropped my phone when I fell over but it was still filming. I just checked it. The end is mostly audio but up until then you can pretty much see how the entire thing went down."

Hanson took the phone and pressed play. He watched from the moment that Avery turned the video on until the moment he picked the fallen phone up and shut it off. He watched as Mikey threatened to kill all three of them. He watched as they tried to bargain with him. He watched as Boomer warned Mikey to lower his gun and he watched as Mikey suddenly turned the gun on Avery. That was when Boomer had fired. He had started to lower his own gun, according to Boomer and Rick, but when he saw Mikey aim at Avery Boomer took a shot and hit him in the shoulder.

"We'll have to keep your phone for evidence." Hanson said.

"Keep it." Avery told him. "I can get another one."

Hanson nodded. "Looks like a clear case of self defense to me." He told the other officer. "Get the other two's statements then cut them loose."

He looked at Avery and Rick. "Do either of you need medical treatment?" He asked.

"I'm fine." Rick said. "What about you Ave?"

Avery shook his head. "I just want to go home."

"Alright." Hanson turned back to the other officer. "What's the word on Doogan?" He asked.

"Medic says he lost a lot of blood before we managed to get to him. There's no exit wound so the bullets still in there. They'll know more when they get him to the hospital."

Hanson shook his head. "Stupid kid." He thought. "I wanted to get him off the streets, but not like this."

"He going to be okay?" Avery asked. He was genuinely concerned. Avery hated the guy but he wouldn't wish death on anyone. That's just not who he was. He felt a little bad for Mikey. He must have really been in a bad place to go off the deep end the way he did. to feel like death was your only way out. Avery had been there before himself and he knew how hard it was to pull yourself up when you've sunk that low. Thankfully he had friends and family that helped him to find his way out of the darkness. Mikey didn't have anyone though.

"We'll have to wait and see." Hanson told him. "But you shouldn't worry about it. None of you are going to be in shit for this. It's obvious what happened here. Mikey already has enough charges pending against him and now we have menacing and three more counts of attempted murder to pin on him. If he does pull through, he's going to go away for a very long time."

"I feel kind of guilty." Avery said, looking down at the pavement. "Like I caused all of this. I put my friends in danger and nearly cost someone his life."

"Don't feel guilty." Hanson told him. "None of this is your fault. Mikey chose his own path. You didn't tell him to come here and you didn't tell him to hold a gun on you. He's not well mentally but maybe we can get him the help he needs."

"I just want him gone." Rick sighed.

"Oh he will be." Hanson assured him. "The two of you have nothing to worry about now. This was his third strike."

Avery nodded slowly. He was exhausted mentally and physically. "Can we go now, please?"

"After we get your statements your free to go. If I have any follow up questions I'll be in touch."

They all thanked Hanson and Avery and Rick gave their statement of the event. With the video though, the case was pretty much closed. By three-thirty in the morning everything had been wrapped up. Boomer headed home and Rick and Avery headed upstairs to their apartment. Mikey had been taken to the hospital long before and most of the cops had left the scene. Hanson was the last to go. He waited till Rick and Avery were safely in their apartment before he left.

The threat was gone now, but Hanson didn't feel like being drug out of bed again so just as a precaution he wanted to make sure that everything was fine. Avery was a little shaken up but he'd been through worse and besides that he had Rick with him. They both seemed like they were ready to crash and Hanson didn't blame them. It had been one hell of a day and he figured they were running on fumes by now.

He sat in his car and smoked one of the God awful cigars that his wife hated. They were strong, but they were cheap. Smoking them was the only way that he could support his habit. It was a nasty habit, that he knew, and he did want to stop. It's just every time he thought quitting, a new and more stressful case was dropped into his lap. Maybe now that Mikey was safely off the streets and he didn't need to worry about Avery, Hanson could concentrate on quitting.

He watched as the lights in Avery's apartment went out. The blinds were pulled shut and there was now no sign of life in that small unit. Some of the other tenants were up now, woken by the commotion outside but Hanson wasn't concerned with them. They would eventually lose interest and return to what ever it was they were doing before. Sleep most likely, or getting ready for work. What ever the case, the two he had to worry about were probably tucked neatly in bed by now and ready to drift off into oblivion.

Hanson was dead tired too. He would stop by the hospital later that day to see how his prisoner was. For now, he was going to go home and crawl back into his bed beside his wife where he could wrap his arms around her, hold her tightly against him, and be thankful that his family was safe and happy. He never really stopped being a cop, but when he went home he tried to be a husband first. That's what Alice needed. It's what she had missed out on for so many years.

"Yeah..." Hanson thought as he pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the road. "Retirement is really starting to sound good."

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"Doc you gotta tell it to me straight. I ain't no collage graduate, hell I didn't even finish high school. Don't be throwing no fancy words around, just tell me what's wrong with my boy."

Mikey had been brought in early in the morning and the police had notified his parents of the shooting, still it took Chuck nearly two hours before he arrived at the hospital. He was belligerent and demanding to know what had happened.

"Well Mr. Doogan, to put it as simply as I can, Michael is in a coma. He was shot in the shoulder which severed the subclavian artery. He sustained severe blood loss.

The bullet didn't exit the body as we had hoped, so we had to surgically remove it along with bone fragments that had shattered.

Unfortunately, he suffered a stroke while in surgery and with the lack of oxygen to the brain he slipped into a coma. Also, the damage to his shoulder is severe enough that he'll probably sustain permanent paralysis in that arm, if he ever wakes up."

"So what are you sayin'? He ain't never gonna have use of his arm again?"

"I'm saying, Sir, that should your son ever wake up, no he will not have use of his arm."

"Well how long do these things last for?"

"The duration of the coma is very difficult to predict. It could last for days, weeks, months, or even years. There really is no way to tell. Unfortunately, the number of cases I've seen with this sort of damage, when the patient suffers hypoxia, which is restricted blood flow and oxygen to the brain, the prognosis is rarely good."

"So, you're sayin' he could be like this for years?"

"I'm afraid so sir, I'm really very sorry."

"Well how am I supposed to pay for that kind of care? I ain't got no insurgence and I sure as hell ain't got the money for a long term hospital stay."

"There are programs and services that can help you. I'll contact the social services department and have someone come in who will go over the patient care options with you. It may be necessary to transfer your son to a long term care facility. It all depends on how he responds to treatment and medications over the next few days. Again I'm very sorry. We'll do all we can here to make him comfortable but for now, we just have to wait and see what happens."

The doctor left the room and Chuck looked down at his son laying silent and still in the bed. "Well you sure stepped in it this time boy." He sat down next to him and ran his fingers through what little hair he had left. "Damn you for being so stupid. And damn those bastards that put you here. Damn them all to hell."

Chuck Doogan hung his head and sighed. Mikey showed no response, even when his father gently touched his hand. It was as if he wasn't there, just an empty shell of the man he used to be. "It's a shit world we live in." Chuck spoke softly, calmly. "But I suppose we reap what we sew." In a way he figured maybe it was all for the best. Laying in a hospital bed hooked up to machines and pissing in a bag was no kind of life but it was better than prison, wasn't it?

He knew that Mikey couldn't handle prison but he also knew that his son wouldn't want to live like this either. There was no talk of turning off the machines or even if he could survive without them. It was too early to tell but Chuck wondered, if it ever came to that, would he be willing to just end his sons life? That's what Mikey had wanted in the first place. Chuck didn't want to lose his son, but he also didn't want him to suffer. Anyway, it was a long way off and he figured there was no use in thinking about that just yet. Like the doctor had said, only time would tell. He just had to wait and see.

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Epilogue

Trash picked up the last box and carried it out to the truck. "I hope this is everything." He said as he walked out the door.