He stared at me, wide eyes, waving the gun in all directions. I was all set to jump him when he dropped it.

It went off as it fell, firing upwards, hitting him in the shoulder. He gasped and went down.

I heard sirens even as I moved forward to put some pressure on the wound. I wasn’t sure why I cared about this guy not dying, except that, well, it would…

I did care about him not dying, in a kind of abstract way. Or rather, his kid brother had asked for my help, and whatever was going on between them, the kid didn’t want his brother to die.

So, I kept pressure on the wound until the ambulance pulled up.

“What the heck happened?”

“He’s high on something. Shot at his brother, shot in my general direction, only thing safe was whatever he was aiming at.”

The EMT actually laughed. “And then accidentally shot himself?”

“Yeah.” I realized how it looked. “I swear that’s what happened.”

“It is,” said a voice from nearby. Glad to have backup, I glanced round.

What was Father Will doing here? Not that I wasn’t glad to see him. I supposed the same thing I was – getting dinner. “You saw it?”

He nodded. “Was about to come over to help when he did that and you seemed to have it in hand.”

I was glad he hadn’t. It felt like flattery not to be helped. “I appreciate that.”

I was covered in blood. “But I need to get home and change.”

Kanesha had got the pizza boxed up, she came over. “I was about to help too.”

I grinned. “But you both knew I had it under control and would just grump at you if you did?”

“Yup.”

So, instead, she’d got our pizza boxed up. I wouldn’t have thought of it. “What did I do to deserve you?”

She responded by pressing a kiss against me that probably embarrassed half the street. “Whoo…now you have blood on you,” I mock protested.

“Then, let’s go home and clean it off.”

I had a feeling she had more than that in mind.