Epilogue

It's been almost two hours and I haven't receive any reports from him. This is not the first time that happened during our operations. He always reported back using other's radio because he somehow always find ways to bust his radio during his missions.

I'm still anxious about all of this. Like, there's something in the woods that makes my hair in my arms to stand up. But, we're talking about the same guy who have escaped impossible situations many times before.

Maybe I'm just overthinking... I hope so.

As I'm pacing back and forth in the office, waiting for his report, a voice came out from the radio.

"Command, this is Squad 8 Beta. We have arrive on the scene, over." Squad 8 Beta reported.

"This is command, what's the status there? Over." I replied.

"Command, we saw the broken phone laying on the ground just like your description earlier. Not only that, but we also discovered fresh footsteps from someone heading northeast not too long ago. I believe these footsteps belongs to our squad leader, over." Squad 8 Beta replied.

"Copy, Squad 8 Beta, proceed to search for Squad 8 Alpha with caution, over." I replied with serious and cold tone.

"Will do, over." Squad 8 Beta replied with determinating voice before ending the transmission.

I went to my desk and sat down, anxiously waiting for the report of Squad 8. I look over to my right and saw my picture frame. I reach out my hand and gently grab the picture frame. There, a memorial picture of me and Leo together after graduating from the Woodland Police Academy. We're still cheerfully smiling together.

"(Giggles) Even after being a cop for 5 years, you're still one hell of a cheeky bastard." I said as I gently poke Leo's grinning face in the picture.

After becoming a cop and seeing Leo how reckless he was, every single day, there's never once I felt uneasiness and fear that one day that the last time I would see him is when he is inside of a coffin. It affected my performance drastically and despite telling him not to do anything crazy, he's still continuing doing reckless acts in his missions so I have no choice to put a strong front and act tough, even towards him.

I thought he would lose interest in me and starting to get distant from me but out of everyone in the department, he's the only one who kept talking to me, even after I act so cold towards him.

I thought my feelings for him would go away but instead, it got stronger and stronger, day by day.

I put back my picture frame on the table and lay my head with my arms on the table.

"(Sigh) I'm so stupid. I should've known better than anyone that Leo is the kind of guy that would befriend anyone, even the most asshole person you would ever met." I said grumbly while being flustered at the same time.

As I take a short rest, I suddenly recall that moment when we were having a sleepover back in highschool.

It was afternoon and we just finish our class in school. As usual, we went to his house to have a sleepover. As we arrived at his house, there's a girl came down from the stairs and starting to approach us.

"HELLO ANNIE! WELCOME BACK!" The young girl greeted me as she runs towards me and hugs me.

"Hello Lea, how are you doing?" I asked as I hug her back.

"I'm doing fine as usual. Are you gonna spend more time with your boyfriend?" She replied as she looks at me with a wide grin.

"Wha-" before I could finish my words, Leo interrupted me.

"W-WH-WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" Leo shouted as he tries to push his younger sister back to her room.

"Wait, I thought you already confessed to-" Leo covers her mouth and mutters something to her before he let go of her.

"Fine, fine... Have fun you two!" Lea said as she wave her hand and smiles before heading back to her room.

"Sorry about that. Lea tends to be quite cheeky at times." Leo apologies as he scratch the back of his head.

"(Giggles) You two really are brothers and sisters." I said as I giggle a bit.

"A-Anyway, let's head to my room, shall we?" He said as we went upstairs and head towards his room.

After we put our stuff down, Leo started to boot up his Gamestation 2 and we starting to play "Neighborhood Evil: Outbreak" together. We were having fun playing.

"HEY LEO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? GET THE AMMO! QUICK!" I shouted as I'm trying to shoot the zombies as Leo trying to get the ammo.

"I'M TRYING!" Leo replied.

Many hours has past and both of us starting to feel hungry.

"WHOOOO! THAT. WAS. FUN! Hey Leo, do you want to-" as I look at him, I got froze in place as I realized that he also looks at me and our faces were so close to each other.

Our lips were so close to each other that I can feel his slow, warm breathes.

Then, we heard a knock from the door.

"Leo, Annie, dinner's ready!" Leo's mom said as she went down to the kitchen.

"I-I think we should probably head down to the kitchen now. Besides, our dinner tonight is your favorite dish." Leo said as he gets up from the bed.

"Y-Yeah, we should." I replied as I get up as well, still feeling flustered from earlier.

We went down to the kitchen and ate dinner together with Leo's parents and Lea. After eating, we took turns on taking bath before going to bed. But unlike other nights, I was having a hard time to fall asleep.

"Annie... You still awake?" Leo asked quietly from the lower bed.

"Yes. Still awake." I replied.

"I... Nevermind. goodnight Annie." Leo said as he went back to sleep.

"Goodnight, Leo." I replied as I also went back to sleep.

After remembering that day, I can feel the heat in my face.

"I guess I'll just have to be honest with him once he got back from this operation..." I said as I started to feel flustered.

As I feel embarrassed while imagining what would be Leo's reaction after I told him about my feelings, I heard a distressed voice coming from the radio. There's a lot of gunshots and screaming in the background . I immediately gets up and get closer to the radio.

"COMMAND! THIS IS SQUAD 8 BETA! WE NEED BACKUP! I REPEAT! WE NEED BACKUP-" Squad 8 Beta shouted with urgent voice.

"GODAMMIT! THERE'S SO MANY OF THEM!" Another police officer screaming in the background.

"AGGHHHHHH-!" One of them screamed.

"NOOOOOO!!! EMMA! THEY GOT WADE!!!" A female police officer screamed in the background.

"COPY! I WILL SEND THERE MORE BACKUP A.S.A.P. HANG IN THERE, OVER!" I replied as I change the frequency of the radio.

"THIS IS EAGLE-EYE! WE GOT CODE RED! I REPEAT, CODE RED! I NEED ALL OF THE S.C.R.A.P.S. MEMBERS HERE, NOW!"

To be continued...