Dispatched || Maddie Buckley

Chapter Eleven- Old Friends

"All Wilshire Division units please respond to a 4-15 at Parkview Cemetery, requesting a supervisor on scene."

Mikey was on it. As soon as the call came through, he headed towards the cemetery, already having an idea of what he was to find. The cemetery was known for its protest, people gathered outside the gates to shout their bigoted slogans at those trying to bury their loved ones. It was something that Mikey has had to supervise countless times prior to this. He pulled into the lot and parked his patrol car.

He was surprised to see Athena pulling into the cemetery but she seemed a bit more surprised given the injuries he had sustained during the earthquake.
He shouldn't have been back in the field as of yet but nothing would stop him, he couldn't burden Eleanor with his presence.. even if she was the one to offer up her place for him to stay.

Mikey walked alongside Athena, pushing through the crowd of protesters. He still walked with a bit of a limp and the pain was slowly but surely subsiding as the days passed by but his injury still made it hard for him to push through the body weight of the mass.

"Coming through." He said, "Coming through, excuse me."

Athena repeated those same words until they'd made it through the cemetery gates to be greeted with the man that had called 9-1-1.

"Officers, can you please.. please, do something about this? My sister's trying to bury her son." He pleaded, clearly bothered by the loud shouts coming from next to them.

"I understand and I am very sorry for your loss but my best advice is to just ignore them." Athena advised, glaring at the group of people interrupting the military funeral.

"Are you kidding me? They've got bullhorns. This is a funeral. Do you see those disgusting signs?"

"I see them but as long as they stay behind that fence , they have a constitutionally protected right to stand there and be awful." Mikey tried not to sound invalidating, as he wanted more than anything to tell those protesters where to stick it. He was a cop, he had to remain professional.

"My nephew volunteered to serve because he believed in protecting the freedom that gives these— these idiots the right to spew their filth." The man's tears were clear to see, they could even be heard in the tone of his voice.

"And I am very appreciative of the sacrifices your nephew made for this country, sir." Mikey said, reaching out a hand to the man. The man took his hand in his own and tears started to trickle down his cheeks.

"We'll see what we can do." Athena butted in, giving the man an empathetic smile.

-

"2,4,6,8.. burn in hell will be your fate!" The protestors chanted, one after another. Spewing their hatred.

Mikey and Athena noticed a man in an electric wheelchair making his way through the fence and rushed over to stop him.

"Okay sir, you need to get behind the fence." Mikey said, holding up his right hand motioning for the man to back up.

"Or what?" The man snapped back, looking up at the two officers.

Athena stepped in with a stern sass laced in her tone, "Or your next stop will be county jail."

What the man said next, Mikey couldn't believe. He stepped forward in front of the man's wheelchair, forcing him to stop.

"uh, uh, uh, uh.. back it up. I will not ask you again." Mikey's tone is much harsher than before. If there was one thing he hated, it was racism. Mikey clenched his jaw, ready to defend his friend.