{{FRIENDLY REMINDER: While our sister threads Moon Lake, Andersons and Moon Lake, Jenkins are enjoying the town's annual Halloween party/dance the night before, it is Sunday, November 1 to everyone in Moon Lake, Tad.—tmw.}}
"Officer Conner, what's your status? Over," called out a voice via his radio.
"Conner to Base. Ambulances are here now attending to the wounded. Suspect is in custody. Over," was his reply.
"Be advised that we have been informed representatives from Seattle law enforcement and the FBI will be in Moon Lake soon," said the dispatcher over the radio. "Also, we have received a 9-1-1 call from the Twist household, reporting shots fired. Over."
"Twist?" Conner repeated, turning to look at the house next door. Dang! Officer Carter said no one was home because there were no cars in the driveway. "Roger Base. I'll respond to the call in person. Over," he replied.
Doctor Frances Twist was beside herself.
At the sound of gun fire, she dove to the floor with cellphone in hand.*
After quickly calling the police, Frances crawled through her house looking for her wife Samantha or their son Ben, but thankfully found neither of them home, let alone injured.**
There hadn't been any new gunshots in several minutes, but the sound of an approaching ambulance with sirens blaring brought Frances much needed relief, for there was no way medical personnel would be summoned until the crisis was over.
But who's wounded? Samantha? The Andersons? Frances asked herself, as there came a knock on her front door.
Defurring from her werecat shape, the now naked lady quickly put on a bathrobe and went to look through the door peephole.
Seeing an officer of the law on her front porch, Frances answered the door.
Ryan Conner could easily see the lady before him was disheveled and a bit frightened, so moved quickly to calm her fears.
"Don't worry any Doctor Twist. The crisis is over now, but your brother—"
"Samson? How is he?" Frances asked, stepping outside to see officers around the house next to hers, on the opposite side from where the Andersons live.
"He's fine. Hurt his back during the apprehension, but the EMTs are treating him now," explained Conner.
"What the hell is going on?" Frances demanded to know.
"Officer Carter thought no one was home, since he didn't see any cars in the driveway. Had we known the house was occupied, we would have evacuated you along with the rest of your neighbors."
"So the Andersons and everyone else in the neighborhood are okay?" asked Frances.
"Yes, ma'am," promised Conner.
"So you were next door to do... what?" she wanted to know.
"There was a man next door, who we requested to come to the station with us so we could ask him some questions in more official surroundings, but he didn't want to accompany us and decided to put up a fight instead," explained Conner.
"So the shootout at the O.K. Corrall...?" Frances asked, a bit angrily.
"Unfortunate and unplanned, but we did try to avoid it," replied Conner.
Whatever Frances Twist was going to say next got interrupted by a loud moaning sound, audible to even those without acute were hearing.
The two turned and saw a woman standing in the front yard of the house next door, clutching her stomach even as she fell to her knees.
"We need another ambulance!" shouted one police officer, as he raced to the woman's side.
"What's going on?" called out Conner, even as he started walking back over there.
"Mrs. Drake's water broke! She's gone into labor!" shouted the other officer in return.
"If she was next door when everything happened, it must have been the physical stress and emotional strain of witnessing events," surmised Doctor Twist, who had followed Conner out of curiosity.
"I'm... e-early..." gasped Mrs. Drake, clutching her stomach between moans.
"By how much?" asked Frances.
"Th-three weeks," answered the pregnant lady in return. "This is my first—" and then she moaned again.
"Do what you can for her until I get back!" Frances ordered those around her, before rushing back to her house long enough to put on some clothes and grab her purse and cellphone.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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*In our previous Moon Lake, Tad episode: "Feline Love".
**Samantha let her wife sleep in while she attended the emergency town conference about Dymixious Drake, while Ben hasn't come home yet from taking his girlfriend Kenya Adaeze to the Halloween Dance.—tmw.