[ CW ] Begin your story with `` They should have sent a poet . ''

-106 
 
 `` They should have sent a poet.'' Gilroy mused. `` Birch Bittaburker is not good with words.'' 
 
 `` Give the kid credit. It's a simple thing. He goes in. He says a few flattering words. They sell him the coke. We move in make the arrest. What could go wrong?'' 
 
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 `` Bittaburker!'' Gilroy screamed as machine gun fire sprayed the crouching detectives with glass from their unmarked. `` I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill that bastard.'' 
 
 `` Hey, at least you know he does n't secretly use drugs.'' Detective Shipley cried. `` See the bright side of this.'' There were two loud pops from somewhere beyond the unmarked and the machine gun fire suddenly stopped. 
 
 `` He tried to smoke it. He tried to smoke cocaine. He asked them for papers. Who freaking does that?'' Gilroy cried, coming to his feet to check out what was happening. 
 
 The saw Detective Birch Bittaburker reholstering his sidearm. His detective badge glittering in the glare of the flood lights. 
 
 `` Who freaking ask for papers when offered a taste of cocaine?'' Gilroy screamed, rushing around the unmarked to confront the lone wolf. 
 
 `` Easy Gilroy.'' Birch warned. 
 
 `` Your blood pressure.'' Shipley warned. 
 
 `` To hell with my blood pressure. He almost got us killed.'' Gilroy screamed. `` I'm filing a complaint against you. You always go off mission. You just cost us our informant. We are n't just trying to get these people off the street. We want them to tell us who else they're working for.'' Gilroy screamed, spraying flecks of spittle from his beet red face. 
 
 `` I should have let them live?'' Bittaburker growled. 
 
 `` Yes. You should have let them live.'' Gilroy snapped. 
 
 `` Fine.'' Birch snapped, pulling his revolver. He flung it out to the right lining it up with the man hiding around the corner of the house. The man leapt right into the path of Bittaburker's revolver heard the bark of the forty-five and looked down at his chest. He dropped the AR he was holding and sank to his knees. 
 
 `` I need one of them alive.'' Gilroy screamed, shoving Birch backwards. 
 
 `` Well, when the others get here, tell me which one you want me to leave alive and I'll do my best not to kill him.'' Birch comprimised. `` But, it's going to be pretty freaking hard to keep them all alive, so I can give you one or two, but the rest are going to have to die.'' 
 
 `` Others?'' Gilroy murmurred as a convoy of headlights appeared coming down the lane toward them. 
 
 `` Yeah. One of the big guys in there. He called in reinforcements.'' Birch told him, calmly reloading his piece. He reached down and retrieved one the AR the man he'd shot in the head had been using on the unmarked. 
 
 `` Hey, Shipley. You want to partner with me through this or stay with Gilroy. He is n't coping very well.'' Birch observed. It was true. Gilroy was beginning to hyperventilate. 
 
 `` I better stay with him.'' Shipley replied, giving Birch a lingering gaze. She had always had a thing for him. 
 
 `` We should have sent a poet.'' Gilroy mused. 
 
 `` Too late to second guess.'' Birch told him, shoving the AR into his hands. `` Get skinny!'' He called, running back into the house. Shipley followed him, pulling Gilroy with her. The machine gun fire from the approaching trucks began a few moments later. 
 
 `` If we survive, I'm going to shoot you.'' Gilroy promised, looking at Birch crouching near the window. 
 
 `` Sure. I'll see you then. I count fifteen.'' He told them. `` But, the lights on their trucks make it hard to get an accurate count.'' The machine guns were turning the walls to kindling. 
 
 `` We're all going to fucking die.'' Gilroy screamed, covering his ears.'' 
 
 `` I know. It's inevitable. If only Ponce De Leon had found that fountain of youth, we could have all lived for ever.'' Birch sang, not even fazed by the gun fire around him. 
 
 `` How can you be so calm?'' Shipley screamed. 
 
 `` I've been playing in the rain since I was a child. The only time I turn into a girl about it is when the rains falling on me. I'm not getting hit right now, so there's nothing to freak out about.'' He stuck his gun out the window and fired twice. `` Thirteen left.'' 
 
 `` You killed two already?'' Gilroy blurted in disbelief. He stuck the gun out the window again and fired once, twice, and again. 
 
 `` Eleven left.'' Bittaburker sang. `` You want in on this?'' He asked. Gilroy threw the AR up over the window lip and fired blindly. Birch calmly reloaded. 
 
 `` Well, you shot one in the foot.'' Birch told him. `` Shipley. On your right.'' Birch told her calmly. The door burst open and Shipley fired three into the man's chest. `` Nice grouping.'' He complimented. Shipley smiled, blushing red. 
 
 Gilroy through his machine gun up over the window lip and fired blindly again until the clip ran out. `` Did I get any of them sons-a-bitches this time.'' He asked, risking a glance. 
 
 `` You emptied a clip into the side of the garage. You might wan na try looking next time.'' Birch told him, quickstepping over to the door. He waited a moment then grabbed the machine gun coming through the door way and then pistol whipped the gunman. `` You want this one alive?'' Birch asked. The man was still fighting for his machine gun. 
 
 `` I need somebody important.'' Gilroy told him. 
 
 `` Okay.'' Birch replied, stepping into the open door way and shooting one of the men rushing up the walk. The returned fire. Bittaburker shoved the gun men he was struggling with into the doorway ahead of him. `` Nine left.'' Birch told them. `` Shipley. Would you please take the back door?'' He asked. She shrugged and gave him a maybe look. He smiled to himself. 
 
 `` We should have used a poet.'' Gilroy shouted, cowering behind the wall. 
 
 `` Violets are blue.'' Birch sang suddenly, firing three shots out the window. There was three shots from the back door. 
 
 `` I got one.'' Shipley called. Birch hurried to the other side of the window. 
 
 `` Roses are red.'' He cried, sticking the barrel of his revolver to the gunman sticking his head through the window. He pulled the trigger executing him. 
 
 Gilroy pointed his gun over the lip and shot another gunman coming up on Birch's right. 
 
 `` You can get your ass up.'' Bittaburker sang, reloading his revolver. Shipley fired three more shots, while Birch marched out the front door firing his piece repeatedly. 
 
 `` I got two more.'' Shipley shouted. 
 
 `` All the bad guys are dead.'' Birch finished, returning with a well dressed bad guy. Gilroy looked at Birch in amazement. Shipley returned a moment later. `` Well, there you go, Gilroy. Somebody to question.'' Bittaburker shoved the nervous crime boss out to arms length. Gilroy looked at Birch with scornful eyes, but turned his anger and fear on the man he was about to question. 
 
 `` I want it all. I want names. I want locations. I want time tables and schedules and quantities. You're going to tell me every --'' Gilroy growled, slipping on the carpet of broken glass. He fell hard and threw out the fist holding his revolver to break his fall. The gun went off accidentally shooting the crime boss in the throat. 
 
 Shipley shook her head in disbelief and Gilroy just stared in horror at what he'd done. `` Look at that, Gilroy.'' Birch chuckled. `` You finally hit something.''
