Lost in Hoboken

[Colorado girl]

This story is about what might have happened during the day in the episode Doggone. I hope you enjoy it.

Lost in Hoboken by Momoonwez

Chapter one

“This sucks!” Shouted Jim Dunbar at the top of his lungs.
Being left in the middle of nowhere was not how this day was supposed to turn out. Jim Dunbar had come to the end of his patience. First the undercover drug deal had gone south. Then the perps sucker punched him and took off with Hank in the car. He tried to make a run to rescue Hank but instead fell over a huge piece of debris in the road. Finally, to add insult to injury was the fact that all three of his squad mates were nowhere to be found.

“What the hell happened?,” he asked when he finally was able to reach them on his cell phone. They explained that they got boxed in. The excuse did not relieve the stress and frustration that Jim was experiencing.

“I don’t know where I am!.” The words kept reverberating in his mind after he had said it.

Karen tried to assure him that they were working on finding him.” We’ll triangulate your signal and get back to you.”

”What’s the matter with these guys,” Jim thought. “Six perfectly good eyes AND not one of them could follow his trail.

How many times did he have to prove himself over and over the last few months to demonstrate that he could do the job? He had ten years of experience being one of New York’s finest under his belt. He was the senior member of the squad when the bank robbery happened. Now every day was a swim upstream. There were constant reminders that there were those who constantly doubted his ability to do his work.
Marty was the worst of all. : From the very instant that he met Jim there was a battle of wills. Marty loved being the alpha dog in the eighth precinct. There was no way in hell he was going give up his place, especially to a blind super hero with “balls of steel.”

“Yep, blind as a bat.!” The words still stung as Jim recalled the day Marty felt the need to spew the words to Don Yun.

Jim could take the insults. It came with the job. It went deeper than that. What was irritating was this inferior detective questioning how he did his job.

“Why do you need to solve every little thing?”
From Jim’s perspective, that was a stupid question. Solving cases the way he did was what excited Jim the most about the job. He was able to see the case from many different angles. Outsmarting the bad guys and getting them off the streets brought him great satisfaction. Why would he change a technique that he had found so successful for the last ten years? It was part of who he was. It was the reason that he wanted to be back on the job.

Jim shouted out” Is anybody there?’ He stretched out his hands to come in contact with something that would give him some bearing. He continued to think as he walked.

Tom had only questioned Jim once about his ability to do his job. He never insulted him or anybody for that matter. What disturbed Jim about Tom was his silence. He never took a stand one way or the other. In the past, Jim stepped in many times to protect or defend fellow cops when the need arose. Tom’s silence made Jim feel insecure about where they stood with each other.

Jim yelled for help again. This space was huge. He walked for a long time not sure where he was headed. Several times he tumbled when his foot hit a rut in the path. The frustration was overwhelming. Shouting out was the only way to alleviate some of his angst.

Jim’s thoughts went back to the squad. He recalled his dealings with Fisk. The ridiculous squabbles with Marty had slightly tainted his reputation. Now, however, that was mostly in the past, He recalled how Fisk had asked him to consider the others by staying in the house rather than go out in the field. After months of clearing cases, he felt on steadier ground with his boss, until today. Fisk had initially questioned the undercover operation by saying, “I ‘m not sure you should even be doing this.”
Jim responded with,”It’s not like I’m doing this alone. I’ve got all you guys.” He was grateful that Fisk gave him a chance. Now Jim doubted whether he would ever get another opportunity to prove himself. He now wondered if today was a huge mistake that Fisk could have prevented.

The only one that gave him a fighting chance was Karen. She was cold at the beginning. Finding out that Anne Donnelly was her friend did not help. But by the end of the case, he had come closer to winning her over. She had been generous in her understanding of his disability. Offering her arm was a huge gesture of generosity. Though they had plowed through some rocky roads in the last few months, Jim enjoyed their partnership.

Jim found a fence. He followed its path. Every minute felt like hours.

Jim had forgotten about Christie. He now recalled that he had also gotten his chops busted by her today. He still hadn’t figured out why she was still so angry with him. He wondered if Christie had been contacted. He wondered how worried she might be.
Jim screamed out in angst. “Welcome to my f**king world.” He thought,” I can only go up from here.”

Jim sat for a while with his back to the fence to map out a plan. If the squad could not locate him, he would have to figure out something on his own. Maybe he could search for a stick or a pole that could be used like a cane.
That thought made him think of Hank. Jim fumed at the idea of those skells taking Hank.
He tried to stuff down the anxiety of what Hank must be experiencing right now .He tried to take a different direction in thinking about Hank. Maybe a little humor could help right now.
“Hell, if Hank were here, this might have even been fun.” Jim chuckled. Talk about man’s best friend. Hank made so much of life not only bearable but enjoyable on so many levels. Jim needed to get out of this situation positively for Hank and himself.

After resting a few minutes and calming down, He decided that his best bet was to continue on the path of the fence. Maybe the fence would lead him to a street or building where he could get some help.

As Jim continued, he approached a metal sign hanging on the fence. He could feel some raised printing on the sign. It read the name of a company. Taking his phone, he called the squad hoping the signal would be strong enough to get through. Luckily it worked and Jim was soon on his way back to the squad.

[Colorado girl]

Chapter 2

He barked as loud as he could as he saw his master get smaller and smaller, finally disappearing through the back window of the station wagon. Although he had been trained to not bark or be distracted, desperate times called for desperate measures.
Many times before when his master had commanded,”Hank, stay, “his master had always returned. But this time it was different. His master was left behind and he did not recognize the bald man who was now driving the car. He knew the woman now in the passenger seat had driven the car to the abandoned area with his master and the other man, but he did not trust her either.

“Shut up dog!” The man commanded Hank.
The man had a bad history with dealing with dogs. They made him extremely nervous.

Not used to being yelled at, Hank disobeyed the man and protested even louder. With each bark the tension became stronger.
“Shut that damned dog up!” the man now commanded the woman.
She turned around and spoke gently to Hank. ”Um….hey boy….what’s your name?” The woman paused for a moment. She tried to recall the morning’s events. ”Hank, …… your name is Hank, right, boy?”
For a few moments at the mention of his name, Hank quieted down.
“Good boy, that’s better,” the woman responded.
The woman turned around and asked the man, “Where are we going?
“Shut up Bitch! “The man shouted. “If it wasn’t for you and your stupid friends, we’d have what belongs to us. If I had my way you and that dog would be dead by now.”

The woman knowing that the man had an automatic weapon, immediately shut her mouth.

Hank could sense the tension and began to bark again.

“You better shut that animal up or I’m gonna shoot his ass!”

The woman had an idea. She reached for the glove compartment. The car swerved as the man again yelled at her.
“What the hell are you doing?” You got a weapon in there?
” No! The woman answered quickly but timidly. “ I…I sometimes stash food in there. May… Maybe he’s hungry.” She stammered.

“Okay” the man responded.

“Is it okay if I get in the back with him…You know…to try to calm him down?”

“I don’t give a damn.” The man answered.

The woman reached into the glove compartment and took out a package of potato chips. She proceeded to climb over the center of the front seat into the back passenger seat. With the potato chip in her hand, she reached into the back to offer it to Hank. Hank stopped barking for the moment. He sniffed the chip. Being the trained dog that he was, he refused to eat it. Hank let out a quiet groan. The woman reached out to pet Hank. Although he had his harness on, and knew he was on the job, Hank allowed her to touch him.

“That’s a nice boy,” she spoke gently to the German shepherd.

She then climbed over the back passenger seat into the cargo area of the car. She secretly unlatched Hank’s harness but left it on.
He began to notice that some of the places that the car was passing were places that he had been before with his master. His barking again escalated to a very loud volume.
As the car came up to a tenement on avenue D, the car suddenly came to a screeching halt. Both Hank and the woman were flung into the back part of the cargo area. “That’s it! I’m gonna kill that dog!’” the man exclaimed. As he dove out of the driver seat door, he yelled words in a language that neither Hank nor the woman did not understand. As he opened the back door of the cargo space, the woman shouted as she grabbed the harness, “Hank run!”
Hank bolted out of the car, becoming free of the harness and crashing into the bald man, knocking him to the ground.
For a fleeting moment Hank was free. Unfortunately, an even larger bald man had driven up behind the station wagon in a black car. In an instant, he ran up to the station wagon and grabbed the leash that was still connected to Hank’s collar. He struggled with Hank for what seemed like a long time. Hank finally had no choice but to submit to him. The shorter bald man stood up and aimed his weapon straight at Hank’s head. He had no trouble with shooting the dog and ending his life right here on the spot.
The taller man rebuked him. “Are you crazy? “ We have better things to do than worry about a stupid dog.” Here, let me take care of him.
Referring to the woman and other stocky man, the taller man said. ” Let’s get these people into the apartment and find out what they did with our stash.”
The men looked around and realized that the stocky man was nowhere to be found. With the confrontation with the dog, they had not noticed that he disappeared.
“Damn it!” the short man cursed. This day keeps getting worse by the minute.”
The taller man reassured the short man by saying,” don’t worry, we still have Debbie .” Get some answers from her and I’ll look for Sonny and deal with the dog.”
The short man, outraged with the dog and now Sonny, directed his rage toward the woman. He pushed his weapon into the woman’s ribs and pulled by her hair, half dragging her into the building.

The tall man crouched next to Hank, unclipped his leash and shouted, “Get out of here!” Lucky for Hank, this man liked dogs. Taking his cue, Hank shot off and disappeared around the corner.
Hank tore down the sidewalk as fast as he could for several blocks. Being cooped up in that car as well as the stress of struggling to become free of the tall man made his adrenaline soar. Without having his master to give commands, Hank was very confused. He ran around the block about three times hoping he could find his master. He knew better not to cross the street. He did however dodge pedestrians and anything in his path for about ten minutes until he had finally burned off his excess energy.
Hank slowed down and now casually walked down an alley and onto the same block, sniffing as he went. For a while it was all about getting back to the job of looking for his master. Although he wasn’t trained to be a police dog, he now had the daunting task of using his instincts to behave like one.
Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks. Hank lifted his head and sniffed the air. Realizing that there was an extremely pleasurable scent filling his nostrils, he was momentarily distracted from his primary mission.
She was the most beautiful female that he had ever encountered. She had light and dark fur, a pointed muzzle and the softest, most mesmerizing shade of eyes he had ever seen. Hank noticed that she was tethered to a tree next to the street. Slowly he made his way up to her, sniffed her face and then her behind to introduce himself. She reciprocated by sniffing his behind and licking his face. . Hank had a feeling that he knew what to do next. His male senses were quite dull since that operation he had two years before. However, he had observed other dogs and his instincts slowly began to kick in. Suddenly, however, a very large thump from a newspaper landed on his head. The second thump landed him right in the street. “No body messes with my Muffy!” screeched an older lady in black leather pants and a fake leopard jacket. Hank had never been treated so harshly his whole life as he had been today. He shook off the sting of the assault to his head and got back on track looking and sniffing for his master. He ended up around the corner approached a park. He remembered this place from before. There was a very large water fountain that Hank desired to play in but was always on duty and never allowed. He drank from it, then went on to park and relieve himself. Soon he was back on the job of finding his master. Soon everything would be back the way it should be before this misadventure began.