The Distraction

He was having a hard week being left alone at his house after a traumatic experience of trying to help a stranger that was in a morbid car accident. He could feel the exhaustion from the lack of sleep catching up to him, but he pushed on through his work week trying to act as normal a possible.
She could tell, after hearing of what happened, that he wasn’t quite himself. After working with him for so long, she could tell when something was wrong even though he wore an almost infallible mask. She felt sorry for him and wished she could find a way to get his mind off of what had happened.
She had an idea. When it became slow at work, she began casually talking to him as usual. Knowing he was a big outdoorsman, she asked him to help her shoot a high caliber gun. She lived alone in an apartment and was weary of her surroundings. It was the perfect excuse to get him out since she was about to take her handgun permit test. He agreed and they made plans to ride together to his house after work and practice in the woods in his backyard.
The ride to the house was filled with awkward silence because they had never spent time together outside of work. They arrived at the house and went in. He went to change out of his uniform and get the gun and ammo out of the safe. She used the guest bathroom to change out of her uniform and met him with safety glasses and ear plugs in the backyard.
They walked into the woods for about fifteen minutes until they came to a small clearing. He set up the target on a tree on the other side of the clearing and told her to stand in the middle.