Chapter 21
He'd woken up grumpy and far less talkative than he had been the night before, and while he'd seemed to remember the events leading up to his meet up with Ronny and the others, he'd failed to mention anything that had happened after I'd taken him home. I'd of course already accepted the fact that he might not remember much, but the need to talk about what he'd confessed was practically eating away at me.
I glanced at him now as he huddled in the passenger seat beside me, a baseball cap shading his face from the glare of the afternoon sun, my sunglasses covering his eyes, head resting against the door and a large thermos of coffee clutched in his fist. After three failed attempts at normal conversation, I'd finally decided to leave him to the misery that was his hangover and drive in silence.
We were on our way to the Bureau, where he'd agreed to go in for a quick interview to relay the events of the previous night to our team. After that, we planned on picking Timmy up from my parents, where, according to my mother, he'd been having the time of his life despite his cold.
By the time we pulled into the Bureau's parking lot, he'd finished the coffee and was as ready as I supposed he could ever be, with the effects of an alcohol-filled night raging inside him.
Simon and Eddie ushered him off to the interrogation room the moment we entered, and I made a beeline for my dad's office, noting on the way however, a toy strewn here and there. Desks that were usually cluttered with paperwork and boring office things had a few additional colorful decorations. I noted the crayon marks on the wall opposite the watercooler and one very familiar bunny rabbit lying on the floor beside the photocopier.
I glanced across the room at the rows of desks in the large space and shook my head. Interesting how I had never been allowed to spend the day at the Bureau with my dad when I was growing up, yet now the place was filled with clear evidence that hurricane Timmy had swept through.
I paused at his office door, which was half open and saw the two sitting around his desk. Dad had Timmy in his lap while they played with little green toy soldiers which I surmised came from the toy store down the street.
"So now that you've got a feel for everything," my dad was telling him "Which team would be the best team to send out to infiltrate the warehouse?"
I noticed then that the toy soldiers were clumped together in groups which stood on a chart covering the entire desk. On that chart dad had drawn something that I couldn't make out from where I stood, but they looked to be roads and buildings and other foreign markings.
I watched as Timmy reached over and picked up a soldier from the group that stood in the center of the chart and my dad's face was alight with pride.
"That's it!" he exclaimed, patting Timmy's head. "Half the class at Quantico fails this test every year and you got it right off the bat." He continued, oblivious to the fact that Timmy was more interested in playing with the soldiers than he was in a thing he was saying.
Dad looked at him and frowned. "If only you were a few years older. I could make you head of your own task force in no time." he said, looking at Timmy with real regret.
"At least wait until he's out of kindergarten before you start recruiting him dad." I said, stepping inside. The chief looked up and Timmy slid off his lap and came running over. I scooped him up as he began babbling about his new toy.
"The kid's a genius."
"He picked the team at random dad."
"You mark my words son. That kid's going places." And I nodded. Yes he was.
"Micha look." Timmy raised a hand to show me the colorful fire truck Band-Aid on his elbow.
"He fell." Dad explained. "Didn't even cry." The pride in his voice was unmistakable. I could already see that he was going to spoil Timmy rotten.
"That's so cool." I told Timmy. "Did poppy give you that?"
"Poppy give Timmy." He nodded, then held out his soldier again. "An poppy give Timmy gween."
"He gave you a green soldier?"
Timmy nodded.
"Did you tell him thanks?"
Another nod.
I retrieved the handkerchief from my back pocket and wiped his runny nose.
"You want to talk to me about last night?"
I looked at the chief. "You saw my report."
"What's he doing getting caught up in all this? You went out of your way to give him a place to stay and this is the way he repays you? Getting drunk with a bunch of criminals?"
"He was held at gun point dad, it's not like he had a choice in the matter."
"So he said."
"Yes and I believe him. When we got there they had a gun in his face. I know him and if he says he wasn't there of his own free will then he wasn't."
The chief straightened in his chair, his expression hard. "He's not as innocent as you think Michael. There's something about his story that just doesn't add up."
When Timmy began to wiggle in my arms, I set him down and watched him run from the room as fast as his little feet could take him. Ready to harass the other agents no doubt.
I turned back to the chief. "What doesn't add up?"
"There was a bag full of cash found on the scene."
I crossed my arms before me. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Every last one of those delinquents are saying it belongs to Jason."
I shook my head. "Criminals lie dad. It's what they do. Why take the fall for another crime when they can pin in on the one person who's innocent?"
For a moment he only stared at me and finally nodded as though coming to a conclusion. His expression was grim.
"Let's see what he has to say about it then."
He pushed up from his chair and I stepped aside to allow him to exit through the door. A heartbeat later I followed. I spotted Timmy standing by a new agent's desk, chatting the man's ear off while the agent worked on what seemed to be reports piled high before him.
When the kid spotted me, he retrieved the toy soldier from its perch on the guy's chair arm, grabbed Bunny from his spot beside the copier and stuffed it under his arm, then headed over to me where he took my outstretched hand. I led him across the room, around a corner then into a small room with a large glass screen, behind which Jason sat with his fingers locked together on the table before him.
"Daddy!" Timmy exclaimed when he saw him and I lifted him onto the table so he had a clear view of his father.
"Daddy can't see you right now, but we'll visit him soon okay?"
"Haf daddy now Micha?"
I nodded. "As soon as he's finished talking to those nice men."
Timmy looked at the window, then back at me. "No Micha. Timmy haf daddy now."
I wiped his runny nose on the tail end of my shirt and stood him up on the table so he could go ahead and press his face against the glass, calling for Jason who couldn't hear a damn thing from the other side.
I listened as Simon and Eddie questioned him about the previous night. Their tone was friendly and reassuring and Jason recounted all he could remember, which really wasn't much, but he did mention what the others had told him about a guy named Red and I had no doubt that our investigators would be sent out to locate the body as soon as we got the address from one of the others.
"Stop licking the glass kid." My dad told Timmy, and I hoisted the little guy up and away from it and propped him onto my shoulder.
"You notice he's being completely honest? It's because he has nothing to hide." I told the old man, whose expression had become closed off.
He leaned over and knocked on the glass and Eddie glanced up and made his way over to the door. Jason used the opportunity to rest his head against the table. I could only imagine how shitty he still felt.
When the door opened, the agent standing by handed Eddie a knapsack and we all watched him reenter to space and deposit it onto the table. Jason looked up then, surprising me when he reached for the bag.
"Is that yours Jason?" Eddie questioned quietly and I watched as Jason hesitated, looking between Simon and Eddie silently before slowly dragging the bag closer to his chest.
When he didn't answer, Simon moved from his perch against the wall and came to sit on the edge of the table beside him. "You want to tell us what's in it?"
Jason nodded slowly. "I've been saving it for a place for me and Timmy." He said softly and I saw my dad look at me from the corner of my eye.
"Yeah?" Simon continued. "That's really responsible of you. About how much would you say you've got saved up in there?"
Jason shrugged, then winced as though the effort alone was painful. "Not nearly enough for a place, but that don't matter no more cause we're staying with Michael...for a while."
"If it doesn't matter then how come you had it on you last night?"
"Cause I went to get it at our old house." He paused, running a hand along the closed zipper. "I'm gonna give it to Michael...so he don't gotta hafto deal with all the responsibility by himself. I want to help out."
Simon nodded. "That's admirable."
"Nothin' admirable about it. I'm a man and men take care of their family."
"So Michael's your family?"
He was quiet for a long time after that and again I caught my father looking at me as I waited for Jason's answer. I felt a weight in my chest that only seemed to grow heavier the longer he took to reply and I hadn't realized that I'd reached up and pulled Timmy down from my shoulder and into my arms until he finally answered. The weight lifted.
"People can be family even if it's just in your head. Aint nothin' wrong with that." He said. "Family don't mean that people gotta share blood."
Simon nodded. "Yeah you're right. Look at Eddie and me. We're family and we don't share blood. It's okay." He tried to appease Jason, who seemed to be getting defensive.
"You wanna tell us where you got the money from?" Eddie asked calmly.
"From when I work and sometime people give me...when I ask sometimes."
Eddie nodded. "Is that all? You don't get it from anywhere else? You can tell us you know. It's okay." He continued and it was at this point that I turned to the chief.
"Dad come on. He's hung over. He's had a rough night, just let him go home to his kid." But the chief ignored me, his attention on the three people in the other room.
"You're trynna get me to say something stupid but I aint stupid and I aint answering no more questions."
"You heard him chief. He's not answering anymore so either you charge him with something or you let him go."
"I think we can get something out of him."
I shook my head "This interview's over" and when I moved to go open the door, I felt him latch onto my arm.
"This interrogation isn't over until I say it is son. Don't forget who's in charge here."
"You've bent the rules for people who've done much worse than sit there and tell the truth. Why don't you just admit that the only reason this interview means a damn thing to you is because Jason's in my life?"
"You do—"
"Haf daddy now poppy?" Timmy interrupted him, and the chief froze, looking from Timmy to me and finally to the glass.
I watched him in silence as he put his hand behind his back and gritted his teeth, then finally, and with obvious unwillingness, he pushed the button for the intercom. "Let him go."
Eddie glanced up at the glass with a frown, while Simon merely shrugged.
"But it's mine. I told you I saved it up." Jason argued when Eddie tried to retrieve the bag from him and I moved to where my dad stood and pushed the button again.
"Let it go Jason." I spoke into the microphone. "I'll sort it out."
I watched as Jason looked toward the glass in surprise, then frowned before releasing the bag and folding his arms before him as he leaned back in the chair.
I set Timmy down when the door to the interrogation room opened and he ran past Simon and Eddie and straight to Jason.
I turned to my old man. "You see that man in there?" I gestured to the mirror, and my father's frown deepened. "He's the most hardworking person I know. He knows what it means to fulfill his responsibilities and he works damn hard to make sure his kid has everything he needs." I told him
"He raised that little genius you obviously love so much and he did it alone, without help from a damn person. More than that, he did it without a solid roof over their heads and without a place to really call home." He looked towards the reunion between father and son, but said nothing. "The odds have been against him since day one dad. No matter how hard people like him try, the world just has a way of beating them back down. Now I'm trying to give them a chance to survive and you're going to try to ruin his life because you don't approve? Are you kidding me?"
He looked at me "Michael—"
I shook my head. "Give him a break chief. Give him back his hard earned cash, take him off your radar and just give him a chance...like you did for Riley and like you've done for every other person who's deserved it over the years. He needs this."
Without waiting for his reply, I followed Timmy's path into the room and sat in the chair opposite Jason; watching as Timmy showed him all the cool things that his toy soldier could do—which wasn't much.
"Can it fly?"
Timmy shook his head. "No."
"So it just stands there?"
Timmy nodded. "Yes daddy."
"And the arms don't move or nothing?"
Timmy shook his head again; a wide, excited grin plastered on his little face. "No."
Jason shrugged, looking more interested in the prospect of resting his head on the desk than he was in Timmy's new toy. "Did you say thank you?"
Again Timmy nodded. "Yes."
Jason's eyes narrowed. "Did you for real?" he questioned seriously and Timmy frowned.
"No tank you daddy."
"Yes you gotta go say thank you or you can't keep it."
Timmy's frown deepened and I smiled. I could watch these two all day and not get bored. Interesting how much you could learn from the two of them.
"Tank you poppy?"
"Yeah go tell him so we can go home." He said, and this time he rested his cheek against his fist and closed his eyes.
"Headache?" I asked as Timmy ran out to find the chief. I wanted to go over there and rub his shoulders and run my hands through his curls.
"I just wanna go home." He mumbled without opening his eyes, and our late night conversation came back to me.
Home. He considered my place home, but he didn't think it would last. I didn't think there was really a way to convince him otherwise, except to continue making him feel like it was a place he could be safe, and hope that eventually he'd come to view it as something other than temporary. I sighed. I didn't want to be patient. I'd gone and gotten myself a ready-made family and now I just wanted everything that went along with that to fall quickly and neatly into place.
I pushed up from the desk and he squinted up at me. It was just too damn bad that life never came in gold wrapping paper. We mere mortals had to walk through mud before we found a decent river to wash away all the shit and make everything almost perfect again.
"Let's go home."
.....................................................
I was smiling like a jackass and it was for no other reason that because Jason was asleep in my bed. Such a thing probably wouldn't be considered an interesting phenomenon, except that as soon as we had walked through the door, he'd announced he was going to bed and had walked straight upstairs and into my room without hesitation.
It spoke volumes about how things had changed in the time we'd been living together. That he would go there without a thought made my day more than it probably should.
I grinned while I chopped the tomatoes, I grinned while I placed the steak on the grill and the chicken nuggets in the oven, then grinned some more while I stood on the semi complete patio sipping beer. It's the little things, I reminded myself. The little things that made me hope.
I glanced at my watch, then at the setting sun in the distance. Timmy was still with my dad because when we had gathered all his toys and prepared to carry him out the bureau doors, he'd thrown a tantrum because he hadn't wanted to leave 'poppy' behind, and the chief had suggested keeping him with him for the rest of the day and dropping him off after work.
I guessed that the only reason the usually overprotective Jason had agreed to the arrangement was because Timmy and a hangover didn't mesh well. I figured that by the time the steaks were done, dad would be here with Timmy and Jason would be hungry enough to slink downstairs for a bite.
I took another sip of the cold beer.
It was in fact half an hour later that Jason come downstairs hunting, not for food, but for a coffee he said—the stronger the better.
"Dinner's ready when you are."
He nodded, but grimaced as his palm settled over his stomach. "I think maybe I'll eat later, my stomach doesn't feel too good."
I retrieved a cup for him from the cabinet above his head, leaning just close enough to feel the heat radiating from his body, and hid a smile when he cleared his throat and stepped away.
When I set it on the counter, he reached for the creamer and sugar and I raised brow. "I thought you said the stronger the better."
He shrugged, and I took a seat around the counter. There was so much I wanted to ask him. So much I wanted to tell him, but drunk or not, I'd made him a promise last night and I couldn't look back now. As he poured what looked like a half a cup full of sugar into the mug, the silence grew and grew until finally, he took a deep breath and turned to face me— folding his arms before him. His face spoke of determination...and something else that I couldn't quite pinpoint.
"Aren't you gonna ask me about what happened last night?"
My eyes shot up at the words and for a second my heart soared.
"Last night?"
"Yeah with Ronny and them"
Of course. I swallowed my disappointment and damn if it didn't leave a bitter taste on the way down. "I read the report. I know what happened."
His eyes narrowed and he shifted from foot to foot, before finally leaning his hip against the counter. "Yeah, but you didn't hear it from me. I figured you'd wanna hear it from me."
I nodded. "I do, but I'm willing to wait until you're ready to tell me."
It took him a moment, but eventually he nodded and dropped his arms.
"I just wanted to help out with things." He said then. "I saved that money fair and square. I never stole it or nothin'."
"I know Jason."
"I hate that you gotta take care of everything. I just wanted to help out too."
I shook my head. "What you don't understand is that I love taking care of you two. I don't want you to have to worry about stuff like that Jace. I have absolutely no problem doing what I can for you and Timmy, so you shouldn't have to feel like you need to—"
"But it makes me uncomfortable living like this." He interrupted, voice raised. "I don't like how it feels to just take take take and I aint done nothin' to deserve it."
The incredulity of it all made me chuckle and his frown deepened. "Don't fucking laugh. I'm serious. Why do you have to be the only one to take care of everything? That shit's not fair to you."
"Jace—"
"A man gotta feel like a man Michael. I gotta earn my keep. I'm tired of living off of you and I need those dumbasses at your stupid FBI to give me my money back so I can do something, because doing nothing is driving me crazy!"
"Jesus Jason, you don't need to earn anything, and have you forgotten that you spend every single day working on that patio?"
He shook his head and turned to poor the coffee into his cup. For a moment he just stood there, looking at his refection in the spoon before he dropped it into the cup and stirred. "That aint a job. That's just you wasting money you could save." He said "That's just me taking from you again, and in two days the patio will be done and then what?" he turned to me. "Are you gonna give me a job mowing your lawn for way more money than it's worth too?"
I ran a hand through my hair in frustration as I looked at him.
"I'm gonna look for a job when the patio's done...a real one. Or else...or else I won't be able to stay here no more."
"This is ridiculous."
"No it aint, and I bet if you were in the same place as me you'd understand." He paused, then sighed. "I wanna take care of you and Timmy too." He finished quietly.
I didn't think I could learn any more from him than I had already, but I should have known by now that he was full of surprises. I watched him as he stood there looking miserable and upset, yet determined, and I realized that I'd never known another person like him—so ready for responsibility, so willing to earn his place. He wanted to feel like he really belonged I realized. This would make him feel like he was a part of something, rather than just a visitor in a home that he clearly wanted to call his own.
I smiled and shook my head. The way he thought...it was unlike anyone I'd ever met before. "I mentioned a job at my uncle's garage once." I began, and he looked up, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "His name's Niko and he needs an extra mechanic. Since you know so much about cars I told him about you. I'm sure he still needs the help so when you're done with the patio I can give him a call for you."
His eyes were wide with surprise and uncertainty as he watched me. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." I dug around in the basket in the center of the counter where I kept all the bills and pulled out the cheapest one. I threw it his way and he caught it midair. "You can pay the water bill if that's what you want."
Jason looked at the front of the envelope, then back at me in surprise "You mean...like every month?"
I shrugged. "Whatever works for you."
"I can pay it every month." He was quick to add, holding the envelope to his chest as though it was the most important thing he'd ever been given.
"If that's what you want."
"Wow. Thank you" He said, holding it out before him then with unsteady hands. "I've never had my very own bill before." He whispered, then looked at me with a smile that could have melted butter. "I won't let you down Michael, I swear."
"I know you won't"
Coffee forgotten, he walked over to the counter and sat down—turning the unopened envelope around and around in his hands. "It's like living in real life." He whispered reverently, and I realized for the first time just how much this really meant to him—even if it was just a thirty dollar bill.
..............................................................
I held Timmy's hands while he did his business on the toilet because he was still afraid he'd fall in despite the child-safe toilet seat I'd installed so long ago. He was humming a song I'd never heard as we waited and when we heard the closet door slam down the hal,l he glanced at the bathroom door. "Poppy come?"
I shook my head. "He really made an impression on you didn't he?"
"No."
"Poppy went home remember? You'll get to see him again soon though I promise."
"An gwammy?"
"Yup and grammy and all the friends you made at the FBI today."
"An Eddie?"
"Yup and Simon too." I laughed and that seemed to appease him, as he began to swing his legs and the humming returned.
"Are you done?"
He shook his head. "No."
My legs were starting to cramp from crouching so long. "What if I just hold one hand?" I suggested, but he frowned, tightening his hold on my fingers.
"I promise the toilet isn't scary. There's no way you'll fall in." I tried to persuade him. Like we hadn't had this conversation so many times before.
"No."
I sighed and shifted so that I was sitting on the floor with legs on either side of him and his scary throne.
The humming continued.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT.
THANKS FOR READING! My new book has been published on Amazon! It's a little different from what I usually write so feel free to check it out at the following link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BNDQD3A?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
Thanks peeps and KEEP SWEET.
-DoUbLe.A
-unedited.