"The laughter of a child is the light of a home."
-Unknown
***
Lisa took a second to process everything.
A man was dead on the floor.
Across from him was Namjoon, covered in blood.
He was holding a gun.
Song Eungi was frozen, staring at the dead man.
Tae had moved, running up the stairs to hug someone.
The kid Tae was hugging was Jimin.
Lisa exhaled slowly. "I'm Officer Lisa," she introduced, raising her badge for a second before dropping it back down to her side. "Nobody move." She pulled out her cell phone and speed dialed a number while watching everyone in the room. "Yeah. We're at Song Eungi's house. I'll send you the address. Be here in 10." She hung up and quickly texted the address before slipping her phone back into her pocket.
"Song Eungi, you're under arrest for child abduction," Lisa said, pushing Eungi against the wall and putting her in a pair of handcuffs. "Not to mention obstruction of justice." Once Eungi was handcuffed, Lisa went to check the dead man's pulse to affirm that he was indeed deceased.
She sighed as she pulled her fingers off of his neck. Nothing.
Namjoon seemed to unfreeze, realizing the severity of the situation, and he dropped the gun, letting it clatter to the ground from his hands. "I...it was an accident..."
Lisa pursed her lips, grabbing the gun and activating the safety before sliding it into her waistband.
"I'll argue self defense, but damn it all to Hell, Namjoon. I told you to wait for me. I told you, and you ignored me. Now, I don't know what to do..."
Namjoon stared at her helplessly.
"Namjoon, you could go to prison. What about your kids, huh? Did you think about them when you made this stupid decision?" Lisa bit down on her teeth before looking at Eungi, who stared back with wide, scared eyes.
Lisa remembered 5 years ago, when she'd made a mistake that had put her job in jeopardy. She'd broken rules, all in her desperation to beat the clock. She'd gone in without a warrant. She hadn't even had probable cause. She'd requested Jaebum to come with her, and she'd ruined his reputation too.
She should be doing this by the book.
But if she did that, Namjoon could be taken away from his kids.
To Hell with the book. "Listen," Lisa said to Eungi, crossing her arms. "You ruined this man's life. You've nearly destroyed his family. I can lock you away for at least 10 years in prison. Work with me, and I'll try to get your charges reduced somewhat. I'll include mitigating factors in your case details, how you lost your baby and were acting under the depression surrounding that, how you just needed another child to fill the hole of the one you'd lost. I'll do what I can, but you have to agree to what I tell you."
Eungi hesitated before nodding. She looked genuinely sad, and it made Lisa hesitate for a second, but then she went on, burning the book that she was supposed to operate by. "When they interrogate you and take your statement, here's what you're going to say."
Namjoon looked up, shocked.
"You're going to tell them that I came here with Namjoon." Lisa paused to hold up a warrant so Eungi could see it. "We had a warrant. We saw Jimin, Namjoon got upset, and your husband pulled a gun. Namjoon and I wrestled for control, trying to get it away from your husband, but the gun went off in the dispute. Your husband was the unfortunate victim of an accidental shooting. You didn't see who was holding the gun. After the gun went off, it was lying between all three of us. Understand?"
Eungi hesitated before nodding. "What about...what about Jimin?"
The boy on the stairs looked up, his face covered in tears.
Lisa's face hardened. "Jimin will return home with his family. His real family, the one you stole him from."
Eungi's body heaved as she began crying. "But he's my little boy, you can't just take him away!"
Lisa swallowed. "He was never yours."
But Eungi cried anyway.
Lisa ignored Namjoon's shocked look and instead turned to the children on the stairs. "Go," she said quietly to Namjoon. "They need you."
Namjoon nodded, dazed, and stumbled to his feet before running to the stairs. "Jimin, Jimin, Jimin," he murmured, desperate, needy.
Jimin froze for a second before his eyes brightened. "Daddy?"
Namjoon closed his eyes, crying alongside the others, and ran up the stairs, sweeping Jimin up in his arms, wincing slightly due to the gunshot. "Oh, baby, I've missed you so much...I never gave up...Never..."
Tae smiled, sitting on the stairs next to Jimin, and Namjoon swept him up in the hug as well. "I was so worried...so scared," Namjoon said, hugging them harder than he should have just to affirm that they were there, that they were real, that he was holding his baby boy in his arms at last.
"She said you weren't real," Jimin whispered in his ear. "She said you were all a dream. But you're not a dream. Are you, Daddy? I don't want this to be a dream."
"No, baby," Namjoon said, finally letting himself sob openly. "It's not a dream. It's not," he said, convincing himself as well as Jimin. "It's real. You're real. I'm real. Tae's real and Jungkook is real and Hobi is real and Yoongi is real and Jin is real, too."
Jimin pulled back, his eyes bright. "They're real?"
Namjoon nodded, giving him a watery smile. "We've all been waiting for you, Jimin. Every day, waiting for you to come home."
Jimin rubbed his eyes, wiping away tears. "I thought it was all a dream. She told me I made it all up. I thought- I thought I was alone. I thought you were all fake, inside my head." After a long moment, he pulled his fists away from his eyes. "I want- I want to see them. Please?"
Namjoon smiled. "Of course you can. They're all outside."
Jimin brightened considerably. "Right now?!"
Namjoon nodded. "Right now. They're in the car. Tae? Do you- do you want to take Jimin outside to meet his brothers?"
Tae nodded, taking Jimin's hand in his own and walking him down the stairs slowly. He wasn't going to let Jimin trip. He wasn't going to let anyone or anything hurt Jimin ever again.
Namjoon watched them walk out the door before looking back at Lisa. "Lisa..."
She shook her head. "Don't say anything. I'm doing this because I want to. For the kids. Not for you."
"Lisa, this is your job. If anyone finds out that I was the one holding the gun-"
"Nobody's going to find out," Lisa said, looking away from Namjoon. Her eyes were wet as well, for too many reasons. Finally figuring out the case and ending it. Seeing Jimin again after too many years. Ending the only reason Namjoon had ever had to keep seeing her, every day.
She didn't kid herself. Namjoon hadn't called her number because he'd liked her. He'd called it because she was a cop and he needed a cop, not a woman.
She was a cop, and that was all she was to Namjoon.
After this, she would go back to being a cop, and Namjoon would go back to being a dad.
Only she would be a cop who was in love with Namjoon, and he would be a dad who was in love with his kids.
She knew that this case wasn't about her. It was about Jimin.
But it didn't matter to her heart.
She had to end this before it hurt more. "Just leave," she said, her back to Namjoon. "I can handle this."
"Lisa-"
She swallowed, forcing herself to get back to her job. "For reference, I'll need to know where the first bullet went. I heard the first gunshot. Obviously the second went through the husband. Where's the first?"
Namjoon hesitated. "Well, it went through my arm and towards that wall..."
Lisa's eyes widened. "That's your blood?!"
Namjoon nodded. "But, don't worry. It went through," he said uncertainly.
"Namjoon, that's not a detail you leave until now!" Lisa shouted, massaging her brow. "Just - stay here," she commanded, running to her car and returning with a medical kit, bandaging Namjoon's arm. "There," she said. She didn't meet his eyes. "Now, go." She sighed, looking up with a smile that was only partially forced. "You've got a family to get home."
Namjoon hesitated, biting his lip, feeling the need to say something to Lisa, a thank you, an apology, something in between, but the door opened and Jaebum walked in.
"Hey, just got here. 9 minutes. Aren't you proud- woah, what happened here?" he asked, copying Lisa's earlier motions and checking a pulse before standing up with a sigh.
"You're free to leave, Namjoon," Lisa said, standing up to her full height and acting as professionally as she could.
Namjoon sensed her shift and gave her a sad smile. "I'm sorry. And...thanks," he said before leaving through the door Jaebum had just used.
"What was the sorry for?" Jaebum asked, confused, and Lisa shook her head.
I'm wondering the same thing.
Sorry for forcing me to lie on my reports to protect you?
Sorry that you don't feel the way about me that I feel about you?
Sorry for something else?
"It's nothing."
***
When Namjoon got to the car, all of the kids were outside, hugging Jimin, who was crying just like how Namjoon remembered, with his face scrunched up and his eyes red and puffy and his cheeks soft with tears. Namjoon also noticed that Youngjae had come with as though to check how well his drawing compared to Jimin's real face, and he looked satisfied.
"Thank you," Namjoon said to Youngjae. He thought about shaking his hand, but he was covered in blood. "I don't think I ever told you that. But thank you."
Youngjae smiled before looking back at Jimin. "I'm just glad we were able to find him. I feel kind of weirdly attached," he said, laughing softly. "I've been drawing him for 5 years and now I finally get to see the real product and it's so much better than I could have imagined."
"Jimin?" Namjoon asked with a smile. He thought the same thing.
"Partially," Youngjae said before smiling at Namjoon. "But seeing all of you together."
Namjoon didn't know what to say to that besides nodding and thanking Youngjae once more, and then he went over to his family - his full family - and hesitated for a second.
Then he said the words he'd been waiting 5 years to say.
"Let's go home."