Years later and Nick had found himself a profession that suited him just fine. It was strange too. He'd always thought it a waste of time yet here he was, at his desk at the 290th precinct in the bustling New York. He leaned back in his chair, wondering why he suddenly thought of the fuzzy afternoon. Maybe it was because of the events that had happened over the last couple days.
It had all started with his cell phone ringing for the third time that day. His cell had rung yet all he did was stare at it. He knew who it was and didn't want to have to deal with it. The precinct he worked in was busy and noisy, so he hadn't heard the person walk up. Someone tapped him on the shoulders and he looked back to see his partner, Marcus.
"Are you just going to leave it ringing like that all day?" The man who he had known as Marcus Gunnuir asked, smirking at him. The man had the kind of face one always read about. The one where whomever saw him smiling felt right at home, like he was a lifelong friend. This was the point. Marcus looked like the good cop and without even saying a word; he made one think he was. But as soon as he started talking, one realized he was anything but.
Nick sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "It's just going to end up being Tally again." He replied in way of explanation. Marcus nodded in understanding. Natalia Manuel, Tally to her friends and family, was a mess. She drank, smoked god knows what and slept around like she was collecting detriments to her health. It was downright frustrating to be the one to pick her drunken ass home every weekend. And that person was Nick.
He would have talked to her about it but she never listened. She seemed to be lost. Like she was unsure what to do with herself and though he hated how she was, Nick knew he had no right to chastise her. Especially since he was the reason why she was like this.
Just then, the phone rang again. This time his parent's ringtone sounded. Marcus and he exchanged a look. "You want to handle this?" Nick asked hopefully.
Marcus laughed and shook his head. "And get between you and your folks? Hell, no, partner." He retorted, patting his friends shoulder sympathetically. "You're on your own. But I will be here to watch the fireworks."
"Asshole." He muttered, just before answering the phone. "Hello?" He sighed, anticipating his mother's firm but somewhat shrill voice, demanding that he go pick up his sister. Yet all he heard was silence. "Hello?"
"Hello, Nick." A deep voice replied. Nick sighed in relief. Only one man he knew had that deep but soothing voice that made one wonder how he got along with his (some people say) high strung mother.
"Dad? You're calling me?" He asked, sharing a look of confusion with Marcus. Derrick Manuel was the peace maker in their family but never had he actually started a conversation. Usually, Nick's mom beat him to it. So this was new.
"It's not weird for a father to call his son about something, is it?" Derrick asked, as if reading Nick's mind. He, as a man in his late 50's, was as sharp as he'd been when he served as an officer himself.
"No, sir." He replied, sitting up in his chair. He knew his father couldn't see him but it was engrained in him to do so when being spoken to.
"Good." His father said, clearly smiling since his voice got less stern. "Anyway, about Tally...."
"Oh, no! I am not doing this today, dad." He interrupted, wanting to get this out of the way. "I have a lot of work to do and I can't just leave and pick Tally up. Just have mom pick her up. It might help." He suggested. At this point, Marcus had taken a seat beside him and lounged about, watching the one sided conversation with amusement.
A sigh sounded on the other end and Nick knew what was coming. Derrick Manuel's infamous lecture. How many snotty teens had reverted to looking like guilty children who'd been caught? How many criminals had succumbed to his epic speech of right and wrong and morals? All from this man's lecture. There was no way out of this!
"Nicholas Alejandro Manuel!" Nick cringed, Oh dear, he was pulling up his middle name. Any worse and his Christian name would pop up. "You are my eldest son and a great source of pride for me but I will not allow you to talk about your family like that." He scolded, making Nick want to curl up and die. Marcus was snickering next to him. The black man had met his father and knew the tongue lashing Nick was getting. And, like a kid, he was enjoying the show.
Again. Asshole.
After a whole five minutes of guilt tripping his 31 year old son into submission, his soothing voice returned like a salve to heal his wounds. "Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I was going to tell you that Tally doesn't need you to pick her up."
"I'm sorry?" He said, surprised at this development.
"Well, you should be." He father retorted, continue on. "Tally seems to have found a ride home in a taxi. Had you answered your phone, you would have known this. This is what you get for making such assumptions, Nicholas." And then, again, he was scolded but only for two minutes this time before a call from his sergeant forced him to have to hang up. It was a good thing too, since the man was jabbing at some old wounds. Why did he have to bring up his childhood mistakes? He was 31 now. There was no need to bring up the yogurt incident.
After that depantsing, it was good to know his dear friend and partner was there to ridicule him about being scolded like a child by their father. Really, what would he be without him? One word. Happy.
Marcus spent the entire 20 second trip from their desk to their sergeant's office teasing him. The man was merciless. He even brought up the yogurt incident. How did he even know about that?! Was it now on his public record?
*******************************************************
Soon afterward, he and Marcus stood in front of his sergeant, Kelley Hudson. And yes, she was a woman. The first female sergeant in the entire history of their precinct. Quite the prejudice was against her. To make it worse, she was small, cute and curvy. Her looks were so in contrast with her job, she had developed a complex about it. Kelley was anything but nice. She was the biggest hard ass anyone in this precinct had ever faced.
Even as he stared down at her petite body, he couldn't even think of a joke to make about the fierce expression on her adorable face. Anyone who had served under her knew she was not as sweet as she looked. Hell, she didn't even like her own name. She claimed it was too weak a name so she ordered everyone to address her by her last name.
"What the hell took you so long?" She demanded, sitting behind her desk, looking even smaller in the old sergeant's chair. "I called you both a half an hour ago."
Nick glared at Marcus. "I apologize, ma'am, but Marcus was being an asshole." He explained bitterly. Hudson shrugged.
"What else is new?" She said, rolling his eyes. "I want to know why your late, not the reputation update on your partner." Marcus laughed at this, earning a glare that shut him up. The fact everyone knew he was an asshole was a great source of laughs around the office. It wasn't that Marcus was a bad cop, he was excellent. And he wasn't even a bad guy. One could be friends with him. He was just an asshole toward some people. Some people hated him for it, which was why he had never held onto a partnership for any longer than a couple weeks. Others, like Nick and Hudson, tolerated him and accepted it. As such, Nick was the only partner to stay with him for longer than 3 months. He broke that record 4 years ago though.
"What he means, ma'am, is that while he was being scolded by his dad, I may have forgotten to tell him you were looking for us." Marcus explained, grinning despite the glares he was getting from both inhabitants of the office.
"I wasn't even on the phone then!" Nick gritted out, still annoyed by it. Marcus' response was to pat Nick's shoulder good naturedly, like he hadn't inconvenienced his friend. Then again, Marcus was like that.
"Anyway!" Hudson interrupted, regaining the full attention of both officers before her. "I have a new assignment for you two. What do you guys know about the recent disappearances of teens in the city?"
Nick thought back to the snippets of info that he had heard about the case. It was supposed to be a high profile case, due it being in connection to several CEO's of big name companies. Though the connection was shaky, they had narrowed it down to two leads.
"I heard that the two lead suspects in the case are Jaix Cataphos and Alikos Perisaros." Marcus said, as if continuing a thought. "But I also heard that officers Jackson and Turner were on the case. This is stuff you already know we know, so why the sudden questions?" Another reason to like Marcus was how fast he saw through ones bullshit. He always could tell when someone was leading another on. It was uncanny.
Hudson stared them down for a moment and then let out a breath. "You probably don't know since I've been keeping it under wraps from the rest of the staff, but both officers have been severely injured."
Both Nick and Marcus took a step back, shocked. Not about the officers being hurt, that happened a lot. It was the fact that is was being kept from everyone else.
"Why?" Nick demanded, walking up to Hudson's desk and slamming his hands on her desk. "If an officer has been injured, shouldn't we look into their attack? It might be in connection to the case they were working on before."
