Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Common Ground ❯ Chapter 3
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: NeekerBreeker 
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Police | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.13.2004 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.8K | Visits: 379 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Police | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.13.2004 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.8K | Visits: 379 | Status: Work In Progress
Chapter Three
Drake woke up to a sharp ringing sound. He raised his head and blinked a few times before reaching out to shut the damn alarm clock up. Hadn't he just closed his eyes? After throwing the clock angrily to the floor, he came to think that his alarm clock didn't ring. He groaned and grabbed his cell phone from the night table.
He answered it, his voice hoarse from sleep. "What?"
JJ sounded excited. "Someone who could be our suspect was caught red-handed in Long Island City."
Drake sat up, glancing at his wristwatch on the table. Friday, 8:12 PM. He had gotten himself a nice six hours of sleep, after all. "They've got him in custody?"
"Not yet, they're after him right now. I'm right behind the corner, meet me outside!" JJ said and hung up.
Drake hastily got dressed, grabbed his gun, badge and keys and ran out. JJ was already waiting for him in his car when Drake stepped out of the apartment house. JJ leaned over to open the door for him. He looked like he could hardly sit still behind the wheel.
"Hurry up!" he said, and before Drake had closed the door behind him, stepped on the gas.
"What direction is he going to?" Drake asked.
JJ kept his eyes on the road. "Bushwick station."
Fuck. Not that way.
Drake frowned. He couldn't help worrying.
"It's the way it goes, isn't it, senpai?" JJ glanced at him, half-smile on his lips. "First the case seems like a dead end and nothing happens, and then we finally strike gold."
"It was just a matter of days, we knew that," Drake said. "Turn left next."
"But senpai, that'd take -"
"I know where it's going to take us. But there's less traffic on that road. And there's a bigger chance we could come to the station without being seen." Drake closed his eyes and opened them again. Little stars danced across his vision. He needed to shake the sleep out of his system before they got there.
JJ turned left in the next intersection as told, but looked at Drake questioningly. "How do you know, senpai? You don't have a car."
Drake just shrugged.
*Because I used to drive this way with Jill and Stevie. Jill would come to pick up Stevie after I had looked after him, and then she'd drive us three to her place.* He tried to stop thinking about how close to Jill's house they were heading.
They had turned away from the wider roads, and in the darkening night, their surroundings were almost black until they saw the station ahead of them. The signs of the shops and diners around it shone in pale neon colors. JJ pulled up and called the commanding officer on the case to tell that they had reached the station. He said okay a few times and hung up, putting the cell phone back into his pocket.
"What're they saying?" Drake asked.
"Our guy's still heading this way, in a white Datsun. They've got the street blocked ahead of him, so I think we should keep our position for now; he might well turn this way." JJ pricked up his ears. "Listen."
Drake could hear the sirens, too. He checked his gun and rolled open the window.
"JJ, let me drive. You have a better chance of hitting anything in this darkness."
"We don't have the time!"
A rusty white car sped past the alley.
"There he is!" JJ announced and turned the car nearly sideways so that it blocked the alley. With any luck, the suspect would drive straight to their trap.
Drake heard a screeching sound that he felt in his teeth. Rubber was burning somewhere not far away. He leaned out of the window slightly and took aim at the opening of the alley, waiting for the white car to appear. The sirens were now so loud that the patrol cars couldn't be more than a block away.
He didn't have to wait for long. The white car returned to the way it had come from and turned in a dangerously looking curve to the alley. The headlights were a blinding contrast to the darkness of the alley. Drake aimed at the tires, painfully aware of the lack of a clear view of what he was shooting at. He fired three shots, but that didn't slow the car down. If anything, the driver picked up speed and was now coming straight towards them.
Drake sat back down. "Move out of the way, JJ, he's not stopping!"
JJ squeezed the steering wheel with his left hand and kept his gaze fixed on the approaching car.
"I said get us out of the way!"
In the last moment, JJ turned the car away, and the white Datsun only scraped its left side as it passed them. JJ didn't lose a second before speeding after it. Drake glanced behind them. Two patrol cars were right on their heels.
"We gotta stop him before he gets to the highway," JJ said.
"I know!" Drake leaned out of the window again, but had to pull back quickly in order to not be hit by a trash can. Damn but this alley was narrow! He tried again and fired two shots towards the car ahead of them. This time he heard the satisfactory sound of the bullet piercing the tire.
He sat back down again to dodge the shots coming from the patrol car behind them. The white Datsun veered uncontrollably to both sides, apparently losing another tire. Those beat cops sure knew how to shoot.
Suddenly, just when Drake had expected it to turn left to the highway, the white car veered wildly to the right and screeched to a halt. JJ had just enough time to hit the brakes before crashing into it. Unfortunately, the cops behind them weren't so quick; most likely because they couldn't see the suspect's car as well as JJ and Drake could. The patrol car hit JJ's car from behind and made Drake almost kiss the windshield. He managed to break the dive forward partly, using the hand that wasn't holding the gun. Still, he hit his head and couldn't help groaning. JJ unbuckled himself and turned to look at him.
"Are you okay, senpai?"
"He's getting away," Drake said, shooing JJ off. Now he was very much awake, but the stars had returned with a vengeance. "I'll catch up!"
JJ nodded, looking worried, but did as he said and got out of the car.
Drake could hear several voices shouting, "Freeze! NYPD!" and people running. He took a deep breath, blinked rapidly to clear up his vision and threw open the car door, stepping out. He felt a nasty pain in his head as he got on his feet, but ignored it, joining the two men in blue that ran to an even narrower alley that branched off the one they were currently on. One of them switched on the flashlight, and in its light, Drake could see the cops running ahead of him - and someone, most likely their suspect, quickly turning behind a corner ahead of them. Someone fired his gun. Drake assumed it to be JJ, because the shot hit the brick wall right behind the suspect. In the dark alley, that wasn't a bad shot.
He span around the corner among the last, only to see the alley widen into a bus stop where it met the wider street. One of the beat cops was firing his last shot after a car that was quickly moving away from sight. The other two were collectively cursing the bastard who had gotten away.
JJ came to him. He was, like Drake, out of breath. "He had a car waiting for him. A big, expensive-looking car; I couldn't catch the registration number."
"Shit." Drake put his gun away and breathed deep in order to stop his heart from racing. He heard the blood pound in his head. "'Least we got his car. There must be something inside."
One of the beat cops shook his head at Drake's remark. "Wasn't his car, detective. He stole it from the victim."
JJ suddenly moaned and slapped his hand to his forehead, as if remembering something. "My car!" He hurried back to the alley they had come from. The beat cops followed him, in much less hurried pace.
Drake stopped one of them. "My partner said you caught the guy red-handed. How's the victim?"
The cop scratched his sandy blonde moustache. "She's being taken to the hospital as we speak. Looked like she'd pull through."
"Who called you?"
"A friend of the victim's, or so it seems. He's probably giving his statement to the boys at the crime scene."
"Okay, thanks." Drake nodded to the officer and jogged after JJ.
He found JJ looking at the smashed rear end of his car sadly. Two of the beat cops were speaking on their radio with someone. The alley seemed oddly quiet now.
Drake came over and patted JJ on the shoulder sympathetically.
"I had only had it for three years," JJ said, sounding like his favorite pet bunny had just died. "It'll cost me a fortune to get it fixed." Then he suddenly kicked the patrol car that was in an even worse shape. "Dammit!"
Drake found it amusing that JJ never seemed to use stronger words than "damn". If it had been *his* car, all hell would've broken loose.
"C'mon," he said, "let's go check out the crime scene."
Grudgingly, JJ obliged and followed Drake to the other patrol car.
***
The drive to a small park in the middle of a shoddy-looking housing development didn't take long. They got out of the car and walked over to where a couple of men in blue were standing near swings and a slide that were scrawled full of graffiti. The place looked vaguely familiar to Drake. Then again, this kind of shady neighborhood always did.
He flashed his badge to the nearest beat cop, a red-haired young woman. "Detectives Parker and Addams. I hear you've got someone for us?"
The cop nodded primly. "This way, Detective."
Drake glanced at JJ to make sure he was following and found him looking intently at something in the rose bushes around the swings.
"JJ?"
"You go talk to the witness, senpai," JJ said, going over to look more closely at whatever he had detected, "I'm going to check out something."
Drake nodded and walked over to where the beat cop already was. On the bench sat a spot-faced, skinny boy that looked to be about sixteen years old. He was wearing only a sickeningly purple t-shirt and jeans. Drake shuddered in sympathy; he was cold in his long coat. The boy's eyes looked almost ready to pop out of their sockets. He was not just freaked out because he had seen someone almost get killed; he was talking so fast that the beat cops obviously had trouble understanding what he tried to say, and he was continuously drumming the ground with his other foot. His frog-like eyes couldn't seem to focus. Drake could've sworn the boy was on something. It had been a while since their squad had last dealt with drugs, but Drake guessed that it might be speed.
The beat cop that had showed Drake the way looked at him and shook her head. Her red hair was pulled up into a tight ponytail and she constantly changed her weight from one foot to the other. She wasn't half bad-looking.
"I'm afraid you're not going to get much out of the boy. He's high as a kite - most likely angel dust. We're suspecting he came here to meet a dealer, got his fix, and took it all after calling us, to forget the horror of witnessing an attempted murder." The woman looked around like a cat that knows the mouse is hiding somewhere in the vicinity. "We've busted two teenagers for drugs in this neighborhood."
Drake found himself staring at her. He quickly looked away and said, "Uh, well, good thing he managed to call, anyway. Have you got anything out of him so far? Any description of our suspect?"
The cop shook her head again. "Nothing more than we could see ourselves. A tall man, about 6'5"; short hair, dark clothes. We'll send you the full report, of course."
Drake nodded and rubbed his chin, wondering where to go from here. He glanced at the boy again; it was no use trying to get a clear statement from someone flying that high.
"Detective!" called one of the cops who were trying to talk to the boy. "Can we take him to the station?"
"Yeah, okay. I want his statement once he's able to give one."
As if the kid would remember anything that had happened. Drake nodded thanks to the red-haired cop, who seemed to realize the way he was looking at her and turned away to help take the boy into the patrol car.
Drake shoved his hands into the huge pockets of his coat and walked over to JJ, who was talking with some of the cops on the far edge of the park.
JJ looked up when he approached, and for some strange reason Drake felt like he had a guilty conscience. Was it because of the redhead? ...What the hell was he thinking, anyway?
"We were just tracking the way the suspect left the scene," JJ explained, making a sweeping gesture at the uneven grass and ugly rose bushes. "Officer Moe here said he saw him drop something when they approached from the street over there." He pointed at the street between two dull gray buildings in front of them. A big garbage can had fallen on the ground and the trash was blocking the street.
"He ran through there?" Drake took a few steps closer. "He could've lost his hold of whatever he was holding when he tripped over that garbage can over there."
"Like a murder weapon, Detective?" one of the cops asked cockily, grinning.
Drake flashed him a quick smile. "We should be so lucky. But it's worth checking out, anyway."
He turned to JJ, leaving the trash digging to the beat cops. "The victim's still alive and apparently, able to give a statement. Isn't this a detective's dream?"
Drake could hardly see JJ's crooked smile in the poor light. "If you say so, senpai." JJ sighed and kicked the ground.
"Still pissed about what happened to your car?"
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me." JJ grimaced. "Can we leave now? I want something to eat."
Drake looked around. "I think so. Tell your blue-clad friends to send the report if they find anything; I'll go see if I can hail a cab."
***
They were both numb with cold when the cab finally arrived. JJ had called someone to tow his car to the service station and seemed to be in a slightly better mood now that his car was being taken care of. Drake should've known JJ'd care for a rusty old Toyota like it was his girlfriend.
Boyfriend. Whatever.
Drake rubbed his hands together, more out of habit than because it was cold, and glanced out of the window. They were only a few blocks away from his apartment house. "That burger stand near my place okay?"
JJ nodded, and when he looked at Drake, the usual cheery expression had returned to his face.
Drake had been expecting it to happen soon enough. "Hell of a way to start the day," he said.
"Well, it woke you up, didn't it? I wish we had more car chases."
Drake chuckled. "Shows you were never a beat cop. Stop here, please," he then added to the driver. He didn't look forward to leaving the comfortably warm car.
After emptying his wallet to pay for his share of the fee, it occurred to Drake what day it was. He cursed under his breath.
"I need to draw out some money," he told JJ and pointed at the ATM at the corner. "You go on ahead."
Drake was so goddamn lousy with money. He should've remembered what day of the month it was before buying that new TV the day before. Unless a good fairy godmother had happened to walk by and magic some money on his account...
No, and he hadn't really thought so. It wasn't as if the Lady Luck had been on his side before. He drew out the minimum possible amount of dollars and sighed. Gabbie would be so pissed off now. This was the second time this year.
He walked around the corner and to the greasy little burger stand, sucking his teeth.
JJ was stuffing his face with the kind help of the biggest cheeseburger Drake had ever seen. He couldn't say anything at the moment - really, Drake wondered how he could breathe - but raised his eyebrows questioningly.
Drake shook his head and leaned over to order his usual bacon burger with fries. "Nothing. I'm gonna get brutally killed, 's all."
JJ finally swallowed and said, "By who? Oh, wait, don't tell me - another ex?"
Drake glared daggers at his direction. "I bow at your powers of deduction, JJ."
"Calm down, I'm just curious. What brought her to your mind all of a sudden? *I* don't often think about my ex-boyfriends when I use an ATM." JJ ate a ketchup-soaked fried potato. "Is that some kind of weird hetero thing?"
Drake couldn't stop himself quickly enough. "As a matter of fact, yes. It's called the alimony payment. Which I won't be able to pay in time this month, which, consequently, is going to get me killed."
Luckily, the stand keeper offered him his burger, which distracted him a little. Still, Drake could've hit himself on the head. It was bad enough that he would have to make the unavoidable apology call and listen to Gabbie tell him what a fucking insensitive jerk he was, but he felt he had let Matt down, too. Drake felt bad for him, not Gabbie.
"Alimony?" JJ repeated. Drake glanced at him as he bit into his bacon burger. His partner's eyes were as big as saucers.
"I never told you about Matt?"
JJ shook his head slowly. "Not that I remember, no."
"Well, he's my son. That simple."
Drake realized that he hadn't really told about Matt to anyone except a girlfriend or two, and old friends like Dee. It hadn't seemed relevant. Drake had to admit it was kind of strange that JJ didn't know. Surely JJ must've seen in the papers that he was divorced, but... Jesus, they had been partners for nearly eight years and he had never even mentioned it?
*I guess Jill might've had a point when she called me secretive,* Drake thought. *I prefer "private person", though.*
"What about his mother?" JJ asked.
Gabbie. Drake snorted. How was he supposed to describe Gabbie to someone who had never met her?
"She's... it was something stupid I did back when I was in high school. Teenage romance sorta thing. I wouldn't mind forgetting all about her, but there's Matt to consider."
JJ finished his burger, frowning. "Ouch. Sometimes I'm glad I don't have problems like that."
"Only sometimes?" Drake grinned a lop-sided grin. "You can be a walking Gay Pride when you want to."
JJ grinned back. "When I want to, yeah." His grin quickly faded away and a slightly worried expression replaced it. "You do get visitation rights, don't you?"
Drake looked up at the sky, where stars were dim and distant. "Technically, I do. But she stayed back in Wisconsin when I moved here, so it's pretty damn hard to find the time."
JJ made a sympathetic noise and put his hand on Drake's shoulder. "How old is he?"
"Ten next month." Drake looked at JJ, smiling a lop-sided smile. "Why? You don't even like kids."
Drake was glad that JJ was there. For once, JJ helped him feel comfortable. It was probably because he was concentrating all his energy on killing his hamburger instead of bouncing around the place. Not that Drake really minded that, either, although if he ever admitted as much to JJ, he'd probably tease Drake to death and hop like a kangaroo around the office for days on end. Sometimes Drake found himself suspecting that JJ was intentionally trying to provoke him. He couldn't even guess why, but when it came to JJ, very few things made sense to Drake.
JJ shrugged cheerfully. "I don't know. It just seems to me he's important to you." He cocked his head and smiled adorably. "And I do like *you*."
Drake had no idea how to reply to that. Since when had JJ casually tossed comments like that to him? Heck, he was downright flirting. Wasn't that the Dee-Senpai Method? Drake quickly took a bite of his burger.
Maybe that was just JJ's way of trying to forget about Dee? If that was the case, Drake could accept it. He had to admit that he sort of liked it, even. It had been some time since someone had flirted with him. Even if it was just his work partner being his crazy self, it was still nice ego feed. Even if JJ was a guy.
*Really,* Drake thought, chuckling to himself, *I know way too many gay people.*
"What's funny?" JJ asked, nudging him.
Drake shook his head. He couldn't wipe the stupid smile off his face.
JJ started to say something, but the sharp ringing of his cell phone interrupted him. He quickly wiped his hands on a paper napkin and fished his cell phone from his breast pocket.
"Addams. Uh-huh, that's right." He listened for a moment, then exclaimed, "You're kidding!" He looked at Drake. His eyes were shining. "Okay, send the Forensics Lab report with the other papers. Right. Okay." JJ nodded and hung up.
Drake had finished his burger and stuffed the papers into the garbage can. "They find something?"
JJ grinned and raised his thumb. "A surgical knife."
"Well, how about that!" Drake scratched his hair. "Lady Luck's fickle today, it seems. Was it really among the-- "
"The garbage, yes!" JJ laughed. "The Forensics should be finished with it by Monday."
Drake began to dig his cigarettes from his pocket. "We should call the hospital about the victim."
"Yeah. But the officers I talked with said that she had been in a pretty bad shape. The suspect had started on her feet, and you know what that means." JJ faked shivering.
Drake lit up. "Did they say if she was conscious?"
"She was knocked out first. Well, naturally, the guy couldn't work on her if she was struggling."
"Right, of course. So we won't get anything out of her today. Maybe we could check her tomorrow before we go over to Dee's."
JJ nodded and looked away. To Drake, it seemed like he was reminded of something unpleasant.
"You still want to go there tomorrow? Isn't that like rubbing it in?"
JJ sighed a little and scratched his hair. "Sort of. But I have to learn to live with the thought." He glanced at Drake with an exasperated look on his face. "I'm not a fragile flower, y'know. I can take it."
"Sure, I just..." Drake shrugged and took another drag of his cigarette.
"You just worry. I know." Drake could hear the smile in JJ's voice, although he wasn't looking at him. "That's what I like about you. You come off as this quiet tough guy, but you're really a softie underneath it all."
Drake didn't like the way this conversation was going. He didn't like being analyzed. It felt like he was being stripped naked in the street. No matter if JJ was right or not.
"You're starting to sound like one of my exes," he growled.
"Why the heck not? You've kissed me."
All right, that did it. Drake straightened up to leave. "I gotta get going. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"
"Aw, Drake-senpai! You know I didn't mean --"
Drake threw away his cigarette as he walked away.
Shit. Why did JJ have to start -- why did he have to be like that? He was such a fucking tease. And without any clear reason.
*You've kissed me.*
He had been drunk. That was it. He'd done more stupid things when he'd gone out to drink with Dee - not to mention when he was younger. Hell, he had ended up married with Gabbie! So what did that prove? Maybe nothing. But he couldn't deny that he'd done it. He remembered reasoning, with the beer and the three shots of bourbon swimming between his ears, that since JJ had kissed him, he had to return the favor. He had laughed at the thought at first, but when the opportunity came...
He had found he had actually *wanted* to do it.
Drake cursed under his breath as he slammed the door of his apartment house closed behind him. It occurred to him that this was the second time he had walked away when JJ had brought that damn kiss up; he had stomped off like an offended, tight-assed fucking idiot.
It occurred to him that he had a problem.
Drake woke up to a sharp ringing sound. He raised his head and blinked a few times before reaching out to shut the damn alarm clock up. Hadn't he just closed his eyes? After throwing the clock angrily to the floor, he came to think that his alarm clock didn't ring. He groaned and grabbed his cell phone from the night table.
He answered it, his voice hoarse from sleep. "What?"
JJ sounded excited. "Someone who could be our suspect was caught red-handed in Long Island City."
Drake sat up, glancing at his wristwatch on the table. Friday, 8:12 PM. He had gotten himself a nice six hours of sleep, after all. "They've got him in custody?"
"Not yet, they're after him right now. I'm right behind the corner, meet me outside!" JJ said and hung up.
Drake hastily got dressed, grabbed his gun, badge and keys and ran out. JJ was already waiting for him in his car when Drake stepped out of the apartment house. JJ leaned over to open the door for him. He looked like he could hardly sit still behind the wheel.
"Hurry up!" he said, and before Drake had closed the door behind him, stepped on the gas.
"What direction is he going to?" Drake asked.
JJ kept his eyes on the road. "Bushwick station."
Fuck. Not that way.
Drake frowned. He couldn't help worrying.
"It's the way it goes, isn't it, senpai?" JJ glanced at him, half-smile on his lips. "First the case seems like a dead end and nothing happens, and then we finally strike gold."
"It was just a matter of days, we knew that," Drake said. "Turn left next."
"But senpai, that'd take -"
"I know where it's going to take us. But there's less traffic on that road. And there's a bigger chance we could come to the station without being seen." Drake closed his eyes and opened them again. Little stars danced across his vision. He needed to shake the sleep out of his system before they got there.
JJ turned left in the next intersection as told, but looked at Drake questioningly. "How do you know, senpai? You don't have a car."
Drake just shrugged.
*Because I used to drive this way with Jill and Stevie. Jill would come to pick up Stevie after I had looked after him, and then she'd drive us three to her place.* He tried to stop thinking about how close to Jill's house they were heading.
They had turned away from the wider roads, and in the darkening night, their surroundings were almost black until they saw the station ahead of them. The signs of the shops and diners around it shone in pale neon colors. JJ pulled up and called the commanding officer on the case to tell that they had reached the station. He said okay a few times and hung up, putting the cell phone back into his pocket.
"What're they saying?" Drake asked.
"Our guy's still heading this way, in a white Datsun. They've got the street blocked ahead of him, so I think we should keep our position for now; he might well turn this way." JJ pricked up his ears. "Listen."
Drake could hear the sirens, too. He checked his gun and rolled open the window.
"JJ, let me drive. You have a better chance of hitting anything in this darkness."
"We don't have the time!"
A rusty white car sped past the alley.
"There he is!" JJ announced and turned the car nearly sideways so that it blocked the alley. With any luck, the suspect would drive straight to their trap.
Drake heard a screeching sound that he felt in his teeth. Rubber was burning somewhere not far away. He leaned out of the window slightly and took aim at the opening of the alley, waiting for the white car to appear. The sirens were now so loud that the patrol cars couldn't be more than a block away.
He didn't have to wait for long. The white car returned to the way it had come from and turned in a dangerously looking curve to the alley. The headlights were a blinding contrast to the darkness of the alley. Drake aimed at the tires, painfully aware of the lack of a clear view of what he was shooting at. He fired three shots, but that didn't slow the car down. If anything, the driver picked up speed and was now coming straight towards them.
Drake sat back down. "Move out of the way, JJ, he's not stopping!"
JJ squeezed the steering wheel with his left hand and kept his gaze fixed on the approaching car.
"I said get us out of the way!"
In the last moment, JJ turned the car away, and the white Datsun only scraped its left side as it passed them. JJ didn't lose a second before speeding after it. Drake glanced behind them. Two patrol cars were right on their heels.
"We gotta stop him before he gets to the highway," JJ said.
"I know!" Drake leaned out of the window again, but had to pull back quickly in order to not be hit by a trash can. Damn but this alley was narrow! He tried again and fired two shots towards the car ahead of them. This time he heard the satisfactory sound of the bullet piercing the tire.
He sat back down again to dodge the shots coming from the patrol car behind them. The white Datsun veered uncontrollably to both sides, apparently losing another tire. Those beat cops sure knew how to shoot.
Suddenly, just when Drake had expected it to turn left to the highway, the white car veered wildly to the right and screeched to a halt. JJ had just enough time to hit the brakes before crashing into it. Unfortunately, the cops behind them weren't so quick; most likely because they couldn't see the suspect's car as well as JJ and Drake could. The patrol car hit JJ's car from behind and made Drake almost kiss the windshield. He managed to break the dive forward partly, using the hand that wasn't holding the gun. Still, he hit his head and couldn't help groaning. JJ unbuckled himself and turned to look at him.
"Are you okay, senpai?"
"He's getting away," Drake said, shooing JJ off. Now he was very much awake, but the stars had returned with a vengeance. "I'll catch up!"
JJ nodded, looking worried, but did as he said and got out of the car.
Drake could hear several voices shouting, "Freeze! NYPD!" and people running. He took a deep breath, blinked rapidly to clear up his vision and threw open the car door, stepping out. He felt a nasty pain in his head as he got on his feet, but ignored it, joining the two men in blue that ran to an even narrower alley that branched off the one they were currently on. One of them switched on the flashlight, and in its light, Drake could see the cops running ahead of him - and someone, most likely their suspect, quickly turning behind a corner ahead of them. Someone fired his gun. Drake assumed it to be JJ, because the shot hit the brick wall right behind the suspect. In the dark alley, that wasn't a bad shot.
He span around the corner among the last, only to see the alley widen into a bus stop where it met the wider street. One of the beat cops was firing his last shot after a car that was quickly moving away from sight. The other two were collectively cursing the bastard who had gotten away.
JJ came to him. He was, like Drake, out of breath. "He had a car waiting for him. A big, expensive-looking car; I couldn't catch the registration number."
"Shit." Drake put his gun away and breathed deep in order to stop his heart from racing. He heard the blood pound in his head. "'Least we got his car. There must be something inside."
One of the beat cops shook his head at Drake's remark. "Wasn't his car, detective. He stole it from the victim."
JJ suddenly moaned and slapped his hand to his forehead, as if remembering something. "My car!" He hurried back to the alley they had come from. The beat cops followed him, in much less hurried pace.
Drake stopped one of them. "My partner said you caught the guy red-handed. How's the victim?"
The cop scratched his sandy blonde moustache. "She's being taken to the hospital as we speak. Looked like she'd pull through."
"Who called you?"
"A friend of the victim's, or so it seems. He's probably giving his statement to the boys at the crime scene."
"Okay, thanks." Drake nodded to the officer and jogged after JJ.
He found JJ looking at the smashed rear end of his car sadly. Two of the beat cops were speaking on their radio with someone. The alley seemed oddly quiet now.
Drake came over and patted JJ on the shoulder sympathetically.
"I had only had it for three years," JJ said, sounding like his favorite pet bunny had just died. "It'll cost me a fortune to get it fixed." Then he suddenly kicked the patrol car that was in an even worse shape. "Dammit!"
Drake found it amusing that JJ never seemed to use stronger words than "damn". If it had been *his* car, all hell would've broken loose.
"C'mon," he said, "let's go check out the crime scene."
Grudgingly, JJ obliged and followed Drake to the other patrol car.
***
The drive to a small park in the middle of a shoddy-looking housing development didn't take long. They got out of the car and walked over to where a couple of men in blue were standing near swings and a slide that were scrawled full of graffiti. The place looked vaguely familiar to Drake. Then again, this kind of shady neighborhood always did.
He flashed his badge to the nearest beat cop, a red-haired young woman. "Detectives Parker and Addams. I hear you've got someone for us?"
The cop nodded primly. "This way, Detective."
Drake glanced at JJ to make sure he was following and found him looking intently at something in the rose bushes around the swings.
"JJ?"
"You go talk to the witness, senpai," JJ said, going over to look more closely at whatever he had detected, "I'm going to check out something."
Drake nodded and walked over to where the beat cop already was. On the bench sat a spot-faced, skinny boy that looked to be about sixteen years old. He was wearing only a sickeningly purple t-shirt and jeans. Drake shuddered in sympathy; he was cold in his long coat. The boy's eyes looked almost ready to pop out of their sockets. He was not just freaked out because he had seen someone almost get killed; he was talking so fast that the beat cops obviously had trouble understanding what he tried to say, and he was continuously drumming the ground with his other foot. His frog-like eyes couldn't seem to focus. Drake could've sworn the boy was on something. It had been a while since their squad had last dealt with drugs, but Drake guessed that it might be speed.
The beat cop that had showed Drake the way looked at him and shook her head. Her red hair was pulled up into a tight ponytail and she constantly changed her weight from one foot to the other. She wasn't half bad-looking.
"I'm afraid you're not going to get much out of the boy. He's high as a kite - most likely angel dust. We're suspecting he came here to meet a dealer, got his fix, and took it all after calling us, to forget the horror of witnessing an attempted murder." The woman looked around like a cat that knows the mouse is hiding somewhere in the vicinity. "We've busted two teenagers for drugs in this neighborhood."
Drake found himself staring at her. He quickly looked away and said, "Uh, well, good thing he managed to call, anyway. Have you got anything out of him so far? Any description of our suspect?"
The cop shook her head again. "Nothing more than we could see ourselves. A tall man, about 6'5"; short hair, dark clothes. We'll send you the full report, of course."
Drake nodded and rubbed his chin, wondering where to go from here. He glanced at the boy again; it was no use trying to get a clear statement from someone flying that high.
"Detective!" called one of the cops who were trying to talk to the boy. "Can we take him to the station?"
"Yeah, okay. I want his statement once he's able to give one."
As if the kid would remember anything that had happened. Drake nodded thanks to the red-haired cop, who seemed to realize the way he was looking at her and turned away to help take the boy into the patrol car.
Drake shoved his hands into the huge pockets of his coat and walked over to JJ, who was talking with some of the cops on the far edge of the park.
JJ looked up when he approached, and for some strange reason Drake felt like he had a guilty conscience. Was it because of the redhead? ...What the hell was he thinking, anyway?
"We were just tracking the way the suspect left the scene," JJ explained, making a sweeping gesture at the uneven grass and ugly rose bushes. "Officer Moe here said he saw him drop something when they approached from the street over there." He pointed at the street between two dull gray buildings in front of them. A big garbage can had fallen on the ground and the trash was blocking the street.
"He ran through there?" Drake took a few steps closer. "He could've lost his hold of whatever he was holding when he tripped over that garbage can over there."
"Like a murder weapon, Detective?" one of the cops asked cockily, grinning.
Drake flashed him a quick smile. "We should be so lucky. But it's worth checking out, anyway."
He turned to JJ, leaving the trash digging to the beat cops. "The victim's still alive and apparently, able to give a statement. Isn't this a detective's dream?"
Drake could hardly see JJ's crooked smile in the poor light. "If you say so, senpai." JJ sighed and kicked the ground.
"Still pissed about what happened to your car?"
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me." JJ grimaced. "Can we leave now? I want something to eat."
Drake looked around. "I think so. Tell your blue-clad friends to send the report if they find anything; I'll go see if I can hail a cab."
***
They were both numb with cold when the cab finally arrived. JJ had called someone to tow his car to the service station and seemed to be in a slightly better mood now that his car was being taken care of. Drake should've known JJ'd care for a rusty old Toyota like it was his girlfriend.
Boyfriend. Whatever.
Drake rubbed his hands together, more out of habit than because it was cold, and glanced out of the window. They were only a few blocks away from his apartment house. "That burger stand near my place okay?"
JJ nodded, and when he looked at Drake, the usual cheery expression had returned to his face.
Drake had been expecting it to happen soon enough. "Hell of a way to start the day," he said.
"Well, it woke you up, didn't it? I wish we had more car chases."
Drake chuckled. "Shows you were never a beat cop. Stop here, please," he then added to the driver. He didn't look forward to leaving the comfortably warm car.
After emptying his wallet to pay for his share of the fee, it occurred to Drake what day it was. He cursed under his breath.
"I need to draw out some money," he told JJ and pointed at the ATM at the corner. "You go on ahead."
Drake was so goddamn lousy with money. He should've remembered what day of the month it was before buying that new TV the day before. Unless a good fairy godmother had happened to walk by and magic some money on his account...
No, and he hadn't really thought so. It wasn't as if the Lady Luck had been on his side before. He drew out the minimum possible amount of dollars and sighed. Gabbie would be so pissed off now. This was the second time this year.
He walked around the corner and to the greasy little burger stand, sucking his teeth.
JJ was stuffing his face with the kind help of the biggest cheeseburger Drake had ever seen. He couldn't say anything at the moment - really, Drake wondered how he could breathe - but raised his eyebrows questioningly.
Drake shook his head and leaned over to order his usual bacon burger with fries. "Nothing. I'm gonna get brutally killed, 's all."
JJ finally swallowed and said, "By who? Oh, wait, don't tell me - another ex?"
Drake glared daggers at his direction. "I bow at your powers of deduction, JJ."
"Calm down, I'm just curious. What brought her to your mind all of a sudden? *I* don't often think about my ex-boyfriends when I use an ATM." JJ ate a ketchup-soaked fried potato. "Is that some kind of weird hetero thing?"
Drake couldn't stop himself quickly enough. "As a matter of fact, yes. It's called the alimony payment. Which I won't be able to pay in time this month, which, consequently, is going to get me killed."
Luckily, the stand keeper offered him his burger, which distracted him a little. Still, Drake could've hit himself on the head. It was bad enough that he would have to make the unavoidable apology call and listen to Gabbie tell him what a fucking insensitive jerk he was, but he felt he had let Matt down, too. Drake felt bad for him, not Gabbie.
"Alimony?" JJ repeated. Drake glanced at him as he bit into his bacon burger. His partner's eyes were as big as saucers.
"I never told you about Matt?"
JJ shook his head slowly. "Not that I remember, no."
"Well, he's my son. That simple."
Drake realized that he hadn't really told about Matt to anyone except a girlfriend or two, and old friends like Dee. It hadn't seemed relevant. Drake had to admit it was kind of strange that JJ didn't know. Surely JJ must've seen in the papers that he was divorced, but... Jesus, they had been partners for nearly eight years and he had never even mentioned it?
*I guess Jill might've had a point when she called me secretive,* Drake thought. *I prefer "private person", though.*
"What about his mother?" JJ asked.
Gabbie. Drake snorted. How was he supposed to describe Gabbie to someone who had never met her?
"She's... it was something stupid I did back when I was in high school. Teenage romance sorta thing. I wouldn't mind forgetting all about her, but there's Matt to consider."
JJ finished his burger, frowning. "Ouch. Sometimes I'm glad I don't have problems like that."
"Only sometimes?" Drake grinned a lop-sided grin. "You can be a walking Gay Pride when you want to."
JJ grinned back. "When I want to, yeah." His grin quickly faded away and a slightly worried expression replaced it. "You do get visitation rights, don't you?"
Drake looked up at the sky, where stars were dim and distant. "Technically, I do. But she stayed back in Wisconsin when I moved here, so it's pretty damn hard to find the time."
JJ made a sympathetic noise and put his hand on Drake's shoulder. "How old is he?"
"Ten next month." Drake looked at JJ, smiling a lop-sided smile. "Why? You don't even like kids."
Drake was glad that JJ was there. For once, JJ helped him feel comfortable. It was probably because he was concentrating all his energy on killing his hamburger instead of bouncing around the place. Not that Drake really minded that, either, although if he ever admitted as much to JJ, he'd probably tease Drake to death and hop like a kangaroo around the office for days on end. Sometimes Drake found himself suspecting that JJ was intentionally trying to provoke him. He couldn't even guess why, but when it came to JJ, very few things made sense to Drake.
JJ shrugged cheerfully. "I don't know. It just seems to me he's important to you." He cocked his head and smiled adorably. "And I do like *you*."
Drake had no idea how to reply to that. Since when had JJ casually tossed comments like that to him? Heck, he was downright flirting. Wasn't that the Dee-Senpai Method? Drake quickly took a bite of his burger.
Maybe that was just JJ's way of trying to forget about Dee? If that was the case, Drake could accept it. He had to admit that he sort of liked it, even. It had been some time since someone had flirted with him. Even if it was just his work partner being his crazy self, it was still nice ego feed. Even if JJ was a guy.
*Really,* Drake thought, chuckling to himself, *I know way too many gay people.*
"What's funny?" JJ asked, nudging him.
Drake shook his head. He couldn't wipe the stupid smile off his face.
JJ started to say something, but the sharp ringing of his cell phone interrupted him. He quickly wiped his hands on a paper napkin and fished his cell phone from his breast pocket.
"Addams. Uh-huh, that's right." He listened for a moment, then exclaimed, "You're kidding!" He looked at Drake. His eyes were shining. "Okay, send the Forensics Lab report with the other papers. Right. Okay." JJ nodded and hung up.
Drake had finished his burger and stuffed the papers into the garbage can. "They find something?"
JJ grinned and raised his thumb. "A surgical knife."
"Well, how about that!" Drake scratched his hair. "Lady Luck's fickle today, it seems. Was it really among the-- "
"The garbage, yes!" JJ laughed. "The Forensics should be finished with it by Monday."
Drake began to dig his cigarettes from his pocket. "We should call the hospital about the victim."
"Yeah. But the officers I talked with said that she had been in a pretty bad shape. The suspect had started on her feet, and you know what that means." JJ faked shivering.
Drake lit up. "Did they say if she was conscious?"
"She was knocked out first. Well, naturally, the guy couldn't work on her if she was struggling."
"Right, of course. So we won't get anything out of her today. Maybe we could check her tomorrow before we go over to Dee's."
JJ nodded and looked away. To Drake, it seemed like he was reminded of something unpleasant.
"You still want to go there tomorrow? Isn't that like rubbing it in?"
JJ sighed a little and scratched his hair. "Sort of. But I have to learn to live with the thought." He glanced at Drake with an exasperated look on his face. "I'm not a fragile flower, y'know. I can take it."
"Sure, I just..." Drake shrugged and took another drag of his cigarette.
"You just worry. I know." Drake could hear the smile in JJ's voice, although he wasn't looking at him. "That's what I like about you. You come off as this quiet tough guy, but you're really a softie underneath it all."
Drake didn't like the way this conversation was going. He didn't like being analyzed. It felt like he was being stripped naked in the street. No matter if JJ was right or not.
"You're starting to sound like one of my exes," he growled.
"Why the heck not? You've kissed me."
All right, that did it. Drake straightened up to leave. "I gotta get going. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"
"Aw, Drake-senpai! You know I didn't mean --"
Drake threw away his cigarette as he walked away.
Shit. Why did JJ have to start -- why did he have to be like that? He was such a fucking tease. And without any clear reason.
*You've kissed me.*
He had been drunk. That was it. He'd done more stupid things when he'd gone out to drink with Dee - not to mention when he was younger. Hell, he had ended up married with Gabbie! So what did that prove? Maybe nothing. But he couldn't deny that he'd done it. He remembered reasoning, with the beer and the three shots of bourbon swimming between his ears, that since JJ had kissed him, he had to return the favor. He had laughed at the thought at first, but when the opportunity came...
He had found he had actually *wanted* to do it.
Drake cursed under his breath as he slammed the door of his apartment house closed behind him. It occurred to him that this was the second time he had walked away when JJ had brought that damn kiss up; he had stomped off like an offended, tight-assed fucking idiot.
It occurred to him that he had a problem.