February 27, 1993

“Man, can you believe this?” Vernon asked his partner as he read over the front page of the newspaper.

“What is that?” Harry questioned, his mouth full of food.

Vernon rolled his eyes, “Hasn’t your mother ever told you not to talk with your mouth full?” he asked, his Brooklyn accent thick.

“Shutup and tell me what you’re reading.”

Vernon chuckled as he focused back on the newspaper, “A suspected car bomb had exploded underneath the World Trade Center in New York, killing at least five people and injuring scores more.”

Harry shook his head as he shoveled another forkful of his breakfast into his mouth, “It’s a sad and crazy world, what can you say huh?”

“Rescue workers struggled to get oxygen to those in the upper floors. About 100,000 people work in and visit the 1,700 foot towers everyday, the blast happened at their busiest time. Several people had called New York’s police claiming they were behind the attack, but authorities are keeping an open mind about possible suspects. Do you know how close the captain was to sending us there?”

Harry shrugged, “Obviously not very close if we’re still here.”

“The only reason we’re still here and not there is because from what they said, they have enough help. That’s complete bullshit. This whole cop-on-cop crime still exists, and if they wanna go ahead and hold themselves up to be these brave macho heroes, let them have their limelight. It’s just sad to know they can’t put this petty shit off to the side for just one second and come together to help protect the people of America.”

Harry dropped his fork and began to clap, “And the Oscar award goes to…” he laughed as Vernon rolled his eyes, “I’m sorry dude, but you sounded so gay right there.”

“Hey look, there ain’t nothing gay about standing up and having pride in your country, alright?”

“I didn’t say that was gay, I’ve got a lot of pride in my country and would lay my life down for it any day, I mean hell, I am a cop. But I said you sounded gay, you see the differ-”

A static sound and distorted voices cackled through their walkie-talkie. Harry placed his fork down once again and grabbed his walkie-talkie out of his holster, staring at it for a while. “You wanna answer this? I‘m eating.” he asked Vernon as he shoved his walkie-talkie in his direction.

Vernon pulled back and snatched the walkie-talkie away from his partner, glaring before he finally answered the call. “This is Unit 1216, go ahead dispatcher.”

“We got a 415C at Daisy‘s Diner, and you two happen to be the lucky couple closest to the party.”

Vernon rolled his eyes, “Very funny Cindy.”

Harry immediately shot a look over, “Is that Cindy?” he mouthed. When he got no answer, he snickered. “Vernon and Cindy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…” he sang softly.

“I’m going to kill you.” Vernon whispered harshly right before Cindy’s voice cackled through the walkie-talkie once again.

“Do you think you two lovebirds can respond?”

Vernon turned slightly in his seat, holding the walkie-talkie away from Harry so he could respond back, without Harry shouting something embarrassing at the same time. “10-4.”

When Vernon turned back around, Harry was sitting there with a big smile on his face. “Well?” he asked.

“Well what?” Vernon questioned back.

“Is she jealous that you and I are together?”

“What are you…” Vernon playfully pushed at Harry when he finally caught on to what he said. “Shutup man.”

“I’m just saying… she sounded a bit jealous like… she wanted to be in my place or something. She ain’t gonna be getting her hands on my boo.”

“Will you stop that? You’re starting to freak me out.”

“Fine, but only because we’re in public and we’re acting like a bunch of horny 10-year-olds.”

“I would appreciate it if you excluded the ‘we’re’ from your sentence.”

“You haven’t told her yet, have you?”

“My love life and interests will not be up for discussion. Now, hurry the hell up, we’ve got work to do.”

“Aye aye captain!” Harry playfully saluted as he rose from his seat, taking a napkin from the table and using it to wipe his mouth. “Hey Jackie!” he called out to the waiter. “Put this on Vern’s tab, will ya?”

Both Jackie and Harry laughed as Vernon glared at him. “Sometimes, I wonder why I put up with you as a partner.”

“Because you looooove me.” Harry cooed as he placed his hat on his head, adjusting it so it would sit right.

“This whole ‘love’ shit has got to stop man.” Vernon laughed, shaking his head as they approached their patrol car.

“You should feel fortunate that we’ve got this whole ‘love’ thing going on.” Harry stated matter-of-factly as he got into the passenger side. “Ya know, most cops are paired with people they can’t stand. Could you imagine working with a person you don’t like?”

“I don’t have to imagine.” Vernon replied with a smirk as he started the car.

Harry stared at him for a while, looking as if he was in shock. “That’s cold man… that’s really cold.”

Vernon could only laugh as he began to drive over to Daisy’s Diner, which was only a few minutes away. When they arrived at the diner, they made sure to park their car a few feet away from the place so the kids causing the disturbance wouldn’t see them. From what they heard last, the kids were still in the back alley, and they wanted to catch them in the act.

“Would you like to talk to Miss Daisy?” Harry asked as they both got out of the car.

Vernon shot him a look, “Why am I doing everything today?”

“Your time to shine kid.”

As they approached the diner, a rather large woman busted out through the doors, meeting them halfway. “They’re still back there, those damn kids!” the woman ranted.

“Please ma’am, calm down.” Harry said as he tried to walk her back into the diner so the kids wouldn’t hear them. “Are you the one that called in the report?”

The woman nodded, “Yes, and I’m sick and tired of this shit.”

Harry sighed as he held up his hand to stop her from talking, “Okay, can I get your name ma’am?”

“Elsa… Elsa Grivich.”

“Okay Elsa, can you tell me in a calm and fashionable manner what kind of disturbance these kids are causing?”

“They’re always digging through our trashcans out in the back… leaving scraps of our food all over the creation when they’re done. One of them even came in and tried to rip us off! I’ve pitied them for so long, but they’ve taken advantage of my niceness and I’m just sick of them! They are a menace to society and I want you to arrest each and every single one of them!”

“I really need you to calm down ma’am. If you keep raving you will chase the kids off and we won’t be able to do much of anything.”

“You guys hardly do anything anyway!”

Vernon turned away, simply drowning out the argument that was happening between Elsa and his partner. He decided to leave Harry to deal with the ranting woman. He snickered, karma was a bitch. He began to wander through the diner, looking over the relics that were collected over the years. Daisy’s Diner had been in business for a long time, ever since his father was a kid.

As he continued to look everything over, the sound of glass clanking together caught his attention. He looked up over the counter, realizing for the first time they had no view of the back alleyway. He observed behind the counter, seeing a door that led back into the kitchen, and he figured there must’ve been another back door that led out to the back alley, where the trash was kept.

“May I?” he asked one of the waitresses that stood behind the counter.

When she gave him the permission, he walked to the other side of counter, making his way to the door. He glanced back at his partner and Elsa, chuckling and shaking his head as they STILL continued to argue. Focusing back on the matter at hand, he pushed the swinging door open, walking in to find two cooks there; one of them washing dishes while the other was cooking up what smelt to be chili.

He remained quite as he searched around, not wanting to ask where the back door was and give himself away. When he finally found the door, he slowly and quietly approached it, glad that there was a small circular glass window right in the middle of the door. He peered out the circular glass, seeing no one.

He pushed the door open slowly and stepped out, now hearing sounds of something or someone rustling around in the trash. He stood there quite for a moment, watching as the kids continued to dig around in the trash, looking for food, oblivious to the fact that a cop was watching them.

“You guys looking for something?”

The kids immediately stopped rummaging and looked up; they’re eyes widening upon setting their sights on the cop.

“Oh shit.” one of them exclaimed, “Book it guys.”

The four kids dispersed, which caused Vernon to immediately spring into action. He mentally kicked himself for saying anything, knowing if only he waited for Harry to come back as well, the two of them could of at least had a chance at capturing the four. These kids were smart though, for they all had ran in separate directions, but instead of him giving up the chase, he continued to run after one of the four, deciding it was better he caught one than none at all.

As he continued sprinting after the kid, he ripped his walkie-talkie from his holster to radio in to Harry. “999, pursue on foot!” he breathlessly yelled into the walkie-talkie, pushing himself to run even faster so he wouldn’t lose the kid.

It felt like the boy was leading him in circles around the neighborhood, taking sudden sharp turns and dodging around to try and lose him, but it didn’t work. It seemed like forever until the boy finally came to a screeching stop, his eyes widening upon realizing that he was at a dead end.

Vernon slowed himself to a stop, glad that he had him trapped in a dead end alleyway. “Why… are you… running?” he asked, out of breath.

Meanwhile, the kid, who quickly caught his composure and was breathing regularly, ignored him and looked around, looking for a way to escape. He finally turned around to face Vernon, his eyes dancing wildly as he tried to think of a plan.

“Look… we ain’t… gonna hurt… you kid. Lets just talk man… can we do that?”

The boy continued to ignore him, until he decided to just chance it and run past the exhausted officer. Vernon groaned, not being able to fully recover but had to act quickly. Just as the boy ran past him, he quickly turned and shot out his arms to stop him, which he ended up pushing the boy off balance.

With a yelp, the boy tumbled to the ground, crying out in pain when his knees connected with the hard, graveled floor. Anger grew at the familiar pain and situation. Vernon quickly rushed over to the kid, who was still on the ground, and had pushed him stomach first into the ground of the alley.

“GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!” the kid screamed in absolute rage as he wriggled around on the ground, trying to dislodge the offending officer.

“I gave you the chance to talk things out.” Vernon gritted out as he used all his weight to pin the bucking child down. “You chose the hard way.”

As the kid continued to struggle, Vernon heard pounding feet and hard breathing coming up from ahead. He looked up to find Harry running over towards them.

“Just… one?” Harry asked breathlessly.

“Of course just one… you didn’t expect me to take down all four of them by myself at the same time, did you?” Vernon grunted out in protest.

Harry shrugged as he tried to straighten himself out and regain his composure, “Well, one is better than none.”

“Lets see who this lucky one is.” Vernon said as he slowly got up from the floor, keeping a hold on the back of the kid’s t-shirt. He hauled the kid up from the ground, biting his bottom lip when he noticed that the boy’s knees were torn and bloody. He felt a sense of guilt rise up within him.

“What’s your name kid?” Harry asked.

“None of your business.” he fired back.

“You’re already in enough trouble little man, you wouldn’t want to add insubordination to your list now would you?”

The kid refused to say anything, he simply glared at them, then tore his eyes away. Harry bent down slightly to get eye-leveled with him. “All we wanted to do was talk to you four. You bought this on yourself though.”

“Why? I didn’t even do anything.” the kid grumbled.

“That’s what you think, but the community seems to think otherwise. You and your three other friends have been nothing but trouble I heard. We, as police, thought we’d be nice and give you guys a chance, but we gave you guys chances after chances and you still manage to blow it.”

Vernon, who still had a tight grip on the back of the boy’s t-shirt, leaned to the side to get a look at the kid, “Do you know what’s going to happen to you?”

At that question, the boy’s eyes filled with tears, to the brim. Besides his watery eyes, he stood there emotionless for the longest, staring blankly straight ahead with hot tracks of tears streaming down his dirty cheek. “Do whatever you want, just don’t place me in an orphanage.” he whispered.

Both Harry and Vernon looked at each other, shock to witness the kid break down right before their eyes. At that moment, they were both suddenly drawn to the boy; the more they stared into his deep, blue orbs, the more they were beginning to understand his story, his pain, his struggles.

“If you start cooperating with us, we’ll start cooperating with you.” Vernon suggested as he now lightened his grip on the back of the boy’s shirt. “Why don’t you start off by telling us your name.

After a moment of silence, the boy finally took a deep breath in and sighed, “Nick.”

“Nick who?”

“Nick Carter.”