“Okay Nick, do you want to tell us where you’re from?” Vernon asked as he glanced in the rearview mirror, but quickly transfixed his concentration back to the road.

When they got no reply, Harry sighed. “I think the better question is why you’re out roaming the streets.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Nick gritted out, the pain in his knees were really starting to get to him. How he wanted to clean and nurse his wounded skin, so he wouldn’t fall into a trance with his blood, which now took on a darker tinge, feeling like dried cement on his knees. It weighed him down.

“You’re a kid, don’t you like to talk?” Vernon questioned, trying to lighten up the mood.

“I don’t like talking to cops,” he simply replied in a dark tone, “and I’m not like other kids.”

Harry was started to grow agitated towards Nick and his rebellious ways, but Vernon quickly shot him a look to keep him quiet.

When they pulled up to the station, Vernon turned off the patrol car and sat there in silence for a while. After a few seconds, he turned in his seat to address the boy, “ Look Nick… about what you said earlier, if you don’t want that to happen you need to start cooperating with us before you go in there. You’re about to enter a place filled with cops. If you want respect you need to give it first, especially towards authorities and elders. We’re not the bad guys here Nick… you work with us, we work with you. Simple as that. Believe me kid, I don’t want to see you placed in some orphanage, and I definitely don’t want to be the one that places you there…”

“Yeah? Well… what makes me think I can trust you?” Nick sneered, “You’re a cop!”

“Because I’m giving you a choice. Most people that come into a brush with the law are no longer given choices, or at least choices they like. We’re forced to step in and take control when they can’t control themselves, but even then they brought it onto themselves. I’m giving you a chance to make your own choice, a decision that’s yours and yours alone, because… I’m not like other cops.” he ended with a smile.

Nick finally looked up at Vernon and made eye contact. His eyes glimmered with hope upon hearing that one word; choice. Growing up, he was never given choices, hell he didn’t even know what that word meant. He didn’t have a choice when it came to doing things people wanted him to do. He didn’t have a choice when it came to what he wanted to do and what he had to do. And when it came to his family... he wasn’t given a choice as to if he could save them or at least die with them. A group of men simply marched in and took his family out, leaving him with no choice but to go out and live his life on his own.

“I was never really given a choice at anything in my life.” he whispered sheepishly, kicking himself for getting emotional in front of the cops. “If I was, my family would still be here.”

Vernon shot Harry a look, his brows crinkling in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Nick’s eyes widened; he couldn’t believe he just said that last part out loud. “Nothing, forget about it.”

Harry wanted to press him to give answers, but with one look at Vernon, he knew to remain quiet. He may be older than Vernon, but when it came to adolescents, Vernon seemed to know everything. He had the ability to place himself on a kid’s level and relate to them, have them open up and confide in him. He had been Vernon’s partner for years, but been his friend longer. They’re captain, as well as the rest of the force would always tease them, saying they were a match made in heaven. Vernon was the negotiator while he was the interrogator, and they worked damn good together.

“Lets get out of this car, shall we?” Vernon voiced out, breaking Harry out of his thoughts.

When they got out, Vernon opened the back car door and had helped Nick out of the car, due to the fact that his hands were handcuffed behind his back.

“Is this really necessary?” Nick asked as he pulled against the restraints. The truth was, he was starting to feel embarrassed at being handcuffed.

“Protocol kid.” Harry replied as he walked around the car and stood behind Nick, latching his hand on Nick’s arm while Vernon had his hand around Nick’s other arm and they began walking up to the station. “We’ll take it off once we get inside.”

Nick didn’t even have time to prepare himself, because before he knew it, the doors opened and they were walking inside the police station. Puzzlement etched his features; the station wasn’t as he envisioned it to be. He imagined a bunch of handcuffed criminals, yelling and trying to escape. Hell, he even thought he’d see oversized cops sitting behind a counter, feet propped up with his black uniform and mouth stained with white confectioners sugar. But it was quiet for the most part, a good handful of cops walking around to do whatever it was they had to do.

Harry chuckled when he noticed Nick’s reaction. “You look shocked kid. Not what you expected huh?”

Nick shook his head, “Not really.”

“Yeah, we get that a lot. You should see our book of police stereotypes… the oversized donut eating, coffee drinking cops, the criminals running a muck in the station, the nonexistence of female cops…”

Nick bit his bottom lip, so his thoughts weren’t exactly kept to himself in this place. As he continued to observe the station, he failed to notice that the handcuffs were removed.

“Alrighty, lets go get ourselves settled in an office to talk, shall we?” Harry asked as he spun the metal handcuffs around.

Nick broke his trance and stared at the dangling handcuffs, finally bringing his hands forth and staring at them as if he had never seen them before. He rubbed at the angry red lines that ran completely around his wrists. Harry and Vernon still kept a hold on both his arms as they led them through the station and over to an office he assumed they’d be talking in.

“Hmm, seems like this one is occupied.” Harry stated as he looked around. “I’ll go talk to the captain to see which office we can use.” and with that, he was gone.

Nick stood there, with Vernon still holding his arm. When he turned to look back at Vernon, he received a grin. “You want to sit down while we wait?”

Nick shrugged and began walking over towards the nearest bench. Once he sat down, Vernon remained standing by his side, wondering if he should let go of his arm or not.

Nick looked up at him, “I’m not gonna try anything you know.”

Vernon looked down, “Really?” he asked matter-of-factly.

Nick nodded, “I was listening to your whole ‘cooperation’ speech. Besides, I don’t think I’d get far if I tried to pull anything in a place that’s flooded with cops.”

Vernon chuckled, “Makes sense.” he said as he let go of Nick’s arm and sat down beside him. After a moment of silence, Vernon decided to ask him a question. “So… I suppose you won’t tell me the names of your three friends huh?”

“You suppose correctly.”

Vernon couldn’t help than to laugh. Although the kid was a pain in the ass hood rat to some, he sounded like a smart kid. “Okay, okay… wouldn’t rat my friends out either if I were in your position.”

“They’re not my friends… they’re my family.” Nick corrected.

“They’re your family?” Vernon questioned in response.

Nick didn’t reply. He just sat there in silence, picking at the hem of his dirty shirt. Vernon’s eyes trailed downwards and saw his now scabbed knees. Guilt was back, and before he could ask him if he wanted to get his wounds cleaned up, Harry walked up.

“Just got orders from the boss. We can use the IR, and he wants to have a word with us after we settle him in.”

Vernon nodded and rose from the bench, waiting for Nick to do the same. When Nick stood up, they began to walk over to the room they were appointed to. Harry fished his pockets for his keys and pulled it out, immediately finding the key and used it to open the door. Once he unlocked it, he turned the knob and pushed it open, holding it and waiting for them to walk inside.

Nick walked in first, with Vernon and Harry trailing behind, and stood in the darkened room. A sudden ray of light blasted on, causing Nick to squint a bit, but soon widened it to discover that the room only consisted of a table and two chairs.

“Isn’t this an interrogation room?” Nick asked, wondering why they were there.

Harry smirked, “My favorite room of the station. But you ain’t being placed here to be interrogated, we just ain’t got any available offices.”

Nick wandered the small room a bit, letting his hand drag lazily across the table top. Both Vernon and Harry stood there for a while, watching Nick.

“Well,” Harry whispered as he placed his hand on Vernon’s shoulder, “Captain wants to have a word with us.”

“Alright.” Vernon nodded and felt Harry leave the room. “Hey Nick, we’re uh… gonna step out for a bit so you’re gonna have to stay in this room for a little while until we come back. Shouldn’t take too long, but is there something you want before we go? Something to eat? Drink?”

Nick shook his head and sat down on the chair. The truth was, he was hungry and thirsty, but he felt too embarrassed to ask. He was so used to just taking things he needed, he didn’t want anybody to pity him.

“Alright… well, if you need anything, there’ll be someone standing outside of this room. All you have to do is knock and ask, and they’ll get you whatever it is that you want, okay?” when he didn’t get a reply, he turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

“We’re busted!” Harry said as he walked alongside Vernon to the captain’s office.

“First of all, you have a lousy poker face. Second of all, you wouldn’t be saying that so blankly if we were really busted.”

“You know me too well. And that scares me.”

“Scares me too. I know you too well, and it’s not by choice, believe me.”

Harry faltered in his walking and watched as Vernon continued ahead, “You’re on it with the comebacks, huh?”

When they finally reached the captain’s office, Harry reached up to tap on the glass door. “Come in!” they heard the confirmation from the other side. Harry grabbed the doorknob and twisted it, pushing the door open and holding it for Vernon to walk in first.

“Yes sir?” Vernon asked as he and Harry stood in front of their captain, both of them quickly taking their hats off.

“Harry tells me you two caught one of the kids that have been running rampant on the streets.”

“Yes sir.”

“Got any information out of him?”

“His name is Nick Carter sir.”

“Nick Carter?” the captain repeated, sounding a bit shocked.

“Yes sir.”

“I’m taking you… know the kid?” Harry asked in curiosity.

The captain rose from his chair and walked over to his filing cabinet. “You could say that.” he said as he pulled a drawer open, “Or, you could say…” he pulled out a manila folder, which seemed to contain a lot of papers. He turned and walked back to his desk, and had dropped the folder down on his desk in front of them. “I know his whole life story. Please, take a seat.”

Both Vernon and Harry sat down in the two chairs that were situated in front of the desk. Vernon reached out and grabbed the folder, noticing that the tab had a sticker with the name “Carter, Robert” printed on it. He opened the folder, immediately seeing a black and white photo of a corpse. Placing the folder back down on the desk, he laid the black and white photos out before them, grimacing at horrifying pictures.

“What happened?” Harry asked, lifting one of the photos to get a closer look.

“This is the Carter family. They were murdered back in the 15th of August, 1989. The eldest of the family, Billie Jean Carter was shot and killed first in the hallway of their apartment, followed by Jane Carter, the mother. The next victim was Robert Carter, Jane’s husband, and from what we gathered whoever committed this murder set out to find Robert, to settle unfinished business I suppose. The last killed were the youngest of the family, Leslie, Angel and Aaron.”

Vernon bit his lip and sighed upon seeing the photo of the young child and two babies that were killed. “This was Nick’s family?”

The captain nodded, “Nick was gone at the time of the murder.”

Harry glanced over at Vernon, “Well, he did mention something about if he had a choice, his family would still be here.”

“And when I was sitting with him, he said that those guys he was with was his family, not his friends.” Vernon added.

The captain sighed heavily, “We’ve been on this case for quite some time.”

“I know, I just can’t believe we couldn’t put two-and-two together.” Vernon shook his head, breaking himself away from the tragic photos to look over the rest of the files.

“It’s been an open case ever since. We’ve been working on bringing it to justice, but it’s hard when you have a handful of probable suspects, yet no evidence whatsoever to pin on them. We know the family was murdered by the hands of a mafia, but the question is which mafia. Throughout the years we’ve done a sweep of every mafia here in New York, and they all came out clean. As for Nick… we’ve been searching for him ever since the murder. He disappeared the night of his family‘s deaths, and we were afraid whoever killed his family would realize that he was still alive and would kill him as well. Although there had been an inactivity in the mafia world, there’s no doubt in my mind that they know Nick is still alive and they’re out there looking for him.”

“So, what’s going to happen?” Vernon asked, his voice filled with concern. “As far as we know, he’s been living on the streets and has nowhere to go.”

Harry shrugged, “Place him in the witness protection program?”

“I told this kid as long as he cooperated, we wouldn’t just place him in some orphanage or whatever, and as far as I’m concerned, that program is like an orphanage. There’s gotta be something else we could do.”

“Between us three, I’m open to any and all suggestions because now that we’ve got this kid in our custody, I’m truly at a loss as to what’s our next step.” the captain said.

They sat in silence, thinking of alternative options. It wasn’t until both Vernon and Harry looked up at each other, obviously having the same idea in mind, and then fixed their look on their captain.

The captain groaned, “I seriously don’t like the way you guys are looking at me.”

“Is it because you’re nervous that we’re checking you out or you have a feeling that our idea involves you?”

“First of all, you’re sick. And second of all, it happens to be the latter.”

Vernon shot Harry a look, “What’s with your man-on-man affection?”

Harry ignored Vernon, “Well… since you have a feeling that our idea involves you, which you’re correct by the way, I’m sure you’ve already figured out what our idea was.”

The captain remained silent, just staring at the two. It didn’t take long for him to figure out where they were going with this. “You want me to… oh no, I ain’t doing it.”

“Why not?” Harry questioned. “You’ve already got two, what’s one more gonna hurt?”

“Exactly. I already have two, I seriously don’t need to be dealing with one more. The last time I checked, my job entailed of protecting people and bossing those who work for me around, I don’t remember babysitting being apart of the description.”

“Then don’t think of it as babysitting.” Vernon shrugged, “If you were to do this, you would be doing exactly what you said your job entailed of you… protecting someone.”

The captain sighed, rubbing his temples. “Please don’t pull this reverse psychology on me…”

Harry placed his hands down on the desk, “Seriously though, with all joking aside… I think you’re this kid’s last hope sir.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but quickly shut it when he realized that he made sense. Out of everyone on the force, he had been the one heavily interested in this case, wanting to be the one to bring the murderers to justice and to help the only surviving boy. He honestly didn’t think the kid would be found alive; after all these years, he didn’t think they’d be one step closer to solving this case.

“Not like it’s any of your business or whatever, but I’ll consider it. You two may go now.”

“You, are a good man!” Harry said dramatically as he rose from his seat. “I’ll have you know, God’s looking down at you right now, smiling and He just wants you to know that this act has spared your soul from ever going to hell.”

He sighed and shook his head, “Vernon, escort your friend please. And what we discussed in here is to remain in here, got me?”

Harry did a fake salute, “Aye aye Captain Richardson!”

He rolled his eyes, “Get outta here.”