“Ever took a tour of a police station?” Vernon asked as he looked at Nick.

Nick hissed out in pain before he replied, “Nope. Never thought I’d be here actually.”

Vernon nodded as he continued to pour hydrogen peroxide over Nick’s torn knees. “Well, after we get you fixed up, I’d like to take you on one…”

“OUCH!” Nick exclaimed as he pulled his leg away from Vernon, “Are you trying to burn my flesh off?”

Vernon rolled his eyes as he grabbed at Nick’s leg again, “The sizzling is a good thing. It means that the hydrogen peroxide is cleaning your wound. Just, hold still and try not to think about the pain… the stinging will go away soon.”

Nick closed his eyes and released a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding. After a minute or two, he realized what Vernon said was right, the stinging did subside. He looked down at his red knee to see the gravel and dirt was cleaned from it, leaving nothing but raw flesh.

“Isn’t as bad as it looked.” Vernon stated as he placed a large band aid across his knee. “There you go. Ready to go on that tour now?”

Nick looked down at both his bandaged knees, “You just burned the heck out of my knees, and now you want me to walk around the station?”

Vernon chuckled and shook his head, “Are you a hypochondriac?”

“What’s that?”

“Never mind. But you’re not gonna die and I only cleaned up your cuts, I didn’t take away your ability to walk.”

Nick pushed himself up from the chair, feeling a throbbing sensation course through his legs, but it was dull and his knees weren’t aching as bad as before. He glanced up at Vernon, feeling embarrassed for making a big deal out of nothing. “Sorry.”

Vernon smiled, “There’s no need to apologize. I don’t like pouring hydrogen peroxide on my own cuts. Between you and me, I don’t even like to run my cuts under water because I think it hurts.”

Nick’s eyes widened, “Seriously?”

Vernon nodded, “Yup. I’d rather walk around with an open flesh wound and dried up blood than to run it under water and clean it with soap.”

“That’s funny.”

“Glad you think so. But remember, that’s to be kept between us. If word gets around, they’ll all laugh at me because those who are afraid to run their cuts even under water isn’t considered manly. And I’m manly.”

Nick laughed, “Your secret is safe with me.”

“Cool. So, you ready for that tour now or do you wanna rest up?”

“I’ll take the tour.”

“Alrighty,” Vernon said with a nod as he led Nick over to the entrance of the station. “doesn’t take a genius to figure out this is the entrance of the station and this little area right here is the reception area, where people who need to speak to an officer, or the captain, or need to set up anything else report to. The lovely people behind the desk are our receptionist, though you should never call them that because they don’t like to be called that.”

Nick chuckled as he followed Vernon to the next part of the station. “We have different offices throughout the station. Officers never have their own office because there’s too many of us, but these offices are normally for detectives, lieutenants, sergeants, our chief and our captain.”

“Am I gonna meet these people?”

“Who?”

“The people you just mentioned.”

Vernon shrugged, “If you want to. One person you’ll definitely be meeting is our captain.”

Nick suddenly came to a halt. Why would he be definitely meeting the captain? Was he in trouble? Was this all some sort of act before he was served with his punishment?

Vernon turned and saw Nick just standing there, “You alright kid?”

“Why will I definitely be meeting just the captain?” Nick questioned, a hint of fear in his voice.

Vernon smiled softly, “He wants to meet you, and will you stop worrying? People age faster by worrying too much.”

Nick smirked, “Okay, sorry.”

“And that’s another thing. Stop apologizing for things you don’t need to apologize for.”

“Alright… sorry.”

Vernon gave him a look. “That’s the last time I’m saying it, I swear!” Nick laughed.

Vernon chuckled, “Okay, so back here… we have the typical jail cells. Gotta admit, they don’t look half as bad as the media depicts. There’s a cot, a sink, a toilet... we even give them a sheet and pillow. Better than nothing, right?”

Nick ventured into one of the open cells, looking the small room over. He looked at the sink and the toilet, noticing that it was really clean and that they did upkeep their cells. “In some twisted way, this actually looks comfortable.” Nick laughed, “Well, better than where I was.”

“And where was that?”

Nick shrugged, “We bounced from place to place, so it’d be anything from a stairwell to the hard cold ground.”

“And now, you ain’t gotta live like that anymore.”

Nick nodded as he followed Vernon, “Yeah.” he muttered.

“So, this next place I’m taking you is where the preparation takes place for us police. We have our locker room here.” Vernon said as he led Nick through their locker room. “It’s complete with showers and our uniforms are always pressed and waiting in our lockers.” he led Nick out into the next part of the station. “This is our dispatch center, where we have our various dispatchers contact us policemen and give us information of calls they receive and require us to respond.”

“Well, well… what do we have here?” a female voice asked.

Vernon turned to find Cindy standing behind him, “I, uh… hey.” he stuttered.

Nick glanced between Vernon and the woman, smirking at the way Vernon suddenly fell dumbstruck. Cindy looked down at Nick, “And who might you be?”

Nick held his hand out to her, “Nick.”

Cindy smiled at the way Nick presented himself, “Nice to meet you Nick. By the looks of things, Vernon is in no condition to be making any introductions here, but I’m Cindy.”

Vernon was still quiet, kicking himself for the way he was acting. Cindy glanced over at him and laughed, “Well, since I don’t think you’ll be finding your voice anytime soon, I guess I’ll be on my way. See you fellas around.” and with that, she left.

Nick watched as Cindy walked away. When she was out of sight, he turned back to look at Vernon, who was still trying to compose himself. “Are you okay?”

After what seemed like forever, Vernon finally found his voice. “Uh… yeah, of course I’m okay. Why do you ask?”

Nick shrugged, “You were acting strange. Do you like her?”

Vernon literally choked on his intake of air. “No, I do not! And could you not talk so loud?” he said playfully, wanting Nick to know he wasn’t being serious.

Nick nodded, a smile plastered on his face. “Uh huh.”

Vernon straightened himself out, “You ready…” his stopped in the middle of his sentence, his eyes widening when he heard his voice crack, “You ready to continue on?” he asked in a lower voice.

Hearing Vernon caused Nick to bust out in laughter, doubling and clutching his stomach from laughing so hard, “Oh gosh… I’m sorry, but this is funny!”

Vernon blushed, lightly pushing Nick right along, “Okay… finally I’m gonna show you the last part of our station, which is the area where officers and any other authorities go to get their arms.” he opened the door and held it open for Nick to walk in.

Nick walked slowly into the small room, seeing nothing but a desk and a man sitting behind it. “Where’s the weapons?” he questioned.

The man who was seated behind the desk looked up and smiled at Nick. He didn’t look to be much older than Nick, yet he sat there, cleaning a disassembled gun.

Vernon pointed to a door that was located to the back of the small room. “Right behind that door. It contains all kinds of weapons, and this young man here along with another overshadowing officer is in charge of signing out the weapons to the officers and keeping track of all the arms.”

“I also have the pleasure of cleaning each and every single piece.” the man added as he placed the part of the gun he was cleaning down. “The names’ Alexander James McLean, but you can just call me AJ.”

Nick grasped the outstretched hand and shook it, “Nick Carter.”

“Ahh, so you’re one of the infamous kids huh?” AJ asked as he sat back down.

Nick glanced up to Vernon, “Am I some type of celebrity or something? Why does everyone seem to know so much about me?”

Vernon chuckled, “Word travels fast kid, this is a police station you know.”

AJ smiled, “Don’t worry about it, I was in your shoes once. But I was given an opportunity and was able to redeem myself, and this is where I’m at now.”

“McLean‘s title is a cadet. Although this isn’t the military, he’s a trainee and we have him working here to gain more experience. But don’t let his age fool you, cause this kid knows a hell of a lot when it comes to weapons.” Vernon explained.

Nick looked back at AJ, “How old are you?”

“18.”

Nick’s eyes widened in shock. AJ snickered, “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

Just then, another man dressed in what looked to be a military uniform, walked into the room. “How’s it coming McLean?”

“Last piece sir.” AJ said as he held up the cleaned gun he just assembled.

“This is McLean’s overshadowing officer for the moment, although he isn’t exactly an officer.” Vernon explained. “This is Sergeant Dorough.”

The man turned to address both Vernon and Nick with a warm smile. “You must be Nick.” he said as he held his hand out.

Nick smiled, “Indeed I am.”

“As Vernon already introduced, I’m Sergeant Dorough, but the names’ Howard.”

“Nice to meet you sir.”

“Likewise. I just came from the Captain’s office, and I assume that you are already aware of the fact that he would like to have a word with you.”

Nick gulped, “Yeah. He wants to talk to me now?”

Howie shrugged, “Whenever you’re complete with the tour I suppose.”

“Which I just showed him the last part of the station.” Vernon looked down at Nick, finding him to be suddenly pale. “You ready kid? You ain’t got nothing to worry about, I promise you.”

Nick nodded. He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous, but he was.