Part 1
"That was a GREAT last period. Too bad Matthew and Chris didn't
quite make it," Mike said, pulling into the driveway of Todd's home.
"Yeah, it's too bad," Todd agreed quietly, getting out of the car
without further conversation. The light was on in the living room
which meant that Stephen was probably waiting on him. He swallowed,
gave a tight smile and wave to Mike and headed up towards the front
steps.
Mike gave him a rather odd look in return, shrugged and backed down
out of the drive way. He clicked the radio on once he was clear of
the residential areas and sang along, half an eye on the dashboard
clock. Eric was just finishing shift. With luck he would be home in
twenty minutes, in time for at least a mug of tea and a chat before
they needed to be in bed. It wasn't enough, but when you lived with a
cop you were grateful for what you got.
He was surprised to turn into his own drive way and find the police
cruiser already there. He pulled past and parked in the garage,
pulling the door down before he headed into the kitchen. The look he
got from Eric wasn't promising and his stomach started to rumble even
though he couldn't think of what he'd done. He'd been in enough
trouble to last a few months with death threats if something else
happened too soon.
"You didn't have to stay tonight?" he asked as an opener, hanging his
keys on the hook by the door.
"Obviously." Eric got up from the table, folding his arms which was
the second storm cone. Eric was a big guy: in the blue uniform shirt
he looked bigger still and the size of his chest and biceps was
emphasised by the straining cotton. Mike stopped where he was and
swallowed despite himself.
"What? I'm not late. The car's ok, I didn't speed, I know I didn't-"
"Don't mess around Mike." Eric said bluntly. "You were there
together, I know exactly what happened."
"What?" Mike demanded, beginning to panic despite himself. "I didn't
do anything, you can't have SEEN anything-"
"I thought we agreed you were going to start thinking before you
acted?" Eric interrupted. "I thought we'd covered that a lot
recently."
"Yes!" Michael said vehemently, the thoughts of the paddle still
fresh in his mind even though the pain had long since disappeared
across his backside. "I HAVE been, seriously!"
"Then tell me, young man, how you came to be at the hockey match with
Matthew?" Eric said in the same, even tone.
Warning bells were ringing furiously but Mike couldn't tell in what
direction the trouble was coming from. "Matthew? I picked him and
Chris up from the gas station," Mike said, confused. "We all had
tickets to the match, you know we purchased them together."
"I know exactly what was planned." Eric said unpromisingly. Mike
looked blankly at him, with no idea what Eric was driving at.
"So we went to the match," he said, trying not to sound as
uncomfortable as he felt. "We saw the match, you know we did, and I
dropped Todd at home just now- Steve was there, you can call him!"
His voice was rising in panic, Eric heard it.
"Matthew." he reminded Michael. "I asked about Matthew. Why did you
pick Matthew and Chris up from the gas station?" Eric persisted.
"Because they were there, they called me!"
"You didn't wonder why you didn't pick them up at home?" Eric asked,
his eyebrows raising.
Michael could tell the trouble somehow centered on Matthew, but what
he had to do with it he had no idea. "Chris said they both started
walking towards the other's house and met up there, some sort of
confusion on their parts," Mike sputtered, trying to remember if
that's all that Chris told him. Thinking back along the night, he
finally connected the events. "Why did you take them out anyway?"
Mike finally asked, wondering what he'd gotten into.
"You didn't know," Eric said slowly, looking hard at Michael.
"Didn't know WHAT?" Mike asked in exasperation. "I didn't DO
anything! You think I wanted to be in any more trouble right now? We
just met up and went to hockey, I don't KNOW what you wanted with
Chris and Matthew, Todd and I just watched the game and when we
couldn't find you we went home-"
"Ok, ok." Eric sat down, no longer looming, and held out his
arms. "It's ok, come here."
"I DIDN'T do anything." Mike repeated, not happy. Eric waited, hands
outstretched until Michael came to him, then pulled Mike down into
his lap.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realise."
Despite himself, shaking slightly as the adrenaline subsided, Mike
buried himself in the hug being offered.
"Yes but WHAT didn't you realise?"
"Never mind." Eric told him. "Doesn't matter now."