"Early Edition; Late Realizations"
By Wtchcool
Disclaimer: I do not own "The Cape," "Early Edition," or the "Chicago-Sun Times."
(As in "Harry Dresden, Esq.," for the purposes of this fic I am moving the fictional Palm City to the vicinity of Chicago.)
Contrary to the belief of Detective Crumb, Gary Hobson, former stock broker, did not possess "ESPN."* What he did have was a special subscription to the Chicago-Sun Times: He received tomorrow's newspaper today.
He'd been receiving it for years and still had no idea how the paper arrived a day early. He knew that Lucius Snow had been his predecessor, but the man had only left riddles for Gary to find. He also knew that the paper would show up on his doorstep like clockwork, accompanied by an orange cat that Gary had never bothered to name, but always fed.
He assumed the cat knew where the paper came from, but the feline was no help at all there.
At any rate, not long after Gary had started receiving tomorrow's newspaper, he'd begun using his knowledge of the future to change it. With the help of his friends, he had saved countless lives over the years. Of course, he was by no means perfect.
He remembered one January morning where the headline informed him that Chess, the mysterious serial killer that had been plaguing Palm City, had died in an explosion.
He read, intrigued, as the article went on to say that Chess had been unmasked as Vince Faraday, a Palm City Police Department sergeant. By the end of the morning, ARK officials would chase Faraday down. The incident would end with Faraday dying in an inferno at the train yard, and he would leave behind a stunned widow and a nine-year-old son.
Gary turned the page and started scanning the headlines for ones he would try to change. The cat hissed at him. He wasn't expecting that. It was as though the cat felt that he should try to prevent that story from happening.
It was true that there was time for him to act. Having gotten up as early as he had, he could have raced out to Palm City before Faraday's demise. He just didn't see the point. Chess was a brutal killer. Surely Gary's time would be better spent saving the lives of innocent Chicago residents. Ignoring the cat's protests, Gary promptly found another story to worry about and went about his day.
Six years later, remembering that decision gave Gary chills. This time, tomorrow's newspaper announced that Vince Faraday had been innocent all along. The real Chess, whoever he was, had framed the police officer. It was almost as if the cat had known this, had tried communicating it to Gary all those years ago.
He consoled himself with the fact that the Times was reporting that Faraday had not died in that explosion, after all. Rather, he had allowed people to believe he was dead so that he could go into hiding until his name was cleared. Gary's mistake had not cost the man his life.
…Although, in a sense it had, hadn't it? Vince had had to spend the past six years as an outcast, unable to show his face. He'd been separated from his family. The man's son, Vincent Faraday III, had been nine when his father had seemingly been killed on live television. Now the boy would be fifteen. There would be a rift between the two that the father would have to try to bridge, complicated by the fact that the teen, unlike the nine-year-old he had been, was unlikely to see his father through the lens of hero-worship. And the wife, Dana, might well have moved on.
Sure enough, later that week the paper had an announcement that Dana Faraday had filed for divorce.
Gary couldn't help thinking that he could have spared the family years of suffering. Who knows? Perhaps he would have had the opportunity to discover Chess' real identity. He could've helped to put the real villain behind bars, but he didn't.
He realized now what he had only dimly recognized before: Tomorrow's newspaper was only as good as the information the reporters would have. That information could very well be incomplete or even inaccurate and the consequences could be worse than a misinformed public.
He thought about Crumb and sighed. No, he didn't have extrasensory perception, but right now, he rather wished he did.
Author's Note: *This is not a typo. Crumb did describe Gary's gift as "ESPN." Whether the character was deliberately making a joke may be open to debate.
Thus concludes the Early Edition/Cape crossover. Please feel free to leave feedback.
Cape fans: Looking for more Pence and less angst? Check out my latest crossover: "Black Bird; Green Arrow."