THE PRICE OF LIVING
Disclaimer: Believe me, if I owned Jericho, things would be a hell of a lot different! Don't own 'American Pie'. The song, not the movie.
Rating: G/PG – just a little bit of murder.
Timeline: Anywhere after episode six, makes no difference. Just a few months after the bombs.
Spoilers: None really.
Summary: He was killed for a bag of chips, and the frightening truth was that people would kill for a lot less. Oneshot.
A/N: My second Jericho fic, woo! This one isn't romance-centred, it kind of looks at the effect of the bombs on everyday people. How they survive without the things they took for granted and just how precious they are now. I don't know if you'll like it, but review and let me know.
News travels fast in a small town.
Much faster without television and Internet.
And, ironically, must faster without phones.
When the news hit the town hall, it came as a surprise to everybody.
Seventeen year old Jimmy Richardson, who's family owned one of the biggest farms was found dead in the alley behind the Cyberjolt Café.
With the police forced to recruit volunteer police and stretched thin, they sent Jake Green and Rob Hawkins to deal with the 'incident'.
That was all it was, a series of little 'incidents'.
When Hawkins and Jake discovered the body, they were stunned into silence.
He was propped up against the wall, blood pooled around him.
Hawkins carefully walked to the side of the teenager, pushing him slightly off the wall.
"Blunt-forced trauma," Hawkins stated, "he probably impacted with the wall."
"You a forensic expert too?" Jake smirked.
"Just a cop from St Louis," Hawkins grinned, "with a wife obsessed with crime shows."
"What is he, the fourth this month?" Jake murmured aloud.
"Fifth in a string of suspicious deaths," Hawkins stated, staring emotionlessly at the body of Jimmy Richardson.
Who once ran errands for Gray Anderson on his dirt bike.
Who played guitar for Heather Lisinski's third grade class.
But for Jake and Hawkins, not knowing these facts made their jobs easier.
Made it easier to ignore the fact that the body in front of them was once a teenager, loved by many.
Not knowing made it easier to forget.
Jake and Hawkins talked to the parents.
It was not the first time either had broken news like that.
The heart breaking 'your son is dead' followed by silence.
Hawkins was the first to break the silence, enquiring about Jimmy's friends – and enemies.
"Oh, no," his mother shook her head, "Jimmy was very popular. He didn't have any enemies."
"No one who might've been jealous of him?" Jake asked.
"Jimmy was a good kid," Mr Richardson said firmly, "we raised him to treat others with respect."
After receiving a list of addresses of Jimmy's friends, Hawkins and Jake made their way back to Jake's car.
"Wait!"
Hawkins and Jake spun around. Luke Richardson jogged towards the two.
"I didn't want to discuss this in front of my wife…"
There was a pause. Mr Richardson swallowed, trying to find the words.
"My son…the body –"
"Someone will deliver it this afternoon," Jake answered.
"My wife and I – we want to put this ugliness behind us…"
"We understand," Hawkins stated gently.
"No," Mr Richardson said softly, "you don't."
The interviews were the most times consuming. Parents were generally not happy to have their children interrogated by a couple of 'wannabe' cops, as one furious father put it. But they relented, spooked by the death of a child so close to their own.
After the first five interviews, all teenagers had mentioned that Jimmy had spent the day with his best friend – Joseph Enders.
Hawkins and Jake decided it would be best to talk to the boy, see what he knew.
Joseph 'Joey' Enders, a gangly boy, whose family owned the local autoshop. He was on the football team with Jimmy and the two had been best friends since they were young. The boys face was contorted in a mixture of nervousness and grief. He sat still on the porch, facing out at the flat Kansas landscape.
"Joey, we need to know what happened with Jimmy," Jake said softly.
Joey fiddled with the hem of his shirt.
"Joey?" Hawkins queried.
"It was an accident," Joey said flatly.
"What was a accident?" Jake asked.
"Him, being killed,"
"What happened, son?" Hawkins questioned.
"Me and Jimmy, we have this comic book collection, well, 'had'. We decided they were worthless and we'd trade them for something else. A few of the guys said something about how there was only one bag of chips left at Gracie's, so we traded the comics for it."
"Why chips?" Jake asked.
"I dunno," Joey shrugged, "bored and hungry, I guess. We reached the alley at the back of the Cyberjolt Café and Jimmy decides he's going to keep them. He claims that the comic collection was 'rightly' his, and I only contributed, like, two. We got into a fight and – "
There was a pause. Joey wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
"I pushed him and he didn't get up. I saw all this blood, I started to freak and ran. I – I didn't mean to kill him. I swear, man, if I could change it all – I would. He was my best friend."
They stared out into the distance, the teenage murderer, the prodigal son and the 'cop from St Louis'. All deep in thought about tomorrow.
After leaving the Enders workshop, Jake and Hawkins headed straight for Town Hall.
The Mayor, Eric, Gray Anderson and the two Deputies, Jimmy and Bill listened carefully as Jake and Hawkins delivered their findings.
"Do we arrest him" Bill looked around.
"No."
"Yes."
Mayor Green and Gray Anderson glared at each other.
"What the hell, Johnston?" Gray snapped, "In order for Jericho to survive, law and order much be maintained. Just because some kid sheds a few tears and 'swears it was an accident' doesn't mean a killer should go free!"
"The boy made a mistake, Gray," Johnston argued, "and he'll carry that around for the rest of his life. But if we arrest him, make this public, it will only add to our growing problems. 'Teenage boy kills for a bag of chips', they'll say and you and I both know that if that boy killed his best friend for a bag of chips, then people can kill strangers for a hell of a lot less. If you want to unleash that sort of panic upon the citizens of Jericho, fine, you can deal with it. People want to get on with their lives, the Richardson's want to get on with their lives and arresting this boy isn't going to help anybody!"
The Mayor lowered his voice.
"Men, the hard, terrible truth is that yesterday one boy killed and one boy died for a bag of chips. We need to make sure something like that doesn't happen again."
"So, it was an accident?" Eric asked.
They all looked at Gray, expecting some form of protest. There was none.
"It was an accident."
The funeral was held on the edge of the Richardson's property. A couple of hundred came to pay their respects, friends, townsfolk who knew the family and curious passerbys, with nothing better to do.
The football team carried Jimmy's coffin across the field. Not one dry eye could be seen.
Jimmy's older brother, who taught him to play guitar, played his favourite song – 'American Pie'.
Hawkins stood, with his family, amongst the crowd. Jake stood with his mother and brother while the Mayor made a short eulogy. The two men broke apart from the crowd and stood, watching.
They watched as the football Coach said a few words, followed by Gray Anderson and a tearful Heather Lisinski.
Tales of a boy who helped out where he could. Who sang to eight year olds out of the goodness of his heart. Who could tackle a boy twice his height and weight like it was nobody's business.
"What a waste," Jake muttered.
Hawkins nodded. Both had seen their share of tragedy, wasted life.
This wasn't the first time – and they knew it wouldn't be the last.
Joey Enders walked up to the grave. He looked into the crowd and saw Jake and Hawkins. The boy held their gaze. The two men nodded and Joey dropped a stack of comics into the ground.
It had started so innocently. Comics for chips. Simple.
"This'll be the day that I die,
This'll be the day that I die."
A/N: Hope you enjoyed that. Reviews make the world go 'round.