A/N: H:LOTS isn't mine. This is inspired by an s3 ep, but I forget which one.
She was sorry that she had made him miss his seminar. She just wanted to check it out. That's what she, what they, were supposed to do. Someone dies, or they get information that someone has died, they check it out. That's all she was doing. She didn't mean for it to effect him like it had.
If she could meet their precious Munchkin ten years later, she'd see the wisecracking detective, but he'd be softer. He'd be as angry and as melancholy as he had been that night. Chances were, if she were to meet the fifty-something-year old cop instead of the forty-something-year old cop she was used to, he wouldn't tell some kid reporting a shooting to shove off.
But, she was dealing with the Munch of the present and not the future and she had succeeded in making that Munch incredibly pissed off.
They had barged into that kid's room, Munch shoving him, not allowing him to leave, yelling in his face. Asking where the goddamn gun was. Those little girls that he had talked of earlier were hiding in their rooms. That boy who had accidentally shot his brother was scared and angry, trying to leave but Munch pushed him back again. Yelled in his face some more.
And the kid cracked. Told John the truth that he didn't want to hear. Told John the truth that both boy and man knew, but neither wanted to admit. It was in that moment that both understood.
The right to bear arms might be in the Bill of Rights, but it wasn't right.