Title – Renewed Interest
Characters – Chief Robert Ironside, Officer Ed Brown
Prompt – #7 Days; sfff #19 Renewal
Rating – G
Summary – It's only a small case, but Chief wants answers, and Officer Brown hasn't been very forthcoming! Pre-series 1, and post the events that are flashed-back in "Tom Dayton Is Loose Amongst Us".
A.N – I mean, in spite of the hash that Ed (and Eve) make of some of the cases in Series 1, he had to have some sort of redeeming qualities that made Ironside think he would be a good man to have around.
A/N II– Perhaps a more accurate prompt would have been Irony, since (though I didn't know it at the time) I started this on the day the wonderful actor who played Sergeant Ed Brown died. RIP Don Galloway 1937-2009.

Renewed Interest

Ironside had waited long enough. If he wanted answers, he was going to have to go and find them for himself! The black, thunderous look cleared the halls before him as he stalked the Department, no one dared to try and stop him.

At last, his eyes lighted on a rookie who was a little slower than the rest. Backed up against the wall, he stood to attention and Ironside glared at him.

'Where's Brown?' Ironside growled.

'N-not seen him, Chief Ironside.'

Ironside narrowed his eyes at the man, and grunted. He wanted answers, damn it! He didn't want to spend his day roaming the corridors of the San Francisco Police department to find one man!

He prowled on, and the whole building shuddered at the sound of his footsteps. Then at last, he caught sight of his quarry in question, just as he turned a corner toward the locker room. Unwilling to chase after Brown, he stomped forward at his own pace. At least he had him cornered.

The locker room was mostly quiet, there were only three others there. Still, he would have preferred to have this confrontation in private. But this was Brown's own fault!

'Brown!' he said, not loudly, but with a force that could stop traffic. The room went silent, and all the men who's surnames weren't Brown let out simultaneous sighs of relief.

Officer Ed Brown turned around with a start. But unlike the others, he didn't appear to be afraid of the Chief, he looked back with a curious expression on his face. Ironside held his gaze for a few moments, and Brown looked away first, showing his nervousness for the first time.

'I want an explanation.' When Brown looked back as if confused, Ironside added: 'The Robinson case. You do remember, don't you?'

It was such a small thing and it had been assed around the Department for a few days before the Commissioner had landed the case on his desk, literally, and the moment Dennis Randall was out of the office, and without really thinking it through, Ironside had handed the file to Ed Brown, only keen to get the case off his hands.

'You can handle it,' he'd said.

Brown had looked suitably surprised; Ironside surprised even himself by the act. It wasn't as if it had been a complicated case, it just needed a good eye for details and a lot of legwork, and legwork was something that Ironside couldn't give. He had waited for Brown to say something, looking him level in the eye.

'S-Sure thing, Chief,' Brown had replied.

And he hadn't thought that much more about it.

The next time he saw Brown, he didn't say anything; it seemed unkind to hound the man. But Brown said nothing either. But after a few days with no news, Ironside began to wonder. His interest was piqued, maybe because Brown had resolutely said nothing at all about how it was going. So the next morning, he waited. Brown passed him a couple of times, but still didn't say anything.

The morning after that, this morning, there was nothing either and the Chief had realised that he was going to have to ask. So that was precisely what he was doing!

Under the weight of Ironside's heavy stare, Brown licked his lips, his gaze still down at the floor.

'Um…'

'Well…?' demanded Ironside, angry at Brown's apparent inactivity. Had he really misjudged the man? He thought he would have put more of an effort in that this!

'Well, Chief, you see…' Ironside scowled, his mind running through all sorts of choice retorts when Brown came back with an excuse, 'it's done.'

Ironside hesitated, caught off-guard by the unexpected explanation.

'What do you mean by that?'

Brown's confusion would have been funny if Ironside wasn't so annoyed.

'The case is done. Over,' Brown said. 'The man's downstairs in the lock-up.'

'Let me see the file.'

Brown hesitated, but then nodded. He led the way out of the locker room, down the short corridor to the busy main foyer and the front desk, with Ironside following just behind. Then he retrieved the file from the desk sergeant and handed it to the Chief and, for the first time, Ironside noticed the slight shake in the other man's hand.

Ironside looked at the file for a long while, going through it carefully and aware that the whole department was now watching the exchange. Brown had done good conscientious work, in the best tradition of the SF police department. He'd done well.

Ironside glanced up with an uncompromising look on his face. Brown looked back, still outwardly calm, but Ironside guessed that inside was a different matter. The whole room was now quiet, as people stopped pretending not to listen.

'What's wrong, Chief?' asked Brown after a moment. 'Did I miss something?'

Ironside's eyes narrowed.

'You can bet your badge you did!' he replied, handing the file back. There was a collective drawing of breath behind them.

'Chief?' The tone of Brown's voice showed his worry now.

'When I give you a case, I expect to be told when it's finished. Understand?'

Clearly surprised that he wasn't being bawled out, but appropriately chastened, Brown nodded. He looked down to the floor his shoulders rounded. For the second time, Ironside hesitated before speaking.

'Brown?' he said. The man looked up, his expression exactly what Ironside would have expected of a man who thought they'd missed a golden opportunity. But Ironside smiled at him. 'Next time, I'll want to know!'

Brown's handsome face lit up.

'Sure, Chief,' said Brown with a winning smile. There was another pause as the two men looked at each other.

'Well, there's no need to stand around all day! You have work to do!'

'Sure, Chief!' replied Brown, still grinning.

The Chief watched him walk off, back towards the locker room with the bounce back in his step as the people in the foyer started to move again now the show was over. Ironside looked thoughtfully back the way Brown had gone; he'd known Brown was a good man after that mess with Dayton; he'd taken a heck of a lot of pressure and come through in a better policeman. Now he'd proved himself a methodical, able detective. And with the right sort of mentor, he could turn out to be a fine cop, maybe even one of the best.

So, still thinking, Chief Ironside nodded slowly and turned away, heading back to his office.

The End.