These little stories, ficlets, drabbles, whatever were too small to go out on their own. But since the story bunnies still demand they be written, here ya go. All unrelated and right now rated T. That might change. It will depend on the aforementioned bunnies.
CONTROL
I love Cho! He cracks me up with just a word or two. It's that deadpan off the wall kind of humor that rings so true as a cop to me. This little drabble is my homage to Cho and who always puts me in mind of the great TV cop.
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, names were changed to protect the innocent.
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When Cho told his colleague Rigsby that he went to Juvie for the usual stuff, he was being deliberately vague. It was bad enough to have done the crime and time. He was not about to make it part of his present. It was his past.
His mother told him when he came home, "What you do with this experience is up to you. It will never be spoken of again in this house". She was as good as her word. What she didn't know is how much he did take from that experience.
Being locked in a detention center with other youthful offenders was like going to hormone hell. Most of them were between 11 and 16. Most of them had no real family life to speak of on the outside. Most of them would spend the greater part of their formative years and beyond in the penal system.
Cho was different. He was smarter, had a mother who loved him and this was only his first offense. He had no desire to repeat it. So, Cho learned all he could while he was there. He did his time quietly, and managed to avoid fights by just staring people down.
He also got very lucky. Someone had left the center a VCR and tapes of old TV shows. He watched a lot of ANDY GRIFFITH, and DRAGNET. While the other kids were laughing at the old shows and cops, Cho watched them and learned. "Just the Facts, ma'am". No hysteria, no drama, just do what has to be done. Good guys win, bad guys lose. It had an order and made sense. Detective Joe Friday was cool. Not cool in the common street sense but cool in that he was always in control.
When you are a 14 year old boy locked up for essentially being stupid, control is a valuable commodity. Cho craved it. Friday never wore his emotions on his sleeve. When he did let go on someone, he used terse, well chosen words. Control and knowledge were real power, the boy decided.
That's when he started reading. It really didn't matter what he read. The center's library was pretty sparse, but he read it all. In his 14 month sentence, he devoured every book in the place. He also memorized every episode of DRAGNET. When his time there was done, it was a very different young man who greeted his waiting mother.
Cho would have and use knowledge. He would be cool and poised. He would have the control. He would be like Joe Friday. He was going to be a cop.
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