Disclaimer: Please, you think I own Horatio? And he's still living in Miami and not with me in England? For the record, definitely not mine.
A/N: OK, so I was watching repeats of Season 4 and watched Shattered last week, and the confrontation between Horatio and Rick where Stetler says that he should have been promoted instead of Horatio. Rick claims this is because he did better in the exam and in the interview, and I was left wondering how that would happen. I mean, we all know Horatio is brilliant, considerably more so than Rick, so either Rick was wrong about the exam scores, or there was a good reason behind Horatio underachieving. I'm normally less than sympathetic towards Rick, but that comment just seemed so petty that it actually made me feel sorry for him, so this story is an attempt to make him less of a villain than he is usually portrayed and to show that the decisions he made in joining IAB genuinely seemed right to him at the time. After all, we've all jumped to the wrong conclusion once or twice.
Now, please bear in mind that I have absolutely no idea how the MDPD decide on promotions. This is based roughly on how the Metropolitan Police in London do things (very roughly), but for all I know the MDPD could be entirely different. Oh, and please review. I'd like to know what you think, good or bad (obviously, I'd prefer good, but honesty would be better still).
Rick Stetler was quietly convinced he had this in the bag. Sure, Horatio was good, but this time, Rick was certain he was better. For one thing, he had spent every spare minute studying for this exam, and felt like he had absorbed so much information that it might spill out of his ears if he shook his head. And besides, he had been working on his interview technique for weeks now. God, he had even paid a specialist to advise him on how to be more personable and engaging. If this didn't work, if Caine got the promotion and not him, then there was no justice in the world.
There were two others in the running for the Lieutenancy, but the entire PD was well aware that it was between Rick and Horatio. And Rick thought gleefully, it looked like Horatio was about to screw up before the competition even got underway. The exam was due to start in less than a minute and Horatio had disappeared. Rick, always obsessive about exams, had been thirty minutes early, and was now sitting at the desk provided, his three spare pens arranged next to the pencil.
The uniformed sergeant who was invigilating checked his watch for the tenth time in as many minutes. "If Caine isn't here in another five minutes, I'm going to have to start the exam anyway." He shook his head and Rick gritted his teeth. Horatio always got preferential treatment from the uniformed officers. If it had been him who was late, there would have been no delay in starting the exam. The sergeant checked his watch again, only to be distracted by Horatio finally arriving.
"You're late," Rick stated unnecessarily. Horatio said nothing, only sat down at the spare desk.
Twenty minutes into the exam, and Horatio's beeper went off. Rick looked around disbelievingly and watched, with a mix of horror and relief, as Horatio muttered under his breath and left the room, his exam paper open and clearly half-finished. Well, Rick thought, if that didn't guarantee that the promotion was his, nothing would.
The promotions panel, consisting of the Captain of the PD and two other Lieutenants, met the following week to discuss the exam results and the interviews. Captain Barnes, an old school police officer, looked around at his colleagues in dismay. Lieutenants Gibson and Emery never seemed to agree with him. But then, the Captain considered, they came from very different schools of policing. Barnes had been taught a lot more about surviving on the street and catching criminals, whereas Gibson and Emery seemed more concerned with political correctness. Barnes' private view of that was that if any of the interviewees mentioned that dreaded phrase, he'd personally see them fired.
The panel quickly discarded the applications of two officers, and moved on to the real business of choosing between Horatio Caine and Rick Stetler. Both good officers, Barnes had to admit. Flicking through the interview notes and test scores, however, he frowned. Something was wrong here, surely.
Gibson smiled thinly. "Well, I think the exam marks and interviews prove that Rick Stetler is by far the best candidate."
"He got 80 percent on the exam, almost unprecedented," Emery added. "And his interview was very impressive. To be that consistent is a real mark of excellence."
"What the hell happened? Caine is one of the most brilliant men I've ever met. How can he possibly have only got 50 percent?" Barnes stared at the marks, willing them to change.
"Does it matter?" Emery frowned. "The man barely achieved a pass mark. Surely you're not still thinking about promoting him?"
"I want to know what went wrong," Barnes said firmly. "Who marked the papers?" The uniformed sergeant who had invigilated the exam was sent for, and was soon in front of the panel. "Now Sergeant Preston, do you have any idea what happened to Caine? His test marks have never been this poor before." Barnes ignored the displeased looks of the two Lieutenants. He would have put money on Horatio beating Stetler in any written exam, and was determined to find out the cause of the mysterious results.
Preston smiled. "He was late arriving, and then left the exam half-way through, sir. If you look at his paper, you'll see that he had got everything right up to the point when he left the room."
"What about Rick Stetler?" Emery asked.
"He was there thirty minutes early, sir. He did very well in the test, better than I'd have thought he'd do."
"Why did Caine leave? Do we know?"
"Yes sir," Preston said, and his smile grew a little broader. "I asked him about it later that day. He was working a child abduction that day, sir, and one of the other detectives on the case sent him a message to say that they'd found the suspect's car."
"He was working an active case the day of the Lieutenant's exam?" Barnes said incredulously. "Who the hell assigned that to him?"
Emery coloured slightly. "He was the most senior detective in the squad room when the call came in. He did say that he didn't mind."
"Well," Barnes said, leaning back in his chair, "at least that explains Caine not getting his usual result. You can go now Preston. Oh, one last thing. Did Caine close the case?"
"That day, sir. The child was found and the perp is in jail." Preston left the panel to their discussions.
"That certainly puts things in a different light."
"I don't really see that it does, sir," Gibson said. "Stetler still got the highest mark, and interviewed brilliantly."
"Let me see those transcripts," Barnes said, flicking through the papers. Reading through the interview transcripts, Barnes saw two very different officers. One was quite clearly desperate for the promotion, and willing to work very hard to achieve that. The other was far more concerned about actual police work, and putting criminals behind bars.
"As you can see, Rick Stetler was clearly the most impressive candidate," Gibson began, but Barnes cut him off before he could go any further.
"Do you know what our motto is?"
"What?"
"What does it say on our badges?" Barnes asked patiently.
There was a brief pause while Gibson looked at his, and Barnes wondered how he'd ever passed his Lieutenant's exam. "Er, 'to protect and to serve', sir."
"And which of these two officers do you think would be the best at protecting and serving our city?" Barnes didn't wait for an answer that time. "The man who spent all his time revising for an exam, and was there half an hour early, or the man who was working so hard to save a child's life that he didn't have time to even finish the exam?"
Gibson and Emery exchanged looks. "You may have a point there sir," Emery conceded.
Rick was waiting hopefully in the squad room, barely able to concentrate on the computer screen in front of him. Captain Barnes was due to announce who had made Lieutenant in less than ten minutes, and Rick couldn't wait. After Horatio's disaster at the exam, Rick had heard rumours that he had flunked the interview too, getting into an argument with the interviewer over one of the cases. This time, Rick was certain, this time, he would come out on top. After all, why would they promote Horatio?
Barnes cleared his throat and called for a little quiet. "Now I'm sure you're all aware of why I'm here, so I won't keep you long. All four candidates were very impressive, but the stand-out candidate, and the new Lieutenant, is Horatio Caine." The squad room burst into a round of applause.
Rick sat there, stunned into silence. How on earth could this have happened? He watched as Horatio, looking awkward, shook the Captain's hand and then was surrounded by colleagues, all wanting to congratulate the man. This wasn't fair, Rick swore to himself. It just wasn't fair.
Rick waited until the end of the shift, somehow surviving through the fake sympathy. He should have been the one promoted! Anyone could see that. He was the responsible, sensible one, who didn't go haring off on a moment's notice, just because someone might have found a lead. He was the one who would be able to manage budgets and teams efficiently, whereas Caine would barely be around to do any of that, he was so keen on saving the entire world.
Making his way outside, he was astonished to see Caine apparently deep in conversation with the Captain. Barnes smiled and clapped the younger man on the shoulders, looked very friendly. A nagging suspicion arose in Rick's mind. He knew he was the best man for the job, yet they had promoted Caine. Well, this sudden friendship with the Captain would explain matters. Rick shook his head, disgusted with both of the men in front of him. To promote someone based on who they know, rather than their qualities made him sick inside.
He applied for a transfer to IAB the next day. Such corruption and dishonesty needed to be rooted out. If nothing else, at least one day, Rick would finally come out on top. Horatio Caine would not be able to get away with this forever. If it took him twenty years, Rick swore, he would make sure the truth came out.