Riley and Rusty Beck have been through hell and back together, but they are not giving each other up now. A story of earning a family.
Riley is an OC that is meant to show a new side to Rusty, Sharon, and the rest of the team.
As long as they had been alive the only people Rusty and Riley could count on were each other, though they had very different views on who was the cause of their pain and suffering. While Rusty was quick to point out the person throwing the punches was their mother's boyfriend, Riley was just as quick to point out that their mother was letting it happen.
But they had made a deal, right from the first time their mother locked them in an apartment and left for two weeks, that no matter what they stuck together. Neither made a sacrifice that the other wouldn't be willing to make. So they both knew what it was like to sell themselves on the street so they could eat, they knew what it was like to live with sins that most people couldn't understand.
So no, they weren't going to be separated. They were not going to be sent to separate homes again. It was sticking together no matter what.
Which was why they kept running away. Also why they were sitting in the Major Crimes lobby.
Sharon Raydor looked at the two sixteen year olds as she entered the room, an officer in blues standing over them as Riley played with her sandy brown braid and kept her eyes down and Rusty seemed up for the challenge, even though he was still wearing his boot from when he broke his leg.
"Rusty, Riley, what are you doing here?" Sharon asked.
Riley couldn't tell if she was aggravated or purely curious, but she was fairly certain it was the first one. In her experience it usually was.
The young officer spoke for them. "The boy's file says 'Attention: Major Crimes' and the girl refuses to leave him. Apparently this is the third time both of them have run away from home this week."
"It's not my home," Riley and Rusty both groan in unison, Riley a bit more aggressive than Rusty.
"The foster parents the DCFS put him with won't take him back and the girl, well..." The officer motioned to her like she was some sort of lost cause to deal with.
"That's fine with me," Rusty snapped. "They were terrible."
Raydor looked like she was at least trying to understand. "What's the problem?"
"Living with complete strangers! That is the problem! I'm not even allowed to see my sister," Rusty snapped throwing an arm toward Riley who was being very quiet at the moment. "And they were like telling me what to do, all day long, like what I could eat. And they would turn off the television at 9:00 every night."
"So, you were tortured," Raydor replied sarcastically before looking at Riley with a raised eyebrow. "And you?"
Riley shrugged a bit. "I wasn't allowed to see my brother."
Raydor looked at Riley for a moment longer, feeling that she actually held more complaints that just that, but she decided not to pry for the moment. Finally, she looked back at the officer and gave him a polite smile. "I will take care of them." She accepted the files with a small thanks and then turned her attention back to the twins.
"Look, I know Brenda was fired, or whatever, but I need to speak with her. Right now," Rusty demanded as Riley pulled her iPod out of her pocket and started to scroll through the songs.
Raydor took a deep breath and then handed the files she was carrying over to the woman that followed her in. "If you could excuse me for a moment," she said as always keeping up her manners.
"Yes, ma'am, and may I say congratulations on taking over major crimes. Well deserved," the woman smoozed and Raydor obviously wasn't sure how to take the comment.
Riley and Rusty followed her into her office, Riley only stopping long enough to turn back and look at the woman smiling to herself. "No one likes a kiss ass," Riley told her simply.
She paused just long enough to see the smile get wiped on the woman's face an triumphantly went back to following her brother and the captain. Riley also noticed that Captain Raydor opened her door with a certain amount of uneasiness as she entered the office. Probably for the first time, at least the first time that it was her own office.
Riley eyed everything from the blue walls to the maple wood desk. It was the same as it was when Brenda was in the office, except now it was cleaner. Not a single person possession was anywhere to be seen.
"Look, we had a deal," Rusty went on as he moved toward the chair. Riley decided to stay as close to the doorway as possible, feeling safest when she was near an exit. "I helped you guys catch a serial killer so that you would find my mom, not just dump us in the system."
Riley rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. The earbuds were in her ears, but she didn't have music playing, she just liked to appear to not be listening.
Raydor raised her eyebrow at her as she flipped on all the lights in the office.
"I mean, you wanna know why people don't like the police?" Rusty went on. "It's because you're all a bunch of liars. That's why."
Raydor went around her desk and took a seat. "Riley, anything you would like to add?" she asked glancing at the seat next to Rusty, telling her to take a seat without outright doing so.
Slowly moving away from the wall, Riley obeyed and gave half a shrug. "I think he's saying enough for the both of us."
There may have been a smirk on the captain's face for half a moment, but it was wiped away as she looked back at Rusty. "We haven't been able to find your mom yet and you both are too young to live unsupervised, plus a lot of places can't take two teenagers."
Riley shrunk in her seat wrapping her arms around herself. but Rusty wasn't about to give us the fight.
"We've lived unsupervised for months and nobody cared! At least we were together. They shouldn't be allowed to separate us! I think we can handle living on our own again."
Flipping through the papers, Raydor tried to catch up as quickly as possible but apparently realized the file told her nothing she didn't already know. "You, Rusty, are a material witness in a murder trial which means that you have to go to court when Phillip Stroh stands trial and you have to testify under oath about what happened."
Riley and Rusty both seemed to pale at this idea. "I don't," Rusty muttered, but Raydor shook her head.
"Yes, you do. And we have to protect you."
"No. I'm not doing that and you can't make me!" Rusty shouted back at her, despite his sister trying to reel him back in and lower his voice.
"Oh yes, we can make you and we will make you. And until then, we need to find a safe play for you to stay," Raydor continued, almost gritting her teeth now. This woman apparently did not like being challenged.
"Look, I-I-I don't know you, really, but I don't like you. So I'd rather deal with Brenda, please." Riley knew that Rusty just threw in the please as a last ditch effort to appeal to the woman's manner obsessed side that was pretty much radiating off of her.
"Well, I'm afraid you're standing at the back of a very long line," Raydor replied with a bit of a shrug. "Unfortunately, Chief Johnson has retired from the L.A.P.D. She is out of town. So I'm who you've got."
"What?" Rusty did not like that sound of that, but Riley seemed completely indifferent. There was a knock on the door and Raydor looked a little disgruntled.
"Hold on..."
"No! You hold on!" Rusty snapped. "I need to know who here is look for our mother!"
Captain Raydor looked at him. "I am. I am supervising the search for your mother and I will find her."
At that, Riley turned on her head phones. She deafly watched another argument between Buzz, Rusty and Raydor. Sometimes she really wanted to punch her brother. He held the cards and instead of asking for a plane ride out of hell, he's demanding someone find their mother and give them back to her.
She didn't want to go. She didn't want to think about going. In fact if it was between where she was sleeping six hours ago and her mother, it was a coin toss. As much as she knew her mother would most likely still leave them again, she didn't want to see Rusty's face when she did. She could spend the next two years of her life fighting off her foster father if it meant not seeing Rusty's disappointed face again.
Rusty suddenly snapped his finger in his face and pointed to the younger guy that they apparently were suppose to follow.
Riley sat in the electronics room with her chin on knees and her arms wrapped around her legs. Her long sandy hair was tied into a tight braid going halfway down her back as her blue eyes refused to focus on anything.
Of course, Rusty had to start causing problem. He wanted a lawyer. He didn't want to testify. He wanted them to live on their own. Well, even Riley knew that nothing was in their hands anymore whether he had a lawyer or not. It was time to stop fighting. But Rusty never understood that it stops hurting as much when you stop fighting it. When he finally stood up and started pointing his crutches at Buzz, Riley ripped out her headphones just as Raydor came storming into the room as well.
"Will you shut the hell up about a lawyer?" Riley snapped in Rusty's face as he suddenly quit fighting to stare at her. "We're in this because of you! Not wanting to testify against a serial killer is more stupid that wanting our freaking mother back!"
Raydor stopped dead in her tracks as Riley snapped at her brother.
Rusty gave his sister a hard shove backwards. "So you want to go back to that house? You want to keep living there?" He shoved Riley again, this time she tripped over Buzz and stumbled to the ground. It wasn't anything more than sibling violence, but Raydor had enough.
"If you don't knock it off and I mean right now the next place you go is gonna have locks on the doors and bars on the windows. Do you want to spend the next two years in a juvenile detention center?" Raydor threatened, truly fed up. "Keep talking and see what happens."
Rusty seemed lost for words and Riley stood up and dusted herself off. She had tears in her eyes that she was trying to wipe away as Rusty looked over at her. "God, Ri, I'm sorry," he told her trying to help her up.
Riley wrapped her arms around her brother and held him tight. "For the love of God, Rusty. Just shut up."
Raydor was having Rusty and Riley's things sent to her office, but since Rusty was in emergency care it meant that he need twenty-four/seven adult supervision. Riley on the other hand was not. She was hardly more than a tag along, but the captain did seem to notice that sometimes she acted as a conscious for her brother. Rusty was definitely more impulsive than Riley, but the captain had a feeling Riley had more to tell than she was giving up.
"Before we can deal with any of your concerns," Captain Raydor told the twins pointedly, "we need to comply fully with the law. And we will."
Riley bit her lip to keep her comments to herself, but Rusty didn't have a problem leaning over and whispering, "What crawled up her ass?"
Riley originally meant to give Rusty a dirty look, but failed miserably when she saw his mischievous smile as a sort of apology for earlier. They shared one of their classic looks that they always did when they felt like they were a team again as Buzz handed Rusty his crutches back.
"Can I stay in the break room while you take him to the doctor?" Riley asked Buzz using her big eyes to her advantage. "I swear, I'm the good one."
Buzz looked really torn, but Riley kept going. "I mean, I guess I could go with you to Rusty's doctor's appointment, but it would be a lot easier for us to escape and Captain Rule Book will really be pissed. I mean, let's face it. Two against one, you don't stand a chance."
Riley smiled a perfectly white smile at Buzz that held a sinister nature to it. Rusty just shrugged. "She had a point."
Buzz inhaled. "Fine. But you stay in the break room and you better be there when I get back."
Riley held up three fingers. "Scout's honor."
Then she turned on her heels and toward the break room. Prevenza may have noticed the money missing out of his wallet by now, but she only took a couple ones and a twenty. The twenty was just in case she did get sent back to her foster parents that night. She was going to do whatever it took to stay the hell away from that place.
As she rounded the corner of the hallway toward the break room and ran smack into a man she recognized as Andy Flynn. She literally had to restrain herself from picking his pocket out of pure habit.
"Hello," he said with a questioning tone. "I thought you normally came with a brother?"
Riley ran a nervous hand down her braid. She did usually come with a brother and particularly didn't like being alone with men. She took a few nervous steps back, putting more than the appropriate amount of distance between them.
"I was hungry..." Riley said suddenly back to being quiet. "I was just going to the break room for a snack."
Flynn gave the girl a once over, noticing that she wasn't meeting his eyes and he wasn't sure if she was trying to hide dishonesty or fear. As he took another step, the girl tried to get further away. Fear it was then.
He nodded at her. "I won't keep you then." Riley watched him with a cowered head as he moved past her. "Oh, and kid?"
She glanced over her shoulder at him and caught his smile. "Avoid Pop Tarts, I think the same ones have been in there since I was a rookie."
Riley gave him a small smile and then headed toward the break room.
Sharon Raydor had put away a killer for life in less than forty-eight hours. Even if it wasn't for the crimes he committed, it was still efficient. If Provenza had a problem with that he could turn in his badge or get over it.
Fritz had come by to pick up all of Brenda's sweets that she kept in her drawer, but he also casually mention Brenda was curious about her plans for Rusty and Riley.
Raydor looked through the glass at the two kids sitting at a desk. Rusty was leaning back in the chair as Riley sat on the desk next to him. Rile held a bag of Cheese-Its in her hand and kept tossing them into the air, skillfully catching them in her mouth.
Then she looked over at her brother and watched him attempt to do the same. Raydor smirked as Rusty attempted to catch the cracker, nearly knocking his chair over backward in the process, only to be saved by his barely younger sister.
They really did need to stay together. Separating them would just make things worse for both of them. Sharon Raydor took a deep breath as she realized what she had to do.
Opening the door she grabbed both of the backpacks that had been brought to her house. Everything in the world these two own was able to fit into a backpack each. Riley immediately hops off the desk and for some reason hides her crackers when Raydor makes her appearance.
"Come on, you two are going with me," she said decidedly, watching the two teenagers exchange confused looks.
They moved toward her, each of them taking their own bag then allowed the woman to lead to her car.
"Where are you taking us?" Riley asked nervously. "Please don't take me back to that place, Captain. Please."
Rusty gave his sister a nervous look, not used to her sounding so afraid. Normally if she was afraid, she was more directly worried about Rusty. Usually fear was a snippy anger for her too, but this time she seemed like a little kid.
"You two are going to stay with me," she replied managing to stun both teenagers to silence. A skill many people wish they could have sometimes.
Rusty and Riley stuck very close to each other as they entered the well furnished and expensive looking condo. As usual, Riley stayed where they was easy and direct access to the door as Rusty stared to play with his bag.
"Do think we're going to be all like thankful for you taking us in and all," Rusty grumbled as Riley rolled her eyes.
"Speak for yourself," she muttered wrapping her arms around her shoulders and glancing toward the door.
Captain Raydor seemed to find this funny. "Oh, trust me. You're not the first adolescent to grace my home with your presence," she continued as she poured herself a glass of wine in the kitchen. Rusty rolled his eyes and made a sort of face at Riley who just made a similar face in return. "Having raised two teenagers of my own I have tremendous capacity for ingratitude." She reappeared with a glass of white wine. "It's funny, as soon as you get good at being a mom, you're fired."
Rusty shrugged. "Or you quit."
Riley kept her eyes toward the door. "That would imply that she was a good mother, which she wasn't, Rusty."
Sharon Raydor watched the pain between these two kids and what they had been through. They were very protective of each other, but in different ways. Rusty would fight tooth and nail for his sister, while his sister would protect him from himself by keeping him from fighting. They were both very self sacrificing when it came to each other, which probably came from a life of watching each other get hurt.
"So," Rusty began, breaking the awkward silence and earning the captain's attention again. "What are we supposed to call each other, anyway?"
Thinking on this, she moved to the chair across from them. "Oh... I think... you should call me Captain Raydor."
Rusty obviously found this too impersonal while Riley accepted it. "Fine, you can call me Mr. Beck," Rusty countered with a certain amount of attitude.
"You are the child in this relationship," Raydor fired back with raised eyebrows. Truthfully, she was already expecting this and was more curious about who would fight her with the formalities. It didn't surprise her at all when it was Rusty and Riley was silent in the background.
"No, I am the witness. If you are the police officer, then I am the witness."
Raydor caught a glimpse of Riley's proud smirk even though she was almost completely turned the other way.
"There are not a lot of people around here who call me by my first name," Raydor replied calmly watching both children react.
"Oh maybe that's why you live alone with two spare bedrooms," Rusty shot back earning him an elbow in the rib cage from his sister who also found it a good time to glare at her brother.
"She's letting both of us stay here," she hissed. "I don't care if she tells us to call her Captain Kangaroo! We should be thankful."
Raydor broke in, hiding the tinge of hurt the boy managed to inflict with his words. "I live alone because my children are grown. Spare bedrooms are for when they visit." Riley continued glaring at her brother as Raydor continued. "But, you may call me Sharon."
Suddenly both of their eyes were on her. Two sets of intense blue eyes stared her over as the name came out of her mouth.
"How's that?" Captain Raydor offered with a hard smile.
"Sharon?" Riley nearly whispered as she looked at the dark haired woman holding her wine glass and watching both of them through her glasses.
"Mm-hmm."
"What is that, your bad idea of a joke or something?" Rusty grumbled pushing his bag on to the floor and suddenly seeming more hurt.
Raydor tilted her head in confusion. "Why do you say that?"
"That's our mother's name," Riley said incredulously as the woman's ignorance. "Sharon is our mother's name!"
Seeing the surprise register on her face, Rusty felt a spark ignite in his gut. "You haven't been looking for her at all, have you?"
Another guilty look came over Sharon Raydor's features. "Rusty, I just got this job yesterday. Give me a chance to catch up." It sounded like a plea and an apology, something no one was use to hearing. "I am making a good-faith effort, I am."
Rusty suddenly stood up and grabbed his back, reaching for his crutches. "Where's your bathroom?"
Raydor motioned toward the door at the end of the hall. "It's right there, but Rusty, if it is possible to find your mother, I will do it. I promise."
Rusty was already trying to get away as he shook his head. "Sure you will, captain. Sure you will."
Captain Raydor looked down at Riley as she reached into her bag and pulled out a ratty looking stuffed animal. She held it over her chest and inhaled the scent of its head. Raydor took a seat beside Riley and noticed that the girl didn't shy away from her as Flynn had mentioned the girl doing earlier with him.
"I really am sorry, I just haven't had time to catch up with everything thing," Raydor tried watching the girl hold tight to the stuffed animal and nod.
"It's alright," Riley replied, looking up at the Captain. "May I please go to bed?"
There were signs of tears building in Riley's eyes and Raydor couldn't say no. The girl held the stuffed animal tight as she snatched up her backpack and disappeared into one of the guest bedrooms.
Tossing herself against the back of the couch Captain Sharon Raydor closed her eyes and reached for one of the throw pillows. It was less than half an hour in and Sharon Raydor had already let the two kids down.
I have a lot of plans for this story, but I'd like to know what you think.