Penhall the Boss

When everything is coming your way…your in the wrong lane…

Tommy was not happy – his first day with this family had gone from bad to worse. It had all began that morning when he had his first chance to snoop around. He had seen the cupboard with the padlock out of the corner of his eye. When he figured both of the parents were busy, he had picked the lock as quietly as possible. There was nothing in there but a broom and a dust pan. Okay, I'm just being paranoid. There is nothing to worry about. If I don't find anything, than there is nothing to worry about…right….how come I don't believe myself when the evidence must be around here some place. He shut and locked the cupboard, fixed his film and returned to the table where day old oatmeal was waiting for him.

He gobbled it down just in time for Amanda to walk into the room.

"Rinse it out and put it into the dish washer," she said.

"Sure thing," Tommy smiled charmingly at her as he did her bidding. She gave him a tight lipped smile as he passed by her.

"Did you do your homework?" Amanda asked, today was Tommy's first day at the local high school. Tommy had actually done the homework, like a McQuaid.

"Yeah," he replied shortly.

"It is yes ma'am," Amanda snapped.

"Yes Ma'am," Tommy replied, Amanda didn't see him roll his eyes.

"Good, now, don't be late, we don't raise tardy children," she said as she handed Tom his back pack. He gave her a quick "Yes Ma'am," before making for the door as fast as humanly possible. The night before he was given a key to the house and told that curfew was eight-thirty.

That's worse than Mom! She at least let me stay at a friends place till ten! Tom had thought to himself. But he decided that going rebel now would do nothing for his case, so he said no problem and popped his gum.

"Mr. McQuaid, I expected you here early," Mrs. Johnson said as one part of the duo sashayed into the class room.

"The day I'm early to class is the day I get elected for the Presidency," Tommy McQuaid replied with a daring smirk. The teacher looked non to happy about this new smart assed kid and said as much, which made the class snicker. But, Tommy wasn't at all contrite.

"So, what is this? Is this class all 'bout you parading around your knowledge and picking on kids?" Tommy asked.

"This is English class,"

"And I suppose your gonna preach bout proper speech and verbs and nouns then?"

"Listen here you despicable rat!"

"Oooohhhh….class, please note the descriptive words of judgment the teach used to make his point!" Tommy looked around. The students were snickering at the teacher, however, Tom couldn't help but notice one kid had cringed badly.

"I'd give you detention for that, but I believe you live with the Jordan family?"

"Maybe I do, and maybe I don't," Tommy replied. That line is so much better with Dougie. He had to roll his eyes at himself.

"Then I shall send them a note as to the depiction of your behavior," Mrs. Johnson smirked. Tommy gave her his 'Devil may care" smile. But he was elated. If the allegations against the family were true – than all he'd have to do is take beating, go to the chapel and show his bruises and then they could bust the family for child abuse. At least, that was the plan.

"Hey! You!"

The cry made Tommy look around; unfortunately he wa used to this phrase and like all the other times someone had used it – the call was indeed directed towards him.

"Who are you?" Tommy asked the kid. The kid was kinda short, thin and had black circles under his eyes.

"My names Mikael Kassidy,"

"Oh? And that's important because?"

"Don't you know what…Mom and Dad are gonna do to you when they read that note?" Mikael asked.

"Mom and…oh, you're one of the kid's my social worker told me about," Tommy said.

"Yeah,"

"So…is it true?" Tommy asked.

"Is what true?"

"Is it true that they broke that one kids arm?"

"I…I don't know, I wasn't there,"

"Okay, fair nuff," Tommy shrugged. He turned back to his locker to shut it up with his books. McQuaids never carried their books.

"Boy, you'd better go by the rules,"

"Why? are they gonna whip me? Use a broom on my ass?" Tommy gave the kid a look that said he honestly didn't care.

"Tommy, it could go bad for the rest of us,"

"How so? How can my actions dictate the way the treat you?"

"I…"

"If you say "I don't know" – I'll have to get physical with your head!"

"Okay, okay, it's just hard to talk about, you know?"

"No, I can't say that I do," Tommy replied.

"You'll understand soon," and with that, Mikael took off.

"So, what did you find out?" Hoffs asked, on the other end of the line Tommy McQuaid had commandeered a phone booth a block away from the house.

"I'm not quite sure yet, I have a feeling that Mrs. Jones, she the English teacher, is in on it. I don't know how though. I'm on my way back to the Jordan's to see what the punishment for disrupting class will be," Tommy said.

"Did you meet any of the kids?"

"Mikael Kassidy, we talked a bit, he didn't say anything much, but I think he knows or has seen something,"

"Okay, be careful,"

"Always, so, what is going on there anyway?" Tommy asked.

"It's terrible! For some odd reason Penhall thinks he can trash the kitchen, invite seedy looking girls over to impress them with his power and…make out with them in Fuller's office," Hoffs explained.

"Oooohhhhh….I'd love to see the pow-wow he and Fuller will have when the Coach gets back," Tommy whistled.

"So do I, anyway, Ioki and I have something planned for our dear leader," Hoffs laughed.

"You have fun with that, I'm sure I'm gonna have to have a laugh by the time the day's through," Tommy sighed.

When Tommy marched into the house, he found it in complete silence. Jenna and Lucifer (the only other boy of the house) was watching the television, Tommy could make out Mikael in the kitchen. Tommy joined the young boy there.

"Where are Mr. and Mrs. Jordan?" Tommy asked.

"Out, they go out every night,"

"Why?"

"Because they say they get too stressed with us and that if they find anything out of order they'll have to get rid of us," Mikael shrugged.

"Personally, I really don't care if they get rid of me or not but…"

"Jenna and Lucifer, right?"

"Yeah, they're too young and…"

Just then Lucifer ran into the kitchen; "Who are you?" he pointed at Tommy.

"My names Tommy McQuaid,"

"You killed a man," Lucifer replied.

"So?"

"Mommy and Daddy say they gonna teach you to do right,"

"I'm sure they will, Lucy, go get Jenna, it's time for dinner," Mikael directed the young boy. Lucifer went off to do as he was told.

I have never seen such well behaved kids…Tommy thought with wonder.

"Come on Tommy, Jenna takes forever, help me out," Mikael said. Tommy gave the kid a side long glance but in the end he honestly didn't care. He was left to his thoughts as they all sat down. Grace was said before they started. Tommy was made to say it; he tried to make it as…interesting as possible. The little kids were giggling and Mikael felt like finding a hole to crawl under and never come out of it. He'd die there if he had a choice.

Dinner was a quiet affair; they had all broken the rule of no talking after 2. But none of them seemed to care since the 'parents' weren't around. Tommy was sure that Amanda and Samuel thought they were raising the perfect children…or they were sadomasochists who were playing mind games on them all. He hoped he could get Mikael to talk, he didn't want to make Jenna or Lucifer to do it if he didn't have too.

"Tell me a story?" Jenna asked. Her round blue eyes gave Tommy the puppy-dog look that Penhall always loved to use on him. But on Jenna it was just adorable and Tommy smiled as he picked her up.

"Did you brush your teeth?" he asked.

"Yes,"

"And brush your hair?"

"Yes,"

"Okay then, what sort of story do you want?" Tommy asked. Jenna smiled and wiggled out of his arms. She ran across the room she and Lucifer shared (which was barren of toys and books) and brought back a faded book. It had some sort of creature on it holding a plate of ham and eggs.

"Green eggs and ham…" Tommy started.

Out side the room, Mikael and Lucifer watched out of site as the punk teen took care of Jenna like his own little sister. Tommy McQuaid was a tough guy, Mikael was sure he had killed a man, but, Tommy could be trusted around his little brother and sister.

"Mika, what do we do now?"

"This may just be the chance we need to get out," Mikael whispered.

"Really, for real?"

"Yeah, by this time next week, we'll be seeing Aunt Hellena again," Mikael promised.

Tommy called Jump Street at six, just like he was supposed too. Amanda and Samuel weren't home yet. But Tommy doubted that they would arrive sometime before twelve. He had smelled the alcohol on Amanda's breath that morning, but for some odd reason he didn't not it like he knew he should have.

"Hello?"

"Ioke?"

"What's going on?" Harry Ioki asked. Leaning back in his chair.

"Nothing, the Jordan's ain't even home," Tommy replied.

"Okay, where are they?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, but I think they're out spending the state money they get for taking the kids and getting smashed with it,"

"What do you mean?"

"You should have seen Jenna and Lucifer's room, no toys, no books no…kid stuff. When I was their age, I had shit all over the place," Tommy said.

"Okay, what's wrong with that?"

"I don't know, but they live in a nice house. The rooms are big, it's not like they can't afford it,"

"Don't do anything stupid," Harry cautioned.

"Who? Me? Please, Ioke, I'm a McQuaid! HE!"

"That's what I'm afraid of," Harry muttered as Tommy hung the phone up on him.

a/n – Okay, I am trying to take my own advice on going a bit slow and not springing anything onto my viewers yet. Though, now that I think about it, I still need to set stuff up. Er – Anyway….I realized that I had sent Fuller away, so that's why I had him talk to Judy and Harry. I don't think it matters much who he talks too, they know what sort of case he's on. Besides, he'll need them to do the dirty, researching work that he can't do. Oh, and because he's undercover, I use 'Tommy' because I don't want to inadvertently break his cover.

Ta,

Dizzy