St. Joseph's School for Boys
Fandom – 21 Jump Street
Pairings – none, gen.
Warnings – Drug dealing, off screen child abuse, off screen killing.
Rating – pg-13
Disclaimer – I do not own the characters of 21 JS. I am not making any money off this fiction. I'm merely playing in someone else's sandbox.
Summary – The McQuaid brothers are back; this time they're stuck in a home for run away boys do to the abusive situation at home. Meanwhile, they investigate the mystery of several boys at the home going missing. The rest of the gang helps out.
A/N – Hopefully I'm a chapter ahead when I post this.
Also, remember that back in the 80's cell phones were huge and no one used them, much. So the phone thing reads weird in 2013 but back in the day this was normal.
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Chapter 7 – Who's the Boss?
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Tom was almost right about Doug being in trouble, but this sort of trouble he could handle. This was mostly due to being bigger and stronger than the boys who were trying to challenge him. But Bullies didn't fight; they threatened and did things to kids to make the kids fear them. They did things such as dumping small kids into trashcans or giving swirly's, taking lunch money and the like. And if it came down to it, fought with a gang. Doug, however, didn't have Tommy to back him up but that wasn't the point. The point was to show that the McQuaids, one or two, could take care of themselves.
And so, while Tommy was catching up with Fuller and the others, Doug was terrorizing Ethan Michaels with the threat of a swirly. Ethan had been caught going through the McQuaids personal effects. And Doug was making an example of him to the other kids who gathered around to watch. Doug held the kid upside down and over the toilet. He wasn't looking to drown the kid, but he had to dunk Ethan a couple of times – four at the most – to make a point. Ethan blubbered and begged to be let down and promised to do anything the McQuaids asked. The kids gathered around laughed or giggled though they tried to be scared, but it was just impossible. Doug kept up the anger and the yelling but inwardly he was wondering why he had to go to such lengths. Usually he pulled very inane things on kids, things that couldn't be called bullying, but this wasn't one of those things. At the same time, it wasn't polite to go through other people's things, unless they had a search warrant. Rules are rules for a reason.
"PLEASE! I SWEAR TO DO ANYTHING YOU WANT! PLEASE!"
Doug smirked; "anything?" he asked, just to be clear. The kids giggled from behind.
"Yes! Yes!" Ethan practically screamed. Toilet water streamed down his face and into his hair. Doug decided that it was enough, besides if the blood rushes to a person's head for too long, that person could die and that's not cool. Not so gently, but enough not to hurt Ethan too much, Doug let the kid down onto the cold tile.
"You're gonna be my slave, and Tommy's," he added, "now go clean up, you stink," he was careful not to call the kid a name, even though "toilet-head" was on the tip of his tongue. He was allowed to do a lot of things in this line of work, but he wouldn't be blamed for starting something for this kid that could potentially scar him for life.
Ethan ran off. Doug turned to the other kids who had quiet and then scrambled. No one wanted to get in his way. Only the younger kids whom felt they wouldn't be hurt by big Dougie stayed around. "Who wants to go and swing?" Doug asked, because he felt it was better just to ignore the whole incident or be bombarded by questions he didn't want to answer.
A resounding; "Me!" went up and with the five kids he went to have some fun.
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Blowfish composed himself; he nervously fiddled with the cuff of his working coveralls. Tom couldn't use Fuller as his Dealer contact, but he could use Blowfish. All Blowfish had to do was sound like he knew what he was doing. He'd never been able to do anything like this and he wasn't sure if he could pull it off, however, he had too. Tom had pulled for him to get this janitor job and he was going to keep it, even by doing something like this. Tom was counting on him and Blowfish wasn't going to let his best friend down.
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Tommy wondered if he was becoming insensitive to the danger he would be in if Marsh and Sullivan found out who he actually was; and if they found out he was an undercover cop, than they'd find out about Doug and then they'd both be dead. At the same time he just wasn't worried about it. It'd been two weeks since they'd come to the school, and they had long since decided that their serial killer wasn't operating inside – instead they found a drug that'd been on their radar for at least a year, and the man dealing it. What he did with the money Tommy didn't know and had forgotten to ask Fuller about. But if it were important, Fuller would have told him.
Tommy popped in a new stick of gum as he walked past the 'locked' – a single chain and pad lock that was open and never seemed to work properly' gate and into the playground. He preferred to call it this because 'yard' was something for prison. This was supposed to be a school and while the building and playground did a formidable job at passing itself off as a school, to Tommy it just didn't feel like one.
Tommy spied Doug at the swing set simultaneously pushing four kids with a very young toddler sitting at Doug's feet and sucking his thumb. If they ever got the chance to have a family, Tom knew that Doug would be a good father. And this was great practice for him. Not only did it show that the McQuaids actually could like kids, when crossed they could do damage. And it never was a bad idea to have someone on your side.
He waved at Doug instead of joining him and continued his way past various groups of kids, some dealing drugs (possible PS but he wasn't sure) or playing (the younger kids who weren't hooked on drugs yet) and into the building. The secretary was away from her desk but Tommy knocked on Marsh's office door anyway.
"Come in," Marsh called, his voice muffled by the thin door. Tommy pushed his way through and closed the door behind him.
"It's done, but my contact wants you to call him," Tommy said as he slumped into the hard wooden chair in front of the desk. Marsh smiled warmly at him. And again Tommy wondered at himself again for not caring that he was in danger if he didn't play this right.
"He hates it when I bring around new people," Tommy sighed and popped his gum loudly, trying to come off as annoyed, "if he don't know ya, he don't deal for ya, but I convinced him you were a good guy with some good stuff."
"Did he ask what it did?" Marsh asked.
"Sure, an' I told him it was kinda like Heroine, but that I didn't know because I never got a look at it or saw it in action," Tommy shrugged.
"Would you like to try it?" Marsh asked inquisitively.
Tommy deadpanned; "no, I can't make good money if I'm high all the time. Besides, that's a good way to fuck up and get arrested," he popped his gum to make a point.
Marsh laughed and clapped his hands a couple of times.
"Was that a test?" Tommy asked, not impressed and it came across that way. Marsh got up from his chair and circled the desk to sit on the edge in front of Tommy. Tommy lent backwards in order to look up at the man. Marsh had this thing for people looking up at him. Tommy figured it fed his ego.
"Yes, of course it was," Marsh said cheerfully. "I can't trust someone who's on drugs, can I?"
"Obviously," Tommy muttered.
Marsh lent forward, his eyes were hard and Tommy braced himself for what was to come. Marsh pulled the white do-rag off of Tommy's head, revealing black, shaggy hair. He gripped the hair and tugged Tommy forwards. Tommy cringed because it hurt and he wasn't able to keep it back.
"Just so you know, Tommy, I like you. A lot. But if you cross me…I'll put a nine millimeter into your head, do I make myself clear?" Marsh asked, he was now grim and Tommy knew he was talking business.
"Yeah," Tommy couldn't nod his head, but he quelled the attitude and gave Marsh what the man was looking for. Anything else was suicidal. Marsh let him go and Tommy frowned as he redid his do-rag; the long ends trailing over his shoulder.
"I have to call him first," Tommy said, getting back to his 'contact'. Marsh nodded and moved the phone from his side of the desk to the other so that Tommy could use it. Tommy dragged his chair closer and picked up the receiver. He put in the number as fast as he could without making a mistake. He didn't want Marsh to know that he was calling his desk at the Chapel, but calling a street phone was too risky because someone could be using it, or something else could come up and he wouldn't be able to get through, at least he knew he'd get through to his own desk.
"Yo!" Blowfish at least had the presence of mind not to say that Tommy had called the Chapel.
"Hey, Duke, it's Tommy," he replied.
"Yeah, put the dick on," Blowfish, aka Duke for the job, demanded. Tommy acted cowed. He wanted Marsh to know that while Tommy respected his power at the school, the big fish here was The Duke. The biggest drug dealer out there and someone to take seriously. Marsh picked up on this and cleared his throat. Acting professional. Tommy ceased chomping on his gum out of 'respect'.
"Hello?" Marsh could help asking, "is this the Duke?"
"Yeah, now you look man, I don't usually let Tommy talk me into something this stupid. For all I know you could be the police. Be at the Pear tonight with the stuff and then we'll talk figures, but until I see you have the PS, I ain't gonna deal!" Duke demanded. Marsh didn't like the sound of that but if he wanted to expand his business he needed this contact.
"All right, at what time?" Marsh asked.
"Midnight," Duke replied and then he hung up the phone. Thankfully, as soon as Marsh hung up his end the phone rung and it was one of the caseworkers wanting an update. Tommy tried to leave them but Marsh caught the ends of his do-rag and tugged him back. All the while sounding quite caring to the social worker. Tommy retook his seat and waited. He tried not to be nervous, why when the whole thing was over was he nervous? What was wrong with him? Marsh might read something into it that wasn't there.
He waited and took a deep breath when Marsh put the phone back in its cradle; "Tommy," he wasn't smiling. Tommy didn't know what to think or do at the moment, so he waited.
"You're going with me tonight," Marsh said as he retook his seat. Tommy nodded.
"Be ready at eleven thirty," Marsh demanded. Tommy nodded and then with a wave from Marsh he made his escape.
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"What'd he want?" Doug asked. They stood under their tree. Once more Tommy made sure no one was up in the limbs or hiding out behind the thick trunk; "he wants me to go alone to the meeting tonight,"
"Did you brief Duke on it?" Doug asked, he didn't want to give Blowfish's cover away just in case. If anyone was listening, it'd just sound as if Tommy was filling his older brother in on things.
"Yeah, he knows what he's supposed to do," Tommy nodded and he hoped that Blowfish wouldn't blow it. They'd both be dead then, and then Doug could follow.
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tbc