Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing.
The Wake-Up Call
A tentative knock at the door pulled Tank's attention up and away from next week's duty roster.
"In."
Alex walked in and stopped in front of him, uncertainty written across his teenage face. "Have you got a minute?"
"It depends. Are you going to shoot me with paintballs?"
Alex smiled at the familiar reminder, and relaxed. "No."
"Then I'm all yours. What's up kid?"
"I just…" He hesitated then went on in a rush, "I need someone to talk to. About guy stuff."
"Can't your dad help?"
All the expression disappeared from Alex's face, and suddenly a miniature Ranger was walking away from him and reaching for the door. "It doesn't matter."
Tank cursed silently. "Wait. It's okay, kid. We can talk, no problem. You want to go someplace else?"
The boy's shoulders relaxed and he was Alex again. "Yeah, that would be good."
Tank got up and walked round his desk. "Let's go sit on the roof. We'll swing by the break room and grab some drinks to take with us."
The flat roof was hot in the summer sun despite the breeze. Faint traffic sounds came up from the street below; the hum of engines, the occasional screech of car brakes, the louder sound of car horns.
Tank lifted his can of soda and saluted the sky. "Gotta love those Trenton drivers. You like the driving?"
"Yeah, it's good, except being banned from driving the Porsche."
"Well, you did crash it into Morelli's garbage cans the first time you drove it," Tank pointed out. "And when your dad said you could borrow a car, I'm pretty sure he didn't mean the Porsche. How long were you grounded?"
Alex winced. "A month. Mom says I got off lightly."
Tank nodded sagely. "Yep. You did." He took a pull at his soda. "So come on, kid. What's eating you?"
"I met a girl."
Tank grinned and tapped his can against Alex's. "Congratulations. She cute?"
"Yeah. She's real pretty. But it all went wrong."
"Go on."
"Last week this girl, Cara, came up to me in the cafeteria and asked me to go to a party with her. All her friends were watching, but I though that was just what girls did, so I said yes."
"And?"
"We went to the party, and there was a lot of beer there. You won't tell Mom, will you?"
"I promise."
"Anyway, it was good. There were lots of people there from school that don't normally talk to me, and it was fun. I just had a couple of beers, 'cause Dad's always talking about staying in control and being aware of your surroundings, so I swear I wasn't drunk or anything–"
Tank had a feeling that he knew where this was going. "But–"
"–but it all got stupid anyway. Some of the other guys were drinking a whole lot of beer, and they got real loud and rough and started shoving people around, and then they shoved me."
"And what did you do?"
"What we do." Alex's voice was intense and angry. "What you do. What Dad does. What Uncle Hal does. The only thing I know to do."
"Which is what?"
"I dropped him, hard and fast. Put my knee in his back, twisted his arm and immobilised him."
Tank sighed. "Let me guess. It didn't go down well."
Alex's voice choked. "He screamed like a little kid and threw up. I really hurt him, Tank. I didn't mean to."
"Alex–"
"And you know what the worst part was?" he went on bitterly. "Cara loved it. She got all excited, said watching it got her really hot. She wanted to start another fight so that she could watch me hurt some more people." The boy scrubbed a tear away from his eye, fighting for control. "Am I a monster, Tank?"
"Jesus, Alex."
"Tell me." he insisted. "What am I? The other kids at school aren't like me. Their dads work in offices or on construction sites. They have beer bellies, and grill on Sundays, and do stupid stuff that their kids are embarrassed about. I live in a building with a bunch of security experts that taught me how to take a man down and how to pick locks. I could open the store-room before I could tie my shoelaces properly. I'm like you, and now the kids at school are either terrified of me or want me to hurt people so they can get off. I don't know what to do."
Tank took a deep breath. "I need you to stop, Alex. Stop and listen to me. You listening?"
The boy nodded, his jaw set.
"Okay. I'm sorry, Alex. I really am. For what's happened to you. Nobody ever meant for this to happen. The guys in this building have known you since you were a tiny kid, and you grew up around some real scary shit." He winced. "Don't tell your mom I used that word, okay?"
"I promise."
"Thanks. Now the first fact is, life is dangerous. Bad shit happens to good people every day, but a lot of folks don't want to see it and don't want to know about it. Ever since the world began it's been that way. People only let themselves know what they can handle and they pretend the rest ain't happening. But with what we do, we see the bad stuff. No hiding, we know it happens. Understand?"
"I guess."
"Now, the next fact is, a lot of men in this place don't have kids of their own. All we have is you and Robbie, and you two are the closest thing we've got to sons of our own. We don't ever want to see that bad shit happen to you. So, we did what we could to prevent it. We never had a plan, just, all the people that love you gave whatever we had to give. The next thing to know after that is that, right now, you're a teenager. Didn't you learn about hormones and shit at school?"
"Yeah. Some."
"So you should know that teenagers do all sorts of crazy shit 'cause of all the damn hormones. You fight, you show off, you do stupid stuff to look good in front of girls and other guys. We all did. Your dad was worse than most, but you never heard that from me, right?"
"Really?" Alex regarded him with wide eyes.
"Really. So you did something stupid; it happens. So you picked a girl who liked bad-asses; that happens too. All the fucking time. It's something most of the guys here have to deal with. A lot of women are scared of us. A lot more get off on the danger and the bad boy shit. There's always been women like that, but if they can't see through it to you, they ain't worth your time."
"So what do I do?"
"You hang in there and wait for the women that ain't either of those two things. See the other kind if you want to, but don't get involved, not until you know that they ain't a bad-boy groupie. You might have to wait a long time, but they're out there. Oh and Alex?"
"Yeah."
"I know you don't call me Uncle Tank no more, but I'm still proud of you." He counted off on his fingers. "One, you made your first take-down. Two, you didn't whale on him, just did what you had to do. Three, you didn't do it to impress some airhead. And four, you know that it ain't right to hurt somebody just 'cause you can. So tell me what you got to be worried about?"
"Really? I did okay?"
Tank tried not to smile at the dawning hope on the boy's face. "You did okay."
