Round and Round

Part 11

Day three of new job.

Day one had been one of the worst days of Leon's entire life. Day two had been (thankfully) mostly uneventful. He'd arrived and the Chief had proceeded to show him around the station and introduce him to the rest of the officers; he'd promptly forgotten all of their names. Then he'd been issued his firearm, set up his desk, etcetera etcetera etcetera. The day had entirely consisted of a massive whirlwind of information, most of which he couldn't recall.

And now, day three...

Day three had consisted so far of Leon sitting in Johnson's office, watching the other as he smoked, filled out paperwork, and completely ignored his presence...

Which, Leon had found incredibly uncomfortable. This was his new partner, after all; they should be learning about each other, right? So... he'd started rambling. As he had a tendency to do when he was nervous or uncomfortable.

"It seems like a nice town. I went out walking through the park near my apartment yesterday—Greenview Park, I think it was called. There were lots of people out, bunch of families with kids... It seems like a nice place to raise a family... Nice little town." He paused for a moment. "You married, by the way?"

Johnson didn't even look up, just shook his head and flicked the butt of his cigarette into the ash tray sitting in front of him.

Not really surprising. He definitely gave off the air of a bachelor.

"Any other family?" He scooted a bit closer to the desk and then rested his elbows on top of it, distractedly watching as Johnson's pen scratched across one of the sheets set in front of him.

"Mhm."

Leon jerked slightly at that sudden deep grunt, his elbows sliding forward slightly at the movement. Meaning that he almost lost balance, which would have probably ended with him smashing his chin against the desk. Damn it. Why couldn't he get used to that? Johnson was so quiet that any sound he made startled the hell out of him.

"Really? Do they live around here?"

Johnson shook his head slightly in response. Leon was starting to wonder if he might be annoying him. But the Chief had said that they should try to get to know each other, so...

"Oh. Well, that's all right too. I'm sure that you can go and visit them sometimes. Mom and dad? Brothers and sisters?"

"Parents." He hadn't jumped this time! That was a step in the right direction. "Three brothers..."

"Older or younger?"

"Older."

Leon tried to imagine what sort of siblings Johnson would have. He had the mental image of three huge, hulking, silent brutes...

...Which had definitely been reminiscent of a horror movie.

He should probably stop watching those things...

"That must have been fun, growing up..." He paused for a moment and then continued, "I don't have any siblings. I always kind of wondered what it would be like to have a younger brother or sister."

And now he was slightly surprised as the pen, which he had been watching as he talked, suddenly stopped moving. He was even more surprised when he glanced up to see that Johnson was now staring at him with a still-blank expression.

"Ah..." Leon hurriedly jerked his elbows off the desk and sat back in his seat at that look. Shit. He must have pissed him off. Probably since he kept rambling on while he was attempting to finish his work. "I shouldn't be bothering you. I should go see if the Chief has anything for me to do..."

But, Johnson frowned slightly at this. Maybe. His lips twitched downward at least... Maybe. Or it might have been a trick of the light. Leon was starting to think that he was going to have to get much better at reading body language if he wanted to be able to understand anything that went on in his partner's mind.

And then he shook his head once and tapped his pen against the desk. "Stay. Gives me somethin' to listen to..."

Leon blinked in response and then nodded once. A little unsure of how to take that. He didn't mind then? Or was he just trying to be polite? "Okay..." Well, if he told him to stay... Besides, the Chief seemed to want the two of them to spend time together. Get to know each other. All that stuff.

Although, he wasn't really sure what to talk about now. So, he started looking around the room. For the first time, actually... And suddenly noticed that this room was rather bare of personal touches, actually. No pictures of family members or loved ones or pets. No awards or diplomas or anything...

Which suddenly reminded him... Of the question that he should have asked Johnson as soon as he met him. But, of course, he'd completely forgotten about it until now. "You know, I was just thinking... You never actually told me your first name. I mean, everybody calls you Johnson. Do you prefer it or something? I mean, it feels a little weird for me to just call you 'Johnson' and not know your first name..." Now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember hearing anyone call Johnson anything other than 'Johnson'. The Chief, that kid, the other officers...

"Johnson."

Leon blinked. And then shook his head. "I was just wondering what your first name was. I mean, if you prefer me calling you by your last name, then that's fine..."

"Just Johnson..."

Okay...?

Johnson lifted his head again, meeting Leon's gaze with his usual expression. "Don't got a first name. Just Johnson."

"You...don't have a first name?"

He shook his head once. And then returned to his paperwork. Pen scratching across the sheet, as if what he'd just stated was completely and totally normal...

Wait, had he been serious?

Leon opened his mouth—to continue his questioning—but was unfortunately interrupted when the door swung open. To reveal the Chief, standing there and smiling...rather suspiciously, actually. Leon was reminded of his grandmother. Which instantly sent waves of paranoia through his body...

"There you are, Kennedy. I've been looking for you. I need to talk to you about something."

And Leon definitely didn't like the sound of that. It sounded suspicious... Especially since the Chief wasn't meeting his eyes when he said it. If there was one thing that Leon had learned from having his grandmother as a grandmother, it was to trust his instincts when it came to suspicious things...

Not that it usually helped him when it came to his grandmother, since she was the queen at acting in an insanely confusing fashion. You always knew when she was up to something, but you never knew exactly what she was up to. It was incredibly aggravating.

However, unfortunately for him right now, this guy happened to be his boss. So it wasn't like he could ignore him or anything.

Well, he couldn't ignore him if he actually wanted to keep this job.

For a moment, he didn't move. But then he rose to his feet, casting a quick glance over his shoulder at Johnson. Who was watching them, cigarette held between his fingers as he breathed out a narrow trail of smoke. The other hand was holding his pen, which he lightly tapped against his desk in a syncopated rhythm.

"And put that cigarette out, Johnson!" The Chief left the room, but called this over his shoulder before closing the door. Leon was pretty sure, however, that Johnson was going to ignore the order... Just going off of these last few days...

Not that the Chief really seemed to care. It almost felt like an inside joke between the two.

As partially evidenced when the older man turned away from the other and focused his complete attention to the rookie. And then smiled apologetically. "Sorry about interrupting you. This should only take a few minutes."

Leon nodded, following as the Chief began heading in the general direction of his office.

They walked in silence for a few minutes and then, the Chief chuckled slightly and glanced back toward the other man. "I have something to ask you, Kennedy. It's rather unconventional and probably not what you were expecting or were trained for, but this isn't something that I can ask of anyone else..."

Definitely sounded suspicious. Leon frowned slightly in response, but then nodded his understanding. "Yes..."

"You see..." He slowed so they were walking side by side. "We've been having problems recently with a group of juvenile delinquents. Petty vandalism, underage drinking, theft, that sort of thing. Honestly, it's driving me insane. I've tried everything that I can think of outside of sending all of them to juvenile hall, which I'd prefer to keep as a last resort, since I know the kids and I know their families and everything... They're all brilliant kids and the last thing that I want is for their futures to be completely shot just because they happened to do idiotic things when they were young."

Leon hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. "Understandable."

They stopped outside of the Chief's office now; the older man rested his hand on top of the doorknob, but didn't turn it yet. "And I know that this is a lot to ask of you, especially since you've only been here for a few days, but I feel like it might be helpful. Having someone new, fresh, unprejudiced... Plus, you're not much older than they are, really."

Okay, so he was really starting to get a bad feeling about this... But... "What exactly would you want me to do?"

The Chief tapped his fingers against the wooden doorframe and then continued. "Basically, I just want you to spend time with him. Try to keep him out of trouble, on the 'straight and narrow', that sort of thing. Sort of like a big brother... I know it's a lot to ask, Kennedy, but this is really our last option."

This job was definitely not what he'd expected. Well, now he knew better than to accept any help from his grandmother. Ever.

He wasn't sure how he should respond. He didn't want to get involved with this. No way. The last thing that he wanted to do was get involved with some severely messed-up kids. But at the same time, his boss was asking for help...

Thankfully, this train of thought derailed as soon as the Chief twisted the doorknob and opened the door to his office.

Unfortunately, his train of thought was derailed because it looked as if a bomb had gone off in his boss's office.

Paperwork had been thrown absolutely everywhere; many of them looked as if they'd been torn. Paintings had been ripped off the walls and dropped onto the floor; all of the chairs had been knocked over... Long scratches had been dug into the top of his desk. And black spray paint marred the formerly-white walls, crude letters plainly reading 'Fuck the Pigs'...

And a boy was now sitting on the windowsill, one leg outside while the other remained inside, green eyes flashing at them with fury mixed with definite triumph.

A very familiar-looking boy was sitting on the windowsill.

...A very familiar-looking boy that Leon now definitely recognized. Now definitely recognized. Same furious green eyes, blond hair tousled. He froze in horror. This was the same boy that he had seen giving a blow job to that French boy a couple days ago...

And now said teenager flipped both of them off with a parting "Fuck you" and then threw his other leg over the windowsill, dropping right outside.

Leaving the two of them standing inside inside the demolished room. Leon gaping at where the boy had just been sitting.

And the Chief standing there, frowning to himself as he looked over the disaster... Probably mentally racking up how much this would all cost.

And then he turned toward Leon with a slight shrug.

"Meet Arthur Kirkland..."


A/N: Bad Arthur is very bad. Tsk.

Not super interesting, but you get information. And you finally know how Leon ties into the rest of this story! Woot!

And that Johnson has no first name. Because he's Johnson. He needs no first name. o.O

Oooh, so today I went to the mall with some totally awesome people, yes. And we had super amounts of fun aaaand I got Resident Evil 4! Hoorah! I can't play it yet, though, since I have soooo much work these next few weeks. Sad face :( But once I stop being buried alive under mounds of research papers, then I shall have awesome Resident Evil to play!