"What's that?" Olive nodded at the badge in Gus's hand when he knocked on her door a little after 9am.
"My Dad's badge." He looked at it briefly. As soon as he woke he saw it beside his bed and he did remember that his mom told him that Dad was home too but it was always such a relief to see it. Gus would always bring it downstairs with him and at least leave it on the table for his Dad to pick up. They never really talked about it but it had started after Adam went away for three months and they'd just continued with it.
The first night Adam got home after that job it was late and after hugging Kim for what seemed like forever he bounded up the stairs to see his kids. Polly woke and burst into tears and he bundled her up in his arms and rocked her back to sleep but Gus was out like a light so he left his badge next to him. The next morning they heard him squeal when he saw it and come running into their room and threw himself at his Dad and he was stuck to his Dad like shit to a blanket for the rest of the day. It started a tradition that Adam, to this day never broke. "He leaves it beside my bed when he gets home from work if he's been out on a case so that I know he's okay." Gus felt a little bit of anxiety creep over him. He didn't want to sound pathetic in front of Olive.
"That's sweet. My Dad calls me when he lands." Olive shared with him, pulling her knees up to her chest as Gus sat on the edge of the bed. "Does it stress you out? I hate it."
"A little." He nodded. "That's why he does the thing with the badge, he's always done it."
"I guess when you see all the cop stuff on the news it's weird huh?"
"My Dad is not on the news. He's not a beat cop; he works in this special unit." Gus really didn't want to talk about it; that had been drummed into them from the start, you just didn't talk about Intelligence and the work they did. "My Mom is a desk sergeant now so that's not so bad but last night they had to go undercover. It's kinda all I have ever known." As much as Polly tried to sound casual about it when ever people asked her about her Dad's work so did Gus.
Sam had learnt pretty early on that Polly's apparent indifference to his work was all an act. Polly worried about it constantly and initially Sam tried to talk to her about it and she quickly shut him down, he now knew how to handle her. He would distract her with something fun or something that kept her busy and her mind occupied and he'd certainly done that last night when they went to bed. Gus was a little more obvious about it; he'd get really quiet and tended to hang around home a little more. Now that he was getting older though he was becoming a little more like Polly and would try and distract himself.
"Are they upset that I am here?"
"I haven't seen them yet. They got home really late, Mom knows you are here but she didn't say anything. They will be okay."
"I can go."
"It's okay. Mom or Dad will take you home."
"Do you parents know Sam stayed here?" That had surprised her a little bit when Sam and Polly went to bed. She was pretty sure it would never be allowed in her house. Her older sister had moved away when she went to college and before she left her boyfriend wasn't allowed to stay over. If she came home now her current boyfriend tended not to come with her, although she did go through boyfriends at a rapid rate of knots.
"Yeah, they do. It started when Abbey killed herself." Gus was a little blunt about it, he just didn't know how to talk about it. "Polly was a bit of a nightmare for a while." Sam would have already left this morning. He started work at 7am on a Sunday so would be up and out before anyone else even contemplated opening their eyes. "Sam was really good to her and Mom and Dad saw that and let him stay for a bit, to help Polly."
"I heard a rumour that that guy touched your sister too?"
Anger flashed in Gus's eyes and Olive was a little stunned. "No. It's not true." He snapped. "Who said that?"
"I don't know, I just heard it." Olive whispered.
"It's fucking bullshit. It's a lie. Polly was not involved, okay?" He was very defensive and he'd always been willing to stand up for his sister when the rumours started swirling.
"Sorry." Olive pulled the sheet up a little higher and hugged her legs tighter. Gus's obvious anger surprised her just a little. To date she'd only seen a sweet and happy side of Gus. "I didn't mean to upset you."
"It's okay." Gus looked at the badge again. "It was just really rough for awhile."
Gus jumped up when he heard someone coming down the stairs and came out of the room just as Kim's foot hit the bottom step. "Hi Mom." He mumbled.
Kim was far from impressed to find him sneaking out of the spare room looking somewhat guilty and she narrowed her eyes at her son. He was damn lucky that it wasn't his Dad coming downstairs. "What are you doing?"
"I was just seeing if Olive was okay."
"And is she?"
"Yes." Kim noticed that he was tightly clutching Adam's badge. "Is Dad up?"
"Not yet." Adam had eventually told Kim to get out. She had been tossing and turning for the past hour and trying to talk to him about Gus but Adam was tired and sore. His eye was swelling nicely and her constant movement was pissing him off. He told her that if she was worried about what was going on that she needed to get up and sort it out but "you in here annoying the fuck out of me is not going to tell you a damn thing."
Kim poked his swollen cheekbone lightly obviously pissed off with him. "Does this hurt?"
"Fuck off." He swatted her hand away. As he felt her get up he did reach for her hand again, pulled her down and kissed her. "Love you Darlin'." He was completely annoying when he did this, but she could understand it. He'd taken a few punches last night and it was almost 5am before he got into bed and he was still half asleep. The current situation downstairs was not going to resolve itself by lying in bed worrying about it. If Kim wanted to know what was going on and sort it out she had to get up and deal with it.
"Dad's okay." Kim nodded at the badge in his hand. "He got roughed up a bit, he's got a black eye but apart from being tired and grumpy he is fine." Gus put the badge on the table and turned to go back upstairs. "Ah Gus, you want to tell me what's going on here?" Kim called him back.
"Olive called me last night and she'd been at a party and Zac had smashed her phone and she'd fallen down some stairs. I needed to help her; her Mom was working and her Dad is away. So Sam took me and I bought her back here. I swear that's all Mom."
"Zac? Her boyfriend?" It was nice that Gus was keen to help someone in trouble but the thought of him being dragged into the middle of some spat between this girl and her boyfriend was not filling her with any joy. Gus liked this girl but she was seeing someone else he needed to stay out of it.
"No, they split up. He's hassling her though."
"What do you mean hassling her?"
"I don't know, Olive says that he won't leave her alone."
"And what happened when you went and got her?"
"Nothing, he was a bit pissed off but Sam and Isaac came with me. I didn't know what else to do." He was trying his best to sound unaffected by his mother's questions; he didn't want to get upset or show any emotion and because of that it came out more sarcastic than anything. That would be weak. "What else should I have done? If you were here you would have helped her, I know you would have."
"Okay Gus." Kim came and stood with her hands on his shoulders, not that it was quite so easy these days. He certainly had grown lately and definitely was going to be more Adam's height than hers, if not a little taller. He was starting to lose that gangly look as well; he wasn't quite her baby anymore. "We'll sort this out."
"Can I go and see Dad?"
Kim was slowly getting used to the fact that Gus was pulling away from her. If he had an issue or a problem he always wanted to know when his Dad would be home so he could talk to him. Adam always told her what was going on but she was sure that a few things stayed between the boys. For all his bluff and bluster Adam was the one that both Polly and Gus often turned to when they needed to talk. They would come to Kim when they wanted a hug and she hung onto that one thing. She reluctantly handed Gus a cup of coffee to take up to his Dad.
He opened his door quietly. "Dad."
"Hey Gus." He mumbled. He really did not want to be awake but he was kind of used to it although he did think now that they kids were older he wouldn't be dragged out of bed by them as often as he seemed to be lately. "What's up?"
"Are you okay? Mom said you were hurt."
"I'm okay." He rolled over and pushed himself up to a sitting position, taking the coffee which Gus held out for him. "You had a busy night I hear?"
Gus perched on the edge of the bed and Adam promised him that his eye looked worse than it was. "I didn't know what else to do, what would you have done?"
"What happened?" Adam really had no idea what was going on, last night Kim had given him the barest of details, because in all honesty she didn't know what was going on either. All he cared about when he got home was that the kids were okay so he could crawl into bed. He wanted to hear it from Gus as well.
"Olive called me, she needed help so I helped her. She needed me to come and get her so I did." Adam asked for a few more details which Gus reluctantly gave. "I'm just trying Dad."
"That's good. We would have helped your friend too, that's not the issue. Perhaps I think it might have been a good idea to give us the heads up though. You can always send us a message you know that. I know we couldn't do anything but coming home to find out you had a girl here was not fun Buddy."
"Nothing happened. Polly and Sam were right here." And his tone of voice did not impress Adam, he could see that and apologised immediately. Gus was smart enough to know he needed his Dad on his side because his Mom was not happy with him. "Polly told me that I couldn't call you."
"You can always call us Gus, even if we don't answer or send a message. Eventually, as soon as we can we will call you back, you know that and it's not that we don't trust you Gus, we like that you want to help people but anything could have happened and we wouldn't have known anything about it." He took a mouthful of the coffee to give himself a minute to think. "This is why we are still not 100% ready to let you go out when we are not around. What would have happened if I let you go to this party last night and trouble had started? Who would have helped you? Luckily you had Sam and Isaac with you when you did go. You need to think Gus."
"I did think." Gus was getting agitated with his Dad and he was trying not to get emotional but Adam could hear his voice shaking a little. "Olive needed help. What do you always say? That you stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves. That's what I did."
"You do things without thinking about everything possibility. It's not just about helping Olive, you went into a situation you had no idea about. You need to be prepared for the worst."
"Abbey. Why was it okay for Polly to help Abbey but not me?"
"You have no idea what we told Polly. I didn't say don't help Olive, for fuck's sake Angus. I'm just asking you to slow down and make smart choices. I told Polly the same thing."
"I was scared Dad, I didn't want her to get hurt."
"Alright Gus." Adam put his cup down and tugged on Gus's arm until he climbed up on the bed and knelt next to his Dad. "I'm proud of you buddy, but I am still allowed to worry okay? I don't want you to get hurt. We love you Bud, more than you'll ever know."
"I know." He nodded. Adam was surprised when Gus gave him a quick hug before Adam told him to go down and he'd be down in a minute, once he'd been in to the bathroom.
Kim didn't hear the young girl come into the kitchen. She stood nervously in the doorway. "Hello Mrs Ruzek."
"Hi. Olive is it?" Her voice was a little frosty; she just couldn't help it. "How are you? Are you okay? Did you sleep well?" She tried to soften her tone. The poor girl looked a little terrified and she didn't blame her really.
"I did thank you. Thank you for letting me stay."
"Thing is Olive, we had no idea."
"I'm sorry." She turned to leave.
"Olive. Come in and sit down. Can I get you something to eat or drink?"
Olive shook her head but she did come and sit, nervously pulling her hands into the arms of the sweater, which Kim noticed was actually Polly's. Kim poured her a juice anyway and slid it in front of the girl before she turned back and poured herself another coffee; she needed it today. "I don't want Gus to get in trouble. I panicked and I knew he would help me. He's been really sweet."
"We don't want Gus to get in trouble either."
She couldn't help herself and now Kim was suddenly confronted with a crying teenage girl, Adam was going to lose his shit. Polly's teenage meltdowns did his head in so listening to some random girl crying was going to make his head explode particularly as he was tired and grumpy. "Olive." She sat down opposite her and reached across the table and squeezed her arm. "What happened last night?"
"I went to a party and Zac was there and he'd been drinking. I wasn't, I don't drink I promise. I split up with him weeks ago because he just wanted to have sex." She was rambling a little. "But I don't and now he just won't stop."
"He won't stop what? He's not forcing you to have sex is he?" Kim seamlessly slipped into cop mode.
"No, I didn't do anything with him. I swear. We just had a fight and he grabbed my phone and smashed it. See." she grabbed her phone from up the sleeve of the sweater she was wearing and Kim could see the screen was barely visible through the broken glass. "I tried to get it back off him and I fell down the stairs."
"You fell?" Kim knew by the way that Olive averted her eyes that she was lying. Olive didn't realise that because Gus's mom was a cop trying to lie was fruitless. "I don't think so Olive. Tell me the truth. Did Zac push you?" She nodded sadly. "He threw my phone down the stairs and when I went to go get it he shoved me a little. I don't think he meant to push me."
"It was no accident. He shouldn't have pushed you."
"My parents will freak out." Olive cried desperately. "Can you not tell them?"
"No Olive, I can't. I'm a cop, Gus's Dad is a cop we can't ignore it."
"It will create more trouble. He'll hurt Gus."
"What do you mean he'll hurt Gus?"
"He doesn't like that I talk to Gus all the time." To say Kim looked unimpressed would have been an understatement. She was seriously annoyed with this girl for dragging her son into this mess. Gus had too big a heart to stay out of it.
"You need to sort this out. Have you talked to your parents?"
"No, not really. They are really busy, Dad's not home much and Mom's been on nightshift lately."
"You need to talk to them. We need to sort this out. Stuff like this can't keep happening. I mean this stuff with Zac and this expecting Gus to rescue you. Gus will help you because that's the kind of kid he is and I can tell you we don't want him to get hurt."
"No Mom." They both swung their heads around when they heard Gus. He was standing at the door and had just caught the tail end of the conversation. "You don't know anything."
"Gus."
"Leave Olive alone."
"Gus, calm down." Kim shook her head at him and when he asked Olive to come with him she put her foot down. "You know we can't ignore what's going on here. You dragged us into this so deal with it Angus." Kim reminded him firmly.
"Nothing happened, why don't you believe me?" He yelled at his mother just as Adam came downstairs. "You need to butt out."
"Excuse me?" Gus jumped when Adam growled from behind him; he hadn't heard him come downstairs. Adam had only caught the tail end of the conversation but he was not happy with the way Gus was talking to his mother. Adam told him he needed to apologise to her as he pointed at Kim. "You don't ever talk to your mother like that. Ever."
Olive was a little shocked when Gus's Dad walked in. Not only was he pretty tall and quite imposing but he was also sporting a swollen and blackening eye and he looked more than a little rough. His voice was also quite intimidating. If she could sneak out she would have, suddenly it didn't seem like quite a good idea to be here as Gus reluctantly apologised to his mother.
"What's going on?"
"This is Olive." Kim introduced Adam to the girl at the table, who was pretty but looking a little nervous and uncomfortable.
"Hi Olive. Nice to meet you." Adam smiled at her kindly. It was a little forced but something he was well versed in doing. He knew how to make people relax and right now everyone needed to relax.
"Olive needed some help last night and Gus, Sam and Isaac went and bought her back here. Now we need to figure out what to do."
"This party, what happened?" Adam leant against the bench and waited for Olive to explain what had gone on and why she called Gus. He added a few comments but Adam eventually held up his hand when he kept interrupting. He wanted to hear it from this girl first and then Gus could give his side of the story. Upstairs his descriptions had been vague.
Olive again tried to tell them that Zac didn't push her but just like Kim, Adam didn't believe her. "I don't think he meant it."
"I don't really care Olive. He could have really hurt you and you know what, this is how it starts. Give this guy a pass and what happens to the next girl he pushes?"
"He'll get angry and blame Gus."
"I'm not scared of him." He puffed out his chest a little which made Adam's mouth almost twitch into a smile. God love his boy.
"Just slow down." Adam scratched at his rough stubble. "First things first. We need to talk to your parents." Olive explained that her Dad was away and her Mom was working. "Okay, call your Mom and tell her that you are staying here for the day. She can come pick you up when she finishes work. We need to talk to her." It was the last thing that Olive wanted to do but Gus's Dad didn't seem to be the kind of guy who took no for an answer.
Adam pushed himself off the bench. "Now, pancakes for breakfast?" He hooked an arm around Kim's waist and kissed her cheek as she squeezed past, now that Adam was making breakfast she was out of the kitchen in a flash. Pancakes for breakfast always meant that Adam was cooking. The only time Kim made pancakes was if Adam was away and they were all missing him. Pancakes, Bacon and Maple Syrup were his thing. "Olive, call your Mom and Gus you can set the table."
While Adam made breakfast Kim grabbed a quick shower before knocking on Polly's door. So far they had Gus's version and Olive's version she wanted Polly's take on things too. She wasn't surprised that she was still sound asleep and her bedroom lately looked more like a crime scene than anything. They weren't quite sure how much of Sam's stuff was now here but it seemed like he was moving in gradually. It was probably lucky that Adam rarely came in here.
"Hey Mom." She rolled over when she heard the door open, grateful that she'd put some clothes back on when Sam left. She'd only made that mistake once. "What time you get home? Is Dad okay?"
"About four. Dad's okay. He's cooking breakfast."
"Pancakes?"
"You know Dad." She sat on the edge of the bed and Polly sat up a little. "So, busy night?"
"Olive?"
"I caught Gus coming out of her room this morning. Lovely surprise."
Polly was on the defensive instantly. She wasn't copping the blame for Gus being an asshole. "What? I told him that he couldn't stay with her. Little shit."
"They didn't, he was just checking up on her. What happened?"
"Gus got a call from her friend that she was in trouble. He asked Sam to go get her. They bought her back here and she couldn't go home so I let her stay. Don't worry, Gus is so useless he won't even touch her." Polly chuckled but Kim was looking anything but impressed.
"This girl? She was the one Gus got drunk over."
"Yep, I think so. She says the boyfriend is hassling her since she dumped him. I think he pushed her down the stairs but she says he didn't." Polly shrugged. "She's nice though, seems sweet."
"We talked to her about that this morning. Why'd you tell Gus he couldn't call us?"
"I didn't want you to worry."
"Okay, would have been nice to have a heads up though."
"I wanted you to think I could handle it, we handled it."
"Thanks for that." Kim leant forward and kissed Polly's forehead. "Now, you coming down for breakfast?"
"Pancakes, bacon and maple syrup and Dad in the kitchen. You betcha."
Kim jumped up and turned back to Polly when she got to the door. "Gus really likes this girl?"
"Mom, he has a massive crush on her. It's cute."
"God give me strength." She rolled her eyes. "Oh, and you might want this room to look a little less like Sam lives here." She waved her finger around her bedroom. "Your Dad will have a conniption."
"Kinda hoping he's too freaked out about Gus to notice."
Kim laughed. "Nice try Baby."
Despite how nervous Gus and Olive both were during breakfast it was a bit of a laugh. Polly teased her Dad about his black eye claiming that he either did it to himself or ran into a lamp post and was now trying to claim an award. He made a few snide comments about Sam, reminded her that he didn't live here and she could revoke his visitation rights at the drop of a hat. They even told Olive a few embarrassing stories about Gus growing up and then left the kids to do the dishes. Olive jumped up from the table instantly and starting clearing away the plates while Gus started whining that it was Polly's turn.
Adam handed Kim yet another throw pillow as she finished making the bed he had followed her upstairs to have a whinge. "I feel like a failure." He bemoaned.
"You are."
"Harsh Darlin' you wound me with your words." He threw the next cushion at her.
"Why are you feeling like a failure today? Anything specific or is it just a general feel sorry for yourself moment."
Adam just snorted and grunted some unintelligible comment before continuing. "Gus, I mean, he likes this girl and did you see him? He's hopeless. Has he learnt nothing from me?"
Kim scoffed at him. "Obviously not how to flirt with someone who is not available."
"You were available."
"You weren't." While Adam liked to tease Kim that she was crushing on him when he was engaged to Wendy she always reminded him that he wasn't exactly innocent. He flirted with her and even let her kiss him when he was still very much unavailable.
"I've always maintained you were a home wrecker."
"Lucky for you."
Adam grabbed her around the waist, making her squeal a little. "Do you want to get lucky now?"
"Yes." She pushed his hands away. "That's exactly what I was thinking. While our fourteen year old son is downstairs…"
"Not doing a damn thing." Adam reminded her.
"…while Gus is downstairs with Olive. How about we screw around up here and when her mom comes we can drag ourselves out of bed, comb our just been fucked hair and pretend we spent the day making sure those two don't doing a damn thing."
"Sounds good to me." Kim slapped his arm away when he slipped it down between her thighs.
"Adam, go away."
"Fine. Your loss." Adam started to pout a little. "I'm disappointed with Gus."
"Why?"
"Because I failed him as a father, I should have taught him better."
"Adam." Kim beckoned him closer and patted him lightly on the cheek. "Don't be a fucking idiot."
He grabbed Kim's ass and pulled her flush against his body, pushing his hips into hers. "You get me all hot and bothered when you talk dirty to me."
"Go away. Go and make sure Gus suddenly hasn't found his mojo."
"I hope he has."
"So, let me get this straight. You wigged out over Polly and Sam but want Gus to be all over this girl like a rash? Double standards much?" Kim suddenly sounded annoyed with him but she wasn't surprised. He was taking Gus's lack of endeavour as a personal assault to his manhood and sadly it came as no shock.
"No, I don't want him all over her like a rash but he's looking like the poor girl has got some communicable disease."
"So what?"
"Tell me, when you were 15 if the boy you liked was terrified to be anywhere near you how long would you have hung around?"
"Not long."
"Exactly and then we have to put up with a heartbroken, lovesick grumpy teenage boy." He threw his hands in the air and picked up an armful of dirty washing to take downstairs. Kim had already nagged him about it. "This teenage thing will be the death of me, I swear."
"You amuse me."