When he walked back around the corner, Levi's head lifted from Tina's phone instantly and then the kid-he settled when he saw Gavin, like the sight relaxed him, like he felt safe.

Yeah, whatever the fuck happened, whatever hoops he had to jump through with social services, it was more than gonna be worth it.

"Hey, Levi," he squatted down, setting a hand lightly on his brother's knee, "we're gonna take a ride to the station where me and my friends work, alright?" Gavin waited for a reluctant nod from Levi before continuing, "my friend Ben's an EMT-that means he can do medical stuff, so he's gonna wrap up your ankle and have some ointment to help your bruises. And our brother, Elijah, who I went to call? He wants to meet you."

"He made the android people." The kid seemed interested, but hesitant about it, biting his lip.

"Yeah, he did, like my buddy, Connor. So the old man talked about Elijah, huh?" Figured, he'd probably never mentioned Gavin and done nothing but talk crap about Elijah. A fucked up mirror of their shitty childhoods where he'd ignored Gavin and shoved Elijah into every contest and extracurricular there was so he could soak up all the praise like it was for him instead of his kid.

Levi nodded. "Uh-huh, he yells when he sees him on TV. Loud."

"Well, Elijah's pretty cool, even if I don't always like to tell him so. Brothers can't let each other get big heads, you know." That idea was met with due consideration and then Levi surprised him by standing up and holding out a hand for him to hold.

"Okay." Feeling overwhelmed at the amount of trust the kid was putting in him, even if a lot of it was probably just because he had to trust someone, Gavin took it and straightened up, shooting a 'help me, this kid is precious and I'm probably gonna ruin him' look at Tina. All she did was smile encouragingly, and appreciated, but...actually he had no idea what he was fucking hoping for. Apparently he'd gotten waaaaay too used to Tina bailing his ass out.

Considering she ordinarily referred to all children under twelve besides Chris's Damian as 'sticky gremlins from whiny ass land', she'd already gone above and beyond.

"Okay, cool. We're gonna ride in Lieutenant Hank's car, it's so ancient he drives it himself. Crazy, huh?"

"Is the engine really loud?" Levi perked up, eyes brightening just a little, and Gavin could not wait to introduce this kid to his motorcycle. It needed a tune-up soon, and the image of Levi with grease on his fingers poking at it and asking questions about the parts was a nice one.

Tina, having already been quiet for longer than natural for her, piped up, "Only when he revs it. But I bet we can get him to if we ask, real nice. No high speed chases just because, though, you have to be in a cop car for that."

"Tina…" Gavin groaned, amused, grateful, and wondering what else she'd told Levi while he was on the phone. "Come on, let's go." Careful to walk slow, remembering his brother's ankle, he led the way past the gift shop and out to the parking lot where Hank was standing by the curb, waiting for them. Connor had apparently ridden in the back of the car next to him on the way to the station-Gavin had gotten a text from Chris asking if he was okay and also informing him that Robocop had just stared straight at the old man without blinking for the entire ride, like something out of a horror movie.

Gavin owed him something for that, though he didn't know what.

Hank squatted down as they approached and Gavin looked at Levi in time to see a flash of exasperation on his face-probably wasn't used to people handling him with kid gloves, or much bothering to handle him at all except to keep him quiet.

"Hi, I'm Hank. I've known your brother for a long time." Anderson held out his hand for Levi to shake and he untangled his from Gavin's and took it solemnly, Hank pumping it up and down gently before letting go.

"Nice to meet you. Did you send my dad to jail?" Damn. Levi sounded worried when he asked that, and Gavin didn't know if he was worried the answer was going to be no, or if he was worried the answer was going to be yes. Judging by the look on Hank's face, he didn't know either.

Levi was just a little kid, after all. It was normal to still love your dad, even if he was a shit-stain that shouldn't be anywhere near you.

"Yeah. Hurting you like he did is against the law. He'll have to see a judge, and then later go to trial." Hank glanced apologetically up at Gavin when Levi averted his stare to his shoes, but hell, it was a pretty good explanation of something the kid needed to know, even if it was probably a little much right now. Not quite knowing what else to do, Gavin held his hand out for Levi to grab again, relieved when he did. He squeezed the small hand lightly and Levi shuffled a little closer to him.

"And I'm gonna take you home to live with me, remember?"

"You've got cats. And a turtle. Tina said."

"Yep. And they're gonna love having someone else to spoil them."

Levi was still holding his badge. Gavin had forgotten about it, but as he looked down at him, he saw that it was clasped in his other hand, and a wave of something warm hit him in the chest. He had an old spare in his desk, as far as he was concerned the one he was holding was the kid's now. Fowler could catch these hands if he didn't like it. "I know you're scared, and that's okay. Totally normal. But I'm gonna take care of all the big stuff."

"Pepperoni's a good name." Changing the subject instead of talking about emotions, sure, it ran in the family. Gaven was going to go with it.

"Yeah, you think so? Day I got her, she was maybe this big," he stretched out the fingers on his free hand, "and still managed to snag a whole piece of pepperoni pizza when I wasn't looking. Had to name her Pepperoni after that." Starting forward again, because if not they were all just going to stand around in this parking lot until the end of time, he answered a few questions about his cats until Levi trailed off again. They were only a couple feet from Hank's car when Gavin stopped in his tracks, the fact that Levi was nine and tiny suddenly popping into his head, "Sh-crap, we need a booster seat."

Hank waved a dismissive hand over his shoulder, "Chris figured, they dropped one off earlier and I set it up."

A tug on his hand had him looking at Levi, who frowned at him, clearly offended. "Booster seats are for babies. I'm not a baby."

"Nah, 'course you're not. But I can tell you don't weigh 80lbs yet, and the law says you have to weigh at least that to ride without one." Gavin shrugged apologetically, and when Levi still looked like he was going to be stubborn about it, continued, "I mean, we're all cops. Hank would have to write himself a ticket if you don't ride in one." He raised an eyebrow to signify the weirdness of that, hoping to get a smile out of Levi, but the kid just looked at him like he was nuts.

"Nuh-uh. Cops don't write themselves tickets, that's dumb." Ignoring the snicker from Tina and the cough that was definitely covering a laugh from Hank as he unlocked the car, Gavin was torn between admitting that yeah, they really didn't or sticking to his guns.

"Maybe," the word came from Hank and Gavin's head swiveled towards him the same way Levi's did, "but it's a safety rule. Safety rules are non-negotiable. You have to ride in a booster seat in my car." There was no challenge in Hank's voice, but there was also clearly no budge in it, and after a moment Levi caved with a sigh.

"Alright." As he helped Levi in, letting him buckle himself, but watching to make sure it looked right, Gavin decided to remember that tone of voice. Shit, he'd probably listen more to the Lieutenant when he told him something if he did it like that.

Collins' bedside manner was great, and Levi was warming up to him, his ankle already wrapped without any fuss.

But Gavin was having trouble with the fact that the fucking garbage monster who had put those bruises on his baby brother's body was in the same building. And really, it wouldn't be hard to get into the interrogation room where Chris had said they'd stashed him without anyone noticing. Not for a minute, anyway.

A minute would be enough.

But he'd promised Levi he'd stay with him. So that was that.

Levi giggled as Ben pretended to almost drop the bottle of bruise cream for a third time, protesting, "You're doing that on purpose!" as it bounced between the older cop's hands.

"Nah, nah, I'm just very clumsy sometimes," Ben shrugged, looking mystified, "can't help it." The bottle now thoroughly shaken up, he leaned against the table that both Levi and Gavin were perched on and squirted a large dollop of it into his hands. "I'm gonna start rubbing this on your bruises, bud, as gently as I can, but it's probably gonna hurt a bit. If you need a break, you just say so, okay?"

Wary all over again, Levi turned towards him and Gavin gave an encouraging nod, the little head turning back to Ben looking slightly less freaked out. "You'll stop if I say so?"

"Sure, we can take a break whenever you want. Alright for me to start?" Levi nodded and Ben carefully began applying the lotion to the bruising while chattering on about something his granddaughter had done. At first the kid took it like a champ, but after a couple of minutes a whimper snuck its way past his lips and Gavin had to clamp down on his own to keep from snapping at Ben. Mustache making him look more like a sad walrus than ever, Collins smiled softly and stepped back, "Time for a break. I'm thirsty, what about you guys? Coffee for big brother and juice for little brother?"

"Sounds good to me, what about you, Levi?"

"Can I have apple?"

"Sure, one black coffee with way too much sugar and one apple juice, coming right up." Ben did finger guns at them, like the complete dork he was, and headed out of the room. Levi shivered and Gavin got off the table to grab one of the emergency blankets out of the cupboard, shaking it out as he crossed back over the room and draping it around his brother.

"Can't put your sweatshirt back on until the lotion dries, but that should keep you from freezing."

"Thanks." Levi fiddled with the ends of the blanket, picking at the fuzz on the cheap fabric. Knowing he should be saying something, telling him a story like Ben was so good at, Gavin racked his brain.

"Hey, wanna hear a joke?"

It was only when Levi said yes that Gavin realized the jokes he told in the DPD locker room were 100% not cool to tell his little brother. "Uh…"