Chapter 4 - Graduation
Leo ran up to the door of the City Convention Center. Parking had been hell and he'd had to walk two and a half blocks to the large building. The 3-C was used for many things: conventions, graduation ceremonies, city tournament basketball games, dirt biking shows, etc. The main part of the building was a large open gym—a very large gym—that held all of the activities. Today's item on the list: college graduation.
Piper was there to meet him at the doors outside.
"Hey, am I late?"
"No, we've got twenty minutes." Piper kissed Leo quickly. "Jake just wanted you here early."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah." She kissed him again, this time letting the moment linger. Jake stepped out of the and cleared his throat.
"Ahem." Piper and Leo pulled apart, and Jake held his arms out at Leo, pretending to be exasperated. "Finally, you're here!"
"Ha, ha. You're hilarious," Leo replied sarcastically. He stood with Piper against him, keeping one arm around her waist and the other in his pocket. She had one arm around him, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I am, aren't I?"
"Sure, sure. I'll be in in a minute. Go…"—Leo gestured vaguely toward the door—"get your robe on and I'll be in."
"Sure, Dad," Jake muttered.
"Funny. You should be calling Ron Daddy."
"I heard. Do you think he'll make it?"
"…I don't know, but you should never doubt the oldest."
"Or the middle child," Piper added with a nod.
Leo looked down at her. He considered her words. They were both middle kids. "Right," he agreed quietly. Piper smiled up at him.
"Dad's in here with Mom, and considering you haven't seen Mom in a few weeks, you probably need to get in there," Jake warned Leo.
"Ah, I think they'll understand…" Leo replied, still looking down at Piper, his face only inches from hers. She stood up on tip-toe and kissed him softly.
"Okay—Ew."
"Hey, when you're married and you don't see your wife all day, you'll be pulling her out of business meetings to be alone with her," Leo told his brother.
"Yeah, very important business meetings…" Piper whispered.
"It was only once…" Leo defended himself.
"Whatever," Jake said, and disappeared inside the building. In the seconds the double doors were open, Piper and Leo could hear the hundreds of people inside, talking and laughing. The door closed and the sound was gone.
"Loud in there?" Leo laughed.
"Extremely." Piper glanced around her. There were some parents outside with their sons and daughters graduating from college as well, and some groups of young women and men who were graduating. They were considering what to do after college, and when they would all see each other.
Leo sighed. "Takes ya back, doesn't it?"
Piper smiled. "Yeah…" she agreed quietly. He looked down at her and kissed her. Just as the kiss deepened, Rick and Emily—Leo's mother—approached. They found Piper and Leo and Rick cleared his throat. The couple pulled apart.
"Well, well…What a welcome after three weeks," Emily joked. She was an older woman, only a year or so younger than Leo's father, with almost-silver long hair that was tied back at the moment. She had a warm glow around her at all times that made her the great woman and mother that she was. Approachable, kind, and good-hearted, that was Emily.
"Hey, Mom," Leo greeted her.
"Oh, yeah, hey." Emily hugged Leo. "Piper, how are you lately?"
"I am doing just fine, thank you."
"Well, I'm glad to hear it."
"You kids ready to come in, or should we wait a little longer?"
"We're coming. Jake is due to come force us in there anytime now, anyway."
Piper and Leo followed Emily and Rick inside the large building. They found themselves inside a huge room that resembled an indoor stadium. They came in between two sections of seating, and in the great space before them there were chairs placed in rows for the graduating students, an elevated podium with a microphone for the Valedictorian and other speakers. Parents, family, and friends not graduating sat in the surrounding stands.
Jake was standing somewhere nearly underneath a part of one of the sections of stands. He was surrounded by his friends. Most of them were wearing their black graduation robes and holding their caps. There were a few who had already graduated a year before or were going to graduate next year and were dressed casually. One of them stood out to Leo's eyes, a petite redheaded girl with her arm around Jake.
As Leo's younger brother, Jake spent a lot of time with him, and he and Piper knew most of his closer friends. But neither of them knew this girl, she was new to them. Leo glanced over at his parents, who shrugged.
Jake looked up to see his family. "'Bout time."
Leo offered his brother a sarcastic smile but no words.
"Hey, Leo, how's the job goin'?" Alex asked. Alex Monroe, a shorter, almost redheaded man with very light freckles and a New York accent (because he moved from Brooklyn to San Francisco six months ago) was a good friend of Jake's. They had gone through police training in the same unit and had most of the same classes.
"Don't worry, you've got plenty to look forward to."
Rick nodded his agreement. "Yeah, we've got some j-walkers that need some serious interrogation," he joked.
"So when's our party?" Jake asked.
"What party?" Leo looked at Piper. "You throwing them a party?"
Piper was standing against Leo comfortably. "Uh uh, no party here." She shook her head.
"They're teasing you. It's tomorrow night at Hell's Haven. Be there at seven," Emily said.
Hell's Haven was the bar that the members of the 12th Precinct could be found in their spare time and at parties. Adam's brother owned it, his sister managed it, and their friends worked there. It was a little bit on the outside of town, where they could party and roughhouse and have fun on weekends when they were off duty.
"And graduating into police work at the San Francisco 12th Precinct are Joshua Alton…"
Josh, a tall black-haired, brown-eyed, sarcastic friend of Jake's walked up the stage, shook hands with who he needed to, and got the papers they handed him. People whistled and hollered and clapped, and Piper caught his mother's eye, a few aisles down. Rick and Emily had moved closer to the stage, and Piper and Leo stayed in far back places where they could stand against a wall and watch instead of having to find a seat somewhere with all of the people below them.
"Kevin Dell…" the announcer said as Kevin, a blonde, blue-eyed party boy, went up on the stage. Just as they had for Josh, the crowd clapped, and groups of friends screamed a whistled and hollered. Some made signs and held them up proudly. Cameras flashed.
"Alex Monroe…" As Alex took the stage, a large group of women stood up from their seats down in the rows of people who were waiting to get their diplomas and screamed and whistled and called his name.
Suddenly Ron jogged up to Piper and Leo. "Hey, did he go up yet?"
"What are you doing here?" Leo asked, shocked to see his brother.
"Came to see my brother's graduation, of course. What, did you think I'd miss it?" Ron looked back and forth from the stage to Leo.
"Where's Marie?"
"At home with the baby."
"Shh," Piper said. "Jake's next."
"And Jacob Wyatt," the man on the stage announced into the microphone. A large group of women stood up and screamed for Jake, too. Piper looked up at Leo, trying her best to hold back a laugh.
Leo shrugged. "What can I say, he takes after me." Piper hit his arm playfully. "What? It's the Wyatt charm." His eye caught one woman sitting in the crowd, standing up and cheering for Jake. He nudged Piper and nodded toward the woman.
"Guess he's got one particular fan, huh?" Piper asked, referring to the redheaded woman.
"What's with all the women cheering for Jacob?" Ron asked.
"Apparently…it's the Wyatt charm," Piper answered, with sarcasm written all over her voice.
Nearly an hour later, everyone stood outside the City Convention Center. The woman from before the ceremony and in the crowd came up to them and stood by Jake. She had long straight red hair and blue eyes, and was wearing blue jeans and a black tank top.
"Oh, hey, Alyssa," Jake greeted her. "Uh, Alyssa, this is some of my family…My parents, my brother Ron, my other brother, Leo, and his wife, Piper," Jake introduced Alyssa to them all. She offered polite smiles and little hi's to them. "Family, this is Alyssa McCoy." They offered her the same smiles and little hellos that she had.
It was Rick who shook her hand and said, "Nice to meet you."
"So you're all on the force?" Alyssa asked.
"Not the women," Rick answered.
Emily smiled. "I teach third grade."
"And you teach, as well?" Alyssa asked Piper.
"Uh, no…I own a restaurant downtown. Gluttony's Wife."
"Oh, yeah, I've been there. I like it." Alyssa turned around to Jake. "You didn't tell me your sister-in-law owned Gluttony."
"You didn't ask. And don't think of her as my sister-in-law, think of her as…"
"Hey Jake?" Leo asked with a small but threatening smile.
He looked up. "Yeah?"
"Finish that sentence and I break out the baby pictures."
Okay, I have two things really to say... a) Alyssa's name has nothing to do with Alyssa Milano. I have a friend (actually two) named Alyssa. b) She's a redhead because I love red hair. I've got brownish-black hair, but my step-mom has red hair, and so do a couple of girls at my school. It's almost my favorite hair color. (brunettes, we take the lead with #1!)
All right, I know from the summary that you guys know that something is going to happen to someone very close to Leo. You've probably all guessed it, but you all have no idea. The tragedy won't happen for a while, though, because there are too many things that need to be cleared up before that happens...
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