As John, Casey and Pavel headed for Munch's car, the boy wedged himself between the adults and took the hand of each. John looked down at the boy and smiled at him, Pavel smiled back. Casey looked at them and felt an emotion wash over her. She wasn't sure what to call the emotion, but it warmed her, yet left her feeling anxious, afraid something would happen to take the feeling away.
"Can I get a Happy Meal, Ivan?" Pavel asked.
"It's may I get a Happy Meal, and I don't see why not," John answered.
"Well, I do," Casey commented, as the threesome got into Munch's car.
"What have you got against Happy Meals?" John asked.
"Too much sugar in the pop, too much fat in the hamburgers or the chicken nuggets, and too much fat and salt in the French Fries. There are healthy choices there, you know," Casey explained.
"What? You expect him to eat a salad?" John asked in a sarcastic voice.
"I don't have to have a Happy Meal," Pavel offered, seeking to minimize the conflict between John and Casey.
"No, it's OK Pavel, if you want a Happy Meal that's what you shall have," John said firmly and gave Casey a look over his glasses that said he wasn't brooking any further argument from her.
Casey's return look very clearly said, 'we'll talk about this later,' but she let the topic drop.
When they arrived at the restaurant, Pavel stopped right at the doors and began crying. John squatted down so he was at Pavel's height. "What's wrong, Pavel?" John asked gently.
"I used to come here with Mama and Papa." Pavel began explaining through his tears. "I will never come here with them again, will I?" he asked.
"No Pavel, but you will always have your memories of them, no one can take those from you," John answered truthfully.
"Hey man, you and your kid are blocking the door. You want to go in or come out or whatever?" A guy growled at John.
John stood up quickly, almost like a jack in the box and leaned into the man's personal space, very swiftly changing into his tough cop mode.
"You got a problem minding your own business?" John asked, as he opened his suit coat to reveal his badge where it was clipped on his waist, the holster of his handgun was also just visible inside his coat.
"Uh, no I, I've had a tough morning and I'm hungry. I just wanted to get in, and you and the kid are blocking the door," the guy said somewhat flustered, his eyes flickering back and forth from the badge to the gun.
"You've had a tough day? You have no idea what a tough day is, this little boy just watched his mother, father and grandfather be murdered this morning!" Casey screeched at the guy.
"Casey!" John snapped.
"Oh my God, I'm sorry. I had no idea," the guy said, truly remorseful.
"Ivan, I'm sorry I didn't mean to cause so much trouble," Pavel said.
"It's all right, Pavel. You didn't do anything wrong," John reassured the boy.
"Look, let's just everybody go inside, OK?" John suggested, trying to diffuse the situation.
"Yeah, good idea," the stranger agreed.
After a little wrangling over what would be ordered, which consisted of Casey lobbying for what was healthy, John trying to figure out a way to order something for Pavel that, while it wouldn't be Kosher wouldn't be entirely treyf, and Pavel just trying to get something he thought would be tasty and come with the Happy Meal toy he wanted. Once they'd gotten their food and found a table to sit at the questions started.
"Why did you snap at me for telling that guy off?" Casey asked.
"Now's not the time to talk about it, Casey," John said rather harshly and motioned toward Pavel with a slight incline of his head.
"Oh OK," she said, understanding that he didn't want to discuss it in front of Pavel. She decided to try a different tact.
"Why is it not OK for Pavel to have cheese on his hamburger or milk with it, but it's OK for you to have cheese on your fish sandwich?" Casey asked.
"It's not Kosher to eat meat and dairy products in the same meal, but fish is not considered meat, not that any of this food is really Kosher," John explained.
Pavel took a bite of his hamburger and a sip of his juice, and then began playing with the toy from the happy meal.
"Why isn't it Kosher?" she asked. "Pavel, finish eating your meal then play," she added almost absent-mindedly to the boy.
"OK Casey," the boy answered, and put the toy down to concentrate on his meal. Despite having been annoyed at her earlier slip, John couldn't help smiling at the way she easily fell into the maternal role.
"Given that I'm not really very observant, I probably shouldn't be the one to explain this to you, and I'm not sure that you really want to hear some of this while eating, how about later I show you a website that explains it?" he suggested.
"OK, it's a deal," Casey replied.
The three of them ate and chatted. After Pavel finished most of his meal, he again pulled out the toy from his happy meal, an action figure from a recent kid's movie. This time Casey didn't say anything to him and so he and John began playing. John provided a funny voice for the character and sound effects, actually managing to make Pavel laugh.
"Ivan, can I go play?" Pavel asked looking hopefully towards the indoor play area that this McDonald's featured.
"OK, but stay where Casey and I can see you," John answered.
Once Pavel was out of earshot, Casey returned to her original question. "So now can you tell me why you got mad at me for telling that guy off?" she asked.
"I wasn't exactly mad at you, but you need to remember Pavel's the only witness to a triple homicide and you didn't know that guy from Adam. You could have been endangering Pavel's life by broadcasting to anybody within earshot what he'd just witnessed," John said, by now his original anger over the situation had abated and so he tried to be gentle in his reproach of her.
"Oh God, I didn't think," Casey said, truly aghast.
John held back the sarcastic comments that came to mind about how she frequently didn't seem to think before she said or did things. He didn't want to be cruel to her, he liked her more than he sometimes wanted to admit to himself, and besides he needed her to do him a big favor. After an awkward few moments of silence, John decided to ask Casey for the favor he needed.
"Casey, I was wondering if you would mind doing me a favor?" he asked hesitantly.
"Sure if I can, I'd be glad to, what's the favor?" she asked, belatedly realizing she sounded like a school girl tripping all over herself in her eagerness to please.
"Would you mind watching Pavel for a while? I need to go over to his family's apartment to pick up his belongings, and I don't think he should come with me. I think it would be too traumatic for him right now, but I've really got to get his clothes, and he'd probably like some other things from the apartment too," Munch explained.
"Oh, of course, I'll call back over to the office and take some personal time off, that way I can stay as long as you need me to," she answered.
"Thanks, that's a big" – suddenly John got up from the table and was off across the restaurant faster than Casey would have guessed he could move. She followed after him and only belatedly realized that Pavel had taken a fall in the play area.
"Are you all right, Pavel?" John asked as he knelt by the boy, his voice laced with concern.
"Yes, I'm fine,"Pavel answered in slightly accented English, sounding slightly annoyed. "I just trip. Are you going to treat me like the baby, running after me every time I trip or get the little scrap?"
John leaned back from Pavel. "The word is scrape, and I'm sorry, I didn't realize caring would offend you."
"John!" Casey said his name as though it was a bullwhip she was cracking to reprimand him.
"What?" he replied, in an equally sharp manner.
"You don't need to be so sarcastic with him," Casey said, not showing any inclination to tolerate John's attitude towards the boy. John rolled his eyes at her and she huffed at him.
Pavel watched the two adults and an anxious expression came over his face, which John noticed.
"Look we've got a lot to get done this afternoon, so why don't we just get going, OK?" John suggested.
"Good idea," Casey agreed.
"OK," Pavel agreed too, if only to keep peace between the grown ups.
As John drove towards his apartment, he was making a mental checklist of all the things he needed to do. Get Pavel and Casey settled in at his place, and then go pick up Pavel's things at the apartment/crime scene. Since they hadn't turned up any relatives, he was going to have to arrange for the funerals. He'd need to check in the Rusayev's apartment a little closer than he had earlier to see if he was right about their religious beliefs. If he was he needed to work fast. He'd also need to make arrangements for a new school for Pavel, he couldn't leave him in his current school for fear the goons who had killed Pavel's family might come after him. John also wanted to talk to George Huang about getting Pavel in to see a good child psychologist; maybe Liz Olivet would be available. He wanted to contact a lawyer to find out how hard it was going to be for him to adopt Pavel, but there wouldn't be time for that. Sometime in the near future he'd have to find time to both thank Casey for helping with Pavel and to apologize for snapping at her.
"Ivan, are you mad at me?" Pavel asked as they got to John's apartment.
"What? No, I'm not mad at you. Why would you think that?
"You don't talk, you don't smile," the boy answered.
John sighed. "Sorry, I was thinking about all the things I need to do. I guess I got lost in my thoughts," John explained.
As he led Pavel and Casey up to his apartment, he tried to remember how he had left the place. He wasn't your typical slob ala Oscar Madison but he wasn't a Felix Unger either. The best he could recall it wasn't in too bad a shape, so it shouldn't offend anyone, and it might even impress Casey, depending on what she was expecting.
"Not bad, a bit Spartan but at least it's not messy," Casey said by way of passing judgment.
"Glad you approve, let me give you the nickel tour, and then I'm off to get Pavel's things from his parent's apartment," John said.
"Could you bring Mishka back for me?" Pavel asked.
"That depends, who's Mishka?" John asked, wondering if somewhere in that apartment there was a pet something or other Pavel would want to have here.
Pavel looked at Casey a little embarrassed, and then motioned to John to lean down to where he could whisper in his ear.
"Oh, OK sure no problem," John said after had heard Pavel's secret request. Pavel smiled when he was sure Ivan would bring Mishka back for him.
John showed Casey where things were in the apartment and then quietly mentioned to her that he needed to make arrangements for Pavel's parents and grandfather's funerals.
"Oh that's right, if they are Jewish it should be done within 24 hours, isn't that the custom?" Casey asked.
"Yes," John answered. "And what with Pavel being his only family, it's going to fall to me, and well to the elders of the synagogue they were attending to make the arrangements. I'll see what I can find out at their apartment."
"Now you be good for Casey and I'll be back soon," John said gently ordering Pavel to behave.
"I will be."
John gave Casey a slight nod of his head as he left.
As the door closed, Casey sighed. It seemed to her that afternoon she'd been rubbing John the wrong way. She didn't mean too, she just seemed to have a knack for it. It was strange, in a courtroom she could think to censure her comments and actions and she could prioritize things, but in her private life she tended to speak or act first, and think about the consequences later. She sighed, she needed to stop brooding over her screw-ups and take care of Pavel's needs.
As John looked around the Rusayev's apartment, he was glad he had decided not to bring Pavel with him. The CSU techs and ME's attendants were done with the apartment and somehow the scene was worse now. The apartment was empty and it seemed as violated as the body of Nadia Rusayev. John tried hard to minimize his intrusion to avoid making things any worse than they already were.
John located a bedroom that from the looks of things was shared by Pavel and his grandfather. He saw a teddy bear sitting on the pillow of one of the twin beds and surmised that that was Mishka. Under the pillow he found Pavel's pajamas. As John emptied a small thrift store dresser of boy's clothes, he realized there wasn't nearly enough in the dresser to get the boy through a week. He checked the closet and didn't find much there either, although he did find a good pair of black pants, a white shirt and a tie and dress shoes. It was probably what Pavel wore to synagogue. John wished he could find a suit coat for him to wear to the funeral tomorrow, but this would have to do. Finally it dawned on him that most of Pavel's clothes were probably in the laundry. John located a basket in the bathroom and sorted through it for Pavel's other things. In the master bedroom he found a suitcase large enough for Pavel's clothes, he also looked around it for pictures and other keepsakes of the boy's family. He did the same in the living room and kitchen. Then he decided he would get a second suitcase and add the mementos to it, along with the laundry and the few toys and storybooks he'd found. John took a last look around the apartment; finally locating some information about the synagogue the family had been attending.
As he left the apartment, John began to realize how much there still was to do and how little time there was to do it in, a good half of his list woul half to wait until tomorrow. Even then he would need to rely even more heavily on Casey than he had intended. He sighed. His realized his reactions to Casey were a bit over the top, and he wasn't quite sure he could put his finger on why, or maybe he could but just didn't want to, just as he really didn't want to go talk to the rabbi.
At least he understood his reluctance to see the rabbi. John wasn't even a three-day Jew, that is, he didn't even go to temple for Passover, Yom Kippur, or Rosh Hashanah, every time he had to set foot in a synagogue because of a case and every time his colleagues turned to him as the resident expert on Judaism, he felt like a fraud. Not that he wasn't a Jew, by just about anyone's definition, but he had rejected Judaism when he felt it had abandoned him and his family. He had felt obliged to continue attending temple as long as he lived at home with his mother and brother, but once he was on his own he quit. He was in his own mind only ethnically a Jew. So now, going to ask this rabbi to arrange three funerals was one of the most difficult things he'd done in a long time.
"Rabbi Cohen, thank you for meeting with me," John said somewhat nervously.
"Of course, Detective Munch, it is no trouble to meet with you and help you with this sad situation. The Rusayevs had not been in the congregation long, but we will see that they are given a proper burial. This funeral home is owned by one of our members, he will see that everything is taken care of, if you give the medical examiner a call and tell them to release the bodies to his care," the Rabbi said as he pressed a business card in John's hand.
"Thank you Rabbi," John said and started to leave.
"Detective, who is taking care of the Rusayev's little boy?" the rabbi asked.
"I am," John answered.
"Indeed, I thought it was customary for a child to be placed in foster care under these kind of circumstances?" the rabbi said, with what John thought was a note of reproach.
"Well, if Pavel had lost his family in a simple car accident perhaps, but this was no accident. His life could be endangered, so it's best if he's with someone who knows how to protect him, and it doesn't hurt that I also happen to speak Russian, so he doesn't have to worry about communication problems," John answered.
"I see, well I will see you tomorrow at the funeral. Will you continue to bring the boy here to temple or will you take him to your own synagogue?" the rabbi asked.
"I haven't decided yet," John said trying to avoid the issue. He glanced at his watch. "I don't mean to seem rude Rabbi, but I asked a friend to watch Pavel for me, and I don't want to impose on her for much longer, and I've still got to make a few phone calls," he said motioning to the business card.
"Of course," the rabbi said.
As John left the rabbi's office, he had the uncomfortable feeling that the man knew everything about him.
Casey discovered that John had far more TV stations than she would have expected of a man she knew had a passion for reading, then again it was probably because he had to get all these channels to get the history channel and C-SPAN. For the moment she was grateful, because he happened to have a number of channels that had good kid fare on them, as she was about to do something she had sworn she'd never do if she ever had a kid of her own; she was going to park Pavel in front of the TV, so she could get dinner made.
Finally a little after 7pm John drug the two suitcases up to his apartment door and rang the bell with his elbow. Casey opened the door for him almost immediately.
"Casey!" John scolded her as he brought the bags in.
"What?" she asked irritated and perplexed.
"Do you always open the door without checking the peephole or asking who it is?" he asked.
"No, but I knew it was you!" Casey answered defensively.
"Oh really, how?" John asked defiantly.
"Ivan, did you bring Mishka?" Pavel interrupted.
John decided to stop being upset with Casey and pay attention to Pavel.
"Yes, and if you help me unpack these suitcases, we'll find him," John answered.
"Are you hungry? I made some potato soup. Pavel and I had grilled cheese sandwiches with it. I can make you a sandwich and warm up some of the soup," Casey offered deciding John might be in a better mood if he were fed.
"The sandwich was really good," Pavel volunteered.
John ruffled Pavel's hair, "So you recommend the grilled cheese sandwich, huh? What about the soup?"
"It's good too, except the onions," Pavel responded, wrinkling his nose when he mentioned the onions.
John shrugged, "I like onions."
"Then have a seat at the kitchen table, it won't take long."
John looked at Casey fixing him a meal, and then glanced over to where Pavel was pulling things out of the suitcases, and like any 6 yr old, scattering them all over the living room floor. For some reason, he found the scene much more agreeable than one would ever have thought a, what was it Fin called him, "old curmedgeon", would have. He sighed, he'd have to be very careful or he could get use to this.