"Kid, you're not Batman. You would be in handcuffs in the back of the car if somebody else had responded to the disturbance and thought you were part of the crew."

Malcom seethes. "I was right, Gil. I predicted where the next burglary was going to be, and I helped stop it."

Gil breathes hard, in that way he has when he's frustrated. "You're a teenager. You're unarmed. You could be dead if one of those guys had spotted you before I got there. Being right doesn't make you invincible."

Malcolm shrugs. "What was I supposed to do? The police don't respond to crimes that haven't happened yet. I saw a pattern, and I checked it out." He folds his arms in front of him and grinds the toe of his sneaker into Gil's floormat, slumping in the passenger's seat.

"The 'police' might not have listened, but I would have," Gil shoots back.

"Didn't want to call you and be wrong," Malcolm counters, sensing his upper hand is slipping away. He feels Gil's eyes drilling him, and he resists eye contact.

Gil sighs audibly. "Wrong with backup is better than right and dead. What would I tell your mom if something happened?"

Malcolm doesn't answer, and Gil doesn't say anything else for several blocks. Traffic is obnoxiously bad in the city, and Malcolm finds the tension almost unbearable. He wants to get out of the car, but he figures Gil would about kill him.

"I know you're mad at me, but I'm glad you're okay." Gil finally reaches over and puts his hand on the back of Malcolm's neck, leaving it there for a few seconds. It's something he's done since the night ten-year-old Malcolm turned his father in for murder. It's comforting, and Malcolm doesn't pull away.

"I'm not sorry," he says after a while.

"Didn't figure you would be," Gil answers, his voice back to its usual even tone.

"My dad would be proud of me." It's a cheap shot. Malcolm regrets it as soon as he says it. He doesn't even call Martin Whitly 'dad' any more.

"And I'm not your dad," Gil echoes, but he doesn't sound bothered. "I am right, though." His calm assurance is infuriating. Malcolm doesn't answer again because he has no idea what to say.

It's another twenty minutes of heavy traffic to the Whitly mansion, and when they finally get there, Malcolm practically bursts out of the car.

"Call me when you're ready to talk," Gil calls after him, and Malcolm is pretty sure that will be never.

"Sorry I'm late," Malcolm says as soon as he comes in and finds his mother reading in the front room of the mansion.

Jessica smiles, much to his confusion. "That's fine. Gil called and said you were with him."

"Oh," Malcolm's fury evaporates in an instant, as soon as he takes in the words. "I'll go upstairs."

"Okay," Jessica agrees, as if nothing is wrong at all.

You idiot, Malcolm thinks to himself as he heads to his room. He was the one who had brought Martin into a conversation where he didn't belong, trying to throw his father at Gil, as if there was any comparison between the man who lived in a cell and the one who had just covered for him.

"Hey, Gil?" He calls as soon as he closes the door and collapses onto his bed.

"Hey, kid."

"I'm sorry."

"That was fast."

"I talked to my mom. She wasn't mad. Somebody called her and covered for me."

"You're welcome."

"See you Thursday." It's his usual dinner night with Gil and Jackie when he's home for the summer.

"Sure, kid."

Malcolm feels better, but he doesn't have long to savor it before a loud knock on his door tells him Ainsley is imminent.

"I need help with my Geometry homework." His sister, who is small for her age but makes up for it in determination, bursts into his room and tosses a notebook and textbook onto Malcolm's bed next to him. She would be too young to take Geometry, but she's in summer school. By choice. She wants to get ahead of everybody else.

"Why don't you ask Mom?" Malcolm enquires, sitting up and leaning on his headboard.

"She doesn't do Geometry," Ainsley answers. "But you do everything."

Malcolm can't argue with that, and after the day he's had, he's actually glad for the company and for something else to focus his mind on. He settles into proofs, with Ainsley perched next to him, and as usual, she's just as smart as he is.

When he goes to Gil's on Thursday, Malcom will tell him this was his penance, two hours of math homework that wasn't even his. The cop will know that Malcolm didn't really mind, that he likes being Ainsley's hero. But Gil will be proud anyway, and that's the whole point.


Note: Surely Malcolm's issues of personal risk and asking/waiting for help started long before we meet him in the series. And my guess is Gil was just as fed up with them back then as he is now.