Mike had grown weary of his partner's defiant behavior when their day together started out just like the previous one had ended; on some sour, misguided and begrudging tone.
Leaning forward and reaching for his coffee cup as he listened to Andre tell him about his hobbies and favorite classes in school, he couldn't help but let his eyes wander to his partner's desk, taking note of Steve's tense body language and hoping that Lenny would find the time today to talk to him and fix whatever was causing all this unnecessary friction.
"So, what has you so intrigued about Homicide?", he asked when the young man was done talking and nervously sipped on his glass of water, "I must admit, at your age, I was a lot more interested in things like football…and girls."
Mirroring his genial smile, Andre shrugged, his shy eyes tracing the outline of his desk.
"I think…well…I guess it was the way you did your presentation that was quite interesting to me. The life you lead in this kind of work. Dealing with death every day but solving the crimes and helping the families find closure. Like you said, it takes a special kind of person to do that. And I guess…it felt as though this was something, I could see myself doing someday…"
Knowing from reading the teenager's file that he didn't know his father but had been trying to track him down, and that there was some tension with his step father who was home only occasionally, Mike couldn't help but feel sympathetic to Andre for reaching for any bit of rope somebody handed him. And in one form or another, determination and persistency were the pillars of any good cop.
"What made you decide to become a police officer?"
The open-ended question surprised Mike and he smiled fleetingly, before resting his hands in his lap.
"Well, think of it as a calling, not a job title. See, when you decide to join law enforcement, you take on a huge responsibility. When we refer to protect & serve, we do just that. Literally and figuratively. At any given day, you are dealing with people who, for one reason or another, have no respect for the law, or the value of a human life. And they will not hesitate to hurt or even kill you, if you stand in their way. Those are the ones you need to protect innocent bystanders from. On the other side, you are serving the public. They are your shareholders and you must answer them every step of the way. You must ensure that tax payer's money is used as efficiently as possible and most importantly, you must keep your shareholders safe from those who break the law. This job requires the highest degree of integrity anywhere in the public service sector."
Andre nodded in understanding, his eyes drifting to the Scales of Justice on Mike's side table.
"Do you ever work alone? Or are you always partnered with somebody?"
"You've gotta have a partner in this line of work.", he answered too fast, surprising even Andre for a moment, "Nobody is ever too good or too educated to work alone. We need our partners to protect us, to think of the things we fail to take into consideration, to hold us accountable and most importantly, to share the emotional burden this job can put on us. You have to remember that beneath our shields, we are just like any other human being. We get disturbed by seeing raw violence. We get shaken up when our partner's get belted by some violent subject. Our hearts break when one of our officers is killed in the line of duty. Nobody can do this job alone…And nobody is alone in this job."
As he said those words, Mike's eyes drifted back over to Steve's desk, temporarily startled when he saw his partner glance up at him at the exact same time. And despite the thick glass walls of his office, the melancholy radiating through every pore of the young Inspector's body reached his heart with unbearable intensity.