Justice is ServED

BotherED

Disclaimer: I don't own EEnE, or the characters, nor do I claim ownership of Nat as he belongs to c2ndy2c1d. All I own is the plot.

Graduation, Six Years Ago, Kevin POV

Wide green eyes stared listlessly at the empty space in front of him where a trembling, sobbing dork of a teen previously occupied. The jock hadn't moved for several long moments now but his mind was a whirlwind of activity. He'd just been kissed. By a guy.

A guy just kissed me! Hell, even guys think I'm hot. Why the hell would a guy being attracted to me make me happy? Well, it could be an ugly guy. Double D is kinda cute I guess. What if this was a prank? No, Double D would never… But Eddy always makes Double Dorko do things he doesn't want to do! This could be really bad! I'm gonna kill those assholes! It has to be a prank!

Kevin didn't remember seeing a flash but maybe the dumbasses took a picture. Maybe this was to get back at Kevin for making Eddy kiss Double D when they were kids. He didn't know but he was definitely going to find out what the hell was going on and maybe give them a farewell ass-kicking. Growling lowly in his throat, Kevin removed his fists from his letterman jacket pockets and turned on his heel to stomp up to Double Dork's front door.

He had every intention of pounding on that door, demanding to know just what the hell was going on but the moment he raised his fist to punch at the door, he froze. He expected to hear obnoxiously loud laughter, Eddy's stupid voice saying how he got Kevin, Ed's voice loudly proclaiming something ridiculously off-topic, and Double D either giggling quietly or admonishing Eddy for being, well, Eddy.

This was not what he heard. The sound made his stomach drop and his heart shatter as his anger fled him quickly. Panic rose up within him, as did the desire to make everything better. Sighing lightly once confusion settled over him, he tried to think but the only thing running circles around in his head was to hug the nerd and that terrified him. But despite that fear, his heart and soul demanded to know who hurt the gentle nerd.

Edd was not one to show people or acknowledge if he was hurt. Kevin knew the teen didn't like being an inconvenience to people. He's seen the dork sidestep concerned people quite well and often. He never cared much, Edd's business was Edd's business. But this? This heart-wrenching sound of terrified, anguished sobbing…it hit Kevin hard, like that one tackle his freshman year that knocked him unconscious. Except this time, he was awake. He couldn't escape this. Or could he? Kevin had a feeling that he wasn't the only reason for Edd's tears but there was nothing he could do about them. He felt nothing for the nerd except maybe a sense of respect. That, and he refused to explore the weird staccato his heart was doing as he thought about the crying teen on the other side of the door. Besides, if the jock did anything, he might be giving the kid hope for something more that didn't exist and that would only hurt the teen more.

Torn between kind of wanting to help his childhood whatever-he-was and wanting to make a hasty retreat, Kevin breathed in deeply. He took a step back from the door, then another, before turning around and placing his hands in his jean pockets. When he managed to pull his saddened green eyes from the door he was stopped by the presence of Ed and Eddy. How they'd snuck up on him, was a mystery to him but he played it off like he knew they'd been there the whole time. His eyes narrowed slightly when the shorter teen motioned for the jock to follow him. Eddy's body was stiff and his faced set in a scowl while Ed nervously wrung his hands together and kept glancing back at the door, obviously very worried about the Double Dork.

"Look, Kevin," Eddy started when they reached the end of the dork's driveway, Kevin standing a bit behind the shorter teen, "I can kinda guess what probably happened and normally I'd shit-talk you to piss you off but…" Eddy trailed off, refusing to look at the redhead. He ran a hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck before glancing back slightly at Kevin. His face completely neutral.

"Don't…don't tell anyone what happened, alright? Double D's gone through a shit ton'a stuff lately and he doesn't need any more crap." Kevin glared at the ground. This was not what he expected from the short asshole. But then again, the past hour or so was not something he expected to ever happen either. It was definitely odd to see Eddy acting so concerned for someone other than himself but Kevin kind of got it. The asshole squirt was a dick but even he couldn't turn a blind eye to his obviously deeply hurt friend.

"Kevin?" Kevin looked up to see Ed standing in front of him. The teen was a few inches taller than the ex-football captain so he actually had to look up, a fact that had pissed him off quite a bit over the last two years. The big oaf was pleading with him. His eyes big and hopeful but filled with a deep sadness that gave Kevin the feeling that he knew more than people thought he did about the world around him. Still not sure about what the hell was going on, Kevin merely jerked his head in a forceful nod before slipping past Ed and beginning the short walk home.

"Kevin!" Ed called. Growling lightly as he turned back to glare at the tall annoyance, he stopped. "Thanks," was all he got before the two headed toward the gate in the fence of Double D's backyard and Eddy giving a half-hearted wave as he disappeared. Glancing back to the dork's front door, emerald eyes narrowed, but not in disgust. Kevin was feeling a lot of emotions but for some reason he couldn't find that one. That confused him even more. He'd never found guys attractive before, but now? Clicking his tongue when he turned away he stomped the ground lightly with the toe of his shoe. What the hell was wrong with him?

A faint beep sounded from his jacket pocket and sighed then removed his phone. A text from Nazz. Once he read it he paused, thinking it over. A party with college kids huh? Maybe that would help him get his mind off all this, whatever it was. Nodding slightly to himself he sent a reply then opened the door and called out to his parents before shutting it once more and walking away. At the end of the street, he watched Double D's house, no lights were on that he could see, so he turned left and continued walking.

A loud yawn ripped through Kevin's lips as he stretched his arms out in front of him and rapidly blinked bleary eyes. The sun was just coming up above the houses in the cul-de-sac, coloring the sky in orange-pink hues and warming the surrounding air. Birds chirped sporadically as the man waited, arms folded across his chest and leaning back on the hood of his car as he stared at the house across the street on the corner.

Kevin had gotten very little restful sleep last night and he completely blamed the unknowing and sweet man who lived in said house as he waited. Dark shadows were visible under his bright green eyes, evidence of having spent the majority of the night staring at the ceiling thinking of a certain blue-eyed dork, tossing and turning, and then - after actually falling asleep - dreaming of the man.

He dreamt about how yesterday's incident could have been different. A couple dreams were about Double D being seriously injured or killed. Others were Double D inviting him into his house for 'dinner' as a thank you and 'dinner' turning out to be quite hot and heavy. But then Kevin would wake up, covered in sweat from each one but that last one. That one caused a problem that had to be taken care of in the shower earlier this morning after he was jerked awake by his phone and Nat singing obnoxiously loud telling him to get up and get him some breakfast.

He felt a short vibration from his phone where it was nestled snugly in the back pocket of his jeans but elected to ignore it. Chances were that it was just Nat's fifth text of the morning and Kevin wasn't particularly in the mood for the man at the moment. He needed to figure his feelings out quickly. The nerd has only been here for a day and had confused the living shit out the detective. What was he going to do when the dork showed up? How was he going to be able to look at the man after that dream from this morning?

Emerald eyes glanced quickly at his watch and saw that it was only 7:15 and he still had about fifteen more minutes before Edd would arrive. The dork was notorious for arriving exactly on time - never early, never late, so Kevin didn't expect the man to step quietly in front of him and bend slightly to gaze up at him with worried blue eyes. Gripping his arm tightly to keep from jumping in surprise, Kevin stood up straight and coughed nervously.

"Y-you, uh, you ready?" Not bothering to wait for a reply and choosing to ignore the look of concern from the dork, Kevin turned on his heel toward the driver's door and got in, starting the engine. Just as Edd closed the door firmly, Kevin pulled from the driveway and headed immediately toward the small donut shop around the corner from the cul-de-sac. It was a place that popped up recently but it had that absolute best donuts in all of Peach Creek - and there's a whole precinct of law enforcement that will vouch for them to prove it. It was faint, more of a huff of air, but Kevin heard the dork's breathy giggle when they stopped in a spot in the parking lot. He smirked.

"Yeah, yeah, stereotypical cop food, I know, get used to it," he chuckled before both went inside. It didn't take long for them to spend an outrageous amount of money on the sugary treats before they were on their way to the station with a few boxes full of unhealthy deliciousness. The tension that once filled the car evaporated the minute they returned to it and headed off once more.

"So, how's your throat today?" Kevin asked glancing at the man next to him when they came to a red light. Edd smiled reassuringly and nodded before pulling out his phone and typing something quickly before showing Kevin the screen.

Bruising/swelling down; cuts not infected; throat sore but better.

Kevin chuckled then nodded, looking ahead when the light turned green.

"That's good, I'm glad." Edd tilted his head curiously when Kevin said that and the cop held his breath. What if his concern wasn't appreciated? He never thought of that. Six years ago Edd had been perfectly clear that he didn't like it when people got too nosy about his business. And they weren't friends, they were merely coworkers now. But Kevin couldn't help but feel concern for the nerd, a problem that developed years ago that he wasn't able to change. After a moment, Edd smiled sweetly and nodded. Kevin smiled slightly in return.

Moments later, Kevin pushed the break room door open and let Edd in after him before letting the door shut on its own behind them. He walked further into the empty room and placed the boxes he held on the center table and motioned for Edd to do the same before opening the lids. The scent of highly processed sugar hit him immediately and he felt his mouth salivate but denied himself one of the treats. He didn't get his smokin' hot bod from eating donuts that's for sure. Chuckling lightly to himself he glanced at Edd who was eyeing him curiously, a tiny smile still on his lips.

"Uh…" Kevin found himself at a loss for words. The man's blue eyes were sparkling in the florescent lighting and his lips, slightly parted, were pink and moist. Green eyes widened slightly and he turned away from the scientist as he crammed his hands into his jacket just in case they refused to listen to his order of 'Don't Touch!'

Gritting his teeth, Kevin mentally kicked himself. How was it that the second this not adorkable man came back into his life he started acting like a horny teenager? It's been literally one fucking day! Despite all the 'what happens, happens' crap he had decided on, this whole situation was fucking with his head and he needed to stay focused right now. He had a murderer on the loose that needed to be behind bars soon so Kevin couldn't afford to get sidetracked by those big, beautiful, blue eyes that were staring straight at him. Coughing lightly, Kevin began to leave the room.

"Uh, so um…" Smooth Kevin, real smooth. "I better get going now…" Green eyes glanced out of the corner of his eyes at Double D's look of concern as the man nodded his in response. Kevin returned the nod then left the room, heading straight for his desk where Nat sat smirking with his boots up on the desk and his arms folded behind his head.

"So, how's the cutie doing? You guys do anything fun last night?" Teal eyebrows wiggled suggestively as Kevin sat across from him and the gold-eyed detective leaned forward on his desk. Kevin glared half-heartedly at Nat when he asked about Double D but refused to respond to the teasing. He was having a hard enough time with his own useless brain and feelings, he wasn't all that sure he wanted Nat in his head yet…or ever. So he kept his comments to himself and resolved to get this case closed as quickly as possible.

"Why don't we just focus on the case alright? I'm not in the mood for any of that bullshit right now." Kevin mumbled as he pulled out the case file and read through it once more. Nat sat back, a pout on his face. He flicked a paper clip at the other man and narrowed gold eyes.

"What crawled up your ass and died? I figured you'd be over the moon from getting to see your dork this morning?" Kevin rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair, bring the folder with him. He read through the confession they received and turned to another page before answering.

"He's not my dork. He's just a…lab rat," Kevin ended in a mumble, as if he didn't really believe that all Edd was to him was a nerdy guy he happened to be working with. Nat stared at Kevin for several long moments until Kevin had enough and snapped at him.

"What?" He ground out harshly, eyes set in a stony glare as his partner stared with unmasked thoughtfulness.

"How long has it been since you last got some sugar my sexually frustrated bestie?" Nat smirked as he leaned forward more, practically laying on top of his desk. Kevin nearly dropped the file as he shot forward fast and leaned in close to Nat. A low growl rumbled from his throat as he reached forward and grabbed the front of the teal-haired man's black suit jacket.

"Would you fucking drop it man? Seriously, I don't want to discuss this right this very second!" Kevin seethed quietly as his glare became deadly. Emerald eyes could see Edd as he made his way through the crowd of people and past their desk before entering the lab. The last thing he wanted was Double D to overhear stupid Nat discussing his non-existent love life and the fact that Edd may or may not have appeared in his way less than appropriate dreams last night.

Gold eyes sparkled with laughter as the amused detective chewed his lip slightly to try and keep quiet. He knew Kevin was frustrated and hadn't been laid in a while but this reaction was priceless. He wanted to goad him further, see how far he could take this before the man decided to shoot him. However, after seeing the uncertainty that flashed through his partners' bright green hues, Nat decided to have mercy on the poor guy.

"Man, look, we can talk about it later alright? Let's just get this shit done first." Kevin snapped as he sat back and checked his watch. Nat smoothed his hands down his jacket, trying to get the wrinkles out of it. So much for ironing the damn thing this morning.

"Yeah alright, but I will remember this." Nat commented as they both stood up and headed to the meeting room behind them for the morning's briefing with the Chief. Upon entering the crowded room, the two remained at the back of the room, going over different aspects of their current case.

"So, after this we'll head to Humphrey's place first. Hopefully, the guy'll be there and we can close this case by tonight." Nat summed up, flashing Kevin a wide smile and two thumbs up. The redhead rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Dammit Nat, every time you say shit like that something else always happens! When are you gonna learn to cut that shit out?" Kevin admonished as he leaned back against the wall and stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets for the third time that day as the Chief entered the room and headed to the front.

Chief Pierce was standing at the front of the room, face stoic. A well respected man amongst the force, Chief Donald Pierce liked to believe he ran his precinct well. They were never short staffed and were fairly well funded by the city. Their crime rate wasn't as low as it used to be but they were able to keep up with the increased workload and even have a special task force looking into the causes of the increase at City Hall. Moral was generally fairly good throughout and there were few incidents where his men were involved in scandals.

"First off, I just want to say that despite no one bothering to stop MacConnell trying to escape and being allowed to take a hostage, that our new forensic tech is doing well and hasn't quit on us. I expected better of all of you." His hard gaze swept over the people in the room, his disappointment clear in his eyes and on his face.

"Moving on, Mitchell, Holt, update." Kevin tuned out the detectives as they began their report, once more thinking about yesterday's incident. Now that it had been brought to his attention, why hadn't anyone else actually tried to stop MacConnell? Grinding his teeth together in frustration Kevin crossed his arms over his chest.

Maybe he should teach Double D some self-defense moves? Or force him to take the classes the precinct offered? It would definitely be a good idea since the man was prone to getting his ass handed to him, that hasn't seemed to have changed as they got older. The guy left himself too open, he was too oblivious to his surroundings. Chewing on his lip gently, he contemplated whether he should mention it to him later. He wanted to make sure the dork wasn't going to just freeze up like he did if something like that happened again in the future.

"Barr, Goldberg." Kevin snapped out of his thoughts at the deep voice saying his name and stood up straight on reflex.

"We were able to get a location and a name for the suspect yesterday from MacConnell and what was likely the murder weapon. We'll be heading to his apartment right after this." He informed as he looked directly at the Chief who nodded.

"And what of the other charges?"

"Frost is filing a separate case for yesterday's events." Nat supplied as he still leaned casually against the wall.

"Good, see to it that he contacts me directly." Both detectives nodded curtly before the Chief's attention moved to another detective pair. Moments later they were all dismissed. As they walked out of the room both men heard a snickering from behind them.

"I'm surprised the little nerd is still here. Who'd have thought he had the balls to come back after how pathetic he looked yesterday." Kevin stopped short and spun around with a glare he reserved from suspects, surprising the two detectives behind him. Nat stepped up behind him and placed a firm hand on his shoulder, knowing how defensive Kevin has been recently.

"Watch it Holst," he growled out at the Narcotics detective who smirked at him after the surprise wore off.

"What's this? The hell you want Barr?"

"Don't be an ass Holst, the kid is a civilian, you can't expect him to know what to do in that situation." Nat said, voice hard, gold eyes narrowed on the men. The taller man 'tsked' and rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," he said laughing at some unheard joke it seemed before he walked away, his partner following behind him not even bothering to try and hold back his snickers. Kevin growled as he watched them leave. Well, that settled it, he was definitely going to make Double D take some self-defense classes. He was tired of people picking on him because he looks, and unfortunately is, an easy target. Clenching his fists tightly at his sides Kevin turned slightly and looked through the windows to the dork's lab.

He was moving around the room placing labels on things as Martha worked on some evidence. The short woman was chuckling at something and Edd turned toward the woman with an amused smile, his attention temporarily taken from his task. Emerald eyes watched all this and felt his body relax at the sight of Double D seemingly in a comfortable place. He was safe there. Sighing lightly, he looked to the ground and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Dude, you've got it so bad. Are you sure you didn't know you were into him?" Nat asked seriously as he came to stand in front of Kevin, also watching the two scientists interact. Glancing back into the room, Kevin shook his head and turned away. He didn't have time to analyze whether or not he was that far in denial. Granted, he'd never felt like this with anyone before, even Nazz when they were kids or even with… Kevin sighed no more thinking about this.

"Let's go Nat." He said, ignoring the man's question and heading for the door. Gold eyes followed after him for a moment before he shook his head at the confusion of his partner and followed him out.

Standing in front of a dirty white door in the hall of their suspect, Terry Humphrey's, apartment Kevin and Nat looked at each other. The hallway smelled musty and the tile floor that probably used to be white was now a gross brownish color. A light at the end of the slightly dark hall flickered obnoxiously as it gave off that high pitched whine of an old florescent light. Checking to make sure they had the right apartment number, Kevin gave the go ahead and Nat knocked on the door.

"Terry Humphrey, PCPD, open up. We have a few questions for you." He spoke loudly through the door. The two waited in silence for a moment but when no sounds came back through, Nat tried again. They knew there was no other way out of the building, unless the guy jumped out of his windows, but in this neighborhood, most people had bars on the outside of them to keep unwanted people out. They heard a faint click from down the hall, leading out to the main hall of the small apartment complex and an older woman peeked out at them.

Her pink floral nightgown swished around her as she kept the door open a crack and motioned for the two to come over. Her chocolate skin looked a bit ashen and her black eyes hazy with sleep and a wary look settled in her them once the two detectives stopped a few feet in front of her. She reached a shaky hand up to straighten the shower cap on her head before pulling her faded and ragged blue robe shut.

"That man ain't there no more." She said softly to the two, apprehension radiating off her. Kevin nodded and slowly pulled his badge out to show her, as did Nat.

"Good morning ma'am. I'm Detective Barr, this is Detective Goldberg, we're with the PCPD. Can we ask you a few questions about your neighbor?" He spoke soothingly, hoping to alleviate whatever fears she had about them being there. She eyed them cautiously before looking at both of their badges and nodded curtly, but didn't budge from her position.

"Thank you," Nat spoke before taking out his notepad, "We won't take up much of your time. When was the last time you saw Mr. Humphrey?" He questioned, removing a pen from his inside jacket pocket and uncapping it.

"It might've been yesterday." She shrugged casually as she huffed slightly. "He was makin' all kinds a racket over there. Came out about two in the afternoon to tell him to shut the hell up but he was leavin' with a big bag. Didn't say nuthin' to me." Kevin nodded, jotting down his own notes before he asked a question of his own.

"Do you know where he may have gone?" She shook her head then looked back into her apartment as a loud whistle sounded.

"No, but he's always got some girl stopping by. A really bitch. Tall, blonde, fake boobs, the works. Name's Cynthia Haggerty I think, only met her once. That's all I know." She moved to shut the door but Kevin held out his hand before she could. She glared at him as he pulled a card from his wallet and handed it to her.

"If you think of anything else, or he comes back, please give us a call. Thank you for your time ma'am." The two detectives smiled politely at her as she nodded, taking the card before shutting the door. Nat groaned as they began to leave the building. Once outside, Kevin glared at him.

"See? If you hadn't said that crap earlier, he probably would'a been here." He said as he pulled on a pair of sunglasses and looked around them. Trash littered the streets, graffiti was everywhere and very few souls were wandering around the area. It was quiet but this part of town didn't usually liven up until dark anyway. Nat clicked his tongue and pushed a pair of expensive Ray Burn sunglasses up his nose.

"Yeah, yeah, maybe I wanted more work?" he retorted as they walked to the car. They needed to head back to the station to try and find this Cynthia woman. Kevin snorted unlocking the car and getting in the drivers' seat just as Nat slid into the passenger side.

"Dude, we both know that's not true." He laughed, ignoring the pout Nat threw his way and headed back to the precinct.

The precinct was busy now that it was mid-morning and the two had to weave through the throng of people that took up the space to get to their desks. The noise levels had risen enough to almost irritate the redhead but he did his best to ignore it and sat down at his desk heavily. He booted up his computer and shuffled some papers around to clear some space on his desk. It wasn't messy per say, but it was a bit disorganized. Much cleaner than Nat's desk though that's for sure.

"I'm gonna go see if there's any food in the breakroom, since someone didn't bring me anything this morning." The teal-haired man griped as he threw his jacket onto the back of his desk chair and headed for the breakroom. Kevin snickered as he leaned back in his chair just as the logo screen came up on his monitor. Movement to the left of him caught his attention and he glanced through the windows to see Double D working intently on something in the lab. He was wearing safety glasses and blue gloves with his tongue barely poking out from between his lips as he poured something into a small vial.

A small smile settled on his own lips as he watched the dork work. Just watching him seemed to put Kevin at ease as he relaxed in his chair. The noise that filled the precinct fell away to a soft drone in the back of his mind. Double D looked so graceful, so genuine. Why was everything so confusing now? Kevin truly didn't understand why he was having such a hard time with his emotions. If it had been anyone else, he probably wouldn't have questioned his feelings. He would have done what he does with practically everything else and gone with his gut feelings, charged in 'head' first, tapped it and maybe left, maybe not.

What made Double D so special?

I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get this to you. I unfortunately had a bunch of things happen one right after the other that really took a toll on me physically, emotionally, and mentally. I was also having the hardest time with this chapter. I have literally been adding more toward the later middle/end of this thing but couldn't get myself to get past this.

But while I was writing this I was thinking that it might be good to have a beta reader, if anyone is interested please PM me and let me know. I could really use one right about now, especially to help me stay on task with this story.

Don't give up on it just yet! I will finish it! I have soo much written for it already that I don't think I can let this one go without completing it.

Anyway – chapter 7 should hopefully being coming soon-ish. I'm also probably going to start making each chapter longer unless you guys are okay with the length they are.

Thanks for reading and sticking with it this far! Again if you see something that's weird please let me know!

ReinaKage