For the moment, Pete was going to ignore the captain's interest in whether or not he was going to take the Sergeant's exam. The truth was that he hadn't made up his mind yet. Taking a promotion would require him to give up being Chief Training Officer. Pete considered that job more important than being one of several Watch Commanders. A division was judged by the quality of its' officers, especially those that began their careers in that division. As CTO, it was Pete's job to ensure that the rookies received the best training possible; Training that could be the difference between that officer's life or death.
Pete look at his watch, he had left Jim to the paperwork almost an hour ago. He hoped that Jim would understand, but he grabbed some hot coffee to soften his reception. Jim looked up as the cup of coffee was set down in front of him and smiled. If his partner needed time away, Jim wasn't going to hold it against him. The coffee was followed by one of Jim's favorite candy bars. That got Jim laughing.
"Are you feeling guilty Partner?" It was a friendly little nudge.
"Pick on me and I'll eat that myself. You can have the wrapper." Pete appreciated Jim's unspoken pardon for the transgression of leaving him to get writer's cramp. "That should hold you until we can get seven. Do you have much more to do?"
"I'm almost done. Eh…Did the captain find you?" Jim had been second-guessing his conversation with the captain. Part of him felt like he had set Pete up for the captain's wrath. He wanted to know what happened, but he wouldn't ask.
"Yeah, he found me outside. Thanks for covering for me." Pete knew Jim wanted to know the details of his talk with the captain, but he didn't think he had the words to describe what had passed between them. Reed had stopped writing and was tapping his pen on the surface of the report desk. Clearly, he wasn't going to finish the arrest report until Pete told him something.
"Everything is fine Jim. We talked for half an hour about a lot of things." Pete paused, wondering if he was going to have to say more. "He said he would back me on training issues and he wants to try and convince me to take the Sergeant's exam this year."
"Are you going to?" The tone of his voice led Pete to believe that Jim wasn't happy about the prospect of breaking up their partnership. They had been riding together for a long time; much longer than most pairings. Pete's only answer was a shrug of his shoulder as he took a seat to drink his coffee. Ten minutes later, the reports were finished and handed in. They left the station; determined to get seven before they got back to patrol. Since Duke's was closed by now the partners settled on Biff's diner. After placing their orders, Jim began to finish the story of Jimmy's latest misadventure.
"I hung up the kitchen phone and found Jimmy standing next to me. He had a bottle of baby powder in his hands. Before I could stop him, he jerked the bottle and sent a puff of power into the air. He smiled and said "Look Daddy, snow!"
Pete choked on his coffee.
Once Pete stopped sputtering, Jim continued with his story. Jimmy tugged on Jim's arm, dragging him into the living room. Every piece of furniture, the rug and the curtains were awash in baby powder. "He looked up at me and said "See, Daddy? Pretty snow."
"It took me two hours to clean the living room and I'm sure I missed some of it." If Jim was hoping for some sympathy from his best friend, he was out of luck. Pete was laughing so hard that he could hardly breathe.
"You think this is funny? Jean went as white as the room when she saw it. She even blamed me for giving him ideas. I don't know where that kid gets some of his ideas."
Pete knew.
He wasn't sure if he should admit to his inadvertent part in Jimmy's escapade or run for the hills. A few weeks before, Pete had been babysitting while Jim and Jean went to a wedding. He opened up the hall closet for a new tube of Jimmy's toothpaste, but had accidently knocked over a partially closed bottle of baby powder. Jimmy's eyes went wide at the sight of the white plume and said "Ohhhhh, Pretty!" To which his Godfather had replied: "yes, pretty snow."
"Kids, who knows what gets them going." Pete, having decided to feign ignorance of the whole incident, still couldn't stop laughing. One of these days, he was going to be busted by Jim or Jean, but not today. Most days Pete would have admitted to his accidental involvement in one of Jimmy's adventures, but he had a nagging feeling that he needed to stay in Jim's good graces tonight. Jim reached across the table and stole the apple pie from in front of Pete.
"You laugh at me and I eat your pie. That seems fair to me." Considering his part in the mess, Pete conceded the pie to Jim.
After dinner, the next hour passed by quickly. They ticketed three speeders, conducted one drunken driving test, handled one loud party call and one stolen car report. In between the calls, Pete told Jim about Tony Johnson's request. His thought being that if he didn't go, Tony might turn to Reed for help. Jim's reaction was the same as Pete's. He also mentioned Judy's call to the station.
"1 Adam-12, See the woman, prowler there now. 748 Bell Ave. Respond Code 2" Luckily, they weren't far from the address. As the car pulled along the curb, a young woman ran out of the house yelling that the prowler was inside. She couldn't give a description, but said that the prowler had entered through the dog door in the kitchen. Leaving her outside, the two officers entered the house.
"Ugh! What is that smell? Is that a skunk?" Jim pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and covered his nose in an attempt to breathe easier. One question was forefront in his mind; why hadn't the girl mentioned the smell? Didn't she have a nose?
"No. A skunk would make your eyes water at this distance. It's a possum," Pete, having grown up on a farm was much more familiar with the smells of nature. A peek into the kitchen confirmed the presence of a possum.
"Help me with this." Pete was attempting to move a bookshelf in front of the kitchen entrance. Things would be much easier to handle if the possum stayed on its side of the barricade. Once it was in place Pete spoke to Jim. "I'm going to call Animal Control. You keep an eye on her."
"What do I do if it tries to get out?" If Jim had his way, the only animals in the city would be dogs and cats, with the occasional bird.
"She won't, but if she gets close, make some noise. Maybe you can frighten her into leaving by the dog door." Pete let out a large sigh and walked back to the bookcase barricade. "You call Animal Control. I'll watch her." Twenty minutes later, the possum, not finding anything to her liking, left the same way she got in.
They were driving away, when it finally occurred to Jim to ask Pete how he knew it was a female possum.
"Come on Pete. Tell me how you can be sure that was a female Opossum?" I mean, you didn't turn that thing over to check what it was." Jim was sure Pete was pulling his leg. "One big rodent looks like any other big rodent doesn't it?"
"Didn't you take biology in high school? She wasn't a rodent. She's a marsupial; a totally different species." As he teased Jim, Pete began to realize how much better he felt. A lot of his frustration and anger was gone.
"I was absent that day. Besides, that still doesn't answer my question. What makes you so sure it was a girl opossum?" He flashed a grin at Pete, who caught the fact that Jim insisted on calling the animal by its' proper name.
"The female possums are smaller and the hair under their chin is whitish. Males are bigger and their front hair is stained yellow." His Grandfather called them possums and if it was good enough for him, Pete wasn't going to change to the more annoying opossum.
Jim noticed that Pete kept checking something in the rear view mirror and turned to see a large red pick-up. It kept coming close to the back of the squad car and then dropping back. They watched the truck for a few blocks, but when they turned off Lancaster, the pick-up kept going. Jim shrugged, still wondering what was up with the pick-up truck, but they had no probable cause to stop it. His attention shifted to the radio as he heard their unit being called.
"1 Adam-12, See the man, 415 fight at the Palomino Club. 19875 Figueroa Blvd. Respond Code 3." Pete flicked on the red lights and siren and stepped on the gas. As he drove towards the bar, there were two units that offered to back them up. The Palomino was a big place; they were sure to need help.
When they pulled up to the bar, the bartender ran up to Jim's window. He pointed towards the door. "Get in there. Those two are tearing the place up."
Pete and Jim grabbed their batons before heading into the bar. There were two men rolling on the floor each one trying to hit the other one. They were surrounded by a very vocal crowd who were cheering them on. The officers had to push their way through the unfriendly crowd, who didn't want the fight broken up. There were even people placing bets on who would win. Jim grabbed one fighter as Pete pulled the other one away. Both men resisted, but eventually Pete got control of his suspect. He had the guy's arm pinned to his back and was putting the first cuff on the man. Before Pete could secure his prisoner a woman screamed and jumped on his back. Her attack was enough of a distraction that Pete lost control of the man he was cuffing. The large gentleman spun around, slamming a fist into Pete's left eye. As Pete was going down, he wondered where in hell the back-up units were.
Jim, while still struggling with his prisoner, had heard people laughing and yelling about a cop being down. Knowing that it was only the two of them, Jim tried to catch sight of his friend. He too wondered where their back-ups were. Even with his prisoner now handcuffed, Jim couldn't leave him alone and he didn't see anything to cuff him to. It tore at Jim, seeing Pete take a kick in the gut. That guy meant to hurt his partner. Jim dragged his prisoner towards the last place he saw Pete. The crowd tried to keep Jim away, all the while urging the man to kick Pete again.
The first kick to his stomach knocked all the wind from his lungs. Pete barely got out a gasp of pain before the man kicked him two more times. Any attempt to try and stand was stopped by the woman who was still clinging to him, her arm around his throat. He grabbed her arm, pulling it away from his neck. Her response was to bite his arm. He gasped in pain, feeling her teeth sinking into his flesh. Using his free hand, Pete attempted to dislodge her from his arm. He didn't even see the kick to his back coming.
Then suddenly, Jim was there. A back-up unit finally arrived and Jim had shoved his prisoner at them before going to help his partner. Jim jerked the kicking man back, keeping him from hurting Pete anymore. Another officer had grabbed the woman, forcing her to let up on the bite. With the help of an officer from the second back-up unit, the kicking man was secured. When he was able to, Jim looked for Pete. Worry filled his eyes as he rushed to his partner's side. Pete was still down and obviously in pain.
Jim knelt beside Pete, willing to offer any help the older man would accept. Pete stubbornly insisted on sitting up without help. His left eye was already starting to swell and blood ran down his arm. Pete didn't know if he should hold his gut or his arm. Jim had taken it upon himself to tend to Pete's arm. The fact that Pete let him do it added to Jim's concern for his partner.
"Call him an ambulance." Murphy had shown up and was taking charge of the situation. The woman and both men were arrested and the bar patrons cleared out.
"I don't need an ambulance. " There was no way that he was getting in one of those. Pete was shaky as he tried to stand, but Jim was by his side, discreetly steadying him. Between the two of them, they were able to convince Murphy to let Jim drive Pete to get checked out. Pete would usually have begged off a visit to the hospital, but the bite on his arm was deep. There was too much chance of it getting infected.
"Thanks for saving me back there." For the second time that shift, Pete found himself riding shotgun. He looked up at the stars and silently asked a question; Are you done with me yet, God?
Central Receiving's ER was busy, but they ushered Pete into an examine room; bleeding people tend to be put at the head of the line. Also, the staff tried to take care of policemen as soon as possible. Pete hated driving past a hospital; being a patient was one thousand percent worse. He lay on the stretcher, holding an ice pack to his eye. A nurse was cleaning the bite while the doctor kept probing his abdomen. Pete's insistence that his stomach was fine had no effect on the doctor, who said he was worried that Pete might have injured his spleen. Finally, daylight! Pete grinned as he informed the doctor that wasn't possible since he lost his spleen when he flipped the squad car in Griffith Park. He was released with a prescription for antibiotics, due to the increased risk of infection from both a human bite and a missing spleen. Pete was just glad to be gone from there.
Pete let Jim drive them back to the station. In addition to the booking and arrest reports, there was now an injury report to write. During the ride, Pete reconsidered his earlier decision and told Jim about the powder spill that happened while he was babysitting Jimmy. Jim's jaw dropped and he stared at Pete.
"It was your fault? You sat there laughing at me and all the while you were the reason why Jimmy did that?" This confession wasn't going the way Pete hoped it would.
"When were you going to tell me? Or did you plan on taking this secret to your grave?" Jim couldn't believe that his best friend had let him take the blame.
"No! I didn't tell Jimmy to spray the room with powder. I had forgotten about the spill. It was weeks ago." Maybe he could logic his way out of this.
"Okay, but why didn't you tell me this in the diner?" Jim had him there. Pete didn't think that his answer, which was that he was too busy laughing, would placate his partner.
"I didn't remember it until you told me about the 'pretty snow' and I, well, I didn't want you mad at me right then." Please Jim, let it go ran though his mind, but he didn't say it. Surprisingly, Jim did seem to be calming down some. Pete was home free, almost.
"Wait until I get home and tell Jean."
