A/N: After some delay, here is a chapter. And it's number 40, no less. Still not sure how this happened. Anyhow, more notes and warnings at the end.
Thanks to miladyRanger for beta-ing, though she hasn't had a chance to look this one over in full.
Chapter 40
True to Kansuke's expectations, when he opened the door, Yui had her spare key in her hand.
"What are you two doing?" she demanded.
Not even a greeting, Kansuke noted, wincing. "Something came up," he said aloud.
"Not good enough," Yui said, crossing her arms. "You should've called in. No matter how good you are, you're goin' to get a reprimand eventually." Her glare shifted off of him. "And you of all people should know better."
"Perhaps," Koumei acknowledged quietly.
"What could possibly be so important?" Yui demanded.
"It's got to do with a case," Kansuke said.
Yui just stood there, waiting.
"It's got to do with a case that ain't your business," Kansuke elaborated.
"I don't think so," Yui said. "I need to tell them something back at the station."
"Can you tell 'em that a rankin' officer told you to leave it alone?" Kansuke asked.
Yui's expression froze. "Is that what a rankin' officer is tellin' me to do?"
Kansuke huffed. "No, but could you tell them that?"
"Why can't you just work on whatever it is down at the station?" Yui asked.
"That's complicated," Koumei said smoothly.
"Can't be that-are there people in your house?" Yui asked, leaning past Kansuke to crane her neck through the doorway.
"What exactly do me and Koumei count as?"
Yui backed up and gathered herself, her face still red. "I meant other people," she snapped. "I hear talkin'-and don't tell me it's the television. You said you were workin'."
"F***'s sake, Uehara, can't you just leave this one alone?" Kansuke asked. He hadn't gotten enough sleep, and he'd spent the morning trying to extract information from hostile, traumatized teenage witnesses, and he did not need Yui on a mission to top it all off.
Yui slumped. "I just don't want to see you two get in trouble," she said. "You get that, right?"
Before Kansuke could put together a reply, Koumei said, "Of course we do."
"Just...either call in, or come down to the station by lunch, and have something to tell Chief Kuroda," she said. "That's all I'm askin'."
"I can do that," Kansuke said. "Didn't mean to worry you."
Yui put her keys back in her pocket and turned to leave. "You sure I can't help?"
"Not this time, Uehara," Kansuke said. "Don't mean to shut you out, but another officer isn't really gonna make this one go more smoothly."
Yui looked over her shoulder and caught his eye. "Don't get in over your head."
Kansuke just nodded, because he'd feel worse about it if he lied out loud.
He closed the door behind him, only to be faced with a frowning Koumei.
"What?" he asked. "We're doin' what she wants!"
"Yes, but you're still oblivious to why she wants it," Koumei said.
"Now's really not the time for teasin'-"
"I don't intend to tease," Koumei said. "You're smart enough to figure this out on your own. Why would the thought of your receiving a reprimand make Uehara-san particularly nervous?"
"I dunno, she likes working under me?"
"She came back to the police specifically to work with you," Koumei corrected. "And when I was reprimanded, I not only lost rank, I was transferred."
"Oh."
"Do try to be a bit less of an idiot, please," Koumei said. "The teenagers are exhaustin' enough without adding you to it."
"But-Uehara enjoys police work," Kansuke all but protested. "I'm not the only reason-"
"No, but teasin' about relationships aside, you're one of few officers I can think of who has never once thought that her decision to leave the force or her time away have made her unfit for police work."
"Who the h***'s been sayin' that?" Kansuke demanded, only keeping his voice down by remembering that his house was full of hypervigilant kids. "I'll-"
"Anyone who's thought to say it knows full well what you'd do, which is why they only say it when you aren't present," Koumei said. "You see how continuin' to work for you is beneficial for Uehara-san, yes?"
"She's not going to let people like that stop her," Kansuke said.
"No, but as long as you're her superior, one of them isn't, and she doesn't have to listen to them as frequently," Koumei said.
"Ya got a point," Kansuke said.
"I have," Koumei said. "We should have called in, this mornin'. You should have just apologized."
"Maybe," Kansuke admitted, squirming a bit.
Koumei just gave him an exasperated look.
"I'll do better," Kansuke muttered.
"So you will," Koumei said, as if the whole matter was decided. "Now, let's see if we can get your houseguests to assist in clearing away breakfast."
"They'd better," Kansuke said, starting for the kitchen. "That's as many dishes as I make in two days," he paused. "Maybe three."
"That's because you eat most of your meals at the department," Koumei said, following.
They entered the kitchen, only to find that Conan and Hondou were conspicuously absent.
Kansuke ran through the possibilities and decided to voice one that only made him sound moderately paranoid.
"Conan-kun feelin' sick again?"
"No, he and Eisuke are calling Shinichi's parents about Eisuke's plane tickets," Kaito said. "I gave them my phone, since they listen better to them."
"He's in elementary school," Koumei pointed out.
"You listen to him about crime scenes," Hattori said.
Well, Hattori had them there.
"That mean you kids are gettin' ready to go?" he asked.
He wasn't sure whether to be relieved or upset when Kuroba nodded. Really, he wasn't sure whether to be relieved or upset about this entire experience.
And he still had to come up with something to tell Chief Kuroda.
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Really, Eisuke was surprised by how quickly the conversation with Shinichi's parents went. They'd taken things surprisingly seriously this time, and Eisuke had only needed to intervene a few times. Shinichi had also managed to talk his parents into giving him temporary access to one of their credit cards so that he and Heiji could buy tickets for the bullet train.
When they came out of the bedroom, everyone was clearing the table and debating travel logistics.
"Yes, I know we're close to a Japan Rail station here, but we'd like to see him safely to an airport," Hakuba said, as he scraped a plate into the trash can.
"What, you don't trust me?" Yamato asked, dropping a stack of dishes into the sink.
"I won't tolerate verbal entrapment," Hakuba said softly.
"Okay, guys, what if we just cooled it down a little bit?" Kaito suggested, weaving past Hakuba to throw away a few napkins.
"I'll text you when I get to the airport," Eisuke said. "But there's really no sense in you going an hour out of your way for the sake of paranoia."
Pretty much everyone looked up, at that.
"It's not just paranoia, Hondou-kun," Hakuba said.
"No, but I think at this point if anyone was going to find us here, they'd have already come," Eisuke said. "Hakuba-san, there are people who miss you. I don't want to keep them waiting for longer than they have to be."
Hakuba winced.
"Who exactly are we worrying about here?" Yamato asked. "'Cause if you were expectin' the guys who nearly killed Kudou to show up here, I really could've used a warning."
"You would've been fine," Shinichi said, with false cheer.
Yamato just glared down at him.
"Ominous statements about threat levels he and his friends failed to mention aside, his point is sound enough," Morofushi said. "I can drive him to the airport while you make sure the rest of them get to the bullet train station and then report in at the station."
Yamato shrugged. "I can live with that."
"...Do we get a vote here?" Heiji asked.
"If you really object, sure, but maybe you could actually leave something to adults for once in your lives," Yamato said.
"Wow, you are not letting go of that," Hattori said.
Shinichi gave Eisuke a careful glance, then tilted his head in Morofushi's direction for half a second.
Will you be okay alone with him? was clearly the question being asked.
"I'm fine with it," Eisuke said firmly. I've been doing half the verbal dodging for you guys anyway; I can keep it up for another hour or so.
"You should go get your suitcases, then," Morofushi said. "I'll call down to the station and let them know I won't be in for a while. Kansuke-kun, you can finish clearing up, can't you?"
"I hate you," Yamato said flatly.
Eisuke ran to get his suitcase before the bickering started in earnest, and almost made it.
Packing didn't take long, seeing as no one had really unpacked beyond a few pieces of clothing. Soon, they were all back in the living room, luggage in hand. It looked...different, with natural light filtering in. Less ominous.
Of course, that could have just been the fact that they now had good reason to believe no one was coming after them with intent to kill. That was almost certainly a factor.
Still, it was just now hitting Eisuke that this was it. It felt like such an abrupt ending to everything-not that it hadn't been an abrupt beginning, what with Kaito texting them all out of the blue in a panic, and the decision to go to London getting made basically on the spot. But still, it felt strangely unceremonious. Like, they'd worked for weeks to get Hakuba back, and now they'd managed it, and here was the ending-Eisuke got to drive to the airport with police inspector he barely knew and then go to school and pretend he hadn't spent the last week solving a missing persons case and running on adrenaline. He'd also have to make sure that the person the Kudous had asked to impersonate him hadn't somehow screwed up his life.
Well, he'd survived finding Hidemi; he'd survive this too.
Eisuke turned to Inspector Yamato, gripping the handle of his suitcase tightly, then bowed. "Thank you very much, Inspector. We all appreciated your hospitality."
There was a chorus of assent from the others. They could be polite, when not distracted by trauma or trying to lie their way out of a corner. Eisuke was proud of them, he really was.
"Wasn't like I had a lot of choice in the matter," Yamato grumbled.
Beside him, Morofushi held out a stack of torn-out notebook sheets. "Contact information. For both of us. Email and phone, as Hondou-san might prefer not to be charged international rates."
Silence fell for a few seconds.
"We made five copies; please, take them," Morofushi elaborated. "We would like you to keep in touch."
"But Ran-nee-chan can-"
"I'm not going to ask if Mouri-chan knows about any of this because I suspect I already know the answer," Morofushi said. "We would like to be contacted if it ever becomes necessary. Or if you think we could be helpful."
"Or if you just want to keep in touch," Yamato said. "Sometimes you just want another pair of eyes to run a case past, you know?"
Heiji was the first one to take one of the sheets. Or rather, two-he separated them, and gave the second to Shinichi, with an expression on his face that indicated he wasn't interested in arguing about it. After a few more seconds, Hakuba took one, and glanced at Kaito, who sighed. At that point, Eisuke felt pretty outnumbered and decided it wasn't worth holding out.
Yamato nodded, apparently satisfied. "If something goes wrong in this case of yours, I expect to hear about it along with those mysterious adult contacts of yours."
"If it's safe to tell you about it," Eisuke said.
He turned to the others, suddenly very conscious that this was a goodbye.
I don't even know when I'll have money to travel to Japan again, he thought. Maybe not until after college, unless I do study abroad...I might not see them in person again for a long time.
"Sorry about Shinichi-nii-chan's parents," Shinichi said.
Eisuke winced. "You couldn't do much about that, Conan-kun."
"Keep in touch, will ya?" Hattori said. "Jus' because all o' this is done with...I don't wanna stop talkin' ta ya."
"I'd like that," Eisuke said. "And...you said you had something you wanted to talk to me about. So you should definitely call me for that, if nothing else."
Heiji looked almost guilty at that. "Yeah, I should."
"Thanks, Eisuke, we couldn't have done it without you," Kaito said.
"Oh, I very much doubt that," Eisuke said.
"I don't," Shinichi said. "He's right. I'm glad I thought of asking for your help."
Eisuke colored.
"Please take care of yourself, and of the doves," Hakuba said quietly. "I can trust you with both of those tasks, can't I?"
"Of course; I'll be fine!" Eisuke said brightly.
Hakuba gave him a slightly dark look.
"Oh, that's weird," Eisuke said. "I really will be okay, I think. The doves are helping. It's good to not be alone in the apartment. It'll be good to keep in touch with you guys too...and I'm going to try to actually make friends with the guy who helped me board them."
"Better," Hakuba said approvingly.
"Then you should take better care of yourself, too," Eisuke said.
"Not hard," Kaito muttered.
"It seems important to all of you, so I will make an effort," Hakuba said.
"Hey, Hattori-san, you keep in touch, too," Kaito said.
"Sure," Heiji said. "Am I allowed to text you?"
"What?" Kaito asked. "Do you want my number? Is this your way of asking?"
"He already has your number," Shinichi said. "You texted us all from your actual phone when you figured out Hakuba was in London."
Kaito paled.
Hakuba looked embarrassed, of all things.
"Not like we're gonna do anything with it, geez," Heiji said. "But, you know…"
"Yeah, you can text me, I guess," Kaito said. He turned to Hakuba. "And what's that look for?"
"You forgot which phone you were using," Hakuba said. "Heaven help us if you ever try to cheat on a girlfriend."
"I would never!"
"No, you apparently couldn't pull it off," Hakuba said, grinning.
"Why do you have two phones?" Yamato asked.
"What, you think we're running around after dangerous people without burner phones?" Eisuke asked. "I think I'm insulted."
"You kids are a little scary, you know that?"
"Really, only a little?" Kaito asked, looking disappointed.
Yamato dragged a hand across his face.
"We don't want to run late for Hondou-kun's flight," Morofushi said.
"Ya mean ya don't want Inspector Yamato ta snap and start tryin' ta yell Kuroba's secrets outta him?" Heiji asked.
"That either," Morofushi agreed.
"That wouldn't work anyway," Shinichi said.
"Have you tried?" Morofushi asked, looking intrigued.
Shinichi shrugged. "We don't want Hondou-nii-san to miss the plane!"
"When did I graduate to nii-san?" Eisuke asked.
"Just now," Shinichi said. "Since we're going to stay in touch, you can be Hondou-nii-san and he," he pointed to Kaito, "can be Kaito-nii-san."
"Oi, what's with the first names?" Kaito asked.
"Your first name suits you better!" Shinichi said, grinning.
"You're a brat!"
"You're a Kaito!" Shinichi crowed, and Eisuke just knew he was drawing out the "o" to get under Kaito's skin.
"Don't call me that!"
"It's your name though!"
"That's it!" Yamato snapped. "All of you, to the cars, now!"
"Yessir!" Kaito said, saluting.
"You're an embarrassment," Hakuba informed him, starting for the door.
Eisuke was aware that this wave of weird euphoria was going to wear off. It was probably a result of realizing that they were no longer in danger, combined with the knowledge that they only had so long to joke around together like this in person. But it was nice, nonetheless.
He headed for the door as well, and glanced down at Shinichi, who was going the same direction, towing a suitcase nearly as tall as he was.
"Hey, we pulled it off," Eisuke said.
"We did, didn't we?" Shinichi said, grinning.
Up ahead of them, Kaito and Hakuba were bickering about something. He was animated, teasing-there was a lot of Kiyoshi in this Hakuba. But at the same time, after seeing him act more naturally around the others, Eisuke could almost imagine the Hakuba they had known, before all of this. That wouldn't be the face he'd wear back to Tokyo, though. They'd get the withdrawn, quietly suspicious Hakuba from the hotel room back, unless Eisuke missed his guess. It would be all guarded silences until he was sure he was safe.
But for now, they were all okay. And that was something.
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A/N: Warnings: brief discussion of workplace sexism and trauma in the first half; more trauma, paranoia and child/teenager endangerment in the second.
This is Eisuke's last scene in person with the others, but he should be showing up at least once more by phone. Hattori is also not quite out of the story yet. But things are definitely shifting focus back to Tokyo, and primarily to the MK cast.
I will try to get the next chapter out in a timely fashion but RL continues to kick my butt. Similarly, the review replies will happen, but I grow ever more behind. I love and appreciate all the comments, I just get overwhelmed easily and things keep happening.