Nolan's Journal Chapter 24
"Henry's coming to LA to meet Essie! Henry barely got here in time for my wedding. With everything that happened and leaving first thing the next day for my honeymoon, I hardly had any chance to talk to him before he returned to Japan. It's a good thing that Bailey and I decided I should build onto the house instead of putting Essie in the guest room. Ben told Henry that he's free to stay for a couple of weeks this time. He could stay in a hotel, but it will be so much nicer to have the whole family under one roof.
"Actually, not the whole family. My brother Pete is in Texas. He and Chastity broke up after she got a little too close to Randy, so he decided to make a new start in a new place. Of course, he arrived in Texas just as a hurricane hit. He was lucky to get a roof over his head – and it leaked. Still, it could have been a lot worse. He says he's found a dry place to stay, and he's lined up a job repossessing cars. He'll be getting paid for what he did for free to the one our father left me before I gave it to him. He was very adept at it then, so doing it legally is a great way to channel his slightly criminal tendencies.
"I'm sorry that he broke up with Chastity. Even given her profession, I think she was good for him. As far as I know, she isn't with Randy either. He's morphed from a skip tracer into a bounty hunter, chasing bail jumpers all over the country. Chastity enjoys road trips, but not that many. The last I heard from her, she'd found a dancing gig in Tempe. It's pole, not lap, and from the picture she sent, she gets to keep a fair amount of clothing on. I suppose that's a step up the ladder, so to speak. It's also unlikely to get her busted.
"Henry is due to arrive tomorrow. Bailey, Essie, and I will be picking him up at the airport. I asked Essie if she's excited about meeting her big brother. She very politely told me it will be very nice, but she sounded more nervous than excited. I can understand that. She's been through huge changes in her life, and this will just be another one. I believe there's also another dynamic at work. From what I understand, in her birth parents' church, women are subservient to men. She had a hard time understanding how Bailey could speak to me without being spoken to or how she can even hold a job. Being homeschooled with no electronic window to the outer world, she had no idea that there are women firefighters and no conception that they can be in charge of men. After being exposed not only to Bailey but to Nyla and Angela, Essie's had a very good view of wives who are anything but subservient, but she's not sure how to act around a brother. She's seen Lila around James' sons, but she was mostly distracted by Lila's video game, so she didn't have much chance to observe their family interactions. I told Henry that Essie might be wary around him, but he wasn't surprised. After the time he's spent in Japan, he's very sensitive to cultural differences in male-female relationships. He told me he'll go slow with Essie until she gets more comfortable with him. My son has become very wise for his years, and I'm very proud of him."
"Aaron is leaving the LAPD. After he went through therapy and jumped through all of Grey's hoops to get back on the street again, it came as a shock, but in a way, it makes sense. It started when someone decided to harass Chris Clark, Simone Clark's father, by swatting him. He wasn't doing anything wrong, just hosting a meeting at his home for men who had been falsely imprisoned. The caller told 911 it was a meeting of violent criminals out to terrorize the neighborhood.
"SWAT showed up in full gear and surrounded the place. Everyone surrendered peacefully, but they were all still hauled off and subjected to processing, interviews: the full violent suspect treatment. Chris used his phone call to call Simone, but she was on the East Coast and couldn't come rushing in to protest. Fortunately, she called Wesley, who eventually straightened things out. In the meantime, every cop in Mid-Wilshire heard what happened, including Nyla and Aaron. Aaron told James, who is already active in getting the falsely accused and convicted out of prison. James and Aaron have worked together on the issue before. Aaron decided that nothing was getting better, and as a cop on the street, he really wasn't helping much.
"James told him that he would be able to do a lot more with better funding. If there's anything Aaron understands, it's money, especially its sources in Hollywood. He and James decided to team up with Chris Clark to start a foundation to free and support the wrongly arrested and convicted. It's a little like the Innocence Project, except it doesn't concentrate on DNA or pulling convicts off death row. The idea is to either keep low-resource arrestees out of prison or spring them as soon as possible.
"For a while, Aaron thought he could work on the foundation and remain a cop. Unfortunately, that proved to be impossible. There just aren't enough hours in the day. Aaron had to make a choice, and he chose the foundation. He acquired one of the abandoned buildings in the Fashion District and is rehabbing it into a headquarters. He even hired some of the skilled but unhoused in the area to help out. Until the rehab is finished, they're working out of Chris' house. Men and even some women in trouble have regarded it as a sanctuary for years. Aaron was determined to be a cop but even more determined to make his foundation work. His mother is helping out by making a documentary about the project. Some of Hollywood's deep pockets have already contributed considerable funding and have pledged more.
"Simone finally made it back to LA for a while, and she's helping out too. She's facing some pushback from the FBI. Some of the cases the foundation is looking at are federal. Still, Garza and his team are supporting her. She put out feelers to her guidance counselor network. She's hoping that they'll be able to reach out to young people who've been swept up by mistake in raids or at demonstrations and have no one except overstretched and overworked public defenders standing up for them – if they have anyone at all.
"Aaron has a lot of work ahead of him, but he believes he's finally doing what he was meant to do. I understand how he feels. I feel the same way about being a TO, marrying Bailey and adopting Essie. We've both been down long roads, Aaron's a lot more torturous than mine. For me, the destination has been more than worth it. I hope that it works out as well for him."