FAKE Fic: Cause For Concern
Title: Cause For Concern
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Bikky, OCs.
Rating: PG
Setting: Somewhere around Vol. 4.
Summary: When a teacher overhears Bikky talking with his friends, she immediately jumps to the wrong conclusion and calls Child Services.
Word Count: 1709
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 375: Amnesty 62 at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 361: Foot.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
Young Victor Goldman, or Bikky as he preferred to be called, was doing so much better in his classes than when he’d started at the school the previous year. His teacher, Miss Michaelson, was pleased with his progress. Bikky was still a bit of a troublemaker, or perhaps more of a trouble magnet, but he seemed to have a good heart and he’d made quite a few friends.
Up until today, she’d thought the boy was quite well-adjusted, considering it had only been a little over a year since his father had been killed and he’d been put into the care of that nice young police officer. Well, on the occasions that she’d met him he’d been polite and perfectly pleasant, just the kind of good role model a boy like Bikky needed, but she’d just overheard something that made her wonder whether Detective Maclean was a suitable parent for any impressionable child. It was so hard to tell these days what a person was really like behind the face they showed in public…
Miss Michaelson hadn’t even meant to listen in, but as she’d passed the group of boys out in the quad, she’d quite clearly heard Bikky telling his friends that he had a picture of something quite inappropriate on his bedroom wall, and worse, that his foster father had given it to him. That came as quite a shock to her.
She considered herself an open-minded woman, and she knew what some teenage boys were like, but Bikky was only eleven and it seemed his foster father was already corrupting the young boy’s mind. Something had to be done, and clearly the first step was to inform Child Services of her concerns. It wouldn’t do to say anything to Bikky because that would warn him, and the evidence might get hidden or disposed of before an investigation could take place. Hurrying back inside the school, Miss Michaelson made the phone call.
OoOoOoOoO
Ryo was more than a little surprised that evening when he answered his door to find two stern looking women standing in the hallway.
“Hello, can I help you?”
“You’re Detective Randy Maclean?”
“That’s right.”
“We’re from Child Services.” The older of the two women held up the badge she was wearing on a lanyard around her neck, which Ryo had already seen. “May we come in?”
“By all means.” Ryo stepped back to allow the women into his home, glad that the place was looking neat and tidy, and that Bikky was sitting at the coffee table in the living room, doing his homework while dinner was cooking.
Getting a visit from Child Services probably shouldn’t have been surprising, Ryo knew that random checks were routinely done on children in foster care, and as a single man he was perhaps under more scrutiny than most foster parents. But the last visit had been just over a month ago, and the woman who’d visited then had told him he was doing a wonderful job with Bikky. These two women, however, were looking at him with identical expressions of barely concealed distaste on their faces. It was worrying.
Leading them into the kitchen, Ryo invited them to sit down and offered them coffee or tea, both of which they declined, perching right on the edges of two of the kitchen chairs as if they wanted to have as little physical contact with the furniture as possible. It almost seemed as though they were trying to avoid contamination.
“Detective Maclean,” the older woman spoke again. “We received a very troubling report earlier from one of the teachers at Victor’s school. She overheard something which she found disturbing enough to involve us, and we at Child Services believe she was correct to call us in.”
“What has Bikky done? Is he in some kind of trouble? He hasn’t said anything to me. I was under the impression that he was getting on well at school.”
“In terms of his academic work he is making good progress, but he’s an impressionable young boy, easily led, and frankly it’s what you’re doing that disturbs us.”
“Excuse me?” Ryo was totally confused now. Was this something to do with Dee? Nothing was going on between them; Dee was strictly his work partner and friend, nothing more.
“According to the teacher, whose name we are withholding for reasons of confidentiality, you are allowing a minor to display…” the woman’s voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “Pornographic pictures on his bedroom wall. He was overheard telling his friends that you not only permit it, but that you gave the boy the picture in question.”
“What?” Ryo stared at the woman incredulously.
“Are you denying that you gave Victor a picture of women’s breasts to hang on his bedroom wall?”
“The only things on Bikky’s walls are basketball posters, a star chart, and the… Oh!” Ryo suddenly broke into a wide grin, startling both women, who shrank back in their seats. “This is about the Boobies.” He started to chuckle, shaking his head.
“There is no need to be so crude,” the older women snapped, but Ryo was already getting to his feet.
“Bikky?”
“Yeah, Ryo?”
“Would you like to show these two ladies the poster I got you for your room?”
The boy jumped to his feet, a dazzling smile lighting up his face. “They really want to see it? Awesome! I’ve been telling everyone at school about it. Come on!”
The two women trailed doubtfully behind the boy, who was talking a mile a minute.
“A couple of weeks back I had a bad nightmare. It woke me up and I was kinda scared to go back to sleep. Ryo was still up, watching TV, and he made me some hot milk and let me sit with him. That’s when I first saw the Boobies. I couldn’t believe they were real at first, but they are, and they’re so amazing. I guess it’s their feet I like best. They come from the…” Bikky paused, frowning. “Galapagos Islands, that’s it. See? I liked them so much Ryo found me a poster of some for my wall. He’s awesome like that. I mean, I don’t get everything I want, he’s a cop so he’s not rich, but he listens and remembers about things I like, and sometimes he gets me a surprise, for remembering to do my chores without being told, or for getting better grades at school, stuff like that. The poster just arrived this morning and we hung it up together before he drove me to school.”
Bikky was pointing to the large poster on the wall, opposite the bed; it showed a group of seabirds with distinctive bright blue feet.
“Blue Footed Boobies!” The boy laughed. “Isn’t that the craziest name for birds? But they’re really great, aren’t they?”
The younger woman was smiling. “Yes, they really are. You’re interested in birds, are you?”
“Yep! Ryo is too, we did an all-day bird-spotting thing last year, where we went all over the city, ticking off the different birds on a list, and trying to count how many of each kind we saw. It was great. I never knew there were so many kinds of birds. We saw dozens! Ryo knows loads of stuff about birds and animals. He likes nature documentaries because they’re relaxing; he says they take his mind off the stuff he sees at work.”
OoOoOoO
Back in the kitchen a little while later, with Bikky once more getting on with his homework, the two women from Child Services sat at the table sipping coffee and talking with Ryo.
“Well, we certainly managed to put our foot in it, didn’t we? I am so sorry about the misunderstanding,” the older of the two, who’d introduced herself as Lillian Moss, apologised.
“There’s nothing to apologise for, it just never occurred to me how it would sound if anyone heard Bikky talking about his new poster,” Ryo admitted, blushing slightly. “I just wanted to cheer him up, he was having a rough time what with it being a year since his father’s funeral, and he was so taken with the Boobies, when I saw the poster for sale online, I knew he’d love it.”
Sarah Kenwood, the younger woman, chuckled. “All this fuss over a picture of funny looking birds. Don’t worry, we’ll have a word with the teacher who called us, tell her there’s absolutely nothing to worry about. Bikky is lucky to have you as his foster parent. He seems very happy.”
“I hope so. He’s a good kid, he just needed someone to provide some guidance and security. I lost both my parents when I was only a few years older than Bikky, so I understand what he’s going through.”
“I’m sure that helps a great deal. Well, we really should be going.” Lillian finished her coffee and stood up. “We’ve taken up enough of your time. Thank you for the coffee.” As she stepped into the living room, she called out, “Thank you for showing us your poster, Bikky. I can see why you like the Boobies so much, such extraordinary birds.”
“That’s okay. If you want a poster of your own, I’m sure Ryo will tell you where he got it.”
“He already did,” Sarah said.
“Cool!” Bikky returned his attention to his homework, chewing absently on the end of his pen.
As Ryo closed the door behind his unexpected guests, he couldn’t help smiling. What an evening! Dee would no doubt find the whole incident hilarious when Ryo told him about it tomorrow at work.
“Bikky, dinner in five minutes. Go wash your hands.”
“Okay.” Abandoning his homework, the boy disappeared into the bathroom and Ryo returned to the kitchen, clearing away the empty coffee mugs and setting the table. In his opinion, whoever dubbed a whole genus of birds Boobies needed their head examining. He bit his lip to keep from laughing; he supposed he couldn’t blame the poor teacher for getting the wrong idea when she’d heard Bikky boasting to his friends about his new poster. Still, if she’d listened for a few moments longer instead of rushing off to contact Child Services it might have saved time and trouble for everyone involved.
The End
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Bikky, OCs.
Rating: PG
Setting: Somewhere around Vol. 4.
Summary: When a teacher overhears Bikky talking with his friends, she immediately jumps to the wrong conclusion and calls Child Services.
Word Count: 1709
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 375: Amnesty 62 at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 361: Foot.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
Young Victor Goldman, or Bikky as he preferred to be called, was doing so much better in his classes than when he’d started at the school the previous year. His teacher, Miss Michaelson, was pleased with his progress. Bikky was still a bit of a troublemaker, or perhaps more of a trouble magnet, but he seemed to have a good heart and he’d made quite a few friends.
Up until today, she’d thought the boy was quite well-adjusted, considering it had only been a little over a year since his father had been killed and he’d been put into the care of that nice young police officer. Well, on the occasions that she’d met him he’d been polite and perfectly pleasant, just the kind of good role model a boy like Bikky needed, but she’d just overheard something that made her wonder whether Detective Maclean was a suitable parent for any impressionable child. It was so hard to tell these days what a person was really like behind the face they showed in public…
Miss Michaelson hadn’t even meant to listen in, but as she’d passed the group of boys out in the quad, she’d quite clearly heard Bikky telling his friends that he had a picture of something quite inappropriate on his bedroom wall, and worse, that his foster father had given it to him. That came as quite a shock to her.
She considered herself an open-minded woman, and she knew what some teenage boys were like, but Bikky was only eleven and it seemed his foster father was already corrupting the young boy’s mind. Something had to be done, and clearly the first step was to inform Child Services of her concerns. It wouldn’t do to say anything to Bikky because that would warn him, and the evidence might get hidden or disposed of before an investigation could take place. Hurrying back inside the school, Miss Michaelson made the phone call.
OoOoOoOoO
Ryo was more than a little surprised that evening when he answered his door to find two stern looking women standing in the hallway.
“Hello, can I help you?”
“You’re Detective Randy Maclean?”
“That’s right.”
“We’re from Child Services.” The older of the two women held up the badge she was wearing on a lanyard around her neck, which Ryo had already seen. “May we come in?”
“By all means.” Ryo stepped back to allow the women into his home, glad that the place was looking neat and tidy, and that Bikky was sitting at the coffee table in the living room, doing his homework while dinner was cooking.
Getting a visit from Child Services probably shouldn’t have been surprising, Ryo knew that random checks were routinely done on children in foster care, and as a single man he was perhaps under more scrutiny than most foster parents. But the last visit had been just over a month ago, and the woman who’d visited then had told him he was doing a wonderful job with Bikky. These two women, however, were looking at him with identical expressions of barely concealed distaste on their faces. It was worrying.
Leading them into the kitchen, Ryo invited them to sit down and offered them coffee or tea, both of which they declined, perching right on the edges of two of the kitchen chairs as if they wanted to have as little physical contact with the furniture as possible. It almost seemed as though they were trying to avoid contamination.
“Detective Maclean,” the older woman spoke again. “We received a very troubling report earlier from one of the teachers at Victor’s school. She overheard something which she found disturbing enough to involve us, and we at Child Services believe she was correct to call us in.”
“What has Bikky done? Is he in some kind of trouble? He hasn’t said anything to me. I was under the impression that he was getting on well at school.”
“In terms of his academic work he is making good progress, but he’s an impressionable young boy, easily led, and frankly it’s what you’re doing that disturbs us.”
“Excuse me?” Ryo was totally confused now. Was this something to do with Dee? Nothing was going on between them; Dee was strictly his work partner and friend, nothing more.
“According to the teacher, whose name we are withholding for reasons of confidentiality, you are allowing a minor to display…” the woman’s voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “Pornographic pictures on his bedroom wall. He was overheard telling his friends that you not only permit it, but that you gave the boy the picture in question.”
“What?” Ryo stared at the woman incredulously.
“Are you denying that you gave Victor a picture of women’s breasts to hang on his bedroom wall?”
“The only things on Bikky’s walls are basketball posters, a star chart, and the… Oh!” Ryo suddenly broke into a wide grin, startling both women, who shrank back in their seats. “This is about the Boobies.” He started to chuckle, shaking his head.
“There is no need to be so crude,” the older women snapped, but Ryo was already getting to his feet.
“Bikky?”
“Yeah, Ryo?”
“Would you like to show these two ladies the poster I got you for your room?”
The boy jumped to his feet, a dazzling smile lighting up his face. “They really want to see it? Awesome! I’ve been telling everyone at school about it. Come on!”
The two women trailed doubtfully behind the boy, who was talking a mile a minute.
“A couple of weeks back I had a bad nightmare. It woke me up and I was kinda scared to go back to sleep. Ryo was still up, watching TV, and he made me some hot milk and let me sit with him. That’s when I first saw the Boobies. I couldn’t believe they were real at first, but they are, and they’re so amazing. I guess it’s their feet I like best. They come from the…” Bikky paused, frowning. “Galapagos Islands, that’s it. See? I liked them so much Ryo found me a poster of some for my wall. He’s awesome like that. I mean, I don’t get everything I want, he’s a cop so he’s not rich, but he listens and remembers about things I like, and sometimes he gets me a surprise, for remembering to do my chores without being told, or for getting better grades at school, stuff like that. The poster just arrived this morning and we hung it up together before he drove me to school.”
Bikky was pointing to the large poster on the wall, opposite the bed; it showed a group of seabirds with distinctive bright blue feet.
“Blue Footed Boobies!” The boy laughed. “Isn’t that the craziest name for birds? But they’re really great, aren’t they?”
The younger woman was smiling. “Yes, they really are. You’re interested in birds, are you?”
“Yep! Ryo is too, we did an all-day bird-spotting thing last year, where we went all over the city, ticking off the different birds on a list, and trying to count how many of each kind we saw. It was great. I never knew there were so many kinds of birds. We saw dozens! Ryo knows loads of stuff about birds and animals. He likes nature documentaries because they’re relaxing; he says they take his mind off the stuff he sees at work.”
OoOoOoO
Back in the kitchen a little while later, with Bikky once more getting on with his homework, the two women from Child Services sat at the table sipping coffee and talking with Ryo.
“Well, we certainly managed to put our foot in it, didn’t we? I am so sorry about the misunderstanding,” the older of the two, who’d introduced herself as Lillian Moss, apologised.
“There’s nothing to apologise for, it just never occurred to me how it would sound if anyone heard Bikky talking about his new poster,” Ryo admitted, blushing slightly. “I just wanted to cheer him up, he was having a rough time what with it being a year since his father’s funeral, and he was so taken with the Boobies, when I saw the poster for sale online, I knew he’d love it.”
Sarah Kenwood, the younger woman, chuckled. “All this fuss over a picture of funny looking birds. Don’t worry, we’ll have a word with the teacher who called us, tell her there’s absolutely nothing to worry about. Bikky is lucky to have you as his foster parent. He seems very happy.”
“I hope so. He’s a good kid, he just needed someone to provide some guidance and security. I lost both my parents when I was only a few years older than Bikky, so I understand what he’s going through.”
“I’m sure that helps a great deal. Well, we really should be going.” Lillian finished her coffee and stood up. “We’ve taken up enough of your time. Thank you for the coffee.” As she stepped into the living room, she called out, “Thank you for showing us your poster, Bikky. I can see why you like the Boobies so much, such extraordinary birds.”
“That’s okay. If you want a poster of your own, I’m sure Ryo will tell you where he got it.”
“He already did,” Sarah said.
“Cool!” Bikky returned his attention to his homework, chewing absently on the end of his pen.
As Ryo closed the door behind his unexpected guests, he couldn’t help smiling. What an evening! Dee would no doubt find the whole incident hilarious when Ryo told him about it tomorrow at work.
“Bikky, dinner in five minutes. Go wash your hands.”
“Okay.” Abandoning his homework, the boy disappeared into the bathroom and Ryo returned to the kitchen, clearing away the empty coffee mugs and setting the table. In his opinion, whoever dubbed a whole genus of birds Boobies needed their head examining. He bit his lip to keep from laughing; he supposed he couldn’t blame the poor teacher for getting the wrong idea when she’d heard Bikky boasting to his friends about his new poster. Still, if she’d listened for a few moments longer instead of rushing off to contact Child Services it might have saved time and trouble for everyone involved.
The End