FAKE Ficlet: Gratitude
Title: Gratitude
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee, OCs.
Rating: PG
Setting: After Vol. 7.
Summary: Sometimes, being a cop brings unexpected rewards amidst the tragedy.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 19: Hug at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
It was the murder of his parents that had spurred Ryo to become a cop. Because of the drugs found in the trunk of their car, the police investigating the case had never believed they might be innocent victims and had instead treated them as criminals who’d got what they deserved, so Ryo had been determined that one day he’d find out the truth and clear their names.
He’d done it too, after a fashion, discovering the identities of the people responsible for killing his family almost by chance, even though he was unable to bring them publicly to justice for the crime. The truth had hurt, a lot, and if it hadn’t been for Dee he might have snapped and done something unforgivable… well, probably he wouldn’t have, but he’d wanted to.
Despite the horror at learning his parents had been murdered by mistake, once he managed to get past the initial shock the knowledge eventually brought him a degree of closure. He’d been right all along; his parents hadn’t been criminals, and if the police had tried harder then maybe the murderers might have caught. How many other lives might that have saved?
It made him all the more determined to be a better kind of cop, to listen to the families of victims and not to make judgements about them until he knew the truth.
Their latest case involved a teenage boy from a poor neighbourhood, found stabbed and left to die. Immediately people started talking about gangs and drugs, and how his death was bound to be related to one or the other, or more likely both.
The boy’s mother insisted her son wasn’t like that. He wasn’t involved with a gang, didn’t do drugs, and even though a couple of bags of crack were found in his pocket, he wouldn’t deal in them either.
“He’s a good boy; he works hard,” his mother said, still unable to talk about her son in the past tense. “There has to be another explanation.”
“If there is, I’ll find it. I promise.”
“Do you have children?”
“A boy, about your son’s age.”
“Then you understand. Thank you.”
While everyone else went on the assumption that the dead boy was guilty of something, and that was likely what got him killed, Ryo and Dee went at the investigation from a different angle, finally discovering the boy been trying to keep a local gang from getting kids at his school hooked on crack. He’d been persuading the younger ones to say ‘no’ and tell him if someone offered them drugs, gathering evidence in the hopes of getting the police to take notice and do something. Annoyed by what they saw as his interference, the gang had killed him, planting drugs to incriminate him.
“Thank you for believing me and clearing Eric’s name,” the boy’s mother said, giving Ryo and then Dee a hug.
“He was trying to do the right thing,” Ryo replied, hugging back. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
The End
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee, OCs.
Rating: PG
Setting: After Vol. 7.
Summary: Sometimes, being a cop brings unexpected rewards amidst the tragedy.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 19: Hug at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
It was the murder of his parents that had spurred Ryo to become a cop. Because of the drugs found in the trunk of their car, the police investigating the case had never believed they might be innocent victims and had instead treated them as criminals who’d got what they deserved, so Ryo had been determined that one day he’d find out the truth and clear their names.
He’d done it too, after a fashion, discovering the identities of the people responsible for killing his family almost by chance, even though he was unable to bring them publicly to justice for the crime. The truth had hurt, a lot, and if it hadn’t been for Dee he might have snapped and done something unforgivable… well, probably he wouldn’t have, but he’d wanted to.
Despite the horror at learning his parents had been murdered by mistake, once he managed to get past the initial shock the knowledge eventually brought him a degree of closure. He’d been right all along; his parents hadn’t been criminals, and if the police had tried harder then maybe the murderers might have caught. How many other lives might that have saved?
It made him all the more determined to be a better kind of cop, to listen to the families of victims and not to make judgements about them until he knew the truth.
Their latest case involved a teenage boy from a poor neighbourhood, found stabbed and left to die. Immediately people started talking about gangs and drugs, and how his death was bound to be related to one or the other, or more likely both.
The boy’s mother insisted her son wasn’t like that. He wasn’t involved with a gang, didn’t do drugs, and even though a couple of bags of crack were found in his pocket, he wouldn’t deal in them either.
“He’s a good boy; he works hard,” his mother said, still unable to talk about her son in the past tense. “There has to be another explanation.”
“If there is, I’ll find it. I promise.”
“Do you have children?”
“A boy, about your son’s age.”
“Then you understand. Thank you.”
While everyone else went on the assumption that the dead boy was guilty of something, and that was likely what got him killed, Ryo and Dee went at the investigation from a different angle, finally discovering the boy been trying to keep a local gang from getting kids at his school hooked on crack. He’d been persuading the younger ones to say ‘no’ and tell him if someone offered them drugs, gathering evidence in the hopes of getting the police to take notice and do something. Annoyed by what they saw as his interference, the gang had killed him, planting drugs to incriminate him.
“Thank you for believing me and clearing Eric’s name,” the boy’s mother said, giving Ryo and then Dee a hug.
“He was trying to do the right thing,” Ryo replied, hugging back. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
The End