Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If someone told Fillmore Ingrid Third would be expelled on inhalant dealing charges, he would have laughed in their faces. If someone told him Vallejo would get framed for corruption, he would have laughed harder. 

And if someone said, "Parnassus will be elected in his place" Fillmore would have pulled a muscle from the resulting hysteria. 

But now as Fillmore stood next to Brad Parnassus as he gave his acceptance speech, it didn't seem all that funny. The only funny thing about this situation was Parnassus's surname and that was in a sad way, because Fillmore was only just now realizing how much mileage he could have gotten out of it, if Parnassus was not his boss. 

"-And I just want to finish by saying that, from now on, I will run a clean and fair patrol, one free of corruption!"

Someone in the audience lived Fillmore's dream and cackled uncontrollably at the irony. Parnassus gave the audience the evil eye and continued, "As we now have many new recruits for the patrol due to the increase in crime, I'm afraid we'll have to cut this shorter than I would like. Good day."

The day did not improve once they were back in HQ.

First, the room was overcrowded with kids, and second Parnassus was speaking to Fillmore. Third, there was a girl standing in the office, who apparently had never heard of a private conversation OR been taught not to stare directly at inhumane monsters like the new Junior Commissioner. 

"Officer Fillmore, due to the unfortunate fall from grace of your former partner and her resulting expulsion, you seem to be in need of a new partner-"

Fillmore bristled, "Ingrid was innocent and you know it!"

Parnassus ignored his outburst, "-So I'm assigning you a new one, since you refuse to pick someone yourself" He gestured to the new girl, who had short messy brown hair, blue eyes, and was wearing jeans and a red and black striped long sleeved shirt, along with the standard belt.

She wasn’t smiling.

“This is Meryl O’Shea, new transfer student. O’Shea, this is Cornelius Fillmore.”

Meryl and Fillmore stared at each other. Neither held out their hand.

Parnassus cleared his throat, “Anyways, I’ve got work to do, so why don’t you two go on your new beat?”

“He’s a charmer.”

Fillmore jumped slightly and looked over at Meryl. She hadn’t spoken for the first twenty minutes of the beat and he was beginning to wonder if she even could talk.

His new beat was around the back of the school, it was definitely the longest and it was also mostly very dull. He’d been walking this with Ingrid after a spectacular crash into the ceramics club and after…everything, Parnassus had kept him on it.

He snorted, “Sure is. Where’d you transfer from?”

Meryl replied as they turned a corner, “Spiro T. Agnew Middle School. I was on the patrol there too but I…ticked off some people and the administration recommended I be moved.”

“The Administration recommended you be moved? That’s a big deal, what happened?”

She shrugged, “Dunno, rather not talk about it though. This is a long beat.”

Fillmore gave her a strange look but replied, “Yeah, it is. Longest beat at X, Parnassus has to fill out special forms for us to miss class because of how long it takes.”

There was another long silence. 

Meryl said abruptly, “He’s new right? Parnassus?”

“New to being Commissioner, yeah.”

“Bit late in the year for student elections.”

Fillmore set his jaw, “Yeah, he wasn’t elected in the traditional sense. Folsom and a few others set up an emergency committee and picked him because all the senior patrollers were expelled or demoted due to ‘corruption.’ He’s been in charge for around a month, it’s been chaos.”

Meryl nodded, “I heard about the corruption case, it’s all over district newspapers. Crazy considering your old commissioner’s reputation and who his older sister is.”

“Yeah, real crazy. What did you think about the case?”

Fillmore watched Meryl as she considered the question, stopping briefly to pick up a twig and twisting it in his hands.

“I think it’s bullshit.”

Fillmore nearly dropped the twig as he let out a shocked laugh.

Meryl continued as if he hadn’t reacted, “I mean, Vallejo is one of the cleanest guys in the entire district, maybe even the state, maybe even in this entire clown run country. So clean, that when he washed his hands, soap became more sanitary. Now, all the sudden, he’s involved in big time crimes with no buildup and every officer that could feasibly take his place was in on it too? Really? That much that soon, really? Not buying it, too much of a coincidence. And then there’s the severity scale, that Anza guy and Third girl were both busted for running inhalants and then the forensic officer was selling test answers and Parn Ass told me they found fake hall passes in your drawer but no fingerprints?”

Meryl took a breath and let it out before going on, “So Anza and Third were both charged as minors and then sentenced to a year of parole, automatically resulting in expulsion and blacklisting from every school patrol, Tehama gets suspended and demoted, and you get off with detention but won’t be eligible for commissioner because of what you were accused of, forcing emergency powers to act and putting an odd man into office, that oddest of men being Parnassus. It’s-it’s  too good a coincidence, it has to be a setup. Someone is doing something and maybe it’s because he’s a slimy little freak but I think it was Parnassus.”

Her partner was still half laughing as he replied, “You just met him.”

“Yeah and he’s slimy. He wanted me to watch you for ‘signs of falling from the sight of the angels’ or some other flowery clownfuck statement.”

Fillmore wasn’t sure if he found Meryl funny or the long annoyed rant complete with swearing, especially after she was being completely silent for nearly twenty minutes after first meeting him.

“I agree with you O’Shea but you probably shouldn’t swear around anyone else or on school grounds, you’d probably get detention for clownfuck.”

“I have gotten detention for clownfuck, you kidding me?”

Fillmore laughed again as they approached the main building.

Suddenly, he held out his arm, stopping Meryl.

There was a kid fiddling with someone’s bike lock. This wouldn’t be weird except class was well underway and the kid was looking around furtively as he tried to jimmy the lock open. And it was in full view of the science lab windows, it was a miracle he hadn’t been noticed yet.

Meryl tilted her head as they watched him for a few minutes and then turned to Fillmore and asked, “Is he seriously trying that in full view of the science room windows?”

“Yep.”

“Dumba-idiot. I was gonna say idiot.”

“Sure you were O’Shea.”

The pair approached him quietly, watched a moment longer, and then Fillmore spoke first, “You know, the easiest way to do that is with a BIC pen right?”

The kid yelled and tried to stand, knocking his head off the bike’s handlebar as he did so.

Fillmore recognized the kid immediately, he was the one stealing retainers awhile ago, Nigel something or other, he’d forgotten.

“Nigel. What are you doing?”

The kid ran and Meryl and Fillmore gave chase.

Fillmore missed Ingrid the most during chases, she’d just say “Fillmore” or point and he’d get what she wanted immediately and she understood him when he did the same. It was good to have a partner like that, Wayne was nearly the same way. 

And now he had neither. He just had Meryl now, who was surprisingly fast now that he thought about it. She could keep up with him at least.

Nigel had managed to grab a kids scooter and throw it back at them, both of the preteens jumping haphazardly over it.

“Leave me alone!”

“Not a chance!”

Meryl grabbed a bookbag from a girl (who shouted in protest) and swung it over her head before throwing it at Nigel’s legs sending him to the ground.

“Owww!”

Fillmore pulled Nigel up, forced his hands behind his back, and pushed him towards the patrol office followed closely by Meryl.

Fillmore commented, “That was quicker than usual, usually I’m after them for 15 minutes or so.”

Meryl shrugged, “Eh, we’d already surprised him and he’s not actually that fast, we’re just running on an incline. Otherwise I’d have been left in the dust by the great sage of bike theft, long may he reign and continually fail as he does.”

Nigel glared at her, “You could have killed me!”

“But I didn’t. Win-win for everyone.”

Booking Nigel was fairly simple, as was the paperwork involved. 

Dealing with having a new partner was less simple. It was like after Wayne left but worse, because Ingrid had been expelled while Wayne left of his own volition. 

At least she wasn’t Brad Parnassus. She wasn’t Ingrid either.

Meryl was currently putting pins on her backpack after having pulled out a big ziploc bag from the front pocket and handing Danny and Fillmore each a pin, Danny got one with an antique camera and Fillmore got one with a goldfish. She apparently made them as a hobby.

The pins she had chosen for herself were a hedgehog reading a book, a snail, three dinosaurs in different colors, a sad clown pin, Freddy Kruger, and several cute ghost pins. 

“You really like pins.”

Meryl said cheerfully, “I collect them and also make them! I made the goldfish and camera one a while ago, I thought you guys would appreciate them.”

Fillmore glanced over at Danny, who was currently cradling his pin in his hands before slipping it into a paper bag in his backpack, and smiled.

 “Yeah we do. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it!”

Fillmore watched Meryl and realized, if he kept his head down like he had been, Parnassus would wring that kindness out of her and he couldn't stand the thought of that. He'd only just met her but the idea of O'Shea becoming jaded and mean or small and scared made him upset, because he realized both those things was what happened to Ingrid before she came to X and after being expelled. And if he couldn't protect Ingrid, he was going to protect this person.

He was going to take Parnassus down. And this time, he'd bring his partner in on it.

"Hey O'Shea? I need your help with something after school today. You game?"

Meryl replied with a grin, "If it is what I think it is, heck yeah!"

Chapter Text

Spiro T. Agnew Middle School

Vallejo and Frank got off lucky. 

That’s all Vallejo could figure, they were just lucky. After being expelled from X, their parents enrolled them in Spiro, the only middle school that would take them. Principal Prickly was oddly sympathetic towards them, unlike the other adults in their lives, who believed the worst and shouted and threatened. 

He couldn’t allow them to be patrollers (that would cause trouble with Folsom, not to mention the other kids and faculty) but they were allowed to enroll in other clubs. There weren’t as many options as there were at X but Frank chose to join a kid detective agency and Vallejo decided to join a fishing club.

It was nice to sit by the pond and fish and not think about how bad life had gotten. It was nice to have one familiar face there and nice to be treated decently by other kids. But it wasn’t X.

Vallejo was shaken from his thoughts by Lia cursing under her breath as a woman sped past her and went through a red light.

“‘Hey let me get to my accident quicker, I have an appointment with death’ fucking moron! Frank riding with us today?”

“No, he wants to walk, he said something about meeting up with one of his new friends from the detective club.”

She nodded, “Ah.”

Vallejo shifted nervously. He could sense a question coming from the passenger seat.

Oziel ‘Oz’ Vallejo was Ophelia’s twin. He was very tall and thin like Lia but unlike Lia, was quiet and intense. He was also very sharp and good at reading people, which is why he was one of X High school’s best negotiators. 

He looked back at Vallejo and asked, “You hear from Malika lately?”

Vallejo flinched, “No, I…I don’t think I’m hearing from her ever again Oz. Or anyone else on the old patrol.”

“Have you heard from the other two that got expelled?”

Lia hissed, “Ozzie!”

Oz put his hands up defensively, “I’m just asking, it’s just a question! Not an accusation!”

“Could have fooled me Oziel, with the way you just assumed Vallejo was actually guilty of that shit when all this went down, ‘anyone can fall’ my ass!”

“Are you ever gonna let that go?”

“Are you ever gonna apologize?”

Oz gave Vallejo a hard look in the mirror as he shrank down and replied, “Not without proof.”

Lia snapped, “Oh fuck that and fuck you, asshole!”

Vallejo pressed his forehead against the mirror and closed his eyes, trying not to cry and to focus on school rather than the heated argument. Soon he’d be at school and he’d go fishing with Butch, who would have some stupid story to tell about demon fish in the lake, and then he’d see Frank who was working on a case involving a lost robot dog (as well as their case, at least Vallejo assumed so) and then classes and homework and then maybe hanging out with Frank and Butch some more.

The car screeched to a stop in front of his school and Vallejo dove out of the car and ran, eager to escape his brother’s scrutiny and his sister’s rage.

Lia watched him run in and then turned to Oz, “You gotta ruin everyone’s day, don’t you? It’s like coffee for you isn’t it?”

Oz wordlessly opened the door, got out, and started walking.

“Good, walk! Be late! See if I give a fuck!”

He turned and flipped her off with both hands.

Lia blared the horn at him and sped past cursing like a sailor.

Vallejo's ears were still ringing with Oz's accusation as he sat and tried to focus on fishing. It was hard to though, especially considering he knew Oz wasn't the only one in the family who felt that way. His dad was still pretty upset with him, as was his mom, and he had been grounded for a week of a six month sentence before Lia managed to talk them down and provide solid reasoning as to why he couldn't have done it.

Mom and Dad had been convinced he wasn't directly involved and lifted his grounding but Vallejo knew they still privately thought he at least knew about it. Things were always tense, especially with Oz. 

He pulled up his line and threw it back mindlessly. There wasn't a lot he could do to change that, Oz was Oz and he'd stay stubborn until actual physical evidence clearing Horatio turned up and his parents would be the same way about proof of his lack of knowledge. At least Lia had faith in him.

Life sucked so much.

Vallejo felt someone poke him and he looked up to see Frank and a boy with a long brown trench coat. He immediately recognized the latter as H.K., a hustler who Vallejo was sure this school's patrol would love to take down. He seemed decent enough in spite of that, a bit of a con man but not directly malicious most of the time. Emphasis on most.

"Hey Frank. H.K. What do you want? I'm kinda busy..."

Frank sat beside him and H.K. sat on the other side, Frank speaking first.

"just coming to check on you, saw you run away from your sisters car like a bat out of hell. You okay?"

The other boy cast again, "Yeah, Oz he-he still thinks I'm guilty and Lia went off like a rocket, I didn't want to stick around."

"Damn, I'm sorry."

"S'fine. What's the conman want?"

H.K. snorted and replied, "Nothing friend, just following Frank around. I do have a little free tidbit you'd be interested in."

Vallejo rolled his eyes, "Yeah, like you give anything away for free, at least anything that's any good."

"Oh, you'll like this Vallejo. I asked around about the inhalants at X- don't peddle the stuff myself so it was harder to find- but the rumor is the dealer never met the buyer, they just dropped it at X."

"Okay. And?"

H.K. replied, "And they were dealing here at Spiro, which led to the transfer of one Patrol member, Miss Meryl O'Shea, meaning you and Frank have an in my friend!"

Vallejo sighed, "That doesn't mean we have an in, that means she got transferred! How do you know she'll even help us?"

"How do you know she won't?"

Frank nudged him, "It's worth a shot man. C'mon, do it for me? Please?"

Vallejo looked at Frank, who was giving him big eyes, and sighed, "Fine. Fine, we will contact O'Shea and see if she'll help us. What's the worst that can happen?"

Chapter Text

Meryl walked beside Fillmore deep in thought as they walked to her house (seeing as Fillmore was worried about being bugged). She guessed he was going to ask for help with Parnassus, help she was more than willing to give considering all that happened after taking Nigel out.

First, there had been two robberies, one she was sure Parnassus had known about beforehand, and the other one was seemingly random. Both of these thefts had gone on uninterrupted in spite of continued patrol presence in the area, meaning some crimes were being allowed to happen. Meanwhile, Parnassus was throwing the book at small scale issues, one girl was given detention for a year because she was wearing a t-shirt with the word “Shit” and it was only her first infraction and another girl was suspended for smuggling in red pens. Not even enough to sell, just two red pens found by chance in her backpack.

She had to admit, it was smart for Parnassus to crack down on smaller crimes. It made it look like he was effective (to Folsom at least) and created a culture of hostility aimed at the patrol. Instead of just bad kids disliking the belts, nobody liked the belts, and that caused an ‘us vs them’ mentality that ran so deep it affected patrol members' attitudes towards each other. Which made it easier for Parnassus to play everyone like cheap kazoos.

Meryl hated that kind of thing, thankfully her patrol head had cleaned up her patrol, but she remembered what that was like. These kids didn’t deserve that, especially not Danny or Fillmore.

She stopped in front of her house and announced, “We’re here!”

They stopped in front of a purple double wide mobile home. The yard was full of metal art pieces, wind chimes, pinwheels and small statues of gnomes, ghosts, dragons, fairies, and toads, with a windmill statue as the centerpiece. It was the kind of thing that would make an HOA wince.

For some reason, it did not surprise Fillmore that Meryl lived here.

Meryl barged into the house, kicking off her shoes as Fillmore calmly slid his shoes off neatly besides the door. The inside of the house was just as odd as the outside, one wall had a mosaic depicting a dog with a clock in his body and a young boy, the other walls were covered by bookcases and large pieces of metal art, a twisting mobile with Peanuts characters hanging down from the entryway light.

“Nonna, I’m home!”

An elderly gray haired woman wearing a loud flower print muumuu peeked around the corner and exclaimed, “Hello Meryl, who’s your friend?”

“This is Fillmore, he’s doing a group project with me! Fillmore this is Nonna O’Shea!”

He shook her hand gravely, “Pleased to meet you Miss O’Shea.”

“Oh please, call me Nonna! Miss O’Shea is my daughter. Don’t forget to say hello to your father and brother before getting to work, okay?”

This last part was addressed to Meryl who nodded and dragged Fillmore along with her down a hallway, which had rabbits painted onto it and flung open a door set in the corner. This door went out to the closed garage and a tall man with long hair looked up and grinned, “Meryl! Kid I don’t know! What’s happening?”

He was wearing a welding mask and seemed to be working on a project. Near him was a teenage boy around Ariella’s age who was turning a piece in his hands scanning for imperfections. He looked a bit like a taller Meryl but with slightly longer hair and brown eyes instead of blue.

“Daz, this is Fillmore. Fillmore, this is my stepdad Gary Kelly. We call him Daz though. And that over there is my older brother Simon. We call him Simon.”

Simon waved awkwardly and then turned away and hunched over his project, clearly uncomfortable with the sudden introduction of a stranger.

Gary shook Fillmore’s hand, “Don’t mind him, he’s a tad shy but a sweet kid! Call me Gary or Mr. Gary, whichever you’re most comfortable with!”

“Yessir. Nice to meet you both-whoa!”

Meryl yanked him out the door, “Bye! See you later!”

“Be gentle with him kid, he’s real you know!”

Mery’s room was as weird as the rest of the house, she had posters of horror films and old fantasy movies plastered across the walls, save one wall, which had two shelves that were devoted to books of all kinds. One corner of the room had a red mickey mouse TV with a DVD player built in on top of a small chest of drawers and a bookshelf nailed across the corner that was full of small language dictionaries and actual dictionaries.

Her trundle bed had a quilt and was covered in stuffed animals, one of which (a vintage stuffed duck) she plopped down into her lap as she flopped in one of the bean bag chairs.

Fillmore sat in the one across from her and asked, “So…what does your dad do?”

“He’s a welder, he likes making metal art but he does welding because it’s steady pay. Nonna writes for a book collecting magazine and Mom is a child psychologist, she’s still at work right now. Hmmm…oh and Simon is a student but he wants to be a welder like Daz! What do your parents do?”

Fillmore replied, “Dad’s a cop and mom is a cardiologist. I don’t have any siblings or I’d tell you what they’re about.”

“Cool! So…what do you think we should do about Parn Ass?”

Fillmore leaned forward and explained, “I think we need to gather evidence, as much physical evidence as possible. I can’t do it but you can, you’re new and Parnassus doesn’t have a reason to distrust you yet, so you can sneak around. Unfortunately we’ll also need outside help. I’d ask Vallejo’s siblings but Lia’s got a lot to lose if this goes bad and Oz is hard to get a hold of and harder to convince. We need an outlier.”

Meryl rubbed her chin thoughtfully and said, “Give me a few days, I can come up with somebody if you can come up with somebody. That way there’s two in case something goes wrong!”

Her partner nodded, “Not a bad plan. It’ll also make it harder for Parnassus to track down if he gets suspicious…”

There was a long silence. Fillmore spoke first, “So…now what? We don’t actually have much homework.”

Meryl shrugged and asked, “Have you seen The Black Cauldron?” 

“No, is it good?”

“Um, yes! Hold on, I’ll pop it in and grab a bag of popcorn!”

Parnassus sat at his desk, rolling his pen in his hands thoughtfully. 

Miss O’Shea and Fillmore certainly seemed to warm up to each other, which was good. It meant it would be easier for his little spy to report on him.

On the other hand, O’Shea had never really agreed to spy for him, just kind of stared in her odd way and slightly smiled. Oh well, it was a risk he was willing to take and it wasn’t like Fillmore trusted anyone else enough to-

Wait.

Parnassus looked at one of his new recruits, a boy called Tony Clementina.

“Could you call Danny in here? I have an..assignment for him.”

"Sure thing boss."

Soon, Danny was sitting in front of him shaking slightly. He'd been shaken up by the investigation resulting in his old boss being expelled and Parnassus knew all he would have to do to get Danny's help was lean on him a bit.

Parnassus smiled at him, "Hello O'Farrell. How's your family? Your grades? Well I hope?"

The other boy flinched under Tony's stern look and squeaked, "Fine, everything is just fine! Thanks!"

The older boy clapped him on the shoulder (making Danny jump) and exclaimed, "Good! I have a proposition for you."

"Um...okay?"

"I need you to spy on Fillmore and O'Shea for me, I don't think she's as 'in' as she says. Let me know if they're in communication with Vallejo or plotting against me."

Danny gulped and replied shakily, "And if I refuse?"

He had more spine than Parnassus thought. Clearly he'd have to resort to a serious threat, maybe something involving some new former delinquent friends Danny had made recently.

Parnassus replied coldly, "Then you are of no use to me and will have a Very Hard Time until you leave. Maybe even your friends in the Metal Shop will have to go with you, if you catch my meaning?"

"You leave them alone!"

"I will, if you do as I say."

Danny struggled internally before wilting, "Fine. I'll do it. Just...don't hurt them. Please."

"There we are! Run along now, I've got work to do."

Chapter Text

Vallejo cautiously stuck his head in the door and listened carefully before slipping in and closing the front door behind him with a soft click.

He slid off his shoes and walked through the front living room towards his room, the natural evening light casting a dim shadow over him. It felt both homelike and deeply lonely at the same time.

“Tio.”

Vallejo shrieked and nearly fell over before the lamp clicked on. It was Oz, sitting on the couch across from his younger brother with his homework spread out beside them and his best friend Abel half hanging off the arm and tossing goldfish crackers into his mouth.

Abel waved, “Hey dude.”

“Hi Abel-Oz. Oz, why were you sitting in the dark?”

Before Oz could answer, Abel explained, “He was making out with Candy, right in front of me and my cheese crackers might I add. She’s hiding behind the sofa.”

Candy threw her shoes on Abel and Oz shoved him off the couch.

“Ow, jeez!”

Candy climbed over the sofa and sat beside Oz, her hair a bit messy, and grumbled, “Snitch. How was school Tio?”

Vallejo shrugged, “It was school.”

Oz asked casually, “Make any new friends?”

“Um…yeah, Butch and H.K. are kinda my friends I guess? I dunno.”

“Should I worry about them? Because you know your last group-”

Abel snapped and pointed at Oz as he sat up and fixed his beanie, “Whoa dude, hold it right there! That’s way too far and you know that! Even if those kids are actually guilty, Tio wouldn’t have known about it, so lay off!”

“C’mon Abel–”

“I will not ‘c’mon Abel’ Abel is not putting up with your horseshit today, lay off! Or I’ll get Lia involved!”

Oz looked at Candy for help, who sighed, “Leave Tio alone Oz, he just got home. Give him a break.”

Oz glared at Vallejo, “Fine. This conversation isn’t over though.”

Vallejo grumbled as he stalked off, “Sure it isn’t.”

Dinner was just as awkward as coming home had been. Dad was dead quiet due to being tired from a case and Mom was getting ready for an overnight shift as she ate the grilled cheese Oz had made.

The kitchen had the atmosphere of a funeral. It used to be full of joking and chatter but was now usually filled with tense silence after very basic small talk.

Lia and Oz were glaring at each other across the table, Lia seated by Vallejo. Abel had stayed for dinner and, judging by his face, wished he hadn’t.

Abel swallowed his tomato soup and said, “This is good soup. You made this from scratch Lia?”

The teen girl replied tersely, “I did.”

“Very cool.”

There was a long painful silence.

Mom stood up, “Gotta go kids, love you all!”

With that she rushed out the door and Dad stood and went to his bedroom to get ready for bed, leaving everyone else in the kitchen.

Vallejo asked softly, “Can I be excused? I need to go to Frank’s house for a project.”

Oz asked, “What kind of project?”

“Ancient History, specifically Roman. You want a play by play or is that enough for you Oz?”

Abel choked on his food and Oz glared at Vallejo, standing up, “You listen here-”

Lia snapped, “Shut it! Get out of here Tio, be back by seven thirty, it’s a school night.”

Vallejo raced to grab his bookbag and run out the door while World War Three began in the kitchen, witnessed by Abel, who was eating his food like he had both dinner and a show.

Vallejo sat in Frank’s garage, the materials for both the school project and X project surrounding them both. H.K. had apparently invited himself along with Butch, they had ancient Egypt.

Frank asked, “Make any contact with O’Shea, H.K.?”

The hustler replied, “Not yet, she apparently got out later than usual and I missed her. I’ll get her tomorrow though.”

“Good. Butch, you have anything useful?”

Butch shrugged, “Not anything concrete but I hear Parnassus is using mind control to get a few valuable recruits. Which is code for ‘blackmail’ so some patrollers may not want to be there, which ones are harder to say though. Which is why we need an insider.”

Frank bumped shoulders with Vallejo and asked, “How’s things at home?”

“The same. Dad doesn’t talk, mom rushes off to work, Oz gives me the third degree, and Lia is pissed all the time. Abel and Candy were there today though, that was actually okay. I think they believe I’m innocent or they at least think Oz is being too harsh.”

H.K. perked up, “Oz is the negotiator guy at the high school right? He’s a hardass, a lot of the hustlers at Darwin High School are scared of him, not to mention Commissioner Vallejo.”

“Yeah. He’s…well he used to be cool..."

Vallejo abruptly stood up and walked out with his bookbag, making his way to the door through tears and walking down the street. Nothing was ever going to be the same and he nearly missed the noise of huffing and puffing as Butch called out to him.

“Hey, Horatio! Wait up.”

Butch caught up with his new friend and walked with him. The silence was deafening.

“Frank’s on curfew and H.K. lives across town but I thought I’d walk with you since we live on the same street.”

He couldn’t see Vallejo’s face. 

“You okay man?”

Vallejo sniffed and rubbed his arm across his face as they stopped in front of his house, “Sorry it’s just-everything is so hard all the time and my family is upset with me and I miss my old school!”

The other boy put his hand on Vallejo’s shoulder and squeezed, “I know. I’m sorry. We’re going to clear things up though and then you can go back to X and your old friends can too-”

“Tio.”

They both looked up to see Oz looking at them expressionless.

“Who’s this?”

Vallejo met his gaze and replied, “Butch Soucie. Friend from school, he lives nearby.”

“Hm. Thanks for walking Tio home.”

Butch replied, not breaking eye contact with the older boy, “Don’t mention it. See you around Tio.”

Vallejo walked past Oz.

“He seems decent. Kinda creepy though.”

“Yeah, he is. Everyone at Spiro is decent. Goodnight Oziel.”

"Horatio-"

Vallejo went into his room and closed the door.

Chapter Text

The next day found Meryl and Fillmore back on the long beat across X grounds. It was gray, raining, and both kids were wearing rain parkas, Fillmore’s was black with a red horizontal stripe and Meryl’s was light green. They were also wearing rain boots that matched.

Meryl sighed as they waded through a large puddle and said, “This whomps. Why do we have to go out in the rain? No one is committing crimes in this.”

Fillmore replied, “Parnassus says we’ve got to O’Shea. Besides, it gives us time to….talk…”

A boy wearing a yellow rain slicker and standing beside a closed rubber bin was staring at them, standing a few feet away.

Mery whispered, “What’s he doing?”

Fillmore whispered back, “I’m not sure. Hold on.”

He called to the boy, “Hey, you alright?”

The kid waved, in a motion that indicated he wanted them to come closer.

Fillmore and Meryl exchanged uneasy glances and then looked back at the kid, who was still gesturing at them.

Meryl asked, “Is he stuck, is that why he’s trying to-Hey! Hey kid, are you stuck?”

The kid shook his head and then nodded.

“Hm. Don’t like that too much Fillmore.”

“Me neither.”

After several moments of the kid getting more and more frantic, Fillmore made a decision and slowly approached the kid, making sure Meryl was behind him.

As they approached, Fillmore could see this kid was around their age with brown hair sticking to his forehead and brown eyes. He seemed unarmed and was intent on not coming closer, forcing the patrollers to walk through flooded grass up onto the concrete sidewalk used by maintenance workers.

As they reached him, the kid huffed.

“Finally, you two get the hint!”

Fillmore said tersely, “Yeah, well things around here are a little crazy right now. We’re allowed to be suspicious. Who are you and why are you back here?”

The kid grinned and held his hand out, “H.K., at your service. I believe you know a mutual friend of mine! And we are back here, because there aren’t any cameras back here, therefore, no one can see us talking!”

Fillmore stared at the hand and said slowly, “Okay…is this a trap? Are we about to get jumped?”

“No! No, nothing like that-”

Meryl pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, “Of all the fucking-Hustleer Kid, why the hell are you even here?”

H.K. smiled widely at her, “Oh, so you DO recognize me, that makes this easier!”

“I’m sorry, this guy’s name is Hustler Kid? He’s such a hustle,  that is his actual nickname?”

After his partner nodded, Fillmore rolled his eyes, “Of course. Look, we could book you for trying to hustle here, not to mention trespassing, so why don’t you go back to your own school-”

“Actually I want you to book me but that’s not the main point of my visit. See, this kid named Horatio Vallejo goes to my middle school and I- along with the man himself and two friends of mine- want to prove he’s innocent. The problem is, we need insiders. Vallejo says you’re a good man and O’Shea knows me, so I figured I’d approach you two and ask.”

Meryl snapped, “Oh what, you suddenly do nice things for free? What’s it going to cost us, the soul of one or both of our firstborns?!”

H.K. suddenly became very serious, “ I’m doing a nice thing for free for two reasons. One, Vallejo and Frank are my friends. Two, Parnassus has started forcing people from my school into committing crimes for him, including some hustler friends of mine. I’d like to put a stop to it but first, I need you to help and the first way you can help is by booking me.”

Fillmore looked at Meryl, who seemed deeply conflicted before sighing and nodding, “He’s legit.”

The boy started to turn back and was hit full in the face by water and H.K. took off.

“Catch me if you can!”

Fillmore sputtered and Meryl took off after the hustler.

“Why did he do that?! Is it a distraction?”
Meryl called back, “He’s making it look good, c’mon!”

Hustler ran off the beaten path and Fillmore groaned before sloshing after him through the mud, Meryl a foot away from him.

She snapped as she struggled to keep from getting sucked down into the mud, “Jerk! Couldn’t even make this easy!”

Fillmore pulled Meryl along (having an advantage of being taller) and replied, “If he made it easy, it wouldn’t look as good. This is a smart plan, dunno why he’d want to get in HQ though…”

“I’m still beating him up with my sleeves!”

The other boy pulled Meryl onto the sidewalk and the chase continued, the hustler running down an alleyway. Fillmore ran down after him, Meryl close behind, and then H.K. was cornered.

Fillmore panted and said, “Are we done or-Oh c’mon, now you’re just showing off!”

H.K. had turned and was quickly scaling the wall. Mery shrieked in rage and threw one of her very mud caked boots at him, narrowly missing his head by inches.

The hustler shouted, “Hey, what the hell?!”

Meryl threw the other boot and H.K swore violently as it smacked right next to his head.

“Get down here you clown! I’m cold and I’m wet and I’m done chasing your stupid ass!”

“Throwing your boots at me won’t help, what the actual fuck-Oww!”

Fillmore took off his boots and one had smacked H.K. in the head. The second one, quickly following the first, made him fall and the patrollers took turns holding him while they got their boots on.

Parnassus looked at this kid’s merchandise and then back at the kid, deeply unimpressed. 

“This bin is full of spinning fairy toys. You came onto the grounds of a middle school during a downpour and risked getting your neck broken to sell toys meant for elementary schoolers.”

Francies (or H.K., as he apparently preferred to be called) grinned at him, “These aren’t any old toys, these are Spinella’s Fairy Dancers, banned in 48 states due to ‘reports of physical harm’ and bona fide collectors items! Uncuff me and I’ll demonstrate!”

Parnassus pressed his fingers against his temple and retorted, “That will not be necessary, thank you Mr. McGee.”

Tony, who seemed highly entertained by this kid, asked, “What are we gonna do with him?”

“Folsom has said his parents are coming to pick him up and he will have detention at his own school. The Merchandise will be properly disposed of. Transfer him to the holding cell please.”

After they left Danny entered and Parnassus grinned and steepled his hands.

“What do you have for me O’Farrell?”

Danny barely looked at Parnassus and said softly, “Nothing concrete but Fillmore and O’Shea were talking about helping Vallejo at her house. They forgot to take off their talkies.”

“Did they say what this help entailed?”

“No, they decided to get outside help and then watched a movie.”

Parnassus hummed, “Well, we’ll have to make sure they’re too busy to meet with this ‘help’. Thank you O’Farrell, your help is appreciated. You can go.”

Chapter Text

Vallejo ate his breakfast of cheerios silently as Lia and Oz sat at different ends of the table, mom was working a double shift and dad was at the station, leaving the trio alone. Which was worse than them being there because Oz and Lia had nothing to stop them from going at each other’s throats.

It wasn’t always like this, Dad or Lia would make pancakes and Belgian waffles or bacon and eggs- mom usually worked mornings- and Oz would sing at the top of his lungs while brushing Vallejo’s hair. Now everyone ate cold cereal (Lia refused to make anything on principle) and Oz didn’t really brush Vallejo’s hair anymore, claiming he was old enough to do it himself.

To be fair, Vallejo was old enough to style his own hair and he had been fighting Oz every time he came at the younger boy with a brush. It was possible this shift had nothing to do with the incident at X. If anything, Oz would likely insist on brushing it more often in order to get more chances to grill Horatio.

It still felt like rejection regardless.

Vallejo took the dishes and rinsed them, putting them in the top of the dishwasher. They all headed out the door, still in uncharacteristic silence.

Finally, someone spoke.

Lia said flatly as she unlocked the car doors, “Once the weather gets better, take your damn motorbike Ozzie.”

Oz muttered, “Glad to.”

With that, they were off.

Because of the steady rain, the fishing club had been canceled and no boats were allowed on the pond. Meaning Vallejo was inside, waiting on Lia to pick him up. 

Usually Frank or H.K. would be keeping him company but Frank was sick and H.K. had detention because he left school grounds and tried to hustle on X’s property. Vallejo couldn’t imagine why the latter would do that but it seemed like it was part of looking for the ‘in’ he was so desperate to find for his newfound friends.

Luckily, Butch was here to keep it interesting.

“And then Alec Maccas looked up and saw…the porcelain doll! Lurking above him and he screamed as it jumped on him! His parents heard his shrieks but when they went up to his room, all they found was Alec’s glasses, and another porcelain boy doll wrapped up in Alec’s pajamas, which they placed in the attic. No one knows what happened to the cursed doll though. Some say she lurks in thrift stores  and antique malls looking for new victims. Others say she was captured and locked in an occult museum forced into an eternity of being bound behind glass. Personally, I think the doll just…shows up somewhere until some hapless fool picks her up or they find her in their backpack and then, the horror begins anew!”

The three other kids, all transfers (some bully kid named Roger, a girl named Penny, and some kid Vallejo had never seen) all stared at Butch in horrified anticipation.

Penny asked, “And then what Butch?”

The boy motioned them closer and said ominously before perking up, like he hadn’t told a story that would haunt the poor listeners nightmares for the rest of their lives.

“Then…more dolls! Anyways I’m thirsty, I think I- No!”

Butch pulled a porcelain doll out of his backpack and held it aloft, shrieking, “She’s here! Run for your lives!”

The three hapless preteens screamed and ran, their shrieks echoing down the hallway as Butch fell over and pretended the doll was attacking him before laughing maniacally, sitting up, and putting the doll away.

“Works every time!”

Vallejo, who had come to expect this from Butch, just rolled his eyes at him, “You’ve got problems man. How long have you been carrying that doll around waiting for this?”

“Since the beginning of the school year.”

“Like I said, you have problems. Any word on our in?”

Butch snickered and then replied, “Yeah, O’Shea and Fillmore are both in, I guess they’re partners now. H.K. said he scoped out the office and the cell he was held in. The locks are basic, easy to pick, and Parnassus keeps his passwords on a sticky note. The cameras are another problem though, he thinks they’re run by the kiddie security company St. Adrian’s. They’re not part of X and the sheds they set up in aren’t marked on school maps for security reasons so…yeah. That part is gonna be hard.”

Vallejo suggested, “We could try and work for them? Maybe you and Frank or Me and Hustler or some combination?”

The storyteller shook his head, “No, you and Frank are pretty well known and H.K. was already arrested by X patrol members, plus he’s got a long, long record. And I’m too memorable, it would have to be someone smart and unassuming or someone who’s good at playing a role…”

Butch snapped his fingers and said excitedly, “Grundler! Grundler and her new friend could both do it, she’s got the technical know-how and the other girl can blend in anywhere, they’d be perfect!”

“Do they go here?”

“Grundler does, the other girl goes to Hazelnut Middle School but she’d still be good!”

“Okay, so I guess you talk to Grundler then-”

A honking horn cut Vallejo off and he saw Lia’s car parked out front.

“-And that’s my ride, talk to you later Butch!”

Butch fist bumped Vallejo and called after him, “See you tomorrow Tio!”

Third Household

Ingrid hated her life nowadays. 

After being kicked off the patrol, her family had moved (both for her dad’s work and to get Ingrid away from the stigma) and she’d ended up in Hazelnut Middle School. It wasn’t a bad school but Ingrid decided to hate it on principle, albeit more quietly than she’d hated schools in the past. She couldn’t afford to be transferred again and besides, she was mostly left alone there.

The house wasn’t her old house and her room wasn’t her old room. There was no Vallejo or Karen or Anza or Fillmore here.

There was Gretchen though. Gretchen Grundler  was Ingrid’s neighbor across the street and probably her closest friend at the moment, she’d introduced herself to Ingrid and the girl found herself pouring over one of Gretchen’s inventions and introducing Gretchen to goth music (which she weirdly seemed to love) and Gretchen introduced Ingrid to her friend group over two weekends, who all saw this strange, sad girl, and promptly adopted her. 

It was nice. But it wasn’t X. 

At least Gretchen was there to walk with her from her bus stop.

“Ingrid, I was thinking this weekend-”

Gretchen stopped and Ingrid stopped too, staring.

There was a boy with a white streak in his hair running towards them.

“Who is that?”

“Um…” Gretchen adjusted her glasses and replied, “Looks like it might be Butch, he goes to my school. He doesn’t live around here though…”

Butch ran up and knelt over breathing hard, “Had…to run…”

Gretchen said flatly, “You do know you still have my phone number right? You could have called Soucie!”

Ingrid added, “And running up to people like that can get you a judo throw…”

Butch held up his hand and took several big gulps of air before continuing, “My friend, Vallejo, he needs help. I think you guys might be the answer.”

Chapter Text

Fillmore was exhausted and, judging by the fact she was dozing on his paperwork, so was Meryl. Ever since ‘catching’ H.K., Parnassus had decided to reward them both by making their beat twice as long and giving them mountains of paperwork to complete. They were almost too tired to plot against him.

Almost being the key word. They would email each other from their home computers over the weekend and delete the emails the night before going to school or early in the morning on Monday to cut down on the risk of being discovered. They also hung out with each other, usually in the garage as Simon worked.

It was weird though, it seemed like Parnassus was one step ahead of them. How though, Fillmore couldn’t guess.

He reached down, opened his drawer, and froze.

Hall Passes. A drawer full.

Fillmore jerked his head at Meryl and she looked down, her eyes widening in alarm. She immediately peeked in her drawer and made a noise of fear. Fillmore peered over as discreetly as he could and narrowed his eyes.

Ten boxes of Red pens. One box was bad enough, ten meant suspension from school at best and suspension from the force at worst. Their drawers must have been filled that morning but by who?

As Fillmore puzzled over this, Meryl whispered, “What do we do?”

“...create a distraction, then we get rid of the stuff. If I get caught with these, I’m done.”

Meryl nodded. Then they both jumped as Parrnassus appeared in front of them. He smiled at Fillmore, sharklike, before saying, “Officer Fillmore, can I see you in my office?”

“Sure…”

With that, Meryl was alone. She wasn’t sure what to do exactly but, as she looked around while discreetly throwing the red pen boxes into her backpack, she noticed the sprinkler system and smirked.

The security system was down for maintenance too, making this even easier. Jackpot. Now all she needed was a reason to throw things.

Meryl looked around the office and settled on Brian, AKA Bri-Dog, who was currently intimidating a shy but sweet kid called Wilbur. He’d been in and out of the patrol office all week due to being suspected of candy smuggling after helping bust the smugglers, and even the most corrupt officers felt sorry for Wilbur. Even Parnassus thought Brian was coming down too hard and warned him to back off, meaning he was not terribly popular at the moment.

He was the perfect target. She popped Fillmore’s drawer open slightly and dumped her water bottle into it before opening the drawer all the way.

Then, Meryl made her way over, hiding the pen boxes in her front hoodie pocket. At this point, a small crowd of dissenters was surrounding the bully. This included Danny, the resident psychic Alistair Greystone, Sonny, Cachi and Brian’s own partner, a kid known as Bear. 

Bear snapped, “he clearly doesn’t know anything Brian, so lay off!”

“You gonna make me Bear-Bear? You gonna make me?”

Bear was not as tall or broad as Brian but nearly everyone flinched away as the smaller darker boy animalistically snarled at Brian. Brian, who had neither survival instincts nor a brain, did not flinch.

“Awww, little mutt gonna growl at me?”

Sonny snapped, “Seriously Bri-Dog, just leave Wilbur alone before Bear puts you on “Forensic Files”.”

“Oh please, as if he’ll do anything to me! The three strike rule is in place!”

Meryl interjected, “Hey, sorry to bother you Brian, but can I borrow your stapler?”

He waved her off, “Yeah, sure, whatever.”

Alistair piped up, “Psychically, I’m feeling that Wilbur didn’t do it and Bear is going to put you in the hospital if you keep going.”

Brian snapped, “Psychically, you’re full of shit!”

“I suppose you’d be the expert on it.”

There was a roar and Alistair was pinned against the wall as Danny, Cachi, and Sonny tried to pull Brian off while Bear quickly escorted Wilbur out.

Everyone’s attention was on the chaos before them. Time to sell it.

Meryl stood in front of Brian’s desk, opened the drawer, pulled out the stapler, and then held up the pens, dropping a few for dramatic effect.

She screamed, “I can’t believe you Brian!”

Everyone stopped and Brian turned to look at Meryl as Sonny held his arm back from punching Alistair.

The girl pointed at Brian accusingly, “He’s got ten boxes of red pens! In his drawer!”

The boy dropped a gasping Alistair and protested vehemently, “No, I didn’t- This is a setup! She’s setting me up! What was she even doing in my drawer?!”

Everyone was glaring at him. Sonny shook his head, “That’s low, even for you man. She asked you about the stapler, you just were too focused on bringing attention to Wilbur.”

Brian glared at him, “As if you’re so clean! Besides, I never had red pens! Check the cameras!”

Meryl replied, “Cameras are down Brian and they’ve been down all weekend. You’ve got no defense, you bully!”

“Shut up!”

“Kiss my ass!”

Meryl threw the pen boxes at him and, to her surprise, most of the patrol members were picking them up and joining in. Some were even throwing things from their own desks.

Taking the chance, the small girl grabbed Brian’s mug, swung her arm wide, and hit the sprinkler. Then all hell broke loose.

They all stood outside as Folsom yelled at both Parnassus and Meryl. Parnassus for not knowing Brian had red pens in spite of the weekly drawer checks and falsely accusing Fillmore of carrying hall passes (when it was clearly ruined homework). She was also telling off Meryl for starting a pen war.

“I’m honestly surprised at you, Parnassus! I’m going to have Raycliff check the drawers with you for the next month! As for you” Folsom turned to Meryl (who looked deeply pleased with herself) and snapped, “Don’t throw things! I understand no one likes Brian but that doesn’t mean you pelt him with pens! If it happens again, I’ll have no choice but to give you detention for the rest of the year! Do you understand me, Miss O’Shea?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Good.”

Meryl was jumping over cracks behind Fillmore as they walked to his house. After everything had been cleared up, he’d done some thinking and the only person who could have planted the goods was Danny, which bothered him.

He hesitantly began, “Hey Meryl, I’ve been thinking and the person who planted the contraband and-”

Fillmore stopped suddenly and Meryl ran into him, “Oof, hey!”

She peeked around him and saw H.K, Gretchen, and a goth girl she didn’t recognize.

“Who’s she?”

Fillmore ran forward and picked up the girl in a tight hug, exclaiming“Ingrid!”

Chapter Text

Going to Butch’s had become a welcome escape from Vallejo’s home life. His family was so kind to him (not nice, kind) and they welcomed him with the only question being whether or not he was eating dinner with them. It made him deliriously happy to be somewhere where most people liked him.

Vallejo was currently sitting in the garage playing Liar’s Dice with Butch, Frank (who was finally free), and HK, who Vallejo was pretty sure was cheating. Joey was working on a bike nearby. 

“Horatio Vallejo?”

Vallejo looked up and his heart stopped. A tall blond highschooler wearing a long sleeved blue shirt, jeans, and the telltale orange belt was standing there unsmiling. Next to him was a goth boy of equal height, with a distinct lack of belt, who was staring curiously at him. On the other side was one of Vallejo’s cousins Miguel, who looked deeply annoyed. He was wearing the usual, gray shirt, jeans, and a thick black leather jacket. His hair got longer. 

The blonde one said, “I’m Officer Erikson, This is our consulting detective Dorian and my partner Miguel Vallejo-”

Miguel said flatly, “We’ve met” He turned to Vallejo and sighed, “Are you guys smuggling red pens and test answers into X? Is Joey your mule? Are you a mule Joe?”

Joey snorted at Miguel’s tone.

The younger boys all looked at each other, confused by this, and Vallejo looked back at Miguel. He asked, “Did Oz put you up to this?”

Miguel rolled his eyes, “He wishes I’d take him seriously. No, some middle school kid with a prissy accent called Germain High’s patrol and I decided to go myself, dragged along my second and Dr. House over there.”

Dorian waved slightly.

Frank mouthed, “ Brad” and Vallejo nodded in agreement. The younger Vallejo replied, “We aren’t, you can search us if we want.”

“I don’t. I think it’s shit. But still.”

The boys opened their bags and Miguel examined them before looking at Dorian and Erikson, “They’re clean, like I said. My cousin is an idiot and that kid isn’t too much better. Let’s go, vamos.”

Dorian stayed behind and looked at Vallejo for a long moment before glancing around at the group and asking, “Boys, what is the best way to cheat the system?”

After a long moment HK replied hesitantly, “Um…play into it?”

The boy grinned at them, “Damn right. That’s what that Parnassus kid is doing” He looked around and leaned down, motioning the kids closer.

The kids scooted in and Dorian said, “He doesn’t play fair, neither should you. Do what you have to and don’t be scared.”

Erikson’s irate voice yelled, “Dorian! Hurry the fuck up!”

The boy flipped him off and walked away, “See you kids.”

“Hey Oz, you gotta get an X kid to do your dirty work for you?”

Oz looked up to see Dorian Drew, Boaz Erikson, and-

“The hell do you want Miguel?!”

Miguel snapped, “I want to know why you can’t accept the fact your brother is innocent and what gave you the balls to waste my time like that?!”

Oz snarled in his face, “I don’t what the fuck you’re talking about, so back off!”

Dorian watched them and said casually, “Yeah, he didn’t have anything to do with this Miguelito.”

“Don’t call me that you Dib looking-”

Erikson gave him a surprised look and interrupted Miguel’s insult, “What? How do you know?”

“Have any of us known Oz to not own up to his shit immediately? Besides that, I hear you aren’t exactly private with Horatio. You’re kind of a dick Oziel, full offense.”

Oz scoffed and turned back to sweeping the driveway, “Yeah sure, I’m the only one that sees the truth but I’m the dick.”

Dorian retorted sharply, “Statistically, you could be right! And You’re still an asshole, so jot that down!”

Erikson sighed, “Give it a rest Dorian, he’s like his sister, they get an idea and latch onto it.”

As the trio left, Oz couldn’t resist one last jab, “Like how Dorian left it with Tanner?”

Miguel turned to Oz and asked, “What?”

“Like how Dorian left it with-"

One moment Miguel was on the sidewalk and Oz was in the driveway, the next, Oz was on the ground and Miguel was being pulled off by Lia and Erikson, Dorian was watching with great amusement and eating a small bag of peanuts.

His cousin spat at him as he was hauled back and screamed incoherently in Spanish.

The now bruised Vallejo shouted, “Back at you!”

Lia snapped, “Oz, get inside before I change my mind and help him beat your ass! Miguel, go home!”

Miguel yelled, “If I  ever see him again I’ll force feed him his own shoes!”

“Go Home!”

Lia picked up the broom and furiously swept the concrete as Miguel’s furious swearing got further away, feeling tears building up until someone tapped her shoulder.

“What Dorian?”

Dorian gave her a tight hug and Lia stiffened. 

“We know Tio didn’t do it and I think I know who’s in Oz’s head. You aren’t doing this alone, alright?”

Lia sniffled, “Okay. Thank you Dory.”

“No problem Lee, call anytime. Actually… I’ll be calling you.”

Chapter Text

“Whoever did this to Tio, they did a damn good job. Tight work, hard to get around.”

 Lia was sitting at a booth in Deep Elm. The speaker was a waitress leaning over the case file, she was small and thin with a narrow face and brown hair.

Lia nodded and said, “Yeah, I gathered. Any ideas on how to figure out who this is Holly?”

Holly turned a photograph and examined it closely. After a moment she asked, “You have Moira look at this?”

“No, we’re trying to leave as many people out of this as possible and besides, we showed it to her already. She said the same thing you did and that it looks like a mini mafia job but you’re the expert on who it might be.”

Holly gave the evidence one more look over and said, “This is probably a middle school kid judging by what they framed everyone for. Some of this stuff is hard to get though, so they are likely about to go into high school or have siblings in high school who can buy it for them or have connections. They’re probably smart, well liked by teachers, and upper class judging by the quality of this fake baseball card.”

Lia let out a low whistle and asked half jokingly, “Any chance you can magic up a name?”

The waitress replied “I have a couple ideas for older siblings actually. The first is Orla O’Broin and the other is Sebastien or Felix Parnassus, though I suspect it’d be Sebastien. Felix was more of a grunt than a mastermind.”

Lia handed her a twenty, “Thanks Holly. If Dan or Oz asks, you never saw me.”

“Noted. Be safe.”

Lia stood up and made her way over to where the live music was packing up. Des had her guitar in it’s case on her back.

Des jerked her head towards Holly, “How’d it go?”

Lia shrugged, “Got a couple of names, some idea of who might have done it. Gonna start sending people to talk to them.”

The african-american girl grunted, “Good. Still don’t understand why you had to talk to an ex though.”

“She had what I needed and I’m not with her, I’m with you. Don’t worry about it.”

Des tucked Lia’s hair behind her ear, “I’ll try not to. I trust you Lee.”

Lia quietly shut the door behind her, as she slid her shoes off. The house was completely dark, save for the kitchen range light. Fortunately she didn’t have to worry about her parents waking up or being there to grill her, they were both working overnight shifts.

Suddenly the living room light flicked on and Lia froze.

“Where were you?”

The commissioner rolled her eyes and stepped into the living room to see Oz, sitting with his arms crossed on the couch. 

Lia crossed her arms and replied “Studying a case.”

“With who?”

“Des.”

Oz snorted, “Yeah, I bet you were both studying a case. Was Dan with you?”

“Yeah but he went home early.”

“Hm. What case was it?”

Lia considered lying but decided that, no, she wasn’t going to. Oz could get over it or suffer.

“Trying to figure out who framed Tio.”

Oz snapped, “Dammit Lia, we’ve been over this, no one framed Horatio! He did it! It was him!”

Lia snapped back, “I’m the commissioner, not you! You don’t get to tell me what’s right or what to believe, I know Tio didn’t do it!”

“Believe what you want. Consider yourself lucky I don’t tell mom and dad you broke curfew, commissioner.”

Chapter Text

Parnassus was furious. He was practically spitting in his rage as he stormed around his office, not only had Fillmore and O’Shea avoided expulsion, he’d been humiliated in front of the entire school. All because the pair had somehow outwitted him and managed to frame one of his best enforcers as extra salt in the wound.

Someone needed to pay for this. He stopped and looked out the window into the room. 

O’Farrell was sitting at his computer, more cheerful than Parnassus had ever seen him as he talked to his lunchtime visitor Wheels. 

This made his stomach twist angrily. In his mind, O’Farrell did not deserve to be happy because it was his fault Parnassus had gotten into trouble with Principal Folsom. If he had found a better way to frame Fillmore and O’Shea, his operations wouldn’t be as impaired as they are now.

Maybe the redhead needed motivation to do better.

—-------------------------------

Danny was relieved that Parnassus’s plan hadn’t worked. Fillmore and Meryl, through some mix of cleverness, audacity, or sheer luck, had managed to avoid being nailed for their crimes and had even slowed Parnassus down considerably since Raycliffe would be helping check everyone’s desk. 

He hummed to himself as he walked to the Metal Shop to walk home with them. They all lived near each other and Danny would ride his roller blades or on the back of Wheel’s bike all the way home. It was fun, it was almost like hanging out with the old patrol again, only better, because no one in the club teased him.

He stopped short. Howie, Rochelle of all people, and Tin Can were all sitting on the ground, Rochelle was holding an ice pack to Tin Can’s arm as he cried quietly and Howie was holding his clearly bleeding nose with a red cloth. Wheels was nowhere to be seen.

Danny recovered and ran over, “What happened?! Where’s Wheels and Junior?!”

Tin Can cried harder and Rochelle patted his head as she explained, “Some Belts- not your belts, the mean ones- burst in and said Junior had been harassing Cheri Shotwell, sending her notes and stuff. Junior tried to run away and they roughed Tin Can and Howie up to get her back on school property and I guess Wheels took issue with that and punched a belt. Got himself arrested.”

Danny asked, “Where did they take them?”

“Wheels got automatic Warehouse Detention, you know, the new one where you make things for the school to sell. Junior is back at the patrol office, they’re examining the handwriting- where are you going, they’ll get you too!”

Danny was already gone.

Parnassus and his new Forensic’s officer, Isla O’Broin, stood in Principal Folsom’s office. Junior was desperately pleading her case to the stone faced woman as Cheri looked more and more uncertain.

“Please, Principal Folsom, I’d never threaten Cheri! I have no reason to-”

Folsom interrupted, “What about that argument you had over Howie Brewer, witnesses say it was pretty serious.”

The girl threw up her hands and exclaimed, “They’re all Patrollers-”

Folsom slammed her hands on the desk and shouted, “What are you saying young lady? Are you saying the Patrol is corrupt?!”

Junior wilted but insisted, “No but they’re all the people involved in arresting me! That seems kinda weird, no offense ma’am!”

Cheri piped up, “Principal Folsom, that wasn’t really even a fight. Junior just told me I’d been stringing Howie along and I listened and made it clear I wasn’t interested-”

Parnassus interrupted, “So, you think it could be Howie Brewer?”

“No! I’m just saying what happened there doesn’t fit what the letters have been saying and besides, we have several classes together including PE! If Junior wanted to beat me up, she had plenty of opportunity and could make it look accidental in at least one case! I’m not pressing charges until the real culprit is found!”

The blond woman sighed, “Miss Shotwell, it’s admirable you’re standing up for Junior but this is very serious, the Patrol will have no choice but-

A calm cold voice stopped Folsom before she could continue, “It isn’t Junior.”

Parnassus glared and the other three stared at Isla. Isla stared unflinchingly back and repeated, “It isn’t her. The handwriting samples don’t match.”

Folsom examined them with Isla and then looked up at Parnassus, clearly confused, “Then how was this missed?”

Isla explained, “Unfortunately ma’am, the old forensics officer, Trupo Harris, was caught dealing Pixie Stix on another campus and was expelled before I was put on this. He was trying to get the case closed quickly and talked to some people, picking Junior at random. This is probably an older male, if I had to guess. We’d need samples from the high schools in the area and the Junior Highs. Not Parnassus’s fault.”

Folsom sighed through her nose and looked up at a shocked Junior and Cheri, “You’re both free to go. Sorry for the trouble. Parnassus, you and Miss O’Broin are dismissed, keep better track of your people Bradly.”

After leaving and walking some distance away, Parnassus pulled Isla down an empty hallway and exclaimed, “What the hell was that?! You have one job, which is what I tell you! I told you to convince Folsom it was Junior you stupid little-”

Parnassus froze. Isla was holding a very sharp letter opener to his neck, her normally empty cold blue eyes alive with malice.

She hissed, “My ‘job’ is what Orla tells me and she told me to watch you, peddle contraband, and not involve civilians. Accusing Junior and harming the other three, because you’re having a widdle bitty tantrum, is involving civilians! I do not like you, I am not loyal to you, and you best believe I was three steps ahead of you before I got here. You wanted the O’Broin’s family’s help, this is how it goes. Okay?”

Brad swallowed nervously and replied shakily, “Yeah, okay.”

“Good. Orla says hello to your brothers.”

Danny panted as ran around the seven sets of  two Portables. He had thankfully avoided the guards but knew he was running out of time.

He looked around as he stopped and whispered at the window of the last set, “Wheels? Hey Wheels!”

A kid poked his head out and snapped, “Beat it kid or you’ll be in here too! Get lost!”

“I need to find my friend! Is Wheels from the metal shop in there?”

The kid rolled his eyes and turned back to the room, “Hey, some redheaded kid is looking for Wheels!”

Danny felt relieved as Wheels appeared, pushing the kid out of the way and snapping, “Shut up Chachi, you’ll bring the guards around! Danny, get out of here!”

“Not until you tell me what’s going on!”

“Is that not obvious? I’m free labor for the metalworking section of the Portables because I punched a belt, and before you ask, I’m fine. They shoved me around but I’m not hospitalized, so I’m doing pretty okay, despite being in baby jail! Now get out of here before they-”

Danny hugged Wheels, nearly pulling him out of the building and whimpered, “I’m sorry Wheels.”

Wheels sighed and patted his head, “It’s not your fault, okay? Look after the others for me and for chrissake, get out of here!”

Danny nodded, rubbed his eyes, and ran off toward the main building.

Danny stewed as he walked home, rollerblades forgotten on his back. He knew Brad Parnassus had something to do with this, it had to be because Fillmore and O’Shea squirmed out of his grasp. As if Danny could control that!

He sighed. He wanted to go to Fillmore’s but being seen there could cause worse problems for Wheels, not to mention himself. Going to Vallejo or Frank would cause similar issues and he had no idea where anyone else ended up.

Despondent, Danny wandered aimlessly and then sat on the curb in front of an open garage and began to cry.

“Um…hey. Hey kid?”

Danny started and looked up. It was a girl with round eyeglasses and a mop of short untidy brown hair. She was leaning on a forearm cane over him and seemed genuinely concerned.

“Are you alright?”

Danny sobbed, “No. My friend was put in detention and- and-”

The girl motioned him over to a swing on her porch, “Let’s get up here and you can tell me about it. I’m Alba.”

“Danny…”

Miguel was playing pool in the garage with Dorian, his girlfriend Jaye, and Boaz when his little sister came running up.

Carmen lisped, “It’s Albie, she says is important.”

Miguel ruffled her hair and then took the phone, “Hey Albie, what’s up?”

“Can’t say now but I need you to bring Boaz and Dori. Listen for the birds chip.”

The boy furrowed his brow and listened to his radio. He could here muffled chatter that definitely wasn’t Alba.

“Got it. We’re on our way, Jaybird is coming too.”

“Aight.”

Soon they were all in Alba’s shed, it was a clubhouse she had repurposed into a functioning house, minus plumbing. Danny was playing checkers with Dorian as Alba related the story…after she’d hid their radios.

“After I talked to Danny, I tried calling you but picked up perp chatter. Someone’s tuned to our frequencies, which isn’t good, means that they somehow got access to our channels.”

Miguel sighed and replied, “That explains a few things, the baby criminals have been able to avoid us easily lately. Can you figure it out Alba?”

The forensics officer shook her head, “No Commissioner, unfortunately there isn’t such a thing as a completely closed CB radio channel. They could have easily found it without help.”

“Great…so how do we help this kid?”

Alba looked at him like he was crazy, “Call your cousin Lia? That seems like it’s obvious. Let her know it’s likely a party line if you don’t call the landline though.”

Chapter Text

Fillmore could not stop smiling.

Ingrid was here, a little more tired and dressed in dark purple due to Hazlenut’s strict no black dress code, but here. He almost couldn’t hear H.K. talking about the plan.

They were inside Mery’s room, Gretchen and Meryl were on her bed while Ingrid and Fillmore took the chairs and H.K. leaned against the end of the bed.

“So, Gretchen can offer her services to the Saints and Ingrid can too, though you’ll definitely need a disguise Third and you will both need a fake name in case it goes wrong. While you’re there, you should become familiar with their systems and where they’re located on school grounds, you could also use flash drives to collect evidence. Though I’m not clear on how that works…”

Gretchen piped up, “I can do that H.K., I use flash drives a lot and my dad can help me learn how to download specifics!”

“Great! Don’t get caught and it should be fine.”

Jesse Saint had learned, a long time ago, that real power lay in gathering information about people. It wasn’t in trading card counterfeit, it wasn’t in fish fighting, it wasn’t even in those kiddie Chop Shops and speakeasy’s the O’Brion’s ran. If you had information on people, you had power over them and you could get them to do whatever you wanted.

But (and this was the big one) you had to be…legal about it.  You couldn’t go around harassing and bullying people into giving you anything good, you had to make it seem legit. Hence the creation of his security company. He made the buildings well protected and survallied and in exchange everyone unknowingly gave him their secrets. Which he then sold.

You want to blackmail a cheerleader? No problem, here’s a picture of her My Little Pony collection! You want to know what snacks students buy the most of? Here’s the lunchroom records, all packed up in a little bow. You even had old papers and essays pulled off computers to ‘lose in the trash’ for cheat sheet rings to use.

No one suspected him, no one on X High Schools patrol did and certainly not any of the middle school patrols. Jesse was smart enough to keep out of X high, least the bloodhounds on their force figure it out, but the Middle Schools were easier because all Jesse had to do was maybe pay off a homeless guy to break in the school or convince a corrupt commissioner in order get the principal to realize that the system was necessary.. It was meant to keep the kids safe. It wasn’t all bad!

It was utter genius is what it was and Jesse was surprised nobody had dreamed it up sooner, especially not Orla or Sebastian. They were both highly intelligent and analytical, Orla would even occasionally gather information on people but nothing on this scale. Idiots.

Jesse barely glanced over the new applicants before approving them, they had valid ID’s and good credentials, Gretal Yoder was an accomplished school IT worker and Inger was a hacker trying to find community service work to bring down her detention sentence. More of the same.

He was more concerned about the aforementioned Orla, who was sitting on his desk and glaring at him. 

“So…is there a reason you’re here or..?”

“You are trying to sell to X?”

Orla spoke in an odd halting way, probably due to the fact English was her third language and she spoke Irish and French, two languages that were far apart from each other linguistically. She also had very blue eyes and black hair, the only dark haired person in the O’Broin family. She was very off putting and Jesse didn’t really want her around him for too long.

Jesse replied matter of factly as he approved the new workers, “X Middle and I already have sold it, contracts signed and all.”

“How long?”

“How long…what O’Broin?”

Orla leaned forward and Jesse moved back slightly.

She hissed, “ I hate this stupid language and if you keep forcing me to talk longer than I want, I will hurt you badly. The contract. How long?”

“Um…a year.”

The girl swore in French and Jesse flinched.

He hurriedly tried to placate her, “It’s only a year, and besides your operations aren’t threatened-”

“Isla is threatened because the Parnassus brat is in charge. I do not trust you Jesse Saint and I’m here to tell you there will be no renewal.”

“Or what? You’ll stop me from releasing this video of Isla threatening Bradley? Or maybe this one of her breaking a guys wrist during that shakedown last week or-”

Jesse stopped talking. He stopped talking because Orla had struck him and he was in pain on the ground and covered in a wet substance he realized was his day old cold coffee.

Orla was holding the mug and standing over him, examining him closely and looking vaguely annoyed.

“Hm, I thought this was hot coffee. Anyways, I have information on all your dealings and they’ll be revealed immediately upon anything happening to me or my sister.”

Jesse snapped, “They’ll figure out what you’ve been up to, you’ve bought things from me before and haven’t cared!”

Orla shrugged and put the mug on his desk before sliding papers down on top of Jesse, “c'est a la vie. Keep out of our business Saint and you keep making money. Get into it and it stops, everything stops, your little boyfriend stops, your new bikes stop, the flashing games stop. Understood?”

The boy gulped and nodded, “Understood.”