by Aiden Bates
Ryan called Rosa, while Nick went to call Leanne. "I just wanted to let you know that Will O'Neal was arrested today," he told her. "I promised you that I'd come over tomorrow and explain everything anyway, but this was a new development and he was our primary suspect. He masterminded everything. He'll be formally charged as soon as we can get him in front of a judge. Rosa, it's finally over."
She sobbed out a thank you, torn between jubilation and grief. "I'm so happy that it's not hanging over us anymore, but at the same time, it's like he was just killed all over again. It feels so new!" she cried.
"Believe me, I know." He took a deep breath. "I lost someone too. And when the killer went to jail, I thought I'd feel better. I thought I'd feel justice. It was just like those months between the attack and the trial never happened. Some days it still feels like that. But Rosa, we got a very bad man off the streets. And we get to stand up and say, 'It might take a long time, but we're not going to tolerate lynchings in Boston.'"
"You're a good man, Ryan. Thank you for letting me know." She sniffed loudly. "I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, okay?"
"You bet, Rosa." He hung up the phone.
They made a token attempt to interrogate O'Neal. His attorney—a new one—was present, and asked to be reassigned after a misogyny- and profanity-laced tirade caused all three to abandon him in the interrogation room. "We didn't really need to interrogate him anyway," Nick told him with a sigh. "I think that we were just trying to draw the case out."
"Yeah, maybe." Ryan ducked his head and blushed. "I'm glad we got him." He almost couldn't breathe. He wanted to touch him so badly, just to rest his hand on Nick's shoulder for a moment.
"Yeah. Me too. I mean, what's not to be glad about? The guy was literally the worst." Nick stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I was impressed by the way you handled him, though. When I saw that bat, I thought it was all over."
"He has a harder time using the bat effectively against someone who can fight back." Ryan smirked. He checked his watch. It was close enough to quitting time. He knew that he shouldn't invite Nick back. Maybe Nick wouldn't even want to talk. The conversation needed to be had, though. "Look, I ran your mom's Tupperware through the dishwasher. I can bring it into the office and have someone drop it off, or you can stop by and pick it up."
Nick perked up at the offer. "That would be okay?"
"Yeah. I mean, if you wanted."
"Could I maybe do that tonight?"
"I think that would be okay." Ryan gave him a little smile.
They headed back to Ryan's place, in separate cars, and Ryan let them into the condo. "Can I get you anything? I've mostly just got water these days, but it's yours if you want it."
Nick perched nervously on the edge of one of the stools at the breakfast bar. "Ryan."
Ryan opened the dishwasher. "What?"
"I still love you."
Ryan closed the dishwasher. "Do you?" He closed his eyes.
Nick rubbed at his face. "Yeah. I mean, I think that we need to not work together. That's not negotiable. It's been made abundantly clear to me, by a lot of people, that I was wrong about your working style, and that's fine. It doesn't change the fact that our working styles clash, and you shouldn't have to put up with that." He smiled a little. "Which is fine, because you're staying in Abused Persons, which was apparently the plan all along."
"I think that's a good plan," Ryan said after a long moment's contemplation. "But can you actually respect me, and the work that I do?"
"Absolutely. Can you actually tell me when you're getting scared, and not let your fears blow other things out of proportion?"
Ryan snorted. "I can try. I'll probably screw up sometimes. This is all very new to me." He gestured at the dishwasher. "Someone's mom brought me Thanksgiving dinner, man. Like, I just stared at her for a minute." He laughed at himself.
Nick startled him by wrapping his arms around Ryan. "If I have my way, you will never spend another Thanksgiving alone." He buried his face in the crook of Ryan's neck. "I missed you so much."
Was this the wisest course of action? Probably not. Right now, Ryan didn't care. He let his arms circle his mate's waist. "I missed you too."
"Let's go upstairs." Nick took his hand. "I don't care if all we do is just lie there and stare at the ceiling; I just want to be with you and know that I didn't lose you forever."
Ryan followed. He knew that there was no chance that they were just going to lie there under the covers, but the thought was nice.
They both stripped to bare skin and crawled under the duvet anyway. The press of Nick's skin against Ryan's was more than he could handle. His skin grew hot, and he pushed back into Nick's hardening flesh.
"I thought we were supposed to be just lying here." Nick's voice was low in Ryan's ear. His hand traveled up Ryan's flank as he spoke, sending goosebumps all over Ryan's skin.
"I can't help it." Ryan gasped as Nick mouthed at his neck. "You get me too worked up."
Nick's hands moved up from his outer thigh to his chest. He rubbed his hand over the swell of Ryan's pecs, bringing warmth and heat. He only turned his attention to his pebbled nubs when Ryan tried to turn over.
Ryan let Nick do what he wanted and focused instead on the moment. He'd been convinced that this was gone forever. He hadn't mourned the sex exactly, although he would have missed that too. He'd missed the closeness. He'd missed the ability to be open with someone, to let his guard down. He'd missed the ability to just relax and let go, to share himself instead of just his body.
Yes, Nick had his flaws. So did Ryan. They would work on their issues together, and as long as there was a legitimate commitment to working things out he thought that things would be okay. They were starting a family together. The future was theirs, and it was truly a safe space for both of them.
When Nick slicked himself up and pressed inside of him, Ryan knew that this was the rest of his life. He smiled through the stretch, because the world was back in alignment. He'd found his match, and they were together now.
There was no way to fully know what was in another man's mind, of course, but he thought that Nick must be feeling it too. He chose a slower, more emotional pace than he normally would have, and he held Ryan close the entire time. When they both finished, his face was wet with tears. He pulled out and went to clean them both up, and then he came back to bed with a laptop.
Ryan rolled over to face him. "Does that really belong in the bed?"
Nick gave him a sated, happy little smile. "It does, actually. I want for us to build our lives together. I think you want that too, right?"
Ryan kissed his elbow, since it was the part closest to his mouth. "Of course. It's not always going to be easy, but that's what we both want."
"Well, I figured that it's still a little early. Your place isn't set up for raising a kid. Mine isn't exactly childproof either, and I didn't buy in that area for the schools. Plus, with both of our incomes, we can afford to buy in a better school district than we could on just one salary. So… I thought we could have a little fun and see what's on the market. Maybe get a sense of what we both want?"
Ryan hauled himself up into a reclining position and laid his head on his mate's shoulder. "Let's see what the market has to show us."
They relaxed for a couple of hours and enjoyed looking at houses. Some were ridiculous in their ostentation, and out of their price range anyway. They were still fun to look at, though, and the detectives amused themselves thinking about what kinds of people lived in those kinds of houses and what crimes they might be guilty of. They saw some absolute teardowns, too, and had a good laugh at those.
They found a few that suited Ryan's tastes, and a few that suited Nick's. Considering that the activity was mostly a way to kill time together, it occurred to Ryan that he was really learning quite a lot about Nick as they scrolled through the listings. He'd never realized that Nick had a passion for home repair, for example. "So let me get this straight," Ryan said, staring at one Edwardian lis
ting. "You want an older home specifically so that you can spend your weekends puttering around the house wearing a tool belt."
Nick pouted and squirmed. "When you put it like that it sounds like a fetish."
Ryan laughed. "Are you sure it's not?" He caressed Nick's face. "I mean, home improvement is fine, in its place. I just have issues if we're going to get into things like a whole bunch of lead paint and plaster dust around the baby, or anything unsafe while the baby's toddling around, you know?"
Nick nodded. "I'd never be okay with letting the baby get hurt. I love you both too much for that." He grinned. "I'm just a little excited to teach our kid how to use all of the tools, you know? Plus, I'm having fun looking at the potential in all of these places." He nuzzled into Ryan's hair. "This is going to be amazing."
Ryan believed him.
***
Nick woke up happier than he'd ever been. His mate was in his arms, and he'd be in his arms forever.
Of course, not everything was going to be sunshine and rainbows. Nick would have liked to spend another long, pleasant weekend celebrating their victory over O'Neal by eschewing clothing and wallowing in their rediscovered happiness. Unfortunately, Ryan had made alternate plans while they'd been apart, and he wasn't willing to put them off.
"I think it would be nice if you came with me, though," he said in a quiet, shy tone. "I promised Rosa that I'd go visit her and explain what happened and why. I think it might be good for her to hear two different perspectives on some aspects of the case." He took a deep breath. "Like, you know. Like Steven. Or Leanne."
Nick stilled. "I'm not sure that's such a hot idea. We almost broke up because of our different perspectives about Steven."
Ryan took his hand. "We did. And that's bad. But Nick, we can't move forward as a couple, as a family, if we can't discuss our differences of opinion. If we can't have differences of opinion like adults. I think it might be safer for us to express those differences with a third party present—someone who we both care for and respect, and who happens to be a clinical social worker who can basically hit us with a spray bottle before we say things we'll regret."
Nick snorted. "We're not naughty kittens, Ryan."
"We're kind of naughty kittens, Nick." Ryan wrinkled his nose at Nick. It was adorable, and Nick couldn't help but give in.
They showered and dressed, and then they got into Nick's car for the hour-long drive down to Carver. It was a Saturday and they were off duty, which meant that they weren't obligated to wear suits or anything like that, but they were still going to visit someone they wanted to show respect for, and they were going on a solemn occasion. Besides, Nick only had the suits that Ryan had returned to wear.
He'd never taken them out of his car.
They met with Rosa in a coffee shop in the middle of town. She'd brought photos of her brother with her. Most of them were in an old photo album with yellowing pages. "I wanted you to see who he was," she explained. "Here he is playing football. And here he is getting an award for the top grades in his class, back in the eighth grade. Here he is at Christmas. He was six years old and had just lost one of his front teeth. He was so proud of himself!"
Nick took Ryan's hand and held it. "James was a special kind of young man," he told Rosa, in a quiet voice, while Ryan looked at the pictures.
"That he was." Rosa pulled out a few loose pictures of James with Maureen. The pictures were candid; they probably hadn't known that they were being photographed until the flash went off. "I haven't been able to look at these for forty years," she explained. "I had a lot of resentment at first. Then I just felt sad. But do you know what? It wasn't Maureen's fault. I don't think you choose who you love, and I know for a fact that Maureen loved my brother."
Ryan looked up, his eyes leaking tears. "She died trying to defend him, ma'am."
Rosa looked at him for a long moment. "Did she?"
Nick sighed and wrapped an arm around his mate. "They were going to kill her anyway, Rosa. But she spent her last breath trying to get to him. According to one of the killers, she didn't realize that he was dead. She was trying to get to him and save him."
Rosa's lip quivered. "My God." She hung her head and wrapped a hand around the pendant she wore. "Please tell me how you knew that."
"It was her brothers." Ryan explained how her younger brother had confessed, and gave the details about the O'Neals' home life. He explained the choices that Steven had made, and the effect that those choices had on him later in life—and in death. "He understood that what he'd done was wrong. And I think he understood that at the time. He just didn't have the strength to resist."
"Not many people in that situation do." Rosa closed her eyes and shook her head. "I can't say that I forgive him. Maybe that will come in time. I hope that it does. Hate hurts the soul. I don't want to carry it inside of me. I can pity him without forgiving him, I think. It must have been a terrible secret to carry around for all of those years."
Nick's lip curled. "He could have come clean at any time." He spread his hands. "I'm just saying."
"He could have." Rosa nodded once. "The longer he waited, the more his fears grew. And from what it sounds like, his fears were justified. If his brother would do that to his sister, what would he do to Steven? He didn't think of poor James, or of us grieving, but I can't blame him for being afraid." She shook her head. "What about the girl? What about Will's girl? We knew each other, sort of. How much did she know?"
Ryan cringed. "She knew, not long after it happened. He gave her the bat that he used to kill Maureen."
Rosa's jaw dropped. "To make her complicit."
Nick nodded. "That's exactly what she said when we found out about it."
"He isolated her, made her move in with his family. He didn't start hitting her until they got married, though." Ryan closed his eyes. "She left, but she held onto the bat as a kind of insurance policy to keep him from coming after her. When it didn't work anymore, she turned it over."
"I want to say that was mercenary of her." Tears streamed openly down Rosa's face. "I mean, it isn't like she didn't know that the case was a stain on Boston's reputation. Even if she didn't care about us, James' family, and even though she obviously didn't care about Maureen, she should have done something. But I've seen too much to not understand what that kind of abuse will do to a woman. She doesn't just have herself to think about, you know? She's got children, too, if I remember correctly. She's got to take care of them. That's her whole job."
Nick straightened up. "I have a harder time seeing things that way, I guess. But my whole family are cops. We have a pretty binary way of looking at things. Either you do the right thing, or you do the wrong thing."
"She did the wrong thing." Ryan nodded, looking down. "I just see why she did it, I guess. At the time when she did it, I think that her attitude was very different from what it is now."
Rosa didn't say anything, just flattened out her mouth.
"The good news," Nick said after a second, "is that the case is pretty much airtight. Leanne will testify. We have Steven's confession. We have the forensic evidence. Will O'Neal will never leave Cedar Junction." He rolled his shoulders. "It's a small comfort, I'm sure, but it's something."
"It won't bring my brother back," Rosa said after a moment. "And it won't bring Maureen back either. But at least the ones that did it won't be sitting back all smug that they got away with something."
"No. No they won't." Ryan bowed his head. "If it makes you feel any better, I had to dislocate his elbow."
Rosa chuckled. "That actually does help."
Nick laughed at that.
Before they left, Rosa gave them both framed pictures from her collection. One was a picture of James in front of the monument of a Civil War solider at Cedar Grove Cemetery. The other was a copy of one of the candids of James and Maureen. "I wanted to give you something to remember him by," she told them. "I hope you'll stay in touch, of course, but I wanted to thank you specifically for both keeping their memory
alive and for letting them rest in peace."
The gesture was so touching that even Nick almost cried. They thanked her and helped her to her car, and then they headed up to Ashland so that Nick could pack some things.
The next steps for Will O'Neal didn't happen quickly, except for his arraignment, which came pretty fast. That happened on Saturday, while Nick and Ryan were having coffee and challenging conversation with Rosa. The judge determined that in light of his attempt to escape and his attack on Leanne, which could be perceived as witness intimidation, he would not be granted bail.
Getting him in front of a jury took time, though. It took months. The case itself wasn't all that complicated, but there had to be room on the calendar to accommodate it and there had to be a courtroom big enough to fit the media representatives that had already expressed interest in the subject. Finally closing a racially charged case, during a time when the racial divide seemed to be almost as bad as it had ever been, got a lot of attention.