Work Text:
“Why is it that, every time I think I’ve seen the worst this world has to offer, it just has to go and prove me wrong?”
Jamie glanced curiously over at his wife, arching a brow in response to what he was sure was meant to be a rhetorical question. “That’s a pretty big question for you to be asking at eight o’clock on a weeknight.”
“Is that your way of saying you don’t have an answer for me?”
“Pretty much.”
Eddie huffed, head falling back against the seat as she stared up at the roof. “Do you think this is it? Do you think I’ve finally dealt with the worst humanity has to offer?”
“Honestly? Probably not,” Jamie admitted, flipping on his turn signal and pulling smoothly into the next lane. “I don’t think I’ve seen the worst it has to offer either, though. If that makes you feel better.”
“Not really.” His wife turned to stare at him. “Do you think she was always this selfish?”
“Who? Mia?” He shrugged. “Maybe. Everybody’s got a breaking point, though. Dealing with what she dealt with, day in and day out, it’s pretty likely that, when she reached hers, she turned her back on everything she believed in before.”
“And, what, just abandoned her moral compass on the side of the road?” Eddie scoffed, still outraged by the very idea of what the other woman had done to those boys. “She was a social worker, Jamie. An advocate. When she was confronted with those boys’ situation – Mom vanished to God knows where, Dad out of the state – she should’ve been looking to help them. Nothing else. Her job was to help and protect those kids. She was supposed to show them another way, not convince them to steal for her.”
Jamie was silent for several seconds. Finally, he nodded. “You’re right. She failed those kids. They could’ve gotten into a lot of trouble if they hadn’t ended up telling us the truth in the end.”
“And she would’ve let them,” Eddie muttered angrily. “I think that’s the worst part for me. She could’ve fessed up the minute we got to that store, and those boys would’ve been saved a lot of unnecessary trauma, but she didn’t. She kept lying. She had to know they could’ve gotten into some real trouble, and yet she just… didn’t care. What she said when we talked to her at the scene, about those kids never having a chance… it’s like she didn’t even stop to think that she was the one taking that chance away from them.”
“I don’t think she was thinking about anything other than an easy payday,” Jamie said hesitantly. “When someone’s that willing to risk someone else’s freedom… they’re not thinking of anyone other than themselves.”
“Yeah.” Eddie heaved an exhausted sigh. “You put in a good word with the D.A., though, didn’t you? The kids aren’t going to get in too much trouble, are they?”
“I did,” Jamie confirmed. “He’s got to do something. Even if they were coerced, they did break into a store and put everyone in it in danger. But he’s willing to drop their charges low enough that it’ll be nothing more than community service. Their records will be expunged, too.”
“Good,” Eddie breathed, smiling over at him warmly. “That’s good.”
“It is.”
“Mia better hope she spends some real time behind those bars, though,” his wife muttered a second later, expression darkening as she turned her attention to the scene outside her window. “If I ever see her on the street again, I think I’ll probably end up punching her.”
Jamie scoffed a laugh, shaking his head with a wry smile. “In that case, maybe I’ll have to do her a favor by calling the D.A., too.”
“Why?”
“To recommend she gets life,” he replied, only half-joking. “For her own safety, of course.”
Eddie couldn’t help but laugh quietly at that. “Of course,” she agreed seriously. “For her own safety.”