Chapter Text
“Xavier, to my office, please.” A voice called him.
Fear. That was the only thing he felt. Xavier had messed up on last case and managed to let the criminal get away. The guilt from the scene had haunted him ever since it happened, not being able to think about anything else other than having to put his gun and badge on the table. He gets up and takes a deep breath, before entering the office.
The voice was his captain, Mr. Winter, sits opposite him. He exhales and asks with a disappointed look on his face, “So, you managed to let him get away?”
“Yes sir.” said Xavier, not being able to look his own boss in the eye. He couldn’t. He felt sick and he didn’t want to hear him as much as it was true. At least he didn’t say-
“I'm disappointed in you.”
Never mind, there it is. The words that manage to hurt the most. He flashes back to his father, asking him why he wanted to be a police officer and not a doctor. He remembers just how disappointed his father was and still is. He didn’t want to think. Making him reach into his police jacket’s pockets and placing his gun and badge on the table.
“I'm very sorry, sir-” he said, slowly getting up from the chair.
“Hold on, I'm not finished yet, put it away.” Winter demanded.
Xavier looks back at him with nothing but pure confusion and sits back down, diligently.
“After, due to you-know-what, I’ve decided to not fire you.” Winter states.
“Thank god...” Xavier let out a huge exhalation of pent-up worry and guilt, it was still there, but way less.
“But. That’s not all.” He lets out a chuckle and got up from his chair, “From now on, there’s going to be some changes.”
Xavier watched in confusion, as the long-haired chief approached the door and called out someone from outside. Soon, he welcomed a rather young-looking man, although looking a little older than Xavier. He had a stubble and was wearing a navy coat, soon taking it off to reveal a white button up and black pants.
“Xavier, meet Gaspard, a transfer from one of the Paris departments. From now on, he’ll be assisting you on your cases.”
“A sidekick? Captain, you know I can do perfectly fine by myself.”
“Not after what happened at Rotary Park.” Winter corrected, sitting back behind his desk, filled with a bunch of paperwork and colourful desk decorations. Xavier felt disrespected, yet understood it. Besides, he was the one who messed the whole operation up anyways.
“Listen up you two, I'll be giving you two an important case. The Chaston Mugger is still on the loose and we think we have his next location. You two will be performing a stakeout.” Winter places a file onto his desk and pushes it towards them.
“Gaspard, show me what you can do. Xavier, this is your last chance to prove to me that you’re capable. Do we both have a deal, boys?”
“Yes sir.” They both said simultaneously. Looks like they’ll have to deal with each other, as they both left the office without a word to each other.
~~~~~
The car lights filled up the car, as both men stared into the darkness. Silence filled up the car, being sprinkled with tension and the smell of the potato chips. It was a stakeout of course, so naturally someone had to bring food.
“Okay. 22 Boonesborough road in the “Rotary Park” area. The culprit’s next location is supposed to be right here according to Captain. The victims all follow a pattern of being young, white women in their 20’s. There sure is a lot of them, but their next victim should be right... Oh my god, could you stop eating so goddamn loudly?” The black-haired man exclaimed, looking at his fellow colleague eating his chips rather, loudly.
Gaspard stopped chewing. Gulping the chips and scoffing with a pissed look on his face, “Jesus Christ, what the hell is your problem?”
“My problem? It’s the fact that I was a perfectly fine cop until the captain decides to give someone to babysit me!”
“Well, you aren’t exactly a fine cop if you let a criminal get away.”
“You think I had control of that?” He snapped back, before leaning his head on the window. “The guy managed to run away so fast that I couldn’t catch him. I feel like such a Fuck-up about it, too.”
Gaspard’s face started to slowly soften in confusion, as he asked him, “Is this the first time that this has happened to you?”
“Yeah.”
Gaspard was slightly surprised, having a case go wrong for the first time at such a level? When he first met the black-haired cop in Winter’s office, he thought that he was rather... a dick. But now, he’s looking at him from a different perspective. He felt rather bad for him too, when he was on the job back in Paris, he had made a lot of mistakes, but he didn’t take much of it, so he tries to give the younger man some advice.
“Hmm. You know, you shouldn’t really beat yourself up about it so much.”
“Tch, really?” Xavier scoffed, looking at the window.
“Yeah. I had a similar situation like you a while back. There was this case I was put on and it was really stressful and I also had a criminal get away.”
He took a potato chip out of the bag and looked at it, now catching Xavier’s attention.
“I remember being just like you, scared, stressed, but I eventually came to terms with it. Sometimes, things are out of your control, and you need to accept it.”
“But I’m not like you! My life needs to have control!” The younger man exclaims, looking down at his hands, “I have a family that’s slowly falling apart and now I have a job that’s falling apart. I need to control my life, because if I don’t, I'll be fucked.”
Gaspard watches as the black-haired man buries his face within his hands, he was right. Behind a mask of anger and rudeness came a stressed and exhausted young adult, dealing with fears of rejection. He places his hand on his back and tries to comfort him, “Xavier, you can’t think like this, you’re doing unnecessary harm to yourself and sometimes, you need to take a step back and let life do its thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well...Hmm...” Gaspard looks down and thinks for a moment, before having an idea.
The curly-haired man reached into the chip bag, confusing Xavier. Soon, he pulls out a weirdly shaped chip.
“Look. What is this?”
“A... Chip?” Xavier responds, confusingly.
“Yeah, but notice it’s appearance. Is, it perfect?”
“No?”
“Okay.”
Soon, the man takes his other hands and scavenges through the chip bag, pulling a chip out by random.
“Now, is this a perfect chip?”
“It isn’t, its broken in half. What are you exactly try to say here?”
“Well, this is kind of a stupid explanation, but I'll try my best to explain. Life is like a chip. It's not perfect, it may be too long, short, curvy and messy. But in the end, it’s still a perfectly good-tasting chip, and if you try to perfect it,” he takes the curved one and tries to straighten it, “It breaks.”
“So, if my life is an imperfect chip, what should I do?”
“Take it more, easily? I dunno, can’t think of the word. But in the end, no-one's life is perfect and instead is filled to the brim with mistakes, mishaps and accidents, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not worth living. Besides, if anything, that just adds to the beauty that’s life.”
“Wow... I truly never thought of life like that, and to think it came from a chip metaphor! Thank you for the advice, I'll keep it in mind next time, but for now I'm hungry. Could we share?”
“Sure. Knock yourself out.” Gaspard chirped, with his chips still in his mouth.
Xavier smiled as he took a handful of chips and ate them slowly, he managed to slowly warm up to Gaspard and manages to forget that they were on a stakeout.
Wait. They were on a stakeout... Eh, still can do it while eating chips.
They both continue eating until he looks up and recognizes a black figure. Xavier quickly realises who he’s looking at, could this be? Could this be...!
“HE’S THERE!” He shouts, unbuckling his seatbelt and opening the door.
They both bolt out of the police car, chasing the masked man along the road. Xavier’s lungs burned with anxiety and determination, the masked man was the Chaston mugger, and he wasn’t about to lose him. Glimpses of hope started to appear more as with each step, with both of them managing to keep up at a constant speed. Soon, they end up at a wall, leaving the masked man at a dead end.
“Police! Hands up!” Xavier exclaimed with confidence in his voice and chip crumbs in his moustache.
He was about to take this guy down.
The mugger slowly turned towards him one step at a time, with his hands up in the air.
But something was wrong.
Gaspard sensed that something was off. He knew that the mugger would not give in so easily and Xavier had been so deep into his pride that he couldn’t sense it. It wasn’t until he looked down that he realised what was wrong. He immediately grabbed Xavier and threw both of them on the floor, as the man pulled out a gun and fired a shot. He soon gets up, grabbing his taser and running towards the man. He dodged the shots as quickly as possible and manages to quickly taze him. The Chaston Mugger is now passed out on the floor.
Xavier soon opens his eyes and runs to him. They did it! He hadn't felt such relief in ages, solving a case. The feel of completion, the feeling knowing that his people were at least safe from one thing made him ecstatic. He opens his mouth to thank-
“I'm going to call everyone, watch him so he doesn’t move.” Gaspard interrupted, before walking away.
“Okay.” Xavier responded, as he looked at him calling the department. What was wrong?
~~~~~
“Congratulations you two!” Mr. Winter exclaimed with joy.
They all were at the crime scene, watching the people investigate the scene and the guy getting arrested. Now, they could go home and rest. Xavier could not wait; he could finally relax and sleep nice and tightly without worrying about the case anymore, but wait, now he’s worried about Gaspard.
They sign some documents and talk to a few people, before they both get in the car as it drives them back to the department so that they could get the rest of their stuff for the weekend. As soon as they arrived at their floor, Xavier noticed how quick Gaspard was to leave. He taps his shoulder, making the curly-haired man jump.
“Ah! Sorry, shouldn’t have done that.” He apologises, probably not the best thing to do right now.
“It's... fine.” Gaspard sighs and continues to walk away.
“But wait! I wanted to ask you something!”
Gaspard stops walking, with his back facing Xavier. He soon turns around and looks at him.
“What is it?”
“I just wanted to ask if you were okay. I could clearly sense your fear back there, have you not experienced this before?”
“I'm okay, just a bit... shaken up. I never had dealt with such cases in my department. If I hadn't pushed you to the ground, your eye could’ve been shot out. It felt so goddamn scary. ”
“Well, what can I say? When you’re dealing with such cases shit happens, but your pretty good at handling yourself as I heard earlier, so I think you’ll be just fine. ”
They both smile at each other.
“Thanks for the advice. I'll be heading home now, so see you Monday?”
“Wait, there’s one more thing I wanted to ask.”
“Hmm?
“Are you free this weekend?”