Kindergarten Heero Part 11
Following the sound of a child in distress, Heero ran down the street and around the corner. He took in the scene at a glance. Alexia had her arms wrapped around a parking meter and was gamely resisting her father's attempt to drag over to the open car door.
"You said Mama was here! I want Mama!" Alexia wailed.
"Get in the car!" the tall dark-haired man snapped, forcibly breaking her hold on the post.
"Mama said..."
"I don't care what that bitch said! I'm your father; now do as I say and get in the damn car!"
The backhanded blow that accompanied the angry roar never got a chance to strike the girl's tear-streaked face. Heero blocked the blow easily with an outstretched arm. With icy calm, he warned the man, "Mr. Mueller, you are in violation of a restraining order. Release Alexia and leave at once or I will be forced to call the police." He couldn't arrest Mueller himself; this wasn't his jurisdiction. 'I really shouldn't be getting involved at all; I should have just called the police when I realized she was missing and that her father probably had her...' But he couldn't stand by and allow a child to be put at risk.
"Mr. Yuy! I want Mama!" Alexia strained against her father's grip, reaching towards her teacher.
"It's alright, Alexia. We'll call your Mama in just a minute," Heero promised gently. Sternly, he ordered her father, "Let her go, Mueller."
"Mind your own fucking business," the taller man snarled furiously. "The brat's mine; I'll do whatever I damn well want. She's coming with me."
"No!" Alexia shouted rebelliously. She turned her head, swiftly, and sank her teeth into the hand clutching her shoulder.
Her father yelped in pained shock and involuntarily released his hold. "You little bitch!"
Alexia darted away from him, hiding behind Heero. "Leave her alone!" Heero snapped, turning his body to block Mueller's attempt to recapture the girl.
"Stay the hell out of this!" Mueller bellowed. He swung wildly at Heero.
'Perfect,' Heero thought with satisfaction. Quite deliberately, he let the first punch connect. His head rocked back with the force of the blow but it wasn't enough to make him stagger. Just enough to leave unmistakable evidence that he was forced to fight back in self-defense.
The second blow didn't even come close. Heero caught Mueller's fist in one hand and slugged the man in the gut with the other. Mueller folded up with a grunt as the breath was knocked out of him. In a single smooth motion, Heero shifted his grip on Mueller's fist to the wrist. He twisted the arm behind the man's back, spinning him around and propelling him up against the side of the car with somewhat more force than strictly necessary. Despite Mueller's furious struggles, Heero held him in place easily, ignoring the gasping curses and threats spilling from his mouth.
A frightened whimper from Alexia drew Heero's attention. He reined in his anger, tamping down the temptation to give Mueller a chance to take another swing at him and thereby provide himself with an excuse to hit back. Turning his head, Heero assured Alexia, "Everything's okay now, Alexia. You're safe." He spotted a red mark on her cheek and a trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth and twisted the arm in his grasp a bit more tightly. Alexia flinched away from him and Heero made a conscious effort to wipe the furious scowl off of his face and soften his voice. "Go get Principal Une, sweetheart," he urged gently. "Tell her what happened and that your father and I are waiting for her, okay?"
Alexia nodded silently, eyes wide, then turned and fled back to the school. Heero knew that Une would see to it that the police and Alexia's mother were called then he was certain she would be out here herself to see just what was going on.
'K'so. This is the last thing I needed - getting involved in an arrest completely unrelated to the case I'm here for...' Heero thought grimly, ignoring the increasingly angry words and violent struggles of his prisoner. Chief Jaye was going to be furious. But it couldn't be helped. Heero just wished that he had his cuffs. In their absence, he was going to have to stand here and hold Mueller pinned against the car until the local police showed up.
And try very, very hard to remember all the reasons why he couldn't simply pound the abusive bastard into the pavement while he was waiting...
***
Heero sighed wearily as the police cruiser pulled away, carrying Mueller off to the police station. He'd given his statement to one of the officers but he would have to drop by the station at the end of the school day in order to check it over and sign off on it. Turning, Heero started back towards the school. He walked inside and turned towards his classroom. He made it three steps before a stern voice from behind him halted him in his tracks.
"Mr. Yuy."
"Principal Une," he acknowledged, looking back over his shoulder.
"My office."
"My class..." Heero protested weakly. He didn't like the sound of that summons.
"Now, Mr. Yuy." Une did not wait for a response, heading towards her office immediately. Her heels rapped an angry staccato as she stalked down the hallway.
Only the faintest flicker of trepidation crossed Heero's face as he obediently turned and followed. He had a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling.
That bad feeling was confirmed a few moments later as Une quite firmly closed her office door and pointed towards a chair. "Sit."
Heero sat, abruptly feeling a great deal of empathy for every student ever called into this office by this woman. Une circled her desk, standing behind it and glaring intently over the top of her glasses. Heero dropped his gaze and apologized, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hit the man. Especially not in front of his daughter..." He could have subdued Mueller after blocking the man's attempt to strike Alexia. He'd let his desire to give the man a little taste of his own medicine get the better of him and had deliberately allowed Mueller a chance to start a fight. Satisfying as the scuffle had been, it had been a completely unprofessional thing to do, both as a police officer and as a teacher.
Une didn't say a word, merely pursed her lips more tightly and pushed her glasses up. She removed a folder from a drawer and slapped it down on the desk in front of Heero. His own name was written across the top of it. "Mr. Yuy," Une intoned grimly, "I checked you out. There is no record of you ever having been a teacher at any public school in California. Or anywhere else."
Heero winced. The jig, as Hilde would say, was up.
"Mr. Yuy," Une remarked - far too casually, in Heero's opinion - as she began to pace, "you have no teaching credentials. No teaching experience, whatsoever."
"That's not entirely accurate," Heero interrupted defensively. "I've taught classes at the academy."
Une raised one eyebrow and conceded archly, "Very well. No experience teaching at anything other than the post-secondary level."
Heero muttered under his breath, "So you finally noticed..." He shut up again as Une directed her glare in his direction again.
"A ferret in the classroom seemed to be a recipe for disaster. But the children adore it." Une paused in her pacing. "And as for your police whistle..." She shook her head and pursed her lips.
"It was all I could think of..." Heero protested, once again on the defensive. He knew that he hadn't been doing a very good job but he'd done the best he could, despite the fact that he had absolutely no idea what the hell he was doing.
Une ordered icily, "Let me finish."
Heero subsided unhappily. He could see where this was headed. Une was going to pull the plug on his position here. 'This shouldn't bother you, Yuy. You've already asked to be pulled off the case so you'd have to leave within a day or two anyway.' But it did bother him. He hated to fail and the principal's obvious disapproval of his methods was a pretty damn good indicator of failure.
"...but it worked." Une moved a few steps closer to Heero, pulling off her glasses as she continued in a slightly warmer tone, "I have no idea what kind of police officer you are, Mr. Yuy... But as a teacher, you are - quite adequate." She nodded sharply in emphasis. "Odd, but adequate."
Blinking in surprise, Heero managed to murmur, "Thank you." He was fairly sure that was what passed for a compliment coming from Une.
Une dragged another chair over beside Heero and sat, leaning towards him conspiratorially. "So, tell me... What did it feel like to hit that bastard?"
Caught off-guard again, Heero gaped for a moment before answering, "Good. Very good."
The principal sighed in satisfaction. "Good," she nodded. Then, quite abruptly, she jammed her glasses back on her face and stood. Moving swiftly, she crossed the room and opened the door to the main office. "Well, that will be all. See you tomorrow morning, bright and early."
Tacit acceptance of his continuing to teach. That was more than he'd dared hope for from Une once she found out the truth. "Tomorrow morning," Heero agreed, hurrying to leave before the woman could change her mind.
***
Heero read through the typed version of his statement carefully, marking a couple of minor clarifications. He turned it over to the arresting officer, then leaned back in his chair to wait for the corrected copy. Once he signed that, he could go pick up dinner and head off to Duo's. 'Chinese sounds good... I remember Duo mentioning that Fong's had really good Chinese, so I know he'll like it... But what about Helen?' Hmm, he wasn't too sure that most children would even try Chinese food. Maybe he'd better pick up a pizza too, just to be on the safe side...
"Yuy. Or should I say, Detective Yuy?"
The cool voice broke into Heero's musings. 'Meiran Chang...' he recognized uneasily. 'So she knows who I am...' "Yuy is fine," he answered cautiously.
"You are a bit out of your jurisdiction, aren't you?" Meiran's smile wasn't the least bit friendly. "Astoria must be rather dull and boring in comparison to L.A. I'm sure you can hardly wait to head home."
"It is definitely a real change of pace," Heero admitted. He had the distinct feeling that he was picking his way through a minefield. Meiran had been rather distant when they'd met previously but nothing like this. This was barely-veiled hostility. "But I certainly wouldn't call Astoria boring." 'And as for heading "home" - Astoria already feels more like home than L.A. has in years...'
If anything, Meiran's voice became even cooler and more unfriendly. "Not boring? I gather that you've found something to - entertain you - while you're here."
Stunned, Heero stared at her for a moment. What the hell... 'K'so. She thinks I'm toying with Duo. Amusing myself with him while I'm here...' He was torn between anger that she would think so poorly of him and satisfaction that Duo had such a protective friend. With forced calm, he replied, "I would not be planning to relocate my 'home' simply because I found Astoria - entertaining."
Meiran was sufficiently startled by Heero's response that her stern expression faltered for an instant. 'Relocate? He's planning to move to Astoria? Because of Duo?' If that was true... She still didn't like the fact that he was here under false pretences in the first place - but if he really did care for Duo, maybe things would work out eventually. 'But if he's lying... if he hurts Duo...' Well, she'd given him fair warning. Duo had friends, good friends. Friends who would be quite willing and able to make life very, very miserable for anyone who hurt him. Or Helen, for that matter.
She inclined her head very slightly and told Heero, "No, that would not be wise. If you do indeed have good reason to do so, then we will be pleased to welcome you." And they would be. If Heero didn't hurt Duo, if Heero genuinely cared for Duo, if Heero continued to make Duo as happy as he'd been lately, then he would be more than welcome amongst their group. If.
The return of the officer with Heero's statement prevented any further discussion from taking place, much to Heero's relief. He didn't know exactly how detailed Meiran's knowledge of his assignment was so he was wary of revealing too much. And he couldn't reassure her that he would not hurt Duo. Not yet. He certainly didn't want to hurt Duo and if there was any way to avoid doing so, he would - but he had a whole lot of confessions to make once that became possible and the odds were very good that he would hurt Duo in the process. Hopefully, Duo would forgive him and give him a chance to make up for that hurt - but he couldn't be sure of that. No matter how much he wanted to be.
***
Jaye scowled darkly as the Medical Examiner uncovered the corpse's face. 'Noin. Dammit.'
"That's her," he confirmed disgustedly. "So much for the case." He shook his head in frustration. "Damn junkie," he muttered, "just had to get a fix." Motioning for the M.E. to cover Noin back up again, Chief Jaye strode out of the room.
Without Noin's testimony, the charges would have to be dropped and Khushrenada would walk. Time to call Yuy and Schbeiker back from Oregon. They hadn't located the wife yet and he couldn't justify their continued assignment to the investigation now that the case against Khushrenada was shot all to hell. There were too many other cases waiting to keep wasting time on one that wasn't going anywhere. 'Time to cut our losses and move on...'
Especially since Yuy had asked to be pulled anyway. Jaye scowled even more darkly as he made his way back to his office. 'Yuy asking to be pulled from a case due to "personal involvement"? Definitely time to get his ass back here and back to work. Obviously he's had too damn much free time if he's actually developing a personal life...'
TBC...
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