ds_flashfiction | Forgiveness challenge

Title: Conversations and dead people
Rating: PG
Notes: 4 drabbles post-Juliet is bleeding

I stand by my detectives

The coffin is light. It should be heavier. Mort's report said little was left of Gardino's body. There should be something to show for his life. Something more than a weighted-down box draped with a flag and an empty desk. It isn't the first time he's done this, he's lost officers before and Welsh knows he'll lose them again. Sometimes it’s nobody’s fault. This time it is. But dying 'cause Vecchio walked into some fight with Zuko in a restaurant. It ain't worth it.

Welsh isn't angry. Not yet. But he is tired. He's been to far too many funerals.

You've got to know when to hold the line.

“It was the last words she said. Not like in Frannie’s movies where the heroine dies in her lover’s arms with his name on her lips. Frank. Lying there with his bullet in her body and still she’s got to make things right. We never even got one last dance.

I’m not saying it was an accident because she asked me. Or because it’s the truth. I’m saying it because of the look on Frankie’s face when he realized what he’d done to her. I’ll see that look for the rest of my life. I haven’t begun to forgive him.”

You've got to live by the principles you protect.

“Michael Serento has confessed to a number of ‘shakedowns’, and the murder of Detective Gardino. He is negotiating with the FBI to provide them with information regarding Chicago’s Mafia, in exchange for leniency in sentencing. Lieutenant Welsh has SA Laurent’s assurances that Mr. Serento will spend the rest of his life in jail.

This investigation has been an unsettling reminder of the RCMP’s actions during my investigation of – well, of your murder. I have become far too accustomed to having the resources and support of the Chicago PD in investigations. If you’ll excuse me, dad, I have a funeral to attend.”

All you've got to do is say he shot her with intent

“You had to go back for that coat, didn’t you? Had to go get yourself killed and leave the rest of chasing our tails. Chasing Frank Zuko while the real murderer was sitting by, laughing at us. It was almost worth it to see Zuko panic, to watch the bastard worry about falling down stairs on the way to the cells.

But he didn’t do it. The guy runs that neighbourhood, but the Mountie’s sure he’s innocent. And he was right. Again. But there’s loyalty, you know. Doesn’t make it any easier to forgive Fraser just because he was right.”