"Yep. You have a good one, now." I gave him an imaginary tip of the hat and headed to my car.
My phone rang as I was pulling out. I parked along the narrow road and answered it. The dust was already thick on my car so there was no reason to rush; the damage was done.
"Connery," I said.
"Jon or Sean?" asked my boyfriend, sounding more like himself than he had earlier.
I gave the appropriate snort.
"You okay?" he asked shyly.
"Yeah, you?"
"Uh-huh. I'm sorry I lost my temper."
Yeah, he was a regular Hulk. "Not a big deal. I spoke with Green. He's pissed off, lost his job because of being questioned by the cops. I spoke with his boss, and I think I got it back for him."
Maybe that was my good deed for the day. Or longer. I really did suck at this community outreach thing in general, but even so I had to admit that it…hadn't gone one hundred percent terribly. So far.
"Oh, that's awful. Did he seem okay, personally, though? Not like he was having a panic attack or about to slit his wrists?"
Avery sounded really concerned, and I wondered at it. He had a soft heart, but it was hard to imagine him getting so invested in someone he'd seen once, for a couple of seconds, before all hell broke loose. Well, I guess he felt responsible. Even though he wasn't, not really. It had been the rabbit's panic and the captain's ignorance setting up the problem. Avery had been innocent of malice or even knowledge till it was too late to avoid the situation.
That really did need to not happen again — if only to keep me from having to play Mr. Nice Officer to the public at large. And scaring little kids on their home turf.
I let out a sigh.
"He is going to be okay, right?" Avery's voice was edged with panic. I could just picture his huge eyes growing huger, tragic and frightened as he built a future of awfulness for Green, all being Wallace's fault, of course.
I let out a snort. "Calm down, you're making me nervous." I flicked on the windshield wipers, but it made it hard to hear, so I quickly turned them off again.
Avery was saying, "Sorry, but can you tell me what's the problem?"
"Yeah, well, he lives down by the river in a pretty bad area, and it's real hand to mouth. He's got kids, worried how he's going to feed them if he doesn't get his job back. And, frankly, even if he does."
"Ohno," said Avery quickly. "Is there something we could do?"
"Well, I talked to the boss. And I've got Green's phone number now. So I can check up in a day or two and see if he has his job back."
Avery was silent for a moment, digesting this. "Okay." He sighed. "Thank you, Jon, for taking this seriously. I hate being responsible for his hurt like that."
"It wasn't your fault. I've gotta drive now, I'll talk to you later."
"This evening?" he said, sounding wistful. "Maybe we can even see each other?"
I thought of Eli, and my responsibilities at home. I wished it could be otherwise, but it wasn't, not yet. "We'll see. I'll give you a call."
"Are you mad?" he asked tentatively.
"Nope, just rushed. Listen, you did nothing wrong, okay?"
"Okay," he said, not sounding convinced. "I'll, um, see you then. Tomorrow, I guess."
"Yeah. Probably." I sighed. "Love you, babe."
"You, too." He sounded a lot more cheerful now. We still didn't say it much, though we'd officially been together as boyfriends for a few months now, since the winter. That was, wow, almost six months. Even longer unofficially.
He made a kiss sound over the phone, and laughed when I groaned. "See you, hot stuff," he said before hanging up.
