Sigh, I own nothing and yadayadayada... I'm so tired, it's about 0:37 in the morning and I'm still writing this and listening to the most stupid radio channel in the world.
Okay, this story is dedicated to Finn, one of my most loyal readers who continuously keeps asking me to write something about Finn so I decided to write something to silence her. ;D Not really, I've always wanted to try this freaky idea of mine and Finn gave me a good reason to do it.
May this please you.
"So Jackie, I can trust you with this?"
Jackie nodded and gave a look at the brown envelope in his fingers.
"Of course, Augustus. I will do it immediately," he said. Captain Black smiled looking a bit embarrassed.
"Thank you. I would do it myself, but as you can see, I am very busy at the moment," he said pointing at his messy desk.
The envelope felt harsh in Jackie's hand. He coughed.
"May I ask why you want me to take this to the TV-station?" he asked. Black stiffened for a while, but laughed then sounding just a bit nervous.
"Well, I guess you'd find out sooner or later. Sooner actually if they accept me," he said and opened one of his drawers.
Jackie stared. He had known Black a good while, they were old friends and he had many times been in his office talking about stuff, but never ever had he seen Black open that particular drawer.
Black took out a framed picture. It was old and white spots were somewhere on it. There was a young woman holding a little boy in the picture.
Captain Black gave the picture a thoughtful look.
"Jackie, this is - "
Three and a half weeks later...
Finn leaned lazily against the green sofa and watched football onthe television. His favourite team was losing again and he sipped his beer. Then he grimaced. Ratso had been shopping again and bought some horrible liquid.
Yuck.
He placed the can on the small table next to him and tried to concentrate on the match. "Dude, this sucks." he commented though there was no one to listen. Chow and Ratso didn't like football as much as he did, they were more interested in baseball and even wrestling.
There was a loud bang when the door was opened and his two friends came in. This was Finn's apartment, but his two friends practically lived there anyway. Things were quite good now. Chan and his family had finally managed to drive Shendu out of Valmont and no new magical threats had been seen in a while. Valmont and his Enforces could concentrate on crimes again and slowly the financial damage Shendu had caused was starting to heal.
"Phew, we almost missed it," Ratso said glancing at his watch and sitting next to Finn. Chow sat on the other side of the Irish man and caught the remote control.
"Yeah, if you hadn't reminded me I would have totally forgotten," he said switching channels right when the game had turned interesting.
"Hey! I was watching that!" Finn complained sitting straighter.
Ratso glanced at him.
"But a new series starts today," he said.
"And we want to watch it. There's two of us so our voices beat yours," Chow said making sure Finn couldn't snatch the remote back to himself.
"But I was here first! And it's my television!" the man complained. He was surehis teamwould lose again, but he still wanted to see it. Then he would at least have a good reason to swear and drink too much for a change.
"Sorry, means nothing," Chow said and then gestured everyone to be quiet. Finn snorted softly and frowned turning to watch the programme anyway. Damn, if it was another soap opera he would kill the duo.
A huge picture of a magnifying glass appeared on the screen and in the middle of it flashed the text "Your Detectives". A tune that was probably meant to be mysterious was playing on the background and Finn glanced at his friends.
"What kind of show is this?" he asked.
"You haven't heard of it? Wow, maybe you should read more magazines," Ratso said.
"This is a new series where they look for missing persons. They have several private detectives and people can give them assignments to find their missing relatives and friends. Then viewers can watch as the hunt proceeds and if the target is found both he and the person who wanted to find him are invited to the studio for a big reunion," Chow said.
"Another reality TV-show? They are all so fake," Finn stated not getting why his friends wanted to watch crap like this. He could have understood that Ratso liked it, but he thought Chow was too intelligent to like this stuff.
"Hssh! It begins!" Ratso said and they all silenced. It was an unwritten rule that no talking was allowed when they watched TV, if there wasn't a very good reason, that is.
A man dressed in a neat suit appeared on the screen. He had dark hair.
"Welcome, viewers, in our show 'Your Detectives'! We got a massive amount of assignments and pleads and for this very first episode out detectives have chosen a mission for themselves. I am your host, Adam Rogers," the man said.
The camera moved to show a youngish woman who was dressed in a tight jacket and dark shoes. Her long hair was tied up and she was wearing glasses.
"This is our first detective, miss Hooper. And this is her case!"
Next an old a bit overweight woman appeared, and her greyish hair fell on her shoulders.
"My name is Victoria Jones. Five years ago my grandson Chris disappeared on his way to home from school and the police has found out nothing. His parents are already dead and he was my responsibility. This year I was told that they are not going to continue the search and I almost lost my hope, but then I heard of this show. I knew that this is the only way to find Chris," the woman said with a soft, yet creaking voice.
Then there was a picture of Chris and some basic information. Apparently the boy had been nine when he had disappeared and lived with his grandmother in some small town in eastern America. The school was located in an area that had a good reputation and it was a mystery where Chris had gone.
"So miss Hooper is trying to solve this mystery. But before getting too deep into that, here's our next detective!" Adam said.
The other detective looked much more believable. He was maybe a bit under fifty years old and he had dark hair with hints of grey and stinging black eyes. He was dressed in a rain coat that made him look like Sherlock Holmes.
"Here is mister Bennett who will too start to work on a case. An impressing guy, isn't he?" Adam rumbled.
What they saw next was a huge shock to the three men.
"Dude, that's Black!" Finn exclaimed and Chow laughed.
"I wonder who he is looking for," he stated.
"Hahaha! His brain!" Ratso said.
Black looked completely normal in TV. He was wearing his good old dark coat and looked like he had arrived there straight from work.
"This has to be good," Chow said in amusement. Finn nodded, compared to this a football match was nothing. He was also curious to see who Black was after.
"Maybe he's looking for a missing girlfriend?" Ratso asked.
"So you believe he has had a girlfriend?" Chow said.
"Well, boyfriend then," Ratso threw back. Finn told them to be quiet.
"Shut up, I want to hear what he is saying," he said.
"My name is Augustus Black and I'm looking for my stepbrother. He is a bit older than me and was born in the first marriage of my mother. When my mother got divorced her son was given to her ex-husband and I've never seen him. Now I'd like to contact my brother, but I only know his first name, Naoise," Black said.
Chow laughed.
"Naoise? What a stupid name! Who has a name like that?" he asked.
"Black's brother?" Ratso suggested being just as amused. Finn laughed a bit.
"Yeah, a stupid name," he said a bit lamely and took his beer can from the table. He sipped the drink not caring about the bad flavour and kept his eyes on the screen.
Then there was a picture on. There was a beautiful woman with long red hair and green eyes, though the colours were so bad that they couldn't really be seen. The woman was holding a small boy with the same hair and eyes in her arms.
Finn spat his beer on the floor.
"Eww, what's up with you?" Chow asked when Finn coughed next to him like no tomorrow.
"Should we call a doctor?" Ratso asked, but Finn gestured them he was all right.
"I got something in my throat," he muttered not letting his eyes leave the television screen.
Sweet damn, he was Black's stepbrother!
Black sighed and closed the television. Well, it was out now and if he was lucky he'd meet Naoise pretty soon.
He was nervous.
He had never seen Naoise except in pictures and he had always been curious to meet his brother. Black had no other siblings and the idea of a mysterious big brother had always fascinated him. He had so many times asked his mother to get Naoise to live with them, but she had never done it.
Why?
Black had got the impression that his mother loved her first son truly. And yet she had never brought Naoise to visit themand never visited the boy. When Black had been very young he had been glad, mother didn't have to care about anyone else besides him.
But when he had grown a bit older and got wiser he had realised that something was very wrong. He was never allowed to ask about mother's first husband. Black didn't even know his surname.
His mother, Angela, was a born Irish. Her first husband had also been born in the green island and they had married there. And their son Naoise had been born there too and the family had lived in Ireland until Naoise had turnedtwo and they had movedto America.
There the happy family had been broken and they had got divorced. Naoise was left to live with his father and Angela had later married Thomas Black. Augustus Black was borna year later. He had his mother's red hair - or would have had if he didn't shave his head - and green eyes, just like his stepbrother.
He placed his hands on his desk. How long would it take before Bennett contacted him?
And what was Naoise like nowadays? Had he a family and children? Black didn't know how to react to that. Because of his work he himself had no time to date or even dream about getting serious. He wanted children though, he liked them and the thought of having a son one day was very fascinating.
But at first he had to find a woman who wasn't disturbed by his hard work.
He frowned at himself, he had let himself slip again. The most important thing to do was to find Naoise and get to know him. Maybe he could have the older brother he had always wanted after all.
"May I come in?"
Black lifted his eyes and flashed Jackie a smile. What would he do without his loyal friend?
"Sure Jackie. Something special?" he asked. Jackie sat on a free chair and shrugged.
"Not really. Or actually yes, I came to see how you are," he said.
"Well, as you can see, I'm perfectly fine. What could be wrong?" Black asked and chuckled. Jackie smiled frowning.
"You are nervous. The Captain Black I know is never nervous," he said. Black snorted.
"The whole America knows I'm looking for my stepbrother. If you were me, wouldn't you be nervous?" he asked.
"Well, maybe. But you don't really have a reason to feel nervous. Only few that I know have the courage to announce a thing like that in public television. I couldn't probably do it, I don't like talking about my private life to anyone else than those who I trust," Jackie said.
Black glanced at him.
"Do you think I am a chatterbox?" he asked. Had it been a wrong thing to do after all? And why the heck was he feeling this uncertain about everything?
Jackie laughed.
"You? A chatterbox? Hardly, I have to force every word out of your mouth," he said.
Black shrugged.
"Do you think Bennett will find him?" he asked.
"I'm sure of it. He seemed to know what he's doing," Jackie said.
"Thank you."
"Actually I didn't come here to just see you. I came to fetch you out," Jackie said then.
"Out?" Black asked lifting a brow. Out, now, why?
"Yes," Jackie said, "You need something else to think about. Besides, now that your brother will be found you will certainly spend all of your time with him so this is my last chance to take my friend our."
"I don't know Jackie, I have work to do..."
"Well, if you think that this is more important than a free Friday night..." Jackie saidpretending to be deep in thought. It was something he didn't say very often. He was a very responsible person who thought work was important, but he could see when it was important to relax a bit.
And Black definitely had to relax now.
"You're on. Let's go." the bold man said.
Finn swallowed and stared at the surface of the bar table.
Damn.
Damn.
Damn.
He gulped his drink down and knocked the glass on the table.
Damn.
He had never thought this was possible. He had never thought about this even in his nightmares, so why did it have to be true?
Of course he had always known that Captain Black shared the surname with the man who had stolen his mother and broken his family, but he had never thought more of it. There had to be thousands ofBlacks in America, so what there the odds that this Black was his brother?
He had never met his brother, not even heard his name. Father had called mother's new son the small bastard and little Finn had never bothered to ask the boy's name. All he had known was that some man named Black had come and taken mom away.
"That stupid small bastard..." he muttered to himself using the name his already passed away father had come up with. Now when he had a face for the name it sounded better.
He sighed.
Black was never to be allowed to find out, no matter what. The man of that stupid TV-show - was his name Barney or Bennett or something - would never find him. Never, Finn swore he'd do anything to stop it.
And even if the truth came out Finn would never goon television to humiliate himself. What would Chow and Ratso say? What would Valmont say? He would definitely get fired and then his whole life would lay in ruins.
It was so ironic, during this time Black had tried to ruin it all by arresting them, but now he managed to do it by merely existing.
"Damn," he said to himself. He knew he looked very pathetic sitting there, but he didn't care at all.
And then he heard a voice that he knew and stiffened.
"I don't know Jackie, I don't usually come to places like this."
"Me neither, but come on. Remember what we were like when we were younger! Back then we used to visit these places every night!"
Black snorted.
"And here I though being an archaeologist had made you double boring. Apparently I was wrong."
Jackie laughed.
"I have to be good influence on Jade. If she ever finds out what I did when I was younger..." he said and they both laughed. It was a long while since they had last been out like this and this felt really refreshing.
Suddenly Black stiffened.
"Jackie, look," he said.
"What?" Jackie asked, but then he too saw what Black had noticed.
Finn.
The Irish man stared at them for a while, placed his glass on the table and left.
"I have to arrest him," Black said and was about to move when Jackie stopped him.
"Let it be, you are not on duty. Besides, he wasn't doing anything bad here and you'd never catch him alone. This part of the city is full of hiding places," he said.
Black sighed.
"I guess you are right. But the opportunity was sogood."
They found a table and ordered drinks they had never heard of. Jackie avoided the subject of Black's brother, he wanted to give the man something else to think about.
And yet he had to admire Black for his bravery. Many wouldn't have had the courage to go to TV just like that. Except those who were desperate to get attention.
Jackie was sure Naoise would be happy to know that he had such a good brother.
To be continued...
AN: And if someone didn't know it, "Naoise" is an Irish first name for boys and means "first choice". "Finn" is an Irish first name too and means "fair", but I figured it would be a bit too obvious if Black had told his brother's first name is Finn. So in this fic it's his surname.