Will sighed deeply, bowing his head. "I found Danny. I'd seen the place where it happened, and from what he was doing, I knew where it was. I waited for him. I was going to stop him, warn him, before he could go inside. He… he saw me, recognized me, and ignored me when I beckoned to him. Walked in before I could get to him. Died"—he smiled darkly—"in a hail of bullets, as the movies like to put it."
"You tried," Mick said, gripping Will's shoulder. "You did the best you could."
Will shook his head. "I should have been faster, sooner. I should have ignored my captain and called out to Danny, warned him, gone in with him, both of us armed and ready."
"Then both of you would have died."
"That's what the captain said, when I told him what happened. Mira… Mira guessed that I'd seen his death, because she knew what I could do. She blamed me for it. My whole world fell apart."
"So you ran away."
Will nodded. "As far as I could. Deep into the bottle. I would drink myself into oblivion, pass out in some alley, or… or wherever I landed, and start again the next day. Finally, months afterward, I came to my senses. But I was unwilling to go back, to face her, to face anyone. Surprisingly enough, considering the shape I was in most of the time at that point, I'd learned to survive on the streets. Sober, finally, I realized that for me it wasn't such a bad life." He spread his hands. "So it became my life."
"Until now."
"That," Will replied with a bit of a smile, "has yet to be decided."
"You can't go back to it," Mick said adamantly. "You keep pushing for me to get out. You have to do the same thing."
"It's different for you. You have your whole life ahead of you. Me, I'm just a washed up cop who does better where I am now. Where I can see things—sometimes—and stop them from happening—sometimes."
"That's bull and you know it. You could do what you were doing as a cop and it would still happen, and you'd be in a better position to help when it does."
"Perhaps," Will said, drawing the word out. "I'll… consider it." He smiled and got up. "Right now, however, dinner is ready and afterward you have to study."
"Yes, teach," Mick replied, with a mocking salute as they went into the kitchen.
"That's Mr. Teach to you, kid."
Mick snorted. "Riiiight."
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