Chapter Text
“This is serious, Andrew.” Piggins continued to paint him into the corner. “If you know anything about these crimes then you need to tell me, or I won’t be able to help you.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” Aaron interjected, throwing the file down on the desk before him. “What makes you think that Andrew has anything to do with a bunch of dead pedophiles?”
Andrew wanted to retch.
Out of all the things he could have been called into Wymacks office over, this was the absolute last thing he could have expected. He believed this chapter of his life had been left behind long ago. He certainly didn’t think that he had anything left to bite him in the arse now.
“The first three were all former foster parents of Andrew.” Piggins continued, unable to take a hint from the frosty office he’d admitted these things too.
“No.” Aaron panicked, staring at Andrew in disbelief. “Andrew has never been…!”
Wymack shifted his weight on the filing cabinet, reaching down to grab his trash can and passing it across Andrew in time for Aaron to grab it and spew a cascade of vile liquid into it, while Andrew pushed his chair onto its back legs and avoided all eye contact with those in the cramped office.
Andrew knew who did this.
The only person who had ever willingly gone to bat for him. A person he had mistakenly believed to be dead long ago; this was proof to the contrary. Except… Except that there was one name missing.
Abram wouldn’t kill everyone he could find and let one single man off the hook. Had his luck run out when he encountered perv number four on Andrew’s list? Or was something else at play here?
“Andrew.” Piggins prompted when Aaron’s retching had slowed to dry heaving with the contents of his stomach now swimming in the bin clutched in his hands.
Andrew blinked at him.
He needed to search up that last name. He needed confirmation one way or the other.
He needed Piggins to piss off back to Oakland and leave him in peace.
“I have nothing for you.” Andrew said slowly looking over the coach’s desk, his eyes landing on the laptop that was ever present hidden under a stack of loose papers. “I didn’t do this.” He told him, reaching across the desk and snatching up the laptop, yanking it from its power cord, and pulling it into his lap.
“What are you doing?” Piggins asked warily.
Andrew didn’t respond as he pulled up the search engine and entered the name that had haunted his dreams for years.
“Andrew?” Aaron rasped, leaning closer to see what he was up to.
Andrew planted a foot on the edge of the desk and tipped his chair backwards, angling the computer away from all prying eyes as he looked through the results. Aaron kept staring at him with a pained expression on his face, looking like he wanted to reach out or say something but didn’t know how. Andrew pointed at his brother without raising his eyes from the screen.
“Does that look like a man who has anything to do with this?” He asked, directing his question at the cop as he pulled up the most useful looking article in the results.
Piggins switched his attention to Aaron and deflated at the sight of the trauma he’d caused another kid. “I didn’t want things to go this way.” The man pleaded. “But I still have a job to do.”
“Five months.” Andrew muttered to himself as he read through the article.
David Lewis had died five months before Abram had made his way back to California. His name wasn’t in the list because he was already six feet under. Abram couldn’t kill him again.
“Five months what?” Piggins gained his conviction back, standing up and reaching over the desk for the laptop.
Andrew pulled it out of his reach and Piggins moved around the desk to confront him, stop only Wymack stepping into his way and bracing to push the man back if he continued. Piggins stepped forward, pushing himself into Wymack space and Andrew reacted on instinct; unable and unwilling to show them there was another man who was on his list.
He threw it.
The laptop hit the wall in the corner of the office, shattering the screen and scattering glass shards everywhere as the bent frame dropped lamely to the ground.
“Dammit, Minyard!” Wymack pushed past the cop and picked up his ruined laptop with a tired sigh. “You’re lucky I keep backups of my files.” He said dropping the twisted husk onto the desk.
“What do you know, Andrew?” Piggins demanded placing a hand on the back of Andrews chair and forcing all four legs to the floor.
“I know that I didn’t do it.” Andrew stared blankly at the wall across the room from him. “I know that you failed to act on complaints about those foster parents. I know that this case has been sitting on some cops’ desk completely ignored because no one wants to solve the murder of rock spiders and even if they did, there was no evidence to go on. I know that every witness that you interviewed suddenly had a case of amnesia once they heard those men like touching children. I know that you won’t ever find who’s responsible and you’re only here because someone is trying to mess with me by dropping an anonymous tip to your hotline.
Congratulations, you’re as useless as ever. So, what the fuck do you want from me?” He asked looking at the man at last.
Wymack lit up a cigarette, sitting heavily in his seat behind the desk as all eyes returned to the cop. Andrew tapped the desk in front of him expectantly and Wymack tossed the pack towards him with the lighter following a moment later.
Higgins was pale. His mouth stretched into a thin line as he straightened up and tried to find his professionalism.
“If you didn’t do it,” he started, reaching over for the second folder he had brought with him. “Then you have nothing to hide. Sign the paperwork so we can check your bank accounts and clear you from the suspects list.”
“Useless.” Andrew repeated, lighting up a cigarette of his own and grabbing the folder Higgins held out to him.
“You know more than you’re telling me.” The cop complained, passing over a pen.
Andrew hummed as he started filling out his and Aarons details from memory. “You never believed me before,” he commented, ignoring the strangled whine that came from his brother. “Why would I bother trying to tell you anything now?”
“That was a long time ago.” Higgins defended himself weakly.
“And you still care more about those men than you ever did about the kids you left in their hands.”
Wymack kept his eyes flicking between the two of them in case he needed to intervene, and Andrew passed a sheet over to his brother along with the pen. “Sign it.”
Aaron wiped at his eyes, brushing away the few tears that had silently fallen to his cheeks. “Why should I help him.”
Andrew looked over at him, while Aaron kept his red-rimmed eyes defiantly on the desk. “Because we had nothing to do with this, and signing it means they have no reason to come back here again.”
Aaron frowned, carefully lowering the puke filled trash can to the floor and looking up at him for one final confirmation before picking up the pen. His hands were shaking badly but he managed to grip the pen long enough to scrawl a shaky signature on the line next to his pre-filled name.
Andrew stole the paper when he was done, shoving all the loose sheets from both files back together in one and tossing it at the pig. “Now piss off!”
The file slipped in the man’s hands, and he had to catch the papers as they spilt out the bottom. He took his time to right them and neatly arrange them in the folder before he turned to the door, stopping once more to look at Andrew.
“I am sorry.” He tried.
Andrew didn’t look up at him. Flipping a rude gesture in his direction and drawing on his cigarette.
The room sat in tense silence after the door shut firmly behind the cop and Andrew delayed the inevitable fallout by focusing on his cigarette and nothing else.
It was Wymack who broke the silence. “Do you need me to call Betsy?”
“Nope.” Andrew tossed the remnants of his smoke into the can filled with his brothers’ vomit and listened to the hiss as the cherry was extinguished. “I need you two never to mention anything about this.”
He turned to his brothers who was breathing hard and sucking back on the liquid attempting to escape his nose.
“Look at me, Aaron.” He demanded calmly, waiting for his brother to find the courage to look him in the eyes before he continued. “If you speak a word of this to anyone, all deals are off and I will personally slit your throat. Do you understand me?”
He hadn’t thought it possible, but Aaron managed to go paler than a ghost as he nodded shortly.
“I need actual words.” Andrew reminded him, holding his brothers watery gaze, and speaking slowly. “Do you understand?”
Aaron tears broke containment again and they both ignored it as he picked up the hem of his shirt to wipe the snot away from his nose. “I understand.” He whispered. “Andrew,” He tried, his voice stronger than before. “You can talk to me. You know that, right?”
Andrew didn’t bother to hide his scoff. “Since when?” He asked rhetorically.
Aaron broke after that. No longer fighting his imagined grief at Andrews ordeal and hiding his face in his hands.
Andrew tore his attention from the sight and looked back to Wymack who was watching them both carefully. “I’m done here.” He told the man, getting out of his seat. “You’re babysitting. Don’t bother me until tomorrow.”
“Andrew?” Wymack called after him before he could escape through the door. “Be safe.”
Andrew didn’t look back as he left.
His head was already filled with ‘what if’s’ and ‘why nots’, the biggest and most pressing was, why hadn’t Abram come to find him?
He was in California, going after Andrews’ personal hitlist, why wouldn’t he have gone looking for him at the same time?
Unless… He had.
So, why didn’t he find him?
Andrew paused beside the GS, unlocking the car as he thought. He wrenched the door open in anger when it hit him. Abram didn’t find him because he couldn’t find him.
Andrew Doe had disappeared at the same time Andrew Minyard had popped into existence on the other side of the country. He had been so eager to ditch everything that connected him to California, he didn’t stop to think that he should leave a few breadcrumbs for his only friend.
It was his fault.
He changed his name and disappeared. Abram would have looked for him; Andrew had no doubt about that. But he couldn’t find him.
Andrew wants nothing more than to get drunk and wallow in his guilt; he spins the wheel and heads to the dorms, making a mental note to send Nicky a message to get him to pick up some more booze.
He makes it all the way to the Tower before he decides that just wallowing in his own self-pity wasn’t going to cut it. He needed a plan. Abram was out there somewhere, and he didn’t know that Andrew was safe. He didn’t know that Andrew wanted to be found.
Andrew needs a plan, and it has to be good. Something that will identify him and send news travelling all over the world if necessary… but how? What?
Things he knew:
Abram was an Exy junkie, for life.
Andrew was on the world’s worst, class one, collegiate Exy team.
Kevin Day was one of Abrams celebrity heroes.
The Foxes were facing off against the Ravens in a little more than a week and not only were they sold out, but they were also broadcasting the game on every major channel as the rivalry of a century. Kevin Day and Riko Moriyama, the lost brothers facing each other down on court for the first time ever.
And that was Andrews’ ticket to get Abram’s attention. There was no way in hell that Abram would be missing that game. He’d be watching it somewhere to get a glimpse of the Day/Moriyama fallout that the Ravens were desperate to cash in on. He would be watching as Andrew took to the court to back up his favourite player, without knowing it ‘Drew’.
Andrew needed the cameras on him.
A shot of his face might be good enough to get his attention, but would he be able to recognise him after all this time while his focus would be on the other players?
It wasn’t worth the risk of the cameras not giving him enough screen time with his helmet off, or Abram missing him in the crowd of other players. No. He needed a statement. Something definitive and clear…
And what better statement than an actual statement?
Andrew would finally be putting all of Wymacks PR training to work and willingly stepping in front of the cameras.
Would that be enough?
It would get more attention with Kevin by his side…
It would get more attention if the Foxes pulled off a miracle and actually won. But that was a ridiculous thought, wasn’t it?
Even if Andrew worked his ass off and shut down goal for the whole game, it would still rely on the rest of the team to help the strikers score.
Seth had been a waste of space, but Andrew would have bet that fucker would have been able to dent the Ravens pride with Kevin backing him up. Now they were left with the captain picking up a striker’s racket and butting heads with Kevin over their differing approaches to plays and teamwork, with Dans’, super last-minute recruit from the middle of nowhere, Peterson to pick up the dead weight in the dealers’ department.
At least their defence was strong. Especially if he can convince Renee to move up the line and play sub to the backliners. Nicky and Aaron were good, and Andrew was confident he could call in a few chips to get them playing at their peak. Matt was steady and jovial enough to be able to play with any other backliner on the field. But Renee was a wild card.
He knew she had played backliner in the past before taking a liking to the goalie position, but he didn’t know if she could still pull it off and there was only a little over a week before the Ravens game. Even if she struggled, Matt and Aaron were the best positioned to be able to cover her ass and keep the line strong.
What he really needed was Kevin.
He poured himself a shot and downed it in one hit as he went searching for his laptop.
Kevin was the key to him figuring out how to best the unbeatable Ravens, and that squirrely fucker was going to help him whether he liked it or not. He had all the insider info. All the Ravens tactics and training. Everything Andrew needed to shore up his defence and break their team down.
He might not care about Exy, usually, but now he had every reason and resource available to bring the Ravens to their knees and in doing so, get back the one person who meant more to him than anyone else.
Kevin was going to lose his shit when Andrew told him that they would be playing to win.