“Oh really? You thinking alcohol-induced Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome? That whole neurological syndrome from alcohol toxicity?”
“Or some stage thereof, yes, sir,” Peabody averred. “I noted several of the symptoms when she was here the other day.”
“Hm. Good eye.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Win figured out where Koch had taken Cal, too,” Ashton said in a quiet voice. “And helped me stay calm through the whole ball of shit on the way over.”
“Even better. Mr. Peabody, you’ve done excellently since you’ve been back with us, and I am hereby promoting you to Detective, Level 1.”
“Oh! Thank you, sir!” Peabody said in surprise. “I… appreciate that.”
“Well, there’s more, if you’re interested. And it’s why I called Nick in here with you.”
Both men sat up straight at that.
“What’s up, sir?” Peabody wondered.
“You’re now a detective, like Nick,” Carter pointed out, “and all things considered, you have seniority over him. And while he’s done excellently by me, I know Nick has been expecting, even wanting, to simply drop back into The Gang, as I think your division has started calling themselves, by way of analogy to the ICPD’s Team…”
“Yes, sir,” Peabody said then. “And I think I know where you’re going with this. So let me make one little correction in your terminology, before we go any further.”
“Oh? What would that be?”
“It’s not ‘The Gang.’ It’s ‘Ashton’s Gang,’ sir,” Peabody said, his voice quiet and calm. “We’ve never called ourselves that in front of him, but that’s the actual name of the division, as we term it. Sometimes, when somebody wants to get formal, it’s ‘Ashton’s Division,’ even.”
“Oh, I see…” Carter raised an eyebrow. Ashton all but gaped in shocked surprise.
“Yes, sir. And if you’re about to offer the division leadership to me in his place, I think my answer needs to be ‘no.’ Oh, I won’t deny it – part of me would love to get that back, but the ‘new me,’ as Emily and I have been calling it, knows I don’t need that now. What I need is exactly what I have – a wonderful wife, a great set of honest bosses, the ability to do good in the world and in the empire, and friends I can trust with my life – and who trust me with theirs.”
“But you have the experience…”
“No, sir, I don’t. Not like what you’ve got right here.” Peabody briefly put a hand on Ashton’s shoulder. “For one thing, except for me, you have a relatively young Investigations division. One that needs to be run by somebody who understands their mindset and what they need. In other words, someone who is young himself… or herself, as the case might be, except there isn’t a ‘herself’ in position for it. You don’t currently have a single person over fifty in that group – and most are under thirty – you have no inspectors, and very few detectives. What you do have is two detectives who have already been in a position to lead an investigations division – me, as head of the ‘oldies’ Headquarters division, which isn’t so much to recommend me, all in all; and Ashton, who effectively ran the Catalonia sector IPD investigative division. And let me note that he ran it through an Imperial crisis of sorts, and came up on top. Handling that the wrong way could have resulted in riots.”
“True,” Carter admitted. Ashton’s eyes grew wide; apparently he hadn’t thought about that little adventure in quite that light, Carter decided.
“Now, I know that the general regs indicate that you need someone of Inspector level running a division, Director Carter,” Peabody continued, “but if you’d be willing to accept it, I have a bit of advice to offer you for now.”
“I’m listening.”
“That advice would be, ‘Shit happens,’” Peabody said. “Just look at the reason Ashton was head of investigations on Catalonia. Look at why he’s been heading it up here. And you, like me, are old enough and experienced enough to recognize that that sort of thing crops up every now and then; it’s not a one-stroke sort of thing. Therefore, I would strongly suggest that the regs need to be revamped, just like the rest of the organization has been. I know you’ve pruned ‘em, and I know you’ve redone ‘em for the new hierarchy, and that’s good – but I think maybe you’re not quite done. And so the qualifications for team lead ought to read something like, ‘The highest-level officer available, possessing the requisite experience to lead the division, at the time the position becomes available,’ rather than hard-wiring in a specific level or rank or whatever.” He shrugged. “And for this bunch, that’s Ashton. Because he’s done it twice, now. Both through crisis-level incidents. Never mind keeping his cool through the kidnapping and attempted murder of his pregnant wife.” He paused, then shrugged. “He says I helped him stay calm, but I didn’t see it quite that way. Pete and I just kept him talking, planning, so he didn’t have time to stew in his juices.”
Peabody and Carter laughed, but Ashton simply gaped at them both.
“Wait just a damn minute, here,” Ashton interjected then. “Win, are you saying I should be the permanent division lead? Not just the temporary, ‘let’s get everything in place’ guy?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Nick,” Peabody said, earnest. “I’m finding out that I’m really happy where I am, without all the leadership duties, without having to watch my back, learning to be the best damn detective I can be. Learning to be the best damn husband to a wonderful wife I can be. I’m finally living the dream I had for so many years, the dream that was always just out of reach, that turned me bitter for the sake of what might have been. That bitterness, though I didn’t show it outwardly,
