“You. Sit,” Laura Ames ordered, pointing between Nick and the armchair beside Cally’s recliner. “You’ll both sit there and relax together, and let the rest of us coddle you both. And Nick, your son can’t wait to crawl into your lap and hug all over you.”
“Well, come here, then, Paul,” Nick said, taking the indicated seat, as his young son launched himself into his father’s lap.
“That’s better,” Laura said with a smile. “Leya comes home in a few days too, so everything is good. I have the nursery set up with the baby crib again on the right side of the room, and Paul has his own bed on the other side of the room.”
“Yesh!” Paul said. “I’m so happy, ‘cause Daddy’s home an’ Mommy’s home an’ soon Weya wiww be home! Den ebrybody wiww be home!”
“That’s right, son,” Nick said with a smile, as Alexandre and Laura headed for the kitchen to prepare lunch.
A few days later, once things had settled down at home and the baby had been released, Ashton went into the office.
“What the blazes are you doing here, Nick?” Carter fairly boomed, coming to meet him, as virtually everyone on the top floor of New Headquarters rose to welcome him back. “You have a couple of months of parental leave, here – more if you and Cally need it, given her medical issues. I have it all ready to go; I think I’ve already signed off on it. From what Rick Honda is telling me, you’ve earned it, in spades.”
“Cally and I talked it over and decided I needed to at least show my face around here, so you wouldn’t think I was a figment of your imaginations,” Ashton said with a grin as he shook lots of hands.
“No way,” Win Peabody declared. “You’re gonna be a legend around here for all this spy shit you’ve done.”
“Hey, Win! How are Emily and little Mary?”
“They’re good, Nick. Cally, Paul, and the baby doing okay?”
“They are now. Cally’s relaxing and doing good. We have Leya at home now, and Paul thinks she’s a little angel or something. He’s constantly standing around just watching her, touching her very gently, even patting her head. It’s really cute.”
“Aw. That’s great.”
“So guys, is there anything you need me for, before I go home to play family man?”
“Nah, we’re getting along okay,” Pete Stone said, coming up behind Peabody. “We’re not you, but between us, Win and I are managing to ride herd on Ashton’s Gang.”
“What about you, Lee?” Ashton asked, turning to the Director. “Do you need me for anything? Signatures or something?”
“No, Inspector Ashton, I think we’re good,” Carter said with a grin.
“Okay, I – wha?” Ashton said, doing a double-take as the big bullpen fell dead silent.
“Yes, you heard me right,” Carter said, grin growing wider. “Congratulations on a job well done, and a promotion into the bargain, Inspector Ashton. I’ll see the extra collar pip gets sent to your home, for your dress uniform.” He popped off one of the casual little two-fingered salutes that the IPD now used, and the room broke into applause.
But that wasn’t the whole of the matter, though the rest was a little later in coming. Once Cally was back on her feet and little Leya was getting along well with her brother and grandparents, a summons arrived from Lee Carter for them both to come into New Headquarters in full dress uniform.
“What the hell?” Ashton wondered.
“Not sure, honey,” Ames replied. “Let’s just get dressed and go in and find out. And don’t forget the new pip on your collar, Inspector.”
“Already stuck it there, when it showed up a week ago. We’re still on leave, though.”
“Well, he indicates it won’t take long. Just go with it.”
So they did.
It was a formal meeting in the Director’s big conference room. All of the Investigative division was in attendance, in addition to Forensics, and several of the other special teams, and a number of field officers as well. They were already waiting in the room when Carter led Ashton and Ames into the conference room.
“Come with me,” he told them, and led the way to the front of the room, where Winston Peabody awaited with a small box. As soon as Ames reached the dais, Peabody handed the box off to her with a grin. She peeped inside, then her eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“It has come to my attention,” Carter began, as Ames peeked into the box, “that there was a little matter overlooked during the period after the old headquarters was taken down, and before we got matters organized to reconstruct IPD Headquarters. You see, there was a very serious situation that went down in Catalonia Sector – the sector governor tried to secede from the Empire and set herself up as an empress. During the unrest that followed, she was murdered. One of our own investigators led the Catalonian headquarters investigative team in a successful inquiry as to who committed the act. Now, this in itself is a good thing, and since it was such a high-level case, was deserving of recognition. But more, that investigator basically ran the entire investigative division on Catalonia, up to and including that case, since an earlier terror incident resulted in most of the experienced investigators being killed or badly injured.”
By this point, Ashton was flushing.
“Raising the bar still higher,” Carter added, “this investigator conducted the investigation in such a way that it did not cause additional unrest in the populace. In fact, the feedback I had from Catalonia IPD Director Kurt Walder indicates that it helped calm the populace. One citizen, who was outspoken against the investigative team, was in fact seen to be reprimanded by the rest of the crowd outside the headquarters precinct. That
