Thursday, May 27, 2004

   Cream Filling & Nougat: Third Helping (Chapter VII)
"Yo, Whip'!" Nougat said as he chased after bothered young officer. Cream, however, refused to acknowledge the call and proceeded to broaden his strides - Nougat followed suit. "Whip'! Hang on a sec'!" Nougat finally broke into a quick jog and grabbed his partner by the shoulder and swung him around. "Cream," he said, "somethin's up and I wanna know what."
"Don't you have more important things to sort of somewhat plan, Noug'?" Cream said. Nougat closed his eyes momentarily as he exhaled.
"Okay . . . I think we've got a problem . . . . ."

The two of them scooted to one side of the hallway as a nurse with a cart made her way through.
"Alright," Nougat started, "screw the rank thing, we both still share an office. What's goin' on, man? That wasn't cool what you did in there."
"I know," Cream said, "and . . . I'm sorry. I shouldn't have contradicted you in front of the team, that was unprofessional of me . . ." Nougat cut back quickly,
"Well, screw profession too!" Cream stood silent. "Look, it doesn't take a detective to know that there's something about my approach that you don't like. What is it?"
"You sure you want me to?" Cream asked.
"Try me," Nougat answered.

Cream quickly composed himself and spoke.
"To be honest, Noug'," he said, "I don't like your plan. It's risky, it insults the intelligence of the men we're after, and it's already put three people out of commission for the time being. This 'shortest distance straight line' stuff just isn't good for us . . ." Cream noticed his voice was rising, and paused. "Look, we got the bad guys and got closer to the end of the line, and that's great. But the fact that it took three . . ." He stopped to touch the side of his head. ". . . that it took four walking wounded, one of which was put in critical condition, is just too much, and I can't in good conscience suggest that we continue this approach."

"So that's the problem, Whip'?" Nougat asked, "You're afraid of the risks involved?"
"Just saying that we've been ambushed once because of them and next time we might not be so lucky," Cream responded. Nougat nodded and crossed his arms.
"You've always known that I wasn't the big planner, Whip'. Aside from it being an unrelenting tactic, it also allowed for both of us to think up our own plans on the spot as we saw fit. I thought that would be better for us than mapping out all our moves on sand tables away from the streets . . ." Nougat uncrossed his arms and stretched them behind his back. ". . . I thought you would've liked that aspect of it."
"Well, yeah I guess, but . . . . ."

Cream was cut off when Nougat got a call on the radio.
"Give me a sec," he said as he put his finger to his earpiece. "Yeah, I'm still here . . . huh? Alright . . . . ." Cream looked at him peculiarly. Nougat grinned. "Someone's comin' to see me about something, it seems," he said. "Weird, huh?" Cream smirked.
"Pretty weird, yeah . . ." It was then when a gurney was wheeled through the hallway with a bandaged patient, giving reason for the two detectives to move aside yet again. "Hey, how do you suppose Munt's doing right now?" Cream asked.
"I dunno, they won't let us in, remember?" Nougat answered. "Man . . . that poor bastard . . ."
"Yeah . . . . ." Cream hung on the words for a fair while. After all, it was Munt's wound that caused him to slow his escape and in turn get grazed in the head, and that thought hung heavy with him - they were all there, and they had all experienced the same things in one form or another.

"Noug'," Cream said, the present beckoning him to return, "that team was under my command . . ." Nougat leaned his back against the wall.
"Yeah, they were. And you got them out of there alive."
"Barely, though . . ." Cream said, leaning back against the wall himself. "The fact is, those bullets could have hit anywhere - they could have hit us, they could have hit the ground, they could have hit the air - but regardless, I was responsible for the welfare of that team . . . and even if it wasn't directly my fault, I still failed them in that matter." Cream turned to Nougat, who was already looking at him. "Noug', I never want to fail my team like that ever again."

"Whip'," Nougat said after a heavy breath, "you've got a rank where you need to make decisions. I'm sure you already know the whole officer speech, that people are gonna depend on ya, bla bla bla . . . . . but let me tell you, even the best leaders have their off days. You're not perfect, and no one expects you to be perfect." Cream pushed himself away from the wall and turned directly to Nougat.
"I should have been able to get those guys out of there better, though!"
"You did fine . . ."
"We shouldn't have been in that situation in the first place!"
"But you were, and we got some good out of all the bad and it's too l- . . ."
"We shouldn't have been stirring up the hornet's nest like that!"

Nougat paused, speechless for a brief moment and looked dead into Cream's eyes.
"And so we come back to this . . ."
"Noug', even if your tactics have been able to muscle their way through so far with all our lives intact, this isn't gonna last all the way through . . ."
"Cream, you've never worked against Sprinkle before. He's a tough bastard, and if we're gonna bring 'im down we can't let him breathe for a second . . ."
"Damn it Noug', we keep this up some of us are going to die!"
"It's a risk we're all willing to make as officers of the law!"
"I don't remember the part where it said we'd be ordered to get murdered by gangsters!"
"Oh for the love of god, chill out, Whelp!"

Nougat immediately regretted his words, but chose not to say anything verbally - his expression said more than enough, though. Cream, regardless, remained silent with his brows brought low over his eyes.
"I'm done with this case . . ." he said, turning around and heading towards the outside of the hospital - Nougat didn't follow.

As Cream walked, he passed someone who said hello to him by name. Before he could realise someone had spoken to him, the man had already walked past him, towards Nougat. Cream turned around and looked at the man: he was an officer from the precinct, no doubt about it. It took him a little while to piece it together by the back of his head, but he finally recognised him as Sergeant Rato from the Internal Affairs Department . . . why he was coming to see Nougat was another question . . .

"What?!" Nougat shrieked, immediately getting the attention of everyone within thirty meters. Cream heard it just before going out the door, and turned around to see the internal affairs officer next to the lieutenant.
"What the suck is goin' on over there?" Cream thought to himself quietly.
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