(NO TITLE) A HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET FANFIC WRITTEN BY: YOLA

But if he is so right, why does the wringings of conscience corrode his soul? Because it prevents him going on his carreer. And, now, the biggest doubt: why didn't Frank Pembleton absolve him?  Are not the cops the good guys, those whose worst acts should be forgiven?

He hear Frank's steps coming closer in his introspective distress.

- Cops aren't better than anyone! - screams Tim, openning his eyes, trully goggling them in a desperate way.

- Tim, I came to apologize. I've been unfair to you. I, myself, liked the most working by your side all those six years.

- What!? - he is surprised - What do you mean!? Perhaps you came to say that cause you saw how I am. That's not only how I look... this beard is only negligence.

- Anyways... but this Luke Ryland's stuff...

- That was what I was saying while you came, but, Frank, what was I suposed to do? He told me he would keep killing and Denver couldn't send him to jail as he deserved! The Justice, Frank, She is unjust. That doomed wouldn't pay at last!

- But it is wrong, Tim!

- Do you think the system is wrong when execute any guilty one? I, myself, paired to the system, have the same position... I executed... the same way they ever do in such a situation, just like Ryland did.

- Leave the Justice to the Court! - cried out Frank, imperative.

- You always contraining crying to me, to everybody in deed! Cops may not be better than anyone, but no one could ever be better than Francis Xavier Pembleton! - Tim talked aloud saying the very name of his partner, he was blowing out, everything he should have said to Frank during all those long years had to get out at the moment.

- Tim,... but...

- So you think you are the better you affirmed your kids could never be criminals. Frank, me and Jim grew together and I thought I knew him very well, but you saw he killed in cold blood that guy. The same directive means nothing at last. Olivia and Frank Jr will not neccessarily follow your steps. You won't control their friends, anyone they come to know. They were not involved in your perfect shell! They'll be what they will be and pray to your god they could be nice people.

- Me and Mary offer them the best education and orientation we could and even God will like they follow the right track. - Tim claped his hands and smiled, satisfied.

- It would be so nice hear you talking this way, Frank! If you ever apologize, if you could be more modest. I'd like you valued me as a detective, as your friend (?).

- Tim, only a true friend could do what you have done to me, only you could have taken that shot in instead of me. Thank you for every single moment you stood aside my family even simply been my partner those six years, for forgiven my faults and knowing exactly to deal with me. Thanks... thank you very much. - he hesitated pronouncing the last words. - Forgive my faults.

- Frank, I had never thought you say "thanks" and "forgive me". You don't know how this makes me happy, your behavior..., but I'm still a killer.

- Things change, Tim. People, they change. I had to make you feel better, I had to show you how I feel. You are the only friend I have, I cannot lose you. You made me change to a better man; now, I have a little bit of you and you have a little bit of me.

- OK Frank, but how should I live my life? Tell me! I'm not a detective anymore, images and sounds torture me. Friend, tell me, please, as you know me so well: what I will be? What will I make with my life, Frank?! How will be the Tim Bayliss's life suppose to be from now on?

- Do you ask me? You should know, you always was so dependent on me... but I know who is Frank Pembleton.

- Who is Frank Pembleton by Frank Pembleton?

- No one but my self, one afro-american born in NY who lives so long in Baltimore. Once I knew the most beautiful woman and I married her. And, a couple of years ago, I became the father of a girl (Olivia) and a boy (Frank Jr). I'm the father and the detective, both in one.

- I remember when Mary was pregnant by the first time, you were so nervous and I had to help you.

- That's true. I was scared of being no more the implacable detective and be just the father of a girl. I was more frightened of Olivia than of a suspect. Turning back: I was an excelent Homicide detective, I'm a guy with a few friends, but I had the honor to have you as my partner and best I have the honor of being your friend. Now, answer: who is or will be Tim Bayliss?

- I must think, I'm not who I was...

- You're still alive. - says Frank the same way he used to interrogate.

- No, now I just I survive, I creep along the life.

- You are front of me and it don't seems to me you have change so much. You continued your life, you've done different actions, this change. Your essence this don't change, Tim. Answer my question! - a wind, caming form the sea flutters the hair and the tie of Tim and did the same with Frank's. The fresh smell of that air makes Tim close his eyes just to think: did he become essencially different or just the new experiences he had experienced. Had he left the old Tim?

- Go on, answer! - Frank keeps on saying - Tim, who is Tim Bayliss? - the wind came back and now brings a dark moist that covered everything and everyone.

Tim constrained himself, thinking so and discovered some answers, one could see that in his face. As he became more attentive, he felt completely involved by that deep darkness. When the moist was gone, she tooks everything with her., everything that surrounded him: the moon, the bay, the stars, everything. Tim frightened look around. First he saw Frank laughing at Tim's confusion; gradually, Frank's image evaporates. Tim desperate himself, it was whole unreal and supernatural. Frank's voice was still eccoing in his mind:

"Who is Tim Bayliss and what will he be?"

All his life passed through his mind as a desperate film: his childhood, his uncle George's abuse, his cousin Jim, his high school, his arresting, the Policy Academy, the mayor and, finally, the shy freshman Tim Bayliss in Homicide Unit, Adena Watson's case, Waterfront bar, Chris Rawls, the shot he had taken to save Frank's life,..., and Luke Ryland.

The Luke Ryland's murder scene remained still. The cold noise of metal bullet getting off the gun, hitting the doomed head, that body that falls without life. Tim hear a surd sound from some small object falling on the floor. But..., that didn't really happen... wha... what is that!? It was his badge, it falled and as everything else, disappeared.

- Many and different Tim, not many distinct persons. All of them create what you are, Tim. And what is that? - says the haunting Frank's voice.

- I'm a detective, I always wanted and I'll always be, no matter with or without the badge.I'm all of them and will be all those that future will bring.

- So, walk your way. - now, everything is gone, even Tim.

His eyes itchs and he wakes up suddenly, he is still astonished. "It was just a dream" he says. Yes, it was a dream. Sitting on his bed, he opens the drawer and looking at him is his distinctive. Now, he can sleep peacefully. Good night, Tim. No. Good night, detective Timothy Bayliss.