#and hugo and winnie are adorable little crimesolvers

[writingonthemoon]

Secret Santa | Forever and Always

This is an all too late present for the marvellous @davey-in-a-minivan It was so much fun to write and I hope it will be at least half that much fun to read.

—–-–—

If a summer day could hold an omen of doom, it would be a mystery as to what the sun was hiding.  The grassy fields with their patches of vibrant green encircled with a ring of mushrooms held secrets none would want to dig up.  Broken ceramics and clean swipes through layers of dust were a puzzle none wanted to solve.  The dark shadows of the forest lured unsuspecting passersby into a maze of questions that go unanswered and paths that will never be found again.  Abandoned items on sides of roads drew the eye of only those who were unaccustomed to the markers of unpleasant events.

     Detectives were almost solely acquainted with that sort of unknown misery.  Whether it be a missing victim or a missing suspect, there was always a search for answers most people wouldn't want to know.  The searches could go on for days, weeks, or even months.  There were so many different tasks to complete and leads to follow through on, it was almost impossible for a single person to finish a case.  That's why most detectives have a partner, even the amateurs.  And Hugo Jackson had the perfect partner in Winnie Foster.

     Quiet days were Winnie's most and least favourite.  When there were no mysteries to solve, there was no point to the day, in her words.  Due to her philosophy, she was often times extremely bored.  To cure herself from a day of nothing, she got into more trouble than she should and often times, Hugo had to bail her out of whatever situation she'd gotten herself into.

     Usually the trouble was small, like swiping some tiny trinket from a store or setting an animal free that decides to chase her.  It was very easy to smooth it all over with a simple apology and perhaps a fruit basket.  That was when they were kids, back when their cases were the missing yoyo or pet rabbit.  As they grew up, everything got more serious.  Yoyos escalated to food which was soon heirlooms and money.  They were always the ones finding where they were needed.  Soon the trouble would find the two and that was much more serious.

     Winnie, at seventeen years old, had solved her fair share of missing persons cases.  Granted they were missing dolls and were just misplaced in her room, but she still counted them.  Hugo, at twenty-one, had read all the old local cold cases and come up with answers before the day was up.  As a team, the only thing they were waiting on was a chance to prove themselves to the adults, show that they could compete on the same level as the professionals.  Their wish came true all too soon.

It was another quiet day and Hugo was dragging Winnie on a picnic so she wouldn't get on the bad side of the Johnstons. Again. His plan was going quite well too. She was skipping up ahead of her friend, going on about what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go. Hugo was listening on, admiring her carefree expression grin and light laugh as she hopped over a puddle from the day prior.

She stopped suddenly, teetering on her toes as she stared into a ditch, "Hugo," she choked out, "Hugo, come here. Please." He rushed up beside her and the basket slipped from his hands. All the wind had been knocked from his lungs and he was left frozen in shock.

The dirt shifted beneath his feet and stuck to the knees of his pants, "Commissioner Joe." Tears started to form in his eyes and Winnie fell beside him, holding him in her arms.

The man in question was all too recognizable. His hat was lying in the mud beside him and he was smeared with dirt. Tears in his suit made a scuffle evident and there was a large gash on his forehead. The worst part was the dark stain on his waistcoat and the small hole in the centre of it.

Winnie's voice was broken as she spoke softly, "What are we going to do, Hugo?"

"We're going to find who did this." He squeezed Winnie's hand tightly, "We're going to find them and bring them to justice."

—–-–—

The first stop was the police station. While the two knew they would be trying to solve the care without their help, it was still necessary to report it so it was less likely they would be thought suspect. As if it would happen, but it was a step they had to take. The entire precinct was devastated with the news, but the duo had no time to mourn with the others. They were on a mission.

The library's archives was the next stop. Somewhere, in one of the papers, there must be some clue to who murdered Joe. Someone he arrested previously or gotten on the wrong side of. And there were a lot of names. The commissioner was top of the line in his early days as a detective and after only a few years he reduced from by half. It was a long list of enemies he had made and it took all night until they had compiled the full list. And it was going to take much longer to get rid of a few names, nevermind all but one.

The sun was peeking in through the windows, the rays visible through the dusty air. The librarian was kind enough to let the two stay through the night. The two had slept an hour at most, using the newspapers as pillows and huddling beside one another in place of a blanket.

"Maybe it was someone who was just let out." Winnie looked up from the files before the two, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, "They served their time and are out of prison now. Whomever it was, they wanted revenge or something."

Hugo looked at Winnie for a moment, taking in her idea. "Coffee." He nodded slowly while looking around, still a little dazed, "We need coffee. I'll start cross-referencing the names we've collected with recent news articles. Anybody mentioned is who we investigate." He jumped up out of his seat and went to collect more archived stories.

Winnie's eyes followed him on his path through the aisles until she could no longer see him. He was holding up more than she thought he would. It was too much for his own good. He needed to cry, grieve, and let everything out. She knew he wouldn't though, not until there was justice. Commissioner Joe was like a father to Hugo and for him to see the man so lifeless and cold... Winnie could tell it broke his soul.

She couldn't help but think about the sight as she walked through the streets later that afternoon. The town was so caught up with the news, mourners and those disappointed alike were continuously interrupting Winnie's path. The image was haunting and omnipresent in her mind. The pale skin was haunting and the sun made it so much worse than anything they had seen before. Once crimson blood was dark and flakey and the paths the streams tapered and bulged, which could only mean he was still struggling when he was bludgeoned. The eyes were so glassy and empty and it looked as if he could've been crying. Someone close to him must've done it. Betrayal both ways.

"Winnie!" She focused back in on her surroundings at the sound of Hugo's voice. He was running towards her, his bag bouncing on his hip and a paper waving around in his hand. There was a grin on his face and Winnie lit up because of it, "Winnie, Winnie, Winnie, Winnie, Winnie." He stutter-stepped to a halt in front of her. "I think I know who it was."

"Already?" He nodded vigorously and took a cup from her, sipping at the burning coffee, "Who, who, who?" She jumped up and down in excitement. While it was such a tragedy that they were solving the murder of family, it was amazing they narrowed it down so soon. Of course they had, though. Hugo was working the case a d he was the best in the business. At least, Winnie always called him that.

"Pragman. William Pragman." The paper Hugo was holding was presented to Winnie in a flash, the headline practically screaming their answer at them.

"'Corruption in Cops—Detective Arrested By Own Partner.'" Winnie read out, bouncing on her toes and tapping her nails on her cup.

"Pragman was the commissioner's partner back when he was just a detective. He was double crossing the police and taking part in backhanded underground dealings. Smuggling, fraud, gangs, all of it. Everything was kept quiet as long as he got his cut." Hugo was so excited about everything he was saying. This sort of stuff was always what the two wanted to deal in and now that it was finally happening, they couldn't help but be happy, "He wanted Joe to join him, get involved with all the criminals and start breaking the laws he upheld with honor. Obviously Joe didn't because he.. he wouldn't," Hugo started choking up a little, "and he collected as much evidence as he could before Pragman came for him. He made the arrest and got honors, a promotion, everything."

"And Pragman got locked up." Winnie finished what Hugo was saying, "That must mean that he's been planning things, waiting until he got the opportunity to exact his revenge. Was there anyone else involved that's still alive? Because if he's starting with Joe, there's someone else he's more interested in."

It took only a moment before the name came to their minds, "Ex-Commissioner Manfred." It was an unplanned synchronization of words. Hugo continued, "He was there at the time of the arrest. That must be who he's going for next."

"We have to go tell the police."

Hugo shook his head, "There's no time. Look, the sun is going to set soon. By the time they get any team together, he'll already be dead. We just have to do it ourselves." Winnie nodded and they ran off toward the Manfred home with almost no plan in mind but knowing they must do something.

It was dark when they arrived. Nothing seemed spread out until you needed to be somewhere fast. A small plan of informing Manfred and moving him to the precinct was created in a rush, but there was no time to get any more details in there. Winnie went to knock on the door with Hugo following closely behind. Before her knuckles hit the board, the sounds of voices inside stopped her. They were too serious for them to not be too late.

"What do we do now?" Winnie whispered.

"Get in, get Pragman, get out. There's not much else at this point." Hugo's bravery and determination shocked Winnie. She was always the one who took the lead on things like this and to see Hugo step up was.. different.

The voices were too deep into the house for them to be in the front room and the two slipped in. All clear, but the broken glass and mess upon the ground wasn't reassuring. Pragman had one goal and he was going to complete it if it killed him. Hugo and Winnie, to their dismay, split up to locate the two. The both of them were armed, but to varying degrees. Winnie had the knife from her father, a present planned for her sixteenth. Hugo instead picked up a rolling pin from the kitchen.

Winnie hated the all too silent air in the house. She couldn't hear anything, but she didn't want to consider the idea they were too late. Each room she checked was clear, empty, untouched. But there was still one last room and she had a bad feeling about it. The door was ajar and a low light came from inside. As Winnie creeped forward, her stomach grew queasy. Once she made it to the opening, she peered in and got a look at the room. It was free of people except Manfred tied up and gagged. Without thinking much about what she was doing, she ran in and started to cut the ropes. Manfred struggled, though, muffled sounds making their way out. She wasn't sure why he was doing that until she heard the door click shut.

It was a moment until she was knocked to the ground, her knife flying across the room. Immediately, whomever it was, the bound her wrists and ankles to keep her from fighting. Winnie flipped herself over and came face to face with the man in handcuffs.

"Pragman." Winnie spat in his face, wriggling away into the corner. Her knife met her hands and she began trying to cut her bonds, "You're free, why ruin it by commiting such heinous crimes?"

"Because they deserve it!" His hair was wild and he eyes wilder. His voice was old and shifting, like him and his glitchy movement on his feet. The pitch changed as he spoke to himself, as if there were another in his mind, "The media got it wrong. Joe was corrupt." There was a gun gleaming in the low candle light. It was waving in the air with such little care that Winnie started cutting faster, "They all were. And it began with Frank Manfred." Pragman pointed it at the man, "He's the reason all this happened. I was just playing the game, and I was winning too. Nobody liked that."

Winnie caught the door opening in her peripheral and Hugo's wide eyes met hers briefly. Pragman went to look around the room when Winnie spoke up, thinking on her feet, "What was the game?" His head snapped over and he swiftly approached her, "You said you were winning the game," she shrugged nonchalantly, trying not to show her dear, "and I want to play."

"The game?" He threw his head back and laughed, "It was evil. Lying, stealing, betrayal, murder. I knew the ins and outs of it all. Joe and I were a team before, he was piggybacking on my knowledge. We were partners in crime. I needed to go solo, so I left him in the dust. I reinvented the entire thing, changed it all. Nobody was having fun, though, and they wanted me out."

"Why did you let them?" Winnie was keeping the man distracted as Hugo snuck in and crept up to them, "If you were winning, you were able to do whatever you wanted. So why did you let them kick you out?"

"I— I didn't let them kick me out! I'm still in it! I'm still playing! Still winning! And I will win," he cocked the gun and aimed it at Winnie, "no matter who gets in my way."

"You better rethink that." A crack sounded through the room and Pragman crumpled to the ground, a half of the rolling pin clattering on the wooden floorboards.

Hugo fell down beside Winnie and hugged her close, tears of relief flooding his eyes. "Oh my God, Winnie. What were your thinking? He could've killed you. He was going to kill you!" He held her by the shoulders and shook some sense into her.

"No, he wasn't. I knew you would save me," She craned her neck and kissed his cheek, "because we're partners and we always have each other's backs." The blade of her knife finally cut through the layers of rope and she rubbed her wrists to get circulation back.

Hugo kissed her fiery hair before going to untie her ankles, "That was still a dumb thing to do."

"You know that's how we work. You do smart stuff, I do cool stuff and everything works out in the end." Once she was free, she picked up the knife and cut the bonds on the ex-commissioner while Hugo tied up Pragman.

—–-–—

Winnie had Hugo's jacket draped over her shoulders while he spoke with the police. He had called them when he cleared his zone and Winnie wasn't even surprised. It was the smart thing to do and he always did the smart thing. Pragman was in handcuffs once again and he wouldn't be getting out of them anytime soon.

"Are you ready to go home, Winnie?" She looked up and saw Hugo softly smiling down at her. The moon was behind him, creating a halo around his head. She mirrored his expression and nodded, standing up and moving to give him is jacket back. "No, no. Keep it. I'm fine." Winnie gave the boy a look, but he assured her with a nod.

The two were in no rush to return to their homes. Everything they had seen and done in the past two days needed a few moments to be processed. Their stroll was silent and their fingers were intertwined in a show of comfort. They passed Joe's old house and a shrine was constructed in front of the fence. Candles were lit and photos moved gently in the breeze.

"They offered me a position." Hugo broke the silence, pulling Winnie's gaze from the sad memories, "Detective Hugo Jackson. I'd rank higher than some others that work in the precinct. There would be a future for me. It could go work in the city too, if I got good enough."

"Did you take it?" Winnie didn't want to admit she was hoping be would say no. In thinking about what Pragman had said, she trusted the force less and less, even if he was lying. She didn't want Hugo to get caught in all the dirty dealings and shady characters that would be there.

He shook his head lightly, "No," he grinned at the girl beside him, "I could never replace my partner." He bumped her shoulder a little and he laughed.

Winnie giggled, "Partners in crime."

"Partners in crime solving." Hugo pointed out, earning another laugh from Winnie. He loved her little laugh.

"Partners in crime solving." She repeated, "Forever and always?" She offered a pinky to the boy so they could promise.

"Forever and always." He linked pinkies with her and she leaned her head on his shoulder as the two walked on through the quiet streets. Whatever came the next day would come. The couple would let themselves grieve together and find their happiness again. But for a few more hours, they would be kids and forget the rest of the world. Let themselves live in a forever and always for just a little longer.