Dream Like New York

Who: Mark Campbell, Ashley Emmerson and Justin Campbell
What: Damage control
Where: 34th Precinct, NYPD
When: Late Friday night, into Saturday morning

Nothing could have prepared for the sight of seeing his son in handcuffs, let alone in handcuffs in a police interrogation room. Mark had been out driving the streets trying to spot Justin, a desperately pointless effort in a place like New York City. He had nothing else left to do though. Justin had deliberately left his cell phone at the theatre in his dressing room. Mark had GPS tracking app on it which had saved Justin's life in the past, but this time, Justin hadn't wanted to be found. When Mark had been alerted to the fact Justin had lost his shit after the show and stormed out, he had tried to track him straight away. It took him to the theatre, and at first he thought Justin might have gone back there. No such luck.

Driving through the chaotic streets of the city, battling Friday night in the City That Never Sleeps, Mark had been getting increasingly terrified Justin was going to show up dead. He would get a call to say his kid had jumped in front of a train, or off a bridge. OD'ed in a grimy bathroom somewhere, or found with his wrists cut in a sleazy back alley somewhere. What he had failed to do in his fearful stress was realise there was a link to what he had spoken to Billy on the phone about that morning and Justin's actions.

Then he had gotten that horrible phone call from the cops. As soon as the officer identified himself, Mark had been hit with an icy cold wave of fear that he was about to be told he had to go identify his kid in the morgue. He almost threw up. Justin wasn't dead, though... he had just veered very close to seriously harming someone in a fit of anger. Rage, even. They wanted Mark to come to the station and they strongly suggested Justin have a lawyer present.

Now there was Ash, who was really mostly there for appearance sake because Mark would dictate every move he made. Ash understood this. It was Mark's son, and the only reason Mark wouldn't represent Justin himself was so that no one would have grounds to accuse him of having a conflict of interest to rock the sturdy ground of Justin's defence. Mark looked in through the glass mirrored panel of the interrogation room door at his son. Justin was sitting in there handcuffed, head hung low, shoulders slumped, and shirt covered in splashes of blood.

"Can we have the handcuffs removed, please?" Ash was requesting of the police officer.

There was a derisive snort. "Sorry, bud. The kid's violent and a flight risk. The victim's lucky he's still breathing, from what we heard of the witnesses. You better hope he ain't on life support before the night's out or you'll be looking at a murder charge." Hearing this pissed Mark off, and if Ash wasn't there to step in front of him to intercept him, he would have decked the cop.