Chapter Text
Frank watched the cheap radio clock from his bed.
5:56
5:57
5:58
5:59
The same three repeating toneless beeps screeched from his alarm. He clicked it off.
He sat on the edge of the bed and ran his hands over his face. The broken springs dug into his back, his side, his legs no matter how he sat on the thing. Maria would have never been able to look at this monstrosity posing as a bed. Would have slept on the floor instead, moaning for her fancy memory foam mattress and silk sheets and down feather pillows.
Junior, though. Junior could sleep anywhere. Probably could have slept standing up. God, Frank wish he could have been more like that kid some days.
Frank turned on his phone and scrolled through the notifications. Emails. Emails. Emails.
He put the phone down and stared at the ceiling.
Day thirty-two.
-
The coffee was still bad, at least. One hot swallow of liquid tar and he knew exactly where he was.
With all the pep of a miserable and rundown office manager, Yessenia clapped him on the back. Frank registered it a solid half second after. He turned his head and offered a nod. “Garcia.”
“Yessenia,” she reminded. “Frank, I know you want to do your paperwork and get out of here.”
“But?”
She sighed. “Your replacement just got here. I want you to show her the ropes.” She rushed her next words out before Frank could start complaining, “I know, but the quicker you get done with her the quicker you can run and never look back.”
He sneered into his cup. “Not running.”
Yessenia pat his back again. “I’ll go get her.”
Frank drifted towards his desk. He stared blankly at his computer screen.
USERNAME: CASTLE_FRANKLIN
PASSWORD:
He pressed enter, hoping he wouldn’t have to see it again.
HINT: FAMILY
His stomach twisted.
“Frank?”
He jerked in his seat. “Jesus Christ—”
“So, lesson number one,” Yessenia said, leaning over the new girl, “don’t sneak up behind Frank.”
The new girl looked from Frank to Yessenia, a little confused and a little apologetic.
“Sorry. I’m, uh- I’m Karen. Karen Page.” She offered her hand and Frank rose from his seat to take it. Her handshake was firm, but not overly so.
He cleared his throat. “I’m Frank.”
Yessenia hovered by Karen’s shoulder. “Karen’s a recent graduate from NYU. Just got her Master’s in social work.”
“I want to get my doctorate, but I wanna get some experience in the ‘real world’ first.” Her smile hit Frank somewhere in the middle of his chest.
“I’ll let you show her around.” She pointed at Frank. “Play nice.”
Frank rolled his eyes. He offered Karen his seat. “Go ahead.”
“Oh, I- thank you.” She smiled again. He wished she wouldn’t.
“Has she built you an account yet?” Karen shook his head. “Alright, then we’re just gonna use mine. My user’s already filled out but, uh.” He sniffed. “Password’s peonies and dimes. No spaces.”
“That’s a funny password,” she said, a little too chipper.
“My wife’s favorite flowers are peonies. And, uh. My kids liked this book when they were little. One batch, two batch, penny and dime was one of the through lines.” He shrugged it off as grime tried to push its way out of his chest and forced it down with a gulp.
He pressed forward with the bureaucracy. How to file forms, how to print forms, how to tell what forms were needed where. How to log into their other systems, how to tell which systems were needed with which kids.
Then the kids.
Frank grabbed a file from the top of his pile. “You gotta know how to prioritize,” he said, gesturing with the file. “Get good at it and it’ll only take you a minute to know where they go on your list.” Frank flipped through the file. “Yeah. Kid looks like a SID.”
“Huh?”
“Sorry. It’s, uh. Office slang. Somebody in denial. They just kinda take it because of- I don’t know. Whatever reason. Either they think that everything’s hunky dory or that they deserve it. They’re- they’re the hardest ones if you take too much time to think about them.” Two gulps of tar. Cold tar. “Do your job, take the visit, but know it’s hopeless. Kid’ll never get back to you.”
She blinked. “That sounds like abandonment, Frank.”
Frank grit his teeth and shook his head just a fraction. He leveled his gaze.
“Carol, right?”
“Karen.”
“Karen. I got another hundred kids on my docket that know they need help. Why am I gonna waste my time on somebody that doesn’t want to be helped? You know how much extra time it’ll take me to get that one kid when I could’ve spent it helping twenty others? Why am I gonna get attached when all I’m gonna see is the kid’s brains spattered all over the ceiling in a couple months because he didn’t say shit?”
She gawked at him. “Every child deserves our help. Even if they don’t think they need it- they had to be referred here for a reason.”
“Sure, they do. But there’s thousands of them and twenty of us. If you can’t deal with reality, take your shiny master’s degree and get outta here.”
Karen rose from her chair. “Excuse me,” she said curtly.
Frank finished his coffee.
-
“Look, Karen, I’m sorry that Frank didn’t say it tactfully, but he’s right. We can’t get to every kid. We have to triage.”
“No, he’s a monster. We have to care for these kids and he’s treating them like- like they’re just numbers.”
“He’ll be out of here in a few days, Page. Go on the visit with him. See how he works. He’s rough around the edges, but he’s one of the best we have.”
“There has to be someone else.”
“No. There isn’t. Suck it up and work with Frank.”
“Miss Garcia—”
“Go or your fired.”
“Ma’am—”
“Great. You two leave in an hour.”