You'd Have to Ask - 28. Chapter 28

The Sergeant sits at his desk and doesn’t move for a couple of minutes. He is stunned as he would have never expected to be commanding a gay Officer and also because he never suspected Wheeler to be one. Personally he can’t stand the idea of homosexuality, it’s not natural. However after all the courses in sensitivity training there is not much he can do about it, it is a new part of his job.

He quickly jots down some notes on what Wheeler has said. He notes the date and time. He puts the paper in the file holder. “This thing is gonna get pretty thick.” he says to himself.

He reaches over to the phone and picks up the handset. He pushes the speed-dial button for the Chief.

The conversation is short and the Chief asks him to go to his office. The Sergeant takes the file with him and heads to the other office.

“Sergeant, Officer Wheeler has taken some personal time, he will be back in an hour or so.” Kelly says.

“Thanks Pritchard, I will be in the Chief’s office.” He walks behind the desk and shows her the autodial button to push. “Call using that button if you need me.”

“No problem Sergeant.” She notices the man is carrying a file folder and it has no name on it. “This has got to be related to Cole.” She says to herself.

The Sergeant carries on to the Chief’s office.

“Have a seat Sergeant.” The Chief Lawrence says. “I see you brought the file.”

“Yes Chief, although it’s pretty thin right now.”

“Let’s see if we can keep it that way. So before we start to tackle this, any problems you want to tell me about?”

“No sir, it’s a bit of a shock and I never thought I’d have to deal with this, but no problems.”

“That’s good, I want it to stay that way and remember the door is open if there is something you want to talk about.”

“Thank you sir.” The Sergeant says out loud. He knows that he will be tested on this so he will use the Chief as a last resort.

“What about the other Officers, do you see any problems arising there?”

“I am not sure Chief, apparently Officer Wheeler has already spoken with Officer Comry. They have been friends for a long time and Officer Wheeler says that Comry offered to be his partner.”

“That’s good, I guess we will want to confirm this with Comry.”

“He is in later, I’ll have a chat with him.”

“Where is Officer Wheeler now?”

“Officer Pritchard said he needed some personal time, he should be back in an hour.”

“Any thing else I should know?”

“Well this all came about as we have a guy in lockup that says he knows Wheeler and he will start to talk if charges proceed.”

“And of course Officer Smith is in charge of the lockup so it could be all over the station pretty soon.”

“Wheeler advised me of that. Funny thing he bares no ill will towards Officer Smith.”

“Part of being a good cop, you know people are going to talk and there isn’t much you can do about it. At least he did the right thing and went to you and didn’t put it off.”

“Well, talk to Comry get his thoughts and then let me know.” The Chief says, “I am going to find out more about this from the guys in Edmonton and Calgary. Maybe they have run into this situation.”

“Do you want me to add that to the file sir?”

“Yes Sergeant, we are adding everything to the file.”

“Yes Sir, is that all?”

“Yeah, I better get on the phone. I will update you later.”

The Sergeant gets up and heads to the door. He is carrying the file with him and asks if his boss wants it. The Chief nods, “I better take that so I can add notes on my conversations with Calgary and Edmonton.”

The Sergeant puts the file on the desk and walks out closing the door behind him.

The Chief gets on the phone immediately.

Walking back down the hall the Sergeant decides to get in touch with his counterpart at the Fire Station. He should have some hints as they have a gay fireman.

“Hey John, its Sergeant Williams here.”

“Hey George, long time! What’s up need some help from the fire guys?”

“As a matter of fact I do. Can I come over?”

“Sure although there is not much happening here so your visit will not go unnoticed. Wanna go for coffee?”

“Sure, I could use a cup, meet you at the usual place?”

“You go it, 10 minutes?”

“I see you then.” The Sergeant says as he hangs up the phone.

Getting up from his desk he goes out, he notices that Wheeler has returned. He is explaining a by-law to a customer. Something about dogs and leashes. Pritchard is sitting at the desk and talking on the phone. He catches Wheeler’s eye and indicates he is going out for coffee. Wheeler nods.

At the Coffee shop he sees John is already there. He gets a cup and joins the man at his table.

“So how are things John?”

“Not too bad, quiet time of year except for the odd yard fire that gets out of control.”

“Same here, it seems like colder weather has calmed down the populace.”

“So how can I help you George?”

“Well it seems that we have a situation that has arisen which has something in common with one you already have.”

“Well I can only think of one situation, so you got a gay cop?”

“That was pretty astute, you telling me that everything is ok at the station?”

“No everything is not ok, Johnson is a hell of a kid, but some of the attitudes have not adjusted. I got one guy that goes out of his way to make the kid’s life hell. But Johnson won’t lodge a complaint so I can’t do anything.”

“What goes on?”

“Well it seems that Johnson’s Jeep has a tendency to get flat tires. I don’t know how many times the guy has been hanging around waiting for a new tire after he completes his shift.”

“Why doesn’t he say anything, that’s gotta be costing him a fortune.”

“Well let’s say that Johnson has a bit of a chip on his shoulder, not a bad thing though. Because he got in through the back door so to speak, he doesn’t want to make any waves or get preferential treatment. I guess he wants to show the other guys he is just as much of a man as the rest of them.”

“Is there a question?”

“No, no I don’t mean it negatively, I think it is the same way in the City where they have female fire fighters. Those women try and try to out do the guys on just about everything. Which in our line of work is not a bad thing.”

“That’s the least you can ask for, I guess.”

“So I guess you want to know what to expect when word gets around about your officer?”

“Yeah, to tell you the truth I am still a bit shocked, I never would have guessed.”

“Well if Johnson has taught me one thing, they don’t all act like they are portrayed on TV and in the movies. In fact I read that in the US some of their best soldiers are gay and no one would question them in the least.”

“I guess you have had to get up to speed on this already?”

“Oh yeah, when Johnson came in the way he did he was kind of high profile. The department had me go on special training on how to handle it.”

“Really?”

“Well there have been problems in some US cities with Fire and Police departments and the way the co-workers react to their gay counterparts. I have the manuals still if you want to take a look at them.”

“Sure, I probably should have a look at them.”

“The thing is that you have to be prepared for anything. Guys that seem like the most level headed characters get bent out of joint when all of a sudden they realize they have a gay man working with them.”

“In what way?”

“Well it has to do with growing up and all that, but the basic thing it comes to is that the gay man is going to hit on them.”

“I guess in the Fire House that may be a problem, but cops go home at the end of their shifts.”
“True, but you know what the other thing is and this is hilarious so to speak.”

“What’s that, the guys get pissed off when they don’t get hit on?”

“You got it! So basically you are dealing with the whims of the male ego. Soon as you understand that you will be able to handle the situations that arise.”

“What about the females?”

“Well we don’t have a female firefighter yet, I am sure it is just a matter of time. But basically they present a whole other pile of problems.”

“I guess I may have to council you on this when it occurs.”

“I guess I should get back, you want me to drop off those manuals?”

“Sure, but maybe at my house. I am trying to keep this low level right now.”

“I understand, so I am not even going to ask who it is.”

“I appreciate that, you think that maybe my guys could help with Johnson’s problem?”

“I am tempted to say yes, but I am not sure how Johnson would react, maybe it is something your Officer could look into.”

“I’ll think on that.” The Sergeant says as he gets up. “Well I guess I’ll get back to the station and wrap things up.”

“Anytime George, I mean it.”

The Sergeant gets back to the station and gets his notes together for role call. He heads to the ready room and sees the night shift is already there. He leaves Wheeler to man the desk and calls Pritchard in to the ready room so she can relay any information she has.

The briefing is short as these are all experienced officers. He asks Comry to come and see him before he goes out on patrol.

“You wanted to see me Sarge?” Comry asks from the door to the Sergeants office.

“Yeah, come in and have a seat.”

Mark has a feeling he knows what this is about as Cole had told him earlier that he has advised the Sergeant of his gayness. He guesses the Sergeant is just following protocol.

“Well Mark” the Sergeant says, he wants to keep this informal. “I have spoken with Officer Wheeler and it seems something has come up.”

“Yeah” Mark says.
“He says that you understood the situation and have offered to be his partner, I guess what I need for the file is that this is ok by you.” The Sergeant opens the file, which he retrieved from the Captain’s office when he returned.

“Sure I have no problems working with Cole, err I mean Officer Wheeler.”

“OK, I guess I’ll put that in the file and I am going to ask you to sign it to show that this is ok with you.”

“No problem Sergeant.”

“You sure you know what you are getting into Mark?”

“Yeah, I know, Cole and I have been friends for years, best friends he would do the same for me.”

“What about the other guys, I mean if they aren’t as open about it as you are?”

“Well, I discussed this with Mary, I am secure in myself and I absolutely have nothing to fear from Cole, so knowing that, I guess the other guys are just going to have to accept that I have a partner that happens to be gay.”

“Well that’s a good way to be Mark.”

“Is that it Sergeant?”

“Yeah that’s it, I will work on the new schedule, and I won’t disrupt your rotation I think Wheeler will be the one that gets all turned around.”

Mark smiles as he leaves. “The Sergeant seems to be taking this pretty well.” He thinks to himself, “I guess it shows how much society has changed even here.”

“Hey Wheeler.” Mark says as he notices Cole has not gone home yet.

“What’s up Mark?” Cole says he hopes that Mark has come through on his word, although he doesn’t know why he questions it.

“Come with me as I sign out my equipment, riding solo tonight.” Mark says.

“Just let me grab my stuff.” Cole says as he gathers up the radio and other things he signed out at the start of shift.

Cole hands over his stuff to the Officer working the equipment desk and then signs the log. The Officer keeps all the equipment Cole turned in but gets a new radio and then has Mark sign this stuff out.

Cole walks with Mark to the car, looking around to make sure that no one is listening Mark tells Cole what occurred in the office.
“I still can’t believe the Sarge is so good about this Mark.”

“Me either, I thought you had borrowed some stuff from the evidence room!” Mark punches Cole’s shoulder.

“If I was inclined to do that I would have spent the whole afternoon in there!” Cole laughs.

Mark laughs too as he opens the trunk and puts some stuff in there. Cole does a walk around for him.

“The Sarge said he will do up the new schedule soon.” Mark says as he gets in the car.
Mark closes the door and lowers the window a little bit, “He says you are moving to my rotation!” Then he closes the window tight and drives off.

Cole watches as Mark drives away, well if changing rotations is the worse thing to happen he can live with that.

Cole heads over to his truck and gets in it. He notices a note on the seat and he reads it. He is stunned by the graphic language and blatant homophobia in the note, but what did he expect? “That didn’t take long!” he says to himself, amazed at how fast information flies around the station. He checks the door, which was locked, but he can see no marks from someone forcing their way in.

Cole’s phone rings, as he is about to back up. It’s his mother asking him to come over for supper.