Repercussions

Part II

And sure enough, Bruce and Tim enroll in the police academy to pursue a career in public service. Bruce, the taller and bulkier teen, excels in the physical aspects while Tim, the thinner one, does well in the brainy parts. It will take them five years, and another five in training, before they become full-pledged police officers. Bruce's father wanted him to be a lawyer, but their pact was too strong.

Longwood was almost denied of admission, and lost interest in entering himself, into the academy with the issue to his father, who was a preacher accused of murdering a pregnant woman. Several years ago when he's still a boy, Tim found him by their house helping a woman deliver a child. Tim froze with all the blood he's seeing, and couldn't hear his father screaming at him. A knife lies beside them. He saw as his father pull the feet of the baby out, but the mother suddenly stopped moving, silent. The baby, thin to the bone, never cried. Alerted by the screams, neighbors called the police. They then dragged the preacher to their car, seeing the knife. The woman and the baby were bagged together. The boy just stood the whole time, petrified of fear, something that he truly regrets.

The judge sentenced his father to life imprisonment. A week into his sentence, the preacher was found hanged by the neck. Tim's mother didn't tell him about it, but she couldn't bear the pain. A week later, when Tim's at school, she stabbed herself in the neck. The boy confined himself in their house for months reading the Bible and swearing vengeance to everyone who did him wrong and promised to help him. He knows his father didn't kill that woman. But Bruce manages to restore his state and get him back on his feet, and let him stay with him. With his father's connections, the two enters the academy.

Every year, the two 'borrows' a boat left behind in the boardwalk and drives it in the middle of the sea to drink beer, sometimes with two girl classmates. One time, Tim skipped one session for Bruce to get Claire, a girl that Tim likes as well, for himself. Little did he know, Tim hid under the boat and recorded every awkward conversation. When they're about to kiss, Tim burst in laughter and Bruce threw him off the boat.

"Thank you, Bruce," Tim said one time, "for bringing me back again."

"You would've done the same for me."

"I won't." They laughed.

"We'll still be doing this when we're older, right?"

"You think we'll still be friends by then?"

"Are you kidding me? No one can break the Double Team apart!"

A few days after that very conversation, Bruce arrives back home to get more of his father's books. He sees their home devoid of life but their dog. In their kitchen is a trail of blood leading to the loo. He follows it. And in the tub, his father and brother lie dead in the pool of their own blood, their necks slit open. A neighbor hears Bruce's loud cry and calls the police. Tim rushes to his aid, and just like what he said, did what Bruce have done for him. They decide to stay with Bruce's mother.

It took a while for Bruce's scars to heal. Tim finds a new apartment. They remain best of friends, eternally indebted to each other. They graduate, train and become inspectors. Bruce never knew the killer, nor did Tim. L