A year to Remember. Part 2, the Internship

"I didn't expect every single fireman to have a story", Sam comments to himself, checking his phone, having spend 3 hours with the fire department and accompanied them to 4 different calls just to get through all their tales of Spider-Man helping with fires. He runs across northern boulevard, walking past Bayside's public library and into the 111th Precinct PD.

Showing his SHIELD ID at the front desk, he's immediately directed inside. "We'll inform Captain Montoya of your arrival", one of the reception's officers stands, on their way to the back. "That's not necessary", Sam shuts the officer down, "I'm here on a casual basis, thank you". She walks back to the front desk leaving Sam by the detective's bullpen, it's functional quiet sharply cut by a man's screech. "Sam!".

He turns startled, spotting the naturally disheveled man-child the voice belongs to. "Peralta?", Sam asks as Jake runs up from the evidence lock up, the latter pulling the former into a bro hug. "Did you finally get run out of the 99?", Sam jokes to get on his nerves.

"Surprisingly no", a deeper voice chimes in, joining the 2 from where Jake just came from. Sam smirks, "Terry! How you doing", both walk up to each other, doing their own special handshake. "I'm great. But where have you been? You gotta visit more often man, haven't seen you since December", Terry winks, gently tapping Jake's shoulder with his elbow, getting him to relax.

"It's been a busy couple months", Sam explains, somewhat apologetic but not really. Terry pulls him in a side hug, "You busy next Monday? Cause Cagney and Lacey miss their Uncle Sam". Low hanging fruit, but the girls have always loved the nickname. He stops to think it over for a second, as Terry lets go. "I can make it. How are the twins? and Ava?".

"They're all great", Terry replies, pulling pictures up on his phone, "Little Ava's already crawling, trying to walk too" he gushes over his girls. "Anything else I missed?", Sam asks while Terry keeps scrolling. Jake mistakenly takes the question as his own. "Well, Amy went to prison, Holt and I ended up in Florida on Witness Protection, Rosa got a psycho boyfriend for a bit- Oh! And I got to live die hard!".

Sam short-circuited, not entirely certain if he was accurate or not. "Think he was asking me Jake?", Terry elbows him. "Yeah, but we're gonna have to circle back to at least 3 of those", Sam replies, sighing with light concern mixed with his day's exhaustion.

"Sorry to interrupt this brounion, but that's all gonna have to wait", A stocky Latinx woman cuts in between the 3, "I'm Captain Renee Montoya. I presume you're Sam Wilson?". She asks at the man, him nodding in response. "While it is a pleasure to have you here, I wanna know why. We're far too busy for chit chat".

"I was just here on a research assignment on Spider-Man-".

Renee scoffs, exaggeratedly, "What do you want with him again", she spits. Sam looks dumbfounded. "Yeah, about that Sam, that's kinda why we're here", Jake interjects, his usual bombastic attitude dulled by 'scary montoya'. "Queen's precincts have kinda been overloaded with work for the past two weeks", Terry tries to explain.

"How so?".

"Because ever since you traumatised the Spider away we lost one of our strongest allies and crime rates have gone through the roof". Sam turns to her, even more lost, "I'm sorry?", he blurts. "I've been on this job for over 30 years and was the go to woman for trauma victims, physical or otherwise for 20 of those", She summarises, "So you sure as hell heard me right when I said traumatised". He flinches down, "Ok", he moves past her assertion, not wanting to pick a fight with her. "But it's only been like 2 weeks, it cannot be that bad".

Wrong move. 937%" she stares him down, "Since the moment he posted that video crime rates have gone up 37%"... in two weeks. "What- how?", Sam stumbles, stunned by the neck breaking change. Montoya smugly grins, "Follow me", Renee guides all 3 back to the entrance of the precinct, facing a side wall covered in pictures. "Wanna know what that is?".