"Did you decide?" Kade asked, handing Cody the pamphlet. The young teen flipped through it before looking up and looking at his injured father, happily chatting with the townsfolk as if he didn't have a broken leg and wasn't sitting in a hovering wheelchair.

"That," Cody stated, nodding his head in his father's direction. "That's what I want to be."

Kade smiled and set a hand on Cody's shoulder.

"Good choice."

It's been twenty five years.

Twenty-five years since that day, twenty-five years before Cody knew what he wanted to do and who he wanted to be. His family had come for Sunday dinner as Chief Burns had "ordered" very regularly, rarely did they ever miss a week. Cody had taken over for his father as Griffin Rock's Chief of Police when he was about twenty-five and Chief was 66. Cody had given his father a new fishing rod as a retirement present. Chief Burns had laughed.

That was fourteen years ago.

Cody smiled sadly as he looked at the closed casket laying in the pit that was dug for him, right next to his mother. Charlie Burns had gotten a bad case of pneumonia and was hospitalized for a while until he passed away about a week later. They had chosen to have the ceremony outside, so the 'bots could pay their condolences, along with anyone else.

"I'll do my best," Cody whispered.

That was a year ago.

Now, exactly a year later, Cody was back at the gravesite, holding a bouquet of flowers and placing them in-between the two graves.

"Hey mom. Hey dad," he greeted quietly. He knew his siblings would be around soon, but he wanted a moment without them.

"I really miss you guys. The town's been hectic, as usual, but thanks to the rescue bots...the newer recruits...everything is under control. Sometimes it's hard, y'know? I'm just trying my hardest," Cody sniffed and blinked a couple of times to keep the tears from blurring his vision.

"I feel like I can't match up to everything you've done for the city, dad. I took this job fourteen years ago and sometimes I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing. I didn't realize how much you had to go through every day, and how much love you had for this island and the people-and 'bots-on it. You left a legacy, and I plan to continue it. So much has changed in Griffin Rock. The tech, of course, never stops changing and malfunctioning. But the simplest things, like what you did, helping with groceries, settling arguments, are what make me remind me of you and what make me stop on my patrol and help, what makes me look out for those little things a lot of people would simply ignore. Charlene, remember her? The baby that was named after you because you got her parents to the hospital in time? She enlisted in the police force yesterday. I had to go into another room to keep myself from crying in front of her. She knows what you did, her parents constantly remind her. She wants to do her best to live up to the name she's been given." A watery smile appeared on his face as tears rolled down his cheeks. He sat down in front of his dad's grave, pulling his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. He sobbed quietly. He thought he could do this without breaking down like this, but memories flooded him like a waterfall, even after he had retired he was still doing what he could to help everyone.

He was like that for a few minutes until he felt a hand on his shoulder and he jerked up.

"Cody? You okay?" Dani asked, and he could see Graham and Kade behind her. He quickly wiped away a few tears and silently nodded. She squeezed his shoulder and sat down next to him. He stared at her hair, it was grown out to her shoulders now and it had a few gray streaks in it. Kade sat on his other side and Graham just stood behind him. They looked at each other and smiled a little. Cody had been oblivious. They heard every word he said.

~~~

I rewatched "Family Business" and inspiration struck me like a bat when the episode ended.

I honestly cried writing this