The difference changed how he held himself. He still moved quickly when someone raised a voice, but he stopped interpreting every mistake as proof that he deserved punishment. On a busy Friday he misfiled a parts request and delayed a job by an afternoon. He waited in dread for Rosa to call him into the office. She did, and he stood across her desk with his hands clasped behind his back as though bracing for a blow.
"Tell me what went wrong," Rosa said. He explained the error, the missing confirmation, and the customer who now had to wait. She listened and asked how he would prevent the same problem next time. He described a change to the checking process.
Rosa nodded. "Good. Call the customer, apologize for the delay, and make sure he gets the updated estimate. Then come back to work."
Leo remained standing. Rosa looked up from her computer. "You got another question?" he asked. "No, ma'am." She waited.
"Then why are you looking at me like I'm about to throw something?" He tried to laugh, but nothing came out. Rosa's expression softened. "Because somebody taught you mistakes always hurt. We're going to teach you something else."
He left her office with tears burning his eyes and found Sully leaning beside the Road King in the rear bay. "You all right?" Sully asked. Leo nodded, then shook his head. "I made a mistake."
She didn't even get mad. Sully regarded him quietly. "That's how it should be most of the time, kid. The world makes enough trouble without us turning every little error into a war."
Months passed, and the criminal inquiry reached a stage where witnesses were formally interviewed for possible prosecution. Leo gave a statement in a room with a recorder on the table, Talia beside him and an investigator who made it clear that he could ask for a break. He described the incident in the laundry room, the escape, the abandoned station, the Road King, and Hank's arrival with Higgins. When he reached the moment the lighter was taken, his voice shook, but he continued. He was not speaking because anyone had ordered him to. He was speaking because he wanted the record to exist.
The investigator asked whether Sully had promised to hurt Hank in exchange for Leo's testimony. Leo answered no and explained that the bikers had been angry, that some had damaged the truck, and that Sully had stopped them and called for outside help. The investigator asked whether Leo feared consequences for telling that part. Leo looked at Talia, then back at the recorder.
"I don't want to protect a lie," he said. "That's what Hank always wanted. I don't want to do it for anybody."
When the interview ended, Talia told him he had done well. Leo shrugged and asked what happened next. She explained that prosecutors would evaluate the evidence and make charging decisions, and that there might be months of motions and hearings before any trial. Leo hated the uncertainty but understood the alternative was a system where the loudest man could decide another person's future without being checked.