Robbery In Progress

*Emma*

"What? They are early. It's only 11:50," I responded as I looked towards the doors. And sure as shit, people were coming out the doors. "Okay, we need everyone from the building taken in for questions and statements." I saw an unknown number calling my phone, "can you guys get that rolling? I have to take this." Once they nodded, I answered the call, "Special Agent Emma Harrison."

"Emma." I recognized that Boston accent, and I closed my eyes, "you still don't mind if I call you Emma, right?" I sat down at the computer to start a trace since Kelsey and Matty had already walked off.

"Of course, you can call me Emma, Joe. Where'd you go there, buddy? This isn't the bank phone we were talking on."

"Turns out we didn't need the chopper. Sorry to waste your time, Emma."

"Not that I don't love talking to you, Joe. But I can't help but wonder why you're calling me after you've already gotten away." The trace was zeroing in, but even a mile would be too big of a search radius. "You seem nice, Emma. Like you truly meant it when you said you wanted to help."

"I did mean it, Joe. I want to help you." A half-mile, we were getting close. Just a little bit longer.

"I'm going to hold you to that. I've got your number." With that, the line went dead, and the trace cut out.

"Dammit."

"Hi, can I get four-no five beers, please?" I asked the bartender after remembering that Jamie brought his wife with him.

"You want that off the tap or-" the bartender started to ask me, but I cut him off.

"Sorry, bottles are fine. Two Heinekens, two Buds, and one bud light." I didn't often get together with the team outside of work, but Jamie and Sarah got back from their honeymoon this morning, and I needed a distraction from the mess of yesterday. Once they handed over the beers, I collected them all between my fingers as I used to when I was a waitress, and there wasn't a tray available.

When I got back to the table, I heard the beginnings of an argument about the better honeymoon activity. Nikki thought it was swimming in the ocean, Jamie thought it was skydiving, and Sarah wanted to know why you had to choose. "Hey! She's back." Drew helped me pass around the beers as I slid into my seat. "Want to weigh in on the best honeymoon activity?"

While I was very happy for Jamie and Sarah, I didn't want to think about honeymoon activities. It hit too close to home with my own issues right now.

"Uh, swimming in the ocean sounds good." I tried to reply as normally as possible without thinking too much about the subject or my answer. Though from the quiet that settled over the table, I clearly failed.

"So, how did the negotiation go today?" It was Jamie that asked. I took a sip of my beer before responding. *Great, another thing I don't want to think about.*

"I mean, they got away, so it could have been better. But no one died, so that's a plus." That was about as excited I could get over my first time back in the field since the accident. Nothing felt right about the case, and the eyewitness testimonies didn't even help because the robbers wore masks-what a bust.

"No one even got shot at, so look at that. It's a definite win." Nikki was such a sweetheart with all her encouragement. I remember when I used to be friendly and encouraging like her.

"What about the two detectives? Are they going to be helpful?" Jamie again. I picked at my coaster, not willing to make eye contact as I answered.

"Um, yeah. I think they will be. Detective Lawson seems to be very resourceful and organized. He knows what he's talking about." I was impressed with him, and I was interested in working with him more as we solved this little puzzle of ours. "What about Detective...Collins? That's her name, right?" *Don't blush. Don't blush. Don't blush.* I was so focused on not blushing that I forgot to respond. "Em?" Nikki prodded.

*Kelsey*

The following Monday, Matty and I were waiting for Emma to show up at our precinct so we could start going through what happened on Saturday and dig into investigating.

"If you stare at that case file any harder, you'll burn a hole in it," Matty mentioned as he walked past me towards his desk. I rolled my eyes at him then turned his way.

"I wasn't staring at it that intently." But all the same, I closed the file and logged back into my computer, which had gone to sleep in the time I had been reading over the robbery case. My phone rang on my desk; I glanced at it. *Mike.* He'd been calling for the past few days, wanting to know when we could see each other again. I had been planning to call him back, take him up on that offer. But ever since a certain redhead landed in my bed, I haven't been interested. Declining the call raised Matty's suspicions of me, "who was that?"

"No one," I averted my eyes as I answered. Hoping he would believe me and drop the whole conversation.

He didn't.

"Mhm. Okay, look. I know that your FBI girl wasn't too happy about how things went down on Saturday, but that wasn't your fault. They've been slipping through law enforcement hands for a while now. It's not like we were going to be handed the case and then solve it right out of the gate."

I scoffed at that. "Alright, first of all. She is not my FBI girl. She's Agent Harrison. And I know that, but it doesn't make me any less stressed. These people killed someone, so what if at the next robbery they kill another person and we could have spared that person's life if we had just caught them on Saturday?" Matty wheeled over to my desk while still sitting in his chair, and I knew I was in for a lecture. You didn't work with someone for four years and not learn their tells. And usually, I wouldn't mind a lecture or his stupidly keen senses, but not today. Emma would be showing up any second, and we could be on this case for who knows how long. *Just shoot me now.*

Matty grabbed the file off my desk and opened it. He skimmed through it and then looked back at me. "You know, Kels. These guys have been out there, robbing banks seemingly undetected for...months. We made more progress on this case, with Agent Harrison, on Saturday than anyone has ever made on it. So yes, it sucks that they'll probably find another bank to hit before we find them, and maybe someone could get hurt in the process. But-" "What a pep talk, Matty," I mumbled, and he reached out to hook his finger under my chin so I'd look at him.

"But, one more robbery is better than five or ten. We are this case's best shot, so breathe. You do your best work when you're calm." He rolled back over to his best, and I shook my head at him.

"I think you forget that it was Emma who figured all that out. What did we do other than play assistants all day?"

"I thought we were calling her Agent Harrison?" When I just stared at him, he smirked and continued. "Of course she's good. She was brought in for a reason."

"She was brought in because the case is federal now. I don't even know why we're still on it." I locked my computer, giving up on whatever it was I turned it back on for, and pushed away from my desk, preparing to stand up and walk away. "Maybe we're still on the case because we're local cops and because we're good detectives. Maybe we don't work as spectacularly at hostage negotiations as she does, but that doesn't mean we aren't useful. Did it occur to you that we balance out each other's strengths and weaknesses?"

I turned my chair to him, halting my escape to hear him out. What can I say? His argument intrigued me. "Explain."

"She's a damn fine negotiator but seems uncomfortable in other capacities. Whereas we don't know crap about negotiating someone off a ledge, but we have informants, we have a ton of local connections. And I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that a federal badge closes more doors than it opens."

He was right. I knew he was right even before we started this stupid conversation. Honestly, I was just trying to find an out that wouldn't involve me telling our boss about my sex life. And since I hoped never to have that conversation with her, I sighed in defeat.

"I'm going to go get us some coffee before she gets here. Want anything?" I grabbed my jacket as I stood from my chair. It wasn't too bad outside, but the brisk fall temperatures were setting in; plus, I preferred to keep my wallet and keys in my jacket rather than a purse whenever possible. I've always thought purses were dumb, but since they make women's pants with barbie pockets, they sometimes become a necessary evil. That was why I preferred the colder temperatures. "That depends. Are you going downstairs or across the street?" It was an important distinction, downstairs was "cop coffee", mediocre sludge made in a pot from the 70s, across the street was a Starbucks. Overpriced, but infinitely better. "Obviously I'm going across the street."

"Then, I'd love some coffee."