Behind the Ice Queen
"What!"
Everyone jumped at the sound of Sharon Raydor's yell from her office. The major crimes squad in particular spun around trying to figure out what was happening but the only thing that they could see was Assistant Chief Taylor gesturing while he spoke to the Captain.
As Captain Raydor got up and walked to the door the team straighten up and tried to look busy. But as the door opened everyone could hear Provenza say "This is going to be interesting…".
The glare on Raydor's face was enough silence any other comments that were about to be made.
"Everyone listen up. Apparently Assistant Chief Taylor has decided that there is not enough teamwork between all of us so he's making us do a team building exercise".
This didn't go down well with the team as everyone started to protest but the death glare that Raydor sent them shut everyone up again.
"This exercise will happen this Saturday starting at eight a.m. The entire team will be spending the day together, along with any family that wishes to join us, doing anything that we wish. Please let me know if any of your family members wish to join us". At the last word Captain Raydor stormed off while the team started to talk.
Saturday eight a.m.
The team had decided that if they had to spend time together then they might as well get some enjoyment out of it. So they decided to meet in front of a nearby mall since most of the group had things to pick up. At exactly eight the team saw Raydor's car parking and they watched her get out of the car. The team wasn't surprised to Rusty get out as well but they were shocked to see two strangers do so as well. The man and woman were obviously related to each other but took a moment for anyone to realize that these were Captain Raydor's children. Tao was the first one to break the silence when the four people caught up to the group.
"Hello. I'm Tao and I'm guessing that you two are Captain Raydor's children?".
Both of the strangers nodded as Raydor introduced them. "This is James and Elana. Rusty and I were supposed to spend the day with them but since we had this exercise they decided to come along." Raydor turned to her children. "And this is of course the major crimes squad".
After shaking hands with each other the group decided to head into the mall.
At first the group just wandered aimlessly while not talking but as they passed a cd store James called the group back. "Since We're here I'd like to go in and look for a cd that just came out. Is that alright with everyone?". Once everyone agreed the group went into the store but they started to spread out as soon as they entered. Buzz headed to the rock section and was surprised to see Raydor heading that way as well. He picked up a cd from an artist that he didn't know and was looking at the back when he heard Raydor's voice beside him.
"That's not a bad cd. I'd recommend 'Pour some sugar on me' in particular off of that one." Buzz just looked at the cd and asked her if she liked this type of music. Raydor was about to answer when they heard Elana talking to them from a few feet away.
"Mom likes almost every type of music except for rap. You should see her cd collection at home". Elana, James, and Rusty laughed but Sykes just looked a bit confused. "Really? I always figured her for more of a classical music type myself".
"She listens to that as well" James said as he looked at Sykes" But most of her favorites are not classical. Like the song 'All I wanna do' by Heart. She likes that song. We used to have fun with her about that because she wouldn't let us listen to it when we were kids. Not that she can stop us now since we're adults".
The teasing of her kids made Rayor smile as she said "You are not adults. To me you are still a couple of ten year olds and I refuse to believe otherwise." Raydor and the kids turned to finish buying their cds which was lucky since they then missed the look of shock that covered the squad's faces as they followed them. Sanchez had to laugh at the look on Provenza's face as he took in the fact that the woman that they considered an Ice Queen was actually not all that cold.
Half an hour passed before Raydor finally saw a pretzel stand and dragged Rusty to buy her favorite treat. As everyone else waited for them Provenza gathered the courage to talk to James and Elana.
"You two seem to get along well with her. Doesn't her obsession with the rules make things difficult?"
A pained look passed between the two as they looked at Provenza and tried to figure out how to answer. Finally Elana decided to tell them a story.
"We aren't bothered by her love of the rules because we know where that feeling comes from. You see, a disregard of the rules killed our older brother." This caused a reaction from the squad."You guys didn't know about him did you? Our brother was killed after our father took us to a crime scene that wasn't secured and left us in the car. He had just picked us up from mom's house when he heard about a shootout on the scanner. But a few minutes after he left us in the car the two suspects came running and saw us in the car. They wanted to use us as hostages but Tim wouldn't let them and they shoot him. A couple of police officers came running after that and they shot the suspects before we got hurt. Since there was an officer related shooting mom got called to the scene and saw Tim before taking us away from the scene. Dad broke the rules and got Tim killed so ever since mom has made sure to follow all of the rules. She doesn't want anyone else to have to suffer like she did."
Before anyone could respond to the story Raydor and Rusty came back. The rest of the day passed quickly as the major crimes team thought about Elana's story and how they had misjudged Raydor. Everyone was relieved when the day ended and they could go home. But each and every squad member promised themselves that from now on they would try to be nicer to Raydor. This was lucky for her because soon she would need everyone's support…..
