A/N: Apparently, my muse thinks it's funny to poke me for one shots while I'm in the middle of you all only know how many chapter fics, but it wouldn't leave me alone, and therefore this. CI's not mine, as I'm sure you know, therefore, I shall go.
It caught his eye as he turned to walk back into his office…after watching two uniforms lead away a man he'd once considered a friend. It wasn't anything that anyone else would have considered important, but to him, it was everything. What was ironic about it, he mused, as he entered the office and closed the door, indicating that he didn't want to be bothered, was that it wasn't any of those things that had significance in any life other than his personal one.

But there it was, a golden circle on his finger, exactly where it had been for the past twenty-odd years. He had never taken it off, even when he'd had reason to. It was probably the one reason why he'd never lost it, but he wouldn't have traded it for the world. For all that the department and this career had ever meant to him, this little metal circle meant that much more. And it bothered the hell out of him that there were people out there who could care so little about what it was supposed to mean.

Then again, he thought as the phone rang and he reached for it, knowing that it would be the first call of many, not everyone would let something as simple as a ring hold them back.