A/N: Yeah...so. Finally saw To the Bone last night. The ending upset me. Probably should've listened to my friends on IM when they said it would, but I hadn't seen it, so I watched it anyways. And CI's not mine.
The case had finally been closed…but for some reason, it didn't feel like it. Innocent lives had been taken, yet again, something we saw every day but this somehow seemed different. Everything had gone wrong, or had at least appeared to. Nothing seemed right. An undercover cop was dead, accidentally, by the hands of one of my own. A suspect had committed suicide. The brass, as usual, were breathing down my neck about everything, and I, like always, had refused to give them what they wanted: a reason to send Logan back to the island.
And now IAD wanted me. If I hadn't known better, I'd have assumed that it was their doing, their way of getting back at me for standing by my detectives. But I did know better. This wasn't the brass' doing; it was mine, or so IAD wanted to think. The problem was that my career, at present, was not the only one on the line. Officer Martinez had been the one to help Logan and Barek back at the scene of the shooting; apparently, something had happened, and now both of us were being called into question.
In all the times that IAD had seen fit to screw around with me, they'd never once said that I'd need my CEA rep or whatever the hell it was called nowadays. This time, they had. It scared me somewhat, but not enough that I was going to let it show. Whatever IAD knew, or thought they knew, I knew the truth, and if they didn't want to hear it, that was their problem. Not mine. My problem was making sure that my detectives had come out of this all right. Barek had, but Logan, I was still worried about. He had been cleared, but was still visibly shaken. I couldn't blame him. Drawing a gun was one thing, but actually shooting someone…
The lights in the squad room had dimmed a while ago. From what I could see, I was the only one still there. Oddly enough, it was what I wanted. Logan and Barek were, at present, the only ones that knew I'd been summoned by IAD; come morning, everyone would know. I could only hope that they wouldn't assume the worst. If they did, well, then…that was just one more thing to worry about.
I mulled over this for a minute as I rose to my feet and reached for my coat. If IAD had wanted me to show up in front of them that night, then they could forget it. I had too much on my mind, and I was going home, to my family, and to a place where I could forget about this, even if only for a moment…though I had the feeling that Angie would have plenty to say about it, just like she did about half the cases that had me coming home, reluctant to talk to anyone about anything, until I managed to figure things out. But even then, I always had the feeling that I'd never really figured them out, and I knew I never would.
There weren't really any streetlights outside the office window. The entire room went dark the minute I turned out the inside lights, and I stood there for a long moment, just staring out at the sky. For once, the stars were visible, and somehow, it made me feel as if there was still some hope left in the world. Ironic, really, but it did. I bent down to pick up the file that had slipped from my hands, and when I looked up again, I saw something completely unexpected: a shooting star.
I'd never been one for superstitions, or anything of that sort, but as I stood there watching, I couldn't help but make a wish, that everything would turn out all right, and things would go back to normal.
If things could've ever been called "normal" in the first place.