She'd had a rough week. Cases involving children were always that worst to get involved with, and all though she had been on the job for over a year now, it was still hard to talk to parents who had lost a child, something they created, loved and cherished. The plans that they had for their child falling in tatters at their feet.
Detective Jennifer Angel shook her head. She couldn't think like that, it wouldn't help anyone, not the girl's parents or herself, especially herself because she had to come back into work tomorrow and deal with another case. The voice of her supervisor and mentor floated into her mind as she lay there, on a bench in the locker room staring at the ceiling.
'If you try too hard to know each face and every crime, every victim and family then you will not last long in this job. It seems unfair to simply see them as the next victim, the next person, but it's the only way you will last in this job.' She knew he was right, that she had to let each case be a case, to all fade into one. Holding onto one case, one issue would simply cause her to fail in her job.
"You alright down there?" her eyes flew open to see a tall man with thick black hair and bright blue eyes kneeling over her, looking down at her with concern. She nodded, sitting up, trying not to smack her head against his. That would look really good, smacking her head into the face of a concerned friend and colleague.
"I'm fine." Flack raised an eyebrow at her, silently asking her if he looked stupid. He could tell when people were upset about something. He was a cop after all, he knew all the tell-tell signs of fright, nerves, sadness, even happiness.
"You don't look it." She shrugged, running a hand through her hair.
It felt greasy and sweaty. Now that she thought about it she did feel very sweaty and awful, as though she was about to be sick.
She bent over, her head in her hands, trying to get rid of the nauseous feeling in her stomach.
A hand appeared on her back, slowly rubbing the skin under her shirt in soft smooth circles, as thought it was rubbing in some form of ointment or comforting her as she calmed her insides.
"It's always hard to accept that you can't get to know everyone, that you have to step away and treat each case as a case." He gently continued to rub her back, continuing those smooth circles as she started to cry. He let his arms slip around her waist, holding her tight as she continued to cry. For a cop he wasn't very good at emotions, he couldn't deal with people crying, whether it was with joy or sadness and he didn't want to see her cry. Jen was a nice girl, a good cop; she didn't deserve to be so upset with what she was doing. So he just held onto her as slowly her tears stopped.
"Been a rough couple of days hasn't it?" A soft chuckle came from his chest and she looked up at him, pushing away slightly, looking up at him.
"Yeah, it has been." His hand had moved from her back to the base of her neck, just resting there, the tips of his long fingers buried in her black hair, feeling her hair naturally curling around them, nestling close, just as she had been a second ago. Flack had to admit, that he liked the feeling of her in his arms, her head against his chest, her thick silky hair tickling the underside of his chin.
"Do you want to get a drink?" Angel looked up from him, her head cocking to the side in thought before a smile spread across her face as she slowly nodded.
"Yeah, it'd be nice to forget this case." He grinned as well, pulling her to her feet as he stood up.
"I can help you forget a lot of things." His sly smile spread as she nodded, looping her arm through his, grinning up at him.
"I bet you can Detective Flack, I bet you can."