For the Good of the Department
It was apparent that Captain Dan Ross was being pressured. It showed to anyone watching from the Squad Room that he was unhappy and the sound of his voice, even if you couldn't hear the words, was angry. He was on the phone and anyone who had something else to do made it a point to beat feet out of there. An unhappy captain made everyone nervous.
The squad room emptied in record time when he hung up the phone in a carefully controlled manner and looked out into the squad room for someone to take his ire out on. They unfortunately fell on Bobby Goren and Alex Eames, you could feel the tension in the room. Captain Ross marched over to his office door, yanked it open. "Goren, Eames, my office, now."
"What did we do now?" Alex asked her partner.
"I've been at my desk all week." Bobby said innocently.
"As if you can't get into trouble from there." Alex snarked.
"None that I caused at least." Bobby shot back. He grabbed his portfolio and followed his partner to Ross's office where he was agitatedly thumping a pencil on his blotter.
Bobby closed the door behind them and moved uneasily over toward his usual spot near the window. Alex settled onto a chair in front of the desk. "Is something wrong, sir?" she asked.
"Yes, but not what you think. What do you know about folk dancing?"
This caught even Bobby off guard. "F-Folk dancing?"
"Yes, that's what I said." Ross demanded testily.
"Uh, it's something that is just informal and usually local. It's not exactly ritualized or taught at a studio." Bobby said realizing this would be common knowledge.
"Is this concerning a case, Captain?" Alex demanded being careful to keep her tone respectful.
"Yes, a case of your captain has his tail in a crack and I know nothing about folk dancing." Ross said with heavy sarcasm. Ross sighed and sat back in his chair. "The Chief of D's is requesting, informally of course, that I take his cousin who is coming in from out of town out for an evening and she likes folk dancing."
"That's against department policy." Bobby pointed out reasonably.
"I'm aware of that, that's why it's a request not an order. He's still carrying a grudge from the excursion at Tates."
"It was about more than that, though isn't it? He's been looking to cause Bobby trouble ever since his promotion and he's using you now to do it." Alex said immediately.
"Eames, I'm aware of that. It's not going to come back to bite you, Goren, through me. I'll go this one time and then that's the end of it. He has another reason for being this way. It seems I'm the only available captain who isn't married and he wants her to feel like she's being escorted by someone high ranking. All off the record, of course."
"I appreciate your sacrifice, Captain." Bobby said.
"You could file a complaint, Captain. We'd back you up on it." Alex offered, knowing it would cause a huge stir and make a problem for the department.
"No, I'll go make nice with her and then take care of it. One "date" won't kill me. But I do need you to find out what all is available for this weekend. She's coming in on Saturday afternoon. I realize this isn't a usual request, but I'm kind of ….."
"Say no more, Captain. We'd be glad to help out." Bobby said.
Alex looked from her captain to her partner and shook her head. It had to be a guy thing, she'd have been hopping mad to be asked to do this. "Is there anything else, sir?" she asked.
"If we could keep this between us, I don't want this to get out." Ross said wearily.
"What is it you're referring to?" Alex asked with a bit of a smile. She led the way out of the office.
"Imagine that. The Chief of D's pulling that kind of stunt. And using you to get Ross to cooperate." She fumed once back at her desk.
Bobby raised his head to look at her for a minute. "Eames, I'm happy to do this for him. I have….made him look bad in front of the Chief. And he has covered for us, for me. Even if he's let us know about it afterward. Let's just plan a nice evening out for them and be done with it. You want to check out restaurants?"
Alex scowled at the use of department resources. She signed onto the department log in and a new message emblem popped up. She clicked on it. The message was from Dross. It read: "Please make two reservations for Saturday night at a good restaurant. Make sure that it's a good one. You'll want to check it out personally. Use his credit card for both sets of reservations. Here's the number: # -#-#-#. It's already been approved. Make it the very best one you can find."
Alex started laughing. Bobby stared at her like she'd lost her mind. She waved him away and forwarded the message to him. Bobby grinned wickedly and went back to his work. There was more than one way to skin a Chief of Detectives."
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