Disclaimer: (Let this apply to all my Standoff stories because I don't think I've done on yet.) I'm not stealing- I'm just borrowing!
"Like I told you, John, you can go to court and fight them on this. Imminent Domain laws are out-dated and unfair- you get a jury they'll listen to you." Matt stated calmly into the phone as he read the sheet of paper Emily held up with 'legal rights' scribbled on it in black marker.
"I don't have the money to fight them, I told you that!" John Fisher yelled back at Matt. The Nebraska state government was exercising their right to take his home, along with several others in the same area, so they could build a new power plant. The original one was a nuclear reactor and was slowly degrading, they wanted a fresh, oil-powered one, regardless of how illogical using oil is today.
"John do you know what pro bono means?"
"Yeah, its when someone works for free, why?"
"Because there are a lot of organizations that recruit lawyers to argue cases just like this pro bono. You can fight the state and not pay."
"How do I do that?" He was suddenly calm and very interested.
"Well, first you have to let those people go, your beef isn't with them, remember they're all just secretaries and clerks, right?" He'd taken a small government office hostage, getting mostly low level employees.
"Yeah, but how do I get one of those lawyers?"
"We're going to find an organization that will help you. In fact," he paused, again reading the sheet of paper Emily held up for him, "there is a local group called Citizen's Choice that does this kind of work."
"Really, they'll help me?"
"You let your hostages go and put that gun down, and yeah they'll help you."
"Okay."
"Okay what, John?"
"I'm coming out."
"Good, good John." Matt heard a click and a minute later John emerged dropping his weapon as the local cops got him on his knees and cuffed him, the hostages swarming out behind him.
Matt tossed down his ear piece, and ran his hands through his hair. He was exhausted, 18 hours with this guy was 17 too many. He and Emily had both been up for well over thirty-six hours, though he supposed, they had both napped an hour or so on the plane up.
They'd been walking out the door at six thirty the previous night, having just closed another case, when Cheryl called them into her office, handing them two tickets for a Silver Creek, a small city in Nebraska, departing in less than an hour. After a marathon of packing and hauling ass to the airport they took a smaller than average jet, which shook and jolted the better part of the trip, trying to win against the weather.
Once they landed, and were greeted by the icy temperatures of a Nebraska even if it was almost June, they were pointed to a car, their overnight bags taken from them, and driven 45 outside this small city, to Nowheresville. They had been told their bags were deposited at a nearby hotel, where'd they spend the night after talking the guy down. Matt spent the next 12 hours trying to engage the HT in conversation, while Emily volleyed between him and the locals.
Matt finally coaxed him into conversation just past the 12 hour mark, and spent the next six hours arguing with him, while Emily went got writers cramp scribbling on a record number of papers. Now, finally done, they were both tired and cranky, and eager to sleep.
"Can we get the hell out of here now?" He said hopefully.
"There's Captain Bishop, let's hope that deputy with him is our ride to the hotel." Emily said equally as hopeful.
"I'd like to that you both personally, Agents Flannery and Lehman. We're just so relieved this was resolved without any blood." He said shaking their hands.
"Just our job." Matt said with a smile, that Emily knew after almost nine months of working with him was fake.
"We'd just like to get a little sleep now." Emily hinted not so subtly to the captain.
"Of course your bags are at your hotel, and George here will take you there." He said gesturing to the deputy beside him.
Twenty-five minutes later they pulled into the Sky Lark Motel, were given room keys and sent up to their adjacent rooms. This wasn't hard to get because the hotel seemed to be virtually empty aside from a mud-covered pick-up, and a nineties model Saturn.
Sparse was a good word for the rooms, and gaudy fit the beds and walls. One double bed, one television, one ugly chair, one night stand, complete with a vase of fake flowers, that was the furnishings. The blue and red flowered wall paper clashed horribly with the pink, gold and silver flowered bed spreads, and both looked ridiculous next to the violet and pink fake flowers.
The bathroom was slightly better, only the shower curtain, toilet seat cover, and soap dish were flowered, and they all thankfully matched. The wall paper would have been pretty, but the light rose shade was covered in darkened patches of water stains. At least that was Matt's bathroom, Emily's was a violent shade of purple, that almost matched the rest of the décor.
After cranking up the heat, Matt turned the water on in the shower waiting for it to get warm, though it got only close to luke warm. He gave up eager to get the sweat off two days off his tired body. He hissed as he stepped in and the cool water pounded down on his body. This sucked.
"Oh shit! Shit! Shit!" Matt heard Emily yelp on the other side of the wall. Her water had gotten warm, until she stepped in, then it turned to cold really quickly. Trying her best to keep out of the spray Emily shampooed her hair, jumped under and rinsed it, then repeated with the conditioner. She was shivering so hard by the time she got to washing her face, she almost fell down, barely managing to grab the wall for support. Her teeth chattering, Emily turned the icy water off, and eagerly jumped out of the shower, only to be greeted by the freezing blast that meant a broken heater.
"Great, great…" Emily mumbled irately, throwing on sweat pant and a sweatshirt, and choosing to leave the towel on her head, lest it freeze. Angrily, she picked up the grimy beige phone, and dialed the desk, explaining her lack of heat. He promised to come right up and look. In the meantime, she sure as hell was staying in an ice cold room. Not when it was below freezing out, with high speed winds.
"Matt, Matt!" She called, knocking on the door that connected our rooms.
"What's-holy shit your room's cold!" he exclaimed interrupting himself.
"Heater's broken." She stated.
"Christ come in here, you're making my room cold." He yanked her into his room, shutting the door quickly.
"Did you talk to the guy at the desk?"
"Yeah, he said he'll come look as soon as he can." She said, her teeth still chattering, and body still shaking as she tried to warm up.
"You're still shivering, come here." He guided her to the bed, wrapping the bedspread around her, and rubbing his hands up and down her arms, trying to warm her, momentarily forgetting that that may seem inappropriate coming from her partner.
After a few minutes Emily stopped shaking and her mind began working again, realizing that her very attractive partner was rubbing his hands over her body.
Matt soon realized that she had stopped shivering and was staring at him, and as they made eye contact, Matt's hands stopped moving, resting just below her shoulders.
They continued staring at each other, until Matt through caution to the wind (she hadn't moved, right?) and pressed his mouth to hers so quickly he couldn't change his mind.
Instead of being angry and pushing him away, as Matt half expected of his square partner, she responded, giving back as good as she got. Soon his arms found their way around her waist and pulled her almost into his lap, as hers wrapped around his neck, her fingers digging into his hair. The bedspread had long since fallen away.
"Ms. Lehman! Ms. Lehman!" The duo broke apart quickly as they heard knocking next door. Emily leapt up, have excited, half embarrassed, and turning away, pressed her fingers to her lips before hurrying into her room to answer to door.
Slightly shell-shocked, Matt followed, not sure if he'd just screwed up the best partnership he'd had, or made the best decision of his life.
"Mr. Mellick, thanks for coming." Emily let the man inside.
"Shit, it is cold in here." Emily didn't even bother trying not to roll her eyes, though Matt did restrain himself from laughing at her annoyed look.
"Alright, let me tinker a bit with this here heater." Emily's eyebrows shot up, in a fashion Matt had come to know as: seriously?
"Uh, do you have a maintenance guy?" Matt asked, worried the guy would screw something up and burn them all alive.
"Jerry's got the weekends off, I can usually handle thing then." That's right, Matt thought, it was Saturday.
"Hmm…that's interesting," he said, pulling a tool out of his ancient red tool box before tinkering some more, "Just like that, right, just a little more, turn…"
"Yeah got it!" He yelped suddenly triumphant.
"It's fixed?" Emily asked, doubtfully.
"It'll take her a bit to start back up, but she should be as good as new." He wiped his hands and put his tools away.
"How long is a bit?"
"Twenty minutes maybe, two hours at the most." He said grabbing his box and heading for the door
"Great, thanks."
"No problem, don't want a precious little honey like you getting cold, do we?" Emily tried her best not to look as repulsed as she felt.
"Egh, I feel dirty." Emily stated in disgust after she shut the door, and Matt finally burst out laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" She demanded glaring at him. He didn't respond, just continued laughing as he grabbed her and dragged her back to the door to his room.
"You think I'll go in there with you while your laughing at me?"
"Would you rather freeze waiting for that thing to work?" he said sobering up.
"Fine." She yanked her arm back and proceeded him in.
"I just don't want you to be cold…preciously little honey." He teased her as he closed the door, cracking up again.
He barely had time to think when he turned back to her, because in a very un-Emily Lehman like fashion, she grabbed his head and planted a breath-steeling kiss on his lips. Part of her chided herself, screaming, what the hell are you doing! He's your partner! The other part just enjoyed the best kiss she'd had since college. When she let go, he stared at her, not sure what to do. She smiled at him.
"Had to shut you up some how." She watched the shock begin to evaporate, and he smiled back, eager to see where her game would lead.
"You know there are other ways to do that." He said, completely expecting her to take the opportunity and drop the game. She didn't.
"I'll bet they're not as much fun though." What are you doing, what are you doing! Her head screamed at her as her mouth took control and continued flirting with her partner.
"I don't know, I can think of a really fun one." He challenged her. She is so going to bail now.
"Oh, and what would that be?" You have completely lost it! She thought it even as she spoke.
"How about this." He said as he smashed his mouth to hers, running his hands along her back and stomach. Oh god, should I be doing this?
"I think that's the same." Emily barely got out after they broke apart, only to have Matt come at her again, silencing anything else she might say.
This time both their hands worked each other's bodies furiously, pulling at clothes, touching skin.
"You know we probably should be doing this." He said in between kisses.
"Uh huh." Emily mumbled against his mouth.
"We can get into a lot a trouble." He was trying to give her an out, he needed to know she really wanted this.
"Sure." She was barely paying attention to him at this point.
"It could ruin our careers." If anything is going to stop her, it's that.
"Whatever." She mumbled at him, yanking his shirt over his head.
The next morning Matt woke up first, and though he'd been completely sober during the experience, he had to take a minute to remind himself why he had his arms wrapped around his naked partner, whose body was pressed up his own naked one.
He had sex with Emily. He had sex with his partner. He was lying naked with the woman been working with everyday for nine months. It didn't seem to matter how he worded it, his mind was having sever issues grasping it, not that it had had a problem last night. No, he clearly remember some earth shaking sex, and yes he clearly remembered wrapping his arms around her, surprised she didn't leave, and both of them passing out.
This was bad. Well, the sex wasn't bad, actually it was quite good, but this…this whole sleeping with his partner thing that had to be bad, right? Was this a one-time thing, or did were they going to keep doing this? He knew what he'd vote for. Even as his mind debated back and forth whether this development was good, he knew he wouldn't take it back. He knew because instead of jumping up and trying to fix the situation, he stayed put, brushing some hair behind her ear, and breathing in the scent of it.
Matt's general behavior upon waking up with a woman was one of two things. If they were at her place, he simply took off. On rare occasions he'd wake her, and pry a number out of her lips before taking off. If the woman was in his bed, he took off to work, leaving note for her to leave her number, which was sometimes literally a coin toss if he'd actually use it. Only on the rarest of occasions did he actual lay in bed after he woke up, and it had been almost two years since he bothered with that. She'd hurt him, bad.
As Matt reflecting on his current situation, he didn't know that his bedmate had woken up. Emily had been awake for a while, waking up shortly after him. She'd been awake when he touched her hair, and knew he was thinking about her. Emily's thoughts were similar to Matt's, though in a true fashion of gender roll reversal, she was actually more inclined to bolt than he.
Christ, she thought, what was I thinking? Oh right, I wasn't thinking. Must have been slightly delirious from the cold. Yep, that's it, the cold, delirious, didn't think. She was such a liar. She knew exactly what she was doing, and she ignored the little voice in her head while she was doing it, or rather Matt. Stupid, stupid, don't make jokes now! You slept with your partner! Your partner who gave you every out, and you ignored every one of them!
Yes, Emily was much more inclined to bolt than Matt. She had more commitment issues than most guys she knew, something that drove most of her girlfriends nuts. It wasn't that she didn't want to be in a relationship, it was that she just didn't bother anymore. There was the hurdle of her job, because no man in the world liked her job, or rather her having her job. If one of their buddies became and FBI they'd say cool, what kind of guns do you use?
No when Emily said she was a crisis negotiator for the FBI, it was always, isn't that dangerous? If they got past that, and 4 times out of 5 he was faking that he didn't hate her job, then when they'd been dating for several months it would come back up. She'd actually had one guy, eight months into the relationship, tell her that she should quit her job because the mother of his children, yes his children, couldn't be a fed and a mother.
He went out the door. But, that one of five that got past the dangerous part of the job couldn't cope with the hours, or even better, couldn't cope with a girlfriend who had a high powered career. The one out of 25 or so that got that far, well, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida to pursue his own career. And she didn't stop him. So Emily was the queen of second-night stands. Admittedly there was something that always nagged at her when she tried to go to bed with a guy after a first date, something akin to her mother's voice. So she had sex after the second date, then she cut them loose.
She couldn't cut and run this morning though, and she wasn't sure what freaked her out more, that, or that it was Matt in her bed. Rather his bed.
Fortunately the alarm which somehow he'd actually remembered to set began screaming bloody murder and broke the ice for them.
"Oh, goddamn it, shut up!" Matt hissed at the offending clock as he went to shut it off, and the force of his hit sent the little device careening across the room. Then he heard Emily giggling.
"Sorry, did I wake you?" He asked his voice suddenly soft.
"I was already awake, but that little hissy fit would've woken a corpse." She told him, giggling harder.
"I don't know about you, but I haven't caught up after missing a night of sleep, and now I don't really want to go back to the good ole' sheriff and his good ole' boys."
"Better than staying here with that condescending idiot." She retorted. Neither had moved from where they'd woken up, not even to face each other, which perhaps is why the conversation was so easy.
"Aww, your not a, what was it? Precious little honey?"
"Shut up! I'm going to see if my room is heated yet." She said as she got up, taking the sheet with her.
"Hey it's cold!" He yelped at her.
"Use the comforter." She told him, laughing.
"Emily?" He called her name with a suddenly serious tone that made her turn, and finally the pair made eye contact.
"Yeah?" She asked quietly.
"We're going to talk about this, right?" This was weird for him, he wasn't usually the one that wanted to dwell on sex.
"L.A.?" She asked him hopefully. He nodded at her, and she made her way into her, sort-of-heated room. The heater was now working, but barely warmed up the room.
"Agents Flannery and Lehman over here!" A young deputy shouted to them, as they climbed out of the car that had been left for them.
"The County Attorney is here, he's real eager to me you." The deputy escorted them inside, to a conference room where Captain Bishop sat with another man, likely the aforementioned CA.
"Well, you must be the hostage negotiators, glad to me you."
"Likewise." Matt said shaking the man's hand.
"You too." Emily told him, also shaking the man's hand before she continued speaking. "But, you do know that this is a federal crime, so you won't be prosecuting?"
"Yes, I'm aware of that. I thought I might change your minds."
"We have no authority over that, the Omaha office will be handling everything from here." Matt explained.
"Don't you both still have to testify?"
"Yeah, if this goes to trial, which they hardly ever do, one of us will testify."
"So what are you still doing here?" Captain Bishop seemed annoyed by their continued presence now.
"Coordinating paperwork, Captain. And we have to wait until Omaha comes to pick him up." Now Emily was annoyed, did he actually think they wanted to stay in that shit hole town?
"Well, we'll let you get to that then." He told them and turned back to the CA, as they both picked up their conversation, ignoring the two federal agents.
For the rest of the day Matt and Emily did paperwork, and coordinated the evidence from the negotiations, namely recordings, and paperwork from Captain Bishop, his deputies, and the hostage statement. Normally this wouldn't be there job, but they were the only Feds there, and Omaha did arrive until six that evening, pissing them both off to no end.
Of course to give them both a nice slap in the face, it started snowing at exactly 6:23, five minutes after they'd handed everything over to Omaha, including the HT. Flurries would have been fine, they wouldn't have cared, but this wasn't flurries, this was heavy snow that had blanketed the ground in less than five minutes. Matt called the airport, as Emily watched eagerly hoping flights wouldn't be delayed.
After ten minutes Matt hung up, and turned to her with on of those 'I'm going to kill someone' smiles.
"It's delayed?" She asked.
"Nope."
"So we can go?"
"Nope."
"Than what Matt?"
"The damn flight is canceled." Emily started laughing.
"Of course it is…I hate this town." Several deputies glared at her.
"Well let's at least get back to the hotel. I'd rather be stuck here than there."
"Agreed. Let's go."
"Ah, have you ever driven in the snow?" Matt asked her as he uneasily approached the driver's side door.
"Maybe ten years ago…why? Have you?"
"About the same time you did…"
"Just go slow." She suggested as he pulled out.
"Right. Slow…"
Almost an hour later, after fishtailing half a dozen times, almost ending up kissing a tree, and driving 5 miles an hour through several inches of slush, to white faced agents finally made it back to their hotel room. L.A. did not get snow…ever. They didn't know how to drive in snow. Needless to say the couple sat in the car a few minutes trying to catch their breath after holding half the way back, and hoping their racing hearts would slow down a bit.
Matt had just gotten into his room and was taken his snow soaked shoes off when Emily popped into his room.
"My room is still cold."
"We could get Mr. Mellick back up to look at it." He suggested.
"You really think he'll get it working right?"
"Good point." He told her thinking. "Well, you can hang out here until you get tired." He suggested while hoping that she'd spend the night again. You really shouldn't be thinking that, he scolded himself.
"Yeah, alright." She said distractedly. Was he hoping to get laid again? Was she hoping to get laid again? Oh yes, she'd like that. No, no, no, she thought to herself.
"TV?" He asked, flicking it on after she nodded her approval.
Two hours later…They found themselves where they'd been that morning, neither knowing quite how it happened or quite what to say. Matt lay on his back, one arm around her, the fingers of the other joined with hers. Emily's head lay on his chest, one arm pinned to her side, the other draped across his chest holding his hand.
"So this answers one question." Matt suddenly said.
"What's that?"
"This isn't a one time thing." She laughed at him.
"I guess not."
"So what are we doing?"
"I don't know…do we want to keep doing this?"
"I'm a man, that's kind of a rhetorical question."
"But, if anybody finds out we could lose our jobs." Now I become logical? She thought in disbelief.
"So we make sure no one finds out, keep it casual."
"So just when we go out on field assignments, like this?"
"How about just hotels? We don't get that many field assignments."
"A little eager?" She asked amused.
"I'm the kind of guy that knows a good thing when he's got one."
"So only hotels, a reasonable distance from the office?" she asked trying to explain the new development in their relationship.
"Are you okay with keeping this casual?" He asked her suddenly concerned.
"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" Now she was worried.
"I don't know, most women don't like casual, they want more."
"Most women don't sleep with their FBI partners."
"But you are okay with this?"
"Yes." She told him, getting annoyed. "But if you want I'll leave." She teased, starting to get up.
"No you don't." He yanked her back down toward him, where she landed with a giggle.
This isn't weird. This should be weird, god, why isn't this weird? She wondered desperately.
Matt was having similar thoughts; they were teasing and joking, why weren't they both completely freaked out?
Suddenly the TV shut itself off, the numbers on the digital clock disappeared, and the room went dark. The hotel had lost power.
Matt cursed, while Emily started laughing, joining her moments later.
"We are going to remember this trip until we're eighty." She said still laughing.
"If we ever get back to L.A. Cheryl owes us."
"Keep that in mind in case she ever finds out about this."
"Good thinking."
"Shit." She said suddenly.
"What? What's wrong?"
"If there's no power, then there is no heat."
"Damn Nebraska!"
First I mean no offense to Nebraska, in fact I was basing most of this on my own hometown of nowheresville. I only used Nebraska because it's always cold, and I wanted cold (my apartment is an icebox now, so I have cold on the brain). Otherwise I hope everyone enjoyed it, I tried to keep it true to what they've told us on the show. This will probably be my last one for a while (school and all), but thanks for reading, and to those that do, gallons of gratitude for reviewing!