A/N: Merry Christmas!! :)

Sully and Perotta jumped out of their black SUV. They had arrived at a beautiful white house. It was a two story building with flowers on the balcony and fresh green grass in the front. It looked like a typical wealthy American house. Sully took off his sunglasses and glanced up at it.

He whistled and heard his partner walk up next to him. "Wow, even I don't have a house like this."

"You don't?" Perotta furrowed her eyebrows. "Does the FBI not pay you a lot?"

"Well… they pay me." He told her. "Why, where do you live?"

"In a two story house."

"Alone?" Sully curiously asked.

"Yeah." She nodded. "Why? Is there something wrong with living by myself?"

"No… I was just wondering."

"Do you live in an apartment?"

"No. I live in my boat." He told her. Perotta looked over at him with a sorrow expression, as if she felt sorry for him. Sully shook the sympathy off and quickly got back to work. "So, why are we here?"

Perotta took out a duplicate of the case file and opened it. "Booth said that the first victim, Amy Mitch, had a brother. They tracked him down and this address popped up."

"What's the brother's name?"

"Jack Mitch, Caucasian, 26 years-old and—ooh, he's a pretty cute." Perotta showed Sully the picture.

"The cute guy was sentenced to two years in jail for grand theft auto. He got out last year. Falling for the bad guys?" He joked.

"I used to have a thing for bad guys." Perotta admitted.

"Really?" Sully asked. They both started walking towards the front door. "How long did that last?"

"Not long." She quickly and quietly gasped. He felt their conversation turn a wrong corner. He looked over at her and saw a guilty expression. He decided not to push the subject but instead knock on the door. They both waited for a while before knocking again.

"Is he not home?" Perotta furrowed her eyebrows.

"Only one way to find out." He smiled. He knocked on the door again. "FBI, open up."

"Oh that's real smart. Tell that to everyone who just got out of jail, why don't you?" She rolled her eyes.

Sully watched as his partner walked over to an opened window. He looked down at her butt and stared for a few seconds. He quickly looked away and began to mentally smack himself. 'What are you doing!? You don't just do that to a woman! You know better than that!'

Perotta saw the kitchen from the window. There were opened cans of jelly and tubs of peanut butter on the counter. She looked a little further and saw the opened package of bread.

"He was here." Perotta told Sully.

"How can you tell?" He got out of his mental slapping session.

"Peanut butter and Jelly sandwich fixings are still on the counter." Perotta walked over to the door; next to her partner.

"What do you want to do now?" He looked over at her.

"Kick down the door." She suggested with a little smile.

"Wait—what the, kick down the door?" Sully put his hand on her shoulder. It was a slight gesture in hopes of stopping her. He felt the warmth slowly surround his hand. Her shoulder was like a warm cozy cottage.

"Did you want to kick it down, or shall I?" She rolled her eyes at him. He let go of her shoulder and took out his gun from its holster.

"Okay, go ahead." He breathed with a slight sigh. In one swift kick, Perotta made the door swing open. Sully had never seen a FBI Barbie doll kick a door let alone with such extreme force. It amazed him although a bit of jealousy started to slowly creep up. He and Perotta, both with guns fully loaded, walked into the house with caution.

"Mr. Mitch?" Sully instinctively called out.

"Might as well call him Mr. Bitch since he obviously ran away because he obviously knew we were coming." Perotta commented.

Sully walked upstairs and entered his bedroom. The clothes in the drawers were gone and so were the jackets in the closet. Everything was gone except for the food, recreational valuables, books and magazines.

"Find anything?" Perotta shouted, entering the kitchen.

"He packed all of his clothes and left." Sully responded, walking down the stairs. "Seems like he hightailed it out of here."

"I really hate it when the suspects disappear." She heavily sighed.

"I'll get a hold of Bank of the West see if we can track his credit card." Sully reassured her, looking down at the mail.

"How do you know he uses Bank of the West?" She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Because he got an unpaid bill in the mail today." He held the envelope up and smiled. "Jackpot."

"This'll make things much easier." Perotta walked over to him and smiled at the thing.

"Now that we have another lead on the original lead; feel like getting some lunch?" He asked with a wide smile.

"I don't do lunch." Perotta told him before snatching the envelope from his hand. "I'll get right on this. You can go eat."

"What—you don't eat lunch?" He asked, shocked and confused. "How can you miss such an important meal of the day?"

"There's work to be done, Sully." She sighed, walked out of the kitchen and towards the front door.

"C'mon Eyes. Just have a quick bite to eat with me. It won't take more than 10 minutes." He trailed behind her.

"No, Sully. I already told you." She harshly said. Sully watched as his partner climbed into their SUV. He heavily sighed and put on his sunglasses. He looked up at the sky and crooked the side of his mouth. Perotta sat there and looked down at the case file. She looked down at the picture and then at his convictions. She looked closely at the description and then up at Sully. He was closing the door to the house as an instinct. Perotta immediately got out of the car.

"Sully, wait!! Don't!!" She shouted.

Sully had already closed the door. He heard her voice and turned around in confusion. In a split second the whole entire interior of the house blew up in flames. The force of the blast made him go flying off the doorstep and towards a bed of gravel near the grass.

"Sully!" She ran behind the SUV and started to sprint towards him. She kneeled beside him and began to hesitate. She laid his head on her lap and immediately checked his pulse. She rested two fingers against his neck. His loud coughing made her jump. She didn't want to admit it, but he scared her. She almost thought he was dead or maybe it was her past shook her more than ever.

"God—" He coughed again. Perotta sat there, angry and happy at the same time. "I really hate it when that happens."

She sat there speechless while he looked at the burning house. "Looks like we won't be able to get what ever he was hiding if he was hiding something." He looked up at her and at that moment, he realized that he had been resting against her lap the whole entire time. He didn't mind though. He didn't even comment on it.

"You okay?" Sully curiously asked her.

She shook her head and smiled. "I'm just glad you're okay." She admitted.

He smiled back and immediately got up. Perotta got up at the same time. "We should probably call the fire department before the fire gets out of hand."

"We're probably going to have to report to Director Cullen about this."

"He won't be that mad, will he?" Sully looked over at her, furrowing his eyebrows. She looked back at him and shrugged. She had dealt with all sorts of criminals and cases but never did she have a house blow up in front of her.

"I am furious!" Director Cullen yelled at Sully and Perotta, who sat next to each other in the conference room. "You two barged into the house without realizing that the victim's brother was very familiar with high intensive explosives!"

Sully and Perotta looked at each other. It was neither one if their faults. They both over looked the case file and Perotta had only just realized it after they had broken into the house.

"Someone will be punished for their stupid mistake. Since it was Sully that almost got blown up, I'll be giving you, Agent Perotta, the responsibility to give me a full report on what happened, details and all." Cullen looked down at her.

Perotta nodded and pressed her lips together. Paperwork was a big pain in the ass, especially for the field agents.

"Actually, sir," Sully raised his hand briefly. "It was my fault for overlooking the case file."

"Oh, really?" Cullen raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Perotta's shocked reaction. "Okay then. I expect the full report on my desk by tomorrow afternoon. You got that?"

"Yes." Sully nodded. He looked over at his partner and smiled. She was still shocked that he did that for her. No one has ever done that for her. Usually people were happy to get out of the paperwork duty.

"Dismissed." He announced before walking out of the conference room. Once it was clear that he left, Sully stood up and walked towards the door. Perotta trailed behind him.

"You know, you didn't have to do that Sully."

"Why not? It was my fault for making fun of your 'cute boy' comment. It was probably why we overlooked the guy's explosive hobby in the first place." He opened the door and held it open for her. She held it open and proceeded to trail behind him.

"You and I both know it wasn't because of that."

"It's okay Perotta. I'll do the report tonight." He tried to tell her.

"No. I'm not going to let the guy who almost got blown up write the whole entire thing. We can work on it together." She folded her arms across her chest.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'd feel guilty if you worked on it by yourself." She nodded.

He gave a slight smile and turned his head. "Okay, if you want to. We can work on it at my place."

"Wait, on your boat?" She curiously asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"You don't get seasick, do you?"

"No…"

"Good. Don't eat dinner. I'll cook something." He told her. She stopped in the middle of the hall with her mouth wide open in shock.

"You can cook?"

He smirked and kept on walking.