Once they were in the car, Juliet started talking so that neither of them would dwell on that weird moment in her apartment. She told him about the history she had made up for how Jessica and Colin had met and asked if he had anything he wanted to add to Colin's biography.

"He's an insurance auditor," Carlton said. "From Dayton."

"Yes," Juliet agreed, "that's in the file. I was thinking you might embellish on that a bit in case anyone asked us any questions. This is why your undercover assignments never go well. You don't use your imagination for anything beyond cosmetic changes."

"Whereas you get overinvested when you go undercover," he shot back. "Didn't you break a girl's nose once?"

"It was roller derby! She knew the risks."

"Anyway, we're not going to talk to anyone, O'Hara. We're going to be holed up in our villa watching Copeland, and everyone will just assume that we're…doing newlywed things."

She grinned. "Newlywed things? Like what, writing thank you cards? Returning four of the five toasters we received? Changing the beneficiaries of our life insurance policies?"

"Yes," he said sarcastically, "all of those things."

"Speaking of romance, I forgot to ask yesterday, but how did it go on your date the other night?"

"I don't want to talk about it," he muttered. "Women are soul-sucking demons who exist only to destroy a man's happiness."

"You do remember that I'm a woman, right?"

"I try not to think about it, O'Hara."

She rolled her eyes but persevered. "You took her to a nice restaurant?"

He glared at her for continuing the conversation, but answered reluctantly. "Yes. It wasn't the restaurant. It was me."

"Did you talk too much about work?"

"No!...maybe. I might have mentioned something about the Vashers case."

"Oh, Carlton. You mean with the head…?"

"Yes."

"And the acid…"

"Yes."

"But surely you didn't bring up the garden shears…"

He sighed. "Yeah, I did."

Remembering the particulars of the case, she scrunched up her nose in disgust. "Eww. That's worse than the dead clown story. What were you thinking?"

"It's a fascinating case!" he argued. "And it was on my mind because the trial is coming up next week. I've been reading over the report again because I'm testifying."

"It is a fascinating case," she agreed, "but it's a little gruesome for first date dinner conversation, don't you think?"

"Apparently so," he said glumly. "I really don't know why I bother trying anymore. What about you? Have you gone out with anyone lately?"

"No. There hasn't been anyone I've been interested in." Truthfully, her libido had been on an extended vacation since the clock tower; some of the literature she had read afterwards on coping with trauma suggested that this was normal. In fact, having inappropriate thoughts about her partner that morning was the closest she had come in months to feeling anything akin to sexual attraction. Hmm. She would have to consider that further later, when she wasn't alone in a car with said partner.

They spent the morning at their desks, tying up loose ends on outstanding cases, until Chief Vick called them into her office and handed Lassiter the keys to a rental car.

"Remember, while we will have a number of people undercover at the resort, Copeland is likely to do the same, so keep up appearances when you're around other people. Don't engage him or any of his people – you're there strictly for surveillance purposes."

As they drove to the resort, Juliet studied a map of the layout of the villas.

"Where did you take Victoria on your honeymoon?" she asked absently, noting that the honeymoon villa was right on the beach. Too bad she probably wouldn't get much of a chance to enjoy it.

His grip on the steering wheel noticeably tightened. "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. I was just curious."

"We went to Hawaii. She had always wanted to go. I couldn't really afford that on my salary at the time, so her father gave us the trip as a wedding present."

"That was nice of him," Juliet said, as she recalled that Carlton's former father-in-law had seemed less than nice.

"No, it wasn't," Carlton assured her. "It was just the beginning of him showing me that I wasn't good enough for his little girl."

She winced. "Sorry I brought it up."

"It was a long time ago," he said with a shrug, and deftly changed the subject. "Do you want to take the first watch tonight or the second?"

"First. We can switch off at three."

"Why not two? You could get an extra hour of sleep that way."

"No, I haven't been sleeping that much lately anyway, so you might as well take the extra hour," she said without thinking, and then immediately wished that she could take the words back.

He glanced over at her and she went back to studying the resort brochure, pointedly not looking at him.

"Is everything okay, O'Hara?"

"Everything is fine, Carlton. You talked with the guys in the tech department about how to set up the camera, right?"

"I've done it before. Are you sure—"

"Yes. Oooh, do you think there's any chance I can sneak out in the morning and try the breakfast buffet? It sounds amazing."

They had reached the resort, and a valet was fast approaching to take their car. Lassiter ignored him and turned to really look at Juliet.

"O'Hara…" he started to say again, but she interrupted him.

"Lassiter, I'm back. 100%. Trust me."

After a moment, he nodded. "All right then. Let's do this thing."

**

While Lassiter got them checked into the resort, Juliet pretended to study the fountain in the lobby, the camera bag holding their surveillance equipment slung over her shoulder. In truth, she was looking around to see if she could spot any of the people from Copeland's organization that had been included in the files provided by the Narcotics unit.

"I'm sorry," a young, dark-haired woman standing near Juliet said, "but did I hear your husband tell the desk clerk that you were here to check into the honeymoon villa?"

"That's right," Juliet said, smiling happily at the woman as she put on the persona of Jessica Livingston Dwyer. "We just got married yesterday!" She held up her hand to show off the wedding ring.

"Congratulations! I'm sorry to be so nosy, but I just got engaged myself, and it's nice to see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel of picking out caterers and bridesmaids dresses."

Juliet laughed politely, wishing that Lassiter would hurry up. "Congratulations yourself! I know, it's all a huge pain, but it's worth it in the end."

"I know it will be. I just have to make it through three months of craziness first. Oh, hey, here's my fiancé now! Zack, come over here and meet…"

"Jessica," Juliet managed around her shock, because the man joining them was none other than Zachary Copeland himself. "Jessica Livingston. Well, Dwyer, now."

"I'm Arianna and this is Zack. Jessica is here on her honeymoon, sweetie, isn't that nice?"

"Congratulations," Zack said, shaking her hand. "Wow, that's quite a camera bag you've got there."

"I'm a little bit of an amateur photographer. And I've never been to California before, so I was planning on taking lots of pictures. Our friends will be dozing off to slide shows of our honeymoon for the next three years."

Zack and Arianna both laughed, and Juliet caught Lassiter's eye as he turned away from the check-in desk. His mouth dropped open as he saw who she was talking to, but he quickly schooled his expression and made his way over to them.

"Colin, this is Arianna and Zack," she said, as he shook hands with them. "They just got engaged. Isn't that wonderful?"

"Wonderful," he echoed, putting his arm stiffly around Juliet's shoulders in a move she calculated as being only about 41% awkward. It was both weird and not weird, the feeling of him so close, the weight of his arm around her. Distracting in a way that she needed to put aside. "Are you here celebrating?"

"Partially," Copeland said, while at the same time Arianna rolled her eyes. "Zack has business contacts in town that he has to meet with this weekend, but I invited myself along because no way am I letting him spend a weekend here without me."

"I don't blame you! This place is amazing. I hope you don't have to work all weekend," Juliet said.

"I'm sure I'll find some time for my girl," Zachary said, hugging Arianna close. "But I do need to go now and make a few calls."

"O'H—" Lassiter started to say, and Juliet gently stepped on his foot. "—Honey…bunny…we should go find our villa. Don't you have to…"

"You're right," Juliet said, "it's time for me to call my mom. She's in Dayton, and the time difference messes with me," she told Arianna and Zachary cheerfully, "but I promised that I would call before she goes to her Friday night bingo game and tell her what the resort is like."

To her surprise, Arianna reached over and squeezed her hand. "I know you'll be busy this weekend," she said, with a sly look at Lassiter, "but if you have any time, I'd love it if we could get together for a drink or something. I need some advice from someone who's been through the whole wedding planning thing recently."

"We should have dinner one night," Zachary said. "Maybe tomorrow?"

Lassiter exchanged a look with Juliet before replying, keeping his tone casual. "Sure, why not?"

"Perfect!" Arianna said. "We could meet you at eight o'clock in the restaurant?"

"That would be great. We'll see you then," Juliet said. "Come on, cuddlebear, I have to call mom."

Lassiter had his phone out as soon as they walked into their villa. "I'll call Vick."

"Was Arianna mentioned in any of the information that the narcotics unit gave us?"

"No. We need to find out—"

His phone rang. "It's the Chief," he told Juliet as he answered.

"Detective, what part of 'don't engage Copeland' was confusing for you? Do you need for me to say it in simpler words? You weren't supposed to talk to him! One of the undercover detectives from Narcotics spotted you and nearly had a stroke."

He scowled at the phone and Juliet edged closer so that she could hear what was being said. "He approached us, Chief! He's with a woman who says that she's his fiancee. She overheard us checking into the honeymoon villa and wanted to talk to O'Hara about wedding crap."

"Put her on speakerphone," Juliet demanded, and after he did, she said "Chief, the woman's name is Arianna. She didn't give a last name. She wasn't mentioned in any of the files that Narcotics sent to us, but she says that she and Copeland are getting married in three months."

"We've got people gathering all the information we can on her now," Vick said, her voice tinny through the speakerphone. "I'll email you everything we find out."

"They invited us to have dinner with them tomorrow night," Lassiter said. "We told them yes, but if Narcotics wants us to back off, we'll make up an excuse and get out of it."

"I'll get back to you about that," Vick said. "For the time being, lay low and just do what you were sent there to do, okay?"

"Why would Copeland bring his girlfriend along for a meeting with a dangerous drug smuggler?" Juliet wondered as Lassiter put his phone away. "She seemed really sweet."

"Maybe she's not what she seems to be. She could be in on the whole thing. Hell, she could have made contact with you because she spotted us as cops right away."

"Do you think so? My first impression was that she was completely normal. I didn't think she was hiding anything."

"Don't let looks deceive you. How many perps have underestimated you because of how you look?" He turned away as he spoke, checking out their surroundings. "Right now, it doesn't matter what her role is. We need to get the camera set up and see who goes into that villa tonight."

Juliet was already opening the camera bag. "Where do you want to put it?" she asked, and they busied themselves for the next little while with the equipment, drawing the blinds and making decisions about how to arrange things so that they wouldn't be seen by Copeland or any of his people. Once the camera was up, they could watch the comings and goings out of the Copeland villa from the laptop Lassiter set up on the dining room table.

While he finished with that, Juliet investigated the villa. When she reached the bathroom, she stopped short in shock.

"Oh my god. Carlton! You have to see this!"

He was there in a flash, gun drawn. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Have you ever seen a bathroom like this before?" she asked in amazement. "Look at the size of that bathtub! We could throw a party in there."

Rolling his eyes, Lassiter holstered his weapon. "Sweet lady justice, O'Hara, I thought you'd found a body or something."

"Why would there be a body in the bathroom?" she wondered, but didn't wait for a reply. "I wish I had a shower like this at home. I would never get out of it."

"We need to get to work," he said brusquely, heading back to the laptop.

"It's okay to enjoy our surroundings!" she called after him, but when she checked out the bedroom, something about the ridiculously plush bedding made her feel fluttery and odd, so she shut the door on it and went back into the main room.

"Is everything working?" she asked.

"Yeah. Copeland and Arianna just went into their villa. No sign of anyone else yet."

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. The Chief called and told them to keep their dinner date with Copeland the next night; she wanted to exploit any connection they could make with him. They ordered in room service for dinner, Juliet mussing up her hair and throwing a robe on over her dress in order to answer the door, smiling giddily at the waiter, who gave her a knowing look and left quickly.

They took turns watching the monitor, but the most action either of them saw was a man they identified as one of Copeland's bodyguards coming outside for a smoke. During one of her breaks, Juliet took advantage of the shower she had been admiring earlier, and when she returned, both relaxed and energized, she found Lassiter with his sleeves rolled up, long fingers wrapped around a coffee cup, and she stopped in the doorway just to look at him for a minute, the fluttery feeling she had felt when she saw the bedroom earlier returning. Whoa, she thought, what is this?

She pushed the feeling down, down, down, and said "You should try out that shower. The water pressure is unbelievable."

"Maybe in a little while," he said, not looking away from the monitor. A short time later he declared that he was going to try and get a few hours sleep, and Juliet settled in with a cup of coffee and a perky mix on her iPod to help her stay alert.

A little after one a.m., there was finally some activity. Juliet found herself leaning forward as a man she recognized as Gregory Spindoza, one of Copeland's chief lieutenants, walked up in front of the villa. A few minutes later, Copeland came out, and Juliet texted Lieutenant Markos, the detective in charge of the Narcotics investigation to let him know about the meeting.

Copeland and Spindoza talked for only a few minutes before Copeland turned and walked back into the villa, Spindoza disappearing towards the beach, and Juliet texted again with the update, receiving a text in return confirming that they had a tail on Spindoza.

After that came nearly two more hours of mind-numbing boredom. By three o'clock she could barely keep her eyes open, and was grateful to hear sounds from the bedroom indicating that Lassiter was waking up.

He appeared a few minutes later, hair mussed and eyes bleary, and headed straight for the coffee pot; Juliet knew better than to try to say anything to him until he had downed at least half a cup.

He broke the silence first, nodding towards the monitor. "Anything?"

She told him about Spindoza, ending the brief report with a jaw-cracking yawn, and he waved her towards the bedroom. "Go get some sleep. I've got this."

She stumbled gratefully towards the bedroom, pausing just long enough to brush her teeth and pull on the pajamas she had brought. It was obvious what side of the bed Lassiter had slept on, and without thinking she climbed into the same spot, burrowing into sheets with a thread count higher than she could afford for her own bed, breathing in the comforting, familiar scent of her partner, and falling almost instantly asleep.

"We have a jumper," Carlton said, leading her to the broken body sprawled facedown across the sidewalk.

Shawn and Gus stood next to the body as well, eating popsicles. Shawn caught her watching him and grinned, the cherry-flavored treat turning his lips and teeth a gruesome red, making her look away hastily.

Juliet glanced up at the nearest roof, high above the ground, and, for a split second, thought she saw a chair hovering off the edge. She blinked and it was gone, and she looked back down at the body in front of her, at the pool of blood spreading around the blond hair, and felt vaguely sick. She looked away and saw the ground looming at her from a terrifying distance, looked back and saw that Carlton had his hand on the shoulder of the dead woman and was about to roll her over.

"Don't," Juliet tried to say, but her voice came out dry and cracked, and Lassiter didn't appear to hear her. "Please don't."

But he did, and a scream tried to claw its way out of her throat as she looked down at her own face, battered nearly beyond recognition.

Lassiter shrugged and stood up. "A good cop wouldn't have let this happen to her," he said, and brushed past her as he walked away. Helpless and horrified, she looked to Shawn and Gus for support, but Gus had turned into Abigail and Shawn had his arm around her.

"It's so sad," Abigail said, shaking her head as she looked down at Juliet.

"I guess," Shawn said with a shrug. "Hey, you wanna see what's playing at the movies?"

"O'Hara. Wake up. O'Hara!"

She felt something shaking her and opened her eyes to see Carlton sitting on the edge of the bed, his hand on her shoulder.

"That must have been some dream," he said gently. "I've been trying to wake you up for a few minutes now."

Her heart was still thudding, a panicky response to something that had only happened in her mind, and she could feel tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. Hastily, she reached up to wipe them away and he stood up, stepping away from the bed and crossing his arms.

"Sorry, sorry," she said, struggling to sit up amid the tangled sheets, "how long have I been asleep? What's going on? Did something happen?"

"You've only been asleep for about five hours, and no, nothing has happened. Well, except that we have the morning off surveillance duty. Vick and Markos want us to get out of the room for a little while, let people see us, so that we don't seem suspicious. I spotted Dobson and Clemmons outside doing maintenance work, so apparently they'll be keeping an eye on things while we're out."

"Oh, okay," she said, her head still full of sleep as she sat up. "Oh, wait, does that mean that I really can go to the breakfast buffet?"

The corners of his mouth tilted up into a half-smile. "That's why I woke you up. I was afraid you might shoot me if I let you oversleep and miss the buffet."

She shuddered a little, remembering the dream. "I'm glad you woke me. I'll get dressed and we can go."

His gaze fell briefly down to what she had slept in, a t-shirt and a pair of pink pajama pants that featured kittens playing with yarn. She could hardly have been wearing anything less sexy or revealing, but she was suddenly very aware of his eyes on her, the bed she was sitting on, the memory of how his hand had felt on her shoulder, the warmth of him sitting beside her. She was struck with the insane urge to grab his arm and pull him down onto the bed with her.

He was backing away, turning towards the door. "Great. I'm just going to, uh…" he was out the door before she could hear what it was that he was in such a hurry to do. She hoped it was only her no-doubt terrifying bedhead that had made him retreat like his tail was on fire, and that he hadn't been able to tell what she'd been thinking. God. As soon as this assignment was over, she was going to go out on a date with the first man that asked, before she did something crazy and put her partnership with Carlton at risk.