Five reasons why Carolyn Barek left.
---
1. She feels Mike watching her sometimes. Feels his eyes on the curve of her neck, or watching as she sucks on a pen. It's the heat in her veins and the sparks in her belly that convince her it's time to leave.
She doesn't regret it.
---
2. Six days, four snubbed requests for files from archives, three ruined jackets from 'accidental' coffee spills, and a near miss in the parking garage after Deakins' last day, she meets Logan's pleading gaze.
This time, when she looks away first, it feels like failure.
---
3. A few weeks after Ross takes office, he calls her away from one of the more routine robbery cases and into a conference room. She knows something's off because he pulls the blinds and offers her a seat.
"Did you need something?" She raises an eyebrow and waits.
He holds out a file. It's moderately thin, and in one of the blue personnel files that she's not supposed to know exists. The name "Megan Wheeler" is written on the tab.
When she looks up at the Captain again, she isn't smiling.
---
4. "I can't believe you made Lieutenant."
"Why?"
"Okay, I can believe it. You're bossy enough."
"I am not. Give me your coffee."
"You know you just proved my point, right?"
"No, I didn't. I just proved that you'll do whatever I say because you're not dumb enough to deny me caffeine."
"Fair point."
---
5. Two weeks before Carolyn Barek transfers out of Major Case, she has a doctor's appointment.
Two weeks and six days before Carolyn Barek transfers out of Major Case, she notices a lump in her right breast.
Six months after Carolyn Barek transfers out of Major Case, Mike Logan buys flowers.
He fucking hates funerals.
-fin-
