A/N: Hey there guys! I know this is short, but it's just go get our story going. I'm off to celebrate my birthday now. Let me know what you all think! ;-)
Chapter Three –
Frost was frowning and muttering under his breath when Jane came back from the café with coffee and doughnuts for both of them, "What?" she asked with a frown of her own.
"I can't…" he frowned again, "I can't access."
"You can't access what?" the brunette asked, sitting next to him and looking at the screen, coffee and doughnuts forgotten.
"The files… They've vanished. They're gone. Like someone locked them," he typed more stuff and then some weird symbols appeared and then the younger detective started panicking, "Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" he started typing furiously while paling considerably.
"What, Frost, what?" the taller woman asked, feeling panic starting to knot her stomach.
"We have stumbled onto Homeland security, Jane!" Frost hissed, "The archives were locked by them and I was trying to decode them! Now they're gonna think we're terrorists!"
"What?!" Jane hissed back, "How is that possible? Why is Homeland security protecting these files?"
"I'm not really worried about that now, Jane," her partner grumbled back, still typing like his life depended on it, which kinda did, "I'm more worried about we possibly entering the system as terrorists."
The brunette was seriously worried right now. Why were Maura's father's files being locked away by Homeland security? Was he really that influent or was someone else trying to prevent her to access his information? She needed to know. She needed to know if her best friend, her rock throughout all the shit life has thrown her away, was going to be okay if this man ever found out she existed.
Frost was paler than Jane had ever seen him, typing so furiously on his computer than she could barely see his fingers.
"Frost," she called out, hearing a humming sound indicating he was listening, "What do you think this means?"
The younger Detective's breath was shallow, "It could mean an infinite number of things."
The brunette growled, "You know what I mean."
Two pairs of intense brown eyes locked on each other before he replied, "Yeah, I know. And I don't know."
"That isn't very helpful," she grumbled, rolling her eyes, absentmindedly rubbing her scars in the palm of her hands.
"All I know," Frost grumbled back, "Is that we're in big trouble."
Her stomach was in knots. Damn, this was getting more complicated than she ever thought it would. All she wanted to do was run a simple background check!
"Thank God Cavanaugh hasn't found us already," the female Detective muttered under her breath, "We'd be in much more trouble."
"Rizzoli," came her Lieutenant's growl of her name, making her whole body tense up, "My office, now. You too, Frost."
Oh fuck, she has jinxed it. Your damn fault, Rizzoli.
The partners exchanged worried looks before getting up and following their boss, not knowing with which thing they should worry more.
#########################################
Timothy smirked again when he saw the red glare coming from his computer screen. The nosy detective was in big trouble. His phone started ringing on the table – the US anthem, his sister having messed up with his phone on their last night together – and he frowned when he saw his friend's name from Homeland security popping up with an incoming call.
"Robbins," he answered nonchalantly.
"You owe me so big, Timothy," the blond winced at Piper Cartwright's angry tone, his friend from Defense and Veterans affair in Homeland security, "When you come back to the States, I'm going to kill you!"
"Come on now, Pipes," he tries to save his ass, "What did I do?"
"Oh, I don't know," the other woman says sarcastically, "Just made me blacklist a hero! Did you know that my boss was there when Detective Jane Rizzoli won her award? After she shot herself to save her peers in BPD? What the hell were you thinking, Timothy?"
Okay, so perhaps he had done a little something, like abusing his friend's willingness to help him, no questions asked.
"Hey! I was only thinking that this so-called hero was snooping through my father's personal files without authorization! Isn't that why there is Veteran Affairs? To protect war veterans from being harmed? Well, my father is a veteran and his security was being threatened," the Marine says with an edge to his voice, even though he knows Piper can see through his façade.
"I should have known better than to let you talk me into doing stuff," he heard her mutter, smirking again, knowing she wasn't actually mad at him, "This is Fight Club, Piper. We don't talk about Fight Club, Piper. Don't you trust me, Piper?" he had to muffle his laugh at hearing his friend trying to imitate his tone of voice. He heard her taking a deep breath before continuing, "Okay, fine. I'll let my boss chew my head off and I'll try and defend myself using your ridiculous argument. But remember," the threatening tone told him she was serious, "You owe me."
"I'll call you first thing when I arrive and you can remember me how much I owe you then," he lowered his voice to a sultry tone, making her groan again.
"Goodbye, Timothy," she said no more before hanging up.
The blond knew he couldn't postpone anymore. He turned his attention back to the computer and started booking flights.
#########################################
"Tim's arriving in three days," Arizona announced nonchalantly as she heard her apartment door opening and closing, a telltale sign that Callie was home, "He's taking the red eye and arriving here nine am."
"That's a good thing, right?" the brunette couldn't help but notice her girlfriend's detached tone, like she didn't want to get her hopes up.
"Yeah, I think it is," the blonde shrugged, her tone small.
"Hey," the ortho surgeon caught fair hands between her darker ones, stopping them from continuing to make salad for dinner, "What's bothering you?" soulful brown eyes looked into deep ocean blue ones, trying to uncover the feelings behind.
Arizona sighed heavily. There was no way she was getting out of this without a good explanation, "I don't know, Calliope," at Callie's furrowed brow, she elaborated, "I know my brother. We've always had this weird sibling connection and I can tell when something's wrong with him even when there's a freaking ocean between us," blue eyes sought comfort in chocolate ones, "There's something he's not telling me and I'm not enjoying it."
Smiling sympathetically, Callie wrapped both arms around Arizona's waist until their bellies were flushed against each other and she could see a glimmer of a smile on pink lips, "Babe, if he's not telling you something, it can't be that serious, right? Maybe it's just something he'd want to talk to you in person," she said, trying to smooth the tension lines on her girlfriend's forehead with light kisses.
"Or maybe it's too serious to talk about it over Skype and he'd like to drop the bomb on our heads in person," the blonde retorted, earning her an annoyed eye roll.
"You just hate it because you're not into the secret," brown eyes narrowed at the shorter woman's pout, "Seriously, Arizona! What are you, five? Your brother can't keep a secret from you?"
"Hey, be nice! I'm just not used to it, Timmy never hid anything from me!" the peds surgeon said in a high pitched voice she used when trying to defend herself and went to squirm away from her girlfriend's hold, which just made it tighten it.
"You're impossible," the brunette said affectionately, leaning in to kiss still pouty lips, "But try and not to worry, okay? I don't like to see your face all wrinkled up like you're in pain."
"Okay," Arizona sighed, leaning in for one more kiss just because she could.
"How are you feeling today?" she asked, knowing her girlfriend's morning sickness was bound to last all day.
"Fine. I guess the baby decided to take it easy on Mommy today," Callie said, unable to hide her megawatt grin as fair hands found their way to her belly to caress it.
"Yeah?" she asked, receiving an enthusiastic nod in return, "Good baby," she cooed, "And how do our baby feel when I say that there's leftover chicken picatta for dinner?"
The wider megawatt smile she received in return was good enough answer, "The baby says you're the best Mama in the world," was the reply.
Both women laughed and went about reheating the leftovers for dinner and started talking about the day's events and sharing cases, like they always did. Arizona did her best to school her features and make Callie sure she was having a good time and not worrying, but she couldn't shake off the feeling – her gut feeling, she remembered Teddy's words – that Timothy's arrival wasn't linked with good news.
