Cross-Examination

Common Law

Chapter ten

A/n: Sorry for the delay!

Adjournment:Postponement of a court session until another time or place.

Beta: BrokenSky49

Collapsing in her seat, Alex put her head in her hands and began to cry. She hated that she had to lie to Wes, of all people. She hated that Wes was being pulled into this senseless drama when they weren't even together anymore, when they hardly even fit the bill of 'friends'.

How long was Ramon going to torment her like this? The case had been possibly a day before, but she felt like it would never end. She had already obstructed justice by searching through a policeman's desk. What was Ramon going to make her do next? Would she lose her job as well as the trust of Wes? Would she lose Wes entirely? And what of the Abel family, and their poor daughter? Emotions she couldn't explain held her down like quicksand. She was trapped.

"Alex."

With great alarm, Alex realized that Travis Marks was still in the room. She wiped her eyes quickly, looking up to see the detective staring back at her, his eyes wide and sad.

"Alex," he tried again. "Whatever you couldn't tell Wes, tell me."

Alex was done. She was spent, exhausted, tired. She opened her drawer again. She handed Travis the file and the baseball. He did nothing except take the two items and place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Then he left.

Once the door closed, Alex looked back down at the open drawer. Below everything, between papers and a box of pens, was the letter. She hadn't given Travis the letter or the box. And she wasn't going to.

Travis quietly shut the door to Alex's office, giving her privacy. In his hand was the file, what they came for, and the baseball, what they hadn't been expecting. Which was an understatement in itself. Travis and Wes had not been expecting Ramon to be so keen towards Alex, and they certainly weren't expecting her to be so traumatized.

Looking over, Travis saw Wes, sitting in a nearby chair. His head was in his hands.

Wes hated when Alex got defensive. He hated when she wouldn't tell him what was going on with her, and she wouldn't let him help her. No matter how defensive she was, he still wanted to make sure she was all right personally. She hardly ever gave him that chance. Why? Why wouldn't she give in?

On the flipside, he hated when he yelled at her. The walls they would spend time breaking down and growing closer will climb back up with a few hurtful words and lots of misplaced anger. Instead, walls were being built between them, pushing them further apart than ever.

And now he was making analogies. Damn those therapy sessions.

"Hey, man." Travis cleared his throat. Wes looked up, noticing the ball and file. Something flickered across Wes's face—envy, apprehension, or relief, Travis couldn't tell. He handed the file to Wes, who held it loosely in his hands. He almost felt like it wasn't worth it—like the argument could have been saved if he hadn't been so edgy. Which, of course, was true. Wes supposed both he and Alex were on edge, especially today. Especially now that Wes knew what Alex was going through.

Or so he thought.

"Let's get back to work."

Travis was trying to get Wes to smile. He hadn't all afternoon. Travis assumed he knew why, but with Wes, he could never tell.

So Travis tried to make Wes smile.

He had failed thus far.

"Travis, look at this." Wes spoke suddenly, his voice lined with worry. Travis looked up from his own papers, relieved that he didn't have to look at the same three sentences over and over anymore.

"What's up?"

"There's nothing in here about Ramon's recent purchases. No receipts, nothing. The last receipt is from May third, when he went to the grocery store."

"And got…?"

"Bread." Wes rolled his eyes. "That's hardly relevant."

"Just making sure." Travis held his hands up in mock surrender.

"There's no evidence that he went to a baseball game the night of June fifth." Wes continued. "On paper, anyway."

"But you can't get into the stadium without a ticket, so that was 'on paper'." Travis returned.

"What if he has season tickets?" Wes tried.

"Then he wouldn't have had to pay for the ticket."

"Whatever." Wes sighed, running his hands down his face. After a brief silence, he looked back up. "What do you have on Wanda?"

"Glad you asked," Travis smiled. "I located her family."

"Where?"

"Miami." Travis answered. "Florida."

"I know where Miami is."

"Just making sure."

"So where does this lead us?" Wes ignored the quip.

"We're going to Florida, man!" Travis beamed. "What up, three-oh-five?"

Wes stared at his partner.

"It's the area code…live a little, man." Travis rolled his eyes.

"I do live." Wes protested.

"Barely." Travis scoffed.

"Try 'rationally'." Wes corrected.

"Okay. Live irrationally."

"We don't even know if we're going to Florida-"

"-three-oh-five-"

"-yet, man. Don't get your hopes up." Wes explained. "You know the captain's going to want to keep us here."

"Why?"

"Well we have this thing called 'therapy'-" Wes stopped himself suddenly. "On second thought, let's go ask him right now."

"All right!" Travis cheered. "Now you're talking!"

As if on cue, Captain Sutton strolled into the office, a fresh cup of coffee in his hands. Travis and Wes raised their eyebrows at each other. How convenient.

"Oh, Captain Sutton?" Travis called. Sutton turned around, staring at the two detectives dully. "Dear, dear, wonderful Captain Sutton, have you lost weight?"

"Wes, what does he want?" Sutton barked. Travis's jaw hung open.

"We think we know where Wanda might be, sir." Wes answered.

"You think or you know?"

"We…we have a pretty good idea, Cap." Wes answered. Travis nodded.

"All right, I'm intrigued. Where is it that you two obviously want to go to?"

"Florida." Wes answered.

"Miami." Travis added.

"Miami?" Sutton exclaimed. "That's fifty hours away from here!"

"Actually, sir," Travis scrolled through Google Maps. "In current traffic, Miami is forty-three hours away."

"Yes, thank you, Travis."

"Two thousand seven hundred and thirty-three miles, sir."

"Road trip!" Wes grinned.

"You're not actually consider-"

"Of course not, sir. We'll take a plane." Wes reassured him quickly.

Sutton sighed, taking a long sip of coffee. He wanted time to think of his options. Sending his two best detectives away for an undisclosed amount of time seemed risky, but he knew he could rely on the two to get the job done. However, he could not rely on them to get along with each other on their trip.

"I…" Sutton took in a deep breath. "I'll have one of the techies set up two plane tickets for you boys. You'll be leaving sooner than later, so get packed. I'll phone you with later details."

Wes and Travis nodded, excited about the new adventure at hand. Wes stared down at the mysterious baseball in Travis's hand. There was one more thing he had to do before he left Los Angeles.