Don't own the characters
A/N: Thanks for the reviews.
Sorry short update, but class and work are winning out over this. I am probably going to have to move to a once a week update now that I'm back to school and tutoring/teaching classes ect. Hope you enjoy as always let me know what you think good or bad doesn't matter.
-------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------- -------------------------
"Ok I should warn you one of my friends really likes cops." Melissa said watching Carter as he cut up an onion.
"Ok." He said clearly confused.
"You don't understand the minute she finds out you are a cop she will start flirting with you. She has a thing for them."
Carter laughed, "Anything else?"
"My dad will try to debate the law with you." Melissa said remembering how Ty had been sucked into a debate once. It was one of the worst dinner parties they had ever attended. "And my another one of my friends hates cops. She's a criminologist and is not a fan of police at all."
The doorbell rang, and Melissa rushed off to answer it. It was probably one of her friends who had offered to show up early to help out.
Carter got his game face on, it was time to prepare for the mission, going under as a family friend. How hard could it be? He looked people in the eye and lied to them while they held a gun to his head. A dinner party should be a cakewalk.
Melissa and another female voice filtered through the house as they talked and laughed about something. Carter was dumping the onion into a pan when the two women emerged in the doorway.
"Jade this is Carter. He works with Ty, well actually he's Ty's boss so be nice." Melissa said smiling, "Carter this is my friend Jade. We were college roommates."
"nice to meet you." Carter said.
"Likewise. So you are a cop?" Jade asked.
"Yes." Carter said noticing the disdain in her voice. It was hidden, but still noticeable. So this was the friend who hated cops.
"Jade I told you to be nice." Melissa jumped in, "Carter you will have to excuse her. She's not a big fan of cops."
"Why's that?" Carter asked, his game face on.
"I'm a Criminologist. And the more I study cops the more I realize there is a very thin line that is blurry between cops and crooks. "
"For some cops that is true. But not all." Carter shot back.
Jade smiled at him, she was actually happy to see him not get angry or back down, he just took it and gave it back to her. "So what type of cop are you?"
"I try to be the good guy." Carter said, "But like you said the line is blurry at best."
"What type of work do you do?"
"I sit behind a desk a lot and do paper work." Carter lied noticing a look from Melissa which confirmed something he had already believed to be true. Ty shared a lot of information about the job with Melissa. Carter could not blame him, it was part of being married, being open with the other person, but it also put the team in danger.
"So you are a paper pusher."
"In a sense yes."
"Funny that you got injured those are some nasty paper cuts."
"Copier machine shot paper out at me." Carter joked back.
Jade laughed, a true laugh, "Fair enough I'll back down."
"What about you? Is it true those who can't do teach?" Carter asked in a joking tone, in now way did he mean it offensive.
"Yeah you got me. I couldn't hack it so I thought I'd start teaching." Jade answered back sarcastically.
"What are your research interest?"
"Crime trends, international and United States. I'm currently working on…"
Melissa interrupted, "Oh here we go. Carter you are in for it she will not stop talking about research the rest of the night. S he gets so bad that sometimes she starts to cite people while she's talking."
"Do not!" Jade said.
"You do too. Carter just the other day I asked a simple question about whether crime was on the rise or not, and I swear to you she answered, According to Messner and Rosenfeld 2006, crime in the United States has been in a steady decline. The recent UCR June 2009 shows another increase in crime. So in a nutshell crime was declining but now it appears to be rising again in the United States."
Carter laughed, he remembered the days in undergrad having to cite in paper, and the interesting conversations with fellow students.
"Fine I won't tell him about the study ok!" Jade laughed. She was standing next to Carter now.
"Maybe later. " Carter smiled. He liked her she was an interesting person. Someone he wouldn't mind talking to, but he was not sure he could. At best he was uncomfortable around people now. It was difficult to connect with anyone.
"Don't bate her like that Carter. She'll take you up on your offer and the next thing you know Jade will be asking you your opinion on whether or not sex should be defined based on chromosomal makeup or appearance."
Carter laughed, "Interesting idea should sex have to be operationally defined."
"My thoughts exactly." Jade smiled at him, she liked him at least for a cop she liked him.
Melissa smiled at the two they were getting along, that was a big step she thought. Considering Jade barely could stand Ty, and yet she seemed to warm up to the prince of darkness. The next hour passed with Jade and Carter talking about anything and everything from travel to the merits of community policing. By the time the other guest stated to arrive Melissa was happy to have someone there to talk to because her best friend was currently occupied debating with Carter.
Her mom and dad were the first to arrive, followed by her friend who would probably hit on Carter, and the last group to arrive were a few more of her friends. Once everyone was in they all sat at the table. Melissa had introduced Carter to everyone as they arrived, but she couldn't help but notice that Jade and Carter stuck together continuing whatever debate they were in.
She had noticed at time Carter looked uncomfortable. She wondered how often he allowed himself to just relax and hang out. From what Ty had told her, it was rarely. The knowledge of Carter she had was that the man almost never slept, worked 24/7, and then what she had learned recently. She called him the prince of darkness because that was what he was to her. The man that took her husband away from her and who never slept.
When it came time to sit down and eat Carter was surrounded by Jade and Amy, the friend who really liked cops. Amy had tried in vain to get Carters attention a few times throughout the dinner, but mostly Jade kept his attention. Jade was busy explaining her current research study, which Carter appeared to be actively listening and interested in. Melissa wondered if it was him putting on a mask, a cover for him.
--------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
Dean worked in the warehouse using the materials offered to him. He was not sure how successful he wanted to be. Not knowing the target worried him. This was one of the grey areas of undercover work. Was he crossing a line that could not be stepped back over? Not turning to the other side, but helping the other side in a way that was morally wrong and would ultimately be more harmful than helpful? He kept attempting to get information from the man with him about what the target was. Attempting under the guise of making sure there would be enough firepower to blow up whatever they wanted. By the looks of what he had it was something small not a building.
"Are you almost finished?" The man asked watching Dean as he worked.
"Yeah, damn give me a minute and back up you are making me nervous hovering like that." Dean said attaching the last few wires to the small amount of C4.
"Done." Dean said standing up and stretching. "Anything else?"
"Let's see if it works."
"Where?"
"Right here right now."
"ok." Dean said looking around the warehouse, there was enough C4 to blow a whole in the wall but not bring the building down.
A man walked into the room from the backdoor. "Ready yet?"
"Yeah." The new guy, who Dean learned was, Ryan said handing the mysterious man the bomb.
"How does it work?"
Dean explained how all the man had to do was press a button on the detantor and it would explode the bomb.
"Good" The man put the explosive in a briefcase and walked off.
"Where is he going?" D ean asked.
"You ask a lot of questions." Ryan said studying Dean.
"Just trying to figure out if I need to duck for cover."
"Don't worry about it. Come on you and your friend have one more job."
---------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
The final person to leave the dinner party was Jade. She and Carter separated after most of the guest had left. Carter went to go rest, or so he said, and jade helped Melissa clean up the mess from the dinner party.
While in the kitchen Melissa began to talk to Jade in a low voice hoping Carter would not hear them, "You like him don't you?"
"No. You know I hate cops." Jade dismissed her.
"Is that why you two were inseparable the entire evening?"
"It was nice to talk shop instead of law with your dad."
"Sure. If that's what you need to believe, but you had his attention the entire night, even before everyone else showed up."
"What about Amy? She had his attention."
"For a total of ten minutes before he politely returned to talking to you."
"What's his story anyways?"
"Is this out of interest because you like him or just curious?"
"Just curious I don't like him."
Melissa smiled, she knew her friend well enough to know she liked Carter. "He's damaged goods anyways." Melissa began to explain, "His wife died. I don't know how but he's still hung up on her. He has videos of her on his laptop." Melissa was not smiling anymore as she explained to her friend, "He's a wreck from what I can tell. Ty tells me the man never sleeps. He is constantly working. He's a nice guy don't get me wrong. He's been nothing but politely while here, but there is something there. That's all I really know."
"So what you are saying is while you are tormenting because you think I like him, that I should stay far far away from him even if I did like him, and I'm not saying I do, but if I did I should run away now."
'Yeah pretty much. " Melissa laughed taking a sip from her wine glass.
"Fair enough. I'm just interested in him as a person. And he would be a good source for a study. No one has conducted research on undercover cops. It's so hard to tap into that population, and here I have one, a deep cover one to boot. That would get me published and probably get me tenure." Jade said smiling as she thought about reaching her ultimate goal.
"Quit dreaming never going to happen. Ty is not even suppose to talk to me about what he does. Let alone a researcher!"