Back to Robbie's POV
"So we're going to snake up the camera now. There is a chance that the vibrations may—" Joe gets cut off by Cat.
"Just do it." She insists. He nods and leaves.
"Robbie…"
"I'm not leaving." I tell her seriously.
"I know, but depending on what happens, there's something I need you to do. Something that I can't do myself." She looks down trying to find the courage to tell me what I need to do for her.
"Ok what?"
"… Not now… But promise me that no matter what happens, you will do it for me." She says.
"Of course… But you don't need to be thinking like this. You're going to be fine." I say. The tears were forming in her eyes and all I wanted to do was give her a hug, but I couldn't.
"I need to be realistic Robbie. I've been standing her for hours. I can feel the fatigue starting to set in."
"Don't think about it. Like I said earlier, mind over matter. Escaped POWs have walked hundreds of miles for freedom. Polar explorer, Ernest Shackle, rode in a life boat 800 miles to save his crew. It was all because of this." I point to my head "You can convince yourself to do almost anything. Just like you convinced yourself you weren't crazy for me." I look over at her. A small smile formed on her face.
"Listen. I know what you're trying to do, but do we really have to do this?"
"You may have convinced yourself, but you weren't fooling anyone else. You know how many time Jones or Beck or Kate have come up to me asking what was up between us. Oh god it got irritating."
She sat there quietly, I would imagine remembering what was said to her. It was kind of cute the way her nose crackled when she thought.
"Ok they might have said something, but they were completely misreading the situation." She explains.
"Ah… no, they saw right though your little act." I tell her.
"Well it's obvious we're not going to resolve this." She admits.
"So you're admitting your defeat?" I ask. She just rolls her eyes. She pulls out her phone from her pocket and dials a number.
"Cat are you ok!?" Jones says.
"Yea, I'm fine Jones. I need you to answer a question." She explains.
"Ok… Shoot."
"Who was into who first, Me or Robbie?" She asks giving me a look.
"You're kidding me, right? Your standing on a bomb and you call me to ask who was into who? You do understand I'm busy trying to save your life." He says.
"Yes. Now answer the question." I say because the phone was on speaker.
"Just answer it Jones. Don't be afraid to hurt his feelings." She smiles.
"Don't forget the time she got jealous when we had to go to a strip club to ask the owner some questions." I add.
"Or when he was jealous because I was out to dinner with my brother who he thought was a boyfriend." She says.
"Or when…"
No one's POV
Jones holds the phone away from his ear when Beck walks over to him. "What's going on?" He asks. Jones smiles a bit and puts the phone on speaker.
They listen for a minute as Cat and Robbie bicker about who liked who first. Beck pressed the button that mutes his and Jones's end of the conversation.
Robbie's POV
"We have a little bit of a problem…" Joe says walking in the door.
"What?" Cat looks at him. "Don't sugarcoat it." She adds in.
"There's a timer too…" Joe starts and my heart sinks. "It was set to go off even if someone didn't step on the plate. When Dena pushed the button on the detonator it started the timer, when you stepped on the plate, it was bound to go off anyway." He explains.
"How much time?" I ask him. He pulls out his phone and hands it to me. There was a countdown on it.
I take mine out and set a countdown for the same time and do the same for Cat's.
24.32
24.31
24.30
24.29
24.28
24.27
24.26
24.25
I watch as the clock counts down, knowing this may be the only time I have left with her. I hand her the phone and she slips in back into her pocket. Joe turns and leaves again.
"I guess it's ok… I can't keep standing here anyway." She tells me.
"We're going to get you out of this…" I tell her.
"What makes you so sure?"
"We've been in bad situations before. The time I was held hostage in the precinct. The guy had a gun to my liver, but you got me out of it. The time we were exposed to mass amounts of radiation and we were bound to die. The numerous times we were held at gun point. We've survived so many things together. In situations like this, it's important to have faith. It's important to think on the bright side. We've survived so much. What's stopping us from surviving this?" I ask her.
"I guess you're right… we do attract a lot of danger." She chuckles.
"But as bad as the situation, we always find a way out." I tell.
"Ok. So how are we going to get out of this one?"
"I keep thinking the answer is in Dena's story. Something must have set him off."
"Why does his story matter?" She asks me.
"The story always matters. That's why we make such a great team. You find the evidence, I build the story, we work off that story, changing it as we go and the story points us to the solution. Think about all the times we sat, going back and forth telling the story until we figured it out." We both think about it for a second and I couldn't count how many times it happened. "The story is our secret ingredient."
"Except when your story telling turns into wild speculation. You were convinced that one of our victims was mauled by a werewolf. Or the times where it was always a mob hit or a spy. I mean seriously… sometimes a case can be normal you know?" She chuckles.
"You're the one who ruins my stories with your logic. And anyway, it's not like I actually mean any of it. I just like the fun." I explain myself. I look over at the baseball cards on the island. "You know what bothers me… why would a guy on a bombing spree be worried about selling his baseball card collection." I ask her and myself.
"Your right… you think Dena was trying to lure the collector here?"
"Yes… seeing as though the receipt under the cards says he bought this collection a week ago." I smile knowing we are about to blow this case wide open.
I text Jones to ask the collector about the people on Dena's case but he comes up empty. Joe walks back in and looks at Cat and I.
"Cat…" He starts.
"10 minutes, I know…" Her voice cracks. "It's Ok Captain, you did everything you could…" She says looking at Joe. He looks down at his feet knowing he failed her.
"We are not giving up. There will be men including myself working up until the last second. I promise you that." He says. "But… I have to withdraw everybody else." He says looking over at me.
I stare at Cat knowing I won't be able to stay this time. "Can I… Can I just have a moment alone with him…" Cat ask Joe.
"Of course." He says stepping out.
I take a few steps closer, up until I'm at the circle drawn around her.
"It's time to say goodbye…" The tears well up in her eyes but she refuses to let a single one fall.
"I'm not leaving…" I try to get her to let me but I knew she would argue.
"Robbie, you promised that would help me with something when the time came. This is it." She tells me.
"Cat, no…"
"Robbie please don't make this harder than it has to be." She says as a tear slips past her eye lid and down her face.
"I wish I could kiss you right now… I wish I could… There are so many things I wish I did earlier."
"Hey… no regrets. All in all I think we've had a great run. Maybe we didn't get as far as I had hope, as you had hoped. Maybe we didn't get to say or do the things we wished we did… but we did get where we are now… and I think that is… an amazing place to be." She finishes.
I stood there completely silent, unable to let a word slip past my lips, because I knew it would only make saying goodbye harder. This was the end. The thing we all hated more than anything else in life. Having to say goodbye, instead of see you soon.
"You should go…" She says looking past me and at the door.
"Robbie…" I heard her voice crack again. I look behind me at the girl I had been in love with since the first day I saw her. Tears were streaming down her face and there was nothing I could do to stop it. "I love you…"
"I love you too…" Those were the last words I would get to say, so I made them count. "I have since the first day I met you." I turn and walk through the door and down the stairs. I understood what she wanted me to do. She made me promise to let go. She made me promise turn and walk out that door and not look back.
I walk out of the building and down the street to the corner. There was a hotdog stand there that had a sign saying, "Coffee." I walk over to it.
"Can I get a cup?" I point at the sign. The man nods. Coffee was our thing. I brought her a cup everyday just so I could see that smile on her face.
"You know what… Make that 2." I tell him.
Cat's POV
I pull out the phone that was in the pocket of my bullet proof vest. I could see myself in the reflection of the screen. I dial a number and wait for it to ring. No one answers and I let it bring me to voice mail.
"Hey this is Joshua Valentine. Please leave a message." It sounded.
"Hey… It's me… I just needed to hear your voice. I wanted to tell you that I loved you… Ok that's all. Bye." I finish the call and put the phone back in my pocket. I stare up at the ceiling trying to push back the tears as all of the memories flood back. I go back to when I was at LAPD and the real reason that I left. It wasn't that I had gotten involved with a coworker and things went south… I had gotten involved with a coworker and he was killed.
(A/N – Italics mean flashback)
"We speak for the dead. That's the job. We are all they have once the wicked rob them of their voices. We own them that. But we don't owe them our lives." Captain Montgomery says staring at me. "If you loved him, let him go, and move on. Don't try to get revenge, because you'll end up killing yourself." That was the only thing that kept me from going after him. I thought it was my duty to get revenge for him, but it wasn't.
"You're mother ounce said, 'Life never delivers anything that we can't handle.' Don't think that this is too much. He was your friend, he was your first love, you should grieve but don't do anything stupid."
"Thanks Dad…"
"Let me take you someplace you will be safe."
"I'll never be safe." I looked up at John with tears in my eyes. I had a man after me, trying to kill me, how could he think that I would be safe, anywhere.
"There are no victories, only battles. And the best that you could hope for is that you find a place to take your stand." I remember pushing the guy up into the glass remembering what John said. Every single time he popped into my head, I couldn't take it.
"I wish I could have someone who could be there for me and I could be there for him and we could just dive in together." All of the moments I was with Robbie. Every look, every smile, every word that came out of his mouth. They all came back.
"Even on the worst day, there was a possibility of Joy." I remember John pushing me off the stage during Capitan Montgomery's funeral, as the bullet went through my chest. The searing pain. John confessing his love to me. That's when it all started. And the next thing I knew, it was over. I couldn't let it happen again.
Then the moments with Robbie. All over again. From the first look up to about 5 minutes ago when he said he loved me. Everything flashing in front of my eyes. My entire life, all over again, right in front of my eyes.
I come back to my senses and breathe out deeply. There was only about 7 minutes left of my life, 7 minutes that I wasted when I could have told him, when I could have kissed him.
"Hey. What are you doing?" A voice asks from a few feet away. I look to see who it was. "Napping? Because I can come back later?"
I stood staring. "Robbie. What are you doing here… You promised…" I say quietly.
"Yea, I promised I'd leave, but I didn't promise I wouldn't come back. I got coffee for later when your off that thing." He say putting the cups down.
"No, Robbie you have to leave. There's no reason for both of us to die."
"Oh I didn't come here to die, I came to defuse the bomb. There's still time left. There's still a chance."
"Yea a 1 in 100,000 chance." I freak.
"Great. There's still a chance. I'm not giving up." He refuses.
"Robbie! Listen to me. I've already come to peace with this and that doesn't include your sister losing a brother of your parents losing a son." I fight.
Robbie's POV
"What am I supposed to do, walk out the door while you're standing there all by yourself?!" I say.
"YES! YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT YOUR SUPPOSED TO DO." She yells at me.
"Well it's not going to happen. Yell all you want but I'm not going anywhere." I say and then stop. "Wait… Why are you standing all the way over there? Why didn't Dena set it by the door so that when the cops came in they would trip it?"
"This isn't for the cops…" She finishes my though.
"That John kid, he was on his way up here. Maybe Dena was trying to get information." I start. "So what's near where your standing… Um… cards, counter, computer! Computer. That's it."
"I'm going to heck the browser history…"I continue to look through it. "He was looking for a PI and going through a People Tracker website."
"He's looking for someone." Cat says. "Someone who put him in prison?" She suggests.
"You could find that with the click of a mouse. Why hire a PI?" I question. I dial up Jones on my phone. He answers and puts it on speaker. Beck and Gates were huddled around him. I tell him what we found.
"I think I might know. One woman from his trial has been completely scrubbed from the system. Drivers license, social security number, all of it. Her name's Dorothy Novak. She was the main witness and Dena's girlfriend at the time." Jones explains to me.
"They set her up with a new ID when Dena got out 3 months ago." Gates explains some of it. "She was scared he would come after her. Looks like she was right."
"Well how if that card collector John supposed to find her?" I ask them.
"He was from the NYSED, The New York State Education Department." Beck says.
"Wait were the first two victims related to Dena's girlfriend?" I ask them.
"Yea, the first one was her cousin. And the second was her sister who worked at the DA's department." Gates explains.
"Dena didn't want revenge. He was looking for information from them. He wanted to know his girlfriends new identity." I say to Cat. 'Does she has a kid?" I ask them.
"Yea she gave birth 8 months after Dena went to prison." Jones explains.
"It's his. He wanted to know his kid. That's why he went after her." Cat says.
"That's why he lured John here. He had access to state school records. It was all about hi—" I stop for a second. "That's the code. It's the kid's name. That's the code!"
"See if you can find the kids name." Cat shouts as I pick up the detonator.
"Work fast buddy, we have 2 minutes left." I say.
"It's the story, it makes sense. Dena was desperate to see his kid just once before he dies. But the mother has hidden the child away, so Dena lashed out doing whatever he could to find him. I told you we'd figure this out!"
"Robbie there's barely a minute left." She says hesitantly.
"Hurry up Jones!" I shout though the phone.
"You've got to go." Cat says.
"Not yet." I insist.
"Please. It he finds the name, I'll put it in. If not—" I cut her off.
"He will come though." I try to convince myself in the process of saying it. "He has to…"
We stand in silence watching the clock count down.
13
12
11
10
I look up at cat to see if she is ok. She looked more scared now than before, but I knew Jones wouldn't fail. He couldn't.
"William! His name is William."
"That's 7 letters we need 5…. Billy!" I
I punch in the code and start to pray. This was it…
3
2
1
Enter
…
With a click we light on the detonator goes green and the pressure plate goes up again. Cat looks at me and the bomb squad rushes in. Cat slowly takes a step off of the plate and everything was fine. She jumps into my arms and wraps her arms around me. I give her a squeeze and she starts to sob into my chest.
"She's off." I say into the phone before dropping it and wrapping my arms around her. I pick her up and spin her around. Despite that fact that she's sobbing she starts to laugh and giggle after I put her down.
We can here everyone in the precinct over the phone clapping and letting out sighs of relief. It was over.
Bomb squad comes in and get us out as quickly as possible and into the street. Fire trucks and police cars were everywhere. People were clapping and screaming.
Cat looks at me, "Robbie… listen, thank you for staying with me…" She leans in for a hug. I wrap my arms around her again.
I whisper in her ear, "Always…"
Jones's car pulls up fast and lurches to a stop. Everyone gets out, Kate, Jones, Gates, Beck, all of them. They rush over and one by one hug us and tell us how happy they are that we are ok.
"Glad to see you Cat, even you Robbie." Gates wasn't too fond of me but I could tell she was warming up a little. "I have to say, I don't know too many men who would have done what you did." Gates finishes.
"Neither do I…" Cat says sticking her hands in her back pockets and looking up at me. There had to be something in the way she looked because Gates started to laugh.
"Oh for heaven's sake Cat. Just kiss the man!" Gates chuckles. Everyone looks at her.
"Wait you… you thought so too?" Cat asks her.
"Do you think I'm an idiot? Anyone who didn't see what was going on between you two is stupid. I needed to maintain plausible deniability, which I can continue, as long as you two can act professionally."
"I know I can Sir… but she has a history of coming on to me at work—" Cat cuts me off.
"I don't think it will be a problem." Cat smiles.
"Good. Meanwhile, as long as we're on mutual ground here, I'd say," She pauses and leans in closer to Cat. "He deserves it, wouldn't you…?"
I nod and smile. "Yes Sir, I would."
"Then shut up and kiss him." Gates says turning around and walking away. Cat turns to me and snakes her arms around my neck.
"You know, while I was up there, I knew I was going to die. And all I kept thinking about was, why the hell did it take me this long realize, I'm crazy about you… I was going die, and all I could think about was you…" She pulls me closer to her and our lips crash together. I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her as close to me as I could possibly get. This is what I had wanted. It took more than a year, but it happened, and I wasn't about to let it stop.
So... Cat has a little more back story that we all thought... interesting haha. But notice how everytime she thought about John somehow, it went back to Robbie...
Ok, so I decided to be nice and double update. I know how much you guys hate cliffhangers. But… did I not tell you that this case would be amazing! Haha anyway, there is definitely more to this story, don't worry, but for now, enjoy the Cabbie and REVIEW!