Chapter 11
"Password encrypted. Great," Spike observed.
Parker thought for a moment. "Try 'dumbass', Spike."
Parker had to wait a few seconds before Spike said, "I think I'm in love."
Parker's lips turned upward into a grin. "What can we use Spike? I need to make that call."
"She's so bloody well connected it's like…"
"English, Spike."
"Boss, what she gave the SRU was crap compared to what's on this laptop. Get me a name and everything will be at your fingertips. Make your call and keep him talking. I need to find Ed. Not only do I have blueprints, there are heat sensors and look, here's our guy carrying the gun. Look you can see the outline of the gun!"
10 seconds later the phone rang in the grocery store.
"I want a car!"
"This is Sergeant Gregory Parker from the police strategic response unit. Who am I speaking with?"
"I don't care who you are. I want a car. And I want money."
"I can talk to my bosses about the car and money, but what I need from you is the chance for the injured mother to live. Is there any way we can talk about getting her safely out of there?"
"She's fine."
"Have you checked her? Maybe you can tell me if her breathing is laboured or not? Can you do that for me?"
"You – see if she's okay."
Parker waited a few seconds before he heard a hostage say, ""She's bleeding pretty heavy. She's not going to make it unless you get her to the hospital."
"Not my issue. Get me my stuff and then I let her go." With that, the guy hung up.
12 minutes later and it was over. Braelyn managed to keep the other hostages calm and out of the line of fire. She read the manual, and put it into practise. She also managed to keep the guy calm when he cut off communication with Parker. Parker knew that Braelyn managed to save the lives of those hostages today. She was calm, collected, and would not rattle easily. When he saw her sitting in the back of one of the SUV's, he decided to approach her.
"Spike's in love with your programs," Parker said with a very serious face.
Braelyn gave him a brilliant smile. "He would be."
Still with a serious face, Parker said, "You did well in there Braelyn."
"Look at my hands, only shaking a little. When do you think they are going to stop?"
Parker reached out hesitantly and stopped just shy of grabbing her hands. He looked her in the eyes before enclosing his hands around hers. He knew she needed this, and for once, he wasn't going to let his cautious attitude around women consume him. "Better?"
"Not so much. But at least I got you to touch me Gorgeous."
Parker smiled. Her sense of humour was coming back, so she was going to be fine.
"So you can design incredible programs, but you can't carry a tune, huh?"
"Are you saying that I'm a bad singer, Gorgeous?"
"Bad? Cupcake, you're a terrible singer!"
"I guess I am. It was the only thing I could think of at the time. Um…you can let go of my hands now."
Parker honestly hadn't realized he was still holding her hands. He dropped it immediately. "Sorry."
Braelyn noticed how sheepish Parker looked. "Some woman did a number on you huh?"
Parker just looked Braelyn in the eye and didn't answer. He didn't deny or confirm her statement.
As usual, Braelyn brushed it off by flirting and saying, "Parker, you can touch me anytime you want. Now, I'm going to give you a hug. Think you can handle it?"
"Sure. I can handle that."
Braelyn wrapped her arms around Parker's neck and held on for few seconds. She felt him hug her back, and when it was appropriate, she released the tension in her arms. When she pulled back, she couldn't help but say, "Can you handle a kiss?"
"Hitting on the boss, Braelyn?" Spike said as he approached them.
"Spike!" With that, Braelyn let go of Parker and jumped on Spike. He barely had time to catch her, when her legs wrapped around his waist.
"Well, hello to you too!" Spike clung to her as he gently lowered her back onto her two feet. "Where's my kiss?"
"Oh Honey." And with that Spike had no warning as Braelyn grabbed both sides of his face and planted a quick one on him. "Happy?"
Spike looked at Parker, gave him a lopsided grin and said, "I think I'm definitely in love now!"
"Stop kissing members of the team Braelyn," Norm said as he approached them.
"C'mon Normy, you know I only listen to you half the time, so what makes you think I'll listen now. Spike's an attractive guy, he's single –"
"You okay?" Norm asked very concerned about her welfare.
"Sure. You know, I think Sergeant Parker is a better negotiator than you are Normy."
"Really?" Norm Holleran said wryly.
Braelyn looked at Parker and winked. "Spike, honey, what did you do with my laptop?"
"You're too late. I already transferred all of your files to the office. I have them now," and with that Spike took off at a sprint.
Shocked, Braelyn watched him for a full 3 seconds before she said, "Parker, give me your gun."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm pretty sure I can hit Spike and only Spike at this distance. I mean, how hard can it be to aim and shoot that far?"
Parker ignored Braelyn's comment, and said to Holleran, "I let her go today Norm, because of her fear of guns."
"I got your call. Think she's over it?"
"I'll take her back on, if, and this is based on a big if, if she passes a psych exam and does some kind of tactical training."
"Hello!! I'm standing right here. Want to know my opinion?"
"Not interested Cupcake. Be a good girl and stay quite for a few moments," Parker said.
Braelyn's mouth opened and then closed.
"What else?" Holleran stated.
"She meets with Luria once a week for 15 minutes."
"That would do her some good. Okay so she does all of that and then what?" Norm wanted to know.
"She becomes part of the team. She stays in the truck when we're on a call, and if Spike likes the programs, we all get trained on them."
"Deal."
Parker and Holleran shook hands to seal the deal. Then they both looked at Braelyn.
"Wow, testosterone much?"
Holleran and Parker smiled at each other.
"I won't talk with Luria unless I want to Parker. No one does that to me. I'll do all the rest, but Luria is out of the question. If you want to know something, all you have to do is ask. And never call me a girl again, Sergeant. I'm all woman. Now if you'll excuse me, Spike needs to know just how good I am with photoshop and a picture of him posted on the internet."
At that moment, Parker was very glad that he wasn't Spike.
