A/N: Thank you so much, everyone, for your encouraging reviews! Thank you Shelle007, Katrina Connors, Lokisgirl, and Coldrexcure! I was excited to see that one of you mentioned a character that is coming into the story in this chapter too!


CHAPTER 12 – Scandal

Harris's pants were soon down around one ankle and completely off on the other foot, the heat from between his legs warming the inside of the car as he kept one foot on the floor and the other bent up under him. I laid across the back seat with my legs oddly bent, feeling not just vulnerable but utterly paranoid that we'd be caught. I wished it hadn't been so dark so I could've seen how exactly Harris was preventing himself from falling over or getting a charley horse. I figured that he was using the elbow that was in the sling to steady himself against the backseat, and his left hand to slowly lower his body onto mine. Harris's hair was already sweaty—I couldn't see it but when I ran my hands through it, it felt as if he'd just taken a hot shower.

This was quite awkward and felt a lot more scandalous and unnatural than it had felt in college. One definite positive was Harris's shorter stature, because he would have never fit in the back of his car otherwise. I heard his knee crack and began to giggle.

"You just wait another couple years and that'll be you," he muttered. "Anyway, I got another bone that won't be cracking," he added. I couldn't help but smile at the comment, and readied myself for this rather adventurous thing we were doing.

At the sound of a clipped siren, I felt my stomach drop into my groin. Harris's head jerked up and slammed against the headliner. I heard his loud oof as he instinctively grabbed his head with his good hand—and fell right on top of me. The lights of the police car shined through the rear windshield of the car as Harris pulled himself off of me and steadied himself. Harris's face was illuminated in the light and I could see the sweat pouring off of his forehead and the slack-jawed way he was staring at the car that had pulled in behind us.

Holy shit.

"Get your goddamn pants on," Harris growled, scrambling off of me so that he could go back to a normal seated position on the chair. "Come on—move it, move it, move it!" I flipped my body around and gathered my pants up. The cop from the car was already walking towards us, his flashlight scanning the car and shining into my eyes. There wasn't enough time for me to pull my pants all the way up, so I threw them over my crotch and tucked the legs in under my butt.

Harris was in a far worse predicament. He pants were stuck around one ankle, and he tried to jerk the fabric up, but one leg was left bare. He threw the top part of the pants around his groin and clasped his hands over them like some kind of demented choirboy. I soon realized why—something was stubbornly remaining up.

It was then that the cop tapped on the glass. The flashlight in the cop's hand prevented me from being able to recognize who it was, but I still felt like I was going to piss myself. Captain Callahan had arranged this; I was sure. She definitely couldn't act like she was taking the higher road now. What a total bitch.

Harris's eyes moved to the window and he lifted his chin in an attempt to figure out who had caught us. Out of fear, I put my hand on his thigh but he quickly slapped it away. The cop's badge was pressed against the glass and I heard Lieutenant Harris gulp. When it became obvious that we'd have to roll down the window, Harris sighed loudly and reached out, using the window knob to open the window.

"Lieutenant Harris?" the male voice asked in a high pitched, raspy voice. Something flashed in our faces. Shit. I recognized the voice. Wait—had he just taken a picture of us? I couldn't tell, because a flashlight was blinding me.


"Zed?" Harris replied, lifting his good arm to shield his face from the flashlight that was now searching our faces. "Get that damn flashlight out of my eyes."

"Right, sorry," Zed said, lowering the flashlight's beam onto our laps. "Oops!" he shouted, as I shifted my clothes to cover myself better. "Sorry again you guys!"

"What the hell are you doing out here?" Harris asked in a calm, collected voice, an unbelievably bold thing to say when being caught with his pants down. "Did Captain Callahan by any chance send you out here?"

He had certainly gotten to the point of what this looked like—Captain Callahan's revenge.

"I never reveal my sources," Zed replied, twitching as he nervously glanced back at his car. "But it's not hard to see what's going on here, you know!" With that, he smiled toothily at us. I saw the camera around his neck and gulped.

"Right. Congratulations," Harris deadpanned. He began shaking his head and lowered it briefly. "How dare her," he muttered to himself, looking deep in thought. "Who's the hypocrite now?"

"You, Sir, are a disgrace to this uniform!" Zed exclaimed as he pointed at Harris, his face twisted awkwardly. Harris could only gape at him with surprise at such a bold comment.

"Remember when you said that to me?" Zed added. "That really hurt my feelings, you know." Now Harris began to grin.

"I do remember that," Harris said, smiling at him. "And I still mean it, in the sincerest way possible." Ouch. The nasty reply had been delivered with the utmost kindness, but it was nasty. At first, Zed smiled, but then his face became troubled when he realized what was actually being said. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at Harris's stupid boldness. Why was he tempting this guy? It was like he was asking for a citation.

"Anyway, you oughta run along and get back on your beat before you get in trouble," Harris said to Zed while motioning dismissively, talking down to him as if he were a trick-or-treater coming back to the door for a second batch of candy.

"This is my beat, okay?!" Zed replied. "And I gotta cite you for this," he added. He bent over and looked at me, shining his flashlight in my eyes. "That a hooker?"

"Of course not," Harris groaned.

"She looks uh, kinda young for you." He gave me a little spastic wave and I hesitated before waving back. How in the world had he gotten through the academy again? Suddenly Zed slapped his hand onto the half-open window.

"Whoa, is that the pawn shop girl?!"

Harris looked over at me with alarm, apparently surprised that Zed could put two and two together. To be honest, so was I.

"Well, I gotta write you up for indecent exposure," Zed indicated, pulling a notebook and pen out of his pocket. "Good thing she's not a hooker, right?!"

Now Harris was beginning to shake. It was subtle enough, but I could feel his thigh moving from side to side. He waited several seconds, looking thoughtful, while Zed wrote up the citation. This citation would be public record. What would that mean in terms of his job?

"I'm sure you realize that your citation is null and void," Lieutenant Harris stated in a growl-like voice. "This isn't actually indecent exposure."

"Actually, it is!" Zed replied. "Never thought I'd have to say this to you, Sir, but like, get a room! You know?!"

"You see my arm?" Harris snapped, holding up his immobilized arm. "Remember when I saved all your asses from having to explain to the commissioner why a cadet died during your shift?"

"Right, the pawn shop," Zed said with a smirk, as Lieutenant Harris looked down to adjust the positioning of his pants. "Uh, what does that have to do with this?"

"Everything," Harris snarled. "I watched all you little pissants standing around while—"

"Smile!"

Suddenly, there was another flash in our faces. Zed had definitely taken a picture that time. Oh my God; it was all over for Harris!

If smoke could have billowed out of Harris's ears at that moment, it would have.

"Did you just… take a picture of us?" Harris quietly asked, his voice far calmer than the expression on his face.

"I did," Zed indicated proudly, pointing at the camera at his neck. "You know, for police evidence!"

"Give me that camera," Harris said simply, holding out his good hand.

"Uh, let me think—no!" Zed replied manically, flipping the device around behind his back. Man, was he trying to get Harris riled up or what?!

"Zed, if you don't give me that camera, I'll make sure that you never work in law enforcement again," Harris said in a low, dangerous voice. "You won't even be able to get a job as a mall security guard. You will be finished in this town; do you hear me?"

Zed looked confused by the nasty words Harris had just spouted, but he had a retort ready.

"Was that, like, a threat?!" he exclaimed, glancing off wide-eyed to the side presumably towards the squad car behind us. "'Cos that sure sounded like one!"

Harris looked positively dangerous. I watched his arm to see that it was shaking. I didn't blame him, honestly, because I was shaking too.

"Give. Me. That. Camera."

"No!"

Suddenly Harris's arm shot out of the vehicle and grabbed the front of Zed's uniform. With a loud grunt, the older man yanked the short, chubby man up against the vehicle as his hand moved up the uniform towards the lanyard of the camera. Oh my God.

I heard the door of the police car slam and I could hear fast footsteps approaching. Shit, there was another cop in the car!

"Whoa, is there a problem here?" a voice asked. A taller police officer's form filled the window, but his voice was significantly softer and more normal than Zed's. The man then bent down to look at us.

"Mahoney?!" Harris yelped, face suddenly becoming stark white as he released Zed. "What are you doing here?!"