Author's Note: Well, it's one day late but I blame the Jubilations and the insane cooking/baking/grilling/drinking that was going on in this house. Anyway, thank you guys for your lovely comments! I truly appreciate them!

Chapter Thirty-Seven:

Nothing like starting your Day with that Stabby Feeling

Brenda tapped her foot.

She could've said something yesterday.

Perhaps she wanted her to find out this way.

Raydor did have a slight flair for the dramatic sometimes.

The blonde straightened her jacket as the doors opened, an attempt to regain her composure.

"Morning, Chief." An officer said.

"G'morning." She replied and tapped her foot again.

She truly wondered what was in that file, not that she cared, but she felt rather put out to have to suffer the woman's mood without having been given a reason.

When she finally arrived on the right floor, Brenda stomped off the elevator.

Fine, she thought and took a deep breath as she went through the first door. Fine. She was being upset over nothing.

Besides, she only wanted to see the woman to inform her of Fritzy's late return. They should make the most of it.

Perhaps they could have another meal.

But they had agreed upon not doing that again.

Did that still count though, with them having come to the conclusion that this affair couldn't work with at least some personal details being divulged?

Brenda was confused and she hated it.

This was supposed to be simple, give her some uncomplicated escape yet here she was, wracking her brain.

The blonde shook her head and waltzed into the offices of FID, files firmly tucked under her arm.

"Chief?" Some middle-aged, donut dunking detective spluttered. "What a surprise!" He exclaimed but his little maneuver was cut short by a rather loud bang.

"That's ludicrous!"

Brenda's eyes widened as she heard the rather rough yell from Raydor's office.

"Listen-"

"No, you listen, lady-"

"It's Raydor," Sharon interrupted, "Captain Raydor. And now, if you could just-"

"Oh, for god's sake! What did you expect him to do after what you people put him through?"

"Sir. I certainly did not expect him to do this."

The blinds went up unexpectedly and everyone, deer-caught-in-headlights expressions firmly in places, was privy to the scene that presented itself in Raydor's office.

That missed a complete glass wall.

Brenda sucked her lower lip in, partly amused, partly experiencing Schadenfreude at the expression on the man's face which was horror at having been confronted with something he felt utterly defenseless against and the fact that everyone was bearing witness to his rather volatile behavior.

"Chief," Raydor said, surprised.

Brenda put a smile on her face, approaching. "Good morning, Captain Raydor." She held the files up. "I've got the incident report," she gestured at the broken window. "I will speak to Chief Pope about this as soon as I get a chance to hand him his copy."

Sharon gave her a slow nod. "That's very much appreciated, Chief." She turned to her visitor. "Now. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No," he said, his lips thinning to a line. "Look. He was being an asshole." He glanced at Brenda. "But I hope we can resolve this." He made to leave, trotting past Brenda with a nod of acknowledgement.

The blonde stared at the Captain for a moment, heard the collective sighs of relief then swept into the woman's office, closing the door behind herself.

Not that it mattered, seeing as there was no wall and everything they said would be perfectly audible on the outside.

"Well, here's your report." She handed it over and glanced, out of the very corner of her eye, at the goings on outside.

"Thank you," Sharon said rather calmly and closed the blinds again as if that made any difference. "I presume everything is in order?"

"It is...it is..."

"Well." Sharon looked up from the file. "Is there anything else?"

Well, yes, Brenda thought and bit her lip. "There's one little detail, I'm afraid." She rounded the desk and leaned in closely. "If you could just read your statement over and put your signature right here..." She put her finger on a dotted line, leaning in even more until there was barely a breath between them.

Sharon swallowed. "Of course."

The blonde smiled innocently, and whispered. "I want to see you tonight." Her hand brushed over the woman's back. "Well then. If you could just walk this down to my office when you're done that would be alright."

"Sure."

Brenda's smile widened as she put a bit of distance between them. "Alright then. Thank you, Cap'n."

"No, thank you, Chief."

With that they parted and Brenda made her way back to the Major Crimes Division, much calmer, of course.

Provenza was gone by then but Detective Sanchez had just arrived and was talking to Tao in a rather subdued manner. Nothing out of the ordinary for Julio, she thought and gave him a smile.

"Chief!" Tao burst out in excitement. "Take a look at this!" He presented his computer screen in a grand fashion.

Brenda indulged him, suppressing a smirk as she pushed her glasses up her nose and took a good long look. "Oooh," she cooed. "That's nice." She didn't particularly have an idea what exactly she was looking at.

"It's the new design for our department shield."

"Oh, really?" Brenda squinted. "Elf Department!" She got it then. "That's..." The blonde trailed off. "What do we need that for?"

"It's our turn, Chief," Julio supplied rather unhelpfully.

"For what?"

"The LAPD's Mission: Elf." Tao explained.

Brenda swallowed - she had no idea.

"We wrap the toys for the needy children," Sanchez said matter-of-fact. "Then Lieutenant Provenza puts on his Santa suit and delivers them."

"Lieutenant Provenza? In a Santa suit?" She pictured it.

"Hell, yeah," Flynn had walked in. "Gets tighter every year." He laughed at his own joke as he took off his jacket.

Every year? Brenda contemplated that for a moment, realizing that, after all this time working together, she had not known this little detail about the lieutenant. "How nice," she concluded despite the grizzly image of Provenza wearing a fake beard.

"You approve?"

Brenda glanced at the Elf Department Badge again and nodded. "Course, Lieutenant. Excellent work!" She patted Tao on the back and swept into her office.

Her day was starting out fabulous.

She sat down in her chair with a satisfied sigh.

The blonde's mind drifted back to her earlier thoughts - she still had to put together a file on their latest case for the DA yet there was no proper copy of the DNA results and a copy of the fingerprint report was also suspiciously absent.

Usually Lieutenant Provenza chased down those loose ends for her but, Brenda glared at his empty desk, Provenza wasn't there.

What also wasn't there was Flynn's written statement about how exactly he tracked down the suspect via phone numbers.

Brenda concluded that it was all in a terrible mess.

With her mood deflating considerably, the blonde pushed the folder away.

"Chief Johnson..." Taylor stood in the doorway wearing a rather flashy example of his wardrobe. "You got a minute?"

Brenda nodded. "Of course, Commander, come on in." He held a file in his hand, the blonde realized too late.

Weary of the man's inflated ego that he insisted on parading about the department, letting everyone know that he was speculating on a promotion from his new best buddy Delk, Brenda couldn't help but wonder what he could possibly want from her.

After all, he probably wasn't there for a chat even though many considered him to be the biggest gossip of the department.

"What can I do for you?"

Taylor entered nonchalantly. "Well, I was wondering if you could take something off our hands?"

Brenda glanced at the outstretched file.

"I'd consider it a...personal favor."

"Hmm, a personal favor," she took the proffered folder with a raised eyebrow. "You mean you wanna clear your caseload before Christmas."

"Well, Chief," Taylor chuckled. "We're swamped, we just picked up another armed robbery and I'm sure you of all people should feel uh...sympathetic to our situation." He watched her intently as Brenda leafed through the file.

"Besides...it's better to look busy with Chief Delk being in and out of here every day."

Brenda pursed her lips and glared at the unfinished report on her desk. "Fine," she conceded. "We'll take it."

"Thank you, Chief," Taylor said courteously. "This is a good one, you won't regret it."

"I better not," Brenda mumbled, studying the crime scene photos.

"S'cuse me, Captain."

"Commander."

The blonde's head shot up and, over the rim of her glasses, she spotted Raydor in the doorway.

"Captain!" Her voice was higher than usual, not that she could help it and she glanced at her squad outside and Taylor's retreating back.

With Fritz she felt less like this, like he could look at her and know.

"What can I do for you?"

Raydor smiled in her plastic fashion, holding a folder to her chest as she closed the door. "The report." She held it up a little. "Signed. I also included a copy for Chief Pope."

Brenda swallowed and risked another glance at her seemingly unsuspecting squad. "How very thoughtful of you."

Apparently Raydor found that amusing; the woman gave her that barely-there smirk and sat, file folder on her lap.

"Well." The blonde had nothing better to say and held her hand out, waiting.

The woman stared at her. "Oh, right..."

Brenda smirked right back at her - Raydor, flustered? She never thought she'd see the day. Looking the paperwork over, not that the blonde doubted her Captain, she tried to think of something else to say or rather of how to broach the subject of their little get-together tonight.

"Everything's in order."

"Yes," Raydor said. "Chief..." The woman shook her head a little. "Brenda," the name sounded foreign on her lips, said like this and not in bed.

"How 'bout drinks?" The blonde asked quickly.

"Okay."

"And then we can go to your place?"

"No."

"No? What do you mean, no?"

Raydor stood. "Just that. We are not going to my place again."

"But where else are we supposed to go?"

The woman clenched her jaw in annoyance. "Can we not complicate things, just go for drinks and then figure out where-"

"You're the one complicatin' things!" Brenda said a tad too loudly.

"Then how about we go to your place?"

The blonde pursed her lips and crossed her arms. "Fine. You win."

Raydor regarded her with a rather impassive expression. "Eight?"

"Perfect."

"See you then, Chief."

"47!"

A collective groan erupted.

"48!"

"C'mon, Tao, how many more are there?" Andy yelled from behind her.

Tao appeared from behind the counter where he was following one of his former colleagues of the CID. "49! That's it! Oh, no, wait! 50!"

A body was still spread out on the floor behind the counter, motionless while the blood pool around it dried slowly.

Bullet holes graced the walls and counters, glass was everywhere, broken display cases, another body slumped over at a desk in the very back and empty shelves.

"Oh, Commander Taylor! I am gonna kill you!" Brenda seethed from the entrance where they were all huddled together, waiting to be granted entrance.

"I wouldn't say that too loud, Chief," Provenza said, making his way to the front of the queue. "Somebody might try to frame you."

"Lieutenant?" Brenda frowned at him. "What are you doin' here?"

The man rolled his eyes. "Somebody called and dragged me out of bed."

Flynn shrugged. "Hey, why should we be the only ones to suffer?"

"I spent last evening interviewing the Witch and spending some quality time with the rat squad so shut up, Flynn!"

"Touchy..."

Brenda sighed. "I really wish you wouldn't call her that."

Provenza glowered at his partner one last time then turned to her. "You keep saying that, Chief, but I can tell you don't really mean it."

The blonde was about to retort when Tao's voice rang out in the store. "Done! 53 bullets...that we could find."

"Really?" Gabriel asked. "Good thing you found 58 shell casings then."

"They're probably in those bodies by the looks of it."

"Really?" Gabriel asked again, glaring. "Can we come in now?"

Tao almost rolled his eyes then just nodded. "Be careful!"

"So." Provenza sidled up to Brenda and surveyed the scene. "What happened here?"

The blonde stepped over an evidence marker, hands on her hips and still mentally cursing Taylor. "What does it look like, Lieutenant?"

"Well..." He sighed. "Somebody shot first and asked questions never?"

"Somethin' like that." Brenda glanced at her watch - it was already 11 a.m. "We will be spending all day cataloging the evidence...and waitin' around for the autopsies...and puttin' the serial numbers of all those stolen guns in the database. It's gonna take forever!"

"You shoulda asked what kind of robbery/homicide Taylor was talking about when you took that case off him, Chief."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Brenda glowered and took another long look around the gun and ammo shop. "I'll keep that in mind for next time..."

The blonde maneuvered the store, avoiding the evidence markers, and took a peek at the body behind the counter. "The register was emptied," she said more to herself than anybody.

"Yep," Tao piped up, "They also tried the safe but couldn't get it to open."

"Well," Brenda put her hands on her hips. "If this isn't a robbery then I don't know what is." Accepting the fact that Taylor had conned her into an impossible amount of paperwork and that there was nothing she could do to change it, Brenda bit her teeth into the case as she always did.

"Detective Sanchez, call your contacts in the gang unit, see if there's a possible connection. Please."

"You got it, Chief," he said, the phone already in his hand.

"Detective Gabriel, Lieutenant Flynn, please canvas the neighborhood."

Gabriel looked relieved to be out of there as he made his way back to the door.

"On it, Chief," Flynn said around a toothpick.

"Lieutenant Tao?" He had disappeared.

"Yes, Chief?" He shot up from behind the second body.

"We need to figure out which guns are missin'...did you find any sort of cataloging system the owners had goin'?"

"Indeed!" He presented the broken computer screen next to the body. "I believe they may have had a computer database."

"Oh, for goodness sakes."

"The hard drive seems to be intact."

"We need those serial numbers ASAP, Lieutenant."

Tao nodded seriously. "Understood, Chief."

Well then, Brenda thought and took a deep breath but her moment of relaxation was interrupted by her cell phone's incessant ringing. After rummaging around for it in her purse, the blonde squinted at the screen.

"Mama." Sighing in sheer mental exhaustion, Brenda stepped outside, almost walking into Sanchez who was talking on the phone as well.

Her day had started out so well...

"Hello, mama?"

"Finally! Do you ever check your messages?"

"I do! I do so!"

"I was just callin' to inform you of our Christmas plans."

Brenda nodded to herself and walked up the sidewalk. "You made plans?" She asked, secretly relieved. "I thought you and daddy were gonna come see us?"

"We are!" Willie Rae exclaimed exuberantly.

"You are?"

"Yes! We just booked our tickets yesterday!"

The blonde felt her stomach drop. "Oh mama...what a surprise."

"Well," Willie Rae went on rather pragmatically. "We thought we might as well book it, seein' as you can't seem to listen to any of your messages."

"That is not true! I was just busy, is all."

"Hmm," her mother hummed disapprovingly. "How is Fritz?"

Brenda rolled her eyes, momentarily forgetting about the whole Christmas visit disaster. "He's off with work...in San Diego."

"I heard it's nice there."

"Apparently so," she commented evenly. "He's there with that Agent Morgan."

"Ooooh, I see," Willie Rae cooed.

"No, mama! She's a lesbian."

"A what?"

"Lesssbiaaaan."

"Well. He better be back for Christmas. Who else is gonna come pick us up from the airport."

Brenda pursed her lips. "Mama. I can pick you up."

"Yes, yes," Willie Rae said. "You want to talk to your daddy?"

"No," the blonde said immediately. "No, no, no. Just tell him I said 'hi'. I'm really busy, mama, there was a double murder."

"There's always a murder, Brenda."

"Well."

"Chief!"

The blonde furrowed her eyebrows. "Listen, mama-"

"Chief!" It was Sanchez.

"What is that racket, Brenda Leigh?"

"Watch out!"

The blonde turned in time to see a car speeding down the street, erratically weaving left and right. She took a step back then realized she should be running just in time for the vehicle to crash right into a police patrol car.

After a moment, baffled, Brenda pressed the phone back against her ear.

"Are you alright? What happened?"

"Oh," the blonde saw the door of the car open slowly. "Just some minor traffic incident."

A man leaned out.

And puked right there onto the street.

"Drunk driver."

Willie Rae scoffed. "That's terrible!"

Everyone was rushing to get to the man, and Brenda knew it wouldn't be long for sirens to ring out and an ambulance to arrive. "Listen, mama, I'm sorry but I have to go. It's terribly busy."

"Alright, honey, you go and do what you have to do."

"Thank you, mama."

"I'll email you our flight number and arrival time. I love you!"

Brenda didn't even listen. "Love you too, mama, bye now." She hung up and advanced on the car. The driver was currently fighting off police officers while simultaneously bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow.

"Sir!" Brenda marched right up to him. "Sir. Stop it!" She put her hands on her hips, looking very little intimidating. "You're bleedin'." She informed him.

"Wha'?" The guy slurred then reached up and touched his eyebrow.

He stared at the blood for a moment and then he promptly fainted.