No warnings. AU.
Allen and Link are out practicing again- or, that is, Allen is practicing, Link is bystanding- in a rather nice park. Mothers and strollers. Kids with balloons and sticky fingers. Businessmen. Always Businessmen.
The air is crisp with the flavor of oncoming fall, and the leaves are changing colors beautifully but Link can't bring himself to appreciate these things. He is sitting, fuming, on a pack bench next to the rookie's chosen target- a European tourist who speaks only smatterings of English. She's wearing a thick strand of milky pearls and a designer day suit.
Cross's orders: "Show him a standard set up. Let him choose the lamb." So Link let him. And he went out with him, even if he was still boiling over their argument the night before.
The sight of Allen, happy and enjoying a new day, only made him angrier. Link engages the woman in a conversation in her native French, which she is obviously delighted to hear, and sees Allen's hand flash into motion. Without a break in his words, he thinks, Uncle Marion will forgive me this one time…
And, with a gasp, he points and announces, in fluent French, "Ma'am! Your purse- a thief!"
He grins with uncharacteristic malice from beside the woman as Allen is hauled off by the police. He's still trying to figure out what happened.
Poor rookie.