To Rick's surprise, Amanda opts to go shopping for a dress, and Evelyn's reservation time allows them just enough time to find something that he finds as breathtaking as last night's formalwear. The pale blue suits her lightly tanned skin, and although she'd hesitated about the off-the-shoulder neckline, she let him reassure her that he's seen similar at these sorts of brunches during warm weather. It may be nearly Halloween, but it's still Atlanta, so the weather is far closer to summer than fall.
Parked outside the restaurant, he reaches across to take her hand, which draws her attention from looking toward the building. There's a tiny furrow between her brows that he knows is from apprehension. "You can always take the car and make a run for it."
Even though he was serious, the phrasing makes her laugh and chases away the worry. "I'm a cop, Rick. If I can't face one elderly lady, I need to turn in my badge."
"As long as you're sure." Raising her hand, he presses a kiss to her palm. "Let's go see if Carl's theory is correct."
Once they're inside, Rick isn't surprised to find that his mother's arrived before them. Evelyn is dressed as nicely casual as he's ever seen her in a navy jacketed dress with her hair neatly done into the chignon he doesn't think he's ever seen her without aside from trips to their house on the coast. She's sipping from a wine glass, and her preferred appetizer is already at the table.
Evelyn turns at his greeting, smiling as she rises to her feet. She surprises him a little by greeting Amanda warmly, pressing the offered hand between her own before turning to kiss his cheek as she normally would. Rick seats both women before taking the seat across from his mother.
"I wasn't sure what sort of starter that Amanda would prefer, so I ordered my usual when that lovely driver delivered me a little bit early." The charcuterie board is barely touched, but she never likes sitting at a table with just wine, he knows. "And the Pinot Noir is lovely."
They make bland small talk, and Rick's glad the menu is a fairly simple one so that they're ready when the waiter approaches to offer wine and alternate appetizers. Sticking to what's already at the table, it gives them something to nibble on while Evelyn waxes on about what she'd enjoyed about the wedding. He's surprised that she doesn't immediately begin quizzing Amanda until he reminds himself that they probably covered the polite basics at Carl's birthday party.
When their meals arrive, an upscaled shrimp and stone-ground grits for both him and Amanda and quiche lorraine for Evelyn, his mother doesn't start eating right away. "I apologize if I was rude last night," she says, sitting with her hands folded in her lap.
It's surprising enough that Rick is a bit speechless, and he can't imagine Amanda is much better. He glances toward her, confirming that she's as confused as he is. Evelyn had been a little abrupt in talking to Amanda, but not overtly rude.
The lack of immediate response leads Evelyn to elaborate. "I shouldn't have made an issue of the necklace at the reception. It was crass and unnecessary, even if I was adrift that you hadn't introduced Amanda properly to me."
Rick swallows hard, feeling a little like the apology is going in the wrong direction, but before he can speak, Amanda does.
"When you and I met at Carl's party, Rick and I had taken a break from dating. Everyone conspired a bit Friday night to escalate our reconciliation."
"I confess that I queried Shane just a bit." Evelyn is meeting Amanda's gaze evenly. "He is quite fond of the idea of the two of you together, even if the odds are generally against law enforcement marriages. Should this progress, that's doubled with the two of you."
When Rick shifts his weight uneasily at the seeming dismissal of their chances as a couple, it draws Evelyn's attention to him. "You're not barely out of your teens this time, Richard, and Amanda isn't a girl dropping out of school and left to raise a child practically on her own because your mother is too caught up in family drama to be the grandmother she should have been. I burned that bridge with Lori. I would prefer not to repeat that mistake."
Out of all the things Rick expected Evelyn to say, that never would have entered his mind. She obviously finds Amanda appealing in some way, which was made obvious at the wedding, but this is beyond that. It also may explain the outright affection Evelyn shows toward Michonne.
"We aren't at the discussing marriage stage yet," Rick says, glancing at Amanda. Even as intense as he's been about their relationship, that's not a possibility they can consider. She nods in agreement.
Evelyn takes a delicate bite of her quiche, looking between the two of them. "I may not be the most observant woman, but I do recognize something that is going to last when I see it. I grew up seeing it with my parents, and I had it with your father. You and Lori never had that, but she has it now." Her expression shifts and turns wistful in a way that makes Rick's stomach twist. "I see it right here in front of me."
In her own backward way, Evelyn seems to be giving her blessing, and although he was prepared for it to go the other way, this just leaves Rick at a loss. He thinks over Carl's assessment of Evelyn's state of mind, plus the points Amanda brought up the night before.
"Thank you."
Amanda's quiet courtesy startles Rick out of his befuddlement, especially how shy she sounds. They'd geared up for potentially an argument with Evelyn, or at least he had, and now Evelyn is laying out her blessing in a way he'd long since thought impossible for his life other than as Carl's father. When he smiles first at Amanda and then Evelyn, he's surprised by the honest affection in his mother's expression. Perhaps after all this time, there's hope for a closer relationship with Evelyn, too.
After the intense conversation, Amanda is glad that the rest of the brunch is less so. Evelyn does get a little more personal with asking about Amanda's life than the basics they'd exchanged at the party, but it's nothing unexpected or rude. Luke's parents asked similar things, although Amanda is glad that their family connection allows them to explain their meeting without mentioning the investigation.
"How long are you staying in Atlanta?" she finally asks, as no one seems to know what Evelyn's plans are past combining Carl's birthday and the wedding as one visit.
"Just a few more days. I am flying to London on Tuesday."
Evelyn turns those dark eyes of hers on Rick, studying him intently, and Amanda is reminded of Michonne's description long ago about how Rick looks so little like his mother. It's an incomplete description, she thinks, because their coloring is different, but that expression of pride warring with a needy affection? That's damn near identical.
"I would like to ask that we spend the New Year in the London house, if at all possible. Carl has never visited it, and it will most likely be his one day, since you've stated you do not want it."
"You do know you can invite Carl to London at any time, right, Mother? Outside of school, it's his choice."
As conflicted as Amanda has been about Rick's family's wealth, what she sees now is a well-hidden flinch of a mother being rejected. Maybe it's because of the olive branch Evelyn's already offered, or maybe it's because Evelyn is very carefully avoiding asking for a family holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but once she's seen that hidden longing, Amanda can't unsee it.
"I would love to see London," she says, calculating how hard it will be to get enough time off to fly overseas for any real length of time. She has the vacation hours, but that's rarely the real issue as a cop.
Rick capitulates the second she expresses interest, and Evelyn doesn't hide her delighted expression, launching into plans that focus on Amanda. That lasts them through dessert and taking Evelyn back to her hotel. When Rick is quiet in the car on the ride back to his apartment, she reaches over to take his hand.
"Was it a bad thing that I agreed to go? London doesn't hold some sort of bad memories for you, does it?"
Shaking his head, Rick smiles gently at her. "It's such a complicated thing to take time off for European travel that I was worried at first you'd feel obligated, but you sounded pretty confident in planning that itinerary with her."
"I've spent a long time dedicated to my job and worrying about what others would think if I took time off for a vacation. Besides, I think my mother will enjoy being included on the trip."
One thing she has noticed is that Shane's grandmother and Evelyn get along quite well despite the social differences of their backgrounds. She's fairly certain that Susan and Evelyn will enjoy each other's company, and it's the best of both worlds for a family vacation. The deep sense of satisfaction that settles in her about planning something in the future for both of their families surprises her a little. It may be only a little over two months away, but after all her wary fear about committing to Rick, it feels significant.
Something tells her it's one of many holidays they'll spend together.
Leaving for work on Monday makes Rick happy that Amanda stayed until then, as well as a little grumpy that he has to go to work. The last thing he wants to do is smother her, but he feels a special sort of contentment when he sees her tuck the keycard in her wallet on their way out the door. He doesn't hide it very well, because when they step on the elevator, she eyes him curiously.
"Something's got you smiling an awful lot for a man going to work on Monday morning. Care to share?"
Rick laughs at the teasing note in her voice and shakes his head. "Nope." Then considering some of the silly shit he's seen Shane do with women over the years, he gives her a deliberately sly look. "Maybe I'll tell you for a kiss."
It could have gone either way, either Amanda laughing it off or actually giving him the kiss. To his delight, she opts for the kiss, and it's sweetly intense enough that he has to remind himself they're in public as the elevator doors ding open. They step out of the elevator and he flashes her an impish smile.
"How about I tell you at dinner tonight?"
She tries to give him an unimpressed look, but it slides too easily into a rueful smile. "Dinner sounds good."
Plans made, he steals a brief and chaste kiss before parting ways. The prospect of a full day at work seems like nothing knowing he'll see her at the end of it.
With Shane out for a week for his honeymoon, Rick expects things to be a little more hectic than normal. He's not covering for Shane, but everything bumps around when they're one person down, and there's always the joy of catching up on the weekend's paperwork. That takes him all the way past lunch, and he's just finishing up the last when there's a knock on his doorframe.
"Lieutenant, you got a minute?" Eugene looks both thrilled and perturbed, hair mussed quite a bit as he runs a hand through it while shifting his weight from foot to foot. "I've figured out who the madam is."
That gets Rick's complete attention. Everything has been in a holding pattern because they need that particular piece of information. "How?"
"Gorman screwed up." Setting the laptop he's carrying under one arm on the desk, Eugene flips it open and points.
Rick scans the screen, not quite seeing what has Eugene so excited, until he checks the GPS locations. "Why would they text and call from the same physical location?"
"That was my thought when I saw this. So I went back and cross referenced all of the GPS data. The few I'd looked at appeared like the madam lived or worked somewhere near Gorman, but that's not unusual enough. But then I found two other instances outside Gorman's home where the messages both come from the same location."
Gorman lives alone. That's been verified, and for all his sleazy behavior, the one thing Gorman's never done is have the young escorts come to his house. It's always been a hotel or the girl's apartment. The madam could be visiting, but why would they risk it?
"Holy shit. There is no madam."
When Rick looks up from the screen, Eugene nods vigorously. "We've been chasing a ghost all this time. He's quite good at it, but no one can maintain that sort of caution forever, or maybe he's getting sloppy with the prospect of expansion."
"We can hope so." With Shane out of town, Rick will have to take this directly to the Sheriff, but he thinks his boss won't mind this interruption. "Can I hang on to the laptop?"
"It's specific to this investigation, so you are more than welcome to keep it."
Rick's halfway out of his chair before it occurs to him that Amanda needs to know this information as much as the Sheriff does. She's off work, too, so she might be able to come to the office. He sits back down and stares at the screen for a minute.
"Thank you, Eugene. You ever thought about doing this sort of thing for a living later? Working with law enforcement?"
Eugene shrugs, smiling at the thanks. "It has been quite the intriguing puzzle to unravel. Perhaps I will look into what training it would take to turn it into a career versus keeping some corporation's network running smoothly. Speaking of which, the human resources office messaged me on the way over that they've managed to knock their printer off the network, so I'll leave you to the real world detective work."
Once Eugene is gone, Rick reaches for his cell and calls Amanda. The wait to take this corrupt bastard down is hopefully almost over.
The discovery that Gorman is hiding behind a false female identity makes a twisted sort of sense that Amanda can barely begin to grasp. There's a part of her that wishes it hadn't happened on her day off, so that she could be in full uniform, the one she's earned and never shamed like he has, but when she's recruited into the takedown, there's no time. It's not just Rick's department involved anymore, either, with both state and federal representatives gathering at the planning.
Arresting Alvarado goes smoothly. They had enough evidence for an arrest warrant on both of Gorman's cronies weeks ago, but he'd gotten freedom. Amanda sits uneasily next to Rick in a sheriff's department car while the team that followed the off-duty Alvarado reports back that he's been taken down with ease.
O'Donnell and Gorman are much harder, as both are on duty and in uniform. The hope is that they'll go quietly without protest and rely on their union representation or lawyers to argue their cases. Amanda never should have lost her pessimism about her fellow officers.
The two men are together, just walking out of a restaurant where they've eaten lunch, and she knows the moment that she and Rick step forward that Gorman somehow just knows. Maybe there's someone they've missed, but it's probably that Gorman's just that paranoid. The men can't get to their separate patrol cars, and Gorman goes for the cover of the restaurant, abandoning O'Donnell, who pulls his weapon and foolishly starts firing. Had they been the only two cops there, it might have worked, because Rick and Amanda have to dive for cover.
Instead, O'Donnell goes down, gagging and choking on his own blood, shot by Rick's boss. Amanda gets to a crouch, keeping a wary eye on where O'Donnell's hand is still grasping his service weapon. Her own gun drawn, she creeps forward, intent on ending this before the asshole causes any more damage. There's no sign of Gorman in the dining area that she can see, so she makes it to O'Donnell and secures his gun.
The scene is a mass of confusion, civilians coming out of where they took cover when the shooting started, and officers swarming into the building. The fact that none of the mobile officers are the local police baffles the civilians, especially when the one on the ground being guarded is. By the time the ambulance arrives, O'Donnell is likely beyond help, even though Amanda did what she could to stop the bleeding.
Gorman made good on his escape because no one would ever think to stop a fully uniformed police officer as he runs through a restaurant and out the back. He knows the area far better than any of the people who gave chase, and they'd been delayed just enough by O'Donnell to give him a head start.
"Christ, I hope the bastard appreciates what O'Donnell did for him," Amanda mutters once she's given her official statement. There's no more hiding this from her own department because the chief himself is on-site, and from the absolute ice in his expression during their brief encounter, she probably needs to ask Shane if he's serious about that job offer he made back when everything started.
"I doubt he's capable." Rick helps her clean her hands, even though it doesn't truly remove the unsettling feel of O'Donnell's blood on her skin. She knows it'll take weeks for that to fade. "We need to alert our families."
"Jesus Christ." Alarm shoots through Amanda as she fumbles for her phone, thinking of just how vulnerable her mother is even more than her brothers and their families, but Rick catches her hand.
"I already sent one of my guys to get your mom. He'll take her to Shane's place since Jean's already there with Andre and the dogs. Same thing is happening with my mother and Tara is already with Beth and will fetch Sophia."
"We should have thought ahead that they might not all be arrested. Gorman already threatened Merle." Agitated, Amanda goes for her phone again. "I'll call Merle. You call Lori."
They get the calls completed, still on the same street where O'Donnell nearly bled out, with Merle agreeing to close the bar and get Ruby and the boys even as Carol loads the baby up and heads to Shane's, too. Lori and Carl are easy enough since they're at the same school, with Naomi at a nearby daycare, but Daryl's not answering his phone. It's not unusual for Daryl to miss calls since his landscaping business can put him around noisy equipment or just make it hard to answer the phone. But today of all days, Amanda just wants to crawl right out of her skin.
"Call his office. Get them to give you the address his crew is working at, and we'll go by ourselves," Rick offers.
The phone call makes her distracted enough she doesn't know what's happening until it's too late. Gunshots ring out, but instead of feeling the impact like she had less than two months prior, Amanda hits the ground under the full weight of a grown man. Rick makes a strange, gaspy sound that terrifies her because it sounds almost like O'Donnell had sounded just before the paramedics intubated him.
Shouting and running ensue as Amanda rolls Rick to the side, and she hears a frantic order being given over a radio. It's the one call no one in her job wants to hear. "Officer down."
For the second time that day, she's holding pressure on a wound, but instead of angry frustration, all she can do is pray as she looks into pain-filled blue eyes. He's trying to say something, and she leans in close.
"Stay with me."
The words are hard to make out, but he mumbles them over and over again, and Amanda feels tears threaten.
"That's supposed to be what I say," she manages, and the acknowledgement calms him somehow. "Of course I will."
It's a promise she keeps. No one argues as she climbs into the back of the ambulance, not willing to debate her right with her badge clipped to her belt. All she can do is stay out of the frantically working paramedic's way and try not to sob in combined fear and anger.
This isn't how today was supposed to end.
A/N: *coughs* Hopefully that was worth the wait? Next chapter will likely be solely Amanda's POV.
Author Update: I got a new job. Writing will probably slow down on all story fronts.