"Are you alright?" Larry asked gently. He smiled as Megan turned to face him. "You were several light years away."
Megan laughed, "You have a way with words like no one else I know, Larry."
He smiled at that, gently brushed her hair out of her eyes, and tucked the errant strands behind her ear. His fingers trailed along her earlobe, then his thumb caressed her cheek. He saw Megan's lips part, and, ever so faintly, tremble. Fascinated by that tremble, his fingers gently traced her lower lip. "What were you thinking about?"
She wasn't sure she could concentrate. His gentle exploration had made her aware of nerve endings she never knew she had. "Larry, I... I can't think when you do that."
Drawing back to give her some space, he acknowledged her statement with another smile. He picked up a paperweight and started turning in over in his hands, settling in his chair to listen to her. Her eyes followed that paperweight for a moment before she spoke. "Just hoping that Robin and Don work things out. Don mentioned, when I saw him, that the director is changing our involvement in Robin's task force. We'll still be on it, but we'll be going back to covering other cases. He says he can't afford to have us full time on just one case. Robin doesn't strike me as someone who would handle that well, even without the problems they're having."
Wondering if she'd imagined that ghost of a grin passing across Larry's cherubic countenance, she laughed and asked, "What? What are you smiling about?"
"Do you profile everyone you meet?"
"Hazards of the job," she said, a little ruefully. She gathered herself, "I'm sure David and Colby will be glad to get back out on the field."
"How are Colby and Hannah doing? She's like the bright north star, steady and unwavering."
Megan regarded Larry thoughtfully with a half smile, "You're not half bad at profiling, yourself, Dr. Fleinhardt."
He grimaced at the honorific, "I feel old when you call me that." He was quiet for a moment. "You never answered my question."
She hesitated, "Which question?"
"Are you alright?"
Touched by the tenderness, Megan answered, "I think so." At his raised eyebrows, she shrugged, "Just a little worn out by all the events and the emotions."
Larry nodded sympathetically. Reaching for one of her hands, he asked, "When do you get some time off?"
Laughing softly, she asked, "Why?"
"Well, if you must know, I thought we could go away for the weekend of your birthday," he replied, a smile playing around his lips.
"Oh, I think something can be arranged," she flashed him that brilliant smile he loved.
Still smiling, Megan thought about the turn of events that brought about this relationship. She wasn't sure that she would ever had the occasion to meet a professor of physics, let alone date him, if she hadn't joined Don's team. Then she couldn't think anymore as Larry began a gentle exploration of her hand. His thumbs massaged her palm, in alternating circular motion, slowly, with just enough pressure to ease the tension. Then holding her hand in one of his, he traced the lines in her palm, ever so lightly, with the fingers of his other hand. Megan considered herself a tactile person, but she'd never felt the nerve endings in her hand quite like she was feeling them now. She'd never realized that a hand exploration could be quite so erotic. Just as she thought she would scream from the pleasure of his ministrations, he placed a kiss in the palm of her hand, and closed her fingers over it. Then he pulled her into his embrace.
-----
"Everything alright, Colby?" Don asked, when he saw the younger man settle in.
Colby looked up, surprised and a little puzzled. "Yeah, thanks! Robin signed the paperwork for the transfer of the money. It's slow going on the audios we haven't had any luck on names yet, but there's lots of good info."
Don smiled, "I meant with Hannah. I spoke to both Megan and Robin last night."
"Ah. Well, actually, yes. It's fine there too." Colby was quiet for a moment, thinking about the night before. He said slowly, "I'm very lucky to have Hannah. The thought of losing her..." he trailed off.
"I know what you mean."
There was an awkward silence, then Colby took a deep breath and asked, "So, is everything alright with you? Hannah and Olivia, well, they've been concerned."
Don chuckled at that, "I can imagine. Yes, it's fine. Thanks!" He nodded to Megan and David as they walked in. "The Assistant Director is asking us to take on other cases. He can't afford for us to be entirely focused on the Fraud task force." He barely caught the weary expressions that flitted across the two men's faces, before they were quickly masked. There was no reaction from Megan, because he'd told her the night before. "We'll just keep doing the best we can," Don was already resigned to that fact.
Robin wasn't happy, Don reflected, but she wasn't saying very much. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, even though he didn't really have much to do with the decision. He would have rather continued with the fraud case than have to split time amongst several cases. It was also a huge hassle to move the command center down the hallway so they could have their conference rooms back.
-----
A day later, Don was glad that they had moved the command center. A real estate agent had gone on a rampage, shooting up the bullpen that his team used. One of the shots had missed him and Charlie by inches. At least he knew Robin and the rest of the fraud team was safe. While waiting to get back into the building, he saw the rest of his team on their cellphones, presumably letting their loved ones know that they were safe. The news teams had been crawling all over this one.
"I'm alright, Hannah," Don heard Colby say as he walked past him. "I don't know when I'll be home. This is a hot one." David and Megan were saying something similar. Don figured he'd better let his dad know. Charlie had hightailed it back to CalSci, seemingly unable to cope with the events of the day.
Rilla couldn't stop shaking. She saw Don moving around, getting updates, issuing orders. He seemed to be managing just fine, but she figured he was trained for that sort of thing. It was Robin who amazed her, staying so calm, when the bullet had come so close to Don.
"Are you alright?" Robin said to the older woman.
"I will be," Rilla replied, "I figure I'll stop shaking as soon as I start working again. What about you? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine now that I can see that Don's okay." She paused, "Selfishly, I'm glad they moved us down the hall. But I wonder if this shooting would have happened if they hadn't been moved to cover other cases." Then half to herself, "I should call Hannah and Olivia, make sure they're okay."
Hannah choked on a sob when Colby hung up to continue the investigation. The news footage had terrified her, but he seemed so calm and so matter-of-fact on the phone. She could just barely hear David in the background, apparently talking to Olivia, but he sounded calm too. How did they do it? She was going to have to figure out how to deal with situations like this if she wanted this relationship with Colby to work. She sighed with some relief when she saw Olivia's name light up on her cellphone. She needed someone to talk to and Olivia would understand, she was in the same situation.
"David's okay. Oh, God, he's okay," the usually calm Olivia was shaking. "And Colby's okay too, from what I could make out. Seemed like he was talking to you when David called me," Olivia was no stranger to shootings, the community center she worked at was in a rough neigborhood. She caught her breath as she realized how much David had come to mean to her.
"I know," Hannah said softly, "They can be really annoying at times. Especially when they work those long hours. But when something like that happens..." she trailed off.
"They're fine, Hannah, and they'll get whoever's behind this. I'm sure of it."
-----
Colby's head was spinning as he sat down at his desk. Restricted duty. He swallowed hard as he thought about the strange turn of events. About how it had been his bullet that had killed McCall. He thought briefly about calling Hannah, but decided against it. He had work to do, even if it wasn't out in the field. And she already knew that he wouldn't be home much while they worked this case.
"He's hanging tough, Hannah," Megan said gently into the phone. She didn't think Colby would have called Hannah, but she felt that Hannah needed to know. "He's thrown himself even harder into this investigation, if that were even possible."
"Should I be doing anything?" Hannah asked. This was new territory for her.
"Just be there for him when it's over. It was a clean shoot, there's no doubt about it. It's really just red tape."