Over two years ago ...
"I gave you a direct order!" Hank Voight shouted at the young detective sitting in the passenger seat of his SUV.
Cali McDermott had recently joined the team, thanks to glowing reviews by her superiors from another district and a personal plea from Erin Lindsay. The two women had hit it off during a training session last year and stayed in contact.
Cali calmly stared at Hank as he fumed.
"We got him, didn't we?" she asked, refusing to rise to the bait.
"I told you to stand down and instead you ran right for him," Hank growled. "I could write you up for being insubordinate! Not to mention you could have jeopardized yourself and us."
"What do you want me to say, Sarge? Apologize for following my gut?" she replied, looking him squarely in the eye. "Apologize for being right?"
"It's your job to follow orders! My orders!" Hank shouted. "I can't have members of my team going off the reservation!"
Cali sighed and threw her hands up in the air.
"Fine. Reprimand me. Transfer me. Fire me. I can't promise I wouldn't do it again the same way," she said. "It could have gone wrong, but it didn't."
Exasperated, Hank refrained from banging his head against the steering wheel.
He was in no mood to make a decision at the moment although he considered chaining her to her desk for the foreseeable future taking calls only or making her man the counter for Trudy for a week or two. Cali was the caliber of detective he wanted on his team; however, he was frustrated she was so headstrong.
Cali silently eyed her boss, watching him wage an internal war with what to do about her.
She knew she was bullheaded; that came from being the daughter of a Navy commander. Plus her mother had always taught her to never back down when instinct told her to move forward.
Erin had repeatedly told her that Hank was passionate about his work and about his people. He was a hardass who demanded his way, but with good reason. He got maximum results with minimal harm to others. That was what had drawn her to him and the Intelligence Unit.
What didn't help was that Cali was drawn to Hank much more than she should be. She was attracted to older men, particularly those who stood their ground in the face of adversity, and it didn't hurt that Hank was dark and handsome too.
Glancing out her window as she tampered down that thought, Cali realized the rest of the team and other officers who had responded to the scene had left while she and Hank argued. They were the only ones in the now-abandoned warehouse lot as darkness began to fall.
Hank started to turn the key in the ignition without another word, then paused as he glanced at her profile.
He was doing his damndest not to be captivated by her. He was her boss for pete's sake. He had no right to be involved with someone in the district, much less one under his command. Al should slap him into next Sunday for even thinking about her in that way.
But Cali made it difficult, he reasoned. She was everything he appreciated in a woman, especially one who stood up to him and spoke her mind.
Cali turned her head and caught Hank gazing at her with an intensity he usually reserved for suspects. A lesser person would have withered under it, but instead she shocked them both by leaning into his space and kissing him.
"Abort! Abort!" her mind screamed at her, so she ended the kiss abruptly and profusely apologized.
"I shouldn't have done that. Wow, talk about unprofessional and," Cali said, shaking her head and stumbling over her words, "I'm …"
Hank cut her off, sliding a hand behind her neck and pulling her face back to his, lips covering hers in a searing kiss, one like she'd never experienced before.
She slid her fingers into his cropped hair as he deepened the kiss. Several heartbeats passed before they broke apart, breathing hard and staring at each other with wonder.
"What happens now?" Cali asked once she'd finally caught her breath, her mind whirling.
"What do you want to happen now?" Hank countered, not unkindly, rather gently, wanting to give her complete control and waiting (hoping) for consent.
"I want this," she said, suddenly shy and unsure for the first time in a long time, "if you do."
"I do," he replied, giving her a reassuring smile. "But are you sure? It will be unconventional. And there will be scrutiny from all angles. I will do my best to shield and protect you, but I can't guarantee that this won't impact you or your career."
Cali snorted and gave him a wry smile.
"When have I ever been conventional?" she stated.
Hank laughed.
"Okay. Point taken," he said, and then sobered a bit. "I am all yours when we're not on duty, but I draw the line when we're at work. I have to be focused on the job. So do you. Understand?"
He reached out and tucked a stray lock behind her ear.
"Understood," she said. Another beat passed and then she grinned.
"So are we off duty yet?" she asked.
It was Hank's turn to snort and shake his head as he started the vehicle and shifted gears.
Three weeks into the relationship …
Cali had taken to sleeping in Hank's bed, even when he was on shift and she wasn't. Not that Hank minded. He was quickly warming to the idea of having a warm body at home.
Neither had breathed a word to anyone about their developing relationship nor had they shown the slightest of affection when in public.
So when Al showed up at Hank's door one afternoon looking for him, he was a little surprised when Cali answered, barefoot and dressed in sweatpants and one of Hank's henleys. She was slightly mortified at being discovered this way but quickly recovered.
"Hank here?" Al asked, averting his eyes to the porch to keep from staring at his teammate.
"Sorry. He's out running errands," Cali said, opening the door wider to invite Al in, "but you're welcome to come in and wait for him. He should be back shortly."
"Okay," Al said, entering the foyer and heading for the living room.
Cali shut the door and followed him, perching on a stuffed chair, while Al sat down on the couch. They sat in silence, not quite knowing what to say, until Al finally spoke.
"So you and Hank?" he quietly asked. Cali sighed.
"For a couple weeks now," she replied. Al nodded.
"Good," was all he said. Cali arched an eyebrow at him. He shrugged.
They continued to sit in silence until she heard Hank unlocking the front door.
He spotted Cali who simply pointed at Al before exiting the room and scooting back upstairs.
A month into the relationship …
"Hank!" Erin called out as she let herself into his house one evening. "Sorry I didn't call first, but I'm leaving to go back to New York in a couple hours. Hey, is that Cali's truck out front?"
There was no answer but she thought she heard voices coming from the kitchen, so headed that way.
Erin was no more than a couple steps into the kitchen when she quickly whipped around.
"To be fair, I called out when I came in the door," she groused.
Cali cackled like a loon at Hank's expression as he zipped his jeans before helping her off the counter. She yanked down her shirt and picked up her panties off the floor, putting them on before walking toward her friend. Hank excused himself and disappeared to the bathroom, trying not to curse at Erin.
"Well, I guess you caught us, babe," she said to Erin's back.
"When did this happen?!" Erin said, pretending to pout when Cali stood in front of her.
"It's only been a month and we've not really told anyone," Cali explained.
"But …" Erin was speechless. She had noticed something different about Hank's behavior the last few times she had talked to him on the phone but couldn't put her finger on it. She wasn't mad; in fact, she was happy for them. Cali had Hank's number so to speak.
Not quite six weeks into the relationship …
"I'm not saying you shouldn't," Jay told his partner as they climbed into his pickup. "I'm just saying be sure it's what you really want."
Cali gave Jay the evil eye.
Two months or so into the relationship ...
Antonio tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. Was that an engagement ring on Cali's hand?
She was standing by Jay's shoulder, pointing at something on the computer screen, and Antonio could swear that was a diamond sparkling from this distance.
"It's a sight to behold, isn't it," Al murmured nearby, tipping his head toward Cali and her shiny adornment.
"Who's the lucky guy?" Antonio whispered. He wasn't aware that the newest team member even had a significant other. Of course, he was trying to keep his and Sylvie's relationship on the down low, so he had no room to talk.
Al flicked his eyes toward Hank's office. The door was shut since their chief was on speaker phone in a heated debate with a constituent while the police captain sat in on the call.
Antonio's eyes widened in shock. Al chuckled and he went back to reading his newspaper.