Masks make us feel safer even when they become suffocating. Armor makes us feel stronger even when we grow weary from dragging the extra weight around. The irony is that when we're standing across from someone who is hidden or shielded by masks or armor, we feel frustrated and disconnected. That's the paradox here: Vulnerability is the last thing I want you to see in me, but the first thing I look for in you. - Brene Brown, Daring Greatly.

Captain Raydor tries to set up the dinner several times, but Brenda just never has the time. Every time Sharon texts it's I'll let you know or Sorry, just rolled out from one of them or, when Sharon finally tried to set it up in person, they were rolling out that minute. Brenda gave her an apologetic pat on the arm and a coffee that she didn't drink herself.

With murders being handed off to Major Crimes popping up left and right, Flynn and Provenza causing more trouble than they're worth, and Pope breathing down her neck and stressing her out. She's glad her and Taylor's relationship has begun to improve because she's not sure what she'd do if it was as bad as it used to be right now.

And then the next time she has a chance to talk to Sharon in person it's because Charlie called Sharon in the middle of the night in tears, and then the F.I.D. Captain met her in her office the next day without warning.

Sharon was pacing before she even got a chance to speak. "So let me know if I'm understanding this correctly. You didn't wait to call backup, you went looking for the source of the shooting with no Kevlar, and one gun?"

"I needed to make sure no one else was getting hurt. Christ, it was a highschool! Am I really being put on trial about this?" Brenda retorted heatedly, thinking about how her niece left the car to give her her phone and purse and she almost shot her. How terrifying that was, to almost shoot her own niece.

So it wasn't her best judgement to leave her niece there. But she couldn't go with her in the ambulance. As she's replaying the events of the past couple of days, Sharon shakes her head like she can't believe her and starts up again. "And you let your niece get close to the shooting victim?"

"Captain Raydor, if I wanted parenting advice, I would have asked my Mama to stay instead of sending her on her way back to Georgia," Brenda snapped, grieving, tired and sporting a hefty migraine. "Yes, I let my niece become friendly with the suspect."

"And then you manipulated your niece—"

"Do you want me to cry over the morals I don't have, Captain?" Brenda asks plainly, staring at Sharon with red eyes. She'd held that boy's hand as he'd died and pretended to be his mother in order to find out what happened. "I did what I needed to solve the case. I didn't know who was after that boy and didn't want someone coming to finish the job while he died in the hospital. Why are you lecturing me about this?"

Sharon sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Teenagers are difficult—"

"You're tellin' me…" Brenda mutters, thinking about a huge glass of wine.

"Listen!" Sharon raises her voice now. "I am lecturing you for the sake of that girl. Not for you."

"I was never meant to be a mother. I don't know what I'm doin'! And I'm not her mother, either — she's going back to her parents at the end of the summer. I'm a guardian and nothing more!"

"And she needs someone stable with her best interests at heart!"

"Firstly, I have never had anything but Charlie's best interests at heart. Even if I'm not the best at showin' it. Secondly, She brought marijuana into my home, Captain, I don't think she's getting more stable than an FBI Agent and a Deputy Chief of Police!"

Captain Raydor throws her hands in the air. "Are you always this impossible?"

Brenda doesn't look up again, but her tone is softer. "Only for you, Captain Raydor. Only for you."

They had stayed a little late to finish some paperwork from an OIS with VICE when one of her younger detectives goes, "Hey, Elliot, turn on the news!"

"Why?" He was already turning it on, but he was certainly curious.

"Just do it!" She'd urged, using large gesticulating motions to get her point across. And when Sharon saw the news come onto the screen, her hands flew to her mouth.

"Is that—?" Elliot says in disbelief when the air support footage zooms in.

Oh, Detective Sanchez.

"Ouch!" Her squad winced with sympathy as they watched the car chase. As much trouble as he was for their division, he wasn't a bad Detective. And watching him hang off the side of an eighteen-wheeler that was trying to fling him off the side was definitely not what they wanted to see at all.

"Oh, that's gonna leave a mark!" Someone else says.

Sharon's just thinking about how Brenda is and wondering if she should send her a text or something in a couple hours when Lieutenant Elliot's phone starts ringing.

"Force Investigation Division," he answers, lazily reclining in his chair. And then his eyebrows shoot into his head and Sharon sighs.

His expression changes as he looks over at Sharon. "Mhm. Yeah. Yeah, we'll send someone over first thing tomorrow."

He hangs up. Before he can say anything, Sharon places her head in her hand heavily. "Detective Sanchez?"

Elliot nods. "You want to take this one?"

"Mhm. Do you have this handled?"

Elliot leaned forward and nodded. "Yeah, we have this covered. Get some rest, you'll need it."

Sharon gave him a half smile as she gathered her things. "I'm… sure it'll be quick."

Her division laughs behind her. "Yeah, okay, Captain! Fingers crossed," someone calls.

When she arrives on Major Crimes' level the next morning it's chaos. Brenda and some… man in a white suit and matching cowboy hat - which is exactly what she should expect from Brenda to get herself into at this point and she doesn't know why it surprises her so much - are going toe-to-toe and she's about to head into the interview room with their suspect. Sharon doesn't know much about the case, but one look at the murder board and she's a little sick to her stomach.

"I don't intend to question him without his lawyer, I intend to make him revoke his right to a lawyer and then I intend to make him confess," she's watching Brenda say up to this Cowboy Hat Detective and Sharon smirks. He has no idea who he's dealing with, huh? Let him see Brenda in action.

Julio Sanchez's arm is casted up to his mid forearm and she winces. Maybe she'll send him a card. Lieutenant Flynn notices her standing there with a little uncertainty and gestures, one moment.

"Chief," he says, nodding to Captain Raydor.

"Captain Raydor," Brenda smiled a little anxiously, excusing herself from Detective Cowboy Hat and tucking a piece of her perfectly done hair behind her ear. "To what do we owe this pleasure?"

"I got a call about a use of force complaint, but considering you look…" she lets her gaze trail across the man in the cowboy hat, Sanchez whose cast made him seem awkward and out of place, and Pope and Taylor hovering in the doorway awaiting Brenda's presence. "A little busy, it can wait."

Brenda let her lips curve up in a private, coy smile, her eyes shining. "What about your seventy-two hour reporting period?"

"For you, we can cut it close. Go get your guy," Sharon nods towards the men waiting for her.

Sharon follows them into the media room to watch while she waits for Detective Sanchez.

"Captain Raydor," Chief Pope nods respectfully. "I was unaware you'd be joining us."

"Just observing," she replies easily, nodding to Detective Sanchez in the interview room on the screen, "While I wait for Detective Sanchez to be available."

"You may want to take a seat, ma'am," the man with a cowboy hat says, pulling out a chair for her. "whatever she gets out of him… it won't be pretty."

Sharon shakes her head politely, but extends her hand. "I'm sorry, we've never met. I'm Captain Sharon Raydor from Internal Affairs here at the L.A.P.D. And you are?"

He shakes her hand and tips his hat. "Detective Landry, from the El Paso Police Department. I'm here to hopefully take our ninja here back to Texas to try him and fry him - or, as you might say nowadays, collect 'em and inject 'em."

Sharon blinks several times, but one slow shake of the head from Lieutenant Flynn in the corner of her eye and she just nods with a smile.

They all settle in to focus on Brenda and the suspect. Tao and Sanchez enter the media room once Brenda dismisses them, making it a little crowded, but they make it work.

They watch her charm the confessions out of him like a motivational speaker charms a crowd into giving their money, hopes, and dreams away. She plays him effortlessly, but they all watch how it begins to wear on her, with every confession, with every description from this 'Jesse Ray Moore', Brenda begins to look a little paler, a little more disgruntled. A little more sick to her stomach with every hour, with every laugh, joke, and chuckle from the man.

By the time she's gotten every single location, every girl he murdered, Brenda is stumbling out into the hallway, lightheaded and nauseated. Sharon meets her there, Pope behind her, and Detective Landry behind him.

Her hand hovers over Brenda's arm. "Are you going to be alright?"

Brenda opens one eye and glares, but it lacks the energy she usually possesses.

"You did amazing," Sharon says now. Brenda exhales, like some weight got taken off her shoulders, slumping further against the file cabinets.

Sharon wishes she could do more.

Pope and Landry turn the corner, and Brenda straightens, pushing off the cabinets.

"Are you alright, Chief Johnson?" Pope asks.

Brenda glares again. "I'm fine. I'm fine."

"You did great," he says.

Detective Landry nodded at her. "That was some fine work. I know no jury is going to pick DNA evidence over a confession, much less sixteen of them."

Brenda can tell he has something left up his sleeve, knows the look of someone who thinks they have a play that will alter the state of the game.

"Well, before I get on back to Texas, I wanted to show you the faces that go with all of those confessions…"

Detective Landry holds out a manila folder that Brenda takes with a nod and he hands it over with a polite tip of his hat. "I'm gonna go call my team back in El Paso."

Pope nods. "Good work," he says again before leaving them alone.

Sharon guides her to the bench and Brenda sits heavily, about to thumb through the file Detective Landry just handed her, but a gentle hand stops her.

"What?"

"I don't think… after those confessions… maybe you shouldn't," Sharon suggests softly.

Brenda stares down at the closed manila folder.

"You're right," she says quietly, handing her the folder. "You're right. You're always right."

"Mark the calendars," Sharon remarks dryly, but lacking bite. Brenda smiles wryly and smacks Sharon's arm lightly.

Sharon nods once, patting Brenda's knee and standing. Brenda stares at where Sharon's hand touched her before standing and re-entering the interview room, her decision made.

Jesse Ray Moore still wasn't going back to Texas.

chapter title from fdd by jasiah