Emilia would've ignored Alice raging about the "stupid light bulb" that wasn't working right if Alice hadn't gotten the bright idea to try and fix it herself. As soon as she heard Alice announcing her plan, Emilia whirled around to see her friend already dragging one of the student chairs towards the blinking bulb in the classroom.
"Alice, you're going to die," she said with a degree of certainty that Alice wasn't at all bothered with.
"It's been driving me crazy all day," Alice grumbled as she positioned the chair under the specific light bulb on the ceiling.
Emilia rolled her eyes. "It's not that big of a deal."
Alice scoffed. "For you! Half the kids wouldn't pay attention because they were busy looking at this!"
Emilia sighed and stopped fixing the shelf she was nearly done with. "Okay fine, if it's that big of a deal, I'll just call Mr. Henley so he can fix it." She started for the class phone near the door.
"Nah, I got it," Alice waved her off.
Emilia snorted. "You're 5'3 and that chair is like 2 ft tall. You don't have anything."
"Rude!" Alice frowned. She stepped onto the chair and stretched her arm for the bulb.
Emilia shook her head at her. "You're going to hurt yourself," she said after dialing for the school's maintenance guy. "Mr. Henley? Hi, it's Emilia, we have a light bulb situation over here."
"Now we don't!" Alice shouted even when she still couldn't reach the light bulb.
Emilia rolled her eyes. "Yeah we do. Thanks, Mr. Henley!" She hung up at the same time Alice fell off the chair. Emilia jumped in her spot, yelping with Alice. "Oh my God! Alice!"
The classroom door opened quickly. "What happened?" Sonny's eyes raked the classroom for Emilia and was relieved to see her alright.
"It's Alice!" Emilia hurried towards her friend on the floor.
"How'd this happen?" Sonny hurried after her. Everything had been going smoothly keeping a detail on Emilia at her school. Three days they'd been at this without a problem.
"She was trying to fix the light bulb," Emilia gave a quick gesture to the still blinking light bulb. She bent down beside Alice and helped her sit up. "Alice? Alice, are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," Alice groaned, waving a hand at Emilia.
"We might need to get her to the nurse," Emilia told Sonny. "She could have a concussion."
"Yeah," he agreed. He helped her bring Alice up to her feet. "Miss O'Shire, can you walk?"
"I'm good," Alice waved both of them off this time and wrestled for her arms. "It's like Emilia said, the chair's like 2 ft tall."
"But Alice, you fell pretty hard…" Emilia said.
"And I'm sure that I'll survive," Alice patted Emilia's arm. "My decency, however, might not."
"Miss O'Shire, are you sure you wouldn't rather see the nurse?" Sonny checked his watch quickly. "I'm pretty sure the school nurse is still here. I can get her for you."
"I'm just fine, I promise," Alice looked up at the ceiling, her lips soon curling into a frown. "That light bulb is not going to get away with it, though. I'm going to fix it one way or another."
"You just have to turn it," Sonny said, shrugging his shoulders.
"I know," Alice set her hands on her hips. "But if you take a look at my height, detective, it's not that easy of a task."
Sonny sheepishly smiled at her. "How about I do it?"
"Oh that would be great!"
"No, no," Emilia started shaking her head. "That's not necessary. I already called Mr. Henley. He said he'd be here in 10 minutes."
"Let's save the guy the trouble then," Sonny said as he reached for the same chair Alice had.
"Detective, you really don't have to," Emilia sighed with him. His hand reached up to the light bulb much like Alice had, only at least this time around Emilia wasn't scared for their lives.
"It's no problem, really." Sonny found there was just a tiny problem but nothing he couldn't fix in the moment. "Hold on," he stepped off the chair to shake his coat off.
"Honestly, I already feel terrible you guys have to waste your time watching me…" Emilia awkwardly smiled at him. Three days was enough to make her feel terrible. Each day, a new detective would take their spot at the school to keep an eye on her and of course today being Sonny's turn would be the day that had stunts like this.
"It's my actual job, Emilia," Sonny reminded. He left his coat on a nearby table and glanced her way. "I kind of have to do it if I want to pay rend and eat."
Emilia chuckled. "Right. Well...thanks…" She tucked some hair behind her ear, face warm when she got a look at Sonny without his coat. She never thought a vest could be so attractive—she never found them attractive, actually. She brought her index fingernail between her teeth at some point. The thoughts in her head weren't warded off like they'd been in the past days. She was lost in them this time.
"How about next time if you ladies need help, just ask," Sonny was none the wiser as he tightened the bulb.
"Aha..." Emilia said, eyes shamelessly looking him up and down.
"There we go!" Sonny exclaimed once the bulb was set in its place. "How's it look?"
"Great, thanks," Alice said on behalf of her friend. She didn't even want to know where Emilia's thoughts were at the moment.
The door opened again to allow an older man inside. "Miss Emilia?"
Emilia snapped out of her trance and spun around to the man, desperately trying to ignore the flaming heat in her cheeks and neck. "Oh, Mr. Henley, you're here!"
"You needed help with a light bulb?"
"Oh, um, we fixed it—I mean the detective fixed it!" Emilia pointed—flung more like it—a hand in Sonny's direction.
"Ah, so we're good then?" Mr. Henley looked around the classroom.
"Yes, thank you," Emilia smiled and turned back to Sonny, but only when she felt confident that her face wasn't explicitly red, leaving Mr. Henley to walk out. "You didn't have to do that."
"It was no problem," Sonny reassured her. "If you need me again—either of you," he added in when he remembered Alice was also in the room, "Let me know. I'm right outside for you."
"Okay," Emilia nodded, agreeing much too quickly to be herself. "Thank you." Sonny smiled at her for a moment then walked out of the classroom.
Alice waited for the door to close to begin, and she thought she was very patient. "God, could you have been more obvious?"
"Huh?" Emilia finally tore her gaze from the door to see Alice shaking her head. "What's going on?"
Alice snorted. "You!"
"What?" Emilia blinked. Alice gestured at the chair Sonny left behind but all Emilia saw was his coat that he left on the table. "I should give that back to him."
Alice laughed when Emilia walked by her. "Yeah, and give you another chance to ogle him."
"What?" Emilia stopped by the table, spinning around to glare at her friend. "I was not!"
"Oh please, you were practically undressing him with your eyes!" Alice burst into laughter.
Emilia stiffened and very soon felt a heat blossom over her face. "I-I was...I was doing no such thing!"
"It's not okay to lie, Emilia!" Alice clutched her stomach while she went through her laugh.
Emilia huffed. "Alice, stop that! I wasn't doing anything, I was just…" She lost the right words to explain herself. Yeah, she might have gotten a little distracted looking but that was all it was. Looking. That was allowed. Everyone did it.
"I mean it's fine. He's good looking and I guess I have to admit he does look good in a suit vest," Alice took in a deep breath to finally calm herself down.
"Alice, that's enough. He's on the job and I was just...looking. That's allowed!"
"Sure is," Alice agreed. "You planning on doing a little more than 'just looking' in the future?"
Emilia felt another surge of heat. "Absolutely not!" She glanced at the coat still lying on the table. "And I have to go bring this back to him."
"Mhm," Alice's lips stretched into a smirk, and a wide one at that.
Emilia rolled her eyes. She picked up the coat and headed towards the door. She tried ignoring the alluring scent she got a whiff of. She pulled the door open and stepped out. Sure enough, Sonny stood right beside just like his job demanded him to. Because that's what this was, a job. He said it himself.
"You forgot this," she held his coat to him. "I'm going to Lysol the tables soon and, uh, I don't think you wanted that on it…"
"Yeah," Sonny took the coat from her. "Lemon pine isn't really my scent."
"No it's not," Emilia agreed, her eyes lingering on his coat and, soon enough, his vest. He did look really good in them. Snap out of it! "I have to go!" she exclaimed so abruptly that it startled Sonny.
"Uuh…" For some reason, his hand reached out to stop her but she was quicker and disappeared inside the classroom. It was only then that Sonny wondered why he would even attempt to stop her. What would've he done if he managed to stop her? Did he have something to say to her? He shook his head. Where were all these things coming from? He should just be focusing on working.
~ 0 ~
Emilia could have almost forgotten that she was under watch. Almost. It'd been a normal day at school just like before anything happened. Detective Amaro was with her today and so far, everything had been busy. Like everyone before him, Nick had paid close attention to everyone around Emilia. No one stood out but he wouldn't be foolish to think that was that. At the end of the day, he lingered by the building's entrance while Emilia and Alice oversaw their kids leaving the gate for home. They only had one little boy left and it appeared like the mother was just about arriving to pick him up.
At the feel of a buzz in his pocket, Nick pulled out his phone to see a text from Olivia. Like always at the end of the day, she had asked about Emilia's case. Nick texted her back a quick "nothing" then slipped his phone back into his pocket. He looked up to see the little boy gone at his mother's side. Said mother seemed to be upset about something.
Nick pulled himself from the entrance to see what was going on. He could already hear Emilia and Alice telling the woman not to raise her voice.
"...it's outrageous that the school hasn't done anything yet!"
"Mrs. Hill, please, this isn't the spot nor the moment to discuss this," Alice said, clearly having to restrain herself not to speak as loud as the other woman.
"Is there something wrong?" Nick arrived just as Mrs. Hill was opening her mouth no doubt to snap at Alice.
"No, detective," Emilia shook her head. "There's nothing—"
"You even have a detective here!" Mrs. Hill exclaimed, wildly gesturing towards Nick. "Are you all that incompetent, then? You can't catch some guy lurking around here with all the help in the world or what?"
"Ma'am, you need to stop yelling," Nick said, but the woman only scoffed at him.
"Shouldn't you be investigating or something? Or are you going to wait until the next victim drops dead?"
"Mrs. Hill that's enough," Emilia snapped. "Logan shouldn't have to hear any of this," she gestured to the young child beside his mother. "If you have any complaint you want to discuss, by all means come in and we'll do that but not in front of him."
Mrs. Hill looked down at her son who was indeed listening intently to them. It seemed to dissuade her from going any further but before leaving, she made a last remark, "You, Miss Emilia, are very selfish."
"Hey—" Alice was all for defending her friend but Mrs. Hill was quick on her feet.
"Don't," Emilia warned her anyways. The last thing she wanted was for another argument to break out because of her.
"Emilia, are you alright?" Nick asked her once they started back for the school.
The way that Emilia smiled made it clear she was far from that. "Thank you for everything today, I'll be going home shortly I promise."
All Nick had left was to nod. He would, however, let Olivia know what happened. Every little bit counted.
"Emilia? Alice?" The principal, Mr. Wesley, emerged from the entrance doors just as they were coming in. "What was all that noise?"
"Nothing Mr. Wesley, just Mrs. Hill, Logan's mother, wanting to know what we were doing with, uh, my situation," Emilia said with a heavy sigh.
"What did she say?" Mr. Wesley frowned. Nick would note the genuine irritation the man had towards the mother.
"She was being unnecessarily rude," Alice affirmed but Emilia shook her head.
"It's fine, she's just reasonably worried. I really don't want to cause more trouble than I already have."
"Emilia, I don't think that's how it works," Mr. Wesley offered her a light smile. "You and Alice are more than welcomed to leave early. I think you've earned it."
"Thanks," Emilia said and went inside first. Alice was right behind her.
"Detective Amaro," Mr. Wesley stopped him from going in, "A word, please?"
"Of course," Nick nodded and stepped with him for a quiet conversation.
~0~
"So the principal of Emilia's school wonders if it's not better to leave Emilia at home rather than have her at school all day," Nick would later relay to the squad the conversation he had with Wesley.
"Did he 'wonder' or did he request it?" Olivia asked him. "Because there's a difference."
"He can't do that...can he?" Sonny found himself asking way too quickly. He could only wonder what would go through Emilia's head if she knew what Wesley was doing.
"We have no say over the employees at the school," Olivia shrugged, though she wouldn't say that she agreed with Wesley's secretive ways. "But for Emilia's sake, and sanity, it would be best to let her keep working."
"That's not what you thought before," Amanda pointed out. She'd been there when Olivia had first rejected Emilia's request to stay at work.
"I didn't think the case would last this long," Olivia said. It was a poor excuse but things did change.
"Why don't we just discuss it with Emilia herself?" suggested Fin. "She might already want to do that anyways."
Olivia agreed. It was better to speak directly with Emilia before they further discussed ideas.
Sonny watched her head into her office to no doubt make that call. He shifted in his seat, suddenly uncomfortable with himself because he realized he too wanted to make that call. If he was being perfectly honest with himself, he wanted to make that call as soon as Nick told them what happened at the school. There was no way that Emilia would be alright after all that.
A few hours later of trying to push that idea away, he lost. It was a very bad loss. The only restraint he showed was to wait until after his shift and until he was in the safety of his own car.
You're really doing this…
Yes, he was already pulling out his phone to dial Emilia's number. He shouldn't be, but he was, and he wasn't sorry about it either. Maybe he should just stop caring if he was caring a bit too much over Emilia. How would things go then? Before he knew it, the line was ringing and a moment later Emilia answered the call.
"Detective, hello," she sounded relatively confused and given the hour, Sonny wouldn't blame her. "Was there something that the Sergeant forgot?"
"No, um, I just...Amaro told me what happened at the school and...I wanted to know if you were alright?"
There was a pause.
From her end, Emilia wondered if there was even a point to say what she was thinking. Sonny didn't need to know and it certainly wasn't part of his job. "I'm good, thanks for asking."
"Emilia, seriously, it couldn't have been easy—"
"I think other people have had it worse than me, detective," Emilia paused again, her mind drifting to Evelyn Korami, the woman who was dead because of her. "I can take a little of the heat."
"You don't have to, Emilia, that's the point." Because if there was one thing Sonny was sure about it was that Emilia was solely blaming herself for this mess, as if she had any say in who liked her.
"I appreciate you checking in on me but you don't have to worry. I imagine by this time you're heading home and I definitely don't want to be a bother—"
"No, of course you're not. I called you, remember?" Sonny smiled a bit when he heard her slight chuckle.
"Right," she eventually agreed. "Thank you for that, you didn't need to." But she was very glad that he had. She couldn't explain the warmth that settled over her chest knowing he thought of her enough to call her after hours.
"I wanted to know you were okay," Sonny said, speaking the absolute truth. He shouldn't hide that if there was nothing wrong with it. "I mean, I know things are far from that but...what that mother said, it wasn't necessary, much less true."
Emilia headed for the window in her living room that oversaw the street. She pulled the curtain a bit and saw the patrol car still parked on the street. "I don't know, maybe I am being selfish. A woman died because of me and now people have to watch over me like I'm some kid. I'm pretty sure this isn't what any of you signed up to do."
"We signed up to protect people, Emilia. Why wouldn't we protect you?" It was perhaps the soft tinge in his tone that caught Emilia off guard. It hadn't sounded like it was coming from a detective at all.
"I'm just not used to it," she said quietly, turning away from the window. "I don't like knowing that there's people whose jobs revolve around me right now. Don't you have other, more important, cases to handle than mine?"
"Every case is important," Sonny clarified for her. "You are no less important than anyone else. I know I say this all the time but we will catch this guy. That's a promise." And it was also one of the biggest rules of the job not to make promises like that. Sonny couldn't help it. Emilia sounded so dejected, he had to do something to give her some strength.
Unknowingly to him, his promise had brought out a smile from Emilia. "I trust you," she said, surprising herself with her comment. She'd only known him for a few days but she felt confident enough to believe it. She trusted him.
Sonny lost the fight against his own smile, a bit of a smug one too. "Really?"
Emilia flushed on the other end. She thanked God this was a phone call so he wouldn't see her face right now. "U-um, yeah, I mean...yeah…I do."
"That's great, I mean, it's not misplaced I swear," Sonny said a bit too quickly for his liking but Emilia's soft laugh reassured him. "I'm here whenever you need me."
"Thanks, Sonny," she said.
Sonny tried to stay as calm as possible despite the rush he was feeling hearing his name come through her lips. She always referred to him as 'detective', which was fair but not exactly what he wanted to hear from her. Oh God, you didn't. Why would it matter if she called him by his name or not?
He knew why, alright.
Author's Note:
Your honor I like writing the blushy fluff :)
As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"
For the review:
SweetKittyCat: Ugh that'll be nice to write ;)
