chapter word count: 557

noir heart: sixty-seven

If Jane drinks any more, Jack is going to have to carry her home, never mind be her designated driver. Having taken her to The Falling Snowflake, Jack's favourite bar - it's like The Snuggly Duckling, but with far more class and far less propensity for violence - so she can be away from the precinct, he ordered her the hard stuff, a good strong whiskey-on-the-rocks. He reckoned she'd only need one or two, when Flynn brought the glasses over to the dimly lit booth at the far end of the bar.

She's on her fifth.

Then again, she has a lot of pain, grief, and guilt to drown.

"Her parents encouraged her to enrol for other colleges around the country," she murmurs numbly. Having been silent for the past hour, Jack sees no reason to do anything other than listen, and simply gazes thoughtfully at his soda while she talks, "like Corona, where it's always sunny. Aurora...she wouldn't settle for anything other than Arendelle. She said she wanted to be closer to...to me."

Her voice breaks, the classic crack when words crash against the lump in one's throat. Something she tries to hide by downing the rest of her whiskey. Jack gestures to Flynn, and orders a sixth. "She said it made perfect sense. Arendelle would be the safest place where her godmother, a decorated," she practically sneers the word, "police captain could watch over her."

Her brow trembles as one hand shoots up, just in time to cover a wracking sob. "She trusted me to protect her, her parents...trusted me...and I failed them. I f-failed her."

The levee breaks, and she buries her face into her hand as the tears begin anew. Fiddling uncomfortably with his soda, Jack instinctively reaches over to her free hand, and she squeezes his fingertips. He kind of knows what's coming, so no reason to prolong the inevitable, if at least to bring closure to his captain and Aurora's family. "Give me a few days to get up to speed." he sighs, catching Flynn's attention, pointing at Jane's drink and then to himself.

Jane sniffs, and the hand slowly draws away to reveal tear-stained cheeks, and an uncomprehending frown. "What?" she says, evidently not following.

Jack shuffles in his seat and shrugs with resignation, sniffing as he scratches his temple. "You can't conduct the investigation 'cause of conflict of interest, and Team Tomadashi's been assigned another case. S'only Aster and I that can take it, so...like I said...give me a few days."

Jane's eyes fall, and she slowly shakes her head. "I cannot ask you to do that."

"You don't have to," Jack explains after downing half of his newly arrived whiskey, "but this is gonna be my last case. I'll catch this prick, but after that...I'm walking away."

She nods slowly, closing her eyes. "I understand." Squeezing his hand gratefully, she says, "Thank you, Jack."

He half-smiles, and clasps his free hand over hers. "Don't mention it. For now, though, we should probably get you home before Astrid pulls me over for a DUI with my slightly-drunk captain in the car. That would be awkward."

and he's back in the game. Hopefully the next few updates are going to be Elsa-centric. noircorda: no, it wasn't Elsa who murdered Aurora.

special thanks to: rainbowcolorw0w, ghost angel14, whimsical acumen, noircorda, stefalove, chiqanti ceres, hornedgoddess, oninoko, doomstone, jpbake and lunasnoir for the reviews! (wow, that's quite a few!)