Monday Morning

Atlanta, GA

The judge had a preliminary hearing. He asked the lawyers if they felt the agreement was fair and reasonable. They both agreed it, was and the judge said he would be reviewing it in detail before making a final determination. Jacob called his cousin to tell him the good news.

Joyce's lawyer called her. She was rather curt with him. She was still trying to plan her christmas vacation with her fiancee. She was put off that the penthouse condos had already been booked. She quarreled with several people and got nowhere.

Washington DC

Charlie got an A on her paper. She finally got used to abandoning her traditional notions of academic writing and actually confronting her emotions. The whole assignment was rather scary, but she was pleasantly surprised with the results. She had gotten a packet about housing options in LA. The dorms were pricy. She was considering subletting an apartment.

Florida

Clay was excited that his baby girl and her husband were coming to Thanksgiving. Last week, she called and said Fritz's son was coming too. Since when did he have a son? Clay had plenty of questions to ask when they arrived. Jr. finally took his wife for a night on the town over the weekend. He needed to stop his father's incessant badgering.

Quebec

Jimmy and Frank were enjoying the food and the culture in Montreal. Later this week, they would begin their drive down to Florida.

Los Angeles

Rusty was doing pretty well in school this semester. Kyle was actually a pretty good tutor, when he wasn't sucking dick.

Rumors were swirling about an upcoming rager. People were making political alliances for invitations. Rusty had no intentions of going. Not after the shitshow at the last one.

Prosecutors' Office

Everyone was jabbering about the party on Friday, what to wear, what was on the menu, who was coming. Brenda tried to get them to work, but she gave up and started checking her e-mail. Andrea came in and joined the conversation.

ADA Baldwin was ready to work. She was not amused that everyone was ready to gossip about an event, particularly one to which she had not been invited. She knocked on Chief Johnson's door and irately inquired as to why she never got a report on some case.

Brenda didn't know what she was talking about or why she had taken such an aggressive tone. "Need I remind you that I do not report to you? Furthermore, I have no idea what you are talking about."

Baldwin stared her down. "Fine." She had no idea why the DA would hire such a reckless woman. She turned and walked out.

"Don't mind her Chief," Jackie started.

"She's always been a bitch," added Tommy.

"Your language."

"Sorry, Chief!"

Major Crimes

Sharon came to work in a chipper mood. She really felt great after her Sunday with Bobby. Flynn and Provenza were up to their normal bickering. Sanchez was drinking coffee. Tao was geeking out in the corner, and Sykes was taking notes on some crap.

Chief Taylor walked into the office. He requested a word with the Captain. "Chief Pope want LAPD to be more transparent with the public. He is going to announce a new policy where a media liaison will ride along with different squads to cover a case. Traffic will be up first, but Major Crimes will likely go up this month."

"Wasn't having a media liaison a total disaster the last time?" Sharon remembered the drama surrounding Priority Homicide. The media portrayed specialization as a way of focusing the resources on the rich victims and ignoring the poor ones.

"Pope thinks that there will be more success this time around, and it's my job to make sure he's right." Taylor didn't even want to remember the days where Chief Johnson was giving the press statements.

"Very well. I will inform my team."

Taylor was gone. The Captain made her announcement and got a bunch of groans and boos.

"What's the big deal?" asked Sykes.

"The last time the media got involved, one of the guys stole evidence off our corpse before we got there." Tao remembered that.

"Another time, he fed information to a suspect, so when we went to interview him, we got no where," Flynn was pissed, mainly because it was a Croelick case.

"Another time, the ride along was a set up for a hit. Gabriel and Chief Johnson almost died," Sanchez added.

"Okay, I get it. You don't like the media, but this plan came from Chief Pope." More boos and groans. "I have orders, and now, so do you, so we'll have to make the best of it."

FBI Office

Fritz found something odd in his investigation. He noticed that one FBI office in particular had a large discrepancy between drugs estimated at the scene and what was weighed later. It was normal for people to overestimate their busts, but they were off by more than what's normal. It might be nothing, but Fritz decided he was going to check them out.

Chief's Office

Pope spent all day trying to figure out more about Marcus. He searched up and down for a Marcus Ginn in Chicago, but his search came up with a bunch of junk. He needed to know more, like his family members names.

Middle School

Monday was the running day for football. They ran laps, did sprints, running and passing, running and blocking, just get your feet moving. Kyle was moving quite well. He used to run with his grandfather. He and the wide receivers were tearing up the place. The rest of the defense, especially Brian were faltering.

The coach blew his whistle. "I want to see more hustle." He knew they were young, but they were too young to be this out of shape. These kids needed to give up the nintendo and the ice cream and get of their behinds for once. They ran a set of suicides and then got a water break. Afterwards, the team got split into groups.

Quarterbacks and wide receivers got one drill, running backs and tight ends got another, the linemen were together, special teams was together and so was the secondary. All of the groups were working together just fine, well except for the secondary. They had a two hand touch drill. One kid would run with the ball, another would make the "tackle" and then keep running. Kids would switch in. When it was Brian's turn, he tried to knock Marcus clean to the ground. Marcus stepped out of the way the first time. "Didn't you hear the coach?" Brian stormed back, not saying anything. They came up again the next round. Brian kicked Marcus, who didn't feel much under the pads.

After their drills, it was time for a scrimmage. They didn't keep score, but the tension was clear. Brian missed a tackle. Marcus had to chase the player down. Marcus went to get up and Brian hissed at him. "Show off."

Marcus answered. "Don't be mad at me cause your out of shape."

The animosity was clear. Marcus was well poised for interceptions, and Brian would come to mess them up. "Brian," the coach barked. "Remember your own assignments." Brian was leaving open players on the field. Eventually, the other side took notice and took advantage.

The coach called the end to the scrimmage. "We have a lot of work to do tomorrow." Brian stormed off the field. The coach shook his head.

Brenda picked up Marcus from school. "How was football?"

"It was okay."

"Just okay, something happen."

"This one kid doesn't like me, probably because the more I play, the less he plays."

"Brian."

"How'd you know?"

"I met his mother. She's not the nicest of people."

"Neither is he."

"She's probably really hard on him, harder than she should be. I don't expect you two to be friends, but try and understand that his behavior is probably more about his parents than anything else."

"I'll try."

They got home. Marcus put his stuff upstairs and headed for a shower.

Brenda started on dinner. Fritz texted earlier and said he'd be home by 6. She took out a whole chicken and washed it out with water. She patted it dry with paper towels and stuffed it with an orange and sage. She covered the chicken in salt and pepper and trussed it. Then she put it in the oven. She seared some chorizo and set it a side. Then she took out some bell peppers and julienned them. She chopped an onion and some mushrooms. She sauteed it all in butter that she added to the pork fat and added some cut up slices of old bread. She added crushed garlic, rosemary and a little thyme. She added some chicken broth to the mix and stirred it all together. She added the chorizo back in and stirred it all up.

Marcus was doing his homework and could smell the food. He was ready to forget about his math homework and eat. He wanted to be done, however, before his dad got home.

Brenda made a salad. She took mixed greens and added apple slices, and goat cheese. She put it all back in the fridge and was going to dress it right before dinner.

Her husband came home to the smell of roasting chicken and stuffing. He kissed his wife tenderly.

"How was your day?"

"I got chewed out by Baldwin, again."

"For what?"

"I don't know, not keeping her abreast of some case that I never heard of."

"How odd? What else was happening?"

"You know. Everyone was chatting about the party on Friday."

"Was she invited?"

"Probably not. Oh, is that what you think it is?"

"Maybe."

Brenda took a look at the chicken. She pulled it out of the oven and set it on a plate to rest. "Marcus, dinner in 5 minutes."

Fritz put his stuff away and washed his hands. Brenda rubbed the chicken with a pat of butter and sprinkled salt and pepper on top. She took out the salad and added pecans, salt, pepper, and a mix of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Fritz carved the bird. Marcus set the table and poured drinks. The sat down to eat.

"This is great," Marcus told her. The skin was crispy. The stuffing was really tasty. He ate the salad, although it was a little boring to him. The cheese was good.

Fritz was eating too much to speak. He intently stuffed his face. He loved it all and ate double the salad.

Brenda chewed hers. This time last year, she couldn't make any of this.

Fritz looked at an empty plate and then looked at his family. "How was football Marcus?"

"It was alright." Marcus looked back at his plate.

"He's having trouble with another player," Brenda added

"What happened?" Fritz thought Marcus was having a great time on the team.

"We were playing two-hand touch and he tried to tackle me."

"Maybe it was an accident?"

"He kicked me on the next play."

"Guess not. Have you talked to your coach?" Fritz didn't like where this was going.

"I'm already the new kid. I don't want to be the tattletale too."

"He has a point."

"Brenda."

"He does. I grew up with three brothers. I know what its like to have trouble with boys. He might be better off handling this himself."

Fritz thought this was nuts and that adults would be better at handling this.

"What should I do?" Marcus asked.

"Bullies stay in control by having the group's favor. Make friends with your teammates and Brian will lose the wind under his wings."

After dinner, Fritz put away the dishes. Marcus went back to doing his homework.

"Are you sure we shouldn't talk to the coaches?"

"Not too soon. If we step in, Marcus will look like a punk, and he won't learn to solve his own problems."

"I don't know."

Sharon's House

Bobby got the call from his lawyer. He was in the mood to celebrate, so he came home with two bottles of wine. One was Sharon's favorite, the other recommended by the sommelier at the store. He also picked up some lobster tails on his way home. He got home and opened the fridge. He took out the filet mignon, onions, mushrooms, and made a feast.

Rusty came out of his room when the smell of butter roused him. Sharon came home to see quite a spread. She kissed her lover and asked, "What is the special occasion?"

He spun her around. "The hearing went well today. I am one step closer to being divorced."

"I'm one step away from eating all of this food," Rusty proclaimed.

"Rusty, patience."

Bobby opened the wine. Sharon went to wash her hands. Rusty stole a taste of it behind her back. Bobby said nothing. The three sat down and ate.

"This is perfect timing," Sharon told him. "Work today sucked."

"What happened?" Rusty asked.

"Chief Pope brought back this program that was a disaster the last time he implemented it, and my team hates it. They literally booed me when I made the announcement."

"They weren't booing you," Bobby told her. "They were booing him, but he wasn't there."

Sharon laughed. "Well, I'm still stuck with it."

"Maybe you can make it better," Rusty suggested.

The food was perfect, the wine, amazing, and they were a family, albeit a strangely formed one.