A/N So I might have lied before.. I'm currently writing Chapter 6 and I'm not sure the story is done yet. I make no further promises on the length of the story until I've finished writing it.

Anyway, this was the last chapter I had pre-written before going on holiday so I expect there to be a few days before the next update. Reviews make me want to write more! Thanks to all of you who have reviewed, and for all your encouragement. Glad to know you like it, although you might hate me after this chapter. :D Which just means I'm doing my job well.

Enjoy! And remember they're not mine, not even close.

Oh, and if you can spot the Firefly/Castle reference, good on you! :D

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The next morning the blonde who has been haunting his thoughts since the second night they'd spent together in his cabin, peeked her head into his office with a bright smile on her face.

"Morning Walt! Coffee?" He looked into his cup and finding it empty got up and walked over to her.

"Morning. And thanks." Looking down at her, he can see the marks of a badly slept night on her face, the deepened grooves and shadows around her eyes. "Another loud night for the neighbours?"

"Yep. I don't know how they keep it up. Literally." She chuckled at her own joke and he couldn't help but have the corners of his lips rising with her just as he could feel a slight blush rising on his cheeks at her ribald joke. She looked up into his face and grinned even wider, spotting the traces of blush staining his cheeks. Before either of them could say anything more, Branch wandered in carrying a bag of goodies from the bakery and Vic was instantly distracted, probably for the best. Walt had just been taken over by a fierce urge to bend down and capture her lips in a kiss. Giving himself a little shake he approached Branch and appropriated a still warm croissant from the bag.

"Anything new happen while I was gone?" Branch asked returning from his holiday and they proceed to fill him in on the major developments, which included yet another bout of domestic disturbance calls at the house of a couple who were the poster children of on-again-off-again relationships and the new drug dealer that had surfaced in the area.

"Speaking of which, I have a lead on where we might find the distributor." Vic revealed as she sat down and started shifting through some of the papers scattered about her desk. Finally she managed to locate a torn piece of envelope as she stuffed the rest of her croissant into her mouth.

"This-" It came out muffled thanks to the pastry still in her mouth, but she chewed quickly and swallowed, still waiving the paper in front of her. "This is what I jotted down at home after overhearing my neighbours' plans for tomorrow evening. Apparently there is this rave that goes on every Saturday in a different location each time to keep 'the law' out, but now I have a source on the inside. Knew those paper thin walls would come in handy." She grinned and held out the quickly scratched notes she'd taken down the previous night.

He reached for the piece of paper and purposefully brushed the tips of his fingers against hers, before slowly pulling back with the note clutched in his fingers. He made sure to keep his eyes on Vic when their fingers touched and he couldn't have imagined a sweeter sight and sound than the slight gasp and tremble that seemed to run through her. She raised her eyes to his just a moment before he dropped his eyes to the note she had scribbled last night. He could see her eyes widen and a faint blush spreading across her cheeks as she saw the slight upwards tilt of his lips and realised he'd done it on purpose.

"Good. I'll get in touch with the Sheriff Wilkes in Cumberland county and get them to participate too, the party is going to be on the border of our counties after all. I'll let you know the plan when we've co-ordinated." With that Walt broke the spell and turned to his office with the information in his hand, thoughts of coffee completely forgotten.

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As the youngest looking members of the team, (and ones who hadn't blasted their faces across all local TV channels in the vain hope of stealing their boss' job) and therefore least likely to stick out like sore thumbs, Vic and Ferg were chosen to go undercover into the rave itself to try to find the person or persons selling the drugs. When Walt pulled up outside the warehouse where the party was happening, he spotted the cars of the Cumberland county sheriff and his two deputies a little way away and casually strolled towards them. As he wasn't wearing a sheriff's uniform and he had his star in his pocket, he didn't see any need to draw attention to himself by skulking. Besides the streets were empty and the party was in full swing.

"Evening sheriff."

"Evening. Your men in position?" Sheriff Wilkins asked as he looked up at the abandoned warehouse that was now anything but abandoned.

"Yep. I've got two people inside and one at the back of the building making sure the dealer doesn't leave that way."

"Good, I've got two men at the back and these two here. You in contact with your people inside?"

"Not in constant contact. They can handle themselves and they can always call if something comes up."

"You finally broken and gotten a cell phone then Walt?"

"Nope, but Branch has one and he'll radio me if something comes up."

Sheriff Wilkins laughed and shaking his head he moved towards his truck, motioning Walt to follow.

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The party was in full swing when Vic got to it. She tugged down the uncomfortably short skirt, but then realised that no one else was worrying about showing too much skin, rather that she was covering too much. The extent to which the women went to attract male attention never ceased to stagger her. There was a girl in front of her that couldn't have been much over the age of eighteen, if that, who was barely wearing anything apart from her tiny bikini top and micro-shorts that left nothing to the imagination.

Shaking herself to the present, she moved further into the packed room, feeling the urge to cough at the smoke clouding the air. Squinting through the fog, she tried to find Ferg who was also supposed to be somewhere in this mess. Eventually she spotted the sturdy form of her colleague standing near the makeshift bar. Sashaying over the best she could in the ridiculous heels that were a part of her disguise, she leaned against the bar next to Ferg and ordered a beer. She could feel Ferg's eyes lingering on the shortness of the tight skirt and she snuck a peek at him through the curtain of her surrounding her face.

"Hey there. Like what you see?" They were supposed to pretend like they didn't know each other after all.

"I- I…" Ferg stuttered.

"It's ok. Follow me." She paid her beer and grabbed Ferg's empty hand in hers before pulling him towards the side where there was an empty seat near the wall. As he sat down, she purposefully sat down as near as possible and buried her face in his neck.

"Sorry it has to be like this, but you weren't being very convincing. Just relax, make it look like you're necking me and tell me if you've spotted anything." He seemed a little taken aback at her direct approach, but put down his beer and as she lifted her face up, he buried his in her hair so that his face was shielded from the rest of the room by her.

"There is a lot of people going in and out of the door just opposite from us. I know it's not the toilets, because they're in the other end of the building. Apart from those two, the rest of the place is really a big open space and I haven't been able to see anyone dealing anything."

He lifted his head from her neck and surreptitiously she looked around again, spotting the door Ferg had been talking about as well as being just about able to see the bathroom doors through the haze of smoke.

"Hello baby. Why are you wasting your time with him? Why don't you come and party with me." The voice rudely interrupted her examination of the place and she turned to look at the man who had spoken. Although man was a word she was using very lightly. He looked to be just around the twenty year mark like most of the people at the party, but she could see that he probably couldn't grow a beard if he'd tried and his skin was still suffering from the consequences of being under the effects of raging hormones. The boy was trying to hit above his weight with her, but if it got them a visual of the dealer it would be worth it to pretend to enjoy his attentions.

"You know how to party? I mean properly party?" she asked, trying to avoid the feeling that if the boy had his way, she would be the cougar he'd be bragging to his friends about for a long time. Suppressing a shiver at the thought of flirting with the kid, she smiled with her lips pursed.

"Heck yeah I know how to party! Lemme show you! Come on." He reached for her hand and yanked her up. She turned to look at Ferg and gave him a quick nod to indicate she'd look behind the door while he should look around the main area.

"So how do you wanna party? All night long, or do you want to feel something special?"

"I want to party all night and I want to feel… shiny." She replied as the boy pulled her into his arms and dropped his hands to her ass, groping hard and keeping her pressed against him. She didn't know if it was supposed to be a turn on, but she was just a little grossed out. When the kid tried to kiss her, she drew the line and pulled out, pouting and saying, "I thought you were going to show me how to party… This isn't the way I hoped we'd start."

"Okay honey, you wanna feel shiny? I'll get you some shine." He grinned at her stupidly, obviously already under the influence of something other than natural hormones and took her hand again, pulling her towards the door Ferg had pointed out.

As they approached, Vic noticed a guy standing by the door she hadn't spotted before, obviously some kind of body guard. The door swung open and a young girl, visibly under the effects of something illegal was pushed unceremoniously out, ending up sprawled across the floor. Vic couldn't stop to help the girl as the boy still had a firm grip on her hand and was pulling her even closer to the door. When they went through it, the room behind was revealed to be almost empty of people and furnished with a table, an old couch and a wooden chair.

The dealer was undoubtedly the man sprawled on the couch, his grey business suit ill-fitting and wrinkled. His muscle was the two guys wearing jeans and plaid shirts (this was cowboy country after all), both obviously carrying guns on their belts, one of whom was guarding the door. The boy sat on the chair in front of the dealer and Vic quickly bent over his shoulder to hide her face from the dealer. The two counties didn't have enough police for her to really trust the guy not recognising one of them by sight, even with the heavy makeup and loose hair. The more she thought about it, the worse this idea seemed. She should have just stuck with Ferg and checked the room through the door that always seemed to be cracked.

"So... What can I do for you." The voice drew her attention to the man on the couch. He was now leaning forwards, resting his elbows on his knees. She looked at him carefully from under her hair and pretended to rummage through the little clutch purse she was carrying for something, while actually unlocking her phone, calling Branch and putting him on speaker phone and muting the volume. They should now know to come in. She just hoped it would be enough. Pulling out a clip, she fussed with her hair, making sure it wouldn't hang in her eyes. Luckily it seemed she was considered to be just decoration, not important enough to be paid attention to while the men did business. Their mistake.

"I'm interested in buying something to get the party going. How much?" the boy asked.

"Well –" That's when the disturbance in the main room became evident, suddenly the music stopped and there was the sound of running feet. The body guard pulled out his gun and started towards the door. Vic saw her chance and as he was passing, she grabbed the wrist holding the gun and twisted. The man seemed taken aback, suddenly his hand was being twisted behind his body and the gun was lying on the floor. Vic kicked it away to the wall and twisted more so the man sank to his knees.

The boy she had come to the room with, looked at her in amazement, seemingly frozen. Unfortunately the dealer was not so shocked, instead he pulled out a gun from the back of his trousers and as if in slow motion, Vic saw him swing it up, finger on the trigger. She sank to her knees, all the while holding on to the man's wrist, trying to be a smaller target. The first shot hit the wall behind her, the second, third and fourth hit the man in front of her. Then she saw a shadow at the door and the dealer was crumbling down to a heap, a hole just above his left ear.

Shaking, she let go of the man in front, who slumped to the ground, and rose to her feet smiling at Walt. But there was something wrong with the way he was looking at her. He should have been happy that everything was fine, they got the bad guy, maybe not exactly the way they'd wanted to, but they had him. She was finding it surprisingly hard to breathe and there was a burning sensation spreading from her side. As she looked down, she could see Walt running across the room out of the corner of her eye, before seeing the stain of blood spreading across the white top she was wearing. As the edges of the world began to dim, she could hear shouting and Walt's arms coming to catch her before she hit the ground.