AN: Sorry, should have had this up awhile ago, but I had a 63 hour work week this week and was too exhausted to post.
"Mr. Potentia," Chief cleared her throat, "Sir. What are you doing here? Are there any problems?"
"No Karen, everything is fine," he smiled, "I'm just here to check on one of your detectives. You can go back to your office and pretend to be busy."
"Excuse me?"
"Karen, don't be a fool. Go to your office!"
"If-" she sighed, "Yes, sir." Chief stormed away.
"Juliet, my dear," Richard kissed her on the cheek as he approached her desk, "Are you almost finished?"
"I'm gonna be another two hours at least."
"Oh, well, just leave it for tomorrow."
"Chief won't like that, you probably shouldn't be here in the first place-"
"Don't worry about Karen, if I tell her it's ok, she has no choice but to follow my orders."
"But I don't want to take advantage of her-"
"Juliet, you have nothing to fear, if she threatens your job in any way, I can threaten hers."
"I don't want to have that power."
"Alright. Well, I'll come back in two hours for you ok?"
"Ok," she smiled and leaned into a goodbye kiss. The young detective had only been dating Richard for a little over a week, but she was already absorbed in him and slowly voiding out the ache in her heart for Shawn.
"O'Hara, can I see you in my office, please?"
"Yeah, one second."
"Juliet, if she gives you any trouble let me know."
"Ok. Bye, Richard."
"I'll wait to make sure everything's ok."
"You don't need to."
"I'm going to."
….
"What do you need, Chief?"
"Sit down, O'Hara!"
"Ok," Juliet listened, though a bit confused.
"Are you out of your mind O'Hara? Do you know who that is?"
"Yes. I do, actually. But I don't believe that it is your place to-"
"O'Hara, I am just-warning you to be careful. Richard is a powerful man and he knows it, and he won't hesitate to use his power to get what he wants and make those against him suffer."
"Richard wouldn't do that."
"Richard has done that. He fired half of this police station at one time just because ONE of the cops had an affair with his ex-wife. And he has fired people who he thought could potentially threaten his position. That's just what I know of too."
"You're exaggerating. You just have something against him."
"I am just trying to warn you, make sure this is what you want and watch yourself. I don't want to see you go because of something like this."
"You don't have to worry, nothing like that is going to happen."
"Alright, you're dismissed."
Juliet nodded, rose and went to leave, when Chief stopped her, "Be careful."
Juliet forced a weak smile in return, before returning to Richard.
"What did she want?"
"Oh, I just forgot to fill in some info in some old paperwork."
"Alright, then I'll see you in two hours?"
"Ok," she smiled.
Richard leaned down to kiss her, this time more desperate, which was soon interrupted by Shawn clearing his throat.
"You know, Juliet , there is a thing called professionalism."
Juliet jumped, and gave Shawn a nasty look, that even disturbed him.
"Get out of here midget palm-reader, I know all about your record," Richard threatened.
"Why do you have to threaten me? Maybe because you feel threatened yourself?"
"Shawn stop it," his girlfriend yelled at him from inside his arms, and pushed him out of Richard's face, "Why does it even matter?"
"O'Hara, Spencer, my office, now," Chief called at them.
"Now you've gone and gotten us all in trouble."
"Shawn, grow-up," Juliet scoffed at him.
"You're still mad about the other night."
"And what if I am? Now stop before Chief gets mad."
They walked into Chief's office. "Sit down you two. Tell me what you guys have heard of Dr. Merrygrove."
"Why," Juliet asked, "Chief are you having problems with your marriage?"
"No. But you know what he's all about correct?"
"Yes. He is a marriage counselor. He is supposed to be one of the best. Couples pay top dollar to be secluded from the real world for two weeks with just other couples where they have private and group counseling. And at the end, all of the couples vote for the hardest working couple, and they get an all-expenses paid second honeymoon. It sounds very sweet."
"Very good, O'Hara. Mr. Spencer, did you get all that?"
"Yeah, didn't he get divorced though?"
"What's your point Shawn?"
"Well, Juliet ," Juliet winced at her name, "Isn't it ironic that he is the 'best' marriage counselor, but he couldn't save his own marriage."
"No. He made it his goal to help others so they wouldn't have to experience the same pain he did. He is thoughtful of others, unlike some people."
"It was an accident."
"That's not what I was talking about-"
"What is up with you two today?"
"Sorry, Chief," Juliet blushed.
"Alright, what I was leading to is, your next case-"
"Shouldn't Lassie and Gus be here?"
"Mr. Spencer, if you please. The last three husbands of the couples who won the honeymoon, have died before they were able to go on their honeymoon. All of the deaths point to accidents, but three is too much of a coincident to be an accident. We believe it is an employee at the Merrygrove Institution, and we want to get to the bottom of this and the most practical way to do a thorough investigation is to go undercover. Your assignment is to go undercover as a married couple undergoing problems, and find the culprit, if there is one-"
"Wait, Chief, why can't Lassiter be my partner?"
"O'Hara, are you seriously posing that question? Your cover would be blown before you even got there if Lassiter was your partner. Remember the prosthetic nose debacle of 2005?"
"No, Chief I agree with Juliet ," Juliet winced at her name again, "I think Lassie would make a better partner for Juliet ," Juliet winced again, "They are both stone-cold and unforgiving."
"Ok, you two, what's going on? Normally you guys love working together and work well together. And Mr. Spencer, I have never seen you turn down a case."
"Nothing. Sorry Chief," Juliet shot Shawn an awful glare.
"Wait, what about Abby? I don't know if she will be ok with it," Juliet felt jealous, for a reason she couldn't define.
"Mr. Spencer, it's your job. It's like acting; the relationship doesn't mean anything. The only difference here is we could save people's lives instead of entertain them. Now, the next session is in a week, I want you two acting like a married couple by then. It shouldn't be too hard, you have the bickering down."
"Chief, can I make sure it's ok with-"
"Mr. Spencer, this is your job, she needs to understand that."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Why aren't you two holding hands?"
They both grimace.
AN: Review please!