"When I said I wanted you to come back, I didn't mean in this capacity." Brenda frowned.

"Necessary evil." Sharon deadpanned as she began laying the case file on the desk in front of her.

"Not the word I was lookin' for but it's a pretty good adjective for you… minus the necessary…"

Sharon pursed her lips but didn't look up. "You'll notice that I'm not taking notes." She handed over her tape recorder. "Let's try to keep this professional, shall we?"

"Never let anything get too personal." Brenda mumbled under her breath, "always hidin' behind your job."

"Chief, you need to take this seriously."

"Do you realize how often you call me Chief? Like it's actually my name?"

"Please stop deflecting." Sharon straightened the photograph of the murdered boy, distracting herself, trying to keep herself in the moment of the interview. Brenda stayed silent for a moment. Sharon cleared her throat and continued, "this is only a transparency audit, if this were an investigation I'd want your lawyer present."

"I don't need a lawyer… Captain."

"I suggest you rethink that decision. At any rate the discussion we're having today about Turrell Baylor and the Shootin' Newton murders and nothing else."

"Meanin' what?"

"Meaning I am not here to discuss the events of two nights ago, I am here doing my job."

"Sometimes I think that's the only thing you care about."

"I'm not going to get into a discussion about it, though I will point out that that's the worst case of pot calling the kettle black that I have ever heard." Sharon reached across the desk, "I had Buzz provide me with a copy of Mr. Baylor's interview. Do you mind?"

Brenda shrugged with annoyance. If there was one thing she hated more than arguing with Sharon, it was bureaucracy and false courtesy. She watched Sharon's hand as she inserted the dvd and used the mouse to jump to the end.

She tapped the spacebar to make it play. Sharon took the opportunity to steal a few glances at the blonde; she hated fighting with Brenda. Brenda had the words from the interview imprinted in her mind, the way Turrell coolly proclaimed that he shot and murdered two completely innocent people in cold blood etched permanently in her psyche. She didn't need to listen to it again, she knew it by heart. She spent the time watching Sharon out of the periphery and listening to the brunette's breath as she inhaled and exhaled evenly. She was used to falling asleep to the sound and hadn't slept very well since Sharon had stormed out.

Sharon tapped the bar again when the video had gone as far as she'd wanted it to. "So after this interview, where Mr. Baylor confessed to a double homicide, you returned him home."

Brenda nodded, somewhat petulantly, "at his request, yes." She pursed her lips and looked away from her Captain.

"And you saw several people there waiting for him."

"Define several."

"Did you think that they were… members of his own gang?" At the last moment Sharon had managed not to make a sarcastic comment. "The one-ten Crips?"

"Just because they were African American doesn't mean they were gang members."

"That's your stance? You're going to fight me on semantics?"

"I'm not fightin' you." Brenda scoffed, "I just think that if you're going to have such a bee in your bonnet about every little thing you should at least try not to use vague language."

"Did you know that there was a strong likelihood that after you dropped Mr. Baylor off at his home that he would be beaten to death by his fellow Crips?"

"I did not know that." She bit her lip and looked at the still frame of the monster on her widescreen monitor and felt disgust well up inside her all over again. "But I do like happy endings."

"And that answer is exactly why we're not recording this interview." Sharon sneered. "If you spent less time sulking and blaming me for this audit you would realize that this is not a joke, this is not a little annoyance that will go away if you ignore it for long enough."

"And you what? You wish that I had protected a child murderer? You wanted me to invite him back into the car and offer him a cup of cocoa?"

"Chief-"

"Brenda." Brenda snapped, "if you're gonna sit there and accuse me of murder do it as Sharon, not Captain Raydor."

"I think this interview is over for the time being." Sharon started gathering her things and shoving them back in her briefcase. "Why don't you give me a call when you decide to stop being a child and realize that the best thing you can do is to cooperate."

"Is that all?" Brenda asked innocently.

"No, there's one more thing: get yourself a lawyer, Brenda." Sharon smirked as she sauntered out of the office.

"Yeah, I'm the immature one." Brenda grumbled.

Sharon's crown vic pulled up to the crime scene and Brenda got out of the car, happy to be done with the first leg of the awkwardly silent trip.

"Do you recognize this place?" The question was rhetorical, Sharon didn't even look like she expected an answer. Brenda kept silent as she followed Sharon to the gate. "Turrell Baylor's house where you delivered him unprotected the day he died."

"It's where Turrell said he wanted to go." Brenda shrugged.

Sharon smirked. That horrible, irritating smirk as she continued onto the property. "That may get us out of criminal court but it may not work in your favor in front of a jury of civilians. Come with me, please."

Brenda started to follow Sharon when she looked back toward the street and saw a young man riding slowly down the road on his bicycle. Brenda felt her bravado slipping away from her as she locked eyes with the man, unable to look away from him. He nodded his head at her in greeting. Had he been one of the men that were there to take revenge on Turrell? Was he nodding his thank you to Brenda for having made it so easy for them?

Brenda tried to shake off the unease that the man on the bike had instilled in her as she joined Sharon at the back of the house. Brenda listened to Sharon detailing the events of the murder, using the blood spots to illustrate each sentence. Blood had never bothered her before, but as she saw the evidence of her decision stained onto the concrete Brenda felt her stomach churn. Sharon's voice faded into white noise as Brenda stood horrified and in awe of the stains where Turrell's head had been battered against the bricks. She wondered whose the bloody handprint was. She wondered whether it was one of his attackers, covered in Turrell's blood, or if Turrell had tried in vain to stop the momentum.

She looked back up at Sharon, her words once again breaking through her thoughts, "in a civil trial, the jury may very well decide that you behaved with a callous disregard to the suspect's life and if the city attorney starts to think that he is losing this case-"

"He'll settle?" Brenda asked breathlessly.

"He could settle and leave you to take the blame and you will be entirely on your own." Sharon said the words slowly and with force.

"So, what should I do?"

"For your own sake, get yourself your own attorney."

Brenda reached up to wipe at her eyes, "I don't want to be on my own."

"That's what the lawyer would be for." Sharon nodded.

"I don't mean that… I know you said this was about the case and nothin' else but when do you suggest I try to talk to you if you never come home?" Brenda paused for a moment to cover her face with her hand, "I'm in trouble, Sharon, and I don't want to be alone."

Sharon stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Brenda, holding her tightly against her own body. Brenda's hands splayed over Sharon's shoulder blades as she buried her face in her hair. "You have to know that more than anything else I love you." Sharon said softly; Brenda nodded. "I support you completely and I need you to trust me."

"Are you going to come home?"

"I believe that as long as the transparency audit is ongoing it is in both our best interests for me to stay with Angela."

Brenda squeezed Sharon, fighting back tears, "I just wish this whole mess was over."