No More Games

Chapter Eight

"Tell me you have good news," D pleaded as he wandered back into the bullpen from yet another meeting with the Assistant Director and Director. The hour was getting too late. They needed something and they needed it now.

Her head buried behind her monitor, Tara twirled her hair around her finger as she read over the report showing on her screen. With the facial recognition software she'd installed to work within the public records database, she'd thought this would be simple; hopefully open-and-shut. Then they could get everyone out of that bank and they could all go home.

She never thought it would be this complicated.

Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she lifted her gaze to the rest of the team as they stood by for whatever information she was about to feed them.

"Tara, please tell me that I at least will be able to see my family some time tonight," D added when she didn't respond immediately.

Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, she looked at D. He looked tired and frustrated and she was sure that last call from Donna hadn't made his headache any better. Twisting her lips to purse at the corner of her mouth, Tara tried to look into her old friend's eyes, but found that she just couldn't. She didn't have the information he was looking for.

"Erm… what kind of flowers does Donna like again?" she asked and gave him the answer he didn't want at the same time.

Groaning in frustration, he took a seat in his chair and waited for the rest of the bad news. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

Moving her gaze back to her monitor, she weighed his question before formulating an answer. "Well, I suppose it depends on how you look at it."

"How about you just give it to us straight?" Myles asked as he perched himself upon the corner of Bobby's desk.

Swallowing thickly, she nodded. "Okay." But, she didn't say any more.

"Well?" Bobby asked impatiently when she didn't continue.

She floundered for a moment. This really was a blow she didn't want to deliver. Looking up, she glanced at each member of her team in turn, before finally giving in. Pushing the "print" button, she stood up from her chair and took a spot in front of her desk. "Well, he definitely has a record."

"Name?" D asked, clearly looking for just the facts.

"Bryan Tedesco, twenty-eight. He's originally from Virginia and he moved into the Metro area about five years ago. During that time, he's had quite a few run-ins with the police… for stalking." She tried not to look at Bobby when she said this, but she found that she had no control of her eyes at the moment. He met her gaze with solemn eyes, knowing immediately what she'd found out.

"Stalking?" Myles spoke up, curiously. Tara willingly handed over the hard copy of the report and wrapped her arms around her stomach to calm the unsettling feeling within.

"Yes. He's had restraining orders filed against him by five women, one of them most recently being a Mrs. Shannon Tyler."

Lucy's brow furrowed as that name registered in her mind. "Why does that name sound so familiar?"

"She's one of the bank's tellers," Bobby responded with a heavy sigh. She was also his baby sister.

Standing up from his desk, D took the report from Myles. "Has he done anything as extreme as this before?"

Tara shook her head. "No."

"So, why do it all of a sudden?" Lucy asked.

"The attention," Myles mumbled and when he was met with four pairs of curious eyes, he continued. "I've seen this before. He attaches himself to a woman he finds… suitable, shall we say. And when she doesn't return his advances, he can either turn away with his tail between his legs or he can up his attention just a few degrees more."

"And then the woman files the restraining order," Lucy finished for him, following his train of thought.

He nodded in agreement. "Exactly and once that happens, he moves on to another target. It sounds like Mr. Tedesco has moved on too many times. He's angry and tired of the lack of attention from his female fixations. So, he does what he thinks is best to gain a reaction out of his latest obsession."

"Well, he's definitely getting a reaction," D groused with a heavy sigh. "And the FBI's getting attention it doesn't need. We need to get this guy before he either hurts himself or worse, one of his hostages."

"How do you plan we do that?" Bobby asked, more that just a little bit eager to take this guy down.

"I haven't quite figured that out yet."

The locker room was deserted and for that Bobby was thankful. Myles had suited up in his SWAT gear and left him to finish dressing to go find D and run through the plan one last time before they headed out toward the scene.

Tedesco had finally agreed to talk to the negotiator, despite the little good it would do. If Leland was right and this psycho was only out for the attention, then there would be no getting through to him anyway. The most it would accomplish was to get him to free some of the hostages.

And of course, that was what mattered most.

Sighing heavily, Bobby sunk down onto the bench in front of him and tried to rub the tension from his neck and shoulders with his palms. The muscles were so tight that they were giving him a headache.

He just wanted this nightmare to be over.

He jumped as another pair of hands joined in and he swiveled around in his seat to find Tara standing above him.

Blushing, she quickly pulled her hands away, not even sure what had even made her reach out and help him relieve his stress. "Sorry," she quickly apologized and turned to leave.

He shook his head and reached out for her. "No. It's okay. You just scared me. Why didn't you tell me you were here?"

A cute little smirk quirked up the corner of her mouth as she allowed him to pull her hands back to his tense muscles. "I tried, but you were so far away." She wanted to ask where he'd been, but she didn't exactly have the right to, so she'd stopped herself before the question passed her lips and just focused on rubbing away his tension.

"Yeah, well…" He didn't even try to apologize. It wasn't like she'd been expecting one anyway.

She'd been expecting something else. The truth. "Why didn't you tell D about Shannon?" she blurted out. She instantly tensed as the question flew out of her mouth. She'd planned to ease into the conversation, not just blurt it out. But now it was out in the open and she was ready for some answers.

Bobby had been enjoying the feel of her hands attacking the stubborn muscles of his shoulders. He allowed himself to focus on the heat her touch invoked within him, even if to just brush the feeling of failure away for a brief moment. That is, until she'd asked that question.

The tension returned ten-fold and the feeling of disappointment was like a lump in his stomach.

"He would have taken me off the case," was the only answer he could give, suddenly feeling the void left behind by Tara's hands as she removed them from his shoulders.

She walked around him and perched herself on the bench in front of him. She wanted him to look at her, but he continued to keep his gaze lowered, as if he was ashamed. "Bobby," she began, her tone soft and full of pity as she reached out to him with a gentle hand.

He immediately recoiled. "Don't," he growled as he shifted away from her.

"Don't what?" she asked, curious as to why he was pulling away from her.

"I don't need your pity," his eyes finally rose to meet hers and she found that they were cold and unwavering, "or whatever it is you're offering."

She was taken aback by his sudden anger towards her and as soon as it wore off, she felt her own ire begin to rise. "Well, if you weren't acting like someone just shot your dog, then maybe I wouldn't feel this way," she finally shot back as she rose to her feet. Darn it if she still couldn't tower over him the way she'd intended to.

"Tara," he tried to argue, but she wasn't hearing any of it.

"No, let me finish," she ordered as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Bobby, you need to stop this. You're acting like this is all your fault, like Shannon, Jack, Sue and everyone else in that bank is in danger because of what you did… or didn't do."

"It is my fault," he argued, but Tara didn't acknowledge that he'd even said anything.

"Listen, Tedesco would have gone through with this plan, no matter what. I've been reading up on him. This isn't the first extreme he's gone to for attention, though I'll admit, he hasn't gone this far before. No matter what you could have done, somewhere deep down, he still thinks that Shannon is the one for him. He thinks she'll return his affections if he does this."

"He knows she's married."

"And that's supposed to matter? Bobby, Tedesco… he's not seeing the whole picture. He's only seeing what he wants to see. A pretty young woman with a good job, who was probably kind to him. He probably hasn't seen that very much in his life." She could see that that had made the wheels begin to turn in his head. Tara felt a smile curl at her lips and allowed herself to press on. "No matter what you think, you are not at fault for any of this." And she knew Shannon would agree, though if she would have voiced that, Bobby would have gone back to being on the defense.

At least, that's what she'd hoped.

"Tara," he still tried to argue, but was stopped from doing so.

"Let's go, Koala Boy," Myles called to him from the doorway. "We're burning whatever daylight is left." And just as soon as he was there, Leland was gone.

Sighing heavily, Tara rubbed at a sharp pain over her eye with her fingertip. There just wasn't enough time to say all that needed to be said, but she just hoped that she'd gotten through enough to Bobby.

"Are you finished?" he asked as he looked up at her. His eyes were definitely brighter.

Hope swirled inside of her as she merely shrugged her shoulders. "Does it really matter?" Her heart twittered as she caught a glimpse of one of his dimples when his mouth curled up at one corner.

"Guess not," he chuckled before climbing to his feet and reaching for his Kevlar vest.

Tara found herself taking a step back. She hadn't realized how close she'd been standing to Bobby until he stood up. Swallowing thickly, she was overcome by the same emotions that had roared through her weeks ago when they'd kissed on her front stoop.

She suddenly felt very awkward.

"Tara?" Bobby asked. She jumped as his hand landed gently on her arm and shivered involuntarily as she met his gaze. A real smile had finally curled at his lips, but she knew it would take some time until it would meet his eyes. "Thanks."

She merely shook her head and wanted to say: "That's what friends are for," but the words got stuck in her throat as she watched him lean down to place a kiss on her cheek. She suddenly lost all control of her body and felt her head turn of its own accord.

Their lips met, shocking them both into awareness. Bobby jumped back like he'd just been scalded while Tara just stood there in surprise. An apology was ready on her lips, but the problem was that her voice was objecting.

Suddenly, she couldn't look at him. She tried to look at anywhere but at him and that was when he felt his finger's gentle pressure underneath her chin.

Their gazes met again and Tara was suddenly terrified at what she saw raging in his usually cool green eyes. Terrified in a good way. Swallowing thickly, she watched as his lips began to descend back to hers, her heart skittering to a stop.

She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, and it barely registered when he whispered a gentle "Thank you," against her lips before covering them with his own.