AN: S1

Knowledge

"Do you think you can really know someone?"

Rick knows Linden.

Rick knows that when Linden accepts a case, it becomes her life. He knows he doesn't stand a chance against the dead people that come across Linden's desk, but he convinces himself otherwise anyways. He wants to tell himself that Linden meant what she said about changing (which she did) and that second chances can turn a life around. He believes that because he'd had front row seats in seeing Linden at her worst, that he'll be the first to see her at her best. Rick hopes and hopes that these things are true.

But the tragic truth is that Rick knows Linden too well. He knows he'll have to cancel their private little welcome party, the barbeque on Sunday and whatever pre-wedding preparations they'll have together before the big day. He knows she won't come to him, that he's going to have to come back and fetch her himself and even then he'll have to give her a hard ultimatum.

What he doesn't know is that maybe he doesn't know her as well as he thinks he knows her. In truth, there won't be a wedding and that he will have to play doctor again because Linden tried hard but failed to change after all.

Linden knows Lieu. She knows that he knows that she's devoted to her job and she knows that he respects her for it. She knows that it's a tough battle working in a department in which the majority of people are men but Lieu treats her the same as everyone else because he cares about quality more than anything. She knows that he knows he can bait her with a new case just hours before she leaves forever. And she knows that she will fall into this chasm because she knows that he knows her.

Linden knows Regi. And how can she not when Regi had been the only constant in her life growing up? But Linden fights Regi because she hates hearing that she's wrong. She hates hearing that she's neglectful of herself and Jack and that she's devoting too much to the case. She hates hearing that her obsession with her work is taking her down that path again because it's different this time. She hates hearing that her child is acting out because of the things she's doing and not because he's just misbehaving. When Regi speaks, she's right and Linden doesn't want to hear it.

Linden knows Rosie Larsen. Or at least she's trying to because it's part of her job. Her forte as a detective had always been in her ability to walk in her victims' shoes and live through their eyes. She believes this is how she'll unearth how Rosie died and, in doing so, both give Rosie's family the justice they deserve as well as satisfy her relentless need to bring her cases to a conclusion.

And Linden knows Holder.

They couldn't be more different and being able to work as a team had been a steep uphill climb. But Linden concedes that everyone has his or her secrets, she certainly has her fair share. She quickly comes to realize his carefree behavior and 'tough guy' acts are masks for something else and she knows not to press. She knows that sometimes his best screws things up royally but she also knows that he'll do his best to fix them. When he's upset, she knows it's best not to say anything and that simply her presence is enough.

Every time she leaves, or attempts to leave, she knows that he's not entirely cool with it because he's still fresh to homicide and unprepared to work alone. She knows he won't show it and she plays along as to not emasculate him.

She knows that he loves his sister and nephew more than anyone else in the world. His heart is big, just misguided and he's trying to find his way back. In this regard, she respects him and she knows that he knows this too.

Somehow, she managed never to really know her fiancé. All she knows is that she's disappointed him.

And that knowledge alone is already too much to bear.

-End-