Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or ideas from The Killing. It's all just way too much fun.

Spoilers: season 1, episodes 2 and 3

DAY 2, evening

Linden and Holder are approaching the apartment where Lyndon Johnson Rosales, the janitor at Ft. Washington High School, lives with the woman who seems to be his mother.

"So how long you staying this time? You, like, the LT's pet?" Holder was starting to wonder if Linden was actually going to leave at all.

"Maybe he just wants the case cleared."

"Maybe I didn't just find the crime scene."

"Assumptions of your enemy, detective. I'm lead on this for the next few days, so stop pressing everyone we question like they're in a box. Let go of the idea that you have some BS detector."

"And how do you know I don't have one of those?"

"Cause you dress like Justin Bieber and eat pork rinds for dinner."

"Ooooooohhhhh! Me and your kid got the same diet, Linden."

Holder

If I didn't know better, I'd think that Linden was warming up to me a little. I'm getting fewer icy stares and more looks of just plain contempt… but every once in a while I get half a smile, out of nowhere… usually after one of my very witty one liners. My charm is finally getting through that thick outer shell of hers. It's a nice change. I mean, she's still giving orders and insisting on driving, but it's an improvement. Because apparently we gotta spend all day, every day together until she decides to actually leave – if she decides to leave – so if we can at least get along, that's better.

From what I've seen, I don't think she actually wants to go to Sonoma. It's like she's getting into the zone with this case, and the deeper in she gets, the more she realizes it too. And here I thought she was gonna be able to just walk away from it all. Nope, she's more like me than I thought. We're both sucked into this one now. I don't think she's actually leaving… just a feeling. That fiancé? Seems like the job comes before everything and everyone else. Poor guy. He probably hasn't realized it yet. But what the hell do I know? I met her what? 2 days ago?

I guess I kinda get why they stuck me with her, after all – besides that I'm supposed to be replacing her, of course. Cause she can be kinda unpleasant, but damn, she's good at her job.

Linden

I knew Holder was going to give me a hard time about the fact that I didn't leave, again. He acts like I'm enjoying this. Oakes is forcing me to stay! So far he's alternated between insisting that I stay, and guilting me into staying… although technically I guess last night was on me. But that call came in about The Cage just as I was about to leave… How could I walk away from that? How? I couldn't, of course.

Dammit, it's exactly what I knew would happen. Why did Oakes have to make me start this case? I wonder if he knew this would happen, knew that he could get one more case out of me. I need to leave it alone. Walk away. Right now. For my own sanity. Before I ruin what I have. I mean, I know where I'm headed… though I tell myself that I won't go there again, who am I kidding? I know that I need to stop… but I can't.

If I'm honest with myself, I need it. And I know that this life isn't good for me, not healthy. When you care more about work than you do about yourself or any living people in your life… that's the sign of a problem, right?

Nope, I'm here through the weekend, and then I'm gone. No matter what. No matter how much we've dug up in the case. No matter what Oakes says. No matter what I think I need.

No matter what.

…

DAY 3

Oakes had just disrespected Holder, again. Or at least that's the way Holder saw it. Actually, it had been both Oakes and Linden. Oakes told Linden to tell the Larsens their daughter's cause of death. Holder had volunteered to do it – he thought that would be helpful, since that kind of news isn't exactly what a parent wants to hear. But did they want him to do it? No, of course not. Linden had shut him down immediately. "No, I'll do it," she had insisted. Oakes hadn't even bothered to respond to his offer.

Holder wondered what Linden's problem was, why she was being such a micro manager. He wondered if she still thought he was that incompetent. Sure she hadn't known him long, but after the past few long days they'd had, they'd at least worked together enough for her to see that he wasn't a rookie.

After they had reviewed the video from the dance again and realized that Chris had actually been behind the devil mask – "El diablo," as the janitor had called him, just before they had been booted out of the hospital room – Linden sat and stared at the frame of the video where they'd paused it. Like she was in some kind of trance. She was probably deep in thought about something, making a connection that hadn't occurred to anyone else yet. Her wheels turned in a particular way that Holder was already starting to recognize.

But Holder was pissed, and he wasn't content to wait it out. He'd been stewing for five minutes already, while she sat there processing whatever it was that was working itself out in her head, and he was just getting angrier. "Yo, Linden," he said loudly from the chair at his desk, just across from hers, where he'd been sitting and watching her stare at the monitor. Linden glanced up, looking as if she really had just woken up from a trance.

"Huh? What?" she replied, clearly only half listening to whatever he was about to say.

"What's your problem, huh?" If he sounded confrontational, it was because that's how he was feeling. Holder was determined to get right to the point. None of this beat around the bush bullshit.

"What are you talking about?" What was his problem, Linden wondered.

"What's your problem with me? Why are you determined to do everything yourself? You really think I'm that incompetent?" Holder wasn't sure he wanted the answer to that last part. He almost regretted asking. No one likes being told flat out that they're incompetent, but she seemed like the type that appreciated directness.

Linden was now focused on him. Despite his angry tone, she looked at him calmly, albeit with a puzzled look on her face. "What's this about, Holder?"

Holder tried to make his next sentence come out one notch less angrily than the previous one, knowing he was working himself up. "The Larsens. Cause of death. You insisting on telling them yourself… like you do with everything else in this case."

Linden's face changed from puzzled to impatient. "Oh, that?" She sighed, signaling that she felt that explanation should be unnecessary. "No, I don't think you're incompetent, but I've noticed that your way of dealing with people can be…" she paused, searching for the right word, "abrasive. And that works fine in certain situations, but there are other times, like when a family has, say, lost their child, when it's appropriate to be a little more sympathetic."

OK, thought Holder, fair enough. He didn't like what she was saying, and he wasn't sure he agreed with her – wasn't he a sympathetic enough guy when he needed to be? – but at least it was a reason besides just that she found him incompetent. He looked at Linden while he processed this information, and gradually the menacing look on his face softened. "Yo, I can do sympathetic. For real," he insisted.

Linden looked skeptical, but at least she wasn't laughing. "You think?" She seemed to consider this for a minute. "Maybe you just need more practice," she finally concluded evenly.

"Teach me, oh wise one…" Holder responded with exaggerated humility, putting his hands in the air and then laying them down on the desk, as if bowing before her.

"Ha ha," said Linden, half smiling and half squeezing her lips sideways into a grimace and raising one eyebrow, as she sometimes did when she was amused. She got up from her chair and put on her coat slowly. "I'm going to see the Larsens. See you later."

"Yeah, see you later. I'll see if I can find the Echols kid, and see what he knows. I'll be in touch." Holder stood to leave as well.

"OK," Linden gave him a half smile, this time without making a face. Holder saluted, as he did from time to time, and Linden disappeared through the door.

What an unexpected team we are, thought Holder as he closed the door behind him.