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, episode 10

DAY 9, almost midnight

Linden and Holder are back in their office. It turns out that Bennett Ahmed, along with the mysterious "Mohammed," has been hiding Aisha, a Somali girl trying to escape female circumcision. He was not trying to cover up Rosie Larsen's murder. Not only did Ahmed not kill Rosie Larsen, but he has just ended up in the hospital, beaten half to death because someone is convinced that he killed her. It's all just a horrible coincidence.

Linden and Holder had thought they were so close to solving the case, and now they're back to square one, except with an innocent man lying in the hospital. Frustrating isn't the right word for this day. It's devastating.

Holder collapses into his chair. Linden stands by her desk for a minute, staring at it, then begins straightening the supplies that she left there earlier. Holder knows that she's almost ready to break. "Come on, let's go," he tells her wearily.

She doesn't respond, just continues shuffling things around on her desk with increasing ferocity. Holder is now standing in the doorway, watching her. "Come on Linden, it's almost midnight. You can get all anal tomorrow."

"You don't have to wait for me," she finally snaps at him in a quiet but fierce voice.

He knows that she's blaming herself. He walks back into the room towards her as he says, "He was a good suspect. You know, any cop would've done what we did." Because he knows her by now, he knows that she needs to hear this – if she'll even listen.

"I never should've talked to the Larsens." She sighs and collapses into her chair.

"Yo, Linden, it ain't your fault. He lied to us. Lied to us about his relationship with Rosie, lied to us about that night, about the girl. I mean, if he'd of been straight with us things would've turned out different."

"Maybe. Or maybe he would've ended up in jail for kidnapping a minor. He didn't have much choice, did he?"

"If you wanna get all worked up about it, that's your thing." Linden gives him a look that tells him she isn't taking his words the way he means them. "I'm not saying he deserved it. You know, I feel bad about it too, but I'm telling you one thing. I'm not gonna let myself lose any sleep over it… And neither should you."

Linden just continues to lean back in her chair, staring at him. Holder walks slowly back to the door of the office, then turns around to look at her.

"You coming?"

"Yeah." Linden gets up, feeling every tired muscle in her body ache. Just before she can follow Holder out of the office, the phones rings. She answers it to learn that Stan Larsen has turned himself in for beating up Bennett Ahmed.

Holder

Of all the things I might have expected in this case, what actually happened is NOT one of them. To get so close – or think we were getting so close – only to have to start over pretty much from the beginning… well, it sucks. No way around it. I'm exhausted just from getting this far. I hate the thought that it was all for nothing… but that's the job sometimes. Not like it hasn't happened before.

But Linden… poor girl is gonna make herself crazy if she don't watch out. She gets this look on her face when she's really intense over part of a case – I mean, I'm gonna assume that her behavior in this case is the norm, cause I've only ever seen her work this case – and I can just tell she's spinning the wheels fast and furious… but not healthy levels of intensity, the ones for mere mortals. It's like, she don't have the switch that most people have that tells then when they're going out of the realm of logic and reason. Or that she has to sleep or eat or shower. On top of everything else, she blames herself for all of the chaos going on in this case, which is insane, because she tried everything within her power and lots of things that are not at all within her power to figure it all out.

So maybe I do have a purpose around here after all (besides my sparkling personality and pretty face, of course), because whether she wants to admit it or not, she can't do it all on her own… and besides, someone needs to keep her connected with Planet Earth.

Linden

I just… it doesn't seem possible. I can't believe how many different ways I fucked this up. I should've known. I should've seen it. I should've… I don't even know what I should've done, but I should've done something differently. That's the worst part: the "what if's." What if there was a detail I missed somewhere along the way, and if I'd just noticed it, we'd have realized…

I just have to work harder. I need to get to the truth.

…

DAY 10, evening

They had been up for fifty hours straight. FIFTY. HOURS. Holder was having trouble focusing on what he was doing, and he sure as hell wasn't able to think about all the details of the case. When he finally stood up to leave, Linden asked where he was going… she acted like his going home to sleep after fifty hours on the job was completely unreasonable.

Holder walked out of their office, slowly on his way to the parking lot. Linden followed him into the hall.

"Seriously, you're leaving?"

"Linden, chill! I'm fucking exhausted! You can go for days without sleep, but I can't!"

"We have to solve it!"

"We will! But it's not gonna happen tonight, and it's definitely not gonna happen if we both collapse."

She was pissed off, but she knew he was right. She hated the fact that she had to stop to sleep at all. She liked to think that she could power through anything… but the last few days were starting to catch up with her, too.

He gave it one more shot. "Linden, seriously, it's not healthy. You need to sleep."

Come to think of it, she was having trouble focusing… she sighed heavily. "I know, I just…" She couldn't find the right words, but she didn't need to. He knew her well enough by now.

He walked back down the hall to where she was standing. "Come on, go get your coat. I'm not taking no for an answer."

Dammit, I hate when he's right.

Linden did as instructed. She hadn't realized quite how tired she was until she walked out into the hallway to chastise him for leaving. She didn't have the energy to fight with him about it.

He was waiting for her in the hall, leaned heavily against the wall, when she came back out with her coat on. "You need a ride back to the docks? I can drop you off."

"Uh, no, that's OK, thanks. I can make it." It was easier not to have to explain why she wasn't staying there anymore, at least for the time being. They walked down the silent hallway together.

Just before they went their separate ways to go to their respective cars, Linden told him "I'm still mad at you," but it was obvious that she wasn't actually mad.

"I know, I know, you wanna work yourself to death. Not gonna let it happen, Linden. Now go home and sleep. You're not allowed back here for at least eight hours!"

"Who put you in charge?" she asked in mock indignation.

"I did. Now go home!" he told her firmly, but with a trace of a smile.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going. Good night."

"Night, Linden."