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

Spoilers: Season 3, episodes 2 and 3

It's late, and Linden is still hard at work in the task force room. Besides the row of unis that sit at computers just in front of the doors, she's there alone. Holder walks by the glass doors and sees Linden sitting at the long table in the front of the room going over files. Never one to worry too much about his appearance, especially at such a late hour, his shirt is half untucked and his tie loosened as he lets himself into the task force room and walks slowly up to the table where his former partner is sitting. She looks up at him without speaking, then back down again at the files in front of her. He takes off his jacket and sits down at the far end of the table. Their greeting to each other is unspoken, unnecessary, as is so much between them.

Linden starts right in with an update. "We got 3 identified girls. Nicky Velasco, Ashley Kwon, Sandra Helford."

"Any matches with Goldie's porn?" Holder asks, leaning back in his chair.

"No."

Holder spins his chair back and forth, thinking for a moment.

Linden continues. "Nicky ran away when she was 15. Sandra, 16. Nobody reported them missing or even noticed they were gone. Throwaway kids, all of them."

"Not Ashley," Holder interjects.

"She ended up the same place though, didn't she?" Linden points out sadly. After a pause, she asks, "Where's Reddick?" She and Holder's current partner aren't exactly crazy about each other, to put it nicely.

"Punched out. Get his beauty sleep. Me?" Holder raises his hands on either side of him, "I'm already beautiful, so…" He grins his trademark little boy grin at her and Linden smiles back. Classic Holder, she thinks. Holder leans forward so his head is almost on the table, stretching his hands out in front of him but not reaching for anything in particular.

"Talk to Picasso?" he asks.

"We got nothing. I'm not even sure he remembered me," Linden replies.

"It was a long time ago, Linden." Both of his hands are now flat on the table and he's now leaning all the way forward, resting his chin on the back of his right hand, looking up at her.

Linden

Holder still reminds me of a little kid sometimes. He's softened a little around the edges since he started, and cleaned himself up a little bit appearance wise, but his sense of humor and that stupid grin still scream for attention. Approval. It's cute in a way, I guess. He's certainly less of a pain in the ass that everyone else around here. I feel bad for him that he got stuck with Reddick for a partner after me. God, that guy is an ass.

Holder

I'm not surprised to see Linden working late. No, I should put it like this: I'd have been shocked if I'd walked by the Task Force room and I hadn't seen Linden working late. Linden being here after everyone else goes home is a given.

It's funny, working with her again, it almost feels like old times, like the Rosie Larsen case again. I'd almost forgotten how well we work together. I don't care what that dick Reddick says, Linden was a great partner. Hell of a lot better than his ass.

I wonder how Linden's handling this one compared to that one. She hasn't seemed as desperate over this one… so far, anyway. I swear, this case is related to that Picasso case she was on before I worked here… which sucks, because that's the one that drove her crazy in the first place. It sucks that she has to relive parts of it all over again.

…

Reddick, Holder and Linden stood outside of Lt. Skinner's office. Reddick was closest to the door, Linden about ten feet away from him, and Holder somewhere in the middle, fidgeting continuously, unable to stand still. Through the window they could see Skinner on the phone, pacing the length of his office as he listened, occasionally speaking loudly into the phone. He did not look happy.

Reddick eyed Linden angrily. He wasn't quite sure how, but this whole mess had to be her fault. These kinds of screw ups just didn't happen on his cases. He and Holder had been working together for a year now and their cases had mostly been open and shut, by the book. None of this bullshit. And certainly not leading up to being called to Skinner's office to be chewed out, because he was certain that that's exactly what was about to happen when Skinner got off the phone.

Linden was tired of the looks that Reddick giving her from the other side of the hall. She looked directly into his eyes and took two steps towards him. "Reddick, you got a problem?" Her tone was more than a little antagonistic, which was exactly how she meant it to sound. She had long been used to being the only female homicide detective at the SPD, and she wasn't afraid of him, or any other one of the asshole cops that worked there – because some of those guys really were jerks.

"Maybe I do, Linden." Reddick answered in the same tone, his arms crossed over his chest.

Holder rolled his eyes at the two of them. In some ways they were so alike, it was almost comical, but in other ways, they were complete opposites. Linden, for example, didn't go out of her way to question Reddick's competence as a detective or his ability to do his job, or anyone else's for that matter. Holder had never heard her gossip about anyone. She just did her job. She actively tried not to have anything to do with other people whenever possible, as a matter of fact.

Reddick, on the other hand, almost seemed to be obsessed with Linden's supposed incompetence at her job, which Holder found completely ridiculous. He owed so much of what he knew about this job to his former partner, and he knew it. Yes, she could be a complete pain in the ass, he'd never argue with that, but to call her incompetent? That's one thing she was NOT. Holder did his best to stick up for Linden when Reddick badmouthed her, but it wasn't easy to keep up with his partner's stream of consciousness complaints, and besides, Reddick obviously didn't want to hear anything good that Holder has to say about her. It was as though his mind was made up, and it wasn't going to change no matter what anyone said or did.

Holder wondered why Reddick felt so strongly against Linden. Yeah, she was abrasive sometimes, she didn't really care what anyone thought of her, and she pushed too hard sometimes when she should've just backed off… but those were actually qualities that Holder liked about her. He knew that the best thing he could do was to ignore Reddick and his high school bullshit most of the time, but with the two of them now facing off right in front of him, he started to think that he may have to temporarily take a slightly more active role…

Linden took a few more steps towards Reddick, until they were only a few arms' lengths apart. "Oh yeah?" Linden almost spat the words at him. Holder swore that if anyone could breathe fire with their words, it would have been Linden, and it would have been right then.

"Yeah, Linden, my problem is you," Reddick said, matching her attitude and not backing down. As a matter of fact, he had now closed the distance between the two of them and was staring down at her – because she may have been menacing, but she was still pretty tiny compared to most of the guys in the department. Holder rolled his eyes again, unable to believe these two were acting this way. They were completely ignoring his feeble attempts at peacekeeping.

"Everything was easy before you came trotting back, and now, because of you, I find myself outside of Skinner's office. Because you can't get your shit together."

Holder could see that this wasn't going in a good direction. He stepped forward and put an arm out in front of Linden to prevent her from stepping forward any farther. "Alright, you two, come on, enough already…" He pushed gently with his arm in an attempt to move Linden back a little and give them both a little more space.

That was the moment when Lt. Skinner's door opened and he appeared in the doorway. "I need to see you two in here," he said, looking from Reddick to Holder. "You too, Linden." With that, he disappeared back inside. Reddick shot Linden one more disdainful look and turned to walk into Skinner's office. Holder held his arm in front of Linden for one more second, whispering, " 'S not worth it, Linden." He dropped his arm to his side.

She sighed heavily. "I know, he's just such an ass," she whispered back. She looked up at him, and said simply, "Thanks."

"You know I got your back, Linden. Now let's see what kinda deep shit we're in," Holder replied quietly. They smiled at each other, and walked into Skinner's office together.