Robbery In Progress

*Emma*

"Florida is the only state that has airport names that start with 'Fort', so they must be headed there," Matty was quick to catch me up when I reentered the conference room. The distraction was absolutely welcome.

"Okay, so we go to Florida." Drew was already pulling out his phone to arrange transport so I didn't even bother. He looked to be all organized like that, it was his type A personality at work. Super helpful when we need things done, but kind of annoying when we're all in the office and leave a pen out of place. God help us.

"Kels and I won't have jurisdiction in Florida. We could probably ask our Captain for approval to go anyway, but I think we might be more useful here. Jason's sister should still be at the cancer center, she might be able to help us talk him down if it comes to it," Matty made a good point, and his last comment made me smile.

"Look at you thinking like a negotiator," becoming more serious now, I nodded in agreement. "Stay here and work with the sister. If we have to talk him down we will make sure to have you both on the line for it."

Once we laid out the plan, I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. I was ready to actually be open and honest with Kelsey and she was clearly not ready to receive, so my preference would be to not run into her before we head out. Matty could catch her up on the plan all on his own.

Drew arranged for us to borrow the agency jet due to the time sensitivity of the situation. On our flight down we were going to be searching through every possible flight that Jason could choose and profiling the most likely options. But so far I was just staring out the window being the most unhelpful person possible.

"Okay, what is up with you? Why are you being so quiet? And why aren't you drowning yourself in work like you usually do when you're upset?"

I turned my attention to Drew, who had set down the papers he was looking at so he could stare at me more intently.

"Is that what I usually do? When I get upset avoid the problem and just zero in on work?"

His eyes narrowed, "usually. Yes."

"Why don't you guys ever say anything?"

"What would it change if we did? If we called you out on it, would you say 'you guys are right, here's what I'm dealing with'? Or would you call us crazy, say you're fine, and keep going?"

Well that hit a little too close to home. Jesus, was I really this bad at dealing with any emotions at all? How was I a negotiator if I constantly refused to deal with my own issues? That was so hypocritical of me. "Was I always like this?"

Drew sighed and leaned towards me. "A little bit, but it got worse when Sam died. We never said anything because we didn't want to make it worse, we didn't want you to decide you couldn't come to us when you were ready. Are you ready now?"

"I want to be." God, did I want to be. I didn't realize before how much energy it took to sit in grief, to constantly be on guard, and to never share with anyone. "Good." Before I could react, Drew leaned towards me and hit me over the back off the head.

"Ow!"

"Stop being an idiot." I rubbed the back of my head as he continued, "Sam wouldn't want you to stop living your life just because she had to stop living hers. She would want you to realize how short life is and embrace it and *enjoy it* while you can.

"Don't resign yourself to a half life because you're afraid to lose anyone ever again. And on top of that, your mom wouldn't want that either. Seriously, Em, what is the point of life if you're just going to mull through numb? Buck up and just tell Kelsey that you're in love with her."

"Okay, there's a lot to unpack there. I'm going to let the head slap slide, *for the moment* because your words definitely hurt more than the slap. But first and foremost, who says I'm in love with Kelsey?" "You're kidding me, right? Em, you forget too easily. I've seen you in love, I know the signs. But your dumb puppy dog eyes you get when she walks into the room is a dead giveaway."

I covered my face. "Do I seriously, do that?" His non-committal nod and shrug said it all. "Oh God, that is so embarrassing. Does everyone know?"

"Well, I can tell you one person does, the most important person. Because. You. Have. To. Tell. Her." I rolled my eyes at him and leaned back. "Okay, point made. Be more open and talk to Kelsey. Got it." I started to reach for some flight information and he stilled my hand with his.

"Be more open and tell Kelsey you love her," he corrected. "You have to say the words. Got it?"

"Yes, got it. Jeez, when did you become so overbearing?"

"I have always been this way but I appreciate your attempt to convince me otherwise."

"Can we go back to being professionals now?" Generally, Drew and I were good at switching around our relationship hats so I knew that the question would flip a switch for him. He nodded in agreement. "I'm done for the moment." I rolled my eyes at his addition of "for the moment".

"Alright, cool. But before we get a move on just one more thing," before he could stop me I jerked forward and slapped him over the head.

"Hey!"

*Kelsey*

"Hey, where did the band of thieves go?" I asked Matty in reference to Emma and Drew.

"They went to Florida. That's where Jason is going. Or at least, that's where we think he's going." Matty was cleaning up all the paperwork and crazy conspiracy theory boards as he spoke.

"So they got what they needed and ran, probably going to take all the credit, too." Matty sighed but didn't say anything to that.

"We are going to go talk to Rose again, hopefully she can help us cool him off if needed."

"Not even here and we're still doing their bidding." They never change, the FBI. The fact that I even considered them to be different from all the rest disappointed me. I let my guard down because she was cute, and this is what I get for it. Never doing that again, that's for sure.

Matty dumped the pile of papers into the shred pile. The loud noise made me jump and pulled me out of my own thoughts.

"Staying here and working with Rose was my idea, Kels. We would be of no use in Florida and you know it. You're just letting your shit mood color everything."

"Wait, back up. Are you taking their side?" I couldn't believe this, my own partner was going to side with the Feds when we always agreed in the past that they were the worst.

"There's no sides, Kels. We aren't in competition. We are all law enforcement. Has the FBI come in towards the end of a case and taken it before? Absolutely, that has happened. Is it frustrating when it happens? Definitely. But they aren't out to get us, their goal isn't to ruin our lives. They are just doing their jobs and we are just doing ours."

"Where did this come from? I didn't realize this bothered you so much, I thought we both hated them."

Matty shook his head and leaned against the conference table, "no. You hate them, and I never voice a dissent. You're a good detective, Kels. But you focus too much on the wrong part of the job." "What do you mean?"

"Your fear of failure drives you to focus solely on the praise you'll receive for doing a good job. It bothers you that they take credit for our work because you need everyone to believe you're a good detective." I was stunned into silence. I opened my mouth a few times to say something but no words came out, I suspect that I looked like a fish. "You spend so much time trying to convince everyone that you deserve to be here, that you are missing the point of being here. Because we're not here to win medals or to pass out 'good job's. We are here to help people.

"You're good with people, don't get me wrong. But you have that black and white view, the good and the bad. It's simplistic and unrealistic. All cops aren't good people and all people who commit crimes aren't bad people. All FBI agents aren't your enemy, and all police detectives aren't your friends. You live on extremes and in the end you're going to get hurt if you keep going down this road."

Matty pushed off the table and came over to me. Putting his hand on my shoulder he continued, "visiting hours at the cancer center are over. Meet me there at 6 am sharp. And think about what I said." Well damn, how could I not?