"Damn it I lost him," Cillian mumbled jerking the car to the left, the car nearly missed sliding on the curb. My body moved with the car but I was so used to the sharp turns that it didn't bother me.

"How did you lose a middle-aged man running down a sidewalk?" I scoffed as I rolled down the window, sticking my head all the way out. There were more people walking around today than usual. Our only condolence was that the loud wailing of the sirens scared people into freezing. "Shit, nothing." I turned to look at Cillian when I saw the back of a bloodied grey shirt. "There!" I yelled, my body did the work for me. I leaned closer to Cillian and pressed my hand on top of his jerking the wheel to the side.

"What the hell!" Cillian demanded, we pressed closer to each other as the car obeyed the will of the wheel and turned. Cillian groaned and used his elbow to push me away from him. I backed off and Cillian worked to right the car. The car quickly picked up speed and was only a few feet from the running man.

The man managed to turn his head as he ran. Scruffy face, shifty eyes, and a hairline receding far back on his scalp was all we needed to see. He ran towards a building. My eyebrows came together and I looked around until I found a motel sign.

"Damn it, follow him better!" I demanded of Cillian. Cillian shook his head and I could practically see the annoyed and stressed look he carried.

"Sorry I left the car that could walk up steps at the shop." He pulled into the parking lot slowing the car down. The man ran up some steps running out of my line of view.

"Breaks!" Cillian's leg slammed on the brakes before his mouth moved to ask me a question. I popped the lock on the door and opened it. I had to brace my body for the impact of the ground so I could continue running. My right hand was on my hip where my gun was safely secured. I looked up towards the stairs the man disappeared towards. I looked up just in time to see a door slam shut.

My arm extended and I grabbed the railing, I vaulted myself over and began running up the steps. The adrenaline pumping through my veins was invigorating and I couldn't help smile as I cleared the steps.

"200...201...202.." I counted as I ran past the steps my numbers coming out as controlled pants. "203!" I didn't stop myself, instead, I used the momentum of my body to slam the door with my shoulder. A blast of pain shot through my shoulder. "Fuck." I groaned I used my weight to push just a little more. There was a harsh cracking of wood and the door swung open. There was a loud 'shit' and sounds of running. I stumbled into the apartment rubbing at my shoulder.

I took a scan around the room. It was basic, dark, musky, and there were piles of wrapped money lying around. A few dollars lead out of the main room. The thought of a trail made me forget the pain in my shoulder. I began running again towards the doorway. As I ran through my face collided with hard metal, a groan escaped me. I stumbled back my eyes closed and my hand covering the area that was hit.

My brain felt fuzzy, my back hit the wall. I groped around the wall looking for something to steady myself with. My hand gripped onto the nearby curtain, keeping me from falling completely.

There was another clang as metal fell, followed by heavy feet running. I pushed the pain to the back of my mind and let anger mix into my general excitement. I stepped over the frying pan left on the ground, not letting the same instrument hurt me twice. As I ran down the narrow hallway I slipped out my gun, this time holding it straight out in front of me. I turned once more and in front of me was an open door below a glowing red EXIT sign. I resisted saying something cliche like 'bingo'.

"If you stop running now I'll consider not tacking on leading chase to your list of offenses!" I said between light pants. I continued running smile growing wider as I heard erratic breathing getting louder. I ran through the fire exit right into the railing. My arm stopped me from toppling over the side. I looked below and could see the man hurriedly taking the steps two at a time, nearly sliding down in his anxiousness.

The staircase was similar to most fire escapes, a group of stairs followed by a square of flat space and so on until it reached the ground.It took me less than a second to decide between a reckless decision and a smart one.

"Wilson I'll--" Cillian's words came out too slow for me. I had already vaulted over the railing my feet resting on the small bit of concrete attached to the ledge. I made eye contact with Cillian. He with a deadpanned look, I with my own.

I let go of the rails and down two groups of steps onto the next square. I landed with a crouch and could feel the stress of the fall on my knees. I was just a few steps behind the man. Without thinking I jumped off the top of the steps. My body slammed into his. The full weight of my body colliding into another solid mass. The force was enough to knock the air out of my lungs. The man's inability to move proved the effects on him as well. In a few seconds, I had caught my breath and wrapped my forearm around the man's neck holding tight. My leg trying to restrain him.

"You are under arrest." I panted, my muscles strained trying to keep him down. He was old but he had a lot of strength. My face was pressed so close to his head I could smell anti-dandruff shampoo in his tufts of hair. He thrust his head back catching me in the center of the forehead. Too close to my original injury for my brain's liking. Pain blossomed around that area and my grip became weak. Instead of entirely jerking away from me his arm extended in front of him and he reached for something.

After a moment I regained control of the pain and held tightly again. He raised his arm straight up and I saw a familiar black gun.

"Wait that's..." He fired a shot in the air, and I knew he somehow got a hold of a gun exactly like mine. "Put the gun...down...this.." I struggled to force words out between my breaths, my strength was waning and he wasn't giving up. He twisted his arm in a way that must have done some sort of his damage to his shoulder. My eye drifted to the gun in his hand and I saw the slight twitch of his finger on the trigger.

In a split second, I had pushed him away from me and rolled on the concrete. There was another loud gunshot. I turned to the area where I just was and saw a black bullet sized skid mark in the place where I had just been. The man put his hand to his neck panting and bringing himself to a crawling position. The gun was still held tightly in his hand. I put my hand to my right hip feeling for my own gun. I looked from my empty holster to the gun in the man's hand.

"Hey fucker, that's my gun!" The man looked at the gun in his hand with almost a smug satisfaction. I glared back, the glare quickly left my face when he raised the gun towards me again. I squeezed my eyes closed and ducked my head closer to the ground. There was another gunshot, I flinched preparing to be hit. Instead, a loud sound of metal being penetrated was heard. My eyes opened at the lack of pain on my person. I looked up to see Cillian only a set of stairs above us with a gun trained directly at the Man.

"Drop the gun, McGee!" He yelled sidestepping closer to the next step.

"McGee?" I mumbled looking back at the man, only to see him scramble up. He was on his feet and running again. It didn't take long for me to follow suit.

"Head him off Cillian!" I yelled, realizing we were on ground level and McGee was running out of the alleyway. Cillian called something back in responses but I was already too far away to hear him. I sprinted after McGee, somehow not as fast as the older man ahead of me.

At times the world shifted slightly to the side and I began running in a diagonal pattern. The ache from my head was only intensifying with the movement and it was only making coordination harder. We were both slowing down, but I was beginning to gain speed on him. We got to an intersection in the street. The only way to go was across the crosswalk through traffic. McGee's head turned from side to side, my eyes followed there was no car in sight. But I was close enough to tackle him down again, he looked over his shoulder and came to a full stop. He pivoted around the gun in his hand outstretched pointing at me.I wouldn't put money down on how well he could shoot, but I really couldn't trust my dodging abilities either. I came to a stop coming to terms with the situation.

"It's over McGee..." I cleared my throat trying to move past the name. "Come in quiet...or quieter than this whole shebang." McGee's hand shook and he had an ugly expression on his face.

"Who's the one with the gun here dumbass?" The tone of his voice didn't match his face. I couldn't tell if he was being cocky or ready to piss himself. With his free hand, he adjusted the bag of money that he had strapped to his front.

"That's my gun," I said lowly too far away for him to hear. He took slow steps backward away from me.

"This is how this is going to go. You fuck off, or I blow your damn head off." He continued walking he was now in the crosswalk. I hadn't moved, every cell in my body was vibrating with anxiousness. In my peripheral, I could see Cillian's police car driving into the street McGee was on, heading straight for him.

"Yeah? Well, I'd like to see what you could do against a car because of my partner--" I stopped, distracted by frantic waving and yelling coming from Cillian. My attention flitted almost completely to him trying to decipher his words.

"Wilson there's a freaking.." Cillian's eyes widened and he swerved his car to the side the wheels driving over a sidewalk and stop.

"What?" There was a yelp, and large bus flew into my view, driving over the spot McGee once was. My eyes widened and I took a few steps back trying to find the missing criminal. A black bag felt a few feet in front of me, void of the money that it once carried. I looked around and saw scattered wads of cash laying in the street. The bus screeched to a break finally stopping in the middle of an intersection of two streets. I ran into the street heading towards the bus, there were black tire marks leading to it. Cillian was already at the front of the bus when I made it there. He was crouched and looking underneath. "Cillian what the hell? Did McGee escape?" I asked Cillian looked up at me his face just as confused as mine. The automatic door to the bus flew open.

"Oh God, I'm going to be sick." A shaky voice said, there were heavy steps and a man wearing a bus driver uniform stumbled out. He was staring straight ahead his body shaking, and his face in silent shock. Cillian and I both turned our heads to follow his line of site. There was sounds of bafflement from both of us. A few feet ahead, a majority of McGee's body was smashed against the side of a building leaving a large blood stain. There were several other remnants of his body around that area. There was a deep sigh from my left. I turned to see Cillian scratching his head.

"There goes our holiday bonus." He mumbled.

"I gotta call the fucking police! An ambulance, maybe the fire department, oh God I'm a killer." The panicked bus driver babbled, his hands were shaking furiously as he got out his phone. I began to explain that we were the police but Cillian put his hand on my chest and just shook his head. I slipped my hands into my pocket and shook my head turning away. 

 "I can't fucking believe this." Bandieras voice was close to a growl, her hands were pressed firmly against her desk. She was a short woman, even shorter when she sat down but Cillian and I both understood that if she was standing up this encounter would be much more intimidating. Cillian opened his mouth to try and reconcile the situation once again. She raised her hand to him and glared again. "I send you two tonto pendejos out to go retrieve a criminal. Not even solve the case, no no. The case was already solved, I just needed you to retrieve this guy. And you get him killed by a fucking bus?"

"It's not like we were driving the bus!" I finally got out earning a look from Cillian who had specifically instructed me to stay quiet. Bandieras stare was fiery hot, I could see the gears turning in her head gearing up to fire some insult our way.

"In all honesty guys, you two really should have avoided chasing him into a public area entirely." A more calm voice said from next to Bandieras. I was admittedly startled for a moment, with Bandieras anger taking the show it was even easier to forget about her deputy standing silently next to her. He was almost her complete opposite, at least as far as physicality went. He was tall and lanky, his gaze was more inquisitive than accusing. Even his skin color was much paler in comparison to her light brown skin.

"Well, sir we didn't have the luxury of kindly guiding the guy we were chasing into a more secluded area," I said daring a level of attitude that I wouldn't even dream of with Bandieras. Officer Schlitz seemed unphased by my words. He shrugged and directed his gaze at Cillian who was by far the more humble of the two of us.

"Well, the great thing about being a detective is that there are always two of you. All I'm saying is that next time maybe thinks of a better way to divide the efforts. Maybe Officer Hartman goes after the guy, then Officer Watts makes sure to block off all exits." Cillian took a deep breath and nodded, it looked like it took a lot out of him.

"Yes, we'll make sure to keep that in mind next time." Officer Schlitz nodded slowly, a small smile crept onto his face.

"And you have to admit coming up with a plan is better than throwing your options on the wall and seeing what sticks." We all looked at him, even Bandieras seemed to come off her angry high for a moment to try and decipher why he felt that was appropriate. She took a deep breath through her nose.

"Honestly, this is a mess." She sounded more tired than angry, it was a fortunate switch in moods for us. "the people of this city aren't used to violence like this. I can guarantee that in 10 minutes I'll have press outside this station asking me to explain why some guy became a pancake against the local laundromat."

"Well, I would consider him more like runny eggs...." Again we looked at the tall Deputy, I made a point of rolling my eyes. "If we're comparing this to you know, breakfast otherwise--" Bandieras lifted her hand in Officer Schlitz general direction quieting him.

"I have half a mind to make you clean up the blood on the wall." She sighed and put her hand down shaking her head. "And I have all this damned paperwork to fill out on top of this." Officer Schlitz moved closer to her, she moved her chair in the opposite direction. He leaned over her desk and grabbed the stack of paperwork off of her desk and tucked them under his arm.

"I can handle some of the paperwork, and when the press gets here I'll make up something about how he was highly dangerous and volatile. Coming out of nowhere and surprising the bus driver." Officer Schlitz elaborated gesturing to the door.

"Well you wouldn't be making anything up he was highly dangerous," I said in our defense, I crossed my arm tighter over my chest. The Deputy gave Cillian and me a funny look.

"On his file, it said that he had some form of Parkinson's. I'd be surprised if he could hold a gun." He chuckled a bit, I felt my stupidity hit me like a brick. I could feel Cillian's hot glare at the back of my neck. "Didn't you read the file that I gave you?"

"Wilson was in charge of that." Cillian stifled between tightly closed lips.

"Oh that's a shame, I was feeling in a pretty good mood that day. I even...I uh put like this sticker next to important facts..." He cleared his throat after a beat of silence. Cillian took a deep breath, I turned to see him rubbing the bridge of his nose. Bandieras had a similar look and shook her head at the two of us.

"Leave, get out of my office now." Officer Schlitz moved closer to the door prepared to leave. "Not you! Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumber!"

"Oh, yeah of course." He took a step away clearing a path to the door.

"Ma'am we promise this will never happen ag--"

"Leave, I'll figure out what to do with you two after." The anger was back on her face, which was our cue to leave. Cillian pushed at my back forcing me towards the door. Officer Schlitz opened the door for us and closed it once we were out in the hall.

All at once, like someone had hit pause in the station there was a reemergence of activity in the station. A few officers walked passed us very invested into their conversation. I sighed deeply and looked over at Cillian who still looked annoyed with me. He crossed his arms and was facing away from me when he turned down the hall.

"How was I supposed to know that the guy had Parkinson's!" I protested an underlying understanding that this was partially my own doing.

"If you read the paper, that evidently had a freaking sticker next to it you might have clued in on that," Cillian said his voice surprisingly even for a man who was so obviously pissed with me.

"Why is it my job to read the paper why can't you do it?"

"Because Wilson, I asked you to do it. And then update me." Cillian looked at me this time as he spoke. "You said something along the lines of, old, balding, ugly looking. An easy catch."

"Well if he had Parkinson's then he should have been an easy catch!" I pointed out gesturing in the air with my hands.

"It would have been an even easier catch if we knew that he had Parkinson's. It would have been even easier if you didn't lose your gun."

"It dropped! Accidents happen, Cillian."

"Well you didn't accidentally jump down a staircase, and if you held onto your gun this wouldn't have happened."

"Well maybe if you got to your car faster than you could have stopped him before the bus."

"And do what? Hit him with the police car?"

"At least he wouldn't have been hit by a freaking bus!"

"You boys arguing again?" We stopped walking, we both glanced to our left. We had somehow made our way to the front desk. "What is this the fifth time this week?"

"Try just today," Cillian said back, he leaned over on the high circular desk that she sat at.

"Is Wilson pulling stunts again, or is he just bugging you?" She asked giggling underneath her breath.

"Officer Hartman has done nothing wrong, and he is also right here." I cut in gesturing to my face. Cillian turned and raised his eyebrow at me. I ignored him. "So Velma, did we get any more mail?" I asked stepping closer to her desk.

"Uh, let me check." She patted down her hair. It looked dry and unwilling to cooperate. She had dyed it another color and now it was this darker brown, wherever she went must have been pretty crappy because her red-brown roots were still visible. She stood up and shimmied around in her smalls space to the mailboxes behind her. It didn't help that her pencil skirt was one size too small. I glanced at Cillian who was staring at her, not so much to a perverted degree just an admiring look.

"I like the new color Velm," Cillian said as she searched through the boxes trying to find our names. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled.

"Oh thank you, Officer Watts, I did it myself." She touched the ends of her hair. I scoffed and shook my head if she heard me she didn't acknowledge me.

"Oh, you can just call me Cillian, don't let heartless man over here get to you." Velma genuinely giggled at that.

"Ha ha, you're hilarious," I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster.

"Oh he doesn't scare me, he can just be a bit grumpy sometimes. Right Will, I mean Officer Hartman?"

"Let's see if getting my mail fixes my mood any huh?" Cillian stepped on the tip of my shoe. I pulled my foot away and shot him a look.

"Oh yeah! Sorry, such an airhead sometimes." She turned around with an apologetic smile and handed me one letter. "There you go, Wilson. Have a good day." I opened my mouth to complain about my name usage again but Cillian was already shoving me along.

"Have a good day Velm, oh and you dropped a few papers on the ground there." He gestured with his chin. She frowned and turned around looking at the ground.

"Oh thanks, Deputy Schlitz's letters. That would be awful if they got lost." She bent down and stuffed them back into an already full mailbox. After one final wave, I was pushed along in front of Cillian. He pushed me towards the door and didn't stop until we were outside the building.

"You're a douche sometimes you know that?" He slipped his hand inside his pocket and shook his head. I shrugged and looked at the letter it was stamped with the Deputy emblem.

"She should use my last name, I spend all this time becoming a detective just to--"

"Oh shut up Wilson you only ever care when she does it." I shrugged again, I couldn't exactly disagree with him.

"She's the only one who has that problem." I bristled a bit against the wind but paid it no mind. Cillian zipped up his jacket. "This is from Deputy Schlitz it might be important," I said showing him the letter.

"Maybe it's our bonus." Cillian offered, we looked at each other and shook our heads. I opened it up, it was a folded letter. Cillian took the envelope and I opened up the piece of paper. I groaned and looked at Cillian. "What does it say?" He asked. I took a deep breath and read.

"You have successfully turned in five cases on time, yay. You should be proud of yourselves, cases are not just about saving people but documenting it too. Paperwork is a big part of being a police officer and you are doing a stellar job keeping up with this. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and good paper work management is one step away from complete anarchy. Keep up the good work! Chief Deputy, Ingram Schlitz." I crumpled up the paper and looked at Cillian. "Then there's a picture of a dog."

"Can I see?" Cillian said after a pause, I handed him the crumpled piece of paper. He unwrapped it and scanned the paper. He began laughing out loud, he scrunched up the paper in his hand. I couldn't help but join him, it really was ridiculous.

"Maybe next time he can offer some sort of rewards system, and we can pick out a prize." I laughed holding my stomach. Cillian was wiping away a tear from his eyes.

"No no, we all get sticker boards. If we get five stickers in a row we get new guns!" I laughed and nodded along. It took us a minute before we could compose ourselves again. I straightened up and shook my head.

"Priceless, we better get another one of these." I said walking away from the front door. Cillian nodded his agreement and shivered.

"Hey look, is that the press?" he gestured with his chin a group of journalists surrounding someone.

"I think so, they work fast huh?" I stopped walking slinking behind a car, avoiding being spotted like we were told.

"Hm yeah, we should head back inside." Cillian said using the same car as a temporary cover.

"And do what? We don't exactly have a case anymore." Cillian smiled before he answered.

"Maybe some paperwork, we don't want to mess up our record. Remember good paperwork management is one step away from anarchy." The way Cillian sounded so matter of factly it made me chuckle more.

"Yeah, yeah let's go." I turned and headed for the front doors again, Cillian followed suit. 

"God I need a drink." I mumbled rubbing the tiredness from my eyes. Hours of paperwork was doing nothing for my vision. I pulled my gym shirt over my head and stretched out my shoulder.

"Well we're still on the clock so we're doing the next best thing." Cillian tied his draw string and rubbed at his eyes, he had actually helped with the paperwork for once.

"Besides drugs?" Cillian gave me a look and shrugged.

"Let say this is the next best legal thing." He walked to the exit of the locker room and I followed.

We entered the gym and I scanned the people present that day. It was only a little bit full but the personalities in the gym might as well have made it a full house.

"Why did everyone freaking decide to go today of all days?" Cillian glanced outside towards the windows, it was already dark.

"Maybe it's the weather change." He suggested bouncing on the tip of his toes. "I hate coming here when it's already dark. Makes me feel like I'm working out at midnight." I checked my watch and shrugged always used to this.

"It's only five, and it's better to be working out at midnight then doing paperwork." Cillian shrugged his agreement. We went down the gym line, passing the section of cardio instruments. There were only two people there. One was a woman, who I assumed was an officer, but I wasn't very familiar with. The other was our very own Deputy Chief running on a treadmill that was hugging the corner of the room. . "I hate watching him run." I said to Cillian who just rolled his eyes.

"You say that every time we see him in here." He guided me towards the area with the punching bags and boxing ring.

"Well it's true, he's there for so long on the same speed never breaks a sweat. He just keeps going on and on, he's obviously showing off."

"Maybe he just likes running." Cillian said and stopped near the punching bags touching a red one. There were a few other people there, I was a little surprised to see Peter.

"Peter? Dude I didn't know you did the bag." Peter stopped in his punching and lowered his hands. He smiled at first then seemed to remember something and gave me a disapproving head shake.

"I should be very angry with you right now." He said taking off his gloves and approaching us.

"Why's that?" I raised an eyebrow ready to hear his reason.

"You got a guy thrown against the wall, and forensics spent the longest time securing the area and cleaning up the mess." I recoiled at that, he had a right to be angry about that.

"Yeah sorry about that, we really didn't have much control over that." I glanced over at Cillian who looked like he had the Parkinson's bit right at the tip of his tongue.

"Yeah yeah sure you didn't. Well I guess that really was the last straw for Tom, he quit this afternoon."

"And Tom was..." Peter rolled his eyes, he leaned against the wall closest to him.

"My higher up, he was second in command basically."

"Forensics has a hierarchy? How did you guys decide who's in charge? Chemical jeopardy." I laughed at my own joke but Peter seemed less amused. "Or..." There was a snort and he began chuckling as well.

"Something like that. It really just boils down to who's the most committed, or who has less of a life." Peter shook his head thoughtfully. "Sucks that Tom left though, he was a good soldier. The man could figure out a blood splatter from a mile away."

"Um...sorry for your loss?" Peter looked at me and smiled.

"Ah I don't really care that much. With him gone I'm basically a shoe in for second in command." He absently punched the closest punching bag with one hand, it didn't move.

"Oh really? And what makes you so qualified, you haven't been in forensics for nearly as long."

"Well I'm single, and don't have kids."

"That's it?" I raised my eyebrow trying to gauge how serious he was.

"Yeah pretty much. Though I'm hoping I could change the single thing pretty soon." He caught my eye. I looked away and punched the same punching bag, it swayed more than before.

"Being single isn't too bad."

"Well I think I'm old enough to expand my horizons, mingle a little. Maybe one day you can come out of your hole and join me." He put his hand out, I wasn't sure if he really wanted me to take it or not.

"Well he won't be joining you today, unfortunately we have to get some exercise in eventually." Cillian cut in and put his hand on my shoulders. I turned a bit giving him my best annoyed face.

"Yeah I better get back to the bag myself. No one is going to date a guy with noodle arms." He lightly punched his bicep and chuckling.

"Oh well I don't know about that you'd probably raise some guy's self esteem." Cillian chuckled and Peter joined.

"Well at least I'd be doing someone some good." He turned back to his bag and shifted it setting it up for his next onslaught of punches. I almost offered to hold the bag for him but I doubted it would do very much moving on its own. Cillian directed me away from the boxing area, I reluctantly followed his lead.

"Let's do weights today, you can't let your muscle cells die any faster then your brain cells." He said as we stepped by the line of various weight machines.

"I'm no scientist but I'm pretty positive that's not how muscle works." Cillian and I both looked to our left to see our fellow detective. She was wearing her usual workout clothing, printed yoga pants, sneakers, and loose tank top revealed the side of her bra. Cillian stopped his hand still on my shoulder.

"Well I know it has something to do with not working out. You've probably never had to worry about that a day in your life." Cillian said pointing to her arms. She raised an arm showing off very toned but slim muscles.

"Oh these girls? They're nothing. A few hours a week in the gym and they stay awhile. Maybe you should try it out someday."

"I'm here just as much as you Kalena, but somehow my boy's only seem to get bigger." I smirked and raised my arm shooting her a look. She gave me a cool one in return. "I think I stay longer than you, I guess the boys here have more stamina than your girls."

"Are we still talking about muscles here?" Cillian cut in, we both graciously ignored him.

"Well Mr. Guns, why don't we test out who has the better stamina. From what I heard your stamina isn't just lacking in the gym." She put a finger to her lip and looked around innocently. I scoffed and crossed my arms.

"Oh yeah? And who gave you that gem of information?"

"Oh the bitch you had over the other night." I held back another scoff, it was a fair assumption but a wrong one.

"Hey, that's no way to talk about your mother." I said drawling out the last word. Her eyes narrowed and she pushed her thick black braid behind her head. I thought I could even see the smallest bit of red behind her dark cheeks.

"Woah woah woah, lets reel it back in there partners." Cillian said tightening the grip he had on my shoulder.

"Yeah, and I'd really appreciate if my spotting partner actual helped to spot me." It was only then did I turn my attention to Kalena's partner lying on her back. Her legs were straight up, her feet were supporting some weights. It was easier to see the redness of her face with skin tone a few shades lighter then her spotter. "Now could you please reduce the weight it's killing my thighs."

"That's how you know it's working." Kalena picked up another five pound weight from a table and added it to the weights Mussa was already supporting. "Now down." Mussa took a deep breath and brought her legs down in an almost upside down squatting position, her knees hugged to her chest. "And up." She extended her legs again, they were shaking and it took a while before they were straight again.

"Talk about running a sweatshop." Cillian mumbled under his breath.

"What was that Cillian?" Kalena said, "five more reps and you're off." She said to Musa. Mussa nodded and began to repeat the promise. Kalena turned her attention back to Cillian and I. "I'm sorry am I being too much of a good partner? We're here to push each other, and if you can't do that then you're no better than an enabler."

"Enabler? What is this fat camp?" Cillian chuckled at his own joke but Kalena couldn't look more serious.

"Please go easy on them, not everyone shares your love for athletics." Mussa said between pants. She finished her fifth rep, and waited while Kalena removed the weights. Kalena extended her arm to her and helped her up. Mussa was shaky on her feet but stood tall almost the same height as her partner. Side by side they could have been mistaken for sisters, only a few skin shades apart. It was only when you looked closer that you could see that Kalena was so obviously Indian, and Mussa's hijab and hint of an accent gave inclinations to her nationality as well.

"Yeah well whatever, my turn. Start me up with thirty!" With that Kalena had completely lost interest in the two of us still standing there. Mussa gave us a small smile and waved us off. Cillian directed me away sitting me on a bench next to a connected to a weight bar.

"How she has a boyfriend is far beyond me." I mumbled reaching over and getting two fifteen pound weights to warm me up. Cillian shrugged and took smaller weights, squatting against the wall and doing small curls with his forearm.

"Oh I think I can see it. She is pretty endearing." I scoffed and rolled my eyes at him.

"Endearing is putting it lightly, she is rude and overly competitive. A total turn off."

"She doesn't sound too far off from someone I know." Cillian and I made eye contact and he rolled his eyes at me.

"She's okay, she's got a good side. If you weren't so busy picking stupid competitions with her then maybe you'd see that." I rolled my eyes and focused on the weight's in my hand. I could feel my muscles warming up.

As I warmed up I looked in front of me, in a room with the various yoga supplies, there were ropes for lifting. Inside was a Native American and Asian Man talking way too loudly especially being the only ones there.

"Len's at it again." Cillian mumbled watching the same display. Len in a squatting position holding both ropes in his hands. He was waving them up and down as he talked, using his head to direct his partner's attention to his actions. His partner shook his head and shooed him away from the ropes, taking them in his own hands. He remained standing straight and was waving the ropes, every five seconds he'd squat down and then back up.

"Why don't they ask one of the personal trainers?" I asked, I watched as Cillian absently shook his head.

"Maybe they've already scared most of them off." Cillian offered, "oh shit." He mumbled looking away from the room. Len and Thong walked were heading out of the room towards the area that we were.

"Fuck." I mumbled and turned my body to the side so that I was looking at one of the weight machines instead of the two approaching figures.

"Look, it's the police department's latest screw ups." Thongs voice cut through the tense silence that was between Cillian and I. I let out a breath that I was holding, we had been cornered.

"Hey it wasn't that bad." I said in our defense. I turned around to face the two of them. I frowned, Thong had a fresh set of bruises on his face and more were visible on his arms. There were accompanied by a couple scratches as well.

"No it was pretty awful." Len said a more amused smile on his face. "You did get him flattened against the wall." It was harder to see on Len's darker skin but he also had similar bruises and scratch lines.

"It's not like we were driving the bus." Cillian said already repeating this line more than five times since the incident began.

"What happened to your faces?" Waving one of the weights in Len and Thongs general direction. Len looked at Thong and grimaced like he had remembered a bad tasting his food. Thong looked even more annoyed than usual and shook his head.

"Nothing."

"A case." Thong and Len said at the same time. They looked away from each other, Thong crossed his arms and looked away. Len smiled awkwardly but looked just as uncomfortable.

"Weren't you guys trying to bust some human trafficking scandal downtown?" Cillian asked, Len nodded and slipped a hand into his gym shorts.

"Yeah we were getting really close, so we went undercover for a bit..."

"We tried to hire a prostitute." Len said bluntly.

"And that went badly because..." Cillian trailed off waiting for them to finish. It was a while before they spoke again.

"She was...freaking huge. She was built like a football player, not saying that it was bad but, once she saw our police badges...well it didn't end well." Len smiled a bit there was almost a chuckle in his voice like he could find the humor in the situation. Thong looked much less amused.

"She beat the shit out of us, took our money. And probably told her pimp that the police on their tail. Setting us back a few more months." I choked out a laugh, I put down one of the weights in favor of holding my stomach.

"You got beat up? By a prostitute?" I looked up long enough to see their expressions only laughing harder.

"Listen she had acrylic nails and the meanest sucker punch that you could ever imagine. Don't you laugh." Len said his expression switching to seriousness.

"But a prostitute? You guy's went to police academy for how long?" I took a glance at Cillian who seemed like he was reliving some sort of memory his thoughts far away.

"At least we didn't lost to some middle aged guy with Parkinson's." Len said snidely glaring daggers at me. That sobered my laughter up quickly.

"Hey how did you know that, that's confidential case shit."

"Check the news sometime dipshit." Thong retorted wiping away sweat from his forehead. I groaned tipping my head back, it was just our luck that most of the state knew about our screw up.

"You know what else was on the news today?" Len said pausing at the end. I opened my mouth to say something but was cut off by him. "There was the memorial for a Native American tribe that lost its last full-blooded member last year. It was carried out by his grandchildren. Bet you didn't know about that, did you?" Len looked straight into my eyes his face cold and serious. My stomach twisted in knots, I once again remembered the uncomfortable feeling that came along with talking with Len and his partner for more than a few a minutes.

"No uh...um I'm sorry?" I mumbled keeping my eyes downcast. There was a snort and chuckling. I looked up to see Len smiling his usual pleased smile.

"Nah I'm just kidding, I only watched the news long enough to hear about your fuckery." I resisted groaning as loudly as I could. He chuckled some more to himself and began turning away. "Well have fun being the station screw ups for the next month." Len sang and began walking away. Thong gave me a cool look before completely turning away and following Len out.

I let out a deep breath of relief and fell back onto the bench. I turned my head to look at Cillian still lost in thought.

"Cillian dude are you okay up there?" Cillian blinked a few times and looked at me. He gave me a grave face and shook his head.

"I hate prostitutes." He mumbled and continued his arm lifts with the weights. My eyebrows furrowed and shook my head ignoring his weirdness. My head turned back to the ceiling. I picked up the weight that I had left to the ground and stuck my arms straight out to the side, then bringing them back in a straight line in front of me.

"A whole fucking month," I mumbled and began repeating the movements, letting the burn in my arms distract me from my thoughts.