“Is that because you don’t get it or because you’re so busy working that you’re missing all the joking around you?”
She thought about it seriously for a moment, while she poured coffee. “You know what? It could be the latter. I hadn’t really considered that.”
“You do know that to make friends, you have to actually be friendly, right?”
“Yeah, that’s another fact that’s been revealed to me lately,” she grumbled. “Who knew being part of a team was such a pain in the butt?”
“Weren’t you always part of a team as a cop?”
“Sure, I was,” she stated, “but they were used to me. I feel like I have to train these ones all over again.”
He stared at her for a moment, and then his shoulders started shaking. She looked over at him, with a quiet satisfaction inside. He didn’t know she was joking, but, at the same time, it made her feel good that she could lighten his day. He’d been way too serious and way too sad, when he had picked her up. It worried her to see what all these visions were doing to him, especially when she could do so little to help him.
When he finally calmed down, she held out a coffee and asked, “You want one?”
“Absolutely. It doesn’t look like I’ll be getting any sleep tonight anyway.”
“Nope, you’re probably not.” She chuckled.
“Are you always this much fun on a stakeout?”
“Oh, hell no,” she said. “But I’m here for a reason, and I feel really confident that the outcome will make me happy.”
He looked at her. “Do you want to explain?”
“No. I didn’t really say too much about it to the guys at work either. I know they were curious, but, having nothing to justify what intuitively I feel is the right answer, won’t make me any brownie points.”
“You could always suggest it as a theory.”
“I do that all the time, but sometimes they don’t like hearing them.”
“Or is it just that you have a tendency to always be right?”
“It’s not my fault,” she argued. “Besides, I’m the rookie here, so I have to work twice as hard.”
“Why is that?” he asked in surprise.
“Well, I feel like I have to justify my position each time I think these things out loud.”
“Oh, I think you’ve done that already,” he noted in amazement. “How could you possibly think that you’re not worthy of that job? And it goes along with that whole ‘trying so hard to get there’ thing. Maybe just calm down and be more of a team member.”
“And now you’re starting to sound like my boss too.”
He winced. “Not trying to.”
“No, but I know when multiple people say the same thing over and over again, maybe there’s something behind it,” she admitted. “And I get it, and I am really working hard on it. I’ve been working really closely with Rodney on this whole case—and not just us either. The others have really stepped in and have helped out too.”
“Is it something that you all work on?”
“Yes, but sometimes we each catch different cases, and we work those too. When we’re waiting on whatever and don’t have anything to work on at the moment, then we help out the others. We’re all supposed to be part of the same team.”
“Yeah, when you say,supposed to—”
“It’s just a carryover from when I first started there. Honestly the entire atmosphere is very different now, and I really appreciate the change.”
“Good.” Then he motioned around them. “So how come they’re not on the stakeout with you?”
“I would have brought Rodney, but his kid had a birthday today.”