The Carver Café [Edward/Jacob]

18 P2

Jacob's not sure what he's expecting when he shows up to work on Monday morning. Maybe he thought that there would be a little chaos. There always was when a case got close to any of their homes. What he isn't expecting is officers, who aren't even on the case, flying around like worker bee's, there are papers flying everywhere, everyone looks on edge, everyone has something in front of them. No idle chatter around the water cooler. Maybe he should've seen this coming. When his eyes find one of the back corners of the room, he sees Mike standing in the meeting room doorway, waiting for him.

"Black!" 

Jacob's head whips around to see the Chief standing in her own doorway, arms crossed, waiting for him. He follows her without question.

He doesn't bother sitting down in one of the little pleather chairs that line the front of her desk and instead stands in between the two of them waiting for instructions.

"I took you off of the case over a month ago because I felt you were getting distracted," she starts, plopping down into her seat and idly messing with a couple of files on her desk, "and I was right." 

It's not what Jacob's expecting. Of course she's not going to admit when she's wrong, but he's not expecting any kind of actual explanation from her. He'd prepared himself to be handed a couple of files and thrown back into the fray with everyone else.

"Congratulations, by the way."

He tries to train his face into an expression that isn't him looking at her as if she's lost her mind. Congratulations? On what? Being back? Not being fired?

"I needed to see where your mind was so I asked Officer Newton for an update." She says without looking up from the files that she's meticulously organizing. She finally looks up at him. 

An update? On his personal life?

He has to pinch his lips together to keep from saying something unprofessional. He wasn't running around professing what was happening in his life from the rooftops. He got a little banged up, but he managed to keep his main focus on the case. Anything else, there was no way she could've known about. His replacement was with her daughter and she doesn't notice that he's out of line and "distracted" until she's pregnant and there is an imminent threat to her life. It's not adding up.

["Not done with the bad news. Sorry, Doc," Mike confesses, sounding genuinely apologetic, "When he was suggesting the whole bear trap to murder scenario, he also went to the chief about your relationship."

"Your little display of affection was a little too realistic." Mike points out. Jacob didn't really want to delve into what he meant by that.

"Good news?" Edward asks a bit more desperately.

"Nope, not done," Edward gives a huff of irritation, tossing the pillow back over his face, "He mentioned to Boss lady that, since you were connected to a potential victim, it'd be irresponsible to let you back on the case."]

She'd only known because Uley told her.

"Your help is now needed on this case due to Detective Uley's current suspension." He doesn't miss the way her upper lip curls and her nostrils flare at the utterance of his name, "Officer Newton will catch you up on the case. Get this closed quickly."

Then, he's dismissed.

He doesn't say anything and doesn't look at anyone until he's in the meet room.  He closes the door behind him and turns around to be greeted with three sets of bulging eyes. He can hear Jessica audibly gasp.

"So, you're not dead? Huh." She says before whipping out her wallet and handing Angela twenty bucks.

"And you weren't on paternity leave..." Angela says, staring down at the lower part of his button up before handing the twenty bucks to Eric, "you were really just out with an injury?"