I NEED A HERO (𝓒𝓞𝓜𝓟𝓛𝓔𝓣𝓔)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Nemera woke with the sweet, spicy scent of carnations surrounding her. Through half-closed eyes she looked up at the bouquet on her nightstand and smiled. Somewhere in those moments before she dropped off to sleep, she had realized that her partner had set her up. Orr had, in fact, set both of them up. She wasn't sure whether to kiss him or punch him for that.

As she got ready for work, she decided that she would take her usual route of chewing Orr out, then thanking him. With that decided, other things clamored for her attention. Foremost was wondering how she should act at work.

She didn't want to start necking in the supply closets, but at the same time their relationship had changed - at least as far as she was concerned. Even with the morning after pragmatism, she didn't think Tau would ignore it, either. She opted to keep it light and see how he decided to handle it.

When Nemera let herself into the case room a few minutes before starting time, Orr and Tau were not there yet. On her desk, however, was a stay-hot cup and a bag. She was grinning as she crossed the room, seeing a sticky note stuck to the cup.

It read:

"You HAVE to try this flavor - Dark Chocolate with sweet cream. It is so good! T."

Well, she thought, that was casual. Popping open the cup she sniffed the aroma, and her mouth watered. A careful sip told her that he was absolutely right. The sack was probably a cream cheese danish.

It was. But there was also a huge red carnation, it's short stem set in a cute little wide-bottomed vase, perfect for her desk. She drew it out carefully and took a sniff, aware that she was smiling broadly. That was not so casual. She made a place for it where it was out of the way, but close enough for her to catch a whiff of it's scent every so often.

Just as she started to open the facial recognition search, the door opened and Tau and Orr came in, both of them laughing. Orr waved and headed for his terminal. Tau came toward her, and tossed a small box onto her desk. It was a sampler of dairy creams.

"Thank you," Nemera said with a grin. "But you should know I ate almost the whole big box you brought already."

"I figured," said Tau. "That's why I brought you these."

"You're going to make me fat," she complained.

"Fat?" Tau exploded into laughter. When he could catch a breath he shook his head. "With your metabolism you could live on dairy creams and not get fat." He looked her over. "Besides, even if you gained some pounds, you'd still look good."

"My Grandmother says I'm going to swell up like a balloon when I hit thirty,' she said, smiling. "That only gives me about a year and a half."

"Really? Why?" asked Tau. "It's not like your Mom has a problem."

"It's my Mota Grandma," explained Nemera. "She tells Makenna the same thing. Mostly it's just teasing."

"Ah! Like Madra telling me not to get too full of myself or my head would explode," said Tau with a grin.

"Exactly." The search data loaded and she almost yelped. "We've got a ninety-four percent match!"

The other two came to stand beside her as the picture loaded. The lacking percentage was likely due to the unsub wearing sunglasses - otherwise the match was near perfect.

"So, this guy came in on a private charter from Roki," said Orr. "It's right in your time frame, Tau. He arrived a week before you did."

"It's him. It has to be." Tau leaned down to better see the screen. "Can you zoom in and sharpen it, Cavanaugh?"