For Our Eyes Only

Chapter 1

Everyone knows that the work life of a cop is difficult. But I strongly believe that the boredom that had engulfed me since I missed the opportunity to actually work with the cops is even worse.

To further explain, about a year ago, some bureaucrat (who I actually ran against in a competition for candidacy) came in and established some made-up rule about how he could transfer cops just because he felt like it, which affected my girlfriend, Juliet's, position in the police force tremendously. She was given multiple choices: she could be transferred to any station in the country with no say in the matter; she could let her ex-partner, Carlton Lassiter, step down from his new position as chief of police and have them both deal with whatever new positions they were given; or she could take an offer made by our former chief, Karen Vick. Chief Vick was moving to San Francisco for the opportunity to build the police station there from the ground up, and she had offered Juliet a job as head detective. Juliet decided to take it.

After Jules had moved to San Francisco, I stayed in Santa Barbara to be with my best friend, Gus, and to help out Lassiter and his new, very enthusiastic partner, Betsy Brannigan, with any cases. Months passed. The work was tiring, and although I had Gus for company, coming home every night to an empty house was just a reminder of how much I missed Jules. So I decided to do something about it.

I spent days planning everything. Getting my affairs together proved to be more complex than I had estimated. Packing was the easy part of it. Finding ways to tell people that I was leaving Santa Barbara to move with Juliet in San Francisco was a little bit more challenging. I spent hours on end trying to figure out ways to tell Gus. It's hard to find a friendship as close as ours; we're like Forrest and Bubba, or Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. We're even like Harry and Lloyd, except we're clearly much more attractive. How do you just tell someone like that about how you're leaving them and the business you two created together so you can be with your girlfriend? I knew that Gus was aware that I loved Jules, but I honestly don't think he knew I loved her to that extent. After all, I had usually always put Gus first in any situation.

So I put it off for as long as possible. I figured that telling Jules first would be logical, so I did, in which she responded with extreme happiness, followed by questioning how Gus had reacted to the news. Later that day, I thought up a plan to tell Gus. I wanted to tell him during one of our cases, so he would know that it would be our last case together, but I never got the opportunity to do it. Surprisingly, Lassiter managed to figure out my plans of moving to San Francisco. Good old Lassie, always figuring out what Gus couldn't.

So I did what I could to tell Gus. I made a video, telling him all about how I couldn't do it any longer, how I had to leave, and apologizing for everything and every opportunity I had taken away from him. I made videos for everyone I knew. I sent them out, hopped on my motorcycle and drove all the way to Jules.

I found her at a crime scene, which wasn't that shocking, considering the fact that she was a homicide detective. Just as we had started talking, Gus burst into the room, rambling on and on about how upset he was that I left him without saying goodbye and how he quit his job and how he had finally decided to move to San Francisco to work with me, even though he had changed his mind about twelve times.

The gang was back together again. Well, except for Lassiter, but he was happy with where he was anyway. I was so happy, we all were. The happiness made me realize that I could actually grow a pair and do something I had been wanting to do for years. Following my gut, I proposed to Juliet and got a positive response.

The ring got stolen after she'd said yes, it's kind of a long story, but in the end we managed to get it back and later discuss our terms of employment with Chief Vick. Jules was obviously head detective, but you see, Gus and I aren't detectives. Well, maybe Gus is, but my detective work relies on the psychic realm. Actually, that's not true. I'm not really a psychic, I'm just hyper observant, courtesy of my father's fantastic parenting skills. At this point, everyone besides the chief knew I was a phony, but as long as she was the one employing me, I had to keep up the act. I asked about where I would fit in, only to discover that my spot had been taken by a guy that looked disturbingly identical to Tony Shalhoub.

Now that I was unemployed, for almost a month afterwards, my life just consisted of sitting around the house, waiting for Jules to come home from the station. It was Dullness 2.0, besides helping out with wedding plans. Luckily, things started to turn around on the twenty fourth day of sitting at home.