Healing the Past

Figured Out

Chapter 17

I was apparently wrong in thinking the entire team left. As I walked through the lobby and out the doors I ran into Greg. Lovely. I knew exactly why he was waiting, and I did not want to have this conversation now.

“Thunder, can I talk to you?” At least he cut to the chase.

“Is there any putting this conversation off?” I had to ask.

“Nope.” Of course.

“Where do you want to go?”

“Meet at The Goose in 10?”

“See you there.”

Ten minutes later we were sitting together at the local bar, also a big cop hangout.  At first we kind of just sat there. My guess is he was waiting to see if I would surrender any information. Too bad for him, I wasn’t talking unless I had to.

“You ok?” Why on earth does everyone ask that?

“I’m fine. Why?”

“You seemed pretty upset after Spike got shot.” Well played, my friend well played. But I’m not going to fess up just yet.

 “He’s my teammate. How should I react? You guys were pretty shaken as well.”

“You seemed more concerned than a teammate should be.”

“I know what you’re getting at Greg, and I’m not saying anything until you spit it out.”

“Are you and Spike dating?”

“Yes.”

“That’s all?”

“What? You expected some elaborate lie? I’m not going to lie to you, Boss. Yes, I’m dating Spike. Yes, I know it’s against the rules. No, I have no idea what I’m going to do now that you know.”

He sat there a minute. “How long?”

“A week.”

“Not that long on a normal scale. Pretty long to go without the team noticing.”

“Yeah. Where are you going with this?”

“Can you continue to keep it professional?”

“What?” I had expected to be sent home and face some form of interrogation in the morning.

“Can you and Spike continue to be professional?”

“Yeah. Once again catch me up, because I’m lost.”

“Since you and Spike can remain professional, there’s no reason to raise a fuss about this.”

“Whoa, wait. Boss now that you know and you don’t report this, and people find out, you could lose your job with us. I can’t let you take that risk.”

“You want me to report you? You and Spike can lose your jobs.”

“Maybe I can make a deal. I quit, Spike keeps his job. I can find another job.”

“Spike would let you do that?”

“Probably not, but that’s not the point.”

“I don’t want to risk losing my bomb tech and my best profiler. I also don’t think you guys want to break it off.”

“Not really.”

He looked down, sighed, and then looked at me again. “Then I won’t say anything as long as you guys don’t make it obvious and stay professional.”

“One condition. If the higher powers figure us out, you never knew a thing. I’m not risking your job.”

“Shouldn’t I be naming conditions? Yeah that will work.”

“I’m telling Spike about this next time I see him.”

“Wouldn’t have expected anything else.”

I pulled some money out to pay for my drink. As I stood to leave I added “And Boss thanks. This means a lot.”