Chapter 14
Rated "M"
XIV - Credit
It had been literally one week since I had come back from my three month leave of absent. Seriously. Only a week. And yet, dealing with Roxanne and Lily and that guy in the unofficial mental hospital, Jefferson was it, it felt like more than a month. Absolutely crazy how life can feel that way.Roxanne was gone that Monday, doing some classified business for the FBI, leaving me to fend for myself, which didn't really bother me, but it still felt a little... unusual not to have Roxanne sitting opposite from me, her eyes glued to the computer screen and her fingers moving faster than I had ever seen.
"Hey, where's Roxanne?" Zak said as soon as he got to the precinct. I almost laughed.
"Uh, doing some job for the FBI. They won't tell me or anyone else what it is. Not even the Captain." Zak rose a brow at my answer.
"Whoa, dude. How do you know all this? Are you secretly a hacker? Can you read minds?"
"Shut up." I said as Zak laughed. He walked around to sit in Roxanne's desk and leaned back in her chair.
"Dude, what's with the attitude? How long have you been hanging around Miss Winston, again? A week or a year?"
"Seriously?" I asked, Zak just shrugged, a smirk displayed on his face. I rolled my eyes. "It's been a week, only a week, since I met the damn girl. And she has not changed me one bit."
"Uh, huh. And how do you explain this, then? Aliens?"
"This is not up for conversation, Zak. It will never be, got it? Isn't there something you need to do anyway?" I asked, logging into my computer. Zak shrugged and folded his arms, leaning onto the desk Roxanne had used for the past week (and would use until further notice [a.k.a until the FBI wanted her back]).
"Oh, yeah! There is!" Zak stated, perking up at my question. "Your parents called me yesterday."
"They called... you?"
"Yeah, they said something about you not picking up your phone and such so they called me to remind you that Violet is turning two on Friday and that they want you to be there to celebrate."
"Great. My parents celebrating with a child. That will be interesting."
"Hey, you gotta remember that this is Violet, not some child your parents picked up from the streets and are planning on giving up for adoption. This is your niece, Alex. Come on, you can endure a few hours of your parents weird ways just to make Violet happy."
"She asked you to come, didn't she."
"Both Rosaline and I. How the hell did she know who I was dating now?" I smiled at Zak's question and shook my head slowly.
"You should've heard her voice when I told her you weren't sleeping with that stripper anymore."
"First off, she wasn't a stripper. Second, why would you tell your mother that? You know she's judgy."
"Zak. She was a stripper."
"No she wasn't."
"Yeah she was."
"No."
"She's as much a stripper as you are a computer geek. Get the hell over it. And you and Rosaline are going. If you don't, you know what will happen."
"Yeah, your mother will hunt me down like a lioness with starving cubs. I got it." I clicked on the last report - and only report - Roxanne and I had to see the whole report completed to perfection and Roxanne's name signed at the bottom. I pasted my own signature next to hers and emailed it to the Captain. "Hold on a second," Zak suddenly said and I looked at him, an eyebrow raised.
"What is it?"
"Why am I taking someone to Violet's party and your not?"
"Because you're the one with the girlfriend, dumbass." I couldn't help but roll my eyes at Zak's sudden stupidity. He shook his head.
"Have you told your mom about Roxanne yet?"
"What about Roxanne? That she's an FBI agent I've been partnered with for the next few months? Then no. She's doesn't know anything about Roxanne, not even that she exists, and right now, that's how I want it."
"And how does Roxanne feel about this?"
"I don't know! With her personality, she'll probably agree with me."
"You should bring her with you."
"Seriously? Do you have any idea what imagine my mother will get when she's sees that?" Zak just shrugged.
"I don't know. You tell me."
I opened my mouth to speak, but was immediately over thrown by the Captains booming voice.
"Alexander." He said, I turned around to see him nod to his office. I said nothing to Zak as I left, though I did have a lot to say when I got back. I walked into the Captain's office as he closed the door.
"Yes, sir." I said, looking at him. He took a breath before speaking. He didn't even order me to sit down as he stood at the door to talk.
"I need you to go pick up Miss Winston."
"Pick up, sir?"
"Yes. Pick up. As in take a car and pick her up."
"Excuse me for asking, but why?"
"Miss Winston is a tough character, as you probably already know. She refuses to go to the hospital to be checked for minor injuries, so I'd like you to watch her for the night. Make sure she doesn't leave your apartment until morning."
"Wait, what-"
"You'll see when you get there." Was all that the Captain said before handing me a slip of paper and opening the door back up. I rose a brow. This was going to be interesting.
All I could do was stare at Roxanne as she sat in the back of the ambulance, drenched in the sea water that was at the bottom of the bridge. She glared plainly at me as one of men in the back of the ambulance took her blood pressure.
"Stop staring at me, Sempers."
"And you suppose I do what, then? Stare at that little girl awkwardly? Stare at the water you just jumped into?" Roxanne shook her head and looked away from me.
A middle-aged man walked over, his arm wrapped around his wife who was holding the four year old girl Roxanne had saved. He smiled brightly at the soaking blonde.
"Thank you so much-" He began, but was cut off by Roxanne.
"Don't thank me. Thank the FBI. Remember that when you go public with this."
"How did you-"
"Don't ask questions, just do it." With that Roxanne stood up and walked toward the car the Captain had let me borrow from him. An old beaten-up Cadillac. I followed her to the passengers side.
"What the hell was that about? The guy was thanking you for saving his daughter and you just tell him to thank the Bureau?" Roxanne glanced at my before shrugging off her suit jacket. I narrowed my eyes, concentrating on Roxanne's emotions instead of the light blue lace of her bra and dark black lines of her tattoos she had underneath her white shirt.
"I don't want the credit, Sempers. All I want is justice, to put this bastard in prison where he belongs. Now, if I have to jump off a fifty foot bridge into freezing cold water to save a little girl before it, I'll do it. But I'm not doing this job to save people like that. I'm doing this job to prevent all those attempts on people's lives. I don't want credit. I don't want to be interviewed and talked to constantly by everyone on the street. I want to be unknown, okay? I don't care what you or anyone else thinks about that. So just leave it."
As I stood up straight, I realized something. Roxanne seemed shorter - still tall, but just shorter - than she was at work. I looked down to see her shoes missing. I rose a brow.
"Where are your shoes?" I asked. Roxanne looked around me at the water.
"Now, with the current, they're probably now in the Atlantic." I just stood there as Roxanne dried her hair and wrapped the towel around her as she held her jacket. How the hell did she survive? Let alone with a child.
I understood Roxanne more at that moment than ever before. Sure, I was willing to die to save my city, but Roxanne, Roxanne knew that she'd sometime end up getting herself killed in order to save her country. And she was going to do everything she could before that day came. She was an agent. A good one, in fact. Better than a lot I had met before. She was the reason the country was safe. The reason everyone I protected was in less danger than myself. Less danger than Roxanne. Less danger than every like her.
Roxanne would die for her country. If only I didn't hate that about her.
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