At Day’s instruction, Green was able to get JJ to one of their safe house locations until his flight the next day. The guy’s usually mocha skin looked ashen by the time Green left the small house outside of Brookhaven. He was sure JJ wouldn’t breathe easy until he was landing at San Francisco International. It seems that they were able to apprehend Chainz’s brother before he had the chance to give him any type of warning.
Green drove back to the station in Atlanta. It was already after one o’clock. He should have just enough time for some catch with the guys before his date. He had to admit to himself that he was disturbed by Ruxs’ reaction. I mean, were they supposed to be alone for the rest of their lives? Ruxs was dating, why couldn’t he? Ruxs had actually looked pissed when he’d told him about it. It wasn’t like he’d broken some plans that they’d made together.
Green strolled through the station and noticed that there were way too many people in their department. He saw other sergeants, detectives from vice and robbery, even some admin specialist, were all laughing while staring at one the of the big monitors they used for meetings. He looked for Ruxs but didn’t see him, figuring he was probably still down in lock-up guarding Aaron.
As soon as Green walked through the doors, heads turned and the laughter went up another ten notches. What the hell is so funny? Curtis made his way over to him and Green gave him a quick one-armed hug. “Hey buddy. How was school?”
“Fine. I just stopped by to drop of Day’s dry cleaning and all this was going on.” Curtis waved his hand at the crowd. He looked nervous instead of amused like all the others.
Green craned his head in the direction of the television, so he could see what they were all laughing at when Vikki strolled up to him. “Well here’s trouble number two. I swear, you guys will never learn.” She shook her head sauntering off.
Green moved to get in front of the screen, his mouth dropping open as he watched the video footage of him and Ruxs running wild through the supermarket. One of the IT detectives sped up the footage right to the point where Ruxs picked up the huge can of green beans and hurled it through the front window of the store. Rambunctious laughter rang out again and Green groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He hurried over to Stevens, the computer geek already rewinding and playing it again. “Hey, asshole. Turn this off, now!”
“You guys are in so much trouble.” Stevens grinned, pushing his black-framed glasses farther up his nose. “That woman you just tackled like Tony Romo, her lawyer already contacted the captain. The supermarket’s executive office is not in agreement that you guys were doing your job. They contend it’s negligence on the part of the police department to chase an armed suspect into a store full of innocent people.”
Green ran his hand through his hair, wishing this day was already over. “You know damn well if we would’ve let Chainz’s brother get away, our bust would’ve been tanked.”
Stevens just shrugged. One of the beat officers yelled for Stevens to replay Green slamming into the cereal display again. The young nerdy officer laughed hard and went to rewind it for his audience. Green yanked the kid up out of his chair, snarling in his face. “Turn it off or get ready for me to make a sequel starring me and you.”
“You’ve all got five seconds to get the fuck out of my department!” God’s deep voice had everyone scrambling for the doors. The office cleared completely in three seconds flat. Green watched God walk up to Stevens, glaring down at him as he removed the disc from his computer, handing it to Syn who had come in with his lieutenants. “The next time you want to entertain the masses at my detectives’ expense, you’ll do it from the fuckin’ unemployment line. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir,” Stevens said in a soft tone, quickly moving out of God’s way.
“Since you have so much energy and time to entertain, go down to lock-up and relieve Ruxs, tell him to come back up. You can sit there with Chainz’s brother and entertain him for the night. No one is to talk to him, he’s not to make a phone call, nothing. Got it?”
Stevens face couldn’t hide how much he hated his reprimand, but he didn’t dare voice it. He simply nodded his head stiffly and left the office.
God didn’t say anything to Green yet. He figured he was waiting on Ruxs to get back, to give them their own punishment. When his partner finally made it back upstairs, he looked like a hot, tired mess. He must’ve figured the same thing… this was not going to be pleasant.
“Stop looking so nervous,” Syn said from his desk, looking over at them. “You guys are not going to be grounded.”
“This time,” Day added quickly, coming through the door. “But I can tell ya. You’re getting real close.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t see another way that situation could’ve been handled. If Aaron would’ve gotten away, our plans to intercept Chainz’s deal would’ve been completely shot to hell. So I appreciate you guys doing what you needed to do to ensure that didn’t happen.” Syn stood and came over to clap Ruxs on his back. “But next time leave the throwing to Felix Hernandez.”
Everyone laughed, including God. “I can’t believe you fuckin’ did that, man. It would’ve been badass if you would’ve actually hit him.”
“What about the woman that I had to take down. Is she really suing?” Green asked his lieutenant.
God dropped down in his chair, rubbing his goatee like he was thinking. “Well. I told her lawyer, next time we’ll let her take the goddamn bullet. Then she wouldn’t be able to sue us ‘cause she’d be dead. At this point, I don’t give a fuck. It is what it is.”
Day draped his body over God’s shoulders from behind. Green never minded stealing a glimpse of their bosses’ love for each other. They didn’t do it in front of them often. But every now and then you’d catch them staring at each other, stealing a quick touch or embrace. It was stunning. The two beautiful, strong men like them together was a sight no one should want to turn away from. Anytime Day touched God, it looked like the man was no longer paying attention to anything around him. He’d closed his eyes and leaned his head back into the comfort of his partner. Green looked over at his own partner. Ruxs appeared to be mesmerized by the display of affection.
Day kept talking, breaking them all out of their thoughts. “Make sure you guys check out that warehouse tomorrow, see if anything is going on over there. It’s probably quiet, but get me some pictures if you see anything… and do it without making the goddamn six o’clock news, please.” He added with a smirk.
Ruxs and Green both stood up and begin to gather their things. Curtis was still sitting Indian-style on his desk playing with his phone. Green got up and pulled the sweet boy into a headlock, laughing as he squirmed trying to get away. “We still playing catch? Got plenty of daylight left.”
“Yeah. Sure,” Curtis said eagerly, hopping down to the floor. “What’s for dinner?”
“Actually, I’m going out buddy,” Green said.
“Oh okay. I’ll go over to Shane’s house. I think he’s having some friends over.”
“Over for what?” Ruxs jumped into the conversation, his voice deep and firm.
Curtis shrugged, walking with them out of their office. “I don’t know. Just over… ya know. Play some video games, whatever.”
“Alright. You know the rules. No drinking, no drugs.” Ruxs scrubbed his knuckles over Curtis’ blonde hair.
Curtis batted his hand away. “You know I don’t do any of that.”
“I know. I mean don’t be around it, either. If you see someone doing it, leave.” Ruxs opened Green’s back door and let Curtis climb up into the truck.”
“I know, I know. Dad.” Curtis laughed.
Hearing Curtis say that to Ruxs, even though it was a joke, stirred something in Green. He just couldn’t identify it. He looked over at his partner in the passenger seat and saw that it had touched something in him too. The entire task force felt like big brothers to Curtis but the relationship they’d developed with him over the years felt different.