Chapter 16 - Paperwork

I was as determined at holding my new friend a secret as my partners were at getting answers.

"Come on Beckett, tell us what's going on" Ryan told me and I let go of an annoyed sigh.

"Nothing's wrong, if I needed you I'd let you know, ok?" I said meeting their curious eyes.

I narrowed my eyes and they seemed to get somewhat uncomfortable.

"It's nothing guys. Do we got a new case or is the only thing left to do paperwork?" I asked and I saw Ryan look towards his desk.

"Well, murderers never do take a break so what do you think?" he asked with a sigh.

He probably wanted home to his fiancé and I couldn't blame him. A new case meant another day working late, if there hadn't been a new body all there was to do was paperwork and those days we could leave when the workday's over. But when we had a new body we always ended up working late trying to find clues to catch the killer.

"Urgh... where are we off to?" I asked and both shook their heads.

"Nope, you're staying here" Esposito said with a smirk.

"What?! Why?!" I immediately questioned.

"You're filling out the paperwork for the last part of this case" Ryan mocked and both of them went out of the break room in a hurry to escape the paperwork.

"Font you guys!" I called out after them and I heard them laugh in response as they disappeared into the elevator.

They were probably still confused about what was going on with me and I got a feeling they would try investigate it on their own, but at least they had let it go for now. I looked at the girls who were talking about which Disney movies they had and hadn't watched.

"Could you two stay here, in this room, while I go to take care of the paperwork? If you need anything I'll be at my desk over there" I said pointing towards my seat out in the bullpen.

"Sure, but do you have any toys here we can play with?" Alexis asked unashamed and I thought for a moment.

"Perhaps I can let you borrow one of the iPads we have here, I'll ask the captain, you two stay here" I said, pulling Molly out of my lap to sit her down where I just left the couch beside Alexis.

I walked to the captain's office and knocked on her door. She looked up from her desk and immediately gestured to me to come inside. I let the door be open since my plan was to get out of here as fast as I had asked her about the iPad.

"Sir, is it okay if I let the girls use one of the iPads we have in the control room? I'll quick download a few games for them and tell them to only use those" I promised and she nodded.

"Sure, this once detective. And I heard you were going to take care of Molly until someone else can take her, do you need some time off to do that?" she asked and I shook my head.

"That won't be needed sir, my dad can always babysit them during the days. It was just today I brought them since I didn't know what was going to happen to Molly" I explained and she nodded.

"Yeah, I get what you mean, carry on" she waved me out of the room and I set my steps to the control room where I found the iPad and downloaded some games as I went towards the girls.

When I got inside the break room I told them what I had promised Gates to tell them before I said I would be at my desk if they needed anything. I sat down in my chair, took out the papers I needed to fill out and then I looked around to see if anyone was especially close to me or were listening to what I was doing. I felt relief when I found that no one in particular seemed interested in what I was doing, so I picked up my phone and pushed on the phone number I needed to talk to. I put the phone to my ear and waited for him to pick up.

"Hi" his voice sounded nervous.

"Hi, it had nothing to do with you or what..." I looked around and lowered my voice, "happened this morning."

I didn't want to attract anyone's attention so I had thought about trying to keep this conversation as light as possible and not whisper too much, since I knew for a fact that most would attract attention from the detectives around me.

"Y-you sure?" he stammered and I bit my lip.

Why did it hurt me that he would even think that? Why did it feel like a knife in my heart when I heard him being hurt? Why did I feel so attached to him even though I technically didn't know him?

"I'm sure, I wasn't sure about..." I continued to look around to make sure no one was paying any notice of me but realized that only made me more suspicious and decided to try stop acting like I was doing something wrong, "tonight because I have Molly over again, and I will act as her foster mother until they find her a new home, which I thought meant they would come over to check up on my living situations like they did when I got Alexis. But to benefit, they won't" I told him and I couldn't help but feel the blush and wide smile in my face as I connected us two in one word.

He ooh'ed and I bit my lip. I looked up to see Gates was glancing up at me, so I hooked the phone between my ear and shoulder to get my hands free. I took the pen I had put on the paperwork I was supposed to do and started to fill out the form while I continued to talk into the phone.

"I need to do paperwork but I just wanted to call to make sure you wouldn't misunderstand my explanation" I told him while I really tried to write the things I was supposed to write.

"I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions" he apologized and I immediately shut him down.

"No, don't worry! I probably would've thought the same thing" I told him looking around. "Perhaps we could talk more tonight? I don't want the captain to ask who I'm talking to during my work hours" I added.

"Yeah, absolutely! Can't wait" his voice sounded happier than it had in the beginning of our conversation.

We ended the conversation and I felt the smile on my lips never wanting to leave. I turned my full attention to the paperwork and got it done about one hour later. That's also about the time I found two girls jumping at me from each side scaring me enough to jump up in standing position with a small scream coming out of my mouth.

"Got ya!" they screamed out in laughter.

"What the... what's going on here?" Gates came out from her office and I could hear the curse she had to stop herself from saying.

"I'm sorry, sir! But we're bored, is there something we can do to get Kate free for the rest of the day? Or can do something to help out?" Alexis asked and I wiped my face with my hands.

"I'm sorry sir, it won't happen again. Alexis, Molly, what were you thinking?" I scolded.

I immediately regretted my choice of tone towards the girls. I didn't want to yell at them or make them feel bad but I just wasn't ready for that kind of scare and I reacted by instinct. The same instinct I had when I got jumped on when I was out on the field, minus the gun.

"Sorry" Molly said looking down, shame clearly written in her eyes.

Alexis looked at me with wide eyes, her laughter was gone.

"No, I'm sorry" I sighed, "I reacted by instinct after getting scared by you two" I said winking at them when they looked up.

Their faces immediately shone again, knowing they really scared me. They truly had gotten me, I hadn't even heard them coming. Guess I'd been in my own little world, not expecting someone to try and scare me in the precinct.

"There is thing you can do, then you're all free to go" Gates bargained and I looked at her with wide eyes.

Is she serious?

"You can help Kate go to the storage room to leave all the evidence from the previous case" she said and looking at me she added, "cause I assume you're done with your paperwork."

"Yes, sir. Thanks" I added.

She nodded and turned back into her office. I sorted out the papers, putting them were they were supposed to be at and then I looked at the girls.

"Let's go" I said and they smiled happily.

I handed them two small boxes with only a few things in them and took a bigger one myself before I showed them the way to the storage room. We tagged them and I told the girls what would happen to the evidence since they continued to ask why we had all these things down here when all of it could come to use. Well, they probably felt like that since they both noticed there were toys spread all over the place. I didn't tell them much about the toys though, I didn't need them knowing the blood that was on some of them or the horrible stories that were behind how they ended up in our storage. As soon as we were done me and the girls took the elevator towards the garage so we could take my car. On our way home I put in my phone in the speaker system and let Alexis choose the songs they wanted to listen to, which resulted in us listening to Disney songs like and so on. The fun part was that all three of us sang along, I was surprised to hear the Molly knew the most famous parts of every song we listened to despite her age. I had a feeling she had gotten to see a lot of them the last year when she was in her mother's arms. I couldn't help but feel sorrow for the girl, when she finally got to know her mother and got to feel like she was safe she had been ripped away from the one person who had tried to protect her the best she could. The worst part was that I could feel her pain, and I had even had 19 years with my mom. That's 18 year more than Molly will ever have.

"Is dad coming over tonight?" Alexis asked as I stopped the car and she handed back my phone.

"You'll see" I said winking at her and she giggled.

We got out of the car and I took each of their hands as we walked towards the elevator. When we rode up the elevator I quickly, as discretely as possible, sent away a text message to the man of the earlier talk. Before we even got to my floor I received a reply telling me he was on his way as soon as he had showered. Somehow I didn't manage to stop my mind from picturing him undressing himself, I bit my lip to try and hide the blush that came creeping up my cheeks.

"Why are you blushing? You texting dad?" Alexis asked and I groaned.

"Do you always notice everything?" I complained and she laughed at me, which Molly quickly joined.

"Yep" she said popping the p with a big smile.

I groaned again as the elevator beeped and the doors opened. I walked out and heard the girls follow me with their laughter never truly dying. I took out my keys and unlocked my front door so we could get inside.

"How about... you two coming up with something we can do and I'll see if Espo or Ryan has sent me something about the new case" I said, putting the keys in their bowl before I headed towards where I had my laptop.

"Okay!" Alexis said as she and Molly ran to the stairs to head up to Alexis' bedroom.

I got the laptop from my desk in my bedroom and walked out to the living room where I found Alexis and Molly sitting on the floor with papers and lots of pens in all different kind of colors. I smiled at them before I joined them with my laptop in my lap. Time to see if I was going to get to be involved in the case or not.