Message: XIX

"Where is Callaghan?" she asked an hour later when she had not seen her around and the report from autopsy was already laying on her desk. Davis, one of the investigators, shrugged and threw coins to the coffee machine.

"Haven't seen her, you sure she's not going to be late? Looks like one of those." He stated, scratching his unshaved cheek and Chyler rolled her eyes.

"Yes, she does, but I have seen her today already. She wasn't anywhere around so far?"

"I heard she was making a rampage by Rogers' office." Zora, one of her newest workers, stated, looking at her boss a bit shyly. "I don't know how true is it, though."

"Worth a shot nevertheless." Chyler nodded with a slight smile, taking the papers, and closing her room behind her. Then she headed to the lower levels of the precinct.

"Callaghan, it's not your department anymore!" she heard Jared's raised voice in the very moment she set foot on the floor.

"But it was a breaking in into MY house." Aria's voice was tired and didn't have that much strength, as if she had been trying to explain that to her ex-boss for some time by then. "And I had made the arrest."

"For hell's sake, listen..."

"No, you listen, mister I Will Take It From Here And Fuck It Up." She snarled, cutting into his sentence and Chyler held her breath. She had never heard anyone speaking like that to Rogers, let alone someone so young as Callaghan seemed to be. And yet she actually had either balls, or was too stupid to understand she shouldn't do that. "That was MY house, MY arrest and that is MY wife." She snarled.

In the moment Toussaint heard it, she froze. Wife? Callaghan had a wife? What happened? Was everything okay with her, since there was a break in and her wife, probably, had to be in the house when it happened.

"That is EXACTLY why you shouldn't..."

"Rogers, from the very first moment when you accepted my application here you knew what I am." She drawled. "Have I ever given you the smallest hint I give a fuck what I should?"

"Aria..."

"I know what my name is." She squinted her eyes. "And I am taking care of the shit she had put me into. I know how things work around. I know that police officer's families have it lighter. And that is something I want to avoid. She deserved to have it rough."

"You don't..."

"I do." She cut the conversation and just left to the interrogation room. Before she closed the door, she just put her hand on the doorknob, looking behind for a moment. "And I do not want anyone to interrupt our talk."

"What happened?" Chyler approached Rogers and looked at him, confused. "Is her wife okay?"

"If by okay you mean accused of breaking in, then yes, she is." He sighed, rubbing his face with disbelief. "I honestly don't know what the hell was I thinking when I took her in for work. She seemed to be a good worker."

"Wasn't she?" Toussaint raised her eyebrow.

"She still is, but well, she's... insubordinate to say the least, I guess." He shrugged. "What are you doing here, though?"

"Looking for her." She pointed the door with her chin. "But at the moment I think she's unavailable for anything."

"If you want to see the performance, I cordially invite you behind the mirror, Chy. You can see the interrogation Aria is pretty much known for."

"I don't know if I feel threatened by the sole thought or not." She admitted, hugging the papers. "But fine. Show me your finest."

He opened the door and they got inside the small, dimly lit room. The interrogation one was well visible. Chyler put the folder to the side, looking through the mirror, seeing Aria, in wrinkled shirt, her sleeves rolled up over her elbows. She looked like she was tired, but at the same time angry as hell.

"Why the hell were you even in my house." She asked, looking at the woman that was sitting in front of her. Toussaint frowned, seeing her. Quite short, not really buff or anything, long hair, sparking eyes. Why the hell Callaghan brought her in?

"Because it's also my house, honey." She leaned forward in the same moment when Aria straightened, adjusting her belt buckle. It was visible that what she said made her even angrier, but Chyler kind of understood. After all they were married, right?

"Have you gotten the letter from the lawyer?"

"I got some letter from a lawyer's office, but I haven't opened it." She admitted.

"Why?"

"Because I believe we can still make it work, sweetie."

"I don't." Callaghan cut the conversation before Mendez was able to even start it properly. "You had been caught on trespassing in my house. Why were you there?"

"Because I wanted to see you." Her wife didn't seem to be discouraged. Toussaint felt like she had barged into something she shouldn't.

"And which part of 'I don't want to see you ever again' didn't you understand?" Aria raised her eyebrow, crossing her arms on her chest. Mendez sighed.

"I just thought..."

"How did you get inside?"

"I had keys." She stated, quite surprised, probably because of the question itself. "You gave me the keys when I was moving in with you."

"I want to see them."

"Aria, sweetie, you know that..."

"Show me the keys now or I will make sure you'll spend the rest of the day in the murkiest, wettest and coldest cell I can find." She snarled, not even paying attention to her wife's face. It all looked like Aria had lost interest in anything they had ever shared. Because they had to share something since they had been married, right? Toussaint was quite confused at that moment.

Mendez sighed and she put the keys on the table. Aria looked at them, smirking mockingly, and then she took out the keys she had in her pocket, throwing them onto the tabletop right next to the set her ex put there.

"Distinctive difference, don't you think?" the officer then asked, pointing at the keys that were having different colors. All of them. From the place where Chyler was standing, she was not able to see the details, but she was sure that she saw they weren't the same.

"I got into the house..."

"Most certainly not using those keys, because they do not fit the new locks. And I have a witness who saw me changing them. I strongly recommend you to start saying the truth, because I do not have the whole day. And the reserve of my patience is already short when it comes to you."

"Okay, maybe I used the lockpicks, but..."

"That is making you an intruder. And you should be happy you weren't changed to the pulp in the process." Aria snarled, shrugging. "Someone will come around to pick you. I will make sure the charges are there. And that you'd not slip away from them."

"Ari!"

"I already told you not to call me that." Callaghan glowered at her angrily, and Mendez slouched right away seeing her glare. "Ever again. I hope I don't have to remind you what I promised you to do when you show up in my threshold again."

And she slammed the door behind her, leaving her wife handcuffed to the table, with one set of the keys in front of her.

"Sacre bleu, she does not have mercy for anyone." Toussaint swallowed, realizing that it was Aria talking with someone she had married. Whatever she wanted to think about that person, she was quite shocked. If Callaghan didn't have mercy for her closest people, she would not have any mercy for her.

She had to get used to it, didn't she?

"She had never had it. For anyone." Rogers sighed, giving her a side glance. "And that was making her a very effective officer."

"So I see." Toussaint nodded, catching the folder she carried with her. "I will try to get her working. If she has such a potential, it would be really sad if we wasted it."

"Yeah, good luck." Rogers cleared his throat when the door closed behind the detective.