Unexpected Pt. 02

Author's Note: This will be a slow burn type of romance/drama with more emphasis on the love rather than sexy times. If you're looking for more of the sexy times this may not be your cup of tea.

***

End of Part 1

After that day Kaitlyn and I became fast friends. Yes, it was still antagonistic at times when one or both of us would allow ourselves to get worked up and we would end up in a shouting match. But neither of us could stay mad at each other and within hours one of us would end up re appearing hat in hand to apologize. After that we would usually end up at the diner. I joked one time that we started arguments just so we could go there, and we both laughed.

Part 2

Summer quickly turned into Fall with unfortunately much the same results. No matter how many leads seemed to flow into the task force that I would send my detectives out on or follow up on myself none of them panned out. The week of Thanksgiving found me overseeing several interviews with potential persons of interest.

It was late afternoon the day before Thanksgiving when I walked out of the observation room after spending the last few hours observing several interviews. The interviews gave us little in way of useful information. Either the people just didn't know that much, or they were doggedly denying they knew anything. I walked back to the task force command center and sat down at my desk and sighed. Thankfully, the taskforce was about to pack up early and call it a day. Captain Jones told us to clock out early for Thanksgiving and no one was about to argue with him.

On the corner of my desk sat two books and two pictures that corresponded with each other. One was a sketch of Sherlock Holmes, and the other was Eliot Ness. One of the books was the complete works of Holmes and the other was a volume on Ness's time attempting to catch the torso killer in Cleveland. Ness became my idol when I was a teenager when I discovered the old show starring Robert Stack and the movie starring Kevin Costner. I picked up the book on Ness and started reading a few passages. As I was reading, I heard footsteps approaching my desk. I looked over the top of my book and saw Kaitlyn approaching my desk.

"Hi Matt." she said smiling as she sat down in the chair next to my desk.

"Hi Kaitlyn." I said as I lowered the book from my face and closed it while keeping the page I was on with my finger.

She must have sensed the frustration in me because she said, "Are you ok?"

"I've spent the afternoon observing interviews." I told her. I'd long ago learned that talking to her was for some reason therapeutic. Yes, I could talk to the other men in the unit, and often did, or the department did have therapists on staff, but for some reason talking to Kaitlyn helped me feel better. "Four hours of listening to people who either don't know anything or people who it's almost clear as day they do know something but it's like pulling teeth to get them to admit anything and we don't have enough to compel them to talk." I said in frustration.

Kaitlyn moved from where she was sitting in the chair beside my desk to sit on the edge of the desk itself right next to me. She put her hand on my arm that was still holding the book. "I'm sorry Matt." she said tenderly. I felt warmth and comfort flood into my body from where she touched me.

Before I could say anything else she looked at the book and said, "What are you reading?"

I turned the cover to face her and said, "A bio on Eliot Ness. In particular it's about his time in Cleveland trying to catch a serial killer."

She looked puzzled and asked, "Why would you want to read that?"

"Because Ness is one of my heroes and, in my opinion, one of the best law enforcement officers this country has ever had." I said. "And even though he never officially solved this case I'll flip though these pages when I'm frustrated thinking maybe I'll get an idea from him on what to do next. I know it sounds silly."

"It's not silly." she said. "You know in your own way you're just as dogged as I am. We just go about it in different ways. You try to dig into what people like Ness and Holmes would do while I just barge in and demand answers loudly and won't leave anyone alone until I get them." I couldn't help but smile at that and we both laughed.

At that moment several people came into the room all voicing the frustrations that I had just unloaded on Kaitlyn. By this point Kaitlyn had been around the taskforce so much that nobody questioned her presence with me, and we even joked about swearing her in and getting her a badge.

I looked at my watch and saw it was almost 4:00, so I stood up and said, "Ok men I think we've done enough. Time to pack it up for the day and go and try and enjoy our Thanksgiving." A round of cheers followed and I walked over to the corner and grabbed a file box and brought it back to my desk. I started packing up files from the day's work to look over during the break.

Kaitlyn clearly saw what I was doing as she asked, "Big plans for Thanksgiving Matt?"

"Not really." I replied. "Get some rest and try to read through all of this and hope there's something we can follow up on that will get us somewhere."

She frowned and said, "Well that doesn't sound like much fun. Don't you have family or somewhere you can go and get a good meal?"

"My family is two states away." I said as I continued to pack files into the box. "There's no way I could get up there and be back here in time to be back at work Friday."

"Why don't you come eat with me and my family?" she asked.

"I wouldn't want to impose." I said almost automatically. I was actually quite surprised at the offer. While Kaitlyn and I had become friends and shared some tense as well as tender moments it never occurred to me that she thought that much of me to include me in her family activities.

"You wouldn't be imposing." Kaitlyn insisted. "Mom and dad like you and Mom always cooks enough for an army even though it will only be six of us if you come so there's more than enough food."

I still wasn't sure, but Kaitlyn persisted, "Come on Matt, you can't spend Thanksgiving holed up reading reports."

"Says the person who gave me hell for trying to eat a sandwich and read an article on ancient Egypt." I said.

"Don't be cute." she shot back.

I was about to say something when suddenly Captain Jones was right there and said, "You should listen to your girlfriend Ryan."

Kaitlyn and I shared a laugh as I said, "Kaitlyn is not my girlfriend Captain."

"Well, whatever she is to you I think you should listen to her." the Captain said in his usual slightly gruff voice before walking out.

I looked at Kaitlyn who had a look of odd curiosity on her face and a raised eyebrow as she said, "Is he always like that?"

"Yeah." I said chuckling again. "Jones is a good captain, but like Faulk he's old school. He tries to show us he cares about us, but he lacks the social finesse to do more than what you just saw."

Kaitlyn then grinned at me and turning the conversation back to where it started said, "See even your captain says you should come eat with us."

"You're not going to let this go until I agree, are you?" I asked.

"Nope." she said giving me a sweet yet also smirky like smile. "So why don't you just agree to come over and save us both some energy. I mean even your uptight captain thinks you should." That comment brought out a small chorus of laughter from the people left in the room.

I sighed in a bemused way grinning before I said, "Ok you win."

She smiled in triumph and said, "Ha! I knew I could convince you."

I chuckled and said, "Ok, ok, you don't have to be a sore winner. Where am I going and when do you want me to be there?"

This whole interaction had been interrupted several times as various members of the task force had finished packing up their desks and were saying goodbye. Now it was Jeff's turn.

"Don't act like you don't want to have dinner with your little groupie." Jeff said to me laughing.

I was suddenly in an awkward situation. I hadn't told Kaitlyn we referred to her as our groupie. Thankfully she somewhat took it in stride.

"What did he call me?" Kaitlyn said in surprise.

"Matt never told you?" Jeff said mirroring her surprise. "You're our unofficial groupie since you're here almost as much as we are."

Kaitlyn's mouth formed an o of surprise as she looked at me. She was trying to look mad, but I could tell she really wasn't. Sure, enough within seconds her face went from surprise to scowl to smirk and finally she started laughing.

"You guys are terrible!" she said still laughing. Then looking at me she said, "I suppose you started that little nickname up."

"No, it was actually Detective Faulk." I said chuckling.

That surprised her even more than the nickname itself. "What?!" she said completely dumbfounded. "I don't believe it!"

"Faulk, believe it or not, does have a sense of humor." Jeff chimed in. "It was a few weeks ago right after you had left after one of your visits he comes through and said in his monotone voice 'she's like a damn groupie.' Of course we were all dying."

Jeff then looked to me and said, "Sorry man didn't mean to get you in trouble."

"Yeah, thanks a lot." I quipped back. "If I'm not here tomorrow you'll know why. And I'll make sure you're held responsible."

"Hey don't blame me, blame Faulk." Jeff shot back.

Kaitlyn was laughing again and said, "You guys are impossible."

We looked back at her, and I said, "Hey if we didn't find a way to laugh at least a little every now and then we would have gone insane. And don't you act all high and proper. You've had a few laughs at our expense." I looked back a Jeff and said, "She does a pretty good Faulk." Looking back at Kaitlyn I said, "Go ahead and show Jeff."

That look of surprise was back on her face as she said in a hush, "I can't do it now, he's right over there."

"Sure, you can." I prodded. "You think he hasn't heard everything we said already?"

Jeff chimed in, "The great thing about Faulk is you can make fun of him and the worst he'll do is ignore you. He won't get mad, he won't yell at you, he'll just act like he didn't hear you. On a rare occasion when he's in the mood he might give a quip or two back."

Kaitlyn stood up from where she was still sitting on the edge of my desk and standing up as straight and stiff as she could and said imitating Faulk's voice, "That's an issue we're still trying to investigate, so I can't comment on that." All three of us busted out laughing at the same time.

At that same moment Faulk moved up to us and in his monotone voice said, "Not bad. See you Friday Matt." before walking out of the command center. The only thing we could do at that point is bust out laughing again.

"On that note I've got to go." Jeff said. "You two have fun tomorrow. See you Friday Matt."

"See you, Jeff." I said and he quickly departed along with the last of the task force staff leaving me and Kaitlyn in the command center.

Kaitlyn tore a sheet of paper off of one of the half dozen or so legal pads that were piled on my desk around my laptop and wrote and address on it. Handing me the sheet she said, "That's my parent's address. Come over some time around 12 or so. By then we'll have the snacks out and Dad will be cutting on the ball games. We'll probably eat around 3. Dad likes to watch the whole Lions game and see how badly they lose by."

"What should I wear?" I asked.

"Something comfy is fine." she said. "We're not formal at all. You see what I wear most of the time." 90 percent of the time when I saw her Kaitlyn was wearing jeans and t-shirts always giving her that 'girl next door' look. It suited her.

"Maybe I'll see if Faulk will loan me one of his 3-piece suits." I said dryly as I threw my computer in my bag, and we made our way to the door.

"Now that would be funny." Kaitly said giggling.

I shut the lights off in the command center and we both made our way out to the parking lot.

"I'll see you tomorrow." I said.

"I'm looking forward to it." she said as we hugged.

It wasn't until after I got home that I realized that I had left my box of files that I was going to read on my desk. I thought about going back for them but decided against it. If Kaitlyn was saying I should take a day off, then that was good enough for me.

***

Thanksgiving morning arrived cold and bright as I woke up. I was determined to sleep in since it had been probably a year since I had been able to do that, so it was after 8 when I woke up and the sun was fully up. After grabbing a quick shower and a bowl of cereal I was enjoying another cup of coffee and listening to Good Morning America when my phone beeped. Looking at it I saw I had a message from Kaitlyn.

"Hi Matty. Would you mind grabbing a couple of bags of ice and chips before you come over?"

I chuckled to myself as I typed out, "First you drag me over there on my day off and then you want me to bring stuff...good grief..."

A few seconds later, "You're a lifesaver. Saves us a trip out." followed by a couple of laugh emojis.

"Thanks for showing me where I rank in the scheme of things." I typed back.

A few seconds later a couple of kiss emojis came through with, "Does that make you feel better?!"

I chuckled as I typed out, "What am I going to do with you?"

Seconds later, "Deal with me because you love me."

"Maybe I'll just let Faulk deal with you." I typed back.

"Ha ha! Well I've got to help mom start cooking. See you in a little bit."

"I'm looking forward to it." I sent back and got another kiss emoji in response.

I set the phone down and took a swallow of coffee and wondered what was going on between us.

I spent the rest of the morning doing some light cleaning around the house and baking up a batch of tollhouse cookies to take over to Kaitlyn's. One of the few vices I had been able to keep was having fresh baked cookies to come home to after a 14-hour day. After going to the 24-hour convivence store that I frequented and grabbing the requested ice and chips I headed over to Kaitlyn's.

Kaitlyn answered the door at her parent's house and quickly ushered me in out of the cold. She guided me back to the kitchen and had me set my load of stuff on the kitchen island bar. My nose as assaulted with the multitude of aromas of homemade cooking, and I was immediately glad I agreed to come. Not that I couldn't have gotten a good meal from one of the cafeterias around the area that served turkey dinners on Thanksgiving, but homemade cooking was always better.

Once I got my cargo unloaded on the counter Kaitlyn said, "You remember my mom Judy right?"

"Yeah we met at the funeral." I said. "Thanks for having me Mrs. Davis.

Judy hugged me and said, "Call me Judy dear. I'm glad you could make it." A few seconds later Kaitlyn's dad appeared from parts unknown.

"Ah there's our fearless detective." he said jovially.

"And my dad Bill." Kaitlyn said.

"Good to see you again sir." I said as we shook hands.

"Oh good lord don't call me sir, I'm not in the army. Call me Bill." he said laughing.

"Anyway, get yourself settled in. Judy should have the snacks out soon. Then come on down to the garage. I've got it good and warm, so we can shoot some pool and watch the Lions get their asses kicked." he said.

"It sounds like fun." I said.

After the introductions with Kaitlyn's parents Kaitlyn asked if she could take my coat. Once I had taken it off and given it to her, she looked at me with an almost scowl.

"Matt!" she said incredulously. "I told you you didn't have to dress up." Just to mess with her a bit I wore a blue oxford shirt and a red tie, basically my normal work attire. She was wearing, as I had come to expect jeans and a dark green t-shirt.

"Actually, you said wear something comfortable." I said. "This shirt is premium oxford fabric and very comfortable."

"Don't be a smartass you know what I meant." she said scowling at me.

"Now Kaitlyn be nice to him." her mother said from the stove. "He looks very handsome. You shouldn't pick on a man for caring about his appearance."

I couldn't help but laugh a little at this. "See even your mom is on my side."

"That's because she doesn't know you." she said. "I know you did it just to annoy me."

"And it worked, so mission accomplished." I said smirking at her.

"You see mom, he did it just to annoy me." Kaitlyn said.

"Well, no matter the reason he still looks handsome, and we should appreciate that." Judy said. Before Kaitlyn and I could continue our playful bickering Judy said, "Come on you two the snacks are ready." She then pulled several pans of hot finger foods out of the oven while Kaitlyn pulled a few things out of the refrigerator. We spent a few minutes getting everything organized on the island bar before each grabbing a drink and a small plate of snacks to nibble on.

After a few minutes of amiable chatting with Kaitlyn and her mom, her dad reappeared and got his own plate of snacks and said to me, "Come on son let's get out of the women's way and go down to the garage. The Lions game is about to start." He must have seen me steal a glance in the ladies' direction because he added, "Trust me it's better to stay out of Judy's way when she's cooking a big meal. Her and Kaitlyn have a system and it works better if we're out of the way. They'll come get us if we're needed."

Kaitlyn gave me a grin and a confirming nod, and I followed Bill through the door into the garage. True to what he had said before, it was nice and warm in the garage that Bill had turned into his mancave. The backwall held a massive tv with two leather recliners facing it. Off in the opposite corner from where we had come in was a small bar and out closer to the main door leading out was a full-size pool table. I stood back for a second and admired what he had put together down here.

"You like it?" Bill asked.

"It's very nice." I said as we both sat down in the leather recliners. The NFL pregame show was already playing on the tv.

Bill and I settled in and chatted amiably about the ball game and the NFL in general while we ate our snacks. A little after halftime he stood up and moved over to the bar and grabbed a couple of tumblers.

"You like scotch?" he asked.

"I'm a bourbon and coke guy most of the time." I said as I stood up and stretched.

"I can do that." Bill said and ducked under the bar and reappeared with a can of coke in his hand. After making both of us a drink he said,

"You shoot pool?"

"It's been a while but yeah." I said.

We went back to the pool table, and he racked up the balls and we started playing. As we were playing and half listening to the ball game, I slowly felt the tension that had practically taken up permanent residence in my body go down. Once again I was glad, I gave in to Kaitlyn and came over here.

While Bill and I continued our game of pool at one point the door to the garage opened and Kaitlyn appeared with two other young women. Again, from the funeral I recognized them as her brother's widow and daughter.

Bill dropped his stick and went and hugged his granddaughter and daughter in law. Then Kaitlyn said, "You two remember Matt, right?

"Oh yeah, the lead detective, right?" asked the widow Jamie. "What brings you here detective? An update?" she said cooly.

I suddenly felt awkward, but thankfully Kaitlyn cut in, "No I invited Matt since he couldn't get away to see his family today."

"Oh." Jamie said clearly a little surprised. "I'm sorry detective I didn't mean to."

"It's ok." I said smiling at her. "And call me Matt."

Jamie and her young teenage daughter Jeslyn quickly went back up the stairs into the house. Kaitlyn looked at me and said, "Don't be mad at them. They're still taking my brother's death pretty hard."