Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Oh, Sarah, there you are!” Joe called from his office door. “Would you mind coming in here for a moment?” Sarah left the file she had brought in with her on Charlie’s desk. In Joe’s office, Charlie was already sitting in the chair further from the door. She sat beside him, suddenly feeling like she was a kid in the principal’s office as Joe took his seat across from them.

“We got a call from the Major Crimes department in Halifax this morning,” Charlie said. She tried to catch his eye, to get some kind of clue as to why this case involved her, but he seemed determined to look anywhere but her.

“Do they need our help on a case?” she asked.

“Sort of. They’ve been tracking a criminal ring down there, and they have evidence it’s trying to expand into Newfoundland, but they haven’t established their operations fully. We have an opportunity to take them down now, before they get roots here in St. John’s,” Joe explained. Sarah nodded along. “The trouble is that this ring is smart. They don’t trust individuals. They know how too easy it is to get one person to flip. Every new person they bring in has to bring another with them – a parent, a sibling, a spouse, even a best friend.”

“Someone the ring can use as collateral,” Charlie clarified. There was a darkness in his tone that made her think he didn’t like Joe’s plan.

“Are you sending us undercover?” Sarah asked. Joe nodded. “As a…”

“As a couple,” he confirmed. She suddenly understood Charlie’s reluctance. “I need someone with forensics experience on this case to collect all of the evidence as we run the operation, plus you and Charlie have worked together before.”

“I’ve never done undercover work, though,” Sarah argued. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“You can,” Charlie said emphatically, finally looking at her. There was an intensity in his gaze she wasn’t used to. Even if she didn’t think he was right, his gaze made it clear that he believed in her. “And you won’t be doing it alone.”

“You’ll have whatever resources you need from the department backing you up,” Joe said. “Jesse and I will run point from here, and I’ll ask Dr. Poole to handle things in the lab while you’re focusing on this case.”

Joe looked at her expectantly, waiting for her answer, but she was focused on Charlie. He was still looking at her, as if now that he had started he couldn’t stop. She understood the feeling.

He nodded, the movement so subtle she would have missed it if she didn’t know him so well.

“Okay,” she said. She turned back to Joe. “Tell me all about the case.”

“Let me help you with that,” Charlie said as he reached for the handle of her suitcase. She let him take it, trying to ignore the sparks that ran through her when his hand brushed hers. She slipped past him, stepping into the safe house that would be their home for foreseeable future.

“Looks like Rex has made himself at home,” she said. Rex barked once, happily, and stood from his bed to greet her.

“Rex is happy anywhere he has treats and our favorite people around,” Charlie replied. Sarah bit her cheek, trying not to blush at being referred to as one of their favorite people. “Let me give you the nickel tour.” They walked through the small house, through the open space that would serve as kitchen, living room and dining room and to a hallway lined with a couple of closets and an entrance to the bathroom. Their tour ended in the house’s only bedroom, where a pile of sheets and pillows sat on top of the king-sized bed.

“I can take the couch, but if someone comes by…” Charlie said, trailing off.

“We’ll have to protect our cover,” Sarah said, glancing at Charlie for an awkward moment before they both looked away.

“I’m going to go get dinner started,” he said, not waiting for her response as he left her suitcase behind. Sarah groaned to herself. This was going to be a very long case.

She got to work, unpacking her suitcase and making the bed. She had just stashed her luggage in the closet when Charlie called her name from the kitchen. Walking back through the house, she could smell the spices he had used, filling the otherwise cookie-cutter space with a homey scent.

“That smells delicious,” Sarah said as she walked into the kitchen.

“It’s my aunt Miranda’s recipe,” Charlie replied. “She insisted that I should know how to feed myself. I made it a lot right after Julia and I split.” His expression was clouded by a hint of sadness, just as it was every time his ex-wife’s name came up. She fought the urge to offer him a comforting hand to hold or shoulder to lean on; the boundaries of their friendship were already starting to blur, knowing what the coming days and weeks would look like.

“Then I’ll have to thank your Aunt Miranda the next time I see her,” Sarah said instead.

“Assuming she hasn’t found another mystery to insert herself into,” Charlie joked. He scooped pasta onto two plates, then added a spoonful of the meat sauce on top of each. He passed one plate to Sarah, and together they walked to the table, where he had already set out water glasses and utensils.

“So we’re meeting with the informant tomorrow morning?” she checked as they ate. He nodded.

“Jesse should be by with our new IDs around 8, and then we’ll head to the docks for a meeting with a guy named Tom at 10,” he confirmed. “No wires, since they’ll probably scan us to make sure we’re not cops. They’ll probably want to make sure our stories match, too.”

“Makes sense,” she said, her voice calmer than she felt at the prospect of meeting a known criminal at the docks. “We should get Jesse to create some digital evidence to go with our backstory, but we’ll have to give him some basics.” Charlie walked to the hook where he had hung his coat and retrieved a notepad and pen from the pocket.

“It’s always easiest to remember the truth,” he said as he returned to the table. “So our first date can be the first case we worked together.” He jotted the detail on the first page of the blank notepad.

“Maybe we got coffee at that little café downtown?” she added, thinking back to all the mornings he had met her at a crime scene, a take-out cup in each hand.

“Your long-distance relationship with Daniel had just ended, so you weren’t really looking for anything serious,” he said.

“But you were persuasive,” she replied, smiling a little. Rex barked. “Rex definitely helped persuade me too.” They spent the rest of the evening filling in the blanks of their backstories, casting their friends and familiar in their new roles. Charlie kept notes for the pieces Jesse would need to backstop, pushing his empty plate to the side as he wrote.

As they cleaned up, packing away the leftovers and moving the dirty dishes to the sink, circling each other in the too-small kitchen, Sarah realized there was one part of their backstory they hadn’t planned for.

“What if…” she said as he stood by the sink. She trailed off, distracted by the precise way he rolled up his sleeves, the way the veins in his forearms flexed as he started in on the dishes. She gulped, then continued, “what if they expect proof?”

“Like what?” he asked, too focused on scrubbing the dishes to notice her nerves. “More than pictures? I’m sure we can get Jesse to mock up the marriage license if we need it.”

“Like if they expect us to act like a couple,” she said. His movements paused for a moment, and she waited for his response. It came a few minutes later, when he passed her the cleaned pot, his fingers brushing hers again.

“It’s probably not a bad idea for us to practice,” he said. “Just to get comfortable.”

“Exactly,” she agreed, almost too quickly. She took a breath to calm her racing heartbeat. “It wouldn’t be good for the investigation if we blow our cover because we aren’t comfortable.” She set the pot in the cabinet Charlie indicated and took the next dish he offered.

When the dishes were done, Charlie pulled the dish towel from her grasp, drying his hands and rolling his sleeves down. He leaned back against the counter beside the sink. Sarah was relieved to see him looking a little nervous, too.

“You’re good with this?” he checked. She stood in front of him.

“Better here than in some dingy warehouse by the docks,” she said, trying to make a joke. The corner of his lip quirked up for just a split second, but then he was all serious, the way he got when he focused on a case. He stepped forward, crossing into her space, reaching for her hand.

“Still good?” he checked. She laced her fingers through his, memorizing the rough callouses of his fingertips and the smoothness of his palm, a contrast in every touch.

“Still good,” she said. She didn’t blink, her eyes locked on his as he dipped his head down to her, cupping her cheek with his free hand.

The first touch of his lips was light, and he pulled back a few millimeters almost immediately, putting a single breath between them, giving her another chance to pull away to decide that she didn’t need to practice, after all.

She pressed forward gently, and when her lips touched his the second time, he held her a little tighter, the hand that had been holding hers reaching for her waist. When she pulled back, his hands slid away, leaving the ghost of his touch on her skin in the silence between them.

“That should convince people,” Charlie said softly, reminding Sarah of why they were there. She nodded, taking a step back from him.

It had certainly convinced her.

“Knock knock,” Charlie called out as he pushed open the warehouse door with an ominous creak. He reached behind him for her hand. His callouses were less surprising than they had been the night before, and for a second, Sarah let herself take solace in their connection. His fake wedding band, which Jesse had brought by that morning with their new IDs, was cool against her skin.

“You must be Charlie,” a voice said, stepping out of the darkness. “And who’s this?”

“This is my wife, Sarah,” Charlie replied. His voice didn’t change as he called her his wife, and Sarah was relieved. “And you are?”

“Tom,” the man said, holding out his hand for them to shake. Sarah had to let go of Charlie when it was her turn, and she found herself reaching for his steady warmth again as soon as she could. “And this is Jerry,” Tom added as a second, larger man joined them.

“Tom and Jerry?” Charlie asked, smirking. Tom cracked a smile, but Jerry was serious.

“Best friends ever since we were in school,” Tom explained “Jerry here was pretty little when we were kids. What about you two – how did you meet?” Charlie started to tell the story they had come up with the night before, looking over at Sarah every so often with a wistful smile on his face. She jumped in with additional details, trying not to wonder who Charlie was thinking of when he smiled like that.

Tom seemed to be satisfied by their story because he nodded to Jerry, who pulled a device out of his pocket and stepped forward.

“Gotta check you for a wire,” he explained, waving the device over every inch of their bodies. When they were cleared, Tom nodded for them to follow him further into the dim warehouse. Jerry waited for them to start walking before he followed them.

“Wait here,” Tom said as they approached a table that had been pushed against the far wall. They stopped, and he veered away from them to turn on a light, illuminating the papers on its surface. “Alright, come take a look.” Charlie and Sarah walked up to the table, where they found maps, tide charts, weight calculations, and much more.

Sarah studied all the papers she could see, only half-listening to Charlie and Tom talking about the details of the dive Charlie would be doing that night. Once all of the arrangements had been agreed on, Tom shook their hands once more, and Jerry escorted them out of the warehouse.

“See you both tonight,” Jerry said gruffly. He let the warehouse door slam behind them.

“Is it wrong of me to say that today’s dinner smells even better than yesterday’s did?” Sarah asked. She had spent the afternoon after their meeting working at the desk in the safe house’s bedroom. With Karma taking on part of Sarah’s usual workload, Sarah had offered to write up some of the reports as test results came in from the machines in both of their labs. She had finally logged off of the secure portal when the smell of Charlie’s cooking drifted through the halls to her.

“Good, you’re done! I need a taste tester,” he replied. He grabbed a spoon from the drawer and dipped it into the stew. Holding his free hand beneath the spoon, he twisted toward her as she joined him at the stove. She bit back a moan as she swallowed the gravy, closing her eyes as the flavors washed over her.

“It’s delicious,” she said softly, opening her eyes and looking directly into his.

“It doesn’t need more oregano? Thyme? Salt?” he asked. She shook her head.

“It’s perfect,” she said, licking the last drops off her lips. He held her gaze for a moment longer, until a bubble popped and drew his attention back to the stew. She took a step away, reaching for the plates and utensils to set the table for two.

The harbor was eerie at night, empty in a way Sarah wasn’t used to. She pulled her coat tighter around her, trying to ward off the chill of the salty evening wind blowing off the water. Jerry stood a few feet away from her, still and stoic as they both waited for Tom and Charlie’s boat to come back in.

Charlie had warned her that it would be a long wait. Based on the map they had been shown earlier, it would be at least a 45-minute ride each way in addition to the dive itself. Sarah fought the urge to check her watch, trying to keep up the image of a calm wife, one who wasn’t worried about her husband being involved in whatever nefarious dealings were going on that night.

While she waited, Sarah carefully studied the area where they stood, searching for anything she could grab that might be a clue to who Tom and Jerry were. Though they were certainly middle men in the operation, she knew that the more information they could gather for Joe and Jesse, the faster the investigation would be over, the faster she could stop living this pretend life with Charlie.

She heard the boat’s muted motor before she saw it, sliding into the light of the pier. Charlie tossed a rope to Jerry, and Sarah watched as the three men tied up the boat. Charlie reached for his equipment, carrying his bags to her. She reached for the lighter bag casually, as if she had helped him carry it a dozen times.

He pressed something into her palm and leaned in, pretending to kiss her cheek. “That needs an evidence bag,” he whispered. She nodded subtly as he pulled away. “I’ll meet you at the car,” he said, loud enough that Tom and Jerry could hear him.

“Let’s go, lovebird,” Tom called out, holding up one end of a box. Sarah almost thought she saw Charlie blush as he walked away.

“What do you have for us, Jesse?” Charlie asked.

“Are you sure this is a good time?” Jesse asked. “I can call back if you’re busy.”

“We’re just making breakfast,” Sarah explained, turning the phone so he could see the rest of the kitchen. She was starting to realize that Charlie’s prowess in the kitchen was not limited to dinners. He had made scrambled eggs and hash browns, and for a moment, she had let herself imagine waking up to his cooking in a very different context, regardless of how impossible it was.

“Save me a plate,” Jesse joked.

“Next case,” Charlie replied. “You said you have an update?”

“We got your dead drop yesterday and ran it for prints,” Jesse said, suddenly serious. “The guy you’re dealing with is Thomas Hopkins. He’s got a history of drug dealing, but mostly small quantities. There was also a B&E charge in Halifax a couple years ago, but the charge was dropped.”

“Almost exactly the same as the history you built for me,” Charlie observed.

“What can I say? I know my minor criminals,” Jesse bragged. Sarah and Charlie exchanged a smirk.

“What about known associates? His buddy’s name is Jerry,” Sarah said.

“Like Tom and Jerry?” Jesse asked. “Did you try offering him a slice of cheese in exchange for a last name?”

“Focus, Jesse,” Charlie said, but Sarah could hear the fondness in his voice when he said it. They listened to Jesse’s keyboard clicking as he researched.

“I’m not seeing a Jerry here, but I’ll keep looking,” Jesse said. From somewhere off camera, something beeped, and Jesse spun to it. His brows furrowed as he read the alert they couldn’t see.

“Jesse?” Charlie asked, trying to get his attention back.

“Someone’s in the system,” Jesse muttered. “What are you looking for?” Charlie tried his name again, but he was too focused on his screen, his eyes growing wide. “Joe!” he called out.

“Jesse!” Charlie said a third time. “What’s going on?”

“Someone’s in the system running a background check on your cover identity,” Jesse said. “I can’t tell specifically who it is, but it’s someone in Halifax. I have to go tell Joe. I’ll fill you in when we know more.” He ended the call abruptly. Sarah looked to Charlie for reassurance, but he was worried, too.

Living undercover was an odd routine. Sarah worked on cases from the office, and Charlie had his cover job on the pier. When he got home, they would take Rex on a long walk together, waving politely to neighbors. Some nights they would drive to a local restaurant for dinner, choosing a table near the window where they would be seen if anyone from the syndicate was looking for them.

She had worried at first that it would be awkward, going on pretend dates, but it didn’t take him long to make a joke and put her at ease. Their dinners were no different from their usual post-case outings. Even the way her heart seemed to cartwheel every time his hand brushed hers reaching for something on the table was startlingly familiar.

Two or three nights a week, Tom would call, and they would drive back out to the dark dock. Sarah had learned to dress in more layers than even the coldest winter days usually required. The day after one of Charlie’s drives, however, Tom called with a different request.

“Dinner?” Charlie said, catching Sarah’s eye. “With Arnold?”

The boss? Sarah mouthed. He nodded and she pulled out her phone to send a coded message to their team. Ever since their first debrief, when an officer from Halifax had apparently accessed Charlie’s cover identity, Jesse had insisted on taking their entire investigation offline. He left a USB drive with case files at a dead drop for Sarah to review, keeping her out of the forensics databases, and he had devised a code for them to use when they needed to send information more urgently.

“Of course we can do that,” Charlie said. He negotiated the menu and timing with Tom, and when he hung up the call, he was grinning.

“We’re finally meeting Arnold,” she marveled.

“Jesse’s going to need all the covert surveillance equipment he can get his hands on,” Charlie said. “I’ll pick up ingredients for the menu after my shift tomorrow.”

“We’ll have to move your things out of the living room,” Sarah said, her gaze lingering on the couch where he had been sleeping. They wouldn’t win any points with the big boss if he found out she and Charlie weren’t sharing a bed as husband and wife.

“I’ll clean it all up tomorrow morning,” Charlie promised, his voice softening.

Sarah’s burner phone rang with an incoming call from Jesse, and she stepped closer to Charlie so he could hear it, too. As they talked, Rex walked circles around their legs, so close she nearly tripped over him when the call ended and she tried to take a step away.

Charlie reached for her, grabbing her elbows to keep her from falling. The force of his movement pulled her forward, her hands pressing on his chest, her phone flat between them.

“I should get started on dinner,” Charlie said softly, but he didn’t move, his eyes flicking down to her lips, his tongue darting out to wet his own.

Her phone buzzed, this time with a text from Joe, and they sprang apart. Sarah watched Charlie walk into the kitchen before she replied.

“Tom, Jerry, please come in,” Sarah said, putting her best hostess smile on. “And you must be Arnold?” The newcomer shook her hand without offering a last name. Rex sniffed at all three visitors, but when Sarah signaled for him to stand down, he walked back to his bed, just as he had been trained. She ushered the trio to the kitchen, where Charlie was setting out the food. He introduced himself and showed Arnold to the head of the table.

“The food looks good,” Tom said as he and Jerry sat on one side of the table.

“My husband is an excellent cook,” Sarah said. Charlie smiled at her as he sat, and she rested a hand on his shoulder in what she hoped was a wifely gesture before she sat next to him.

They stayed at the table long after they had finished eating, talking about Charlie and Sarah’s cover jobs and how they had supposedly met. They had covered all the same information with Tom and Jerry weeks earlier, and Sarah could tell they were listening closely now, searching for any discrepancies. She tried to ground herself by keeping her eyes on Charlie, who had his arm stretched across the back of her chair.

“Well I’m glad you two have made up,” Arnold said. Sarah met Charlie’s eyes, which were as confused as she felt.

“Made up?” Charlie asked.

“I drove by here the other night on my way to an appointment,” Arnold explained. “Looked like Charlie here was sleeping on the couch. I was worried you two might be having second thoughts about your work with our...organization.” Charlie took a breath before he responded, and Sarah knew he had heard the hint of a threat in Arnold’s voice.

“Nothing like that,” he promised. “In the heat of an argument, I made an unfortunate comment about my mother-in-law. Luckily for me, my wife is very forgiving.” He reached for the hand in her lap and raised it to his lips. She smiled automatically at the gesture. When she looked at Arnold, he seemed to believe them.

“Glad to know you’re back in your own bed,” he said. “I’ll need you well-rested for your next few dives.”

“That’s my cue,” Sarah said, standing. “I’ll get dessert while you talk shop.” Her hand slid out of Charlie’s and she collected their dinner plates. She handled the silverware carefully, setting Arnold’s aside so they could be dusted for prints.

From the sink, she caught Charlie’s eye, and her breath caught when he smiled a little, just for her. She knew it was just an act, but she didn’t mind playing along.

“A toast!” Arnold said, raising his voice so Sarah could hear him. Charlie smiled at her again, with a brightness in his eye that she recognized. She had worked enough cases with him to know when he was onto a new lead. She rushed to the fridge to grab the cake and sparkling wine he had picked up earlier that day.

“You’re sure this is okay?” Charlie said as he stood in the doorway, halfway into the bedroom. He had been storing his clothes in the bedroom since their undercover work had started, so he had been in there every day, but never in the evening. Never in the last moments before Sarah crawled into bed.

Certainly never to join her.

“If Arnold is watching the house, we need to keep our cover,” Sarah said, knowing that she wasn’t really answering his question. She kept her eyes on the blanket to avoid looking at him. Unfortunately, the longer she looked at the bed, the smaller it seemed to become.

“Do you have a side?” he asked. His voice was closer, just a few steps behind her. She gestured to the side she had claimed a few weeks earlier. Wordlessly, he circled around her and sat on the edge of the unused side.

She finally looked at him, at the way his short sleeves cut his biceps just so, the way his hands tightly gripped the edge of the mattress, the way he seemed unable to look at her.

She climbed into bed, her back to him, and she felt the mattress shift as he lay down behind her. She listened as his breathing slowed, becoming steadier, and she counted the exhales until she fell asleep, too.

When she woke at dawn for her morning run, curled against his back, she decided that was something he never needed to know.

At their next scheduled check-in with Joe and Jesse, three days after their dinner, they could hear the excitement in Jesse’s voice as he filled them in. Based on the silverware Sarah had saved, they had been able to identify Arnold. He was a known criminal who had been under suspicion for over a dozen crimes in half that many years, but the SJPD had never been able to make any of those charges stick.

“So you think the Halifax officer who was in the system is tipping off Arnold?” Charlie asked as they walked around the block with Rex.

“That’s our current theory,” Joe said. “It would explain why we’ve never been able to charge him.”

“I’m working on a deep dive into his finances now,” Jesse added. “We’ve got enough to arrest him on a couple of conspiracy charges already, but…”

“But conspiracy to commit a crime is hard to prove without evidence of the crime happening,” Sarah replied.

“Charlie, have you been able to see what’s inside those packages you keep diving to collect?” Joe asked.

“Not yet,” Charlie replied. “Tom keeps a close eye on me the whole time we’re out on the water, and when we get back, he and Jerry are focused on getting them hidden.”

“Well, keep trying. We’re going to need some hard evidence if we want to shut this ring down,” Joe said. He ended the call abruptly after that, and Charlie hung his head.

“Joe knows how hard you’ve been working,” Sarah said softly. She reached for him, touching his arm to pull his attention to her. The emotion in his eyes was raw, but he nodded, listening. “This has been a long case for all of us, and the Superintendent is putting a lot of pressure on Joe to shut this ring down before it gets off the ground.”

“We’ve both been working hard,” Charlie said. He covered Sarah’s hand with his own. He stopped walking, turning his body to face her. A few steps ahead of them, Rex turned, waiting impatiently. “I couldn’t have done any of this without you, you know.”

“No one I’d rather be fake married to,” Sarah said cheerfully, her heart breaking a little as she tried to put some emotional distance between them. Charlie nodded. He patted her hand awkwardly, and she pulled it away. As they walked the last stretch back to the safe house, she tried to convince herself that she hadn’t seen the disappointment in his eyes.

“What do you think they want?” Sarah asked, her voice barely a whisper. They had arrived at the dock at sunset, as always, but Tom and Jerry had called to them from the warehouse instead of from the boat where they usually met. It was the first hint of anything changing since their dinner with Arnold just over a week earlier.

“I don’t know,” Charlie whispered back. “Just stay close, okay? I don’t trust either of these guys.” Sarah stepped in, looping her hand through his elbow. At the far end of the warehouse, they could see the silhouettes of two figures hovering over a table.

“Charlie!” one of the figures called brightly, waving them over. Charlie and Sarah walked a little faster.

“Arnold!” Charlie exclaimed, trying to match Arnold’s excitement as they approached the table. “It’s good to see you again. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting to meet you on one of these late night dives.”

“I still like to get my hands dirty once in a while,” Arnold replied, a hint of menace woven into his otherwise friendly tone. The other figure in the shadows cleared their throat. “But you won’t be diving tonight. It’s time you learn a little more about our organization. Allow me to introduce my business partner; this is my wife, Emily.” Sarah squeezed Charlie’s arm in excitement.

“It’s very nice to meet you Emily,” Charlie said. He held out a hand for her to shake. When she reached for Sarah’s hand, she held it an extra beat.

“It’s good to have another woman around,” she said. She released Sarah’s hand, and Sarah reached for Charlie again, acutely aware of all the eyes on her. Emily nodded at them, apparently pleased, and Arnold seemed to take it as a cue. He turned over a map on the table and began to talk more openly than Tom and Jerry had in the past.

As he talked, Sarah could feel Charlie tensing beside her as they realized Arnold hadn’t been teasing when he said he wanted them to learn more about the organization. He laid out the planned organizational structure, describing the larger role he wanted them to play. There were still blanks they would have to fill in later, but he gave them more information for their case than they had gathered in their month-long investigation.

“You will still have to make the drug pickups with Tom for a little longer,” Arnold said, pointing to Tom and Jerry, who had been standing off to one side. “Just until we get another diver trained.”

“No problem,” Charlie said, trying to contain his excitement. “We’re happy to help.” After they all shook on the new deal, Tom and Jerry walked them out, and Sarah thought she saw Jerry smile for the first time since they had met.

They called Joe and Jesse as soon as they got home, unable to wait until morning.

“We’re in,” Sarah said to Jesse as Charlie filled Joe in. “Arnold was so impressed by our dinner that he wants us to be the first point of contact for underworld VIPs.”

“Seriously?” Jesse asked, his own excitement growing.

“He’s got the head of the Halifax organization coming into town next week for a meeting, and he wants to host it here,” Sarah confirmed.

“Sarah, I don’t think the Halifax PD has ever seen the head of this syndicate,” Jesse said. “If we can arrest him when he comes to town, we could take down both organizations at once.”

“Give us the whole dinner before you make the arrest – Arnold admitted tonight that the dives Charlie has been making are to pick up drugs, so there’s no telling what we’ll catch on tape when they sit down together,” she said. “Can you coordinate with Halifax? Just be careful – we don’t need word getting to their inside man.”

“I’m on it,” he said. “Or I will be first thing in the morning. I bet you’re excited to get home.”

“Yeah, home,” she sighed. Her eyes darted to Charlie, who was clearly in a more serious conversation with Joe. After working and living alongside him for weeks, she wasn’t sure she was ready to say goodbye just yet.

After the awkward first night that they had had to share the bed, Charlie and Sarah had been able to relax. Their evenings became almost like a dance, their bodies finding a rhythm as they circled each other to get ready for bed. They talked quietly, catching up before they fell asleep, but even when they didn’t talk the air was comfortable and calm. They tended to stay on their own sides, and although Sarah typically woke up in Charlie’s arms, she never brought it up to him in the daylight. She would simply slip out of bed and get Rex his breakfast, waiting for Charlie so they could take their morning run together.

The night before the arrest, however, their movements were tense. He nearly walked into her twice before he went into the bathroom to finish getting ready. While he was gone, she slid beneath the comforter, curling her body away from him. She felt the bed shift behind her when he sat down.

“Are you nervous?” Charlie asked quietly, shattering the silence between them. “About tomorrow night?”

“A little,” Sarah admitted. The bed shifted again, and she twisted to watch him lay down on his back. He turned his head to her, and she turned, facing him fully. “Are you?” He nodded.

“Weeks of playing these roles all comes down to one dinner. It’s a lot of pressure,” he admitted. He turned onto his side, his body mirroring hers with mere inches between them.

“It’ll be nice to get back to normal,” she said.

“What’s normal again?” he asked. He tried to smile, to show he was joking, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Ask me tomorrow night,” Sarah replied. “We should get some sleep.” She waited until he closed his eyes, letting herself watch him for a moment before she drifted off to sleep.

When she woke the next morning, her body curled against him, she stayed for a breath longer than usual, memorizing every inch of his body where it pressed against hers, the feeling of safety wrapping her in his arms.

The last time Sarah had seen Charlie, they were both being led away in cuffs, preserving their cover identities for the duration of the raid. Rex had trotted along behind them, following Sergeant Renley into a separate car. As soon as they reached the station, the officers led Sarah away from the holding cells, sneaking her back to the lab where Dr. Poole was waiting for her.

The raid, she quickly learned, had been a rousing success. SJPD teams had simultaneously hit the warehouse and the boat, as well as the houses of Tom, Jerry & Arnold. In Halifax, the corrupt officer had been arrested, and their major crimes department had arrested all of the top players in the syndicate, crippling their operations in a way that both departments hoped would prevent the crime ring from rising again.

Evidence bags arrived by the dozens, and Sarah was thrown back into the chaos she had left behind, keeping the different raid locations separated on their own tables while Karma signed the chain of custody forms for each piece of evidence. Eventually, the flood of officers, detectives and constables slowed to a trickle, until eventually, only one detective stood at the door.

“Hey Charlie,” Sarah said quietly. Karma smiled at them knowingly as she slipped back into Sarah’s office, which she had taken over in her boss’s absence. “I thought you’d be gone by now.”

“Joe wanted me to debrief before I went home,” he replied. Rex nudged his leg, and he smiled. “And Sergeant Renley wanted to check on Rex.”

“Does Joe need me to debrief tonight, too?” Sarah asked, wondering absently why else he would be there. She started to walk toward the door.

“You’ll have to sign your statement, but you should probably get some sleep first,” Charlie said. “Apparently you were better about keeping track of our movements than I was, so you won’t have as many gaps to fill in.” He gave her half a laugh, but the sound died in his throat. In the silence that followed, he scratched behind his neck, a gesture that was achingly familiar after their weeks together.

“Okay. I guess I’ll see you in the bullpen tomorrow morning then?” she asked. She took another step toward him, the way she would have before this case, when he would offer to walk her to her car if they had to work into the night like this.

“Actually, you won’t. Joe gave me the day off so I can move the rest of my stuff out of the safe house.” Rex nudged his leg again, more forcefully this time. He stumbled across the threshold and into the lab. When he found his balance, he sighed and looked past her, nervousness. “Can I make you dinner tomorrow night?”

“Is this for the case?” she asked, dumbfounded.

“No. This would just be for me,” Charlie said, standing a little taller, his eyes finally meeting hers.

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Sarah asked. This time, she was the one who stepped forward, practically closing the gap between them. She had spent hours this close to him over the last few weeks, but suddenly, it was like their first night together, standing in the kitchen.

“I know you said you were looking forward to going back to normal, but I don’t want to go back to the way we were before,” he said.

“Neither do I,” she said. His eyes lit up, and he reached for her hand.

“So does that mean you’ll come to dinner tomorrow night?” Charlie asked. Sarah smiled.

“Count me in.”