#accessing report 02 ... ic answer.

[amber-oliveras]

go where you're most needed, when you're most needed.

amber makes a face as if to say of course that's what it says as she takes a quick sip of her drink. the cookie is popped out of it's small plastic pocket before she carefully cracks it in two and plucks out the small paper within. "let things unfold. relinquish control."

she scoffs, tosses the small paper into the empty container nearest her and stands. "you can go. i'll clean up here." the smell of her after hours chinese dinner would be gone by morning. what would still be there would be the files she hadn't quite managed to get through. lesson learned, don't try to get work done after hours with mark. (a part of her had known the moment he stole one of her egg rolls that she wouldn't be getting much work done. and yet she'd allowed him to stay.) empty containers and used napkins are piled into the trash can by her desk.

"wouldn't want you to miss your date with hannah." amber emphasizes the name in a wholly unsubtle way. it hadn't taken much effort on her part to find out who mark was seeing. the lack of effort had actually been a disappointment. but cops do love their gossip.

[amber-oliveras]

‘ would you like company? ’

the past seventy-two hours were a blur. partially due to the sedatives she'd been given for surgery, partially due to the benzos they'd given her for the panic attack she'd had a handful of hours after. various people had moved in and out of her room. at one point, as she gave her statement for the third time, julio's voice drifted from down the hall before the door to her room had been fully closed. the panicked edge to his voice was one she hadn't been witness to before, but then again, this was whole new territory for him. (for her too but she doesn't want to think about it. can't think about it.)

evan, bell, and finau had trickled in later while she'd been getting her vitals checked. her i'm fine didn't seem like it was enough to placate their worries. they skirted around where blye and meachum where and she didn't have it in her to pry or tell them that she didn't need to be handled with kid gloves.

her ex-husband had come by just after visiting hours. in hand, a duffel with her clothes, toiletry bag, and sneakers. he didn't say anything, didn't ask anything, he simply sat with her, and that was all it took. she was crying into his chest. clinging to him like she'd clung to mark when her brain had finally registered that the person who was crouched by her side had been someone safe. after that, julio stayed by her side like some kind of guard dog ---as of the officer outside her room wasn't enough--- who brought her food and helped her in and out of bed.

now, she flips through the channels on the muted tv. "estoy harta de estar aqui..." she declares as she hears the foot steps stop at her room.

would you like company? the voice says.

the voice doesn't belong to julio. or jose for that matter. standing by the door of her room is mark. mark who hadn't shown his face since she'd lost consciousness on the stretcher as they wheeled her into the ambulance. mark, who found her hiding behind the biggest tree she saw, slumped on the ground, holding her bleeding side like a wounded animal trying to escape it's predator. mark, who'd said she'd thrown what they'd had out the window by dating julio. she feels like the air has been sucked out of the room. the urge to cry chokes out the rest of the air from her lungs but, somehow, amber manages to tear her gaze from him and nod.

"i'm supposed to be discharged soon." (the nurse who'd helped her shower had also helped her into her slightly too big selena quintanilla shirt and a pair of sweats. amber had brushed her damp hair and pulled it into a low ponytail.)

turning the tv off, she sets the remote to the side. out of the corner of her eye, she watches him cross the room and take a seat in the chair next to her bed. a quick text is sent to jose and another to evan before she drops her phone back onto her lap.

"what happened to you?" amber shifts and her side screams in protests. she grimaces, breathes slowly in through her nose and out through her mouth even as she speaks. "finau said you disappeared and that blyth wasn't saying anything about where you were. he gave them the impression he didn't want to know where you were. plausible deniability or whatever."

[amber-oliveras]

Mark says: ‘ i thought you were dead or something. ’

amber can hear the indistinct mummer of conversation from down the hall. she knows that as soon as they see her there will be a myriad of welcome backs, we missed you and the like.

finau is the first to spot her with a booming there she is and a grin takes hold. evan greets her with a prolonged hug. bell, ever the professional, gives her a shorter but equally warm hug.

she drops her bag by her desk, removes her jacket, and is about to open the file that waits for her when the sound of chair wheels rolling closer across the floor breaks through the soft murmurs of her colleagues talking.

i thought you were dead or something.

she fights back the urge to roll her eyes at mark's overly dramatic comment. "i didn't think you'd miss me so much." amber says, gaze on the file's first page and then the second as she skims them. he won't take the hint, this she knows, but that doesn't mean she won't try.

[amber-oliveras]

Mark says: you know they're just jealous because you're so pretty.

somehow, evan had convinced her to join the team for drinks. she figured nurse the same beer for an hour or so before calling it a night would be the polite way to go about things. somehow, an hour had turned into almost three and the bar slowly became busier and louder as the night wore on. the one beer turned into two and she'd just carried the second round of drinks back to the table with the help of evan when mark leaned in so she could hear him over the noise. (and, most likely, so she could be the only one to hear him.)

you know they're just jealous because you're so pretty.

brows knit, and the look she slants his way tells him she thinks he's talking out of his ass.

"you really are so full of it." just another version of the you can't fake what we have bull he'd fed her couple weeks ago. a shake of her head is given, brown eyes flicker past evan's right shoulder to the two twenty-somethings at the bar who've kept whispering to each other and smiling every time mark looked their way.

"you should go tell one of them that. they'll definitely believe all your lines." amber says before taking a swing of her beer and taking her seat next to bell.