State of Grace (Common Law)

This story has been plaguing me for the last couple weeks. I haven't been able to write anything else, and wasn't be able to finish until this morning and until after I watched the season finale. This is kind of an alternative scene to the episode, "Gun!"

It had been a little over a month since the incident with her fiancé, and since Dr. Ryan had referred Wes and Travis to a different therapist. It took awhile to realize that they meant well—all of them—but she had needed some time to think about what had happened.

So when she heard Wes’ soft spoken voice one Saturday afternoon, his back towards her as he thanked the cashier for her help—she couldn’t help but smile as the attractive cashier wrote something on a card and handed it to him.

She didn’t miss the slightly uncomfortable look as he gathered his bags, and the next person took his place in line. Not even the way that he stopped and pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he were stressed or had a big headache. But she would never know for certain, because she was no longer his therapist.

And yet, this was only the second time that she had seen him outside of therapy; the first time being when she went on the ride along. Even though he never seemed like he wanted to be there in therapy, it had always been a repeating question—why?

Brushing her fingers through another rack of clothes, she heard him clear his throat to get her attention. When she glanced up at him, he held up one hand in greeting. She politely nodded at him, her attention abruptly drawn to a little girl hiding in the rack of clothes. She couldn’t have been more than two, but still her mother scolded her daughter for running off and then apologized.

“It’s fine, really.” Dr. Ryan offered sweetly, as she abruptly trailed off to see Wes no longer standing by her. Everything inside was telling her that he was just giving her space, but as she saw a dark blur of a car speeding away, she couldn’t help wonder if he wasn’t still blaming himself for what happened.

---

When Monday finally rolled around, it seemed like just another week had come and gone too quickly. So much that both Wes and Travis were in the break room, filling up on their morning coffee.

“I take it that you had another fun-filled weekend at the hotel?” Travis teased, taking his first sip of coffee. “Because you look like you did.”

“No.”

“No? Please don’t say that you’re also resorting to one worded answers, because I don’t think I can stand the silence from you either.”

“I was going to say that I hadn’t had my morning coffee yet. And I don’t get why we didn’t just stay out of it.” Wes shrugged, taking a rather small sip of coffee. He gave a disgusted look and reconsidered it as he put the mug to the side of his desk.

“The guy who was over the case wasn’t good enough, so we took the liberty of taking the case.” Travis reminded him, plunking down in his own chair.

“Yeah well—remind me of the consequences the next time we have to the bright idea to do something stupid.” With a slight shake of his head, Wes opened the first of many files that had been stacked on his desk. Things had been so busy over the weekend that they had to devote a day just to go over the files—in between cases.

Travis followed at a slower pace, taking a file and placing it on his desk. One hand was placed on the file as if he were going to open it, but his eyes continued to wander around the office.

Finally after a few more minutes, Travis looked like he would begin, when he leaned back in his chair. “Speaking of bright ideas—here comes one now. And I’m certain that is not his happy face.”

Wes spun around in his chair to see Captain Sutton standing at the frame of his door, and turned back to the file at hand. “No, that would be his really concerned expression he’s concerned about something.”

Tapping the pen against the palm of his hand, Travis continued to gaze across the room and pointed towards Sutton’s office. “And I think I can guess why.”

---

With such a long weekend and his rocky marriage, Captain Sutton had spent many more hours around the office. Even though he and his wife continued to work on their marriage with therapy, things still weren’t the greatest at home.

So when Dr. Ryan interrupted with a quick knock on his door early Monday morning, he knew that by her serious expression that she meant business. “Dr. Ryan—what brings you by? Please sit.” He offered as she closed the door behind her.

“I’m glad you asked.” She gave him a gentle smile. ”I was actually hoping to have a bit of a chat with Travis and Wes.”

“What did they do now?”  

“Actually, they haven’t done anything. Now that things have cooled down a little, I wanted to sit down with them and talk about a few things.”

“They were working on a case, but they should be back by now.” Looking at his watch, he offered. “And I take it that there’s no invitation for them to return to group therapy.” She couldn’t miss the flash of hope in his eyes, or the look of concern that had come and gone; even though she knew he understood clearly that the boundaries between therapist and patient had been crossed by two of his finest cops.

Tapping her knee with her hand, she prompted. “If you don’t mind me asking, how are the new therapy sessions going with Wes and Travis? Because somehow I’m getting the distinct feeling that things aren’t going very well.”

Captain Sutton sighed, giving a subtle shake of his head. “I shouldn’t be saying this, but since you’re about to go out there, there’s something that you need to know.” With a slight adjustment in his chair, he continued. “When I first ordered Wes and Travis to your group therapy session, you know that things were quite tense between the two of them.”

“Yes, I remember that moment quite nicely.”

“Although I’m thankful that they’re still getting along, Wes has been putting in more hours than I can even count at the office as of late. Travis has been his usual self, although he doesn’t seem as perky as he was.”

“And you think this has something to do with what happened last month?”

Captain Sutton nodded adamantly. “I’m beginning to think it has everything to do with what happened.”

----

Giving a quick glance back over his shoulder, Wes sighed. “Whatever you’re thinking about doing—don’t.” His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out of his pocket.  

“I wasn’t going to.” Travis raised his hands in surrender and stood. “But I can’t help wondering why she’s here.”

It took a few seconds, but Wes pocketed the phone back into his pocket and stood from his chair. 

“That was Jonelle. She has the test results on our latest case.” He grabbed his badge and jacket. “There could be many reasons why she stopped by, but we’re probably not one of them.” He turned to grab his own jacket.

“Would you like to make a bet on that?”

As Travis turned back, he noticed that Wes was already halfway to the stairs. He sighed and looked across the room as he gathered up his own badge and keys. Dr. Ryan and Captain Sutton were exchanging a certain glance; their gaze following Wes as he rounded the corner.

Shrugging off the feeling that Dr. Ryan was actually here to talk to them, he followed his partner towards the elevators. When he got there, Wes was standing there waiting with his hands shoved into his pockets.”You know, I think you’re wrong about why Dr. Ryan is here. ”

“I never said I didn’t agree.” Wes defended as he pushed the up button for the elevator impatiently. “I merely stated that her talking to us, might not be one of the options”

“Then why did you run away?”

“I didn’t run, Travis. There was no reason to stay and gawk at our former therapist.” He pursed his lips in annoyance. “Besides, what exactly was either one of us supposed to say? Sorry that we messed up your life? Oh wait . . . we already said that, and it didn’t work. I’m beginning to think this elevator is broken.”

“It was working fine earlier.” Leaning against the wall, Travis offered. “Try the other one.” Wes did just that, but soon they concluded that neither elevator was in working condition.

“Does that seem a little mysterious to you that our elevators suddenly stopped working so suddenly? Because I don’t remember Sutton saying anything about maintenance work taking place in the building.”

“Maybe there’s some malfunction with the wiring or something. Take the stairs?”

“Yeah.” As they both turned to leave, Wes added. “I was kind of thinking that the stairs should have been our first option.”

“Except for we always take the elevator.” Travis concluded knowingly as they continued to walk down the hall. When they were just about to the door leading the stairs, was when he started looking over his shoulder. “And there she is. “What are the chances that she’s going to try and take the elevator?”

“Who?” The words had barely left Wes’ lips when he turned and spotted Dr. Ryan rounding the corner and walking towards them. “Dr. Ryan is a smart woman. I’m sure she’ll figure it out.” Travis leaned against the wall as they observed.

Slowly turning back to his partner, Wes read Travis’ expression. “You’re thinking about talking to her, aren’t you?”

Travis shrugged lightly, as his focus was mostly on Dr. Ryan. “Someone should warn her that the elevators aren’t working.”

“You’re like a lost puppy—you know that, right?” Wes called out as his partner walked away. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he thought better of walking away and followed his partner.

“Dr. Ryan. We were just talking about you. What brings you by?” Travis inquired politely as they approached. He rubbed his hands together anxiously and placed them back by his side.

“I was actually hoping that you both had a few minutes to talk?” When Travis looked back at Wes, he gave him a See? I told you look.

“I take it when you were talking to Captain Sutton that you were really asking for permission to talk.” Wes inquired, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Correct. Since you are no longer my patients, I asked Captain Sutton if I could have a few minutes of your time. Is there somewhere private that we can talk?” As they walked down the hall, Wes looked down at his pocket. “Unless there’s somewhere you need to be.”

“Actually, we were actually just headed down to autopsy. But if you give us ten, we’ll meet you in the lounge.” Travis pointed to the open area on the right as they walked down the hall.

They stood at a standstill, Dr. Ryan looking back towards Travis then Wes. “Okay, I’ll bite. I have a session at ten, but it’s critical that we talk.” Wes looked at his watch, noticing that it had barely reached eight o’clock in the morning.

“Let’s go.” Travis hit him lightly on his shoulder, gesturing towards the stairs.

“Did you notice that it barely turned eight o’clock when she said that she wanted to talk?” Wes asked in a lowered voice as they walked away.

“Yeah. She must seriously want to talk if she’s two hours ahead of schedule.”

“Except, I don’t remember doing anything that permitted talking.”

“Me either.” Travis looked back over his shoulder. “Unless she wants to talk about what happened last month.”

“Maybe. But whatever it is, I don’t like it. Think it’s time that we started thinking up a plan.” They both thought about it for a moment, and Wes had reached a decision by the time they had descended down another level. “Travis, I think we should tell her about stormfront.”

Travis stopped abruptly in the middle of the stairs. “Stormfront? The event that landed us in therapy in the first place?”

“Why not? It’s the question that we’ve been dodging for the last six months in all of our sessions. Maybe we can cut a deal with Dr. Ryan and she’ll let us back in.”

Looking hesitantly for a moment, his expression soon changed to delight. “Oh good. I was thinking that we would never get out of that therapy session. But is it really necessary that we tell her everything?”

“If we want to get back in, we will tell her everything.” Wes went down a few steps. “Now come on, we wouldn’t want to keep the good doctors waiting, do we?”

Travis followed along slowly, as they headed down to autopsy. “No, I guess we wouldn’t.”