Awful lot of work

Kirk chuckled and rolled his eyes before slinging his arm around Adison's shoulders. "Okay. Let's blow this joint." He nodded to Ron. "We'll see you tomorrow. Meet you at the Elite somewhere around ten o'clock or so. I'll text you."

The worst part of the evening was telling Adison goodnight. Even though he'd spent the entire time with her, he couldn't wait to just be alone with her again as was their norm. Maybe it was just the newness of it all, but he wanted to soak it all up ad much as he could, while he could...

...Morning came all too quickly, and sleeping through his alarm got him up over half an hour late. Rushing through his morning routine, he was lucky to just be fully dressed as he exited into the hall, and threw his hair into a ponytail as he walked to the exit. 

Outside, he was startled by a figure leaning on the hood of his car. "Jamison?"

"Thought you'd never get up."

Kirk cocked his head. He didn't usually see Jamison outside of work in tshirts and tennis shoes. "Yeah well...what are you doing here?"

Jamison took a bite of his apple, and handed him a single folder with a stack of papers. "Since I shouldn't show up at the office, this is all I could come up with."

Kirk flipped through the pages, his eyes widening. "Did you type all this up yourself?"

"Well it didn't do it itself. That's all I could find on the Elite on short notice."

Kirk could hardly believe it. There was everything from the history of the Elite to staff profiles, to connected information about the Texas ranch, to major case points, pros and cons of their operations, unanswered questions, random facts and current case statuses. "Where on earth did you find all this, and how did you get it done?"

Jamison shrugged. "You didn't tell me how to do it, so I dont have to tell you either. What did you want it for anyway?"

"Did you even sleep last night?"

"Couple hours. So why did you want Elite specs?"

"Um...for me to know." Kirk was still trying to get over his amazement at Jamison's thoroughness. He patted Jamison's shoulder as he opened his car door. "Thanks a million."

"That's it?" Jamison stood back as the engine started. "I did all that for you to just leave me in the dark?"

Kirk rolled down the window. "How do you feel about the Elite in general?"

"I think they're fascinating. I never knew they had so much going on and I'd love to see their operations firsthand sometime...if I'm still on the force that is."

"That's all I wanted to know."

"But...Kirk!" Jamison  threw up his hands as Kirk pulled away. He still didn't understand. Oh well. Now he had the day to...not go to work.

At headquarters, Kirk took the front stairs two at a time before making his way inside still looking through the new files. Passing by Adison's desk, he kept walking, but spoke quietly to her as he went. "You were right about Jamison. I want him if I can convince Barnes."


Garret sat on his bed, leaving the bedroom door closed. No one disturbed him for breakfast or even lunch, and he didn't come out, either. Laura's words continuously ran through his mind. He didn't want to give in. Lower his walls. Admit he was the one making his own days miserable. Then there was Maggie. He couldn't get the image out of his head of her tearing up that stupid flyer. He knew good and well how much that dance had meant to her. Why had he been the one to ruin it? Had there been a part of him that wanted to do that? Push her away so he wouldn't have to deal with all these confusing feelings? If that were true, it just made him feel worse. He knew what it was like to be rejected, and now he was effectively doing the same thing to someone else - someone more innocent than himself...

Not long after lunch, the bedroom door slowly opened. Trudging to the kitchen, Garret went straight for the waste basket and fished out the torn flyer. Laura was at the counter but he ignored her, and she didn't bother him. Finding some scotch tape, he mended the tear. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

Still without a word, he aimed for the stairs. He knew Maggie was upstairs. He'd kept track of all the footsteps and knew exactly when Nate had left for work, and where Laura and Maggie had gone in the house throughout the day. He stopped at Maggie's bedroom door and knocked softly before carefully looking inside and finding her lying on her bed. He could tell she'd been crying, which made this whole thing worse.

Approaching the bed, he slid down to sit on the floor, so he would be eye-level with her. Leaning an arm up on the mattress, he set the flyer in front of her. "Ya know... I went to an awful lot of work to get you another copy of this the first time around. You really ought to be more careful."

He paused and sighed. He didn't know how to do this. How to fix this. "I'm... I'm sorry you thought I didn't want to go with you. Truth is..." He swallowed hard. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. "... I'm different too." Perhaps Laura was right. Perhaps he should embrace that rather than fight it. "And I'm not used to going to a school or having friends or...or staying with a family like yours. It scares me sometimes." Would she even understand? "Sometimes it confuses me and...I like to be alone until I feel better. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." He paused again, weighing his options.

"You need to remember that if I want to be alone, it doesn't mean I'm upset with you. If you can be patient with me...  I'll go to the dance with you."