"I got him!" Gordon shouted while chasing the armed man up the stair well made of rotting wood. The wood crunched as it gave way beneath his Armani shoes. He used his other foot to kick off the wall and spring forward as the steps crumbled below him. He didn't miss a step as he raced up the rest of the stairs to corner his prey on the landing. "Freeze!" he shouted at the man holding the gun to his own head.

"You can't take me in, if you do then countless lives will be lost!" the man panted as he attempted to catch his breath.

Gordon took a step forward. "Let's just talk about it, pal."

"Not another step or I'll shoot!" the man whimpered. Gordon took another step forward. He heard the gun go off before he realized the trigger had been pulled. He stared at the corpse as it collapsed to the ground.

"He, he didn't listen."

"Generally if a person is panicking, then you don't approach them and make them feel more panicked." I growled as I surveyed the scene. I tapped my foot in frustration as I grabbed the papers from my briefcase "Do you have any clue how much paperwork this is?!"

Gordon waved his perfectly manicured hand in dismissal. "It doesn't matter, all that matters is catching the Decimators!"

He looked out the window with a look of concentration, his perfectly chiseled jaw and eyes a light blue that could pierce your soul with a glance. I ignored the perfect lighting that highlighted his sculpted muscles beneath his suit. Ignored the way one of the techs smiled at him. I knew he really wasn't thinking about much. He was the perfect moron, the dumb jock that got promoted simply on looks and confidence.

I pursed my lips in annoyance and corrected his disinterest "Afraid you are going to have to wait to catch 'the Decimators' another time."

I shoved the paperwork into his hands with a tightlipped smile.

"What is this?" he asked in confusion.

I was not paying much attention having handed off the responsibility to the one responsible for this fiasco. "That is what is called a consequence."

I supplied as I looked at a social app on my phone.

"But, but, my partner always did that dumb stuff for me." he flashed me a smile. "What do you say, do your partner a solid." his white teeth perfectly shown from the lights of a passing car.

"Mmm, no, I don't think so." I shot him a look of disinterest and climbed through the window and down the ladder that we were using to traverse to the third floor thanks to the collapsed stairwell. I stopped to look up at him staring down at me and added, "You're new here, so I will make this super simple for you. If you screw up there is paperwork, if someone dies there is paperwork, if you decide to punch someone there is paperwork. And you will be filling it all out."

"But you're gay!" he blurted out. He smiled again, and again another stupid car happened to drive by to highlight his perfect smile. "Don't you wanna help me out, I'd really appreciate it."

Delores one of the techs leaned over to Gordon and said "Barking up the wrong tree, detective. Lance is into stout, burly fellas with a big round belly, commonly known in the gay world as a bear. You are about as attractive to him as bloated roadkill that's been roasting for 3 weeks."

Gordon's brain of course short circuited, he stared at me in horror then back at the black woman "But, but I'm attractive. Everyone wants me."

"Of course you are, baby." She assured him as she returned to her work. I could just hear her voice as I stepped off the ladder, "You best get that paperwork done, cause Lance will--" I slammed my door shut and looked at the picture on Growlr of the bear. I debated on responding to his message 'Coffee tonight?'

Getting a caffeinated beverage would be a nice change, but...it would mean a whole plethora of things, finding the route to the coffee place, dealing with angry drivers, turning at the right time to get into the parking lot, or if I missed the turn having to find a way to circle back, and that was just getting there. The ever expanding variables that were expanding in my mind caused me to feel overwhelmed and I closed the app to shut out the spiraling circling, complexities of possibilities with simply meeting someone for coffee. And then I told myself I was too busy with the investigation to make time for some frivolous coffee date.

Even as I thought it, my mind cemented around the lie, it was a warm cocoon of deceptions I could keep repeating as a mantra.

I turned on my car and drove home as my Growlr app pinged a notification, a message from a handsome bear that I would never meet for coffee.

"You realize that most cops don't have people shoot themselves, or die around them...Like ever..." Captain Teal was not looking pleased, in fact he looked like he was about to beat in Gordon's perfect jawline with the poorly written police report in his hand. He took a calming breath and set the paper down with exaggerated care. He met the athletic marvel's eyes. "Some cops never see death happen during their job or if they do that rare death is once in their careers and it scars them--"

"-most people are just pussies who aren't willing to find the truth!" Gordon snapped back.

Captain Teal ignored the flagrant attempt to rile him up "-which means you are the motherfucking grim reaper as far as I am concerned. That is it, you're benched."

Gordon was dumbfounded, looking between me and the captain. Searching for information on the topsy-turvey world he had been dropped into.

"Let me help you, Sport." I offered with a friendly smile. He turned to look at me, a hope in his eyes that I was coming around to thinking he was attractive, I was not but there was no need to crush his spirit any further. I kept my voice gentle but firm "Making things go boom is bad. Throwing tantrum bad."

He kept his dazed expression, this whole experience was out of his realm of understanding. "But, but I am breaking the rules to catch the bad guys..."

I handed him a pen and a large stack of papers. "Enjoy your paperwork, bucko."