The precinct was always busy. But today, it was a different kind of energy. People rushed around the room, many faces grim.

Maybe I should have been checking the news this morning, instead of playing Horizon Zero Dawn. But I hadn’t been in the right mental place to see any more bad news at the time. Too late now.

Cops I recognized but didn’t know slowed their frantic pace and watched me walk by, like I was some sort of celebrity.

Nah. It was L.A. Even celebrities didn’t get this kind of stare down. “Still kickin,’” I yelled, just to clear it up for the whole room.

A cheer went up and some of them clapped. My face started to burn and I hurried toward my desk, ignoring it. This was the normal reaction when one of us got back from leave after getting shot or pummeled to a pulp, but it felt a whole lot different on this side of things.

I laid my service belt on my desk, first thing. It would probably be awhile before my abdomen could take its weight.

“Don’t sit down.” Grayson startled me. I almost glared, but then noticed a whiff of coffee. A cup steamed in his hand. Everyone relied on him to make the coffee here. Somehow he got the machine to put out drinkable stuff, and I wasn’t even that into coffee. “The captain wants to see us. She wants to hear your side of things.”

I sighed, but I was grateful to not have to try to get back out of the chair. “Let me get a bit of that in me first.”

Grayson held up the coffee. “Wait, you think this is for you?”

I glared. We both knew it was. Though he had bags under his eyes, and looked like he’d aged a couple years since last night. Maybe he needed it more.

He smirked and handed me the cup, then turned and left, knowing I’d be right behind him.

A sip was enough to burn my tongue. Coffee would have to wait a couple minutes.

Instinctively, I grabbed my gun belt. Interesting. Even here, in the middle of the precinct, apparently I didn’t feel safe.

I didn’t fight the feeling. I threw the belt over my shoulder, took another small sip of coffee, and followed Grayson.

Grayson waited until we were down a hallway, out of earshot of the din in the big room. “So. How you feeling? Your message didn’t get much across this morning.”

“Like you’re ever open about how you feel.”

He stopped walking and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I complain about how I feel all the time. You complain about me complaining.”

I poked him in the chest. “Yeah, sure, you complain about your knees, but don’t think I haven’t noticed how stiff that shoulder has been.” He’d taken a bullet a year before I showed up to annoy him all the time. I didn’t know how long those deep wounds took to truly heal, but I didn’t need to. It was a good distraction at the moment.

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Well. A good try, anyway. Grayson wasn’t buying it. “Four words really don’t count as a check-in. ‘Alive. Coming to work.’”

“It’s more than I got from you when you bruised your ribs going over that fence you had no business going over.” I brushed past him. I didn’t need him to go into the captain’s office with me.

He turned to follow me, for once ignoring the pictures of fallen officers hanging on both sides of the hallway. “You know as well as I do that I couldn’t let that punk get away. If you’d been the one behind him instead of the one circling around, you’d have done the same thing.”

“True.” I turned and smirked at him. “But I would have made it over the fence.” I left him with his mouth open and paused outside the captain’s office.

Maybe I didn’t want to go in alone. Surely she just wanted to hear my version of events in person. Our entire department’s first brush with the fae. I hadn’t done anything I could get myself in trouble by doing, had I? This would be my first one on one visit with the captain.

Grayson moved up beside me. Well. One on two.

I rapped on the door, making sure it had just the right amount of authority, but wasn’t aggressive. Hopefully.

“It’s open,” the captain called, standing behind her desk.

Papers were strewn everywhere across the massive metal beast of a desk. The captain herself looked rather disheveled. Both things were extremely unusual.

“Nofsky.” She nodded to me. “Anderson.” A nod to Grayson. “Sit.” She didn’t wait until we were seated to keep going. “You’ve gotten me into quite the mess.”

“But-”

Her deadpan stare shut me down quick. “I know. It’s not your fault. You did the best you could under the circumstances you were in. I’m not blaming you. I’m just stating a fact.” She sat down and put her elbows on her desk, lacing her fingers and studying them for a second. “As you can imagine, there are a lot of people who’d like to speak with you. Honestly, I was hardly able to keep them from beating down your door last night. It does help that I make sure none of my officers’ home addresses can be easily found, for security reasons.”

She paused, then glanced down at my waist, which had a bulky dressing on under my shirt. “How’s your wound? I wanted to come down to the hospital personally last night, but you were out of there before I could get off the phone with the president.”

“Of the United States?” Grayson got out.

The captain nodded.

Of course. Of course this had blown up. This was the second place in the entire world where the fae had made themselves known. It was a big deal. A wave of thankfulness started at my toes. I wouldn’t have handled being interrogated very well last night.

“They are, of course, aware that you’re here now. Several agents have been waiting to speak with you.” I followed her gaze over my shoulder. Two men and a woman stood just outside her office, observing us through the glass. “I hope you’ve recovered enough to speak with them.” She leaned over the desk, and I met her partway. “I would really like to get them out of my hair.”

“Yes, ma’am.” As if I could say no. We both knew it, but at least she was letting me pretend I had a choice. I should have known there would be questions. Lots of questions.

“Grayson bore the brunt of their questioning last night. You should thank him. He’s honestly the only reason they didn’t force my hand and make you answer their questions yesterday.”

“Why didn’t you mention this?” I asked Grayson.

He shrugged. “Didn’t want to by text, and didn’t get a chance this morning.”

“You could have found a way to warn me!”

“Nofsky,” the captain said.

I snapped my mouth closed. She was right, of course. And huge on partner trust. “Okay, then. Let’s get this over with.” I rolled my shoulders back, straightened my spine, and turned to face the federal agents waiting to talk with me.