Anti-Hero | Tim Bradford

Chapter Twenty Three - Briefing

Morgan lifted the travel cup to her lips, finishing off the final dregs of her coffee, before placing it back down onto the desk. Tim sat next to her at the front of the room as they, including Nolan, Harper, and Chen, waited for Grey and Lopez to arrive. His arm was slung over Morgan's shoulders, pulling her into his side.

She closed her eyes, trying to drown out the chatter from her colleagues. Relaxing wasn't something Morgan ever really succeeded in, she was hard-wired to always think of the worst outcome, and multiple times her panic and worry had caused her to lose focus on what was really important. She tried to focus on her breathing as a way to not start to worry. It had been a habit Grey had gotten her on to, inhaling for two seconds, and exhaling for four.

Putting focus on her breathing meant that she could silence out the rest of her surroundings. She could feel Tim's breaths as she leant on his, his arm pulling her closer. She could feel the slight stubble he had grown rub against her hair as he rested his head on hers.

"Hey, sweetheart," Tim whispered into her hair, "It'll be okay."

Morgan just nodded into his chest, enjoying the moment until it was interrupted by the sound of Grey coughing. She whipped her head up, bumping Tim's as she moved.

"Are you two done?" he asked, looking less than impressed. "Because if you are, we have business to solve."

The two split up, keeping a respectable distance, but Tim still kept a hand on her thigh as they both turned their attention to Grey. The other officers all gathered round the front tables as Grey stood at the podium.

"Right, so we all know why we're here, there have been a couple of developments in the Diaz case and the threat it poses to us." Grey opened the file in front of him, flicking through the pages until he found the interview report. "Starting when Bradford and Lopez interviewed one Damian Barrett."

"Yeah," Lopez took over from where she was perched on a table, "He was in questioning over a store robbery, I thought he was innocent but Morgan noticed that he had a familiar tattoo. She had seen it on a waiter in some Italian restaurant, La Fazenda."

"Wait what?" Tim interrupted, taking his hand back as he turned to his wife, "Why did you not tell me this?"

She shrugged "I didn't think it was that important."

"Not important? Your life is in danger, and you think that seeing something like that isn't important enough to tell me?"

"Look. I thought it was nothing, this is the first I've heard about it since." Morgan looked down. She reached over to place her hand on Tim's shoulder but he shrugged her off.

"Well clearly it was something," Tim snapped, before taking a breath, trying to regain his temper, "look, just next time, tell me. No matter how minute." He turned back to Lopez, "Anyways, continue."

"Well I ran another, more detailed background on him. He was in some deep financial trouble which seemed to disappear when he was released from jail two years ago. He was held at the twin towers jail before he was sentenced. Which is where we believe he met Diaz." Angela moved towards the chalkboard at the top of the room, grabbing the chalk and writing down names as she continued to speak, outlining her theory. "Barrett came from a family of crooks, including a sister who was serving life at Central California Women's Correctional Facility."