Case Closed. Cold Case Opened.

Help Team

Holly briefly looked up to see her captain subtly looking over her shoulder. She spun the chair around completely, making Amy take a few steps back. "Captain, is something intriguing you?" She wondered, raising her brows at her guilty-looking mother.

Amy quickly shook her head, not sparing much time between the question and her answer. "No, no, I'm just interested in how my best detective is doing on this case."

"When I solve it, I'll let you know," Holly added with a slight hint of sarcasm, closing the file. "What's bothering you?" She asked, knowing that her captain was concerned with something else.

"Nothing," Amy tried to lie, looking to the other side of the bullpen to avoid eye contact.

Holly stood from her chair, waving her hands in front of her mother's eyes. "Mom!" She made her jump, obviously causing her to come out of a trance.

"Oh, hey, Holly, how's your case going?" Amy asked with a wide smile, snapping back into it.

Holly slumped back in her chair, turning back to her case. "It's great, Mom," She sighed an obviously saddened breath.

"What's going on?" Amy questioned, sitting on the chair next to her daughter's desk. "I know something is wrong, a mother always knows."

Holly subtly looked to the floor, before looking back at her captain again. "I can't do this case," She announced as a whisper. Amy raised her eyebrows, and as she opened her mouth to question, Holly continued. "I want to so badly, but it's killing me, one day at a time-"

Amy sighed, in both a relieved and upset way. "If that's what you want, then I can disable the case from you." She kindly offered. A quick and unnecessary offer.

"No," Holly quickly told her, "I want to keep it, and I want to work it, but I need some help. I can't do this case alone."

Amy hesitated for a moment. As the clogs turned in her head, contemplating whether to give her daughter the help she wanted, she thought about one single moment, years ago:

[Flashback, 2021, Twenty-three years before]

Jake stroked the sleepy toddler's muddy blonde hair as he slowly drifted to sleep on the couch, resting against his father's chest, whilst Jake was watching his all-time favorite movie, Die Hard. Amy walked through from the kitchen and immediately moved from her normal stature to a slump.

"Jake, how many times have I told you?" She asked, to have a confused glance back from her husband. "No Die Hard in front of Logan!" She seethed a little, moving behind the couch and gently hitting the back of his head with the dishcloth she was carrying.

"He was on my IPad, it's fine." Jake attempted to make the situation better.

"No, it's really not..." Amy sighed, sitting next to him.

His phone buzzed beside him, and he quickly picked it up before the second ring of the call, making sure it didn't wake the child resting against him. He talked with the person on the phone for a few minutes as Amy attempted to eavesdrop on the conversation.

As he hung up the phone, he showed a giant grin but, didn't give details, which teased Amy a lot.

"Please, Jake, just tell me."  Amy pleaded for a couple minutes.

Finally, Jake caved in. "Okay, we're going out tomorrow, someplace fun, someplace you and Logan will like, and will never guess!" He said with pride.

Amy was up at the crack of dawn the following morning, waking Jake with excitement and collecting Logan, still half asleep when they got in the car. The first stop was to get gas, not that exciting, but crucial as Jake had forgotten to get gas for a week and now had less than a mile in the tank left, the second stop was to an opening of a new puzzle activity centre, which very much granted Jake hated but, as promised, Amy and Logan enjoyed. The third and final stop was sudden and had only become part of the agenda ninety minutes before it happened. Finally, they were able to take home the fourth member of their family. For a week, their daughter hadn't been allowed to leave the hospital due to complications, but thankfully they had gotten the phone call that she was ready, and by the time they reached the hospital, they collected their daughter and headed back home. What a day to remember.

Amy nodded, coming back to reality. "Yeah, you can have his help team."

"Really?" Holly sounded shocked.

The captain nodded again. "If it helps you bring your father back home, or at least get some closure on the case, then, of course, you can have a help team." She spoke with a generous smile.

Holly resisted the urge to hug the captain as she learned as a beat cop, no inappropriate workplace affection toward another cop, most definitely including your captain. She grinned and thanked her captain, and continued as Amy began walking back into her office, having her daughter and detective following her until the door shut in front of her, repeating the gratefulness for what she had just been given.

*************

The following morning, an emergency meeting was called after the usual briefing. Amy stood at the front, with Holly by her side. Amy explained what this extra time was about, before allowing Holly to continue, much to her dislike.

"Okay, following up on what the captain said," She hesitated. She turned to Amy with a worried look to have a reassuring nod returned. Holly looked back to the briefing room to see all the detectives waiting for more information, she took a deep breath in and continued. "I am ashamed to say that I cannot do this case on my own. I tried, and for two months, I have been unsuccessful in my ways, and have hit a slump. Which is why I need help for you. I am not taking you away from your other cases, it would just be background work, but I'd really appreciate the help from all of you, it would be great." She informed with a smile. 

The briefing ended, and on her way out of the room, Holly was approached by Cook. "Hey," He grabbed her attention. She turned and smiled at the fellow detective. "Your speech was really good. Were you nervous?" He sounded like he knew the answer.

Holly shamefully nodded. "Yeah, I've never done anything like that before, not even as a beat cop, and that place is full of humiliation." She smiled at the end.

Cook laughed a little. "Well, I've been on the job six-years now, and nobody has ever been so open about a slump before."

"Yeah, well, I don't really want a toilet exploding on me like it did with my dad when he refused to acknowledge his own slump," Holly spoke with a smile.

"I heard that one before." The male detective giggled. "Well, let me just at this," He pulled a straight face, "Not many 'help me'  speeches compel me, but yours did. If you still want help on the case of yours, I'd be happy to give you a hand."

Holly grinned. "Really?" He nodded. "Thank you so much, Cook, that means a lot to me!"

"Please, now we're working together, call me Sam." He insisted.

Holly, although she didn't know why, began blushing a little, not a lot but, just enough to see. "Well, thank you, Sam," She smiled, putting her hand out to shake his.

He returned the shake. "Do you want to get a drink after work, talk about the case?"

The young detective raised her eyebrows for a slight second before answering with a smile. "Yeah, sure, I'd like that."