Shots

Shots in the Dark

"Are you walking around already? What if you bump into something again? You probably will!"

"Adam, I'm not your actual kid, remember? In fact, it makes more sense for me to adopt you, given that I have been doing this job longer than you have been doing yours."

"That's now how that works."

Evie smiled benevolently and deposited a coffee into Adam's dramatic hands. "Maybe, but I don't care, so I don't think it matters."

"You're a gem," Adam mumbled reverently into his cup.

"But what kind? And don't say diamond."

Antonio reached for his coffee impatiently. "Aren't diamonds the best, though? Wouldn't you want to be a diamond? Rare, sparkly, hard?"

"Are you saying I'm hard, Tony?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you trapping me in a losing game?"

"I like opals. They're my birthstone. Or sapphires. They're pretty hard, too."

"So you wouldn't mind being called hard?"

Adam put his hands out in protest. "Can this conversation like, stop happening? I'm getting very uncomfortable."

"Aren't you always," Evie mentioned dryly, perching on the edge of Jay's desk, shoving aside whatever was in her way.

"Don't do that."

"I didn't knock anything to the floor this time, so stop whining. Can we get back to the important things? I have a corner meeting with some chickadees in an hour."

Antonio raised his hand a little, realized the silliness of that, shook his head and put it down again. "So wait, if sparrows are informants, what are chickadees?"

"Potential sparrows."

"That's what I thought." Antonio sipped his coffee like he wasn't proud of himself for thinking that.

Evie tipped her head in his direction. "Very astute. So is anybody going to tell me why I'm here and not meeting you at some crime scene?"

Voight spoke up from the doorway of his office. "Because they didn't want you scoping it out before we did."

"They, huh? And exactly what terrible outcomes would occur if I had snooped preemptively? I suppose it doesn't matter, seeing as I already did."

Jay started. "You snooped on a crime scene, then came here without mentioning it and you were still going to interview potential informants without investigating further?"

Evie frowned. "Why would I need to? You'd have gotten to it by then and I could've just sent a proxy to check on you guys."

"Who would you have sent?" Adam wanted to know.

"Probably Jade."

"She doesn't have a cool nickname?"

"He has the nickname 'Jade' because he has striking green eyes."

"Oh."

"Mmhmm." Evie knew she could easily let the conversation get sidetracked again and so, to make sure that didn't happen, she pushed herself up off of Jay's desk and cleared her throat. "So are we investigating or what?"

Adam immediately raised his hand, "I call shotgun."

Evie rolled her eyes. "You just say that because you want to work up to driving my car."

"Oh man, you nailed me. Is that a thing that could happen, by the way?"

"Probably not, but if I'm like, dying or something," Evie shrugged, "it could, I guess."