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Forty Four

Chapter Forty Four:

Theodora stood in Gil's office alone, humming to a song in her head. She tapped the desk, rocking back and fourth on her feet.

She had left Malcolm's apartment, letting him sleep. The precinct wasn't the first place she wanted to be but going home wasn't an option, to then only find herself face to face with Gil who looked surprised to see her.

"There's no cases for either of you to work on." Was the first thing he had said to her, "You look exhausted, go home and sleep."

She had followed him into his office, "Don't I work here now? I'm not just Malcolm's counterpart—"

"I know you're not, Fletcher. But you're clearly going through something right now and you work better with Bright. Take it easy."

She pursed her lips, "I didn't really come here for a case."

That's why she'd been telling herself to work up the nerve and go to the precinct the last few days, to find something for Malcolm to work on. But now, alone, that's not what she wanted to talk about at all.

"No?"

Theodora shook her head, "It's about Malcolm."

To that, Gil raised a hand and excused himself from the room. Leaving her all alone, and he hadn't come back since. Ten minutes later, he returned to Theodora laying side ways over a chair. She scrambled up, giving him a small smile.

"Bright's here." Gil said, taking a seat on the other side of his desk. "Asking for a case to work on."

"Are you surprised?"

The man shook his head, "I thought he was getting better."

"Did you really?"

Gil leaned back in his seat, "How bad?"

"He can't sleep through the night. Or at all, actually. If I was there, he used to be able to sleep at least six hours without having a nightmare but now he says he can't even close his eyes without seeing them."

"Seeing who?"

Theodora propped her chin on her hand, "Who do you think? His father, his mother, the girl in the box—"

"It's still the girl in the box?"

She nodded, "Always has been."

"And we've never found a girl in a box. We searched that house for weeks, we interrogated that man for months. If there was a girl in a box we would've found her by now."

Theodora pursed her lips, "What if she was no longer in the box? Get rid of both pieces of evidence in separate places, take the eyes off of one certain person."

He sighed, "Don't feed into this."

"I don't think he's lying, Gil."

"You believe in it?"

"I don't think his mind could make this up out of nothing, not when it's destroying his life. That's all he thinks about, that woman in that box. He had to have seen something that night to enforce these terrors."

Gil didn't look convinced, his gaze going past her and to the glass windows. She turned to see what he was looking at only to find Malcolm searching through someone's desk. They both got up and filed out, "What the hell are you doing?" Gil questioned, crossing his arms.