FBI Most Wanted

Part 1

The bar was crowded. People stood, sat and walked around, with  drinks in their hands. Aurora Bailey bottomed the whisky she had ordered a couple minutes ago and asked the tall, blonde bartender for another one. The top of the bar was sticky and dusty and the bar stool under her squeaked when she turned and looked around. 

Fairy lights were hung in the ceiling and they trickled down the brick walls like falling stars. The shiny wooden floor was covered in muddy footprints and used napkins, that maintenance likely had to clean up at the end of the night. The entire bar had a rustic feel to it, but the people were more hippy-ish.

"Here you go, ma'am," the bartenders, low smart-sounding voice said as he placed a new glass of dark liquid on the bar in front of her. 

"Thank you." Aurora grabbed the glass and took a small sip.

"You really are a woman of sophisticated taste, agent Bailey." The familiar voice of Ken Crosby spread a smile across Aurora's face. The first time she had heard it, almost a year ago, she had thought it was weird and shaky. Now it was the only thing that could make her forget everything going on, at their jobs, and just focus on what was in front of her. 

They were FBI Special Agents, working with the Fugitive Task Force. Their job was to catch those on the FBI's Most Wanted List. They truly saw the worst in humanity every day, it sat on their shoulders, affected their thoughts and dreams, so having that one thing that could pull them out of it was important.

"What?" Aurora looked over at him, as he clumsily sat down in the barstool next to her, "a girl can't drink whisky without being harassed by a man?" her tone was sarcastic, but there was a small amount of truth to what she said. Almost every time she went into a bar, alone, and ordered herself a whisky, the tab was picked up by a man and she was asked who taught her to drink the drink.

"I'm not harassing you!" Crosby defended himself, "I'm purely pointing out a good quality of yours." Aurora clicked her gums, telling him she didn't believe him. "Alright, you want proof?" Aurora cocked an eyebrow. "Buy me a drink."

"And what might that proof?"

"That I'm not a man that thinks he needs to take care of a woman. That I am open to the opportunity of letting a woman take care of me."

"You truly are a feminist icon, Ken Crosby," Aurora smirked and waved to the bartender, who had started wiping beer glasses by a sink a few feet down from them. "Get him whatever he wants," she pointed at Crosby.

"Just a beer, preferably in a bottle," Crosby said to the bartender. The bartender bent down, into a mini-fridge, under the bar, and fished out a glass bottle with a golden sticker on the front. He popped the top of and placed it on a napkin in front of Crosby. Crosby took a sip and said, "rough case."

"Tell me about it," Aurora sighed, "sometimes I really wish I had chosen another career path."

"I don't," Crosby shrugged. Aurora looked at him and wrinkled her eyebrows. "Look at it this way: yes, we see the worst of the worst. But we also get to help those in need and save future victims and be role models to millions of Americans. Don't always focus on the negatives, Aurora."

Aurora nodded and grinned. "You know what?" Crosby shook his head. "I have seen a lot of TED talks, but this one..." Crosby hit her shoulder and Aurora laughed. "I'm sorry! But you know you would have done the same."

"Alright, you make a fair point..." Crosby took another sip off his beer and reached into his pocket, where his phone had started vibrating. His and Aurora's boss' name, Jess LaCroix, flashed across the screen. "Damnit," he showed Aurora the screen before picking it up: "Crosby...we'll be right there." He hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket, "we gotta go."

"Yeah, I figured," Aurora took her wallet out of her back pocket and counted out 35 dollars. She put it next to their drinks and took her coat from the back of the barstool. "You need to drive. I'm not sure I'm quite sober enough." Crosby nodded and took a car key out of his jacket pocket. "Keep the change," she told the bartender as they passed him. He smiled and they were out the door.