"This could bring any of the cases that I've prosecuted in the last five years into question, Ed. Are you sure its worth all this?" District Attorney Lonnie Eckhart questioned, running a hand over his bald head.

"I'm sure that I can't ignore the fact that Rogers overlooked evidence that it took Detective Stark about five minutes to find," Sheriff Gonzalez said, his tone and expression tight.

D.A. Eckhart turned his attention to Tessa, sitting in the chair beside him. "Detective, this evidence you found...are you certain it will lead you anywhere? Could it not be extraneous information that really means nothing?"

Lifting a shoulder, she could only provide him with an honest answer. "I don't know, Mr. Eckhart. They very well could be dead end leads. But, then again, not investigating a lover who was sending angry and desperate texts to Hallie Whitmore would be flat out negligence."

"But, there is a better than average chance that it will be useless information," the D.A. persisted. "And if that's the case, then bringing all this to light will upend years of work for absolutely no reason."

"That's always the risk," she told the man, watching a vein in the center of his forehead pulsate.

"So, Detective, would you have any objection to investigating this evidence first and then, if it leads nowhere, rescinding your complaint--"

"Lonnie! What the hell are you doing!" Sheriff Gonazlez demanded, aghast as he stared at the D.A.

For a moment, Mr. Eckhart froze, and then his shoulders slumped and he huffed out a deep breath, giving his head a shake.

"We don't work like this. I don't work like this!" the sheriff bit out, leaning back in his desk chair and pulling in a breath of his own.

"I know. I know," Mr. Eckhart agreed, swiping a hand across his forehead. "Its just.."

"I know," Sheriff Gonzalez repeated. "But, we do what's right in this office. And we do it by the book."

The D.A. gave a nod, sliding a sideways glance at Tessa. "Strike my last statement, won't you, Detective? I'm just a little caught off guard by this."

"Its forgotten," she told the man. "And I'm sorry this is happening. If I didn't think there was a severe lack of due diligence, it never would have been brought up."

"Its not your fault, Detective Stark," the sheriff assured her. "This lands squarely on Rogers. He laid down on the job and now the three of us have a mess to clean up."

"I'm doing my best to clean up on my end," she said, hoping the man sitting beside her wasn't going to fall over due to a stress induced heart infarction.

The poor man looked like he was on the verge of either imploding...or bursting into tears.

"So, I guess we have to clean up on our end," Mr. Eckhart sighed. "I'll log Detective Stark's deposition into the case review affidavit...and file the paperwork for the audits. Have you talked to Detective Rogers?"

The sheriff nodded somberly. "I called him in last night. He's out of commission until further notice."

Tessa felt herself wanting to apologize again, but she bit her lip and refrained. She'd been brought in to solve a case and she was doing that. Any failures on Detective Rogers' part to fully investigate, and anything that might happen to him as a result of those failures, landed squarely on his own shoulders.

"I think your part is done, Detective Stark. You can get back to work before the morning slips away," Sheriff Gonzalez said, suddenly giving her a kind smile. "And you're doing a fine job."

"Thank you, Sheriff," she returned, smiling back as she got to her feet and headed toward the door of the office.

"Well, Ed, I hope your girl can actually get this case solved, otherwise, everything we're about to put ourselves through will be for nothing," was Mr. Eckhart's words as she exited the room and closed the door behind her.

She hoped she could solve this case, too, because D.A. Eckhart was right. If she couldn't, then she had just caused an awful lot of trouble and strife for an entire police department for absolutely no reason.

Wending her way back toward the main gallery, she pushed through the hallway door and walked into the wall of voices and noise, immediately catching sight of Cole sitting at her desk, his gaze already fixed on her.

Suddenly feeling as if she needed a jolt of something strong enough to pass for rocket fuel, she waved to Cole and veered to the right, following a straight path toward the break room, which sat at the back of the gallery.

Entering through the open doorway, she was instantly struck by the aromas of freshly brewed coffee and recently popped popcorn, even though it was barely past nine in the morning. Making a bee-line for the enormous coffee station at the far end of the space, she could already feel her pulse beginning to speed up in anticipation.

The coffee station was outfitted with a fancy cappuccino machine with a milk frother, a machine that made cold brewed or iced coffees or teas using little pods in a variety of flavors...and there was a standard, run of the mill Bunn coffee maker that apparently, no one in the sheriff's station used but her, meaning that the coffee was brewed first thing in the morning and there it sat, all day, getting stronger and more bitter by the hour. And that was just the way she liked it. Concentrated, thick, barely even drinkable sludge, to which she would then add copious amounts of cream and sugar, creating a muddy, bitter-sweet concoction that was downright disgusting.

Taking a large paper cup from the dispenser on the wall, she went for a handful of liquid creamers stored in a wicker basket and began pouring them into the empty cup, as was her process.

"So, you're Special Detective Stark?" a deep voice sounded out.

Glancing over her shoulder, she took in the sight of the tall, broad man with salt and pepper hair striding across the break room, feeling something tighten in the region of her spine. "I've been accused of that, yes."

The man chuckled, but without humor, as he came to a stop beside her, his dark eyes assessing her and his weathered features more than hinting at his distaste. "I can't believe you're Stark the Shark. I was expecting someone more...impressive."

"Sorry to disappoint you," she responded, turning back to her creamers.

"Don't you want to know who I am?" the man asked, his tone filled with ice.

She lifted a shoulder, emptying the last creamer into her cup. "Not really. But, since you obviously want me to know, you might as well spit it out."

"I'm the man who's career you just ruined!" came the not so shocking revelation, spoken in something of an angry hiss. "I'm the man who's been put on desk duty until further notice! And I'm the man who has to sit in front of a review board and defend every case I've worked over the past five years!"

Tessa pulled in a breath and reached for the sugar packets, taking several and tearing them all open at once. "Wow. That sounds rough."

Detective Rogers made a choked sound in his throat, the waves of barely contained rage rolling off him. "Who do you think you are!" he growled, though keeping his voice low enough so as not to draw attention.

"I thought we already established that," she replied, gathering up the empty creamers and stepping to the side, dropping them and the sugar packets into the trash can sitting there.

"Look at you!" the man snarled. "You're a little girl just playing at being a cop! What makes you think you're so much better than me!"

Tessa finally looked at the man standing there, his teeth clenched, nostrils flaring. "I don't think I'm better than you. But, it seems like you think I'm better than you. And that sounds like a you problem--"

Before she could blink, Rogers was on top of her, his hands clamping down onto her upper arms with bone crushing force, causing pain to scatter through her so that the breath rushed out of her. "You smart assed little bitch!" Rogers snarled, getting right down into her face. "You did this to me and you're going to fix this!"

Even as the man was growling out the words, a surge of fear laced adrenaline spiked through her.  "Let me go!  You're hurting me!" she gasped.

"Good!  Somebody needs to bring you down a notch, girl!" Rogers spat, suddenly giving her a shake that had enough force behind it to cause her head to snap painfully backward.

And just as suddenly, she'd had enough.  Of its own accord, her body fell into fight stance, her feet squaring up...and at the same instant, her knees bent and her full weight dropped downwards, the move surprising Rogers so that he loosened his grip a measure.  Without stopping to think, she shot her fist forward, landing a hard and fast blow dead center of his groin, pushing an agonized roar out of him and causing him to pitch forward.  As he was caught off balance, she swung upwards as hard as she could manage, hammer fisting him right under the chin hard enough to slam his teeth together and whip his head backward.  The next instant, with his throat exposed to her, she jabbed forward, connecting the side of her fist with his windpipe, which she felt give way slightly.  Letting out an anguished gurgle, Rogers let go of her arms and reeled away from her... and then she was up and gone, tearing past the man and racing toward the door of the break room...only to run headlong into the unyielding wall of the person who was suddenly blocking her path.

The impact pushed the wind out of her with a loud oof, but the sound was swallowed up by the fabric of Cole's tee shirt as he closed his arms around her, pressing her against his chest.

"Tessa, what the hell--" Cole's voice halted and his entire body seemed to go rigid. "You son-of-a-bitch. What did you do to her!"

As those words rumbled forth, she was abruptly handed off to someone else—Zeb--who deftly tucked her up beneath his arm, allowing her a view of Cole as he crossed the room in only a few strides...and met up with Rogers.

"You stupid fuck!" Cole roared, not even slowing his steps as he snatched Rogers by the shirt front and lifted him off his feet, not stopping until the man was bodily slammed into the wall by the coffee station. "What did you do to her!"

Rogers, still clutching at his throat as he choked and gasped, couldn't offer up and answer fast enough for Cole's liking and found himself slammed against the wall for a second time, this time with enough force to bounce his skull off the bricks. Barely a moment later, the thunder of heavy footsteps sounded out and a veritable wave of bodies surged through the doorway and into the room, swarming Cole and, despite the numbers, struggling to pull him off Rogers.

In the middle of the commotion, Zeb whipped Tessa around and ushered her away from the scene and out into the gallery, where he stopped and turned to her, his worried gaze assessing her.

"Tessa, what did Rogers do to you? Did he hurt you?" he questioned.

"No. He-he didn't. I'm fine," she croaked out, her voice unsteady.

"But, your shaking," Zeb pointed out, tightening his arm around her shoulders.

She gave the young man a nod, blinking rapidly as her eyes misted over with the threat of tears, which caused Officer Collins jaw to clench and a low fire to ignite in his eyes.

"Oh my god, he did hurt you. Tell me what he did!" demanded Zeb and something in his voice had Tessa wrapping her arms around his waist in an effort to keep him there with her.

"Zeb, I'm fine. Really. Its just an adrenaline reaction," she assured him, wishing she wasn't having that reaction, but it was out of her control. "Rogers is in worse shape than I am." Certainly, he'd be feeling her for the next few hours...or days, depending on how many of his teeth she'd hopefully cracked.

The ruckus from inside the break room seemed to reach a crescendo and a beat later, Cole appeared in the doorway, escorted by a small horde of officers, obviously intent on insuring that he couldn't have another go at Rogers.

Out of the break room, Cole's gaze instantly found her and he shrugged off the hands that were holding onto him, stalking toward her and wordlessly pulling her away from Zeb and into his own arms.

"Tessa, did that fucker hurt you!" he asked roughly, his breath heavy and his face flushed with anger. 

"I didn't hurt her!" a coarse voice called out, turning Tessa's head in that direction, finding Rogers being hauled across the gallery by a handful of officers. "She attacked me! She's a psycho bitch!"

"Shut it, Rogers!" one of the officers ordered. "That's a woman you're talking to!"

"Yeah, its the woman who apparently kicked your ass!" another officer scoffed, giving Rogers a hearty shove that sent him stumbling forward.

"Fuck you, Dobbs!" Rogers spat at the man. "This is all her fault, not mine!"

"Alright, Rogers. You can tell that to the sheriff," Dobbs returned as the group of men continued on their way.

As they went, Tessa turned back to Cole, who looked like he was on the verge of again flying at Rogers. "Cole, you shouldn't have gone after him. There was no need for you to take on any trouble."

Ignoring her words, Cole lifted a hand and used his thumb to wipe away the tear that was sliding down her cheek. "I'm not worried about me, Tessa."

"I am!" she scolded. "You could be facing a reprimand!"

"I doubt it," Zeb put in. "There's a camera covering the break room. Whatever Rogers did, there'll be video proof."

"He really didn't do anything. He's just pissed off and looking for someone to blame...and I'm it."

Cole pulled in a breath and took a step back from her. "He did enough to cause you to want to fight back, Tessa. That right there should put him out of a job."

That sounded like something of a mean supper, but if a grown man would put his hands on a woman, in the middle of a police station no less, then maybe that man shouldn't be walking around with a badge and a gun.