AN: I like this story so I wrote some more. I haven't been getting many reviews, but a bunch of alerts, so maybe someone out there likes it, too. Anyway, here's a little more . . .

Ashley's body halted when it arrived at the door of the chief's office. Her eyes darted around the room to find it full of men who could not hide the fact that they had been talking about her. Boden stood tall and strong as always behind his desk. The two chairs in front of the desk were occupied by her captain and Antonio who both rose when she entered. Kelly held up the back wall, arms crossed in front of himself and head down. He was the only one who didn't react when she entered. She didn't know what to make of that, but had no time to consider it. The look of pity on the faces was more than she could handle anyways, so she would wait until later to consider the downward gaze of her boyfriend, who likely was only there because he was third in command in the building. She felt a nudge on her back and took a couple of more steps into the room as Connie shut the door behind her.

"Eldridge," Boden said, "Antonio's here with an update. Sit down."

"I'll stand, thank you," she said. She moved to stand in front of the desk and turned her attention to Antonio.

He had a look on his face that took her a moment to decipher but, when he cleared his throat and then spoke in a soft tone, she figured it must be the one he used for victims, like the one Adam had given her in the hospital. She was thankful that he got right to the point and said, "All charges against William Garrett have been dropped."

"What?" She meant to shout it but it croaked out of her mouth. He body betrayed her, too, as it sank into the chair that Casey had occupied. He moved to the back of the room to stand next to his friend while Boden and Antonio returned to their seats. She wondered if they realized how patriarchal they were. She figured they did, and then returned to the unpleasant conversation. "I don't understand. He tried to kill me."

"He says he didn't. That he panicked in the fire and became disoriented."

"Well, what about hitting me with a halligan?" she asked.

"He says he didn't. He doesn't know how you got hurt."

"And my say so doesn't count?"

He couldn't answer her question directly so said, "The DA doesn't have enough to prosecute."

She turned to her boss, "Is he coming back to work here?"

"Never," Boden said.

"Ok," she stood. "That's all I care about anyway."

"There's more," Antonio said. She sat and waited. "There's still a missing girl."

Ashley stood again. "That has nothing to do with me." She moved to leave the room.

"And there's a shrine of you in his apartment." That stopped her.

"Antonio," she said, pleading with her voice for this not to be true.

"I'm sorry, Ashley. Garrett's in the wind and you need to be protected while we look for him and the missing girl." He paused to give her a moment to digest what he had said. "Do you have any idea where he would be?"

"No," she said her voice finding its strength. "I know nothing about him. I had no relationship with him."

"Anything you can think of could help. Did he say anything? Have a special place he used to visit?"

"I never went anywhere with him. All of his harassment and abuse," her voice cracked, "took place in the buildings of the academy. I never spoke to him about anything else because I hated him. I have nothing to tell you."

Chief Boden said, "I can get someone to cover your shift today."

"No," she said to him, "that's what he wants. I am not losing my career over him. I need to stay here."

"She's probably safer here," Antonio said. "We put a car outside."

Casey said, "Everyone will watch her back on a call, Chief. She'll be fine."

Kelly decided that no more was to be accomplished through this conversation, so he vacated his post against the wall, took ahold of his girlfriend's hand and led her out of the room. Ashley kept her head down and tried to compose herself as he rushed through the building with her. He didn't let go of her until they arrived at his office. She stood still in the middle of the room while he shut and locked the door and closed all of the blinds. Then he reached for Ashley and pulled her into his arms. He held her tense frame, waiting for her to relax. After what seemed like way too long, he kissed the top of her head and said, "If you don't start breathing in the next ten seconds, I'm going to break protocol and perform mouth to mouth resuscitation on you."

Mission accomplished, Ashley let out a breath, and a soft giggle, and relaxed into his embrace. She let him hold her as she tried to process everything Antonio said. "What am I going to do?" she asked.

"We are going to let Antonio and the rest of Intelligence do their jobs and we are going to stay close to each other and go about their lives while they do that."

She looked up and met his eyes for the first time since they walked into work together, which seemed like ages ago. "Are you still mad about earlier?"

"No," he said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "But we can talk about that if you want." He kissed her lips

"I don't want to about it," she said. "Ever."

"Yeah, but Casey said we probably should."

"You know," she said, kissing him, "I just really don't want Captain Casey to have an integral part of our relationship."

"Good point," he said, kissing her some more.

She pulled back, something nagging in the back of her mind. "Look, if you decide that this is more trouble than it's worth -"

"Don't," he said. "I'm not going anywhere."

She let him push her towards his bed and the kissing continued.

AN: I only own Ashley and that stupid William Garrett. Please review. Thank you!