Notes: Spoilers for Wallander 2x01 "Faceless Killers"

Had to cope with more Wallander feels by churning out fic. No apologies, it had to be done.

Lisa stared down at the badge set upon the table in front of her, the badge that was being abandoned by a comrade of more than twenty years. This could not, could not possibly, mean what she thought it did. She looked up at Kurt, but Kurt had already turned away.

"Kurt?" Lisa called, wanting so desperately to understand what was going on. Wallander gave no answer and began to walk away.

Lisa was vaguely aware of Ann-Britt, staring at Kurt's retreating back with a completely shocked expression, including a fallen jaw. Magnus, directly across from Lisa, was frozen also, his eyes locked on the discarded badge.

"Kurt!" Lisa exclaimed, wishing there was command rather than pleading in her voice. Kurt kept walking, now past the table and growing ever closer to the door.

He was almost there when Magnus jumped up, practically exploding from his chair.

"You can't give up!" he burst out. "Hang it all, Kurt, you've done too much for that! You've done this for too long!"

Kurt finally turned around and looked at them, but his movements were agonizingly slow. His exhausted and hollow gaze rested on Magnus for a painfully long time before he said anything. "Yeah," he rasped. "Too long."

He turned away again and walked out the door. No one tried to stop him; no one could think enough to muster that kind of movement. Magnus' every muscle was stiff, the air around him prickling with a strange aggression. His long fingers curled into a set of helpless fists.

"Gone, just like that," he said bitterly. He emitted a harsh laugh. "Right out the door."

"Magnus, you've got to understand," Lisa said, a part of her wondering why she was protecting Kurt. "Killing someone is a horrible experience for anybody, and that includes Kurt."

"He's just left us, Lisa!" Magnus snapped, for once outright confronting her. "The man has led us along for years, and now because of a single issue he flounces off!"

"He killed someone, Magnus," Lisa said, trying to be patient because if she wasn't she would become just as frenzied as Magnus was right now.

"I killed someone, too!" Magnus exclaimed. "And I left the room, puked my gut out, and didn't sleep for a couple weeks. But I was back to work within an hour of doing it. So what kind of moronic excuse does Kurt have, when he's done this for decades and me only a handful of years? What excuse?"

Lisa had no argument. She could only look at Magnus, and while before a look was enough to make him sullenly back down, this time he maintained his outraged glare. Gradually the youngest man drew his composure together, like a cloak of furious calm.

Lisa had never seen Magnus so closed.

"What do we do now?" Ann-Britt wondered softly.

"We move on," Magnus said harshly. "Kurt has left us, so there's no point in waiting until he comes back. Let the fool take care of his own affairs."

His nervous fingers tugging at the roots of his curly hair betrayed his distress. No one commented. It just wasn't the sort of thing any of them did. Lisa's eyes left the anxious and angry Martinsson, and looked down at the abandoned police officer's badge on the table. She picked it up and walked out of the room.