On Duty

"Yeah." Pete waves off Trey, letting him go outside. He turns to his glass of water, but one eye stays on a picture on the wall that had just enough reflection for him to see Trey's figure outside the front door. He remains relaxed though, seemingly and perhaps strangely, confident that the younger man would return on his own.

Lost in his own thoughts about his current task, the approaching woman startles him. Looking up quickly, his eyebrows rise slightly as he takes in the woman's features. Nikki... Nikki... he racks his brain.

"I..." He squints a little, trying to figure out if he really knew her or not. Nikkie Keller... the name did ring a bell. And she'd called him Peter. No one had called him that in a long time. Then it dawns on him. His eyes widen in total surprise and almost shock at seeing her. "Nikki Keller... of course."

Still shocked, he tries to clear the cobwebs from old memories. Yes, it had been a long time. He was impressed she'd recognized him at all. Last time she'd probably seen him, he'd been quite a bit huskier with a head of hair, let alone he'd been much younger. "Wow." A grin slowly comes to his lips. But just as quickly, it fades. Right now was not a good time to socialize. He was right in the middle of keeping steady a stick of dynamite and one wrong move could blow the whole thing. His eyes flash back to the picture on the wall to make sure he could still see Trey's reflection.

Thinking quickly, Pete grabs a napkin and fishes a pen out of his pocket to scribble down his cell phone number. Before he hands it to Nikki though, his eyes automatically drift over her left hand. Giving his number to a married woman would not be such a great idea, but he finds her ring finger empty. "Here." His eyes lock with hers. "If you can't meet me back here at seven tonight, call me."

Leaning back a little, he reaches to his belt where he shows his Elite badge as a warning he was on duty. He didn't want to brush her off or make her feel badly but the timing just wasn't so great right now. More than likely, this would come as a surprise to her - ten years ago, Pete was struggling to make it in college and was as far away from law enforcement as anyone. Nikki probably didn't even know about his mother who had passed at least a year after Nikki had moved away.

Pete's eyes linger on hers for a moment, as if apologizing and asking her not to feel slighted by this short greeting. He really did want to see her - catching up with old friends was always fun and he'd had some really good times hanging out with her and his brother. He didn't know if she was back in town just visiting or even if she had time to meet him at another time, but it was all he could offer right now. And if not, she had his number so hopefully he'd catch up to her again at some point.


Justin chuckles and shakes his head. "Yeah, that was her. If Ma finds out she called, she'll be all over it."

Looking up quickly at Beth's next comment, he gives her a look that wasn't irritated, but it was meant as a slight chide. "Do you really think I'm the type to dump you or go back on my word about fishing? It's first come first serve around here. You were first and I said we were going, so that's that. Rebecca can wait and if she can't then she isn't worth seeing."

Nodding with finalization, he starts in on his salad. Seeing Beth liked the watermelon, he grins. "My brother and I used to have seed spitting contests."


Alec moves back out of Dalton's way for a few moments, his eyebrows raised a bit. It was weird that he had just really helped and hearing that if it hadn't been for him, they wouldn't have latched on to this. He'd... actually helped with something? Really? More than just boring filing work?

He shrugs lamely. "You're...welcome." Looking back to the computer screen, he just sits for a moment before putting his hands back on the keyboard. "Yeah I don't have anything better to do... until tonight." He gives Dalton a sidelong glance, wondering if he could trust the big man. "You don't think you could shut down the locks for, oh, about thirty seconds tonight, do you?" He knew Reese could track him if he used a security card to sneak out again, and he was planning on returning before daybreak, but anything to avoid more hassles would be worth it.