"Seems to me like you were falling in love with her."

"To be completely honest, so did I. I thought I was falling for her and I tried to stop it. I didn't know if we should yet. Something in the back of my head told me not to make any moves."

"Why? You didn't have to stop yourself."

"I know that. I'm not really sure. Caution, I think, mostly. I was just being really cautious."

"Did you have any any relationships before you met Carly? It's obvious you were single during the time she was there."

"Just a couple. I was never one to cross business with pleasure and I made it clear to my girlfriends that they came after my job."

"You're an ."

"Yeah, well, it's true. I wouldn't have gotten through the Academy if I had let one of my girlfriends take all of my time."

"You balanced Carly well enough, you couldn't work out time for these other girls?"

"Well, that's the thing. I didn't let Carly into my life. She just . . . happened to it."

"You talk about her like a skin condition. Acne just happens, dude, not people."

"Yeah, well. I don't have an explanation for her. She was just different and that's pretty much it."

"Were you guys like that until she left?"

"Pretty much. There was only one other major incident."

"Another case?"

"Surprisingly, no. She never appeared in any other cases I worked on."

"Another on her tail?"

"Something much more domestic than that. I bet you'll never guess."

"A baking contest? A food fight? Did she show up to the office with Korean barbeque? Oh God, did she try to flirt with Mark?"

"Pfft, no. None of those things."

"Then what, smartass?"

"She asked me to go to a wedding with her."

---

Jaebum swallowed his coffee, keeping his stare on her and level.

They were in his office and she had dropped by with coffee and sweets. He should have known then that something was up. It wasn't that Carly was nice or generous, but she didn't come to his job, specifically because she'd been a former suspect. She'd even brought enough for Youngjae, Mark, Yugyeom and Kunpimook.

"You want me to be your date to a wedding?"

She pouted. "Look, I'll buy you any suit you want and another on top of it."

"I repeat: you want me to be your date to a wedding?"

She huffed. "Yes."

"Why?"

"Umm, I really like you and you're one of the few friends I have? And about the only male friend?"

"Or you could just go alone. That's pretty novel."

"Yeah, I could, if I wanted to look like an idiot. No one goes alone to a wedding."

He sighed dramatically. "When and where?"

She jumped up from her seat, running over to hug him and squishing their cheeks together. "Thank you so much, JB!"

He winced. "I want those two suits and to be there when you pick out your dress."

"What, don't trust my taste in fashion?"

"You're in my office in black skinny jeans, with a men's oversized black t-shirt, wearing shimmery silver stilettoes. Can't say I do."

"Deal. I'll text you the details and when I'm ready to go shopping."

"Yeah, yeah. Now get out of my office. Some of us have actual work to do."

She gave him a really messy kiss to the cheek. "You won't regret it."

He stuck out his tongue at her as she gathered her things. 

---

Jaebum didn't really know how to feel about all this. 

Carly beside him looked stunning, her dress knee-length and a pale, steely-grey and her signature silver stilettoes (she never seemed to go anywhere without them, he'd noticed), but she wasn't the problem. What was the problem was Park Jinyoung standing across the ballroom, talking to Jinyoung Park. 

"Tell me if I'm just hallucinating, but that's can't be Junior talking to the director of the FBI, can it?"

Carly looked at him funny. "Why wouldn't it be okay?"

"Part of the reason I asked you all those quetions about Vegas was to see what Park Jinyoung - Junior - was doing there. I was asked, specifically, by Jinyoung Park - JYP - the director of the FBI because he was a suspect in organized crime there."

Her eyebrows shot into her hairline before she frowned. "Let's go talk to them."

Before he could protest, Carly was dragging him over to teh two talking men.

"Hey, JYP. Long time no see."

The older man turned, lighting up at the sight of her. "Carly! How good you could make it! I didn't know whether you'd gotten the invite properly or not, with all your moving around the country."

She smiled brightly back. "Well, this is a big wedding for your guys. I really liked Sunmi, so I'm happy to see her get married. Hopefully it's a good choice and a long lasting partnership."

"I think she picked well." Junior said. "He's a really nice, well-spoken man. Sunmi doesn't shut up about him at the office."

"Did you manage to blackmail anyone into being your plus one?" Carly teased, poking Junior's cheek. 

"You're very funny." He griped back.

"He's with me tonight." JYP chuckled. "We both had to come stag, so we're being loners together. And what about you? I imagine you're much the same."

"Hey!"

"You're the one who self-proclaimed that you have no friends." Junior snarked. 

Carly huffed and pouted at them. "Actually, I can make friends. I even made friends that didn't have anything to do with my job."

"In what way?" Junior raised an eyebrow. 

"Okay, well, I got called in for interrogation and that's how we met, but he's LAPD."

JYP outright laughed. Junior tried to hide his smirk, but it didn't work. Carly pouted harder. 

"Don't be like that!"

"You made a friend out of almost getting arrested." JYP laguhed harder. "It's quite the story."

"And where's the proof of this new LAPD friend of yours?" Junior cocked his head mockingly.

"Smartass." She growled. She pulled Jaebum - who had been edging back to the bar - up to her side. "LAPD Detective Im Jaebum. Speaking of JB, I think you two owe him an explanation."

"Explanation?" JYP calmed himself down, brows furrowing a little bit in confusion. Junior was checking Jaebum out, assessing the man standing next to one of his old friends. The detective was probably the tallest of the four of them, second in muscle mass only to Carly herself with an impressive array of earrings. His features were classically handsome - strong jawline, sharp features, cheekbones that an cut glass and a straight nose. 

Carly punched JYP in the arm. "Yeah! You got him all freaked out over Las Vegas and the casinoes! God knows why you even bothered to contact him about it in the first place or why you thought I might have left something out." She was clearly offended and JYP slouched a little with guilt. 

"It's not that we thought you were lying, just that you might have been doing other jobs on the side."

"And since when have I ever hidden my schedule when you guys asked?"

"So I was right." Jaebum said, cutting into the conversaiton, arm unconsciously wrapping around Carly's waist. He wasn't really sure why he did it, but it felt like she was defending him and he liked it. "You were using me to pump for her information."

"Next time you want something from me, just ask!" Carly huffed, punching Junior too.

"Ow! Hey! What did I do?! It was JYP who lied!"

She narrowed her eyes. "Just for good measure."

" . . . I'm telling you, Jimin, the Halseys have moved onto the east coast as well-"

Carly went stiff under his grip and Jaebum looked down at her. She didn't look upset or scared, but then her face twisted up into something that screamed trouble and she turned to her right. "Shut up, Eric!"

"Oh my God." Came an exasperated voice, but when Jaebum looked up, he couldn't tell who it was coming from. There as a feminine giggle and then Carly broke free, heading over to a small man and a very short woman in terrifying heels

"Who are they?" Jaebum asked. He was doing a lot of things without thinking today - like coming to this wedding of people he doesn't know - and it was likely going to get him in trouble before the reception started. 

"That's Eric Nam and Jimin Park." Junior supplied, throwing his arm over Jaebum's shoulder. "Carly worked very closely with me in Nevada and often came back to our HQ to go over information. Eric and Jimin were part of my team and for some reason, Eric and Carly just cannot get along."

"As in, they hate each toher?" He couldn't imagine Carly holding a grudge against anyone. She hadn't against Fred Halsey, so if she did with his Eric guy-

"Nah. They're like frienemies." Junior elaborated. "They're snarky and nasty to each other, but I think Carly just presses all of Eric's buttons for giggles, to get a rise out of him because he is legendarily patient and she just sides right past all of it to his nerve centre."

Oh. Now that, he could see. He'd seen her do that to Mark several times when he would bother them hanging out in Jaebum's apartment. "That sounds very Carly."

"I think so." Junior patted his shoulder. "So, Im Jaebum? That why she calls you JB?"

"I mean, I think so, but I'm not entirely sure." Flashes of Mark telling him he looked like a boyband member in the Academy had him wincing a little bit. He sighed a little heavier than called for. "I don't get her at all."

"She's not really meant to be gotten, more like caught." Junior winked at him. "After all, I don't know anyone who's found her so much as had her appear when her name was called."

Jaebum nodded in agreement, watching the patience rapidly drain of out Mr. Nam's face.

"Oh my God, no one's listening to you, Eric."

Jimin hid behind her hand, trying very hard not to find it as funny as it is.

"Should I save her?"

Junior snorted. "Her?"

"Yeah. Eric looks like he'll kill her on the spot. Should I go over there and save her life?"

"Well, you are a police officer." Junior cackled. "Go save the public nuisance."

Jaebum wished he wasn't so correct. "You still owe me for all that misleading bull about Nevada."

Junior's eyes were sparkling, gaze flickering over to Carly. "I think I already did. Go get 'em, tiger."

Junior's statement didn't quite make sense in his head until he'd saved Carly from being wall paint and she was sitting next to him at a table, head resting on his shoulder as she tried different foods and made him test them too. 

---

"So, are Eric and Jimin dating?"

Carly looked up from her glass of champagne to the table across from them. She sipped it idly as she watched the two of them try to cover up their desperate makeout in the back of the reception hall. "They're a friends-with-benefits type deal. I think they're probably in love, but they'll be the type to live together until they die without admitting they love each other."

Jaebum made a face when Carly poked his . "To each their own, I suppose." She did it again and he batted her hand away. "Stop that, you pest."

"No." She replied stubbornly. "I wanna."

"Leave my s alone." And wasn't that just a weird sentence. "You're like a vulture when you get a little bit of alcohol into you."

"Yeah, well . . . " She poked his nose this time. "You're the troublesome one."

"Oh-ho, I beg to differ."

"You are! You go around, looking all good and ." She poked his stomach. "You cuddle really well, too."

"Is that your way of asking me to stay with me when we leave?"

"Kinda? I was getting more at the fact that our is palpable."

"Were you planning on doing anything about it?"

"Mmm." She nuzzled into him a little. No doubt her makeup would leave a smear on it he would have to scrub out later or hope that the drycleaning people could get rid of. "Dunno."

"I'm not having with someone even mildly intoxicated anyway."

"Why not?"

"It hampers decision making. Duh."

She flicked him in the earring. "Right. Cop. Boring."

"'This boring cop is the one sitting with your drunk at a wedding." He replied, but the sarcasm didn't come out quite right and it sounded almost . . .fond, endeared. "Remember that."

There was a long pause, punctuated by her soft breaths on his neck. "I will."

---

Carly was much more sober when they finally made their excuses and left. JYP hugged both of them tightly, making them promise to call him and plan a date to meet up. Junior just rolled his eyed and took care of his boss, wishing them a good evening and hoping theyw ould see each other again sometime. They found Sunmi and her new husband, wishing the couple well and offering their congratulations. Carly also very purposefully pulled out Eric's chair on him, sending him and almost Jimin to the floor. She cackled loudly as they fled into the night, Eric's screams of outrage and his death threats following them into Jaebum's car. 

When they got back to Jaebum's apartment, Carly wasted no time. As soon as the door was closed, she kicked off her shoes and shimmied out of her dress right in the front room. Jaebum had barely loosened his tie before Carly, nearly , laid her dress across the back of his couch.

"I'm stealing one of your shirts." She said, prancing off down the hallway and around a corner. He followed her, mindless, and stripped himself down too. He was much more careless, leaving the clothes in a messy little trail down the hallway. He would be mad at himself come morning, but that didn't matter too much. That was for morning-him to deal with. Right now, he was too tired from the long, stiff night to do more than wander blindly to his shower. 

"Can I join you?" Her head popped into the bathroom as he pushed off his boxer-briefs. He looked over his shoulder, decided he was too tired to make decisions, and shrugged. 

"If you really want. I won't be long."

"I don't mind." She had one of his shirts in her hand, which she set aside on the counter. Then she pulled off her and bra right there, following him into the tiled portion of the bathroom and squeezing past him to get under the warm spray. 

"I really am living a less romcom."

"Huh?"

"My life is a practical joke."

"Oh. We both already knew that."

"Hmm."

No antics happened in the shower and when they got out, they dried off without incident. They both dressed - her in the shirt and him in the matching sleep shorts - and crawled into his bed. 

Then they went to sleep.