Playing with fire (Amelia Shepherd) ABANDONED

thirty one

"I miss you more," Mallie grinned up at her. "Two more days, Vic," she said.

"Thank god. So many men around here, not enough boobs," Vic groaned.

"Boobs are clearly superior," Mallie rolled her eyes teasingly.

"We good?" Dean rolled his eyes at them.

"Yeah," Vic nodded.

Dean chuckled and pressed call on his iPad. The call connected to show a black woman with short hair sat at a desk with a smile.

"All right. All right. This is Condola Vargas-" Dean started.

"Esquire. I always wanted to say that," Condola chuckled.

"Hey," Mallie smiled.

"How you doing?" Vic asked.

"Hey," Ben smiled. Robert smiled hello.

"Hey, guys," Condola said.

"Okay. Um, so I-I've been thinking about what you asked, obsessing about it, really. It's been hurting my brain more than Warren's kid's homework should have," Dean said.

"Yeah, all right, all right," Ben laughed, waving his hand at Dean.

"But, uh, seriously, I finally know what I want. And I'm telling you in front of my brothers and sister because this affects all of us," Dean said, motioning to the others.

"And we're all with you," Ben said.

"We're family, dude," Mallie said, patting Dean's shoulder.

"Every time, any time, man," Vic said.

"Yeah, what they said," Robert nodded.

"You guys having my back... Y-you know that means everything to me. But if I do this, if I take this stand, they're gonna come after all of us," Dean said seriously.

"It's a good thing we walk through fire for a living,"

"All right. So, um... I don't just want justice. I don't just want them punished for what they did. I don't want anyone to feel what they made me feel, or to go through what they put Jada and Joyce through. So, what I want is to prevent them from doing to anybody else what they did to us. What they do to us," Dean said.

"Good answer. But that was the easy part. Now the real work starts," Condola said. Dean took a deep breath.

"All right," Dean nodded.

"Before we do start, though," Condola said. "Mallie, Dean told me about everything that happened. I looked into the officer who assaulted you. He's been suspended pending investigation. Do you want to take this further, like Dean does?" she asked.

Mallie nodded.

"Yes," she said.

"Hey, wait, think about this," Dean said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "You being on my side makes you a target, but you joining me in pushing a lawsuit makes you one of the main targets. We're in for a ton of shit when we do this," Dean said.

"Dean, I have the chance to try and make a difference. I can't have my kids growing up knowing that their mom didn't do everything she could to make this world better for them. I need this world to be better for my boys, because I have seen firsthand how black people, black kids, are treated. We have to do better. I'm all in with you," Mallie said.

Dean nodded and hugged her.

"Thank you," he said.

"Of course," Mallie smiled.