Serialized || HS

Finally

"Agent Livingston, do you mind if I call you Mabelle?" Louis asked taking his seat across from me. 

"Sort of," I responded. 

"Well Mabelle, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Harry yesterday about being partners."

"And by overheard you mean you listened to the tapes that you didn't turn off in order to listen to our conversation over a snifter of brandy," I chided. Although he was technically a superior, he was a pain in my ass and not my superior. 

"I get that you don't like me-" 

I quickly cut him off, "Correction: I don't like anyone. But in this instance you are hindering my ability to get this case solved and it's taking every fiber of my being not to jump over this desk and strangle you with my bare hands."

"Luckily, for both of us, that won't be necessary," he smirked. I could see why he was good at his job. He could easily charm the pants off anyone. 

"What?" I was stumped. 

"Harry needs to be in the field just as much as you. And I think he hates the idea of babysitting you in our conference room. I said you will be partners and that is what you will be," Louis tossed over the desk what looked like a temporary badge and ID. 

"What's with this sudden change?" I raised a questioning brow. From forcing me to stay put to having me officially on the case seemed a bit too good to be true. 

"Your actual superiors found out what you were up to while on your 'vacation'. Most likely when you called in your favor to get us the files we needed. Let's just say they have a lot of power even off their turf. Plus a girl who graduates top of her class and moves through the ranks with such high class cases under her belt must have something to be..." he leaned his elbows onto his desk, looking me up and down while slowly gliding his tongue between his teeth and cheek, finally finishing his sentence, "desired."

I knew they would've done some research on me. But I was lucky enough to only leave what I wanted people to find in my files. If he hadn't just given me an 'all-access pass' into the case I would have followed through with my initial threat. Instead, I stood and put out my hand. 

"I appreciate your decision and I assure you we will finally catch this guy."

He stood from his luxurious leather seat and his hand met my mine but gripped tight and pulled me close, "I will warn, Harry seems to have a lot of faith in you. Too much if I say so myself. He is one of our most prized assets, if you do anything to ruin him, I will make sure that when you get home you don't have a job to go back to. Don't mess this up," He dropped my hand and went back to what he was doing at his desk. 

I gave one simple nod and made my way out of his office. I looked around to find a pair of eyes meet mine. They were connected to none other than the man that Louis had just given me warning about. Harry realized I caught him and looked back down into his cubicle. 

I walked up and stood behind him to see small copies of all the maps we had pin pointed the bodies on. 

"Come on Styles," he jumped and met my gaze once again. He still wore his glasses outside of the gym and it always magnified how bright and green his eyes were. 

"What?" he asked

"We need to go talk to the missing girls family," I slapped my hand on the back of his chair to try and egg him out of the seat. 

"What?" he asked again. 

"Are you broken? Do we need to get Agent Farrow here to reboot you? You heard me, let's get going," I jokingly slapped the back of his head and I felt how soft his hair was. I could feel my hand wanting to rest and wrap a curl around my finger.