Brock and Andrea lingered around the table after dinner. She worked on a paper for school, while he finished the report of the case he and Russell had just solved in Augusta. He heard her soft giggle from behind her computer and looked up, but she was typing again, very serious.
"Something funny about the paper?" he asked at her second giggle.
"I'm just chatting with a friend while I work." She met his questioning look. "Don't worry, I'm almost done."
"You should finish it and then chat with your friend."
"Okay, okay," the girl mumbled, and there were no more giggles until she stretched out in her seat. "Done. Wanna take a look at it now?"
"In a minute."
A heartbeat later Andrea was typing again, and giggling again. Brock would've liked to ask who that friend was, but he'd learned to respect his daughter's privacy, whether he liked it or not.
All of a sudden, Andrea let out a suffocated exclamation and jumped to her feet, hurrying to turn the TV on. Brock looked up, frowning when she surfed the news channels.
"What is it, Andrea?" he asked.
"Do you have any Boston news channel?"
"Boston? Why?"
"There's been an explosion and Connor's mom was called in," she said. "Here it is."
It took Brock five whole seconds to process that she meant Gillian. Which meant Andrea's friend on the chat—making her giggle like that—was Gillian's son. But the images on the screen caught his attention, and he stood up to join Andrea before the TV.
Firefighters tried to control the fire burning down a house in a working-class area, while police and a Rescue Team helped to evacuate the neighboring houses. Among them, they saw Hank and Aldana, working side by side with a captain from the Fire Department.
Brock ignored it was almost ten and called Russell, who filled him in: the explosion had been in a house in Dorchester, home to a well-known gang leader.
Brock scowled, paying attention to the background noise on the other end of the line. "Are you there too?"
"Yeah, I was having dinner at Reg's when they were called. I'm not working with them though, don't wanna upset anybody about jurisdiction issues. But I'm ready to lend a hand if push comes to shove."
"Any idea why they called the SCU?"
"Being the house of a gang leader, they can come in handy. Reg and Fred worked in the Gangs Task Force for years, and they're keeping the bad boys from shooting down rival gangs, 'cause this could be—Sorry, Brock, gotta go. Call you back."
"Take care."
Andrea turned to him, arching her eyebrows.
He shook his head, forcing a smile. "Nothing to worry about. Just a regular fire."
"At a gang leader's place, that's why Connor's mom was called."
Brock cursed to himself. He hated exposing Andrea to the kind of thing they faced at work every day.
"Yes," he admitted.
And there they were, at a corner of the screen: a bunch of gang members, talking heatedly and waving their hands, while Gillian, Fred and another man listened to them, very serious.
"That's her, right?" Andrea asked, pointing at that corner of the image.
"Yes."
The other man tried to speak and one of the gang members cut him off, poking his chest. Fred came between them and Gillian stepped up, glaring up at the boy without a word. And the boy's hand came down and he took a step back, clearly apologizing.
"Did you see that, Dad? She's awesome!" Andrea chuckled and hurried back to the table. "Gotta tell Con!"
Brock breathed deep to keep from speaking up his mind. Especially when Gillian signaled Fred to take the other man away and stayed all by herself among the pissed gang members. Good Lord, how she liked to endanger herself for no reason at all, at every chance she got! Was it some sick death wish? Or was she an adrenaline junkie? And, of course, none of her agents, or at least Coleman, would get to her in time if those violent boys got out of hand.
Yet they didn't. Rather the other way around. They listened to her, and soon they nodded at her words, until the one that had poked the man bumped her fist and motioned for the others to leave. Gillian waved goodbye at him with a reassuring smile, and waited for them to walk away before joining her team.
"Wow!" he heard Andrea mutter, and turned to her, still scowling. She smiled up at him. "Connor is helping T and Kurt go through the phone records of a lot of gangbangers, to keep track of their communications and see if any rival gang had anything to do with the explosion. Isn't that cool?"
Brock set his jaw and didn't answer. "Tea?" he offered instead, turning off the TV. He growled to himself, heading to the kitchen. Yeah, so damn cool.