Fic [Justified] The first day
Title: [Justified] The first day
Character(s)/Pairing: Tim, Rachel
Type/Rating: Gen/PG-13
Word Count: 1,882
Summary: Sometimes, first days turn out differently than expected. And sometimes, friendships are built differently, as well.
Notes: Written for nvrleaveharlan’s “YNLH Exchange”, for latenightcuppa.
Rachel Brooks had never been the type of person to judge someone before she even met them. Especially, throughout the years in her job with the US Marshal Service, she learned all the various characters of a person and how different they all were. But when she met her new partner for the first time, her first thought was that he was just a kid.
He looked so young; Tim Gutterson, newbie, former Army Ranger and apparently, a good shot. Those were the facts Rachel had been given by her boss, Art Mullen. The juicy details she had to find out herself.
By lunch break on the first day with him on the team, he was the only thing the office was talking about. The one thing Rachel didn’t talk with her colleagues about, though, were her doubts of trusting the new guy. She didn’t know him, yet, and had to risk that he would have her back if it depended.
Already the first opportunity should prove, though, that she could.
~~~~~
Tim’s desk was right next to Rachel’s. Every now and then, he asked her were to find certain files, paper for the copying machine, or other office supplies. She didn’t mind though. It wasn’t as if Tim was annoying or anything. It was rather nice to finally have someone sitting next to her, thought Rachel. Yet, she didn’t know what to talk about with him. She had learned the basics: where he grew up and went to school, that he went to Army training right after high school and that he was with the Marshal Service for about three years now. Nothing too personal, though.
It was okay, Rachel thought. It was his first day after all. But of course, she had to ask him about the rumors that were floating around, that he was such a great shot. Tim smiled slightly and simply said that when so many people are talking about something, there’s at least a little truth in it.
By noon, their guest arrived. They had received a phone call that a woman, mid fourties, would be brought to their office and they had to take her into protective custody.
Rachel had had the file on her desk for two days and read it back and forth. The woman, Mrs Fields, lost her husband only a week ago. He had been working with some bad fellas; he had been their accountant. For years, he looked away, didn’t want to have anything to do with their business. He thought that as long as he didn’t talk about it, didn’t think about what they were doing, everything would stay the same and everything would be alright. But one day, it was just too much and his employers immediately knew that something was up.
Only hours before he was shot, he came clean to his wife, and unfortunately, she also witnessed his murder. Now, she was a top priority to get into the WITSEC program.
“It’s better you read this, too,” Rachel said and put the file on Tim’s desk.
Tim was still trying to get access to the data on his computer, but something was off with the user name and password he got from the IT department. Repeatedly, he hammered the letters and numbers into the field that was shown on the screen, but it kept flashing “Access Denied”. He was a patient man, but even that had a limit.
“And meet us in the conference room,” Rachel added.
Tim looked up, nodded and looked after Rachel who was meeting Mrs Fields at the door. She signed something the police officer gave her and brought Mrs Fields into the conference room. Rachel excused herself, went over to the little kitchen corner they had, filled two mugs with coffee and joined Mrs Fields.
The woman looked beside herself and her hands shook slightly when she took a sip from the mug. Tim couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but he assumed that Rachel was assuring her safety, when she patted Mrs Fields’ arm.
He opened the file at his desk, quickly read the basics about the case and viewed the crime scene photos and autopsy report about the husband. It wasn’t as if it didn’t affect him anymore, but by now, he was used to it. He had seen worse before, too.
Picking up the file and his mug, too, he joined both women.
“Good morning,” Tim said when he entered.
He closed and the door and sat down.
“Mrs Fields,” Rachel began. “This is Deputy Tim Gutterson. He and I are gonna be with you the whole day until the Marshals from Witness Protection come to pick you up.”
“What happens then?” Mrs Fields asked, drying her tears with a tissue.
Rachel explained. “Well, first, you’ll be brought to a motel for the night. And tomorrow, you’ll be on a flight to New Mexico, where the Marshals there will work out the details for your new life.”
“I still can’t believe this is happening!”
“It’s completely normal to be upset about this,” Rachel assured her. “But I can promise you, once you’re settled down, everything is gonna be alright. It’ll be hard in the beginning, but you can always talk to your contact person at the office and they will do everything to keep you safe.”
Mrs Fields nodded. “I understand.”
“Good.” Rachel smiled and turned to Tim then. “Tim, why don’t you get us something for lunch? I could imagine Mrs Fields is hungry.”
“I could indeed use something,” she said, getting calmer now with other things on her mind.
Tim glanced at her and nodded. “Sure,” he said and left the room.
Grabbing his jacket from his chair, Tim was reminded of the business he also had to take care of. Still, the error message was blinking continually on his computer screen. Tim sighed and left the office. He wanted to check with the IT department before going to the diner around the corner. Luckily for him, he almost ran into a guy from IT outside his office.
“Hey,” Tim said.
The guy stopped and turned around to face Tim. Though, he didn’t say a word and waited.
“I meant to call down but as you’re already here… Could you take a look at my computer? It’s been acting weird all morning, since I turned it on. I can’t access anything.”
The other guy stood there for a second, not moving, not saying anything, until he just nodded and said, “Okay.” Then, he was on his way again.
Tim just shrugged and went to the elevator. Though, he hadn’t even left the building when he heard screaming from upstairs, and then a gunshot rang through the halls.
People were running outside, police officers that had been in the building at the time, all ran upstairs to see what was going on. And Tim followed them.
“What’s going on here?” He asked an officer when he saw that they were all positioned in front of the office where he was working.
“Some lunatic is holding a woman hostage with a gun,” someone said.
Another man added, “He just walked straight up to her and grabbed her. I think he almost was about to shoot her on the spot.”
“You saw it?” Tim asked.
“Yeah,” the man replied.
He was wearing a badge on his belt and Tim noticed that he was a Marshal, too. It was still Tim’s first day; he hadn’t remembered all of his colleagues’ faces or names.
“You’re the new guy, right?” The other man said before Tim could react.
But instead of introducing himself, Tim rather asked who was in charge. He felt the need to help however he could. His colleague pointed him to an officer that stood by the door and peeked inside every now and then to keep an eye on the situation. Tim went up to him.
“What’s the situation?” He asked.
The police officer glanced at him. “And you are?”
“Tim Gutterson. I work in there.”
“Good. Then you might be able to help us.”
“It’s my first day,” Tim added.
The officer sighed. “Alright. Then maybe you should just stand back and let us…”
“I might be able to help you indeed,” Tim interrupted. “Do you have guys outside?”
~~~~~
In the meantime, Rachel tried to calm down the situation in the office. The man dressed as one of their IT guys still held Mrs Fields in a tight grip, and Rachel at gunpoint. He had come inside and walked straight into the conference room, and before Rachel could have even asked what he was doing there, he had taken out a gun, fired a warning shot and threatened to kill Mrs Fields immediately.
Apparently, he had planned to take her before she entered the Marshal’s office, but when that failed, he had to come up with another plan quickly. And that was to walk right into an office full of US Marshals. Obviously, he was loyal enough to his boss to die for the cause, if necessary.
“Is that really how you want this to end today?” Rachel asked the man, hands still raised but ready to pull her gun any second.
The man looked around. By now, he was surrounded by a handful of other Marshals who stood outside the conference room; all had their guns raised already and pointed straight at him. But as he was using Mrs Fields as a human shield, they couldn’t do much. It was too risky that she might get hurt.
“We can do it my way, too,” he said. “Just let me walk out of here with the woman and no one else gets hurt.”
“You know damn well that I can’t do that,” Rachel said.
Rachel remembered the time when they were trained for this kind of situation. Though, in practice, all the options to end this well seemed out of the question. The thoughts that raced through her head were no help, either; she just wanted to take the guy down and get Mrs Fields to safety.
All of a sudden, the glass of the window burst and the man sank to his knees, loosening his grip on the woman. Mrs Fields screamed and Rachel reacted immediately and pulled her away from her attacker. He fell onto his back and screamed out in pain. A bullet had hit him in the shoulder.
Rachel pushed Mrs Fields into a corner, pulled her own firearm out and stepped onto the guy’s hand that still held the gun. Again, he screamed and let go of the weapon. Rachel held him at gunpoint and looked out of the window.
On the rooftop of the building on the other side of the street, Tim Gutterson stood up and gave the sniper rifle back to a colleague from the police.
Later, when they had arrested the guy and Tim had come back to the office, Rachel said to him, “So, I guess it’s true what they say about you. You are a good shot!”
“I guess they are right then,” Tim said casually, smirking.
“And you saved Mrs Fields. And my life, probably,” she added.
Tim didn’t reply. But this day made Rachel appreciate him as her new colleague. And friend.
Character(s)/Pairing: Tim, Rachel
Type/Rating: Gen/PG-13
Word Count: 1,882
Summary: Sometimes, first days turn out differently than expected. And sometimes, friendships are built differently, as well.
Notes: Written for nvrleaveharlan’s “YNLH Exchange”, for latenightcuppa.
Rachel Brooks had never been the type of person to judge someone before she even met them. Especially, throughout the years in her job with the US Marshal Service, she learned all the various characters of a person and how different they all were. But when she met her new partner for the first time, her first thought was that he was just a kid.
He looked so young; Tim Gutterson, newbie, former Army Ranger and apparently, a good shot. Those were the facts Rachel had been given by her boss, Art Mullen. The juicy details she had to find out herself.
By lunch break on the first day with him on the team, he was the only thing the office was talking about. The one thing Rachel didn’t talk with her colleagues about, though, were her doubts of trusting the new guy. She didn’t know him, yet, and had to risk that he would have her back if it depended.
Already the first opportunity should prove, though, that she could.
~~~~~
Tim’s desk was right next to Rachel’s. Every now and then, he asked her were to find certain files, paper for the copying machine, or other office supplies. She didn’t mind though. It wasn’t as if Tim was annoying or anything. It was rather nice to finally have someone sitting next to her, thought Rachel. Yet, she didn’t know what to talk about with him. She had learned the basics: where he grew up and went to school, that he went to Army training right after high school and that he was with the Marshal Service for about three years now. Nothing too personal, though.
It was okay, Rachel thought. It was his first day after all. But of course, she had to ask him about the rumors that were floating around, that he was such a great shot. Tim smiled slightly and simply said that when so many people are talking about something, there’s at least a little truth in it.
By noon, their guest arrived. They had received a phone call that a woman, mid fourties, would be brought to their office and they had to take her into protective custody.
Rachel had had the file on her desk for two days and read it back and forth. The woman, Mrs Fields, lost her husband only a week ago. He had been working with some bad fellas; he had been their accountant. For years, he looked away, didn’t want to have anything to do with their business. He thought that as long as he didn’t talk about it, didn’t think about what they were doing, everything would stay the same and everything would be alright. But one day, it was just too much and his employers immediately knew that something was up.
Only hours before he was shot, he came clean to his wife, and unfortunately, she also witnessed his murder. Now, she was a top priority to get into the WITSEC program.
“It’s better you read this, too,” Rachel said and put the file on Tim’s desk.
Tim was still trying to get access to the data on his computer, but something was off with the user name and password he got from the IT department. Repeatedly, he hammered the letters and numbers into the field that was shown on the screen, but it kept flashing “Access Denied”. He was a patient man, but even that had a limit.
“And meet us in the conference room,” Rachel added.
Tim looked up, nodded and looked after Rachel who was meeting Mrs Fields at the door. She signed something the police officer gave her and brought Mrs Fields into the conference room. Rachel excused herself, went over to the little kitchen corner they had, filled two mugs with coffee and joined Mrs Fields.
The woman looked beside herself and her hands shook slightly when she took a sip from the mug. Tim couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but he assumed that Rachel was assuring her safety, when she patted Mrs Fields’ arm.
He opened the file at his desk, quickly read the basics about the case and viewed the crime scene photos and autopsy report about the husband. It wasn’t as if it didn’t affect him anymore, but by now, he was used to it. He had seen worse before, too.
Picking up the file and his mug, too, he joined both women.
“Good morning,” Tim said when he entered.
He closed and the door and sat down.
“Mrs Fields,” Rachel began. “This is Deputy Tim Gutterson. He and I are gonna be with you the whole day until the Marshals from Witness Protection come to pick you up.”
“What happens then?” Mrs Fields asked, drying her tears with a tissue.
Rachel explained. “Well, first, you’ll be brought to a motel for the night. And tomorrow, you’ll be on a flight to New Mexico, where the Marshals there will work out the details for your new life.”
“I still can’t believe this is happening!”
“It’s completely normal to be upset about this,” Rachel assured her. “But I can promise you, once you’re settled down, everything is gonna be alright. It’ll be hard in the beginning, but you can always talk to your contact person at the office and they will do everything to keep you safe.”
Mrs Fields nodded. “I understand.”
“Good.” Rachel smiled and turned to Tim then. “Tim, why don’t you get us something for lunch? I could imagine Mrs Fields is hungry.”
“I could indeed use something,” she said, getting calmer now with other things on her mind.
Tim glanced at her and nodded. “Sure,” he said and left the room.
Grabbing his jacket from his chair, Tim was reminded of the business he also had to take care of. Still, the error message was blinking continually on his computer screen. Tim sighed and left the office. He wanted to check with the IT department before going to the diner around the corner. Luckily for him, he almost ran into a guy from IT outside his office.
“Hey,” Tim said.
The guy stopped and turned around to face Tim. Though, he didn’t say a word and waited.
“I meant to call down but as you’re already here… Could you take a look at my computer? It’s been acting weird all morning, since I turned it on. I can’t access anything.”
The other guy stood there for a second, not moving, not saying anything, until he just nodded and said, “Okay.” Then, he was on his way again.
Tim just shrugged and went to the elevator. Though, he hadn’t even left the building when he heard screaming from upstairs, and then a gunshot rang through the halls.
People were running outside, police officers that had been in the building at the time, all ran upstairs to see what was going on. And Tim followed them.
“What’s going on here?” He asked an officer when he saw that they were all positioned in front of the office where he was working.
“Some lunatic is holding a woman hostage with a gun,” someone said.
Another man added, “He just walked straight up to her and grabbed her. I think he almost was about to shoot her on the spot.”
“You saw it?” Tim asked.
“Yeah,” the man replied.
He was wearing a badge on his belt and Tim noticed that he was a Marshal, too. It was still Tim’s first day; he hadn’t remembered all of his colleagues’ faces or names.
“You’re the new guy, right?” The other man said before Tim could react.
But instead of introducing himself, Tim rather asked who was in charge. He felt the need to help however he could. His colleague pointed him to an officer that stood by the door and peeked inside every now and then to keep an eye on the situation. Tim went up to him.
“What’s the situation?” He asked.
The police officer glanced at him. “And you are?”
“Tim Gutterson. I work in there.”
“Good. Then you might be able to help us.”
“It’s my first day,” Tim added.
The officer sighed. “Alright. Then maybe you should just stand back and let us…”
“I might be able to help you indeed,” Tim interrupted. “Do you have guys outside?”
~~~~~
In the meantime, Rachel tried to calm down the situation in the office. The man dressed as one of their IT guys still held Mrs Fields in a tight grip, and Rachel at gunpoint. He had come inside and walked straight into the conference room, and before Rachel could have even asked what he was doing there, he had taken out a gun, fired a warning shot and threatened to kill Mrs Fields immediately.
Apparently, he had planned to take her before she entered the Marshal’s office, but when that failed, he had to come up with another plan quickly. And that was to walk right into an office full of US Marshals. Obviously, he was loyal enough to his boss to die for the cause, if necessary.
“Is that really how you want this to end today?” Rachel asked the man, hands still raised but ready to pull her gun any second.
The man looked around. By now, he was surrounded by a handful of other Marshals who stood outside the conference room; all had their guns raised already and pointed straight at him. But as he was using Mrs Fields as a human shield, they couldn’t do much. It was too risky that she might get hurt.
“We can do it my way, too,” he said. “Just let me walk out of here with the woman and no one else gets hurt.”
“You know damn well that I can’t do that,” Rachel said.
Rachel remembered the time when they were trained for this kind of situation. Though, in practice, all the options to end this well seemed out of the question. The thoughts that raced through her head were no help, either; she just wanted to take the guy down and get Mrs Fields to safety.
All of a sudden, the glass of the window burst and the man sank to his knees, loosening his grip on the woman. Mrs Fields screamed and Rachel reacted immediately and pulled her away from her attacker. He fell onto his back and screamed out in pain. A bullet had hit him in the shoulder.
Rachel pushed Mrs Fields into a corner, pulled her own firearm out and stepped onto the guy’s hand that still held the gun. Again, he screamed and let go of the weapon. Rachel held him at gunpoint and looked out of the window.
On the rooftop of the building on the other side of the street, Tim Gutterson stood up and gave the sniper rifle back to a colleague from the police.
Later, when they had arrested the guy and Tim had come back to the office, Rachel said to him, “So, I guess it’s true what they say about you. You are a good shot!”
“I guess they are right then,” Tim said casually, smirking.
“And you saved Mrs Fields. And my life, probably,” she added.
Tim didn’t reply. But this day made Rachel appreciate him as her new colleague. And friend.