Evie was glaring at Finn as he lay on the floor for a moment; the laughter and the applause and the cheering was drowned out by the sound of her heart pounding and the blood rushing in her head. She watched as Finn got to his feet and started to shout at her again. Her only thought at that moment was if she had already blown her career then hitting the man again wasn't going to make any difference. She balled her fist again and then saw Finn look across to the door. She followed his gaze and only then did she realize that they had an audience; an audience that she really would have preferred not to have been there. Her hand relaxed and for the first time she suddenly realized that it was damn sore. She didn't say anything though; instead she waited fully expecting the Captain to agree whole-heartedly with Finn. She had just assaulted a superior officer in full view of about a dozen witnesses, including two officers from IA. She wished she had either hit him harder or hit him again. The rest of the room has fallen silent too, as if everyone was holding their breath, waiting for the Captain's response.
Evie couldn't deny that she was surprised by his reply and from that moment on, everything seemed to happen so quickly. Finn was escorted away. The Lieutenant gave Reed his badge back and the case was wrapped. She watched as Reed picked up his badge and put it back in its place. He had the same look of pride in his eyes as she had seen a thousand times in his father's eyes. When he finally looked up at her, slipping the badge into his pocket, he smiled and suggested they go for a beer.
"Sounds like a plan. I don't know about you, but I could do with a drink. But I think you'd better drive. I think I might have broken my hand..." she lifted her right hand up and cradled it a little in her left as she tried to flex her fingers, wincing as she did so. Reed just shook his head and laughed as he picked up his jacket and headed for the door.
Twenty minutes later, they were sat in Malone's. Malone's was cop's bar. On most nights, it was full of cops... uniformed, detectives, highway patrol, serving, retired. The walls were covered with pictures of police football teams and baseball teams; with official pictures of officers killed in the line of duty; pictures of officers from just about every decade going back more than 100 years. Even pictures of police dogs and horses. It was somewher that police officers could genuinely relax without having to worry about who else might be in the bar. It had also been the place where Evie had had her first 'legal' drink and where she had bought he first round. Steve and James had bought her here on her 21st birthday and had almost had to carry her out. Almost.
Tonight she sat at the bar with Reed and a number of the other detectives, nursing a cold bottle of Budweiser and a sore hand, but she was more than happy at the way things had turned out. She was happy to walk away from everything with Bolin almost certainly being put in a mental institution for the rest of his life, with Finn fighting to save his own career and with Reed back in possession of his shield. And all for the price of a sore hand. At one point Reed had disappeared, but he had returned a few minutes later carrying a a small bar towel, inside which was a dozen or so small ice cubes. He had come up to Evie and taken hold of her hand, the swelling around the knuckles more than evident.
"You know... when you punch someone, you're not supposed to come away with more injuries than they have." Evie stared up at him and smiled sheepishly. "I bet he'll have one hell of a headache... and besides, it's his fractured ego where he is going to really be feeling it... owwww..."
"Dont be such a baby." Reed said, the laughter clear in his vice. Evie was laughing... and grimacing... with him.
"You sound just like my Dad." She saw the slightly puzzled look on Reed's face. "I got two older brothers. When we were kids, all they wanted to be when they grew up was cops... just like Dad. Who do you think always had to play the 'robber'? Who do you think was the 'perp' who got arrested... and interrogated.... every time? And when I went to my Dad in tears... do you think Jack Taylor told his sons not to pick on their little sister... or do you think he told his daughter that she needed to toughen up and learn to fight back?" It was more a rhetorical question than anything. She was pretty sure that Reed would know the answer; he knew her father too well. And it wasnt because he knew Jack to be an uncaring man - quite the reverse. Jack's wife, Margaret, had walked out on him and their children perhaps 15 years ago. She had decided that she was destined for something better than simply being the wife of a cop... something more than being defined only as a wife and mother. She had found someone else... someone rich who worked in the financial district and who could give her the life style she wanted. She had walked away and to pretty much everyone, she had seemed to walk away from her husband and her children without ever looking back. it had taken a couple of months for Jack to really pull himself through it and in some ways it had been Tom Reed who had made him see that he had three kids who needed a father more than ever now their mother had disappeared. Jack was more comfortable at the prospect of raising sons, but a daughter... who at the time was 11 years old. He could have treated her like a princess and wrapped her in cotton wool, but it became very clear very quickly that the precocious Evelyn wanted be like her brothers and her daddy and was going to do everything she possibly could to show them that she was nothing like her mother. And so... in almost every way, Jack taught the same lessons to his daughter as he had to his sons.
"Well you obviously didn't listen to the old man." Evie recognised her older brother's voice immediately. She moved her head a little and looked around Reed and sure enough James was stood there. He nodded, smiled at Reed and patted him on his shoulder. "Good to see you back on duty Tom." James was of course referring to Reed's reinstatement. Then he looked at his sister as he sipped from his bottle. "You okay?" She nodded. "Yeah... it's... it's a just a bruise." James nodded back. The Taylor family was close... very close but they were not the kind of people who needed to give public demonstrations of affection or concern. That didnt mean that they didnt care; but James' question was the usual sign of concern - at least in the absence of a bullet hole or significant blood loss, and Evie expected nothing more or less and she knew it said everything it needed to. Satisfied that his sister was in fact okay, he turned his attention to the rumours that he had heard involving Finn. "I hear you put him on his ass? Feel good?" The grin spread across Evie's face. "Oh yeah." The three of them, plus a couple of the other detectives stood nearby started laughing and Steve got the full story of everything that happened. Literally blow by blow.
A few hours later, they all went their separate ways. For Evie this was about as good as it got. Family... both blood and job... a successful investigation and arrest and a celebratory drink. You took your wins where you could and then moved on to the next case in the hope that you could win again.