Rated: Mature for graphic violence, Murders, mentions of suicide.

Ethan stares at his reflection in the mirror, going over the case repeatedly in his mind. There’s something he’s missing, something he’s not seeing and it definitely doesn’t help that the mirror is foggy and all he can see is a dark figure standing behind him.

He snaps his neck around and is instantly relieved to see Lorena standing there with two mugs, a dopey smile, and his pajama pants low on her hips.

 “Good morning.” She says, walking over to the bathroom counter where Ethan is standing and handing him a mug. He leans down to kiss her cheek and looks at them in the mirror.

 “Sleep okay?” He asks, kissing the shell of her ear.

 Lorena hums, sipping the coffee and taking a deep breath.

 “I’m going in early so feel free to stick around, eat, and whatnot.”

 “Still want to go to dinner tonight with your sisters?” Lorena asks, putting down her coffee and picking up his forgotten lotion. She scoops some into her hand and begins massaging it into his very tense back. The pressure is nice, her hands are soft as they move across his skin.

 “Yeah I do. Will you pick up my dry cleaning?”

 “Of course.” She responds, kissing his shoulder. That motivates him to finish getting ready for the day.

There are two things Ethan knows about this case.

 The first thing is that they are so fucking close to catching this guy that he can practically see the cuffs on their wrists.

 The second thing is, he’s not going to know what to do when it’s all over.

 He’s spent the better part of a year working to catch this killer, to end their reign of terror over the city and he’s so sure he’s going to want to end it all himself once they catch them.

 He’s become obsessed, he knows this thing like the back of his hand. The MO, the victimology, every single crime down to the type of bullets used in the gun and the maker of the knife.

 His partner and best friend since middle school, Ben, told him he might kiss the killer once they find him just out of relief and Ethan can’t help but think he might be right.

 It’s become his entire life and he’s not ashamed of it, if anything he’s scared.

 “Thinking about your boyfriend again, Henderson?” Ben asks, slapping Ethan on the shoulder causing him to spill some of his coffee on his shirt.

 Ethan chuckles dryly, cleaning the coffee from his shirt before it stains. “You know me.”

 Ben hums. “O’Malley and Pip have been watching that warehouse like two hawks stalking prey, that fucker is bound to show up soon, he can’t resist himself.”

 Ethan just nods, looking over his notes.

 “What do you think it’ll be this time? Knife or gun?” Ben asks from across the desk.

 Ethan thinks about it.

 “Well. If they know we're watching them, they might wanna make it quick and use a gun, get out as fast as possible and just leave the blood splatter like usual. But depending on what the vic did, using a knife would draw it out more. They could leave him there to bleed out and then just maybe we might have a victim witness which would seal this case down to the nickel.”

 Ben just looks at him.

 “You’ve spend way too much time on this E,”

 Ethan rolls his eyes. “Or maybe you haven’t spent enough time on it. I know this person like the back of my hand, I’d probably be able to identify them with my eyes closed.” He says, completely seriously.

 Ben huffs and goes back to his coffee.

 Ethan does know this case very well.

 So well in fact that he knows things about it that he hasn’t even shared.

 Because the ‘He’ in question, is might be a she.

Lorena slams the large door behind her and walks through the wide hallway to get to her area.

 “So sorry I’m late darling, I had to pick up my boyfriend's dry cleaning and that was a hassle unto itself,” Lorena said to the man who was tied to the chair covered in blood, bruises and an unfamiliar substance.

 She turns up her nose at the smell.

 “Did you wet yourself?”

 The man in question whimpers.

 “Gross. You know you can leave at any time, I’m not forcing you to be here.”

 The chair moves as the man tries to break free but to no avail. His hands are tied around his back, feet tied tightly to the chair and a large piece of tap was over his mouth. His greasy hair is unruly all over his blood-soaked face, tears stains are running down his face. Lorena just looks at him.

 “You know, the police are right outside, I walked past them on my way in.”

Minutes beforehand.

Lorena walks up to the police car, a coffee tray in hand and a small bag in the other. She leans down and smiles into the window of the half sleep cops.

 “Good morning gents, I’ve brought libations.” She says, smiling innocently at them both

 “Good morning Lorena, you’re too kind.” O’Malley says, taking the coffee and bag of sandwiches from her.

 “Ethan told me you guys were watching this old place and I was in the neighborhood getting his dry cleaning for supper tonight, thought I’d stop and say hello. He says you were here all night.”

 O’Malley gives her a tired head nod. “There was no noise, no entering or exiting, I almost feel like we’re waiting for nothing.”

 Lorena makes a sad face. “That’s a shame loves, how long do you have to be here?”

 Pip runs a hand over his face.

 “Ethan said he’s bound to show up any day because he can’t resist killing so until then. We break at noon to run home and shower but then we’ll be back.”

 Lorena gives them a sympathetic smile.

 “Be careful, loves hm? Ethan likes you guys.”

 O’Malley scoffs. “The only thing Ethan likes is catching killers, he’d sell our souls to catch this guy.”

 Lorena chuckles, patting him on the shoulder and walking away.

Present

 “Now, you may be thinking I’m going to wait until they leave to kill you and you’re right. And yes before you ask, my boyfriend is the cop leading this case. Hence why I’m dating him. But,”

 Lorena props up a chair right in front of the whimpering victim.

 “I actually happen to quite like him, which is not really allowed in my field of work. Murder for Hire doesn’t always make romance easy. But alas. Americans are usually so uncouth and behave terribly,” She gestures toward him, and he frowns.

 “But he is very sweet and his obsession with me is quite endearing. He thinks I’m a serial killer, it’s entertaining, hearing about this case from his point of view because he has so many things wrong but then again, men are usually wrong about a lot of things.”

 The man is attempting to speak.

 “What’s that? I can’t hear you.” Lorena teases.

 “If I uncover your mouth, are you going to scream?”

 The man shakes his head. Lorena pulls out a gun, attaching a silencer to it, and holds it to his head as she uncovers his mouth.

 The man takes several deep breaths and looks up into her bright brown eyes.

 “What’s he gonna do when he finds out it's you? You’re gonna die like the bitch you are!”

 Lorena covers his mouth and uncocks her gun.

 She shakes her head. “Wrong. If I get caught, a magnetic chip goes off in my head and I wouldn’t even see it coming.”

 “I’ll be back at noon to kill you, make sure you’ve repented by then darling.”

Ethan calls Lorena but has to hang up almost immediately when they get the call about gunfire at the warehouse.

 “Be careful darling!” She says on the other line as she watches the cops surround the warehouse from across the street. She’s wiping blood from her face in the pulldown mirror of her car.

 “Will do baby, love you.”

 “Love you too doll.” She hangs up and waits for his car to pull up.

 Ethan hops out of the car and walks right up to a forlorn-looking O’Malley and Pip.

 “And where were y’all’s antennas when this happened?” Ethan yells, flicking them both in the head.

 “Are we not allowed to take lunch breaks?” Pip asks in a small voice because he’s kind of afraid of Ethan.

 “Lunch break and then someone else dies! So no, no lunch breaks from here on out. There should be someone here at all hours of every single day.”

 Lorena watches from across the street with a smile on her face. Ethan is a fantastic officer and a great detective, a true leader, they complement each other very well.

 “I’m reassigning you since you’re both lazy and incompetent, we cannot let this guy keep slipping through for god sake, the city is in a panic!” Ethan tells them, his face turning red from the stress of this.

 “We didn’t see anyone come in or out since we’ve been here and we’ve been here for three days.”

 “Yeah well so was he and now look!”

 “You told us not to go in there without backup!” O’Malley tries.

 Ethan gives them both a stare that shakes them to their core.

 “Please go away before I petition to have you both fucking fired.” He growls, shooing them both away as he walks back into the crime scene.

 He walks back into the warehouse, the smell of the feces-covered corpse and the blood doesn’t even bother him as he looks at him.

 “GSW to the head. He kept him here for three days, torturing him physically by not feeding him anything but water and pretzels apparently,” The M.E holds up a bag of pretzels.

 Ethan smirks, that particular brand is his favorite, Lorena buys them for him all the time.

 “He was beat up too. Punched and kicked repeatedly and was forced to wet himself. What the fuck did he do to deserve this?” She asks.

 Ethan stares down at the body. “Doesn’t matter, he’s dead now.”

 Lorena puts the last bobby pin in the bun on top of her head as Ethan leans over to kiss her. “You look very pretty.” He whispers in her ear.

 “Mm, I have to impress your sisters, their approval is important to you.” She says, turning and wrapping her arms around his neck.

 “They already love you so you have nothing to worry about.”

 Ethan is the third in a set of Quadruplets and the only boy. He and his sisters are very close and they all love Lorena.

 Dinner is an event in itself, the three sisters, Bia, Janis, and Sissy all fawn over Lorena and her Irish charm, barely paying their brother any attention when Lorena is in the room.

 Sometime before dessert, Bia finally decides to ask her brother a question.

 “How’s the case coming along little brother? Caught the killer yet?”

 Ethan and Lorena eye each other, she smiles, nodding as if she’s permitting him to speak about it.

 “Erm–no, we are not. My officers dropped the ball today.”

 The conversation shifts back to Lorena. She talks passionately about her work at the flower shop and Ethan watches her admiration. His hands find purchase on her waist, pulling her towards him so he can kiss the sliver of skin on her shoulder. He loves her, not more than he loves his work but she knows that.

She understands that.

She’s the same way.

 There’s nothing more precious than the work they do.

He knows there’s something off. About her. He always has known. She’s too quick, her wit is too sharp and she’s way too smart for him. She asks questions and then he sees the evidence of the answers three days later. In the warehouse. Three blocks away from the flower shop. The flower shop is the most obvious cover for an undercover operation that he knows his department has tried to investigate before.

 Her real name isn’t even Lorena.

 But he plays dumb. If he accuses her, he could be next.

They lay in bed together that night. Ethan rarely sleeps nowadays so he takes to watching Lorena sleep. She snores softly, her hand under her cheek, her lips poked out. He leans forward to give her a kiss, careful not to disturb her.

She knows he’s watching her, she’s an expert at pretending to sleep.

 One day they’ll talk about it.

Today isn’t that day. He wants to be in love a little while longer and she thinks he deserves to be.

Anderson Winston’s been missing for 3 days.

Ethan and two officers have been watching the warehouse for two of those days.

He’s been watching so hard, that he’s barely had time to see Lorena and he misses her.

The punch to Anderson’s face knocks out his front tooth, the sock falling out of his mouth from the effort it took.

 Lorena pulls back, taking the glove off her hand and shaking her hand out.

 She looks at her nails. “I can’t afford to break another one on account of this, I’m running out of excuses.”

 Before Anderson can scream, she slaps tape over his mouth.

 “You can’t think I’m amateur at this, it won’t work in your favor.”

 “They’re gonna catch you,” Anderson says behind the tape.

 Lorena rolls her eyes.

 “They are literally right outside. They just don’t have the balls to come in.”

 Before she can say another word, her phone rings.

 It’s Ethan.

 Lorena pulls out a knife, holding it a very scareto d looking Anderson. His eyes widen when he feels the sharp blade against his jugular.

 “Make a sound and I’ll slice your head clean off,” She mutters before answering.

 “Hi love.”

 “Hey baby, what are you up to?”

 Lorena eyes Anderson who has tears running down his face.

 “Cleaning up a mess I’ve made. Are you alright?”

 “Yeah, just miss you. Wanna come have lunch with me, I’ll leave these other two to watch the warehouse while we go.”

 Lorena smiles. “Of course darling. I’ll pick something up and come to you.”

 “Sounds good, see you in a few.”

 They sit on the park bench across from the warehouse, eating wings and discussing mundane things.

 “My mum wants to come for a visit. I have to go home and clean my apartment at some point so that can happen.”

 Ethan nods.

 “I’d like you to meet her.” Lorena says, eyeing him.

 He pauses chewing. “Really?”

 She nods.

 He gets up and crosses to sit next to her, smiling cutely.

 “Finally ready to admit you’re in love with me huh?”

 She pushes him, rolling her eyes. “I tell you I bloody love you everyday.”

 He shrugs, bringing his food to his new side of the table.

 “Yeah but not like, for real.”

 She turns to look at him, really absorbing his features. She’s grown very fond of his low cut and waves. The way his glasses sit on his sharp nose, and the way his brown eyes dilate when they look at her for too long.

 He’s sweet, far sweeter than she’s used to and she can tell he’s very serious about her, about them.

 She caresses his cheek, turning his face towards her.

 “I do love you.”

 She means it.

 He knows she means it.

 He kisses her palm.

“This person is a fucking animal.” Ethan says as he looks down at Anderson Winston’s mangled body as it laid in the woods.

Ben shakes his head. “People like this shouldn’t be allowed to walk the planet, they’re not capable of love.”

Ethan swallowed, placing the sheet back over Anderson’s body.

He had a job to do, he needed to catch this killer before it fucking killed him.

Lorena released the body of the two men she was dragging and shook out her hands.

“You know, that’s a lot harder than it looks.” She said, trying to catch her breath.

Both of them were tied up, facing each other and whimpering.

Lorena got started on her actual task; plastering C4 canisters in every corner and crack of the warehouse.

O’Malley squirmed under his tap, trying really hard to break free.

“Keep moving and I’ll shoot you just cause,” Lorena told him, stepping over him to get to the other side of the warehouse.

When she’s finished, she uncovers his mouth.

“Ethan is going to be heartbroken.”

Lorena rolled her eyes. “I’ve come this far, killed this many people, Ethan will be fine, trust me. He’s giddy to meet my mum this week.”

O’Malley grunts. “Why are you doing this?”

 Lorena kneels in front of him, taking a second to mull it over.

 “You see, no one ever really suspects women. And I’ve been doing this for a long time you see but I think it’s time for a break. I told my firm that I don’t want to renew my contract so I’ll be regular for a while. Maybe get hitched, have a couple of babies, make Ethan completely inadmissible to the courts just in case this doesn’t work,”

 O’Malley is shocked.

“As for you. He, meaning Ethan and your little department, need someone to catch. A face for the press. An image to glorify. I’ve planted enough evidence at your sad little apartment to make it seem like this was all you, a cute little note expressing your regrets and you’ll die by suicide. The news will eat it up. Luckily, you have no family.”

 “Hopefully that works.” She retapes his mouth and smiles.

 Ethan is typing up his notes when the phone rings.

 “Detective Henderson,”

 “Ethan, it’s Ben,”

 “What’s up man?”

 Ben sighs.

 “The warehouse blew up, man. Fuck ton of C4. Two bodies were found.”

 Ethan’s throat goes completely dry. He looks down at the picture he has of him and Lorena on his desk. She’s smiling widely as he kisses her cheek.

 “Either of them a woman?” Ethan asks, like an idiot.

 “Not sure, they haven’t been able to identify anything yet.”

 Ethan can feel his heart about to fall out of his ass, his breathing is unsteady and he knows he’s sweating.

 “You heard from O’Malley? He didn’t show up for his shift this morning.”

 Ethan feels like he’s going to throw up.

 “No, I gotta finish this report. Call me if anything updates.” Ethan hangs up quickly and grabs his jacket. He gets to his car in record time and speeds off.

He’s muttering off prayers but he’s not sure why, or who he’s talking to?

He just hopes Lorena is at her house. She hadn’t spent the night last night, wanting to finish cleaning the house for her moms arrival and he hadn’t slept a wink.

 He practically tears down the door to her apartment with his spare key, calling for her and checking every room twice.

 “Lorena, fuck, please–” He calls her phone for the 9th time and it goes straight to voicemail.

 He didn’t want to be right, not this way.

 His vision is blurry with tears as he speeds through the streets with his lights on to get to his house. He braces himself for disappointment, anger and utterly destructive heartbreak that he might never recover from.

 Turning the key with shaky hands, he lets himself in.

 The air is cold, it’s quiet.

 He tries calling again.

 Voicemail.

 “Lorena?” He calls, his voice straining.

 He can barely hear anything from the sound of his own beating heart.

 He walks through the house slowly, approaching the room where he can hear the shower running.

 “Lorena?” He calls again, through his tears.

 The shower door slides open and reveals Lorena in her shower bonnet as she rubs her face wash into her pretty brown skin.

 “Yes darling?”

 Ethan runs to the toilet, retching with utter relief.

 Lorena turns off the shower immediately, wrapping herself in a towel and coming to his side.

 “What is wrong? Are you sick?” She asks, rubbing his back.

 He flushes and leans against her, absorbing the scent of her body wash and letting her hold him.

Ethan gets the call about two male bodies found.

He sits in on the meeting about the evidence found at O’Malley’s apartment. The signs, the fact that he always just so happened to miss the killer at the exact moment. That he blew up the warehouse so he wouldn’t have to face the consequences of his actions. Suicide by himself rather than by cop is always the way to go apparently.

He’s overjoyed when they call the case officially closed, going to a bar and drinking to celebrate.

He meets Lorena’s mom and asks for her daughter's hand in marriage, even though it’s only been a year. Her mother agrees, kissing both of his cheeks.

They lay in bed after dropping her mom off a week later, Ethan still can’t sleep for a different reason now.

He traces the lines of Lorena’s face, thumbing over her bottom lip. She’s snoring softly.

“I’m so glad it wasn’t you.” He whispers.

Her eyes flutter open at that moment to look at him.

He knows he’s wrong. They both do.