SHOTS FIRED, watching the bullets go missing through the yellow glassed glasses. One, two, three times, but all that was hit were the voids while the darks haped silhouette of the target remained immaculate at distance.

A low chuckle followed his failure, while three more shots that did not belong to him hit the a target by the booth at his right.

Will Graham clenched his jaw and adjusted his posture again, failing with more shots, sighing with heavy frustration and inner conflict. The booth by his side did not miss a target, always aiming for the head. When he realized, he had already started to compete with the shooter, and at any tentative he lost it, over and over again, until a laugh made him realize who it was.

"Damn...are you trying to hit a fly or something? Teresa whistledown as she showed up behind him, protection headphone hung around her neck and the yellow glass adorning her brown skin shimmering by the weak lights of the FBi shooting training area. "You know the target's all the way up there, right?" She pointed.

Will sighed annoyed. "Of course I know"

"Well you don't look like you do." She put over the headphones again, crossing her arm, continuing to watch as he failed again. "Never took you as a weaver type of guy."

"As if you know anything about me." He snapped back.

"I know you're very noisy during sex, so that's already something, I guess" She mocked and he tried not to blush over her words.

Teresa watched his large back tense and rigid while holding the gun, it would be a lie not to admit how attractive he was when shooting. Took some steps forward, next to him when he paused the shots, touching briefly his shoulder, the contact made him flinch.

"Easy, I'm not gonna hurt you" She assured and moved up his arm. "Why so serious?" She chuckled. "Your body's like a brick."

"Not sure if that's a compliment or an insult" He interject, still looking over at the target.

"Think what you want." She whispered and for a single moment his body shivered by her breath against his neck. Her hand landed on his shoulder, pressuring it down slowly, and the touch made him purse his lips, almost as if that was the massage he awaited ages for. "What's all this tension for?" She smirked.

"I was stabbed when I was a cop." He responded, trying not to distract himself more.

She nodded as if she couldn't care less about the fact. Teresa only gripped his aem, pulling it a bit higher, ignoring Will's complaints.

"There you go..."She whispered now cheek to cheek to him. "Now try it and see if it recoils"

Still unwillingly, he did as she asked, and the resilts improved, finally being able to make the bullets go through the white paper of the target of shooting.

"Well, that's a start" she teased as he turned his head to look at her, the distance between them barely created, as their breaths mixed instantly.

Oh he despised her attitude, and yet couldn't look away from those chestunut eyes and those inviting lips he once had a taste of. And if Will thought into it, he could swear the attraction was mutual as her eyes lingered across his face.

"Oh, my bad, am I interrupting something?" Beverly Katz's voice broke in as she stepped into the heated scene, watching an almosy kiss develop in front of her eyes.

Teresa quickly stepped back, clearing her throat, returning to her cold attitude as Will looked away from their eyes, making it unable to see the blush across his cheeks.

"Not at all, just telling Agent Graham here to learn how to actually shoot." Teresa said as she walked up to the fellow woman. "You here to train too?"

"Actually..." Beverky smiled, unconvinced about their answering but not insisting to don't make them uncomfortable. "Jack asked me to come here ask you both what you know about gardening"

▫️

A green carpet filled mushrooms and half decomposed bodies stood before them, surrounded by yellow restraint areas so greedy curious minds such as Freddie Lounds wouldn't come closer.

Jimmy Price, Beverly Katz, and Brian Zeller looked over the victims and examined the one by one while digging up their analysis for the rest of their name.

"OK, we’ve got nine bodies, various stages of decay, and as you can see, all very well fertilized."Jimmy explained as Teresa walked along with Will, unable to disguise the disgust on her face to see the mushrooms grow on the corpse's faces.

"He buried them in a high-nutrient compost. He was enthusiastically encouraging decomposition." Katz added, as Will's mind already begun to work.

They were buried alive with the intention of keeping them that way. I mean, for a little while." Brian commented.

"Long enough for the fungus to eat away any distinguishing characteristics.Line and rebar were used to administer intravenous fluids after they were buried. He was feeding them something."

Will, who had been silent the whole time, finally turned to them. "No restraints?"

"Just dirt...The other end of the air-supply system comes up over there." He pointed."It isn’t a very considerate clean air solution, which clearly wasn’t a priority, ’cause he isn’t lazy."

That idea made the engines of his brain start their endless journey of empathy "No, he’s not."

Jack tapped Will's back and looked around the scene, while Teresa remained there, her eyes stuck to the ominous garden as Will was frozen in the same place, staring at the ground, breath getting heavier and heavier by the second.

She looked over at the lines of the perineter established by the cops, where she visualized a curly redheaded with an ambitious look on her face, she took a glimpse of the object in her hands, a camera. Well, as lomg as she didn't cross the line, she could ignore her...for the meantime.

By now, Teresa was more concerned over the man that shivered by his side, eyes staring into oblivion, he squat down, over one of the tombs, where there was a corpse, twitching as his imagination continued.

"Agent Graham?" Brooks asked, now starting to find his reactions strange. His hand was close to the corpse now. "Agent Graham." She called, now placing a hand on his shoulder. "Will-"

Suddenly, the dead body gripped on his wrist, making Will gasp and wake up from his trance.

"Holy shit-" she pulled Will back instantly so the corpse wouldn't stop touching him.

The lungs were working, and the organism tried to speak, exposed bloody jaw tried to kove within the grass and the lack of skin, as the team watched with incredulous curiosity their newest discovery.

▫️

He was still shivering when at the parking lot, packing his things to leave that terrible day behind and tell Hannibal Lecter he was insane enough not to return to the field.

She could've let it go, just ignore his presence and tell him to get his head fixed, but when she touched that shivering shoulder that morning, something in her recalled a dark past of her own she couldn't simoly ignore.

"Somebody's got to be real with you, that jacket is straight ass ugly" He turned to the sound of her voice, furrowing her eyebrows at thr sudden accusation. "And those glasses make you look like a nerd."

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Will snapped back, closing the car door behind him.

"Do you?"

He stood in silence.

"I know we don't hit off but I gotta ask something..."She carefully thought of her next words. "What happened earlier was your...uhm..gift?"

"...what do you mean?"

"It was like...you weren't there, like you daydreamed in some other level, I don't know how to describe it." Teresa said, as the moon started to raise in the sky.

He took a while to answer. "Sort of." He responded.

She only nodded, a bit amused, hands buried on her leather jacket's pockets as she looked back at him.

"Do you...see something in it?" She asked.

"Why the curiosity?" He said a bit ruthless. "Did Jack sent you here?"

Teresa became annoyed by the question. "I'm not his pet to follow his every rule."

"Well you look like one. Always so prompt to do what he says and perfect in very single way." He mocked back, and little did know the grudge she would hold onto those words. "What is it? You're fucking him too?"

This time even her lips parted in surprise. So much for getting worried over someone. With an exploded rage, she suddenly threw a small card on the ground.

"You know what? Fuck you, Will Graham, fuck you, seriously." She hissed, fists closing to keep it together.

All he could hear next were her boots stepping hard on the pavement leaving the parking lot. He leaned over and grabbed the small card, some cupon for a free drink, now he wondered if that was some sort of failed attempt to make him feel better...was she inviting him for a drink? Last time didn't end well, but he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed that he ruined this opportunity.

Maybe he was just overthinking, she could never be that kind. She was just a nuisance.

He shook away those thoughts, got in the car and turned on the roaring engine, time to disagree with his psychiatrist once again.

▫️

The lab was filled with laughter when he arrived, Jimmy was pratically on tears while hearing one of Teresa's story, and allnof that happened while bodies full of mushrooms stoo there in tables forbthem to examinate.

"I'm deadly serious, I peed my pants when that corpse woke up. Never watching the Walking Dead ever again." She said as she finished writting some reports about the case while the lab trio continued to examinate. "Don't tell me you didn't feel the same Jimmy-"

"Oh, I've seen worse darling." The team chuckled.

But all the laughs dissipated when Will entered the room. Well, at least that happened for Teresa, whose mood was drastically chanhed like the weather.

"There you are." Brian tried to smile to erase the tension in the air. "We were waiting for you, so, let's begin?" He looked over the team who nodded in response.

Will Graham glanced at the brown skinned woman at the corner of the room, her lips a straight line as she avoided him. He tried not to let it get over his mind, whike Beverly started to notice the strangeness in their behaviour.

"What were they soaked in?" Will started.

"A highly concentrated mixture of hardwoods, shredded newspaper, and pig poop perfect for growing mushrooms and other fungi." Jimmy explained, as they surrounded the complexed victim exposed.

"It was not the mushrooms, though. They all died of kidney failure. Brian interjected.

"Dextrose in all the catheters. He probably used some kind of dialysis or peristaltic to pump fluids after their circulatory systems broke down." Beverly said instead.

"Force-feeding them sugar water?" Will asked.

"Mushrooms love sugar water." Teresa crossed her arms, relied on the wall.

Brian agreed quickly. "Feed sugar to the fungus in your body, the fungus creates alcohol, so it’s like friends helping friends, really."

Will nodded at the analogy. "t’s not just alcoholics who have compromised endocrine systems..." He commented, rolling up the sleeves of his blue shirt. Teresa tried to look away. "They all died of kidney failure? Death by diabetic ketoacidosis."

"Did you know they were diabetics?" Bevery asked the men in the team.

"We don’t know they were diabetics." Jimmy responded.

But will instantly denied. "No, they’re all diabetics." He said, and at this point, Teresa paid attention to his words  "He induces a coma and puts them in the ground."

She couldn't stay quiet at this point. "And how is he inducing them into comas?" She asked, almost like a personal dare.

Will looked over at her, almost like she misbehaved by doubtibg his hypothesis, clencing subtly his jaw as his eyes scanned her body, espexially those tight jeans. "Changes their medication. So he’s a doctor or a pharmacist or he works somewhere in medical services."

"So he buries them, feeds them sugar to keep them alive long enough for the circulatory systems to soak it up." Beverly pondered.

"So he can feed the mushrooms!" Jimmy exclaimed happily like he had found the greatest discovery in the universe.

"So people are just seeds to his mushroom garden, great, another freak." Teresa shook her head in disappointment.

"These are just some of the others to come." Will said in a rather dark sentence.

Once wrapped up with the brainstorming, each member of theteam turned themselves to other individual tasks.

Katz noticed Teresa's quietness and approached her subtly. "Did you two fight?" She smirked.

She blinked at the coworker. "What? No." She refused to give details. What make you say that?"

"Well the tension is thick as hell and you turned quiet when he came in, which is not like you, so..." Beverly teased.

"Look, if you're worried about my dynamic with Agent Graham and the team, don't sweat it. I'm not letting this ever get to my work." Teresa quickly turned professional over the situation.

Bevery chuckled, shaking her head. "I didn't say anything..."

Without answering further, Teresa sighed and exited the room. Her perfume intoxicating Will's lungs when she passed by, and Beverly could swear she spot him closing his eyes to savor the air for an instant.

But of course, none of them would ever admit it.

▫️

"Slow down you're doing it too fast" Delilah recommended as her long fingers knitted a hat by Teresa's side. "It's gonna get full of holes if you don't be careful"

"I know what I'm doing" She replied grumpily, eyes stuck to the red strings attaching themselves to one another.

Her aunt chuckled shaking her head, and continuing the knitting. The might was peaceful, and there was barely noise of the traffic across the window at the streets, only the soft sound of the TV and the muffled sounds of a conversation at the neighbour's apartment next door.

"Are you stressed?" Delilah mumbled as she finally took the half made scar from her hands and tried to fix it.

Teresa sighed. "No." She lied.

"Okay." She finished untangling the red strands. "Here you go." She returned the project to her. "Is it about work?" Teresa nodded. "Did you do something wrong or-"

"There's this guy on my team that upset me with something he said." She simply gave up on lying. "I know he's not aware of  what it means but...it's still fucking annoying."

Delilah nodded. "Well, why don't you try telling him that?"

"It's complicated."

"You shouldn't let bad feelings get to your work." She advised.

"I know. I'm trying to."

"Then be an adult and just speak to him." She gave an ultimatum and this time Teresa couldn't argue against her. Her aunt has always been like that, a peaceful, silent goddess who judged and sentenced with words. And she was never wrong. "You've always been like that..."she clicked her tongue. "Hot headed, impulsive...somehow like your mom." The words made Teresa a bit nostalgic. "But you gotta remember the world's not simply black and white. Remember what happened to Daniel?"

Teresa instantly stopped knitting. "I don't want to talk about him."

"I saw him at the market you know, a week ago. He asked about you." Teresa's eyes landed to her lap, trying to ignore the words that sent her back to a past she no longer knew. "Maybe if you talked to-"

"Aunt Lilah." She turned to her serious. "I...approaciate your effort, I truly do. But I don't want to talk about Daniel anymore, okay?"

Deliah had no choice but only nod and accept her request. Deep down, all she wanted was the best to her niece, especially after all the pain she has gine through.

But deep down, she knew she couldn't save her, just like she couldn't save her mother.

▫️

"Now this is what I like."

"You're addicted to adrenaline, aren't you?" Katz smirked, crossing her arms as the black dressed team gathered up to the enter the pharm where the suspect worked.

"Who isn't?" Teresa chuckled as she charged up her gun with a swift sound.

As the squad was prepared, Jack Crawford came forward, serious expression, quick paces, hushing with Will Graham by his side.

"Brooks, you and Graham with me, Katz and lab team behind the squad, come on" He gestured forward as a general.

The operation happened at night, and as the shadoes crept up in the moon, so did the gardener's plan into bringing more people to plant on the ground and bloom as his own flowers.

It was Will Graham' initial idea, summing with what the team concluded in the lab, to search in a pharmacist, and the intelligence gathered enpugh info to find the correct one.

"She’s the chain’s 10th diabetic customer to disappear after filling a prescription for insulin, second to disappear from this exact location." Jack explained ss they followed the deposit's corridor untik the daymight of the pharm.

"And the other eight?" Will asked.

"All over the county. One pharmacist all over the county as well."

"Floater, huh?"

"Floater’s floating right here. Still logged in at his work station."  They finally approached the main cohnter where multiple pharmacists were located, all with scared and shocked expressions. "Everyone please stop what you are doing. Put your hands in the air!" Teresa promptly set her hand on her gun ready for the worse. "Special Agent Jack Crawford. Which one of you is Eldon Stammets?" He demanded.

One of the trembling pharmacists stammered. "Eldon was just here. Just now."

Will immediatly looked at Teresa, both of them sharing the same idea. "Is his car still in the parking lot?" He asked the workers.

The team moved quickly to the dark parking lot, until the spot the car was located, before any of them could think, Teresa ran forward fastly.

"Gimme that!" She shouted at one member of the squad team and grabbed his bathon, running to the car's window and slamming to break it, so she could gain acess to the controls of the car's trunk.

Once she made it open, Will wasted no time to bury his hands into the compartment filled with dirt, unburying an unconsvious blonde woman witha  breathing mask on. He leanrd close, to hear any sign.

"She's alive" He announced and Teresa sighed relieved.

The body smelled by the dirt, and emergency was immediatly called.

"EMTs! Now!" Jack shouted as the team took care of the victim. He turned to his two fellow agents. "All right. We know his name, we have his address, we have his car."

But it was too late to celebrate.

"Jack." Jimmy came forward, puffibg by the use of speed he wasn't used to make. "We just checked the browser history at Stammets’ work station."

"Am I gonna wanna hear this?" Crawford asked.

"No. And yes, but mostly no."

▫️

Beverky Katz was leaning over the pharm counter reading a notebook witha  huge red headline and large white letters entitled on the screen.

"Freddie Lounds. TattleCrime.com." She narrated, while the team gathered around to see it better. “The FBI isn’t just hunting psychopaths, they’re headhunting them too, offering competitive pay and benefits in the hopes of using one demented mind–” She instantly stopped reading.

Teresa and the whole team understood immediatly what that was about. She glanced at Will, silent, mouth only a thin line across his lips as he heard the phrases.

"Keep going." Jack ordered, with no sense of empathy.

"It’s about Will." Beverky tried to defend her friend.

But that didn't stop Crawford. "Go on."

The asian woman sighed and read out loud "One demented mind to catch" She finally says it and Will held the urge to express what he felt about that article.
"..She goes into a lot of detail." Beverly summed up.

The reading was interruoted by a sudden slamming on the desk.  "That's not goimg to help us." Teresa suddenly spoke, as Jack looked at her surprised. "Is it bad that she's talking shit about a member of our tram? Hell yeah, she's a bitch. But right now we gotta focus on catching this gardener, he's out there, and one step ahead, we need to be smarter, not frown over scandalous headlines."

There was a pause in silence of mutual agreemet, and Will almost smiled at the look of embarrassment at Jack's face to finally have been humbled down, even more to someome younger than him.

"Brook's right." He agreed. "Brian, Zeller, Katz, gather the data we can about the gardener, we'll deal with Freddie Lounds once we get the chance" He explained and the team quickly found her instructions, dismissing themselves. "Not you, Brooks, you stay."

She stopped on her boots, as Will turned around for a minute realizing she had finally found herself in trouble.

"Yes, sir?" She turned to him.

"Do you understand this is my unity, correct?" He said in a deadly serious tone.

"Of course, sir." She responded.

"Next time think about it before interrupting me. I won't accept this type of behavior, do you understand?" He asked, Teresa held the urge to sigh. "Do you understand, agent Brooks?"

She felt her blood boil. "Yes, sir. It won't happen again."

"You may go now."

▫️

There was darkness surrounding him, empty hospital hallways as a muffled chain of harmonies followed forward, along with soft steps of the moose who haunted his mind.

The lights blinked as if an ominous forced dragged him more into the shadows. Until it stopped. Aa time had frozen and only a soft harmony remained in the air, turning the hallways brighter and brighter...

Until he opened his brown eyes back to the present. The lashes momentairly blocking to later sharper the view of the white hospital room where a woman's back was turned to him, sitting on the edge of the main bed where Abigail Hobbs lied on.

"I wish you could know what it means to be me..." The woman's soft melodic voice echoed through the room.  "Then you'd see and agree...that every man should be free"

He didn't say anything at first, especially since the somg managed to doze down any paranoid thought of his brain, almost like a drug calming his senses. It was soft, sweet as honey itself and slower than the original version of the song, shaped into a homemade lullaby.

And he recognized that nape, the dark hair strands, and the back he once touched delicately with his fingertips.

Once the song finally faded, it took a  monute for hik to finally speak "Billie Holliday?"

Teresa turned around, a bit stunned to see him awake and that he had actually listened to her singing. "Nina Simone, actually."

He nodded in silence. His eyes altering between her and Abigail on the bed. "Didn't take you as a Jazz type of girl." He commented in slight teasing.

But for his surprise, she wasn't bothered by it. "I'm not" she shook her head. "My mom was...she used to sing me this song, her favorite, to put me to sleep." There was a hint of sadness and longing in her tone, although Teresa would try her best not to show.

There was this hidden intimacy in that sentence that he could've prolongued, but instead he only said "You could be singing to a killer."

"We'll see about that when she wakes up, for now, she's just an orphan girl victim of a tragedy"

"Sounds like a news headline" He commented, and of cours eboth of them reflected on Freddie Lounds' article immediatly. "Would you yell at me again for asking if Jack Crawford sent you here?"

"Yeah"

"Nevermind then" A long pause hug tense on their shoulders. "I mean...after what you did yesterday when the article came up, proves you're not his puppet."

"I don't need to prove anything to you."

"So I don't need to thank you either." Which was exactly wgat he wanted to do, but both were too stubborn to give up.

"Then let's not talk about it."

"Let's not." He agreed, relying his head on the sofa. "Actually, I was rather enjoying when you were singing." He said with a grin that made her heart skip a beat.

"Well keep dreaming, I'll never sing to you." She hissed and he laughed in soft humming.

One can't help but wonder that if Abigail Hobbs was awake, she would've found that scene incredibly funny and full of the warmth she longed for.

▫️

The elevator was awfully quiet when they got out of the room and Teresa cursed herself for not waiting for the next one instead of being stuck to Will Graham in that small cubicle.

He didn't seem nervous, he seemed rather cocky, and more annoying than usual when he came up with the next sentence "Okay but what if I paid, would you sing to me?"

"I swear to God if you don't shut up the doctors will find your dead corpse once the elevator door opens." She threatned while taking a deep breath.

"I'd like to see you try." He smirked.

"Me against a guy who barely can think straight? Doesn't sound like a challenge." She scoffed.

Will finally turned to her. "You're really full of yourself aren't you?"

"I'm just saying that a nerd who doesn't know how to aim his gun can't defeat me in a fight, simple as that."

Will scoffed, showing that charming smile full of that sassiness only feel were able to see sometimes underneath all those problems he suffered from.

"Well this nerd is much stronger than you physically." His eyes darkened while meeting hers, as his voice became more velvet, smooth and dangerous. "But I think you already know that."

Flashes of a heated night invaded her mind, as her eyes limgered to his big, veiny hands that grabbed her wrists, pressed her once against the mattress of her bed. Such a strengh that could make her breathless and instantly clean her throat, thanking God when the elevator finally landes on their floor.

Just as when they got out, Graham's phone started to ring, he checked the ID and quickly responded. "Hello?" He said, and by his expression, Teresa noticed it didn't seem like good news. "I am." He continued speaking. And quickly just as the call started, it ended.

First thing she saw, was Will grabbing his gun from his waist.

"Woah, what happened?" Teresa asked surprised.

"Eldon Stammets' knows about Abigail." He only said.

"Shit." Teresa cursed out loud and took her gun as well.

The two ran in the stairs back to the room where Abigail was located, but once they arrived, she was gone.

Will ran to the counter where he became desperate "Where is she?" He asked in a rispy tone.

"Who?" The attendant said sloghtly scares by his tone.

"Abigail Hobbs, where is she?"

"They took her for tests-"

"Who?" He yelled.

"I-I don't know-"

"What the fuck are you here for then?!" Teresa cursed at the attendant before they started to run again. "You go to the right and I go to the left" She said once they got one floor lower.

"No, you stay here, it might be dangerous." Will nodded while his chest moved up and down with a cresceng anxiety.

But Teresa Brooks was one stubborn bitch,  which was common sense to everybody by now.

"The hell with staying here, if you wanna catch this guy and keep the girl safe you need me." She demanded and Will curved his mouth in disagreement. "Now shut up and do as I say." She pointed and without a choice he picked a side and looked through the area.

A chase through a hospital could resemble most likely a maze. Tricky hallways that looked the same, people who got in the way, and destinies still unknown to many.

But then she saw it, one of the doctors conducing an unconscious pacient, and when she looked upon the dark haired girl, she already knew.

"Hands in the air, now!" Teresa yelled, and just across the ballway, Will Graham also emerged, cornering the man.

Eldon Stammets, the gardener, still didn't give up and as he tried to run away, before Will could raise his gun, Teresa shot the man's shoilder making him drop to the ground, quivering until reaching his back to a wall.

The two agenta approached, Will still aiming his gun at the man as Teresa lowered hers.

"Asshole." She tried to cat her breath.  "What were you going to do to her?" She questioned the killer.

"We all evolved from mycelium, I was going to reintroduce her to the concept." Stammets said blinded by the madness.

"By burying her alive?!" Will groaned, still enfuriated with the episode, Teresa watches him carefully, attentive to any signs of changing behavior or violent attempt to take the killer's life.

"The journalist said that you understood me." Stammets whimpered as a child whose best friend turned his back to them.

"I don't." Will responded clearly.

"Well you would have..." He insisted. "You would bave...If you were to enter a field of mycellium field...they know you were there! They know you were there!" Teresa was already done with that man. "The spores come after you as you walk, I know who you're reaching for, I know." He continued. "Abigail Hobbs...you should have let me plant her, you would find her in a field where she would be finally be able to reach back"

Teresa gazed over at Will, and something in his expression resembled an enigma of his own, a similar look she experienced from him before at the Hobbs' residence.

"You don't know shit." Teresa suddenly interrupted the lunatic's speech. "Eldon Stammets, you are arrested for murder, and attempt of murder." She stated as Eldon trembled and Will woke up from his trance. "Call Crawford." She whispered to Will and he got into it, still a bit amused by her attitude. "Mr.Stammets, You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, you have the right to an attorney and if you can't afford it, one will be presented to you, do you understand your rights?" The man pouted his lips and didn't answer. "Do you understand your rights?" She raised her tone a bit more menancingly and he nodded quickly. "Good."

She squat down and took a pair of handcuffs tied to her belt, hidden by the jacket she wore.

▫️

Outside the hospital, the two agents, congratulated by Crawford, watched as the cops took away the gardener. The sun had started to set in tones of orange and yellow in the sky, and that marked the end of a hurried day, relieving their souls.

Will looked over at Teresa, as her dark and curly hair strands covered her face by the wind's strentgh.

"Do you always carry handcuffs around?" He asked.

She chuckled. "You never know when they're necessary."

He shared her small laugh, taking a deep breath and swallowing in the moment. "That was...good, back there." She surprised herself at his attempt to be nice. "Don't look at me like that." Teresa laughed. "You still stole my shot."

"You'd probably have hit the lamp instead of the guy."

He giggled. "Oh you're evil." He mocked.

The two smiled for a bit, a still dazed into each other's eyes, sharing the afternoon and the sweet breeze.

"Look...I'm not one to tell this often...but, about what I said of you and Crawford...I was...wrong." He admited. "Guess I was just stressed and blamed on you"

"Is that an apology?" She crossed her arms, lifting her chin victoriously.

Will sighed. "Yeah." He said. "So, we're good?"

She pondered on his words for a moment. "Fine. But that isn't gonna make me like you."

He smiled. "I didn't even expect that." Will looked down,  burying his hand into his jacket's pocket, until he picked out a small crumbled paper card and showes it to her. "You let this fall the other day."

Teresa gazed over his hand, realizing it was the cupon she threw at the ground to him. "It was...for you actually, you need it more than me."

He chortled and looked at the free drink prize. "Such a kind soul you are." He teased.

"Fuck off." She rolled her eyes. "I'm getting going now-"

"Wait-" His large hand wrapped around her wrist, and the warm touch gave them both chills. Once she looked back at him, he let the touch depart. "Uh..." He cleared his throat. "Let me pay you a drink for...the help today."

"I was doing my job."

"Can you shut up for a second and let me be nice for once?" He insisted and Teresa finally smiled in return.

"Alright...But three drinks." She corrected.

"That's not fair you know-"

"Never meant to be fair." She teased and walked foward, as he only eatched from afar. Teresa turned around, and as the orange sky contemplated her image, she smiled through her dark hair strands. "Are you coming or not?"

And Will couldn't help but laugh, forgetting the world and the madness for a while as he accompanied her.

After all, just a drink wouldn't hurt.