Си Паради - Dancing With Shadows

Trying to allay Megan's concern, Tony said, "I don't think he'll do that. It leaves too much to chance."

Megan glanced out the window. This was just too dangerous. "That’s not good enough. What if you're wrong?"

Megan captured her partner’s eyes with her own, before continuing, "I love you. Twice in the past week I could have lost you. I couldn’t do anything about those times, but I can about this. I don’t want you to do this."

"I love you, too. And that’s why I have to do this." Tony then voiced her worst fear, " What if he tries to get at me through you? I’m not willing to take that risk. If anything happened to you because of me I could never live with myself."

"What about how I would feel if something happened to you? Doesn’t that matter at all?" Megan asked, momentarily hurt until a thought pushed its way to the forefront of her mind. This doesn't make sense. We are sitting here arguing and the thing we are both trying to do is protect each other. We need to work together on this.

Tony saw the hurt expression flicker across her lover's face. That was the last thing she wanted to do. I am really blowing this. "Of course it does." Tony sighed, "I just want this to be over and our lives to get back to normal, and I don’t know any other way to do that."

The waitress removed the uneaten salads and served their dinner. Neither woman was hungry.

Megan pushed her food around on her plate trying to think of likely alternatives and not having any success. Would this dangerous plan really put an end to this nightmare? Or would she end up losing her partner?

Tony felt guilty because she knew she was asking more than was fair of her partner, but felt she had no choice. The last thing she had wanted to do was hurt Megan's feelings. She had to end this and the only way to do that was take the offensive.

Megan looked up from her food. "When is this supposed to happen?"

Relieved that Megan had broken the silence, Tony said, "Brian’s going to bring some of his friends over tonight and we’re planning to have a staged conversation."

"There’s no guarantee this will draw him out," Megan mused aloud. "You really think this will work?"

Tony breathed a silent sigh of relief. Megan didn't seem so upset. "I think there's a good possibility it could."

Making a decision and praying it was the right one, Megan said, "Ok. What time are we going?"

Tony met Megan's eyes, and said gently, "We aren’t going. I am."

"If you’re going, so am I," Megan said, emphatically.

"You’re not trained for this. I am," Tony said, her eyes imploring her partner to understand.

"I didn’t say I would participate. I said I was going. And you can just stop right now, because if you think there is any way I am letting you put yourself in danger without being there if you need me, you better think again."

Tony looked at her partner and raised an eyebrow. She ruefully thought, I guess I didn't convince her.

Megan never gave her lover a chance to respond and continued, "So when do we do this?" There was no way she was letting Tony do this by herself. It was bad enough she was going to do it at all.

Tony gazed at her partner silently. She captured the hazel eyes with her blue ones and watched the gold flecks whirling around angrily. How can I ask her to do something I would not? This might not be such a bad idea. There was always the possibility the sting would not work. If

Megan went, at least she would know she was safe. She’d just have to do her best to make sure she was out of harm’s way. Maybe Brian could assign someone to her during the sting.

Tony rested her elbow on the table and supported her chin in her palm. Quirking a half smile, she said, "Tomorrow night."

Tony sat on the couch next to Megan and looked at Brian and the other four officers gathered in her living room. Brian had briefed the others back at the station, and each knew that this meeting was simply to set up the trap they had devised. Each of the officers present had worked with Tony on the Shadow case, and had volunteered to help out.

Tony began speaking, "We just got word that one of the big players in a money laundering operation we’ve been doing surveillance on is going to be meeting with the local head of the operation. The meet is at the Red Chimney."

"We’re meeting here to discuss a sting operation. The reason we are asking you to help is because some pertinent information has been leaked. To avoid any other leaks, my boss set it up with Brian."

Nodding her head at Brian, Tony turned the briefing over to him. She wanted to give the impression that the plan would be all his idea.

Brian said, "Ok guys, this is what we’re going to do…"

Sherman sat in his hotel room listening to the tape. Not expecting to hear anything useful, his ears perked up when the conversation turned to the sting operation. This had real potential. Sitting down, he rewound that part of the tape and replayed it.

This just might be the opportunity he was waiting for. Getting out the phone book, he looked up the Red Chimney. He located the street on his map and decided to check the area out the next morning. If the location fit his needs, he would take advantage of this unexpected break.

Megan looked at the ‘watch’ on her wrist that Tony had given her to wear before she went to work. It was really neat. Her partner had told her that if she pressed the stem, an alarm would go directly to Brian, who would have the receiver with him.

It did make her feel a little uneasy. She hadn’t really thought about any danger to herself, even though she knew Tony was worried about that. But somehow, wearing this little gadget made it very real. But it wouldn’t do any good to dwell on it.

Preparing for bed, she realized this would be the first time she had to spend the night alone. Even the night Tony was in the car accident, she hadn’t spent the entire night by herself. She chuckled to herself. Geez, it was only for the next two nights. I’ll sure be glad when that case she’s working on is over.

Megan’s thoughts turned to tomorrow. She hoped the guy never showed up. The idea of Tony setting herself up as a target was very scary.

And one that literally scared the hell out of her. There had to be another way, but she didn’t know what it was.

Sighing, Megan got into bed. Huggy and Velcro soon joined her and she slept fitfully, waking several times, against the backdrop of loud purring.

Tony arrived home with her usual patrol car escort. Getting off the elevator, she walked into the apartment. Megan was sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee. Laying her gun down, she walked into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee.

Joining her partner at the table, she said, "You look tired."

"I didn’t get much sleep," Megan answered, smiling wanly.

Tony reached across the table and took hold of Megan’s hand and squeezed it. Ad-libbing for the sake of the bug, she said, "Is it because of the sting tonight?"

Megan sighed, "That’s part of it." All of a sudden she blurted out, "I hate sleeping alone."

Tony almost spewed coffee all over the table. She certainly hadn’t expected that comment, especially since her lover knew there was a bug in the kitchen.

Standing up, she walked around the table and leaned down, kissing her partner on the forehead. Holding out her hand to Megan to grasp, she led out of the kitchen and into the bedroom. Tony closed the door.

Placing her arms around Megan, she hugged her. "I hate sleeping alone too, Love. Hopefully this case will be over soon. We’ve got enough to move in on them anytime. It’s just a matter of waiting on Braxton to figure that out. He’s a little slow on the uptake."