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Adam had been missing Morgan for hours now, so when she immediately showed up at the crime scene without Eastman he was pleased enough to be embarrassed about it.
He moved to intercept her – he had no problem calling her in front of the captain, but he really needed to talk to her about getting herself in trouble again – but it turned out there was no need. She was heading straight for him, and without saying a word she grabbed his arm and dragged him into what appeared to be some parking lot maintenance supply area.
She shut the door behind them, turning to Adam with a triumphant look. "I know who Jean Baptiste is, and that he definitely stole Young Girl Leaning on a Windowsill."
Adam kept his expression even, trying hard not to be hurt. Clearly, she'd been doing more investigating with Eastman instead of him. "That's great. Do you know who killed the museum director?"
She blinked at that, working out something in her head. "That depends on his time of death."
The fact that he immediately wanted to tell her everything they had annoyed him. If she didn't care about investigating with him, she could wait a little while. "Do you have anything we can bring to the Captain?"
Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not bringing it to the Captain. I'm bringing it to you."
The fact that he was touched was probably pathetic of him. "I still need evidence. I know that Eastman is even happier just charging into things than you are—"
"And you're turning into a mini Captain Wagner!" she snapped, anger sparking in her eyes. "You're just fine with me charging into things when I'm doing it with you!"
The fact that she made it sound like an accusation instead of the painfully obvious truth of his life just pissed him off. "Exactly!"
That threw her. "Wait, what?"
This was not at all the place for this discussion, but the words just kept coming out. "I don't care that you went to the museum, I care that you didn't even ask me to come with you. If I had, you would have had a police escort and it would have been completely legal. The captain might have still yelled at someone over it, but then it would have been at me."
He couldn't protect her when she wouldn't let him, and Eastman sure as hell wasn't up to the job.
Morgan just stared at him, as if what he'd just said didn't make perfect sense. "You don't want Wagner yelling at you," she said faintly.
It might have been the most ridiculous thing she'd ever said, and there was a hell of a list to compare it to. "It's better than him yelling at you!"
Morgan was still staring at him, but the shock in her expression had transformed into something that made his breath catch. Everything else fled out of his head, from the murder to the theft to Captain Wagner, and even the world around him paused in between the seconds. There was only Morgan, looking at him like that, and he didn't know if she was moving or he was moving but the space between them was disappearing rapidly. Closer, closer...
Then Morgan jerked back, expression twisting. "Shit."
The moment shattered, but Adam was still reeling with it. His heart was pounding harder than if he'd run for miles, and he was having real trouble breathing like he was supposed to. "What was that?" he managed, voice a rasp.
Morgan's glare immediately came back, but it wasn't quite enough to hide how flustered she was. "Don't you dare get weird about this," she argued, voice not quite steady. "I once again stopped myself from kissing you, as I have done many times, and the fact that I slipped and got as close as I did this time is entirely your fault. I know you're not interested, but if you insist on saying stupidly romantic things when you're within grabbing distance then you're just going to have to deal with the consequences."
That... that was... Adam could barely wrap his head around what she'd just said, the sheer impossibility of it, but there was one part he knew he had to deal with now.
I know you're not interested.
He'd been wrong, before – that was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard her say. He was sure he was the one who'd said or done something to make her be so utterly wrong about this, but that also meant it was his job to explain to her just how wrong she was. He had a thousand words he could use to do it, an entire lineup of moments where he could explain in detail just how much it ached not to pull her closer. He needed to explain it to her more than he needed air.
But the words were stuck, caught in the middle of the pure wall of emotion threatening to burst out of him. He wouldn't be able to get anything out before she walked away again, closing the door on all this tightly enough he had no idea if he'd be able to pry it open again.
So he kissed her.
He pulled her close, the way he'd wanted to so many times, and tried to tell her everything he'd never be able to get out any other way. She was frozen for a second, enough that he almost let go, but then she threw her arms around him and started kissing him back. Everything else melted away at that point, lost in the rush of heat and sheer Morganness soaking deep into him.
When they broke apart, Morgan looked up at him like he'd just given her the best Christmas ever. "So," she managed, voice thick. "I might have been wrong about that."
He leaned his forehead against hers, voice rough. "I finally won an argument."
She breathed out a laugh. "This argument, I'll let you win whenever you want." Then she tightened her arms around him, expression somewhere between solemn and uncertain. "This is a bad idea."
He tightened his arms around her as well. "Yeah."
She took a deep breath. "You're not going to tell me we shouldn't do it?"
He held her gaze, wanting her to know how serious he was. "No."
Morgan smiled, a spear of sunlight in the darkness. "And we both know how much I love bad ideas." She gave him another quick, electric kiss before making herself step out of his arms. "Now, though, we have to go back to work. Now that we're juggling at least two crimes, there's a lot we have to brief each other on."
Among other things – he had to tell her that Captain Wagner was asking about Roman. But his chest was still tight, fingers itching to reach out for her. "But we're coming back to this?"
The look she gave him was enough to burn him in the best way. "Oh, we're definitely coming back to this." Then she cleared her throat, taking a step back. "Now, stop distracting me and tell me more about crime."
Chest warm and a smile creeping onto his face, he did.