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Will had no idea he’d fallen asleep until he felt someone shake his shoulder. He jerked back and glanced around wildly at the unfamiliar surrounds for some kind of clue. Instead, he got a mug of coffee waved under his nose.
“Drink this,” Katz said, completely unfazed by his confusion. “When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter?”
“Not since I worked homicide,” he mumbled as his brain slowly caught up to everything. He was at the lab; he’d been reviewing the case notes in the break room while waiting for the latest forensic information. The folder was still plastered to his chest. He took a moment to sit upright and set the folder on the table before he took the mug from her hands and inhaled deeply. “This isn’t FBI issue coffee.”
“I’ve got my own private stash.” She flashed a smile that was far too bright for – he checked his watch – 3:17am. “You can pay me back with pastry.”
“Deal,” he said and cautiously took a sip of coffee. It scorched its way across his tongue and through his pores, guiding him back to the land of the living. “And thanks.”
“No problem,” she said with a barely stifled yawn. She looked like she was going to say something else, but was interrupted by a beeping in her pocket. She dug out her phone and hissed, “Yes! DNA is cooked,” and hurried away.
She swooped by thirty minutes later with a stack of photos that were still warm from the printer. Thirty minutes after that, she had a report with post-its marking the important parts, like where the chemistry was translated into real-world objects. He set a timer to see if it’d happen a third time, and sure enough, she appeared just as he stopped his phone from buzzing. Now she was minus her lab coat and shrugged her purse into place.
“I’m going home. You should probably think about doing the same at some point.”
“But I just got comfortable,” he replied, looking at the mess spread out in front of him like a macabre bower. He had pages of notes on the current profile. He was so close, he could practically taste it. He did his best to ignore the aches in his body that said sitting hunched like this for a few more hours was a bad idea.
“Uh-huh.” Katz didn’t miss a beat even though she must have been as tired as he felt. “You stay here too long and I’ll have to charge you rent.”
*
On his desk was a key to one of the lockers over at the labs. He wasn’t sure what he expected when he went over to look at his locker, but it certainly wasn’t a box labelled SURVIVAL KIT. Inside was a jar of coffee, a USB with 'soundtrack to insomnia' written on the side, a variety of instant noodles, chocolate covered coffee beans, a battered travel dictionary and book of crosswords, and a keychain flashlight in the shape of a dog.
He took this as a sign that he was part of the team now.
*
“The tape says ‘do not cross.’ So this is me not crossing,” he said as she walked over to him.
“You’re a cruel man, Will Graham,” she said as she slid her goggles to the top of her head. “At least describe to me how great that coffee tastes while I finish up here.”
He took a long sip and let out a shaky sigh, glad to use the cup to hide his smile. “This is what coffee tastes like when it reaches a state of Nirvana.”
“Ugh. Cruel, cruel man.”
“I have another one back at the car. And there’s pie.”
“Bear my children.”
Will nearly choked on his coffee and held up his free hand in surrender as he backed away from the tape.
It was oddly peaceful to lean against the hood of his rental and eat pie. If he didn’t know there was an active scene a few hundred yards away, he could almost believe that it never happened and they were just regular people taking some time out from the world.
“I was always one of those kids that ran around lifting rocks to see what was underneath,” Katz said, breaking the silence that had settled between them. “My parents got me a bug catcher so I could keep butterflies, but I wound up chasing crickets and collecting spiders. I begged them to move us to Australia where there’s all the deadly stuff. They said no. I was heartbroken.”
“You’re still lifting rocks in search of dangerous creatures.”
“Hell yeah. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
He didn’t have to hesitate to figure out an acceptable response. “Me either.”