KICK 'EM BEFORE THEY GET UP!

(2) the cop.

you took a big step back to avoid any of mahaulney's moves. he stood in front of you with his hands in his pockets, "what? not gonna say hi ta' yer ol' pal jim?" deciding not to speak to him, you carefully shuffled away to your desk. your friend, lila, kept an eye on him from afar to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. she completely understood your reasoning for not being involved in the case, but she didn't agree with you letting mahaulney mess with you.

as he grumbled and walked to his respective area, lila moved to crouch in front of you. "y/n," she whispered. instead of acknowledging her, you stuffed your face into a manila folder, pretending to read. "y/n. y/n!" she quietly yelled, "Y/N!" after finally gaining your attention, she began her small rant about you not allowing mahaulney to treat you that way. midway, you began to lose focus of the topic at hand. what he said was starting to get to you recently. the case didn't make much sense. every child that disappeared was last seen at william's restaurant, which was weird enough. it was never something you wanted to consider, but what if jim and all those other people were right?

"y/n," lila clapped and you jumped, startled, "you're not listening."

"i'm sorry, sorry. i just-"

"have a lot on your mind? what's goin' on, honey?" she interrupted.

"no! nah. everything's fine. just tired. didn't get, um, a lotta sleep... last night."

she deadpanned for what seemed to be a whole 5 minutes. you felt like you were on fire. sweaty, hot, and the center of attention. you had no reason to be nervous and you could tell her anything, but you were still in denial. "alright. you don't have to tell me, but i'm here, okay?" she took hold of your hand from under the desk and rubbed your knuckles. you lightly chuckled and nodded, figuring it'd be best to forget your doubts and go on with your day. lila slowly stood up from her position and you heard a few bones crack. "ouhhh! remind me to never get that low again. i'm too old for that."

you and william had just put your kids to bed and were sitting in the living room talking about both of your days. his were always relatively normal since he worked at a diner designed for children's parties. he preferred to hear about yours. even though they could be so predictable, he enjoyed watching you talk endlessly about the things that happened. you decided to discuss your upcoming opportunity to become a detective rather than mahaulney's pestering or your sudden small wonder about his character.

you told him all about the exam you were set to take, the notes you've made so far in order to study, the excitement that gathered within you, and everything else under the sun pertaining to the promotion. by the end, you were out of breath. you realized how long you'd been talking and became embarassed. william was sitting on the opposite end of the couch from you, arm propped up under his chin with a small smile gracing his features.

"did i speak too much? i just got so passionate about it, i didn't mean to. i mean, i know you like hearing me talk anyway, but seriously, i-" you continued chattering, seemingly unable to stop. greatly amused, he lifted his head and scooted closer to you, placing his hand on your thigh and looking you in the eyes. you knew that he was trying to shut you up, but you wouldn't let him win that easily.

"hi?" you smirked.

"hello, dear."

you each gradually moved closer and closed your eyes, fully prepared for a kiss. that is, until you put your hand over his mouth and shoved him. his eyes widened as he fell back on the couch cushion. "you've wounded me, y/n... how could you?" he forced his voice to crack and desperately attempted to bring out a few tears. as you giggled to yourself, he sat back up, grabbed your cheeks, and began planting kisses all over your face.

"i-" forehead.

"will-" left cheek.

"have-" right cheek.

"payback!" chin.

it tickled immensely and you fought to stay as quiet as possible while laughing, not wanting to wake the kids. in time, you gave up and let him have his way. after all, he wasn't always this affectionate with you, but it's times like these that prove to you he doesn't have a single child-killing bone in his body. right, as if.

you had fallen asleep in your shared bed with william. currently, he was shirtless and hunched over on the side with his head in his hands. he was happy about your promotion, of course, but he couldn't help but worry. you being a cop was already risky enough for him. he'd managed to keep you from getting too close to the case regarding the children he killed, but it was easy considering you didn't have full access to it. now that the chance had come for you to be an actual investigator, you could find out the truth. he had to stop you from getting that promotion.

don't get him wrong, he loved you with all his heart, which was exactly why you couldn't know. he didn't want to lose you. the little ankle-biters? he could more or less live without them. but you... you were perfect. he could never explain why, you just were. he was infatuated with you and everything you did. he'd kill before letting you leave him.

so with that, he searched through your drawer as noiselessly as he could to find those notes you'd talked about. he put on a t-shirt and brought the notes outside with his lighter. he walked into the backyard lit the notes on fire. he watched them as they burned.

going back inside, he sat on the couch you two were on just earlier. a bit of guilt started to creep into his mind, but it was overshadowed by the feeling of contentment. he knew you'd blame some wild animal before thinking it was him. it was foolproof. no notes, bad exam grade, no detective, marriage saved!

well... not exactly.