"Don't touch anything, brat. Just make sure you have your seatbelt on and sit still."

"How could you expect me to sit still when the air vent is facing me," Irene snaps at Mister Menard as he drives his car to the outskirts of the city.

Lieutenant Menard could not stop rolling his eyes at her every time she would open her mouth and snap at him. "Oh God, could you shut up for like a minute or something?"

"Why would I shut up when you would not even listen to me?"

"I'm listening to you! I've been listening to you nag and complain this whole time!"

"Well I'm nagging because you would not allow me to move the air vent!"

"And I won't allow you to do so because we have more things to worry about!" Lieutenant Menard raises a hand in frustration at her, leaving one hand left to maneuver the steering wheel.

"Stop the car," Irene commands out of the blue.

"Wha-what the hell? Why the fuck would I stop the ca-"

"Stop the car!" Irene says again with a much more loud, and commanding voice.

Lieutenant Menard curses under his breath as his car skids into a stop at the side of the road. Once the car reaches to a stop, Irene immediately unbuckles her seatbelt and opens the door. Leaving it open, she starts to brisk walk straight ahead leaving Lieutenant Menard in the car by himself.

"Hey!" He shouts out from the open window of his car as the woman just kept on walking farther away from him. "Hey!" he shouts again, opening the door of his car and curses in a whisper as he unbuckles his belt and gets out of the car. "You brat!" He shouts, slamming the door of his car as he catches up with the woman. "You can't just walk to our destination!"

"Yes, I can!" Irene shouts without turning back at him.

"Oh God," Lieutenant Menard mutters under his breath. "Can you at least cooperate with me for once?!"

The woman continues to walk farther away from him and it was making him all the more frustrated at her. "Irene, could you stop please?!"

Irene immediately stops and turns back to face him, her face full of fury. "Finally, the respect I deserve!" She says. "Since the very start of meeting you, you have been treating me and looking at me like as if I'm a piece of trash!"

Lieutenant Menard continued walking towards her and fights the urge to throw anything near his reach at the woman. "Okay, so we had our first tantrum of the day. Let's get you a piece of candy or something to calm down those tit-"

"HEY!" Irene bellows out, fuming while being conscious that she brings her blazer across her body even if nothing was showing underneath. "Mister Menard, I should be respected as a criminal psychologist also. I feel that the reason you hate me the most is because of my profession!"

"Here again do I hear these criminal psychologists bringing out their profession like as if they could heal anyone," He utters in annoyance. Professions like hers really do help in bringing out the evidence they need, but once they look at themselves like some kind of God, that is when Copernicus Menard gets really pissed off.

Irene's jaw drops out of disbelief. "What the hell is wrong with you? Are you looking down at what I do for a living?" She starts brisk walking back to him as Lieutenant Menard stays in place.

"If I was," Lieutenant Menard starts, articulating his words, "then I wouldn't be taking you. I just hate the fact that you think you hold a greater level of healing other people."

Irene lets out a scoff, "Well, I'm sorry to break it off to you but that's basically a gist of my job."

"That's what makes this whole ordeal ironic since I'm bringing you right now with me." Lieutenant Menard rolls his eyes. They were still bickering with each other but at least they stopped shouting already.

"So, why did you take me?" She simply asks, crossing her arms in front of her.

Lieutenant Menard lets out a heavy sigh, "You may find a way to make him talk. I'm trying to be professional here but I still don't need your help in other stuff for this investigation."

"So, are you warming up to my presence, Mister Menard?"

"I am not warming up to your presence," He says pointedly, "We just need to finish this investigation fast and catch Jax Graves. I'm here talking to you only because of him. Then I will leave you alone. Deal?"

Irene stays quiet and refuses to look at him for a while. Then she gives him a sharp jut of her chin. Lieutenant Menard lets out a short sigh of relief.

"Now can you please get back in the car?"

Irene rolls her eyes. "I'll be your partner just for today. Okay?"

"Let's finish this as fast as we could and we'll make sure to not see each other again during work."

------------

Finally they were back on the road and Lieutenant Menard eventually agreed for Irene to adjust the air vent that was facing her, the cause of the fight, only if she places it back to its original place after their mission.

They have been driving in silence for the past minutes. Then it became an hour, then two hours.

"This seems like a one time, big time thing," Irene speaks up softly.

"Yeah," Lieutenant Menard agrees with her, his eyes focused on the road. "You can't mess this up later. We'll be arriving in his house in a few minutes."

"Me?" She exclaims. "Wait, it has to be the both of us."

"No, just you."

"Are you shitting on me?! Why just me?"

Oh God, please don't start shouting, please don't start shouting, please don't start shouting. Lieutenant Menard repeated the mantra in his head.

"Mister Menard," she continues, "I do not know much about this man. You need to be with me when we confront him."

"He won't talk when he sees me," Lieutenant Menard simply utters, making a sharp turn to exit the freeway.

"And why does he not want to talk to you anymore?" Irene asks in confusion.

"Because I confronted him already before. A long time ago...it did not go well." He shakes his head as a vivid memory plays in his head. The father of Jax Graves threatening him with a gun in hand. Lieutenant Menard could have reported him that instant, but he confronted the man without telling his team and he needed the father to talk some more to gain evidence. "I don't want to talk about it anymore, brat," he says in a rush to end the conversation.

Irene's jaw drops again out of surprise and frustration with hearing the word he called her. Yet, she stays quiet in place and chooses to look out the window with her arms crossed in front of her.

Lieutenant Menard gets a glance of her angry face and suddenly grins as he says, "I'm not sorry for saying that."

They end up on a bumpy road, nearing a small house with cream-colored walls that were slowly being covered with moss and climbing green vines.

"We're here," Lieutenant Menard announces, stopping a mere 30 meters away from the house.

Irene lets out a heavy sigh and grabs her handbag, frantically searching for something inside.

"Wha-what are you doing?" Lieutenant Menard asks. Irene then brings out a small jar with orange-colored sort of paste in it. She twists the lid of the jar and starts to smell it. Lieutenant Menard takes a whiff of the scent and his nose scrunches up in recognition. "Tiger Balm?" He asks in disbelief.

"This is how I calm myself down," she informs him, with eyes closed as she continues to smell the balm. "If you care about my nerves, then you would wait-"

"I understand, okay? It's just that...It's just that why are you doing it now? You could have done it on our way here? We're on a time limit, brat."

Right after he utters the dreadful word, Irene takes a long whiff of the scent and glares at him saying, "That one was because of you, Mister Menard."

"I'm flattered. Now, could you go already? We need to finish this before day turns to night."

Irene fixes her hair while grumbling. "Stephen Graves, right?"

"You read the file...I'm impressed," Lieutenant Menard says, amused.

Irene opens the car door, "Don't leave me behind."

"And you don't have to worry."

Irene lets out another heavy sigh and places the Tiger Balm in her bag. "I'll be back," she simply says before getting out of the car and closing the door behind her. She starts walking her way on the road leading to the house.

Lieutenant Menard rests his left elbow on the small ledge of his car window and leans his head on his hand. Now he lets out a heavy sigh nervously. When it comes to nerves, he is not one to show them in front of others.

Irene reaches the run-down front porch of the house and presses the button to ring the doorbell. No sound was heard, which is not really a surprise considering how old the house looked like from the outside. So she decides to knock loudly on the front door. "Good afternoon!" She says out loud, hoping that her voice could be heard from inside the house...if ever anyone is there. "I would like to speak to Mister Stephen Graves ?" She continues, "I am Professor Irene Kim who teaches Criminal Psychology at the state university, I have a few questions to ask-"

The door suddenly flies open and Irene comes face to face with a shabby man who is wearing an off-white undershirt and some boxers underneath. The color of the hair on his scalp and face were either gray or white, no hints of his youth left on him. He grunts at the woman, looking at her in the eyes. "What do you want?"

"Hi," Irene starts nicely, hoping to get on his good side and she shows him her badge as proof, "Again, I am Professor Kim and I hope that you would not mind my asking a few questions regarding your son-"

"I don't have a son," He sneers at her which causes the woman to almost lose her composure.

"Well, then I would like to ask questions regarding a man named Jax Graves-"

"I don't know anyone with that name!"

"Sir," Irene starts, raising her hand in hopes of calming the man down, "I would like you to cooperate with me and I will leave once I get whatever you will offer to me."

"Leave me alo-"

"Sir, I could help you."

Stephen Graves suddenly brings out a metallic object from behind the door and points it at Irene.

A gun. She thought as she immediately raises her arms in the air. "S-Sir, let's just talk-"

"I said to leave me alone!" He shouts once again, jutting the shotgun nearer to Irene.

Irene slowly moves back, not facing away from the man who was pointing a gun at her. She could not feel any part of her body - she was completely numb from head to toe, she does not even understand how she could still move or even talk. She sharply intakes her breath and gulps down the remaining words left for her to utter. She can't say anything anymore. She knows that she is now in a deep state of shock.

"Sir, don't shoot!" A voice to her right shouts out loud. The voice causes Stephen Graves to shift and change his point of target to the new threat. This gives Irene due time to look at the person to her far right. It was Lieutenant Menard, pointing a handgun at Stephen Graves.

"Stephen Graves," Lieutenant Menard continues, "put your gun down and no one will get hurt."

"I should have known that you were behind this, detective." Stephen keeps his stance. "How many times would I have to tell you to fucking leave me alone!"

Irene, in silence, watches both men as they shout and threaten each other. One of them is going to get hurt if this won't stop at any moment. And she needs to do something about it. Stephen's full attention was not on her anymore and he was visibly shaking, something is not going right here. Maybe she could find a way to push back his arms, but it might startle Mister Menard causing him to pull the trigger that might injure her. Then she notices letters engraved on the metal of the gun. Those letters formed words, they were so small that if one was not as observant as Irene, they would surely miss it. Irene did as much as she could to read the engraved words since they could hold a clue into stopping this-

She pauses as a smirk finds its way to her mouth. This object is for display purposes only. No wonder why the man is shaking, he knows that he has no way to defend himself from a real gun.

Lieutenant Menard already released the safety on his handgun. He was ready to shoot the man in order to defend him and the brat. He wanted to spit at himself also because he knows that they just lost a potential lead to their investigation in finding out the whereabouts of Jax Graves. "Sir, for one last time, I am asking you to-"

"Put down your fake gun," Irene finishes for the Lieutenant. Stephen Graves faces Irene in fear as he immediately throws the gun and himself to the ground. His body starts to shake uncontrollably as he cries loudly. Irene, with a heavy heart, grabs the man's arms and locks them together with handcuffs from her pocket. Then she presses an emergency number on her phone to immediately call for back-up.

Lieutenant Menard looks at the scene happening in front of him in bewilderment. He could not fathom the fast pace of events occurring. What he remembers moments ago was that he needed to defend himself and the brat. But now, it's Stephen Graves who is kneeling at their feet begging to leave him alone again and again and again.

"You've taken away everything from me already!" Stephen Graves cries in heart-wrenching sobs. "Please, I beg of you! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! My son is dead to me!"

Leaving the man by himself to wallow in his own sobs and despair, Irene walks right toward Lieutenant Menard whilst glaring at him. "How in the world did you provoke this man when you last saw him?" She sneers.

------------

The men in the police precinct were more hungry than tired. It was nearing one in the morning and none of them had anything to eat for lunch and dinner.

"There's this chicken place that's open for 24 hours, two of us could drive there and order take-out," Detective Fuentes suggests.

"Or, we could just pay a few extra bills for the delivery fee," Detective Cheng chimes in. "It would be a far less hassle for each of us-"

"Would you shut the fuck up?!"

The men immediately turn silent as Lieutenant Menard enters the precinct with Irene following right behind him.

"I will not shut up because you provoked a man who had no wrongdoing in the first place and now we lost credible evidence for this investigation!" She shouts back at him.

Lieutenant Menard heads straight to the meeting room in the middle of the whole floor, ignoring the presence of the other detectives and officer. Irene follows, slamming the door behind her.

The men gather together as they watch the two argue from the glass of the meeting room, but they cannot tell much of what they are arguing about. Their words are too muffled.

"I'm not going to be surprised if they end up making out with each other," Officer Nash quietly comments as they continue to watch the scene unfolding in front of them.

"I'm not also going to be surprised if they end up killing each other," Detective Chapman adds. The men take a moment to look at him and nod in agreement.

"I'm not even going to bother explaining anymore!" Lieutenant Menard shouts at the woman. "With that thick head of yours, you won't absorb anything!"

"You're one to talk!" She retaliates. "You took away that man's peaceful life! All because you wanted the attention from your co-workers?! How pathetic could one be?!"

"You brat, I did what I had to do for the investigation!"

"Why did you even have to go there on your own, huh? Was everything a competition for you?"

"I suggest you shut your mouth right now!" Lieutenant Menard points a finger at her. But Irene was fast enough to forcefully push his arm away from her.

"Oh, I am not! Because I am going to point out your selfishness and your greed into wanting all of the attention to yourself at that time! I know why you went to Stephen Graves’s house the last time! You wanted a higher salary and only your name plastered on the honorary plaque of service!"

He moves back from her with a gasp, visibly hurt from hearing her words. He looks down in silence and then grunts, storming out of the room and slamming the door behind him. The men left outside the room also watch in silence as he leaves the police precinct in a rush. They hear him turn on the engine of his car and rev up the engine to leave the place in high speed.

"She struck a nerve there," Detective Cheng quietly says to the men with him.

"And it does not seem good at all," Detective Chapman continues.

Irene is left alone as she breathes heavily from her outburst. Slowly she realizes how hurt he looked when she accused him of wanting the attention all to himself. She closes her eyes and lets out a heavy exhale. She takes time to massage her forehead and collect herself before she exits the room. She then finds herself face to face with the four men staring at her.

"I apologize for what you witnessed there," she starts off in a quiet voice. "Clearly, I can't work with a person like him."

The men nod quietly and are now faced with what to do next. Detective Chapman takes the initiative and shows his car keys to her. "Do you want me to drive you home?" He asks, playfully shaking his car keys at her.

Irene nods, "Yes, please."