Chapter Text
Captain Fowler opened the door to his office and leaned outside.
“Hank!” he called, startling the Lieutenant.
“What?” Hank grunted.
Fowler gestured for Hank to come to his office, stepped back inside, and sat back at his desk.
“The hell did I do now?” Hank grumbled to himself, walking towards the Captain's office. He opened the door and stepped inside.
“I have an offer for you, and I need you to not make me regret it.” Fowler began. “We want to revive the Red Ice Task Force and I want you to lead it.”
“Go on…” Hank invited with bewilderment.
“You'd be able to pick the team—I'd have to approve, of course, but it'd be your choice. You'd decide the approach the team takes. Everything would be your choice.” Fowler said. “Unless you choose to do something too crazy, then I'd step in, but I wouldn't be giving you this opportunity if I didn't trust you.”
Hank hesitated and subtly fidgeted with his sleeve at the crook of his elbow where his arms were crossed. The sleeve had started to form little balls of thread that sat atop the fabric from the nervous habit being repeated over time. Fowler looked at him expectantly.
“When do we start?”
Satisfaction filled Captain Fowler’s eyes, and he held in a smile for the sake of professionalism. He began to explain the logistics of forming and running a team for this broad of a case. They discussed the details for about twenty minutes. Hank chose to sit down after two.
“I’ll be transferring all the files we have on open cases to your workspace.” Fowler said, then nodded to the office door. “Get started. Room 93 is yours from 1:30-3 this afternoon if you want to brief your new team; that gives you a couple hours to go over the information you have.”
Hank nodded and stood up, but paused as his hand touched the door to leave. He looked over his shoulder and gave Fowler a genuine “thank you” before exiting.
After a few minutes, Hank got the notification that new files had been made available to him. He accessed them and saw dozens of poorly organized leads on the red ice supply chain. With a sigh and a glance at the clock, he started to dig through them, organizing them in a way that made more sense to him. He opted to print a few of the files that he felt would be important to show in the meeting, and started to collect them into a folder.
“Working on a new case, Lieutenant?” Connor asked from the neighboring desk.
“I told you to stop calling me Lieutenant when it’s just us.” Hank replied. “Fowler is starting up the Red Ice Task Force again and he’s having me lead it. I’m having a meeting at 1:30 so I wanna get my info straight.”
“Congratulations!” Connor said. “I’m glad you’re being given such a big opportunity. Do you know who the team is yet?”
“I'm deciding.”
Connor stared at him expectantly. Hank never thought a neutral expression would be such a good method to provoke a response.
“Yes, you're on the team, Connor.” Hank grumbled, suppressing a smile to keep his gruff exterior.
“Thank you, Hank.” Connor was pleased. “I appreciate your trust.”
Hank rolled his eyes and waved him off.
One o'clock rolled around relatively quickly, and Hank pushed a message to his new team.
To: Det. Benjamin Collins; Det. Connor; PO. Christopher Miller; PO. Michael Wilson; PO. Emily Person; PO. Sadie Rodriguez
Msg: Hello all,
Captain Fowler has decided to start up the Red Ice Task Force again, and he has put me in charge. If you are receiving this message, I have chosen you to be part of the team. Meet in Room 93 at 1:30 so we can go over the details.
Lieutenant Anderson
Almost immediately, he received a reply from Detective Collins.
Msg: Sorry Hank, I got assigned to another case this morning.
"Shit." Hank thought. "The only other detective that isn't definitely assigned to a case is Reed."
To: Det. Gavin Reed
Msg: Hey fuckhead,
Hank erased that.
Msg: Detective Asshat,
He erased that, too.
Msg: Detective Reed,
Unable to stomach writing out a unique invitation message, he copied and pasted the one from before.
Hank got up from his desk and made his way towards Room 93, file folder of papers in hand. He started using magnets to pin up important details, and dry erase markers to write in more information. People slowly started to file in as 1:30 approached, each of them taking a seat without bothering Hank.
Connor walked in and silently stood next to Hank, looking at the board up close. His hands were politely clasped behind his back, but he was just barely outside of the Lieutenant's personal space.
"Could you go sit down like the rest of the normal people?" Hank said quietly through clenched teeth.
"Yes, Lieutenant." Connor nodded and took a seat in the very front row.
The last person to show up was Detective Reed, who Hank met with a disdainful look.
"Okay everybody, you all know what we're doing here," Hank began. "I've made it so you all have access to the relevant files for this case, but I brought a few things I feel are especially important to go over in person. Lemme set some ground rules: One, don't rearrange or rename the folders in the official case document. Two, do what I say when I say it. Three, respect each other – I'm your superior, not your babysitter. Understood?" He paused for an affirmative response from the team.
"Great. Now, I wanna talk about the goals for this investigation, which I have organized into immediate, short-term, long-term, and very long-term." He pointed to the board and spoke about each.
"First thing we're gonna do is solicit tips from the public, then field those tips. Connor and I will take care of that to start, but if the volume of tips is too high, or if we get stuck on a lead, I'll be sending them to you, Officer Person. I'm going to ask Captain Fowler to set up a tipline and arrange a press conference for tomorrow night."
"On the short term, our goal is to find suppliers of red ice – the people who are making this stuff. We'll be wasting our time if we try to go after dealers or users for any reason other than to get information. Most of the people on this team – Miller, Wilson, Rodriguez – are essentially on retainer for busts, which are the long-term goal. If we decide to make smaller scale arrests along the way, I want Wilson and Rodriguez to handle it."
"As far as the investigation stuff that leads to those arrests and busts, that'll be me, Connor, Reed, and Miller." He looked pointedly at both Gavin and Connor. "Remember rule number three."
"Very long-term is get red ice out of Detroit. Obviously." He looked at the team and noticed that Fowler had walked in at some point; he looked pleased. "Any questions before I start talking about the leads we already have?"
The rest of the meeting went on without a hitch. After he dismissed the team – his team – he walked up to Fowler.
"I'm not sure when you walked in," he said. "Do you think you could get me a press conference tomorrow?"
"Think you can get here early enough to do one in the morning?" Fowler replied.
"I can, but I’ll complain the whole time."
Fowler glared.
“I’m joking, Jeffery.” Hank grinned and elbowed him.
“Uh-huh.” A smile fought its way onto the Captain’s face. He gave Hank a friendly pat on the shoulder. “You did good. It’s good to have you back.”
“Feels good to be back.” Hank agreed.
“I’ll keep you updated about the press conference.” Fowler turned and left the meeting room.