"Okay," he responded calmly in spite of her aggressions.  Eric found it easy to be the calmer person at all times, he'd never had much of a temper, "I'll be blunt:  I want to help you.  There are things I don't like about your work but you're better than Gonzales.  Him being promoted to Sargent is a travesty -- we both know it -- and I'm sure you wish there was something you could do about.  There isn't anything we can do about him, aside from limit how often we have to deal with him, and I have a plan to minimize just that."<br/><br/>"If you get promoted to Sargent, then the two of you will never have to work together in t  he field again.  You will be responsible for other detectives and rookies, you will see him in briefings, but you won't have to be his underling.  And, if you get promoted to Sargent and take lead on a Forensics heavy case -- say the Preston murders -- I won't have to put up with him either.  Justice wins too, since we both know he has to rub all two of his braincells together in order to pretend to be a cop, and he has no more resources to devote to actually doing it.  If he gets the Preston murders, they will never, ever be solved."<br/><br/>"I'll submit a glowing report on your cooperation with Forensics along with a recommendation that you are promoted to Sargent, then I'll let them know just how incompetent Gonzales is.  I also have a piece of evidence to offer you..."  Eric's mind began to wander off mid-statement, choosing to follow a path he'd never intended.  His eyes traced her cheek, looking for any hint of the handprint he'd left the day before.  It was gone.  He should have been relieved that the evidence of his crime was expunged from the record, but that was not at all how he felt.  "I found something exciting about the Preston murders.  The information yours to take, but I could give it to you."