Chapter 91 - That's For Tony...

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!!! Cate growled as she paced around the empty instructor’s lounge. She raised both her hands to her head, fisting them in the hair above her ears and tugging in frustration. “What the HELL am I doing?”

She asked herself the question out loud, knowing there would be no answer. “GodDAMN him and his fucking perfect arms!!!” Cate hissed. “And his smug fucking little smirk!!!” She felt her frustration cresting. “Aaaaargh!!!!” she snarled, whirling around and stalking back across the room.

Cate knew she had no one to blame but herself for losing her control back in the mat room. But it was easier to blame Jon. It’s HIS damned fault he’s so…. so… “Fucking Perfect!” she snarled again, out loud to herself.

She reached the back of the room and stopped, then flung herself down onto the sofa that rested against the wall. She draped one arm over her face, across her eyes, blocking out the light and trying to erase the vision of Jon’s smile from her mind.

Cate lay on the sofa for a long minute, then drew in and sighed out a deep breath. She pulled her arm away from her face and stared up at the ceiling, letting her arm dangle down off the sofa to the floor.

She could feel her nerves fraying. The sexual tension between Jon and her was intensifying again, and she felt weak. Her emotions and reactions were magnified by the stress of the past two days; she was exhausted, she hadn’t eaten, and truth be told she was still a little hurt by Jon’s cold reaction to her earlier apology.

She knew she was being a snarky bitch, but she didn’t know how to stop the wild ride her emotions were on. It was a frightening thing, to feel so out of control. Nothing good could come of this.

Cate was normally slow to anger. Like most good cops, she could usually remain unaffected by provocation, letting it roll off of her like water off a duck’s back. But when she did reach her limit, she exploded with little warning and with frightening intensity.

She could feel herself being wound tighter and tighter, like a rubber band twisting and stretching until it was ready to snap. She was close to the flashpoint with Jon. God, she didn’t want to be angry with him, to make him mad at her. She really didn’t. But he was killing her with every look and smile and touch.

Now she had no choice but to go back into the mat room and continue their lesson. After the big lecture she had given Jon about maintaining their professionalism during training, she could hardly act in any other manner. But it wouldn’t be easy. When she touched him, or stood close to him, or even looked at him, her body reacted of its own accord.

In her mind, Cate was fuming over the way Jon had acted today; for his brazen flirting on the arson range, for his pissy response to her apology, and for his power play for her emotions. But her heart ached to feel his arms around her and hear him tell her how much he wanted her. The struggle between her mind and her heart was driving her crazy.

Cate let out another long sigh and forced herself to sit up on the couch. She stared across the room, then raised her eyes to the clock on the wall. She had been away from the mat room for ten minutes now. Time to go back. She took a deep breath, then hauled herself off the couch.

Cate left the lounge and walked down the hall to the mat room. She stopped and closed her eyes for a moment, gathering her composure, before pulling open the door. Relax, calm down… she told herself. You’re a professional. Act like it.

When she stepped inside the door Cate saw Jon on the other side of the room, his Blackberry to his ear, talking quietly. His eyes met hers, then he quickly turned away and dropped his voice. Cate watched Jon for a moment as he finished the call. Then he turned and walked over to her, a little smile on his face.

“Sorry,” he said as he dropped his Blackberry into his bag. “Just taking care of a little business.”

“Your proposal for the Director?” Cate asked. Her voice was level and calm, but her eyes narrowed curiously as she spoke.

“No,” Jon replied. “Movie stuff.” He gave her a long look, and bit back the urge to say “Not that it’s any of your business.” He had checked his messages with the hope that there would be one from Paul, but instead he found one from his agent.

“Oh.” Cate answered. “Well, are you ready to get back to work?

Jon nodded. “Ready if you are.”

God, I hope I am, Cate thought. “Alright. We’re done with the baton. We’re going to cover offensive strikes and control techniques.” She smirked ironically. “You shouldn’t have any problem with the control part,” she said, a bit snarkily.

Jon lifted an eyebrow at her remark. “Probably not,” he answered with a matching hint of sarcasm. “I’m learning from the expert.” He gave her a direct look.

“Okay,” Cate responded, meeting his stare. “Then you won’t wuss out on me, right?”

Jon felt a little flare of indignation at her challenge. Though he still couldn’t stand the thought of physically hurting Cate, he was getting a little tired of her goading him about being a wimp. Maybe it was time for him to let her take care of herself. “Not a chance,” he replied coolly.

Cate gave him a curt little nod. “Good,” she said shortly. She took a breath, then launched into her lecture. “This lesson is going to tie together everything else you’ve learned in our DTs sessions. In the first lesson we covered pressure point control techniques, which let you deal with a passively-resisting suspect. Then we covered strikes and stuns with the hands and legs, which let the officer temporarily incapacitate a resistant or aggressive suspect, such as one who tries to attack the officer and/or take the officer’s gun.” Cate paused to ensure Jon was following. She saw that he was.

She continued. “The baton strikes we covered earlier today were similar to what we did last week, except for the fact that we used a weapon instead of hand-to-hand tactics. The baton is an intermediate-level weapon that the officer would use when there is some degree of perceived threat. Similarly, the officer could choose to use OC spray to subdue or defend against an aggressive suspect. You saw that yesterday.”

Cate saw Jon nod and smile sheepishly at the memory of his reaction to the overspray he had received. “So, now you know how to defend yourself in a fight and subdue a suspect, but what do you do with the bad guy after you subdue him?”

“You handcuff him and search him, then transport him to the station,” Jon answered promptly. He felt himself smirk a bit as heat surged through his groin at the memory of their handcuffing and search lesson last Friday. Jesus, was that erotic…

Cate flushed slightly as she saw Jon’s expression, immediately recognizing what he was thinking. Focus… she warned herself. Don’t react. “Yeah, but before you can put the cuffs on him, you have to get him under control. You’ll need to get your bad guy to “assume the position,” either standing, kneeling, or on the ground. And if he’s just been fighting you, chances are the bad guy’s not just gonna say ‘oh, okay,’ and do what you want him to do. So you have to maintain some sort of physical control until you can get him in cuffs. That’s what we’re gonna do here.”

Jon nodded. “So this is like, a chokehold, twisting an arm behind the back, that kinda thing?”

Cate’s mouth curved into a little half-smile at that. “Well, not quite. Officers are discouraged from using chokeholds because they can be very dangerous, especially if the suspect has any sort of medical problem or is under the influence of drugs or alcohol. We try not to do anything that’s gonna affect the suspect’s breathing; if you don’t know what kinda shape he’s in, oxygen deprivation can have severe consequences. You probably remember hearing on the news about cops being investigated for using chokeholds on suspects that later died.” Jon nodded again. “We always try to use the safest and lowest-impact tactic available in a given situation. There are lots of options that can be as effective as a chokehold, so we don’t even teach it here.”

As she made that explanation, Cate took a couple steps over toward the door and pulled her web belt from her waist with a loud rasp of parting Velcro. She tossed the belt on top of her gear bag, then turned back to Jon. “You can lose your belt. The rest of what we’re doing today is gonna be hand-to-hand.”

Jon felt his pulse accelerate a little, both with dread and with excitement. He knew he was going to have to hit and restrain Cate, but that also meant that he would have to touch her. And if there was one thing of which he was certain, it was that Cate couldn’t resist his touch.

“Before we start facing off I need to show you a couple positive control techniques.” Cate’s voice was once again cool and professional. “These can all be used to control a suspect when moving him from one place to another, or just to get him to stand still. They are based on pain compliance, just like the passive resistance moves we did the first lesson.”

Cate motioned toward the mirrored wall, indicating for Jon to turn his attention to their reflection. “the first one is a wrist lock transport technique.” Cate hesitated as she prepared herself, then reached out to firmly grasp Jon’s left wrist with her right hand.

She did her best to ignore the little tingle that ran up her arm at the feel of his warm skin and soft hair under her touch. “You would use this to prevent a suspect from trying to pull away from you when you are leading him to a point away from where you subdued him. Of course, you wouldn’t need to go far; just a couple steps to someplace where you could handcuff him.”

Cate gulped in a breath, then tugged upward on Jon’s arm. She raised it until it was extended straight ahead from his shoulder, parallel to the ground. Cate shifted her grasp on his wrist so that her arm was extended fully beside his, her shoulder tucked under his armpit, the sides of their arms in full contact from bicep to wrist. Cate’s right hand slipped to curl over the back of his hand, bending it downward at the wrist so his fingers pointed toward the ground.

She glanced up at the mirror and saw Jon watching her intently as she tried not to react to the feel of his strong arm against hers. She drew in another steadying breath and reached up with her left hand to grasp the base of his bicep muscle, where the tendons attach to the elbow joint.

“Standing beside the suspect, you’re gonna lock your arm under his and use application of pressure to the elbow and wrist joints,” Cate explained, her voice picking up a slight husky rasp. “You’re going to bend the elbow…” Cate pressed down on Jon’s elbow joint with her left hand while simultaneously tightening her grasp on his hand with her right, pulling upward to bend their joined arms into a right angle. She almost groaned as she felt his bicep flex at the action.

“Then…” she continued, “you torque down on the wrist, like we did during takedowns, remember?” Cate tightened her fingers over the back of Jon’s hand, grasping it firmly then forcing it to bend sharply at the wrist, toward his forearm.

Jon sucked in a breath. “Ow!” he exclaimed in surprise. Cate started to walk forward, increasing the pressure on Jon’s wrist and pulling on his elbow joint to guide him to follow. Jon willingly moved with her, trying to shift his body to alleviate the discomfort in his wrist.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Cate asked softly. “Again, you’re focused on trying to relieve the pain so you aren’t thinking about resisting or fighting or running. You’re following because the closer you stay to me, the lesser the pain.”

You’re right… Jon thought. If I can just stay close to you, I can avoid the pain… Cate stopped walking and Jon bumped into her side. “Fuck!” he swore quietly as Cate released her grip on his wrist, then stepped away from Jon. “Yeah, I can see why a bad guy wouldn’t want to fight that,” he muttered, rubbing his tingling wrist with his other hand.

Cate nodded. “Okay, you try,” she said, turning to face the mirror, her expression serious.

Jon’s eyes met Cate’s in the mirror as he moved up beside her. As she had done with him, Jon reached down to encircle her left wrist with his right hand, drawing her arm up beside his. He sighed inaudibly at the feel of her warm, soft skin pressed against his. He reached up with his other hand to bend her arm, then moved his hand over Cate’s. He couldn’t stop himself from giving her hand a gentle squeeze before pressing downward, flexing her wrist.

Cate’s heart jumped of its own accord at the feel of Jon’s strong hand covering hers. But just like the gentle squeeze he gave her, his pressure on her wrist was too light. Jon stepped forward, as Cate had with him, expecting her to follow. Cate stood stock-still, refusing to comply.

“You’re not using enough force,” she replied to his questioning look.

“I don’t want to…” Jon abruptly bit his tongue before the words “hurt you” slipped out. He pressed his lips together and nodded grimly, then pressed downward hard on Cate’s wrist. She let out a little grunt as stabs of pain shot down her forearm. Jon again stepped forward, pulling Cate with him. This time she followed.

“Good,” Cate croaked, drawing in a deep breath to help her tolerate the pain. Jon stopped moving and Cate automatically sidled up against him, to relieve the pressure on her wrist.

Jon turned his head to look at Cate over his shoulder. His eyes were wide, his pupils dilated. Her parted lips hovered just inches away as she looked back at him. “Okay, let go,” Cate ordered hoarsely.

Silently Jon released the pressure on Cate’s wrist, relaxing his grip but not letting go of her hand. His left hand remained wrapped around her bicep as he gazed silently back at her.

Cate felt her heartbeat accelerate, then she pulled away from Jon, out of his grasp. Damnit! Stop it! she ordered herself.

Cate turned her back to the mirror and lowered her gaze to the floor. She paced across the mat for a couple steps as she composed herself, then turned back to Jon. “Next technique, arm bar transport position,” Again her voice was tighty controlled, but Jon detected a faint quiver in her tone. And her eyes were starting to swirl blue and gray again. She couldn’t hide her emotions from him, in those eyes.

Cate spent another half hour showing Jon two more control techniques that were similar to the wristlock she had just taught him. Like the wristlock, both techniques involved control of the wrist and elbow joints, causing Jon and Cate to spend almost the entire time side-by-side, their hands and arms entwined.

Jon could see that Cate was becoming more and more unsettled with his every touch; her cheeks were flushed, little beads of perspiration lined her upper lip, and her voice held a subtle husky note. For his part, Jon took every opportunity to let his touch linger on Cate’s skin for an extra moment or two, his hope feeding off the fleeting contact. He couldn’t hide a little smile when Cate again let her fingers trail over the hard muscles of his forearm as she reached down to encircle his wrist with her fingers.

Finally, after having Jon practice the three control techniques, Cate showed Jon one more tactic, a classic restraint. “This one you know; you probably used it on your brothers at some point when you were a kid,” she told him with a chuckle. “The old arm-twist behind the back. It’s actually quite effective to settle an agitated suspect, when you just want him to stand still.”

“Yeah, I usually did it to Tony just before I dragged his ass into the bathroom and gave him a swirly,” Jon grinned.

Cate couldn’t help but laugh at that thought. “Big Bully,” she replied, her voice more gentle than before. “Well, let me show you the correct way to do it, rather than relying on being the bigger, older brother.”

She moved to face Jon, then reached out to grab his right wrist, clamping her grip firmly around it. She quickly stepped back away from Jon, jerking downward on his arm and causing him to turn slightly away from her. She swiftly stepped toward Jon as he turned, twisting his arm up behind his back, then pulling it up so that his knuckles rested just below his shoulder blades.

“Shit!” Jon gasped in surprise as he felt the muscles in his arm stretch painfully. “Ow!”

“That’s for Tony.” Cate couldn’t resist the quiet little taunt. She relaxed her grip slightly as she stood behind Jon, lowering his arm so that his hand rested at his lower back. “Yeah, it still works pretty well, wouldn’t you say?” she asked.

Holding Jon’s wrist behind his back with her right hand, Cate reached up with her left hand to grip Jon’s arm just above his elbow, her fingers closing around his firm triceps. “And you’d grasp the other arm to further ensure the suspect wouldn’t want to move." She squeezed his tricep firmly, making Jon squirm. "You can use pressure on nerves here too to make him behave."

Cate continued. "Since you’re in really close to him, there is some danger that the bad guy could try to use his body to get you off balance. You know, push back into you, try to head-butt you, stomp on your foot, something like that. If you have ahold of both arms you can use that leverage to push him forward away from you, if you need to.”

“Or just crank his arm up a little higher and make him forget about resisting,” Jon replied, hoping Cate wouldn’t do that to him.

Cate chuckled softly. “Well, yeah. But we don’t ‘officially’ teach that.”

Jon smiled as he felt Cate’s breath against his neck, stirring his hair. She was leaning slightly to the side to look over his shoulder at the mirror while she spoke, which caused her to move in close behind him. He could feel the warmth of her body against his back. It felt good. Jon closed his eyes briefly as he realized he wanted more than anything to feel her in his arms again.

Cate felt Jon’s body relax ever so slightly under her restraint. Her gaze went to the reflection of his face, and she saw his closed lids and the sultry little smile on his perfect lips. Recognizing what he was thinking, she quickly released her grip on Jon’s hand and arm, then stepped away from him. She turned and took a couple paces toward the door, trying to ignore her body’s response to Jon’s suggestive expression.

Knowing he had affected her, Jon turned to look at Cate as she moved away from him. He watched silently as she picked up her Gatorade and took a swallow, then turned back to face him. “Okay, ready for the next exercise?” she asked.

“Don’t I have to practice that arm-twist move first?” Jon asked. He raised his eyebrows with the question.

“Oh… yeah,” Cate replied. She took a deep breath and walked back over to Jon, then stood facing him. “Did you see the sequence of movement when I did it? When to step back, then forward?”

“Yeah, I think I got it,” Jon smirked. “I have done that before, remember?”

“Okay, if you think you know what to do, go ahead,” Cate replied. She stood ready for him to approach. Jon reached out and grabbed her wrist, then swiftly pulled downward, stepped to the side, and twisted Cate’s arm up behind her back. Cate drew in a sharp breath of surprise at the rapidity with which he executed the movement. As she had done, Jon held Cate’s hand to the middle of her back and grabbed her other arm with his free hand.

Jon looked at Cate’s expression in the mirror, feeling a little flash of smugness at the surprise in her eyes. He pulled back a bit on her arms, causing her to lean back against him. The contact of her shoulders with his chest almost made him groan. “Hmmm...” Jon lowered his lips until they were beside Cate’s ear. “I’m gonna have to remember this. It might be the only way I can convince you to listen to me,” he said softly, only half-teasing.

Cate’s mouth dropped open as her eyes widened in surprise at Jon’s comment. She stared at him in the mirror for a long moment, his eyes meeting hers as he watched her reaction. Jon gave Cate a little smile, then straightened. He stepped back from Cate, releasing her from his grasp then folding his arms across his broad chest.

Cate stood facing the mirror for a long moment before turning to Jon. She pressed her lips together, trying to build her resolve, before turning to face him. As unsettled as she had become by their contact to this point, things were about to get even harder. It was time for Jon’s test, to see if he could apply all she had taught him. And he wasn’t going to like it.