Chapter
Twelve:
Chapter
Twelve:
Date Night Interrupted
"Active listening is a structured form of listening and responding that focuses the attention on the HT. As negotiators we must take care to attend to the HT fully, and then repeat his/her words back. Often, the negotiator is encouraged to interpret the HT's words in terms of feelings. Thus, instead of just repeating what happened, the active listener might add "I gather that you felt angry or frustrated or confused when blank happen. The main purpose is to keep your HT talking. Active listening is an important part of that." Emily lectured to her class "Any questions before I wrap up" Lia's hand shot up. "Lia"
"What if you interpret the HT's words totally wrong?" Lia asked
“Well one of the advantages of active listening is it helps avoid misunderstandings. In addition, your typical HT is not just some wrack job who woke up one morning and thought I'll think I'll take a hostage today, usually there are events leading up to the situation and lucky for us many times those events are documented, that's why you have a secondary to run background checks and talk to family and friends while you are listening. And in the rare case you are completely off base then my professional option would be that you are screw. “Emily answered
"That's not good" Jenna Murphy, a young trainee said
"I didn't mean to scare you. With experience, team work and the application of active listening, interpreting the situation completely wrong is rare. Just remember when you are in the field, you are not alone, you win as a team and lose as a team." Emily replied "Alright that wraps the hour, for those of you that don't have to work, have a great weekend." Her class began to pack up their stuff and slowly exited the room. Emily started to put her notes back into her binder. Lia walked up to her.
'Great lecture" Lia said
"Yeah?" Emily asked
"Yep. I think you may have scared half of them to death but other then that" Lia said
"I did not" Emily said gathering up the rest of her stuff "I didn't scare you, did I?"
"No but I've been out in the field. I'm taking this class because it is mandatory for everyone on an active negotiation team to have at least one course completed in negotiation even if I play with computers. Everyone else in this class are rookies who have never been out in the field" Lia replied
"OK point taking" Emily said as they began to walk out of the classroom
"So any plans for this weekend?" Lia asked
"No, we're on duty again." Emily replied, possibility for the first time in weeks she was telling her friend the truth. She didn't have any plans. Emily thought it was weird that she didn't have plans with Matt but he hadn't made any with her yet. Actually they hadn't had plans since Tuesday and now it was Friday. So Emily was expecting a txt from Matt all day with a name of a hotel and a time to meet but she got nothing. Emily came back to reality "why are we on duty again, this will be two weekends in a row, who piss Cheryl off?" She questioned
"I think Frank. All incidents reports were due this week and Cheryl needs bionic eyes and a translator to read his. He rushes though them so he can go off and play cops and robbers" Lia said
"Cops and hostages you mean" Emily said making Lia laugh "Hasn't he heard of a computer?"
"I don't think he knows where the power button is. Cheryl gets a headache from trying to read them, and then her revenge is putting us on duty" Lia replied laughing "I should go do some work"
"Me too. Catch you later" Emily replied heading off to her desk.
"Hey Lehman" Matt said as she sat down next to him “how was class?"
"According to Lia, I just traumatized my rookies" Emily answered
“I need your help with the Martin case" Matt said
"The Martin case, that's an open and shut case" Emily said giving Matt a weird look.
"Just humor me, let's go work on it in the conference room" Matt said
"Fine, let's go" Emily said.
Once they were alone inside the conference room, Emily started to look over the case file for the Martin case.
"What are you doing?" Matt asked
"I'm about to help you with the Martin case" Emily answered
"Forget the Martin case, it's an open and shut case" he said moving towards her
"Matt, we cannot fool around at the office anymore, last week when Lia almost caught us, it was too close, and we have to be more careful" she reasoned
‘Relax; I'm not trying to get in your pants." Matt stated
"I've noticed" Emily commented under her breath
"What?" he questioned
"It’s just and I know this is stupid but we haven't had plans since Tuesday and I know we've both been busy the last couple of nights but it is Friday and I was hoping to get a txt from you today with plans for tonight." Emily said
"You could of txt me too, you know? It's not 1960, women are allowed to do that now days" Matt said sarcastically "Ok I want to run something by you before I make you mad at me"
"Run it" Emily said
"We should go out tonight" Matt said
"Out, out. Like in public?" Emily asked "together?"
"Yes out in public together. We've been doing this thing for awhile now and I thought we should go have dinner before sex" Matt said
"What do you have in mind?" Emily asked with a big goofy grin on her face that she just could not hided
"I know this little place called Dew Drop, it's just off Elizabeth Street. It is far enough out of the way that no one from work will see us there and it's close enough that we can get back for a situation if need be. What do you say?" Matt replied
"I say txt me with the directions and I'll meet you there" Emily said.
"Lehman, it’s kind of a nice place even if you can't tell from the name." Matt said "I'll leave first."
"Right" Emily agreed
Later that evening, Emily was at home getting ready to go out with Matt. She had her make up and hair done. Now all she had to do was figure out what she was going to wear. Emily had finally decided on a causal black dress, she finished putting on her jewelry and was about to put on her shoes when her phone rang. "Please don't be Cheryl" Emily thought as she answered the phone. She was really looking forward to tonight with Matt.
"Hey" Lia said when Emily answered the phone
"Hey" Emily replied "What's up?"
"Since you don't have any plans tonight, what to grab a movie?" Lia asked
"Actually, I have plans now." Emily said
"With that guy you've been seeing?" Lia asked
"Yes" Emily said
"I want details; I'm eventually going to get a name right?" Lia said
"Bye Lia" Emily replied before hanging up. She grabbed her purse and headed out the door. Emily was five minutes away from the restaurant when her cell went off. Emily looked at the caller ID before answering it. It was Cheryl. "Lehman" Emily said into the phone.
"We have a situation at the convince store off fourteenth." Cheryl said
"I'm on my way" Emily said with a heavy heart as she hit the sirens.
Ten minutes later Emily arrived at the scene, she flashed her badge to the cops covering the tape and entered the bus.
"WOW!" Frank and Duff said at the same time, giving Emily a look.
Emily rolled her eyes "give me the briefing" Emily said
"Apparently, both you and Flannery had plans tonight" Frank said
"She had a hot date" Lia said
"Ok we have hostages, can someone please give me the briefing" Emily said
Matt handed her the Intel file, "I had a hot date too" he said making Emily blush lucky Lia and Frank didn't seem to notice. Emily began to read the file, Matt sat next to her and causally when no one was looking whispered in her ear "You look amazing, Maybe if we're lucky this will wrap up quickly and we can still make the hotel portion of the evening."
Emily just smiled as she read the file and hoping this wouldn't take more then an hour.