Guess

Kylie was fighting a noteworthy battle with the lock on her office door. The stupid thing. Eventually, after many unladylike things were muttered under her breath, it gave a small click. It was all in her power not to break into song. She pushed open the dreadfully creaky door and stepped inside the small room. The first thing she noticed was the envelope, face-down, on the floor. Kylie smiled and stooped down to pick it up. This had happened every day since she had started working here. She flipped it over and the usual question mark was there, scrawled in green ink like it always was. She sat down at her desk and eagerly ripped open the envelope, revealing words scrawled in the same green ink on a wrinkled piece of notebook paper.

What kind of a ship sails smoothly during times both good and bad?

E. Nygma

The girl made a face as she stared at the piece of paper. She tried in vain to shift through all the ship names she knew. About 5 minutes had passed before she realized that she was the most idiotic person on the planet. That had been his intention, to have her stumped by going through all the facts in her head. He hoped to get her frustrated when she came up with absolutely nothing and admit defeat, something she hadn't done in the entirety of her new job. With a smug little smirk, she dug out a push pin from her desk and tacked the riddle on her corkboard, right next to the other riddles that she had solved. It had been easy when a small portion of her brain had stopped thinking of physical ships and wandered off on some tangent about her friend, Ed.

And then she had it.

The answer to the riddle.

A friendship.

Kylie grinned before setting to work. She had more handwritten reports to type up, print, label and deliver to the Annex for filing. Not to mention decipher handwriting that looked like it was scrawled on papers by toddlers. She was about two hours into the stack when a sharp knock on the office door caused her to look up from her computer monitor.

"Hello, sorry to bother you," her co-worker, Kristen Kringle said as she opened the door with a folder cradled in her right arm.

"Oh, you're not a bother at all," Kylie replied with a smile," I was just typing up the reports from last month to put on record

"Oh, you're not a bother at all," Kylie replied with a smile," I was just typing up the reports from last month to put on record. You came in at just the right time, I've been dying to get an excuse to stop trying to decipher sloppy handwriting."

Kristen made a face as she noticed the stack of papers on her assistant's desk, "That sounds horrible."

A noise of agreement escaped from between Kylie's lips as she sent the finished file report to the printer behind her desk.

Ms. Kringle paused for a moment," Well," she drawled out," I was going to take these files to Detective Gordon."

She raised an eyebrow curiously.

"But I'm sure it wouldn't hurt if you took them to him."

Kristen plucked a Jolly Rancher out of a jar on her friend's desk," Might be a good way to kill some time," she said with a shrug, "and besides, I've got to reorganize the Annex."

The blonde grinned," You're a saint, Kringle," she said as Kristen passed the files over to her," but why would you need to reorganize, that place is impeccable."

Kristen sighed and popped the candy into her mouth from perch on the armrest of one of the chairs in her friend's office,"That's what I told Mr. Nygma," she stated with a scowl," but he thought he had a better way of doing things. The whole place is in shambles."

Kylie was taken aback by the acid that dripped from Ms. Kringle's words when she mentioned Ed. It was silent for a few minutes as she tapped on her keyboard.

"He likes you, you know."

Kristen sputtered, nearly choking on the cherry flavored candy, "W-who Mr. Nygma?"

She rolled her eyes as her fingers zipped over the keys, chipped purple nail polish creating a brightly colored blur as words appeared on the screen.

"Who else would I be talking about? Ed was trying to help you. It was an attempt to make your job easier."

Kristen had recovered and sent her friend a glare, slightly annoyed that her own assistant didn't take her side.

"Well, it didn't. It made everything 10 times more difficult than it already was. I just wish he would leave me alone," the redhead snapped.

Kylie was becoming ever so slightly annoyed about the way her co-worker was speaking about her friend.

"I never said his refiling made things easier, I just said he tried to make things easier for you," she plucked the files up from her desk and stood," you should, at least, be flattered that he thinks enough of you to attempt to ease your workload."

Kristen started to say something in reply but the short girl had already begun making her way down the dimly lit hall, as dim lighting seemed to be the popular theme at the precinct. She smiled politely at the few officers that greeted her and walked up the small flight of stairs where Detective Gordon sat at his desk. As she made small talk with Detectives Gordon and Bullock (who seemed to not remember the time he ran into her), the door to Captain Essen's office opened and Ed exited with a box of evidence in his arms.

Seeing the group over the stack of boxes, he gave his awkward little smile, "Detectives," he said, nodding slightly in their direction," Ms. Wood."

The two officers didn't bother looking up and Ed's smile faltered for a moment

Kylie, on the other hand, smiled warmly at the scientist," Hello, Ed."

Her friend brightened up again and began to make his way down the stairs, but he stopped at the very top before turning back around to face her.

"Ms. Wood, is there any chance that you are free for your lunch break?" he asked hesitantly.

Detective Bullock suddenly choked on his coffee, startling his partner and causing him knock his phone off the desk.

Kylie shot the two a particularly nasty look over her shoulder then turned back to Ed with a much kinder expression on her face, "It just so happens that I am."

Bullock was now coughing an alarming amount and Gordon was fighting against the tangled cord of the phone he had assaulted .

Ed cleared his throat," Would you............would you like to visit my office and play video games over lunch?"

A few officers walking past the platform stopped in their tracks.

"Oh, I'd love to!" she chirped to everyone's surprise.

"Although," she continued," I thought you would ask Kristen to lunch, not me."

His eyes down-casted a bit and his mood dropped," I did, but she doesn't like video games," he paused for a bit,"Or me, especially since I tried to improve her record system."

The two were walking down the stairs, side by side and conversing when Officer Thomas appeared from nowhere.

"Long time no see, sweetcheeks."

The woman forced a smile, slightly annoyed at his use of the name," Officer Thomas, how are you?"

The sandy-haired man gave a toothy grin," I'm pretty good, but not as good as you look in that red dress of yours."

She made herself laugh good-naturedly; in all honesty, she did not like him as much as she did when she had first met him. She had ignored the comment he had made when they first met because she thought that was his way of easing her nervousness, though it turned out he was just a pig. Ed shifted uncomfortably beside her and the officer took notice, giving her friend a once-over.

"Oh, so you're Nygma, I've heard of you," suddenly, Johnny's grin didn't seem so friendly anymore," I also heard that you've asked my friend here to lunch."

Ed swallowed and did his best to look tall behind the boxes he carried," I have."

"Well, how about that," he leaned in towards Ed slightly," Now, there's just something I think you need to know."

"What's that?" Ed asked curiously.

"You're a creep," Officer Thomas deadpanned.

Ed swallowed hard and his gaze shifted to the floor. Kylie went to interject but the man shifted his position so he stood in between the two friends.

"No one, and I mean no one will ever do anything other than pity you. She," he said jerking a thumb to Ed's companion," only said yes to your invitation because she pities you, not because she cares for you."

Officer Thomas smiled again and patted the scientist on the shoulder," Because no one does, okay?"

The officer continued his way up the stairs, nudging Ed hard with his shoulder and sending him tumbling down the stairs along with the boxes of evidence. With a horrified gasp, Kylie ran after her friend, finding him at the bottom of the staircase, surrounded by papers.

"Oh my God, Ed, are you okay?" she asked worriedly as she knelt down beside him.

Ignoring her question her looked up at her in humiliation, "Do...do you pity me? Is that why you're nice to me all the time?"

"No." she answered as she fished around the scattered files.

Finding what she had been looking for, she turned back to the man in front of her and used the hem of her dress to clean the lenses. He was waiting for an elaboration, and so were all the ignoramuses in the precinct who were content enough to listen, but not to help.

She placed the glasses back on his face and looked at him fondly, "I figured out your riddle this morning. You are really going to have to do better a better job in order to stump me, Mr. Nygma. The answer was friendship."

She scooped up a pile of paper and placed it into a box.

"And I do believe that this is the start of a rather beautiful one."

She missed the grateful look Ed gave her as he too began trying to clean up the mess.