Partners

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An incessant, shrill beeping from the area around his feet made Chad open his eyes and look around blearily – a kick effectively silenced the alarm and he pulled the blankets back over his head, feeling as if someone had run over him with his own car. Even thinking hurt. He fell asleep with his head still at the foot of the bed and was woken once more by the ringing of his phone. After nearly falling out of bed in an effort to reach the source of the noise, he pressed the ‘talk’ button. “Whu…?” Chad muttered into it, rubbing his eyes.

“Where the hell are you?” an irate voice demanded.

It took him a few seconds to recognize the voice. “Faith?”

“No, it’s the tooth fairy! Of course it’s me,” his partner yelled. Chad winced and held the receiver away from his ear as she went on. “Romero’s got an almighty bunch in his shorts because we were all supposed to meet at the range for qualifications, and half the team’s not here…he said you told him you’d notify everyone.”

Chad groaned. “Shit.”

“I take that eloquent statement to mean that you never called them?”

“You could say that – how pissed is he?” Chad fumbled for the alarm clock and squinted at it: nine o’clock. “Aw, damn it!”

Faith sounded decidedly unsympathetic. “He’s pretty torqued, that’s for sure… says you’d better have a good excuse for not being here, and-”

“Andrea came over last night,” Chad remembered, thinking out loud. A sharp indrawn breath on the other end made him move his thumb over the ‘disconnect’ button. His head hurt too badly to deal with her right now. “Look, I’ll be there as soon as I’ve had a chance to shower.”

“Don’t bother – if you want to kiss and make up to Romero, just drop by his house after lunch…if you can stay awake that long,” she said snidely right before she hung up on him. Steve had most likely raked her over the coals because of his no-show, but Chad would worry about that later; he seemed to be getting lots of practice with letting people down lately.

Chad rolled over on his back and rubbed a hand over his face, feeling like he might be sick again - he hadn’t felt this bad since the night Rita had left him and he’d gone through an entire bottle of vodka. Closing his eyes, Chad fought back the nausea and tried to keep from thinking about Andrea. She hadn’t even said goodbye this time, not like he blamed her… it was probably even a good thing that she’d gone when she did. He hadn’t intended to sleep with her, but he’d just needed her so much that he hadn’t been able to help it. Just having her in his arms and touching her had relieved a little of the loneliness and guilt, but he’d been so exhausted that he’d fallen asleep… and when he’d woken again to Meredith’s howls, Andrea was gone.

He should have known better than to wish that she’d stayed, but that thought didn’t make him miss her any less – every moment without her made him feel as if he were slowly suffocating. After staring up at the ceiling for a few more moments, Chad slowly sat up and began the hunt for his clothes – he needed a shower, aspirin, and an entire bottle of mouthwash, but there was something he needed to do first. Walking through the bedroom door and stepping over a still-pouting pitbull, he opened the sliding doors that led to the laundry room and reached for one of the boxes Chad knew would be there. Meredith perked up his ears when Chad walked back through the house in search of the discarded liquor bottles that were scattered around. Once the empties were collected, he carried the box back into the kitchen and swept the rest of the bottles into the box with an arm. Squinting against the brightness of the mid-morning light as he walked outside, he ignored the neighbors curious looks as he opened the trash can and dumped the heavy box inside it before wheeling it to the curb for pick-up. Drowning his sorrows was an entirely too tempting solution, but he’d never been one for addiction to anything except the one thing he could no longer have.

Going back inside Chad went straight to the shower before shaving, cleaning his teeth and using up most of the mouthwash. Meredith was waiting for him in the bedroom with his leash in his mouth, so Chad downed several aspirin and found his darkest sunglasses as he took Merry out for the requested walk. His newfound plan to not think about Andrea lasted until he came back in the house to start cleaning up, and found some of her hair on the back of the couch. Chad brushed them from the upholstery and stared down at the wavy blonde strands resting in his palm before dumping them into the trash – he couldn’t afford to keep thinking about her, when he knew that being apart from Andrea would keep her safe. He just wished losing her didn’t hurt so much.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _


Andrea dressed for work slowly, still trying not to think about what had happened over the weekend. Sam had wanted her to come over – probably so he could complain about how their father hadn’t let him beat Chad to within an inch of his life – but she hadn’t been able to face her family. One look at her, and they’d all know something had happened; she didn’t need anyone else sending her on a guilt trip when she was already feeling guilt enough for the entire precinct. Her phone rang as she was on her way out to her car, and Andrea flipped it open when she saw Hopper’s name on the display. “What’s up?”

“Hey, Andrea…just wanted to remind you about that bust I set up,” her partner said, sounding strangely reluctant about it – usually Hopper got excited about finally making an arrest if he’d been working a case for very long.

“Why aren’t you happy about that?” Andrea laughed, lifting her shoulder up to hold the phone to her ear as she started her Jeep. “I’m on my way to Metro; when’s the bust goin’ down?”

Hopper cleared his throat. “You know, I can just take care of it – I know you’ve been busy with Slim’s crew.”

“What’s going on?” she asked, scowling at some kid trying to jaywalk right in front of her. He blanched and stepped back onto the median. “You have a fight with Rita, or something?”

“No, it’s just… we’re taking SWAT along and First Team’s already out serving a warrant, so…”

“I see.” So, Chad would be there. Fabulous. “I’m a big girl, Hopper. Meet you in the garage?” Even though I’d love to just drive off of Santa Monica pier…?

“Yeah, sure.”

After she met up with Hopper and they arrived at the rendezvous point with SWAT, Andrea ducked her head and pretended to be busily putting on her flak jacket when she saw Chad moving towards them. “You sure this is the right place, Hopper? You’ve been wrong before,” her ex said, directing his words at Hopper though she could see in the reflection of the car’s windows that he was looking at her.

“Will you give it up already? I wasn’t the one who shot that cripple in Tarzana,” Hopper argued. Andrea felt like telling her partner that Chad was winding him up on purpose; the two men would never get along.

“Must’ve been that homicidal mouse in your back pocket, right, Hopper?” Chad shot back. “You got a copy of the warrant or not? My team’s not going in blind.” Hopper grumbled something in response, and their eyes met in the reflection for a long moment before Chad broke eye contact and turned to walk back towards where the rest of Second Team waited.

Well, where most of them were waiting. Andrea sighed and turned just as Faith came trotting up to her. “Hey,” Chad’s partner greeted, flinging arms around her in a hug. “I heard about…you know what,” Faith said sympathetically. “I’m really sorry he’s such a douche bag from hell.”

Andrea couldn’t keep from laughing. “Oh, God. Me too.”

“So, um, are you….? But I guess not, since you two aren’t really talking,” Faith said, dry-washing her hands.

“It’s a little late for that,” Andrea replied, glancing over at Chad reflexively and feeling her chest constrict when she saw that he was looking back at her. He looked away first. “I think we’ve said all there is to say. Look, we’d better get going.”

Faith looked at her sadly and rubbed a hand up and down Andrea’s arm. “Yeah, I guess. I miss you, and I know that he does too.”

Andrea found herself looking over at Chad again, watching as he briefed his team about who he wanted where. He really did need another haircut, she mused; lately he’d been keeping it short but when she’d been running her fingers through his hair as Chad kissed her neck…

“You’re so beautiful,” Chad murmured drunkenly, closing his teeth over her jugular vein and sucking lightly. She moaned and clutched at his shoulders as he seated himself fully within her and rocked back and forth, his pubic bone grinding against her with just the right amount of friction.

She whimpered his name as he kept up the torturously slow pace of his thrusts, unwilling to open her eyes and look at him even though the tears steadily leaked out from the corner of her eyelids and dampened the corona of her hair spread out on the pillow. It had been so long since they’d made love, the feel of him stretching her was a sweet ache that she never wanted to go away.

Chad stopped and shifted his weight to his left arm, brushing away her tears with the thumb of his right hand. “Am I hurting you?”

The tears only fell faster at the slurred concern in his voice, and she shook her head even though it was only partly true. “No,” she choked, drawing his head down to hers. “Just…just love me right now.”

“Love you,” Chad repeated unsteadily. “I…”

She kissed him to shut him up, and-

“Andrea? Andrea!”

She snapped out of it and focused on Hopper, flushing. “What?”

“We’re going.” Her partner frowned at her. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

After the warrant was served and Andrea had surreptitiously enjoyed watching Chad knock down the door in an obvious and baffling attempt to gain her attention, she found herself standing beside him as he filled out the arrest report. “You look good,” he observed, not taking his eyes from the paper.

“What?”

“You look better standing still and not running away,” Chad said, signing his name and handing the paper to her. “That’s all I meant.”

Anger bubbled up inside her as she snatched the report away from him. “I have no idea how I put up with you for so long,” Andrea hissed.

Chad moved into her personal space. “You know? That’s funny because I was thinking the exact same-”

“Whoa now, kids –take it outside,” Faith broke in.

“We are outside,” Chad snarled at her. His partner took a step back and raised her hands defensively, looking offended. “Stay out of things that aren’t your business, yeah?”

“You don’t really have a lot of moral high ground left to stand on, I see,” Andrea snorted, knowing that although the statement didn’t really make much sense in connection to what they were talking about, it was sure to piss Chad off even more. Why the hell was he mad at her? She wasn’t the one who’d been sleeping around behind his back. Faith made her getaway and herded the rest of Second Team away from them.

Chad narrowed his eyes at her and he jerked his chin in the direction of the run-down apartment building they’d just made the bust in. “You’ve got something to say to me, fine – don’t do it out here.”

Andrea knew she should be the one to stop and give up the argument, but she was too angry to care. “Oh, worried your reputation’s going to suffer even more? ”


_ _ _ _ _ _


Chad closed his hand around her upper arm and tugged her towards the building. “I said, not out here!” He released her as soon as they got inside, and he felt ashamed of himself as soon as he saw Andrea rub her arm where he’d grabbed her. “Look, what’s wrong with you? You were the one who took off,” he blurted.

“I thought you were too drunk to care,” Andrea retorted, glaring up at him. They stared at each other in silence until she climbed up two stairs so her face was level with him, then put her hands on her hips.

“You still look like a pissed-off midget.”

“And you still look like a bastard who cheats on his girlfriend,” Andrea snarled back.

Chad opened his mouth to reply but closed it again, the accusation hitting him like a baseball bat to the gut. Anger welled up inside him at the need for lying to her, and he struck out blindly. He’d always known what buttons to press to get the reaction he wanted from people; he could read others just like the fault lines in the earth, and Chad knew just where to strike to cause an earthquake. “And I wonder what you’ve been doing all this time you’ve been Hopper’s partner? I mean, since you’ve come along he’s no longer the only pussy in Narcotics.”

The barb visibly hit home as Andrea’s eyes widened, her mouth dropping open in shock and hurt. Chad turned on his heel and walked out, the sound of her ragged indrawn breaths like a knife twisting in his chest. She was much better off without him; she had to see that, and so did he. His phone rang as he reached the car, ignoring Faith and Justin’s twin glares. “What do you want, Buck? Some of us have to work.”

“Meet me at the bar tonight and you’ll get more,” Buchalter said, hanging up on him.

Chad slammed the door shut, looking in the rearview mirror to see Andrea slowly walking from the apartment building with her head down. You’re better off. He started the car, not saying a word when Faith got in the passenger side seat, and drove off thinking about the hurt he’d put in Andrea’s eyes. She’s better off.

tbc…
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