Partners

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Buchalter looked up from his drink as Chad slid onto the barstool next to him. “What’re you having?”

Chad eyed the ex-deputy, wondering if he could get away with planting a fist in his face. “How about an explanation?”

“You got the murder book?”

“You know I do,” Chad replied irritably. “What do you want, Buck? I’m a busy man.”

Buchalter laughed and knocked back the rest of his drink. “Busy drowning your sorrows?”

“More like celebrating cutting the dead weight loose,” Chad countered. “I’m guessing you want something else.”

The other man laughed again and shook his head. “Still the same cocky bastard; I own your ass, Shelten.” Chad ground his teeth together at the reminder. Not for long… He sat up straight as Buchalter started talking about planting a gun in Hopper’s apartment. “Think of it as just another chance to get that pretty little wife of yours back,” the deputy smirked.

Chad forced a smile, his mind racing. It seemed as if the manufactured break-up with Andrea had thrown them off her trail so that was something, at least. But what did Hopper have to do with anything? His old man had been one of the investigators on that case file he’d pulled for Detweiler, but why…? He shook his head to stop that train of thought from going any further – for this to work, he’d have to be very careful about what he seemed to know. Luckily Buchalter took the gesture as signifying amazed disbelief, and slapped Chad on the arm like a friend conferring a favor. Relief made Chad flash the other man a more genuine smile. “So when do you want it planted?”

“How’s your Thursday looking?”

Chad’s grin widened. “Oh, I think I can fit it into my schedule.”


_ _ _ _ _ _ _


Andrea stared down at the papers in front of her, trying not to gag at the smell of Hopper’s breakfast. “Do you really have to eat that here?” she asked, examining the stationary for the sixth time in two minutes.

Hopper looked over at her, and down at the small mountain of biscuits sitting in front of him. “I thought you liked bacon, so I got you some too…you’ve never complained before,” Her partner frowned.

“It’s never smelled that bad before,” Andrea said, wrinkling her nose and fanning the air with the papers. “My stomach’s been acting up lately.” She figured she was coming down with something; Andrea rarely got sick but once she did, it was always a memorable occasion. As if on cue, her stomach lurched alarmingly and Andrea scrambled out of her seat with her hand over her mouth. “Oh, God –not again…!” Hopper just watched her with raised eyebrows as she ran for the bathroom. After rinsing her mouth out and digging through her purse for breath mints, Andrea went back and was relieved to find that her partner had gotten rid of the offending bacon and egg-filled biscuits.

“Feeling better?” Hopper asked solicitously.

“Do I want to know why you’re being so nice about it?” she joked.

“I need a ballistics report from Roknowski, and he’s had a thing for you ever since you transferred.”

Andrea felt like she was going to be sick again. “See, when I asked if I wanted to know… I didn’t mean for you to actually tell me! Roknowski would probably much rather spend time with that dumb bobblehead, anyway.” Hopper shook his head with a grin and she faked a shudder. “He is so not my type!” Ignoring the voice in the back of her head that reminded Andrea of the one man who was her type, she held out her hand for the papers he was inching across the desk to her. “You owe me one.”

“I owe you several,” Hopper laughed. “But if you throw up on him, I want pictures.”

She flipped him off, which made him laugh even harder, and headed to the elevators. Maria Santos smiled at her as Andrea went past – the other woman had been smiling at her a lot lately, for some reason, but would never explain what she found so amusing.

Andrea walked down the hall towards Ballistics and felt her stomach swoop in a manner not unlike nausea when she saw a tall man duck into a doorway up ahead. What was Chad doing in there? Of all the things she really didn’t need right now, running into her ex was high up on that list. Hanging back and pretending to examine the papers she held, Andrea shifted from foot to foot waiting for the big lieutenant to leave. With any luck, he wouldn’t even see her and she could get the report Hopper wanted. Andrea checked her watch as the minutes dragged on and Chad still didn’t come out – there was still a lot she needed to get done, so that meant she’d have to go in there with him. Shit.

She took a deep breath and pushed the door open to find Roknowski and Chad in the middle of an argument. “There’s nothing I can do about it – just because you’re a lieutenant, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m busy,” Roknowki said, glaring up at the bigger man.

“You’re just going to have to delay someone else’s, then, aren’t you?” Chad insisted.

“I already told you-” Roknowski bit off the rest of his sentence as Chad slid something beneath the glass. “Where’d you get these?”

“I’m a lieutenant, remember? Now are you going to do it, or not?”

The smaller man rubbed a hand over his bald head and tapped the table. “Let’s have it.”

Chad turned to leave after sliding across a packet of something, and Andrea pointedly stepped past him as he opened his mouth to talk to her. “Hey Roknowki, can I get…”

“When it rains, it pours! What do you want?” he demanded.

The smell of the other man’s coffee was making her stomach roil. “Hopper sent me to pick up something.” Andrea showed him the papers, and Roknowski grumbled something as he dug in a filing cabinet. He handed it over and she was just about to thank him – it paid to get on the guy’s good side if you didn’t want to wait two weeks for prints to come back – when he leaned towards the glass and smiled at her. Oh, gross.

“So, now you’ve gotten rid of that tool Shelten, how about you and I…?”

“I’d better go,” Andrea said hastily, getting out of there as fast as she could.

“Andrea.” She stopped dead in her tracks as her name was called – could this day get any worse?

“What do you want, Chad?”

Chad came up to her, and she started walking back towards the elevators so he wouldn’t have a chance to block the hall. He walked with her, unfortunately. “Can’t a guy talk to his ex-girlfriend just to see how she’s doing?”

Andrea looked up at him in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me. Are you seriously asking me this after what you said to me just a few days ago? Or have you temporarily forgotten what a complete bastard you are?”

They walked into the elevator together and Chad glared down at the patrol cop who was already in there with them. “Take the stairs.”

The kid’s eyes nearly bugged out from their sockets. “Y-yessir.” He scrambled out of the elevator like his shoes were on fire.

“Oh, I guess you haven’t forgotten, after all,” Andrea said pointedly as the doors closed. She sighed when he pulled a ring of keys out of his pocket and fit one of them into the elevator panel before turning to her. “I could have you suspended for harassment, and you know it.”

“Technically, that would require proof – of which you have none,” Chad pointed out. “No one is going to put their word against mine.”

Andrea moved back as he stepped closer and reached out for her. “Take the keys out, Chad.”

Chad’s hands dropped immediately, and he looked uncomfortable. “I’m sorry.”

“A little late to be saying that, don’t you think?”

He raked a hand through his hair. “Look, I just… I just wanted to see you, that’s all. And tell you that I didn’t mean what I said.”

Looking up into his face, Andrea shook her head. “How can I possibly believe you, Chad? It’s like you’re two different people, and… I can’t do this, I can’t deal with this anymore. Take the keys out.”

Chad tried once more. “When you came over that night…”

“…I made a mistake, which will never happen again. Chad, can you just take the keys out and leave me alone? I can’t take anymore,” Andrea said tiredly, closing her eyes. “You can’t keep coming around whenever you feel like it.”

The sound of keys rattling as Chad shoved them back in his pocket made her open her eyes to look at him. He stared up at the level indicator. “The next few days are going to be busy ones. Would you mind keeping an eye on Meredith for me? He’ll need more food on Friday.”

“Does your arrogance actually have a limit? You’re asking me a favor?”

“I’m asking.” Chad kept his eyes on the doors as they slid open, and left without a backward glance.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

As he walked back into SWAT headquarters, Chad mentally ran through the list of things he still had to do – he’d already gotten the code to Roknowski’s door when he’d been working the other man up and Roknowski had been so pissed that he hadn’t realized what Chad was really after. When the guy had been looking the other way, Chad had seen the temporary code scrawled on a Post It note taped to the front of the computer monitor.

He hadn’t planned on running into Andrea, and he was still angry at allowing himself to try to get closer to her again. If he was going to keep her safe by making sure she didn’t want him around, he had to stay gone and not change his mind constantly. It was as if something inside him still wanted to tell her the truth, no matter how late in the game it was.

Buchalter had told him that the gun would be planted in Hopper’s place overnight, since he’d taken to spending more and more time at Rita’s apartment. Apparently he’d been scouting the place with Fencik for quite a while now, like a good little blackmailer. Except this went far beyond any blackmail Chad had ever heard of.

Chad wasn’t sure how this whole thing would turn out, but he intended to get himself free from Detweiler’s hold one way or the other…he hoped he hadn’t tipped his hand by asking her to look after Meredith. No one he knew of crossed Detweiler and lived to tell about it; not having to worry about any retaliation towards Andrea eased his mind some. Her family and his own would take care of her once the truth was out, and maybe she’d forgive him one day. Sitting at his desk and giving Steve a nod in greeting, Chad reached for a piece of paper and began to write her a letter.

tbc…
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