An Internal Affair

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“Where were you last night? I had to hang out at Ernie’s retirement party by myself,” Andrea muttered as Hopper breezed past her with a smile and a nod.

He looked vaguely guilty. “Oh, I – I completely forgot about that…”

“Obviously. Is that coffee for me?” She asked pointedly, jerking her chin in the direction of the steaming Starbucks cup on his desk. Hiding a grin at his sigh as he relinquished his coffee to her, she studied it carefully. “You forgot that I like more sugar and cream in it than that,” Andrea teased. “I’ll be back.” She took her purloined cup of Guatemala Antiqua, for that was what was printed on the side, out into the hall to find the small refreshment stand to dump six more packets of sugar and three small tubs of half and half inside.

Making her way back to her desk she noticed Chad on the move, pointing a finger at a cowering officer at a desk. “I’m watching you, Sanders,” he warned on his way past. The man positively reveled in bringing people to the brink of tears, she decided.

“Doing the daily ‘walk of intimidation’?” she asked just as he caught her eye.

He fell in step with her, glancing over his shoulder at the unfortunate soul he had just tormented. “Of course – I’ve got to keep you people in line, after all…and what possessed you to choose Guatemala Antiqua? That stuff’s worse than battery acid.”

“Oh, I don’t know – doesn’t seem so bad once you put so much cream and sugar in it that you can’t even tell it’s coffee anymore.”

Chad frowned. “Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of actually ordering coffee?” he lifted his chin in farewell as they neared the elevators and Andrea shook her head in disbelief at having yet another normal conversation with the man. This is steadily going beyond ‘weird’, Andrea. And yet… I did enjoy talking to him last night Firmly putting aside the thought that Chad Shelten wasn’t as bad as everyone thought he was, she returned to her desk to work on her latest case. Hopper was on the phone with Rita when she got back and she rolled her eyes at the repeated “I love you”s that Hopper was spouting, just to make him scowl across the desk at her.

“Okay, I’ll ask her, baby…yeah, I love you too. See you tonight.” He closed his cell phone and looked at her with a beseeching expression on his face. “Andrea?”

“What?”

“What are you doing this weekend?”

Andrea eyed him suspiciously. “Nothing, since I cut the dead weight loose….but you already knew that, so this must have something to do with the fact that Rita wants hardwood flooring.”

At least he had the grace to look sheepish. “Well, yeah… she was wondering if you could possibly come over and help us move all the furniture around. But if you don’t want to…”

“Yeah, that’s real good, partner. Get me with the guilt trip. What time do you want me to be there?”

Brett grinned at her. “Can you be there by nine?”

“I suppose so.”


_ _ _ _ _ _


Andrea knocked on Rita’s door promptly at nine, smiling at her partner’s girlfriend when the other woman opened the door. “Andrea! Thanks so much for coming, I really appreciate it…come on in.” Boxes of various items were strewn across the floor in preparation for the contractor’s arrival, and Rita pointed them out to her. “These need to be stacked in the bathtub, just to make sure nothing’s broken…those go on the balcony, and for now we can just move the furniture from the living room to the bedroom since they’ll work in here first and it’ll give us time to move the stuff back.” Rita ran her hands through her hair, frowning. “The couch and the heavier furniture will be harder to move, but I called Chad and he promised he’d stop by to help.”

Oh. “You don’t think the three of us are enough?” She wasn’t about to confess how nervous she was about meeting Chad outside of work again…lately it seemed that she’d talked to him more in the past week than in her entire stint as an LAPD detective. It still felt exceedingly strange to her that she was starting to be on friendly terms with the man – one half of her felt that it was wrong because of the simple fact that he was, for all intents and purposes, the embodiment of IA. The other half of her felt it was wrong because of the tension between her partner and Chad. But when had she started calling him Chad in her own head? This isn’t a problem I really need in my life right now…

Rita was just looking at her strangely. “Well, I don’t know – I just thought it was better to be safe than sorry, and he is pretty strong…”

Andrea smiled at her to relieve the other woman’s anxiety and mask her own confusion. “I was just thinking about Brett turning into Diet Drama the instant Chad shows up. I know those two aren’t exactly on pleasant terms,” she said. “So, this one goes in the tub?”

She was busily fetching and carrying until the boxes were cleared from the room – Rita and Brett were in the kitchen moving some other things so that the contractor wouldn’t knock them from the wall – and all that was left was the furniture. “It can’t be that heavy,” she told herself and walked over to the couch to study it. Bending her knees, she hooked her fingers under the bottom and lifted….and it came up off the floor with such ease that she nearly dropped it in startlement.

“It’s really not that heavy,” a familiar voice said, and she peered around the bulky object to see a pair of blue eyes watching her in amusement. “Battle,” he greeted with a nod.

“Shelten.”

They stood there, holding the couch and staring at each other. “So, um, where does this go?” he finally asked, causing a flush to creep up her neck. What was the matter with her?

“On the balcony, I think.”

“The balcony it is, then. Shall I go first? Most people don’t like walking backwards,” he suggested helpfully. She muttered something and he raised his voice suddenly. “Hey, Hopper – how about opening the door? Least you could do since you’re letting your partner do most of the work,” he called. Brett replied with something semi-rude but held the door open for them as they maneuvered the couch out onto the balcony. “Something tells me that he does that a lot,” Chad observed, his eyes on Hopper’s back as the other man went back to the kitchen where Rita was still packing.

“He’s not a bad guy,” she defended.

He turned back to her with an unreadable expression on his face. “I’ll have to take your word for that because my personal experience says differently.”

Andrea watched as he walked back over to pick up a small end table…this was the first time she’d ever seen him in something other than a suit and looking perfectly groomed, and she found that she liked the sight. Not going there, Battle. He’s IA, and an asshole. But that didn’t stop her from noticing that he looked much more approachable and appealing with the dusting of facial hair on his jaw that he hadn’t shaved off yet, or how nicely the man filled out a pair of faded jeans. Stop it, stop it, stop it…. She also couldn’t help but notice and admire the way his tee shirt stretched across his powerful chest and displayed biceps most men would die for. Oh, God. I’m checking out Shelten. His hair was also a bit rumpled, and it made her wonder what it would look like if he grew it out a bit.


_ _ _ _ _ _


Chad lifted the end table easily and carried it out to drop it on the couch, turning to catch Battle looking at him with an appraising look in her eyes. She immediately looked away and went for another piece of furniture, and he frowned after her. Was she checking him out? No, of course she’s not. Nobody checks me out. She turned to get something else, and he watched from the corner of his eye as her gaze lingered a second too long on his biceps. Holy shit, yes she is. He flexed experimentally and her eyes flew back to watch. “Something the matter?” he asked innocently.

“What? No.” She looked away and pretended to be absorbed in thinking of what needed to be moved next, then finally looked back at him. “What do they feed you boys over in IA?”

He smiled. “We take the human sacrifices the FBI doesn’t want.”

They worked together in silence as Rita came in to direct them, and he couldn’t help comparing his ex-wife to the narcotics detective. About the only thing they had in common was a fondness for that jerk Hopper, and brown eyes. He flicked his over to Battle, who was bending over to tie her shoelace. Nice ass. Not bad looking elsewhere, either. Would it be too weird to ask her out? Should he even be thinking about such a thing, despite the fact that he’d caught her checking him out? Nah. Not going there. But she sure looked cute with her hair in a messy ponytail like that. Maybe he should just take it easy – it looked like he was finally making a friend, so why should he mess it up by asking her on a date? It’s not a date if you’re just friends, though.

Maybe he would ask her out on a non-date. It figured that Hopper would have to choose this exact moment to come in and start putting his hands all over Rita, like he was just trying to make Chad jealous. Unfortunately, it was working and there was nowhere he’d rather be than away from them. Why’d he even agree to come over? Hopper just had to rub it in his face that he was the one who had Rita now… he ground his teeth together and slammed the end of the entertainment center to the floor just a little harder than he had meant to – the resultant crack made him sigh and glance over at Battle, who was looking at him again. “Hey, I’m gonna go for some coffee…you guys want something?” she asked suddenly. Rita placed her order, looking up at him like she knew exactly was going on. Well, she should know. Wasn’t for her, all this wouldn’t be happening. “Coming, Chad?”

His head jerked up in surprise, and he looked from Rita to her, then at Hopper. Hopper looked as if he was ready to breathe fire at the mere thought of Chad going anywhere alone with his partner. “Yeah, sure. We can take my car.” He shot Hopper a challenging look and followed the petite blonde out the door.


tbc…
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Chad, you naughty boy! :D