Unhappily Ever After

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Chad toweled himself off quickly and headed back into the bedroom of his small apartment to get ready for another exciting day in law enforcement. Pulling on his suit and knotting his tie carefully, he ran a comb through his hair and frowned at his reflection after attaching his issued weapon to his belt – it looked like he’d need another haircut soon. “I’ll get one this weekend,” he promised the mirror. Then he grabbed up his keys, wallet, and badge before heading out to his car. The drive down to Metro took as long as ever, but Chad had listened to the traffic report in the shower so he’d known what to expect. He walked past the Watch Commander at precisely 7:30 and checked for any messages before strolling down the hall to Narcotics.

“Detective? Need to see you a minute,” his lieutenant called, leaning out of his office with a phone in his hand. “Hopper here yet?” Lt. Jackson asked as soon Chad ducked through the door.

He checked his watch. “Should be on his way, at least, sir.”

“Well, I need you two to get that sting set up – I’ve got the captain riding my ass, and I don’t like it,” he was warned.

“Sure thing, Lieutenant.”

“Take SWAT if you need to,” Jackson sighed, then turned his attention back to his telephone conversation. “Are you still there? Yeah, so I told the jerk that if he didn’t have my windshield fixed by the end of the month…”

Chad walked out to his desk and reached for the appropriate file, but when he opened it he discovered that the papers he needed weren’t there. “What the…” They were here last night when I left, he thought irritably, then his eyes fell on Hopper’s messy desk. It wouldn’t surprise him that much if his partner had decided to take a look at the file and then had forgotten to put it back. Standing and walking around the desks to rummage in the pile of crap, he found it just as Hopper came strolling in. “You’re late,” he informed his partner.

“You’re anal retentive.”

“I’ll just upgrade ‘late’ to ‘same as ever’,” Chad sighed. “Why’d you mess with the file, anyway? I had to look around through that mess you’ve got here…”

Hopper frowned. “It’s not a mess! I know where everything is!”

“Yeah, that’s what makes the difference, huh?” he shook his head. “Look, whatever. Jackson wants us to set up the sting so the captain leaves him alone.”

His partner just looked at him strangely when Chad tried to get the information Hopper had been working on. “Take it easy – we don’t have to do it today.”

“Uh….yeah, we do.”

“Jesus, no wonder you’re still single.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.”

They worked in silence at their desks, until Chad glanced up to see Hopper staring at the book he’d brought to read on his lunch hour. “What?”

The other detective looked over at him. “What the hell did you bring with you this week?” Hopper asked, as if trying to rub it in Chad’s face that there wasn’t anyone in Narcotics who wanted to have lunch with him – not that he minded that much; he was there to do his job the best he could, not be a part of a social club. Still, there were times when it would be nice to actually have someone he could talk to.

Chad leaned forward, tapping the cover excitedly. “Actually, it’s really interesting; it’s about quantum-”

“Sounds great,” Hopper interrupted. “I’m going for coffee, you want some?” he left without waiting for an answer and Chad sighed, dropping the book into a desk drawer. Everyone acted like it was such a bad thing to actually have an education. Snatching the rest of the files from Hopper’s desk and correcting the grammatical mistakes, he finished up and sent one of the trainees down to get an arrest warrant.

The rest of the day passed without incident before the warrant was finally issued and Chad called up the SWAT offices and talked to Romero to get a team called out to Tarzana with them. Outside the house they’d been sent to, Chad drew his gun and followed First Team as they burst through the door – he’d always admired SWAT and, more than once, had even considered trying out. His family had always talked him out of it, though.

It turned out there was a cripple inside with a shotgun who tried to start trouble, and the guy had been shot a few times before they realized that they’d gotten the wrong place. “You gotta be shittin’ me – that’s next door,” one of the officers sighed. “Well, let’s go and hope he hasn’t been scared off.” Chad couldn’t decide whether or not it was a good thing that the area was so full of crime that the sound of police breaking down doors and shooting up the place didn’t even make people bat an eye, but when they found the man they’d originally come for still sitting in his underwear next door, he decided that it wasn’t half bad.

The crippled man was taken off in the ambulance and the report was duly hoisted onto Chad’s shoulders when he wasn’t looking, so he had to let Hopper make the arrest and drive back to the hospital to set up a guard on the injured man. They’d have one hell of a lawsuit on their hands if he decided to press charges, but the guy had tried to fire on them first so what options did they really have but to defend themselves?

After checking in with his lieutenant and being told that he’d have to wait to have security set up on the man, Chad wandered around the ER waiting room and wished he’d brought his book with him. Basketball was on the large television set in the corner, so he turned his attention to the game and nearly missed seeing the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life come around the corner to the nursing station. She had long, caramel colored hair, dusky skin, and a body that wouldn’t quit – the basketball game was forgotten entirely as she threw her head back and laughed at something one of the other nurses said.

Suddenly he didn’t mind having been sent to do the clean up. Standing, Chad straightened his suit jacket and strolled over to try his luck. She might be taken, but at least he could say he tried. “Hi, are you Manny Taylor’s nurse, by any chance?” Chad asked, giving her his best smile.

The nurse tossed her hair over one shoulder and smiled back at him. She had a beautiful smile. “That depends. Who’s asking?”

He held out his hand, trying to seem taller by standing up a little straighter. “Detective Shelten, LAPD.”

She placed a small hand in his, and he closed his fingers around hers in a friendly handshake. “Nurse Foster, ER.”

“Does Nurse Foster, ER have a first name? Mine’s Chad,” he volunteered, turning on the charm for all he was worth.

She laughed up at him. “Rita. Now why were you asking about Mr. Taylor, exactly?”

He explained about needing to place the man in custody. Maybe if he scared her a little bit about the guy, she’d figure they needed someone there to protect them and he’d get to hang around a while longer. “If he attacked a group of armed officers and detectives, who knows what he would do to unarmed nurses and doctors?”

The nurse – Rita – led him down the hall to where a bed had already been set up for the new patient and pointed in the room. “He’s in surgery and it’ll be a while until he even wakes up and is sent here, so I think we’re pretty safe for now,” she confided with another smile.

“But you never know. He could go on a rampage at any moment,” Chad insisted. “Tell you what – how about I take you someplace safe so your life is spared?”

Rita raised her eyebrows at him. “Someplace safe? We don’t even know each other.”

Chad widened his eyes. “Of course we do! We know each other’s first names, after all,” he teased. “You can trust me, I’m a cop.”

One of the other nurses called out to her, and she looked back at him as she started to walk back towards the nursing station. “Maybe some other time, Detective.”

‘Some other time’ turned out to be just two weeks later, when he stopped by with a woman who’d been caught in the crossfire of a rival gang shoot-out. It turned out that the woman had been merely grazed and was just so hysterical at the near miss that both Chad and Hopper had to bring her to get medical attention, even if it was just so a nurse could tell her to calm the hell down. After ditching Hopper and going to find Rita, Chad secured a date for the next Friday and couldn’t resist bragging a little when he met up with his partner in the parking garage. Of course, the other detective thought he was making the whole thing up. “You? On a date?”

“Why is it so hard to believe that a woman could be attracted to me?” Chad flared, offended at Hopper’s tone of voice.

It was true that he didn’t date much, but that wasn’t necessarily his fault… he had to have some standards, after all. There were always women around who were eager to sleep with a policeman just to say that they’d done it, and he’d taken advantage of those situations more than once. “If you have to ask me about that…” Hopper trailed off, wisely changing the subject as he saw how pissed off Chad was getting.

Friday seemed to take forever to arrive but when it did, Chad hurried back to his apartment after work to shower and change into his black suit before digging out his cell phone to call her and get directions to her place. When he arrived, she was dressed in an incredibly sexy lime green dress that set off her exotic features and made her look even more beautiful. “You look great,” he said admiringly as she opened the door. “Are you ready to go?”

Rita smiled and reached for her coat with one hand, and his arm with the other. “As long as you have me back by eleven, Detective Shelten.”

“Is that your curfew or something?” he asked as he guided her out to his car and opened the door for her, winking to show that he was teasing her.

For some reason, she took him seriously and even seemed to get a little upset by it. “I have patients counting on me, so I can’t let them down by being tired,” Rita said in a scolding tone.

“Um, well… of course not,” he reassured her hastily. She must have been trying to play a trick on him or something, because Rita just smiled at him and didn’t mention it again.

They got to know each other over dinner, exchanging anecdotes about what they did for a living, and he grew more and more impressed by how much she loved her job. Chad paid close attention as she waved her hands around excitedly and told him about what made her decide to become a nurse in the first place – he’d never met anyone so sweet and caring before. Rita reached over to touch his hand occasionally to make a point about something, and he felt warmth spread throughout his whole body each time she did it. Chad hadn’t wanted to take a woman back to his place this badly since he was eighteen years old, but he knew he could never suggest such a thing to her. Not yet, anyway.

When he took her back to her apartment, Chad knew he didn’t have a chance in hell of being invited in, but she gave him a look from beneath her lashes that told him that he could probably try for a kiss. He leaned in slowly to give her time to move away, touching his lips to hers in a kiss that was at once too short and just long enough. Rita drew back with a smile and hooked a strand of hair behind her ear. “So, I had a good time tonight.”

“Me, too.”

“Well… goodnight,” she said softly.

“Goodnight,” Chad echoed, wanting to haul her back into his arms so he could kiss her again. He’d just turned to leave when he realized he hadn’t asked her out a second time. “Uh, Rita? Would you like to go out again somet-”

“Yes.”

He grinned. “Okay, then.”

Rita came back over to draw his head down to hers for another quick kiss, then sent him off with a gentle shove towards his car. “Call me tomorrow. Now, go away.”

Whistling under his breath, Chad got into his SUV feeling pretty good about himself. Hopper’s never gonna believe this, he thought gleefully as he drove away.

tbc…

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A/N: Well, she seems mostly normal so far... *rubs hands together evilly*