An Internal Affair

_________________________________


Andrea nestled sleepily against Chad after nearly two hours of intense lovemaking, listening to his breathing slow and even out into the steady rhythm of sleep. Her eyelids grew heavy and began to close when the hair on the back of her neck began to lift and she was suddenly certain that she was being watched – that they were being watched. Andrea extricated herself from Chad’s arms and sat up to look around, but nothing moved in the shadows of the bedroom… had she simply imagined it? “Chad? Chad, wake up,” she murmured, putting a hand on his chest.

“What’s going on?” he yawned.

“I think there’s someone here.”

Chad reached past her to flip on the light, and they both squinted in the sudden brightness. “I don’t see anyone,” he said dubiously. “Are you sure? Did you see anything?”

She shook her head, unconsciously drawing the covers up to her chin. “I just got that feeling, you know? Maybe I’m just being paranoid because of Eddie showing up earlier.” Andrea bit her lip, not having meant to mention her ex-boyfriend while she was in bed with Chad… they’d worked out their differences about that particular topic of discussion in a most satisfactory manner, and she didn’t want the return of tension between them. “I mean, it could be Second Team again but… somehow I don’t think so.”

To his credit, Chad didn’t look particularly bothered by it. “He doesn’t have a key, though, does he?”

“No, I made him give it back when I hauled him to rehab that last time.”

The big man frowned thoughtfully as he rolled to his side to face her. “Keys can be copied. I’ll look around, okay? If you said you thought someone was here, I believe you. You’re not the type of person who jumps at every shadow.” Chad got out of the bed and pulled on a nearby pair of track pants– ever since some of the SWAT members had decided to try and play a joke on him in the middle of the night and he’d run out stark naked with his gun, she’d insisted upon him covering up when he wasn’t in her bedroom. Of course, he was past the hazing simply because the rest of the team had been just too embarrassed at the sight of their sergeant in his all-together….not that Chad had even batted an eye when discovering half of the SWAT team surrounding him in Andrea’s kitchen, and him without so much as a stitch of clothing on.

He left to look through the rest of the house, and was back in minutes to shake his head negatively at her. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her – it’d happened before, after all. Andrea mentioned this aloud, feeling slightly foolish at having rousted him out of bed. “Hey, don’t worry about it – I’ll just tell everyone else that it’s your fault I can’t keep my eyes open,” he grinned, taking the pants back off and climbing back into bed to turn off the light. “Maybe I’ll even give them some details if they ask.”

“That’ll be the last thing you ever do, I assure you,” she warned, poking him in the side and feeling his lips curve in a smile against the bare skin of her shoulder when he rolled over to envelop her in his embrace.

“Promises, promises, Battle.”

She thought of calling to get the locks changed as she woke up in the morning and remembered what had happened, but soon forgot it when Chad began yelling at her to see if she knew where his gloves were. He found them and ran off, nearly making himself late by staying to kiss her until she had to remind him that he needed to go to work. Then Hopper was phoning her about something, and all thoughts of calling the locksmith went completely from her head.

The feeling of being watched returned the next day when she was out shopping after work, but whenever she turned to see who might be looking at her she didn’t see anyone and didn’t mention it to Chad. Andrea knew he suspected something was wrong after she turned away his advances for the second time in as many days, but didn’t say anything beyond suggesting that they sleep at his place if she didn’t feel comfortable at hers.


_ _ _ _ _


He'd definitely had better weeks. Andrea wouldn’t even let him move beyond kissing her now, when she used to literally jump him as soon as the door was closed. She hadn’t even cared if the shades were open or closed. At least she’d taken him up on his offer to stay at his house, but even there it was like fucking someone with ADD; every five seconds she’d break him out of the mood by asking if he’d heard something, or if he’d seen what she’d seen. After a week of having to roll off her because she wouldn’t relax enough to let him touch her, his frustration was nearing the point where they were constantly on edge around each other and he was contemplating telling her that they needed to spend some time apart.

Chad believed that she’d thought she’d seen something, but whenever he looked around for whatever the hell it was, he came up with nothing. Belief only took you so far; past that point was paranoia. Of course they’d fought on that point, just like they did with everything else these days, and he’d said some things he wasn’t proud of. She was still giving him the cold shoulder – he hadn’t known you could ignore someone who slept in the same bed and shared your personal space. It wasn’t even her house!

He rolled his shoulders back to stretch, cracking his neck as he frowned up at the LAPD seal on the building he used to work in. Damn it, he’d served countless high-risk warrants and rappelled down buildings on a regular basis. He should be able to handle apologizing to a woman less than a quarter of his size. Hopper had better not be there, or I’ll stuff his ass in the waste basket, Chad thought sourly. Williams had offered to be his wingman, knowing that Andrea and he hadn’t been on the best terms this past week, but he’d turned his friend down. It’d be all he needed, to get word of his groveling spread around the office on Sixth Street.

Detective Santos was talking to one of the patrolmen as he walked in the doors, but broke off her conversation as soon as she saw him. “Chad!”

“Hey, Maria,” he greeted ruefully, knowing that Paul had probably told her why he was there. “I thought you were on leave?”

The dark-haired woman patted her stomach. “Next week, I think.” Her gaze sharpened. “Andrea is just about ready to skin you alive, señor.”

Chad sighed gustily. “Does everyone know?”

“That you’re being an insensitive, uncaring, nasty-”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” He ran his hand through his hair nervously. “Have you seen her today?”

Maria smirked. “She’s at her desk, planning your murder.”

He tried for a joke. “Well, that’s lovely news. I’ll just run on in and you send up the casket, how’s that sound?” When she did nothing but fold her arms and stare up at him, he cleared his throat and motioned to the elevator. “Yeah… I’ll be going now…”

Chad strode down the hall towards Narcotics after stopping by the vending machine for something that might persuade her not to be angry at him, and nodded to Graves as he walked in. He did a double-take at the throat cutting motion the Lieutenant aimed at him. Jesus. Circling wide around her desk so that she didn’t see him, he came up behind her and dropped the Twinkie directly onto the file she was looking at. “What the…? Chad? I’m working,” she snapped. “What do you want?”

Well, he guessed this was better than being ignored…not by much, though. “It’s a peace offering. I have another one in case I have to throw it at you to escape,” Chad said. “I’m told the filling has diverted many a homicidal maniac.”

“What do you want? ”

He fought the urge to snap back at her; it wouldn’t help and anyway, he was supposed to be the repentant one here. “I just came to see how you were today…”

“I’m fine,” she scowled.

“…and to say that I was sorry,” he finished, shifting from foot to foot anxiously. He’d never been good at this ‘please forgive me’ stuff. “I didn’t mean to say, um, what I said. So, uh, I’m sorry.”

Somewhere during this recital, Hopper had come back from a coffee run. Damn it. “Chad? What’re you doing here? Harassing my partner?”

His partner? Who did that prick think he was? “Talking to my girlfriend,” Chad replied, then felt like beating the smirk right off of Hopper’s face as the other man looked at Andrea. “Look, it’s kinda private so why don’t you just go somewhere else and stay there for the rest of your life?”

Oddly enough, Andrea started to smile at him. “We’ll be right back, Hopper.” Standing, she grabbed Chad’s arm and pulled him after her into a nearby office, shutting the door and closing the blinds against curious eyes.

“Um, Andy? What’s-” nothing prepared him for suddenly having an armful of Detective, and he automatically slid his arms about her to keep her from falling.

“That’s the first time you’ve called me ‘your’ anything,” she said, pressing her lips to his. “But if you ever get an attitude like that with me again, I’ll take you down.”

“I guess it’s a deal, then.”

_ _ _ _ _

Chad ran his hands down her hips, hooking her panties with his fingers and drawing them off as he pressed his lips to her skin. Andrea threaded her fingers through his hair when he dipped his head to run his tongue over her folds, murmuring how sweet she tasted. They should fight more often, if this is what happened when he came to apologize.

She arched from the bed as Chad began to thrust his fingers inside her, working them in and out while she shuddered and cried his name. As her orgasm approached, she felt the index finger of his left hand slide between her legs and press into her nether entrance slowly. “Chad? What are you…oh, my God! ” Andrea twisted and writhed as he drove her to a climax so intense she couldn’t even see straight, gripping the sheets of the bed and causing them to rip slightly. When she finally came down from her high, she felt Chad’s fingers slip from her body and looked down to see him smirking up at her. “You look pleased with yourself,” she sighed, placing a hand on his head.

He grinned. “Oh, I am. Believe me, I am.” Chad crawled up her body and covered her mouth in a kiss while he nudged her thighs apart with a knee and lowered himself between her legs. Her eyes fluttered closed as his cock filled her and he began to move, making love to her slowly. “Turn over,” he whispered, pulling out.

Andrea obediently turned onto her stomach and began to raise herself on her arms when he placed a large hand on the small of her back and pushed her back down to the mattress. Then her legs were spread apart once more and he was shoving inside her at an angle that would have forced her off the bed completely if Chad hadn’t been pressing her down and holding her still. She could barely breathe, and she couldn’t have cared less as he pumped his hips, grunting. Trapped beneath him, all she could do was to hold on as he fucked her into the mattress. “Yes, yesyesyes,” she babbled, her fingers locking around his wrists and trying to get enough leverage so that she could shove back against him. Chad shifted his weight back onto his knees and held her hips in place, his unsteady groans signaling the approach of his own release. “I-I’m close,” she managed to wail.

Chad picked up speed and just as the nearly unbearable pleasure washed over her, he cried out above her and came, pressing her down in the blankets as he emptied himself into her. Her sergeant collapsed atop her, breathing deeply before he rolled to one side to encircle her with one arm. “Nice,” he sighed.

Andrea grinned. “You can say that ag-” Movement off to one side caught her attention and she yelped in shock and anger to see Eddie standing there with a gun in his hand. Chad shoved a hand beneath his pillow and had a gun of his own pointed at the intruder before she could blink.

“Don’t stop just ‘cause I’m here,” Eddie laughed, waving his gun around. Andrea grabbed the corner of a sheet and made to cover herself when he raised his weapon to point it at her. “Why you so shy now, huh?” He staggered slightly as he tried to get a better look at her body – Andrea thought he must be so high, he didn’t know which end was up. “You’re one kinky puta; you never did that shit with me.”

The sharp sound of a gun hammer being drawn back startled Eddie into swinging his gun back towards Chad. “You want to get out of here before I decorate that wall with what’s left of your brain, you sick fuck,” Chad snarled.

Eddie narrowed his eyes. “She’s mine, cabron.”

Andrea took advantage of Eddie’s momentary inattention to dive towards her own issued weapon and trained it on her ex. “I don’t belong to anyone but myself. Chad, get the key from him.” She was so angry she could spit – how dare he come inside her house to watch her in some of her most intimate moments with Chad? She had half a mind to put an end to him right here.

Keeping her gun trained on Eddie, she watched as Chad pistol-whipped him and knelt beside the ex-cop’s unconscious body to rifle his pockets. Chad held up a house key silently and tossed it on the bed before searching through the other man’s keyring. “Looks like he’s got two of them. What the hell’s wrong with…? He was watching us,” Chad said, his tone filled with rage. “I should put a bullet between his eyes right now.”

“I’m sorely tempted to let you,” she admitted, rubbing her forehead angrily. “Look, I’ll call someone from the station to haul him in.”

Chad was already reaching for his phone. “I’ll do it.”

An hour later, they stood outside watching as an officer shoved a still-groggy Eddie Reyes into the back of his car. “We’ll have to wait until enough of the drugs are out of his system so we can get some answers from him and get him booked,” he snorted. “He’s so coked up right now, you could tell him his fairy godmother was here and he’d believe you. Report’ll be ready tomorrow, Sergeant, Detective. We can get him for trespassing if nothing else.”

“I’ll pick it up first thing and thanks, Fisher,” Andrea said. The man nodded to Chad in farewell and gave her a smile as he got in the patrol car and left – Chad came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders to watch Fisher drive off.

“He had to have been watching this whole time,” Chad said thoughtfully. “I thought you were just being paranoid.” His fingers tightened slightly in silent apology. “I should have believed you.”

She sighed and leaned back against him. “I thought I might be paranoid, too. Something’s not right with him; he’s getting more and more erratic every time I see him.”

Chad placed a kiss on the top of her head. “Well, he’s probably getting way too desperate about the Quai Long situation. I’m not sure he’d do anything to you; he might be stoned out of his mind but he has to know I’d kill him if he made another move.”

“So why was he watching us? Jesus, that’s creepy as hell knowing someone’s really been watching!” She shuddered and he rubbed his big hands up and down her arms to help warm her. “If he’s getting desperate and acting this strangely, I think he’s going to do something.”

“He’s not going to do anything to you, I won’t let it happen,” Chad promised, guiding her back inside the house.

Andrea sighed and let herself be guided back in. It’s not me I’m worried about, though. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something very bad was about to happen to them. Andrea lay wide-eyed for a long time in the comforting circle of Chad’s strong arms, slowly lulled into sleep by the the slow thud of his heart against his chest… if she’d known what would happen the very next day, she might have stayed awake a little longer.

tbc…
_________________________________

A/N: What the hell's wrong with Eddie? *hates him* He's such a creep... and I wonder what's going to happen next chapter? O_o