An Internal Affair

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Seven o’clock came, and seven o’clock went without so much of a hint of Andrea Battle. He hadn’t really been expecting her to show, so he wasn’t worried about it – he just finished stretching and dropped to one knee to make sure the laces on his shoes were tight enough. Switching to the other to tighten the remaining lace, he heard her drive up in that boat of hers, apologizing for being late and attempting to blame it on traffic. “It’s nothing to me if you stayed out too late with your boyfriend,” he said mildly, standing to look at her. Good, at least she seems to know how to dress properly for a run. He’d seen plenty of women who seemed to think that going jogging meant that it was an occasion to wear as much makeup as they could slather on and an obscene amount of jewelry, as well as wearing matching clothing that was entirely unsuitable for exercise – most of them thought that they were on a fashion parade or something.

Andrea just rolled her eyes at him. “I don’t have a boyfriend…but why do you people always insist on getting up at the ass crack of dawn for this sort of thing?”

Ass crack of dawn? His amusement at her quip nearly overrode the pleasure he felt that she was single. “Such harsh language for my tender ears to absorb this early in the morning – and it’s even Sunday! Shame on you for swearing on the Sabbath, Detective.”

She grinned up at him and dropped into a low crouch, stretching. “What about you? Shouldn’t you be worried about your alleged immortal soul for poking fun?”

“Nah, that’s why I always go for a run on Sunday mornings…keeps me at least one stride ahead of the lightening bolts.” He tried to keep his tone level as she unconsciously offered him a view right down her shirt. Niiiiice. Chad suddenly had an idea where they could go running…nice and private. Well, to a point. “How about going up to Santa Monica for a run on the beach? It’s usually deserted this time of day.”

Andrea shrugged. “Sounds good to me, but you could’ve called to let me know before I came down here.”

Oh, this is going perfectly – couldn’t have planned it any better. “I don’t have your phone number.” At her next suggestion, he obediently retrieved his cell to enter her number into the phone book and tossed it back inside with what he thought was the right amount of ‘casual’. “So, you ready to go? We can take mine,” he assured her when she cast a glance back at her car. How old was that thing?

“I don’t know, we could go in separate cars…”

“If I were you, I’d be afraid that crappy old boat of yours would veer towards the nearest body of water and take you in with it – what’s it called, the S.S. Andrea?” Chad unlocked the passenger door. “Get in; I’m able to write off the gas as an expense. Now all we need is to find a junkie either snatching a purse or flashing some old lady to make the paperwork easier.” She sighed and climbed in after stating how horrible he was, spending the entire drive to Santa Monica asking questions about his work in IA that she knew he wasn’t supposed to tell her about. He greeted each barrage of questions with noncommittal grunts and outrageous speculation until she finally dropped the subject as he parked the car.


_ _ _ _ _


Andrea resumed stretching as soon as she saw Chad doing so, and she looked around slowly. He’d been right; this was a lot better than just running through the streets and breathing in exhaust fumes. She snuck another peek at him and nearly lost her balance in shock to see that he’d taken his shirt off. Holy…wow. Oh, wow. Just….wow. Wow. It’d been hard enough to concentrate when he’d had his clothes on, but now she was going to have to deal with a shirtless Chad Shelten traipsing around next to her in nothing but black track pants and sneakers. Andrea was currently favored with a view of the muscular sergeant’s back, so she felt perfectly justified in ogling shamelessly. Just how stupid was Rita? And did the front view of him look nearly as good as the back?

He turned to catch her staring and she was instantly reassured that there was not a thing wrong with the front view, either. Holy cow. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at him at work again without seeing this… “Something wrong?” he asked, a smug smile forming on his lips.

Well, maybe Rita had some justification for the divorce…but Andrea was beginning to think that Chad’s ex-wife had simply not known how to handle him properly. You could handle him properly…in all the ways that matter, a voice in her head sing-songed. She told it to shut up and pasted an unimpressed look on her face. “I think we need to take you to the hospital, Chad – looks like you’ve come down with a serious case of Captain Kirk Syndrome.”

“Huh?”

“Your shirt – it seems to have gone missing on us.”

He waved a hand in dismissal. “Oh, I’m sure it’ll turn up later. Are we running or not?”

Well, two could play this game. “Just a minute.” She stripped off her shirt so that she was left in her track pants and sports bra. “Something wrong?” she mocked when he began his turn at the ogling.

Chad eyed her appraisingly. “Everything looks fine from here,” he teased with a wink. Oh, good God. They were flirting openly. Did that make this a date, after all? She sternly warned the voices in her head to stop acting so surprised and took him up on his next offer to allow her to touch his biceps. “Licking costs extra, though.”

She sighed mock-wistfully as they started in a slow jog towards the water. “And me without my American Express card.”

“We can always go back and get it,” he offered.

They settled into an easy rhythm together, and she couldn’t stop from smiling at the thought of how they must look together – Chad was obviously not running as fast as he normally did, and was shortening his strides to match with her…but then she wasn’t really trying that hard. It was nice to get out for a change and relax with someone who wasn’t intimidated by her, as well – that had been the main problem with her last boyfriend and made it nearly impossible for her to build a lasting relationship with anyone. Maybe it’s time to try again…we’ll see what happens. The thought of Chad Shelten being anyone’s boyfriend, especially hers, was somewhat humorous, yet… maybe his problems with women, Rita included, were one and the same with her problems with men. She dropped back behind him as her shoelace came untied, and she knotted it hurriedly before taking off to try and catch up. “Chad, slow down! ” Andrea yelled as the jerk purposely increased his pace so that she struggled to try and catch him, then suddenly stopped dead so that she crashed into his back and nearly fell down. “Hey…!”

“Did you just grab my ass?” he asked suspiciously, turning to look down at her.

Andrea glared. “No.”

“Oh.” He nodded solemnly. “Well, do you want to?”

“No. ”

“Just checking, don’t get excited.” Chad pointed down the beach. “Look, a flasher. I told you we’d see one…let’s go scare him.”

He loped off before she could stop him. “He’s just changing into swim trunks,” she yelled, and he tossed a grin back over his shoulder at her in a blatant challenge for her to stop him. “Damn it,” she sighed, starting to run after him. Head of IA and sometime asshole as well as a total nutjob. Of course, she could never admit to him that she thought it was funny how easily he manipulated everyone he came across – well, when it wasn’t her on the receiving end of his twisted schemes. Right now he was bellowing at the surfer to stop “in the name of the law” and his hapless victim was rooted to the sand in shock at the half-nude colossus barreling towards him. At this point, she just wanted to see what he’d do next.

Surfer Dude was cowering away from Chad when she reached them. “Hey, man – I was just changin’ into my shorts…chill, dude.”

Chad put his hands on his hips and leveled his best ‘I know what you did and I’m taking you down’ look at the skinny teenager. “I received a report from a resident that a young punk fitting your description was harassing a group of elderly ladies earlier this morning…and here I find you, naked as a jaybird. I think I’ll have to call this in.”

The young man’s eyes widened in horror. “Yo, take it easy, please don’t – Dad’s gonna kill me…!”

“Indecent exposure isn’t something I can simply let you get away with. Detective Battle, call it in while I get some information from our little friend here.” Andrea thought the boy was going to start crying as he stammered out apologies and swore to never change his clothes on the beach ever again. Chad pretended to pause to reconsider and sent the kid off with a stern word of warning while Andrea tried her best to keep a straight face. I seem to do a lot of smiling around him these days.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _


Chad crossed his arms across his chest and nodded in satisfaction. “There, now the mileage report will be perfectly justified.” He glanced over at Andrea, who was turning an interesting shade of red as she tried to keep from laughing. She really did have a nice smile, he thought as he watched her. For the first time since he’d been with Rita, he felt relaxed enough to drop the act he always put on whenever he stepped foot in LAPD headquarters. Maybe he should ask her on a real date. Wouldn’t that be too soon, though? I don’t want another situation like her. But Andrea Battle couldn’t be more different than Rita, and he was beginning to think that it was a good thing.

After she’d divorced him and left, he’d tried to find someone just like her…but trying to find a replacement for someone he probably should never have even been with in the first place was never a good idea, and it certainly hadn’t worked. It was most likely a worse idea asking someone he worked with out on a date – a real one – but there was something about Andrea that drew him to her. He’d kept an eye on her as soon as he’d learned that she was to be Hopper’s new partner, and it had always intrigued him how independent she was. Maybe all that crap about opposites attracting was just that – crap. Maybe… it was time to move on past Rita and whatever he thought they still had. She didn’t act like there was anything left for her, so why shouldn’t he get on with his life? He knew it wasn’t as easy as just making the decision, but maybe he could do it. Maybe. That’s a lot of maybes, Shelten.

He waited courteously until she’d regained control of herself once more, and they continued their run while he kept a tight rein on his thoughts and simply let himself enjoy her company as well as the envious glances from the other men on the beach. “So, had enough?” she asked when they stopped a second time for water.

“Do you have someplace you need to be?” he asked in startlement, checking his watch.

Andrea shook her head as she reached up to re-tie her ponytail. “Not really, no. I just promised my dad that I’d stop by today…”

“Oh, sorry – we can head back to our car, then.” Chad heard what he had just said and sighed. “I mean, my car.”

They jogged back to where he had parked the somewhat dirty black SUV and he was pleased to see that she knew enough to stretch once more before getting back in the car. Driving in silence back to where her car was, he mentally rehearsed. Andrea, would you like to go for coffee next Friday? No, that’s stupid – she gets coffee all the time. Um, okay. Would you be interested in terrifying more innocent surfers with me? No… damn it! How am I supposed to ask her? It’s been too long, I just don’t know… “Chad? Chad! Are you listening to me?”

He jerked his head over to look at her. “What? Yes, I was listening.”

“Then what did I just say?”

Weren’t they only supposed to use that tone of voice on husbands or something? “Well, you said something and it was interesting, only I didn’t hear it because I, uh, wasn’t….listening. Sorry.”

Andrea unbuckled her seat belt, turning to look at him. “First I said ‘thank you’ for making me get up so early, then I said that you were positively certifiable. And then I asked you if you wanted to go for dinner next Friday.”

“Are you asking me on a-”

“Yes.”

He felt his eyes widen in shock. “Really?”

“Yes.”

Chad thought about it, confused. She just asked me out. No one asks me out. But she just did. So I guess I should say yes or something. “Uh. Okay.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You don’t sound too enthusiastic about it,” she said after a while.

He had a chance to regain his equilibrium at her sarcastic remark, and smirked over at her. “I’m only waiting until you leave so I can scream like a little girl in the privacy of my own car.”

“If you say so,” she said dubiously, but smiled at him nonetheless. “See you at work.” Then she was out of the car and over at hers, and he could breathe again. And he was breathing in the air she had used when she had asked him on a date. He was actually going on a date. A real date – he was jerked back to reality when she opened the car door again. “Hey, I left my cell phone…is something the matter?”

“What? No…you just interrupted me mid-squeal.” Chad watched her root around under the seat for her phone and hold it up triumphantly when she found it. “See you later,” he said automatically as she smiled a farewell at him and left for her own car. He sat in silence a few moments longer, watching her drive away, before he began to laugh. He, Chad Shelten, had a date.

He couldn’t wait for Hopper to find out about it.


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