Partners

Chad dumped his gear on the floor and checked his watch, mentally calculating the time difference between Los Angeles and Berlin. Since his time zone was nine hours ahead and Andrea had told him about the stakeout she was on with Hopper, she probably wasn’t awake yet… he’d get something to eat before he called her and take a shower. She was never ‘all there’ when he called her when she first woke up and it was cute as hell to hear Andy trying to get her brain working properly.

He checked in with Steve, who was shepherding the group for the afternoon, and made plans to meet them for dinner before going for some lunch that would need to be burned off by several sit-ups. Glancing at his watch as he paid, Chad walked back to the hotel and up to his room for a shower. Andrea would love it here, he thought wistfully as he looked at the view from the window. He’d never really thought he’d ever miss her this much – it wasn’t as if they’d never see each other again, after all – but he still felt a pang whenever he woke up thinking that the petite detective would be laying beside him, and she wasn’t there when he opened his eyes.

It was probably for the best, anyway, Chad thought as he grabbed up a change of clothes and headed for the shower. He was supposed to be distancing himself from her and this trip would be the perfect excuse, but they’d separated on such a bad note that he couldn’t bring himself to do it. After showering and wrapping a towel around his waist, Chad looked at his reflection in the mirror determinedly. He’d think of something. Running a hand through his hair, he remembered Andrea’s offer to cut it for him since it was getting a lot longer than he normally kept it. She’d been wondering how he looked with long hair and always had giggled at the old photos his sister had shown her , so maybe he could just let it grow and surprise her when he flew back to LA. He grinned and walked into the bedroom to reach for the phone.

Andrea answered on the third ring, still sounding groggy despite the fact that it was nearly nine o’clock there. “H’lllllo?” she mumbled.

“Are you still in bed?” he asked incredulously. “You’ve just gotten lazy as all get out since I’m not there to wake you up!”

A sleepy giggle combined with the sweet warmth in her voice filled him with fierce longing to be there with her. “Hey, you.”

“Miss me?”

“Always,” Andrea sighed theatrically. “My nights are filled with gloom ever since you left.”

Chad grinned, imagining her fluttering eyelashes. “Uh huh. So what’re you wearing? You’d better make it worth my while if I’m running up a bill this high just to call you.” he joked.

“If you use Skype it’s dirt cheap,” Andrea scolded him. “Plus you could see what I might or might not be wearing.”

Might not be? He made a mental note to look for a laptop with a webcam. “I’ll work on it if you’ll just tell me, mein schatz,” Chad wheedled.

Andrea laughed. “Exactly how hairy have your palms been getting lately?”

“They’re calling me Der Sasquatch,” Chad said seriously. “Does that give you any idea of the scope of this catastrophe?”

She was giggling so hard, she could barely get her next words out. “Poor baby. Have you looked in your suitcase yet?”

“Huh?” Chad glanced over at it. “Of course I have.”

“Well, did you look in the lining?”

“Why would I-hang on.” He put down the phone and went to grab the luggage, dumping his clothes out onto the bed and peering inside it to find the zipper. Sure enough, he found a slim envelope when he stuck his hand inside the lining. Pulling it out, he sat back down on the bed and picked up the phone again as he opened it. “I found an envelope, and am opening it right n-” Chad nearly dropped the phone in shock when he pulled out several photos of Andrea. Naked. And…doing things. Holy shit. This is so unfair…

The woman in question spoke up again. “Are you looking at them right now?”

“Uh-huuuuuuuh,” Chad growled, staring at them. “When did you….how did you…?” He couldn’t even form a complete sentence as he looked down at a picture of Andrea lying back on their bed with her legs just slightly parted.

“Find the one where I’m lying back against the pillow-”

“Oh, I’ve got that one right here.”

“Take your clothes off and lay down on your bed….are you doing that?” Andrea asked, lowering her voice in the way that always drove him crazy. Chad pulled the towel off and obeyed hastily, still eyeing the picture. “Now I want you to slowly slide your hand down your chest…”


_ _ _ _ _ _


This was silly, Andrea thought, settling back against the pillows after she’d taken off the shirt of Chad’s that she slept in and shooed Meredith out the door. She’d never done this before, but it sounded like Chad didn’t mind a bit… at the very least she could try this for him. “Are you hard for me, Lieutenant?” she asked, feeling slightly embarrassed.

On the other end of the line, she could hear Chad’s groan. “Was hard ever since I saw…want you so bad,” he panted.

His words sent a thrill through her, and the image of the big man lying on his back with that thick cock of his resting on his stomach made the remaining uncertainty disappear. “Reach down and touch your balls – roll them in your palm, tug them a little… but don’t touch anything else,” she warned. Chad’s breathing became that much more uneven, and Andrea moved the phone to her right hand as she dropped the other between her legs to stimulate herself. “Feels good, huh?”

“Mmmm,” Chad agreed.

Andrea circled her clit with two fingers, aroused at the thought of the big lieutenant touching himself at her command. “Move your hand up a little to touch the base of your cock…using only your first two fingers,” she clarified, smiling at the tiny grunt of disappointment that came as a result of these new rules.

She drew their game out as long as she could, but gave in when Chad started sounding a trifle desperate. His low, drawn-out moan of completion triggered her own orgasm and Andrea arched her back, babbling his name as she spasmed helplessly. “Fuck, that was…fuck,” Chad said shakily, still breathing hard.

“Mmm-hmm,” Andrea murmured back, shivering as the last few aftershocks coursed through her. “’S nice.”

“Be better if you were here,” Chad muttered sleepily, sounding like he always did when they’d had a particularly vigorous round of lovemaking. “Only three more weeks.”

She relaxed against the pillow and yanked the sheets back over herself. “It’s kinda hard keeping busy, you know? I’ve just gotten so used to you being here; I even left you a message on your cell the other day because I forgot you weren’t over at 6th street,” Andrea laughed. “Hopper thought I’d finally gone crazy.”

“What’d you say?”

“I think I asked if you could pick up some beer, but then I remembered you were on a different continent!”

Chad started laughing, too. “I’ll bring you some German beer if you want…”

“Just bring me some of you, and that’ll be fine.”

“Just me? You don’t want me to bring you anything else?” he asked in a tone that suddenly had her heart hammering in her chest.

“Like what?”

“Like, something that might…fit you,” Chad hinted.

Did he mean…? “You mean like a..a..um…a…something that begins with the letter ‘r’ and ends with ‘-ing’?” Andrea guessed, holding her breath.

“Maybe.”

Andrea cleared her throat, wondering if he was about to propose. Over the phone. “Well, I guess I’d think anything from you would be special,” she said awkwardly. He’d better not try proposing over the phone…!

“Good, because I passed a shop the other day and they were selling a cock-ring that I was sure you’d like,” Chad said in a relieved tone.

She started giggling wildly. “Chad!”


_ _ _ _ _ _


After talking to her for a few more minutes, Chad hung up the phone and went to take another shower, feeling somewhat like a weight had just been lifted from his shoulders. If he asked her to marry him, he knew now that she’d say yes…assuming he hadn’t pissed her off too badly prior to offering her a ring. There was still the business with Detweiler that he needed to take care of – Chad still wasn’t sure exactly how he was going to handle it - but he’d been thinking about marrying Andrea for a while now. After Rita, he’d been wary of being rejected again but this time… it felt different and he knew that Andrea was the one he should have waited for, never mind the fact that they wouldn’t be together now if not for Rita’s mind games.

Walking down to the bar where Steve and the rest of the SWAT team were comparing tall-tales, Chad dropped into a seat beside Faith and Justin Hawkins and leaned towards his unofficial ‘partner’. “Have a minute?” he murmured, jerking his chin towards the bar.

Faith grinned. “Hey, big guy – sure, I could use another drink.” Justin made as if to join them, but a shake of her head made him stay put. “We’ll be back in a second, honey.” When they had moved up to the bar and sat down, she looked over quizzically. “What’s up?”

Chad braced himself for the inevitable squealing that he was sure would follow his question. “I was wondering…”

“Yes? Go ahead,” she encouraged.

He cleared his throat. “I was wondering if you could help me with something. It’s kind of private, so if you wouldn’t spread it around that’d be great.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh my god, sir.”

“What?”

“You slept with that waitress who was giving you the eye, didn’t you? Omigod! I can’t believe you…!”

Her voice rose to an offended shriek and Chad shushed her quickly as the others looked over. “What the hell’s wrong with you? Of course I didn’t; Jesus!”

“You’ve got herpes, then,” Faith guessed.

Chad rolled his eyes. “And it’s not an STD! Will you just let me finish, please?”

“Well, hurry up and finish before I explode!”

“What has marriage to that idiot done to your brain?” Chad demanded. “I wanted your advice on jewelry for Andrea, and the first thing you’re thinking is that I’ve gotten a barmaid pregnant and contracted syphilis!”

Faith laughed at him. “You’re so much fun to rile up, Big Dog… and ooh, jewelry, huh?” Her eyes grew huge. “Wait a minute here. Jewelry, as in…jewelry? ” She held up her left hand, wiggling her ring finger, and began bouncing in her seat as he nodded in confirmation.

“You can’t say anything,” he warned her. “Not one word.”

Her eyes shone in excitement. “Oh, Chad! You’re buying Andy jewelry! ” Chad shook his head as Faith, in the true spirit of a SWAT team member, grabbed a cocktail napkin and began compiling a list of the surrounding jewelry stores. “We can probably hit at least ten of them tomorrow, just to get an idea of the selection – of course they’ll be able to tell we’re Americans within ten seconds of going in and the prices are set high for tourists, but I can talk to some people and get the names of stores frequented by local people…”

Chad rubbed a hand over his face. “This is insane, I thought you could just go with me to a few of them and-”

She looked offended. “A few? Lieutenant Shelten! This is the quest for the perfect engagement ring, not for a souvenir!”

“You’ve been watching subtitled fantasy movies again, haven’t you?” Chad asked suspiciously.

Justin finally came up to them. “Okay, what’s going on over here?”

Chad opened his mouth to allay the other man’s suspicions, but Faith beat him to the punch. “He’s going to buy a ring for Andrea,” Faith squealed excitedly, her hands flailing like she was in the midst of a seizure.

“Hey, alright! Way to go, sir!” Justin thwacked him on the shoulder. “Now we gotta plan the bachelor party…”

“And I can plan Andy’s party!”

“Whoa! Stop right there, both of you,” Chad commanded. “Nobody is planning anything, so settle down.” He glared at both of them. “I never said I was actually going to buy an engagement ring, did I?”

Faith gasped. “But, you said..!”

“I said I wanted your advice on one, not that I was going to purchase one,” he said evasively.

Justin threw up his hands. “It’s official. You’re the biggest party pooper in Europe, Shelten.”

“Let’s not forget that I’m still your superior officer in Europe,” Chad reminded him with a glare. “Now go back to your table and leave me alone.”

Faith flung her arms around him and planted a kiss on his cheek. “We can go ring shopping tomorrow at nine. Love ya, big brother.”

He grumbled, turning his face away to hide a smile. “Yeah, yeah. Go away.” Chad paid for a beer and stared at it thoughtfully, trying to figure out how he was going to play this. The logical thing would be to simply ask Andrea to marry him as soon as they got back, and then to let events unfold naturally… he sighed and lifted the bottle. He’d figure it out soon enough.


tbc…
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