An Internal Affair

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When Chad confronted Andrea about their ‘date’, she had the grace to look sheepish about it, but quickly confessed the reason why she had simply tried to keep him in the dark about it…she’d obviously forgotten that he’d once been in her shoes as far as stakeouts were concerned. She explained that she had thought that if she canceled on him, he would take it as lack of interest on her part and she might not get another chance. Andrea was watching the man she’d come to follow around and Chad split his attention between her, the man hosting a birthday party for his son, and the skating fruit in the middle of the arena. But his eyes rested most often on her, and his mind dwelled on the fact that she hadn’t bothered to dislodge his arm from the back of her seat.

The man they were keeping an eye on got up, presumably for a trip to the restroom, and Chad offered to follow – she blinked in surprise, but thanked him as he left. He watched the man enter the restroom and followed him back to the arena at a safe distance, using the pretense of buying a souvenir for Andrea as cover. “Here, I got you a light-up spinning thing that you have absolutely no use for,” he greeted her as he slid back into his seat, handing over the whatever-it-was.

Her eyes shone with suppressed laughter as she accepted the gift. “I’ll treasure it always,” she said solemnly as she sat back to inspect her present. “So, bathroom?”

Chad nodded in confirmation. “Bathroom.” Below them on the ice, a large orange had joined the blueberry and he was about to point this out to Andrea when he saw her lift her arm as if to stretch. No way. Oh, this is too good. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she reached slowly across over, and he slid slightly lower in his seat just as she dropped her arm across his shoulders. He seriously considered theatrically begging her to hold him tighter, but ultimately decided against it – he was having far too much fun watching her try to put the moves on him. It was actually very nice to have someone willing to put the moves on him, since his behavior tended to repel women in droves….but it was slightly ridiculous for someone so much shorter than he was trying to put her arm around him – it looked as if she were about to fall from her seat. And she was trying her hardest to make it seem as if she weren’t really doing what she was doing.

He decided to take pity on her, and offered to throw out her empty cup with the excuse that he had a leg crap – Andrea promptly lifted both her arms in a parody of stretching as he stood, undoubtedly relieved that she wouldn’t have to pull her arm from its socket any longer. When he returned to his seat, he saw that she seemed slightly embarrassed about her earlier action and leaned over to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, whispering to her. “So, where do you think he’ll be headed next?” he murmured, letting his lips brush over her skin.

“He’ll, uh, probably leave early – his nephew is right there to the left” she pointed “so I think he’ll most likely head back to the club before the hour’s up. We can leave when he does, so don’t worry.”

Chad smiled at her, moving his leg closer to hers so that their knees touched and pressed lightly. “I’m not worried.”

She pressed back against him. “Good.”

They spent the remainder of their time laughing over the absurdity of the costumes and pointing out the most obnoxious children present, all the while keeping an eye on the small group below them – when the man showed signs of restlessness, that was their cue to leave. Andrea expressed her irritation about not being able to follow the man into the club (for he indeed went back to the strip club and neither of them were dressed for such a place, as the other patrons were wearing suits) so Chad tried his best to keep her amused by suggesting they tell each other stories. When she arched an eyebrow at him, he explained further. “Yeah, you tell me something – it can be true or not, but I have to guess if it’s a lie. I’ll go first.” He launched into a tale concerning Detectives Spivak and Choi and a fairly embarrassing situation he found the two of them in. “…and it was in the interrogation room,” he finished with a straight face.

“That’s definitely a lie – I can’t see the two of them doing such a thing,” she laughed.

“I wish I hadn’t seen it, either… is that your guy coming back out?” he interrupted himself to point to the door and she swore, reaching for her camera as the man emerged with another dealer she was acquainted with.

After getting several pictures and sitting back in satisfaction as the two men went their separate ways, she began her story about her lieutenant, a pot of coffee, and a crack whore that made him shake his head and call it as a lie immediately. “What makes you so sure that it’s a lie?” she asked mock-indignantly.

“Because Graves doesn’t drink coffee anymore after I told him Detective Andrews – did you ever meet Andrews? – liked to piss in the filters every morning.”

Andrea hooted with laughter. “You did not! … did he really?”

“Does it matter? Graves believed it, and that’s good enough for me.”

She shook her head as she started the car. “You’re slightly psychotic, Sergeant Shelten.” Driving back to his house in companionable silence, she parked in front and seemed to hesitate about unbuckling her seat belt, carefully not looking at him. “So, um, sorry again about the stakeout situation….maybe I could make it up to you tomorrow night?”

Chad reached for his sweater in the back seat. “I’m busy tomorrow night; I’ve got a….thing.”

“Oh. Like a date or something,” she said, still not looking at him. He looked over and saw her face as she glanced over, and he had to smile at the disappointment she couldn’t quite hide. “It doesn’t matter to me,” she huffed. “Go ahead and laugh.”

Well, no time like the present, Shelten… he reached out and placed a finger under her chin, turning her towards him. “Andrea, look at me; there’s no date.”

She swallowed as he moved closer. “Really? I mean, it’s not like I care if you-” Chad silenced her by brushing his lips over hers lightly in a kiss, drawing back slightly to look at her. Andrea’s eyes were half-closed, and her lips were still parted slightly – it didn’t look like she objected at all, so he leaned in again and kissed her as thoroughly as he knew how. This time, she seemed to wake up as soon as his mouth slanted over hers and then she was reaching for him, sliding her fingers through his hair and caressing his face.


_ _ _ _ _ _


Yes, Rita definitely had to be certifiable – there was no other way to explain it, Andrea thought deliriously as she clung to Chad’s shoulders. A small part of her thought it was highly amusing that they were necking like teenagers in the car, but the rest of her couldn’t give a damn. Lordee, but the man can kiss. She felt the rumble of his laughter under her hand on his chest when she protested his withdrawal. “I need air,” he protested, twining one of her curls around a finger. “For some reason, I feel like my mother will start turning on the porch light at any moment,” he laughed.

Andrea smirked. “Does this mean you’ve had enough, Momma’s Boy?”

“What do you think?” She shrieked when he lunged over and dragged her across the console into his lap, silencing her once more in the way that worked so well before. Andrea briefly wondered about seeming too easy but despite the fact that they were currently acting like a pair of adolescents, they were both adults and could handle themselves just fine. Chad was certainly handling her fine at the moment… she ran her palms over his muscular chest while one of his hands slipped beneath her shirt to caress her back, and she sighed against his lips. Their kisses steadily grew more heated until he broke away from her with a groan, his chest heaving beneath her hands. “Andrea, stop… I’ve got to wake up early tomorrow and- oh, fuck it.” He yanked her back for another kiss and she took the opportunity to get her hands under his shirt, sliding her palms sensuously against his warm skin.

She slumped against him, swearing when her foot accidentally hit the scanner and turned it on, jolting them out of the moment as effectively as if someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on them. “Sorry,” she mumbled against his collarbone, feeling him begin to laugh.

“I think that’s my cue to leave,” he joked, extricating himself from her gently and helping her back in the driver’s seat. “I think we’ve given old Mrs. Marino over there enough of a show as it is.”

Andrea’s eyes widened in horror as she glanced across the street to see the curtains on a nearby house flutter closed suddenly. “Oh, my God - was she watching the entire time?”

“Probably. Doesn’t get out much these days and she is rather fond of her binoculars…call you Sunday?” he offered as he stepped from the car. She nodded, unaccountably shy after what they’d been doing earlier, and he leaned back in to give her another kiss before lifting a hand to wave at Mrs. Marino’s curtains and giving her a wink. “Later, Battle.”

“Maybe, Shelten.” She drove to her place and busied herself with cleaning the house before she sank down on the couch and flipped on the television, thinking of Chad. She wondered how long it would be before either he would invite her to spend the night or she would simply drag him into her house whether he wanted to come or not. Andrea laughed at this last thought, since it had been very apparent from where she had been sitting that he wouldn’t have complained a bit. She wondered what was going on the next day that would keep him so busy – he’d said it wasn’t a date, but what else would it could be? She resolved to get it out of him the next time they saw each other, and went to sleep smiling.

As luck would have it, she missed Chad’s call on Sunday due to a visit to her CI in Chinatown, but was greeted with the sight of a small stuffed ‘Barney’ on her desk Monday morning. As it held a stem of daisies and a card in its little purple…paws that read Next Friday?, Hopper was on her case the entire morning trying to find out who had sent it as soon as she stopped laughing. “I already read the card,” he told her. “You can never be too careful, these days…but who-”

She glared. “So that’s why it was open! You don’t see me opening things Rita’s sent you.”

“Well, Rita didn’t send that… look, we’re partners, you can tell me,” Hopper wheedled.

Yeah, right. You’d have a heart attack, die, and everyone would blame me for it. “It’s not your business, Hopper.”

He shot her a look that was probably meant to signify hurt feelings. “It’s not Chad, is it?” he joked. “Let’s go get some coffee.”

Andrea followed him into the hall, shaking her head. When she saw the tall sergeant emerge from an office thumbing through a file, she couldn’t help herself. “Yes, Hopper – it’s Chad and I just can’t wait to shout my love for him from the rooftops. Look, there he is… excuse me, Sergeant Shelten?”

Chad looked up, the smile that was in his eyes dying as soon as he saw who was with her. “Detective,” he greeted cautiously. “How can I help you – looking to get yourself a new partner? That’s totally understandable.”

“Hopper here is under the impression that we’ve been making wild and passionate love all over the building,” she smirked, though her partner had said no such thing and was opening his mouth to protest.

Chad’s eyelids flickered as he looked at her. “Really? Where was I during all this?” He began to look her up and down in a way that had Hopper nearly foaming at the mouth. “Next time you two start dreaming up these things, you might want to let me know about it – we could work something out.” Chad shifted his gaze over to Hopper, tapping the file folder in his palm. “So, is this the way you usually spend time? Just wandering around instead of bringing in criminals who sell crack to little kids? I’ll be sure to note that in your file…” he looked down at Andrea and raised an eyebrow. “…maybe even both your files. Have a good one,” he finished faux-politely and moved off.

“What an ass,” Hopper announced.

“You’re not half wrong there,” Andrea agreed, glaring after the departing man. “Look, I think I’ll just go back up and search through those case files again,” she sighed, her desire for caffeine suddenly dissipating as she headed back to the elevators. She wasn’t sure what had possessed her to confront Chad like that, and she also wasn’t sure how he’d taken it.

The answer to that was discovered shortly after she stepped into the elevator, too preoccupied with her own thoughts to realize who she had walked past until the elevator came to an abrupt halt and she was shoved against the wall. “What was that all about?” Chad asked, blue eyes shining with amusement as she ineffectually struggled against his hold.

“It’s your own damn fault for sending me Barney – you knew he would ask me.” She scowled up at him, but couldn’t keep her arms from creeping around his neck automatically as he moved closer. “So where were you on Saturday? And should you be grabbing helpless females in elevators where anyone could just come in and see you?”

Chad grinned and dropped the file he’d been carrying on the floor. “I don’t think you’ve ever been helpless a day in your life – and I have keys to the elevators.” He bent to kiss her, and she responded eagerly. A little kissing at work never hurt anyone, especially with the only man who could investigate me for doing it. When her brain had been well and truly scrambled, he released her and pulled the keys from the door. “Hey, where’s your coffee? And you never said about next Friday…” he picked up the papers he’d scattered and waited.

“You killed my caffeine urge by simply being yourself and no, I didn’t say about next Friday,” she teased as the doors opened to admit one of the SWAT crew, who nodded at Chad as if they knew each other. She took pity on the alarm in his eyes as the elevator stopped at her floor, and smiled to herself as she stepped out. “You know where to find me on Friday, sergeant.”

“You can bet that I do, Battle,” he said threateningly for the benefit of their audience. She shook her head and walked on. What a Drama King.


tbc…
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