DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE CLOSER OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS - I'M JUST PLAYING WITH THEM.

AUTHOR NOTE: Written in haste, so apologies for the lack of quality. Also written for ddagent - Happy New Year!

Adagio for Two


'So much for our New Year plans,' she says.

A grunt. 'We had plans? I'd forgotten.'

Brenda settles her head on his shoulder. With his arm around her and Kitty happily spread across her lap they must make a charming domestic scene, she thinks. Just one of the more unexpected things to occur ever since that night. Her mother had been right about accepting lifts off strange men. And while Flynn - Andy, she corrects herself - may not be a stranger, he is a little strange.

He'd be the first to claim that they are all a little strange, and she would have to agree.

And this would be about the most domesticated he gets.

'We were going to go out to dinner.'

'Uh-huh.'

'Maybe go dancing.' She eases her shoes off, levering them with her toes until they drop to the floor with a thud.

'If you want to dance, don't let me stop you.'

'I didn't mean a dance that has seven veils involved.'

'Damn.'

She smiles. He laughs softly and she feels his lips press against the top of her head. Kitty purrs, content, fur standing out at tufty angles under Brenda's ministrations. She can feel her own eyes growing heavy; her body feels too weighted down to move - a weight that comes from sheer exhaustion.

'Do you think it's a problem?' she asks.

He starts, his body tensing, dislodging her head from its comfortable spot, looking around as though searching for who needs arresting. 'What? What's wrong?'

Well done, Brenda, she thinks: the poor man hasn't slept for over thirty-six hours and here you go keeping him awake. She's had, at least, a half-hour where she'd run home and changed; Andy is still wearing the same clothes as the day before and she knows that he really hates that.

'Nothing,' she says.

He scrubs at his face. 'It's not nothing - you asked me something.'

She shrugs. 'It's nothing.'

She can hear him rolling his eyes. 'You asked it, and we all know that you don't ask a question without a reason.'

'Oh, ha-ha. Go back to sleep.'

'I was not asleep.'

'You were practically snoring.'

'I do not snore.'

'How would you know? You're asleep...'

'Yeah, well... At least I don't drool.'

She turns, glares at him and his face creases in a smile.

It isn't fair, she thinks, that it's such an effective weapon. Even less fair that he knows it.

Kitty's purring becomes an irritated mewl, claws flexing and digging into Brenda's thigh; she resumes her stroking of the thick fluffy coat and puts her head back on Andy's shoulder. 'Do you think it's a problem that we have so little time together?'

'We see each other everyday,' he says. 'Sometimes we see each other all day.'

'I know, but- You know what I mean. That's at work. It isn't the same.'

He shrugs - one shoulder, not the one under her head. 'That's the job. And the job's your life, I get that.'

She is sceptical. 'And you're telling me it isn't yours?'

His breath blows softly against her hair. 'Yes, it is. But you are the job, so that works out pretty well.'

Brenda raises her head, studies the features so close to hers.

'What?'

She abandons Kitty, ignoring the protests, and rests her hand against his cheek. 'I was just wondering if you'd mind if I kept you awake a while longer.'

He smiles slowly. 'Who says I was sleepy? Besides, I owe you something from midnight.' He kisses her softly. 'Happy New Year.'

She puts her arms around his neck. 'Happy New Year.'

FIN