Dale stepped into the dewy garden, exuberant this early June morning in Pittsburgh. "Hello? Mrs. Earle?"
"Up here."
His gaze lifted to a nearby tree that arched outwards, sleek and slim with sapgreen leaves brushing the ground. It resembled a lady with her hair thrown forward to comb it out. He thought he'd like to kiss someone under a tree like that.
A woman climbed down the rungs of a white-painted ladder that stood leaned against the trunk. The breeze tossed the hem of her summer dress, toyed with her cupper-red ponytail.
"Caroline Earle." She peeled off her damp garden gloves and shook his hand. He appreciated the gesture. 'Hi' and 'good morning' were always welcome, but the gentle touch and eye contact of a handshake was a proper greeting. And establishing trust was essential in the assignment he'd come here for.
Not that there was any confusing Caroline's genuine and good-natured smile. It seemed such a natural expression on her face.
"Agent Dale Cooper, at your service."
Her wedding band rasped against his palm. "Windom has told me so much about you."
"What are you doing?" Dale asked, but couldn't stop the grin spreading across his face. There was a quiet snap as Caroline broke off the shoot of one of the park's cinnamon roses and slipped it into her handbag. Catching his eye, she smiled wryly.
"Will the Bureau put this in my dossier?"
"Step away from the bush with your hands in the air, and we'll negotiate."
Turning back to the paved walk, a flower by its edge caught his eye. He grasped the stem to have a closer look at the pompon of rounded petals spiraling around the disc. Scarlet verging on black, folded as neat as origami.
"Fascinating how something so showy can grow out of dull bulbs, isn't it?" Caroline came up beside him.
"Indeed." He brushed a thumb over the grand flower. "What's it called?"
"Almost the same as you, actually. Dahlia. But you're nowhere near as melodramatic." Caroline leaned forward and caught another spriggy flower under its crown. "These, for instance, are called Les Etoiles de Diable – 'stars of the devil'." She rolled her eyes in good humor. "Looks more like a plastered sea urchin to me." She let go of it to glance at her watch.
"Hmm, we should head back. My lunch hour's almost over."
Dale spread his arm in a jaunty gesture, "Lead the way."
Being around Caroline made him feel like a forest reviving after a winter, as if all his past troubles could be undone in weeks if he just immersed himself in the present, with her.
Yet there were times when the urge to spill the beans became almost acute. He wanted to treat her with honesty and openness, for her to understand him. But these days were not the time, and he doubted it would ever come. His duty to Windom and the Bureau was imperative. Caroline's words when they parted at the entrance reminded him of that.
"Could you take those letters with you to the office, by the way?"
Dale's jaw tightened. New threats had arrived in the mail this morning. He'd detected one masked as an electricity bill, but the one tucked inside Home & Garden's special issue on floribundas fell out right at Caroline's feet when he picked the magazine up.
She must've misread the expression on his face, for she hurried to add: "I'll tell Winnie about them when he comes home, they just don't have to be the first thing he sees after two weeks away."
Dale agreed in earnest with the logic, "Of course."
Too bad that even as a pillar of security, he himself was a constant reminder of the peril she was in.
A/N: When I first got into the Twin Peaks fandom, I had a grand idea for a multi-chaptered epic Twin Peaks/The Hidden-crossover. Naturally my inspiration was doomed to fizzle out, but I liked the part in which Cooper met Caroline too much to delete it – moreover, Mackoonzie had already done this great piece of fanart for it. And so I decided to rework this into a Twin Peaks-only oneshot. The details don't match up 100% with MLMT, but I hope the read's still enjoyable.