Robbie and Laura have moved into their new house. This story is set somewhere between the episodes "Intelligent Design" and "Entry Wounds", a while before Robbie takes a break from retirement
Disclaimer : This story is for non-profit fan purposes only. The characters were created by Colin Dexter, and as far as I know they belong to ITV. I only borrowed them.
All mistakes are mine ...
Dr. Laura Hobson was driving home. It had been a bad day at work; one of those cases that broke through her well-schooled defenses. And now on top of it she was snarled up in a traffic jam. Her thoughts drifted off...
Today was the first day that she was driving home from work to her new place, the house that she shared with Robbie Lewis, recently retired Detective Inspector. She remembered the moment in her lab when he had asked her "You'd be alright with being with a pensioner?" a little while before he had decided to take retirement. She had answered in a semi-serious way "If that pensioner had my dinner on the table when I get home and rub my back for me 'til I can retire too ...Then I'd love it"
Laura had always lived alone - except for the few years at university when she had shared a house with a few other students. Suddenly she remembered that one of her friends once had told her she was not an easy person to live with. She was not the nest-building type of woman - or at least she thought so.
She had bought a house of her own as soon as she could afford it. Living alone had its pros and cons ... Laura had invested most of her time and energy into her career. She loved her job, but she also liked an active social life, concerts, sports, theatre, going out with friends.
She was an independent woman, always had been, and she had enjoyed the liberty to come and go whenever she liked without having to tell anybody. Laura could get up at dawn or stay in bed, nobody would care. She practised the clarinet whenever she felt like it, could turn up the volume of the stereo or she could work in the middle of the night, even take a bath at 3 in the morning with no consideration for somebody else.
And she could be on her own, could avoid meeting anybody if she did not feel like it, especially on a bad day... But in the last few years she had wondered how different her life could have been if she had had a husband and children.
No, she did not have regrets - it would just have been different. And now, there was Robbie in her life and his family had given her a warm welcome.
Laura Hobson and Robbie Lewis had moved into their house only three days ago. There was a wave of flu in her lab and Laura had been called back to work more than a week earlier than planned. A lot of detail work still had to be done in the house and she hoped Robbie could manage on his own.
Laura finally parked her car in the drive in front of the house. The darkness and the chilly weather suited her mood.
She took her laptop and her bag from the passenger seat, then she walked slowly towards the door. She could see the dim light in the hallway. A lantern with three big white candles was standing outside on a small stool, next to the front door. It had not been there this morning. The warm glow of the candlelight painted a pattern on the stones at her feet. Today was the first day that she did not come home to an empty house. This was their home now and it had been Laura who insisted on selling her old place and find a new house to make a fresh start together.
It felt different to come home to a place where someone was waiting for her.
This was one of the things that had changed in her life now.
Laura was a practical person. She had opted to book an all-inclusive removal service. They both only had to pack their private, personal things. Everything else was packed by the removal people. After arriving at their new place they had chosen to unpack only the boxes marked "private" themselves, so everything would be in the right place from the beginning.
She opened the front door and a pile of boxes caught her attention. Laura felt slightly annoyed - Robbie had had nothing else to do today, so why where these boxes still blocking the way? He had wanted to stack away the photos, the vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and a few boxes of kitchen stuff while she was at work.
She had just closed the door behind her when she noticed something else. The house was warm and a delicious smell of apples and cinnamon wavered over from the kitchen. She could hear the radio. Cricket? Laura quietly took a few steps into the house and stood still. Usually she had to switch the heating on herself and get something to eat, make tea or coffee herself when she wanted some. This was a new experience for her although Robbie and Laura had spent most of their time together either at Robbie's flat or in Laura's house in the past year. They both had been working long hours and they did not have a lot of time for cooking except when none of them was working.
The welcoming smell of apples and cinnamon tickled her nose again. Obviously Robbie had started his own kind of house-warming party.
The candles, the noise, the apple scent and the warmth hit her senses, wrapped around her like a warm blanket and moved her nearly to tears.
Robbie's presence made her feel safe and comfortable and many years ago, as a very young woman, she never would have thought that this might be important for her one day. Was he really doing this especially for her?
The role of houseman and pensioner was still new for Robbie and she tried to push the thought away that this might not be enough for him on the long run.
His work as a detective had been the centre of his life for so many years. Laura had actively chosen to live alone, but Robbie did have no choice all those years ago.
There had been men in Laura's life but none of them had ever done anything domestic at her place. She told herself again that she was a strong, independent person, she was not the kind of woman to work herself into a sentimental mood over something like a few candles in front of her door. Again she had to remind herself, this was not her place alone - Robbie was living here, they were living here together, and he was exactly the kind of person who would do something like this for her.
Laura felt ashamed about her first impatient reaction when she had found the boxes near the front door.
The house was not perfectly tidy, but suddenly she didn't care anymore. She draped her jacket over the boxes and hurried towards the kitchen where she found Robbie staring into the oven - he had placed a chair right in front of it and was sitting there listening to some cricket match, watching the proceedings inside the oven.
Robbie turned around and Laura noticed that his face was all flushed by the heat of the oven. Laura stepped up behind the chair and wrapped her arms around Robbie, kissing him on the cheek. He tilted his head to return the kiss.
One look at her made him ask "Bad day, was it?" She had to pull herself together to make sure her voice wouldn't sound wobbly before she answered in a matter-of-fact tone "Accident involving a child".
Robbie did not have to ask for more details to know what was needed now. Instead, he exhaled softly - then he left his observation point in front of the oven to turn the radio off. "See? I unpacked the last kitchen boxes in the morning. I got us something to eat. And a bottle of wine. That's all we need today". In one swift move he switched the oven off, put the kettle on and cupped his warm hands around Laura's shoulders. Laura noticed a few spots of white paint on the right sleeve of Robbie's white-and-blue chequered shirt. He manoeuvered her gently towards the neatly set table. He used teatowels to take a hot applepie out of the oven and explained in a slightly apologetic tone "Don't worry, I didn't make it myself ... "
Laura relaxed and grinned at Robbie. He had set his priorities - take her mind off this awful day at work and make her comfortable at their new home.
No, she absolutely didn't mind being with a pensioner. It felt really good to come home to this place where the man she loved was waiting for her.
And in this moment Laura forgot about the pile of unpacked boxes and untidy rooms - she wished Robbie would remember his offer and start rubbing her back for her.