Between Lovers and Friends
Summary: Kate/Jake/OFC. Kate's newly divorced best friend has come to stay with her, and unfortunately for Kate she seems quite interested in Jacob Thorne.
(Disclaimer: I do not own Law & Order UK. The rights to Law and Order belong to Dick Wolf and credit it due to everyone who works super hard on the show and are kind enough to give up their time to interact with fans on twitter.)
Chapter 1.
Kate was enjoying living in London now that she was working for the CPS. She was able to see more of her friends, with some of them leaving nearby or coming up to the city for weekend breaks and trips to the theatre. She had already slept on the uncomfortable sofa bed twice this month while one of her old friends stayed in her bedroom. The flat she had been able to afford was so small that there was barely room for just her, let alone one of her best friends.
It was a warm early spring evening and Kate arrived home from the office to find her best friend from university outside in the small rectangle of garden that the building's tenants shared. Anna waved her over, pointing to the bottle of wine on the table and the extra glass just for Kate. On a mild night like this, Kate would have preferred a cold beer, but after a long day preparing a particularly harrowing case for trial she would accept anything as long as it was alcoholic.
"How was your day?" Anna asked when Kate had taken a seat opposite her at the tiny garden table that would have looked more at home on an Italian side street.
Kate made a face and took another sip of wine, kicking off her Ugg boots.
"Same old, really. We don't go to trial till Monday, so it's just double checking that everything is water-tight, and then triple checking it."
Anna made a sympathetic noise. An interior designer herself, she had never quite understood Kate's passion for justice but perhaps their differences was what had made them such firm friends.
"How about you," Kate asked. "How was your day in the big city?"
"I went to the National Gallery," she replied, her eyes going dreamy as she mentally recalled the hours she had spent moving from room to room, taking in the beautiful, famous artwork. "And I had some lunch at a wonderful little French bistro. I really thought I'd be lonely with you at work, but perhaps I'm getting used to the single life after all."
"It's not so bad," Kate reassured her. "Plus, it's better to be alone than be with a tool like Jason,"
Anna shuddered at the mention of her ex-husband's name. This particular visit to Kate's had been less of a social call and more of a search for a shoulder to cry on. Kate wasn't exactly surprised that Anna's marriage of just over two years had broken down, not when she had seen Jason having an intense conversation with a bridesmaid during their wedding reception.
"You're right," Anna agreed. "And on that subject, what about you Kate any rich lawyers falling for your charms?"
"Maybe, but the feeling is definitely not mutual. Dating opposing counsel would just be so awkward, especially if they've just been defending some scumbag."
"Well, what about someone on the right side of the law? You must get to mix with a fair share of coppers and other lawyers too?"
"They're mates, Anna; it would be weird to date any of them."
But Anna knew Kate too well; could always tell when her best friend was hiding something from her or skimming over the truth.
"What about that guy that you're always working with? Jack, I think you said his name was..."
"Jake," Kate corrected her before she could stop herself.
"Didn't you say you used to go to the pub after work with him quite often?"
In spite of herself, Kate felt a blush rising to her cheeks and tried to blame it on the red wine.
"Sometimes. We need to decompress after a case; celebrate if it went well and drown our sorrows if we get screwed over."
Anna nodded and Kate wasn't sure she liked the expression in her friend's eyes, just because she no longer had romantic interests of her own she hoped that Anna wouldn't start interfering with her own admittedly dull love life.
"Are you alright, Kate?" Thorne asked as he watched her down half a bottle of mineral water and two large paracetemol capsules. The office was practically in darkness, with the blinds closed against the bright sunshine.
"Red wine," she muttered, slugging more of the cold water.
"Do you want a coffee?"
"I'd love one, but I don't think it would stay down for very long."
"That bad, huh?" Jake tried not to smile as he flicked on his desk lamp so that he could actually see to switch his computer on.
"My best friend is staying with me for a while and she's, well, she's more cultured than I am...so, we ended up sharing two bottles of wine last night."
"Ouch," He paused to type in his password. "By 'more cultured', do you mean she doesn't wear Ugg boots and drink men twice her age under the table?"
"That's the one," Kate nodded and wished she hadn't.
"If you want to go home, we can probably manage without you..."
"I'll be fine," She replied, but it was lunch time before Jake stopped peering around his computer to make sure she was still alright.
Anna was waiting outside the building when Kate finished work for the day, several bags from boutique shops and tourist attractions hanging over her wrists.
"I hope you don't mind me showing up like this, but I was nearby and thought we could get the tube back to yours together?"
"Sounds good," Kate replied, able to nod her head now without feeling like it might roll off her shoulders.
Anna seemed reluctant to begin their walk to the nearest tube stop, fiddling with her shopping bags and making a performance out of searching for her Oyster card. If Kate wasn't a lawyer she might not have suspected that her friend's motives were any other than pure, but though she didn't think of herself as especially cynical, she wasn't an idiot either.
"I'll see you tomorrow Kate, try and stay off the red wine tonight, would you?"
Jake had left the CPS building without Kate noticing and was only a few feet from her now. Anna triumphantly pulled her Oyster card from her jacket pocket, muttering that it must have been there all along. Kate couldn't see how she could get away without introducing her colleague to her best friend.
"It's definitely beer for me tonight, Jake. This is my friend Anna, she's staying with me for a while. Anna, this is Jacob Thorne, we work together."
Anna and Jake shook hands, and though Kate knew both of them very well, she felt like the third wheel. Perhaps Anna and Jake were just more similar in character.
"We were just going back to Kate's flat, but perhaps we could all go and get a drink or a bite of supper together?"
There wasn't anything that Kate wanted less at that moment, but she found herself tagging along behind them as Anna led the way to a sushi bar she had spotted earlier that afternoon. Jake seemed as equally enthusiastic as Anna, the two of them talking about types of food that Kate had never heard of nor tried. It wasn't that she wasn't adventurous when it came to food, but a plate of steak and chips was her idea of a quality meal.
When they arrived at the sushi restaurant they were shown immediately to a table in the far corner. Kate found herself wedged into a corner, with Anna and Jake on the other side of the table. Anna was telling a story that Kate was glad she had heard before, because five minutes had passed before she had realised that she wasn't listening to her friend. It wasn't until their menus arrived that Kate suddenly recognised what she was feeling and, as much as she wanted to deny it, she realised that she was jealous. The early days of her working relationship with Jake had been hard work. They could both be as stubborn and pigheaded as each other when they cared about something, and that still led to clashes between them even now. The way that Anna and Jake were chatting as if they had known each other for a quarter of a century rather than a quarter of an hour was unsettling, especially when she realised she could think of nothing to add to their conversation.
The food was probably excellent, but Kate barely noticed as she picked each artistically created piece of sushi up with her chopsticks, dipped it in soy sauce and put it into her mouth. She felt like a machine; lift, dunk, chew, swallow, all the while Anna and Jake discussed the exhibition she wanted to see at the British Museum the next day.
"It's a shame that you're working," Anna said, in what Kate knew to be her flirtatious tone of voice. "Because you could have come along with me. Living in the city, you must know all the shortcuts and best places to get brunch."
"I don't have a lot of time for brunch," Jake replied, looking over at Kate for the first time since their food had arrived and giving her an ironic smile.
Perhaps he was just being polite, she thought with a sudden and irrational burst of hope. Perhaps Anna was actually boring him silly but he was too polite to tell her to be quiet.
"When we've got a big case to prepare for, we don't get much time for anything really." Kate interjected.
Jake, still seeming to smirk at her, began ticking things off on his fingers and thumb.
"Sleeping, eating, socialising..."
"There was a week in December where we were pretty sure we didn't see daylight once. We were prepping for this huge trial, spent every waking hour on it and then the defendant died in custody,"
"Which was quite rude of him, if you ask me."
Anna looked at the two of them, noticing that Kate was only really contributing to the conversation now that she was talking to Jake. It was interesting, she thought, especially when she remembered how Kate had protested that she wasn't interested in anyone and that when she went to the pub with Jake it was strictly business.
The evening was still warm, the sun not even close to setting yet so Kate and Anna decided to walk home instead of taking the tube. Anna had invited Jake to come back with them for a drink, but to Kate's relief he had declined.
"So, he's nice," Anna said as she linked her arm through the crook of Kate's elbow.
"Yeah," was Kate's non-committal response.
They were both silent the rest of the way home, with plenty of occupy both of their minds.
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