I'm back again with a Flack/Angell. I loved all the reviews that Change Her Mind got, I think I managed to thank everyone individually, but if I missed someone, I'm sorry and thank you!
That being said, I've had so many story ideas milling around in my head I've been having trouble getting them down, but after extensive rewriting I finally got this little venture polished to my liking. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the ending, but for the moment it's good enough. If you want, let me know what you think.
Confirmation
Snow was falling heavily outside, blanketing the city in a white mantel that would undoubtedly cause a number of traffic issues in the morning, when everyone forgot how to drive in the snow. For the moment though, it was beautiful.
The first new snow fall of the year is largely anticipated and appreciated by many, however there were at least two people in the city on whom it was making no impact.
Wrapped up in warm blankets and warm arms, Donald Flack and Jessica Angell were more interested in each other's continued heartbeats than in any snowstorm.
It had been a close call. That's what they were calling it back at the precinct. In their line of work, if you got your bad guy and lived to tell the tale, then it was a good day. Getting injured was all part of what they had all signed up for. Well, that was all well and fine on paper. It was not fine in reality. On paper, it was honour and glory. In reality, it was weeks of physiotherapy and pain meds and manning a desk until a score of doctors agreed that you could go back to doing your job.
He breathed in the faint scent of her hair and tried not to think about not having that luxury.
It had been a bad situation. A last minute under cover op, and so it was less well executed than it should have been even at the start. There were just too many opportunities for everything to go horribly wrong. He hadn't liked it from the moment it had been suggested. Neither had she. But, that was the job, whether they liked it or not, and sometimes you don't get that choice.
When it was all over, she had a low grade concussion and a series of scrapes and bruises from having been shoved down a flight of stairs, and he'd taken a bullet to his right arm. In the end, they'd walked away from it, but they could just as easily have come out of it in body bags.
She listened to his heartbeat under her ear and didn't think about losing the opportunity to do so.
They had both been injured in the line of duty before. She had spent more than a few nights tracing her fingers along the scars left behind by the explosion, a grim reminder that but for Mac and a lot of luck, she may never have even met him. And in return he'd mapped out her own scars several times, two inconsequential knife wounds, and a bullet wound a little too close to a vital artery for his comfort.
But all of that had happened before they were what they were now. It had all happened before they'd even known each other. The scars were only remnants, evidence that they had survived long enough to make it this far.
It wasn't that they didn't expect to be injured on the job again. It was quite the opposite actually, it was pretty much a given that anything could happen every time they ventured out onto the streets. They both knew that they'd both be back in the hospital again.
They'd just forgotten that the next time either of them ended up in the hospital again, the other one would be waiting outside the door. And in this case, neither of them had actually anticipated being more worried about the condition the other was in, than their own.
For both of them, today had been a confirmation of something that both had suspected existed, but had resolutely ignored, since even before he'd kissed her that November night in the street.
He felt her breath dance across his skin, and she felt his fingers in her hair and they both lay quietly in her bed, unable to sleep, but unwilling to move and break the peaceful spell that they'd cast on themselves hours earlier.
"Jess?" He whispered against her hair.
"Yeah?" She whispered back.
"I think I love you."
He felt her smile against his chest, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead as she whispered her response.
"I think I love you too."