Stakeout
"Wow, it's hot in here," Audrey complained, breathing out a breath of hot air, pulling her shirt away from her chest to let a little fresh air in and fanning herself with her hand. All fairly useless gestures against the heat but the things you do when you've been sitting in a hot truck for half an hour. They'd borrowed Duke's vehicle for the stakeout after Audrey had pointed out that Nathan's Bronco wasn't exactly inconspicuous. Duke wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of his car being used for police work but they'd offered him cash and made a parking ticket go away. Had Duke pointed out that his air con was on the fritz Audrey would have lowered the price considerably.
"I'm fine," Nathan grinned.
"You could get heatstroke and not even know it," Audrey warned.
Nathan shrugged. "I've been fine so far. You should go back to the station; I can handle this by myself. It's silly us both being stuck here." He gestured to the shop front they were monitoring and the notebook he was recording comings and goings in.
"No we don't know enough about what's happening to these people, we're still not sure who is affected and who the troubled person is and whatever's going on the witnesses couldn't remember what they saw, if it's something to do with memory I'm our best chance seeing as I'm the one that seems to be immune to the troubles, kind of ironic when I can't even remember where I came from." Audrey Parker had an unusually grumpy note in her voice which warned Nathan that maybe he was taking the heat issue just a little too lightly.
"Okay well in that case, how about I go and get you something cold to drink and you keep watch here. There's a little café not far from here, I'll duck in and get you something, I'm sure they do takeaway."
"Really?" Audrey asked looking questioning at her partner who suddenly seemed far more like a gallant knight in shining armour and far less like an ignorant insensitive jerk.
"The least I could do," Nathan smiled. He didn't quite bat his eyelids but he did giver her his best innocent schoolboy look. He practically pouted.
"Okay thanks, something with ice and caffeine would be perfect," Audrey agreed, softening.
"Back in a sec," Nathan opened the door to the Bronco and got out. He pulled his t-shirt out lose over the top of his jeans to conceal his weapon and badge and slug a camera around his neck and popped a dorky fishing hat on his head in the hopes that to the casual observer he'd just look like another slightly lost summer person.
Audrey chuckled at her partners' expense and waved a quick goodbye.
Although Nathan was reasonably quick on his errand in the time he was gone absolutely nothing of any interest had happened and Audrey was getting bored and cranky all over again. When Nathan presented her with a large take away iced-coffee she took it gratefully in her hands, cradling the cold plastic against her skin. She even lifted it to her forehead briefly.
Nathan smiled and tried to ignore the way her skin gleamed with sweat or the thick rich mixture of sweat and recently applied deodorant. That was one plus of having a female partner, the male cops he'd worked with never worked about getting stinky on the job. Not that Audrey smelled stinky to Nathan. He assumed it was pheromones playing with his senses but even when she was sweaty she never smiled more than slightly spicy, like cinnamon and nutmeg.
"Thank God, I mean, thank you Nathan," Audrey murmured. Then her expression changed, "Hey where's the straw?"
Nathan's self-satisfied expression fell. "Sorry, the kid that served me didn't hand me one and I didn't even realised, I walked straight in and straight out, I didn't want to leave you too long," he apologised.
Audrey looked like she was trying really hard not to overreact. If it was a can of coke she would have cracked the can without a raised eyebrow, she wasn't by nature a fussy prissy girl, but it was one of those elaborate takeaway cups with no sport, just a circular opening at the top for a straw and the cream topping dusted with chocolate almost filled the space between the bottom section of the cup and the lid. In other words it was likely if she opened it to try and drink it she would spill it. Asking Nathan to go back for a straw was out of the question, she was NOT that high-maintenance girl.
Audrey shrugged at herself, gently eased the top off. Ice-coffee overflowed and started to run down the outside of the cup, faced with the unhappy prospect of wearing ice-coffee all over her white blouse she bent and carefully caught the dribble with her tongue. She licked it up and then carefully sipped the cream off the top. Cream splattered over her top lip and onto the top of her nose. Audrey giggled, and shot Nathan a playful look that said, "I know how stupid I look so don't even say it!" Nathan grinned back at her, oddly transfixed and reached out his thumb and wiped the cream off her lips. Her lips felt soft and cold and he impulsively licked the cream off his thumb. Audrey just stared. She couldn't pull her eyes away from his. Nathan smiled broadly and reached out again to wipe the cream of her nose.
"Sorry about the straw," Nathan added unnecessarily. He didn't look sorry at all.
"No, this is great," Audrey smiled self-consciously and took another careful sip of the ice-cold liquid. This time she avoided the cream splatter and didn't spill any liquid down the side of her cup. Nathan couldn't help but notice how disappointed he was by that fact. He wound the window down a crack more. He might not be able to feel the temperature of the air inside the drivers cab but he could feel the heat in the air between them.