Truth Be Told
Summary: Will Jack and Rachel finally be able to admit that they have feelings for one another?
A/N: I recently re-watched some Water Rats episodes (from S3 and S4), and started thinking of this fic. It is set after the episode A Day at the Office, but without Rachel's death/stabbing.
Rachel sat down at her desk, her eyes firmly fixated on Jack. She didn't exactly know what she was thinking about, she only knew that it had something to do with the man she was looking at. Jack meanwhile, feeling that someone was looking at him, raised his head, and saw, in that split second, Rachel quickly glance away.
"Everything okay, Rach?" he felt the need to ask.
She looked over at him again and their eyes met. "Yeah, yeah… I just…" Rachel struggled to find the words she was looking for, and ended up shrugging.
Jack smiled at her, still holding the stare, "It's one of those days, hey?"
"Yeah, I guess it is."
Moments later, the door opened and in walked Mick, looking a little worse for wear with his sunglasses still covering his eyes. "Morning," he said to Jack and Rachel, completely unaware of anything that had happened at work in the last 16 hours.
"Why good morning!" Jack answered, watching as the younger detective sat down at his desk. "So, where were you last night, Mr Uncontactable?"
Mick finally took his glasses off, and frowned, "Huh?"
"Helen tried to call you, Rachel tried to call you…" Jack explained, probably being a little too placid about the situation, especially given he was actually pissed off.
The frown remained on Mick's face, "I had my phone with me the entire night, and it didn't ring once," he pulled his phone of his pocket and pressed a few keys. There was no noise from the buttons, the screen didn't light up… nothing. Mick's face displayed even more confusion.
"Maybe it turned itself off," Jack said, trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice, without success.
Rachel sat in silence; she had already figured what Mick had been up to last night, and although she didn't exactly approve, she thought staying silent was the best thing to do. There was no way she wanted to get into another argument with Mick over Suzi Abromovich. The woman just wasn't worth it.
"So… what were you up to last night Mick?" Jack asked again, "Rachel said you probably went to get your nose checked out…"
"Something like that," was all Mick said, quickly glancing at Rachel, who had one hand slightly covering her mouth, as if to stop herself from saying anything.
"It doesn't take all bloody night to get your nose checked, ya know," Jack pressed the issue, but stopped when he noticed Rachel shaking her head stiffly at him.
Mick glared at Jack through slit eyes, deciding to tell him the truth, "Okay Jack. I was with Suzi all night, alright? I screwed her!" his voice was somewhat loud and firm. Jack sat still, obviously dumbfounded, so Mick continued, his voice still raised, "I know I did the wrong thing, but I'm not the one who's in love with my work partner!" there was a brief pause, "I thought you liked to keep things impartial, Jack! Tell me, how is being in love with your partner keeping things impartial, huh?"
"Don't change the subject, that is not what this is about!" Jack's voice became louder, "You're the one who's in the wrong here. You're the one who left work yesterday, whilst you were still on duty I might add, and then proceeded to switch your phone off so you could have sex with some woman without being interrupted!"
Mick opened his mouth to reply, but Jeff cut in, "HEY! I can hear you two from my office, so I have no doubt that you can be heard just about everywhere else!" he exclaimed, equally as loud, "Reilly, Christey, my office. Now."
"Yes, sir," the two detectives mumbled at the same time.
"What was that all about?" asked Jeff, once they were all in his office and the door was closed.
"Nothing, sir," Mick answered flatly.
Jeff rolled his eyes subtly, "I don't think it was nothing," he paused, looking intently at Jack, "I take it when Mick said you're in love with your work partner, that he meant Rachel. Am I correct?"
Jack pursed his lips tightly together, deciding not to answer. He couldn't believe that he was the one who seemed to be getting into trouble.
Jeff glanced at Mick upon realising that Jack wasn't going to reply.
"Look Jeff… I did the wrong thing yesterday," Mick spoke up, causing Jack to look over at him with a frown on his face. "I don't know what happened with my phone or…"
"Okay, this is what we're going to do today," the Chief Inspector said firmly, not caring that he interrupted, "The two of you are going to continue the passport scam investigation. No arguments, no buts, just get on with it. Rachel can stay here and do whatever work she needs to do."
Rachel wasn't exactly sure if it was Mick who was really being punished for being out of contact when he was needed, given that staying in the office and doing paperwork wasn't exactly her favourite thing in the world.
She used some of the time, however, to make an effort to get in contact with the mother of the young woman found dead yesterday, but her efforts were in vain. Every number in the young woman's phone book was either disconnected or if someone did answer, they had no idea who Rachel was talking about.
"How are you doing, Rachel?" Helen walked into the office to see a frustrated Rachel slam the phone back into its receiver.
She looked up at the sound of her voice, "Oh… yeah okay, I suppose."
"Come into my office, we'll have a chat."
The dreaded 'chat' with Helen. Rachel knew what it was going to be about, and wasn't surprised when Helen began, "I want to talk to you about Jack."
She nodded. It was only a matter of time before Helen brought it up.
"Do you want to tell me what is going on there?" she said; there was a slight softness and sincerity in her voice.
Rachel looked at her, confusion written all over her face, "But I don't really know what's going on," she answered frankly, "I mean, Jack seems to know what he wants… but I have no idea."
"Would you have gotten back together with Jack if you didn't know what you wanted?"
She sighed, briefly glancing up at the ceiling, "I don't know! I really don't!" she paused, "It's just so… familiar with Jack, I guess. But after yesterday… I don't know, it was so much easier when no one knew about it, ya know?"
"Why do you think that is?"
"It makes it more real, I guess. And, we weren't copping shit about it when no one knew," Rachel replied quietly. "Now it's just like people are silently going, Rachel and Jack, sitting in a tree… K-I-S-S-I-N-G…" she sung, sarcastically, "You should've heard Mick crapping on about it to me yesterday, like it is the worst thing in the whole world."
"And he is still going on about it today too, it seems," Helen said, speaking of the very public argument between Mick and Jack.
"So, are you in love with Rachel?" Mick probed Jack, breaking the silence, as they drove to the surveillance point at Snails Bay.
"What if I am?" he answered cryptically, not even bothering to look at the younger man.
"Well I would like to know that you have my back at work, too, you know Jack," Mick said, parking the car.
Jack shook his head in disbelief as he stared out the window, "Are you serious? You know that I've got your back!"
"All I'm saying is, the way you feel about Rachel could cloud your judgement and -"
"Oh Mick, shut up," Jack was clearly agitated. "If you think you can just get out of what you did yesterday by constantly bringing up what is or isn't going on between me and Rachel, you're kidding yourself."
When the day was over, Jack walked tiredly back into the office. Rachel, still sitting at her desk with her laptop in front of her, looked over at him as he sat down, "You're back."
He nodded, closing his eyes briefly, "It's been a long day."
"Have you and Mick calmed down now?"
Jack scoffed, "Not sure that's going to happen anytime soon."
Rachel raised her eyebrows; she wasn't all that surprised, but said anyway, "I'm sure you'll both work it out eventually."
Jack stared at her, intriguingly. A small smile then formed on his face, "Good to know you've got confidence in us, Rach!" he paused, before changing the subject, "So, um, do you want to open that bottle of red tonight and have a chat? Given we didn't get the chance to do that last night…"
"Sure, sounds good," Rachel surprised herself with her response. Even though she wasn't ready to admit it out loud, there was something within her telling her that what she had with Jack was good, and to not let go of it so easily.
The smile remained on Jack's face, and he sat back in his chair, wondering if what Mick had said earlier was true. Was he in love with Rachel?
Jack made sure he had the bottle of wine with him before heading to Rachel's house later that night. She let him inside and they sat down on the couch, each with their glasses of wine in their hands. "What we said yesterday morning…" Jack began, "I want you to know that I only agreed with you because I was half-asleep. I don't really want this to end, Rach. I like this… us… we're good together."
"We are good," Rachel agreed, smiling nervously.
Jack looked over at her, using his free hand to push some hair out of her eyes, "So what are we going to do about it?" he asked softly, not wanting to pressure her in any way.
"I don't know, Jack," she answered truthfully, placing her wine glass on the coffee table in front of them. "It just, sort of, changes things now that everyone knows… and Jeff, who knows what he will think, or do, when he finds out."
"I think Jeff already has some idea, particularly after the argument Mick and I had this morning."
Rachel threw her head back, "Ergh!"
"Look, don't worry about Jeff or anyone else right now," Jack's voice was rather calm, "This is about you and I."
You and I, thought Rachel, looking over at him. He was so… infuriatingly attractive. Without even thinking, she leaned towards him, planting a soft kiss on his cheek. All Jack did was smile, as he pulled her even closer to him so that they were embracing.
"You know Rachel, I think we really should be talking about this."
She shrugged.
Sometimes actions spoke louder than words.