TITLE: Breaking Up
AUTHOR: Mel
PART: 1/3
RATING: M
PAIRING: Renee/Garret
GENRE: Drama
SPOILER: Setting after "Dead or Alive"
CONTENTS: Garret and Renee have to deal with Garret's betrayal of trust after Mexico, in doing so a mugging comes in handy
DISCLAIMER: Tim Kring is the boss – I'm just a copy cat
COMMENTS: My first happy ending of a Garret/Renee story. I'm very proud of it.

Breaking Up

Part 1

A thudding echoed through her head again and again during her dream, made her toss and turn in her sleep until she opened one eye and glanced scowlingly at the digital numbers on her alarm clock. But where it should had been was only darkness. Who had turned off the electricity? And...why did she have such a splitting headache?

There was this noise again. This time loud and clear. She hadn't realized until now that it was someone knocking on her door and the knocking got louder and more urgent. Who was so crazy and brave to wake her up in the middle of the night? When it knocked again, she got up, but bumped her knee painfully on something. Glass rattled, when her wine glass hit the empty red wine bottle. All of sudden she remembered where the headache was coming from...

"Damn, that hurt...," she cursed loudly and tried to orientate herself in her apartment. Just great, she had actually fallen asleep on her couch. But that was no surprise; after all she had sat half the night in his office and waited for his return. The last hours there she had spent finding answers for all the people towards who she had to justify his behavior. She hadn't liked the result. And completely exhausted she had simply fallen asleep.

She groped her way through her hallway, glanced through the spy hole and heaved a frustrated sigh. That couldn't be true. However, she opened the security locks and opened the door a crack.

"Garret?"

"Renee," as he stood there with an insecure look on his face and with tired eyes she couldn't help but think about a little school boy who knew that he had misbehaved but didn't know exactly what he'd done wrong. But that only made her angrier. That was just typical for Garret...did whatever he thought was right without taking other people's feelings into consideration. That is, to be more precise, hers. She hoped that, in case he was here to apologize for his actions, he was capable of giving her good reasons for them. Reasons that wouldn't make her look completely stupid in front of the court and the mayor tomorrow. But when she thought about it she didn't even want to talk to him. She didn't even know why she had opened the door.

"May I come in?", there was also insecurity in his voice and it only needed a short glance into Renee's tired eyes in order to know the answer before she said it in her usual aggressive way.

"No."

Silence unfolded between the two of them and not for the first time they both felt that they had come to a point in their relationship where it got more and more difficult to find, to trust and respect each other again.

"If you want the neighbors to hear what I have to say to you…"

"They won't hear anything, because I go back to sleep and I would recommend the same to you." She tried shutting the door again, but Garret reacted fast and pushed against it with his right hand. Anger flashed in her eyes, but he was brave enough to ignore that. He was here to do at least some damage control. He didn't need her to understand him. Not immediately. He knew she was angry, maybe even disappointed with him.

He didn't want to apologize or to justify himself. He did what had to be done. Had she been there with him, she probably would have agreed with him. Had she listened to him on the phone instead of heaping complaint over complaint on him, she would have understood. Now it was only important to make clear to her that it hadn't been anything personal and that there was no reason to be sulking any longer…

"Take your hand off my door", she hissed and didn't understand why he wanted to talk now – in the middle of the night, a few hours after she had left angrily. He should be able to guess how furious she was.

"You wanted answers…." He said instead of following her order.

"But not in the middle of the night!"

"Tomorrow?" Garret suggested surprisingly calm, but with a nervous glimmer in his eyes.

There had been so many nights already, where one of them had stood in front of the other one's door and had tried to wrest an apology from the other one. But today something was different; he had the feeling that she wouldn't let herself be manipulated so easily – there wouldn't be the usual make- up scene in the bedroom afterwards.

"Garret….I have work to do. I need to be in court in a couple of hours. You forgot that already? You brought work back for me from Mexico."

"For which I still haven't heard a thank you…."

Renee breathed sharply through her nose, which made him stop and his eyes took on an astonished expression. What had he said wrong now? It's not like he wanted exorbitant gratitude, just some acknowledgment. After all he had worked his ass off in Mexico in order to find a murderer they were hunting for five years now, risked his life and almost let the killer be shot out of revenge. He really felt bad about it and was very concerned about himself… And what had happened earlier….well, he hadn't thrown her out of his office on purpose….but apparently she was really pissed off about it.

"For what should I thank you? For the fact that I have to call a lot of people tomorrow so that the arrest is legal? For the fact that my credibility with the police and the guards at the borders in both countries is ruined? Or for the fact that I need to explain to the mayor why I can't control my employees?"

"I'm not your employee," Garret protested somewhat irritated. What he really hated lately was her permanent statement about who was senior to whom. And tonight it was the least thing he wanted to hear.

"Whatever," Renee was frustrated, while her eyes showed something completely else – she was very disappointed in him. It wasn't hurt pride, like usually in their quarrels, not hurt professional honor or the problems he caused her with his actions, it was only the disappointment in him and the way he had used her first small professional weakness against her. She only had agreed to his little adventure because he mattered to her, because she wanted to do him a favor… and this was the result now…a huge heap of broken glass and he didn't get it.

"Listen Renee, if you would only listen…a coffee for example would be great."

"I can't Garret. I just can't." She tried to look calm, tried to keep her cool, but her eyes just didn't manage to look at Garret in her usual superior manner. Garret hesitated he didn't want to push open the door, he didn't want to enter uninvited, just to tell her the words he had arranged carefully the whole night, while he had driven about aimlessly in his car. He could tell that she might not have minded had he taken the initiative….

Even though he wanted to, he was silent out of fear to say something wrong, and therefore Renee pushed the door shut with a regretful look on her face.

---

A few days later
"Here you are, sir, your table." The waiter showed Garret to a small round table in a booth. Renee was already seated and looked at him calmly. In front of her lay a thick folder on which her hand rested, while her other hand – betraying her outward calmness – played nervously with her water glass.

Garret stepped towards her and their greetings were chilly just as they had expected. It hurt, Garret had to admit.

"Renee…."

"Have a seat." Renee pointed at the free chair. "I don't want to chitchat, Garret. So let's get started with business right away, okay?"

She had phrased it as a question, but Garret knew that he couldn't possibly give any answer but yes. So he nodded, ordered something to drink and asked himself why Renee had picked her favorite restaurant for a business talk, instead of coming to his office as usual. Usually…the word pained Garret. Since last week she hadn't stopped by the office a single time, but had sent one of her employees in order to pick up the reports. Court appointments were made via her secretary and Garret had the misgiving that what she had to discuss with him now would be bad since she had bit the bullet and met him in person.

Tightlipped she opened the folder and avoided looking at Garret. She didn't want him to see how bad she was doing, how the passed sleepless nights had left their mark on her. She didn't plan to be sabotaged by personal feelings and problems during this business meeting.

Renee pushed a few files across the table. "I need a few signatures concerning Mexico. And this." She put down another file in front of him. "…is a statement that you operated completely on your own account and against my instructions...what?" she interrupted her explanations and looked directly into Garret's face after all which had become darker and darker with every word she had said.

So far Garret hadn't given up the hope that all this had only been an excuse to meet with him, to talk it all over, so that things between them would be alright again and that they could pick up their relationship where they had left off before Mexico.

But with every further word from Renee he realized that this was not the case. Renee didn't seem to have the slightest interest anymore in what had animated him to do what he had done. Apparently all she wanted now was for him to take all the blame.

He had wanted to flare up, but when he looked directly into her eyes, that signaled him that he shouldn't overstep his boundaries, he also saw something that made him unsure of himself. Renee looked tired. Not only physically, something else lay in her eyes… something strange, something that he had never seen in her eyes before. He wasn't able to react like he had wanted to just a moment ago.

And Renee who felt that he saw something that he didn't know, lowered her gaze. He had seen her weakness and she felt uncomfortable.

Calmer than originally intended he finally said: "So this is what this is all about?"

"Excuse me?" Her eyes wandered back to him and this time there was no weakness to be found in them. Only the usual restrained anger.

"To tie me into knots. Do you even care for my version of the story? The reasons for my actions and decisions?"

"O, but I did, Garret." She hissed across the table. "About a week ago."

"But I tried to explain it to you…"

"No, you didn't. Except you think your weak attempt to visit me in the middle of the night counts, which you probably only did it in order to appease me so that you will end up in a familiar bed after you were abstinent for a week."

Garret winced. "That is not fair, Renee."

"Life isn't fair."

"I only wanted to…," Garret shrugged. It was hopeless. It wouldn't work. Not here where they were forced to stay calm and quiet, so that they wouldn't be heard in the whole restaurant. But he had the urge to yell all his frustration out and as he knew Renee, she probably had guessed it and that's why she had picked the restaurant and not the office. He breathed out rather sharply and leaned back in his chair. When she wanted to fight dirty, then she should get her wish.

"You only wanted to…what?" Renee glared at him furiously. "Convince me in that night that you had to do what you had to do? That you're a hero? You're a damn fool, Garret. Nothing else and you know that."

Taken off guard by her second vehement attack, Garret blinked and needed a moment to recover. But Renee used that moment for another attack.

"You're only interested in what you think is right. Okay, maybe the murderer would have escaped before the Mexican police would have done something, but I do think we would have gotten another chance to arrest him. We can't just waltz into a different country and play hero there, just because we feel like it. We also don't do everything in our power in order to maneuver a person – which we claim to like- into a difficult situation. And if we do we take an interest in the trouble she has to face and help so that it will be as little as possible. But some people just don't care. Some people just don't care about the career of other people." Renee felt how she talked herself into a frenzy, that the disappointment from last week still sat deeply in her and that tears of anger welled up in her eyes. She didn't want Garret to see those and tried to control herself. But it was hard to do while she talked about her frustration. "I risked a lot when I moved heaven and earth in order to have you sent to Mexico. And I risked even a lot more when I covered up that you hadn't come back…all I wanted were some words of explanation when you came back. But you preferred sending me away to telling me what your motives were. How nice that Jordan was there right away when I left."

"Renee, please." He felt that she was partially right with her accusations but the fact that she managed to work Jordan into this made him angry.

"What?" Her eyes widened in mock astonishment and her face had an innocent expression. "Did I not see right or was it just Jordan's ghost that floated past me into your office?"

"I needed all kinds of things in that night just not accusations and reproaches, okay?"

"Who says I would have done that? I have feelings, even though you seem to forget that from time to time. I was worried. And that has always been the most important thing in the whole story. You were in Mexico, just a few miles from a dangerous killer and the last words I heard from you before you disappeared for days were 'You're breaking up, Renee' Really very original, Garret." She made a face and started playing with her glass again. It wasn't easy for her to admit to him that he was really important to her. That she had been worried about him first and about her job second.

All of a sudden his hand was on top of hers; completely overwhelmed by that gesture she pulled her hand away. But he didn't say anything and didn't try taking her hand again. She cursed herself for it but there was nothing she was able to do about it now. It had happened and it had hurt.

"I see." He finally mumbled disappointed.

"You don't see anything." Renee hissed between tight lips. Was he disappointed because of her reaction or did he just feel sorry for himself?

All of sudden Renee got up. She had to leave. Had to get far away from him.

"I have to freshen up. Excuse me." She avoided looking at him and almost fled towards the restrooms.

On her way there she heard some turmoil in the entrance area of the restaurant, but she didn't care right now and didn't even glance in its direction when she fled to the restroom, slammed the door behind her and fell against the door. She closed her eyes, took a couple of deep breaths and wanted to be on a different planet. Then the tears started to flow, angry, furious, regretting tears, for which she was ashamed and which she had tried to keep back for such a long time. During every fight with Garret she had remained strong, had tried not to let him see how easy it was to hurt her and that she wasn't the tough woman she pretended to be as a lawyer…

---

When Renee had left the table so abruptly, Garret also had gotten up. He wanted to follow her, wanted to apologize to her, even though he thought that she played as much of a role in this whole drama as he did. He hadn't missed that this time a lot was different from the usual fights. She had seemed so fragile, so delicate. But then he got distracted by loud voices that moved from the entrance area towards the restaurant.

He looked in their direction and froze.

Three armed and masked men pushed the restaurant employees inside. Immediately panic broke lose. Someone screamed, a shot fell, but fortunately no one got hurt by it.

Garret didn't even try to find out what this robbery was about when he slowly inched away from his table.

The burglars spread out in the meanwhile. One stayed behind at the entrance, another one ran to the restrooms, in order to check if someone was in there and Garret's heart skipped a beat. But he came back alone. Wherever Renee was… she had stayed unnoticed. The third one walked between the tables and ordered all guests to put their jewelry, cash and other valuables in a bag.

"Sir? May I ask you for your watch, your cell phone and your cash money?"

Garret looked at the man. He couldn't see a whole lot, due to the ski mask, but the eyes glimmered cold and dashed nervously back and forth. He considered his chances to talk to him reasonably and before he was able to do something dumb, the robber repeated his request but this time with a blow of the gun's handle. Garret took of his watch, groped for a few dollar bills in his pockets and threw his cell phone in last.

The man moved on, in order to relieve a gold-decked older lady of her property.

Garret moved two more steps towards the restrooms.

When he finally reached them, he waited for a fortunate moment in order to slip into the woman's restroom.

It was quiet inside; one could only hear the gentle humming of the fan and the air conditioner.

"Renee?" Garret tried to say it as softly as possible and looked anxiously at the door behind him. When he didn't get a response, he raised his voice somewhat.

"Renee?"

In this moment another shot echoed through the restaurant…

tbc