- Telltale Sign by Camilla Sandman
Disclaimer: Pleeeeeeease? It's my birthday Hal, can't I just for once get to say "they're mine and don't ya dare touch"???
Author's Note: Birthdays are also about reflections, so here's something a tad more.. depressing.
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Tommy Tavita was afraid. It was a ridicules feeling to have, he rarely had any reason to be afraid. But now, he was frozen in terror at the thought of saying just two little words.
2 meters away stood Frank Holloway, his back turned, typing up some rope. And all Tommy had to do, was say those two words, and Franks world would forever be in ruins.
Rachel's dead.
It had been a few months now, but it still felt unreal, like she'd walk onto the Nemesis one day and blast them for actually think she could die. Rachel Goldstein had been a living legend, a force of good in their lives.. and now they all felt cheated.
Tayler had left, her spirit broken, and Jack.. Jack was a walking well of kept-in grief and anger. Helen was a mess, collected on the outside, but always with a profound sadness in her. Mick seemed filled with anger and regret, and everyone was just walking around in a haze. And he.. he was running. The promotion had finally come through, he was a Detective, and it was a great excuse to run away from the memories. Run all the way to Melbourne. It figured that's where Frank Holloway would sail in, blissfully unaware of the impending doom.
Frank and Rachel. For four years they had been the unbreakable pair of the Sydney Water Police. And for four years, the rumors had stayed, persistent. Tommy never believed them. Not because the feelings weren't there, but simply because, for four years, they had looked at each other with the curiosity and longing only not-yet-lovers looked at each other with.
Frank had loved Rachel, and Rachel had loved Frank, even if they mightn't have acted upon it. The others at the Water Police hadn't believed him, but Tommy had known. It was plain as day in their eyes, the telltale sign of love. The way they looked at each other, even in the just quick glances they would throw each other on the Nemesis, Tommy had seen and known. Gavin had just snickered at it, but Gavin saw things in another light.
Relationships had come and gone, and still Frank and Rachel would look at each other the same way. He had grown used to the sight, he had almost believed in true love.. but then Frank had left.
Suddenly, unexpectedly.. Tommy knew Frank ahd asked Rachel to come, he had seen his face as he told her, seen the look of utter longing, utter wishing on his face. Frank had wanted Rachel to come, and maybe there they could have made it. Maybe.. Gavin had confessed over a late night drink that he had almost wished she had left.. then at least she would have been alive. Tommy had agreed, but it had been Frank who needed the break, not Rachel, and she had too much to leave behind to go.
So Frank had left alone, and Rachel had seemed to be on auto-pilot for days, just staring on the water when she went on the Nemesis. Then Jack had come along, and forced her to wake up.
Jack. It wasn't that Jack wasn't a good guy or anything. He just wasn't Frank. And Tommy suspected no one knew that better than Jack himself. Still, he had won Rachel over on his own terms, and that had to give him some peace of mind.
And maybe Frank could find peace o mind someday too, out there on the great ocean. And maybe, so could he. But first he had to stop running, and face Rachel's death. By seeing just Frank. There would be no more Rachel and Frank, and somehow, that was as hard for him to grasp as it would be for Frank.
But the time for running was over.
"Hello Frank," he called out.
"Tommy! What are you doing here? You don't happen to have Rachel hidden somewhere too?" Frank asked cheerfully, but his smileslowly faded as he saw the look on Tommys face.
"Tommy?"
"I'm sorry Frank," Tommy finally got out, seeing the frown on his friends face. And once more he could see that telltale sign in his eyes, the look of utter horror as Tommy would forever shatter his world with just two little words.
"Rachel's dead."
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