AN: Recently started watching this series and I'm already hooked! So here's something for the unique bond Lynley and Havers share.
Genre: Epic Friendship!
Not proofread. Kindly excuse the errors. :)
Happy reading!
Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine but this particular story is!
Oh he was jealous alright! And how could he not be? She was his Havers! Yeah, that was another thing people wouldn't understand… that he would prefer calling her Havers even after around 16 years of retirement from the service! Yeah, they would never understand that calling her Barbara came to him only in extreme situations but Havers, flowed like a familiar song from his mouth… But what people haven't understood the most till now is that, how could he and her be 'just friends' even after almost 40 years of knowing each other?!
Lynley laughed, because people were fools! Because Lynley and Havers, were never 'just friends'! Ugh never! Ok may be in those beginning years they were, well 'just friends' but then after that in the next few years, they both knew very well and understood clearly that they weren't just friends, they were BEST FRIENDS! But what conspired in the last few decades, had the best definition of their relationship, if anyone needed it and it was what people called SOULMATES!
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Barbara laughed whenever he bad mouthed Ben. She knew he couldn't help it… He was bound to hate everyone she loved besides him… And here Ben was her husband for the past 27 years, so of course he was topmost in Lynley's most hated list! That was a running joke between them for decades… Everyday morning, he would ask how she was and the moment she said anything indicating her start was bad, he would launch into a list of Ben's so called misgivings and blame them for my state of mind for the day! Oh he was transparent in his jealousy, well at least after that fateful talk 3 decades ago, he had always been…
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He had lost Helen was drowning himself in a series of meaningless sex partners and booze… She of course was concerned but had decided not be the pest he had accused her of… So she had decided to let him find his groove back on his own. She had thought that maybe the recovery would be more complete if it came from within and she had been right about it, but she never expected the recovery would be this hard for both of them…
That fateful night, he had come to her doorstep as usual to cry his heart out but what was different was that, he was completely sober! He had come inside and without any preamble gone ahead and directly said that he had realised there were only 3 women he had ever come to trust and love… His mom, his sister and her! He waited for her reaction and her reaction was satisfactory to say the least…She was truly touched and had simply replied that she loved him too…
They both had stood in a happy silence after that confession but neither moved to move any kind of romantic gesture… And after some time he smiled and asked her what next and whether she would want him to kiss her next… She had smiled and replied, "Sure, if it just cheeks, then go ahead!" cheekily! He had genuinely smiled and placed a tender kiss on her cheeks and then her forehead for a good measure… And since it needed to be said, Barbara thought she needs to be the one to put it out into the world… She said, "I did think you were good looking long back…"
Lynley interrupted with an indignation, "Hey! What do you mean long back?! I'm still dapper!"
She continued as if she didn't hear him interrupt, "But now after knowing you, whenever I look at you I only see the good in you… I see a person I can trust, in fact a person whom I can trust my life with actually, a person I wish would continue to stay in my life till the very end of it…in short a person I would never ever want to lose in my life… A person who is more than any lover can ever be… I don't know what to call you Sir, but you are that 'one' people generally say are searching their whole life for, that's you for me… But people generally want to marry their 'One' but I don't want to… And because I know you just like I know myself, I know you don't want to tarnish our relationship which is much beyond these petty human nature too…"
Lynley smilingly agreed, "Havers, my darling! Who said 'soulmates' is a word reserved for only for those couples who shared a bed? I guess it just fits us perfectly… I love you more than anything in this world Havers, but want to hug the life out of you rather than kiss the life out of you romantically… You may not believe me now, but for full disclosure sake, I must say during those initial days, I had found your defiance sexy…" Seeing her gaping mouth, he laughed and continued, "Haha its true Havers, I was always deferred in my life, so someone rebelling against me was new and invigorating! But then I didn't know the real person you were… the person who was just not defiant for defiance sake, no you a person with conviction for truth and doing things right in this world were doing things wrong were much much easy… You wowed me with your personality, you bulldozed out of me any prejudices I might have had and then filled my heart with utmost respect for you… Then somewhere sometime long back that emotion has turned into what I feel for you now… Devotion… I simply love you Havers, no strings attached… I love you unconditionally… and it's as simple as that…"
They hugged each other tightly… tears escaping both their eyes… People would never understand… But when were they ever bothered about what people thought?
She pushed away from him a little and looked into his eyes straight and added naughtily, "But hey, I still want to marry somebody and maybe have a family too!"
Lynley, "What really? Why do you want some bloody husband?! Ain't I there for you now?"
Havers, "Oh please, you have had your share of bed hopping, I am almost as celibate as a nun! Well nearly almost… Hmm, now that I think of it, last time I had some under the sheet fun was… umm… Oh forget it, I don't even remember it! Anyway, the thing is that I had always been searching for somebody who would fill that deep gaping hole in my heart which I had always felt… as if part of my heart was missing and somebody I would meet one day would have that missing part… But now I realised that, that missing part was with you all this time actually, so now that I have found it my heart is whole again… that hole is filled… So now I needn't search for a person with whom I'm going to have a deep connection with… that person is you obviously, so I just need to find a person who would be like a band-aid, aid me on the surface, while you have already filled my heart…"
Lynley petulantly, " I totally dislike the idea Havers! I won't share you with anyone! You are mine!"
Havers," Oh Sir, don't be silly! Of course I'm yours! It just that thing we both need someone else in our lives too to balance it out perfectly… Please?"
Lynley reluctantly, "But I will hate him whoever it is going to be… forever!"
Havers, "Haha I wouldn't expect anything less from you! And oh yeah, the same applies for you too… To say frankly, I never liked Helen too…"
Lynley," Hmm… yeah, I guess I knew it on some level… I knew and for some extent even Helen knew that she wasn't the girl for me and you didn't approve of her… Now that I think I feel that she might have known that you were the one for me all along… that I could never love her the way I have always loved you subconsciously… Because whatever she was or wasn't, one thing she was surely was… was a perceptive phycologist!"
Havers smiled happily and went back to hugging him…
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Now he was in his late seventies and she in her late sixties… She was happily married to Ben and 2 daughters and one son by whom she had seven grandchildren whom she doted on whenever they visited her… Ben had understood even before he had proposed to Barbara, that he would always be her second love because her first love was still very much in her life and would always be… He had tried to be friends with Lynley just so that Barbara would be happy but Lynley had clearly told him in no uncertain terms that he hated him and will hate him till his last breath right in front of Havers! And all she did was laugh and give a loving peck on Lynley's cheek and a sweet peck on Ben's lips… And that's how it had always been…
In the interim, Lynley had been briefly married to some other Oxcam high flying PhD type which lasted for less than four years… She wanted to do more research in Egypt for her work and asked whether he would shift with her there but when he had clearly told that being away from Havers wasn't something he could even imagine, the marriage ended just the way it had started… abruptly!
After their retirement, they, namely, Lynley, Havers and ben had shifted to Cornwall… Lynley stayed in Howenstone, Havers and Ben had taken a cottage nearby… Everyday morning, they would go for a walk along the coast and discuss random theories on everything under the sun, sometimes even beyond… He still asked her about her mood and blamed it on Ben blatantly and she still laughed heartily seeing that his jealousy hadn't dimmed one bit even after all these decades…
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People often gossiped about the weird arrangement between three old people, one of whom was their beloved old Lord Asherton but these two have never minded what the people said in their heydays, so now in the days when they preferred to colour that single hair which was black/brown to silver white to match the rest of the hair's colour, they didn't even bother to deny the accusations… Lynley, Havers and yeah Ben knew what was between them and well, that was enough… The rest of the world can keep on guessing what their real dynamics was because not everyone could understand the real meaning of soulmates…