Late Night Swim
By Serenitey
Picking the lock was easy. Carrie didn't think they had updated their security system in all the time she'd been in Banshee. Then again she supposed the local pool didn't have too much to worry about. Teenagers in the summer was the extent of the trouble. There were a few motion sensor flood lights and alarm, and a rusted padlock on the fence. A peeling sticking indicated that should any of the sensors be tripped, a car from the security company would be along within the hour.
Carrie wandered over to the pool, unbuttoning her shirt. She folded it neatly and placed it on the ground, her shoes and pants joining it shortly thereafter. She stood in her underwear and stared at the water for a moment. Moonlight mixed with the ever present light of suburbia made the water shimmer. She took a deep breath and dove in, her muscles immediately relaxing as the cold water rushed up to meet her. She glided along the bottom of the pool and surfaced some 10metres ahead. She broke the surface with a gasp and blinked the water out of her eyes. She took a few lazy laps before he decided to speak.
"You're just going to ignore me then?" Hood asked, standing with his hands on his hips by the side of the pool. He was technically on night duty.
"Figured if you wanted to talk to me you would have pulled me over rather than following me here," she replied, ducking under the water before he could reply.
He pursed his lips and waited for her to resurface. "What makes you think I was following you?"
"Tagged you on Oraston and that was 20minutes ago."
She reached the wall at the opposite end of the pool. It wasn't Olympic sized and her laps passed quickly. She kicked off the wall and broke into freestyle, her arms falling into a familiar rhythm and her head turning every few strokes to take a breath. She could see his hazy outline watching her, following her path.
He watched as she glided through the water with perfect strokes. Her body was long and lean and her legs kicked strongly, propelling her forward. She reached the wall quickly and spun around, her head ducking beneath the water.
"Yeah," he muttered, scuffing he ground with the toe of his boot, "But you never pulled over."
.
.
He was lead towards the elevator and down a few floors. Olek stood silently beside him, arms hanging limply by his sides.
He looked over at Olek and received a grimace in return. "So are we heading to Ana's apartment?" he asked. He had only ever met Ana with her father before.
Olek eyed him warily and answered succinctly. "No."
He waited for the Ukrainian to expand his reply. He didn't. "So where are we headed?" he pressed.
"Ana wanted to go over job with you. Make sure you are up to itching."
"Scratch."
"What?'
"The saying is up to scratch."
Olek glared at him and took a menacing step forward. The opening of the elevator doors saved him from being beaten to death. He stepped quickly out. "Not that it matters. This it?" he asked brightly.
"Yes," Olek growled. "Nobody usually comes to this floor. You will not come here without permission."
"Got it," he nodded. Ukrainians had trust issues.
Olek lead him down the hall and the smell of chlorine grew stronger. He suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. He turned his ankle out slightly and felt the knife hidden inside his boot. Olek wasn't that much bigger than him. Olek pushed open double doors and they were greeted by the sound of water lapping against tile. A Olympic sized pool with an elaborate 'A' tiled on the bottom. He watched the water distort the tile as a lithe woman in a red bikini swam across it. He watched her legs move through the water.
"Ana," Olek called. "He is here."
Ana looked up mid-stroke and smiled. "So I see," she said. She swam over to the wall and pulled herself up. He watched as she emerged and couldn't help but stare. He arms were toned and her breasts barely covered by small triangles of red fabric. He watched her stride over to her towel and slowly rub her body dry. As she wrapped the towel around her body, he couldn't help but wonder whether this was all for his benefit.
"Did you bring the plans?" she asked.
"No," Olek said, he shot a sideways glance towards him. "I thought you had them."
"I left them with Daddy yesterday."
"Then they would still be in his office."
"Well they're not doing much good there."
Olek glared at him and stared hard at Ana. He stood there awkwardly, unable to stop watching water droplets make their way down her body and to the tiles, as she and Olek had a discussion in Ukrainian. Finally, Olek turned to him, "I will be back soon."
Ana rolled her eyes as Olek left the room. She dropped the towel to the floor and made her way to one of the deck chairs around the pool. She sat down and flicked her legs around, crossing them at the knee. She lounged back, her hands resting of her stomach, allowing him to scan her body. She stared up at him with a playful smile.
"Are you going to sit?" she asked finally, "Or just continue staring?"
"Right, sorry," he said quickly. He pulled a deck chair up beside her quickly and sat down. He didn't sit back in the chair but sat with his feet firmly planted on the ground and his elbows resting on his knees. He looked out at the pool. He was starting to feel slightly warm in his leather jacket. He rolled his shoulders trying to move the heat away from himself.
"Do you like to swim?" she asked.
He shrugged. "I can," he said simply, "Never really had much call to."
"I love it."
"Hence why Daddy got you a private pool," he said cynically.
Her eyes flicked up at him suddenly cold. She eyed him critically.
"When I was thirteen," Ana said with a wry smile, "I was best friends with Francesca Cane."
"As in the Canes? Drugs and guns?"
"One in the same. My father found it amusing; the Rabbit and the dogs. She had a pool in her building and I was there any time I could be. Half the class was," She laughed humourlessly. "Until one day Rabbit had a falling out with her father and by that I mean he killed him and left him in dumpster behind one of the Cane's restaurants and suddenly I wasn't invited to any more pool parties. Or any parties for that matter. My father felt bad and he had this whole floor converted into a private pool. Just me and Olek."
" I'm sorry."
"Why? You didn't kill him."
"Sounds lonely, that's all."
Ana looked at him and smiled sadly. "You get used to it."
.
.
"Ana," he called, "Ana." He huffed beside the pool.
She changed her stroke, still moving away from him but now in the a modified breast stroke. Her head remained above the water.
"What are you doing here?"
"Swimming," she said smartly, earning herself a glare. She didn't take heed of it and continued swimming.
"You could be caught," he tried.
"Haven't for the past ten years."
"So you do this a lot?"
"Look," she said, suddenly angry. She stood up, her upper body exposed to the cool night air. He bra was black but clung to her body in a way that made her nipples readily apparent to him. "My daughter won't speak to me, I'm working in a fucking diner, my husband is divorcing me and threatening to take my kids and my son might need a lung transplant so I'm not really in the mood for your little sheriff routine."
"Want to talk about it?" he asked.
"Want to go fuck yourself?"
"Real nice."
Ana rubbed her face, digging the heel of her palm into her eye sockets. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. Her shoulders slumped and she stared down at the water. She shrugged and sighed. "I just want to go for a swim, okay. Can you just let me do that please?"
He nodded, not meeting her eye.
She dropped back into the water and forced herself down to the bottom. She sculled the water fiercely keeping herself beneath the surface. Her lungs began to burn and her body lurched up, breaking the surface and taking a deep gulp of air. He wasn't standing there anymore. She didn't know why she expected him to be. She sighed and laid back. She let her head loll in the water, the water filled her ears and blocked out the world around her as she stared up into the night sky. Her arms floated out beside her and she closed her eyes.
The water lapped at her forehead and splashed down across her eyes. She felt the water moving around her and was only mildly surprised when strong calloused hands fluttered lightly by her side and settled beneath her back. She allowed herself to be moved across the pool. His arm moved out from under her and she felt him prop up her head with his arm. She leaned back to him. He moved them around in small circles, her arm brushing over his. She felt his hand make its way around to her stomach and his fingers traced the scar on her abdomen. Olek.
She opened her eyes and stared up at him. He looked down at her and smiled.
"Hi," he said.
"When I was pregnant with Deva," she said. "She loved the water, I mean I think all babies do, Max did but not like Deva. She went crazy." She let her arms drift down to her stomach, flat and toned; The envy of the playground mums. Though it wasn't like she had had a choice. She had to be ready for when Rabbit came. Her fingers grazed his. "It was like she was doing somersaults. You could see her little hands and feet moving around. Got me in the kidneys are fair few times too."
"Really?"
She nodded.
"Wish I could have seen it."
"Me too." She pushed herself away from him and to her feet. She duck dived down into the water and surfaced far from him. She fell back into her stoke, pulling herself through the water with ease. He watched her go. She passed him a few more times before he grabbed her. She barely fought him as he looped his arm around her torso and flattened her body against the wall.
Her hands came to his sides reflexively but she didn't move them. He could feel her fingers, wrinkled from the water, holding onto him. He pressed his forehead to hers and she sighed, her head lolling slightly to the side. He looked at her for a moment.
"It's going to be okay," he assured her. "Everything is going to work out."
Her hands slid around his back slightly, her fingers splayed out as if she wanted to touch as much of him as she could. "You can't know that."
"Ana," he said, he pushed her hair away from her face and stared into her eyes. "It's all going to work out, I promise."
.
.
The elevator made a soft ding as it came to stop. The doors opened slowly and he ducked through them before they were fully open. He stripped off his jacket as he opened the double doors to the pool and dumped it on one of the chairs. His boots and socks joined them. He was unbuckling his belt when he heard her voice.
"I was beginning to think that you weren't coming."
He looked up to see her lounging on the step. Her arms were behind her, pushing her chest forward, as she lolled on the side of the pool. The water lapped around her pushing up around her chest. Her hair was pulled back and the pony tail hung thickly behind her.
He smiled and kicked his pants off. "Your father wanted to have a chat with me." He shed his boxers and jumped into the pool. The water splashed up around Ana and she squealed, shielding her face from the spray. The water surged up towards her chin. She spluttered slightly. He grinned at her as he swam over.
"Prick," she muttered and splashed water towards him. He ducked under the watery assault and came up just in front of her. He run his hands down her sides, first grasping her around the abdomen before sliding down to her thighs and parting them slightly. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer. "What did my father want?" she asked, pulling him in for a kiss.
"He was concerned that we weren't getting on and that our working relationship was going to suffer." He tugged at the string of her bikini top around her neck and the fabric fell away. His hand left her thigh and went to her back making short work of the remaining bow at her back. He threw the bikini top away. Ana raised her eyebrows and wound her arms around his neck lightly.
"He suggested that I try harder to get you onside."
"Oh," Ana said, pecking his lips lightly, "And how might you make our time together more…pleasurable?"
His fingers played with the bows at her hips, the last thread of material holding her bikini bottoms on, he pulled.
"I have a few ideas."
.
.
He didn't know whether she believed him but she stood with him all the same until goosebumps began to prickle their flesh and her lips turned blue.
He watched her get dressed. She unhooked her bra and let it fall to the floor. Then her knickers went the same way. She stood there for a moment before reaching down for her shirt and forcing it over wet skin. It stuck slightly.
He wondered if she would have skinny dipped if he hadn't been behind her.
He got dressed and followed her out; her soaking underwear clasped in her hand. He locked the gate behind them and they said nothing as they got into their cars and drove away.