Disclaimer:
Remington Steele and its characters are owned by MTM. No copyright infringement intended. For entertainment purposes only.
Set after Season 4. Bonds of Steele and Season 5 are not in my universe.
Chapter 1:
She felt an odd taste in her mouth. Her eyelids didn't want to cooperate, and her limbs were numbly tickling. The feeling was unusual; like while having a dream when even trying to do things, the action seems to be frozen in time and away from reach. However, one sensation was starting to be clear: the room was cold; she was cold, very cold. And there was a light, a light that had felt so far away at the beginning, but it was getting closer, feeling like warm sunlight.
"Miss Holt, Miss Holt! Are you ok?" said Dr. Phillips. "Wake up! We are finished here. You have to wake up! "
He hadn't given her an excessive dose of anesthesia. But the drug hit her badly. He'd called the nurse to help him wake her up. "I'm leaving you with Lauren, Miss Holt. I have another patient waiting for me. You'll be fine." He gave some instructions to the nurse and left the room.
"Lauren, Lauren, who was Lauren?" She began to put her bearings together. At least, her eyes cooperated, and she discovered a silhouette. After a brief sight tour around the room, some memories started to get in place. She was at the dentist. A root canal was needed, and she received the treatment in the morning, in the early morning to be specific. She had a lot of things to do after her dentist appointment, so the earlier the ugly situation was finished, the better. Now, she was free to follow the day enjoying more pleasant activities, more in the line of mysteries. Another soul would have called that work, but for Laura Holt that was a pleasure.
"Miss Holt, Laura. Are you ok?" asked the nurse, a slight uncertainty in her question.
"Yes, I'm fine Lauren. Just a bit dizzy, but I'm fine." She was able to move her hands with ease, and her self-control was back. "It's good to be in control of my own body again," she murmured.
"I'm going to bring your antibiotic prescription, and you'll be able to leave once you're ready," said the nurse.
"Thank you, Lauren."
After a couple of minutes, she stood up and grabbed her purse. She would have to stop by the pharmacy to get her antibiotics, and after that, she would be free to go to the office. Or maybe she could go straight to the agency to catch up about the morning events. The second option sounded better. It was routine what she needed. The prescription would have to wait.
In the meantime, the morning at the office hadn't been as she thought. The Remington Steele Agency was going through a stressful week. Mildred was stuck in the middle of a discussion with some of the contractors developing the new project to reshape the office. And Mr. Steele wasn't in the middle of any debate, as everybody would guess. He was hidden in the stuff room, resting comfortably on his executive chair, furniture that had been conveniently carried there the day before. He had a cup of tea on the shelf on his right and the paper in his hands. It was almost a perfect morning, only different because Laura wasn't there. Eventually, it could have been counted as an advantage, because nobody was pushing him to get some work done. But that was only until he started to miss her. He had been a loser in that department since a couple of months ago. The time they'd spent together had run fast. But the time when they weren't together run like in slow motion. They were both eager to meet each other at the office, every morning. He was even arriving at a respectable hour, just to feel the pleasure to share her good mood at the start of the day. That was the real Laura, a creature filled with energy waiting to be freed. It was a smart thing to share her good mood in the early morning either, because as the day went on, sometimes things got tangled and so got her humor.
Miss Holt opened the agency doors, their agency as she was getting used thinking of since he had obtained his license, mostly. Mildred wasn't at her desk, but the mail was, waiting for the pair of expert eyes to lay on it. She grabbed the envelopes and walked towards her office while peering through them. Right from the moment Miss Holt had opened the door, she'd noticed her shelter was as if hit by a hurricane. She remembered then, that they were in the middle of a renovation and that their offices were taken for the week. She closed the door and walked to Mr. Steele's office. But in there she found Mildred speaking to a worker about all the things he was doing in the wrong way and about all the things that he didn't have the chance to ruin yet because they were still not done. Although the scene was not unusual, given the situation, there was something missed in the whole picture; or in more accurate words, someone: him. The only place which remained looking like an office was the reception area. She decided to use Mildred's desk for a while, and after dropping her belongings behind it, Miss Holt decided a cup of coffee would help her to get off the odd taste in her mouth. She opened the stuff room door, and an image of the back of someone wearing a cap, probably part of the remodeling team, sitting there having a break; was all she needed to put her plan on hold.
"Oh, excuse me," said Laura, closing the door. But just when her hand was leaving the handle, she recognized the silhouette. She opened the door again, and failed to hide a smile, "What are you doing here? You are hiding like a child… Mr. Steele… that's not the behavior expected from the great detective whose shoes you are wearing! What are our clients going to say if they know?" She took off the cap from his head and, leaving his hair a bit tousled she stood there, in front of him.
"Welcome to my new shelter, Laura! I'm afraid Pedro and his team are getting comfortable making our delightful routines miserable. I needed a place to at last put my chair in place near my cup of tea and my paper. You know how attached to routines I'm getting used by being by your side…" He decided to shorten the distance between them, stood up, and bringing her closer, face to face separated only by inches, he greeted her with a good morning kiss. It was then when he realized something.
When he'd peered her agenda the previous day, he'd thought that the dentist appointment written in there wasn't settled with a real dentist. More like with another kind of specialist. But the taste of her mouth told him he'd been wrong. He silently congratulated himself about the wise idea to keep his mouth shut about his supposition. A sudden relief invaded him for not allowing a word to escape from his mouth betraying his previous wrong statement.
"Good morning to you too!" she managed to say once his lips left hers.
"How did it go with your dentist appointment?" he asked slightly stroking her face.
"I can say that it was rather acceptable. I´m not used to going to the dentist, you know. I can barely stand all that stuff about anesthesia. I don't think I can get used to it, ever." She released herself from his embrace, trying to refocus her mind in her previous assignment.
"You'll never get used to being out of reality under any circumstance, Laura. It's not your style, believe me. You love to feel your roots strongly attached to reality and duty. The mere thought of being out of your self-control even for a brief period of time might make you crazy in a blink. Even if the event is a medical procedure, I pity the professional that would take more of your precious time than the needed, having you out of control of every little detail of your world and body." He said looking at her while she was pouring herself a cup of coffee.
"Are we supposed to start our day with anesthesia or without it?" She asked a bit annoyed by his comments, "Because I've had my dose of the drug early in the morning. Do I have to go back to the dentist asking for another one?"
"No need for that Laura. I was just trying to be strictly attached to reality. But if we are talking about being attached, I'd rather want to be attached to a special lady detective today. Would you do me a favor and remain attached to me for the rest of the day, Miss Holt?" He bowed his head to hers and pulling her by the waist, added, "Please?"
She was trying to remain focused, not allowing him to savor his triumph without a little dose of suffering. "Okay, Mr. Steele. If you want to be attached to me the whole day, try to fasten your speed. We have a lot of things to do, and without a decent place to work here at the office, we might have to fill our day doing tasks outdoors.
"Outdoor tasks?" He asked her, showing displeasure. "What kind of outdoor tasks are we talking about, Laura? Please don't tell me you are counting on us practicing some kind of sport under the light of the sun. Especially when are familiar with better ways to burn calories, much more gratifying. Just think about the possibilities including the two of us training ourselves in one of the oldest sports able to be executed under a roof, playing as a team, our efforts rewarded with the satisfaction of a well-deserved prize…" and stopping the explanation about his ideal kind of exercise, he wiggled his eyebrows waiting for her answer.
"I think we are thinking about different insights of the word sport. And neither of them seems to be useful at the moment. Let's put our office to work Mr. Steele, and who knows, maybe once the boring part of the job is done, we can join ourselves in a satisfying practice tonight… But I want the prerogative to select the appropriate ground."
"And which would be my prerogative after a hard work day, Miss Holt?"
"Just think about the possibilities, Mr. Steele."
"That I can certainly do Miss Holt…"