I'm back! I've been awake since 9am Sunday morning (it's currently 12:47am on Tuesday) and this popped out of nowhere. Two-part fic.
Seize the day. Carpe diam. It had been drilled into them from day one.
After four hours of being cooped up in TR2 on a quiet Thursday night, Stella was just about ready to jump out of the window of the vehicle, run away and never look back. Shannon, who was driving, noted this.
"Josh, I think we should take a break."
The Sergeant nodded, first checking in with Leon, the Intel officer confirming that there was nothing happening in the city.
"Just enjoy it while you can, Josh." Leon bounced a rubber ball on the concrete floor of the Intel room, prompting Kerry to take it. Grinning, Leon pulled another out of his pocket and resumed the activity.
"Shan, take a left up here, there's a 24 hour servo just up the street."
Nodding, Shannon smoothly turned the corner, quickly finding the service station and pulling up.
"Stel, you go in." Josh pulled a fifty out of his wallet. "Three coffees and whatever else tickles your fancy." Stella nodded, unbuckling her seat belt and clambering out of the car, thankful for the opportunity to finally stretch her legs.
[]
As Stella entered the building, Josh turned to Shannon, who was looking in the opposite direction.
"Shan, come on, talk to me." Josh tapped the dashboard. "I can see what's going on."
"What?" Shannon shrugged off the feeling of impending doom.
"You're crushing on Stella, pretty bad if you ask me." Josh grinned.
"You're full of shit, Josh." Shannon turned away again, again glaring at the driver's side window, as if it just stole her muesli bar.
"No, I'm not." He paused for a moment, searching for the right words. "You remind me of how I acted around Grace. Always sidestepping, afraid of what I wanted, but knowing that nothing else would give me the same feeling."
Shannon relaxed somewhat, turning to face Josh. "It's that obvious?" Realising her mistake, she puts her hand over her mouth, a look of horror on her face as Josh began to laugh.
"Shan, you've got it bad." Josh smiled. "You know what you have to do?"
Shannon sighed. "It can't be any worse than taking love advice from you, can it?"
"No." He rubbed his hands together. "'Carpe diam', Shan. Seize the day."
"What the hell do you mean by that?"
"What I mean, is don't leave it too late. Take your chance." Josh noticed Stella exiting the service station, carrying their coffees and a plastic bag filled with chip packets.
"I shouldn't have given her that fifty."
Part 2 should be up around Sunday. I don't like it either, but I've got a birthday pub crawl, a funeral, an 18th and then the 18th cleanup. So R&R, tell me if it sucked, or if you enjoyed it, or whether I should just give up and go and drown myself in a bucket. Heh.