Title: All Over Again
Rating: T
Disclaimer: The Benedicts don't belong to me in any way shape or form. As much as I want them to. Beth, however, is mine.
A/N: I know, I'm awful. So sorry about the lack of updates, life and my Phantom of the Opera muse kind of caught up with me. Nevertheless, I'm here now and I have a kind of vague idea as to where the story is going. Thank you to all my lovely reviewers. You make me smile!
Chapter Two
"Why would he do that?" Lacey leans forward across the table, her brown eyes wide. "When we last met up, you two looked settled for life. Happy."
"I know," I wrap my fingers around my coffee.
"He's a jerk," Martha shrugs her shoulders. "Some guys are like that, Beth. Lull you into a false sense of security, then cheat."
"But it's not his fault," I protest, wondering why I'm defending the guy who broke my heart and left me sitting in my bedroom at my sister's place, crying my eyes out for days on end. "If it's anyone's, it's Mia's."
"Look, you have to put it behind you. I know it's horrible when someone betrays your trust like that, but…Georgie, over here!" Lacey waves her arms in the air as the café doorbell tinkles, silvery in the morning air.
The fourth of our little friendship group, gorgeous, blonde Georgia appears, slinging her bag onto the floor and slumping into her seat with a distracted air in her eyes. "Sorry I'm late. Catastrophe at work."
"Not another prison escape?" Lacey teases.
"No, personal more than anything," Georgia shakes her head. "What have I missed?"
"Zach cheated on Beth," Martha tells her. "Little dickhead."
"Honey, I'm sorry," Georgia takes my hand, and I smile weakly.
"It's okay. The others have got me all convinced that he's evil and needs darts thrown at his picture. How are you?"
Georgia pulls a face. "Coping. Work is stressful, but…"
"How's Charlie?" Lacey wriggles her eyebrows, and I sigh and lean my head against the wall. Not that I'm not happy for my friend, who has been with her boyfriend steadily since she went to college, it's just I'm still wondering. What if that wasn't the first time they did that? What if it's been going on all along, and I happened to walk in on them because my early afternoon had been moved?
There has been a distinct lack of pleading text-messages and missed calls from Zach. In movies and things, the one who cheated always phones incessantly, and sends millions of texts begging for the other to take them back. It hasn't happened with me.
"It's been three weeks, and she hasn't got over him," I hear Martha whisper to Georgia, taking my silence and glazed over expression as a sign that I'm not listening. "He doesn't seem interested in wanting her back, though apparently he made a bit of a show when she caught them."
"Maybe she could help him," Georgia muses.
"Help who?" I ask, jerking myself out of my trance.
Georgia sighs. "Okay, listen before you react, Beth. My boss lost his wife a couple of years ago, and he's been taking it really hard, you know, as you would."
"Uh, how old is your boss?" Martha interrupts.
"It's okay, only twenty-three. Today would have been her twenty-third birthday. He locked himself in his office, and we had to walk on eggshells. Not that much is happening at the moment."
"What's his name?" Lacey asks, pushing her fringe away from her eyes.
"Will. Will Benedict, but of course at the station we all refer to him as Sir," Georgia says. "He's a nice guy, he really is, but he's just struggling. Spends his life at work, throwing himself into every little case we're involved in."
"How exactly would I help him?" I frown. "It's not like I show up at the station door and instantly he gets better."
"I just think he needs a friend," Georgia absentmindedly breaks a little of my untouched cake off with my fork. "A friend whom he can rely on to be there whenever something happens…you know the rest of us are too busy, and whilst the others respect him, they think he's odd, too."
Crossing my arms, I shake my head. "I'm busy, Georgie, you know that. I work too, you know."
"It might take your mind off your cheating ex," she wheedles, and I hold back a laugh, wondering not for the first time how Georgie can go from glamorous cop to pleading child in about 1.5 seconds flat. Encouraged, Lacey joins in and Martha groans, leaning back in her chair.
Unable to resist my friends, I sigh. "What time do you want me, then?"
"I get off shift at about five, next Friday. Wait by the front desk."
Friday sees me standing nervously in front of the police station, tugging the braid I got put into my hair by Mina when she was bored, and adjusting my jacket. In the past month, the freak heat wave has been followed by a cold snap, and my breath comes out in smoke as I try to steady my heart rate.
It's nothing, Beth, I tell myself firmly. It's not like they've gone and set you up on a blind date.
I walk up the steps, my boots clacking on the stone, and push open the front door. "Hello, miss, how can I help you?" the desk sergeant looks bored, tapping away on his computer without a single glance at me.
"I'm actually waiting for a friend. Officer Georgia Emison. She told me to meet her here."
"Sit over there," he intones, and, grateful that he has not made me wait in the street, I settle myself down on one of the benches.
A few seconds later, Georgie appears, still clad in her uniform and her blonde hair falling out of a pin. "Almost ready," she winks at me. "Come with me whilst I get my papers sorted."
She grabs me by the arm and tows me past the desk-sergeant, who has picked up the phone and doesn't seem interested. "I'm not supposed to be doing this, but there aren't many people in the office."
"Okay," I say, as she pushes open a door leading into a messy office area with several stations, and leading me to one with a picture of her and a chestnut haired boy stuck up above the computer.
"This is me," she says, gathering papers and sorting through them, muttering to herself. We were there for about five minutes before a male voice speaks up.
"Officer Emison, you know we don't allow members of the public into the office."
My head jerks up, and I blush as I meet a pair of brown eyes, looking at me out of a handsome, if tired face.
"I'm sorry, Captain Benedict. Beth's my friend, and I didn't want to leave her waiting in the cold lobby for me to sort these out."
He glances at her for a second, then nods tersely. "Don't let it happen again, Georgia."
"No, sir," she says. I suddenly feel shy and duck behind my hair, expecting him to go back into his inner office, but he doesn't, leaning against the doorjamb casually, looking at us but not seeing us.
I begin to fiddle with the cheap dolphin necklace, a freebie from the shop at the centre, feeling incredibly awkward until the ring of Georgia's phone breaks the silence.
"Sorry, Beth, got to answer this," she picks it up, holds it to her ear.
"Hey!" comes her enthusiastic response to whoever is on the other end of the line. Three seconds, she mouths, wandering away to the other side of the office, leaving me and her boss standing there.
"Nice necklace," he comments, watching the chain wind round and around my fingers. I start.
"Thanks. It's from the shop where I work," I reply. Seeing his quizzical expression, the raised eyebrow, I blush again, elaborating, "I work at the Island Dolphin Care Centre, you know, where disabled children go for dolphin therapy."
"Does it work?" he seems curious, shrugging away from the doorjamb and taking a couple of steps towards me.
"Dolphin therapy? Pretty much. It's lovely to see the smiles on the kids' faces when they're playing with the dolphins."
"To bring such joy to people," he pauses. "It must be a wonderful thing."
Georgia puts the phone down, and comes back to where we're standing, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "Ready, Beth?" she asks, a twinkle in her eye.
"Yeah," I say. On a spur of the moment decision, I hold out my hand to Captain Benedict. "Nice to meet you, sir," I say.
He takes my hand slowly, shaking it. "You too."