Disclaimer: Moonlight and characters don't belong to me; I'm simply a fan having fun with the characters.
"I've missed you," Josh murmured as he bent down to give Beth a kiss on the cheek.
Beth looked up from her laptop briefly to smile back at him as he seated himself across from her. "I've missed you too," she replied honestly. And she had, but now that he was back in town, Beth wasn't sure how she felt.
"So what are we going to do?"
"Right now? You go home and get some rest. I'll go and talk to Anna again. See if I missed anything."
Beth had been ready to protest. If they were going to work on the case together, why couldn't she come along? But then she had remembered that Josh was back. She hadn't been able to meet him when his flight had come in earlier so she had promised to be home tonight so they could spend some time together, catch up, laugh.
"So how was New York?" Beth asked, voice bright in an attempt to hide the guilt that was flooding her over her readiness to brush her night with Josh aside.
"New York was a good change of pace. Nothing too exciting but good. You know what they say—if you've seen one city, you've seen them all."
Beth laughed, feeling her tension ease. "Well if it's any consolation, this has got to be LA's slowest week."
"Yeah, I've seen your reports." Josh grinned. "'Tonight, our burglar was gracious enough to leave a broken window on the pavement. Police are currently sifting through the damage to see if any incriminating evidence can be recovered.'"
Beth's eyes sparkled. "Okay, so maybe I exaggerated things a little, earlier but with a little digging, this story will be big!"
"Come on, Beth. Be serious now. If there were a bigger story, the police would be all over it."
"Maybe. But with any luck, we'll have the case solved before the police make the connection," Beth replied distractedly, eyes rapidly taking in what her laptop screen had to offer.
"We?" Josh's smile faded. "As in you and…?"
Beth froze. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she berated herself. She had forgotten for a moment how delicate things were between Josh and her. Up until then, the evening had almost been like old times again.
"Josh…" Beth began cautiously.
"It's Mick St. John isn't it? We is you and Mick St. John."
"So what if it is? We work well together."
"Beth, you know how I feel about him."
"About him? Or about me working with him?" Beth challenged.
"You can't tell me there's nothing between the two of you. I saw it. I felt it."
"Don't you trust me?"
"It's not about trust, Beth."
"Then why are we having this conversation? Again?"
"There's something about him. I can't explain it but something about him is—"
"I trust him, Josh," Beth interrupted. "That's good enough for me. Why can't it be good enough for you?"
"That's just it, Beth," Josh vented. "You shouldn't trust him. At least, not the way you do."
Beth was silent. She didn't understand what it was about Mick that drove Josh insane but she knew that no matter what she argued, she still wouldn't be able to appease him about her working with Mick. She decided that the best thing to do was to extend a truce.
"Josh, is this really how we want to spend your first night back? Arguing?"
Josh's shoulders slumped. "You're right. It's late, and we're both adults. Tired but adults. Let's… eat. You hungry?"
No. But if she said that, it would just make things worse, just increase the friction that was already in the room. So she smiled tiredly. "Yes. I'm starving."
He smiled back fleetingly. "I'll pick up some Chinese." He stood and walked towards the door.
"Josh?" Beth called when he was halfway out the door.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry," she offered. Sorry that you can't see the real Mick, the Mick I know and trust.
He smiled more genuinely then. "Yeah. Me too."