Chapter 2: A Fever you can't Sweat out

Buzz marched into the Chief's office and stood to attention in front of the wide mahogany desk, which covered almost the whole expanse of the room, waiting for the worst. He was sure that he was going to be sacked. The Temptress had eluded him far too many times for the Chief to cope with now.

The Chief had probably only humoured him, given him the benefit of the doubt for this long, because he happened to also be his best friend. But now he wasn't so sure. Best case scenario, he would be taken off the case with his career still intact. This was something that Buzz would hate for him to do.

He was so hell bent on finding and catching this devil woman, that it robbed him of sleep and, almost, his sanity. He didn't know what it was about her that obsessed him so. The only thing he could come up with was that she was a minion of Zurg, and therefore his obsession was merely one for justice, and that in imprisoning her, he could then get to Zurg. Or at least get some information out of her that would help Star Command. Part of him had a hard time agreeing with that, but he shook those thoughts off and stored them away deep in his mind; they were of little importance; especially now he was off the case.

The Chief entered the room and was startled to see Buzz there looking so forlorn and tense.

"Sherriff," Buzz nodded in respect while using the familiar nickname, he may be losing his job, but that by no means meant that he had to lose a friend as well.

"Y'know just because I'm from Texas doesn't mean ya'll have to call me that Lightyear," he said with mock offense; he then noticed that his friend still hadn't unclenched. He let out a puff of laughter as he continued, "At ease Buzz I just want to talk to ya is all."

Buzz released an almighty breath that he didn't realise that he had been holding, and let his frame relax slightly, back into his natural stance. He looked down at the ground, huffed, and then up at his friend and smiled widely.

"You could have killed me you know Woody? I thought you were going to fire me!" Buzz walked towards the chair in front of the beautiful mahogany desk and slumped down into it, his feet resting on the smooth surface of the wood.

"Hey! Feet off the mahogany! D'you know how long it takes to polish this baby!... Wait, what did you just say!" Woody had suddenly taken in what Buzz had said and did a double take at him, stunned that he would have even thought such a thing.

"You thought that I was gonna fire ya? For the love of all that is good and pure in Andytown Buzz, are you insane? You're the best damn cop we have!… Have ever had! And not to mention, you're my best friend, what or who in the world lead you to think that?" Woody stared at him incredulously.

Buzz stared in front of him and thought about that for a moment, and then simply shrugged.

"I don't know…I guess I thought that since Temptress had escaped again, you would have thought that it was one too many mistakes for a single cop to make, no matter how good the cop. Plus most of the time, I think you've given me more chances than most, just for the fact that I am your best friend." Buzz sighed and placed his face in his hands.

"I don't know Woody. My mind's all messed up at the moment… I haven't been sleeping well…I've got a lot of stressful things on my mind that I can't seem to work out or even get my head around."

Woody observed his friend and felt a harsh pang of sympathy and sadness go through him. He wished he could do more to help Buzz. His personal life was a complete mess at the moment and Woody had had to contend with his best friend turning up at his and his wife Bo's house, drunk, unkempt, bloodstained and bruised from the obvious bar fights, and broken hearted.

"Look…Buzz…I know that you are havin' a real hard time gettin' over Mira…"

"I don't want to talk about Mira," Buzz interrupted, his voice quiet, distant, and cold. Lifting his head from his hands he leaned forward against the desk, cradling his cheek in his palm and sighed deeply. He couldn't face that right now, he needed to focus on more important things than his broken marriage.

But Woody persisted, with a slight annoyance in his tone, "Well I think it's time you did Buzz! It's not healthy for you to keep ignoring it like this. No man that has ever loved and lost a woman, will ever tell you, that pretending all is fine n' dandy, and throwing yourself into your work, is a good thing to do…In fact it's the worst thing to do and you know it."

Woody sighed and softened his tone, "Buzz…She left you for another man…That's not something that you can keep locked inside…And I know how bad you're hurtin' 'cos there has never been a time when you were unsure of yourself, or your instincts about other people, in anything you do."

Buzz mulled Woody's words over in his head, he knew he was right, but the subject was so difficult, and excruciatingly painful, to talk about. He had really loved Mira, more than anything in the entire universe, and he thought that she was the purest soul that he had ever encountered.

No wonder it had torn him apart so violently when she told him that she couldn't be with him anymore; that she had found someone else during his time working on the 'Temptress' case. Strangely, that only seemed to push him harder to win this weird sort of game that the Temptress was playing with him; as if he was trying to get his revenge on her, like it was her fault that his marriage had fallen apart.

Buzz's heart ached deeply as he remembered Mira's exact last words, telling him why she was leaving him.

"Buzz, I just can't DO this anymore! I hardly ever see you even though you are in the same, damn, house as me! All you have done since you started this case is work yourself into the ground… Straight when you get home it's right into that study with a locked door, and you keep telling me that it's top secret, and that you HAVE to keep working on it. That you won't stop at anything until this case is closed! Well what about me Buzz? What about me? I'm your WIFE for crying out loud! You are supposed to at least act like you still love and care about me…Look I know that was a stupid thing to say…I know you love me, I know you do… and I love you too,"

She grabbed and tugged lightly at her flowing, silk like, hair in frustration, as the hot tears began to slowly flow down her pink tinged cheeks.

" But that is exactly the reason why I can't stay here any longer….I just can't watch you work yourself to death like this…You aren't going to change the way you are, I don't want you to, I love the way you are…. But seeing you so haggard, tired and looking so possessed over this stupid case all the time….It's taking it's toll on me too…If this is what my life is going to be like every time you get a new case, then I don't want it…I'm sorry Buzz…But this is goodbye."

She had packed her bags and left that night in the back of her new boyfriend's car.

Most of what she said was harsh, but it was undeniably true. He did work himself far too hard with this case; everyone who knew him had said so. He didn't even know why he did half the time. His mind kept straying back to the same, not quite believable conclusion, that all he wanted was justice, and for both Zurg and the Temptress to be behind bars once and for all.

Mira was right. If it had been the other way around, he would have felt just as sick with worry for her. The woman he loved, basically destroying herself, over some strange obsession that neither of them really understood. He would have found it unbelievably difficult to watch as well.

But the difference between him and Mira was that he wouldn't have even dreamt about leaving her, ever, especially not for another woman. That was what hurt him the most…The fact that he knew he loved her so much more than she ever did. All he knew for sure about all of this was that he would never fall in love again.

Buzz swivelled round in his chair to face Woody, shook his head, and smiled slightly at him, "You know what? I think I begrudge being your best friend sometimes Sherriff," he teased. Woody smiled back and let out a small laugh.

Buzz's face suddenly went serious again, he stood up and gave Woody a brotherly pat on the shoulder, "Woody I know that you are trying to help me, and I really appreciate it, I do. But you know me…This is the only way I know how to cope with this and, granted, maybe it's not the best way…But this job is the only thing I have that is keeping me from a complete breakdown. You understand, right?" Buzz's eyes looked at Woody as though he was a drowning puppy.

Woody rolled his eyes and finally gave in, "Naaah! Alright! Alright, fine…And yes, I do understand that Buzz, but as soon as this thing is over you are going into every kind of therapy that I tell you to, got it?"

Buzz clapped Woody on the back and he laughed at his friend's hilariously bad temper as he said, "You got it Sherriff." He turned to leave Woody's office before he stopped at the door to listen to the rest of his ranting.

"Good!...Y'know I don't even know why you have such an obsession with this Temptress girl anyway Buzz," It was Buzz's turn to roll his eyes now. He was just out of the door, and beginning to walk down the hallway, when he heard Woody shout after him.

"I mean if it was under different, very different, circumstances, I would have said that your obsession was some weird infatuation with the woman, that you had romantic feelings for her."

Woody laughed to himself as he closed the door to his office, and walked in the opposite direction to go find Bo and take her out for lunch. But Buzz had stopped dead in his tracks as this new possibility hit him like a punch to the stomach.

"Infatuation? Romantic feelings?" he thought incredulously, utterly speechless, "Impossible! She works for Zurg for Stinky Pete's sake! Besides, I have never hated, or even disliked anyone more than the Temptress! Not even Zurg himself! Granted, she is very beautiful, and," he sighed deeply, "and yes she is… an extremely desirable woman. But she's pure evil; I hate her so much that, as horrible as it sounds, I'd be quite content with her no longer living in this universe!"

Buzz then brushed the comment off without another thought about it and strode off down the corridor to his own office. Which, in retrospect, was what he should have done, and what Woody had meant for him to do in the first place, rather than trying to prove himself otherwise. But that didn't really have any significance to it…did it?

How are we feeling about this fanfic and the chapters so far then? :D

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I'm very grateful for everyone's previous comments btw :D, they were lovely, thank you so much :D 3

All the best!

Tockie

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