Chapter two:
Lunch, consisting of a giant toasted panini with ham, mozzarella and the slightest hint of jalapeño, was fabulous. Adam took her to a large and only half-filled cafe, with an enormous mural of Central Park in the autumn adorning the back wall next to the kitchen, and fairy lights strung up from the ceiling, meeting up in the middle. The waitresses were friendly, in their black slacks, white shirts, and navy-blue aprons.
"This place has a really nice ambience, Adam." Rachael took a bit of her panini and set it back down on the plate. Adam nodded, too nervous to even think up a simple reply. "Thank you for bringing me."
"Yeah...no problem." He waved the thought away, uncomfortable that all of the attention in their midst had just landed on him. "So," He cleared his throat quickly, glancing down at his half-eaten chicken and cheese baguette. "Uh, tell me about yourself. You, you said you're from, uh, London, right? In England." Idiot, he mentally chided himself, of course she knew London was in England. She'd only lived there.
Rachael nodded. "The very same." She knew he was just trying to avoid talk about either himself, or anything else at the minute, so she went on. "I, uh, lived with my Mum and Dad. Suzanne and Michael Garcia. My brother lived with us, too, until he was nineteen, but...didn't pan out quite as well. Have you ever been to London?"
Adam quickly shook his head. "No, no, I haven't...but I have been to Manchester. Once. Just once. I-it's never gonna happen again. Anyway, what's it like?"
"London? It's cold, and well quite wet. Where are you from?"
"Phoenix, Arizona. It's, ah, supremely hot..."
"Oh." Rachael nodded. She would get Adam Ross out of his shell if it killed her. "So, not much rain, then?"
"No. And no snow. I-I cannot stand snow." Adam was visibly disgusted.
Rachael grinned to herself while Adam picked up his baguette. Now they were getting somewhere. "Like a phobia, can't stand, or just a general dislike?"
XOXOXOX
Upon returning back to her desk, Rachael found another small pile of DNA samples she was needed to test. Adam was on a quick bathroom break, Mac and Stella had been called out on a case and everyone else was tied up. Thankfully, and unlike other labs she'd worked in, no one was bothering her. The music on the radio, something vaguely reminiscent of Bob Marley, was low and soothing. And the New York coffee was spectacular. She leant back in her chair, watching the machines do their work.
"Um, Rachael?"
Rachael spun round in her chair to view the voice from the door.
"Well, Adam." She smiled. The poor boy still looked unkempt. Hopefully he would get used to her being around...
"You can take your break now...i-if you want."
Rachael took a quick look at the GCMS. It would take a lot longer than her five minute break. "Yeah, alright." She stood up, shrugging out of her pristine-white lab coat and headed out of the door. Deciding it would take her all her break time to find the exit, she headed to the locker room. Hers was next to CSI Sonia Marsh, from the day shift. She was impossibly cranky. Rachael shimmied open her locker, pulled out her handbag and foraged around for her cell phone. Two missed calls – her mother, who had been worrying non-stop about the time differences – and six new texts; three how are yous, and three good lucks. She hurriedly replied to them and switched her phone onto silent and shoved it in her pocket. She sauntered back out into the corridor, up a set of stairs, straight, to the left and then into the lab only to be greeted by the back of someone in a suit. Someone very tall, with dark hair who was currently talking, rather loudly some might say, to Adam Ross.
"Adam, I got a suspect on ice, and I need those results." The voice, and its owner, was thoroughly impatient.
"Detective, I mean, ah, Flack, I don't have your results..." Adam was bright red, his hands darting into his pockets, and out again.
"But they were dropped off hours ago!"
"If you'd let me explain..." Adam looked down at the ground.
Rachael furrowed her eyebrows and stepped farther into the room. "Uh, is there a problem?"
The man in the suit whirled round, his hands set firmly on his hips, and Adam glanced up, thankful that 'The Suit' was distracted and would let up on him for a few seconds. He surveyed Rachael, egregiously bright, blue eyes scanning her from head to toe. He was tall, around 6" 2', in a crisp white shirt, deep blue silk tie, and black suit. He was, in all honesty, ridiculous handsome...as in, old movie star handsome. Rachael hadn't seen anything like him before. "Who are you?" His accent was deep and pure New York. And he didn't look impressed...
Rachael, standing there with what she hoped was a neutral expression, could barely focus properly on what the question was, never mind how she was supposed to answer it. She folded her arms and swallowed. "I'm, uh, Rachael. Rachael Garcia." She extended her hand. He was still looking at her, his gaze never leaving her eyes. "I'm the new lab tech..."
The Suit nodded and cautiously took her hand, firmly, and shook it once. Oh, God. Rachael felt her heart going into a ridiculous beat-thud-beat motion. Breath, Rachael. "Don Flack."
Oh. This was Detective Flack. "Hi." She managed to sound like her normal self, except her normal self would be composed and manage to say something more eloquent than her astounding opening line of 'hi'.
"Rachael, Detective Flack has a-a, like an issue with, uh-"
"I had someone drop off two samples earlier, I thought maybe Adam here would have them done by now." Flack sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was distinctly quieter with Rachael than he had been with Adam.
Rachael cleared her throat. "Actually, Adam was on a break, so I said I'd do the samples for him."
"Oh."
She stepped past Flack, further into the room surprised that she could actually move from her spot, and over to the machine, still busy whirring and grinding away. "Fourteen minutes left." She turned to Flack. "And I'm sorry. It had nothing to do with Adam." She was tempted to say that she thought he should apologize for being so loud and shouty towards the innocent party, but she didn't have the nerve.
Perching herself on the stool in front of the counter, opposite Adam, she tried to busy herself with processing some other evidence. Spotting Flack from the corner of her eye, still standing behind her she sighed "Is there something else you want?" Turning her head slightly towards him, waiting for his reply.
"Nope, just waiting for those results"
"Well you'll be waiting for..." She glanced back to the machine. "Eleven minutes."
"That's fine I'll just wait right here"
Rachael could feel Flack's stare drilling into the back of her head, she had expected him to leave and come back once the results were done, but no, there he was leaning on the doorframe with his arms folded across his chest making Rachael feel very uncomfortable. Unable to take much more she abruptly spun round in her seat to face him. "Okay, just stop!" She cringed at herself for snapping like that but this was just too much, "I will page you with the results once I have them. Oh, and I think you owe Adam an apology. There was no need to shout at him, if you'd of let him explain, it wasn't his fault" Ah, well maybe she did have the nerve, Rachael had a tendency of ranting and rambling on when she felt uncomfortable. Realising she had potentially made a total fool out of herself for overreacting she felt a flush rising in her cheeks.
Flack smirked over in her direction before turning to Adam "You're right, sorry Adam I shouldn't have yelled at you"
The beep of the machine grabbed the attention of all three of the occupants of the room, easing the tension that had quickly risen; Rachael cleared her throat and grabbed the paper that the machine had just spat out. "Okay, we have a match" she turned the paper round to show Flack the results.
"Thanks" Flack turned on his heel to leave the room, pausing just outside the door. "Oh, and Rachael, you look cute when you're mad" He disappeared out of sight with a smile. Leaving both Adam and Rachael shocked, Adam because Flack had actually apologised instead of just storming out and Rachael because she couldn't quite believe that she'd got the nerve to say what she did.
XOXOXOX
A/N Nikki: Okay, first off a huge thanks to everyone that's added WEH to their faves or alerts and also big thanks to ioanhoratio for the lovely review. So here was chapter two, again M & I would love to see some reviews. :D
A/N: Mary: Helloha! Thanks to everyone who read, alerted and reviewed, it really, really means a lot to myself and Nikki...although, we really would adore a few more of them, hint hint ;) Cheers!