Chapter 3

"Okay, so here we go," said La Cour opening the door to his flat. He was living in a nice old building with a garden behind it. His apartment was on 2nd floor and Fischer couldn't help wondering if the flat looked as old and noble as the corridor. Well, he didn't mind as long as he had a bed to sleep on. When the door opened, Alan was greeted by the sight of clean white walls and bright interior. The apartment as it turned out was in pretty good shape, apparently it was renovated not long ago. The design somehow didn't surprise him – everything was in modern simple Ikea style that just suited La Cour's personality. It was nice though, nicer than he could hope for.

"Time for grand tour, I guess," stated his colleague with a slight smile upon his lips. He enjoyed Fischer's reaction to his home, the fellow policeman had something in his expression that made him think of a boy unwrapping his Christmas present. He guided Alan through the corridor to the furthest door. He opened them and showed the small room to his friend.

"This is the guest bedroom. Your room now," he simply explained. It was a small room but it had all the essential furniture – quite big and comfy-looking bed, a wardrobe and a small desk by the window.

"Damn," that was the only word that left Fischer's mouth.

"Not satisfied?" La Cour enquired as he watched intensely the quizzical look on the other man's face.

"No! No, no… It's perfect. Wow," Alan said and then barely whispered. "Thank you, man."

Thomas smiled pleased to get such response from his friend.

"Wanna see the rest?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure," replied Fischer absentmindedly still enjoying the sight of his new room.

They visited all rooms in La Cour's apartment. They were all in the same clean-cut style and Alan instantly liked the whole spirit of the flat. On the other side of the corridor there was Thomas' bedroom, much bigger than the guest room, but also cozy. There was also a small bathroom with shower and the living room with adjoining kitchen. After the tour, they began to move all the bags from Fischer's car to his bedroom. Living in hotel rooms for quite long now, he learnt to possess only the minimum of things and it turned out that he couldn't fill even a half of the wardrobe with his clothes. He definitely needed more clothes and he would go for shopping as soon as he paid off all debts. And that was in the not-so-near future.

"Okay, I'm done!" he exclaimed from the bathroom were he put his cosmetics. At least he no longer had this awful hair gel that La Cour hated so much. He found Thomas sitting on the couch looking through the files of their ongoing case. He swiftly took the file from his friend's hands.

"No working, we're celebrating," he explained to the confused man.

"We need to work tomorrow," Thomas pointed out.

"A few beers won't do any harm," the man shrugged. "I'll go the shop and you'll pay."

"Funny," said La Cour but stood up to grab his wallet. He handed some money to the fellow policeman.

"Better be quick or I'll fall asleep," as he managed to say that, Fischer nearly run out of the flat. Thomas started to laugh at this childish display. Apparently that was how the life with Alan Fischer would look like. He was quite pleased having someone's in his apartment. He rarely had guests, not to mention women and he missed just having a person to talk to or enjoy a simple mundane things. Fischer was always a person from the team that he related most to, although they were completely different. But somehow La Cour could look beneath the macho look of his colleague and found out that underneath there was a sensitive thoughtful man. Maybe a little childish and hot-headed but always with the best interest in mind. As it turned out, Fischer was a champion of grab-a-beer marathon and it took him no longer than 10 minutes to return with the shopping bag.

"You're asleep?" he asked between heavy breaths.

"No," Thomas chuckled.

They both sat on the far ends of the couch and grabbed beer. It was like when they went to bars during the cases to gossip and share a drink, but much more comfortable and laidback. They could talk without the noises of the overcrowded pub and worrying that someone is listening to their conversation. The more beers they had, the more freely they talked. Alan told him about how he missed being a father and how low he felt living in cheap hotels to be able to pay child support. Thomas nodded although he didn't find the lack of parenthood so hard. He never felt the need of having a child, he was feeling too insecure and unstable himself to be able to raise a child of his own. So he ran again leaving alone a woman who counted on him for the second time in his life. Helen was not furious, rather sad and resigned. He knew she was worried about his mental state and didn't want to push him as she was afraid he could once again break. She didn't want that for their child nor for herself. They didn't parted on bad terms, he promised to pay and she promised to keep him posted as to their daughter's well-being. Thomas wondered sometimes if his special talent didn't took away from him the ability to love.

"So… this vision thing. Does it occur often?" Alan pried.

"No, not really. I don't feel it coming," explained La Cour feeling a little bit uncomfortable.

"But it's always about bad things, right? The things that happened?" he was genuinely curious.

"No. Several time I had this… premonition that something will happen. Small things like what Helen's going to say, or that a red car would pass me on the highway. Stuff," Thomas shrugged taking a sip of his fourth beer.

"Wow. Cool. You're special," stated the short-haired man putting away the empty can.

"Yeah, special…" repeated his colleague with a wry smile.

"Let's make an experiment!" Fischer abruptly stood up and almost flipped. It seemed he had more beers than he remembered. He grabbed La Cour's hand and tugged. His friend stood up and followed him although he did not like the sound of it.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" he asked with the raised brow as Alan opened the door to his bedroom.

"I'd like to know what's gonna happen to me here," he explained to Thomas.

"It really doesn't work like that. I cannot make the vision just appear," he sighed sitting on his friend's bed.

"C'mon, maybe something would come. Like the vision of busty red-head…" La Cour started to laugh at the other's man suggestion. He laid on the bed enjoying the softness of the mattress and closed the eyes. He could easily fall asleep now. And then as he was beginning to feel drowsy, it suddenly came.

It was dark, he barely could see the room. He was laying on the bed heavily breathing. Was he afraid? Excited? Then he felt the move on the mattress and suddenly a figure hovered above him. He knew that hairstyle and the serious look on the face – it was Fischer. He was naked from his waist up, his muscles were strained as he propelled himself on hands that were placed on both side of La Cour's head. He was also breathing heavily and his expression was hard to read. He was scared and determined at the same time. Then it happened so quickly Thomas couldn't even react. Fischer's mouth was on his own devouring it aggressively. His own excitement was reaching a peak. He opened his mouth and felt the man's tongue slide inside him and it was far too much, his head nearly exploded and he…

He got up abruptly almost knocking off Fischer who was kneeling beside the bed with the worried look on his face.

"You alright?" he asked with dread in his voice. "I didn't mean this.."

"Alright…" Thomas dismissed him and tried to steady his breaths. This vision was so forceful and real that he needed to swipe the sweat from his forehead.

"Was it bad?" Alan asked in guilt.

"No," La Cour laughed nervously. "Actually, it was you in bed. With someone. It was just real…"

Fischer smiled like a child and patted his friend's back.

"The red-head?"

"Not…" Thomas cleared his throat. "Not sure."

"It's a red-head!" exclaimed short-haired man already lost in his own fantasies.

"I'll call it a night if you don't mind," La Cour excused himself weakly and started leaving the room.

"Yeah, sure," Fischer also stood up and looked as if he sobered up in one moment. "Thank you, La Cour. I mean, for everything."

"No problem," answered the clairvoyant not even turning to look behind.