Chapter 3 finally up! Enjoy! Chapter four up by wednesday hopefully. Appreciate the reviews
It had taken Stella two months, to the day, to crack. In those two months, she had had several encounters with the members of TR and desperately wanted her old job back. Kerry would gladly take her back to reduce the effort she had to put in to finding and training another Constable after Dom's meltdown. As a team they would happily and warmly welcome her back. The problem was getting Lawson to agree to it. Stella knew that and made mental notes on how to persuade the Senior Sergeant.
As she planned her escape from general duties, life at the Preston Police Station taken a slight turn for the worse just three weeks into her new job. Detective Sam Stone, who had been the first to welcome her, had developed a slight attraction to her and was asking her out to lunch or dinner every chance he got. Stella was now unable to count on all ten fingers how many times she had refused.
His unnatural pep and the leering looks he gave her made her want to call Josh in to play her pretend boyfriend to get Sam to back off. She decided that her choices were to either call Josh, or to call Shannon to add emphasis on the fact Sam and Stella often batted for the same team.
"Stella!" he said one evening as she just arrived for the night duty shift with Lynette, talking casually and joking. "Hey, Stella!"
As soon as he said her name, she rolled her eyes and Lynette gave her a look of sympathy and continued to her desk. Stella reluctantly turned around to reject him once again.
"Yes, Detective Stone?"
"I've told you to call me Sam," he said, smiling. Stella smiled back in an unamused fashion. "Are you free tomorrow night for dinner?"
"No, I am not."
She turned on her heel and proceeded to her desk. He followed like a lost puppy.
"What are your plans?" she asked, hopeful they would change.
When Stella had said that she wasn't free for dinner the following evening, she wasn't lying. Shannon had invited her over for a catch up session over more takeaway and wine. However, the way she phrased her wording when telling Sam of her plans was completely made up.
"I'm meeting my girlfriend for dinner tomorrow night, not that it is any of your business," she huffed.
"She's only your friend, can't you reschedule?"
"No, Sam, I can't."
Stella sat down and tried to not look at Lynette, whose head was as close as possible to the paperwork she was supposed to be focusing on to avoid bursting out in laughter. Lynette knew that Stella was currently single and only trying to get rid of him.
"Why not?" he whined. Now he was simply being annoying.
"Because she is my girlfriend," said Stella, eyebrows raised as she talked slowly in an attempt to get her point across. It took a few moments but it finally clicked for Sam.
"Ahhhh. Why didn't you just tell me that in the first place? I would have stopped asking," he said like it was all very simple.
"Believe me Sam, I tried to," she answered. Lynette's head was now resting against the desk, paperwork forgotten. "I'm going to go ahead and do some work now."
He turned with a sour look on his face and stomped away at his failed attempt in getting a date. As soon as he was back in his office Stella spoke again, but this time to her partner.
"You can laugh out loud now," she smiled.
A month after her last encounter with Detective Sam Stone regarding a dinner date, her partner Lynette had been shot in a moment of stupidity when she broke cover with a sniper on the loose. Stella was forced to rescue her and wait with her for the ambulance. Shannon had taken the life of the female sniper from the top of an adjacent building with a sniper rifle, Michael as her watcher.
Sam had decided at the tragedy of Lynette getting shot, Stella would need some comforting, forgetting all about the 'girlfriend' talk they had had. Thankfully, Shannon was picking her up for a night out with the rest of the team and as soon as Stella had spotted her in the foyer, told her to go with it for the moment, she would explain later.
The moment Stella put her arm around Shannon's waist, she knew that it was about the detective and put her arm over Stella's shoulder pulling her down the stairs to the front door. Unfortunately, he caught them as Shannon opened the door. Stella rolled her eyes again.
"Damn it!" she swore under her breath.
"Stella, are you sure okay? Do you need a lift home or anything?" he said, ignoring Shannon and putting a worried expression on.
"I'm okay, thanks. Night out at the pub with the boys and my girlfriend," she said, nodding to Shannon. Shannon disguised a giggle as a bad cough.
"Alcohol is probably not a good idea at times like these."
"What times?"
"In times of tragedy. Lynette was shot!" he said as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.
"The bullet went right through her leg. The doctor said she will be as good as new in two months and little physical therapy," explained Stella. "It's not like she died."
She was beginning to get fed up with his feeble attempts. He was worse than Michael. Stella adjusted her arm around Shannon's waist, pulling her slightly closer.
"Goodnight, Detective Stone," she said firmly, trying to express how much she didn't want to go out with him.
He watched as Shannon pressed a kiss to Stella's forehead and looked back over her shoulder, a smirk sitting perfectly on her face. Stella snuggled in slightly in the cold wind, nipping at their hair and faces sharply, content with where she was despite the fact that it was all for show.
They reached the parking lot, keeping up the act while Shannon opened the passenger door of her car for Stella. She quickly settled herself in the driver's seat and drove off towards O'Malley's pub for a traditional drink with the boys.
"Thanks for that. He really doesn't get my drift, and I told him flat out to his face last week," said Stella, putting her bag at her feet and looking exasperatedly at Shannon as she drove.
"He does seem a bit thick. If he goes any further, report him. It is border lining on harassment, Stel," agreed Shannon, looking at her as they pulled up to an intersection.
"Yeah, or get Josh on to him," laughed the brunette, at the idea of asking Josh to play protector for her. The guy who had called her high pants, mole and bitch many times. "That kiss was icing on the cake. Hopefully on Monday, it will have gotten through his fat head."
"Let's hope," said Shannon, as she quietened down to focus on her driving.
The kiss she had placed on Stella's forehead, while it had been improvisation for the situation, Shannon had wanted to do it long before Stella asked her to 'go along with it for the moment'. It had had an effect on Stella as well, giving her goose-bumps up her arms and unintentionally pushing her closer to her companion. It made her attraction to her best friend only that much stronger.
The boys already had the party in full swing by the time the girls rocked up at O'Malleys. For once, Kerry was there, and so was Leon's intern Audrey (who made lovey-dovey eyes at Michael all night as he tried to flirt shamelessly with Stella). It was a rare occasion to see the team out drinking without Lawson.
Stella was starting her first beer when she realised that Lawson wasn't there.
"Hey, where's Lawson?"
"Still at the base, torturing himself over the latest tragedy," said Josh, overdramatising the situation. The rest of them laughed.
"Can I borrow your car quickly?" whispered Stella to Shannon, who looked at the younger woman curiously but handed over her keys nonetheless.
"You better come back!" demanded Shannon.
"Yeah, I will. Thanks," said Stella, trying not to rush out the door and speed to the TR base.
She found Lawson five minutes later in the garage with the cars going over the inventory in the back of each vehicle. As soon as he heard footsteps, he turned expecting Kerry to drag him out to the pub. Instead he sighed when Stella entered through the old wooden doors.
"Hey Lawson, I wanted to catch you before you left."
"Oh yeah, what is it?" he asked, not really in the mood to be dealing with her at the moment.
"I want back in," she said quickly, feeling that if she didn't say it fast enough, she wouldn't say it at all.
Lawson stood up straight over the bean-bag shotgun duffle bag. "Stel, you left."
"I can't do anything else, I want this," said Stella, determined to win her job back.
He looked at her sympathetically, as if he was mulling the decision over in his head. Then he simply turned and walked away, leaving her there defeated.
Stella shook her head in disappointment and went back to the pub, handing Shannon her keys as soon as she arrived.
"Where did you go?" asked Dom. This got everyone else's attention.
"Nowhere," she answered, taking the shot of tequila Leon was offering and tipping her head back, revelling in the burning sensation it left as it went down her throat.
"You went to see Lawson, didn't you?" asked Josh, a pensive look on his face. Either that or he had consumed a rather large amount of alcohol.
"Yep."
The 'p' popped rather loudly in the silence of the group.
"What did he say?" asked Michael. It was as if everyone knew where she had gone, and what she had asked. The only thing they didn't know, the only thing the really wanted to know was the answer to what she had asked.
'What is with the third degree?' thought Stella.
"He didn't say anything," she replied, thinking that her beer glass was too small and the fluid inside wasn't strong enough.
"Seriously, Stel, what did he say?" came again from Michael.
Kerry, Shannon, Christian and Leon remained quiet as the slight interrogation went on.
"Nothing. He literally said nothing."
Everyone went home with a slight damper on their spirits four hours later.
It wasn't until nearly another month of more dating attempts from Detective Stone, that Stella finally got her answer from Lawson, or more like her answer from the highest in charge at Tactical Response. She was only two hours into her eight hour shift, sitting across from a disgruntled Lynette who complained about the pain in her leg.
At the Unit's base, the team was gearing up to set out on patrol. Lawson threw a questioning look to Kerry during their debrief an hour before their shift was scheduled to start; they were there early to catch up on the paperwork the Inspector had demanded be finished before they go out. She responded with a nod.
"Okay, guys, with Dom out we're down to five team members. For this morning, you're in pairs; Christian and Josh in TR2, and Michael and Lawson in TR1," explained Kerry, expecting a look from Shannon. "Shannon, you're with me now."
Shannon took a look at her team mates and friends, before hurrying after Kerry, who was carrying a thick yellow envelope in her hands to the garage.
"You won't need your ballistics vest, Shan, just your uniform," said the Inspector as they passed the locker room and Shannon detoured to replace her vest in her locker.
Kerry threw her the keys a moment later from the passenger side, before getting in.
"Where are we going?" she asked once she settled herself in the driver's seat.
"You are going to drive us to Preston Police Station."
"Preston? What are we going out there for?" she asked, the car rolling out onto the main road as Shannon sped up.
"I have transfer papers here that say Stella can come back," said Kerry.
"Lawson agreed to let her come back?" asked Shannon, a smile growing on her face.
Kerry smiled back. "We need an extra person with Dom gone, and letting her come back means that the Academy doesn't have to spend a million dollars to train a recruit to the standards we need."
"Why am I going with you? Isn't this the kind of thing Lawson should be doing?" asked Shannon.
"Unsurprisingly, Shannon, you're the only one caught up on your paperwork."
She laughed at the thought of Josh and Lawson being behind on paperwork.
When they pulled up into the parking lot of the station, Kerry asked Shannon to follow her lead, that she didn't need to get into a pissing contest with a desk jockey in charge of a bunch of amateurs. She received a nod in reply and motioned for the sergeant to follow her in.
The receptionist was helpful and directed them to Senior Sergeant Charlie Harris's office. Shannon looked around the small station, spotting Stella almost instantly. The detective was leaning over her desk yet again.
Shannon felt her blood boil in anger and jealousy.
Sam looked up and spotted her, grinning smugly.
"Hey, look it's your girlfriend," he said loudly, getting the attention of most of the officers in the bullpen, including Kerry and Stella.
"Do I want to know?" asked Kerry.
"He was or still is bothering Stella, keeps asking her out. She thought if he saw she was taken, that is by me, he would drop it. Stel asked me to pretend to be her girlfriend to get Stone of her back, and apparently it didn't work," explained Shannon, maintaining eye contact with her boss.
"So he's been harassing her?"
"I told her to report him over a month ago. She thinks he's harmless."
"Well, she won't have to worry about him anymore after this morning," said Kerry, knocking on Harris's door.
He yelled loudly for them to enter and Kerry proceeded to explain to him for fifteen minutes that Stella had been selected to return to TR to fill the number requirements set. He was reluctant to give her up, she was always on top of her paperwork and comfortable out in the field, better than most of the officers under his command. Shannon remained standing behind the seat Kerry had taken, hands behind her back and her feet shoulder width apart, watching quietly.
Kerry told Shannon to hurriedly help Stella pack up her desk. Shannon eagerly left the office and strode across the bullpen, standing out from the rest of them due to her navy blue uniform.
"What are you doing here?" asked Stella, pushing past Sam to give Shannon a hug.
"Kerry wants me to help you to pack up your desk," explained Shannon, keeping her face straight as she waited for Stella to understand. It didn't take long for her to smile.
"Lawson said I could come back?"
"Yep, so hurry up," smiled Shannon.
Sam looked sour and angry, but tried one last time. "Hey Stella, can I take you out to dinner tonight to celebrate?"
"Nope," said Shannon, smiling at him, hands on her hips.
Kerry walked out of the office, shaking Harris's hand and continued to Stella's desk.
"Whatever paperwork you haven't finished, bring it with you. You'll be on desk duty until to you finish this and your paperwork for TR," explained Kerry. She saw Lynette staring as asked, "How's the leg?"
"Healing. Thanks for asking," she answered, upset that her first partner was leaving her alone.
Stella didn't care that she was on desk duty at TR, but ecstatic that she was returning to TR. She couldn't wait to get back into the traditional TR uniform, back to what she knew. She left to fetch a box from the store room to put all of her things in. While she was gone, Kerry stopped ignoring Stone and turned to talk to him.
"So, you're the detective Stella's been talking about?" she asked, turning to face him. Shannon turned her head to watch the conversation and Sam threw a glace to Shannon, unsure if he wanted to have this particular conversation with Stella's boss while her 'girlfriend' was standing next to them. He did.
"So she's been talking about me?" he said cockily.
"Oh, yeah. Apparently, you're a bit of a try-hard who doesn't understand the meaning of the word 'no', even after Stella told you she wasn't single. You do know the meaning of the word 'no', don't you?"
The smile fell from his face as Shannon's grew. Stella walked back into the conversation at this point.
"Yes, I do," he said, grimacing at Kerry's attitude. His face contorted with embarrassment and fear.
"No, you don't, otherwise you would have stopped harassing her about a date. If I find out that you've come anywhere near her, there will be hell to pay. You got me?"
She had her serious face on. Shannon was sure he was going to piss himself. Stella was a little lost as to what was going on.
He gulped and nodded before scurrying away to hide in his office.
"Do I want to know?" asked Stella, as they walked out of the building towards the car. Shannon was still laughing quietly at the way Kerry was able to turn a cocky thirty-something year old man into a whimpering mess.
"Let's just say, he won't be bothering you anymore," said Kerry, as they slipped into the car.
When they arrived back at base, the mandatory hour Kerry had set for the boys to finish their paperwork was up and the TR vehicles were gone.
"Seeing as the boys are gone, Shannon, you can help Stella get set up to finish her paperwork. You know what? You can help her finish the paperwork too. Oh, an apparently, you owe Leon quite a few spooning sessions, Stel."
Shannon and Stella laughed as Kerry walked away to the offices in the back.
"Your uniform is in your locker, too," came down the corridor.
"I better get changed," said Stella, lugging her box of things and her bag off to the locker room, to get changed.
"Give me paperwork and I'll go find us a desk," suggested Shannon, taking the paperwork up to the offices, leaving Stella to grin stupidly as she changed into her TR uniform.
The boys came back at lunch to pick Shannon up for patrol and found Stella bent over the desk next to Leon's filling out the last page of her general duties paperwork to be sent back to the station later that day.
As soon as they saw her, Josh thumped her on the shoulder and offered a "Welcome back, you mole!" They roared with laughter, and gave her hugs, Lawson watching them from the doorway with Kerry and Shannon, nodding to Stella when she made eye contact.
They smiled to each other knowingly, a 'thank you' twinkling in Stella's eyes. Michael was the last to give her a hug and was rather hesitant about it, as he was still harbouring feelings for her. Audrey threw a greasy look to the back of Stella's head.
It had taken Stella nearly three solid days of desk duty to finish all of her paperwork, with the help of Leon, Shannon and Kerry. Finally after completing the requirements of field training and first aid, Lawson had agreed that she was considered fit to return to active duty and was promptly put into TR2 with Josh and Shannon that morning in briefing.
There was no major activity flittering across the VKC, and Josh and Shannon sat comfortably as passengers in the car as Stella drove aimlessly until Josh took a VKC call. A petty thief, who had pulled a gun on a local shopkeeper, had been spotted near the Melbourne Aquatic Centre and sprinted into the building after jumping the ten foot spiked fence. Josh and Stella followed and Shannon took the car around the front.
As they performed their routine patterns of searching the building, Stella had encountered a mirror and accidentally discharged at the sight of a gun, only to swear at herself once she realised it was only her reflection. Within ten minutes, Josh was dragging the offender past Stella, flex cuffs keeping his hands behind his back, towards the door they had entered through.
"Was that you that fired?" he asked, as she grabbed the offenders other elbow and steered him out.
"Yeah, it was an accident."
"How is firing your gun an accident?"
"It was a mirror. I saw my gun in the mirror and just reacted, Josh. It was an accident," she said firmly, handing the thief off to the uniformed officers who had only just arrived.
"Okay," said Josh, deeming the situation handled.
That was until Lawson arrived with Michael and Christian, and proceeded to give her the third degree as soon as he got out of the car. She had wanted to avoid this confrontation.
"Hey, hey," he said, throwing his arms out in a way that said 'what the hell happened in there?'
"It was just an accident Lawson," she smiled, crossing her arms.
"What? Accidental discharge? You just sight the weapon in the mirror?" he asked, as his body let off waves of anger.
"What's the difference?" he asked innocently, the smile slightly fading from her face. "It's just a mirror."
"Discharging your weapon is a big deal, Stel. I thought you of all people would understand that," he said.
It was a low blow, but she refused to snap, knowing it would put her mental state into question.
"You know what your problem is Lawson?"
"What?"
"You can't let a thing, just be a thing. It has to mean all these other things."
Now she was angry, and turned away to plop herself into the driver's seat of TR2. He looked around for Josh as she slammed the door. Shannon was already in the car and she, Michael and Christian had been watching the exchange take place.
"Are you okay?" asked the Sergeant, leaning over the front passenger seat to look at her friend.
"He's already questioning everything I'm doing and I've only been on active duty for the past hour and a half," she said, shaking her head at her boss's antics.
"He just wants to make sure that you know your moves will be scrutinized because of everything that has happened. He wants you to be okay when you do your job because the rest of us rely on you just as much as you rely on us. Okay?" explained Shannon, hitting her lightly on the shoulder, eyebrows raised as she waited for confirmation that Stella understood.
"Yeah," she said quietly.
Michael watched with longing as Stella was pulled up on her actions, hoping she was okay, wanting to comfort her but knew that she would reject his advances yet again.
Outside the vehicle, Josh was stopped by Lawson from getting into the car.
"Is she a bit jumpy or what?" he asked, nodding his head to the car.
"Nah, she's been fine," replied Josh, shrugging off the boss.
"Alright, keep an eye on her."
Michael yelled out, and within seconds TR1 was speeding away from the Aquatic Centre to a residential assault.
Leon came across the comms not a minute after TR2 had merged into the local traffic.
"Hey Stel, you okay?"
"Yep." She was getting a kick out of making the 'p' pop every time she said it.
"Shoot yourself?"
They could hear the smile in his voice and Stella laughed back.
"Well done."
"How many years bad luck is that?"
"About seven years of Lawson on my back," came back to Kerry and Leon, and even Josh sniggered at that comment.
"I don't think your luck is going to change anytime soon, there is nothing over the scanners, so you guys can go for coffee, I think," he suggested, earning a nod from Kerry.
They found a cafe quickly and Shannon hopped out to buy three cappuccinos.
"Hey!" yelled Josh grinned, out of his open window. "It's Stel's first day back, therefore, it's her shout."
"If anything, my luck just got worse," she said grimly, and pulled a twenty dollar note out of her wallet, handing it to Shannon over Josh.
Shannon smiled sweetly and took the money, walking off to purchase their coffee's.
The rest of their shift went slowly and quietly, nothing requiring the attention of The Tactical Response Unit that uniforms couldn't handle. They spent most of their time, joking with Leon over the comm's.
At the end of their shift after their routine debriefing, Shannon had turned to Stella and handed her the crisp twenty dollar note she had given the older woman earlier for coffee.
"I wasn't going to take your money on the first day back. That's why you didn't get any change," she explained, leaning against Michael's locker.
"Come on, then. Dinner, my shout," said Stella, linking arms with Shannon, walking out to the parking lot.
Everything seemed to be getting back to normal for Stella, everything except her relationship with Shannon which was slowly changing. However, the young woman was unable to tell if the change was good or bad.
So what do you guys think about this chapter? R&R please?
