**A/N: Thank you for the reviews and PMs, Follows and Favourites I've received for this story! I've never considered these kinds of interactions to be something I'm entitled to, but nothing makes a writer feel better than to know someone out there read your work and took precious time from their schedule to tell you how much they've enjoyed it. I even had an anonymous review (thank you for writing, whoever you are!) the other day telling me that he/she had a dream about Coop & Audrey and that perhaps my story had something to do with it-it's amazing to think about the connections we make as writers/readers! THANK YOU for your support. I hope this story (and the two that will follow in this trilogy) will continue to live up to your expectations!**


"Diane, it's nearly a quarter past two. AM," Cooper dictated into his recorder, yawning wide as he entered the empty hallway of his floor in Great Northern hotel. "We have just discovered the body of Madeleine Ferguson. Washed ashore at the bottom of the falls just before midnight. This case has grown much larger than I thought possible when I first arrived two weeks ago," he paused, amused. "Two weeks today, Diane." He shook his head and smiled sadly. "Harry is convinced this is finished now, with the appropriate man in custody, being charged for these crimes. And I want to believe that he's right. But my concern grows by the minute."

He passed Audrey's room at the end of the hall and wondered if she'd be awake still, if he should go check on her. Surely the need for that has passed? he queried. What would you say, anyway? Tell her about the case? What you saw tonight? No. You really want to go in there because... .

He shook his head and yawned again, treading softly on the hardwood floor and turning towards his room. He reached into his pocket and took out his room key—latched onto the same keyring as hers—and as he reached his door, he very quietly tried to open it.

There was a message on his phone; the little light blinked incessantly on the dresser. As Cooper unbuttoned his shirt and prepared for bed, he cradled the phone between his ear and his shoulder and listened as Audrey's voice lilted over the line.

"Agent Cooper, I guess it's been an hour since you left and told me to stay here, and I've been good and done what you said. But I see the lights in the trees and I know something bad has happened. I'm worried and I wish you would come back and tell me what's going on. I keep thinking that this has something to do with my father. Do you think I did the right thing by telling you what I did? I don't know what to feel. I know my father loved Laura, but could he have murdered her? Maybe I'm just mad at him...," she trailed off and he could hear her sigh on the other end. "Did I ever tell you that I had a cat when I was little? His name was Sox because he was all black but he had these little white 'socks' on his feet. Daddy hit him with the car one night. I don't remember how old I was. I cried for hours and hours but he never comforted me or said sorry. The very next day, do you know what he did? He bought Laura a pony. Laura. He ran over my cat, and he bought her a pony." She laughed, but there was nothing joyous in the sound. "I wonder if I'm just jealous. I don't know my father very well and as much as I want him to love me and be proud of me, I don't know if I love him or just the idea of him."

Cooper had stopped, his dress shirt hanging unbuttoned, his hand braced on the dresser. He closed his eyes as he listened to the deep breath she took before finishing her message.

"I'm rambling now. I can see those lights and I imagine that you're there and it helps to know that you're not so far away. I guess I'll leave it at that. Oh! One last thing: That kiss. It was a kiss, right? I know the score, Agent Cooper. I'm just a girl, and you're a federal agent—" she paused, no more than a heartbeat, before continuing, "—but I wanted you to know that it was nice, and I won't tell a soul, I promise. Goodnight, Dale Cooper."

He listened to the click of the phone being replaced on the cradle, in that locked room across the hall, and replaced his own phone seconds after that. He let out a breath and fought the urge to race across the hall and break down her door and... instead, he grabbed a pen and a piece of hotel stationary and began to scrawl a short note to her:

Dear Audrey:

I am sorry for the lateness of my response. I received your phone message upon my arrival, well after 2:30 this morning. There is much to discuss. Perhaps over breakfast, we can make some headway. Downstairs,10:30?

Yours,

Dale

His hasty message included a scribbled out "Agent" in the signature; this first-name basis thing was going to take some getting used to.

He hesitated before sliding it under her door. Only when he received her beautifully penned response upon waking—early—the next morning did his fear disappear. 'My Special Agent' it said on the front, and inside: 'It's a date"

Once again, he smiled. My Special Agent. She wrote it like she meant it, with a firm, unbroken line, her penmanship flawless, as if she hadn't needed to pause to consider what she wrote, as if she believed every word she scrawled in blue-black ink across the page. Like an unspoken secret code they had both agreed to. As he prepared to start his day, he slipped the note into his inside breast pocket, keeping her little possessives close to his heart.

Deep down, he liked being 'hers'.


Four hours had elapsed between leaving his room for the sheriff's station and arriving again to meet Audrey. The morning was half over. Cooper had been with Agent Rosenfield, Sheriff Truman, and Deputy Hawk for over an hour, during which time they went over Albert's findings from the night before. He had a lot of information to digest—Maddy's killer was most definitely the same person who had attacked Ronette and killed Laura and Teresa; a tiny 'O' embedded under her left ring fingernail attested to that. Furthermore, Maddy had white fox fur clutched in her right hand. The facts had disturbed Cooper more than he thought—the pieces were tantalizingly close to falling into place. He had told Albert that he needed 24 hours to finish this. And that was what he intended to do.

He pondered his next move for a further three hours before realizing he had to return, but the answers had not been forthcoming. Something was missing.

Cooper had barely ordered his morning coffee when he watched Audrey walk into the hotel restaurant. Seeing her shook all thoughts of the case from his mind. Her eyes belied a lack of sleep, but other than that, he surmised, she looked sufficiently radiant. He envied the one who would eventually be allowed to wake up to her every morning, a thought that he—professionally—banished from his mind before it had a chance to roost.

"Good morning, Agent Cooper."

"Good morning, Audrey," he stood up to welcome her to the table and waited until she sat down before taking a seat again.

"You're such a gentleman," she smiled at him. "It's refreshing. We don't get a lot of your type here."

Cooper looked down at his plate and watched the last of the bubbles on top of his coffee burst into the deep darkness of the liquid within his cup. "How was your night?

"Long," she replied. "I waited up for you."

"I know."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

He looked up at her and barely shook his head. "No, I can't."

"Then why did you call me down here, Agent Cooper?" Her eyes twinkled with mischief and flirtation as she brought her elbows up to the tabletop and rested her chin against her cupped palms.

"Dale," he corrected, his voice whisper-soft.

She smiled at him. "Right. Dale... ."

She held his gaze. Cooper felt his palms beginning to sweat, and the old feeling of butterflies in his stomach—a curious feeling, one he hadn't felt in years—coupled with a spreading warmth in his midsection and a rising tightness against the zipper of his dress pants reminded him of not only where he was but who he was. How do you suppose it would look, getting an erection in the middle of a family dining establishment with the daughter of the proprietor sitting across from you... Cooper reminded himself. He blinked twice and began thinking about Disneyland and how he would describe this moment to Diane, in the most painfully scientifically accurate terms possible (Diane, 10:45... my penis is engorging with blood in preparation for the act of coitus...)

Just then, Cooper saw Andy walking towards him across the dining room. The look of concern on his face left much to the imagination, but over his shoulder, he saw Donna Hayward, standing in the restaurant entryway. Cooper leaned back in his chair and smiled. "Good morning, Andy," he said, his voice cracking over the first syllable.

"Agent Cooper," Andy said. "Donna Hayward says she needs to speak with you. It's about Harold Smith. She says it's important."

Cooper nodded at Andy and then looked back at Audrey. She simply smiled. "Maybe some other time."

"I promise, Audrey," he said, and she nodded. He flagged down his waitress and told her to charge everything to his account, and with one final glance at the woman across from him, he draped his coat over his shoulders and strode across the dining room with Andy to join Donna.


COOPER: Diane, 12:03 PM. My breakfast da—meeting—with Audrey Horne was sidelined this morning, most unfortunately, owing to Donna Hayward's sudden arrival and her curious information regarding the suicide note left on Harold Smith's body. The Mrs. Tremond that Donna met last week on her Meals on Wheels route was not the same Mrs. Tremond we encountered today (Pause) I don't think I need to tell you that this town, for all its charm, has a tendency to become stranger and stranger with each passing moment. (Pause; quicker, brighter) Diane, it also became apparent to me that Laura Palmer and I shared the same dream. Somehow, it all points to Mike—Mr. Gerard. I am on my way to see him as we speak. I'll fill you in when I get through with him.


COOPER: Diane, I have just finished with Philip Gerard. He said some curious things...the key to all of this, he said, is within me. My dream. The Giant. 'He is known to us here.' That is what Gerard told me. I also encountered my friend, the room service waiter who so helpfully assisted me the night I was shot. (Pause) Diane, there is a link here. Maybe we are getting warmer... .


COOPER: Diane...I can not discount the forces of magic that seem to pervade the very atmosphere over this town. This afternoon, I tapped into them to help me unlock this mystery. The Giant appeared to me, for the fourth time. I remembered what Laura said in my dream. 'My father killed me.' Diane, the killer is Leland Palmer.