Chapter 10: Officer Singh and The Kinda Girlfriend.

The morning after sleeping in the same bed Nora and Luke seemed to act as if it never really happened, or more accurately it felt so natural that they didn't need to bring attention to it. Well, maybe it was racing through Nora's mind just as much as it was in Luke's but neither one of them wanted to weird the other out by talking about it. Luke knew that this day was going to be a long one, that's for sure, because today is the day where he confronts his old boss, Captain Reeds, with the progress that he has made on the case that his captain didn't care about before.

The morning went by quickly and after they finished their morning coffee the two of them were stood at the entrance of Keystone City Police Department. Nora looked up to her friend beside her and nudged his arm with hers, "hey, you okay?" she asked with an upbeat tone and a smile to help him not to worry.

Luke nudged her back and smiled, "You're here, so how can I not be?"

Yep, there goes Nora's heart skipping a beat. The speedster released a wide smile and took the hand of Luke and pulled him along, "let's do this then!" she said with warm confidence and a giggle; she couldn't help but release that giggle of hers.

The two of them walked through the entrance of the building and moved their way towards the elevator but stopped when they heard a voice call out to one of them.

"Luke!" it said, "Wait!"

The detective turned around to see a round man similar in age to him bouncing along with a coffee in his hand and a bagel in the other.

"Who's that?" Nora whispered to which Luke replied, "An old colleague."

The round man didn't stop moving when he got closer to Luke, but he did manage to finish his bagel before barreling into the detective and wrapping his spare arm around him. "I've missed you so much!" the round man pretended to cry. The detective hugged his friend back with his spare hand, "Come on man, I've only been gone a few weeks."

"But still! Who else is going to go on the coffee run with me?" the round man laughed before turning to see Nora stood beside Luke with their hands still gripping together, "Oh and who might this be? A girlfriend?" he then asked curiously.

Luke and Nora exchanged an awkward look. Nora loosened her grip around Luke's hand, but he only held hers tighter. "Kinda," Luke replied to his friend before turning to see the now pink Nora.

"Nora this is Gregory," he introduced, "Gregory, this is Nora."

"It's lovely to meet you, just call me Greg" the Officer greeted as he extended his hand out to Nora who shook it in return, "it's lovely to meet you Greg" the speedster smiled.

Greg then looked at his watch and then lightly slapped Luke's upper arm, "right then, I better get going before Susanna beats my ass for being late again," he sighed, "I'll see you two later?"

Luke nodded to his friend and smiled, "I hope so, but we're not staying long."

As Greg smiled and ran off towards his partner waiting for him by the exit Luke pushed the button for the elevator and when the ding sounded and the doors opened the two of them stepped into the empty cubicle and stood awkwardly until Luke remembered to push the correct floors button.

Again, neither one of them wanted to bring up the tension that both of them were feeling despite Luke accidentally blurting out "maybe" but he decided that it was much better for him to double-down on what he had said than to backtrack on it; and besides, it's not like he doesn't have feelings for her. Nora on the other hand wasn't having any straightforward thoughts over what just happened, all she knew was that her tummy felt strange and her heart was beating as fast as it does when she is running.

The elevator soon reached the correct floor where the Captain of KCPD's office was located. Once the detective and speedster were stood outside of it Luke took a moment to get into the right frame of mind to deal with the grizzled old man. "We can do this," Nora said confidently again, "mostly because I know how to intimidate people with my mother's journalistic hounding!" she said with a sarcastic cheer at the end.

"You're mother's a journalist? That explains quite a lot," Luke joked, "but yeah, we've got this."

The detective knocked on the door to his old Captain's office who gave him permission to enter upon seeing who was disturbing him. Nora followed closely behind her friend due to feeling the intimidating aura of the Captain, it was much scarier than Captain Singh's.

"I heard last night from Captain Singh that you were heading here," the old Captain started with a graveled voice, "I told him to tell you not to bother. You know that I can't help you any more than I already have."

Luke stepped forward with no time to waste, "I know, you keep telling me that, but you have to realize that there is more to this case. I've even encountered the arsonist in person, I just need to figure out who he is."

"Who's Nora?" The Captain quickly questioned, disregarding what Luke was saying.

Nora nervously stepped forward and gave a meek greeting, "That's me Captain. I'm Nora."

"Why are you helping him with this fools quest?" The Captain questioned once more.

"Because I believe that catching the arsonist should be a priority. He is destroying property as well as people's homes," Nora responded with confidence this time due to her annoyance by the question, "and if anything, you're a fool for not helping," she then blurted out.

The Old Captain's eyes widened, "Excuse me?" he grunted loudly. "Get out," He then ordered to her, "You too Singh."

Luke and Nora exchanged looks but Luke just nodded his head to Nora, silently telling her to leave and that he can deal with this. As the door shut behind her the Captain and Luke had a brief staring contest before Luke walked forward and sat in one of the seats opposite the Captain's desk.

"I didn't give you permission to sit Officer Singh," the irritated Captain said as he gave Luke his full attention. Luke simply shrugged, "It's 'Detective Singh' now."

"Congratulations, 'CCPD's Finest' seems to be filled with morons," The Captain insulted. Luke rolled his eyes at the insult and heavily sighed, "Just stop Captain Reeds. I get it, you're a grumpy old bastard and you don't like me for obvious reasons," Luke snapped, "So I'm going to make a deal with you. Give me whatever information you have been holding back and you'll never see or hear from me again, you jumped at the chance for my transfer, so this should be like Christmas to you."

The Captain stared intently at the Detective for a few moments before sitting back into his chair, "I have told you what I can Singh. You know that. You should be grateful that I told you that the burned fucker was in holding."

"And you told me that years ago, but I need to see him now as well as know what happened to the other one," Luke quickly replied.

"I can't for multiple reasons, but mostly because the case you are following has become too personal for you, you know my opinions regarding that," Captain Reeds began, "and as much as I don't like a dirty cop like you, I'm not going to see you going too far when you come face-to-face with these criminals."

Luke pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed once more with one last ditch effort he leaned forward and looked into his old mentor's eyes, "Captain, people are dying. They're being choked to death by smoke, crushed by debris, or burned alive in their own homes. How on Earth can you live with yourself knowing that this is happening and that you have the means to stop it? Just help me. I can stop this. Deep down in that black heart of yours, you know I can."

The Captain looked away from his old officer and looked at an old picture on his desk, it was of his wife and children from at least a decade ago. "I don't have any respect for you, I think you're unreliable and I have no idea how they let you become a Detective. But you're right, I can't live with myself knowing that this is happening, so I'll take you up on that deal," He reluctantly lectured as he thought about what it would be like if his family lost their homes or met a horrible fate.

Luke nodded awaiting what information The Captain would give him.

"Liam Jacobs, the one who escaped the fire unharmed was arrested and taken to Iron Heights, he's still locked up there. The one who left with burns, Deckard Francis, was treated in hospital the night of the fire as well some time after but he was eventually taken to some special care place as you know. Deckard's representative in court managed to get Deckard house arrest for constant treatment so long as he never leaves, not that he's in much shape to do so either," The Captain finished with a humorous tone, joking at the expense of the scarred man.

"What do you mean, that he's not in much shape to leave? Does he have a burned face?" Luke rapidly questioned.

The Captain raised an eyebrow in annoyance at the increase of questions, "The man is burned pretty much all over one side, but that's what the bastard deserves. Now, will you let me give you the information you asked for or are you just going to interrupt me again?"

"Sorry," Luke apologized, "Carry on Sir."

"If you want to get in contact with Deckard, I can make it happen but it's going to take some time to arrange. He's closely monitored by some government branch, and as far as those types go, these ones are shady. I'm willing to set this up for you, but that is it, my hands will be clean of this whole shit and most importantly, of you." The Captain ended. Luke nodded along with what he was saying and then released a small chuckle at the old man's ability to consistently insult people.

Luke sat up from his seat and reached an open palm out for the Captain to shake, "Thank you, I appreciate your help Captain Reeds," he thanked in a professional manner. Captain Reeds looked at Luke's hand and laughed in disbelief before shaking his head, standing up, and shaking the detective's hand, "Catch this bastard for god sake. You've been at it for years. It's actually quite pathetic at this point," the Captain insulted one last time.

When Luke left the Captain's office, he was met with a very worried looking Nora who asked how it went with her eyes. The Detective smiled, "He's giving us what we need."

Nora jumped into the air and pumped her arms, "Yes!" she cheered before awkwardly apologizing to the people around her as per usual. "so where are we heading too next? Are we interrogating these son-of-a-guns?" she added with an attempt of an intimidating voice.

"Not yet," Luke replied, "first, we're going to go for a walk through Keystone Park, do some shopping, and then I'm going to take you to dinner."

"Oh, how forward of you Officer Singh," Nora teased with a smug smile before smoothly interlocking one of her hands with his, "and as your 'kinda' girlfriend I look forward to a romantic dinner."

The Detective's face blushed with color and he stammered with his words before he managed to form a sentence, "You are so not going to let me forget that are you?" he laughed as he gave a light squeeze on Nora's hand.

The speedster gently pulled on his hand downwards to lower his upper body so that she could plant a kiss on his cheek. She made sure it was a soft kiss that lingered a little, unlike the quick one she had given him at the bar. When her lips left his cheek she quickly walked ahead of Luke and pulled him along a little through the precinct.

The two spent most of the afternoon seeing the sights of Keystone city after walking through the city's famous park as well as feeding the ducks there, with one of the funniest moments being Luke getting chased by the hungry ducks because he wasn't throwing the food out for them quickly enough for their liking. Nora did warn him though, especially when the only duck capable of scowling began to honk at him. After their visit to the park Nora couldn't help but drag Luke into a small gift shop close by, she wanted to buy a souvenir to remember her time here as well as because Cecile asked for a magnet to put on the fridge. Luke and Nora browsed the gift shop that was filled to the brink of novelty items and little nifty things like key-chains, magnets, and badges. The speedster scanned through more or less everything that was sold in the shop until she came across two bracelets placed together, one white, and one blue with both having a polished stone connecting in the center with a Key imprinted onto it. "Oh now this is cute!" Nora beamed as she picked them up from the mixed pile of cheap jewelry. She held them in her hands and smiled before showing them to the man beside her, "Look Luke, kinda-matching bracelets! And they even show they're from Keystone because it has a Key on the stone, look!" she exclaimed happily as she pointed to the rock and laughed.

Luke couldn't help but smile at the childish joy of Nora, sometimes she can be so easily impressed that it just melts his heart, "Yeah you're right, they really are cute!" Luke agreed with just as much enthusiasm as Nora.

"I'm gonna buy them," Nora smiled, "that way you'll be able to look at it on your wrist and think of me," she grinned before turning around to head towards the cashier.

After they finished in the gift shop and browsed through some more stores it was time to grab some dinner, or in Nora's words: A romantic dinner.

The two stumbled their way to what seemed like a fancy Italian restaurant because it had a red carpet leading from the entrance towards a podium where a well-dressed man was eagerly waiting to welcome them.

Nora whispered to Luke, "I think this might honestly be too fancy," and when he looked at her, she motioned one of her hands down her body, "I'm so under-dressed!" she again whispered but louder.

The Detective scanned the lady's outfit, she was just wearing casual attire. She had a black shirt underneath a warm looking burgundy cardigan that hung just over the waist of her jeans. "Oh shush, you looking as cute as ever," Luke smiled at her as they stopped just short of the waiter who grinned at the two of them, "Ahh I must agree, but 'cute' must be an understatement, she is most surely and angel!" he greeted with a stereotypical Italian accent.

"Careful Luke, you might have some competition here," Nora teased before looking back towards the waiter, "Thank you for the kind words, are there any free tables?" she asked politely.

The waiter nodded before picking up a series of menu's, "Table for two, yes?" he asked to which the two replied with friendly confirmation. "Since you two are such a beautiful couple I have the perfect table open!" he announced as he led both Nora and Luke towards where they will be dining.

Once the Speedster and The Detective were seated and settled scanning the menu their romantic dinner officially started. Their table was placed beside a wide window that allowed them to see directly down the street where all the lamps in the dark illuminated the wide pavement that connected to all of the other restaurants and stores along the road. Their table had a pristine white cover draping down the sides with a red candle lit in the center. The orange light flickered across Nora's face as she looked at the view through the window and Luke couldn't help but look at the beauty who sat in front of him, how did he get so lucky to stumble into this girl?

"Hey, Luke," Nora said nervously as she turned her gaze from the lit street towards the man sat opposite her. Luke snapped out from admiring her and quickly moved his gaze away before re-joining it with hers, "Yeah?" he asked her with a hint of embarrassment.

"Thank you for today, it's been the happiest I have been in a long time," she replied with an earnest smile. The whole experience she has had with her parents, coming back to the past, almost losing her father multiple times, and the battles with Cicada and other Meta-Human's had been getting to her but the thought of her having to go back to the future at some point was a weight that sat heavy on her heart. Despite all the friends she had in the future, despite all the heroes that she has allied herself with, she couldn't help but prefer life in 2018 where everything is much simpler. Where her family is together, and inseparable.

"Honestly, I can say the same thing," Luke smiled, "I haven't had the best of luck in terms of friends and relationships, but you? You've made one hell of an impact on me."

Nora giggled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears, "maybe we should have dinner before we start getting too emotional?" she teased in a slightly embarrassed voice.

The waiter from earlier sailed towards their table with a bottle of wine in his hands, "Complimentary wine on the house," he insisted as he showed the label on the bottle then hovering it above their glasses, "yes?" he asked them.

"Hell yeah, fill that glass up," Luke answered excitedly, how could he not? It is free alcohol after all. Nora laughed at him before relenting and nodded to their waiter, "Sure, I'll have some too."

The Waiter then took their orders and left to wait for their food to be cooked before returning but he made sure to leave the bottle of wine on their table. The two customers spent the next few minutes laughing and joking about stories of his experience when he first started as a beat cop. He was telling her about a time where he and Gregory were on patrol together and the two of them played some basketball with some neighborhood kids.

"So these kids were really enjoying themselves, you know? We had two teams of three with me and Greg on opposite teams. I remember him having an absolutely terrible time being able to bounce the ball so he decided the better tactic would be to give the ball to one of the small kids and then pick that kid up and run with him before lifting him up to the hoop" Luke laughed as he told the story, "Seriously, it's so much funnier if you can picture it," he laughed some more. Nora laughed along with him at the thought of the round man doing what she had heard, "You two sounded like quite the pair!" she smiled, "I saw earlier that he had a lot of love for you, it was actually pretty sweet."

Luke nodded in agreement with Nora, "Yeah, he's a real nice guy although he's a bit of an accident prone but he wants to be a Captain one day which is pretty cool. Oh now there's a question, where do you want to go after your internship? Strictly CSI?" he then curiously added.

Nora pondered for a moment and tapped a finger against her cheek in thought, "Yeah, I guess I just want to stick with being a CSI in Central City, I haven't put in much thought beyond that." She answered honestly, "What about you?"

"Well, I wouldn't mind being a Captain like my Uncle but at the same time I think I want to open a Café at some point," he replied. Nora raised her eyebrows in surprised, "A café? I would not have expected that at all."

Luke chuckled, "Yeah, nobody does. But I dunno, there's something that just seems so rewarding about it, a different kind of rewarding than catching criminals. I think I'd love it to be by a beach," he, like Nora, answered his question honestly.

"That's adorable," Nora replied, "Do it. I don't see why you shouldn't."

Throughout the rest of their dinner the two of them opened up a lot more about their dreams and ambitions, as well as what they want in the future, except Nora was a lot more ambiguous in that regard but she did pay attention in great detail in finding out what Luke might be up to in the future because before she had bumped into him a few weeks ago she had no idea he existed. She was curious as to what he would have been doing while she was growing up. Time travel is weird.

After they had finished their dinner, they walked back to their hotel hand-in-hand and their bellies full of food that was way too expensive for either of them but so worth the price not just because the food was delicious, but because of the atmosphere that the two of them had felt during it. They genuinely felt like they were connecting. They both knew they had feelings for each other, and they could both trace it back to their mini-golf date and the subsequent trust and care that was shown in the bar, and since then, it's all just felt natural to them.

The two of them walked into their thankfully cheap hotel room and Nora walked ahead of Luke and collapsed onto their bed, "What a good day," she sighed with satisfaction as her face hit the bed covers. Luke took off his jacket and dropped it onto the old armchair in the corner before collapsing on the on the bed next to Nora, "I think we went a bit excessive on the food though" he joked.

"I get hungry, okay?" Nora quickly replied, "And I offered you some bread-sticks, so you can't complain!" she jokingly sassed. "Yeah you did, while you were eating them" Luke laughed, and Nora did so along with him.

As the laughter died down, they turned their heads and gazed at each other. Nora admired Luke's face and noticed a small cut underneath the left corner of his lower lip which he probably got from his job. Once her eyes met with his again, she picked up on the color of his eyes, they were green but in the right eye there was a small chunk of blue at the bottom that would only be noticeable if you took the time to look.

There was this unspoken feeling between the two of them, like they just want to grab hold of each other and just stay that way for as long as they could. Nora was hesitant to let this feeling in, once she does, once she admits her feelings then it is going to be a difficult road from here on out, but it would probably be worth it. That's what she believed. And for Luke, he was prepared to let this feeling out, he wanted Nora to know so he slowly turned to face her and moved his hand that was furthest from her towards her cheek. The Speedster cupped the hand that Luke placed and removed it.

"Luke…" she whispered hesitantly, "You know how I feel, but if we do this, it's going to be difficult. I don't want you to hurt you."

Luke retrieved his hand and placed it onto her waist, "You won't hurt me, and even if you do it'll all be worth it If I'm able to tell you that I love you" he admitted.

"You…" Nora's voice cracked, "you love me?" she asked.

Luke gave an earnest smile and looked deeply into her eyes, "Yeah. I love you Nora."

A single tear cascaded down Nora's cheeks and the moment the light thud of it hitting the mattress sounded Nora clambered up from the bed and onto Luke, meeting her lips with his over and over again with each kiss being more passionate and hungrier than the previous. Soon enough Nora removed her cardigan and shirt and once her upper clothing was off Luke rolled on top of her in an attempt to catch his breath while he had the chance. Nora ran her hands up his torso and began to pull his own shirt from his body, not that he wanted it on anyway.

"Off. Take it all off," she told him as she began to undress not just the shirt on Luke's torso, but the clothing on her body too.

"You sure you want to do this?" Luke asked as he proceeded to do as instructed before meeting his lips back with hers. Nora pulled back from the kiss and looked deeply into his eyes and whispered, "I'm sure. I don't know what the future holds, but I know that I want you in it."

They both needed the other that night, they needed to feel the other's touch, and the warmth that radiated from the person they couldn't help but want.

They were lost and in love.

A/N: I hope everyone had a lovely time celebrating their holidays! I thought I'd treat you to a long chapter before the gaps between them start to grow. I'd love to hear what you think of the story so far, where you think it's going to go, and what you think of Nora and Luke's relationship.

Have a happy New Year! ~FarmingPirate