This is a work of fiction. No copyright infringement intended.
Hunter and its characters belong to someone like Stephen J Cannell
Unfinished Business originally written by Morgan Gendal
OK - we all saw Unfinished Business right? So why did it happen? And what happened after? It helps if you can pretend that nothing from Streetwise onwards happened, except maybe in our nightmares. ;)
UNFINISHED BUSINESS - the whole story.
Chapter 13
Dee Dee lay on her back staring at the ceiling, knowing she should get up. There were dozens of things she could be doing with her Saturday, and a lot of things she should have been doing. None of them involved lying in bed for half the day - at least not alone. Despite her best intentions sleep had been elusive. When it finally came it was full of dreams. Gentle at first. Memories of Steve and the two years they had been together. But then the dreams changed and could still feel the pain of the months following his death. The black hole in her chest where her heart had been that threatened to suck her into its depths, mercifully numbing everything, but never quite succeeded. The often contradictory sensation of having been torn in half, a raw a ragged wound where the better part of herself used to be. And in the haze of agony the vision of Steve, smiling at first, then screaming in pain. Only then it wasn't Steve at all. It was Rick. With a groan she rolled out of bed. She didn't need Tate to tell her she was afraid of losing Rick the way she'd lost Steve. She glanced at the phone, wanting suddenly to talk to Rick and make sure he was alright. She needed to know how things stood between them. But she knew he would only stonewall until he was ready to talk. Maybe a bath would help. A nice, long, hot, frothy bath. And this time I'll lock the bathroom door, too. With Rick's immaculate sense of timing he'd probably decide it was time to talk the minute she was in the tub, and she'd need more armour than a towel or a wash cloth before she faced that. With a sigh she lay back in the fragrant bubbles, her body relaxing in the soothing warmth. Her mind refused to cooperate, though. So what do I really want? I want for none of this to be happening. I want things to be the way they used to between us before we slept together. So what if I love him? That doesn't have to mean that I'm in love with him. She slid beneath the water with a groan. If she couldn't even lie to herself about how she felt about Rick how could she do it to his face? While every part of her nature told her she needed to act, not wait passively for Rick to take the initiative, a stronger instinct told her to be patient. She was still half hoping that Rick would eventually come and tell her that the kiss had been a mistake. That he had just been caught up in the moment again. Half-convinced that she was right she resurfaced, wiping water and bubbles from her eyes, resolved to wait patiently. Breathing deeply she forced herself to relax. After a few minutes it began to work and she could feel her brain wind down a notch or two, the tension in her limbs unknot. That was more like it. Rick who? she thought with some satisfaction. As if in response to her silent query she heard a pounding on the front door. Yep, some things never change. Rick's timing was as impeccable as ever. She reached out and snagged her towel and was about to leave her warm, soothing haven when she thought, No. By the time I get there he'll have let himself in anyway, so why should I? She'd given him a key largely to stop him shooting and/or kicking her door in when he thought she was in trouble, and by the sound of the hammering he was about ready to do so. She remembered the other times he had burst in on her in the bath, and kept a firm grip on her towel. "McCall!" He sounded panicked. Probably had his gun drawn, too. "In here," she called. "Why didn't you answer your door?" he demanded loudly. "Because I'm in the bath," she shouted back. "I can see that." She jumped as she found him standing in the suddenly open doorway. How does he do that? He stood there grinning at her. "So did you come here to watch me take a bath, or did you actually want something?" "We need to talk. But I'm happy to wait here until you're done." She rolled her eyes at him. Typical! He runs the minute things get intimate, but he's happy to stand there making jokes while he ogles me. Aggravating man. The thought of him watching her didn't entirely displease her. Not that she'd ever admit that to him. "Get out of here," she said instead, waving her hand at him. With a last leer he retreated, closing the door behind him. Once she was certain he had gone she rose, wrapping the towel around her and stepping carefully out of the tub. I can do this, she assured herself, cinching the belt of her bathrobe tightly around her waist. She paused with a hand on the doorknob to take a deep, steadying breath before facing her fears.
He was standing in front of her piano, gazing at the framed photos on top of it, a faint smile on his face. Many of the photos were of the two of them. He turned as she approached and her anxiety level cranked up a notch. Things were going to change today, one way or another. There was no way back. "Look, I'm gonna just leap in here. Can you just let me talk? Then if I'm making a complete fool of myself here we'll both pretend I never said a word." She nodded, her eyes dark and serious. "And one more thing. Please, don't look at me like that." "Like what?" "That. I can't think straight when you do that." She shrugged, confused. "Sure." "OK. For a start, I'm sorry about last night. I promised myself that I wouldn't kiss you again, not after the way it almost messed things up between us last time. But then you were standing there looking at me that way, I just couldn't stop myself. Anyway, I spent the rest of the night awake thinking about us. I meant what I said yesterday in Tate's office - I don't want to lose my partner. I love you, you know that, right?" She nodded, but didn't look at him. "Yeah." He stepped closer and cupped her face in his hand, stroking her cheek with his thumb. "That's never gonna change. No matter where we end up next." He let his hand drop then backed away to give them both some space. "But I'd be lying if I told you I didn't want more." He watched her carefully, trying to gauge her reaction, but she continued to stare at the floor. "If you don't want the same thing ." Dee Dee looked up at him now, and he was totally unprepared for the level of fear reflected in her eyes. "It's not that I don't want more with you, Rick," she said softly. "It's just that I'm afraid. I couldn't bear to lose you." "I'm scared of the same things. I know what it's like to lose someone you love. But we've got an advantage that Steve never had." "What?" "We've got each other's backs. I could never trust someone else to cover you like I do, and I wouldn't trust anyone else to watch my back like you do." "But what happens if that's not enough?" "I'm not gonna lie and tell you that won't ever happen. It is a dangerous world out there whether or not we're cops. There are no guarantees in anything. But if you don't take a chance of being happy then what's the point of anything?" She still didn't look convinced so he stepped closer and took hold of her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "Let me ask you this - if you could go back in time to when you'd only just met Steve, knowing what you know now, would you give him up? Give up the good times to spare yourself the pain?" She was silent for a moment, seriously considering his words. "No. I guess I wouldn't." He almost breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Because we've already survived some pretty bad times, and we've got a helluva lot more good times still to come." "Yeah, you're right," she said softly, a tired smile on her lips. She leaned into him, resting her forehead against his shoulder. His arms wrapped firmly around her. He wanted to kiss her now, before she could come up with any other arguments, but there was one more subject he needed to broach first. "There's one other thing I want you to think about for me. I know that a family is something that you've always wanted. Now, I'd never ask you to give up that dream, but I'm not sure I could give you that. I mean, let's face it, I've already got a teenage son who would prefer never to have met me. Any more might be really tempting fate." "Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself here?" she teased, suddenly grinning at him. "Maybe. But once I've got you I don't plan on ever letting you go again." Her grin faded as they studied each other, both contemplating the enormity of the decision they were making. "I think," she began at last, "that we should take it one step at a time." She lay her hand against his cheek, unconsciously mimicking his earlier caress. "Besides, you could change your mind." He gave a short bark of a laugh. "Charlie said the same thing." "What?" Her hand dropped and she took a step back. Uh oh. "You talked to Charlie about this?" Her eyes were spitting fire again. "Lookit, I was going round in circles all night. I needed someone to convince me I wasn't about to pound a stake through our partnership." "Then why the hell did you talk to Charlie? He's probably already organizing new partners for us!" He captured her in his arms again. "Will you relax? He's not going to split us up." "Why wouldn't he?" "Because there's nothing in the regs that says he has to - as long as we're discrete about it. You know, we really should read them sometime." He felt her relax into his embrace again for a moment. "But what about ." He shut her up with a kiss. "I'll tell you about them later," he murmured.
Much later he lay on his back, dozing, Dee Dee half sprawled across his chest. He felt her stir and prop herself up above him. He opened his eyes to find her watching him, a serious expression in her dark eyes. "You OK," he asked. She nodded. "I guess this changes everything, huh?" "No. Not really." He wound his fingers through her hair and drew her closer for another long kiss. Eventually she pulled back. "What were you going to tell me about Visser and Reno?" "Huh? Oh. Well, let me just say this: Reno and Visser, interrogation room 2 table, Commander Stone." "Oh." She though about it for a moment. "Ewww." "Yeah. Don't ever be tempted to eat lunch in there." "So does this mean I have to keep my hands to myself when we're at work?" "I'm afraid so, Sergeant." "Damn!"
OK - we all saw Unfinished Business right? So why did it happen? And what happened after? It helps if you can pretend that nothing from Streetwise onwards happened, except maybe in our nightmares. ;)
UNFINISHED BUSINESS - the whole story.
Chapter 13
Dee Dee lay on her back staring at the ceiling, knowing she should get up. There were dozens of things she could be doing with her Saturday, and a lot of things she should have been doing. None of them involved lying in bed for half the day - at least not alone. Despite her best intentions sleep had been elusive. When it finally came it was full of dreams. Gentle at first. Memories of Steve and the two years they had been together. But then the dreams changed and could still feel the pain of the months following his death. The black hole in her chest where her heart had been that threatened to suck her into its depths, mercifully numbing everything, but never quite succeeded. The often contradictory sensation of having been torn in half, a raw a ragged wound where the better part of herself used to be. And in the haze of agony the vision of Steve, smiling at first, then screaming in pain. Only then it wasn't Steve at all. It was Rick. With a groan she rolled out of bed. She didn't need Tate to tell her she was afraid of losing Rick the way she'd lost Steve. She glanced at the phone, wanting suddenly to talk to Rick and make sure he was alright. She needed to know how things stood between them. But she knew he would only stonewall until he was ready to talk. Maybe a bath would help. A nice, long, hot, frothy bath. And this time I'll lock the bathroom door, too. With Rick's immaculate sense of timing he'd probably decide it was time to talk the minute she was in the tub, and she'd need more armour than a towel or a wash cloth before she faced that. With a sigh she lay back in the fragrant bubbles, her body relaxing in the soothing warmth. Her mind refused to cooperate, though. So what do I really want? I want for none of this to be happening. I want things to be the way they used to between us before we slept together. So what if I love him? That doesn't have to mean that I'm in love with him. She slid beneath the water with a groan. If she couldn't even lie to herself about how she felt about Rick how could she do it to his face? While every part of her nature told her she needed to act, not wait passively for Rick to take the initiative, a stronger instinct told her to be patient. She was still half hoping that Rick would eventually come and tell her that the kiss had been a mistake. That he had just been caught up in the moment again. Half-convinced that she was right she resurfaced, wiping water and bubbles from her eyes, resolved to wait patiently. Breathing deeply she forced herself to relax. After a few minutes it began to work and she could feel her brain wind down a notch or two, the tension in her limbs unknot. That was more like it. Rick who? she thought with some satisfaction. As if in response to her silent query she heard a pounding on the front door. Yep, some things never change. Rick's timing was as impeccable as ever. She reached out and snagged her towel and was about to leave her warm, soothing haven when she thought, No. By the time I get there he'll have let himself in anyway, so why should I? She'd given him a key largely to stop him shooting and/or kicking her door in when he thought she was in trouble, and by the sound of the hammering he was about ready to do so. She remembered the other times he had burst in on her in the bath, and kept a firm grip on her towel. "McCall!" He sounded panicked. Probably had his gun drawn, too. "In here," she called. "Why didn't you answer your door?" he demanded loudly. "Because I'm in the bath," she shouted back. "I can see that." She jumped as she found him standing in the suddenly open doorway. How does he do that? He stood there grinning at her. "So did you come here to watch me take a bath, or did you actually want something?" "We need to talk. But I'm happy to wait here until you're done." She rolled her eyes at him. Typical! He runs the minute things get intimate, but he's happy to stand there making jokes while he ogles me. Aggravating man. The thought of him watching her didn't entirely displease her. Not that she'd ever admit that to him. "Get out of here," she said instead, waving her hand at him. With a last leer he retreated, closing the door behind him. Once she was certain he had gone she rose, wrapping the towel around her and stepping carefully out of the tub. I can do this, she assured herself, cinching the belt of her bathrobe tightly around her waist. She paused with a hand on the doorknob to take a deep, steadying breath before facing her fears.
He was standing in front of her piano, gazing at the framed photos on top of it, a faint smile on his face. Many of the photos were of the two of them. He turned as she approached and her anxiety level cranked up a notch. Things were going to change today, one way or another. There was no way back. "Look, I'm gonna just leap in here. Can you just let me talk? Then if I'm making a complete fool of myself here we'll both pretend I never said a word." She nodded, her eyes dark and serious. "And one more thing. Please, don't look at me like that." "Like what?" "That. I can't think straight when you do that." She shrugged, confused. "Sure." "OK. For a start, I'm sorry about last night. I promised myself that I wouldn't kiss you again, not after the way it almost messed things up between us last time. But then you were standing there looking at me that way, I just couldn't stop myself. Anyway, I spent the rest of the night awake thinking about us. I meant what I said yesterday in Tate's office - I don't want to lose my partner. I love you, you know that, right?" She nodded, but didn't look at him. "Yeah." He stepped closer and cupped her face in his hand, stroking her cheek with his thumb. "That's never gonna change. No matter where we end up next." He let his hand drop then backed away to give them both some space. "But I'd be lying if I told you I didn't want more." He watched her carefully, trying to gauge her reaction, but she continued to stare at the floor. "If you don't want the same thing ." Dee Dee looked up at him now, and he was totally unprepared for the level of fear reflected in her eyes. "It's not that I don't want more with you, Rick," she said softly. "It's just that I'm afraid. I couldn't bear to lose you." "I'm scared of the same things. I know what it's like to lose someone you love. But we've got an advantage that Steve never had." "What?" "We've got each other's backs. I could never trust someone else to cover you like I do, and I wouldn't trust anyone else to watch my back like you do." "But what happens if that's not enough?" "I'm not gonna lie and tell you that won't ever happen. It is a dangerous world out there whether or not we're cops. There are no guarantees in anything. But if you don't take a chance of being happy then what's the point of anything?" She still didn't look convinced so he stepped closer and took hold of her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "Let me ask you this - if you could go back in time to when you'd only just met Steve, knowing what you know now, would you give him up? Give up the good times to spare yourself the pain?" She was silent for a moment, seriously considering his words. "No. I guess I wouldn't." He almost breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Because we've already survived some pretty bad times, and we've got a helluva lot more good times still to come." "Yeah, you're right," she said softly, a tired smile on her lips. She leaned into him, resting her forehead against his shoulder. His arms wrapped firmly around her. He wanted to kiss her now, before she could come up with any other arguments, but there was one more subject he needed to broach first. "There's one other thing I want you to think about for me. I know that a family is something that you've always wanted. Now, I'd never ask you to give up that dream, but I'm not sure I could give you that. I mean, let's face it, I've already got a teenage son who would prefer never to have met me. Any more might be really tempting fate." "Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself here?" she teased, suddenly grinning at him. "Maybe. But once I've got you I don't plan on ever letting you go again." Her grin faded as they studied each other, both contemplating the enormity of the decision they were making. "I think," she began at last, "that we should take it one step at a time." She lay her hand against his cheek, unconsciously mimicking his earlier caress. "Besides, you could change your mind." He gave a short bark of a laugh. "Charlie said the same thing." "What?" Her hand dropped and she took a step back. Uh oh. "You talked to Charlie about this?" Her eyes were spitting fire again. "Lookit, I was going round in circles all night. I needed someone to convince me I wasn't about to pound a stake through our partnership." "Then why the hell did you talk to Charlie? He's probably already organizing new partners for us!" He captured her in his arms again. "Will you relax? He's not going to split us up." "Why wouldn't he?" "Because there's nothing in the regs that says he has to - as long as we're discrete about it. You know, we really should read them sometime." He felt her relax into his embrace again for a moment. "But what about ." He shut her up with a kiss. "I'll tell you about them later," he murmured.
Much later he lay on his back, dozing, Dee Dee half sprawled across his chest. He felt her stir and prop herself up above him. He opened his eyes to find her watching him, a serious expression in her dark eyes. "You OK," he asked. She nodded. "I guess this changes everything, huh?" "No. Not really." He wound his fingers through her hair and drew her closer for another long kiss. Eventually she pulled back. "What were you going to tell me about Visser and Reno?" "Huh? Oh. Well, let me just say this: Reno and Visser, interrogation room 2 table, Commander Stone." "Oh." She though about it for a moment. "Ewww." "Yeah. Don't ever be tempted to eat lunch in there." "So does this mean I have to keep my hands to myself when we're at work?" "I'm afraid so, Sergeant." "Damn!"