Disclaimer: Not mine.
Title: Perfect Life
Pairing: Danny/Martin
Rating: PG
Summary: It's harder when you're the one to cause the pain to yourself.
Instead, the boss sent another to tail the wayward Cubano.
So Martin manages to stay otherwise unseen from his colleague, his mind running a thousand miles a minute while his heart thuds almost painfully in his chest in fear. There is so much he doesn't know about Danny but he is well aware from that one look Malone had given him that their latest cases have rattled the man in more than one way.
The car ahead of him turns left onto a sidestreet, and Fitzgerald thinks that his partner is just randomly driving to clear his head of oppressive thoughts. Another car goes behind Taylor's, then two more before the younger man joins the line where they continue on the straight away for a mile and a half when the first agent pulls to the shoulder.
("White picket fences and wood siding. That's the perfect life.")
Sam had said something to Jack once along those lines and it comes back to him as he stops behind his friend's vehicle.
"Go home, Martin. Tell Jack I'll be in at seven." Danny tells him, after removing himself from the driver's seat and leaning against the side of the Camry.
"No." It is quick and simple and he moves in to stand beside the man.
"Martin…"
It is a growl he knew, from more pleasant nights when things were simpler and they still loved each other. He still doesn't know what went wrong that fateful day. "I'm not leaving you. It's not going to happen, so talk, scream, get in the car and drive, but I'm going to stick to you." It sounds childish to even his own ears but he doesn't care because it gets the man's attention.
A sigh, then, "What was it that made you want to break up with me?"
"Nothing. There was nothing, and if you remember correctly, you're the one who called it off." He wishes this conversation wasn't taking place on the side of the road with a cheesy suburban house behind them and a couple of kids laughing on their way back from the bus stop.
He shrugs, "I thought you were going to do it eventually, so I figured I'd go first." He laughs with a mechanical edge to it, "There wasn't anything?"
"No." He knows he could say something else; something like, "In fact, everyday there was something else that only made me love you more." because it would make Danny blush, but he won't – the man has been through enough.
Only he doesn't realize that with the revelation, the old pain comes back to thread through the harder emotions of the second agent. The slightly-older still loves and a heart broken is hard to mend considering he was the one to do it to himself.
A tear forms.
(There is never an excuse for wasted time.)
The awkwardness flitting between them begins to recede gently, "So you wanted to…"
"I miss you." Martin nudges the arm nearest to him, and catches the gaze being directed at him. It's a sad one, as if he's holding back and the blue-eyed one won't have that, "Wanna talk about it?"
"Not right now. Not here." He mutters, "When we get home, then…I guess, yeah." Neither one questions his terminology as they return to the spring chill of their cars.