Chapter 6
"I don't know about you, but I could sure use a drink... or two," Remington said with a heavy sigh when they entered Laura's loft, both of them exhausted and disappointed after spending the past several hours camped out in Laura's car in front of the hotel awaiting Quinby's return, but he never showed.
"Oh, it's not just you," Laura said as she closed the door and slipped out of her heels. "I gotta say, Quinby appears to have given this whole plan a lot of thought."
Remington followed Laura into the kitchen and watched as she took out two glass tumblers and an opened bottle of whiskey, unable to hide the surprised look on his face.
"Since when do you drink scotch?" he asked as he took a seat on one of the kitchen stools.
"Since a client gifted me the bottle for a job well done," Laura said while pouring. "While it's not exactly my preferred choice of drink, it does serve its purpose from time to time. This being one of those times."
She slid one of the glasses across the counter to Remington before picking up her glass.
"I couldn't agree more," Remington said and took a swig, making a face as the strong liquid made its way down. "So, what's our next step in regards of Mr. Quinby?"
"Aside from notifying the local police, who will in turn notify British police, I'm not really sure what more there's to do. All we had to go on was the hotel and the rental car, and they've both been a bust," Laura sighed, taking a sip. "I guess there's always the possibility of using bait to lure him out of hiding."
"Why don't I like the sound of that?" Remington said with an anxious look.
"Because it involves you being the bait."
"Ah, that would be why."
"Well, when considering that it's mostly you he's after, it makes sense."
"Unfortunately it does, but you seem awfully keen on the idea."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Uh-huh. Tell that to your face."
Laura took another sip, unable to hold back a gleeful smile.
"You know, I just realized you haven'y made any old movies references so far in this case," she said.
"I guess I've been a little preoccupied, what with a madman hellbent on killing us and trying to get in your good graces again. It's the most work I've done in a long time and it's hardly been rewarding as of yet," Remington said with a cheeky smile, downing the last of his drink.
"How about you focus on the task at hand instead of a possible reward?" Laura said as she refilled Remington's glass, a look of ease on her face.
Remington wasn't sure of it was because of the whiskey or that she could actually be warming up to him again. As long as she wasn't shouting at him or giving him one of her deadly glares, he considered it a victory.
"I find that an incentive is necessary when it comes to hard work," Remington said, maintaining eye contact with Laura as he took a drink.
"So the satisfaction of catching a dangerous murderer isn't enough?"
"Oh, I can think of more satisfying things."
"There you go again with the insinuations."
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Laura. Not everything I say is innuendos."
Laughter suddenly erupted from Laura and for the first time since his return, Remington saw the old Laura again and realized how much he'd missed hearing her laugh.
"Oh, please! The fact that you can say that with an actual straight face is down right impressive!" she exclaimed with an amused smile. "Besides, I thought you liked my mind in the gutter?"
"Very much so," Remington said while tasking another sip of whiskey. "Especially if I thought you were being sincere and not just messing with me."
"Well, what makes you so sure that I am?" Laura murmured, leaning across the counter and taking a slow sip while giving Remington a provocative look.
"I'd say you should bring out the scotch more often if it has this effect on you."
"Perhaps it's not just the scotch?"
"What else could it possibly be, Miss Holt?"
"Oh, I don't know, Mr. Steele," Laura said with a heavy sigh. "Could be that I'm feeling a bit nostalgic."
"Or?" Remington pressed on and leaned forward until they were close enough that he could feel Laura's breath on his face.
As he looked into those brown eyes of hers, everything else around them faded away and an almost palpable tension emerged. For the longest moment they simply stared at each other, feeling the temptation building up by each passing second.
"Or... maybe it's just the scotch," Laura murmured, breaking the silence, and stood back up. Her playful mood from earlier was gone and instead replaced with a serious look that Remington knew all too well.
"Ah, that must be it," Remington murmured, finishing off the last of his whiskey.
"Well, it's late so I'm off to bed," Laura said and quickly downed the last of her drink, barely keeping a straight face as her throat burned. "I'll see you in the morning. Good night."
"Good night," Remington said and watched Laura go up to the bedroom, closing the curtains behind her without another word.
The following day consisted of Laura going into the office alone while Remington chose to return to the hotel, primarily to gather the rest of his things and then checking out before meeting up with Laura. The events of the previous night hadn't been mentioned in the morning before they split up, and if it were up to Laura they would leave the subject well alone.
But Remington had already wasted two years trying to deny his true feelings and he wasn't about to waste any more time, once Jonathan Quinby was caught and the case closed. The real problem was convincing Laura and it was proving to be more difficult than Remington had hoped for but he kept reminding himself that if anyone was worth the effort, she was.
"Will it be anything else, Sir?"
Remington snapped out of his daze to look at the receptionist as he was handed back the credit card.
"No thank you," Remington said with a strained smile and picked up his duffel bag before slowly walking out of the hotel.
He sighed heavily as he stepped out onto the sidewalk, still in somewhat of a haze due to all the thoughts swirling around in his head.
The return to Los Angeles was proving more and more to not go as planned, in more ways than one. He had foolishly thought that with enough charm and the right words, he'd be able to win back Laura in no time.
A notion that had been easy to maintain halfway across the world, but upon returning and seeing first hand the damage he had caused by leaving, it was becoming clear that Remington needed to prove to Laura that he'd changed for the better.
Trying to catch a deranged killer before becoming his next victims certainly didn't help matters, although it provided the perfect excuse to remain in close proximity to each other.
So far, Remington had seen glimpses of Laura's vulnerable side over the past few days spent together, which meant that he was making headway and therefore needed to be persistent even when all hope seemed lost.
Remington stepped towards the curb, hoping to hail a cab, when someone caught his eye. He locked eyes with the man approaching him, quickly realizing that the man looked familiar.
"Quinby!" Remington exclaimed as it dawned on him who exactly the man was. Jonathan Quinby stopped dead in his tracks and stared straight at Remington for a brief moment before abruptly running away in the opposite direction.
Remington immediately dropped his bag and took off after him, not entirely sure what would happen if he was able to catch Quinby. They went running down a busy sidewalk with plenty of pedestrians in the way and for a moment Remington feared that he might loose sight altogether of Quinby.
While weaving through the crowd of people, he noticed that Quinby made a sudden turn further up ahead and disappeared. Remington quickened his steps and made the same turn into an alley, catching his breath before he hesitantly started walking down it.
"Show yourself, Quinby!" he called out. "Or are you too much of a coward to face someone who's actually capable of fighting back?"
As he glanced around the seemingly deserted alley, Remington became more and more agitated with each step.
Thinking back to the newspaper article and what Quinby hade done to his wife made Remington even more determined to stop him before he could hurt anybody else.
"Would that someone be you, Steele?" Quinby said as he stepped out from behind one of the dumpsters.
"I'd be more than happy to provide a demonstration if you don't believe me," Remington said cooly, slowly moving closer towards Quinby. "Actually, I think I'll do it either way."
"And here I thought you were more of a lover instead of a fighter," Quinby said calmly, clearly unfazed by Remington's threat of psychical violence.
"Sorry to disappoint but you're not my type, Quinby. Besides, I'd say the time for talking this out has passed, eh? Now, one way or another, I'm taking you in."
"Your confidence is admirable, Steele, but I'm afraid I can't allow that."
"Well, I'm afraid you don't have much say in the matter."
"Oh, I think I do. Especially since I'm not finished yet."
Before Remington had the chance to respond, Quinby swung around a steel pipe from behind his back and knocked Remington across the forehead with it. He instantly crumpled to the ground, struggling to maintain consciousness despite the intense headache coming on, barely managing to see Quinby's silhouette leaving the alley before everything went dark.
Laura shuffled around some papers on her desk in frustration, deciding that it was about time for a break. Because of last night's near incident, she'd gotten little sleep and it showed in her work. Despite getting an early start to a day free of Remington Steele, she hadn't been very productive.
Even when he wasn't around, the mere thought of him still distracted her. Especially when she foolishly reminded herself how close she'd been to giving in to temptation the previous night. Trying to blame it on the alcohol was a futile attempt, knowing very well what the real reason was.
She'd tried so hard for so long to try and convince herself that she was over Remington Steele. That he was just a bad dream that would fade more with each passing day, and on a few occasions it'd actually worked. But since he'd reappeared Laura felt things she hadn't in a long time, most of it good. Although, whenever she entertained the idea of getting involved with him again, the same feelings of hurt and fear pulled her back to reality.
The same reality of people always leaving her behind. First, it had been her father. Then eventually it was Murphy, Bernice and Mildred. As painful as that had been, it was nothing compared to how she'd felt when Remington left. Not only did he do it without any warning or explanation, which in and of itself was infuriating, but he had ended up doing the one thing he'd promised not to do; leave her.
Laura figured he would always be around whether they were a couple or not, especially since that they had a detective agency to run. So when she'd realized that neither her or the agency had been enough to make Remington stay, Laura finally cracked after all those years of keeping herself so put together and in the end, emerged as a different person even though it might not show. But she knew.
"Should I come back?"
Laura snapped out of her daze and looked over to see one of the secretaries, Mary, standing in the doorway with a folder in hand and an inquiring look on her face.
"Not at all," Laura said with a relieved smile, gesturing for Mary to enter. "In fact, your timing is impeccable. I'm in dire need of a break before I literally break something."
"Uh huh," Mary said as she stepped into the room, taking a seat in one of the chairs across from Laura's desk. "Why do I get the distinct feeling that your frustration isn't about work but about a certain handsome former boss?"
"What makes you say that?" Laura asked, tensing up.
"Intuition. And regrettable experience with workplace romance."
"Mr. Steele and I have a purely professional relationship."
"Honey, who are you trying to kid? In all the time you've worked here, I've never seen you interact with a man like you do with Steele. Which tells me that you have history, and not only the professional kind."
Laura leaned back in her chair, unable to hold back a heavy sigh.
"Is it really that obvious?" she asked, feeling herself starting to relax. She was getting tired trying to pretend the past had never happened, and especially tired of keeping up appearances.
"Only to the trained eye," Mary said with a sympathetic smile. "Like I said, I have experience when it comes to workplace romance. Although something tells me that you two genuinely care for each other, hence the frustration."
"Whatever we had is over and his presence only complicates matters."
"Ever stopped to wonder why?"
"Briefly. Which puts me in a foul mood."
"Because of how things ended between the two of you?"
"How did you–"
"I also have a lot of experience with men. And in my opinion, they tend to evoke some very strong feelings in us women. Most of them bad, which usually comes after a breakup."
"Well, things did certainly end badly. And I guess I've never really gotten over it."
"Maybe it's not so much getting over it as it is accepting it. I mean, I've had my fair share of bad breakups and had to learn the hard way that some things are just out of our control. But instead of getting hung up about it, you might as well acknowledge that it happened and simply move on."
"Which is easier said than done. Especially when your past mistakes comes back to haunt you."
"From what I've seen, I'd say the mistake was his departure rather than his return."
"I guess it depends on how you look at it."
"True. And the choice is yours in the end, but I'd say go for it. There's clearly still something there and it would be a real shame if you didn't at least give it one more shot."
Mary placed the folder on Laura's desk before slowly getting up out of the chair, a knowing smile on her face as she exited the office.
Laura went over their conversation in her head, trying to decide how she felt about the possibility of entering into a relationship with Remington again.
"Oh, you know better than that," she mumbled to herself and abruptly shook her head, declaring that it was high time for a coffee break. Anything Remington Steele related could wait until later.
TO BE CONTINUED...