"I am gunna leave you with one more pearl of wisdom Chris." Deac said softly as he helped her inside the granny flat and dropped her bags down.
"And what's that?" She asked a little scared to meet his eyes.
"Talk. I know it isn't one of your strong points." He added with a laugh. "But if you really wanna fix things, this situation, the TLI's struggle at work, stuff with Street, you need to talk."
Chris chewed her lip and frowned. "Yeah," She sighed. "I know."

Being off work for the next 3 days while her ankle healed gave Chris time to think. She knew that what happened with Street would be eating at him too, and she didn't want that to affect his relationship with Molly. She had been contemplating texting him and asking him to talk. She wanted to make sure that all of this was settled and to try to start rebuilding their friendship.
She hovered her thumbs over the screen and sighed.
"Hey, if you get a bit of free time soon can we talk?"
Street was on shift, researching some suspects when his phone buzzed. He was surprised to see her name on the screen and raised his eyebrows wondering what she wanted. He opened it and felt a small smile on his face,
"Hey, how are you feeling? I can swing by shortly after shift?" He replied.

Chris was nervously just trying to distract herself when she saw his reply.
"I'm okay, but I need to talk to you, be real with you so I can move forward. Make sure Molly knows where you're going too!" She added.

Street smiled reading it. "Will do." He wondered what she wanted to say to him so badly. What all of this was? His furrowed brows made Deacon eye him.
"All okay?"
"Uh huh," he said sliding his phone back into his pocket. He looked up to see Deacon's smirking face.

"What?" Street chuckled.

"Nothing," Deac raised his eyebrows and looked away.

"No what?" Street asked frowning.

"Was that Chris?" He asked nodding to the phone in his pocket.

"Yeah? Why?"

Deacon nodded thoughtfully, "How is she? Did you two work out your argument?"

"Yeah, that was Chris, I guess she is okay … Hold up." He put his hands on the edge of the table and tilted his head at Deac, "Did she tell you something?"

"We had a chat, yeah." Deac looked back at his work,

"Well, whatever you said to her might have worked. She wants to talk."

Deacon smiled. "Good, be gentle, she is fragile." He said before Hondo joined them and their focus was back on the case.

Later that day, Chris took a mug from the cupboard and flicked on the kettle. She paced a little waiting. Waiting for him to arrive. Dread and anticipation filled her stomach. She had just poured the tea and placed the kettle back when she heard his bike pull into the drive. She inhaled and braced herself, telling herself she could do this. He knocked gently on the glass door.

"Come in, it's open." She called.
"Hey," he smiled softly coming nervously in the door. "How are you?" He asked tapping his leg like he did when he was nervous. She picked up his mug and walked to him holding it out.
"I'm okay, it's getting there." She answered looking down at her leg. He took the mug and smiled.
"Ah thanks." He didn't exactly ask for tea, but he wasn't going to start off with a disagreement over beverages.

"Thanks for coming, I um, I…" She slowly looked at him as she sat back opposite him on the sofa. "How was shift?"
Street looked down at his tea. "It was um, you know, average. Missed seeing you." He offered with a coy smile that made her smirk.
"Yeah, yeah, okay enough," she laughed a little rolling her eyes.
He sipped his tea and eyed her. "So, come on, talk to me, why am I here?"
"I guess," she fidgeted, "I guess, I need to put some things to bed for the final time, so I can move on and rebuild and get out of this rut I am in."
He furrowed his brows and looked at her. "Like what?" He asked.
She swallowed and traced her finger around the rim of her mug. "Look, the last time you were here we, um, we went backwards." She wanted to look up at him, but she couldn't manage to get her eyes to shift from her fingers. She could feel his gaze on her, she knew he was doing what he does and trying to read her. "We both said stuff that, well, we shouldn't have, and we keep opening those wounds and hurting each other isn't good for either of us."
She snuck a quick peek at him, and she would swear he looked scared, sitting there looking at the tea in his mug. He nodded slowly and twitched his lips.
"Chris, I said some things too that, I shouldn't have said. It wasn't fair on you and yes you were right, wasn't fair on Molly either."
"She knows you are here, right?" Chris eyes suddenly went wide remembering that detail.
"Yes," he nodded with a chuckle. "I told her, and once I explained that your still recovering, she wanted me to see you and help."
Chris nodded and chewed her lip. But she wondered how much Molly knew about their last visit. And what she would think of them both if she did. She knew he probably hadn't told her about what he asked and why he asked it. But this was her chance to get him to put that aside, all of their mess, and refocus on Molly and the happy he could have with her.

"Jim," she began with a whisper. "I need you to know that," she stopped, hesitating,
"Need me to know what?" He sat up a bit, and tilted his head taking her in.
"You know how you said that you wanted to know if that night, between us was, well mutual?" She dropped her gaze and sipped her tea.
Street swallowed hard and blinked slowly. He had wanted to discuss this with her so many times before, but she had always slammed the door shut, but now tonight, she was the one seemingly wanting to discuss it.

As Street summoned his courage to look at her, his mind raced to Molly. He knew she wouldn't be happy about this conversation. He managed to summon the courage to say something he knew might upset Chris,
"We, um," he cleared his throat, "like you said we probably shouldn't talk about this."
"No Jim, please! I need to explain something. To lay it out and be honest so we can move forward, move on, I guess. I'm not bringing this up to ruin your relationship." She smiled kindly at him.
"When you asked me that question months ago, I was running, shutting you out and panicking. But honestly. You were right. I was like that because I did feel it was mutual. You deserve to know that."
Jim felt his heartbeat faster and break a little at the same time. He had no idea what to respond. Her confession was very unexpected. He thought he would grow old and die before she would admit to that.
He sat silently, no idea what to say back to her.
"I, I am not asking you for anything here. I just needed that out in the open. We had a moment. I will admit to that. But life has moved on and I need to too. I need to rebuild my life and stop dwelling on the stuff that threw me off course."
"Did that night really damage you that much?" He said sadly.
Chris swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, it did. Because what you made me feel, scared the hell out of me, but time has moved us both on. We aren't those two anymore. I still care about you. I always will. But we both need to get on with our own lives."

They both sat in silence for a bit.
"So, um, now what?" He asked quietly.
"Now, you go back to Molly and make her the centre of your world. You love her like she deserves, and I move forward too. Get my own place, build my life back to where it should be."