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Times - ch. 3
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Three days later, Tommy met his mother at his home. Daze did not say a single word about Barbara's rain coat at his wardrobe but it caught Tommy's eye when they entered his house and knew she must have seen it too. Daze also kept her mouth shut about the pair of small dirty sneakers standing next to his wellies but she must have seen them as well and he wondered what else was lying around that he got used to having here. Things from Barbara that he already did not really notice anymore but his mother would see and probably comment on it eventually. But Daze just raised her eyebrow at the sight of a pair of reading glasses on his mahogany desk that definitely were not her son's.
A small smile crept into Tommy's face when he remembered Barbara putting them on for the first time one late evening, sitting where his mother now sat.
"What?" she had said with confusion. "Is there something on my nose or why do you stare at me?"
"No, it's just..." he had answered with a small blush on his cheeks. Then both had laughed when they realised what she had asked. "Yes, in fact there are glasses on your nose and you look... err..."
"What? Funny? Well, thanks a lot."
"Oh, no, not at all. I was about to say... beautiful."
"Ah." Barbara had blushed as red as Tommy's face had been. "Well, umm... thank you."
And then she had continued reading the file in her hands with very deep concentration.
Tommy sighed with that memory on his mind, pulled up another chair and sat down next to Daze who already had put out the files she had brought today. He watched how she picked the glasses gingerly to put them aside. But she did not say anything.
Only later in the kitchen when Daze recognised Barbara's favourite cereals which Tommy particularly disliked she asked directly if she had moved in with him. Daze did not even say her name but that was not necessary anyway.
"Nah..." he answered avoidant. "She just was here, err... very often during lockdown." He cleared his throat and cursed his treacherously red ears. "And later..." he added. "And sometimes over night." he also added with a shrug after a short pause. Tommy felt the need for an explanation. "We work here a lot, you know, so we won't have to show up in a crowded office."
"I see." Daze smiled and then left it at that. She turned and walked her fresh glass of wine over to his study. There still were a lot of papers they had to go through before she would return to her hotel. And she knew her son too well, so she would not dare to ask more. He should not feel cornered by her inquisition.
When his mother was gone late in the night Tommy did not have to think for long. After the brief conversation about Barbara she was in the back of his head constantly anyway. He put on his coat, grabbed his keys and left the house. He wanted to see her immediately. Barbara certainly still was at the office, going through endless tapes with lorry drivers and other voyagers. He only made a detour to the premium roast house where he knew of a new almost contact-free 24/7 coffee vending machine. Barbara had found it one day during some investigations in the neighbourhood and they had stopped there for a break together several times from then on. Tommy knew her favourite brew and bought some. Then he rushed through the empty streets of London towards New Scotland Yard. It was not very far away.
Except for the desk sergeant in the entrance hall Tommy met no other officer in the Met building. Under a few doors some light was shining through and sometimes typing was heard but other than that it was silent and the corridors were deserted. Only when he came closer to their own offices he could hear music getting louder. Eventually he realised that it actually came from inside his team's main office and he wondered. Carefully he opened the door but he stopped in the doorway. What a strange sight it was.
The room was only lit by a single lamp on one desk so the big screen at the wall could be seen better. The already mentioned endless CCTV footage was running. In front of it, and not at all decently sitting at the desk, Barbara stood. In fact she danced. Her eyes though were glued to the screen. With her wonderful voice she sang what he already had heard on the radio a few times before. Her voice rose with the chorus.
"Just a notion..." she sang. "That you'll be walking up to me in a while."
Tommy swallowed. He had heard the text and remembered the song.
"And you'll smile and say hello..." she went on.
He listened to her during the whole chorus and wanted nothing else but to do what Barbara was singing about. He loved seeing her so happy and somehow carefree after all the time that she had fallen deeper and deeper into a gloomy mood. For at least a few moments of joy she apparently even was without that touch of perdition that lately always lingered under the surface of her smiles.
"Just a notion, that's all..."
Then Tommy had to clear his throat.
"Aaah!" Startled by this unexpected sound, Barbara immediately stopped singing and whirled around with wide shocked eyes. "Sir!" She fidgeted with a small remote control in her hands until the music stopped. "Sorry, Sir..." she muttered with embarrassment. She was instantly happy to see Tommy but he had caught her in a slightly weird private moment.
After a second he lowly said "Hello..." Under his face mask he was smiling broadly. Barbara recognised a strange fondness in his eyes.
"Sir, it's just..." Her voice trailed off.
"I bet you bought it the day it was released."
Barbara nodded and her face turned red but she gave him a sheepish smile. "It's great."
"Yes, I've heard it on the radio." Tommy still stood in the doorway, the coffee in its cardboard cups slowly getting colder. For a few moments they just stared into each others eyes. A firestorm of emotions whirled through hers and he could see it very clearly in spite of the low lights.
Then Barbara closed her eyes briefly, visibly inhaled and all of a sudden she turned and stopped the footage player. "I'm terribly sorry, Sir." she stammered. "It's just... You know, it's a very long silent movie with a somniferous storyline. The footage was so boring that I thought I could listen to music while I watch it. You must be thinking that I'm... totally crazy." She quickly put on her own face mask. After all it still was compulsory to wear it all the time in the office. "Sorry for not wearing it."
Tommy stepped into the room and the door snapped shut behind him. "Well, you'd see me grinning if it wasn't for my mask but it's not at all because you're crazy, which you are not. And I guess at this time of the night and all alone in here no one would say anything about you not wearing the mask."
"Well, you could, guv."
"Oh, don't call me guv, Barbara. And of course I won't. We're both vaccinated and you still haven't disposed of the test you made earlier. By the way, I... err... I brought you some coffee." He placed the cups next to Barbara's self-test kit that clearly showed the negative result. "What's more, we both have declared ourselves a close group anyway. You may have recognised that you and I haven't kept the required distance at all, with you and me always meeting at my house in the evenings."
Barbara shrugged and nodded. Of course she had recognised it. And she had come to love their proximity. And being at his house.
Tommy got rid of his mask and softly looked at her. She buried her hands deeply in the pockets of her jeans and blushed again but she was able to hold his gaze when he went on with soft voice. "For almost every day, even and particularly after the proclamation of the first lock down rules, to be precise." He took a lock of her hair and put it behind her ear.
It made her shiver. His touch was more than the usual reassuring soft squeeze of her upper arm.
"Sir..." she muttered and blushed a bit more. His hand gently slid across her shoulder. Although she got used to being touched by him throughout the last year this gesture again was more than a friendly hug or a warm hand simply lying on her shoulder.
"Hm?" he hummed and smiled dreamily. "Please take your mask off. I think you don't need that thing in my presence."
Suddenly the situation was perceptively different. Tommy stood close, right in front of her, closer than ever. His look was intense. His voice was low. Too low for the last bits of defence Barbara had in that moment. Her safety barriers vanished with the warmth in his eyes, in his smile and in his voice. Not to mention the gentle touch of his hands on the skin of her cheeks and on her neck right under her ears when he pulled at the straps of her mask and removed the damn thing from her face by himself.
When he would be going on like that Barbara would not be able to resist it very much longer. She feared she would swoon or at least forget how to breathe. She had to say something just to break the silence. "How was the meeting with your mother?" she asked with a rough and slightly higher voice.
"Wonderful." he answered slowly. Barbara could not get rid of the feeling that he was not referring to the work meeting. Absentmindedly, he mumbled two or three words about the things he had discussed with Daze but his crooked finger caressing her cheek and his eyes darting from her eyes to her lips, back to her eyes and deep into her soul, made her nervously deaf. She wanted to flee but was rooted to the spot. Her heart raced.
Tommy could not care less and Barbara did not really listen. With wide eyes she kept her eyes locked with his.
"Umm, great." she croaked too loud. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat before she could talk again. He had stepped another bit closer. "And what are you doing right now?"
Barbara stopped breathing.
"Tryin' to be romantic." Tommy whispered. He bent down and gave her a brief but nonetheless very gentle kiss on her lips.
Barbara did not back away at all. She still was rooted to the spot. She was shocked. Positively so, but nonetheless completely shocked. Her face was dark red. Then she inhaled, cleared her throat and tried to overplay it. It was just a simple kiss. Nothing more. No matter how terrifically marvellous it had felt.
"Well, not the best place, here at the office, don't you think?" She was about to turn away, almost already facing the screen with the stagnant CCTV footage, and was astonished how she could speak at all. "And I guess I have to go on working. There are a few hours left."
"Oh, to hell with that footage, Barbara. And to hell with the wrong place and what not." Tommy gently grabbed her arm and pulled her back to face him again. "I've missed you and now I'm trying to declare my l-"
While he was speaking and leaning forward to reach her lips again, Barbara raised herself on tiptoes to come up to meet him half way. Some devil inside had told her to. She desperately wanted to relive the feeling of his lips on hers, so Tommy was unable to finish his sentence. She met his lips in a sudden, almost yearning and slightly boisterous kiss. Without hesitation her hands went to his waist and his arms engulfed her in a light hug.
Only after a second or two their hard kiss slowed down into a deep and sensual encounter that went on for minutes. Strong and tender feelings had been held back for far too long. But now that they had closed the last bits of physical distance between them it seemed natural to finally reveal their innermost feelings for each other with this intense kiss.
"Oh, he definitely would have loved this!"
Startled, Tommy and Barbara broke apart breathlessly and turned to the voice in the doorway. They had not expected to see Dr Lafferty, but he obviously had run a night shift too, leant over a body or staring into a microscope. Although covered by a mask his face was brightly happy. "Ah... umm..." Stuart shrugged apologetically. "Just wanted to bring a new test result so you'd see it first. You also got an e-mail. Sorry. Didn't want to interrupt."
He threw a Manila folder onto the desk nearby and grinned juicily before he turned to leave. "Now go on! Winston would have approved of it."
When Stuart had left the room Tommy and Barbara still had not said a single word.
"Umm...?!" she now muttered.
"Tsk..." he voiced with confusion.
Nervously laughing she turned back to him and immediately he pulled her into a close hug, putting his chin onto her head while she buried her face in his chest. Under his open coat her arms crawled around his waist again.
"What do you think?" he asked into her hair with a brief kiss on top of her head. "Would Winnie approve of us? Actually I do. Approve of us, I mean."
"Yeah." she muttered. "I do approve of it too. Very much so, Tommy."
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A/N: Thanks for reading.