Hi Laura, thank you for your review and your question. I am not in the habit of giving away my end goal but let me say all three of them will be a part of the story until the end, but the focus is to repair the broken friendship.
PS. all Please point out if I still missed some spelling or word mistakes. I am coming up on the last of the things google helped with :)
"Your equipment is set up, and you can sleep on the couch if you need to," Chris explains while pointing to her monitor-filled dining room table and what he assumes is the ensuite living room. "I'm on early call, so I am heading to bed."
Her voice may sound steady and composed to a stranger, but Jim hears that she is hurt. He just can't quite understand why. He had a lot more reason to be hurt.
He swallows hard once. Shouldn't he try to talk to her here and now? After all, he still had no idea how long this assignment would really be.
He hears Chris walking down the hall, and he decides to use his chance. "Chris?" he calls after her for a moment, and she stops dead in place.
Chris feels insecure. What does he want now? She rolls her shoulders briefly and then turns to him with a smile on her face.
"What? Sofa too uncomfortable?" the hiss in her voice is the complete opposite of the friendly mask on her face, and Street unconsciously takes a step backward before raising his hands in surrender.
"I thought we could talk?"
Chris raises an eyebrow in disbelief. "What for? You're only here because you had no other choice. You'll figure out how to get out of here quickly."
She turns away again when Street asks, puzzled, "What are you talking about? I'm in LA now for an indefinite period of time until the case is resolved. Before that, Owen lets ..."
"That's exactly what I'm talking about. You've refused to come the first time. Why? If you had been professional, you would have saved Molly a lot of grief and fear. Last night, today, and that idiot downstairs. " Chris explodes, and Street tries to find out how she knows all this. He had just briefly told Molly that, but suddenly it clicks in his head.
"Chris, that's not entirely fair. I did everything I could to coordinate the planning and execution of the security detail here. Deac knows that too, and I'm sure he told you that."
Street speaks firmly and in as calm a voice as possible, even when his emotions are boiling up. It has always been like that. It was relatively easy for them to challenge each other emotionally.
"Still, it makes no sense why you didn't just take the job. And for last night, I can, and I will blame you. Your people were so easy to see through and to time that the guy had time to break the door open. He would have been in the apartment without Luna. Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? " Chris is still in a rage, but Street realizes quickly that her emotions revolve around Molly's safety. What does that mean? Maybe he had to calm her down first. Maybe that would then also lead to a more civil conversation between them.
He lifts his hands again in surrender and carefully takes a few steps forward. It was imperative now that he didn't annoy Chris anymore, or it would be pretty tough.
"I'm here now. And if I had known what would happen." he bows his head and mumbles. "You must know how difficult it is for me to be here, in LA again."
Chris puts a hand on her hip in disbelief. He couldn't be serious now.
"Too late. And just to make it clear, I'm not a telepath. You isolated yourself after the death of your mother and ignored us all. And then you just ran away." Chris' voice shakes.
"I had to go. LA had just too many bad memories. I didn't have anyone ..." He doesn't get any further because now Chris really has enough.
"You did not just say that! We would have been there for you. You had the team, Buck, and... You said yourself many times she has ruined your life ... why should I mourn that woman? " Chris couldn't stop herself. The words fell out of her mouth just as they had back then. Her mind flashes back to that one and only conversation they had after Karen's death. It was also the last time Street answered a call or message from Chris.
She then had to find out from Luca about his resignation and the move.
"She was my mother. My family." hears Chris from her side and decides enough is enough.
"I've heard enough. You are here to work, and my apartment is available to you and your team because it makes sense. But nothing more. I'm going to sleep."
When the door slams shut behind her, Jim awakes from his paralysis. Chris had sounded very harsh at the end. Those were steps backward rather than forwards.
Jim sits motionless for a few minutes before pulling himself back together and concentrating on his work.
The night is quiet. He assumes if it was really the suspected perpetrator that he observed the change of guards and now has to wait again for a good while before trying anything again or at all. At least Jim hopes so.
He also blames himself for not being there, but he also knows that the first operational plan had his approval and that he probably wouldn't have done it any differently himself. Or at least not much.
At around 4:30 in the morning, the coffee machine starts running automatically, and he knows that Chris will soon be up for the early shift. He simply takes out two cups. Maybe there's a coffee in there for him too.
When he goes back to the screens, he sees movement in the hallway.
The door of Molly's apartment moves, and he is about to pick up the radio when a dog's head pushes its way through the gap. He inevitably has to smile. So Luna can not only knock but also open doors.
Even while he realizes this in his head, he sees the young dog heading straight for Chris's apartment. He waits until he hears the quiet double bark before he pulls the door open. The ritual seems important.
Luna greets him happily but then heads towards the kitchen, where Chris is now pouring herself a coffee.
"Well, did someone open the door for you?" Chris whispers while stroking Luna's head.
She immediately senses when Jim comes into the kitchen, and she also knows that she shouldn't be so hostile. But the statement that he had no one ... that still hurt.
"Coffee is ready if you like," she says with a wave of her hand to the second cup.
Luna must have noticed the tension because when Jim walks past her, she starts growling again.
Street raises an eyebrow in surprise. She had just greeted him happily, hadn't she?
While he is pouring his coffee, Joe finally realizes that the apartment door is ajar. Jim rolls his eyes and clarifies the situation.
Jim could swear while he radioed his colleague Chris rolls her eyes. In the next moment, he sees on the monitor how the apartment door opens all the way, and Molly walks into the hallway laughing.
Joe only takes note of where she is going and positions himself in the hallway.
"Morning," says Molly happily, but she has also noticed the tension in the kitchen.
Chris just gives her a short smile and then turns to Luna. "How about you go jogging with me now? Getting you really tired, so you don't annoy your mom today," she looks for Molly for a moment, and after a nod, Chris walks towards the door with the Labrador hot on her heels.
Jim was watching the scene, and he has to admit that he felt a little weird. It was always his "thing" to communicate with Chris only in looks ...
He stares into his cup and is only torn out of his thoughts by Molly's voice.
"I'm assuming that you didn't really talk to each other yesterday ..." her voice sounds somber, almost a bit disappointed.
"What do you know?" Jim can't help saying this reproachful tone. He doesn't really want to talk to Molly about the blame for this misery. Probably both of them had their part in it.
"Nothing specific. But I saw how she reacted to you yesterday, and I am now assuming that your shock yesterday had nothing to do with me but with Chris."
Jim keeps staring into his cup. So Molly had only used her knowledge of human nature.
He pulls a slightly pained grimace as he looks over at her. "We talked but not particularly successfully. And don't blame me ..."
"It's okay, I understand. You can't and don't want to talk to me. Can you just answer one question honestly?" says Molly gently and looks at him intently.
"Molly, we should use the time and talk again about the deployment planning. I changed something a bit during the night ..." Jim tries to steer the conversation in a different direction. He doesn't know exactly what Molly wants to ask, but he has the feeling that he certainly doesn't want to answer the question honestly. For many reasons.
However, with just one look over the table, he quickly realizes that his evasive maneuver will not be crowned with success and that his nieces were also friendly.
Molly raises an eyebrow and takes another sip of her coffee.
"Jim, I'm not as naive as you are hoping ..." she pauses in the hope that he will say something after all, but Jim is silent. "Okay, I really understand you don't want to talk to me, but if you do ... I'm here." she briefly puts her hand on his and squeezes.
"But you have to tell me one thing: do your people know how 'well' we know each other?"
When Jim looks into her eyes this time, he sees a mischievous twinkle in Molly's eyes that he has never seen before.
"You will have figured out the moment I was able to call both of you by your first name," he says dryly and stiffly with a small wave of his hand in the direction of Funk. "Don't worry, it's just muted." he continues.
Molly takes a deep breath. "Okay, tell me what you've changed then. I suppose you won't stay here," she says with a significant look at the monitors.
Street looks at the ground for a moment, ashamed. "I'm really sorry for making the impression I want to get out of your way. I just wanted to avoid memories. But that seems impossible, so I'll do a few layers by your side too. If that's okay with you. "
Molly smiles gently as Jim speaks. She had already expected something like that, and she knew in time she would find out what had really happened between the two of them even if neither of them wanted to talk about it. Why? To protect them? What for? It was over a year ago.
Molly and Jim go over the plans for a while until they hear happy barking again in the hallway. Fortunately, it's time for a change of staff too, so Street takes his chance and almost escapes the apartment.