Nick was usually able to keep his mind on his work without issue. Yesterday, before the date, he'd been distracted by his lack of sleep and his near-crazed obsession with the idea of seeing Jennifer again. The day could not have ended soon enough for him. But their date had gone well. Perfectly, actually.
When things were quiet, that date was all he could think about. Jen was all he could think about. The way she felt in his arms, the way she kissed him, the way she spoke, the way she smiled, the way her eyes sparkled, the way his heart sped up whenever she was near. He wanted more than anything to see her or speak to her before Saturday, but he had no way of getting in to contact with her again short of wandering the woods to see if he could find that bird to lead her to him.
But luckily the team had caught a new case and kept Nick far too preoccupied to be distracted by Jen. A prison guard had been murdered and another shot in the arm when a prisoner had escaped on his reward day. Nick and Duncan had been named lead, which was Nick's preference.
He and Dunny worked well together. They had similar levels of experience, and they'd been friends long enough to really know each other and be in tune to the other's approaches and instincts. Whenever Nick was paired with Rhys or Allie, he always did more mentoring and watching out for his partner than really working with them. That was part of his role, he knew, as the senior most Homicide detective. But it was just nicer to work a case with someone he could actually partner with, like he could with Duncan.
As part of the investigation, after getting the statement from the wounded guard, Nick and Duncan went to the prison to interview the inmates who may have known the escapee. None of them were helpful.
The worst, though, was the hideous surprise of a familiar face. Dane Majors. The man whose case haunted Nick for an entire decade. Nick had gotten a lot of attention for helping put Majors away. He was the detective on the case, new to Homicide at the time, working closely with Senior Sergeant Bruce Dalton. Dalton had been Nick's mentor in his early years. Direct and hardworking, Nick had learned to be a great detective from Dalton's no-nonsense approach. A good detective worked the case, used his brain, and went through every angle and did the work. Flashy degrees and unexplainable hunches weren't worth anything if you didn't just put your nose to the grindstone and do the work. Nick had tried to impart that same wisdom onto Rhys and Allie, but it hadn't quite taken yet. But Nick had learned the lesson, and it had served him well these last twelve years on Homicide.
But the brutal murder of Tahnee Majors was one that Nick still thought about in the darker recesses of his mind. Dane Majors had been cricket's golden boy. Won Australia the Ashes. Hero to the country. Hero to Nick, actually. He'd been a great cricket fan a long time ago. Dane Majors had changed that, though. Dane beat his wife's head in with a five-iron golf club. Nick had been the one to find the murder weapon and testify in court and lock up Majors for the rest of his life. And then there he was with his beady eyes and shaggy dark hair, looking right at Nick once again.
In typical fashion, Majors gave them nothing. Refused to talk to Nick, so Duncan took over. Didn't say anything of value. And when he started getting smart with them, Nick ordered the guard to take Majors out of the room. He'd been seething after that.
The rest of the day, Nick wished he could think of Jennifer and have her be a distraction from work. Instead, his mind went back to Majors and to Graham Proctor, Tahnee's father, and to that damned golf club.
While Nick was busy with Homicide cases both new and old, Jennifer was back home in the fairy realm. After their date, she'd flown straight back to her honeysuckle house and gone right to bed. She had fallen asleep with a very happy smile on her face, delighting in the pure joy of how wonderful her date with Nick had been. Saturday was so far away, and not being able to see him or kiss him before then might prove difficult. Perhaps Sir Terry would send her back to watch him, but she hoped not. She didn't think she'd be able to bear it if she had to be invisible and silent when he was so close. Now that she'd gotten to know him a little more, gotten to see him in his life and spend some time with him, she just wanted to be with him more. Getting to learn about him without him knowing didn't seem fair to either of them.
Once she was well rested and back to her usual self, Jennifer had to report to work. She had intended on going first to see Terry and give a report—a very sanitized version of a report, anyway—and then ask if she should see Queen Bernice or do a border patrol. But when she arrived at the palace, the answer was made very clear.
"Jennifer, where have you been?!"
She smiled at Queen Bernice exclaim upon seeing her. The older woman held out her arms and Jen went rushing into them. All her life, Jennifer had not had many female friends and she'd not had a very affectionate mother. Bernice filled both those roles. There was a certain sort of calm and joy that washed over her when Bernice embraced her like this. She felt safe and wanted and loved in a way that she rarely did otherwise.
"Oh I've missed you," Bernice said emphatically.
"I've missed you, too," Jen replied softly, clinging to the queen.
"Oi, you've both got jobs to do, remember?"
The women parted and looked pointedly at Sir Terry who had rudely interrupted them. Though that was not unusual at all.
Terry put up his hands defensively. "Do what you like, ladies, I'm just window dressing, I know."
Bernice laughed joyously at that. She reached up and put her hands on Terry's cheeks and pulled him down for a kiss. "You know you're more than window dressing and being humble doesn't suit you," she chided.
He gave a wry smirk, his eyes shining in a way that betrayed his deep love for her.
Jennifer watched them together and felt the familiar pang in her heart. And when Bernice looked back at her, she must have noticed the way Jen's face fell infinitesimally. "Jennifer, walk with me," she requested. "Terry, I'll catch up with you later."
"You're supposed to be holding court in five minutes," he reminded her.
"Postpone it for me, please," the queen told him.
"An hour?"
"Yes, that's fine, dear."
And with that, Bernice wrapped Jen's arm around her own and the two took a stroll through the palace.
Though it was not as comfortable and private as her own home, Jennifer loved the palace. She loved that it was build into the most beautiful oak tree imaginable, with the high ceilings carved into the wood and each branch leading to a different wing of the mighty royal court. She loved that every detail was thought of and each and every one was beautiful. It was a place of beauty where she always felt safe and important, though it had taken a long time for her to grow into that feeling and truly earn it. And, of course, Bernice was here, and that made it all the better.
"Terry tells me you've been off doing something with Jerry," Bernice began.
"Yes. He led a man to rescue me in the woods."
"A human man?"
Jen nodded. "His name is Nick. He's a detective. Did you know that humans kill each other so often that there is a whole team of people who work to discover who killed who and why?"
Bernice sighed gravely. "The human world is much darker than ours. Their nature isn't so different, I don't think, but the short length of their lives makes them more reckless than we are. More apt to give in to their darker natures than we are."
"I suppose so," Jen agreed.
"So you've been spending time with this Nick?"
"Yes." Jen felt herself blush, wondering how much she should tell Bernice. She was her friend, after all, and the person she felt closest to in the world, but she was still the queen, and that boundary had to be respected.
But Jennifer did not get to decide what to say to Bernice, as the blush had given her away. "Jennifer, are you falling in love with this man?"
"I…I think I might be."
Strangely, Bernice smiled. "It's wonderful, isn't it? The knots in your stomach and the way your heart beats faster, the way your magic feels like its bubbling inside you and your wings flutter?"
"Sometimes I can't stop smiling. I've flown home from his house and done loops in the air because I couldn't contain my excitement," she confessed.
"I know the feeling," Bernice said. "I was obviously much older when I fell in love with Terry, but it was just the same. I'd known him for so long, but something changed. Something about him that would have otherwise annoyed me into a rage somehow made me get all those fluttering feelings. We had a meeting once where he stood a little closer to me than usual and I lost control and turned his tunic blue."
"What!?" Jen laughed.
"He was so close and I couldn't stop looking at the color of his eyes and…"
"And you accidentally turned his tunic blue," Jen finished, understanding what must have happened. "What did he say to that?"
Bernice beamed happily. "He asked me what I'd done that for, and I told him I'd been looking at his eyes. And then he kissed me for the first time."
Jen smiled. "I'd have never imagined him as a romantic, but seeing the two of you together is just the most wonderful and the most natural thing in the world."
"And is that how you feel about your Nick?" Bernice asked.
"I think so. I'm starting to, anyway. He's just…oh he's wonderful. In every way." Jen told Bernice about the strange way Nick liked to run, the way he spoke to her, the way he noticed things, the way he liked to build and be in the woods. She spoke of his gentle, quiet nature and the strength and beauty of him.
Bernice listened happily but was deep in thought. She did not answer right away when Jen stopped speaking.
"What?" she asked.
"I was just thinking that Jerry was the one who led him to you. And Jerry's always liked you. Maybe this Nick isn't someone the death watcher found to be important to the fairy realm. Maybe he's just supposed to be important to you."
Jennifer did not immediately like the idea that a bird had found her a boyfriend, but she dismissed the thought quickly. Because in a way, it made sense. It made sense that Jerry's magic had led Nick to her. It felt almost like she and Nick might be made for each other. It still begged the question why, but perhaps it was just this. Perhaps they were just supposed to meet and fall in love. And that was a nice enough thought in and of itself.