AN: I'm not dead, just busy. Real life sucks sometimes.
Chapter 5
"Are you gonna explain what's going on now?" Jordan asked Dean as he slid him a beer. The two rescuers were sitting in the relatively quiet bar, keeping an eye on their two female colleagues who were sitting a few tables away. Lara and Heidi hadn't been able to look each other in the eye when they first arrived, but they'd gradually started talking – aided, Jordan suspected, by the beer Dean had put in front of each of them – and they were now engaged in a quiet but intense conversation.
"Mate, you know as much as I do." Dean replied, taking a sip of his drink. Jordan shot him his 'bullshit' look, and Dean shrugged. "Honest."
"You're lying to me, Gallagher."
"Hey mate, what I do know about it is you wanna stay outta it. It's gonna get messy."
"How messy?"
"Dunno. Depends on the outcome of this little conversation, I guess." Dean indicated the women with his bottle as he spoke.
Jordan took a sip of his beer, then glanced around. "So why here?"
"I figured they were less likely to rip each other's clothes off in the middle of a room of strangers."
Jordan shot a glance over at their co-workers, as if mentioning the idea would cause them to carry it out while Dean grinned lopsidedly. There was a moment of silence, then Jordan spoke again.
"It must suck to be Hamish right now. Poor bloke's got no idea what's going on."
"He's not the only one…"
…
The two male rescuers switched to soft drink after their first beer, and their conversation shifted to less serious topics. They kept an eye on their colleagues, sparing them a glance every few minutes, but it was close to an hour before there was any change.
"Michelle's gonna go mental if we're away much longer." Jordan grumbled into his coke.
"Uhp, movement." Dean muttered as Lara stood, interrupting Jordan's grumbling. Both men watched as the blond woman extended her hand towards Heidi, but stopped short of actually touching her. She held that pose for a moment, as if she wanted to draw the other woman into a hug, but in the end all she did was briefly cover Heidi's hand with her own. Then she turned and moved quickly towards the door.
Dean sighed. "This looks like it's gonna be fun. I'll see you later." Both men drained their glasses and stood, Jordan heading over to where Heidi still sat at the table and Dean following Lara out the door.
He found her in the car park. She was leaning against Vince's car with her forehead pressed against the glass of the passenger's side window. Dean silently unlocked the car, and neither of them spoke until they were both settled in their seats.
"So where am I taking you?" Dean asked, breaking the silence.
"What?" Lara's thoughts were obviously focused elsewhere.
"D'you wanna go see Hamish, or d'you wanna go to work? Or I could take you back to the hotel." She just looked at him, indecision playing across her expression. "Or we could go to the airport and run away to Hawaii together."
That got a smile, albeit a small one. "Vince would be very annoyed."
"He'd get over it."
Lara smiled again, but then her face grew serious and she exhaled heavily. "I…I don't know." She hesitated, then, "Hamish. I need to talk to Hamish. If he'll see me, that is…" She added as an afterthought.
"Vince told him to go back to his office once he sobered up, so he's probably there." Dean said, starting the car. "I don't know where that is." He prompted when Lara didn't respond.
She rattled off the address, and Dean pulled out into the flow of traffic.
The first few minutes of the drive were silent, until Dean's curiosity got the better of him. "So what happened?" He asked, discarding the subtle approach. "Lara?" he added when she didn't answer.
"Nothing. Nothing happened."
"What?"
"Between me 'n Heidi. Nothing happened." She wouldn't look at him as she spoke.
"Lara, you kissed her in front of us. Heidi admitted you spent the night together in front of about a dozen people. It's a bit late to start whitewashing things."
"The kiss was because of the morphine. And last night was a one-night stand. You've had your share of those."
"True, but I'm not engaged. Plus Heidi is, you know, a woman." Dean pointed out, alternating his gaze between Lara and the road.
"You've never had a one night stand with a woman?" Lara smirked, and for a brief moment, Dean caught a glimpse of Lara as she was before.
He rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."
She didn't answer immediately. But after a few moments, she spoke quietly, her earlier confidence gone. "It's easier this way. We agreed."
"What?"
"Everything's just easier if it was nothing. There's Hamish, and work, and… We can't… I couldn't…"
Dean watched her for a moment as they stopped a set of lights. "If you could, would you?"
She looked out the window and again refused to meet his eye. Her silence spoke volumes.
…
Lara convinced Dean that he didn't need to wait for her while she spoke to Hamish, so he left her outside his firm's offices and reluctantly drove back to the stationhouse. Heidi was back at her desk when he walked upstairs, and as he sat down Jordan approached him. After sharing a very general version of his conversation with Lara, and learning that Jordan had had a similar conversation with Heidi and was equally unconvinced, Dean went in search of Vince.
He found him in the equipment room, trying to be patient as he explained to a rookie how to check and store the BA's properly. When he noticed Dean's approach, he waved the rookie away.
"Forget it, Squeaky, I'll do the rest." The newbie looked relieved as he scurried past Dean, and the unit leader shot Vince a questioning look.
"Squeaky?" he asked, tossing Vince his keys.
"Yeah, the kid's so green he squeaks. How'd it go with Lara?"
"She reckons she and Heidi've sorted it, but I think we should keep an eye on them for a while."
"Sorted how?"
"They're both saying it was nothing, and I left Lara at Hamish's office, so…"
"So everything back to normal, then?" The slightly sarcastic tone to Vince's voice told Dean that he thought that was wishful thinking, and Dean couldn't help but agree with him.
…
Dean's prediction was proven correct over the next few days. While there was no overt change in the interaction between the two women, there was a subtle atmosphere of tension that the others picked up on. The only mention of Lara's wedding – or possible lack thereof – came on the day the nuptials were scheduled to be held. Lara had walked into the station, pointedly ignoring any and all confused looks directed her way, until Dean found her in the locker room.
"Aren't you supposed to be getting married today?"
"No." Her answer was clipped, and her tone invited no further questions, so Dean didn't push it. He did note that she was still wearing her engagement ring, though, and Hamish picked her up after work.
Those short, one-word answers had become Lara's standard response to any questions about her personal life, and after a few days, Dean stopped trying to ask.
Lara was still on light duties because of her ankle, which was a blessing, in Dean's opinion. He was well acquainted with his blond colleague's habit of disregarding safety protocols when she was dealing with personal problems, and was glad he wouldn't have to chase her down storm drains for the next few days at least.
Heidi, on the other hand, was not on light duties, and Dean was beginning to wonder if recklessness was transmitted through sex. While she wasn't even close to Lara's record, Heidi was taking far more risks than Dean was entirely comfortable with. And even though there was nothing in her behaviour that was serious enough for Dean to confront her about, the change in her personality worried him.
What concerned him more, however, was the possibility that Heidi's behaviour would fuel Lara's when she came back to the field. Knowing that they were each the cause of the other's unrest, he suspected that having them both working together was going to cause problems. If nothing else, the prospect of having to keep an extra eye on both of them was making his head hurt.
Next time: Lara's return to work. Should be fun, right? Review make me go faster.