What is this craziness? Two new chapters in two days? Insanity, I say! :)

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"We need to stop meeting like this," Julia comments as they approach the crime scene. She's bundled up more than she was earlier in the day, her pretty face barely visible through the scarf and hat. Audrey pauses in front of her but Nathan keeps walking, his steady stride bringing him to the crime scene in a few seconds. Julia watches him go, then turns to frown at Audrey. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing," Audrey says.

"First you sound angry when you answer the phone and now he's playing strong and silent for no particular reason. Something happened."

"I'm exhausted and I'm cranky and I'm taking it out on people." She shoves her hands into her pockets, glares at Julia. "I've already brow-beaten Nathan for the day. You calling dibs on next?"

Julia's expression never wavers, her eyes never leave Audrey's. The only indication she's heard any of what Audrey's just said is the twitch of a smile at the corner of her mouth. Eventually, she sighs and points over her shoulder.

"Come on. I'll fill you in on what little I know so far."

They trudge across the cold, wet sand to where Nathan stands with the others. It's dark around them, but someone – probably the first uniforms on scene – set up a few track lights so they could see what they were doing. Audrey chances a glance at her partner and in the harsh light he looks like he's carved out of stone. She wonders if he even realizes he's clenching his jaw that tightly.

"You're going to break your teeth," she says quietly when she's close enough for him to hear her. He turns his head minutely in her direction. "You're clenching your jaw."

He opens his mouth, flexes the muscle a few times, and rubs at it with his gloved hand. When he looks at her again, there's a small smile on his face. "Thanks."

She feels the bottom of her anger drop out from beneath her. "I'm sorry for earlier," she says.

"Me too."

She grins, bumps his arm lightly with her shoulder. When she realizes Julia is watching them, she focuses. "You were saying something about filling us in," she says.

"The deceased is Jenna Smythe, twenty-six. She's a local, daughter of a lobsterman according to your uniformed guys." Julia crouches down, points to the exposed skin along the woman's throat. "There's bruising, but I need lights and a lab to determine what kind. I'd say the preliminary COD is drowning, but who knows."

"Two in one day," Nathan says. "Seems a little odd."

Julia nods, straightens. "She's frozen solid, too. I'll need to get her thawed out before I can do anything with her." She motions to the waiting EMTs and they step in, bag the body, and disappear with it into the dark, towards the waiting ambulance in the distance. "I'm not sure if it means anything," she says once she's alone with Audrey and Nathan, "but she's got something clutched in the fingers of her right hand. I wrapped it up in a bag, just in case."

"Something?" Nathan asks.

Julia shrugs. "I'll know better in a few hours." She looks at Audrey. "I wasn't kidding when I said you needed sleep." She pulls her glove off, reaches into the pocket of her parka, and pulls out a slip of paper. "Ambien," she says, handing it to Audrey. "Get the prescription filled, work your shift tomorrow – or today, whichever the hell it is – and then go home and take one of those. You need a solid eight hours and you're not getting it on your own right now."

"I'm fine, Julia," she says, but even she knows it's a lie at this point.

"Doctor's orders, Audrey." She puts her glove back on and looks at Nathan. "If she forgets to fill it, do it for her." She waits for him to nod before disappearing up the dunes towards her own car.

Audrey stares at the prescription in her hand. She can feel Nathan looking at her, but she's afraid to meet his gaze. She knows she's past the point of exhaustion right now. She knows her friends are just trying to help because they care. She also knows there's no rationalizing a lack of sleep for a cop who just so happens to be the only solution to the Troubles. She knows all of these things.

But she's ever so slightly afraid to go to sleep at the moment because every time she closes her eyes for longer than a few minutes, she finds herself in bed with Nathan, a little more naked than the time before. If the last dream was any indication, she's in for something entirely X-rated the next time she falls asleep and while part of her is oh so ready for such a thing, another – larger – part of her isn't prepared for the absolute mortification she's going to feel when she meets up with the real thing in the morning.

"I can practically hear you thinking," Nathan says.

Oh dear lord, I hope not…

"I'm suddenly craving pancakes," she says, finally looking up at him.

He stares at her. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

He motions towards the car. "You know how much I love pancakes," he says. "And I know just the place."

She stares at the green shingled cottage with trepidation. The minute he turned down Cliffside Road, butterflies picked up in her stomach. She's been here twice before, never for longer than a few minutes, and now the prospect of spending an hour or so within those four walls is enough to make her whole body hum with nerves.

"This is your house," she says when he opens the Bronco door for her. She feels like kicking herself for being an idiot when a smirk ghosts across his mouth. "I thought we were going out for pancakes."

"Technically, all I said was I knew just the place." He holds his hand out and she eyes it warily for a few moments before taking it and stepping down out of the truck. "This way, you get some food and a nice, quiet place to get some sleep."

She can do this. She can sit in Nathan's house, eat some pancakes, and take a nap without making a complete and utter fool out of herself. It's a few hours, that's all. She'll be fine.

Unless she turns into a horny teenager and jumps on him, then maybe not so much.

"You coming?" he asks, tugging on the hand still holding his.

"Yeah," she says. "Let's see how good these pancakes are."

When his mouth finds the apex of her thighs, her head explodes. She feels the warmth of his tongue against the warmth of her sex and it feels like she's on fire. He holds her pelvis to the bed with his hands while his mouth does all the work. He brings her to the brink, then leaves her wanting. By the time he moves his hand to curl a finger inside her, she's over the edge and speaking nonsense words to whatever may be above them in the world.

He smoothes his hands over her, kisses her hips, her stomach, her breasts, as he makes his way up to her mouth. He lingers there, his breath mingling with hers as she attempts to get herself under control. He smiles as he kisses her.

"You're so beautiful," he whispers. "My beautiful Alice…"

Audrey wakes in a tangle of blankets, sweating and panting and trying desperately to cling to the last moment of the dream, to the name he'd whispered against her mouth. A name that most definitely wasn't hers. For weeks now, she'd been under the assumption it was her in the dream, believed that within those hazy moments everything was happening to her. Now, with her heart pounding against her chest and her whole body throbbing from an orgasm that wasn't even real, she realizes none of this was ever hers.

The dreams – and all their erotic glory – belong to someone else.

It's early morning, the light of dawn just barely making it through the gray clouds and Nathan's dark gray curtains. Later, when she's had a few minutes to calm down, she'll regret leaving the way she does but in this precise moment all she can think about is the gnawing sense of envy growing in her stomach and the odd feeling of disappointment settling down on her shoulders.

Like a college student slinking away from a one night stand, Audrey quietly collects her boots, bundles herself up in her jacket and winter gear, and leaves Nathan's cottage without waking him.