When Duty Isn't Enough
Author: Firebird
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Neither Hot Fuzz nor its characters, settings etc. are mine. Original characters are, as the name would imply, original and belong to me.
**
At one thirty on the dot, Nicholas Angel was standing outside his gate. At one thirty-two he was wondering whether he should go and knock on her door. At one thirty-five he was convinced he'd been stood up. At one thirty-eight Lily finally emerged from her front door, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," she called cheerily. "The cat got out of the bathroom and I had no idea where she was, and we're so new to the neighbourhood that I can't risk her getting out when I'm not there, so I've just spent the last twenty minutes looking for her, and then she made her way under a cupboard and refused to come out, and you really don't need to know all this, do you?"
"Not really." He smiled. 'Long, bohemian-style skirt, blue t-shirt and sandals' he noted mentally, and wondered whether she'd dressed up for him or habitually wore skirts. After all, he'd only seen her once before, and that was on moving day... he mentally kicked himself for over-analysing.
"So, where to first?" she asked him.
"I thought the church? Since that might interest you?" He gestured to indicate that they should turn left, and she followed along beside him.
**
He had worried that she might press him for details about the NWA or the shoot-out, but she seemed to be deliberately avoiding the subject, for which he was thankful. She had found the Tesco's, she informed him, thanks to his 'excellent' directions, but was curious as to what the other shops in the village might have to offer. She was interested in the church, and made a note of the service times, borrowing his notepad and pen to do so.
After the church they wandered around the village, Nick mentally listing possible areas where he might put Doris' hand-holding plan into action. He was sufficiently preoccupied that he didn't consciously notice where they were until Lily stopped.
"What was this?" she asked, sounding slightly shocked.
"This was the Sandford Police Station," he informed her. Anything sensitive, salvageable or dangerous had long since been removed, but the bulk of the building had been left to lie in rubble, weeds now poking out here and there amidst the bricks.
"Did it really get blown up?" she asked.
He nodded. "By an old sea-mine we'd impounded. It was accidentally detonated during a struggle with an offender. The resulting explosion destroyed the building."
"Was anyone hurt?"
He nodded again, agonising images from that day flickering before his mind's eye. Of all the officers, he had been closest to the mine and had borne the brunt of the blast, but at the time, scrabbling out of the ruins, all he had been able to think about had been Danny, lying wounded with a gut full of the shot which had been intended for him. His own injuries had seemed nothing at that moment, the pain pushed aside as he sought desperately for his partner.
Her voice was softer now. "Were you hurt?"
He nodded a third time, and cleared his throat. "I had some burns, lacerations and contusions. And, um, some broken ribs. Broken collarbone, some internal bleeding. Multiple lacerations to the hands and face, one of which nearly cost me an eye."
She moved to stand in front of him. He felt her gentle hand on his face and knew she was tracing the tiny, near-invisible scars. Forehead, cheek, chin, lips.
His lips weren't scarred.
He turned his gaze away from the ruins of the old station and met her eyes instead. Her fingers moved back to his cheek, and his eyes fluttered closed as he bent his head and brushed his lips lightly across hers.
He hesitated, half-expecting to be pushed away or slapped, but instead felt her hands slide around his shoulders and her lips press more firmly against his.
After a moment, they drew apart. He swallowed, uncertain of what to do next, aware that his hands had somehow come to rest on her waist. She didn't seem to be in any hurry to move away, so he left them there.
"Lily, I'm useless at relationships."
"Okay."
"I'm obsessed with work."
"Okay."
"I don't know how to switch off."
"Okay."
"I forget things. Important things. Birthdays, anniversaries, stuff like that."
"Okay."
He stared at her. "Do you have anything else to say, apart from 'okay'."
She shrugged. "I'm habitually late. For everything."
"Okay."
"I have a completely inappropriate sense of humour."
"Okay."
"I talk way too much and over-share about my personal life."
"Okay."
"I don't believe in sex before marriage."
"Okay."
"I like to go walking alone at night, even though I know it's dangerous."
"Oo- you know what, that's not okay. Do you have any idea what could happen to you, alone on the streets af-"
Her lips met his again, effectively silencing him.
She was grinning as she pulled away. "You think we can work something out?"