Chapter 6: So Damn Hot!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, bar my OC

If anyone's noticed the song titles, I don't own them either, but have fun tracking them down and using them as a soundtrack….

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It had been a while since they'd worked a scene together, Flack mused, when he pulled up sharp outside the drugstore downtown. A murder/robbery had been called in. He saw the CSI SUV already parked there, Mac and Rebecca standing against the bonnet waiting for him. Mac looked cool, even with the heat of the day. Rebecca looked, well, warm.

"Finally," she snapped, grabbing her equipment bag and heading into the darkness of the store.

Mac raised his eyebrows.

"Anything I should know about?" he asked.

"Nothing I know about. Maybe it's just that she's not used to a New York August?" proffered Flack, taken aback by her reaction to him.

In the coolness of the store, Rebecca opened her bag and snapped on a pair of gloves, inwardly cursing herself for giving her frustration away. She busied herself with the task in hand and started dusting for prints. A shadow fell over her and she looked up to see Mac standing beside her.

"If you're all right in here, I need to go into the alleyway to look at the entrance there," he said, "Uniform found some evidence of lock tampering and forced entrance by the stairs into the storeroom downstairs. I'll go process down there. You keep going here. Flack will keep you company."

"Are you sure, Mac?" said Rebecca, "I haven't processed a scene solo yet."

"I wouldn't leave you to do it yourself if I didn't think you were ready Rebecca," replied Mac firmly, "I'll be right out the back. Call me if you need me, alright?"

Rebecca nodded affirmation, inwardly groaning that the most distracting man in New York was only going to be a few feet away from her. Distraction was all she needed while she was trying to process her first solo scene. She had to be with the boss too, so she really needed NOT to screw up. So she focused on bagging the evidence and paying meticulous attention to detail. Which was probably why she didn't notice movement near her.

Flack made some attempts at small talk, all the time trying not to stare too much at his colleague. She made monosyllabic replies, if at all.

I gotta get to the bottom of this, he thought, she seems real riled up by something.

He was too busy focusing on Rebecca to notice the movement from behind her, by the stairs in the back of the store till it was too late. Rebecca made a noise, noticing the entrance of the two men into the front of the store and got up, immediately putting herself in their way.

What the…? Thought Flack, pulling his badge

Before he knew it, Rebecca had been served a nasty backhander to the face, causing her to stumble and fall, hitting her head against the counter, causing her to cry out in pain, swearing a little. Flack had pulled his gun, but not before he'd been rushed by the two men, causing him to lose his gun. They were obviously the perps and had been trapped, hiding downstairs when the uniforms arrived on the scene. Flack guessed, as he struggled with the two of them, that Mac had disturbed them. He struggled with one of them, kicking to stop him from hurting him too bad, while he struggled with the other to stop him from getting his gun. The next thing he knew, he only had one bad guy to deal with. He heard a nasty thwack and both he and the guy he was trying to overpower looked around to see Rebecca, her hard-shell evidence bag in hand, standing over the other perp, who was by now out cold on the floor. She looked pretty pissed, thought Flack.

Rebecca yelled for uniforms. Flack had just about overpowered the other guy, when he punched Flack in the ribs, causing Flack to let go of him. Then next thing he knew, he had been tripped by Rebecca, who had him face down on the floor with his arm twisted behind his back. Flack picked himself off the floor, dusted his jacket off and found his cuffs. He cuffed the perp.

"Bitch!" said the low-life, "I'm gonna get you for that!"

"Yeah?" replied Rebecca, "You and whose army."

Flack snapped the cuffs into place as the uniforms piled through the door to assist, Mac following by running up the stairs. As Flack roughly pulled the first man to his feet and handed him over to a couple of uniforms, the second man came to and groggily got to his feet, attempting to make his own run for it. Rebecca dealt with him as swiftly as the first, pushing him against the counter and then forcing him back onto the floor. She held his arm in a grip as she found her own handcuffs.

"When I put you down," she said to him angrily, "I suggest you stay down!"

The uniforms hauled the two perps out of the store and Flack turned to see Rebecca put her hand to the corner of her swollen mouth and nose. She looked at her hand and grimaced at the slight trace of blood that came away. Flack pulled out a handkerchief and walked over to her. He took her face in one hand and gently turned it upwards, toward the light. He dabbed at the slight ooze coming from her nose. She flinched a little at the contact.

"Sorry," said Flack, "Sore?"

"Just a little," she replied, "I'll need an ice pack, but it's nothing that won't heal in a couple of days.

"Hey," Flack said softly. Rebecca's eyes met his questioningly.

"Thanks for the assist."

Rebecca shrugged. "It was nothing," she said, "It just really pissed me off that they were both taking you on. It wasn't fair."

She smiled slightly.

"I think they might think twice before messing with a woman again though!"

Flack smiled at that. Rebecca had looked seriously angry when he'd seen her brandishing her case as a weapon. He didn't like to think of the force she's used to swipe him across the back of the head. He thought the guy would probably have a headache for a few days.

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Back at the lab, Rebecca's busy day got even worse as she had to process the evidence from the scene, while a headache started from where she's hit her head on the scene. Her lip was throbbing from where she'd been hit, but she'd already been told that the perps were at least going down for assaulting an officer and hopefully more, once she was able to link their DNA and the evidence to the murder and robbery. Apparently they'd been high.

She'd been pretty snappy all day, probably due to the stress of the day, so most of the lab techs were giving her a wide berth. The other CSIs had been out on their own cases all morning. Rebecca was regretting pulling so many doubles over the last few days, even though it had ensured she saw as little of Flack as possible.

Not that avoiding him helps, she thought, it just makes me cranky.

She rubbed her head where a bump was starting to form, wincing as she touched a tender spot. She turned as she heard someone clearing their throat to find Mac standing there, looking concerned.

"Are you all right?" he asked. He'd suggested she go home after what happened, but she'd chosen to stay, to ensure the evidence was processed. It was now late and Rebecca hadn't taken much of a break since she'd got back.

"I'm fine Mac," replied Rebecca, "I just need some aspirin and an ice pack once I get home and I'll be OK."

"Well you've done excellent work on processing so far today. Leave the rest till tomorrow and don't come in till later." He said.

"Aw Mac," replied Rebecca, "I can't do that. There's too much to do. I'll need to process the evidence from the body tomorrow!"

"I will do that," Mac said firmly, "Now, go home Rebecca. That's an order."

Reluctantly, Rebecca cleared her desk and locked the evidence up, before heading to the locker room. She noticed it was dark outside. Opening her locker, she decided to run home through the park. A run might clear her head, she thought.

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Flack got off shift a short while later. He'd worked a double too and hadn't much enjoyed spending most of it in an unconditioned interrogation room with the couple of assholes from the morning, who, while still high had made all kinds of wise-cracks about Rebecca, before getting really antsy and un-cooperative when they'd started coming down. It had been a trying day. Walking down the corridor in the lab, he couldn't see Rebecca in Trace, but he could see Mac at his desk, through the glass walls of his office. Flack knocked on the open door.

"Hey Mac," he said, "How's it going with the case."

"Not bad, Flack," he replied, "Rebecca made some good headway with the evidence. I sent her home a while ago. She seems to have a headache."

A look of worry flashed across Flack's face, which the older detective noticed, with a little amusement. Not for nothing was Mac Taylor a first grade detective.

"Well, she hit her head pretty bad," said Flack, "I better check on her when I get back."

"Not a bad idea," said Mac, smiling a little, "I'll call you tomorrow when we get the results for you."

"Thanks Mac," said Flack, before turning and heading swiftly towards the elevators.

Mac picked up his cell and texted Stella.

"I'm in," he wrote, "The man is a goner."

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Rebecca jogged rather than ran. Her head was pounding and she was beginning to think it had been a mistake to run home. As she jogged slowly down the street, she saw a familiar figure on the stoop waiting for her…..

Flack was furious. He'd driven home, gone straight to her door, knocked for several minutes, before realizing that she'd probably decided to clear her head and run – in the dark, through Central Park, which had to be one of the stupidest things she could have done, especially after this morning. He'd decided to wait for her outside, now the air was cooler. He didn't have to wait long. He soon saw the familiar figure coming from the direction of the park.

As she slowed to a walk, the figure stood and Rebecca saw clearly that Flack was not pleased by the light of the street lamp. She got her keys out and brushed past him, not wanting to have an argument with him. Flack, however, was not going to be given the brush off.

"Please tell me," he said, an edge to his voice, "That you didn't run through Central Park at this time of night."

"So what if I did," replied Rebecca shortly, "I can do what I like."

"Do I have to remind you of what kind of thing happens to female joggers in Central Park at night?" said Flack, getting angrier by the second with Rebecca's attitude. Hell, he was angry with her for avoiding him, for being so short with him that morning, for getting in the way and getting hurt.

"No," replied Rebecca sarcastically, not wanting to show how scared she'd felt watching two violent men attacking him, "And I probably don't need to remind you what happens to men wandering alone in the park either. I'm a big girl. I know how to take care of myself."

Flack followed her up the stairs towards her apartment.

"Like you did this morning?" he asked angrily, "When you put yourself in the way of those two assholes! You could have been hurt!"

Rebecca spun to face him.

"Don't you dare start on me!" she shouted, "I didn't put myself in the way, they happened to be right there when I stood up! It could have been a lot worse!"

She turned away from him. Flack grabbed her shoulder and spun her back round to face him. He pushed her back against her door.

"They coulda still be armed Bec," he said, "You could have been shot!"

"Well I wasn't," she retorted, "I'm just fine. I got my own back for the backslap and hitting my head." She shoved Flack back a few steps, turning and opening her door.

"Now leave me alone! I need an ice pack!"

She made a move to slam her door shut, but Flack was too quick for her. He followed her into the dark apartment and grabbed her by the shoulders, turning her roughly to face him again. Rebecca struggled against his firm grip.

"I said leave me alone!" she shouted.

"Not until you tell me what's really going on," said Flack, shaking, her a little.

"Nothing that concerns you," spat back Rebecca, all the frustration and lack of decent sleep all suddenly coming for the fore within her. She tried to push him away.

"Why are you avoiding me?" he asked, "Did I say something, do something?"

"No," groaned Rebecca, trying to twist out of his hold. Flack took hold of her chin with one hand and forced her to look at him.

"I'm sorry I got so angry," he said softly. "I was worried about you today. I should have been paying more attention. If I had, I'd have checked that uniform had cleared the building before we went in."

Rebecca caught her breath. She couldn't speak. Her heart was starting to race at his being so close.

"I came looking for you," he continued, "At the lab. I wanted to check you were OK. Mac said you'd already left."

Rebecca nodded.

"And then I get back here ahead of you. When you weren't here, I figured you'd decided to do the stupid thing and run home through the park. And that makes me so mad, Bec, you not looking out for yourself."

"Why?" she whispered, "Why does that make you so angry?"

All of a sudden, Flack realized how near she was to him, that he could feel her pulse racing. He could feel the anger and all the pent up feelings he had for Rebecca which he was keeping locked up inside all boiling to the surface. He realized she could have been hurt today, that he wanted to protect her, that the assholes laying their hands on her had made him want to break them into little pieces with his bare hands.

He groaned, reaching for her to pull her closer. He tipped her face up to meet his and took possession of her lips with his, his kiss demanding and passionate……

OK, so I've been struggling with this scene – it works in my head, but I'm not sure on paper, so sorry! Yeah, I'm mean for leaving it here.

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