Some Kind of Fix
Word Count: 3,127
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Linden/Holder
Spoilers: up to 1x13, just to be safe.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just break things.
Summary: He wants a fix. She's got somewhere to be. Neither of them expected this.
Author's Note: I wanted to have this up sooner, but real life just would not cooperate with me. So, it's here, finally, and... it is what it is. :P
Some Kind of Trick
Messing with the kid's head ended up starting by accident. Holder was half-asleep when he heard some phone ringing and grabbed for it blindly. Linden was out again, and he figured she should stay that way. He was starting to twitch again, but if he hadn't heard the phone, he might have been out for a few hours, enough to make it through one more day without using. He was sick of this day-to-day thing. He shook his head and looked at the phone. Had he already answered it?
"Yo."
"Holder? Why do you have my mom's phone?"
He ran a hand over his face. Well, shit. He hadn't really cared about whose phone it was, just that it needed to stop making noise, and now he had Linden's kid to deal with. Kid sounded suspicious. Maybe he just thought his mom was working again. He seemed to hate that a lot. "She's asleep. I'm not. I answered. What you need, kid?"
"Uh... my mom's permission to do something with Dad so that she doesn't freak out."
"Yeah, you need her for that, just a sec," Holder agreed, turning over to wake Linden up. "Linden. Come on, girl, wakey-wakey. Open those pretty eyes of yours. There we go. Your son on line one, Sarah."
She made a face, and he wasn't sure if it was because he'd woken her up or because she didn't like him using her first name. It did sound weird to him, too. She looked like a 'Linden,' was too prickly to be all feminine like 'Sarah.' She reached blindly for the phone. "Jack? What? Well, maybe I am in bed in the middle of the afternoon. You're the son. I don't have to explain myself to you. What did you want? I see. No, that's fine. Yes, I said yes. Do you want me to say no? Then drop it."
She hung up and gave Holder the phone. He put it to the side, looking at her, watching the moods changing on her face. She wasn't an easy one to figure. "Everything okay?"
"Apparently my son thinks that my happiness is directly related to being in bed with you."
"I didn't hear any complaints earlier," Holder told her, and she looked at him, probably about to say something that they both would regret. He leaned over and kissed her again. "Go back to bed, Linden. You don't sleep enough as it is."
"Do you?" she asked, and when he didn't answer right away, she added an unnecessary clarification. "Sleep?"
"Your kid has lousy timing, as usual," he admitted reluctantly. He wanted to sleep, wanted to be blissed out in the aftermath of some afternoon delight, but damn that kid, it was like he knew. Only Holder thought Jack would actually was more okay with his mom sleeping with Holder than she expected. "I was almost out like a little baby, but no, he has to call. Again."
"I told him he had to clear certain things with me before he did them, so I guess that's my fault," she told him. Holder gave her a look, and she put a hand on his neck. "I bet we could get you back to sleep."
He nodded. "Yeah, I bet. You're almost more than I can keep up with."
"You were doing fine earlier."
"I'm out of practice. Can't really remember what sex is like when you're high, right? No one to tell you if it's good or bad or nothing. It's just... something you did last night, you know? Over, done, and forgotten," he explained. "I'd forgotten how good it was sober."
"It can be just as bad sober."
"Not with you," he insisted, moving his hand down along her hip. Must have been all that running she did, kept those legs nice and strong. She could probably break him in half with them, snap him like a freaking twig. He wouldn't have guessed all that she hid under that huge ugly sweater of hers if not for that jogging outfit and now this.
She shook her head. "Bad happens with everyone."
"No magical 'poof' and love makes all the sex good? Huh. Damn. I was looking forward to finding that someday," he said, and she laughed. He managed to keep himself from asking her if she'd really been in love before. She would say she had been. Her kid's father. Sonoma. Not Holder.
"Where do you get these things, anyway?"
He shrugged. "Don't people say 'you'll know when it's the right person?'"
She didn't answer, and he frowned. Damn, she probably had never gotten that talk. No parents, right? No older sister to raise her. Had she ever had that talk with her son? Holder's sister had given him some kind of 'watch where you put that thing' speech when he hit thirteen, and he'd ignored her until the whole scare with Annie in tenth grade. Then he got careful, at least until he started using. Then he couldn't say he'd been careful at all. He'd been lucky, but he hadn't been careful.
"You ever talk to your kid about this?"
"Excuse me?"
"You know. Doing the deed. His first time. How he should treat the ladies."
"He's thirteen."
"Meaning you should have already had this conversation with him."
"You think my son is out there having sex?"
"Well, not right now. He's with his father, and that shit would just be nasty," Holder said with a shudder. She glared at him. "All I'm saying is kids are doing it younger and younger. Look at Rosie Larsen. She had a whole double life as hooker that no one knew about, and it got her killed. You need to have a little talk with him."
Linden's jaw got tight, and Holder figured he'd pushed too far, but then she sat up a little. "You want to play father figure? You do it."
"The hell?"
She shrugged. "Isn't that the kind of stuff that's supposed to answer if he's got an issue with someone acting in his father's place? Advice on... sex? That is the father's job, discussing the birds and the bees with him?"
"I'm starting to be sorry I ever suggested this thing," Holder muttered, and she just grinned before kissing him. A little work with her hands and he'd pretty much forgotten what they were even talking about again.
"I hate your kid."
At the moment, Linden herself was pretty close to hating her son, but then it wasn't even six o'clock in the morning, and she didn't want to be awake. Her body was trying to catch up on all the sleep she'd missed while working the case—maybe even further back than that, and she felt sluggish, her whole body was heavy. She couldn't hardly move. Then again, that might also have something to do with the workout she'd been getting here, in Holder's bed. For all his talk about only thinking about a high and not knowing if the sex was good or not, he was actually surprisingly good in bed, considerate but not so sensitive that she'd wondered if he was gay—that had happened before, and it turned out that the man was. Holder was not the type that had walked out of a romance novel—and she'd deny reading any of those until the day she died—but the stuff that happened between them was better than anything she'd read.
Holder had answered the phone again, then passed it to her, annoyed. She cleared her throat. "Jack?"
"Why are you still with Holder?"
"I decided to marry him instead. What do you want?" she asked, getting a look from Holder. There was dead silence on the other end. Was her son still there? Had she gotten the better of him? She couldn't help smiling a little. "Jack?"
"Would you really marry him?" Jack asked, and Linden winced. She didn't know how to answer that at all. "Mom, you're just kidding, right?"
She took a deep breath. She wasn't going to marry Holder, nice as the past day and the sex had been. She couldn't do that. They couldn't make this thing work just because of sex. "What did you want this time?"
"Uh... you said you weren't sure if I could stay here today. If I could do stuff with Dad today or not," Jack began. She could hear the frown in his voice. "You didn't answer my question."
"I think we should leave him there," Holder said, and she looked over at him. He had heard that? Was Jack really that loud, or had Holder put it on speaker? He leaned over her, pushing the phone away from her ear. "I really, really think that we should."
He touched the part of her side that he'd discovered earlier made her giggle. She did, cursing, and then she moaned as the touch went from light to something entirely different. "Holder—phone."
"I was right. You haven't talked about the birds and bees with your kid."
"Shut up, Holder."
"Keep saying that, Linden. I told you; I know what it means," Holder said with a grin, and she grimaced. He moved his hand lower, down her hip, and she pushed it away as she brought the phone back up to her ear.
"You can stay with your dad for now," she managed to say, her voice getting a squeak that she'd never heard before as Holder kept on messing with her. "Stop it. I'm not kidding."
"You are no fun," he pouted, pulling back. She checked the phone, but then he started kissing her, ignoring what she'd said. She had to get off the phone. Holder was enjoying this far too much to stop, and Jack was only thirteen. He did not need to hear this. If it didn't quit, Linden would have to shoot Holder—straight in the balls—and that would be a shame because he used them well.
"Jack?" she asked, pushing Holder away. He rolled his eyes, turning over to get a cigarette. At least he'd finally quit. Her body was not as happy about that as her mind was. It didn't want this to stop. She breathed deeply, trying to calm herself down. "Did you hear what I said?"
"Uh... yeah. I did."
"We'll talk about where we go next at dinner. We'll meet you and your father then," she told him, and he didn't say anything, just hung up without another word. She sighed, setting down the phone. Holder burst out laughing, and she frowned as she turned to him. "What the hell is so funny? You almost got yourself shot when you wouldn't stop."
"Your gun isn't here," he reminded her, going back to where he'd left off. She thought about telling him to stop, but her body was already wound up and could use the release. "You think I'd be crazy enough to pull this kind of a stunt if you had a gun?"
"Maybe if we were still working together and were sleeping together, you might think about trying something on the job."
"Maybe," he agreed. He didn't even try to argue that. She had figured as much. "Come on, Linden. You need to relax more. And if you were going to convince anyone—especially your son—that you and I work then you couldn't shoot me. Or threaten to shoot me. And you know what else?"
She wished she had her gun right then. "What else?"
"You like it when I do this," he told her with another one of his grins, and she almost screamed when he hit that other spot he'd found. Damn him. How had he managed to figure out her body so well? So quickly?
"You said you weren't working."
"Kid, do I look like I'm working?" Holder asked, leaning back in the booth. He was trying to stay calm, but without a cigarette, he was going to start fidgeting like crazy. He'd bounce off the damn walls. This wasn't going to work. Oh, he'd do his best not to screw this up for Linden because he wanted to prove to her that they could fool her kid—and her ex. Admittedly, Holder would rather mess with the ex than the kid, but the kid was what she'd agreed to—into thinking that they were together.
Damn, if he thought about it too much, it was like he wanted to prove that they were together. That they could make this sex and a bit more thing happen, be more than what it was. He couldn't offer her no place in Sonoma, but he didn't think she wanted that. She wanted her job back, that was for damn sure, and she could probably get it.
Then Holder wouldn't have one, but he would survive. He landed on his feet all the time. What was it his lieutenant before Oakes had said? Oh, yeah, Holder was like a cockroach. Damn, he hated those things, but they were hard to kill. He had survived detox; he could handle this.
He hoped, anyway.
"Then why are you here?"
"We have to figure out how to proceed for now. Holder has offered to let us stay with him until we find a place," she said, and Holder reached for his coffee, trying not to react. He had not actually said anything about that—Linden was free to share his bed for as long as she liked—but the kid? Well, he'd have to stay with his mother, so it would figure. Still, it would kind of put a cramp in their style if the kid was around. Holder would rather the kid stay with his father.
"Really? We're going to stay with him? What about Reggie? Is the place big enough for all of us?"
"It ain't stylish, but it's my home, kid," Holder answered. He shrugged a little, reaching across Linden for the sugar.
She grabbed his arm, holding it in place. "You couldn't ask?"
"What, and miss the chance to cop a feel? Hell, no," he said, grinning as he leaned further into her, running his other hand under her sweater. She reached down to stop him, and he grinned at her mistake. He knew of a good way to make her let go. She caught sight of the look in his eyes, and shook her head a little just before he kissed her. He leaned back with a smug smile. "Still not dead, Linden. Guess this means you like me a little."
She rolled her eyes. "You are so—"
"Dead?" Holder finished, and she got into his face this time, leaning into his ear.
"Do you ever want to have sex again?" she hissed, the hand below the table moving from his hand to somewhere far more important. "I'd stop if I were you."
"Remember the point of all of this, girl," he told her as he touched her stomach with the hand under her shirt.
"Uh, should we get the two of you a room?" the ex asked, giving Holder a pointed look. Holder ignored it, continuing to mess with Linden. She was just too damn tempting for her own good, though he'd be damned if he knew why. She was definitely high maintenance, this one, and he was too damn lazy for that shit.
"I thought you were kidding about marrying him," Jack whispered, eyes wide.
"I think someone's playing a joke on you," the ex began, looking between the two of them. So much for you two not being like that, huh? Holder could see it in the man's face, but he couldn't bring himself to care, not one damn bit. Thing was, he had a good thing going. He had everything he wanted right now, and he figured that if he played his cards right, he might just get more. Linden didn't have any idea what she'd gotten herself into. He'd told her sex, but he had a few other things he intended to get out of this, too. Let her think this was a trick on the kid. She'd never realize she was being played herself.
He was giving up on trying to fool himself. He wanted Linden, and he might just have what he needed to keep her.
"This is not about any sort of joke," Linden began, and the ex shook his head. He didn't buy it, clearly. The kid wasn't really sure what to think. He was still trying to figure it out.
"If it makes you feel any better, I ain't really the marrying type," Holder said, and Jack turned to him, shaking his head in confusion.
The ex was annoyed. "You can stop any time, Sarah. I didn't think you were—I don't know why you're doing this, but you don't have to keep this act going any longer. I thought you were just partners."
"Partners. Isn't that what marriage is supposed to be, Linden? That's what they said when you were going over them vows with Sonoma, right?"
She seemed amused. "Are you jealous, Holder?"
"Hey, I won, remember? You're with me."
"Can we discuss whatever we came here to discuss?" the ex demanded, clearly frustrated. Holder was enjoying this way too much, and he even thought that Linden was, too. "I do have to go back to Chicago."
"Jack can spend as much time with you as possible before you go," Linden agreed. The other two looked at her like she'd grown a second head or something. Holder just grinned, adding a quick kiss on the cheek for good measure. "I have decided to stay in Seattle, and as I said, we're staying with Holder until I find a new place. I will be getting my job back, though."
"Great," Jack muttered. He looked at Holder. "Can't you talk her out of this?"
"In case you haven't noticed, your mom does what she wants. I happen to like working with her," Holder said, shrugging. "Like a lot of other things about her, but we don't need to discuss that. You've got young ears."
"You're kidding, right? This is some kind of joke, isn't it?"
Holder's answer to that was to give Linden another kiss.