Bad Feelings, Bones, and Boredom

One month ago…

It was the fourth time in an hour that Gwen checked to make sure the door was locked. Tiny made a whimper, having to move his head once again off her lap. "Sorry, boy," she apologized. And just like the other times when she sat back down, his head returned and so did both their comfort.

After giving her final statement at the police station, Gaius assured her that everything else was cut-and-dried. She wanted to feel like a weight was lifted off her shoulders, but she had crippled an organization, which caused multiple people to come after her. Did it end with Tauren, or should she check her locks for a fifth time?

Gwen toyed with her phone for a bit. She flipped it in her hand, seeing how many times it would land face up. On the third flip, it landed with the screen face down on her palm. She stared at the fingerprints on the back, and knew she should stop living dangerously and get a case.

Even though it would do no good, Gwen was about to wipe away the smudges when she saw a partial print in the corner that was bigger than her own.

Arthur's fingerprint.

"I stuck a tracker in your phone when Morgause's people were following you."

Gwen slid off the back. The chip was still in there. She mind was still on the fact that she wasn't dead, so It slipped her mind to ask him to take it out. But how could Arthur forget?

She called him.

"Now what?" he answered.

Gwen thought he sounded surprisingly upbeat, but still took advantage of his choice of words. "Aw, I thought you were showing improvement in your phone answering etiquette," she teased.

"Guinevere."

She could practically see him giving her a look that told her to get to the point. "Yes?"

"Why did you call?"

"Oh, um…" She suddenly decided not to ask about the tracker. "What are you up to?"

There was a pause before Arthur responded. "I just finished packing up. My vacation has officially started."

"A vacation sounds nice. I think I'll go for a week in the countryside. Can't stay too long. I've got a studio to open and what not. I already have parents pre-registering," Gwen rambled. "They're serious about their kid's danc—"

"Are you okay?" he cut her off.

"Yeah. I'm fine." In Gwen's mind she said it calmly, and would deny she sounded tense and that he heard it. "Have a nice vacation, Arthur."

"Take it easy, Guinevere." He made it sound simple, and Gwen almost thought that she could, but she was also sure she would worry herself to death before anyone else got to her first.

Gwen fully expected the call to go to voicemail, but instead she got a hesitant hello. "Charles? Hi. It's Gwen…"

"…"

She didn't blame him for his silence and was surprised he didn't hang up already. "I want to apologize for the other day. And the additional day I took to get back to you."

"Thanks you," Charles said. "I was really looking forward to our dinner."

"Can I make it up to you? Are you free for lunch? My treat." Today might be too soon, Gwen got anxious. I don't even think I'll be ready in ti—

"Okay," Charles agreed, interrupting her thinking. He picked the restaurant and they chose to meet at one o'clock.

Lunch started off with an uncomfortable handshake and more apologies from Gwen. Charles was on the scrawny side, Gwen noticed. She may have been less willing accept the date offer if she had known what was under his raincoat. She went more for the rough, tough, save the world kind of men. Now she couldn't shake the feeling of his boney hand.

"So," Charles broke another awkward silence, "you apologized a thousand times, but you never said what you blew me off for."

Gwen cleared her throat and took a sip of her water. "About that, um… a friend needed me," she lied. It was the other way around.

Charles smiled at her. "Beautiful and loyal, a wonderful combination."

Gwen didn't like his smile. It was too wide, and his eyes were too big and eager. "You're trying to figure out what's wrong with me. You've been on a series of bad dates and now you're expecting the worst," she said. Or you know who I really am, and someone sent you to kill me.

He slapped a skeletal hand on the table with a HA! "What are you? A detective?"

"I'm a dance teacher," she said tightly. His sudden animation had startled her, but Gwen kept her calm. "I mean, I teach how to tell a story through body movement, so I guess I'm good at interpreting body language," she clarified more kindly.

"Well maybe you should work with the police." Charles took an inhuman bite of his burger.

Gwen fought the paranoia by concentrating the food. She could've sworn she only saw Charles chew twice before he swallowed. Did he even taste his food, she wondered. It was an expensive burger that she was paying for. He could at least savor it.

Another silence passed over them as they ate until Charles decided it was time to bring up the last woman he went out with. "She was a stripper," he said out of the blue. "She told me on the second date. Can you believe that?"

A bad feeling struck Gwen. "Can I believe that she was a stripper, or that she waited to tell you?"

He wasn't really looking for an answer and kept complaining. "What kind of self-respecting woman strips? She was probably having a good time with all the guys after I paid for her dinner. That was more than half my paycheck. Hell, we should've had the date at the strip club so I could've got a lap dance out of it, too. Spend the whole damn thing!"

Gwen pinched the bridge of her nose to gain an ounce of calm. He wasn't going to kill her. He was just awful. "First of all, men do it too," she pointed out. "And do you think they actually do their job for the people? They're not dancing for them. They probably make more in a night than you do in a week."

"Oh no, don't tell me you're one of them." Charles waved a fry at her like an extra creepy appendage. "Is dance teacher a cover up? Oh! You're a reformed stripper, that's it!" He took a mocking bite out of the fry. "Can I meet one girl that's not damaged goods?"

Gwen ate the last bite of her pasta salad and said, "I'm done." She quickly got up and made her way to the door.

"Hey!" Charles yelled after her. "What about the check?"

She turned around. "Check this!" she shouted back, flipping him off with both hands. Seeing his offended face was worth it. "Asshole," she grumbled when she turned back around and out the door.

Despite the excellent pasta salad, the date left a bad taste in Gwen's mouth until her students strolled in. She looked down the line of children in front of her. They were bouncing with energy, still innocent and full hope and big dreams. And if one of them grew up to be a stripper then fuck it, Gwen thought, at least they'll have rhythm.

"Okay, kids, who's ready to learn hip-hop this week?" There were cheers and some of the kids started to bust a move to the beat of their own excitement. "Wait, wait!" Gwen laughed. "You have to stretch first!"

Arthur sat in his office waiting for something, anything, to happen. He had hoped that the minute he stepped into the station there would immediately be a call that would throw him back into work.

He tilted back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. He contemplated tossing up pencils to see how many he can make stick before Merlin came back with coffee, but that would require him to get up and get pencils from someone. All he had were pens, and he wasn't going to get up just to do something unproductive.

Arthur could hear the low hum of conversations and typing. He glanced at his keyboard and envisioned it covered in dust. He could be typing something if he had work to do.

The dull, but productive, drone outside his office was the soundtrack to his boredom until the volume of chatter increased. Before Arthur could turn his head to see what was causing a fuss, Merlin burst through the doorway, out of breath and without coffee.

"What is it?" Arthur jumped out of his chair, raring to go.

"He's here!" Merlin blurted after a gasp for air.

"Wh—" Arthur had been so consumed with boredom that he forgot what his return to work coincided with. "The superintendent?"

His partner nodded rapidly. "He's…" Merlin gulped, "The Witchfinder."

A/N: We've got Gwen's bad day getting good at the end, and Arthur's boring day about to get interesting. Aredian is his new boss. Surely nothing bad will happen.

Also, I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for being able to tie in Arthur's "Now what?" from the end of the The Taste of Freedom lol

And as always, thank you for reading and reviewing!