Kate left ACC Hilton's office feeling stressed. This case was going badly. One month in and she still had been unable to get close to Tony Gates and anyone in TO-20. Instead she had to watch from CID whilst she worked on the shit that they sent her way.
She wasn't the only one frustrated by the lack of progress. Her boss, Ted Hastings had informed her at their last clandestine meeting that he was going to assign her a new partner. Some counter terrorist officer from London who had done something to catch the gaffers eye. She hadn't really been listening as she was more concerned that her boss didn't think she was up to the job.
Judging from the dressing down she had just had with ACC Hilton, she wasn't much of a CID copper either.
Maybe Mark was right and she should just quit the force, she thought.
Mark. She hadn't thought about him since that night in the kitchen. At least the slow progress in the case delayed her return to him. Unfortunately it also delayed her return to her son. She was so torn.
She felt a pair of eyes on her as she walked past the main entrance and back to CID. She looked up and saw a man was checking her out. A stranger who she hadn't seen before.
Her police training instantly kicked in as she quickly assessed the man as she did for any new person she saw. Her initial impression was a little on the short side but still taller than herself. Brown hair. Kind face. Brown eyes she could easily lose herself in. Whoa, where did that come from? she wondered.
Realising he had been caught staring, the stranger gave her a smile and she returned it shyly as she walked past him, her heart hammering in her chest as she did so. Reaching the security door she held up her pass to the card reader to gain entrance. Except something didn't work and the door wouldn't open.
"You alright?" She heard a voice behind her ask in an accent that wasn't local. She turned to see it was the stranger. "DS Arnott," he introduced himself as he offered his hand. Kate took it and felt a little spark of attraction as she did, like a little shock of electricity passed between them. She hadn't experienced anything like it before.
"Can I help you?" She asked.
"Err, we've come to see DCI Gates...," DS Arnott replied, pausing before glancing briefly at her ID badge on the lanyard around her neck. She was fairly sure he checked out her tits in doing so. Maybe she wasn't the only one to feel the attraction between them and she became a little shy. "...Kate," he added, having found what he was looking for. She liked the way her name sounded on his lips. Would it sound the same as he came? she wondered lustfully.
"Okay. Erm, have you been posted?" She asked, tearing her mind back to the present. She was concerned DS Arnott had mentioned the officer she herself was interested in. Had this guy been assigned to work in TO-20 and totally fuck up her undercover assignment before she had had a chance to infiltrate it?
"You could say that," DS Arnott said and Kate wondered what he meant by that.
"Well, welcome to the Alamo," she said trying to be friendly. It wasn't this guy's fault that he might be messing up her investigation.
"Thank you very much," he said.
Kate tried her ID card again to gain them both entrance to the station, but failed again. "They said they were getting this fixed!" she muttered frustrated. On top of everything else going wrong in her life right now, this was the last straw.
"Sorry about that, Steve," Kate heard a familiar voice say and she looked up to see her boss. Kate suddenly had an idea who this newcomer was. He'd got here a lot sooner than she had anticipated.
"Are you with AC-12?" she asked.
"Yeah," Steve said.
"Hmm," she said realising she had to play her role and be distant to this guy. Everyone here hated AC-12.
She watched Steve and Hastings disappear down the corridor to TO-20 lost in thought. She was fairly sure she had just been chatted up by her new partner which was going to be a bit of a problem. She couldn't dwell on it though as she had work to do and went about trying to get DS Arnott out of her mind for the time being.
It didn't last long as she was soon back in his company.
He had a lovely smile she realised as she did her best at ignoring him later that day in the interview room. She was a little disconcerted to have these feelings creep in to her psyche. Why was she feeling like a teenage girl with a bit of a crush on the new guy? It was going to make working with him very complicated indeed and she did her best to push those thoughts away by thinking mean things about him.
He probably knew he had a nice smile, she thought and used it to get what he wanted with many an unwitting female. Shame he had met his match.