This story takes place sometime after the Alien Force episode Everybody Talks About the Weather, and was suggested by Royal Detective.


With a snicker, Kevin opened the glove compartment of his car and tossed his newly acquired speeding ticket into the sea of tickets occupying the small space. There were so many in there that it took a couple hard pushes to close it. He was building quite an impressive collection.

He adjusted the rear-view mirror and watched as the police car behind him started up and drove past him.

The team had just gone on a mission and, after dropping Ben home, Kevin drove over the speed limit on the way to Gwen's house. He'd managed to attract attention from the police in the process, which Gwen was none too pleased about.

He flashed a smug smile at her. "Problem?"

Irked by his cockiness, she crossed her arms. "Getting a speeding ticket is hardly anything to celebrate."

When the police car finally left his view, Kevin began driving, albeit within the speed limit this time. "I don't see what the big deal is." Though his eyes were glued to the road, he could sense her glaring daggers at him.

"The big deal," she said in a mocking tone. "Is that you could go to jail."

"Wouldn't be the first time," he responded proudly. He was really poking the bear now.

She threw her hands in the air out of frustration. It perplexed her that he was taking this whole thing so lightly. "I'm serious! Why were you driving so fast in the first place?"

"Got a party to get to." He checked the time on dashboard, confirming his suspicions that he was running late, and not even in a fashionable way. He hadn't been to a party in a while, what with his new responsibilities to the team eating up so much of his time and energy lately, so he desperately needed to let loose.

"Didn't know you had friends," she snarked.

"Ehhh, they're more like acquaintances."

He stopped the car at a red light, and right when he hoped their conversation had come to a halt, she pressed on. "You have to pay those speeding tickets."

His grip on the steering wheel tightened. "Gimme one good reason." Dropping his smile, he faced her, lifting a finger to stress his point. Truthfully, he doubted she could say anything to convince him and was only asking as a formality.

"It's the right thing to do," she answered, and was met with a loud snort. To her, doing something because it was right was reason enough. She now understood it was stupidly presumptuous to think he'd feel the same way. She huffed. "Fine, be that way, whatever! I was just trying to look out for you." When the light turned green, she rested her head against the window, intent on ignoring him the rest of the way home. The physical toil of mission earlier had tired her out so much that she didn't have the energy to continue arguing with him.

Detesting her bitter tone, Kevin wanted to tell her he could handle himself fine, but he knew getting prickly would only make things between them worse. He didn't want their next mission to be awkward.

There was also the matter that Gwen was upset, and he didn't like seeing her upset.

...When did he get so soft?

After a stretch of uncomfortable quietness- not helped by the heavy traffic prolonging their journey- Kevin had made it to Gwen's street. She didn't wait for him to slow the car all the way down in front of her house before reaching for the door handle.

"Wait." He caught her attention, stopping her from leaving. Hand hovering over the handle, she turned to him, waiting to see what he could possibly say to diffuse the tension between them. Despite having spent the past several minutes coming up with things to say, all he could muster was, "I didn't mean to brush you off like that." Unimpressed by what she assumed was his attempt at an apology, she scoffed. With a groan, he ran his fingers through his hair. "Look, I'm really tryin' here, okay?"

It would have been easier to stay mad at him, but she preferred to be reasonable. He deserved a chance to explain himself. Her expression remained unchanged, implicitly giving him permission to go on.

"I appreciate you lookin' out for me, and I get that I shouldn't have shut you out, but just 'cause we're a team doesn't mean I have to do what you tell me," he defended himself.

Her eyebrows furrowed, a mixture of vexation and disbelief on her face as she broke her minutes-long streak of silence. "Is that why you were being stubborn? You don't like me telling you what to do?"

"Yes!" he blurted out, before he quickly realized he'd misspoken, and lowered his voice. "Wait, no, not you specifically. I mean-" He let out a drawn-out, exasperated sigh. "I don't get why this is so important to you. Would me payin' the tickets really make you feel better?"

To his dismay, that didn't placate her. He'd opened Pandora's box, and there was no closing it. "It's not about me. It's not even about the tickets- not completely, anyway. It's about you. I think you're at an impasse with yourself. You don't like the unfamiliarity of being a good guy, so you're needlessly holding on to your old ways even though you know you can be better than that."

Overcome by shame, he froze. His shoulders drooped; gaze fixed far away at nothing in particular. Her astute observation had sunk its teeth into him, forcing him to confront the reality he'd spent weeks hiding from. She'd never seen him like this. She suspected she was never supposed to. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't let her.

Gwen's hand crossed the gap between their seats to settle on his shoulder, but withdrew when he flinched. "That was uncalled for," he muttered.

Her face softened into a sympathetic frown. She didn't like seeing him like this. She stood by what she'd said, yet she didn't want him to feel horrible about himself. "Maybe I should've eased into that."

"Uncalled for," he repeated clearly. Gwen was seconds away from coming up with a rebuttal before Kevin resumed speaking, still looking straight ahead. "But I guess I needed to hear it. I can be a hardhead sometimes." He let out a self-deprecating chuckle.

"Um, listen, about the speeding tickets-"

He held up a hand to cut her off. "You did what you thought was right."

"Would you really pay them just to make me feel better?"

He pried his eyes away from in front of him to look at her. When he opened his mouth to reply, his voice caught in his throat. What could he say? "I'd do anything for you"? While he believed it with his whole heart for reasons unknown to himself, they didn't know each other anywhere near well enough for him to say it. He had to say something instead of sitting there slack jawed, though. "I... uh... said that to get you off my back," he lied.

It was enough to fool Gwen, it seemed. Kevin caught a fleeting glimpse of sadness in her eyes, which she concealed by adopting a neutral expression. "Oh." She glanced at her house, then back at Kevin, who had nothing else to say. Seeing how their conversation was going nowhere (not to mention how she was exhausted and out several minutes past curfew), she decided to throw in the towel. There was nothing she could do if he wasn't willing to cooperate. Still, she hated leaving things hanging. "I should go. It's late."

"Right. See you tomorrow?" he mumbled.

"Yeah," she replied noncommittally. With that, she exited the car and walked to her house, all without giving him one last look like she usually did. Kevin supposed this meant they were on somewhat rocky terms now, but it didn't stop him from waiting until she entered the house before driving off.

He checked the time on the dashboard again. There was no point in going to that party this late. It was just as well, too, since his desire to party had vanished over the course of his argument with Gwen. He decided he'd head home.

He had a lot to think about.


This was originally supposed to be shorter, more lighthearted story but it kinda evolved into an angstier piece as I got closer to the ending. I tried to write Gwen and Kevin how they were in the early episodes of the show, when they were butting heads but they also cared about each other. I ended the story without tying everything up in a bow on purpose, mainly because Kevin's still held back by his past.