Stoking The Fire

Chapter Four

He waits until the garage door is fully closed before he exits the car, unlocking the nearby door and slipping inside. I can hear the beeping of an alarm keypad, and then he comes back out through the door.

"Kitchen is straight through the door and to the left. There's a large island you can set all the food down on." he states as he walks to the back of the car, opening the hatch and doing god knows what in the back where he usually kept his kit and case info and whatnot. I blink rapidly a few times and open my door with a resigned sigh, finally wrangling the food and drinks around in such a way that I can make it inside without making a huge mess of everything.

As I'm carefully trying to untangle the food bags and get everything set down, I can hear the hatch slam shut, one of the doors open, a bit of a scuffle, the door finally shut, and the door leading into the house creak open, then shut and lock. I look up in time to see him walk by with everything of mine from the car, and I only have a second to wonder how he managed to wrangle it all into one trip before he disappears down the hallway. By the time he comes back down the hall, I've finally untangled myself from all the food and stepped back to stand by the patio door, gently biting down on my thumbnail as I stand with arms crossed and foot tapping nervously.

He slaps a case file folder on the end of the counter, face down, and walks around the counter to enter the kitchen proper. I watch him deftly remove food from the different bags and place it around the counter in different stacks for a moment, before he finally pauses and looks back at me. "I'm not going to bite, you know. You can have a seat." His voice holds the barest hint of a chuckle as he gestures to the stools on the other side of the counter, and I jerkily move around the counter and take a seat, eyeing him briefly before I start biting down on my nail again.

"Stop chewing on your nails, the last thing you need right now is bloody fingers. There's a large variety here, what do you want to eat?" I almost make a smart-ass retort about the fact that I wasn't actually chewing my nails off, instead just applying pressure, but I decide he wouldn't get the subtle difference anyway and start looking through the marked containers. At this point I'm almost too hungry to be able to even eat properly, but I can tell he's watching me like a hawk and I just pick something that I know isn't too much food. Once I open the container and start picking at the food, he sets one container to the side for himself, before setting one of the drinks in front of me and putting the rest of the food in the fridge.

We eat - or pick at our food, in my case - in silence for several minutes, before he finally speaks again.

"So, care to explain to me what tonight's little stunt was all about?" Great, here it comes. I drop my fork and look up at him, before pushing the food away and getting up from the stool. "Not really, no. There's nothing to explain. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and made myself Jack's target, somehow." Sticking my nail back in my mouth I start pacing, and I can feel his eyes following my every movement.

"Yeah, I don't buy that. You can do better than that, and you need to finish eating or you're going to make yourself sick." I just flash him a look and shake my head, before speaking again.

"Look, I'm tired. My head hurts. I'm covered in who knows what, and I would love a shower. The last thing I want right now is to talk about whatever you think there is to talk about more than just my simple mistake. Do you think we can manage a shower and maybe a nap or something?" My nail goes right back in my mouth while I wait for him to respond.

"In a little bit. Sit your ass down." THAT makes me stop, cock my head, and look at him while blinking several times. Did he really just use his favorite 'perp making an ass of themselves' line on me? No he fucking didn't. I scoff.

"Fuck you, make me."

With a snort, I turn around and start pacing again, heading towards the hallway. I turn around on my way back and, Hello chest. I smack right into him - I guess he decided to make me, after all. He places his hands on my shoulders and gently but firmly steers me over to the stool, before pushing me down and making me sit my ass down. Then, he places his hands on the counter behind me, and leans his face down and into mine, to where there was maybe five inches of space between us. A hard thought and I could kiss him. I'm not about to make that mistake, though.