Help Me Heal

Chapter 18

The atmosphere in the car was a very happy one as Hank and Kalinda continued their journey to Milwaukee. So much so that he figured he could take an opportunity.

"I have a confession to make, Kalinda."

"Oh, do you now? Don't let me stop you."

"Erin found your Instagram account on her tablet this morning and gave it to me to look at."

Kalinda laughed, immediately dispelling whatever small concerns Hank might have had over telling her. "I hope you liked what you saw?"

"Liked what I saw? That would be a major understatement," he assured her. "You know by now that I find you beautiful beyond words. That's not why I brought it up though. There were a few things I noticed and wanted to ask you about."

Kalinda glanced at him. "Okay. Go right ahead."

"What does the 212 in 'KRai212' refer to? I also saw you in a soccer jersey with Rai and number 2."

"My first badge number in the Met Police was SO212. I was proud of it and I liked it, so I've always kept it around and considered number 2 my lucky number. You probably think having a lucky number is silly?"

Hank shook his head. "Silly? No. It's not my kind of thing, but if it works for you who am I to argue? That soccer game you were at earlier in the year..."

"Football," she corrected him. "Sorry, I can't let it slide. It's football."

"Okay, football," Hank conceded, hiding his amusement. "Did your lucky shirt pay off? Did Chelsea win?"

"Let's, uh, gloss over that," Kalinda said with comedic evasiveness, and they both laughed.

"So they didn't?"

"Might have lost 3-1."

"Oh no. All the way to London to watch a 3 to 1 loss."

Kalinda looked at him and raised her eyebrows. "Don't rub it in."

"Sorry," he said with another laugh. "It's not like I can talk. My baseball team is the Chicago Cubs. They suck too."

"You'll have to take me to a Cubs game one time. And we should definitely go on a romantic long weekend to London, taking in a Chelsea game of course."

All the way to England and back for a long weekend sounded like hard work to Hank, but with Kalinda it would be worth it. "Sure, we can do that." He opted not to bring up that taking time off together would amount to telling the Intelligence team they were dating. Why spoil the mood right now?

"I saw you're a diver too. You wrote something about teaching your best friend to dive. You're an instructor?"

"Ah, Lucy," Kalinda said warmly at the mention of her friend. "Despite living thousands of miles apart now, we're really close. We've known each other since school. Most weeks we probably talk four or five times. Every year we make sure to go somewhere together for a vacation to spend time together. It's always somewhere hot, with gorgeous beaches, plenty of alcohol, hot weather and hot men."

"Sounds like a good time," Hank said, smiling to show amusement at the final item on her list. He realised he was making more and more humourous comments these days himself. Kalinda had awoken that side of his personality from its deep slumber.

"It always is a good time. But to answer your question, yes I'm a certified dive instructor. My dad taught me to dive when I was ten. So I've been doing it for forty years now. At one time I had a job in Milwaukee as an instructor, teaching people in a pool. I loved doing that, and it was a nice income on the side. But I had to give it up thanks to that vice desk I worked on always being short staffed. I would get called in to work there and have to let my clients down. One more dream I had that didn't work out. Story of my life."