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There was a quiet stillness to the apartment as the sun crested the horizon and bathed it in a warm glow.
The light revealed two figures lying haphazard on the futon, one sat upright with his head lolling over his shoulder to the arm of the sofa, the other stomach down with her head into the cushion and her legs dangling over the opposite arm.
Both were still fully clothed, outfits showing the wear and tear of the battle at the SDN offices. On the coffee table in front lay a folded blanket, pillows, and a duvet, ready and waiting for the bed that was never made.
As the sunlight reached his eyes, Robert began to stir and sit up. He went to move his hand off the sofa cushion to shield his eyes before realising that it was in an iron grip. Using his other hand to block out the sunlight he looked and saw Courtney’s arm stretching across the sofa from where she was sprawled. Her hand seemed to respond to his attempted movement by closing on his harder and pulling it closer.
Robert chuckled softly to himself and used his spare hand to gently loosen her fingers and release himself from her grip. This clearly was the wrong move for unconscious Courtney whose hand started moving around looking for its now absent partner. He leaned in and kissed the back of her head.
“I’ll be back with you soon, don’t worry” he whispered, grabbing a dozing Beef from his bed nearby and placing him on the sofa next to Courtney's hand. Beef nuzzled in and the hand seemed to accept this as a suitable replacement and curled into the fur.
---
A steady sizzle punctuated the silence as Robert busied himself in the kitchen, measuring out ingredients into a mixing bowl with a calculated and decidedly quiet efficiency.
He had considered going out to grab breakfast from a nearby coffee shop or diner, even just going to the store to buy better ingredients. Got as far as putting his jacket on and tying his shoes before the realisation hit that it could mean that the girl still dozing on his sofa could wake up in his apartment alone after everything that had transpired. He was sure she would be okay, that it would click he was coming back but he didn’t want to risk it. A moment of reflection revealed that all that aside, he couldn’t quite bring himself to leave her orbit just yet.
The jacket and shoes had come back off and then he’d gone through every cupboard and shelf. He could just about whip up pancakes, bacon, and hopefully eggs if they were still good. They could very well be bad. It had been a while since he’d done any proper food shopping. Another item on the mental list of things to do.
Very carefully he mixed up batter, pulled out pans and utensils, and started to cook. He opted not to turn the extractor on in the hopes he could let Courtney sleep that little bit longer. So what if his apartment smelt of bacon?
As he went about cooking, the smells of food seemed to stir Beef who had been lazing on the sofa revelling in his role as a Robert stand in. He sniffed the air and stood, which nudged Courtney's hand slightly. She stirred slightly and mumbled before letting out a deep sigh and seemingly falling asleep again.
Beef jumped down and wandered over to the kitchen, panting lightly and looking up at Robert as he cooked.
“Maybe in a little bit buddy, no reward yet now you’ve abandoned your post” Rob muttered quietly to himself.
He hoped the lack of hand holding hadn’t woken Courtney and for a few bated breaths that seemed to be the case. That is until he cracked open the first egg and a horrific smell wafted from the pan. He quickly threw the off egg into the bin and the pan into the sink but not before an ungodly retch emerged from his throat and a loud bang came from the pan.
Courtney lurched upright on the sofa with a face like a deer in headlights. She looked straight at Robert in the kitchen, still holding a fist over his mouth to prevent anything coming up. Cogs turned in her head and instinct won, a familiar swooshing and she was gone.
Robs shoulders slumped and he looked down at Beef.
“Couldn’t have held off for a little longer could you bud?” he sighed.
Another swoosh and Courtney was still on the sofa, looking slightly less bedraggled from just waking. One hand scratched the back of her head while she grinned sheepishly.
“Sorry, force of habit..” she let out an awkward laugh, “my bad”
“Just glad you didn’t run again” Rob said with a smile. He tried to put a lightness into his voice but he saw a slight twitch in Courtneys eyes. Was it hurt? Maybe he should’ve softened that one a little.
His thoughts were interrupted by another swoosh and she was gone again.
“Ah shit” he muttered, “coulda been a little bit mo-”
Whatever else he had to say was cut off by the body now pressing against him in a tight hug.
“I’m sorry, you know.. For running.. For leaving you in the dark” she mumbled into his chest.
Rob reached to turn off the stove and then wrapped both arms around the woman in front of him. He gently carded his fingers through her hair and let out a deep sigh.
“I know” He said it like it was matter of fact
“This is definitely a conversation for another time though Visi” he said with a chuckle
Courtney felt almost sad at this? Did he not want to talk about them? About all she had done?
She must have been thinking pretty loudly as Robert pressed a kiss to the top of her head and then split them apart, turning her towards the kitchen counter.
“That’s not me not wanting to talk about things Visi, that’s me not wanting breakfast to go cold”
She looked at the spread he had been working on before she’d come over. A plate with a stack of pancakes, more in a pan. A bowl filled with bacon. A dusty half full bottle of syrup. She glanced back over to the island and saw two plates and two mugs with an accompanying cafetiere of coffee waiting for the feast to begin. Her eyes began to water slightly before she caught herself and swiftly planted her elbow into his stomach doubling him over
“Dumbass, making me think you didn’t want to talk about us” she snipped, a smile biting at the corner of her mouth.
“Sue me for wanting to do something nice” he wheezed as he bent over.
They settled into a quiet rhythm as he set the food out and they began to eat.
Courtney noticed he’d given her the nicest pancakes, that he’d taken the burnt ones from the start. She also noticed that the bacon wasn’t consistently cooked, some looking barely cooked, others burnt to a near crisp.
“Got a problem with bacon or something?” he asked.
“Why is it all cooked differently? Are you that bad of a cook Mecha Man?”
“Didn’t know how you liked it, so did a variety, figured that’d be best” he replied between bites not looking up as he kept eating.
“Oh” she mumbled quietly.
It dawned on her the extent of what had happened.
She’d taken a bullet for this man. She then proceeded to kiss him in front of the entire Z-Team. She’d escaped an ambulance to join the team celebrating. In doing so she had inadvertently led to him slamming into the asphalt quite badly. They’d both ended up in an ambulance. She’d been discharged from hospital having taken a bullet for this man. He’d insisted she stays with him during her recovery because then he could make sure she didn’t do anything stupid. She’d said yes.
She said yes?
She’d said yes, despite the lone wolf going it alone persona she’d desperately tried to cultivate.
She remembers entering the apartment late afternoon. She cracked some joke about fucking or something and Robert had laughed and thrown it right back as he always did and then they’d sat down.
“Five minutes and then we’ll get sorted” he’d said with the confidence of a man who truly believed that would happen.
“Five minutes” she’d agreed, with a confidence that covered the fact she knew it wouldn’t.
She flopped onto the sofa and less than a minute later was drifting asleep. The last thing she remembers before sleep took over was a rough hand intertwining with hers.
She’d woken at one point, woken in that way where you’re not really with the world but you feel it? How would you even describe the sensation of being awake but only to the lost sensation of someone's touch. She thought it had been a dream. Something with fur or something cosy. She realises now he’d deployed Beef as some kind of tactical hand-holding alternative. A cocky joke builds in her throat before deflating as she remembers she disappeared when she first properly awoke.
Embarrassment sets in and a red tinge spreads across her cheek. Enough for Robert to notice and reach over. His finger curls under her chin and lifts it so he can look at her properly.
“You all good there Visi?” he asks, voice dripping with concern.
A panic builds within her and the instinct to run, to disappear, to flee rises like bile in her throat. She takes a deep breathe and exhales and looks back in his eyes. Time to explain myself, she thinks. Time to tell him i’m feeling overwhelmed at the level of care and i’m fighting years of instinct that tells me I do not deserve this. That i’ve never had anyone just make me breakfast because they care for me. That I can’t process what i’ve done to deserve this level of attention. That while i’m annoyed you stopped holding my hand you didn’t want me to feel left out so you gave me your emotional support dog. That I want to know just what we are because if we’re not dating I would like to start dating right now.
“I think i might love you” is what she blurts out instead.
She supposes that it makes sense when all is said and done. She’d taken a bullet for him, he’d cooked breakfast with different grades of bacon so she could have her preference. I mean it’s basically the same when you’re coming down from pain meds and days of stress, exhausted, and processing an attraction to someone that is rapidly becoming all encompassing. It does not help the embarrassment though. She looks up to see him..
Looking at her with the kindest smile?
“Uhh, we just letting that little declaration slide then Mecha Man? Guess Royd was right when he said the Man is Mecha-” she blurts out, desperately trying to regain control from a situation her stupid heart has landed her in.
“I think I might love you too” he says softly, cutting off her awkward rambling. It’s only happened a couple of times but to Courtney it’s her favourite way of being shut up.
A weight she didn’t know had settled lifts from her shoulders. In fact no, from her soul. A smile spreads across her face and she returns to her breakfast as a comfortable silence settles like a blanket over the morning.
------
Robert, ever dutiful, clears the plates into the sink despite Courtney’s insistence she would clear up to make up for the breakfast. Robert merely looked at her in a way that said ‘whatever do you need to make up for?’. He tilted his head and looked at the sofa, the implication clear.
Courtney sat on the sofa but didn’t make herself comfortable. Couldn’t in fact. Something was missing and in the quiet hum of the morning she couldn’t bring herself to vocalize what was going through her head.
Luckily, Robert seemed to understand. It wasn’t exactly a surprise. If his time at SDN working with Z-Team had taught Courtney anything, this man had a knack for understanding without needing to be told. He settled into the sofa on the opposite side to Courtney and looking at her, then looked down at his chest and lap with an expectant look.
“Well it’s either you get comfy or Beef does. I know which i’d prefer” he said with a slight laugh.
“If you put it like that” was the reply as Courtney found herself lying across the sofa with her head on his lap. It felt right, like she was always meant to be there. It felt even better when his fingers began to work through her hair and scratch her scalp.
“Careful tiger, carry on like that and I might just think you were telling the truth earlier.”
“Visi…” he breathed, exasperated.
“Courtney” was all she replied with. She liked the nickname he’d carved out for her at work. Visi. It had a personal touch for sure. But she was sat in his apartment, literally on him, she’d just declared she loved him. She wanted to hear him say her real name again like in the locker room.
“Courtney… of course I was telling the truth.” he said, patience winning out over what sounded like frustration. She sure as hell loved hearing him say her name though.
“Were you?” he asked. Courtney was sure she heard almost a strain of desperation in his voice in asking such a question.
“I think… no… I.. uh.” she stammered. She kept panicking until she felt a reassuring scratch on her scalp and a slight squeeze on her back. The first thought she had was ‘what an asshole making me feel nice right now’, the second was ‘tell him the truth’. So she did.
“I… yeah. I was”
God she wished she could see the smile on his face forever. Have it framed. A photo at least. Something to remind her of the fact he was so happy at what she’d said.
“I don’t know when it went from wanting some reactionary hate fuck to… this, but it did and it has and I’m a little scared that this is where we’re at” she said, quicker than intended but she just had to get it out.
Silence, then,
“You wanted to hate fuck huh?”
“Oh my god you asshole” she groaned.
“Yes I wanted to hate fuck my edgy new dispatcher who had a gruff voice and pushed back is that what you want to hear”
“That’s absolutely what I wanted to hear yes Courtney”
She rolled her eyes, she could feel the smugness radiating off him. She was facing away from him but she could see his shit eating grin like it was in front of her.
“That can’t be a surprise to you surely I tried to come on to you in a bathroom”
“Yeah no, not a surprise. Was surprisingly you thought that the mens room was appropriate to try your luck but I have to say I enjoyed the attempt.”
She groaned again, trying to get up to escape the embarrassment. Halfway through lifting up she felt the hand scratching her scalp move down her neck and immediately flopped back down.
“Its not fair how well that works on me” she muttered into his thigh.
“Isn’t it? I kinda like how much you like my touch” was the smug reply.
“Oh you want to touch me do you? Wanna get your hands all over me do you?” she snipped back, desperate to re-establish some sense of authority in the conversation.
“No actually, I really don’t want to touch my girlfriend. I'm doing it out of some sick sense of obligation” he batted the banter back without thinking.
Courtney immediately tensed up, eyes wide open. The hand on her scalp stopped momentarily as Robert realised that he’d opened his mouth and put his foot well and truly in it. Even Beef seemed to notice the slight change in the air, marching from the kitchen where he was hunting scraps to look at the two sat together.
“I.. uh.. Probably should’ve asked you about that before opening my big mouth right?”
“..maybe..”
Robert began to stammer out more before Courtney turned towards him in his lap with a grin spread across her face, laughing as soon as she saw how pale he looked. As soon as her laughter hit his ears his face fell to a near scowl.
“Oh man! You should’ve seen your face. I had you going so bad then” she laughed out.
“You dumbass, do something nice and this is how you repa-” he started before being cut off as Courtney launched herself up and kissed him. They settled a little closer to each other, forehead to forehead.
“Did i have something on my face again” he whispered
“Yeah, you had some egg”
“Very clever Courtney”
“Play your cards right Robbie you can have something else on your face later”
“There she is, thats the Visi i remember”
“She’s always been here asshole, just letting the moment sit with me a bit before we go back to regular programming”
“Can’t argue with that”
They settled back, Courtney sat on his lap looking up at him, Robert looking down. Hands intertwined. There was so much more to talk about, the good, the bad, the raunchy. There was her shoulder wound to clean and redress. There were the smouldering ruins of LA around them. For now though, they were with each other, and at this moment everything else could wait while they shared a rare moment of peace. One that was long in the making and very much deserved.