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A brief pause, just a moment of stillness. That was what Daniel Hegarty truly needed. He knew better, though. Life wasn’t so convenient, and he fucking hated it.
As he sat at the edge of his bed, DS Lennox just a room away, he wondered what he was getting himself into. She was a handful, but he could admit, at least to himself, that it was the good sort. She wasn’t as terrible as the file suggested, and a friend had sent her his way. His unit would be a good thing for her.
Would she be a good thing for him, though? That part remained to be seen. She was liable to either clean him up or land him in trouble. The thought was a humorous one.
Attempting to save her life had been so easy in the end. Stepping in front of her, fighting with that bastard and nearly going over the edge of the railing to plummet to his death. It was all so easy. Ridiculous, really, in retrospect, but was fuckin easy. She was worth the trouble.
Even afterward, having her come home with him, cleaning her face up in the loo. Being so close to her, watching as she let him help her, et cetera. It was only too easy. Lisa had commented on this electric thing between them. In the moment, it felt rather humiliating, but he knew she cared about her father. Her sass knew no end. Lisa never could help herself. It showed that she liked Davina, too. She was worth teasing for Lisa. That said quite a bit.
For a while, as Dan laid there in bed, he thought the various routes this newfound thing could take. She would help them solve a slew of cases, surely. She had already helped save a life just today, after all. That young boy, Bobby, was alive and well because of her. Upon arriving, she had suggested heading upstairs to that exit. She knew. Her senses were sharp. It was the only exit not being covered by any officers, and she immediately spotted it.
In no time, she would be back to a Detective Inspector. She could climb the ranks. Skyrocket through them, probably.
Maybe, in doing so, she would also play a major role in his own redemption arc. He almost snorted at the thought. Perhaps they could do and be that for each other. Just maybe. They could help each other to become better, to do better. As worn out and weary as he felt, as much as his body ached from the day’s events, he felt alive again. Maybe he was worth something, after all. Bobby had clung to him like he was the port in a storm. The poor boy must have seen something in him. Davina did as well.
Daniel, of course, was a father himself. He cared about children. They had always been a weakness of his, so the case left him grinding his teeth as he rolled over in bed. It was a movement that he immediately began to regret, however, as his stomach twisted and ached. Bruises from the day were already making themselves known, even this early, and he fucking loathed all of it. It was nothing in comparison to poor Davina’s broken nose, though.
What on earth would she say in the morning? Surely, none of this was proper. She had somehow found herself in the home of her superior officer, even having met his daughter. A daughter who, much to his own embarrassment, had teased them without mercy about sleeping together. Hopefully, she would be alright with all of it. Knowing Davina, she’d be okay. Worse things had happened in the field, after all. Rushing off to stop a man from beating and robbing a woman wasn’t the craziest thing he had ever seen an officer in his unit do. Just add in the fact that the superior officer was wounded, sore, and tired in the passenger seat, well… It had been an interesting day, all around. Davina listened to her instincts, though, no matter how dangerous the outcome might be.
Between one breath and the next, Daniel decided it would be alright, whatever was to come. With everything he had survived in the past year, it couldn’t be any worse than that. Davina Lennox was sure to make his life far more interesting in the coming months.