Watch That Man
Title: Watch That Man
Fandom: Life on Mars
Characters/Pairings: Sam and Gene
Rating: Blue Cortina
Word Count: 3,366
Summary: Gene and Sam get drunk and the inevitable happens complete with the fall out in the morning. (Yeah, the title is a Bowie song. Oh I am soooo original!)
Disclaimer: Life on Mars is not mine at all, I’m just playing with the world
They'd gone to the pub at around 5:00 and started off the night right with a double round. It had been a good day, two collars and no laws broken in the process which had rather surprised Sam but was pleasing none the less. Now the time was after midnight, needless to say they were thoroughly pissed. Also, unsurprisingly, the Gov's state was worse than Sam's, though Sam wasn’t too far behind in that regard.
“Gov…” Sam said, dragging the other man by his coat. “Come on, ‘is just a poster.”
Gene had been standing staring at a poster advertising David Bowie for about five minutes straight.
“Tha’ one,” Gene pointed back at the poster behind him as Sam dragged him slowly away. “’es a bloody fairy, look at ‘im!”
“For now,” Sam said making sure to walk straight. “Wait till 1993…”
“Wha?” Gene replied then stopped walking abruptly almost making Sam fall backwards.
“Hey!” Sam snapped regaining his balance.
“Where we goin’?” Gene said looking around as if he’d only just then realized they were outside and not still in the pub. “Where’s me car?”
Gene suddenly pulled his coat out of Sam’s grasp and began walking back the way he came. Luckily Sam had had the foresight back at the pub to take Gene’s keys before either of them was completely gone. Hopefully they were still in Sam’s pocket and not lost on the street somewhere.
“Gov, you can’t drive now,” Sam said trying to catch Gene’s arm to pull him back.
“The bloody hell I can!” Gene shouted back at Sam, tripping and nearly falling over.
He stopped, steadying himself. Sam walked up slowly and took Gene’s arm at the elbow guiding him back onto the sidewalk.
“Come on,” Sam said, “We can go to mine, ‘is jus-”
“Get off!” Gene said suddenly, cutting Sam off and wrenching his arm free. He planted his feet and pointed an unsteady arm at Sam. “I’m your DCI, Tyler, and you should….”
“My drunk DCI,” Sam said.
“And,” Gene continued with greater gusto. “I want me car.”
“I’ve got the keys,” Sam said putting his hands in his pockets quickly just to be sure. “So you can leave it now. You can’t walk ‘ome anyhow, so just come with me.”
“Tryin’ to order me around again. So, high an’ mighty,” Gene went on, though he began walking toward Sam. “With your tape recordin’ an’ evidence.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sam said grabbing onto Gene’s coat again and pulling him along. “I know.”
“But I’m the one that’s always right,” Gene said poking Sam in the chest to clearly emphasize his point.
Sam turned suddenly to give Gene a drunken glare but Gene did not notice he was turning around until it was too late. The two men crashed into each other causing Sam to become off balance and fall backward. As he fell Sam grabbed out reflexively for the nearest thing which happened to be Gene’s arm. The result was Gene crashing down as well right on top of Sam.
“God, oh…” Sam groaned, the wind suddenly knocked out of him by Gene’s weight.
Gene propped himself up on his hands above Sam with a cough and stared down at Sam accusingly. For a moment then they just stared at each other panting then Sam felt it change. Gene’s face softened, the anger disappearing and Sam suddenly couldn’t breathe for an entirely different reason.
“Pretty eyes…” Gene said quietly and for a moment Sam thought…
Then Gene moved back, dragging himself off of Sam and standing up again. He held out his hand for Sam, pulling him up with a wobble.
“Trying to kill me, Tyler?” Gene said, his brash and slurred tone of voice back, as he turned banging his way through the building’s front door.
Blinking away the dizziness, Sam followed Gene inside and up the stairs a bit faster than Sam would have expected Gene to be able to move now.
Once they reached the landing of his floor, stumbling as they went, Sam suddenly found himself pinned against the wall by Gene, hands flat on the wall on either side of him. Whether Gene fell against him in his drunken state or did it on purpose Sam did not have time to ponder because suddenly Gene was kissing him hard. He barely acknowledged the shock and surprise of the action before Sam started kissing him back. His hands flew up and grabbed either side of Gene’s face holding on as if he might fall over again. Gene’s lips were rough and he tasted like bitter beer, scotch, and cigarettes. Yet right then Sam could think of nothing more fabulous than Gene Hunt’s body pressing against him and tongue searching his mouth.
Then all of a sudden the only sane and sober part of Sam’s brain clicked on and reminded him that they were in the hallway in front of his flat which had a perfectly good bed inside of it. Sam turned his head to the side away from Gene’s insistent mouth. Gene tried to move his head in Sam’s hands to capture Sam’s mouth again but Sam held him fast.
“No, Gene,” he said, panting slightly, “not in the hall, me flat.”
Gene pressed Sam hard against the wall, “I don’t think-”
Sam pushed Gene back before he could continue his sentence and quickly turned to the door of his flat.
“Just hold on!” he said, scrambling for his keys in his pockets.
Behind him Gene put his hands on Sam’s sides slowly moving down to his thighs. He could feel Gene’s breath close on the back of his neck and he almost spun around and slammed Gene against the wall. Then Sam found the right key and wrenched open the door. Turning around he grabbed Gene by the front of his shirt and hauled him into the room, slamming the door.
-------------------------
Light streamed through the window forcing Sam’s eyes open. Right away he could tell it was too early to be awake by how drowsy he still was. Clearly he’d had too much to drink last night as well, lovely. Then he realized there was someone else crammed into his small bed with him. Sam closed his eyes again quickly.
‘Please let this not be what I think…’ he thought and opened his eyes turning to look beside him.
“Oh shit…” he muttered and put a hand over his face.
It was Gene, of course. Flashes of the night before came through to him, Gene pressing him into the wall, yanking Gene’s tie off, Gene pushing him down on the bed, Gene’s lips and hands all over him. Sam suddenly felt the pain in his back from hitting the ground when Gene landed on him. Carefully he eased himself out of the bed, out from under Gene’s arm, to standing. Luckily he happened to still have his boxers on which was some comfort. He grabbed his shirt off the floor and threw it on, buttoning it up.
Sam stood for a moment looking down at the sleeping Gene who was taking up all of the bed now. It was hardly an attractive sight with his mouth half hanging open and hair pushed up into an odd shape. Still, Sam smiled and forced himself not to laugh, amazed at what alcohol could do. He considered all of the reasons this was a bad thing; one because it was 1973, two because it was his boss, three because he boss was a man, and four because it was Gene, number four really being the most important. Sam thought about shooting himself now and just getting it over with but then again he was already in a coma. Despite it all Sam couldn’t help but find it a bit funny.
Shaking his head, Sam turned away and walked over to his kitchenette. There was no reason he shouldn’t eat, especially after such a long night of drinking and….well and everything else. Behind Sam then there came a squeak and a groan.
“Oh, bloody hell...” Sam suddenly heard and he turned to look at the bed.
Gene stared back at him, wide awake now, with a rather shocked and appalled expression, hand against the side of his head. Sam raised both eyebrows.
“Jesus Christ, it wasn't a dream!”
Sam would have laughed but figured by the look on the Gov's face that he might have been suddenly disemboweled if he did.
“No,” Sam replied simply instead.
Now came the fallout.
“Bloody fucking hell!” Gene said again, sitting up all the way and looking around quickly. “Aw, Jesus, you've got to be kidding me.”
“Gov....” Sam started.
“There is no way!” The Gov shouted putting his legs over the edge of the bed toward the window. Sam's head began banging. “No soddin' way that happened. Just... just not bloody possible!”
Sam sighed, “Could you please not shout?” Damn his head hurt.
“You shut up!” Gene shouted again pointing quickly at Sam but not looking at him. He then put his head in his hands, elbows propped on his knees. “Fuck.... I can't fucking believe....”
Sam sighed again, turning to the kitchen counter, “Gov, can we please leave the homosexual freak out reaction until after I've had some coffee?”
“God damn it!” Gene replied instead.
“I think you've gone through a good number of curses by now, can we move on?” Sam said turning on the coffee pot.
“And how are you so fucking calm then?” Gene snapped.
Sam stared at the wall, wanting to break something over Gene's head just to make him be quiet for a moment. A number of well worded retorts about such things as not being uncommon anymore in 'Hyde' and the effects of alcohol and university parties flashed through Sam’s head. He smiled quickly to himself at the thought of confusing Gene even more with such remarks then decided that was probably not a good idea. He turned around with crossed arms and shrugged.
“Not exactly the first time,” he said.
He saw Gene’s eyes flash at him briefly and he scoffed.
“Should of known you were a damned nancy poof.”
“You know, considering we had sex last night I don’t think you’re really in the position anymore to be saying things like that,” Sam replied, a laugh in his voice.
“Don’t say it out loud!” Gene shouted.
Sam snorted and turned back to the counter. He took two mugs out of the dish rack and sat them beside the pot. He wasn’t really in the mood for the ‘oh shit I had gay sex’ drama right then. It wasn’t that he had a lot of experience with this sort of thing and thus that it was old hat to him, far from it. Really it was just that his head hurt a lot and he wanted some coffee more than he wanted to rehash last night’s events. Perhaps he was being too blasé about this or maybe just too 21st century.
Turning back around Sam saw Gene pacing beside the window, pants and shirt hurriedly thrown on. Sam sighed again. He seemed to be doing that a lot this morning.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I am not bloody all right!” Gene snapped, glancing at him quickly. “And why don’t you put some bloody clothes on!”
Sam snorted but Gene continued, still pacing.
“You stand there like this is so bloody normal to you, like you’ve no shame!”
“I didn’t know you knew that word, Gov.”
He just glared back at Sam. A thought stuck Sam randomly that the reason he was being so calm was because Gene was freaking out, interesting reversal. Sam walked over toward Gene who suddenly took a step back as Sam approached. Sam pointed behind him.
“You’re standing in front of my wardrobe.”
Gene looked quickly behind him as if he’d only just remembered it was there.
“Oh.”
He looked almost sheepish for a moment then moved out of the way, scooting by the table past Sam. Their shoulders brushed momentarily as they passed and Sam felt Gene flinch away. He spared a thought at the irony of their ‘shoot first ask questions later’ DCI being so skittish now over this. Reaching into the wardrobe Sam grabbed some pants and a shirt for the day. Behind him he heard Gene move and the door to the bathroom close. Sam suddenly felt tension he had been previously unaware of ebb out of his shoulders. Pulling on his pants quickly and changing his shirt, Sam turned around to look back at his apartment.
Did last night really happen? It certainly wasn’t something he would have ever banked on or had ever really considered. It wasn’t as though he was attracted to the Gov, not really, or men in general. Last night was just the alcohol making them both insane, clearly very insane, that had to be it. If it weren’t for the crumpled coat in the corner and Gene’s white shoes by the TV he could almost imagine he was alone now and that it was all just another crazy dream or vision or TV surprise.
Then he heard a clatter and a curse from the bathroom and snapped back to reality. Sam quickly pulled on socks and his boots then walked over to the coffee. He poured two mugs, putting some sugar in his own as Gene walked out of the bathroom. Shirt buttoned and tie on Gene looked a lot less rumpled as well as less frazzled than a few minutes earlier. He looked over at Sam as Sam held out the other mug of coffee for him. Taking the mug Gene walked across the room and sat in the chair by the window, cradling the mug in his hands.
“So…” he said.
“So?” Sam replied taking a swig of his coffee.
“Not exactly the first time?” Gene said looking up at Sam.
Sam huffed lightly and shrugged, “Uh, well, just the once…”
Gene did not reply, just watched him.
“Ravi, at university…” Sam continued haltingly. “I was drunk… and we were… anyway, it was a long time ago. And in case you haven’t noticed I don’t normally do this sort of thing really,” Sam said motioning his hand between them briefly.
“Yeah, you’ve Annie,” Gene said lightly.
“Yeah.”
They both looked away, going silent again. At least Gene wasn’t cursing up a storm or pacing anymore. It was an awkward situation and a mistake, of course, but they would just have to forget about it. Sam nodded to himself. They had plenty of far more pressing things to worry about like arresting murderers for example. He decided he would just keep telling himself that because for some reason the consequences of what they’d done were started to get to him more. It was like the calmer Gene became the more the worry passed over to him. Crazy ideas like Gene shooting him in the back when he wasn’t expecting it to silence him or pulling Sam into his office to kiss him against the filing cabinets started flying through his head. Just then Gene spoke again, breaking Sam’s thoughts.
“So, what do we do?” he asked
“What?” Sam said, unprepared for a question.
“I said, what do we do!” Gene snapped, slamming his coffee mug down on the table beside him and splashing some coffee around.
Sam jumped slightly. He realized then that Gene wasn’t actually calmer at all. He was simply trying to practice restraint, something he did not do often. It always unnerved Sam a bit when he did. A very strange urge came over Sam to walk over to Gene and try to comfort him. He blinked rapidly and put his mug down.
“Right,” he said and Gene looked over at him. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”
He walked over to where Gene’s shoes were and kicked them toward the other man. Picking up Gene’s abused coffee mug, he walked back across the room again.
“What we are going to do,” Sam started again, “is you are going to put your shoes on and get out of here and I am going to eat breakfast. We’re both going to go to the station and do our jobs like we always do. We’re going to argue, hate each other a lot of time and work and solve our cases like we always do. And we’re going to forget about all this, forget it happened, and just go back to normal.”
Gene stood up, shoes on now, looking at Sam like he was slightly bewildered at Sam giving orders of this kind to him.
“You might also want to try and get some new clothes because yours don’t smell too right,” Sam added, grabbing Gene’s coat from the corner and throwing it at him.
“Right…” Gene replied, still looking off footed.
Gene pulled on his coat and walked toward Sam and the door. He walked past Sam then stopped and looked at him, an odd expression on his face. Sam stared back at him starting to become confused. He was about to ask Gene why he was staring at him like that when Gene leaned in quickly and kissed him on the lips.
“See you at the station,” Gene said pulling away.
Then he turned and walked out of Sam’s apartment slamming the door behind him. Sam stared at the door in shock for a moment. Then slowly a smile crept over his face and he felt like laughing.
“Ok,” he said to himself.
It looked like they weren’t going to just forget about it.
----------------
At the station Sam found himself buried under two weeks of back log reports from all the recent robbery cases they'd had. It was boring work but it kept him busy allowing less time for his mind to wander. Still, sometimes he would find his eyes shifting away from the page in front of him, daydreaming about rough lips or sliding up to stare at Gene's office.
“Sam?”
Sam looked up to see Annie looking down at him. He blinked and realized she must have just asked him something.
“Uh, sorry, what?”
“I said, are you coming to the pub?”
Sam looked up at the clock and saw it was closing in on 5:00. Where had the day gone? Gene hadn't come out of his office the whole day. Closing his eyes briefly, Sam mentally slapped himself for paying such close attention to Gene as to notice that. Sam looked back at Annie and cleared his throat.
“I, uh, don't know if....”
“Tyler!” Gene suddenly shouted from his office.
Sam and Annie both jumped in surprise looking over at his office. Gene stood in the door way and motioned his head in. Sam stood up jerkily and smiled quickly at Annie as an apology. Walking over Sam slid past Gene into his office as Gene closed the door behind him.
“Gov?” Sam said, feeling a sudden awkwardness around him though Gene looked calm as he ever normally was.
He had a sudden insane thought about how unfair it was that Gene could feel calm now and he felt scattered.
“So!” Gene said, standing close to Sam invading his personal space just a bit too much.
“So?” Sam echoed holding his ground.
“Comin' to the pub?”
Sam blinked in surprise. Was there a conspiracy in the department to get him drunk tonight? He'd done that pretty well the night before which Gene was well aware of.
“I don't know, I was-”
“Got plenty of that last night?” Gene finished for him. “Thought right. So, just heading home then?”
Sam stared at him in confusion for a moment and nodded slowly. “I suppose.”
“Right!” Gene said moving away from Sam. “Sounds like a plan.”
Turning he grabbed his coat off the stand, flung it over his shoulder and walked out of the office. Sam stared in astonishment then began to grin like a mad man. No, they were definitely not just forgetting about it. After all, since when did Gene ever listen to what he said anyhow? For once Sam had to admit that he was strangely glad.
Fandom: Life on Mars
Characters/Pairings: Sam and Gene
Rating: Blue Cortina
Word Count: 3,366
Summary: Gene and Sam get drunk and the inevitable happens complete with the fall out in the morning. (Yeah, the title is a Bowie song. Oh I am soooo original!)
Disclaimer: Life on Mars is not mine at all, I’m just playing with the world
They'd gone to the pub at around 5:00 and started off the night right with a double round. It had been a good day, two collars and no laws broken in the process which had rather surprised Sam but was pleasing none the less. Now the time was after midnight, needless to say they were thoroughly pissed. Also, unsurprisingly, the Gov's state was worse than Sam's, though Sam wasn’t too far behind in that regard.
“Gov…” Sam said, dragging the other man by his coat. “Come on, ‘is just a poster.”
Gene had been standing staring at a poster advertising David Bowie for about five minutes straight.
“Tha’ one,” Gene pointed back at the poster behind him as Sam dragged him slowly away. “’es a bloody fairy, look at ‘im!”
“For now,” Sam said making sure to walk straight. “Wait till 1993…”
“Wha?” Gene replied then stopped walking abruptly almost making Sam fall backwards.
“Hey!” Sam snapped regaining his balance.
“Where we goin’?” Gene said looking around as if he’d only just then realized they were outside and not still in the pub. “Where’s me car?”
Gene suddenly pulled his coat out of Sam’s grasp and began walking back the way he came. Luckily Sam had had the foresight back at the pub to take Gene’s keys before either of them was completely gone. Hopefully they were still in Sam’s pocket and not lost on the street somewhere.
“Gov, you can’t drive now,” Sam said trying to catch Gene’s arm to pull him back.
“The bloody hell I can!” Gene shouted back at Sam, tripping and nearly falling over.
He stopped, steadying himself. Sam walked up slowly and took Gene’s arm at the elbow guiding him back onto the sidewalk.
“Come on,” Sam said, “We can go to mine, ‘is jus-”
“Get off!” Gene said suddenly, cutting Sam off and wrenching his arm free. He planted his feet and pointed an unsteady arm at Sam. “I’m your DCI, Tyler, and you should….”
“My drunk DCI,” Sam said.
“And,” Gene continued with greater gusto. “I want me car.”
“I’ve got the keys,” Sam said putting his hands in his pockets quickly just to be sure. “So you can leave it now. You can’t walk ‘ome anyhow, so just come with me.”
“Tryin’ to order me around again. So, high an’ mighty,” Gene went on, though he began walking toward Sam. “With your tape recordin’ an’ evidence.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sam said grabbing onto Gene’s coat again and pulling him along. “I know.”
“But I’m the one that’s always right,” Gene said poking Sam in the chest to clearly emphasize his point.
Sam turned suddenly to give Gene a drunken glare but Gene did not notice he was turning around until it was too late. The two men crashed into each other causing Sam to become off balance and fall backward. As he fell Sam grabbed out reflexively for the nearest thing which happened to be Gene’s arm. The result was Gene crashing down as well right on top of Sam.
“God, oh…” Sam groaned, the wind suddenly knocked out of him by Gene’s weight.
Gene propped himself up on his hands above Sam with a cough and stared down at Sam accusingly. For a moment then they just stared at each other panting then Sam felt it change. Gene’s face softened, the anger disappearing and Sam suddenly couldn’t breathe for an entirely different reason.
“Pretty eyes…” Gene said quietly and for a moment Sam thought…
Then Gene moved back, dragging himself off of Sam and standing up again. He held out his hand for Sam, pulling him up with a wobble.
“Trying to kill me, Tyler?” Gene said, his brash and slurred tone of voice back, as he turned banging his way through the building’s front door.
Blinking away the dizziness, Sam followed Gene inside and up the stairs a bit faster than Sam would have expected Gene to be able to move now.
Once they reached the landing of his floor, stumbling as they went, Sam suddenly found himself pinned against the wall by Gene, hands flat on the wall on either side of him. Whether Gene fell against him in his drunken state or did it on purpose Sam did not have time to ponder because suddenly Gene was kissing him hard. He barely acknowledged the shock and surprise of the action before Sam started kissing him back. His hands flew up and grabbed either side of Gene’s face holding on as if he might fall over again. Gene’s lips were rough and he tasted like bitter beer, scotch, and cigarettes. Yet right then Sam could think of nothing more fabulous than Gene Hunt’s body pressing against him and tongue searching his mouth.
Then all of a sudden the only sane and sober part of Sam’s brain clicked on and reminded him that they were in the hallway in front of his flat which had a perfectly good bed inside of it. Sam turned his head to the side away from Gene’s insistent mouth. Gene tried to move his head in Sam’s hands to capture Sam’s mouth again but Sam held him fast.
“No, Gene,” he said, panting slightly, “not in the hall, me flat.”
Gene pressed Sam hard against the wall, “I don’t think-”
Sam pushed Gene back before he could continue his sentence and quickly turned to the door of his flat.
“Just hold on!” he said, scrambling for his keys in his pockets.
Behind him Gene put his hands on Sam’s sides slowly moving down to his thighs. He could feel Gene’s breath close on the back of his neck and he almost spun around and slammed Gene against the wall. Then Sam found the right key and wrenched open the door. Turning around he grabbed Gene by the front of his shirt and hauled him into the room, slamming the door.
-------------------------
Light streamed through the window forcing Sam’s eyes open. Right away he could tell it was too early to be awake by how drowsy he still was. Clearly he’d had too much to drink last night as well, lovely. Then he realized there was someone else crammed into his small bed with him. Sam closed his eyes again quickly.
‘Please let this not be what I think…’ he thought and opened his eyes turning to look beside him.
“Oh shit…” he muttered and put a hand over his face.
It was Gene, of course. Flashes of the night before came through to him, Gene pressing him into the wall, yanking Gene’s tie off, Gene pushing him down on the bed, Gene’s lips and hands all over him. Sam suddenly felt the pain in his back from hitting the ground when Gene landed on him. Carefully he eased himself out of the bed, out from under Gene’s arm, to standing. Luckily he happened to still have his boxers on which was some comfort. He grabbed his shirt off the floor and threw it on, buttoning it up.
Sam stood for a moment looking down at the sleeping Gene who was taking up all of the bed now. It was hardly an attractive sight with his mouth half hanging open and hair pushed up into an odd shape. Still, Sam smiled and forced himself not to laugh, amazed at what alcohol could do. He considered all of the reasons this was a bad thing; one because it was 1973, two because it was his boss, three because he boss was a man, and four because it was Gene, number four really being the most important. Sam thought about shooting himself now and just getting it over with but then again he was already in a coma. Despite it all Sam couldn’t help but find it a bit funny.
Shaking his head, Sam turned away and walked over to his kitchenette. There was no reason he shouldn’t eat, especially after such a long night of drinking and….well and everything else. Behind Sam then there came a squeak and a groan.
“Oh, bloody hell...” Sam suddenly heard and he turned to look at the bed.
Gene stared back at him, wide awake now, with a rather shocked and appalled expression, hand against the side of his head. Sam raised both eyebrows.
“Jesus Christ, it wasn't a dream!”
Sam would have laughed but figured by the look on the Gov's face that he might have been suddenly disemboweled if he did.
“No,” Sam replied simply instead.
Now came the fallout.
“Bloody fucking hell!” Gene said again, sitting up all the way and looking around quickly. “Aw, Jesus, you've got to be kidding me.”
“Gov....” Sam started.
“There is no way!” The Gov shouted putting his legs over the edge of the bed toward the window. Sam's head began banging. “No soddin' way that happened. Just... just not bloody possible!”
Sam sighed, “Could you please not shout?” Damn his head hurt.
“You shut up!” Gene shouted again pointing quickly at Sam but not looking at him. He then put his head in his hands, elbows propped on his knees. “Fuck.... I can't fucking believe....”
Sam sighed again, turning to the kitchen counter, “Gov, can we please leave the homosexual freak out reaction until after I've had some coffee?”
“God damn it!” Gene replied instead.
“I think you've gone through a good number of curses by now, can we move on?” Sam said turning on the coffee pot.
“And how are you so fucking calm then?” Gene snapped.
Sam stared at the wall, wanting to break something over Gene's head just to make him be quiet for a moment. A number of well worded retorts about such things as not being uncommon anymore in 'Hyde' and the effects of alcohol and university parties flashed through Sam’s head. He smiled quickly to himself at the thought of confusing Gene even more with such remarks then decided that was probably not a good idea. He turned around with crossed arms and shrugged.
“Not exactly the first time,” he said.
He saw Gene’s eyes flash at him briefly and he scoffed.
“Should of known you were a damned nancy poof.”
“You know, considering we had sex last night I don’t think you’re really in the position anymore to be saying things like that,” Sam replied, a laugh in his voice.
“Don’t say it out loud!” Gene shouted.
Sam snorted and turned back to the counter. He took two mugs out of the dish rack and sat them beside the pot. He wasn’t really in the mood for the ‘oh shit I had gay sex’ drama right then. It wasn’t that he had a lot of experience with this sort of thing and thus that it was old hat to him, far from it. Really it was just that his head hurt a lot and he wanted some coffee more than he wanted to rehash last night’s events. Perhaps he was being too blasé about this or maybe just too 21st century.
Turning back around Sam saw Gene pacing beside the window, pants and shirt hurriedly thrown on. Sam sighed again. He seemed to be doing that a lot this morning.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I am not bloody all right!” Gene snapped, glancing at him quickly. “And why don’t you put some bloody clothes on!”
Sam snorted but Gene continued, still pacing.
“You stand there like this is so bloody normal to you, like you’ve no shame!”
“I didn’t know you knew that word, Gov.”
He just glared back at Sam. A thought stuck Sam randomly that the reason he was being so calm was because Gene was freaking out, interesting reversal. Sam walked over toward Gene who suddenly took a step back as Sam approached. Sam pointed behind him.
“You’re standing in front of my wardrobe.”
Gene looked quickly behind him as if he’d only just remembered it was there.
“Oh.”
He looked almost sheepish for a moment then moved out of the way, scooting by the table past Sam. Their shoulders brushed momentarily as they passed and Sam felt Gene flinch away. He spared a thought at the irony of their ‘shoot first ask questions later’ DCI being so skittish now over this. Reaching into the wardrobe Sam grabbed some pants and a shirt for the day. Behind him he heard Gene move and the door to the bathroom close. Sam suddenly felt tension he had been previously unaware of ebb out of his shoulders. Pulling on his pants quickly and changing his shirt, Sam turned around to look back at his apartment.
Did last night really happen? It certainly wasn’t something he would have ever banked on or had ever really considered. It wasn’t as though he was attracted to the Gov, not really, or men in general. Last night was just the alcohol making them both insane, clearly very insane, that had to be it. If it weren’t for the crumpled coat in the corner and Gene’s white shoes by the TV he could almost imagine he was alone now and that it was all just another crazy dream or vision or TV surprise.
Then he heard a clatter and a curse from the bathroom and snapped back to reality. Sam quickly pulled on socks and his boots then walked over to the coffee. He poured two mugs, putting some sugar in his own as Gene walked out of the bathroom. Shirt buttoned and tie on Gene looked a lot less rumpled as well as less frazzled than a few minutes earlier. He looked over at Sam as Sam held out the other mug of coffee for him. Taking the mug Gene walked across the room and sat in the chair by the window, cradling the mug in his hands.
“So…” he said.
“So?” Sam replied taking a swig of his coffee.
“Not exactly the first time?” Gene said looking up at Sam.
Sam huffed lightly and shrugged, “Uh, well, just the once…”
Gene did not reply, just watched him.
“Ravi, at university…” Sam continued haltingly. “I was drunk… and we were… anyway, it was a long time ago. And in case you haven’t noticed I don’t normally do this sort of thing really,” Sam said motioning his hand between them briefly.
“Yeah, you’ve Annie,” Gene said lightly.
“Yeah.”
They both looked away, going silent again. At least Gene wasn’t cursing up a storm or pacing anymore. It was an awkward situation and a mistake, of course, but they would just have to forget about it. Sam nodded to himself. They had plenty of far more pressing things to worry about like arresting murderers for example. He decided he would just keep telling himself that because for some reason the consequences of what they’d done were started to get to him more. It was like the calmer Gene became the more the worry passed over to him. Crazy ideas like Gene shooting him in the back when he wasn’t expecting it to silence him or pulling Sam into his office to kiss him against the filing cabinets started flying through his head. Just then Gene spoke again, breaking Sam’s thoughts.
“So, what do we do?” he asked
“What?” Sam said, unprepared for a question.
“I said, what do we do!” Gene snapped, slamming his coffee mug down on the table beside him and splashing some coffee around.
Sam jumped slightly. He realized then that Gene wasn’t actually calmer at all. He was simply trying to practice restraint, something he did not do often. It always unnerved Sam a bit when he did. A very strange urge came over Sam to walk over to Gene and try to comfort him. He blinked rapidly and put his mug down.
“Right,” he said and Gene looked over at him. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”
He walked over to where Gene’s shoes were and kicked them toward the other man. Picking up Gene’s abused coffee mug, he walked back across the room again.
“What we are going to do,” Sam started again, “is you are going to put your shoes on and get out of here and I am going to eat breakfast. We’re both going to go to the station and do our jobs like we always do. We’re going to argue, hate each other a lot of time and work and solve our cases like we always do. And we’re going to forget about all this, forget it happened, and just go back to normal.”
Gene stood up, shoes on now, looking at Sam like he was slightly bewildered at Sam giving orders of this kind to him.
“You might also want to try and get some new clothes because yours don’t smell too right,” Sam added, grabbing Gene’s coat from the corner and throwing it at him.
“Right…” Gene replied, still looking off footed.
Gene pulled on his coat and walked toward Sam and the door. He walked past Sam then stopped and looked at him, an odd expression on his face. Sam stared back at him starting to become confused. He was about to ask Gene why he was staring at him like that when Gene leaned in quickly and kissed him on the lips.
“See you at the station,” Gene said pulling away.
Then he turned and walked out of Sam’s apartment slamming the door behind him. Sam stared at the door in shock for a moment. Then slowly a smile crept over his face and he felt like laughing.
“Ok,” he said to himself.
It looked like they weren’t going to just forget about it.
----------------
At the station Sam found himself buried under two weeks of back log reports from all the recent robbery cases they'd had. It was boring work but it kept him busy allowing less time for his mind to wander. Still, sometimes he would find his eyes shifting away from the page in front of him, daydreaming about rough lips or sliding up to stare at Gene's office.
“Sam?”
Sam looked up to see Annie looking down at him. He blinked and realized she must have just asked him something.
“Uh, sorry, what?”
“I said, are you coming to the pub?”
Sam looked up at the clock and saw it was closing in on 5:00. Where had the day gone? Gene hadn't come out of his office the whole day. Closing his eyes briefly, Sam mentally slapped himself for paying such close attention to Gene as to notice that. Sam looked back at Annie and cleared his throat.
“I, uh, don't know if....”
“Tyler!” Gene suddenly shouted from his office.
Sam and Annie both jumped in surprise looking over at his office. Gene stood in the door way and motioned his head in. Sam stood up jerkily and smiled quickly at Annie as an apology. Walking over Sam slid past Gene into his office as Gene closed the door behind him.
“Gov?” Sam said, feeling a sudden awkwardness around him though Gene looked calm as he ever normally was.
He had a sudden insane thought about how unfair it was that Gene could feel calm now and he felt scattered.
“So!” Gene said, standing close to Sam invading his personal space just a bit too much.
“So?” Sam echoed holding his ground.
“Comin' to the pub?”
Sam blinked in surprise. Was there a conspiracy in the department to get him drunk tonight? He'd done that pretty well the night before which Gene was well aware of.
“I don't know, I was-”
“Got plenty of that last night?” Gene finished for him. “Thought right. So, just heading home then?”
Sam stared at him in confusion for a moment and nodded slowly. “I suppose.”
“Right!” Gene said moving away from Sam. “Sounds like a plan.”
Turning he grabbed his coat off the stand, flung it over his shoulder and walked out of the office. Sam stared in astonishment then began to grin like a mad man. No, they were definitely not just forgetting about it. After all, since when did Gene ever listen to what he said anyhow? For once Sam had to admit that he was strangely glad.