RP LOG with thinbluegee | Don't shoot the messenger
[Follows THIS | Occurs before THIS]
Matt had been about two steps from getting into the ambulance with Euan to go to the hospital with him, but then he remembered Gee, who was apparently still in the interrogation room with the suspect. After some debate back and forth, it was Ronnie that agreed to accompany Euan in the ambulance. Euan had been drifting in and out of consciousness, and Ronnie had it in hand with his typical Ronnie Brooks reassuring calmness. As he watched Euan be loaded onto a gurney, shoved on oxygen and then wheeled away down the corridor, Matt felt guilty for not going. Almost like he was letting Vee down, and he just knew in his gut Vee would probably chew him out for it once she found out. "Fuck," Matt murmured to himself, scratching his fingers through his hair. He didn't know what the hell was going on with Euan and Gee, but he had to let her know he had just arranged for her partner to be packaged off into the back of an ambulance... and then he would have to go home and tell Vee. Thank god his shift was nearly over and considering they had just reached a crossroads in their investigation, Natalie let him knock off a bit earlier.
He waited outside the interview rooms, pacing up and down waiting for Gee to exit, which she did, after their suspect was led off in handcuffs in the other direction by two uniforms. Matt raised his eyebrows, curiously. "You got a charge, then? Well done," he offered and then cleared his throat.
Gee was more than a little surprised to find Matt waiting outside the room, but she gave a nod before looking around for Euan. "I didn't realise it was time to play musical Irishmen. Is he okay? Or did you push him down a flight of stares for not being your kind of Irishman? He can actually be a pretty good cop, you know. And a good good cop. He's not such a bad date, either." Gee stopped talking as she looked at Matt's face again. "What's wrong?"
Matt had just raised his eyebrows as she started to ramble about Euan. She had the same disease as Vee. God fucking help him if it was catching... seemed only to be isolated to females, though, and he suspected that Mary in Forensics had it too, and possibly Tracy in the cafeteria. Still, Matt might look innocent, but that didn't mean he couldn't be a shit when he was a tiny bit irked. "So good that he upped and left you high and dry in an interrogation with a murderer?" he challenged.
"He needed a recess," Gee answered as she held his gaze and straightened her posture as she set her shoulders back. "He's never left me alone with one before, so it had to have been serious. And I got a result, didn't I? I'm still here. I'm not the bloke's type. There was a uniform in the corner. I wasn't high and dry, I know how to keep an interrogation going. I don't fall apart without him."
Matt watched her evenly for a moment, unable to help wondering how she would feel is she realised getting a charge on the suspect wasn't the only thing she would be doing alone in the next few days. "I just shoved him into the back of an ambulance, unconscious," he finally told her.
Gee's face changed in an instant as she sucked in a breath, feeling like she'd just been hit hard in the chest. "What?"
"You want me to repeat it?" Matt could play the stoic game if that's what she wanted. He wasn't exactly sure what he did to deserve the continuous defensiveness about Fitzpatrick of late. He hadn't said anything against the guy beyond querying the stuff out of his own mouth. He had it in stereo with Vee and Gee.
Gee shook her head as she felt her bottom lip begin to quiver and bit down on it. "Why? What happened? He was... he was fine. Wasn't he? Matt, what happened? Where's he going? Which hospital? Will he be okay?"
Matt draped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a small squeeze. "I'm sure he's going to be fine. Ronnie's gone with him. He's just ill. I found him in the hall, I think he was coming back from the bathroom, but he really didn't look good. He threw up all over the place and passed out. I mean, I'm no doctor, but it looked like it might be appendicitis, which I can bloody vouch for by the looks of him. It could be just food poisoning or a virus or something. I'm not sure that I buy he was fine, but probably did a good job not letting you know he wasn't because something like that doesn't just come on in five minutes."
Gee leaned against him as she let herself feel overwhelmed for a moment before she started to pull herself back together. "But why wouldn't he just tell me? If he's not feeling a hundred percent, I need to bloody know. Especially as his bloody partner. I need to know if he can't perform his job for some reason. Jesus, fucking appendicitis... Poor bloke. Stupid lying bastard, but poor Euan."
Matt's memories of his own illness were still fresh in his mind and he shrugged. "I don't know him well enough to make any of those calls. I do know, however, that sometimes you just don't want to admit you're sick or you think if you feel crap, it'll just pass eventually. You had work on, you had an interrogation pending. He obviously thought he would be fine with it. I know how he was over Christmas when he was here, and he was starting to get ill then. He just went down, went to bed and didn't want to be bothered. If he was deliberately not telling you, then well, that's an issue you'll need to sort out with him, but I doubt it. I don't know why I do, but I just do."
Gee looked at Matt before she reached up to rub her hand over her face. She was actually angry with Euan for not just telling her. He could have let her protect him, and watch out for him, but no. He just put on another mask, and suffered through an interrogation until he just couldn't. "Bloody men," she murmured. "Does Vee know? Have you told her? You need to tell her. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Do I just wait? Do I go? I'm his partner, but that doesn't mean anything."
"A date and a weekend in Amsterdam is nothing?" Matt asked skeptically with a small snort of amusement. "Just about everyone here knows you two are getting it on away from work. At work, apparently the UST is so thick it can be cut with a knife. I assume he's gone to the closest public hospital. Just go there. Ronnie's there. What are they going to do, kick you out of a public waiting room? I'll tell her. I just need to fill out an incident report seeing as he decided to take a dive on work premises in work time. For all we know, it could be poisoning. Need to cover our bases, you know how it goes."
Gee blinked before she made a face. "Fuck, does he know? Does the whole place really know? You can't be serious. And what UST! It got resolved. You can't have UST when it's been resolved even if I don't know how it got resolved. Just that he won't date me while we're still partners. Only I can't not still want him while we are. Only know I'm down a partner again. I lost Stu, and I lost Euan. I know I'm not the cause, but still. Who's going to want to work with me? I'm a curse. I need to go. I have to... I need to be with him. Or at least in the waiting room."
"Probably. He doesn't seem to give a shit what anyone thinks he is doing though. He only confirms what he needs for the job and nothing more. It's UST at work when he's keeping the professional distance. Getting it on behind the scenes can make work UST even more obvious. You know, this could be food poisoning and he might be back tomorrow. What are you writing him off for, and Stuart is going to be back in a couple of weeks. When did you turn into such a drama queen?" Matt asked, smirking at her. "Also, you don't choose who your partner is, the powers that be do. It's irrelevant if someone wants to work with you or not. I can drop you off on the way back to my place. I need to let Vee know, I get a feeling he didn't tell her anything, either. They had lunch together."
"He probably let her see him unwell though," Gee said before she could stop the words slipping out. She looked at Matt apologetically and huffed out a sigh. "I'm sorry, I'll stop with the drama queen act. I have no idea where it's coming from, especially since the stick up my arse was dislodged. I can't help the UST. I'd stop it if I could, but he's all... him. And it's hard. There's just always this instant electricity between us. Or maybe just from me. Is Vee feeling alright? She'd tell you if she was sick, right? A lift would be great. Thanks, sarge."
Matt nodded. "Yeah, I guess she would. She didn't eat the same as him at lunch, though. Actually, she came back with him and mentioned he was being weird, but shrugged it off. Maybe he was feeling bad before. You didn't notice anything? I only had a chance to notice he was looking rough before he just... exploded. Do you know if he's had his appendix out? I'll ask Vee, she might know. You know, if he needs surgery, he likely won't get back to work until after Evans gets back, so... technically not still your partner," he told her lightly as he fished his car keys from the inside pocket of his jacket.
Gee shrugged. "Sometimes the contamination can come from the same kitchen, not just the same food. Depends on what the contamination is. I just want him to be okay. He's really not having the greatest of luck here in London, is he?" Gee gave a shake of her head as she thought back on the interrogation. "No, but my attention was more on the suspect than Euan. I thought he was purposely staying away from me to buddy up with the bloke, but maybe he thought I'd be watching him?" Gee arched an eyebrow before she smirked. "Are you really trying to tell me it would be okay to date him? Are you sure you want to leave now? If you have to do that incident report I can find something else to do."
"I'm taking it with me." Matt pulled out an envelope with the necessary forms in it followed by his keys. "I'm not telling you to do anything, you're going to do it anyway. I'm just pointing out the obvious. I was off work for a month after I landed in hospital. I needed a lot of help in the first week or so. He hardly touched his lunch, she joked about it being a waste going out eating with him. I doubt he would have been thinking about much else than getting the information. In an interrogation, he wouldn't be thinking what his girlfriend thought about his tactics," he reasoned.
"I'm not his girlfriend," Gee replied softly before she just nodded, and checked her pocket for her money and keys. Unlike a lot of female cops she'd gotten used to not carrying a bag around with her. As a uniform she'd never been allowed to have one on patrol, so why would she have one as a detective? She'd learned to make use of pockets. "Well, he's never not touched his lunch before. He must really be in a bad way."
Matt smirked. "Only a matter of time," he said, maybe pushing her buttons a little but the truth was, he had a niggling feeling in his gut about it. Euan might about turn and prove them all wrong. Here's hoping.
Word Count | 2,090
Matt had been about two steps from getting into the ambulance with Euan to go to the hospital with him, but then he remembered Gee, who was apparently still in the interrogation room with the suspect. After some debate back and forth, it was Ronnie that agreed to accompany Euan in the ambulance. Euan had been drifting in and out of consciousness, and Ronnie had it in hand with his typical Ronnie Brooks reassuring calmness. As he watched Euan be loaded onto a gurney, shoved on oxygen and then wheeled away down the corridor, Matt felt guilty for not going. Almost like he was letting Vee down, and he just knew in his gut Vee would probably chew him out for it once she found out. "Fuck," Matt murmured to himself, scratching his fingers through his hair. He didn't know what the hell was going on with Euan and Gee, but he had to let her know he had just arranged for her partner to be packaged off into the back of an ambulance... and then he would have to go home and tell Vee. Thank god his shift was nearly over and considering they had just reached a crossroads in their investigation, Natalie let him knock off a bit earlier.
He waited outside the interview rooms, pacing up and down waiting for Gee to exit, which she did, after their suspect was led off in handcuffs in the other direction by two uniforms. Matt raised his eyebrows, curiously. "You got a charge, then? Well done," he offered and then cleared his throat.
Gee was more than a little surprised to find Matt waiting outside the room, but she gave a nod before looking around for Euan. "I didn't realise it was time to play musical Irishmen. Is he okay? Or did you push him down a flight of stares for not being your kind of Irishman? He can actually be a pretty good cop, you know. And a good good cop. He's not such a bad date, either." Gee stopped talking as she looked at Matt's face again. "What's wrong?"
Matt had just raised his eyebrows as she started to ramble about Euan. She had the same disease as Vee. God fucking help him if it was catching... seemed only to be isolated to females, though, and he suspected that Mary in Forensics had it too, and possibly Tracy in the cafeteria. Still, Matt might look innocent, but that didn't mean he couldn't be a shit when he was a tiny bit irked. "So good that he upped and left you high and dry in an interrogation with a murderer?" he challenged.
"He needed a recess," Gee answered as she held his gaze and straightened her posture as she set her shoulders back. "He's never left me alone with one before, so it had to have been serious. And I got a result, didn't I? I'm still here. I'm not the bloke's type. There was a uniform in the corner. I wasn't high and dry, I know how to keep an interrogation going. I don't fall apart without him."
Matt watched her evenly for a moment, unable to help wondering how she would feel is she realised getting a charge on the suspect wasn't the only thing she would be doing alone in the next few days. "I just shoved him into the back of an ambulance, unconscious," he finally told her.
Gee's face changed in an instant as she sucked in a breath, feeling like she'd just been hit hard in the chest. "What?"
"You want me to repeat it?" Matt could play the stoic game if that's what she wanted. He wasn't exactly sure what he did to deserve the continuous defensiveness about Fitzpatrick of late. He hadn't said anything against the guy beyond querying the stuff out of his own mouth. He had it in stereo with Vee and Gee.
Gee shook her head as she felt her bottom lip begin to quiver and bit down on it. "Why? What happened? He was... he was fine. Wasn't he? Matt, what happened? Where's he going? Which hospital? Will he be okay?"
Matt draped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a small squeeze. "I'm sure he's going to be fine. Ronnie's gone with him. He's just ill. I found him in the hall, I think he was coming back from the bathroom, but he really didn't look good. He threw up all over the place and passed out. I mean, I'm no doctor, but it looked like it might be appendicitis, which I can bloody vouch for by the looks of him. It could be just food poisoning or a virus or something. I'm not sure that I buy he was fine, but probably did a good job not letting you know he wasn't because something like that doesn't just come on in five minutes."
Gee leaned against him as she let herself feel overwhelmed for a moment before she started to pull herself back together. "But why wouldn't he just tell me? If he's not feeling a hundred percent, I need to bloody know. Especially as his bloody partner. I need to know if he can't perform his job for some reason. Jesus, fucking appendicitis... Poor bloke. Stupid lying bastard, but poor Euan."
Matt's memories of his own illness were still fresh in his mind and he shrugged. "I don't know him well enough to make any of those calls. I do know, however, that sometimes you just don't want to admit you're sick or you think if you feel crap, it'll just pass eventually. You had work on, you had an interrogation pending. He obviously thought he would be fine with it. I know how he was over Christmas when he was here, and he was starting to get ill then. He just went down, went to bed and didn't want to be bothered. If he was deliberately not telling you, then well, that's an issue you'll need to sort out with him, but I doubt it. I don't know why I do, but I just do."
Gee looked at Matt before she reached up to rub her hand over her face. She was actually angry with Euan for not just telling her. He could have let her protect him, and watch out for him, but no. He just put on another mask, and suffered through an interrogation until he just couldn't. "Bloody men," she murmured. "Does Vee know? Have you told her? You need to tell her. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Do I just wait? Do I go? I'm his partner, but that doesn't mean anything."
"A date and a weekend in Amsterdam is nothing?" Matt asked skeptically with a small snort of amusement. "Just about everyone here knows you two are getting it on away from work. At work, apparently the UST is so thick it can be cut with a knife. I assume he's gone to the closest public hospital. Just go there. Ronnie's there. What are they going to do, kick you out of a public waiting room? I'll tell her. I just need to fill out an incident report seeing as he decided to take a dive on work premises in work time. For all we know, it could be poisoning. Need to cover our bases, you know how it goes."
Gee blinked before she made a face. "Fuck, does he know? Does the whole place really know? You can't be serious. And what UST! It got resolved. You can't have UST when it's been resolved even if I don't know how it got resolved. Just that he won't date me while we're still partners. Only I can't not still want him while we are. Only know I'm down a partner again. I lost Stu, and I lost Euan. I know I'm not the cause, but still. Who's going to want to work with me? I'm a curse. I need to go. I have to... I need to be with him. Or at least in the waiting room."
"Probably. He doesn't seem to give a shit what anyone thinks he is doing though. He only confirms what he needs for the job and nothing more. It's UST at work when he's keeping the professional distance. Getting it on behind the scenes can make work UST even more obvious. You know, this could be food poisoning and he might be back tomorrow. What are you writing him off for, and Stuart is going to be back in a couple of weeks. When did you turn into such a drama queen?" Matt asked, smirking at her. "Also, you don't choose who your partner is, the powers that be do. It's irrelevant if someone wants to work with you or not. I can drop you off on the way back to my place. I need to let Vee know, I get a feeling he didn't tell her anything, either. They had lunch together."
"He probably let her see him unwell though," Gee said before she could stop the words slipping out. She looked at Matt apologetically and huffed out a sigh. "I'm sorry, I'll stop with the drama queen act. I have no idea where it's coming from, especially since the stick up my arse was dislodged. I can't help the UST. I'd stop it if I could, but he's all... him. And it's hard. There's just always this instant electricity between us. Or maybe just from me. Is Vee feeling alright? She'd tell you if she was sick, right? A lift would be great. Thanks, sarge."
Matt nodded. "Yeah, I guess she would. She didn't eat the same as him at lunch, though. Actually, she came back with him and mentioned he was being weird, but shrugged it off. Maybe he was feeling bad before. You didn't notice anything? I only had a chance to notice he was looking rough before he just... exploded. Do you know if he's had his appendix out? I'll ask Vee, she might know. You know, if he needs surgery, he likely won't get back to work until after Evans gets back, so... technically not still your partner," he told her lightly as he fished his car keys from the inside pocket of his jacket.
Gee shrugged. "Sometimes the contamination can come from the same kitchen, not just the same food. Depends on what the contamination is. I just want him to be okay. He's really not having the greatest of luck here in London, is he?" Gee gave a shake of her head as she thought back on the interrogation. "No, but my attention was more on the suspect than Euan. I thought he was purposely staying away from me to buddy up with the bloke, but maybe he thought I'd be watching him?" Gee arched an eyebrow before she smirked. "Are you really trying to tell me it would be okay to date him? Are you sure you want to leave now? If you have to do that incident report I can find something else to do."
"I'm taking it with me." Matt pulled out an envelope with the necessary forms in it followed by his keys. "I'm not telling you to do anything, you're going to do it anyway. I'm just pointing out the obvious. I was off work for a month after I landed in hospital. I needed a lot of help in the first week or so. He hardly touched his lunch, she joked about it being a waste going out eating with him. I doubt he would have been thinking about much else than getting the information. In an interrogation, he wouldn't be thinking what his girlfriend thought about his tactics," he reasoned.
"I'm not his girlfriend," Gee replied softly before she just nodded, and checked her pocket for her money and keys. Unlike a lot of female cops she'd gotten used to not carrying a bag around with her. As a uniform she'd never been allowed to have one on patrol, so why would she have one as a detective? She'd learned to make use of pockets. "Well, he's never not touched his lunch before. He must really be in a bad way."
Matt smirked. "Only a matter of time," he said, maybe pushing her buttons a little but the truth was, he had a niggling feeling in his gut about it. Euan might about turn and prove them all wrong. Here's hoping.
Word Count | 2,090