A Thousand Oceans - Ch. 5
Fandom: Nikki & Nora
Pairing: Nikki/Nora
Rating: PG-13 to R (depends on the chapter)
Title: A Thousand Oceans - Ch.5 - All At Once
Disclaimer: These characters well, Nikki, Nora, Dan, Darius, Georgia, Charlie, Arthur, Bobby and Mrs. Delaney are so not mine (damnit!), but Ann and Jill and other characters not mentioned in the pilot are (Ha!). The ones in the “damnit!” category belong to Nancylee Myatt and other’s I don’t know. I’m here for a bit of fun, and for this story, angst. No profit is being made here, and if it is, I’m not seeing a dime.
Oh and before I forget, music is awesome, in fact it’s preferred over television, so…the story title is from Tori Amos (all bow to Tori “Goddess of the Ivory Keys” Amos) and Part I of this mess is from David Cook (yes, the American Idol winner - it’s actually not a bad album, a little over produced, but that’s common nowadays) off the self-titled album. The lyrics nor title belong to me…and I’m glad they don’t…I can’t sing to save my life.
A/N: Vacation ended…poop! My head’s been mushy and thoughts are few and far between so I got nothin’ once again except a very loud and boisterous thank you to those that are reading and those that are commenting (not a requirement for me to continue writing, but it’s nice to know I don’t suck as much as I think) and another thank you to my beta, Dirk. I may give the old chap fits, but we love ‘im anyhow.
I feel alive beside you,
And all at once I am whole again,
I look out of June Lee’s windshield and concur with God that today is a shitty day. The slate steel slab that’s been slammed over New Orleans coupled with the muggy threat of a thunderstorm, are all tell tale signs of God’s displeasure at today. Or it could be that the Universe for once wants to throw me a bone and commiserate with me.
The remaining days of my suspension were the longest of my life. Darius acted as a go between for Nikki and I, picking up and dropping a few things off that we needed to get by. The first conversation we’ve had since I went to her daddy’s house was this morning to clarify how we were going to handle work.
As far I’m concerned it’s business as usual. Dan doesn’t need to know anything and as for the rest of the squad, they’ll whisper enough about our return after two weeks off. I’ve got enough on my plate without worrying about them.
I’m still not sure how she’s going to be. I haven’t slept much; eating’s been a laughable thing. The one nice thing is that my pain in the ass brother’s made it a point to stop by almost every day to fill me in on what’s going on in the department.
We went to eat last night to celebrate my return and Bobby’s promotion to the mounted patrol unit. He was just happy not having to hoof it around the city anymore.
Although the most troubling thing is that I haven’t heard a word from my mother. Nor has Bobby mentioned her or asked me to come to dinner with her. I don’t know if should call or not. I grunt and run a hand through my hair.
I check the read out on my radio, checking the time. Nikki should be down in a minute. I can’t tell if the knot in my stomach is anticipation or anxiety tinted agony at having to spend our first full day working together.
I know I miss her.
I miss waking up next to her. I miss the sound of her voice as she teases me endlessly. Hell, I miss her little half snore that wakes me up in the middle of the night and her need to leave dirty clothes on the bathroom floor.
I swallow past the lump in my throat as she approaches me. More casual than normal. She’s in jeans, scoop neck sweater and brown leather jacket.
“Well aren’t we happy this morning,” she teases me.
“Eh?” I ask dumbly.
“You’re smiling. I’ve miss…” she cuts herself off.
I shrug and answer honestly, “I just like seeing you.”
Her cheeks tint at my admission and she clicks her seatbelt closed. “You ready for today?”
I nod. “I’ve been very bored.” I signal and pull out into traffic easily threading through the other cars towards the station.
“Yeah, me too,” she says. I look out of the corner of my eye and see her head propped against the window staring out at the sky.
“Maybe it’ll be slow. We can stay at the station instead of going out into the rain,” I say wanting to smack myself upside the head. If this conversation were any lamer I’ll be forced to bite my tongue off.
She turns her head to me and offers me a look. I already know she’s thinking what I’m thinking.
I close my mouth and focus on the road. Better than trying to make conversation. The rest of our drive is uneventful. Silent and tense. Slipping into my usual parking space I kill the engine and make my way out of the car towards the station house, not bothering to see if she’s following.
Signing in, I greet the front desk uni and head up the steps to my department. The first stop we need to make is to see Dan. This should be interesting. We haven’t really talked much since the Wednesday before last. After he told me he knew. I’m still not sure what to do with that.
From our talk, it looks like it’s going to be business as usual. Maybe we’re operating under the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy and really, that’s fine with me. The fact that he acknowledged it and isn’t doing anything about it is enough to send me into fits.
He’s usually so by the book. I rub at the back of my neck, stalling in front of his door when I feel Nikki come up behind me. “The handle won’t bite sugga,” she purrs in my ear, “as far as Dan’s concerned nothin’s changed and I for one want to get my gun and badge back.”
I sigh and push the door open. Our boss is sitting behind his desk on the phone. He holds his finger up asking for a minute. We look at each other and take our seats across from him. I shake my head at his office. It wasn’t the cleanest when he first moved in and now….
One day we won’t be able to find him. He’ll be buried under all the paperwork he has stacked around his office. My point is made when he rolls back and knocks into a filing cabinet, sending three manila folders to the floor. Paper goes spilling out, he cusses under his breath and I go play fetch.
Bending over and scooping the files in my arm, I feel Nikki’s gaze on me. It’s a familiar tingle that I’ve ached to feel again. Two weeks…two weeks of this bullshit break and I still can’t figure out what the hell she needs from me so that she’ll say I love you again. That’ll get her to see that us being together is the only course of action either of us needs to take.
I right myself and set the files back to where they fell from. I catch her lingering stare before returning to my seat just as Dan hangs up the phone. He glares at Nikki a moment and barks, “Why didn’t you tell me Toussaint was a walking harassment suit waiting to happen?”
Nikki shrugs. “’Cause it would seem that he weasels out of most of it.” She the smiles at him. He doesn’t know that particular tilt of her lips or the arch of her eyebrows.
“And you conveniently forgot to mention to your temporary partner who Johanna Griffith was.” It’s a statement. Nikki shrugs.
“Had he been a bit more concerned about the facets of the case, he should have been aware,” she responds to the statement and all Dan does is shake his head and grunts.
“Well, he’s being reassigned to foot patrol out in the quarter for the foreseeable future. Senator Griffith, however, made it clear you were a “jewel”,” he air quotes the word ‘jewel’, “and that nothing negative should happen to you.” He smirks and finishes, “You may owe her a box of chocolates. The woman intervened for you and your partner when the federal agents you two assaulted wanted to take it a little further than just a slap on the wrist suspension.”
I really don’t know what they’re talking about but I shoot a glance to my partner that lets her know I want to be filled in later. She dips her chin as an answer and I face Dan again.
His hand’s in his desk drawer to his right as he looks us over. Deciding on something, he pulls out two badges and two guns encased in their holsters. “Welcome back. And for the love of Pete, don’t let it happen again detectives. Pulling your asses out of the fire is a lot more work than I need.”
I sigh and he winks at me.
“Now, since all of your cases have been reassigned, we need to keep you two busy until I get dispensation from I.A.B. to clear you for field duty,” he informs us.
“What?” Nikki and I huff at the same time.
“In light of the last two cases Nikki worked and the last case that you worked, Nora, they’re asking that we hold off on putting you both on active cases.” He raises his hand at the protests on the tips of our lips. “Consider it a blessing. This could have ended a little worse for you two than a suspension and a trip to the company shrink.”
“So we have to be cleared by the department psychologist before we take any cases?” Nikki asks, her tone belying her stiff posture.
Dan nods and hands over a few pieces of paper. “I need you two to sign the top and then take the bottom to the Doc to fill out and send back to me.” He smiles sweetly at the two of us before amending, “Do my heart and stress level some good, don’t talk about your relationships outside of work. Stick to the cases.”
It’s the first he’s mentioned to us. Nikki and I haven’t really had a chance to talk about it either.
We take the papers from him as he finishes, “Until then, I’m enlisting you to begin taking this crap out of my office and begin transferring it down to the file room or where ever,” he waves his hand about, “it needs to go.”
I scowl at him and stand. Nikki begins to follow me out the door before he calls out, “Don’t forget to take a box each, ladies!” I snatch the two top boxes of files and stomp out of his office.
Jerk!