CSI:NY The Saints Aren't Coming

Friends

Chapter 33: Friends

Gus paused, seeing the flickering of a fame flare and extinguish. Someone was definitely out there.

"Hold that thought", she said to Paul as she moved off of both him and the sofa.

"What?" he asked, blinking in confusion as they had been making out hot and heavy seconds before.

"Just don't move," Gus ordered, pulling her dress down and slipping in her gun out of her purse.

"Kinky", he said with a grin.

"No, you idiot, there is someone out there, watching us."

Gus flung open the front door and pointed her gun into the bushes bellowing, "NYPD, don't give me a reason to shoot you." Gus winced when she heard the reply, she had been hoping for anything but this.

"Sunshine?" Flack said sheepishly, stepping out from behind the hedges, a freshly lit cigarette hanging from his lip.

"Damn it," Gus sighed, slumping against the railing.

"Everything okay out here? Do I need to call the cops?" Paul asked from the shadows of his foyer.

"I am the cops! And everything is fine, more or less, I just think we are going to call it a night. I'll call you later." Gus slipped in and grabbing her belongings and ducking around Paul as he craned his neck out the door.

"Good night, Paul", Gus said, moving back around him and pulling the door closed.

Gus moved down to the other side of the hedge, where Flack was stubbing out his unsmoked cigarette.

"These things will kill ya", he joked halfheartedly.

"That would be better for you, because I plan on killing you in a much more painful manner," Gus growled at him with such anger that Flack took a step back, flattening himself against the brick of the house.

"I just didn't think he was the right kind of guy for you and after I ran a background on him...", Flack started to explain as Gus closed the space between them and gripped his upper arm.

Gus dropped her vice grip as her mouth fell open in shock."You didn't think he was the right kind of guy for me, so you checked up on him and then you decided to spy on me?"

Flack shrugged, this had seemed like a much better idea earlier when he floated it by Messer."You deserve better, Gus, that's all, I was just looking out for you. That's what partners do."

"That's what partners do?" Gus hated herself for parroting him, taking a deep breath she launched into a tirade.

"No, partners make sure you ass doesn't get shot out there, partner's back you up when maybe you get a little rough with a suspect or cover for you when you are late coming in or make sure you get home safe after a bender, they don't stake you out on a date and follow you to another frigging borough, Don!" Her chest was heaving by the end, anger causing her vision to blur.

Flack wanted to reach out to steady her, but was afraid she would lash out at him. "I was just trying to stop you from doing something stupid, something you would regret. He is married, Gus."

"You think I don't know that?" Gus cried out.

Flack looked at her, shock written plainly across his face. "I though that would mean something to you."

Gus shook her head, her hair whipping around her."What meant something to me was that he liked me, for me, and we both wanted a good time. Do you know how long it has been since I have had that? For Christ sakes, Flack, I just wanted to believe that I might have a chance at being happy again, I wasn't planning on breaking up a marriage that wasn't already down the shitter. His wife wasn't at their house because she was off screwing her boss at a conference in LA, but I guess you didn't get that in your background check, huh? It was just going to be a fling."