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30 | james dean daydream

The next day started out relatively uneventful, as we tried to gather more intel on Isabella Hill.

TIA couldn't come up with anything on her. They hadn't yet been able to find her present location, and they also hadn't found anything to possible connect her to Rubio. Or drug activity in general.

But the woman I'd seen at the gala couldn't have been anyone else. I was sure of it.

For a brief moment, my mind travelled to the possibility of her having a twin sister, but I ruled it out. TIA had done a background check on her family and she had no siblings. Plus, the twin impersonation thing seldom worked out in real life.

I was busy looking at the picture of her and the man at the gala, when Soler entered my room with two coffees in his hand.

He set one cup down on my desk. "For you."

I gave him a grateful smile as my hands scrambled for the cup and brought it to my lips. I was dying of exhaustion. "Thanks, I needed this."

He sat down beside me to look at the picture. "Can you make out anything about the man?"

I shook my head. "Nope. TIA hasn't been able to find his identity either. Seems very fishy to me."

"Everything is fishy in this case, Winter," he remarked with a duh expression.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah, I know that, smartass. God, remind me once again why I tolerate you."

He gave me a grin. "I'm flattered that you think I'm God, but--"

I groaned as I slammed my head down on the table. "I knew you were going to say that!"

I could hear the smirk in his voice as he said, "Yeah, you practically invited me to say it. Joke's on you, dumbass."

All this banter made me smile, despite being annoyed at him. But this time, the annoyance didn't stem from anger, and it was refreshing in a way to talk to him like this.

I suddenly turned to him. "Hey, how's your arm? I totally forgot to change the bandage last night, I'm so sorry! I was so immersed in the case and the whole thing with Isabella that I--"

He put a finger on my lips to silence me. "Hey, hey, don't sweat it. I can change the bandage myself, you know. You don't need to do it for me everytime."

I took his finger and removed it from my lips. It was giving me that same weird feeling again.

Soler smirked. "But it's nice to see you care about me so much."

I scoffed. "I don't care about you."

His grin widened. "Liar."

He suddenly leaned forward, impossibly close to me, and whispered, "Tell me, if you didn't care about me, would you have done all this? Treated my wound, washed and cleaned it every few hours, changed the gauze regularly... would you have done all this?"

I gulped, my heartbeat starting to speed up, but did not shift my focus away from his forest green eyes. "Then why did you take that bullet for me, Soler? You must be caring a whole lot about me too."

We were almost nose-to-nose, the sound of his heavy breathing the only thing I could hear. The air was tense and filled with a kind of anticipation... almost as if I was waiting for something to happen.

He stared into my eyes for a long, agonising moment, before shifting his focus and leaning back in his chair. I didn't realise I'd been holding my breath the entire time.

He gave me a lopsided smile and shrugged. "Well, can't argue with that logic."

He still didn't answer the question which had been plaguing my mind all this while. Why had he taken that bullet? Without even thinking twice?

But I decided not to prod him any further, and drop the case. Maybe a part of me was too scared to hear what he'd have to say.

I took a sip of my coffee and shot him a grateful glance. "Thanks again for this, god knows I needed some caffeine in my system."

He shook his head. "No need to thank me, now drink up."

I couldn't help but reflect on the gradual but very evident change in our relationship. How we started out as enemies and rivals, and how this mission together had managed to slowly create an understanding, a bond between us. I could've never imagined this would happen, but it somehow did. Earlier we would level death threats at each other, and we still did sometimes, but now he was giving me coffee and helping me work and doing weird flippity things to my heart.

Wait what? No.

I willed my mind to shut up and turned to him. I bumped my shoulder against his and smiled slightly. "Hey, turns out you're not as bad as I'd thought, Soler. You can be pretty decent if you want."

He grinned wickedly. "Wish I could say the same about you."

My mouth fell open as I glared at him. "Hey! Just when I thought I could be nice to you--!"

He laughed, the sound rare and instantly warming my heart.

After a while, he sobered up, watching me fret over the case files. "You're not a bad agent, Winter. You're one of the best we have, and now, I can practically see you beating yourself up with this case. You're not alone, we're here and we'll get to the bottom of this, don't worry, okay?"

I sighed. "It's just that it's been quite a few days and we still haven't figured out where Caldwell and Beaumont could be."

"I know. But we'll work this out soon. TIA didn't send their three best agents on this case for nothing."

I raised an eyebrow at him, smiling. "Cocky, are we?"

He smirked. "You know me so well."

I smiled at him, my eyes almost drooping shut from lack of sleep.

I felt his hand cradling my cheek for a brief second. "Just have some faith in yourself, okay?" he whispered.

Before I could properly react, he removed his hand and got up to leave the room. "Your coffee's getting cold!" he called out as he shut the door behind him.

I caught myself smiling as I brought the warm cup to my lips.

a/n: i felt like a third wheel writing this.