Another Love Another time

Chapter 18: Aha moments

Auggie

I feel like I've been shot in the heart. I try to recover quickly so she doesn't see what it does to me. For the first time in five years my heart started beating again seeing River. I've only seen her twice in the last five years. I've overheard our moms talk about her and how well she is doing, but never once did they say anything about her being married. I tried not to ask about River a lot over the years, mostly I got my information when I was in the same room when they were talking about her. Occasionally, I would ask how she was doing. I knew she was living with her mom for right now until she can find her own space. River averts her attention.

Hearing she's married I feel like my heart shattered again. I guess I don't have any room to talk. Mackey is right; her being my partner will cause issues, but I'll be damned if I put in a request to change partners. I feel like I'm being rewarded for all the space I've given her. We're partners, I still can't believe it.  I shake my head and laugh at the irony of it. If she wants to keep it professional that's fine, but I know she could never stay mad at me, so I'll take this chance to get back in her good graces. My life hasn't been the same since she cut me out of hers.

"Okay, we'll keep it professional for now, but eventually we have to talk River."

"I know we do, but I need this job and I need some time to focus on that before we handle.....us. Please just treat me like you would anyone that would have started today."

"I can do that. Let's start going over your background and then we will move to the cases that are currently assigned to us, where we are at and what else we need to do. Maybe you have some ideas that we haven't thought about."

I guide her to our desks by placing my hand at her lower back. She stills at first but quickly recovers. I show her where she will be sitting. I show her where her log ins are and get her started on logging into everything to make sure she has access and changing her passwords. I return to my desk which directly faces hers since we are partners. It helps when we need to bounce things off one another. I sit down and see the picture frame I have up. I quickly grab it and throw it in my filing cabinet.

"You don't have to do that." I hear her say while still looking at her computer.

"Do what?" I question.

"Hide whatever is on that picture frame. I already know you have a girlfriend. Mackey kind of already warned me that we may not be partners that long since your girlfriend is a jealous one." I still, why the hell would Mackey tell her I have a girlfriend. I roll my eyes trying to play it off.

"I'm not trying to hide anything I just need to rearrange my desk so it's easier for us to talk. Since you are left-handed, it would be easier to talk to you if my computer is positioned this way."

"Yeah, okay." Letting me off the hook.

"Let me know when you get finished with changing your passwords. I'm going to finish moving everything on my desk and then we can start going over all of cases. And River", I wait until she looks up at me, "Don't think you are getting rid of me that easy."

~~

When I woke up today, I did not expect to have River back in my life. The rest of the day was uneventful. I can tell she will be good at this. Growing up if you would have asked either one of us if we would be detectives we probably would have laughed in your face. We haven't spoken in five years and how we end up not only in the same place and in the same career is serendipitous. I don't think River's mom knew what she did in the Army, or I think I would have known before now that she went in as a Criminal Investigator. I'm not sure how she could have kept that from her mom. I guess I could say the same thing about her knowing she was married. Surely they wouldn't keep something like that from me.