Fractured

Chapter 5

"You got me something?"

"Yeah," I said, quietly, slightly embarrassed.  I stood up and gestured for him to follow me.  "It's outside though," I said, walking towards the door and sliding on my boots and my coat.  By the time I was done though, I looked over to him and saw he was still standing on the other side of the room, just staring at me, as if amazed. Meeting his eyes, I saw them shine in mine and could feel my heart pick up at how beautiful that gaze was, even for that small moment.  "Come on!  I'm excited for you to see it. God, know when to take advantage of me offering up my kindness," I chuckled. He snapped out of it and nodded, grinning slyly still as walked over towards me and put on his boots and coat quickly too before he opened the door.

"We will be back in a second, Clare!" He yelled to her in the kitchen and before she could answer, he shut the door behind us after we stepped out into the cold air.  Moving down the porch, nearing his cop car, I was filled with excitement to see his reaction to what I did. 

It took forever to do so I hoped he would like it.  Last night, after Jan and Shannon dropped me off at home, I didn't go straight inside.  Nope, I stayed outside.  More specifically, I was in Luke's cop car, fixing something for him that I knew really bothered him about the car. 

"What are we doing?" he asked, confused. 

"Trust me," I smiled, moving through the small amount of snow over the driveway since it snowed last night.  "Get in the drivers side," I gestured for him to get in as we walked towards the car.  Heading towards the driver's door, he opened it and got it and I did the same on the passengers side. 

Biting my lip in anticipation, I couldn't stop a grin from reaching me as I watched him carefully next to me.  His eyes met mine, confused still, he spoke and with our words came the breathy fog from how cold it was.  "I don't understand--"

"Look around for a little bit," I said, wanting him to find it for himself.  And he did after a few seconds of looking around.  When his eyes came to rest on the sliding belt between us, as he put it, 'The Broken Fucker,' I watched as his smile turned to a bright grin, his teeth shinning in the morning light that glared through the windows. 

His eyes flickering up to mine, he then looked back down, not believing what he saw.  He shifted more, down more so he could see it better.  Face just above it, he looked closely at all the devices on the track and all I could do was wait in anticipation for his reaction to seeing what I did. And what I did... was a lot of hard work.

Last night when I sat in this car with the duct tape I bought, I carefully wrapped  fractions of a pieces of tape around the small bars that the gadgets were latched to.  Between each little device or gadget, where the bars were bare, I covered it with tape so the devices wouldn't slid around anymore.  Now, every time he drives this car, it wont be so annoying since now, his gadgets wouldn't be sliding all over. 

Once he realized this, once he saw just how small those pieces of tape were and how hard it was to wrap them around all the small bars, to just split them up without scissors.... he couldn't believe it.  His smile dimmed but it was only from the astonishment that came across his face.  He sat back up after looking at it thoroughly and stared at me, shaking his head slowly.  "How...?"  He laughed and bit his lower lip, not daring to look away from me.  "How did you manage something this challenging?  I mean, this must have take you hours."

I shrugged and could feel my blush returning.  "Well, I knew you hated this track thing," I laughed at the memory of him getting worked up over 'The Broken Fucker',  "And I knew it would make you happy."

His eyebrows dipped slightly in feeling and his smile slowly started to fade as he just stared at me, his eyes searching in mine from where I sat next to him.  From the look on his face, I wasn't sure what put him in such a daze now again but I just hoped he liked what I did for him.