So sorry for the late update guys. Been busy with work this past month.
Anyway, here it is. Enjoy reading.:)
-----
I slumped back into the plush, business class, seat and closed my eyes. Next to me, Becky was already dozing away, her head cushioned by the head rest. We were taking a late afternoon flight out of New York, so we could be back in London before midnight. We nearly didn't make our gate; after what was supposed to be a brief stopover to meet up for her mother and the infamous Colin for lunch turned into a longer event that expected.
Colin turned out to be a really nice guy, and his, and Jenna's, openness surprised me; he was also very comfortable with Becky and I got the impression that she liked him.
So lunch turned into lunch and drinks, and I was forced to almost drag her away so we could make our flight; even their farewells taking a worrying amount of time. We made it to our check in with about a minute to spare and, after the usual security palaver and the endless waiting around, we had made it onto the plane and I could finally relax.
"It's all going to change now though isn't it?" Becky asked, as I opened my eyes from my light doze, never really achieving proper sleep; my new found fear of flying surfacing again the second we sat down.
"What's going to change?" I asked easing my arm forward to take her hand, being careful not to disturb her head.
"This, us, everything," she replied cryptically, sighing into me.. "It's going to have to change isn't it? We're not on holiday any more."
"We haven't been on holiday, Bec," I reminded her, resting my head on hers. "We've been working from the moment we landed."
"It felt like a holiday, Freenky. Despite all that stress I've been really happy. It's been nice being around you."
"You make it sound like I'm going somewhere," I said nudging her gently. "You planning on firing me?"
"You wish," she said lifting our hands and kissing my fingers. "No, it's more that we'll be back to Miss fucking Armstrong again, you'll be being all professional again and I'll be back to being a bitch all the time."
"Just like the last week, love," I reminded her again. "Look, we were doing ok before we left England, what makes you think it'll be different when we get back?"
"Because I'll be stuck at work and you'll be going straight from dropping me off to Joanna's again and then back to your flat."
"That's pretty much the size of things, Bec, but we managed to make time to see each other outside of work before. It's not as if I need an excuse to be with you when you go somewhere, is it? Twenty-four-seven protection and all that."
"Yeah," she replied thoughtfully, "It's just that I keep thinking that I'm going to be so busy over the next few months that we won't get to see each other properly, not outside of work and weekends anyway; and I do like having you around, you know. I really don't want to go back to sleeping alone. I like curling up with you, I like waking up with you next to me."
"You soppy bastard," I said grinning, shifting on my seat to wrap my arm around her, pushing down the blind on the window as I reached around.
"You love it, it makes me the same as you, we've already established that."
"That's what you think, but it doesn't change the fact that you're still a soppy bastard," I told her getting a light elbow for my troubles as our drinks arrived; Bec sitting up, but for some reason not letting me have my arm back, pinning it around her shoulders by sitting back.
"Freenky, how are we going to play this" she asked after she took a drink of the wonderful smelling hot chocolate she'd ordered, "when we get home?"
"We carry on as we did before I guess. I take it we're going to carry on being discreet?"
"Well, I don't want daddy dearest to find out about us if that's what you mean. I don't think that would be a good idea."
"Well yeah, but I thought in general as well. I assumed you'd want us to go back to being lowkey, like we were before."
"Lowkey, eh Freenky?"
"Lowkey love Bec, if that's what you want."
"I think it's the way it's going to have to be, babe. Are you ok with that?"
She looked up at me, her eyes almost pleading with me to say yes. She didn't have to worry though, I had an honest answer for her... the same one I'd given her the last time she's asked.
"Whatever you need, Bec," I said leaning down to kiss her hair, inhaling the smell of her expensive perfume. "I'm pretty sure I've told you this before. I'm not about the big couple thing, we are what we are. If all the world can see is you and your CPO, then I'm happy with that."
"Really? You don't mind being my 'dirty little secret'."
"Actually, I really quite like the idea of being your 'dirty little secret'. It gives things a bit of extra spice, you know? We'll just have to be more careful, no more of this sort of thing in public, just in case."
"Does that mean I have to make the most of all this public affection?" She said reaching up and stroking the arm I had wrapped around her. "You know, before we get home and we have to be all careful again."
"Well, we do have the entire flight back, that's another seven uninterrupted hours of public affection," I teased grabbing her hand as it tickled my palm.
"Perhaps I should ask the stewardess for some blankets," she said snuggling down again.
"You won't sleep when you get home if you sleep through the flight again, babe," I told her trying to be sensible. "You said you've got an early start on Monday."
"I wasn't thinking about using the blankets to sleep under babe," she said looking up and waggling her eyebrows suggestively, "and please, don't ruin the time we have left by wishing Monday on us already."
"One day at a time, Bec?"
"Yeah," she replied her voice sounding thoughtful once more, "one day at a time, Freenky. Let's just enjoy this moment while we can."
----
"Home again, Freenky," she said as the plane taxied to a halt.
"Home again, Bec," I agreed.
We were back, and for me, playtime was now over. Our little 'holiday' in the States had now officially ended; and it was time to get serious once again. We were back in the danger zone, and despite the promises of taking things one day at a time, I knew things would have to subtly change again between us to make allowances for both of our relationships; the professional one and the personal one.
I think Becky knew it as well, she'd been quiet for quite a bit on the plane. She'd obviously had things on her mind, but I knew that when she was ready, she'd tell me about them.
There was no one to greet us as we walked out into arrivals, much to Becky's annoyance. Before we'd left, she had arranged for Darren to pick us up, the guy agreeing to work despite it being Sunday, but we'd walked out of baggage claim to find no sign of him.
I pushed our luggage trolley over to a nearby bench seat so that she could dig in her bag and find her phone; fuming slightly at the delay as she waited for it to turn on for the first time in a week. Finally connected, she dialed the number to the office, walking around the arrivals hall while she waited for someone to answer. I watched her carefully as she paced up and down, muttering into her phone the whole time; as her paces turned into stomps, her face turned darker and darker. Whatever she was hearing, I could tell that it wasn't making her happy; and I braced myself for her fury
"Darren's not coming," she spat angrily as she sat down on the hard bench next to me.
"Apparently he was sent to Edinburgh on an urgent job by Richie yesterday, and he's not due in until Monday," she continued obviously annoyed, "and 'unfortunately' no one else was assigned to come and get us. Fucking convenient, don't you think?"
"I'm sure it's just a simple misunderstanding, babe," I said soothingly, not sure of anything of the sort. "But it's ok, we can just get a cab."
As we walked out of the terminal doors and around the corner, searching for a taxi to take us back to St John's Wood, I felt something hit my face. Within seconds the familiar sound of rainsplattering on the pavement was all around us as the heavens opened.
"Fuck, we're going to get soaked," she said grumpily, looking around to find some cover and finding none.
"Here get under this with me," I replied as I pulled off my coat and threw it over us, huddling close to get as much of us under the thin material as we could. Happily for Becky's thin summer dress, if not for my dirty little mind, the bright orange lamp of a hackney cab turned the corner in front of us and pulled in at the sign of my outstretched, dripping wet arm; the grizzled driver hunched over as he got out of his door to open the boot for our bags.
"Wet night love," he said as between us we threw the bags into the back, Becky safely ensconced in the back of the cab out of the rain. "You been somewhere nice and sunny?"
"States," I said as he closed the boot and ran around to his door. I climbed into the back and sat down next to a shivering Becky. "It was just a bit hotter than here while we were there, and a lot fucking drier too."
"Yeah, welcome home to the good old English summer, it's been like this all week; now, where can I take you to ladies?"
"St John's Wood for a drop off first mate," I said trying to plan the journey in my head, "and then to Richmond if that's ok?"
"Richmond first please," Becky corrected me, "then onto St John's Wood."
"Why we going to my place first, Bec?" I asked confused. "I'm not letting you travel home on your own. We're back in England now remember? We can't afford to relax anymore."
"We're going to your place to pick up some of your gear and then we're going to the flat. You're moving in with me remember? Personal protective service...twenty four seven by my side," she said linking our arms and snuggling into me, laying her head on my shoulder. "I was thinking it through on the plane. I know you didn't think it was a good idea, but things have changed a little between us. Besides, mum thinks it's a good idea, I think it's a good idea and it's exactly what daddy ordered us to do. And as I see it, there's no time like the present to make it happen."
"You want me to move into yours tonight?" I said trying to process what she was saying.
"No, I want you to move some of your stuff from that apartment you're borrowing into ours, you can get the rest later"
"Ours?" I asked frowning at her.
"Yes," she said firmly, "ours!"
"I'm not sure about that, Bec," I said, "I still don't think it's a great idea."
"Look, Freenky, you can have your own room if that's what you need, we can make this work somehow, but it's the perfect solution for us, trust me."
I was about to reply when the frustrated voice of the taxi driver came over the little speaker. "Look ladies, as fascinating as this is, you're on a meter; where do you want me to take you?"
"Richmond, and then St Johns Wood, mate," Becky said quickly, stopping me from speaking with the gentle press of her finger against my lips, "one quick pickup if it's ok with you and then we're going home."
----
It was just over a week after our American adventure and I was living in what I believe people call 'domestic bliss'.
Well, sort of.
Domestic ecstasy might be a better definition of what I found myself in. It was so different to my other experience of 'living' with a girlfriend; so very different indeed.
We'd done exactly what she'd wanted after we'd landed, heading to my apartment to pick up some clean clothes before continuing our journey to her small flat in St John's Wood; collapsing in a jet-lagged stupor almost the second our heads hit the plush cotton covered pillows of her bed.
Once we'd agreed the basic rules to our relationship, things went reasonably smoothly. She didn't mess me about and make me worry professionally. I did the same thing personally. We were forced by necessity to have two different lives, the personal and the professional; and it was impossible to let the personal intrude into the professional life. So we kept them separate as best we could, and somewhere in the middle, we found a place where we could just be ourselves and enjoy it; and enjoy it we did.
During work time when I wasn't sat on the sofa in her office watching her work, and swapping e-mails with JJ and James on my phone, I was stood, much to her annoyance, outside her office door as usual, doing my job as best I could protecting her the whole time, personally and professionally.
The whole protection thing didn't always go smoothly, however, my general 'hanging around', as she called my guard duty, eventually frustrated her so much it prompted a change in office space; Becky moving down the corridor to a smaller room with an attached side office that Bonnie and I were to be installed in at her insistence.
"There," Becky said as she propelled me towards one of the desks, the one that was situated right next to her new office door. "You sit there from now on. That way you can do your job without standing outside in the corridor like a flaming statue, and making me feel stupid when people come to see me."
"...and what about the other door?" I said interrupting her pleased look with the question that I'd had running around my head. "The one that opens to the corridor, how do I guard that from in here?"
"I'll lock that if it makes you feel better, Freen," she replied simply, a smug grin on her face as if pleased she'd anticipated my request. It was good, she'd obviously thought about her security which was a major improvement on her usual casualness, but it wasn't good enough for me.
"I'd prefer it if it was blocked off entirely," I'd replied with just a hint of professional aloofness; "that way no-one could use it at all."
"That would look stupid, Freen," she had said shaking her head. "I can't just put my sofa in front of the doorway."
"Why don't you get that big cabinet moved instead?" Bonnie added looking up from her computer with a smile at our bickering. "That would cover it completely, no one would know there was even a door there."
"Thank you, Bonnie," Becky said sarcastically, putting her hands on her hips and frowning. "I thought you were on my side."
"I'm sorry," Bonnie said, hiding her grin behind her monitor. "I thought the point was to keep you safe."
"Yes, but this all seems a little extreme, doesn't it?" she said frustratedly, the hairs on the back of my neck rising in warning at a potentially 'pissed off Becky'. "I mean honestly, for someone to cause trouble here they've got to get past the guys on reception, and then make their way up four flights of stairs and past the security doors just to get close to my office, and then they've got to get through a locked door. I'm sure by that time, Freen would have been alerted."
"Well, when you put it that way," Bonnie replied nodding away, her hair bobbing away amusingly as she agreed with her boss.
"I do," Becky said firmly folding her arms across her chest signaling that was the end of that particular exchange.
"Could we at least put a wedge under the door, Miss Armstrong?" I asked, not wanting to let this go just yet, "once you've locked it... just in case."
"As long as it's discreet. This is supposed to be my office, Freen, not Buckingham bloody Palace."
With that last shot, she turned away and closed her door behind her; shaking her head as she went. With a smile, I sat down at my tiny little desk and opened my bag, pulling out some of the reports that I'd been sent; reports that I tried to keep hidden from her. I was working my way through the latest threat analysis on her newest potential client when I noticed Bonnie, looking at me and grinning, out of the corner of my eye.
"What?" I asked not lifting my eyes from the papers in front of me.
"Oh, nothing," she replied with a little lilt in her voice that told me it was anything but nothing.
"What's so funny, Bonnie?" I asked sighing and shuffling the papers in front of me, looking over at her amused face.
"Nothing, Freen," she said as she typed away, "I'm just amusing myself while I wait."
"Wait for what?" I said, before being interrupted by the phone on her desk ringing away. She grinned at me and pointed at the phone before dramatically lifting it to her ear, her eyes on me the whole time. "Yes, Becky, I'll tell her..." she said winking at me, "...and yes, of course, I'll let you know when your next meeting arrives... of course I'll do that, drinks and biscuits as usual, I've got it all ready for you... I'll bring it straight through once I've showed them in."
"You're wanted," she said grinning at me as she put down the phone, "again..."
She made a great play of looking at her watch, smiling at me all the time, "She's getting much better you know, she did really well this time; that was nearly two minutes."
"Two minutes of what?" I replied looking blankly at her.
"Two minutes before she called you into her office," she said winking at me, "like I say, she's getting much better."
"Funny girl," I replied wryly, putting the reports back into the drawer and closing it firmly. "Did she say what she wanted this time?"
"Apparently she wants to discuss meeting up with her mother next weekend when she comes back from New York, but I'm sure that's not the only reason."
She grinned up at me as I stood over her desk frowning.
"Oh shut up," I told her swiping my hand at her head, faking a slap good-naturedly.
There was no hiding anything from Bonnie. Within two hours of our arrival on Monday, she was eyeing us suspiciously. By the end of Wednesday, Becky and I knew that she'd rumbled us. Strangely though, we weren't in the slightest bit bothered. Becky trusted Bonnie and I trusted her opinion; it was just one of those things that we didn't have to discuss. Besides, I was pretty sure that the two of them had discussed me before, during and after that fateful party at Armstrong Manor.
So it was with a knowing snigger from behind me that I opened the door to Becky's office and stepped inside, giving her a stern look as I closed the door behind me.
"You've got to stop this, you know?" I said as I walked over to her desk.
"Stop what?" she said looking up from her laptop and taking off the glasses she was wearing to look at the screen; running a tired hand through her hair as she shook it out.
"Stop calling me in here thirty seconds after you close the door. I'm sure Bonnie thinks we're in here making out or something."
"She does not," Becky said looking shocked, "and I don't do that, do I?"
"Every time, babe," I told her, slumping in the chair next to her desk. "I think Bonnie thinks it's funny; she's just told me that that two minutes is a record for you."
"Well, I did actually have a reason this time babe," she said rubbing her eyes tiredly, "I've just got a message from mum, she's coming home with Colin this Friday and she wants to meet up thisweekend before she goes home. I've sort of promised we'd pick them up from the airport, I hope that's ok? I thought we could pick them up ourselves so we don't ruin Darren and Bonnie's weekend again."
"Fine with me," I replied simply, "I don't get my new car until next week though, remember? Damn thing is still delayed from the leasing firm, can we take one of the ones from here or something?"
"Yeah, I guess so, give me a second and I'll find out if we've got one spare."
She picked up her phone and called Bonnie, chatting with her about arranging a car for us. I was watching her with some concern as she spoke to her assistant, rubbing her eyes again; we've only been back for a week and a half, and already she was looking beat down by everything.
I actually felt guilty about leaving her alone in the flat at night while I went to see Joanna; my therapy meetings continuing, at her insistence, pretty much from our first evening home. I know she was burning the midnight oil while I was out, coming home each night to find her crouched over her laptop; working away on the deals she was trying to make, and all the complicated figures that went with them.
She'd even worked over the weekend, apologizing for leaving me alone; explaining that she needed to get the numbers sorted for meetings she had, and that she had no time to get things done when she was in the office. Basically, she was working too damned hard, and it looked like it was starting to get to her. What frustrated me more than anything was there was nothing I could do to help; apart from make sure she ate, slept, and be there for her if she needed me.
"Are you ok, Bec?" I asked her when she put the phone down, "you're looking shattered today."
"I'm feeling shattered," she said nodding her head. "It's like I haven't stopped since we landed last Sunday, there's just so much to do, you know?"
"Well, not tonight," I told her making the decision instantly, my tone brooking no argument. "Tonight I'm going to cook, and you're going to relax and have an early night. No working until midnight on that fucking laptop of yours."
"I'll get a couple of hours in while you're in your meeting with Joanna tonight," she said sitting back in her chair and rolling her neck. "But an early night sounds really good, I might even soak in a hot bath for an hour or two if you're promising to cook."
"I'm not promising much more than field rations," I said laughing at her, "But there's no appointment tonight. I'm not due to see Joanna until next week now, she thinks weekly appointments will be more than enough for now."
"You didn't tell me that," she exclaimed sitting up quickly, "that's really positive!"
"I think she's just sick of the sight of me to be honest."
'Or sick of having to deal with the constant changes in our relationship as well as my other issues,' I thought to myself, thinking back on how much time Joanna had spent talking about Becky and I over the last few sessions.
"No, it's really good news, Freenky, it means you're making real progress," she said proudly, "and field rations sounds fine, as long as I don't have to do it. I have to admit I'm getting sick of takeaway food now."
"No takeout, I'm sick to death of takeouts too and I'm sure my body hates me for forcing it to eat them," I said patting my stomach. "I think we'll stop off and get some supplies on the way home, and I'll try to cook us something nice; but I'm still sending you on a cookery course one day," I said getting up from the chair and heading over to the door. "Now stop distracting yourself, and me, and get some work done; because when you leave here tonight, you're not doing another thing and that's final." I closed the door behind me and winked at Bonnie, "she's working too hard," I explained as I sat down and dug out the papers I'd been reading.
"She always does," Bonnie said, clicking away on her keyboard.
"Yeah, well hopefully I've sorted that." I told her, diving headlong into my report.
"She's also very distractible at the moment," Bonnie said pointedly, ignoring my attempt at concentration, "which really isn't helping."
I looked up from the document and fixed her with a frown before smiling slightly at her concern. "Yeah well," I repeated, "hopefully I've sorted that too."