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Chapter Text

when winter passes and spring comes

In the midst of minding his own business and preparing mentally for the day ahead, Senior Constable Steve Hayden was jarred out of his head by his patrol partner’s low whistle and an incessant tapping on his arm. 

“Mate, look.” Constable Benny Lazzari nodded somewhere behind Steve with a glimmer in his eyes. “Hottie alert!” 

Steve tried — and failed — to hold back a sigh. It was way too early for Benny’s antics. Way too early for anything, really. Only thing that should’ve had his name on it at this ungodly hour was his bed, which for some reason he’d voluntarily left an hour earlier to fill in the roster gap in this shift. 

Still, he looked. Of course he did. Human instinct, right? 

So Steve glanced over his shoulder — mapping out the muster room and whose faces he didn’t know — and landed on a petite blonde in kit and uniform entering off the pace of their Senior Sergeant. She had the stride of someone half on a mission, half in deference, but seemed to forget the latter when Senior Sergeant Halsey stopped and she didn’t. 

Only split-second realisation saved the young Constable from a definite station-wide ribbing scenario in which she’d forever be known as the fresh meat who’d bowled over their chief on her first day. As she jerked back last-second and took her place next to Halsey, though — her cheeks flushed red — low titters around the room promised there’d be at least a variation of aforementioned ribbing. 

Steve pressed his lips together. Hazing the new guys were one thing, but the gals…that was just looking for trouble. Especially these days when brass was all about bumping up the numbers of female officers for a better male-female ratio. Fat chance of that if all the gals looked elsewhere because the macho male environment got too dominant for them. Steve wanted no part in that blame game. 

Just keep your head down, he told himself. Do your job, do it right, and don’t screw up. 

“Sarge should’ve told us the new girl’s a looker,” Benny muttered so close to Steve’s head that he jerked back in his chair as if a fly had just buzzed into his ear canal.

Which — of course — everybody noticed, petite blonde included. Those keen, defiant, bright blue eyes found his, and Steve felt quite certain something had just punched him straight to the gut. A flush swept through his body and all thoughts of crappy 6 AM roll calls and inviting beds went out the window, leaving him dizzied and unbalanced. 

Red-faced and eager for equilibrium, Steve locked his jaw and punched Benny in the upper arm. His patrol partner mouthed ‘ow’ and raised his eyebrows sky-high, supposedly the very picture of innocence…if it hadn’t been for the glint and hidden grin in his face. One that promised follow-ups and teases and—

“Hayden! Lazzari! Lock it down,” Senior Sergeant Halsey barked, and Steve — with great reluctance and effort — forced his head back into the game… 

Well, as much as he could with the young Constable Vance now on his mind.

“You should ask her out, mate.”

Steve smoothed down the creases on his short-sleeved blue shirt before hanging it up in his locker next to the pressed trousers and leather jacket. A moment ago, he’d been exhausted and achy all over. Now his neck and shoulders were tense. “Told you it’s not like that.”

“What?” Standing by the locker next to his, Benny held up one hand followed by the other. “You’re a man, she’s a woman.” He interlocked his fingers and clasped his hands together. “Pretty straight-forward, ain’t it?”

Steve said nothing. For the past three months, Benny had tooted that same old horn whenever he got the chance. Which, as it happened, turned out to be nearly all day, every day, and especially the graveyard shifts when all Steve wanted to do during the occasional quiet moments was to catch some easy five-minute Zs. 

“She looks, y’know.” With an air of casual disinterest, Benny loosened the velcro straps of his load bearing vest and shrugged out of his merle shirt. He grinned at Steve after pulling it over his head. “Goes pink when she’s caught, too.” 

“Don’t care,” Steve muttered, but his treacherous ears and neck burned hot at the thought. That’d always been a part of the problem. Try as he might, nothing seemed to rid him of that attraction he’d felt upon their initial meeting in the roll call room. Not even the myriad of ways Constable Vance seemed to get herself both into and out of trouble. 

Of course, Benny knew it too. Guy had too much of a keen eye not to, and he relished in it. He’d been the cop-shop’s joker ever since his arrival two years ago, and matchmaking was just another part of that arsenal. And after learning about Steve’s chequered past in that area…

“Come on, Steve.” Benny slapped his back, clearly trying a different track. “Time to get that old cook of yours out of your head and restart the system. Get back into the fray. Been ages, mate.”

Steve shut his locker with a slight bang. His lips had thinned into a small line and he glared at Benny. “Told you no.”

And he left before his partner could respond.

“Could I have another?” 

The soft, feminine voice that broke through Steve’s alcohol-induced haze was all too familiar. He looked up from his beer and glanced down the bar until he spotted her five feet away. Vance stood leaning against the counter, her empty water glass raised in offer to the bartender. 

As the latter took the glass, she glanced in his direction and a sudden yet hesitant smile crossed her lips. “Hi.”

“Hey.” Steve felt too stunned for anything else. Although he’d seen her ‘round the bar at times — ‘cause who wouldn’t with this being the cop-shop’s designated watering hole, after all — their paths had seldom crossed. At least not in a one-on-one encounter such as this. So he hardly knew what to say. 

“Rough day?” Tapping her foot slightly on the floor, Vance gestured to the coaster he turned over and over in his hands. Steve looked too. It’d started fraying at the edges from the motion and the sweat of his fingertips. 

He let out a small sigh. “Yeah.”

“Heard about your domestic. Sorry.” She’d lowered her voice and softened her tone, and for some reason it resonated within him. Pulled back stuff he’d been trying to forget; that’d been locked up behind the walls any police officer ultimately built. Either the drink was really getting to him or the day had just been that draining.

Or…

“Can’t save ‘em all,” Steve said, smiling without humour. Then his teeth clenched and he picked up his beer, adding just before gulping it down: “But at least we got the perp, right?”

Vance didn’t respond, looking a bit at a loss for words. She glanced around, then scooted down the bar until she was only two feet away. Far more personal than he’d expected and her voice remained the same, if not softer. “That’s what my father always said. He worked homicides.” 

Steve sobered at that. With coppers being as bad gossips as farmwives, he’d heard the stories about Tessa Vance’s blue blooded past within days of her arrival at the station. Heck, he might’ve heard the name Doug Vance mentioned a few times before as well, particularly among the old timers. Damn shame what’d happened to him. 

“Tough gig, Homicide,” Steve murmured. “Must’ve been a good man, your dad.” 

Vance gave him a wan smile, which he hated seeing. What he’d seen from her so far…the passion, the laughter, the sense of duty: they all appealed to him. Drew him to her as if hypnotised. Even made him ignore all the reckless, stupid stuff he’d heard — and seen — her do over the past four months. 

Thankfully, the bartender returned to break the tension. “Here ya go, love.” 

“Thanks.” Vance smiled and picked up her glass, about to pull money out of her jeans’ back pocket with the other. 

“Here, let me.” Steve pulled out his wallet and left a fiver on the counter. At Vance’s surprised look, he smirked. “For the pep talk.”

Vance snorted and her eyes sparkled all of a sudden. “Hardly said anything.”

“Well…” Steve matched her twinkle, feeling the heavy weight on his shoulders begin to evaporate like air, albeit slowly. Whether it was the alcohol or something else, he nevertheless felt bolder than he’d been five minutes ago. Maybe a dam had broken or something. “Night’s still young.”

“Yeah?” There was a rush of blood in Vance’s cheeks and she brushed a lock of curly, golden hair behind her ear with a brilliant smirk. “What’d you have in mind?”

His head haze thickening pleasantly, Steve nodded towards the opposite side of the bar. “How ‘bout some pool?”

Vance’s blue eyes lit up. “All right.” 

“You and Vance, eh?” From the front passenger seat of the patrol car, Benny waggled his eyebrows.

“Just mates, Benny.” Steve gritted his teeth and focused on the road and anything else that could divert their attention. God, he’d even take as little as a truant or a gutful of piss right about now. Or a car crash, or— 

“That’s how it starts, y’know, then it’s all hook, line and pash!” Clearly amused by his own turn of phrase, Benny laughed and nudged Steve in the arm. By all accounts, he’d just had the most glorious moment of his day. “Good onya, mate. Keep at it.”

Fingers clenched around the steering wheel, Steve sighed.

He did, however, do exactly as Benny advised. He kept at it: pool games and drinks at the bar while off duty; chats and jokes while in the cop-shop, or on the occasions they met in the field and the circumstances allowed it. And while the idea of asking Tessa out had crossed his mind more times than he could count, it still took him by surprise when she took matters into her own hands. 

“You busy tomorrow night?” Across the table, Tessa’s round cheeks were tinged with pink, and she twisted and tore at her empty food wrapper.

Steve had to reboot his head and swallow the mouthful of food that’d now lodged halfway down his throat. A flush ran up his neck and he cleared his throat with a cough; half glad it were just the two of them in the station’s recreational room. “No. What’d you have in mind?” 

“Food? Dinner? Movie? I dunno.” Tessa chuckled and dropped him a quick squizz. “What do you normally do on Friday nights when you’re not at work or the bar?”

“Fix up my house.” Regaining a bit of momentum, Steve grinned — stupidly so, it seemed. It’d become a regular thing. “Occasional cricket match or three-aside rugby, maybe. How ‘bout you?”

“Rock climbing. Reading.” Easing up a bit, Tessa gave a small eye-roll and added, “Screening calls from my mum nagging about my personal life.” 

“I get those too,”  Steve laughed and met her eyes. Warmth sprung up from the inside out, one that balanced precariously between embarrassment and anticipation, and he felt his chest and gut flutter at his next few words. “But dinner, yeah. Definitely do those.” 

A distinct blush spread around Tessa’s sudden grin and she didn’t quite meet his gaze. With both hands, she folded and smoothed the food wrapper into a small triangular shape; her tone a little higher pitched than usual. “Seven sound good?”

“Sure.” All too aware he was still grinning like an idiot, Steve tried to mask it behind his coffee mug. “Meet you there or…?”

The rest of his sentence got cut short as the door to the recreational room swung open, admitting three other colleagues in the midst of an animated discussion on last week’s Beasties-Students rugby match. Steve bit back an immediate curse when he realised one of the three were — by some divine design — Benny, who took all of five seconds to look like he’d discovered the golden egg. As soon as he’d picked up a fresh cup of coffee, he sauntered towards their table with all the airs of said victory. 

“I’ll text you the details after the shift,” Tessa murmured for Steve’s ears only, her blue eyes radiant despite her sudden motion to leave. “That okay?” 

“‘Course.” Steve smiled just above the rim of his coffee mug and felt a jerk behind his navel when she returned it — like he always did. Then she was gone, and he turned to greet the incoming bird of prey with a look to take down a shark. 

Benny, though, was all innocence. “What?”

Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Steve turned back to his coffee mug and waited a whole three heartbeats, which were three more than he’d expected. Then:

“So you guys finally gonna smash your backs out or—?” 

Steve kicked Benny in the shin. Hard. 

Friday night dinner at a small family-owned pizzeria was down-to-earth, quiet, and just the way he liked it: nothing too fancy, nothing too shabby, and they split the bill as a compromise since they both insisted to pay. 

Then followed a comfortable stroll to a nearby and equally quiet bar where they could get more drinks without the eyes of fellow colleagues on them the whole time. And fortunately also without needing to step in to keep the peace among other patrons. 

This, in turn, led to some fun-filled and nice conversations that delved a little deeper beneath their skin than their previous ones had done. Steve, who usually kept mum about those sorts of things, found that he didn’t mind. Not when she smiled and laughed the way she did.

“Probably wouldn’t be a copper if it hadn’t been for that,” he was telling her, rounding off his latest share with a half-shrug, half-smirk. “So in a way, the guy did me a favour.” 

 “Not sure you’d see eye to eye on that.” On the opposite side of the booth table, Tessa chuckled and played with her wine glass.

“Should’ve made different choices, then.” Steve winked at her and tipped back the rest of his beer. The dregs left a sour taste at the back of his throat, so he stopped and left the empty bottle at the end of the table. Picking up some peanuts from a bowl they shared, he nodded at her. “How ‘bout you? What got you to join up?” 

“Nothing as memorable as a roadside citizen’s arrest,” Tessa said and averted her eyes for a second; seemingly playing it off as casting a casual glance around them. For a split second, Steve wondered — not for the first time — if it’d had anything to do with Doug Vance. The thought shot through when Tessa smiled once more and leaned forward in her seat. “My godfather sort of talked me into it; said I could at least consider it. Since I didn’t have any other major life plans lined up, I did, and now I rather like it.”

That, Steve had picked up all on his own. She’d hardly been at their station for a full shift before the stories had started about her past and current escapades. Anything from overexcited interviews and breathalyser tests to unnecessarily high-speed chases down dodgy alleys and crowded markets to hunches gone wrong and procedures ignored. 

“Crikey, she’s like a dog to a bone once she’s got the scent! Worse,” her partner Mike Freely had told the guys in the locker room once. “Had to pull her down a tree before she could hurt herself! Was downright miffed I’d done it, too.”

Miffed was putting it mildly, it’d seemed. Cross Constable Vance on a bad day, and you’d either get a silent treatment or a chewing as you wouldn’t believe. If she’d been a probie with that attitude, she’d’ve been out of there like a fart in the wind. But she’d since proved her place time and again, and now had nearly as many commendations as riot act reads. 

If Benny was to be believed, only the former had found their way into her employee records. Some lesser blokes wanted to put that down to preferential treatment, but Steve doubted it. Look beyond the riot acts and furphys and Tessa was good stock — the kind of officer who believed in what she did and cared for the people she met, no matter their walks of life. Even if her methods weren’t always up to snuff, you couldn’t doubt the heart behind them — and he didn’t. 

“Well, I’m glad you do.” Copying her actions to lean forward in his seat, Steve offered a dimpled grin before bobbing his head towards the bar. “Or you wouldn’t be here for your shout.”

Tessa laughed — something he also liked quite a bit — and downed the rest of her wine. Then she slipped out of the booth and traipsed over to the bar counter, the tail ends of her frock swishing back and forth to match the swaying of her well-shaped hips. 

Steve watched her go with a stupid smile and a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest that didn’t leave even after they’d parted ways outside the bar a few hours later. In fact, it had him turn after six feet to call out her name, blood pounding in his ears.

“Forget something?” Tessa’s eyes twinkled, her lips parted and lush. She hadn’t gotten into the waiting cab yet, and her cheeks were flushed and beautiful even in the dim evening light. One day, that smile of hers would be the death of him. For now, it drew him to her, step by jittery step until only the open cab door and a thick air of magnetic static separated them. 

“Could say that.” Steve chuckled, hands in his pockets and his gaze a bit skittish. He gave her a nervous squizz and was eased by seeing a similar anticipation in her too. So before he could chicken out, he leaned in and kissed Tessa on the cheek, which sent ripples of electricity through him. Cheek brushing on cheek, he grinned into her ear; the warm fuzziness grown by a hundredfold, easily. “Thanks for tonight, Tess. I’ve really—” 

The enjoyed it got cut off and muffled as hot lips found his. 

Flushed and airless, Steve felt the ground disappear and reached up to thread his fingers in Tessa’s hair, her jawline soft yet firm in his palm. As time slowed, the world narrowed to a brilliant, stupefied haze created solely by the lip-locked motions between them, as well as some wandering hands looking for purchase. 

He loved it. Had craved it for a while, too, and now she’d done it. Hook, line and pash as Benny would say… 

It ended too soon, though. Steve felt Tessa’s palm prod and rest above his racing heart and he opened his eyes to see her beam brilliantly at him. 

“Call me?” While the words were muted, her whole demeanour blinded him with iterations of happy and excited. In turn, Steve’s chest swelled with heat and air, and his cheeks ached when he grinned. The very idea that he’d do anything but call was laughable.

“Definitely,” he murmured. Unable to help himself, he brushed stray locks of golden hair behind her ear and was delighted to see her blush. An overwhelming urge hit him to pull Tessa close and not let go — but the cab door was still between them and the world wasn’t as narrowed anymore. Steve remembered the cab driver and cleared his throat awkwardly. “Well, g’night, Tess. Sleep tight. And stay safe tomorrow. Don’t go giving Freely the fright of falling down trees again.” 

Tessa chuckled and murmured, “I won’t.” Then she leaned up for another, gut-dropping kiss before she got into the cab and left.

What felt like a lifetime later, Steve smacked his prickling lips, pushed his hands into his pockets and practically skipped down the street.

Chapter Text

at the end of the day you are there

Needless to say, Benny was merciless over the next few weeks. How he knew, Steve had no idea, since he doubted Tessa was the kiss and tell type, and he wasn’t about to fess up either. But no matter the how, it was now established fact that his partner knew and he abso-effing-lutely loved it. 

“You just give me a heads-up if the two of you want to sneak off for a little action, y’know,” Benny was saying as he drove, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Slow shift and all.”

Yeah right. From where he sat in the front passenger seat, Steve let out an exasperated groan for more reasons than one. Saturday evenings downtown were hardly what you’d call slow. Drunks, fights, sexual assaults, DUIs, you name it. They’d be slammed all night. 

“Hey, lookie there,” Benny teased and pointed. Outside the windows, the vibrant street was busy with traffic, people and everything in between; a veritable mishmash of townie life in all its forms. “There she is, your sweetheart. Better blow her a kiss. Show her you’re thinking of her.”

Steve ignored him, but couldn’t suppress the familiar excited jolt that went through him once he spotted Tessa on the sidewalk. She and Freely were talking to a couple of blokes each outside one of the packed bars on this street, and jotting down notes in their notepads. Tessa looked to be all business, which he’d be hard pressed to say he didn’t like. It’d been one of the things that drew him to her, after all; whatever else she got up to, it wasn’t personal gain or ambition that drove her. 

As they passed, Steve nevertheless felt himself begin to smile and prepare to nod when it looked as if she’d turn her head in their direction—

Then shit hit the fan, from one split second to the next.

The detained blokes on the sidewalk burst into a shouting match, arms and legs wild in emphasis and provocation both, and before Steve could blink, one of them had pushed Tessa hard in order to get past her. She fell backwards out of view behind a parked car as the gutful of piss now charged Freely and the guys he was trying to hold back there.

“Shit!” Steve hissed a split second before Benny’s abrupt stop had them lurch forward against taut seatbelts. 

With blue lights on and a sharp shrill of sirens, they both jumped out of the car and ran up the sidewalk, calling for more back-up on the radio as they went. All four detained blokes were in the midst of it, grappling and wrestling on the ground, blood and fists flying. Steve’s instinct took over. 

“Oi! Police! Break it up, break it up!” He shouted into the din and pulled out his capsicum spray, readying it. “I said break it up or I’ll spray you!” 

A couple of heads cocked up at that and backed off, but two didn’t. They only had eyes for each other — too far gone for rationality — and they were out for blood. 

In another split second, Steve launched himself forward and sprayed both blokes, with only one of them screaming in agony and clawing at his face. The other swung ‘round to face Steve instead, pupils nothing more than black dots, and Steve’s adrenaline spiked as he jumped back to avoid a wide heavy swing aimed at his head. 

Acting on instinct, Steve shifted position again and again as the other guy came at him, and looked for his opening. When it came, he grabbed the guy’s wrist, sidestepped, rolled the hand forwards, forcing the guy’s head to lurch downwards due to the straight arm bar, and pushed at the guy’s elbow to hasten the fall. The guy went down with a yell and — holding the wrist still twisted in his grip — Steve kneeled down on the guy’s shoulder and lower back, the arm locked between his legs. 

With his spare hand, he found the cuffs and put them on, then stayed in place while he surveyed the rest of the scene. Benny and Freely had gained control of the other two, with both pushed up against the nearest wall. Tessa had popped up too, seated in a similar position as Steve on top of the guy he’d sprayed. She was winded, hair wild, and bleeding from an abrasion on her chin, but she met his gaze with a furious one of her own as if daring him to say anything. 

So he didn’t. At least not until their back-up had turned up to help transport their perps into custody, and the situation was otherwise resolved. 

Turning his back on the paddy wagon and aware of the now crowded sidewalk, Steve walked over to Tessa and nodded to the wound she was pressing a bloodied gauze on. “You right?”

“Not bad.” Tessa’s jaw clenched whilst her gaze darted from spot to spot like some skittish bush rat trapped in a corner. “Probably better than it looks.”

She sounded flat, on edge, and Steve’s insides squirmed. Forgetting the crowd, time and place, he raised a hand to evaluate the damage himself. At first touch, though, Tessa jerked back and her wide-eyed look narrowed to a dangerous glint; lips pressed so tight together they were almost invisible. The silent don’t jarred his world and Steve’s gut burned. Demonstratively, he pulled back his hand and clenched it to a fist by his side. 

“Still,” he said with calm he didn’t feel; all too aware now that they were surrounded by curious onlookers and colleagues both. “Wouldn’t hurt to have it checked out. Looks a bit swollen.”

Tessa said nothing, but her fingertips seemed to brush against the skin of her chin as if to test his assessment. Whatever she found, she clenched her jaw again and glared at him as if this dog’s breakfast was somehow his fault. Rattled by that, Steve’s chest puffed up and he felt ready to tear her a—

“Oi, Vance!” Through the din of the midnight crowds and nightclubs, Freely’s voice cut into the thick of it. He stood by his and Tessa’s patrol car, first aid kit in hand, and his brows furrowed as he looked first at Steve, then at Tessa. There was no doubting the extra careful way he added, “You ready to go?”

Just shy of a snarl, Tessa said, “Yeah”, and left.

That single scene haunted him. It overlapped with others — a different face, a different voice, but the same actions — and the combo flipped through Steve’s head like some pre-movie newsreel from hell. Throughout the rest of shift, he found both his hands balled into fists upon his appointments belt — his voice sharper, his actions harder — and he swore beneath his breath each time Benny gave him a certain squizz. 

After he’d slammed the door on a stretcher case in their backseat, looks finally turned into words. “You all right, mate?” 

Steve wanted to scoff. Wanted to laugh the whole thing off and move on, but he’d been triggered and his cake hole was glued shut beyond a muttered, “Let’s just get this dipstick processed.”

“Oi, hold up a sec!” Coming around the car, Benny blocked his path with palms raised, which almost got him knocked on his arse. Only fleeting instinctual restraint had Steve swerve and pace back a few steps, unclenching his fists with difficulty. It did nothing to soften his partner’s tone, though. “Whatever’s mucking about in that head of yours, Steve, check it at the door, okay? Ain’t the time or place out here.” 

Flaring with heat and shame, Steve gritted his teeth and tried to breathe deep. It only worked until he heard their drunkard kick the car door and bang on it in an attempt to get out. “Goddamnit!” 

Benny got there first, one arm out to keep Steve at a distance. While he alternated between calm yet stern approach and forceful admonishments and threats, Steve waited on eggshells for the other shoe to drop. There was always that one gutful of piss who couldn’t be appeased by conversational tactics and needed a show of force instead. Tonight had made that point clearly. 

Tessa should’ve known that too, Steve thought. She and Freely shouldn’t have been on their own with four combative drunks. They should’ve called for back-up as soon as they’d gotten involved, no matter how peaceful the situation might’ve seemed. Why hadn’t they? All coppers knew lowered inhibitions made people do stupid stuff. They should’ve remembered safety first - their own, the perps, the public. 

One mishap, one oversight, and a tiny misdemeanour could turn into a violent felony. Steve had seen it happen. If that street had been even busier, if that perp had pushed Tessa a bit differently, she could’ve gone straight into traffic. Could’ve gotten a helluva lot more than a bruised, abraded chin…

“Probably better than it looks.” The words echoed in Steve’s head, intermingled with others that were embedded deeper beneath invisible scars: “It was just one drink, Steve! I had it under control!”

Yeah right, Steve scoffed and glared at the bloke now admittedly calmer in their backseat. Some of that same argument had come from him earlier, but people always lied about how many shouts they’d had, especially to coppers. Normally, though, that didn’t bother him. As far as he was concerned, it was just the natural state of things in this line of profession. Anything else was either a bonus, a problem, or a miracle, and he’d handle either if they popped up. Tonight though…

Did your job, did it almost right, and definitely messed up. 

As always, the voice of cool reason was merciless. Unfortunately, it was also his own, so Steve couldn’t blow it off as easily as he could Benny’s. Especially when it dropped hard-earned pearls of wisdom like: Don’t let it fester, too. Not again.

Only one way to do that.

The breakfast croissant was a peace-offering. Steve left it by Tessa’s locker before he headed home, as she and Freely were apparently stuck on an overlong call and wouldn’t be back until the morning shift relieved them at the scene. He’d texted her, too. Expressed his worry and hopes she was all right, and that — if she were up for it — he’d like to meet or call her this afternoon before the next night shift. There’d been no response by the time he got out of the shower and ready for bed. 

Home was the usual mess: a two-story renovation project in the dodgier parts of Surry Hill, born from a need to make something beautiful out of his life after the divorce almost two years ago. Time, however, wasn’t on his side with the five-day rotation rosters that left him jet-lagged every two weeks. Progress was therefore slow and, on occasion, non-existent. 

Six months ago, he’d not minded that, but now Steve sidestepped paint tins, stacks of plaster walls and reclaimed wood boards with colourful curses that would’ve certainly gotten him a whopping back in Catholic school. He dropped into bed, sprawled on his belly, and groaned into the pillows. Where the night had been cool, the day was getting hot. Even the slight breeze from the living room window did little but flutter the curtains about. 

Once slumber found him, it didn’t last. The shrill ring of the doorbell startled him, and he rolled over with a frustrated groan. Maybe if he didn’t stir, whoever it was would go away. After this particular night, he needed sleep. His body ached for it. 

Inbred instinct had him up and dressed within half a minute, though, and traversing the same hurdles he’d crossed to get into bed. Once at the door, he twisted the lock and tried to keep the snarl out of his greeting. 

It evaporated in a second. 

“Hey.” On the doorstep, Tessa stood wringing her hands, a worried grimace on her bruised, bandaged face. She was in her civvies, a backpack on, with her bike parked in his tiny front garden. She looked somewhere between antsy and penitent. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

“No, I—” Steve shook his head; thrown for a spin and trying to catch up. He pushed the door a little wider and rubbed at his eyes. “Just surprised to see you. Here, I mean.” 

“Benny told me where you live. Hope that’s okay.” Tessa gave a quick, awkward smile, then ducked her head and scraped her shoe against the cement landing. Her voice sounded higher than usual. “I just wanted to drop by and thank you for breakfast. It was really thoughtful.” At this, she gave him another smile before adding in a mumble, “Maybe too thoughtful considering I more or less bit your head off last night.”

Well, what d’you know…

Something tense in Steve’s body let go, and he could suddenly feel every inch of floorboard beneath his naked feet as if gravity had shifted. His toes curled against the wood, grounded, and the slight smile on his face was easier to pull up. It occurred to him now that he’d been prepared for something different, though exactly what he didn’t know. Not that it seemed to matter anymore.

“Last I checked, it’s still attached.” Leaning against the doorjamb, Steve made a small shrug, the exhaustion slowly giving way to excitement. “You’ll have to hit harder next time if you want to take it clean off.” 

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Tessa chuckled and tucked her hair behind her ears. A rosy blush rose in her cheeks. “I kind of like your head where it is.” 

So did he, but that was given. What he relished was the compliment. It gave off an entirely different vibe than the one he’d got from her yesterday; more akin to how it’d been between them before. He loved it; needed its affirmation.

“Anyway,” Tessa continued as she took a small step forward and met his gaze, “I thought you’d like to know that I was given a clean bill at Emergency. No broken bones or concussion; just the abrasion and some swelling.” She gestured to the rectangular bandage taped to her chin. “No need for stitches.” 

“I’m happy to hear that,” Steve said gently. After a beat, he pushed off the doorjamb and stepped closer. Tessa’s beautiful, blue eyes followed his hand as it rose to brush a knuckle along the curve of her chin and jaw, then they flitted back to shimmer warmly at him. Voice low, chest fluttery, he added, “That gave me a fright.” 

“I’m sorry.” Those words were more of a breath than solid ground, but Steve caught the mixture with which they were delivered: the tense lines between brows and jawbones, the wet shimmer in her gaze, and the shuddering trembles beneath skin and bones. Remonstration, he figured, and not just in relation to her impact on him. 

“Don’t be,” he murmured, rubbing her upper arm. “Shit happens on this job. We can’t predict or stop when and where that’ll happen — or to whom. Could’ve easily been Freely in your place. Or one of those other blokes. Or a complete innocent.”

Tessa gave a quiet snort. “You’re kinder than Halsey about it…”

“I’m your boyfriend.” Steve smirked and pulled her into his arms, relishing the closeness. Bonus, as always, was that he could feel Tessa lean into it and relax against him too — as if they were two pieces of a lock that just fit together. “Part of the job description.” 

“Yeah?” Eyebrows quirked up, Tessa’s brilliant blues sparkled at him. She raised her chin up; lips and cheeks all rosy, inviting, and terribly close. “What else is on that list?”

“Depends.” Hoping he’d read her right, Steve grinned from ear to ear and nuzzled her nose in an Eskimo’s kiss. “You wanna come in?”

Tessa matched his grin. “Let me just lock the bike first.”

TBC? Maybe.