Page 25 of Fitch

I nodded. “Sure. Ah, can you tell Nolan to give me a minute today?” I asked, opening my emails.

“He’s not in today,” she replied.

I looked up at her then. “Again?”

She nodded with a frown. “Second sick day in a row, apparently. He must be really unwell.”

It was standard knowledge in the department that Nolan never missed a day.

Hm.

I checked my phone. No text, and that wasn’t like him either.I should check up on him...

“Okay, thanks. I need the brief he was working on, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure thing,” she said, and she was gone.

Work was busy as it always was. I had lunch at my desk, buried in paperwork. The Barbieri case wasn’t the only one we were working on, of course, so the files and finer details just never stopped coming. There was no room for error in this game.

But I was focused and only afforded a brief few thoughts of Fitch, mostly memories of our times together, and maybe an occasional daydream of what we might do in our future... dates?Dateswasn’t the right word.Meetingsdidn’t feel right either.

Rendezvous? Appointments?

Hmm. Appointments worked.

Our next appointment, all things going well, would be Friday.

I already couldn’t wait.

Focus, Dominic. For fuck’s sake.

Determined, I put Fitch out of my mind and concentrated on work.

It was after six when Gail popped her head into my office. “I’ll be off now. See you tomorrow.”

I gave her a smile. “Thanks. I don’t think I’ll be far behind you.”

When she’d gone, I leaned back in my chair and sighed. It’d been a long day and I’d had enough. I wrapped things up, closed everything down, plucked my jacket off the rack, and collecting my bag, I called it a day.

But I wasn’t going home.

I drove myself to Nolan’s place, figuring checking up on him and seeing if he needed anything was the least I could do.

He buzzed me straight through and opened his front door mid-knock.

I was expecting to see him look somewhat ill. Pale, dark eyes, red nose... but no, he looked the best I’d seen him in a long while.

“Hey. So you are alive,” I began, walking in. “Two days off in a row and...”

My words trailed off as I noticed the two young men sitting nervously at the dining table.

My heart skidded to a stop and my stomach dropped.What the...

Fitch stood up, eyes wide, a smile pulling at his lips. “Dom,” he said.

“Fitch,” I managed in a whisper.

What the actual fucking fuck?

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