They only made one small detour, to pick up a shopping bag of ingredients at the grocer where Nick usually shopped; Cally planned to cook dinner for him. As they came out, Cally noticed a man across the street at the café who looked suspiciously like Adrian Mott with a black moustache. She smiled to herself, and the pair continued to Nick’s apartment building, walking hand in hand.
“I haven’t cleaned yet this week,” Nick admitted, as he let them both into his apartment. “But I try to keep it…not too messy.”
“It looks fine,” Cally said, glancing around. “I like your taste in décor.”
“Thanks. The furniture came with the apartment, but I did the pictures and lamps and junk.”
“Okay, now you sit down while I see about fixing us some dinner, then I want to have a look at that bullet bruise.”
“Aw. Lemme help, Cal.”
“No, you need to get off your feet,” Cally insisted. “While we were doing all that prep today, I pinged my personal physician and told her what happened and asked some stuff, and she said that you needed to just rest as soon as you could, around the case. Because the nanites can focus all your resources on healing you up, if you aren’t doing anything else.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. And I plan on putting ice on that bruise, and using a special cream she told me about years ago, when I was at the police academy and in the hand-to-hand training. It’ll help heal the bruise.”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to rub it…” Nick offered, hesitant. “Something about dislodging clots?”
“Oh! No, I know about that,” she said. “I’ll be very, very careful. And then you’re going to rest, and I’m going to see what needs doing around your place, that can’t wait a few days, like any tidying up you want done, and stuff like that.”
“Cal…”
“Please, Nick,” she told him, setting the grocery bag down and turning to face him. “Honey, let me do this. I…I need to do this for you. You…I dunno if you really know how I feel about you, but…but it scared me bad, today, when Corporal Peterson called me in to her office to tell me you’d been shot…”
Nick gazed down into the troubled blue eyes for long moments. Finally he nodded.
“Okay, Cal,” he said. “I understand. And…I love you, too.”
“Oh, Nick!” she cried, and flung her arms around his neck. “I love you so much!”
Dinner was late, because the kiss went on for a long time.
Cally prepared a delicious, healthful meal for “her Nick.” The first course was another fresh salad, with strawberries, bleu cheese, candied pecans, and a rich balsamic vinaigrette. The second course was a creamy tomato bisque. The entrée was chicken tarragon with pan-roasted root vegetables, and a key lime tart – just one, to share – was dessert.
“You’re spoiling me,” Nick decided, when she offered him the last bite of the tart on her own fork.
“That’s kind of the idea,” Cally said with a dimpling grin. “You need it, right now.” She stood. “Now, you go lie down on the couch, or in your recliner, or wherever you unwind in the evening, while I clean up my kitchen mess. Take a nap if you can. I’ll look around and see what needs cleaning or straightening, and take care of that for you while you rest. I don’t want you doing a whole lotta strenuous stuff tonight.”
“Cal, I’ll be fine.”
“I know. But you’ll be fine faster if you go along with me.”
He sighed, and headed for the recliner.
Nick woke up an hour and a half later. He was wrapped in a cozy throw blanket – one which he had not had before – and felt relaxed and comfortable. He eased into a seated position and opened bleary eyes, to find the apartment immaculate and Cally sitting nearby on the end of the sofa, watching a VR show on his screen, but apparently listening through her VR network, because there was no sound.
“Umph,” he murmured, stretching. “Ow.”
Cally immediately turned to him.
“Well hey,” she said with a smile. “Stiff?”
“Yeah, some,” he admitted. “My chest muscles on my right side aren’t gonna be happy with me for a while, I guess.”
“Nope. You’re gonna behave as far as the gym is concerned, aren’t you?”
“Oh. Yeah, you’re right. The ER doc said I needed to keep my pulse and blood pressure relatively low, and…yeah, shit.”
Nick sighed, and Cally slid off the couch to kneel beside his chair.
“It’s okay, Nick,” she murmured. “It’s only an inconvenience. You could have been killed.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’m just used to being independent.”
“I get it. And that’s good. But we can still be a team, you and me, while you be independent.”
“Can we?”
“Yeah, we can. ‘Cause I’m independent too, and you know that.”
He looked down at her earnest, lovely face for long moments, thinking. She’s right, I think, he considered. We’re both independent, and we can function independently just fine, but we also make a great team…in all kinds of ways. The work, and personal stuff. And I meant it when I said I loved her. She’s an investigator, and I’m an investigator. Maybe this is right. Maybe I finally found Her. It suddenly hit him that he hadn’t thought about Tabby in a very long time. And that’s a good thing in itself, he decided.
“Okay, honey,” he said then. “I think you’re right. We’ll give it a shot, anyway.”
“All right!” The dimpled smile was back. “Does that make us a couple-couple?”
“I think it does.”
“Good.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, now let’s see about peeling you out of your shirt and body armor, so I can take a look at this bruise, and maybe help it heal faster. Then it’s time for your meds, and you should probably crash early
