Leave No Trace

Chapter 34

Nolan

"Okay, sweetie, you and Mike are covering something up. One female detective to another, how'd you do it?" Maura asked, walking out and leaning against the wall next to Kate.

"The truth?"

"Let me guess, you used your feminine wiles to get to him."

"Oh, he's a squeamish one," Kate muttered.

"What did you say to him?"

"Told him that I was having female issues..."

"You told him you had your...?" Maura stopped herself, but started laughing, and Kate joined in too after a few minutes.

Kate grinned, "You should have seen him squirm!" The two laughed for a few more seconds.

And then Maura asked, with a straight face (Kate was still smiling), "Do you have your period?"

"What? No. That's uh... not due for a while, actually."

"Why, you pregnant?"

"Oh God, this is like having the talk with my mother! Please stop."

"You're not answering my question," hard to pull a fast one on a trained detective, seasoned in interrogations.

"No, I'm not. Definitely not."

"You sure? You had a fiancé not that long ago."

"Very true. Doesn't mean that I'm... we were always careful," Kate said by way of explanation.

"Okay, I'm sorry I asked."

"What about you and Mike? What's up with you and Mike?"

"Mike and I?" she frowned, "We were supposed to have a lunch date today. It didn't happen, but it's not too serious yet."

"Have you two even kissed?"

"I kissed him on the cheek, but that's it."

"Oh, that's not exciting at all."

"Piss off."

Kate looked a little affronted, before realizing that Maura was naturally offended easily, "How is Bates faring?"

"Better, but he's had it worse."

"Worse than losing a partner and best friend?"

"Okay, maybe not quite that bad. You do know...?"

Kate had heard through the grapevine that a long time ago- long before she became a cop, or was even thinking about it- Bates had been engaged to some girl, and she'd left him at the altar. She only knew that he never married after that, and was spending his spare time chasing around women, looking for The One, who she was beginning to doubt even existed, "He almost got married once. Yeah, I knew."

Maura sighed, "Being his partner isn't easy you know."

"Oh, I don't doubt it," Kate sighed, "But Danielson isn't always easy to live with. He gets involved."

"You know, Danielson is nothing compared to Bates. Bates has a bit of a history from before he came to the OPP."

"He was CSIS in his younger days, and moved to RCMP before heading over to the OPP. I snuck a look in his personnel file." Kate grinned.

"Oh yeah, he's been everywhere. Can't settle down. Engaged to a nice girl when he worked at CSIS, and once that was over, he headed straight over to the RCMP, moved on from there to the OPP. He's been at the OPP since.... Well. Longer than I have, anyway."