Complicated

Chapter Seventeen: Bar Speak

Maybe you're reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road

Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow
And when it's time, you'll know

Katy Perry - Firework

Reilly's Bar was busy which suited Flack's mood. Both him and Danny were perched on stools at the bar, Danny was cradling a bottle of Bud in his hand while Flack nursed a pint of Guinness. The two of them needed the distraction right now, the past few days had been a blur of heinous acts and gruesome discoveries.

Today though had been the worst, walking in on what appeared to be a Mexican stand off between Marty Pino, a handful of drug loads and a couple of ambitious kids, after discovering his murder bunker had been the perfect end to an wretched day. He didn't envy the Crime Lab or the M.E's job after seeing those steel drums lined up oozing red from rim of the lids.

Danny was peeling the label off his beer bottle, still shaking his head as he thoughts played through the events of the day. Marty Pino had been an acquaintance at the very best, but still he was shaken by the turn in which the case had taken. Never had he expected such twisted actions from someone he knew, hell he didn't expect it from any of the criminals they ran into on a day to day basis.

"It's fucked up." he submitted into the air, taking a swig from his beer bottle.

Flack nodded his head in silent acknowledgement of the statement. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the blood smeared across the kitchen utensils, clumps of discarded organs stuck to the bottom of that blender. The tang of iron was in his mouth before he washed it down with a gulp of Guinness.

"Well, I think it's safe to say neither of us will be sleeping well tonight." Flack muttered, gesturing to the bartender to keep the drinks coming.

"At least you've got Grace to wake up to." Danny pointed at Flack with his near empty beer bottle.

Flack shuddered at the thought of her sharing his experience from today. Bile churned in his stomach at the memories of Pino's death place. He couldn't detail the crimes that had been committed over the past few days. Grace had enough nightmares of her own, she didn't need his stacking up along side them.

"I'm telling you Danny, she'd been off work a week and the woman's already driving me crazy." Flack complained, in attempt to inject some humour into their dark moods. "My apartment's spotless, I have to keep telling her she's my girlfriend not my maid."

"She's bored. What do you expect?" Danny reminded Flack before a smirk curved across stubbly cheeks. "Why don't you suggest she puts on a maids outfit and get a little something something while she's making herself useful?"

"Day three." Flack informed Danny biting his lower lip at the memory as the familiar surge of endorphins rushed through him. "I come home and she's wearing one, fishnet stockings and tiny feather duster..."

Both men fell silent at the image that Flack had just illustrated.

"She's a wild one." Danny remarked, taking another swig from his beer bottle.

"You have no idea what that woman can think of when she's left to her own devices." Flack told his friend, using his fingertips to push his empty glass away from him.

"Why don't you just give it up already? Make it official." Danny prompted, a grin spreading across his face at the thought.

"Are you crazy?" Flack exclaimed, sloshing his fresh pint of Guinness as he set it down. "She's not ready for that yet."

"I dunno Buddy, the two of you are practically living together already." Danny pointed out, with a shrug of his shoulders as he thought of the next best thing. "Why not just shift her stuff over and get some help with the rent?"

"This is still Grace we're talking about right?" Flack responded. "The woman who took three months to actually spend the whole night at my place instead of sneaking out in the dead of night."

"Things change." Danny reminded the other man. "I think you'll find she has too. I've never seen her smile the way she has been recently. Months ago she would have gone ballistic over that thing with Elgars now she's all about taking things in her stride."

Flack wrapped his hands around the pint glass, his thumbs ticking out a tune as his turned his head to Danny sensing that the other man had something more to say.

"She dropped by the Lab yesterday and picked up the escape bag she was keeping at the bottom of her locker." Danny submitted, a wide grin spreading across his features like a Cheshire Cat.

Flack stared at his friend stunned, on the way in Grace had dropped in lunch for him and Angell at his desk yesterday he had never dreamed that she had another motive entirely for being in the area. The escape bag had been weighting on his mind recently, Will Hamlin had been officially charged last month. The bastard had been given five years for assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon. Mac's case had been airtight, only the fact that he hadn't actually gotten the chance to take a shot at Grace with her weapon had prevented them from upgrading the charge to attempted murder.

Grace had been a wreck in the weeks pre-dating the trial. Flack would wake up in the early hours to find her side of the bed empty and the window in the lounge leading to the fire escape open. Many a night he'd found her sitting out there, clad in one of his hockey jersey's smoking from the emergency pack of Marlborough's she kept to hand. On nights like that he would take the blanket from the back of the couch and fold it around the both of them while they watched the sunrise on the city in silence.

"Made you think no?" Danny said breaking through Flack's memories with a knowing look.

"Nine months isn't a long time." Flack stated staring into the depths of his glass.

"Almost six years Flack." Danny pointed out. "That's how long the two of you have been doing this dance."

Danny was right, their relationship had had started the moment the two of them had met. There hadn't been another woman that could fulfil him after she'd walked into his life, even though he had spent years trying to fill the hole that was aching in his soul. They had wasted so much time searching for each other in the depths of other people. This was it for him. There wouldn't be anyone else after her.

Flack rubbed the back of his head. Everyday their job was filled with more and more uncertainty, hell the entire world was. Who knew what was going to happen tomorrow?

Why waste the moments you have left?

How close had the two of them come to losing each other over the years? The answer was staring Flack dead in the face as he thought about it.

Too many...

"We live in dangerous times." Danny told him. "I say if you love her go for it."

"Your a romantic at heart you know that Messer?" Flack said, clinked his glass against Danny's beer bottle in agreement before chugging down the rest of his pint.

He rose to his feet, snatching up his leather jacket off of the bar.

"Where you going?" Danny asked, frowning at the other man's sudden change in behaviour.

"There's something I gotta do." Flack responded, tugging his jacket up over his shoulders.

"Now?" Danny exclaimed, his face lighting up as he clambered to his own feet.

Flack shrugged his shoulders, that boyish smile was back on his features and Danny could see the extent of the happiness shining in his friend's eyes as the two looked at each other.

"Good luck man." Danny beamed, clapping Flack on the shoulder in joy.

"It's Grace we're talking about here." Flack reminded him, rolling his eyes. "I'm gonna need all the luck I can get."