Team Spirit - a Reed900 fanfiction

A shot of love (bonus story)

Author's note: A new part in the Team Spirit AU. Enjoy!

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The screen that gave the corner of detective Reed's desk some privacy doubled as a message board. It was officially against the rules to stick pins in the grey felt-like fabric that covered the screen, yet every officer did it anyway. Family pictures, to do lists, cards with inspirational or funny quotes, anything to brighten up the grim grey and white of the bullpen.
Gavin had take out menus of his favourite restaurants pinned next to his terminal. That would be it, if Tina Chen hadn't intervened. Now, there also was a picture. It was taken somewhere in the forests of the Belgian Ardennes, during their team building weekend a couple of months back. Mud-covered people showed white smiles and bright eyes, their features hardly recognizable. The detective was on the far right, flipping the camera off. Next to him was his friend Tina, giving him bunny ears.

Gavin leaned back in his chair and looked at the picture for a moment. There was one person missing in that photo; the one that took the picture, the one that captured his interest that weekend. If he wanted to see that person, he had to open the picture gallery on his phone. There were four pictures of Nines saved. Three of them were sent to Gavin by the outdoor instructor himself. There was one that showed his face from up close, with behind him a valley with rolling fields and green hillsides, bathing in the warm light of the golden hour. 'My favourite view', was the accompanying text when Nines sent him that photo. Another one showed Nines and his brother Connor, sitting on top of a huge pile of large bags: the outdoor season was over and they had taken down all the tents at the campsite. Gavin liked the sentiment that picture held: Nines would be coming back to the Detroit area. The third one was a mirror selfie, showing the tall man in a light blue outfit. The sensible outdoor clothing was gone, replaced by easy to wash scrubs and white plastic clogs. He started his training as a nurse in the Detroit metropolitan area. And even though the blue scrubs didn't show of his assets as well as a tight cycling outfit did, Nines still looked good. Good enough for Gavin to send a reply in the form of a gif, with a wolf whistling cartoon figure. Hellooo nurse!
And there was the picture that Gavin found when he was scrounging the website of CB-Life, scrolling through pictures of outdoor activities, dotted with figures in black and white polo shirts, until he found that lean back and broad shoulders, those strong arms holding a large bow with an arrow knocked on it. He hit the bullseye moments after that picture was taken, Gavin was sure of it. The way the black cargo pants spanned across that firm butt was its own kind of bullseye.

Unfortunately, Nines' schedule was packed. The training to be an ER nurse was no joke and it left him hardly any free time. Combined with Gavin's often long hours at the police station, their contact consisted mostly of text messages at odd hours, with the other sometimes replying hours later when they finally had the opportunity to look at their phone.
They had one coffee date, almost two months after they first met. Nines just came back from the Belgian Ardennes and he had a couple of days off before he would start at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

After Gavin made the deal to go abseiling in exchange for a phone number and a kiss - best deal of his life, if you asked him - they had been texting pretty much every other day. It was one kiss, after a weekend with some obvious and more less obvious flirting. Gavin liked Nines a lot and he had a feeling it was mutual, yet they both erred on the side of caution. It could just be a holiday fling after all. So they decided to start with going out for coffee. A coffee date of almost three hours. And it would've been longer, if Gavin's phone didn't go off, with an irritated lieutenant Anderson on the other end of the line, wondering where the hell he was. Leave it to Gavin to plan a first date with the most wonderful man two hours before he had to go to work.

They had another date two days ago. Drinks in a bar this time. One drink in and they were making out in a corner booth. Their second drink was only just brought to their table when Gavin's phone rang. Again. He let it ring, yet after three times Nines made him pick up. It was Anderson again, ordering him to get his ass to a crime scene asap. No matter whether you're off duty, if some nutjob decides to shoot up a bar, you have to show up.