You Are On My Mind

Code Word

A/n so y'all know that I've established sweetheart as the "code word". Here's the ficlet that explains it.

Danny Reagan had been observing his wife for a few weeks now. She seemed okay, but something in the way she walked and talked didn't sit well with him. He noted how her breath would hitch whenever he brought up work, and how her eyes briefly fluttered closed when an injured cop had been talked about. He needed to talk to her about it.
A warm night in June, he and Linda sat in their covered balcony. They sipped wine as the warm summer breeze gently blew the leaves and Linda's hair. Danny smiled at her; when he first met her, her hair was short in a long-pixie like cut. She grew it to her shoulders, then curt it off again. As he returned to the states for R&R, he noticed that her hair was growing. When he came home permanently, her hair hung past her shoulders. She cut it to her shoulders for their wedding, so she could do a little more things with it. After their honeymoon, she chopped it off again. It now hung in the same short-Bob, long-pixie like cut she would come to love.
Linda looked to Danny, "What?"
"What what?"
"You're staring at me. Why?"
"Cause you're the most beautiful person I've ever seen." Danny saw the blush creep onto her face, and he kissed her cheek. He watched her close her eyes and tip her head back, enjoying the weather. "Linda."
"Yeah?"
"We need to talk."
"'Bout what?" She looked to him, her blues eyes set in question.
"'Bout how your breath hitches every time someone mentions the force, or how your eyes close whenever a cop's been injured."
"I don't do those things."
"Yes, you do. Everything okay?"
"Everything's fine, Danny." Linda looked ahead of her, not being able to look him in the eye.
"Then say it to my face."
She looked straight at him, "everything's fine."
"You're lying."
"I am not!" She stood up and walked back into the apartment.
"Linda-" he followed her.
"How can you say that?" She ser her wine glass down on the counter. "I looked you straight in the eye!"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Maybe everything's fine right now, but it won't be when I walk out that door tomorrow. What's going on?"
"What makes you think something's going on?" Linda walked into the kitchenette to put her empty wine glass in the sink.
"Broken eye contact, pushing your hair back even when it doesn't need to be pushed back."
Linda removed her hand from her hair and cleared her throat. "So? That's just- that was coincidence." She shrugged, still not looking at him.
"Linda," Danny said a little sternly, turning her around to face him. His hands rested heavily on her shoulders, so she couldn't move. "Talk to me."
Linda sighed. "What if- What if I never see you again? There's a psycho killer out on the streets, and you've got a hero complex. What if- what if he gets you, an- an' I never- never see you again?"
"That won't happen. And I do not have a hero complex."
She snorted a little, "yeah, you do."
He shook his head, "look, I don't wanna argue with you."
"So don't."
Danny bit the inside of his cheek. He loved his wife with every fiber in his body, but sometimes she managed to hit every single nerve all at once. "Listen, babe. I think we need a code word."
"A code word?" She slipped past him and out the kitchenette. "What kinda code word? And why?"
Danny followed her into the bedroom, "we need to establish a word for when something like that happens."
"Something like what?" She pulled her sundress over her head.
"When I ask you a question, and you don't answer. Or vice versa." He watched her easily shuck her bra off and onto the floor.
"Why?" She pulled a T-shirt of Danny's over her head.
"Linda...." he sighed. "We need a word to get the point across. The point being: don't give me any of that shit. We need a word that immediately says 'you gotta talk to me'. If you ask why...."
"What word?"
"It should be something like a pet name. Like sweetie or honey or something like that."
"I don't see me using honey, but I probably will."
"How about sweetheart then? I think that's an old fashioned term."
"I just don't like calling you that. Why do sweetheart when sweetie will suffice?" She tossed her clothes in the hamper in the bathroom.
"So whenever one of us class each other 'sweetheart', we'll know we mean business."
"What kinda business?" Linda raised her eyebrows, playing with the three buttons to Danny's shirt.
"The stop-giving-me-shit business." He put his hands on her hips. "Deal?"
She kissed him passionately, then pulled back mid kiss. "Deal." She smiled sexily and walked into the bathroom.
Danny chuckled and shook his head. He followed her, glad they came to an agreement.