Open Case File [COMPLETED]

Starting Again (Part 5)

So this is my apology for the previous three chapters. I hope it heals the hole in your heart or at least patches it up a little.

If you haven't read the previous three chapters I don't even know if you'll want to but it will make this one chapter more clear as they are referenced.

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As Donovan blew out the last match, the door to the apartment opened and Carter walked in, kicked off her shoes, and tossed her satchel onto the dining room table.

"That's it," she said. "We are going to be destitute, there's no way around it."

Concealing a smile, Donovan sank back on the couch, looking at Carter. Surrounded by a room full of candlelight, she seemed to glow, the flickering flames warming her tan skin and glinting off of her blue eyes. To him, she appeared almost otherworldly, but she wasn't. She was real.

With a sigh, Carter flopped onto the couch beside him, resting her head back, eyes closed.

"We'll be homeless," she said. "You'll have to walk the streets so that photographers can see you and offer money to take your picture for some fancy magazine they work for." 

"Will you be walking beside me?" Donovan asked, not sure if he should be amused or annoyed that she didn't notice the candles everywhere.

"No. I scowl too much. They wouldn't want my picture."

"The interview went that badly?"

She gave another sigh, this one resigned. "Not in the beginning. I make a very impressive candidate. But then when I mentioned that I have the ability to see what others miss, he asked me such as?"

Donovan groaned. "Carter no." He covered his face with his hand. "Do I even want to ask what you said to that?"

"He asked me point blank what I could see that others missed, how was I supposed to take that any other way?"

"Just tell me."

A beat of silence. "I pointed out the fact that I knew he was sleeping with his secretary. Who happens to not be his wife."

When Donovan let out a soft chuckle, Carter sat up.

"Donovan, I don't know how others didn't see it. She smelled so strongly of his cologne you'd think she bathed in it!"

"You're right," Donovan said. "We're going to be destitute, might as well enjoy each day we have left here."

At that Carter gazed about the apartment, frowning. "Why are all these candles here? Don't tell me we couldn't pay the electricity bill already and they cut the power?"

Donovan cocked his head. "Carter, sometimes I don't know if you really don't understand what a romantic gesture is or your pretend not to know."

"A fire hazard is romantic, since when?"

Donovan stared at her, struggling between amused and bemused. Before he could decide which one he felt, Carter smiled.

"Ah, there is it," she murmured. She touched his forehead tenderly with her finger. "You get this wrinkle right there when you quite figure me out."

"You don't want me to figure you out?"

"No, I just like knowing that there are somethings left for us to discover about each other."

"Who knew we still had some mystery in our relationship." Donovan took her hand and kissed her palm. Carter quickly scanned the apartment. This act Donovan could at least decipher.