![]() She gives amazing hugs, and Eddie returns this one firmly, breathing in the faint scent of verbena from her shampoo. Iris nods again, and then pulls him into a hug. You guys are too close to drift apart over this. He chalks it up to always wanting to see Iris happy, no matter what. “I always miss him when he’s not around.”Įddie has the strange, strong impulse to drag Barry down from his lab and into Eddie’s office just to push him into Iris’s arms. “Hey,” he says, “Maybe it’s not just you Barry’s giving space to, huh? Maybe he needs it too.” When Iris rises to leave for her lecture, Eddie catches her arm. They finish lunch in companionable silence. Iris waggles her eyebrows at him and laughs before digging back into her food. Then with a small grin, she adds, “You’re as inside as it gets.” “Then you’re not an outsider,” Iris says. Sometimes, the whole West family’s generosity just floors him. “You’re part of our family now,” she says eventually. “Compared to you and Barry, then, I’m an outsider,” Eddie says, smiling. “You’ve been here for more than a year, and we’re going to live together, you’re not-you’re you.” I was just giving the outsider’s perspective.” “Hey,” Eddie cuts in gently, “Sometimes it’s hard to see that stuff, when it’s so close and has been that way for so long. It never occurred to me, I don’t know why I never noticed when it was clearly so obvious to you, and he said it’s been for forever-” “Okay, he’s usually honest with me, almost always, except this, apparently, but-I don’t know what to think. It was so.he doesn’t expect anything from me. “He said that?” he asks, trying to sound as neutral as possible. “About him liking me.”Įddie sits back, unable to suppress that familiar flash of guilt, now doubled for having its source confirmed. “You guys have been weird since the holidays,” Eddie remarks, watching her. “I think he’s giving me space,” Iris says with a grimace. She stirs her chopsticks around in her carton of lo mein.Įddie frowns at her. It’s funny how she and Barry have exactly the same way of being happy and sad at the same time. “Smash and grab, and I’ve got a solid lead, thanks to Barry.”Īt the mention of Barry, Eddie watches Iris’s smile go crooked. She’s such a cop’s daughter-easily assuming that if they don’t have plans otherwise, Eddie will be eating at his desk. She hands him chopsticks and a takeaway box, still piping hot, and settles in her usual chair by his desk. “How’s work going? Anything interesting?” she asks, when they finally manage to pull away. Iris hums against his mouth, sounding pleased. “Hey, yourself.” He stands to kiss her, and asks for it to linger, flattening his hand on her waist. She’s wearing the gray coat Eddie has always liked on her, and what he’s pretty sure is a new shade of lipstick. It’s lunchtime before he manages to land a solid lead, but he pins it down just as Iris knocks on his door. He looks over Barry’s report, and starts searching the databases for galvanised rubber tires and mod shops. ![]() He tries not to spend all his time thinking about it, but hasn’t had much success. ![]() ![]() ![]() Then he tries to go back to work.Įddie’s current case is straightforward, for which he is very, very thankful. “You’ve made my day.”Īnother tight smile, and then Barry rushes away to his lab.Įddie stares at the vacant doorway for a few seconds after Barry disappears from it. Oh, this one’s for you, also.” He puts one of the coffees down. He’s not sure what to do with that yet, but he thinks about it, from time to time.īarry gives him a smile, both genuine and a little sad. Joe only smiles at Barry’s efficiency proud dad all the way.Īs far as Eddie can tell (though it’s only through word of mouth), Barry was never quite this fast before he woke up. Everyone knows that unless it’s a dire emergency, you don’t expect immediate results from them when they have twenty other cases in hand at any given time. People in forensics, in busy cities even with average crime rates, rarely have free time. “You didn’t bump me up the queue, did you?” “I didn’t need that report until Friday,” Eddie says mildly. “Eddie, I have the report you needed, tests are saying there’s traces of highly compressed rubber in the skid marks, definitely way above standard tire grade, so I think you might want to look into more unorthodox bike models-” Eddie wants to think that Barry does this for comic relief, but he’s pretty sure that’s asking too much. “Hey, sorry, sorry,” Barry says, coming into the office fifteen minutes late with Jitters. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |