distracted but still there

Who: Danny and Elle
When: Evening
Where: The Round

Work had been, distracting, but at the same time not enough. He’d tried to do work, going through paperwork, sifting through crime scene photos, trying to find connections. He wasn’t thinking straight though. He wouldn’t let himself focus on her, not at all, but that didn’t mean the was focusing on anything else.

When work ended he wound up going to the Round, not feeling right being at home. Once he was alone in his both though he had the handkerchief in his hands, turning it over, studying the lipstick stain that mingled with the blood stain. He had no idea why this was catching his mind so much, no idea at all. Alone, away from other distractions though it was all he was thinking about. What did she mean by what he could have asked earlier? Asked about what?

As she always did when she saw the booth occupied, Elle made a beeline for it. Though there was hardly anything set in stone she couldn’t help but wonder how many more times she might make the trip through the bar to the booth. Probably a lot more times. She still hadn’t fully decided if she was going to do anything about leaving the Round and exploring new avenues or not.

“Good evening,” she greeted once she was close enough, smiling as she always smiled. Noticing he was fiddling with something, she tried to catch a closer look without seeming like she was doing so.

Hearing the voice he looked up, tucking the handkerchief behind a hand the best he could. “Hey there,” he greeted though the distraction was obvious. “Beer,” he said, shorter on conversation more than usual because he was noticing that Elle was just as blond as Rachel.

She knew Danny wasn’t exactly the chattiest man in the world at the best of times but that seemed even more terse than he typically was. Which had Elle a little curious, a little concerned. First things first, she figured it was best to attend to the customer’s order then attempt to talk to him. So she gave Danny a nod, moving off through the bar to return a few moments later with a beer. “How’s it going?” she asked as she handed it over, tone casual.

He’d gone back to looking at the handkerchief again once she was gone, turning it over in his hands. What was he doing thinking about her? There was no point in it. He wasn’t going to even see her again. When Elle set down the drink in front of him he looked up slowly then shrugged, tucking the piece of fabric into his jacket pocket. “Same as it always is. How about you?”

“Oh, you know. Same as it always is.” Elle borrowed his wording as a gentle indication that she wasn’t going to give a real answer if one wasn’t going to be afforded to her. That and there were things probably best not discussed with Danny, and certainly not without gauging his mood first. “What’s it always like for you?” she asked instead, subtlety studying him for some giveaway.

He knew was she was doing. They’d made him detective for a reason and he could pick up on even the subtlest of interrogation techniques. “Work, protecting the weak, all that,” he answered, vague, even if he hesitated on the protecting line. Rachel had called him a hero. She couldn’t have meant that. “What’s it always like for you?”

“Well, speaking as one of the weak I’m glad you’re always protecting them. And all that.” Elle wasn’t yet deterred by his non-answer. If anything it made her want to get under the surface a little more. With a little bit of a smile, she shook her head at him. “I have it on quite good authority that there’s not really anything of note. So I won’t bore you with it,” she answered lightly.

He couldn’t smile, he wasn’t much of a smiler anyway. “Always here,” he guessed, shrugging a little. “You don’t bore me kid,” he said patting her hand. “But nothing interesting is good too, means nothing’s going wrong right?” He glanced at the bar as a whole then looked back at her. “They still treating you alright here?”

“That was kind of my take on it,” she agreed. “There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of calm.” Elle herself may not have had much of interest but often things of interest swirled around her, involved her in some manner. When her own life remained on a mainly even keel it was much easier to be even for everybody else. “Oh, it’s fine here. Everyone’s great.” She paused for a second. “There’s even been some encouragement for me to spread my wings. In a good way.” Not including the part where she shouldn’t be okay with working in a dive.

Danny almost sighed in relief at the idea of getting away from talking about himself. Not to mention the distraction pulled away from thoughts he shouldn’t have about Rachel, concerns that were building when there was no need for concern. She was fine without him. She didn’t need a hero, she’d said it herself. “Spread your wings?” he asked, latching on to what Elle was saying. “How so?”

Looking down, Elle gave him a bit of a shrug. “By not being here?” she replied hesitantly. Okay, that didn’t sound so good. It was still a little bit of a sore point. “It’s just... It’s surprising how people think I shouldn’t be here. Surprising to me, anyway.” She shook her head, not really sure why she was saying this to Danny. It wouldn’t surprise if he agreed with that point of view.

He watched her, studying her carefully. “I can’t say I disagree. This isn’t exactly the gentlest place in the city,” Danny pointed out. “But where would you go if not here?” That seemed important as well, what else she would be doing. This wasn’t great, but there was a lot worse out there.

“I haven’t really decided yet. I have a couple of ideas so we’ll see.” Elle shrugged again, hesitant about elaborating on what those ideas might be. There wasn’t quite enough confidence there to be doing so. “But where I might go isn’t really the problem of it. The problem is that I see you sitting in your booth and think that you’d get lonely without me here.” She said it breezily, light hearted, but there was a real concern within it.

“What ideas?” Danny asked when she didn’t elaborate. He wanted to know what they were, if she’d be safe there. At least here he could keep an eye on her. “Don’t fret over me when you could go on to bigger things,” he warned, shaking his head. The question of him being lonely wasn’t one he wanted to think on either. It had his thoughts drifting to that kiss in the rain, how maybe it would go away if he’d just ask the right questions. Frowning at himself he shook away the thoughts and focused on Elle instead. This was where his head needed to be, not flitting around the idea of some young girl who was too brazen for her own good. What if he’d been someone else, someone who was trouble. That damn girl was going to get herself killed without much effort at all. Of course, that thought didn’t help the idea in his head that he could save her, show her how not to act so that she didn’t get killed. “If it’s better than here you should go for it,” he said, pulling all thoughts away from Rachel and back on Elle.

“I’ll tell you when I know more about them myself,” she told him with a little smile. “And when you seem a little more present.” Elle didn’t mind if he wasn’t really listening to her - in some ways that was preferable - but even though he’d pretty much told her not to she was going to fret about what was on his mind anyway. She didn’t ask him out loud about it but the question was written all over her expression.

Danny shook his head. “Be sure you do. And I’m here, just things on my mind. If you want to talk about them, talk away. I’ll listen.” Not exactly his strongest trait, but he was willing to try for Elle, if it would make her feel better. That and he didn’t want to answer the question written on her features, about where his mind was because it needed to not be there.

The look started to fade. Elle guessed that if he was going to talk about whatever it was, he’d do it in his own time and poking at him wasn’t going to achieve much. Nothing good, anyway. “Well, likewise,” was all she said on it. Besides, she couldn’t really fault him because she was hardly being an open book herself. After a moment she shifted to something different. “How’s your rookie getting along?” she asked.

There was a slight bit of relief that she wasn’t going to pressure him into talking about where his mind was wandering to, and though he hardly wanted to talk about Parker, it was something neutral to latch onto. “He’s doing well enough I suppose. I haven’t had to deal with him in a few days. I suppose I should check in on him.” Just to make sure he hadn’t been shot or maimed or fired.

“He was alive yesterday,” she offered. So in that respect he was doing well enough. The smile she gave Danny had a slightly amused edge to it, gently teasing. “It sounds like you’re really beginning to warm up to him.”

“Sounds more like you’re warming up to him rather than myself,” Danny said, giving her a curious look. “When did you see him yesterday?”

He got a bit of a look in return from Elle. Not only could he join the club that thought she shouldn’t be at the Round, he could also join the one that had decided there was something going on with Parker. “I ran into him in the park, that’s all.”

The look didn’t help her case. If she was going to deny it she should look bored, not annoyed that Danny was questioning things. “Did he keep his hands to himself?”

With big eyes, Elle just stared at him for a moment. So much for a neutral topic. “Of course he did,” she answered, a note of disbelief in her voice. Then she shook her head, waving a hand. “Forget that I even mentioned him.” If that’s where the conversation was going.

Danny had to fight the laugh, part of it slipping out still. “Come on,” he said lightly. “If you don’t feel the same way that’s fine, but after meeting you he seemed a little caught up. Might not be the case now, but I’d be doing a bad job of protecting if I didn’t ask.”

“Caught up?” That wasn’t the wording Elle would have used. Or how she saw it. She looked down, shaking her head again. “I think it’s more a case of other people filling in blanks that don’t need to be filled in.” It was starting to get embarrassing, and she hadn’t expected it from Danny. “Maybe you’re just an old romantic at heart,” she teased, turning it back around on him.

“When it comes to Parker, everything’s pretty much right there on his face. If it looks like something from him, it is that.” Or that was how Danny read the boy so far. Maybe he was wrong, but he doubted it. “Me? A romantic? Hardly. That’s as far from the truth as you can get.” He wasn’t even sure what being a romantic would entail, but he was certain it was nothing to do with him.

Elle considered that. In retrospect the inkling she’d had that they had been, at times, talking about different things seemed to ring true. Oh dear. She nearly told Danny how she’d sort of upset Parker then decided against it. It would be better to just eschew the topic completely now. “Hmm,” she murmured, eyeing him skeptically. “I’m not so sure if I’d believe that. I think there’s far more under the gruff exterior than you let on.”

Danny shook his head. “No, nothing more than just more gruff,” he said shaking her off. It was curious that she didn’t have an answer about Parker, but perhaps he’d just see that the younger man was keeping himself in line around Elle.

“I don’t think that’s true,” she said with a modicum more of seriousness. And she steadfastly refused to believe she was wrong about it. Whether she was or not. “Anyway, romance is overrated,” she breezed with an easy smile. Though she didn’t really believe that either.

Danny gave her a look that said he didn’t believe her on either count, but he kept his musings to himself. “Don’t keep looking for the soft side, you won’t find it. I just get more jagged the digger you deep.”

Coming to perch at the edge of the booth, Elle put a hand over his. “I’m going to be a little blunt, okay?” she warned, voice gentle and leaving a brief pause before continuing. “Stop,” she told him, eyes on his. “I don’t know why you keep trying to convince me you’re this surly guy through and through when you always end up showing me you’re not. So... enough. I mean it.” Her face was uncharacteristically severe, no little smiles creeping through or anything like that. It was an effort to maintain and didn’t fit her at all but she wanted to make her point.

He didn’t think she was capable of being blunt, so when she warned him, he gave her a curious look. The comment gave him pause, more due to the source than anything else. He waited when she was done, to see if she’d cover it up with a smile, but when she didn’t he leaned back more in the booth. He didn’t move his hand from under hers, but nodded. “I will try.”

Elle just watched him for a little while, somewhat wary that she might have overstepped the mark and he wouldn’t take it well. The stern expression gave way to visible relief when there didn’t seem to be any repercussions coming. Not only that but it seemed he might have even listened to her. She gave his hand a squeeze then let it go. “Good,” she said softly. “I don’t say these things because I think I should or just to try and make you feel better. It’s how I feel.” Finally a smile began to come through. “You’re just going to have to learn to accept that.”

Danny wasn’t sure he believed her, but he would make an effort to be the way she wanted around her. “I suppose I am.” He reached for his beer, finishing it off and put some money on the table. “Stay dry,” he warned, though it carried the usual undertone of staying safe like he always warned.

“Yes, you are,” Elle said with a quiet sigh. He’d said he’d try. That was something, and she figured she’d have to make to with that. “Don’t worry. I have an umbrella.” And that carried the usual undertone that he didn’t need to worry himself. “Be careful out there,” she added, still sure something wasn’t quite right.

It was the kind of weather where an umbrella made little difference, but Danny nodded nonetheless. It didn’t matter how often she told him not to worry. He kept at it. “Always am,” he said resting a hand on her shoulder for a moment before pulling the collar up on his coat as he went to embrace the rain.