Scorned | By : kattanon Category: S through Z > The Shield Views: 826 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own The Shield, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
Title: - Scorned.
Author: - Katt.
Rating: - R.
E-mail: - kattanon@hotmail.com
Feedback: - Like it or loathe it let me know.
Archive: - I’d be honoured, just let me know. Archived at the Shield Fan Fiction Archive.
I always thought the scene in "Cupid and Psycho" where Kim Kelner takes a look at Dutch’s gun and then hangs his jacket up in the closet with her dead husband’s clothes was a little creepy. Kim is definitely a "bunny-boiler" who doesn’t take rejection well as Dutch finds out.
Disclaimer: - I don’t own any of the characters of The Shield, they all belong to Shawn Ryan and FX.
Scorned – Chapter 1.
Claudette glanced across at her partner’s desk and watched as he resolutely ignored his ringing cell phone. She narrowed her eyes slightly as he lowered his head even more and fiercely concentrated on the file in front of him.
"Aren’t you going to get that?" She asked.
He didn’t even look up at her when he replied,
"Nah, it’s ok they can leave a message on the voice mail."
As he spoke she watched the tension in his body crank up a notch or two. Then the ringing stopped and Dutch’s eyes nervously flicked to the now silent phone, and then looked up at her. He nearly jumped out of his skin, and Claudette could actually see the colour drain out of his face, as the phone began to ring again. She quirked a puzzled eyebrow at him and he finally snatched up the phone, switched it off, and jerking open a drawer threw it inside.
"Problems?" Claudette asked concern evident in her voice.
Dutch looked up at her and taking a deep breath he stood up saying,
"No…no problems just…it’s nothing. Do you want a cup of coffee?"
Without waiting for an answer he escaped to the breakroom. Claudette watched him go her eyes studying his retreating back, the tense set of his shoulders. The way he reached up and rubbed at the back of his neck with his hand. Something was bothering her partner, had been for days. He seemed tired and jumpy; several times she’d caught him staring off into space, his thoughts miles away. He was also uncharacteristically bad tempered, snapping at other people over the slightest thing. He definitely wasn’t himself, and she wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. Danny and even Vic had both asked her what was wrong with him, and she had caught Aceveda watching him thoughtfully this morning. If Dutch carried on like this he would be getting a summons to the Captain’s office to discuss his "attitude" and with the way Dutch had been behaving lately she wasn’t sure how he’d react to that. Making up her mind that enough was enough she got up and followed her troubled partner into the breakroom.
She stood by the door and watched as Dutch went about making two cups of coffee. Although she knew he realised she was there he refused to look at her. Deciding that if he wasn’t going to bring the subject up then she’d just have to be the one to do it, Claudette cleared her throat and said,
"So what’s…"
However, she got no further before Dutch suddenly jumped in interrupting her,
"So do you think ballistics is going to be able to match the bullets from this morning to that grocery store robbery last week? You know I’m sure it’s the same gang. The way both owners were shot in the head…"
His voice trailed off when, finally looking up at her, he saw the annoyed expression on Claudette’s face. Trying, but failing, to sound innocent he asked,
"What?"
Claudette snorted and leaning forward took a steaming coffee cup from the counter in front of him.
"Don’t try and change the subject son."
"What subject…I don’t know what you mean." Dutch said, trying to sound indignant.
"I’ve told you before Dutch you’d think interviewing so many liars would make you a better one."
For a second Claudette thought Dutch was going to be foolish enough to try and argue with her, keep up the pretense of wounded innocence, but fortunately for him he saw sense. As she watched he glanced away from her and his shoulders slumped in defeat.
"It’s…it’s nothing Claudette. It’s personal."
"Well maybe it’ll help if you talk to someone about it." She told him.
He quickly glanced up at her and then looked away again taking a sip of his coffee. He seemed to be considering what she’d said, maybe he was going to open up to her, confide in her. Either that or he was trying to buy himself a couple of seconds to come up with a way to wre oue out of telling her anything. Knowing Dutch as she did Claudette wasn’t at all surprised when it turned out to be the latter supposition which was the correct one.
He leaned back against the counter, trying to look relaxed and yet somehow only managing to look even more tense, and took another sip of coffee before plastering an unconvincing smile on his face. Claudette noticed the smile didn’t quite make it to his eyes and wasn’t fooled in the least. He said,
"It’s nothing Claudette…really not important at all."
Sighing Claudette realised Dutch really was determined to do this the hard way, she said,
"Look son I’m your partner, if you’ve got a problem you should be able to talk to me about it. You shouldn’t keep things so bottled up all the time Dutch."
"I’ve already told you Claudette it’s personal so…"
This time it was Claudette’s turn to interrupt him.
"Well that may be so but whatever it is you’ve been bringing it into work with you. Look Dutch you’ve been distracted for a couple of days now, bad tempered, and don’t think I’m the only one who’s noticed either."
She immediately realised that this had been the wrong thing to say as she watched Dutch close down. His eyes flicked away from her to look out at the busy squad room and his mouth tightened into a thin line. The tense set to his body language increased and putting his coffee down he said in a quiet voice,
"I’m sorry, I didn’t realise it was affecting my job performance. Don’t worry I won’t bring any…any…inconvenient emotional baggage into work with me again."
"I didn’t mean it like that Dutch. I’m not criticizing you, I’m just worried…"
He abruptly interrupted her, his voice cold,
"Well you don’t need to be Claudette. I’m perfectly fine, perfectly able to look after myself, sort out my own problems thanks…I really don’t need any help, and I really don’t need to talk about anything…so if you’ll excuse me I’ve got work to do."
With that he brushed past her and returned to his desk. She watched as he sat down picking up the previously discarded file and scowled down at the crime scene photos in there.
Letting out an annoyed and frustrated breath Claudette thought "Well I did a brilliant job of getting him to open up to me there…idiot!" However, she was determined that this wasn’t the end of the matter. She’d leave it go for now, but decided that she’d be keeping an extra close eye on her partner for a while.
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