Pete and his laptop, Wednesday night...

[x-pete.livejournal.com]

Dom had finally gone to bed, exhausted, and Pete was sitting at his desk in the next room.  He'd switched on the desklamp, but left other lights off, and he was staring at the photos spread out on the desk in front of him.  Children, some of them no older than eight, all of them thin, and undernourished looking.

He hadn't been doing enough.  He'd rationalised it, he'd told himself he was allowed some time off.  That'd he'd earned a break.

Time off.  He'd done everything but crawl into bed and pull the fucking covers over him.  He sighed, put his head in hands, and massaged his temples.

And now Bridge was dead.  Not that he'd have made a blind bit of difference to that.  But still...

He looked back at the photos of the kids, then turned and stared at his laptop, the one he'd been avoiding switching on for the last month, and then at the door to the bedroom, then back at the laptop.  Then he sighed and reached for it, flipping it open and on in a practised motion.

While it was booting, he looked back at the photos of the children, the ones Bridge had brought back for him, so he could see who it was they'd got out, and he smiled, just slightly.

He tapped in his password, and left the computer retriving the last month's backlog of emails and reports, while he made himself a cup of tea - Romany had taken one look at him, and informed him that she was sending him home with some herbal blend or other, and that he was to drink it.  She hadn't need to add "or else".

He sipped it staring at the bedroom door, lost in thought.

Eventually, the machine chimed, and he glanced back at it, then gave the bedroom door one last look, glanced at the photos and muttered "Thanks mate.  I'll keep an eye on the pair of them."

And then he went back to work.

Comments

[x-cable.livejournal.com]

Love it.

Of course, now the Dom in my head is saying that she doesn't need keeping an eye on and that whole kidnapping thing was a total anomaly.