It had been a hellish few days, to say the least. Matt had barely had time to scratch himself, let alone allow anyone else to scratch him, and it was just one of those types of cases where you had to drop everything else to focus on it. There had been some slight breakthroughs, of sorts. They just weren't entirely positive breakthroughs. To start, fibres from Hunt's car had been found under the victim's fingernails, and there was traces of DNA from the victim, Hunt, and other unknown persons in the back seat... from semen. None of it threw a positive light on Hunt, but at the same time, none of it was enough to convict him. He wasn't the only one who used his car, and with his sexual history, it wasn't a surprise that there were unknown semen traces in the back seat. The only thing was, the victim was there at some point in the recent past, though without a sworn statement from Hunt as to whether it was him who had the guy there, or the driver, it was just still all messy.

( It had also hit a stalemate... )


Word Count | 4,396

[Follows THIS, THIS and THIS]

Vee was grateful for at least one thing: no matter how fucked things had become, Matt still gave her warning of when he was coming home. Especially when she had promised to get them fish dinners and have them here ready for him. And she had, but then there had also been a lot of candles to set up, and music to put on. There was also the unwrapping of certain express post items, and emergency waxes.

Vee put on a black silk robe over the top of her surprise for Matt, and tried not to fidget too much. The outfit that Euan seemed to deem worthy of jerking off too was fucking uncomfortable. While she was no stranger to thongs, thongs with feathers that still managed to tickle the wrong places were another story. Then there was the bra. Her breasts felt like they were being coddled by baby ducklings, and Vee didn't find it particularly sexy. She just had to hope Matt did because she really, really needed to make up for her emotional, and devious, shortcomings.

She heard him start to come in the door, and did a quick final check of her hair, and make-up before she went to greet him with a smile. The black robe was still in place, and she stretched up to kiss his lips softly. "Welcome home, Detective. Can I take you coat?"

( Matt hesitated just a little as he pulled his scarf off and placed his keys on the table beside the door... )


Word Count | 3,551

Matt only needed to spend a few days in hospital after getting his appendix out. Once he was able to get up and walk, albeit like an old age pensioner, he was allowed to go home into the care of... someone. He wasn't allowed to be alone for another week in case he had some post-operative complications. The situation alone could have potentially been a complication. Ronnie had initially offered for Matt to come stay at his place, but this was before Vee had come and intended to stay. The compromise was offered that she could stay there, or they could go back to Matt's and Ronnie stay there too if he wanted to play watch dog. That wasn't actually Ronnie's intention, though. He just had Matt's well-being in mind, and relented, okay with Matt going back to his own apartment and into Vee's care. Matt was okay with it, even if he wasn't completely sure how he felt being mostly reliant on Vee. It was going to be a learning curve for him. He had never really had to rely on anyone like this before.

( They just arrived at the apartment and Matt was already buggered just from the journey from the hospital... )


Word Count | 3,907

4.1. "There's definitely a dangerous feeling when you're in love…it's giving your heart to someone else and knowing that they have control over your feelings. I know for me, who always tries to be so tough, that's the dangerous thing."
Beyonce Knowles

Co-written with nychandcuffs
[Follows THIS]

Matt quickly swallowed down the last couple of mouthfuls of his tepid coffee as he closed over the file of telephone numbers he was trawling through. It was another needle in a haystack job, and it could wait for a little while. He dug the car keys out of his drawer and stood up, shoving them in his pocket. He didn't think Vee would mind getting taken to the airport in one of the unmarked cop cars. It wasn't like she wouldn't be used to it. "I'm heading out for a couple of hours, Ron. I'll be back," he promised, mid-journey to the coat rack. It might not be raining outside, but it was a typical freezing London evening as they veered closer to winter.

Ronnie looked up from his own pile of files, frowning at Matt over the top of his glasses and then took them off. "Out where?" he asked. "You found something, Matty? What have you found?"

Matt shook his head. "Nothing. I'm still looking, and I'll keep looking when I get back. I've just got a... thing. I won't be long, alright? Call me if anything comes up."

Ronnie's eyebrow quirked at the statement. "Sure it's not something of yours coming up, sunshine?" he teased, smirking to himself as he picked up his own coffee mug. "You hired some company?"

Matt had the decency to look scandalised. "What? No! Bloody hell," he complained. He was aware that if he kept trying to pull these weird acts, Ronnie was going to get continuously suspicious, and if Ronnie got continuously suspicious, others would too. Sure, Matt had some odd detective techniques when he needed to. He was hardly innocent in getting what he needed during investigations, but this wasn't an investigation and since Vee had arrived in town, Matt knew he must be acting strangely. "I've got a date." It wasn't really a lie.

This time, Ronnie's eyebrows shot up with interest. "And you're coming back here in a couple of hours? Have I taught you nothing? Not very much positive optimism there, Matty. When did you stop expecting dates to end with sex?" He stood up and stretched the tired muscles in his back. "Or expecting them to end in really bad sex, if you look at it from another angle. You aren't having downstairs issues, are you?"

Matt rolled his eyes and roughly yanked his scarf around his neck. "It's a quick date, that's all. I never expect any date to end in sex. Then if they do, it's a pleasant surprise, isn't it?" He held his phone up, reminding his partner that he had it and then left before Ronnie could quiz him further. Maybe it was time to reveal to Ronnie what was going on with Vee. Maybe, by the time she stepped on that plane tonight, he would need to.

* * * * *


( Now stuck in traffic in-bound to Heathrow Airport, Matt softly drummed his fingers on the steering wheel of the sleek car before reaching to adjust the heating. It felt like it had dropped a few degrees just between Vee's hotel and here. It almost felt like it was going to snow, but the forecast said it wasn't quite going to reach that just yet... )

Ronnie is an NPC. Not binding on any Ronnie muses.


Word Count | 3,743