nick and finn and angst #2 CAUSE I CRAVE PAIN
“Mistakes are easily made in the moment. Apologies are not.”
The case file notes and photos lay scattered on the floor while her frantic hands struggled to grab them and shove them all back together but it was too late. He wore a horrified look at the sight of images and memories he thought were long gone; a collapsed ceiling, a man with dark frame glasses, camera equipment and stacks of video tapes.
“What were you doing with these?” he demanded of her, raising his voice.
“Nothing,” she protested as she stood behind the desk looking guilty.
“Don’t lie to me” he snapped at her “who told you about this?”
She bit her lip, torn between spilling the identity of her confidential informant or continuing to be yelled at by him.
“Tell me now!” he shouted and she wrung her hands together as she choked out “Sara” and he snarled in anger.
“But only because I asked her,” she quickly tried to spare her co worker his wrath.
“It’s none of your business,” he reminded her “you’re always snooping and getting into stuff that’s not for you to know”
“I’m sorry,” she pleaded with him now “it’s just, we talked about the kidnapping and I figured you’d tell me about this guy but when you didn’t, I got curious so Sara told me where to find the file”
“Because that’s all I am to everyone around here, some case to be studied” he snapped, waving his hands over the scattered files.
“No, it’s not like that,” she tried to explain but was at a loss for words “look, I made a mistake okay, I should have waited for you to tell me about the stalker.”
“Damn right” he said breathless, his heart racing, how could she do this to him? Break a trust they worked so hard to build.
“I’m sorry” she said again “I won’t snoop through your stuff anymore, I promise”
“You know, it’s so easy isn’t it?” he challenged her “to mess up, to make mistakes, that’s what you do, you don’t think, just like Seattle, but then you assume you can just smooth it over with a lame apology, that’s not how it works”
He turned his back on her as she twisted her hands together, wracked with guilt, hating herself for being nosy, wondering what to do to earn back his trust if that were even possible at this point.
