Page 20 of Benny

Benny finished as she was pushing green beans around her plate. Spot was looking up at them both hopefully.

"Don't give her any more," Jordan warned. "She'll just barf it up, and then you get to clean it."

Benny held his hands wide. "Hey, I may be a sucker for those eyes, but I'm no dummy."

No, he wasn't, and that's what Jordan was most afraid of. That he'd remember, or force her hand more than he already had.

He leaned back in his chair, his eyes beginning to droop already as the food hit his system.

"Hit the rack," she advised. "I get the feeling you've got a lot of sleep to catch up on. I'll clean up out here."

He pushed out of the chair. "Normally I'd argue, but I might fall asleep right here if I don't get a move on." He looked out through a small gap in the curtains of the picture window. Outside the streetlights had just come on. "I feel like an old man, going to bed so early."

Jordan smiled a bit. He'd always been that way. Waking him up with sexy times when she came off shift had been one of her greatest pleasures.

"Thank you for being here with me, Jordan," he said. "I know you've got your own troubles, but it feels right to have you at my six. I hope you don't lose your job. I know being a cop is really important to you."

She nodded in response, pushing back more tears. Not here, not now. Later, in her bedroom, after he'd gone to sleep. Then she'd allow herself to grieve all over again.

~

It felt like forever since he’d slept, since he’d gone into REM and sunk so deep the world around him didn’t matter even though it’d just been this afternoon. God, he was so fucking tired. It was like the hours he'd crashed earlier had never happened.

He stretched out beneath the sheets and hoped like hell he slept as hard as he had at the penthouse, but this time for a straight eight. Spot had followed him into his bedroom, so he left the door open, and as soon as he’d laid down, the cat curled up next to him, and if Benny found it odd, he was too tired to dive into it tonight.

As everything around him started to fade, he felt the warm weight of Spot shift at his side, then heard the cat jump off the bed.

Seconds later, he heard the unmistakable sound of Jordan weeping.

It was muted, but the undeniable urge to comfort her echoed through his system. He tried to rouse himself, but sleep had already claimed him and before he could force his eyes open, get up and go to her, it pulled him into the black.

~

Benny was up early and rummaged around in the kitchen, using the pod machine to fix his first cup of coffee, then doctoring it with the cream and sugar Jordan had ordered.

It wasn’t weird that she knew how he took his coffee, he rationalized. After all, they’d had more than one cup together during therapy.

But as he sipped his coffee, he thought about her. Remembered the transcendent joy on her face that had quickly shuttered into friendly happiness when she first saw him at Beth’s apartment. About the way she seemed to know what he was going to do before he did it. About the way Spot had leapt onto his lap and settled in like she belonged there.

What kind of name was Spot, anyway?

It was a dog’s name. Unless, of course, you were a Star Trek fan. The Next Generation, to be specific. Then you knew, without a doubt, just like he did, that Spot was Data’s cat.

As if summoned, Spot sauntered into the room and looked up at him with those big eyes.

“You have dry food in the laundry room,” he said. “You know you only get wet food at night.” He stepped toward the sliding door to the backyard, and as his hand closed around the handle, he froze.

How in the hell did he know Spot only got wet food at night? Had he heard Jordan say it last night? He must have.

Benny opened the back door and stepped outside, the cat right alongside him. And again, he had a knowing.

Spot wouldn’t try to escape. She never did. She just wanted to be with him and get some morning cuddles.

He stopped and frowned at the cat, but Spot merely stared back at him as if he were the one being weird. And when Benny sat at the patio table, she immediately jumped into his lap, purring loudly.

As he stroked her, he thought back over the last twenty-four hours. Tried to parse the things he remembered. Tried to stitch everything he’d learned together in a way that made sense.

So he went with the facts he knew.