Nocturne | ONC 2024

Nine: The Meeting

Several glasses of water and a veritable cocktail of painkillers later, after a shame-faced call with Bill over the phone and the fastest shower of his life, Aaron marched into the station with his head up, as if his temples weren't still pounding and embarrassment a tight coil in his gut. True to his word, Nikolai had dropped the topic altogether; by the time Aaron had stumbled out of the shower, the room was back to being spotless, the pizza container gone and the sheets straightened out.

"I'm sorry I behaved like such a slob," he'd muttered when they got in the car to drive to the station. "I don't know what came over me."

Nikolai had only glanced at him, and though his expression hadn't changed at all, Aaron was certain the vampire was secretly finding his humiliation extremely funny. "I don't recall what you're talking about."

"You don't have to pretend it didn't happen with me, Meier," Aaron had muttered, heat returning to his cheeks and lodging there, throbbing dully. "We both know it did."

"Yes," the vampire had conceded, "but you seem so ashamed of yourself that bringing it up feels cruel."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Nikolai had shaken his head. "Never, Evans."

Aaron had seen him pressing his lips together in the rearview mirror.

Bill was waiting for them in the lobby, and Aaron realised that it was possible to feel worse than he already did, at the look of worry and exhaustion on his supervisor's face. The man's phone was still in his hand.

"Evans," he said, the relief in his voice obvious. He spared Nikolai a curt nod. "Good evening, Meier. I hope you don't mind if I have a quick word with my officer. We're taking the meeting with Simms in Meeting Room Four, and he'll be here in ten minutes."

Nikolai nodded in return, and swept off down the corridor without a backward glance, dark hair billowing in his wake, polished leather shoes making no noise on the tiled corridor floor.

Bill waited until Nikolai was no longer in sight, and then for a few moments after that, before he rounded on Aaron.

"Why did you go home with him, Evans?" he demanded. "I've trained you better than that."

"It was just for a drink." He wasn't sure his cheeks could get any hotter, but he made himself look Bill in the eye. To own up to his stupidity.

"Just a drink, eh?" His supervisor turned his phone screen round to show Aaron the slew of GPS updates he'd received from Aaron's phone all through the day. "You stayed over."

He didn't need to air the question he really wanted an answer to. Aaron scowled. "It was just a drink. He let me sleep in the guest bedroom, that was all." He sighed. "Look, I know it wasn't my best decision, but he spent the whole night keeping Tana off my back while we were investigating. It was a hard night. We went over what we found over a few glasses of wine. Nothing happened outside professional parameters."

"You know that's not what I'm worried about, Aaron," Bill sighed, exasperated, and it was a mark of just how badly Aaron had misjudged that he reverted to first name terms. "He may be helping us, he may be just as qualified as he says he is, but you are a human and he is a vampire. That will never be an equal dynamic, nor will it ever be safe. Glad as I am that you've stopped irritating the crap out of each other, professional and distant is all it can be. Do you understand me, Evans? Because so help me, I'll pull you off this case if it goes any further."

It felt like he was being lectured in his first days of training all over again, and though he knew Bill was right, he didn't want to take it all lying down. "I know, Bill. I did the training. I messed up accepting that invitation, I'll admit that, but he's never done anything that makes me think he'd hurt me."