FANDOM: L A Heat

TITLE: BLOOD ON THE WATER

RATING: NC-17

PAIRING: Chase/August

SUMMARY: August helps Chase deal with Nichole’s death.

ARCHIVE: You want it, go for it...just let me know first.

DISCLAIMERS: Not mine, but ain't they cute.

No betas, the style is mine and mine alone. So, sock it to me, baby.

Blood On The Water

By PEJA

August found Chase standing over Nichole's grave. It hadn't been hard. He'd found him there every night for a month now. Just standing there staring into the midnight sky as if the answers to the questions plaguing his soul might be miraculously revealed to him. As if the night would somehow, suddenly give up its secret knowledge.

"Time to call it a night, Chase," he said softly, just like every other night.

Chase looked through him, his laughing eyes long gone, swallowed by a grief so strong it threatened to destroy him.

"Chase, let me take you home."

The blonde man nodded.

Getting Chase into the car was a heart-rending chore. The once reckless man moved like the aged dying. The weight of the world grinding him into a phantom of what he had been before her death.

And the suspension hadn't worked to bring him back to himself, either. Instead it had been the final break in his strong spirit, rendering him virtually blinded to the world, a soul without a purpose.

"Chase, this has got to stop." August said, starting up the car.

Chase remained silent on his side of the car, slumped in on himself.

"Are you listening to me, Mac?"

Silence.

"Mac, dammit...."

"I hear you," Chase said, his chin hitting his chest. "Just don't see any reason to argue the fact."

"No reason.....Dammit, Chase, what's going on with you anyway? Nichole is dead. Moping around isn't gonna bring her back. Getting yourself arrested and suspended didn't help nail the guy responsible for her death. So you tell me, what's going on with you, huh?"

A long silence hung in the air. August thought Chase was just going to follow his usual pattern since the murder and ignore the question until Chase finally said, "We were talking about moving in together, Aug. Did I tell you that? I was even thinking I might just ask her to marry me. Let her make an honest man of me."

"Yeah, I kind of figured as much," August said. "She was a good woman, Chase."

Pain splintered the grim mask that was Chase’s face. "Don't spout platitudes at me," he whispered, his voice breaking over tears that promised to choke him.

"Dammit, Mac. What do you want from me? How can I help you if you jump all over me every time I open my mouth? Hell, I loved her too, you know?"

That seemed to reach him. Chase turned his head and actually focused on his friend. "Yeah, you did, didn't you?"

"Course I did, partner. Anyone who can love you deserves my love, huh?"

"Yeah." A sad smile ghosted over Chase's lips. "Yeah, I hear that."

Silence descended on the car again .

"Chase?" August said after several moments passed.

"Yeah?"

"You are gonna be all right with this, aren't you? You're not gonna let it kill you, are you?"

Chase went real quiet, real still.

"Ah God, big mouth stupid question if there ever was one, there Augie’

"Chase..."

A tired sigh broke from the blonde man. "I'm gonna be all right, Aug," he said softly. "Just need time, is all."

"Good, 'cause I really miss the irritating guy you used to be, Chase." August confided. "This shadow impression you been pulling just ain't good, you know?"

Chase turned his face to the window and the rest of the ride was done in silence.

"Want to come in for a drink?" Chase asked as he opened the door and slid out of the car.

August looked up at him in surprise.

"I could really stand some company, Aug," he added. "Got a case chillin' in the fridge. You can call the wifey and park on the sofa for the night."

August nibbled on his lower lip, suddenly nervous. It had been a long time since they had done an all- nighter outside of the job.

"Look, forget I mentioned it," Chase said suddenly swinging the car door shut.

"No, wait," August shouted, getting out and running around the car to his friend and partner's side. "I think that's a great idea, Chase. We'll make a night of it, okay?"

Chase looked him in the eye. "Just the boys."

"Right," August agreed, brushing a stray curl back from Chase's eyes. "Like it used to be."

Chase smiled that sad smile that had replaced the joyous one of before and laced his fingers through August's. "I'd like that, Aug."

Several hours and half a case of beer later, Chase leaned his head back on the sofa and closed his eyes. "Her death was pointless, Aug. Absolutely pointless. " He took a deep swallow, emptying the bottle and snagged another from those waiting on the floor in a cooler, rolling it between his hands. "If I hadn't hesitated she would be alive right now. If I just hadn't waited."

'Oh Christ,' August realized with a start. 'He's blaming himself for Nichole's death.'

"You don't know that, Chase."

"Don't I?" Chase denied, tears slipping down his face. "I think I do."

August scooted across the sofa and drew his friend into his comforting embrace, patting the blonde man's back. "Believe me, Chase. You could not have prevented her death. He killed her out of spit. Nothing less. Hell, we had him. He knew it. The man was a glory hound, looking for a way to go out with a bang, not a whimper. Nichole was just the unlucky target of his aggression."

Chase buried his face in August’s neck. "This sucks, Augie. She trusted me to get there in time. Why didn’t she wait?"

"I don’t know," he murmured.

The first tentative kiss on his neck, even though it was expected…anticipated, actually, startled August. The next, accompanied by shaking fingers on the buttons of his shirt, spurred his own hands to move beneath Chase’s sweater, feeling the tight muscle that quivered at his touch. "You sure, Chase?"

Chase shoved the shirt from August’s dark shoulders. His lips tracing the gleaming column of his lover’s neck, the heavy grain of his shoulder, then down to suckle at a dark hard nipple. Demanding fingers toyed with the other, sending a shock of purest pleasure to August groin.

August would never know how the rest of their clothes vanished, but suddenly they were naked, skin burning on hot skin, cocks locked together in Chase’s long fingered hand and humping against each other like bunnies on speed.

August let his partner control the pace, knowing the blonde man needed to take what he needed, needed to reconnect with the living, before they could get onto the honest to god slow loving. And Christ, even this desperate act felt like heaven. Pushed him to the brink of the universe and over the edge.

The world came back slowly, and with it the first real smile from Chase in a month. August’s breath hitched in his chest as he saw the beginnings of the old Chase peeking out of the shadows. "Welcome home, lover.’

The smile widened into a sun-blinding grin. "Wanna do it again? On the hood of the car? The kitchen table?"

August leaned up to silence him with a deep cleansing kiss. "How about on the bed, darling. I’m getting to old for the kinky stuff."

Chase grinned wider still if that was possible and August heard a familiar clicking sound. Handcuffs snapped together over one wrist. Chase slipped the second cuff around his own wrist, crooking a light brow. "Never too old for the kinky stuff, Augie, my own. Not you."

"Did I say I was missing the old irritating Chase?" August murmured surrendering to the man he loved beyond his own life. "Must have been out of my mind."

"Nah, that’s me, remember?"

August smiled. Chase would be all right now. He’d made it round the corner.