Unspoken - Prologue

Unspoken - 1639 words

She stayed still and silent as she leant against the door frame leading to his room, her eyes following his harried form as he moved from the armoire to the bed and back again; each time taking a few more pieces of clothing with him to place in the suitcase.

She doubted that he even knew she was there. She had let herself in with the key he had given her when her knocks had gone unanswered and now she understood why. He was engrossed in his own little world, eyes only seeing as far as the items his hands were holding, as his mind worked a hundred miles an hour trying to make sense of…well anything really.

She watched as he folded the last of his shirts and put it into the suitcase, knowing from all the times they’d packed, unpacked and repacked for cases that he’d be heading to the bathroom for his toiletries next; maybe on his way he’d take notice of her standing in his doorway.

Turning sharply at the foot of the bed Declan walked straight into the bathroom, his eyes never flickering from the path in front of him, and therefore bypassing his partner completely. Holding in the sigh that threatened to escape, she moved her gaze from the bathroom entrance to her shoes, brow furrowed as she thought of how ridiculous it was that someone, certainly someone as paranoid as Declan, could completely miss the fact that there was another person standing in the room with them.

She heard his feet padding lightly on the carpet, signifying his re-entry to his bedroom, and she looked up sharply, mouth open ready to ask why he had yet to acknowledge her, when she found herself face-to-face, noses almost touching, with the man in question.

“Why are you here?” He asked; and although his tone wasn’t completely cold she couldn’t stop the shiver that ran through her at the hard edge that clipped his question.

Involuntarily she took a step back; his question and their current position were making her slightly more uncomfortable than she would have liked.

“Well?” He prompted, a frown set upon his face and his eyes dark as he leant closer to her, although she couldn’t tell whether they were filled more with grief or anger at this stage.

Pulling herself together she reminded herself he wasn’t the only one who had suffered, and yes he had been closer to Wyatt than she was and yes he had worked at the agency longer than her but they were her losses too. Not to mention the fact that she had almost lost him as well. So she decided, while he had all the right in the world to grieve and be upset he had no right to take it out on her.

Taking a step forward she poked her finger into Declan’s chest, blue eyes glaring directly into his green, “You weren’t even going to tell me that you were leaving were you? You were just going to go and then hope by the time I figured out you had gone it’d be too late?”

Suddenly uncomfortable Declan pushed himself off of the door frame and away from the petite woman in front of him. That had been his plan, let her figure it all out on her own, but as his luck would have it she had hatched onto it much faster than he had anticipated.

“You even told SSA Launch not to tell me where you were going!” she exclaimed, her voice rising slightly in agitation.

He scoffed, “You’re not my wife Augusta, or even my girlfriend for that matter, so stop acting like I’m running away from you and leaving you to play house all by yourself. I can go wherever I want.”

Her glare faded slightly as hurt seeped its way into her eyes, “I may not be your girlfriend Declan, but I am your partner and I had assumed up until tonight that I was your friend which means…” she paused as her breathing hitched and she became even more frustrated with the situation, “…damn it Declan! It means I deserve better than you leaving without a word,” and with that she turned around and stalked out of his apartment.

She made it as far as her car before the tears that were pooling in her eyes began to slowly fall; it wasn’t the first time she had cried since joining the agency but it was the first time she was crying because of Declan. Resting her head on the steering wheel she realised that there was no stopping the droplets of water, there were too many; either borne of frustration, anger, sadness or regret, too many emotions were raging down on such a small woman who usually bottled everything up inside.

Declan made no move to follow her; instead he sank down onto his bed next to his suitcase and groaned, hitting himself repeatedly on the forehead with his palm. He shouldn’t have said those things to her, he should have just told her he was going and be done with it, and then they wouldn’t be in this mess. But he wasn’t one for easy, if there was a way to complicate a situation Declan Grove would find it.

Sighing he got back up and headed towards the bathroom, his flight left in a few hours and he needed a shower.

**************************************************

Augusta jumped as she heard the back door of her car open and she lifted her head off of the steering wheel, instinctively reaching for the gun at her side, turning with its barrel coming to point directly between the eyes of none other than Declan Grove.

“I know you’re angry at me Augy, but I didn’t think it was so bad you’d want to shoot me.” Declan spoke, a slight wince appearing on his face as neither gun nor the person behind it wavered.

Glaring at him Augusta’s voice cut like a knife, “well then Grove, you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

Sinking back into the seat he tried to move out of the line of the gun – he knew Augusta wouldn’t really shoot him, but he still wasn’t comfortable with it being shoved in his face. He was about to say something about knowing her better than she knew herself sometimes when she broke in.

“Get out of my car.”

“Come one Augy, don’t be like that.” He was trying to be reasonable, even though he was feeling anything but and it was taking all of his energy not to just snap at her again and leave for the airport. But deep down he knew that they needed to talk this out even if they didn’t want to, otherwise it was just going to get worse and worse until it blew up and did irreversible damage to their friendship.

Her gun lowered slightly but the glare didn’t leave her face, “it’s my car Grove and if I want you to get out you bloody well better.”

“I just came to talk.”

“So not to apologise?” Her voice rose in accusation and her eyes narrowed, the patented eyebrow raising much farther than he’d seen it go in a long time.

He stiffened slightly and his hand rose, finally pushing the gun out of the way before he spoke, his tone a lot less friendly than it had been before. “I’ve nothing to apologise for.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” She cried, flinging the gun onto the seat beside her and shifting so that she could look at him more easily. “You’ve been acting like the most un-reasonable, self-centred, misanthropic jerk for the past week and treating me like I’m nothing more than a piece of dirt on the floor and you think you’ve got nothing to apologise for?”

Pushing himself up on the seat Declan narrowed his eyes and his tone turned even colder, “If you had just left me be and not stuck your nose in where it wasn’t needed, or wanted…”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence as Augusta’s hand reached up and swiftly slapped him hard across the face.

“H-how dare you!” She yelled, “How dare you act as if my caring is the biggest burden in the world! You have embarrassed me like I’ve never been embarrassed before. I have risked my life for you Declan Grove and you repay me by treating me as if I’m nothing more than some common…common…” she struggled to even describe how he was treating her so she let herself trail off and her words sink into the man’s head before she spoke again.

“Now get out of my car!”

This time Declan knew he’d gone too far; if the earlier comment of her not being his wife or girlfriend hadn’t been enough he’d just gone and set their fight in stone now. So without any further hesitation he got out of her car and stood watching as she sped off, tyres squealing the words of anger and distress she couldn’t quite speak herself.

Originally Declan hadn’t even planned to speak to her again that night, but when he’d walked outside to see her still sitting, hunched over in her car he had felt a small twinge of guilt pick at his heart and he felt the urge to go and try and fix things.

Unfortunately he’d only made everything worse.

Reaching down he picked up his suitcase and headed to his car; he only had half an hour to make his flight and he’d be damned if he was going to miss it. After everything he’d been through lately he deserved a break and maybe the time away from each other would do him and Augusta some good.

Yes, maybe time would make everything better.