Patience

Author's Note: This will be a slow burn type of romance/drama with more emphasis on the love rather than sexy times. If you're looking for more of the sexy times this may not be your cup of tea.

***

It was a hot summer day and was looking like it was going to be a long one as I pulled my old Denali into a parking space at the downtown Dover bus terminal. The heat and humidity hit me like a brick as I got out of the truck and noticed my partner Joe a few spaces down getting out of his car. We were there to go over some of the station's surveillance film in relation to a string of robberies that had been taking place in the area.

Sweat was already forming under my dress shirt and buttoned up collar and part of me was wishing I had dressed down like Joe had and worn a standard department golf shirt, but years of military dress code wouldn't let me. I grabbed my backpack and walk over to meet Joe.

A quick hello to Joe and we quickly walked up the main steps into the bus terminal. We had entered the main lobby of the terminal and were discussing exactly what it was we would be looking for. We were near the far end of the lobby about to head down a small corridor that led to the offices when I heard someone call my name.

"Robbie...Robbie." I heard a voice that I hadn't heard in years calling. I turned to see a big part of my past running to catch up with me. Her name was Bella, but I had always called her Belle. We were good friends in college and If I had had my way, we would have been a lot more. But she always went for the 'bad boy' type and looked at me as a buddy or kid brother.

Even though it had been about 5 or 6 years since I had last seen her, she was still the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Long blond hair framed a face and smile that oozed beauty and the jeans and t-shirt she wore showed she still had the body I had often fantasized about exploring. As she got close though I could see some of the freshness of her youthful beauty had been replaced with a very slight careworn look.

As she got to me, she dropped the 2 bags she was holding and threw her arms around me, and I returned the embrace. Holding her brought back all the conflicting feelings I had for her. I had always loved her and would do anything for her, and often did, but it was hard knowing she would never feel the same about me.

"Belle it's good to see you." I said surprise filling my voice as we released each other from embrace. "It's been too long. What have you been up to? I didn't know you were in Dover." Realizing Joe was watching this whole thing unfold with a look of confusion on his face I quickly added, "Oh this is my partner, Joe. Joe this is Belle, an old friend of mine from my college days."

After a quick acknowledgement of Joe, I saw a flash of sadness cross her face before she said, "It must be a godsend that you're here. I've got some big problems and maybe you can help." I was both concerned and irritated at the same time. It was often the same in our younger days where she would get herself into some sort of jam and I would have to be the one to get her out of it.

Love her or not I was still here on assignment, so I told her, "I'd love to talk Belle but I'm here on work, but if you tell me where you're staying perhaps, we can talk later on."

"That's part of the problem Robbie." she said with some desperation in her voice. "I really don't have a place to stay, and I don't have much money. My plan was to take a bus to the capital and see if I could stay with my cousin Jenn until I could figure out what to do. I've got enough left to get one of the cheap motels around there for a couple of days maybe if I couldn't stay with her."

Now I was definitely a bit irritated. "So let me get this straight. You going to take a bus to the capital in the hope that your crazy-ass cousin will be able or willing to put you up and if not, you've only got enough resources to maybe get a room for a couple of days at one of the fleabag motels around the station."

"I know it's not the best idea." she said starting to get more upset. "That's why it must be a godsend that I ran into you. If you don't want to help me just say so and I'll be on my way."

"You know I won't let you do that." I said to her. "Joe, you go ahead I'll catch up with you." Looking back to Belle, I told her, "Follow me." I led her back through the lobby and out into the parking lot to my Denali. I pulled out one of my business cards and scribbled my home address on the back and gave it to her along with my keys. "That's where I live now. Ironically, I live in the capital. Make yourself at home and we can talk when I get back. I'll catch a ride with Joe. Just don't push this thing too hard though. The head gasket is starting to go, and I haven't had a chance to get it worked on yet." Then another thought hit me. "Oh, it needs gas." I said pulling out some cash and giving it to her. "Don't use the station down the block, too many shady-ass people hang around there. Use the one near the interstate onramp."

"Robbie?" she said as she got into the Denali.

"Yeah."

"Thank you. I know I always burden you with my problems and a lot of them are stupid mistakes on my part and I know it's made you mad more than once, but I appreciate the fact that you've never abandoned me." she said giving me a sweet smile.

Not knowing what else to say at that second since everything she said was right, I told her, "We'll talk later. I've got to go help Joe."

Back inside Joe was already in the security room and had film pulled up on the main viewer. As I took a chair beside him, he wasted no time before saying, "So are you going to tell me what that was all about?"

"I told you she's an old friend from college. Oh, and I'm going to need a ride home when we're done." I replied simply.

He scoffed saying, "Oh come on don't give me that. She pops up literally out of the blue and you whisk her off, to I assume your place, giving her your Denali. She's clearly more than an old friend."

I sighed loudly as we continued to watch footage of criminals shattering the window of the shop across the street. "It's a complicated situation Joe and one I really don't feel like talking about right now. Can we just get this footage looked at and downloaded?"

Joe chucked before saying, "Alright whatever you want." After a short pause he added, "Robbie."

"Don't call me that." I shot back trying not to get too irritated. Belle was the only one who called me Robbie everyone else called me Rob or Robert. Thankfully at that point Joe decided to stop giving me hell and we got the rest of our work done.

After getting all we could from the station footage we did the same at a few other places on the same street before taking all the footage back to the Bureau office. After giving the film to the lab techs and reporting to the chief what I was able to get Joe (with much ribbing from him unfortunately) to take me to a local Italian restaurant to get some takeout before he dropped me off at home.

"Thanks Joe." I said as I got out of his car and grabbed the food I had bought.

"Have fun." Joe said back winking and smirking at the same time. Part of me wanted to tell him off but he was helping me, so I settled for scowling at him before heading in.

Fishing my spare key from its hiding space I opened the door and walked in and found Belle stretched out on my sofa partially covered in a blanket fast asleep. I couldn't help but be taken with her beauty and the fact that she looked peaceful and at ease.

The door opening stirred her awake though. Her eyes opened and she smiled up at me saying, "Oh good you're back. What time is it?"

A quick glance at my G-Shock and I told her, "Almost 7. I brought us something to eat." indicating the bags in my hand.

"You're a lifesaver I'm starving." she said as she got up.

I grabbed some plates and forks and spread everything out and we quickly dug in. Judging by the way she was scarfing down the food I could tell she hadn't been eating much recently. I let her eat for a while since she clearly needed it not saying anything.

After we finished eating, as she was helping me wash the dishes she said, "So, what have you been up to? I know you left the Navy and were at the State Department last time we talked but how did you end up here working for SBI?"

"Doing intel work for the State Department turned out to be boring as hell and I felt like a waste of my time." I told her. "I heard of the job here and applied and been here ever since. It's a lot more rewarding."

"What exactly do you do?" she asked.

"My job title is 'Crime Intelligence Analyst.' It's almost the same thing I did at ONI and the State Department only I look at crime data and try to make sense of it." I told her.

"I lost your number a long time ago and didn't know how to get a hold of you." she said.

"Probably about a year and a half ago my phone blew up and your number didn't make it over to the new one I bought." Figuring it was time to get down to the real business at hand I added, "So that explains why you didn't call me and decided to see if Jenn could help you."

"Yeah, pretty much." she admitted awkwardly.

With the dishes cleaned up we moved back into the living room. I took my usual spot in my armchair, and she took a spot across from me on the couch. "I think it's time you told me what's going on." I said.

"A couple of years ago I started dating a guy named Chad. I met him at a bar, and it wasn't long before we were living together." she said starting her tale. I groaned inwardly, 99% of her problems stemmed from the guys she ended up dating. The 'bad boys' she liked invariably got her into trouble.

"It wasn't until after about a year after we started living together, I found out what he was really up to." she continued. "He told me he was a motorcycle mechanic. I found out he's really a drug dealer and even had a large weed farm and meth lab deep in the woods outside Dover. He was always having me get bags of topsoil and other gardening equipment and other things for his lab. When I asked what he needed it for he said his cousin was trying to start a farm."

I wanted to ask her how she could be so naive but decided to let her keep telling her story.

"Apparently the law was onto what he was up to, and he kept moving the operations deeper and deeper into the woods outside Dover, but that cut dramatically into the money coming in. I ended up paying more and more of our living expenses and he has very expensive tastes. Every time I asked Chad why he never had much money he said work was slow at the shop." she continued.

Further continuing she added, "And that's not including all the other run ins with the law he kept racking up. He could hardly go a few months without getting arrested for something. I was making good money as an accountant at the time, but a lot of my salary was going to bail him out of jail and pay his lawyers bills.

I inwardly shook my head as she continued again, "Finally, the police finally found his operation last month. Chad was there when they raided it and he was arrested. It wasn't long before the police found me and wanted to know what I knew about the operation. I told them I didn't know what he was really doing but they didn't believe me. The lead detective said I was a material witness and could be arrested if I didn't cooperate."

With the last admissions Belle was choking up and I knew she was trying not to cry. I moved from my chair over next to her on the sofa. I pulled her close and she buried her face in my shoulder as she started to cry.

Once she was done crying for the moment, she continued the narrative. "After hours of questioning and threatening to arrest me the lead detective finally let me go home. I was questioned a few times over the next several days with the same things being thrown about. They said there was no way I didn't know what he was up to and were ready to arrest me as a material witness if I didn't start talking. Then 2 days later Chad made bail draining most of my bank account to do it and quickly disappeared taking my car. That happened 3 days after the firm I had been working for laid me off saying I was 'redundant.' I think they just got tired of me having to be off to bail Chad out of jail."

"Now the DA is threatening to arrest me as an accomplice," she said as she started to cry again. "Oh, Robbie I've been so scared, and I don't know what to do."

Once she calmed down again, I dug for more facts. "Is there a warrant for your arrest?" I asked.

"Not that I know of."

"Do you have a lawyer? You're going to need one. The lead detective is right you can be arrested as a material witness or accomplice." I told her.

She weakly scoffed before saying, "Are you kidding? I can't afford one."

"Well, this is going to take some time to get my finger on and I can't do anything tonight." I tell her. "I'll see what I can do in the morning."

With that I picked up the remote and turned on the TV while she went to change clothes. After flipping through the guide a few seconds, I saw one of our old favorites, an old 70's sci-fi 'monster of the week' series where the protagonist faces off against super cheap looking monsters.

Belle re-appeared wearing an oversized t-shirt and running shorts laughed and said, "Oh my god you still watch this?!"

We spent the next couple of hours watching the show and laughing at the cheap special effects and the characters weak attempts at being sneaky or smart. About halfway through the third episode I glanced over and saw her starting to doze in and out.

I got up from my chair and gently shook her awake. "I think it's time for bed Belle." I told her gently. Though she acted like she didn't want to move she slowly got up and I led her to my bed. Once in there she realized what I was doing.

"Oh no Robbie I don't want to put you out of your own bed. I can sleep on the sofa."

"No no no you'll sleep much better here." I said as I pulled the covers back and motioned for her to get in where I normally would.

As she got in and pulled the covers over herself, I made my way to the door. As I was about to step through, I heard her say,

"Robbie."

"Yeah." I replied looking back at her.

"You're too good to me." she said as she continued to make herself comfortable under the covers.

"No." I told her. "You're not good enough to yourself. Good night love."

***

I was up well before dawn the next morning coming up with a gameplan as to what needed to be done to get Belle out of the latest hole she had dug herself into. I had a list of people I needed to call and what questions I needed to ask them when time permitted. I could do no more until I got to the office, so I sat back and decided to enjoy a little quiet time to reflect.

I put the super early news show on low volume and poured myself another cup of coffee. I half listened to the news stories as I thought of the situation I now found myself in. Nearly 6 years apart hadn't done anything to dampen the feelings I had for Belle. Nor had they done anything to stop her from getting herself in scraps and expecting me to get her out of them.

In the here and now the path forward was clear. I would pull out all the stops to get her out of this latest mess she found herself in. My heart wouldn't allow me to just abandon her. After that I wasn't sure. She never gave any indication that she saw me as anything other than a friend or maybe a brother like figure in her life. I had to figure out how to keep her from getting into these messes in the first place.

The sun slowly began to rise and filter through the windows of the living room as I pondered this conundrum. Once the sun was well up, I looked up from my thoughts and who knows what numbered cup of coffee and saw Belle appear from the bedroom. She had clearly just gotten up still wearing the t-shirt and shorts she had put on the night before with a clear case of bed head.

Even in slept in clothes and bed head I thought she still looked beautiful. I gave myself a mental shake before smiling and acknowledging her.

"Hey. You sleep well?" I asked.

She nodded and said, "Oh my god yes! I haven't slept that good since all this mess I'm in started. Your bed is way too comfy! Thank you." As she said that she came up beside me where I was sitting on the sofa and leaned down kissing me on the cheek.

I got up trying to ignore the butterflies in my stomach and telling her, "I think there's a little coffee left, if not I'll start another pot." making my way into the kitchen.

She followed me saying, "Do you have any eggs or something like that? I can make us something."

This surprised me since before she had never been much of a cook relying either on me or takeout. "Wait since when do you cook?"

She grinned at me and said, "I learned silly. The guy I dated before Chad taught me. He wanted a woman who could keep him well fed. It was great at first, but he turned out to be an asshole in the long run, a real turd when he didn't get his way." I inwardly shook my head but didn't say anything. I wasn't up for arguing or ruining what was turning out to be a pleasant morning.

Instead of waiting for an answer to her initial inquiry she began to rummage through my refrigerator pulling out eggs, bacon, and bread and a few other things. "You'll love this I promise." she said.

I showed her were all the utensils and pots were before telling here, "Sounds great. I'm going to grab a quick shower while you do that."

I shaved and took a quick shower before putting on my standard work fare of khaki pants and a blue button-down shirt and tie. I emerged back into the main area of the house to the smell of good food hitting my nostrils. As I fully entered the living/kitchen area pulling my G-Shock on my wrist on I saw Belle standing over the stove hard at work. She had somewhat tamed the bed head by partially pulling her hair back and using a stray chopstick that I hadn't gotten rid of to hold the knot in back she had tied it in.

I walked up behind her and give her a friendly poke in the side. She jumped and gave a high-pitched yelp. I jumped back as she used her free hand to take a playful swat at me and said, "Oh my god don't do that to me." and we both started laughing.

"Well don't you look sharp." she said admiringly eying me up and down in my shirt and tie. "You never dressed like this in school."

I gave myself a mental high five as I told her, "8 years in the Navy will do that to you. Military dress code is very strict. When many people get out, they swear they'll never wear ties or shave again. For some reason I didn't want to give it up. I could wear the golf shirts like you saw Joe wearing yesterday, but I prefer this."

"I like you dressed like that, and you smell good too." she said with a smile. I gave myself another mental high five.

I helped her finish making everything and we sat down to eat. We ate in silence for a few minutes before I said, "This is really good. Thank you."

She smiled at me and said, "It's the least I can do for everything you're doing for me. Speaking of which, what happens next? You said last night you would see what you could do today."

"Well, I've got a list of people I need to call and the things I need to talk to them about. But first I've got to go into the office and see about taking leave. Luckily, I've only taken 6 days leave since joining the bureau 5 years ago, so I've got a lot banked up. The chief probably won't be happy about me not giving much notice but then again he's always saying I should take more time off." By the time I finished she had a slight sad look on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I feel bad you've got to use your time off because of me." she replied sounding as sad as she looked.

I reached across the table and took her hand and said, "Hey don't worry about it. It's what I'm here for." We finished eating and I headed to the office.