One

No matter what the season or how long to go before the next fashion week, James Hayner’s days at work were never slow or quiet. From the moment he walked through the door, he had what seemed like a million and one memos, phone messages and emails that required his attention. He spent most of his time calling people back rather than actually doing his job of organising photo shoots and booking models for jobs. If it wasn’t for the fact the days always went quickly, he was sure he would hate his job.

Monday morning and his mood hadn’t improved since Friday evening when Destry had finally gotten home four hours later than he was supposed to. The blonde had been getting home later and later lately, not to mention when he was home, all he did was sleep or study until he gave himself a headache. James couldn’t recall the last time they had gone on a date or spent the evening lounging on the couch watching telly before going to bed to make love until both of them ached. When Destry had first gotten the position, he had promised he wouldn’t let it consume his life, like work usually did and yet James had known from the beginning it would, after all Destry was work obsessed, not to mention a complete perfectionist and horribly hard on himself. The whole thing had spelt disaster to the promise Destry had made when they first moved in together, the promise to cut back on the partying and the work load and for once try to relax and chill out. The partying had certainly disappeared but only because the workload had more than doubled. In basic terms, the argument was nothing new, Destry was always breaking his promises and James was always left feeling disappointed. He was sure that if he knew he could cope with out Destry in his life, he would have left him a long time ago. He had yet to work out why Destry was wasting himself on Pathology anyway. The man was stunning, sandy blonde hair, chocolate brown eyes and soft pout to match. His shoulders were broad and his waist tiny like a swimmer’s while his legs were long and strong. Even his hands were perfect, long slender fingers that once had perfectly shaped nails to go with them. Of course lately those nails had degraded, scrubbed raw or bitten down and James was certain that wouldn’t change now that Destry was reaching the more physical aspects of his course.

Sinking down at his desk, James sighed, slumping forward in his seat and covering his eyes with a hand, listening to the buzz of telephones and voices seeping through his office door. He had some hopes that work would distract him from the domestic imperfections he was suffering however no day was ever complete without a bitch fest with his best friend and co-worker. As if on the cue, the leggy brunette walked in, pencil skirt and ruffled fronted white blouse ironed to perfection and hair perfectly styled. Jenny Campbell had been working at the modelling agency far longer than James but the moment the pair met, it was like they had known each other their whole lives, not to mention lived nearly the same life. Both had long-term boyfriends with commitment issues and the inability to do anything right, not to mention both sharing a love for sushi and gossip. James wouldn’t call himself a queen but he couldn’t help but gossip or hear what ever there was to hear. Jenny certainly didn’t help the matter but she was there when James needed someone to talk to about Destry and their most recent fight. Now was no exception.

“Ah, don’t you just love Monday mornings?” Jenny smiled, setting a starbucks paper cup in front of James and positioned herself quite comfortably on the edge of his desk.

“Hm,” Was all James could offer, leaning back in his seat.

“Oh dear, trouble in paradise again?”

“When isn’t their trouble in paradise?”

“Fair point.” Jenny replied, taking a sip of her coffee. “So what did he do this time?”

“The usual, got home late and didn’t even bother to text me to let me know. I sat at home waiting for him like an idiot until one of the police officers called me to let me know he would be late home.”

“Well I know he’s been doing it a lot lately but it is his job.”

“Not really, it’s work experienced, he gets hardly anything for it not to mention he’s running himself into the ground again.”

They had all been through this before, when Destry had important exams and nearly ran himself into a nervous breakdown right before his final one some two years before. It had all been rather messy but it was after that James made Destry promise him he wouldn’t over work himself like that again. He just couldn’t get why he had to be best at everything, why he couldn’t simply settle for second best or last.

“Have you tried talking to him without making him feel like a kid?”

“Are you saying I patronise him?”

Jenny smirked and took another sip of her coffee. “All I’m saying is I’ve seen you two together and when you’re cross with him you have this ability to make him look like an idiot. I know he’s younger than you and I, but he’s still an adult, try talking to him like he’s one.”

“And when am I meant to do that?” James asked, frowning. “He’s hardly home anymore.”

“Then book a holiday or something.”

James made some noise of bemusement at the idea and leaned back in his chair, hands lacing together on his stomach. “No way.”

“Why not?”

“Can you honestly see Destry giving up his job to go on holiday?”

The looked that came across Jenny’s face was all too typical of the young woman. In their business it certainly paid to be sneaky, to have one up on the people around you and Jenny was a pro at it, she certainly had taught James a thing or two about getting his own way around the office. Already James was regretting asking, although at the same time he was curious to know what Jenny had up her sleeve.

“Well don’t give him a choice, book the holiday without his knowing and then there is no way he can get out of it.”

James raised an eyebrow at this and leaned forward momentarily to grab the coffee waiting for him before sinking back in his seat and staring off into space, weighing out the idea. Destry had admitted to him that he hadn’t been on holiday since he was fifteen and that had only been to the south of France for a few days. They had talked about going to Canada to visit James’ family but it never happened, Destry always found a reason not to go, most of which were work related. The idea of a holiday seemed perfect though, perhaps Dubai, or somewhere in Greece, if he booked it now, they could get a decent deal and a nice place to stay, all he had to do was decide where, book the time off and somehow force Destry onto the plane. The last part would be the hardest but then again, James had made friends with one or two of the DC’s that Destry had worked with a few times now and he was sure he could get some help in getting Destry time off. The problem was would it start another argument?

“Okay, I’ll give it some thought.”

“Great!” Jenny beamed, a delighted smile covering her lips before she hopped off the desk and leaned down to kiss James’ cheek. “Must go, models to terrorize.”

“Play nice.”

--

The weekend off had meant to be a chance to catch up with homework and even a little sleep but neither had really occurred thanks to the ongoing argument. By the time Monday rolled around, Destry felt even more tired than he had when he dragged himself home at midnight on Friday evening. James had really made a good attempt at making Destry feel guilty and had actually done a pretty good job of it as well. Even when they weren’t saying things to each other, there was still that air between them, something that had them both on edge and didn’t help their tempers in the slightest. It seemed nothing had been fixed and it probably hadn’t been since they hadn’t really talked things out, they never did, they just waited until they snapped, yelled at each other and then fell into bed together. This time it seemed it was taking a little longer to get to that point. At any rate, Destry felt twice his age and he was no longer certain it was the long hours that were causing him to feel that way.

At least he had chance for a lie-in on Monday mornings since his first class wasn’t until the afternoon. Rolling out of bed at ten, he padded down to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea and grab the mail from by the front door, most of it for James whose name was on all the bills, then it was time for a shower. It was the only time he actually got to move around at a normal pace and while most people enjoyed being lazy, it was really the only time he gave himself to be laid back. He knew he needed to create more time like this, however as far as he could see; it wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He just needed to get through the few months he had left on work experience.

It seemed all too soon before time for class rolled around, the journey across town to the university seemed to drag as always but he always seemed to have so little time to get ready in and it wasn’t unusual for him to be a little late on campus. To make matters worse, the class was hardly an exciting one, something mind numbing to start the week off as always leaving most people wondering why they were doing this, they could have graduated three or four years ago, be well on the way up the career ladder. If only something more interesting than pathology was around. Destry never questioned his being here, after all he was so sure this was what he wanted from life, to be helping stamp out evilness, talking to the dead and all those other cliché lines he had heard so many times to describe why one might actually want to dig around in a dead body. The truth was, none of those reasons were why he was doing this, in fact he wasn’t quite sure why he was doing this, after all there certainly wasn’t anything pleasant about seeing a dead body, no matter how many times you saw them. Sure he never asked himself why he was doing this, but then again it wasn’t like he knew the answer either.

By the time he left the lecture hall, the heat was up and again a thick blanket of stickiness had engulfed the city. Already he wanted a shower and even more so, he was dreading the tube journey back to Seven Sisters where the shower and electric fan were waiting for him. At least he might get the afternoon off, after all Monday’s were always easy going for him even though lately he had been called in more and more. In fact by the time he was on the high street, his phone was buzzing in his pocket, his hand fumbling right away to grab the small device.

“Eager to answer as always, I see. You know by the end of your work experience, you’re going to earn yourself the nickname of Arse-licker, right?” DC Nick Jacobs teased.

Jacobs was one of the police officers Destry found himself working with a lot on murder cases despite him not really being on the Murder squad. The man was about the same age of James which meant in all reality he actually got along with James a lot more than he did with Destry but still, the pair were good friends, even if Jacobs had a habit of dropping Destry in it.

Destry rolled his eyes, slowing his pace a bit but not so much that he cause issues on the busy street. “Not funny, I just want to get as much experience as possible, that’s all. Did I miss anything over the weekend?”

“Already asking about work? Jesus, Des can you maybe think about something else for five fucking minutes?”

“Not really.”

There was laughter. “Okay well it was actually a quiet one, a case in Soho but that’s about it, nothing serious enough for you to come rushing in.”

“You’re not funny, you know that.” Destry grumbled finally stepping off the street to stand in the doorway of a Pub, pausing as the number 29 bus rumbled past slowly. “By the way, I should thank you for Friday night, thanks to you I spent the weekend in the guest room again.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault if you forget to call your wife.”

“Still not funny.”

“Okay, look I knew you had been hoping to get home early and I felt bad that you got pulled in since it was supposed to be your weekend off. I called to apologise to him, I hadn’t realised you hadn’t called James yet to let him know. I’m sorry.”

Destry was silent for a few moments, watching a couple passing him, both of them with flushed cheeks and looking irritated and tired of the heat. Just like everyone else. “Okay well I guess there isn’t anything anyone can do about it now.”

“So is that you accepting my apology?”

“Yeah.”

“Great. Well anyway it seems you’re in luck today and won’t need to come in so I guess I will probably see you tomorrow or something.”

“You do realise now you’ve said that, something will come up.”

“Probably, but it’s best not to think so optimistically.”

Destry narrowed his eyes in confusion at the comment but before he could say anything, Jacobs had said his goodbyes and hung up, leaving Destry pressing his ear against his now dormant phone. After putting the phone away, he remained on the step for a few more moments, trying work out why exactly he had taken such offense to what Jacobs said. The answer didn’t come so he pushed the door to the pub opened and headed inside.

A cold beer certainly wasn’t the answer, nor was the overcooked gammon-steak and lukewarm chips but the mixture of crisp alcohol and typical pub food certainly made things seem a whole lot better and by the time he was done, he was feeling sleepy from a full stomach, so much so, the comment seemed to be nothing more than just that, a comment. At any rate, the trek back to the house was a lot more carefree than it usually was and the first thing Destry did was collapse on the bed that he shared with James (when they weren’t arguing) and let the mixture of bog-standard exhaustion and food induced sleepiness take over for a few hours.

If anything, sleep made everything better.