kat_lair | Lewis Ficlet: Significance (Reply)

Firstly, heads up Lewis fans on my flist!

lewis_challenge is currently accepting prompts.

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People commenting on my drabble Deeper Meaning seemed to be of the opinion that James was being too cynical, that Robbie would indeed set out to decipher what he was trying to say... Hence, a continuation ficlet was born.

Significance – Lewis – hints of Hathaway/Lewis – 250 words – PG

That Hathaway had known about his birthday was no surprise, nor was the manner in which he’d acknowledged it: a rare sit-down lunch paid without a comment before Robbie had a chance to pull out his wallet and a gift left on his desk while he was out of the office. There was no card but Robbie didn’t need one to know who it was from. All of it was perfectly in character for James; unassuming and thoughtful.

Robbie slipped the slim parcel into his pocket and headed home. Like James, he didn’t want to call attention to himself by opening it at work, feeling an odd need for... privacy.

Thirty minutes later he was sitting on his sofa, a tumbler of whisky in his hand and the crumpled wrapping paper on the floor. There was soft smile determinedly tugging at his lips. It appeared that his Sergeant was making good on his promise to improve Robbie’s musical education.

The CD sleeve was written in Hathaway’s familiar looping hand, which Robbie recognised from seeing it scrawled on countless notebooks, reports and whiteboards over the years. He scanned the list of songs, unsurprised when none of them meant anything to him.

Knowing James, this was no random selection though. Robbie would have bet his badge that every song had been carefully picked for... Well, for what, Robbie didn’t know yet. But maybe he could puzzle it out, he thought, popping the CD into the stereo.

He was a detective after all.

Concludes here: Metaphor