Chapter 51 (2/2)

He backpedaled harder than a cat dropped into a tub.

”I didn't mean that literally!” he exclaimed. ”I just meant— well, nobody expects something to go wrong. Not on something like a ride along. It shouldn't have happened.” He could see Gregoir slump out of the corner of his eye.

Freya's eyes narrowed, examining his face for deceit. Dan didn't know what she saw, aside from sheer panic, but she sighed.

”No, it shouldn't have,” the Nordic goddess agreed wearily. Her anger was like a match, burning brightly, then fading away. ”It says much about your skills that you were able to escape.”

Dan managed not to flinch. ”That was pure luck. My p— um, personal upgrade interacted oddly with the kidnapper's.”

The look she graced him with could've been prescribed as a laxative. For an elephant. ”And the capture of the criminal's accomplice? Was this, too, pure luck?”

”Ah, no.” He had fucked up somewhere during this conversation. Most likely dozens of times. ”That one was all me.”

Freya smiled bitterly. ”You escaped a professional mercenary, defeated another, stopped a bomb plot, brought critical information to the police. All of these things, while my intended was held captive, helpless. At another's mercy. Yet you ask me: How is he doing? How do you think he is doing, Mister Newman?”

Ah. That was... not something Dan had considered. Mostly, because he found the idea ridiculous.

”He shouldn't compare himself to me.”

Freya cocked an eyebrow. ”If not you, then who? Officer Pierre-Louis?” She gestured with her chin, to the skulking Gregoir, who was doing a terrible job of hiding behind a potted plant. ”Should he compare himself to the man that freed them both, effortlessly? A fully trained, veteran officer? Or to you? The man who was never captured in the first place?”

”Neither,” Dan replied with pursed lips. ”My success or failure has nothing to do with him.” Dan had learned that lesson a long time ago. Envy was not Dan's sin. He coveted his own growth, not that of others.

The girl wasn't biting. ”You appeared before us, an untrained civilian,” she informed him. ”A talented one, perhaps, but not someone who has spent his life training for a moment like the one you faced several weeks ago. You faced the same trials as my Connor, and you succeeded, whereas he failed. How can you claim no relation?”

Dan flailed for an answer, but debating had never been his strong suit. He wasn't here to play word games. He had only wanted to assuage that small part of him that still felt guilty, not solve whatever idiotic mental problems Graham was facing. Time for the battering ram once more.

”Just to clarify,” Dan said slowly, not bothering to hide his annoyance, ”Graham is not doing well, because I managed to get myself out of a dangerous situation, without help, and he did not. Because I managed to capture a dangerous criminal, and he did not. Because he had to be rescued, and I did not? And now he's, I dunno, moping somewhere, alone, like fucking Eeyore?”

”That is an accurate summation,” Freya replied dryly, not batting an eye at his Winne-the-Pooh reference.

”Right.” Dan nodded. ”Tell him to get over himself.”

Freya rolled her eyes at Dan, unimpressed by his bravado. ”I did that already.”

”You— what?” Dan floundered, mouth dropping. His reaction didn't win a smile from Freya, but it was likely a close thing.

”My fiancé suffers an overabundance of pride,” Freya explained head tilting slightly skyward. ”Male ego.” The words were lamenting. ”The curse of your gender.”

”Yeah, you've got no ego at all,” Dan drawled.

”I have confidence in my abilities,” Freya sniped back, preening slightly. ”I know what I am capable of. When I encounter something I am not, I strive to learn it.”

Something clicked in Dan's head. A proud girl, sitting anxiously at the police precinct. Called back early, told that her lover was missing. Waiting for news of a rescue that might never come. Unable to do a thing.

”You don't like being helpless.”

Her face settled back into aloof superiority. ”No.”

”Right.” Dan considered the situation. How much he was willing to help. How badly he was willing to inconvenience himself. He didn't care about these people, not really.

But it was the right thing to do. Probably.

”Tell Graham that we never got to settle the score between us,” Dan suggested. ”Tell him I think he's a puffed up peacock, and that I'll be waiting for whatever challenge his narrow little mind can conjure.”

Freya seemed to bristle automatically at the insults, but subsided once she processed his words. After a considering moment, she admitted, ”That might actually work.” A pause, then she spoke once more, her voice containing the barest hint of gratitude. Small, so small, but there. ”Thank you.”

”Sure,” Dan replied, extremely done with this conversation. He had just consigned himself to spending time with someone he very much disliked, for an indeterminate amount of time. Because he was an idiot. At least he had the field trip to look forward to.

Freya nodded politely, shouldered her backpack, and left the room. Dan was left alone.

Except for Gregoir, still hiding behind a potted plant.

Dan glanced to him. The gregarious blonde's eyes darted to the door, where Freya had just left, then back to Dan. A smile broke out on his face, and he stepped out from behind his 'cover', a greeting on his lips.

Yeah, no. Dan had met his limit on insane interactions for today. He'd deal with Gregoir later.

He closed his eyes, and fell into the void.