Spending time apart was supposed to be beneficial, even for people in a serious relationship. Personally, Dee thought it was overrated. He liked spending time with his lover, loved the fact that they worked together, often hung out together after work, and spent at least three nights a week together. There was no such things as spending too much time with Ryo.

They enjoyed each other’s company, and not just in the physical sense. They had long conversations about anything, or nothing in particular. They enjoyed a bunch of shared activities, from dancing at a club to taking long hikes in one of the nearby State Parks. They even liked playing board games or doing jigsaw puzzles on cold winter evenings, or they would snuggle up on the sofa, both of them reading, and not say a word to each other for hours, perfectly content just being together.

Dee couldn’t help wishing that was where he was right now, either at his own apartment or at Ryo’s place, relaxing after a delicious, homecooked meal. Instead, Ryo was no doubt spending the evening at home with Bikky, while Dee was here in this cold, damp, musty, cramped little bedsit, eating a cheap microwaved TV dinner and feeling thoroughly miserable.

Only two or three years ago, he would have been relishing this undercover assignment, despite the less than appealing accommodations. He used to love being someone else for a few days, or a few weeks, getting into character, making up a whole backstory for the person he was pretending to be, and using his wits to help take down arms dealers, drug dealers, or whatever kind of criminal enterprise he was infiltrating. Undercover work had always been a welcome challenge, as well as a pleasant break from the daily grind of policework. Now though…

Was it just because he was in a serious relationship now, or was it because he was getting older? Whatever the reason, he was a lot less enthusiastic about going undercover for an extended period than he used to be. Slumming it in a rundown tenement building, sleeping on a thin, hard mattress, and doing battle with the resident cockroaches… The thrill of adventure was gone. Now, the undercover gigs were even more of a grind than the everyday routine he used to look forward to avoiding.

“Yeah, I must be gettin’ old,” he muttered gloomily as he tossed the remains of his dinner in the trash, opened a cold beer, and slumped onto the threadbare sofa in front of the tiny TV set that could only pick up a handful of channels. He wondered what Ryo was doing. Was he feeling lonely and bored too? Probably not. He had Bikky for company, and the brat would no doubt be making the most of having his foster father’s undivided attention. It sucked, being alone and out of touch with the most important people in his life.

He couldn’t even call Mother the way he sometimes did when he was home alone, because right now he wasn’t Dee Laytner, NYPD detective. He was Eric Webber, recently released from Attica after serving three years for his part in an unsuccessful bank robbery. According to word on the street, Webber had been the getaway driver, and the heist had failed because he’d been working for an idiot who’d gone off-script and started shooting people.

None of that was true, of course, but the gang he’d be wheelman for didn’t know that. They’d checked him out, and verified everything he’d told them, so in just a few days he’d be involved in a genuine heist; he just didn’t know yet what the target would be. Once he found out, and passed the information on to his contact, when the heist went down, police would be in place to catch the gang in the act, and then…

Then, Dee would get to shed his assumed identity and go home, or more likely, go straight to wherever Ryo happened to be. Well, once he’d been debriefed he would. Just a few more days, a week at most, and if everything went to plan, he’d be reunited with his lover.

He’d already made up his mind that once this gig was over, he was going to stop doing undercover work. Maybe he’d accept the occasional job that only lasted a day or two, but nothing long-term. It had taken over a week for the gang to even make contact, another couple of weeks before they were satisfied with his credentials and his driving skill, which they’d tested thoroughly. Then there’d been all the practice runs, the team working together until they all knew their roles down to the last detail. By the time this was over, he and Ryo would have been apart for almost six weeks. Dee wasn’t putting either of them through this kind of stress again; it was too much.

Life was already too short, and he wanted to spend every minute he could with the man he loved. If he had his way, assuming he got through the next week or so in one piece, he and Ryo would never have to be apart again.


The End