Unbearable

Andrea was woken up the next morning before her alarm had gone off, as usual, by Burrito, her grumpy, one-eyed gray and black cat. She half hoped that the previous day had all been a dream. So much had happened, it was a blur. Kyle arrested for murder… viewing the body in the morgue… taking the case!

What she wouldn't give to go into work and find Kyle there, his usual annoying self, and that none of it had really happened.

"Am I making a huge mistake?" she asked Burrito, as she scratched him behind the ears. As much as she didn't want to believe Kyle capable of murder, she still hadn't ruled out the possibility he could be guilty. There were strange aspects to the case, but there was still a lot of evidence against him.

Burrito shook his head irritably as she pet him, batting her hand away with his ears. When he decided it was meal time, he didn't have any interest in anything else. He started to walk up onto Andrea's head. As usual, the threat of a face full of cat butt was enough to motivate her out of bed.

After breakfast and showering, she spent longer than she would like to admit picking out suitable clothes. Not that she cared if Kyle would like it. In fact she wanted to make sure it wasn't something he could tease her about. They were going to be spending more time together today than they ever had before. She didn't want to give him any opportunity for remarks if she could help it.

Tops were a minefield. Nothing too tight. Nothing low cut. Nothing even the SLIGHTEST bit sheer. Nothing too casual. Something that looked professional without looking like she was trying to look professional, which was the biggest trick to try to pull off. And as much as she didn't want to look like she was dressing up for him, she also didn't want it to be too unattractive.

Pants were the easier choice. She liked the confidence the extra height of heels gave her, but with the right pair of straight leg gray pants with a little flare at the ankle, Kyle wouldn't even be able to see her shoes. And what he didn't see, he couldn't tease.

After several false starts and changes of mind, she settled on a cowl-neck knit sweater. It was loose enough to be flattering without clinging to her curves. 'And the light-green color goes well with my hair, which has nothing to do with Kyle, it just feels nice to look nice…' she thought.

Before she headed over to the precinct, she decided to drop by the public defender's office. She wanted a print out of her own copy of the police report and other documents to make it easier to take notes.

On her way in, she saw Jacquelyn engaged in conversation with a gaggle of Tims. It occurred to Andrea that while she had told Kyle about her decision, she had never actually given her final answer to Jacquelyn.

As she wondered if she should interrupt quickly to pass along the news, Jacquelyn caught her eye and gave just the tiniest of nods before resuming her conversation.

'Of course, it's her job to know everything… somehow," Andrea thought as she walked past.

In the office, Madison was perched on the corner of the desk of one of the other paralegals. When she saw Andrea, she dashed off and returned with a thick pile of papers neatly organized into folders.

"What's this?" Andrea asked, taking the documents from her.

"That's all the departmental notes, plus the police report and everything else I could pull together for you for your big case," Madison said excitedly.

Andrea gave Madison a big smile. 'She must have come in extra early to get this all printed and organized,' she thought. 'She really is a wonderful assistant. It's too bad that I'm going to have to listen to her gush over Kyle for the next half an hour…'

"Soooo…" Madison said, with a wicked grin. "Tell me all about this mysterious case! Whoever it is must be pretty important to justify all this secrecy. Is it a politician or something? Or someone famous, like an actor? Is it a guy? Have I heard of them? Have you met them yet? Are they hot?"

That was not the reaction Andrea was expecting. For all her admirable qualities, Madison was not someone who had any respect for secrecy. Hand her a pile of documents, and the ones marked 'Confidential' would be the first ones she read. So there was no chance that she wouldn't have read most of the files while going through and printing them all. How did she not know about Kyle…?

Flipping open the folder, Andrea immediately noticed the thick black censor bars every time Kyle's name was mentioned. Someone had gone to a lot of effort to keep Kyle's involvement in the case a secret. As she riffled through the papers, Andrea was surprised to see that both the department records AND the police report had been redacted.

'Did someone forget to tell me this was supposed to be a secret?' she wondered.

She really didn't want to lie to her friend. Thinking fast, she said, "I'm honestly not sure how much I'm allowed to say about the case right now." That much at least was true. "Thank you so much for doing all this for me, Madison. You're a treasure."

"No problem, Andi. Just promise you'll tell me all about it eventually. It's got to be exciting working with someone this powerful, whoever they are. It's just all so…"

"...Hot?"

"Mysterious! Secretive! Almost a little bit dangerous." Madison gave a heartfelt sigh, her hand clutched to her bosom. "And yes, secretive and dangerous is totally hot!"

Andrea had no idea what kind of danger Madison imagined she would be getting into, but the thought was clearly getting her excited. Hoping to change the subject quickly, she asked, "By the way, how did things go last night with the… uh… the Italian teacher?"

Madison pulled a disgusted face. "Ew, no! No more Italian men, not after… you know what, that's not really a story for the office. Remind me to tell you over drinks sometime. No, he was a Spanish teacher. And it was… ehhhh…" She grimaced slightly.

"Date didn't go well?"

"Oh, it was great! It was just…" Madison looked around before leaning in and whispering. "You know I have a thing for guys with tattoos, right?"

Andrea nodded. She wasn't sure why Madison was acting like it was a secret. Everyone in the office had heard her talk loudly about the tattoos of the various guys she'd been out with. It was just one of a long list of qualities she had a 'thing' for.

"His profile on the dating app said he had a tattoo, so obviously I asked him about it when we met, and when he showed me…" Madison made a disappointed face.

"Not very good?" Andrea asked. She didn't really care for tattoos herself, though she had seen some that were quite beautiful. She honestly wasn't sure what Madison was looking for in a 'good' tattoo.

"Well, just look!" Madison said, pulling out her phone and showing Andrea a picture of some skin that was presumably from her date the night before.

"I don't get it," said Andrea, "What am I looking at?"

"Right there!" Madison pointed.

All Andrea could see was a little round black dot.

"Is it supposed to be some sort of minimalist thing…?" she asked.

"It was supposed to be way more impressive," Madison said disdainfully, putting her phone away. "That was as far as the artist got before the guy bailed!" Madison shook her head. "I don't know, Andi, he's a nice enough guy, I do like him, but honestly, if he's going to date me, he's going to need a higher tolerance for pain…"

Andrea patted her on the arm. "Just do me a favor and never explain what you mean by that. Thanks again for these, it's a big help," she said, waving the paperwork.

"Be sure to say 'Hi!' to Mr Mysterious for me!" Madison called as Andrea headed out.

It is a mystery, Andrea thought as she headed over to the police station. Madison was right when she said someone would have to be powerful to command that level of secrecy. She had never seen that kind of censorship before. How was Kyle able to get it?

Andrea had called ahead to arrange her meeting with Kyle, so he was already waiting for her in the interview room.

He looked… good. At least as good as you could hope after spending a second night in jail. It looked like sleep had done him good, his eyes were not nearly as bloodshot as they had been the night before. While he was wearing the same crumpled shirt, he was sat up, smiling and alert and looking ready to do some work on the case.

Andrea had always assumed that Kyle's hair had been made stylishly messy on purpose, but seeing him now with what was presumably jail-cell bed-head, it still looked good on him. She hadn't noticed it in the dim light of the jail cell, but he was starting to get some stubble. The overall picture was… rugged… in a not unappealing way. Andrea had certainly worked with clients who were less pleasant to look at.

"Good morning, Blondie!" he said with a cheerful tone. "May I say you are looking particularly lovely today."

Andrea tucked her hair back self-consciously as she sat down. She was so used to Kyle's tone being teasing or sarcastic… She wasn't sure what to do with him when he sounded genuine and sincere. Was he making fun of her, or did he genuinely like the way she looked today? Or was it a meaningless platitude that he would have said no matter how she looked?

She laid the papers out on the table and spun them round for him to see, pointing at the censor bars.

"Who are you?" It wasn't how she had planned on starting their conversation this morning, but it was the question that had been gnawing at her the whole way over.

Kyle bit his lip with a cheeky expression on his face as he reviewed the papers. He was obviously pleased to see that another of his arrangements had paid off. He went to lean back in his chair and put his hands behind his head in an exaggeratedly relaxed pose, but was stopped short by his manacles, resorting to resting them on his stomach instead.

In a faux-Southern drawl, he said, "Why, Ma'am, I have no ideation as to what you are implicatifying. Why, I'm nothing but a humble country lawyer–"

"Stop that!" Andrea almost threw her pen at him. "And don't call me Ma'am."

"Yes, Sir!" Kyle rocked his chair back forward and sat in an excessively straight backed posture. "Sorry Sir, as you wish Sir!"

It was enough to make Andrea wish he'd just go back to calling her Blondie.

"Look!" she said severely. Kyle went wide eyed and somehow sat even straighter, vibrating slightly as though he was a kid afraid of being in trouble. Andrea had to suppress her urge to laugh despite herself. "Why are you being like this?!"

"Sorry, Sir! Just in a good mood, Sir!" After a moment of Andrea scowling at him in silence he relented and relaxed. "Okay. I'll be serious now. I'm sorry I'm acting kind of goofy, but… I don't know what to say, I'm just really, really happy to see you!"

He took a deep sigh and lowered his eyes a little. "I've not been in here long, but it already feels like it's been forever, and the thought that I might end up spending years in a place like this…" He shrugged, still not meeting Andrea's eyes. "There's nothing to do. Nothing to do but think, and nothing to think about except how unfair it is I ended up here, and about the girl who was murdered, and what's going to happen to me…"

He looked Andrea straight in the eye, and his smile was small and tight as though he was fighting to hold back a huge grin because he wanted her to know he was serious. "And you. You're the one bright thought I have to hold onto here, so… yeah, you get me going a little crazy, Blondie."

'And you drive me crazy, too!' thought Andrea, but it seemed a shame to spoil the moment by saying so. It was sweet that she was able to brighten his day in this dark situation, but if he was going to be acting like this for the entire time they were working on the case together, it was going to be unbearable.

"Look," she said again. "If this is going to work, then I am going to have to lay down some rules." Her tone and expression was stern, but she tried not to be too harsh.

Kyle grinned again. "Sounding very strict there, Blondie. Am I going to need a safe word?"

'Unbearable,' she thought.