Chapter Text
Reacher came to with a knife at his dick. Fuck, it really was O'Donnell. He was still pretty and quick and scrappy and too damn alluring. More so, right now, because Reacher'd forgotten how to ignore it, even in the brief time before he realised O'Donnell wasn't their enemy. He was lucky O'Donnell told him to look down, because he wasn't sure how long he would've been some kind of idiot staring into his pretty blue eyes otherwise. O'Donnell's face was too open for someone with a gun to their heart, but O'Donnell never did hold enough against Jack. Not half as much as he deserved.
They got to running down why O'Donnell had been off the grid--literally, in some kind of family retreat that sounded way more wholesome than what the Reacher brothers had gotten up to when they'd had free time as kids. Reacher meant the "over-sexed degenerate" as a friendly jab hearkening back to old times, though his voice fell flatter than he intended. Watching O'Donnell say "domesticated" with a fucking twinkle in his eyes, Reacher couldn't help his grimace and his bitter voice as he replied, "Apparently." Neagley was easier. She'd stayed the same, single and straightforward and an investigator like before. But this--he never thought he'd have forever with O'Donnell, but the man had a family now. A spouse, children, a new job, a house, a whole other life he'd made and Reacher didn't know about any of it. He'd never even met O'Donnell's wife. How many years had it been?
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Another night, another hotel room. ["When are you due back on the catwalk?"] Days had passed, Reacher had met O'Donnell's new life, and they'd taken off again, back into the investigation. It wasn't the time for it. It never was, in their line of work. But there they were, O'Donnell's stupid styled hair and subtle cologne, and Reacher in clean clothes and regular proximity to a shower. As good a time as any.
O'Donnell tilted his head, shifted his weight to his front foot, and caught Reacher in his sights. Reacher looked back evenly. "Aren't you married now?"
"Yeah, and she'll ask for details. You gonna give me any to share, or will I have to do it all myself tonight?"
"You sound like a terrible script," Reacher said.
"Alright, fine. We have ten hours. We can spend it sleeping and worrying if you insist, but don't blame me if I act a little more frustrated tomorrow. Lily and I didn't have any time to ourselves at the cabin." And of course, they'd both been on the road as a team ever since. Reacher stepped forward in answer, boxed Dave in just like he had in that hotel room at the start. Dave stood his ground just like he had for that first second, before the tension left him, just like it had even in front of Neagley, as soon as he'd sensed Reacher stand down in that smashed hotel room.