Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 3

view, rifle pointed at his chest. Clearly recognizing that he was outgunned, Twitchy tossed his gun to the ground and raised his arms, kneeling when he was ordered to. "Red Shirt, dude, you'll tell them, right? You'll tell them I helped save the cop, right man?"
    "I don't know what you're talking about," Charlie said coldly as he watched the SWAT officer close handcuffs around his wrists.
    "Aw, come on, man!" Twitchy's protests echoed through the bank as he was marched out of sight.
    "That was kind of mean," Niko said with a grin. "I like it."
    Charlie grinned back, but was interrupted before he could reply.
    "Fuck, Snuffy, you always have to go and get yourself shot, don't you?"
    Startled, they looked up to see a stocky man in a SWAT uniform smirking down at them.
    "What did I tell you about that nickname, Verbowski? My last name is not that fucking hard to pronounce. Ste-fan-oh-po-luss. Sounds just like it's spelled."
    "Yeah, Snuffleupagus. That's what I said," Verbowski retorted, his smirk still firmly in place. His eyes darted to Charlie and the expression turned almost lecherous. "I was going to offer you some help, but I see you already have that covered."
    Something about the way he said it made Charlie duck his head and blush. He looked up to see that he wasn't the only one; Niko sported two small patches of color in his cheeks as well, though Charlie couldn't tell whether it was a response to the insinuation about them or the Snuffleupagus comment.
    "Verbowski, this is Charlie. Charlie, this obnoxious bastard is Greg Verbowski."
    Verbowski saluted. "Pleasure to meet you. Sit tight, I'm going to go get the paramedics."
    Charlie turned back to Niko after he left and arched a brow. "So… 'Snuffy', huh?"
    Niko narrowed his eyes in a little glower that was more cute than scary and made Charlie's heart skip a beat. "A running joke with the team. They seem to think it's cute, but come on! Stephanopoulos is a very distinguished name."
    "Uh-huh. Good luck convincing your future wife to agree," Charlie retorted casually, as though he wasn't fishing for a contradiction.
    Niko arched an eyebrow and smirked as though he knew exactly what Charlie was up to. "Who said anything about a wife? I thought I'd made it pretty clear earlier that I'm gay."
    "Oh, right. Of course." Charlie cheered inwardly in victory. "Well, I think my point still stands. I mean, Charlie Snuffleupagus? No one would take me seriously."
    "Are you proposing we get married?"
    Charlie faltered and felt his face blush bright. "No! Jesus, that's not what I meant, I was just saying… "
    As he stammered around his words, a team of paramedics swept into the room and came to a stop beside them. Charlie shifted aside to let an EMT help Niko onto the stretcher they'd lowered. Once he was strapped in, they wheeled Niko to the door. Charlie started to follow them, but was stopped by a cop who told him that they needed to take his statement.
    "But… "
    "Don't worry, I'll be fine," Niko said. "We'll talk later."
    Before Charlie got the chance point to out that they had no way of contacting each other—it wasn't as though they'd had a chance to exchange phone numbers in between being threatened and shot at—the paramedics wheeled Niko out to the ambulance. Sighing with the depressing and almost certain knowledge that he would not see Niko again, Charlie gave the officer his statement. It took an hour to recount the tale and when he was done, all he wanted was to go home, crawl into bed, and sleep. After one last look in the direction Niko's ambulance had gone, Charlie made a quick call to his supervisor and did just that.
    ****
    The days following the attempted robbery were filled with indecision and boredom for Charlie. His boss had generously given him the rest of the week to recuperate from his 'traumatic experience' and, while Charlie appreciated the level of concern being shown for his well-being, he was going a little crazy having so much time off. It left him with far too much time to think.
    As he'd predicted, he hadn't spoken to Niko since he'd been wheeled off to the hospital. Not that he hadn't tried. Charlie had actually gone home Tuesday afternoon and immediately looked up the number for the Seattle Police Department. He'd waited until Wednesday to actually try the number, but that had only led to a confusing couple of hours of transferred calls and awkward explanations. By the time he'd actually gotten through to the right department, he'd realized