Title: Companionable Silence
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Carl Hickman/Louis Daniel
Fandom: Crossing Lines
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 405
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Carl Hickman or Louis Daniel, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

No one seemed to notice. Or at least, they pretended not to.

Louis was glad of that. He didn't want to have to explain his relationship with Carl to the people they worked with. It was really no one's business.

And they weren't going to let it change the team dynamics. There would be no favoritism; everyone was still an equal member of the team. He and Carl might have a personal relationship, but it wouldn't be allowed to come into their professional lives.

They'd talked about this long into the night, and they had agreed that the worst thing they could do was let their personal lives affect their work.

It might not be easy, but they would manage it.

So far, so good. No one seemed to be bothered by the fact that he and Carl had shared a dozen intimate little looks throughout the day, that they had touched more than once, and that Carl had even dropped a kiss on his cheek before he'd left the office.

He was back now, sitting only a few feet away from Louis. And still there was silence from the other team members, a silence that didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

No, there was no discomfort. It was obvious that the others had drawn their own conclusions as to what was going on, and no one seemed to disapprove.

Of course, Michael wasn't here, Louis though, wincing. There was no telling what he would say about this new turn of events. But even if he was silent in a different way, using that silence to express disapproval of their relationship, it wouldn't change anything.

He and Carl were together now. And they would stay this way.

Nothing was going to tear him away from this man. Carl was what he wanted, what he had always wanted. He had a second chance, and he was taking it.

But for the moment, there was no disapproval, and the silence didn't feel deafening. it simply felt like the companionable silence of people working, people who were all comfortable with each other, and people who approved of each other in the personal and professional sense.

He was lucky in his team. Lucky in his friends. And more than anything else, he was lucky to have been given a second chance at happiness.

Louis smiled into the silence. At the moment, life was as good as it could ever be.

***