Basement Serenade

The summer heat has finally descended upon the town of Llanview, covering it in a thick blanket of humid air. Bo slowly makes his way through Angel Square, pausing in front of Luna’s statue to stare across the square at the burned out shell of the community center. He shakes his head and walks towards the diner, wiping the perspiration from his brow.

He walks through the diner door, the cool air hitting him like an artic blast. He glances around the busy diner, smiling when his eyes settle on the two of them sitting in the corner booth. He stands by the door for a moment just taking in the sight before him.  Her contagious laughter makes his heart skip a beat, the way she’s reaching out and touching their son’s cheek reminds him of the feel of her soft touch on his own cheek.

Bo is brought out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder. He turns and looks at John, “No fire, huh?” John says with a smirk before walking away.

Bo watches him walk towards the counter, turning his attention back to the booth in the corner. He sighs and makes his way over to where they’re sitting. Nora looks up and smiles, “Hey Matthew, look who’s here.”

Matthew turns in his seat, jumping down and into his father’s waiting arms, “Are you here to have breakfast with us, dad?”

Bo looks up at Nora and back down at Matthew, staring in anticipation, “Of course I’m here to have breakfast, champ.”

Bo slides in next to Matthew who is already monopolizing the conversation at the table. Bo watches her from across the table, Matthew’s voice fading into the distance as John’s voice fills his mind, “Whether you two want to admit it or not there’s still something there”…”Where there’s smoke there’s fire.”

“Dad,” Matthew pulls on Bo’s sleeve, “Dad!”

Bo shakes his head and looks down at Matthew, “I’m sorry, son. What were you saying?”

“I asked you if you were going to be at my baseball game this afternoon.”

“Of course I’ll be there.”

Matthew looks between the two of them, “One o’clock, okay.”

Nora looks over at Bo and back over at Matthew, “We’ll be on time,” she raises her hand, “Scouts honor.”

Matthew rolls his eyes and looks up when he hears the bell on the diner door ring, “Hey, there’s Stevie and his mom, can I go say hi?”

“Sure,” Bo says as he slides out of the booth.

Bo slides back into the booth and an awkward silence passes between them. Bo shifts in his seat, removing his suit jacket and tugging on his unbuttoned collar as though it was choking him. He clears his throat, “So…how have you been? I haven’t seen you since the night of the awards dinner.”

It was Nora’s turn to nervously shift in her seat, “Um…I’ve been good, busy but good.” She begins to tear away at the corner of her napkin, “How about you?”

“The same,” he looks down at her hands tearing her napkin to shreds. He looks back up at her, “The fire investigation has kept me busy.”

Nora nods as another awkward silence falls over them. They both glance over at Matthew and then back over at the each other. They both start to speak at the same time. A smile breaks out on each of their faces as they both laugh, “Go ahead,” he points to her.

“Um…well I was just going to say that we really need to sit down together and…um…we need to talk to Matthew about his latest little matchmaking scheme.”

Bo swallows; images of that night in her living room invading his mind and that all too familiar pain he felt in his gut, the one he hasn’t felt in a long time. He pushes the images and the feelings down and forces a smile, “Yeah, he…he really needs to know that all of this has got to stop.” He sighs, wondering why the prospect makes him so sad. “Asa, to for that matter.”

Nora nods again, “Right…You’re right. He needs to stop. They both need to stop.” She sighs, wondering why the thought makes her so sad.

He drops his hands into his lap, folding and unfolding them, “Um…so how’s,” suddenly his phone rings, “Buchanan,” he sighs.  He glances over at Nora, “Thanks, Marcie…” Bo grabs his jacket and slides out of the booth, “Yeah, I’ll be right there.”

“What’s up?” Nora asks, also sliding out of the booth.

“Antonio found the guy that Roxy hired to burn down her salon. I’ve got to get down to the station,” he throws some money down on the table and grabs the check, “I’ve got breakfast and I’ll see you at 12:30 for the game.”

Nora nods and watches him say his goodbyes to Matthew before paying the bill and finally leaving with a quick wave and a smile. She sighs and walks over to where Matthew was sitting with Stevie, “Hey there, sport,” she says, laying her hand on the top of his head, “We’ve got to get going.”

Matthew swallows the last of his orange juice and says his goodbyes. Nora drops him off at MaryAnn’s twenty minutes later, reminding him to behave and that besides the baseball game that afternoon he was grounded after his last little scheme.

She walks into her office thirty minutes later, absentmindedly fanning herself with the file in her hand. She walks over to the bank of windows behind her desk and slowly twists the rod, allowing the bright summer sun in. She pulls the strings, raising the blinds, illuminating the room in even more sunlight.

Bo walks down the hallway a few minutes later. He passes by her office unaware that she had come into the station already. He stops when he sees her and walks into the room. He stands in the doorway, staring at her as she stands and stares out the window. He knows he should make his presence known but something just keeps him from calling out to her. The sight of her standing there, deep in thought, the sun blanketing her in light; setting her hair on fire, was causing feelings to rise to the surface he’d long since learned to ignore.  

He stands there watching her from across the room, wondering what had her staring out the window in the middle of the morning. She had pulled her hair up since he saw her at the diner a few hours earlier, giving him full view of her neck, of that spot just below her ear, where his lips had always felt at home. He felt a heat rise up the back of his neck, a heat that had nothing to do with the rising summer temperatures, but the feelings that were coursing through him. Maybe every one was right, maybe he’s the one that’s been wrong all this time, maybe just maybe there’s something still there.

He was just about to turn and walk away, leaving her to her thoughts and him to try to figure out what the heck was happening to him, when his phone rang causing her to turn around. She stood there in shock for a moment, her hand immediately coming to her chest to still her heart that began to beat rapidly at the sight of him silently standing in her office.

“Shouldn’t you answer that,” she says, pointing to his ringing phone.

He continues to stare at her as he pulls the phone off his belt, “Buchanan…yeah I’m on my way down there now. I just…I just got a little sidetracked.” He flips the phone shut and returns it to his belt, “Um…”

“So…”

“Yeah, um…I should get going, gotta get a file from the basement.  It seems I’m the only one capable of finding it. I’ve already sent John, Antonio AND Marcie down there.”

“I guess some things just need the boss to get them done,” she says with a smile.

He returns her smile, “I’m sorry if I startled you earlier.”

She shakes her head, “No…no you didn’t startle me,” she says, “at least not the way you think,” she thinks to herself.

“Well good,” he says awkwardly, “I’ll see you in about a half hour or so and we’ll leave for Matt’s game,” he says as he turns to go.

“Yeah, I’ll see you later,” she says collapsing into her chair.

A half hour later Nora approaches his office, glancing down at her watch. It was 12:15 and if they didn’t wrap things up soon they’d be late for the game and they had both promised Matthew they’d be on time for once. She opens his door as she knocks expecting to find him sitting behind his desk. She closes the door and walks over to Marcie’s desk, “Marcie, where’s the Commissioner?”

Marcie tries to stifle her laughter, “Probably still in the basement. We tried to tell him that file was no where to be found,” she shrugs her shoulders, “but you know…”

“Yeah,” Nora says with a knowing smile, “I know exactly what you mean,” she looks back down at her watch, “I’m going to go down there and drag him away. I’ll see you tomorrow Marcie.”

“Have a good day, Ms. Buchanan.” Marcie watches her as she heads down the hallway towards the basement. She just shakes her head and smiles, “Those two,” she thinks to herself, “when will they get a clue.”

Nora pulls open the door, glancing down at the chair that was being used to keep the door open, before making her way down the steep stairs. She grimaces as she breathes in the musty, humid air. She steps off the last step and looks around the large room. She looks to the left and sees nothing but shelves upon shelves of yellowing cardboard boxes. She looks to the right and sees more of the same. She was just about to call out his name when she heard a crash and a string of cuss words coming from her left.

She walks around the one set of shelves and finds him crouched down in front of a ripped water damaged box, files lying all over the floor. He looks up at her, “Not funny, Red.” He says not even realizing the ease at which her old nickname had rolled off his tongue.

“I’m sorry,” she says, her hand covering her mouth as she tries not to laugh, “want some help.”

He looks up at her again and smiles despite himself, “Yeah, help would be nice.”

She crouches down in front of him, unknowingly offering him a bit of a view as her skirt rises up her thighs. He clears his throat and continues to pick up the files that had scattered across the floor. They reach for the final file, their hands brushing against the others. Nora pulls her hand back grabbing the shelf to her right to help steady herself as she stands up.

Bo glances down at his watch, ignoring the feeling in the pit of his stomach at the slightest touch of her skin against his, “Um…we better get going. I guess the file isn’t here after all.”

Back up in the hallway Daniel is walking towards the basement door. He notices the door is open and walks towards it. He glances down the stairs and sees no one so he decides to close the door, “Someone should be more careful about leaving this door open like this,” he thinks to himself, “someone could trip on this chair.” He closes the door, whistling as he makes his way down the hall.

Bo picks the box up off the floor and places it back on the shelf, dusting off his hands as they make their way towards the stairs. Just as they were rounding the last corner she hears the door click closed.  Nora grabs Bo’s arm. He turns around confused by her actions, “What…?”

“Did you hear that?”

He looks down at her hand still holding on to his shirt sleeve and back up at her, “Hear what?”

“It sounded like the door closed.”

He looks at her like she’s insane, “Of course it wasn’t the door. I have a chair holding the door open. It wouldn’t just close on its own.”

“What if someone closed it?”

He begins to walk up the stairs, “Only an idiot would close it without yelling down here to see if anyone was here, especially since it was obviously propped open.”

Nora began to slowly make her way up the stairs behind Bo. She was looking down at her feet, not paying attention to the fact that he had stopped dead in his tracks a few feet from the top of the stairs. She bangs into him, grabbing onto the railing to steady herself, “What the hell. Bo….” He turns around slowly, “its shut, isn’t it?”

Bo nods his head, “I guess we do have an idiot amongst us who would close a propped open door without checking to see if anyone is still down here.”

Nora pulls him down onto the stair that she’s standing on and rushes past him towards the door. She begins to bang on it. Bo stands there for a moment and watches her. She turns a moment later and shoots him an angry look, “What are you staring at? Why aren’t you up here, too?”

“Because you can bang on that door all you want Nora and you’re not going to get anywhere?”

“Why not, someone’s bound to hear us.”

“No one’s going to hear us, Nora.”

“Oh and you know that how, Mr. Smarty Pants?”

“Because that door is made out of about six inches of steel,” he says with a smirk, “No one’s going to hear us.”

Nora looks back at the door, “Perfect,” she mumbles, “just perfect.” She walks down the stairs and over to a folding chair in the middle of the room, “We can’t be stuck in here, Bo. We have to get out of here.” She plops down in the chair, ‘I can’t…I can’t be stuck down here with him.’

He looks down at his watch, “No one knows we’re down here, Red. I told Marcie to take off for the day at one o’clock. Everyone else thinks we’ve left for the game already.”

She stands up suddenly, “Oh my God, Bo…the game, we’re going to miss Matthew’s game.”

“Don’t worry, Nora.” He pulls his cell phone off his belt, “We’ll call Matthew and tell him we’re going to be late, and then I’ll just call upstairs and tell Officer Thomas at the front desk that we’re down here and voila we’ll be at Matthew’s game before the second inning.”

She stands up and grabs his phone from his hand, “Well why didn’t you mention that you had your phone before I started banging on that damn door?”

He shrugs his shoulders, “You just looked so cute, standing up there banging on the door.”

She slaps his arm and dials MaryAnn’s cell number, “MaryAnn, hi it’s Nora. Listen I need to speak with Matthew really quick…” she begins to pace around the room while she waits for Matthew to respond, “Hey there, champ. Listen, dad and I have…well we’ve been detained…well actually we’re stuck in the basement at the police station. We’re hopefully going to be getting out of here soon and we’ll be at your game as soon as we can.”

Across town at the baseball fields Matthew is sitting on the bleachers beside MaryAnn. He stands up and walks towards the other end of the bleachers, “You’re stuck in the basement…how cool.”

Nora rolls her eyes on the other end of the line, “No, not really, but anyway we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

Matthew just nods on the other end of the line, his mind working overtime as he imagines his parents stuck in a basement, alone. Maybe just maybe this is exactly what he needs, and a plan begins to formulate in his mind, “Okay, mom. I’ll see you when you get here.”

Nora says her goodbye and hangs up the phone. She hands it back to Bo who quickly begins to dial the main number to the station. The phone rings a few times and the phone suddenly goes silent. Bo removes the phone from his ear and stares at the display. Nora walks towards him, “What’s wrong?”

“Um…phone’s dead.”

“What!!!”

“Guess I forgot to charge it last night. Your call to Matthew took the last of the juice.”

She slaps her hands against her thighs, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Whatever happened to “The Commissioner is always prepared…”

“What about you? Where’s your cell phone?”

“In my office,” he tilts his head, “Hey, don’t give me that look, Buchanan. I never expected to need my phone just to retrieve YOU from the basement.”

“Well we’ll just have to hang out here for a little while. When we don’t show, Matthew will send someone for us.”

She sits back down on the folding chair, “You’re right. Matthew will send someone. He’ll send someone,” she says again as though to reassure herself.

Across town 45 minutes later Matthew is sitting on the bleachers waiting for the older kids to finish up their baseball game. His parents still haven’t arrived and that only meant one thing, they were still stuck in the basement. He looks around for MaryAnn. He finds her standing off to the side of the bleachers talking with one of the other nannies. He quietly walks over to where she stands and carefully reaches into her bag, pulling out her cell phone.

He looks over at MaryAnn again and quietly sneaks away, running through the park towards the Police Station across the street. He ran around the back of the building and got down on his hands and knees. He crawls towards the one window looking down into the basement. A smile spreads across his face when he sees his mother pacing back and forth around the large room. He looks over at the far wall and sees his father sitting down on the floor obviously talking to his mother about something.

Matthew pulls out MaryAnn’s cell phone and dials a familiar number. He walks around the other side of the building away from the window so as not to be seen. He taps his foot as he waits for someone to answer on the other end, “Jen, its Matthew, is Riley there? Thanks.” Matthew leans against the large oak tree and waits. On the other end of the phone he hears Jen calling for Riley, “Hey, Riley, it’s Matthew, I need a huge favor.”

Matthew runs back across the street and sticks MaryAnn’s phone back in her bag. MaryAnn turns around, “Almost game time, kiddo.”

“Yeah,” he says, pretending to be sad.

MaryAnn sits down next to him and puts her arm around him, “I’m sorry your parents called and said they couldn’t make it. I’m sure they’re just as sad as you are.”

“Yeah, well, it’s okay,” he shrugs and jumps down off the bleachers and runs to meet up with his teammates.

Back across the street, Bo is sitting against the wall while Nora paces like an animal stuck in a cage. She looks nervous he thinks to himself, it’s as though she couldn’t even look at him, “You know,” he says quietly patting the floor beside him, “you might as well have take a load off. We’re probably going to be here awhile.”

She looks down at him and then around the room, “Why hasn’t Matthew said anything to anyone. We’re more than an hour late already,” she walks over to the opposite wall and looks up at the window, “Maybe we could get out through that window.”

Bo stands up and walks over to where she’s standing, “Nope, there’s no way you’re fitting through that window.”

She looks over at him, “You better watch it mister.”

Bo holds his hands in front of him in defeat, “Sorry, but seriously Nora, Matthew could hardly fit through that opening,” he says as he opens the small window

She reaches up and holds out the top of her blouse, fanning herself, “Well there HAS to be a way out of here. I can’t stay down here for another second!” She walks over towards the stairs and stares up at the door. She looks back around the room, “Maybe there’s another door, an emergency exit or something down here.”

“There’s not,” he states calmly as he returns to his spot on the floor.

“Oh and you know this for sure, huh?”

“You can look all you want Nora, there’s no other way out but that door up there. This is an old building, they didn’t bother with emergency exits and such back then.”

She shrugs her shoulders and continues to look around the room, running her hands along the cool cement blocks as she completes her futile search. She walks back over and stands in front of where Bo sits; playing with one of Matthew’s pocket magic tricks he forgot he still had in his suit jacket. He looks up at here staring at him, “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“How can you be so calm about this?”

Bo shrugs, “I just don’t see what getting all worked up is going to accomplish.”

Nora brushes a few strands of damp hair off her forehead, “Well I have no idea why Matthew…” she stops mid-sentence, her mind starting to work overtime, “Unless…”

“Unless what?” Bo says, having no clue what she’s talking about.

“What if this is another one of Matthew or Asa’s, or who knows, probably both of their plan.”

“Nora, seriously, neither one of them would’ve known that we were going to be down here.”

“You know as well as I do that Asa has his eyes and ears everywhere. He could’ve easily arranged for all of this. You know Matthew and your father aren’t the only ones trying to push us together. There’s John, Antonio, Marcie, heck half the department,” she begins to pace again, “That’s it, someone trapped us down here because no one knows how to leave us alone.”

Bo watches her as she paces and rants, waving her arms in the air. He notices a bead of sweat trailing down her neck, disappearing down the valley between her breasts. He swallows the lump forming in his throat. He stands up and walks over to her, grabbing her arm and dragging her over to where he was sitting, “Sit,” he says pointing at the ground.

“No, I can’t sit, I don’t want to sit. I want to find a way out of here.” She begins walking around the room again, “This is so pointless you know,” she begins to unbutton a few more buttons on her blouse, the thin material sticking to her damp skin, “There’s nothing left between us, and that’s okay, we’ve found a good place…we’ve become friends again,” She walks across the room, needing to put distance between them, “I just wish…” she says quietly, hoping he hadn’t heard her.

Across the street Matthew glances over at the station house, a smile spreading across his face when he sees Riley walking towards the back of the building, guitar in hand. Matthew turns his attention back to the game, knowing that this time it was going to work, it just had to.

Back down in the basement Bo stands up and slowly walks towards her. He reaches out and places his hands on her shoulders and turns her around, “What do you wish, Nora?” he asks quietly.

She steps out of his grip and begins to pace again, “I don’t know,” she looks up at him, “I don’t know why I said that.”

He stops her pacing once again, reaching out to place his finger under her chin, “I don’t believe you.”

She blinks, trying to keep the tears at bay. She’s just about to say something when they both turn their attention towards the window. They both walk over to the far wall and look up at the window, “Do you hear that?”

Bo nods, “Sounds like someone’s singing.”

Bo walks over to the far wall and glances back over at her, “What?” she asks, “Who is it?”

“I don’t know?” he grabs the chair and stands up on it, craning his neck to look out the small opening, “I don’t see anyone, but I think you’re right. Someone’s definitely setting us up.”

She watches him jump down off the chair, “What…why are you saying that?”

Bo grabs her hand and pulls her closer to the window, “Listen…”

Nora stands there, her heart racing as she hears the words as they’re sung…

I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day

When it’s cold outside….

Nora pulls her hand from his and fights back the urge to scream. She turns to look at Bo but can’t. Bo notices the slight slump in her shoulders. He walks over to her and places a hand on her shoulder, “You know, Red…I wish the same thing.”

She turns around and looks at him, “What are you talking about?”

“What you said earlier, I’m just guessing here but I think maybe you’re wishing the same thing I’m wishing.”

“Oh yeah, and what’s that?”

“That things were different between us. That we were brave enough to give, what is so obvious to every one else but us, a chance.”

“Bo,” she whispers through her tears.

He closes the distance between them, till you could barely place a sheet of paper between them. He places his finger on her lips, silencing any protest she may try to come up with, “Come on, Nora. I think it’s time we face our feelings.” He slowly leans in, brushing his lips against hers. He had decided to take a chance. He knew he’d feel it in her kiss, he’d know if what he was thinking was right.  She resisted for a moment but finally melted into his kiss. He had his answer.

Bo breaks their kiss and looks into her face, her eyes still closed. She slowly opens her eyes and smiles, despite the tears rolling down her face. He leans in and kisses her again, this time each of them deepening their kiss. A few moments later they break their kiss and rest their foreheads against the others, “I guess our son had one last magic trick up his sleeve after all, who knew all it would take was a basement serenade,” he says with a smile.

Nora laughs and throws her arms around his neck. Outside Matthew looks through the window with a smile. He high fives Riley and runs into the building to free his parents.

THE END…or is it the beginning ;)