Gleaning What You Will Not See

A/N: This is my first Lewis story. Before this I have written mostly Doctor Who and Harry Potter. I do have an Inspector Morse angsty romance that is still a work in progress posted here on fanfiction.

I have been reading Lewis fics lately and watching Lewis on DVD. This story just seemed to creep into my head as a result.

This would be fairly early in the Lewis timeline. It involves a character of my creation, a lab manager for Dr. Hobson named Karen. This is the first of, perhaps, 4 chapters.

/

Laura Hobson had come over to her friend's flat that night on purpose. To catch him at his most withdrawn. Robbie wasn't sleeping well, she knew. He didn't get out, other than to work. And he was eating god-knows-what. He let her in, but then rolled his eyes at the ceiling as he realized it was a lecture he had invited over his threshold.

She was prodding him now from her spot at his kitchen table, her voice low and sad. "Do you think the emulation of Morse has gone far enough?" It frightened her that Lewis' present behavior could remind her of his former boss'.

The Detective Inspector groaned, sounding more hurt and weary than angry with her.

"You are little more than a recluse now..." she told him flatly.

"Laura..." he objected, hesitantly.

But she was on a roll. She'd waited months to confront him with this. "The mood, the seclusion, the booze and ...the Wagner, for God's sake."

Now, Robbie turned bitter. Effortlessly, he channeled Morse at his worst. "Well, leave God out of it at least."

"Oh, it's not to the same extent," she said more gently now. She edged closer physically, obviously trying to make amends. "But it's all too similar for me to sit by and watch. We all wanted better for Morse, didn't we? But we got nowhere with him."

The worst of it, for the widowed Inspector Lewis, was the sigh that followed. A woman's sigh. Heavy and hurt, signaling disappointment. It funneled through him. Fueled his self-reproach.

"I thought..." he began. "I thought I was doing the best I could... that I was doing alright - on the outside at least."

"I know," Laura echoed with her compassion fully evident now. "But I'd like to see you actually believe that there is something left for you. Something out there. And not just try to act like you are alright."

"I'll try to do better," he promised weakly.

She squeezed his shoulder and pushed off from his kitchen chair. "Am I too rough on you?" she asked softly.

"Nah," he said with a shake of his head.

/

At her office, Laura looked up from the paper she was holding, and her eyes went unfocused, and her mind began to wander. There was just another hour until a normal quitting time, and lately that made her wonder what Robbie would do with his hours off. She blinked again and tried to finish reading the report in front of her. The bulk of the memo began to fade away and it was the opening and the final note that caught her eye now.

'To: Inspector Lewis,' it said at the top. And at the very bottom, it read, 'Prepared by: /KDG/.' "Karen," the pathologist said with a note of discovery. And she smiled her rather wicked smile then.

... ... ... ...

Karen looked over from her desk to see her boss eying the report she had just handed her. The lab manager sensed something was wrong. But she could swear there were no errors, grammatical or scientific, in her work. So, she pulled at the dark hair by her temple a tad nervously, and waited for Laura's reaction.

It was almost time to go home. There were kids, dinner, and homework for Karen to worry about. Not that she could explain any of that to Dr. Hobson. Even without a man, Karen found her life was full enough that a night re-running blood panels was not on her list of fun activities.

"Laura?" she called out finally. "I was going to head home by six, so if you hate that report, could you just tell me now?"

"No. It's fine. Perfect. I mean Lewis is going to hate it, probably. It could muck up his murder," Dr. Hobson added with that girlish twitch of her lips that she was prone to. "But then..."

Laura considered the woman afresh. She had hired Karen because she was bright, willing to work any shift, and had a no nonsense air about her. But there was a lot more to her.

Her assistant was a bit younger than herself. What had she said when she had whined over the new glasses? That 44 was too young to be wearing reading specs? Oh, Karen looked a tad put out at present with the spooky way Laura was acting, but the woman was a fun type at the right times.

She was taller and athletic in that willowy way that Laura used to resent. Very charming when business was not at hand. A comfortable sort... perfect for Robbie as a sort of ... warm up. And Robbie would be excellent practice for Karen.

The good inspector's male ego could use a little flattery, Dr. Hobson quickly decided. Laura would not go so far as to match make, but she did think Lewis could use some female attention, and that Karen Gowers could benefit from the activity.

Perhaps Dr. Hobson didn't broach the topic fluidly, because Ms. Gowers laughed uncomfortably and sunk back against the edge of the desk after Laura made her suggestion. "You want me to flirt with him... as part of presenting medical evidence? Flirt? With a DI?"

"DIs are a lot like people, actually," Laura insisted with a smile and a dose of sarcasm.

"I've never known one with much of a sense of humor," the younger woman countered.

"Oh, you might be catching them at a bad time, say when they want their 12 hour panels back in 6..." Laura joked.

"Maybe I've been holding out for a professor or a stand up comic or something."

"You've just been holding out. Admit it," Hobson accused.

"I don't flirt. Not in 10 years have I flirted," Karen objected firmly.

"Practice seems to be in order then. There's no interest between you two. That's the best part. I'm not setting you up," Laura continued in able salesman-like fashion. "Really, Karen. You have been doing the disaffected divorcee thing for the whole time I've known you..."

"The what?" Karen fumed.

But her boss just plowed ahead.

"... and Inspector Lewis is... well, crawling into a shell as if he has no right to ever be happy again. As if there is nothing left to life. Believe me, this is perfect. And harmless. He needs the notice. Just give him a quick compliment or two. Let him know women can still find him interesting and attractive."

Considering the matter decided, Dr. Hobson abruptly headed back to her desk. She called out cheerfully over her shoulder, "Good night, Karen."

/ / / /

Laura called the inspector the following morning from work.

"Karen will have the results?" Inspector Lewis parroted back into the phone with a bit of uncertainty.

"You must have seen Karen. She runs the lab. She's on the reports," Dr. Hobson prompted.

"Ah, she's the 'slash K D G slash.'"

"Yes, look what a great detective you are... even if you have just reduced a very nice woman to a literal footnote. The point is, she will go over the results with you."

"You too busy for me?" Robbie teased.

"Frankly, yes. Besides... she's nice," Dr. Hobson said with emphasis.

"God, Laura," he whined.

"Just try to be polite to her. Good bye, Robbie," she told him before there could be any further complaints.

/

Lewis sounded gruff and looked decidedly impatient as he pushed through the door an hour later.

"Dr. Hobson?" he called out. Spotting her at her desk, he started in that direction.

Karen cringed as she watched her boss feign taking a phone call. The detective would figure that simple ruse out in a moment, most likely. So, to stop his progress, Karen blurted out, "I've got what you need, Inspector." She cringed harder then at the unintended double entendre. Either it had gotten a great deal warmer in the lab or she was blushing.

She must have been blushing, she realized, because Inspector Lewis had stopped looking so stern and was wearing a half-smile he could not contain. He gave up on Laura then and walked for Karen's desk. She busied herself with avoiding his eyes while she pulled out the file from a stack.

"Dr. Hobson," and here he crooked a thumb over his shoulder in a masculine gesture Karen found reassuringly informal, "told me there was something I needed to see, specifically."

Karen stood up. She was convinced she had no ability to flirt or even 'make eyes' at a man, and she certainly could not even attempt those things if forced to crane her neck up at this fellow.

"I'm glad you didn't mind coming down." She paused and looked for some other way to make him know that he mattered, that being the closest thing to flattery she could think of. "I wanted to bring it by to you," she whispered. She smiled then because now she could get even with her boss, too. "But Laura has me minding gels that need 30 minute checks."

"Oi, she's a hard one," Lewis whispered back. He cleared his throat then as if he needed to consciously regain his inspector's aspect.

Karen ventured a raised eyebrow at the dig he had taken at his friend and then launched straight into business. "We felt it would be best if we could go over these results in person. There are agents in the blood that act a bit strangely. If you have the time?" She tried another smile and looked at him expectantly. "I've got 22 minutes before I need to look at those pesky gels," she said then.

His manner changed at hearing that. He looked at her with a sort of friendly sympathy. She sensed he had a soft spot for the poor soul that had a task master for a boss.

"Ok. Let's do it," he conceded with a nod.

Karen grabbed a small bucket of markers and led him to the glass walled meeting room.

It didn't take long to point out the odd behavior of the agents that had been found in the victim's blood. Karen waited for the moment she knew his eyebrows would rise in surprise, that point when he processed the news that none of those agents should have killed their victim.

"So this tells us something else was present maybe, something you can't test for?"

"Exactly," the woman told him, and she rewarded him with an enthusiastic smile. "I've got a short list here of things with nearly unpronouncible names that might

be the culprit."

"Just in case I come across a tub somewhere that's conveniently labeled?" he joked.

"Not the sort of help you were hoping for. I know," she said quietly. "Not that you need lots of help," she back peddaled out of concern for his ego.

She was no good at this. That was the thought that thudded through her brain at that moment.

Karen shot a nervous look out to where her boss sat, and the inspector caught her at it.

Lewis groaned without thinking. He was getting an uneasy feeling about this all-too-easy conversation. "Tell me now if this is some sort of a set up," he insisted sounding embarrassed.

Finding herself caught out, it was Karen's turn to groan. "See how clever you are?" she tried to tease. But she became serious then. "I am going to level with you because I've been as set up as you have. I told that woman, I don't flirt."

"She decided I needed you to flirt with me!" He sounded incredulous.

"Try not to make that sound like a case of small pox, and together we can exact a fitting revenge," Karen said with a light dosing of spite.

His 'sorry' was accompanied by an ashamed wince.

"Completely understandable," she told him, "but do play your part, as we are on display."

Karen shuffled papers in front of her and avoided his eyes while she explained, "Laura figures you would benefit from hearing that you are attractive and generally desirable."

He shook his head and looked away briefly.

Something about his manner struck her, and she found herself saying, "I have no idea if hearing it helps or not, but it is true. You do seem to be one of those wonderfully dependable, down to earth types. And you are attractive."

She waved off the denial she knew was coming.

"Laura has found it in her heart to help me as well, you see," Karen told him with adequate sarcasm. "She is sure that with a little practice I can learn to approach men again and all my troubles will be over. Not that I saw my life as the giant problem she perceives."

"Given that she herself is single, this is a very annoying behavior on Laura's part," he agreed.

"Perhaps we were not doing 'single' to her specifications," the lab manager suggested with a grin.

After a breath to steady himself he said, "You mentioned revenge, I believe, my good woman."

"Thank goodness you are amenable to that sort of underhanded behavior." Karen put everything back in its folder and handed it to him. "Let's walk. I'm sure you have to get back to work, and I don't want to tie you up down here." With a reflexive hand to her forehead, she was convinced her choice of words had not suffered this badly in years.

He laughed quickly, but not unkindly, at the discomfort she was causing herself.

They crossed the tile floor together, and Laura barely suppressed her surprised look when Lewis did not venture towards her desk. He merely offered up a wave and continued out the double doors with Karen toward the lift. Laura could see the pair out there, gesturing, nodding, smiling even. And she wondered how successful she should feel.

... ... ... ... ... ...

"Do you have a card?" Karen asked cautiously. "You could give me one with your home number on the back. I'd show it to Laura, and she would be a very self satisfied cat. She might leave us alone then."

"Naw. She might see through that. A phone number would be a big step. Well, for a recluse like me." The lift ringed open, and he held the door for her. "Tell her I told you, 'I hope you are here next time I come by.' " He made the words sound carefully chosen.

"You know best."

"I don't always, obviously, or I would not have Laura so worked up over me," Robbie said a touch sadly as they moved into the empty lift.

"She cares about you is all," Karen offered gently.

"Ever since my wife died... " he began. And she let him off the hook, not making him finish his statement.

"I know. And your kids are grown and not close by. My situation's not really the same. My kids are still at home. My ex husband left us about 7 years ago," she explained softly. "My life is ... full. Just not always with the things I would choose to put in it."

"Teacher conferences and dance lessons. The haggling over cleaning up their rooms and turning down their music?" he asked with a shy, but knowing smile.

"Oh. Exactly."

"How many kids?" he asked, easier now.

"Two. A boy and a girl," she said smiling.

"That's just like me." He had still wanted to say 'us' he admitted to himself. "How old?" he managed.

"My son is eighteen. He's looking at universities this fall. My daughter's just sixteen."

"Oh, sixteen? That's a tough age."

"I know," she assured him genially. They were by the hospital exit now, and she didn't want to see things turn awkward after so much success. So, she backed up a step to signal that she was letting him go.

"I have liked talking to you," he offered as if it was an apology. "And I do hope you are here next time I come by."

"You can call me here...if you have any more questions on the report," she offered in halting fashion.

"Thanks, Karen."

But the man's words seemed lost and weak to the tall brunette. Karen merely nodded in return. Silently, however, she couldn't help but ache a bit for the man.