The picture on the side is Anna and Ashton's baby - Cameron!!! I didn't want to put it on one of the previous chapters in case it ruined anything for anyone reading NLTL but hopefully everyone knows now!! Lol so cute right?!??!!

Kirsty <3

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Chapter 3

We chatted easily the whole trip, she was telling me about the school she was going to be working at. How she had graduated college but wasn't able to find a teaching job in her home town so she had to come to LA instead. She didn't really like LA much and was going to miss her mom who she would be leaving in Barstow. She was excited to finally have her dream job and be closer to Anna and her younger sister but would be leaving behind a lot too.

We talked a little about my job, well what I was allowed to tell her anyway which to be honest wasn't really that much. I continued to flirt and she continued to reject me, she was really funny and smart that I couldn't help but admire her put downs. The whole two hours there was not one awkward silence, usually I ran out of things to say to a girl after a little while which wouldn't be a problem as I'd just shove my tongue down her throat, but Rosie just seemed to capture my attention. I wanted to listen to her talk for some reason.

I noticed little things about her too that made me smile, like how she used her hands when she talked about something she was passionate about, or how she bit her bottom lip when she was concentrating. How she kept brushing the tendrils of hair back that had escaped around her face but they were slightly too short to go behind her ear so they would just fall back again immediately. How her brown eyes seemed to sparkle slightly from the dull train light that was above our heads.

When we pulled in at her station she smiled and stood up, "Thanks for making sure I got here player."

I stood up too and followed her to the door of the train, I really wanted to walk her to her door and make sure she got home ok. It was well after midnight and she shouldn't be walking the streets on her own.

"I'll just find out what time the next train is back to LA." I said following her off of the train to the little board that showed the times. There was a train leaving in five minutes and then another one in an hour which happened to be the last one then I'd be stuck here until six in the morning, shit I hope I don't miss that train as my captain would have my balls if I didn't show up at the raid tomorrow.

"How far away do you live?" I asked looking over the empty train station.

"It's only about ten minutes walk. Thanks for dinner and the company." She smiled.

"No worries." I took my jacket off and slipped it around her shoulders, discretely leaving my arm there too as I started leading her towards the main entrance.

She stopped and looked at me shocked, "Nate seriously, go get a seat before the train goes without you." She nodded back to the train that we'd just got off of, looking at me worriedly.

"I'll get the next one and walk you home." I shrugged easily making her walk again as she just looked at me like I was crazy.

We walked in silence for most of the trip, she didn't shrug my arm off of her shoulder so I smiled and left it there, she seemed to fit under my arm perfectly. "So what time do you have to start work tomorrow?" she asked pulling my jacket around her tighter as the wind blew harder.

"Five." I said turning my nose up.

She gasped, "Five in the morning? You won't get time to sleep! You should go get that train and then at least you might be able to catch a couple of hours sleep before you start work." she said stopping again.

"Rosie will you keep walking? It's late at night and it's dark, there could be all sorts of weirdo's lingering down these dark streets just waiting to take advantage of a handsome thing like me." I joked looking around with mock horror.

She laughed and shook her head, "Don't worry baby, I'll protect you." she teased making me laugh.

"Thanks." I grinned as we started walking again.

When we got to her building I followed her up to the third floor she stopped outside the door. "I can't invite you in, I'm sorry." she said frowning and looking uncomfortable.

I smiled and shook my head, I wasn't actually expecting her too. "It's fine, so maybe when you move to LA we could catch up or something?" I asked trying desperately not to lean in and press my lips against hers even though they honestly looked so inviting, especially as she chewed on her bottom lip. I groaned internally at how $exy she looked when she did that, I wanted to press my body against hers and rip her damn clothes off and run my tongue over every inch of her.

"I don't think so Nate." she said almost sounding apologetic. 

"Because you already have a man?" I asked raking my eyes over her face looking for any signs of indecision; maybe if I just kissed her she'd kiss me back. Or maybe she'd slap my face, either way I decided against it. She really wasn't interested and I couldn't help but feel jealous of the guy she was seeing, he was a lucky man and I hoped he knew it.

"Yeah." she whispered nodding.

"Ok, well it was nice to meet you and stalk you for a few hours. Thanks for keeping me entertained. Your first piece of stalker mail should arrive within the next couple of days." I joked grinning at her.

She laughed, "I'll look forward to it." She handed me back my jacket smiling gratefully.

I slipped it on and took one last look at her before I turned and headed back to the station to wait for my train. I couldn't help but wonder if this girl was my Anna, my perfect match. I guess it didn't matter, she couldn't be if she wasn't interested.

By the time I was back in LA I was exhausted, my eyes were stinging and it was almost four in the morning. I headed back to my apartment and had a nice hot shower trying to wake up my muscles a little. I pulled on some fresh uniform and headed to department a little earlier than I needed to so I could read through the briefing pack that I would need for today.

When I got there I grabbed a pack and went to sit in the briefing room to read through it, skimming to the most important parts. My whole team of ten were going to a building downtown where they have been tracking a drug dealer. Apparently there was a cop that was undercover with the group that had fed us information that there was a big deal going down this morning at seven.

I was to lead the snipers, four of us in total and we would take vantage points across the street and the other six agents would move into the building and secure the targets after the deal had gone down. There was one tech guy that had already set up the building with camera's and motion detectors in preparation so we would be able to watch the deal before moving in. It all sounded fairly standard to me, not unlike a normal raid except we needed to be careful of the undercover cop. I flicked to his picture so I would know who he was during the raid.

When I was done reading I rested my head on my arms and waited for everyone else to arrive. I must have fallen asleep because something smacked me on the back of my head making me jump. I looked up to see Russell one of my team mates laughing his ass off with a folder in his hands, obviously proud of himself.

"Assh0le." I grunted tiredly.

He plopped down in the seat next to mine, "Another girl keep you up all night?" he asked shaking his head disapprovingly. Russell was a married man and always disapproved of the tales I told of girls I'd been with, or parties I'd been to or something.

I smiled, he was right in a way but not like what he was thinking. "Yep, I had no sleep at all. It was fun though." I said honestly. Let him take from that what he wanted, it wasn't a lie she did keep me up all night, just not in the way he was probably assuming.

"When are you going to grow up and stop sleeping around?" he asked rolling his eyes.

I laughed and sat back in my chair rubbing my hand through my hair, "When my dick shrivels up and falls off." I joked making him laugh.

The captain walked in the room and everyone went quiet and snapped on their game faces listening to last minute instructions before we all piled into two vans and headed to the location.

Two hours later I was laying on my stomach looking through the eye piece of my rifle. I could see five guys all fussing over a briefcase talking animatedly, one of them was the undercover cop. Apparently there were another four guys spread around the building keeping watch while the deal went down. I didn't need to worry about those four, the ground team would take those out before they moved in.

My walkie crackled to life. "We're moving in. Radio silence." Radio silence meant that we could hear what was going on with them but they couldn't hear us unless we buzzed to get their attention. That way we didn't give away their positions.

I flicked my eyes to Russell who was laying about twenty feet away aiming at the building but from a different angle. "I'll cover the two on the right." I said signaling with my hand.

"Yeah ok, I'll go left then." He nodded looking back into his eye piece.

My walkie crackled again, "I'm going in." Kurt hissed.

"Kurt just wait, We're not ready just wait for the signal." Neil replied.

"I can hear someone coming, I need to move in." Kurt answered.

"No, just hold off. Take out who you need to and wait for the signal, we have an undercover in there." Neil ordered sternly.

I frowned, Kurt was always like this, freaking as$hole couldn't take orders. I watched the room as shouting and gun fire came through my walkie. Oh crap this wasn't going as planned! Kurt burst into the room on his own, freaking as$hole! I tensed lining up my shot for the guy closest to Kurt ready to take him down if I needed to. Three of the guys immediately looked around shocked, they were suits so they had others to do the shooting for them so they just stood there with their hands up innocently. The undercover cop moved to the side but held his hands up too playing along until he was arrested like he was supposed to incase the raid went wrong and he needed to stay under. The fifth guy moved quickly slamming Kurt into the wall making his gun drop from his hand.

"Nate?" Russell shouted, waiting for me to make the call of whether we should take him out.

"Hold." I called lining up my sight as I frantically searched for a shot that wouldn't hit Kurt. They were scuffling around on the floor rolling over and moving too much, there was no shot.

The three suits ran from the room grabbing the briefcase, with the undercover hot on their heels. I heard Neil through the walkie ordering change of positions so they could pick them up.

Kurt and the guy were still fighting it out and somehow the other guy got the upper hand and grabbed the gun from the floor standing up at the same time as Kurt as he pointed the gun at him.

I could hear their conversation through the walkie, the way they were positioned Kurt had his back to me and was blocking my shot to the guy with the gun.

"Mother f*cker." the guy growled.

"Just calm down, there are agents all over the building. If you shoot me then you won't make it out of here alive." Kurt said holding his hands up in surrender. The guys eyes flicked around the room quickly obviously looking for a way out.

"Do you have a shot?" I called to Russell.

"No I got nothing, Kurt's in the way."

I pressed the button on my walking calling though to the two other snipers that were three floors down from us. "Steve, Cody you have a shot?" I asked hopefully as I looked through my eyepiece again. I had a shot but I didn't want to take it, it was straight through the guys forehead and we should try and go for a body shot it possible, better to wound than to kill as there would be an investigation into the kill to see if the agent went too far.

"No nothing." they both replied. Damn it! "You have anything?" Steve asked.

I gulped, "I have a kill shot." Come on Kurt step to the right a little, just move your body, you know we're watching. Move your f*cking body out of the way as$hole!

Kurt was still trying to calm the guy down who was looking more and more stressed with each passing second which wasn't a good thing because he was also getting more and more desperate and jumpy and was more likely to shoot.

"Let's just go in together, give me the gun and it'll be easier for you." Kurt said persuasively.

"I can't go inside again, I can't." the guy cried as he raised the gun again.

I saw the indecision on his face fade as he made up his mind to shoot him. His face hardened as his jaw tightened. $hit! I pulled the trigger quickly, the shot smashing the window shattering glass everywhere, the glass hit the floor a second before the guys dead body did.

Kurt turned around looking in our direction gratefully, his face pale. I actually wanted to shoot him too, he was always doing things like this. I'd killed more people because of his stupidity than needed to be dead and I hated it. I hated to know that I was the one to end someone's life, that I would be taking a son from a mother or something. It played on my mind after, not that anyone knew that, I didn't talk to anyone about it because that was my job. I was damn good at it too, I was the best sniper which is why I was chosen to lead and make the decisions. I knew it needed to be done but if that ass hadn't moved in early then the rest of the team would have been there to help him and that guy might have been alive now.

"Nice shot." Russell said slapping my shoulder as I packed up my gun.

"Thanks." I nodded trying not to show any emotions, I needed a drink. I needed to f*ck someone senseless and get wasted so I could stop thinking about the way the guys body fell limply to the floor.

I slung my gun bag over my shoulder and headed downstairs slowly knowing I was going to be interviewed about the kill. I spotted Kurt standing off to one side smoking, he was grinning and chatting to one of the other team as if nothing had happened.

I saw red, I dropped my bag and grabbed the front of his jacket shoving him roughly against the side of the car he was standing next to. "F*cking d!ckhead! Why did you move in early? Why can't you just do as your freaking ordered for once in your life?" I growled as he gripped my wrists trying to push me off.

"It all worked out in the end so what's your problem?" he asked breathlessly.

"You're my problem! You're always pulling crap like this. You need to grow the hell up or you're going to get yourself killed." I spat, my face inches from his. Damn I hated this guy and I wanted nothing more than to ram my fist down his throat and pull his heart out.

He smiled sarcastically, "I won't get myself killed Nate, you're too good at your job."

I pulled back and shoved him away from me making him fall on his ass. "You better f*cking hope I'm always there to save your ass. Maybe next time I won't have the shot and you'll take one through the forehead just like he did." I growled as I turned around and picked up my bag again walking away before I did something stupid like ripping his arrogant head off. 

The rest of the day passed slowly, I had to fill in a ton of forms and reports stating that I had no other choice but to take the kill shot. Russell and Kurt were interviewed too. Finally after about two hours of talking I was dismissed and allowed to go home early while they combined their evidence and then made their decision. I knew I wasn't in trouble for it, I had been through a lot of these and they were just a formality. A tedious annoying formality that unfortunately was part of my job.

It was only lunchtime so I decided to go and have a couple of hours sleep so that I could go out tonight. I really needed something to take my mind off of work but I didn't have the energy right now for anything physical so I couldn't go pick up a girl, and it was too early to start drinking. I headed home and slumped in my bed still wearing my uniform and threw my arm over my eyes to block out the light.

It was times that this that I wished I had a girl, a girl to ask me what was wrong and to tell me that it was ok to feel like shit for killing a scumbag. A girl to hold me so I could think about anything other than the way the target's eyes go vacant just before they fall to the floor. A girl to just want to be with me for me, instead of the way I looked or because I wore a uniform. My mind wandered to Rosie and how uninterested she was in me, I laughed and shook my head at myself. Was I interested in her because she didn't want me? Why do I always want the unobtainable?

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Later that night I could already feel the effects of the drink I'd been consuming over the last few hours, my head was a little light and my mood lifted from earlier. Seth handed me another drink grinning wickedly as he tapped his glass against mine. "Right then, drink that the heck down and then let's go hit on that little group of hotties over by the door." He nodded in the direction of a group of girls all standing around laughing and drinking.

I groaned internally, I really couldn't be bothered with this tonight, I just wanted to have a drink and a laugh with my friends and forget what a shitty day I'd had and how tired I was.

I nodded. "Sure, on three. One....Two....three." I licked the salt off of the back of my hand, downed the shot of tequila and bit into the lemon wincing as it burnt my throat. "Man that tastes like $hit, Ashton's not even here so why do we have to drink this crap?" I asked pushing my glass away from me. That was something that Ashton and I drank on a night out but I actually couldn't stand the taste of it.

Seth laughed and shook his head still wincing and turning his nose up too. "No idea. Come on then, seeing as you had a bad day I'll let you chose which hottie you want."

I groaned internally and looked over to the group, I scanned them quickly they were all pretty in their own way but I decided to go for the brunette, she looked a little like Rosie but nowhere near as pretty. Damn it why the hell am I thinking about this freaking girl again?

"Brunette." I stated following him over to them.

As we got closer to them I noticed that the blonde girl was glaring at me. What on earth is she looking at me like that for? She elbowed her friend whispering to her about something and then the friend started glaring at me too. Oh crap, had I already had $ex with this girl? I looked at her again, she did look a little familiar but I had no idea what her name was. $hit I had, I'd already slept with her! Damn it, $hit, b0llocks, damn, $hit!

We were already almost over there so I couldn't just turn and walk away because she'd know that I wimped out! Man I suck so much! The perfect end to a perfect day. She stood there with her hands on her hips waiting for me to go over there so she could probably kick me in the balls for not calling her or something. I could feel my balls shrivel up and try to hide back inside my body, oh man I guess I deserve this! Hopefully I'd just get slapped or something instead, that I could cope with.

I decided to try and salvage the situation and turn this around. I’d seen Joey do this on Friends and it was sure as hell worth a try. When I got up to her I glared back at her, speaking before she could yell at me or something. “I just wanted to tell you that what you did to me was bang out of order and I hope you feel really bad about it,” I said, turning my nose up at her.

She looked at me confused, "What I did?"

I nodded and folded my arms over my chest arrogantly willing Seth not to say anything, he was looking at me like I'd lost my mind. "Hell yeah what you did! How could you do that to me? We had what I thought was life changing $ex, we had a real connection and then you give me a fake number? That's low, really low." I lied shrugging trying to look annoyed.

She frowned and put her hand to her throat. "I didn't give you a fake number, you never called me!" she cried.

"Never called, are you kidding me? Why the hell wouldn't I call you? You're beautiful, smart, funny. I really thought we had something but when I tried to call you the next day the freaking number you gave me was just a dead line." I said dramatically. Oh crap please fall for this!

She gasped and shook her head. "I swear I didn't give you a fake number, I swear. I was waiting for you to call but you never did." She looked at me like she was trying not to believe me but she couldn't help it.

"Oh I called alright. You hurt me, that was really low and a beautiful girl like you shouldn't trick guys like that. It's not fair to unleash your charm on people. Do you know how long it took me to get over you? How many girls I had to sleep with just to forget how good it was with you?" I said throwing my hands up dramatically.

She gasped and put her hand on my arm looking at me apologetically, "I'm so sorry I must have written it down wrong but I swear I didn't mean to. I wanted you to call me I promise." She stepped closer to me giving me the puppy dog face and I knew I could sleep with her again tonight if I wanted to. She'd fallen for it hook line and sinker and my balls thanked their lucky starts that she did!

I felt myself relax slightly, damn I can't believe she fell for that! How stupid can you get? I pulled my arm away and shook my head, "No way, you blew your chance with me. You think I'm going to let you hurt me like that again?" I turned to Seth, "Let's go before she makes me fall for her $hit again." I nodded my head in the direction of the door.

Seth grinned and nodded and I knew I needed to get him out of here before he burst out laughing. I turned and headed out quickly feeling the cold fresh air hit me in the face making me feel slightly more tipsy.

Seth jumped on my back laughing his ass off. "Holy $hit Nate, you slept with her already?" he choked out making me laugh as too.

"Damn man that was a freaking close one, I thought she'd have my balls. Did you see the hate coming from her?" I asked glancing back over my shoulder to make sure she wasn't following me or anything.

He laughed harder, "Nice save though. You should have gone with her again just to prove a point. That would have been so funny, you should have had $ex with her again and when she went to give you her number just turned her down and tell her it wasn't as good as you remembered." he said wiping his eyes where he was crying with laughter.

I grinned, that would have been funny but I wouldn't have done that, Seth would have done but I couldn't be that heartless. I punched him in the arm lightly and laughed, "I've had enough now. I'm gonna go home. You might as well stay at mine." I offered knowing that my place was closer than his and he wouldn't want to walk all the way back to his apartment.  

Seth was shaking his head looking at me in awe. "Do you know how many girls I had to sleep with just to forget how good it was with you? Oh my God Nate when you said that I nearly pissed myself." he said laughing and slapping me on the back proudly.     

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Hope you enjoyed it - poor Nate! Lol maybe he's working his way through the whole of LA?!?! I hope this chapter showed more insight into his character and his job! He's not just a pretty face - the boy has feelings too! :D 

Comment and Vote if you like it!

If you want to come to the facebook page then click on 'open external link' to go straight there or the address is on my profile 'about me' section!

Thanks

Kirsty <3