Title: May Day Failure
Fandom: Spooks (MI5)
Rating: PG
Length: 818
Summary: Lucas has a plan for the Bank Holiday 

Having been invited to spend the early May bank holiday with Adam Carter and his son Wes, Lucas North finally arrived at their house mid-way through the Saturday afternoon.  He was hot, tired and frustrated.  Section D had been searching for evidence that two Russians had been involved in the distraction theft of certain documents, but had so far been unable to find anything substantial.

What they had found had been sufficient to convince Harry and Ros they were on the right track, but insufficient to justify the expulsion of the Russians at a point when other government departments were engaged in delicate negotiations of, as Harry saw it, dubious nature themselves.

Lucas had therefore spent the last few days visiting offices and restaurants, and meeting people in various different locations, collecting snippets of information, but nothing of great magnitude.  Malcolm, meanwhile, had been collating the information, confident the whole would be considerably greater than the sum of its parts.

This had been of little encouragement to Lucas, who by lunch-time on the Saturday had been so tetchy and short-tempered Harry had ordered him to take a break.  Lucas had shouted back that he was perfectly capable of carrying on.  Harry had merely said “That’s an order,” and turned round to return to his office.  Lucas had stormed off the Grid.

Lucas had decided walking to the railway station might relieve some of his tension.  But it was hot; his backpack, full of weekend essentials, including probably more books than was strictly necessary, was heavy; and then the train station was full of people, most of whom seemed to have no idea of where they were going.  He had sunk into one of the few spare seats on his train and glared at the passengers around him.

Then, when Adam opened the front door, he had taken one look at Lucas and told him to grab a shower.  Lucas had been about to object to someone else telling him what to do, when Adam had added, “They’ll be a cold drink waiting for you in the garden when you’re ready.”

The shower helped Lucas to relax and he took his time to reflect on his plans.  He had decided this weekend would be the best opportunity to suggest they slept together.  He had caught Adam giving him an appraising glance once or twice, although he hadn’t said anything, clearly waiting for Lucas to feel ready.  Lucas really appreciated the consideration, but knew it meant the onus was on him, which left him feeling nervous.  So he’d thought about it and decided tonight would be the night.

Feeling both restored and resolved, Lucas finished his shower and went to join Adam and Wes in the garden.  They spent the rest of the afternoon outside, before moving back in for a late dinner when it began to cool down.  After Wes had gone to bed Adam put on a DVD which they’d both wanted to watch.  When it finished Adam went into the kitchen to make toast for them, and Lucas stretched out on the sofa, mentally rehearsing what he was going to say when Adam returned.

He woke several hours later to find he was still lying on the sofa, but with a blanket covering him.  A glance at his watch told him it was three in the morning, and he’d completely blown his chance.  Miserably he trawled his way up to the spare bedroom, undressed and fell into the bed.

He was next woken by a knock on the bedroom door and Adam coming in with a cup of tea.

“Sorry about last night …” Lucas began.

“Don’t apologise.  I know what it’s like; you’re keyed up for days, getting little sleep, so when you do relax you go out like a light.”

“Well, sorry, anyway.  I’d better get up.”

“There’s no rush.  I thought we’d go out for the day and have a picnic somewhere.  It’ll take me a while to pack everything up.  That’s assuming you’d like to come with us.”

“I’d love to.  But could you drop me off at the station on the way back?  I need to work tomorrow morning, so it might make more sense.”  Lucas knew he could just as easily have made the journey in from Adam’s house, but he couldn’t face gearing himself up for a second night.

“If that’s what you want.  But we’ll drop you off at your place; it’ll save battling Sunday trains.  You’re only working the morning aren’t you?”

Lucas nodded.

“Then why don’t you come to us for the afternoon and we can all go for a walk together.  I’m taking Wes back to school in the evening, so I might as well take you too.”

Lucas grinned.  The weekend might not have gone quite as he would have liked, but despite his failure, Adam still clearly wanted him around.  “Sounds brilliant,” he said.