An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Title: The last place we left off - Chapter 10
Author: greenapricot
Fandom: Lewis
Characters: Robbie Lewis, James Hathaway, Laura Hobson, Duncan Hunter (epistolarily)
Pairing: James Hathaway/Robbie Lewis, Laura Hobson/Robbie Lewis
Rating: Explicit (overall, teen for this chapter)
Word count: 3861 (of 40k)
Chapter: 10 of 10
Warnings: None
After another round of email back and forth, James does speak to Moody on the phone. Moody makes his disappointment abundantly clear, doing his best to convince James to reconsider resigning, but James won’t be swayed, and he doesn’t apologise. He feels some remorse for his fellow officers’ sake—leaving Oxford CID down an inspector, creating more work for everyone who remains—but he’s not sorry he’s staying in New Zealand. He’s not sorry his life will no longer revolve around dead bodies and 5:00 am callouts and the worst of humanity.
Despite James’ assurance that he is finished with the police and has already put his resignation letter in the post, Moody puts him on an extended leave of absence until he returns to Oxford—In the event that you come to your senses and reassess your priorities in the intervening months. It is gratifying that Moody values his skills as a detective so much that he would resort to such tactics to try to keep him on, but not near enough for James to consider changing his mind.
He has made his intentions clear; if Moody doesn’t believe he’s going to follow through, that’s on him. James may have handed in his resignation before, only for it not to stick, but this time is different. This time, he has a plan and a career change forthcoming. This time, he has Robbie in all the ways he always dreamt of, altogether separate from work. When he’s back in Oxford, he’ll hand-deliver another copy of his resignation letter to Moody, make it undeniably official. But as far as James is concerned, he is no longer a police officer, regardless of whether his name is on the rolls of Oxford CID.
The last place we left off - Chapter 10 on Ao3
