Doppler Effect

[feistyfox]

Category: Boomtown
Rating: M
Pairing: David McNorris/ OC
Summary: All she wanted was a new, uncomplicated, psycho free life. Apparently that wasn't going to happen. David McNorris/ Original Character.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Boomtown.

29. Disclosure - Month Twenty-Two

She laughed happily as McNorris grabbed her and spun her around in the warm water. He grinned and let her go. She glided back in the large pool and dunked under the water. When she came up she pushed her soaked hair out of her eyes and looked around the large yard. “Man, McNorris, we need to housesit more often.”

“What do you mean we? I’m not part of this venture. I’m only here because you kidnapped me before I could even get out of the garage. If you ask me I think we should graffiti the place.”

She rolled her eyes. “You are not going to graffiti Michael’s house. You’re especially not going to graffiti it since we’re using his pool. That’s just rude.”

David smirked at her as he backstroked. “What I want to know is how he can afford this place.”

She glanced around as her lip twitched. Hirsh really did have a beautiful home. It was halfway up one of the mountains on the outskirts of the city. The house was three stories, spacious, and really well decorated. Out back, surrounded by tall, cream colored walls, was a giant patio surrounding a heated pool. Honestly, the place was a California dream home. It made their house look like a shack in the woods. Hell, their home would fit in one floor of this place.

When Michael asked if she would watch his house for a week while he was away at a conference, she hadn’t anticipated finding this when she followed the directions he gave her. When she spotted the pool she had squealed, thank goodness she was by herself because ghost boy would have made fun of her if he’d heard, but she hadn’t gone swimming in so long that it tickled her pink. David couldn’t figure out why she was so giddy when she got home, but when she shoved him in her car the next day and brought him he wasn’t. When he spotted the delight in her eyes as she gazed out at the pool he had pushed her, along with the backpack containing their bathing suits, into the nearest empty room so she could change. She had been in the water two minutes later and he had followed her soon after. They had been playing in the water for the better part of two hours as the sun faded away behind the mountains.

“Oh, David, I’m disappointed. That isn’t even a hard one.” She spun around in the water, thrilled with the feeling of it flowing over her skin. Even now, after all this time, she couldn’t bring herself to go to the beach. For her this private pool was heaven. She could swim, and splash, and play without worrying about anyone staring at her. She hummed happily as she flipped to her back and gazed up at the stars.

“Explain.”

“Michael’s from money.” She told him without hesitation. She had spotted that long before she’d seen the house, although she hadn’t expected it to be this nice. Michael went to school for a long time, good schools, ivy league schools. Two types of people could do that, people with money, and people that were willing to go into debt. Michael was old enough to be out of debt by this point in his life but there were other signs. The way he talked, the way he dressed, the way he acted around people. All of it told her he grew up in high society and on the east coast, although he did hide it well. She wondered why he cared if people knew it. Maybe he simply thought most of his clientele would be intimidated, or maybe he wanted to fit in with a different group of people then the ones he grew up with. Either scenario would make sense with his personality. Even so, he couldn’t hide who he was from her. She’d worked it out by their second encounter.

The attorney grunted. “I knew I didn’t like him for a reason.”

She rolled her eyes, figuring you could take the attorney out of the alley but you couldn’t take the alley out of the attorney, and answered sarcastically. “Yes, what a stuck up snob Michael is, what with his helping people and all. Horrible person.”

“I knew one day you would agree with me.” She splashed water at him and he chuckled as he brushed it away. “Since you’re being a crystal ball for me tonight did he inherit it all or is he a trust fund baby?”

“Both.” She replied. “It’s really too bad. I know he’s lonely. He must miss whoever left him the money.”

“You feel bad? Did you look at this house or just do a diving leap into the pool?”

“What’s the point of having a place like this if you’re here by yourself?” A lot of her joy faded away. “Hell, I had a one bedroom condo that echoed. I’d hate to be here all alone.”

David swam over to her and tugged her toward shallower water. “I love that brain of yours but sometimes you do miss things. Michael is perfectly capable of getting a woman. I’ve seen him charm them more than once. He likes tall brunettes. He was after you for awhile.”

“He what?” That caught her off balance. “I’m not tall.”

David snorted as he put her against a wall and kissed her. “You’re tall enough. He was sniffing around you for months before you got him to help us on that case.”

She frowned as put his arms on the side of the pool, encircling her, as he got comfortable. “He never hit on me.”

“I’m disappointed, Darcy. I thought you were a profiler? Think a little harder. Would Hirsch ever openly flirt with you? That’s not how he operates. He plays a different version of the game than I do.”

“You mean he’s a gentleman?”

McNorris shot her a grin. “I’d think about that a little harder before you start insulting me. We are married now, so who’s really the bad one? Me for being a pig or you for falling for it?” She huffed at him for that and his grin grew. “Back on point.”

“This is silly. Even if he was flirting, and I don’t think he was, he never asked me out.”

“He would have if he hadn’t found out you were a widow.”

“What?”

“You want to know why I really don’t like Hirsch?”

“You mean it isn’t that he can beat you in the courtroom?” The question was part sarcastic and part interest.

“I can’t say that endears me to him, but that’s not why.”

“Why then?”

“It’s because he tries to fix people.”

“He’s a psychiatrist.” She said dryly. “His job is to fix people.”

“I don’t mean the people he works with. He tries to fix everybody he comes in contact with. I’ve seen him with woman after woman and he’s never happy because he can’t find one that lives up to the shinning dream he has in his head. He wants perfection, some ideal partner that he won’t ever get, and whenever someone doesn’t muster up, and he can’t get them to work right, he drops them and goes looking again.”

“He’s a romantic-“

“He’s delusional.” David cut in. “Nobody is perfect. He’s never going to meet someone that’s perfect. He was after you because you were smart, educated, and funny. For a while you were looking like a prime prospect, then you said you were a widow and the whole thing fell out from under him. Perfect people meet and fall in love and that’s the end of it. A perfect partner would never have been married before, they would never have emotional baggage, and they certainly wouldn’t have any sort of history. He doesn’t want a woman that thinks about someone they lost with any kind of affection or fondness. A perfect partner would only think about him no matter what the situation might be. He makes himself miserable and alone, and expects some sort of sympathy for his martyrdom, as if the world is making him be by himself. That’s why I don’t like him, there’s no room for error.”

She was quiet as she thought about that. She liked Michael, had never thrown such a critical thought his way, and even if she didn’t agree with David she could see where he was coming from. Especially if Michael had hit one of ghost boy’s buttons. “Did he try to fix you?”

“Of course he did. I didn’t take very well to that as you can imagine. He lacks your subtle charms.” Her lip twitched once before it faded. David continued. “I knew why I was screwed up and I certainly didn’t need him to tell me. But when he decided that you should be his new project I really had to put my foot down.”

“What?” Her voice turned sharp.

“Ah, I see that bothers you and I doubt it’s because I got involved.”

“He said he wanted to fix me?” She felt her temper rising at that thought.

“Not in those exact words, but yes.” Her eyes flashed angrily and she saw the attorney getting smug. “I told him to leave you the fuck alone. You were on edge after you saw someone kill themselves, more than you normally are, and I didn’t want you to snap. I figured, rightly I think, that if you needed help you would ask for it.” True that. David shrugged. “He backed off after our chat. Better for him that way. You might have killed him with the way your temper swings about if you caught him.”

“Hey!”

He smiled and kissed her quickly, negating any sting that might have had. “Don’t worry, baby doll, I like that you’re a little crazy and I certainly don’t expect you to be perfect.” That was good since she wasn’t even close to that goal. He sensed her thoughts moving and watched her as she sorted through what he’d said.

After a moment she shrugged. “I still like Michael.”

He huffed. “You’re only saying that to annoy me.”

“Absolutely, this is all about you. I spend my days working out new ways to aggravate you.”

“I knew it.” He smirked at her sarcasm and kissed her warmly. A moment later and her back was pressed fully into the wall of the pool and his arms had slipped down into the water and ran over her skin. A shiver of delight passed through her. The last week with David had been very… physical. After his father had left he had gone distant on her.

Everyday for three weeks he had gone to Sharkies to work off his energy and emotions and came home with bruises and most of his rage under control. Considering he usually only went to the gym two or three times a week it was a pretty dramatic indication that he was upset, and since it was a healthy way to blow off steam she didn’t say anything. However, his workouts had been so intense that he simply didn’t have the energy to deal with anything else. He had holed up in his home office, or with a book, nearly ignoring her but not quite, and she had decided leaving him alone might be the best idea. She understood that the emotional toll his father took on him was extreme, and after the first face-to-face encounter with him in about three years it was going to cause a severe reaction. But when he wasn’t much better the second week his anxiety had somehow crept into her.

Normally she wouldn’t have been so affected, but she had knowingly emotionally invested herself in this relationship. While she wasn’t taking his detachment from her personally, it was still bothering her. She had gotten used to being part of his day and his life, and when he pulled away it upset her. Her running, which usually only happened after her nightmares, started to become a daily occurrence. While David went to the gym she went for a run, a long one. The third week of his mood he realized what was happening. She had started to collapse in their bed before he got home and he noticed the mud she was tracking in along with her loss of appetite and general exhaustion.

When he came home straight after work after twenty straight days of going to the gym first he had surprised her. She was already in her work out clothes, and was searching for her sneakers when he walked in. She didn’t get a chance to say anything before he picked her up and started toward their room. “No more running.”

“I was-“

“I know what you were doing.” He set her on the bed and kissed her. “I’m sorry I’ve been like this.”

“It’s okay.” She said. “I get it.”

“I know you do.” He kissed her again as he crouched down beside her. “What I don’t understand is why you didn’t say something. When I get moody you always knock me out of it with that mouth of yours. Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t want to get in a fight.”

He frowned. “Why would this have caused a fight?”

She sighed. “Ghost boy, you’re not generally wound up this tight. I wanted you to work your way down before I messed with you.”

He studied her intently. “I haven’t been very good to you the last few weeks have I?”

She reached out and set her hands on his shoulders before leaning in and kissing him. “Don’t be ridiculous, you needed to get your head back on right. That’s fine.”

“It’s not fine.” He kissed her gently, coaxing her mouth open. After a minute he pulled back a bit. “Let me make it up to you.”

“You don’t have to make anything up to me.” She whispered as he began to pull her socks off. “I just missed you. Do you feel better now?”

“I feel better.” He assured her before moving. He straightened up and put them both fully onto the bed. After that assurance he had made her feel better too. They had barely slept that night, and after so many nights without release she had been more than a little forward with him. He hadn’t hesitated to give her everything she wanted, and the next day he had come home from work with a present for her. She had flat out told him he didn’t need to do that, that she didn’t expect him to buy her things all the time no matter how sweet that was, thinking he might not know that, and he had smiled and kissed her before putting the bracelet on her wrist. Then he told her he liked to spoil her and she had muttered about not being spoiled. He had found that hilarious and kissed her thoroughly before taking her out to dinner. After that it was like they had just started to sleep together again. They couldn’t seem to stop touching one another and hadn’t gone more than twelve hours at a time without loosing all their clothes.

Needless to say, finding herself without her top in the pool wasn’t much of a surprise. As he tossed the top to the patio she hooked one of her legs over his hips. “How is it you are constantly getting me out of my clothes in inappropriate places?”

“It’s my animal magnetism.” She laughed at that and he grinned as he rubbed against her. “And you like the thrill, don’t pretend you don’t.”

“Maybe a little bit.” She agreed as she ran her hands over his chest.

“And you’re curious. You like new things.”

“David, I hate to break your heart on this one, but I’ve had sex in a pool before.”

He wasn’t overly concerned with this bit of information. “Not with me you haven’t.” He reached down and slipped the second half of her suit off. She helped him out of his and then he reached down and pulled both her legs around his hips. You had to love buoyancy. He slipped inside her a moment later and she let out an approving sigh as she found his lips. He stayed still inside her and she whimpered at him in encouragement, but he wasn’t moved, it was wrong. “I love being with you like this.” He murmured into her ear. “I love feeling how eager you are when I slip inside you, how much you want me.”

God yes she wanted him. She undulated against him, searching for friction to go along with the fullness, and he snapped his hand down and held her flat against him so she couldn’t move. “David.” She said his name with more than a little strained impatience.

He smirked and kissed her. “Ask nicely.”

Her eyes flashed in alarm as she realized what he wanted. He wanted her to beg. She didn’t do begging and the thought of that had her freaking out explosively. “No!” She tried to wrench away from him and he grunted in shock, holding onto her as he pressed her back against the wall, mostly because she’d moved so fast she’d nearly cracked her head on the cement. “I’m not doing that!”

“Okay.” His whole demeanor changed in an instant at her strained tone. “Okay.” He repeated as he held her. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Darcy. Calm down.”

It was too late for her to calm down. The game he tried to start, one that for anyone else would have been tantalizingly fun, threw into the past fast and hard. She felt like she’d been punched in the gut as fear ran her over. Tears were gathering in her eyes as she shoved at his shoulders, all good feelings and sensations gone in an instant. “Stop, I want to stop!”

“Okay.” He was out of her in a second and helped her out of the pool when she tried to scramble out by herself. Unable to look at him she wrapped herself in a towel as she gathered her suite up. She heard him getting out of the water as she headed back to the house in search of her clothes. David came into the room she was in as she was tugging her jeans on. He was quiet as he got his own clothes, obviously not wanting to further frighten her, and when they were both dressed he spoke quietly. “Let’s go home.”

She nodded silently, still not looking at him, and they went to the car. Neither of them spoke until they were ten minutes away and on the interstate. She was looking out the passenger side window as he drove her car, he simply took the keys from her after he saw she was trembling, and he was watching the road as he weaved between traffic. She shifted unhappily. “I’m sorry.” She whispered.

“I didn’t know that would scare you.”

“I know.” How could he have known? There was no way he could have. She felt awful all around. She was upset, scared, embarrassed, and guilty all at once. She felt sick to her stomach. “I’m sorry.” She repeated.

“Don’t be sorry.” She felt his hand over hers and shivered even as she let him twine their fingers together. “What was it that set you off?”

She continued to look out the window so he couldn’t see her face. “You wanted me to beg.”

His hand squeezed hers. “Did he make you beg, Darcy?”

She thought she might throw up. “Don’t go there, ghost boy.” She could feel his anger fill the small car as he pulled off the interstate and turned toward the house.

“I would never do tha-“

Her stomach rolled again. “David, I’m going to be sick. Stop the car.”

She appreciated that he managed to find the one dark corner in all of L.A. He pulled over under a broken street lamp surrounded by bushes and she scrambled out of the car. She lost her stomach in the shadows and tried to hold her still wet hair out of the way. David was next to her before she was finished and he held her up with one hand and rubbed her back with the other. Coughing slightly she spit bile out of her mouth and ghost boy made a soothing noise as she leaned into him. “Are you going to throw up again?”

“No.”

“Are you okay?”

She let out a strangled laugh as she straightened up. “I can’t believe you would ask me that question after half the shit you’ve seen me do.”

He didn’t seem to find her attempts at humor amusing. He rubbed her back again. “You need to get dried off, baby doll, you’re shivering.” He urged her back toward her car. “Come on, we’re almost home.”

She nodded and allowed him to get her back in the passenger seat. She also allowed him to pull her across the space between them and hold her against his side as he drove one handed. He ran his hand over her hair gently and she hid her face in his side. Twenty minutes later and he had them both dried off and in clean clothes, and she’d brushed her teeth. When her mouth tasted like mint and not acid she went looking for David. He was in the kitchen searching through the cabinet he kept medicine in. He already had a bottle of Tums on the counter and was holding another bottle of Pepto in his hand, reading the directions.

He heard her come into the room with him and indicated the medicine. “Which one do you want to try?”

She walked over to him and set the Tums back in the cabinet. “That was a physical manifestation of stress, it didn’t have anything to do with stomach acid, but thank you.”

“Are you all right?” David was really and truly concerned.

“I’m stabilizing.” She replied honestly. “I’m sorry I reacted that way.”

“You don’t need to be sorry.”

She gave him a lopsided smile. “I left you hanging there.” She reached for his pants. “That wasn’t very nice of me.”

As she went after the button he caught her hands. “Darcy, stop, baby doll. Talk to me for a minute.” She didn’t want to talk. She invaded his space and pressed up against him, wanting to distract him. Lifting her head she kissed the spot under his jaw that always made him react. He let out a small breath and caught her, holding her back. “I’ll be more than happy to take you to bed after we talk.” He saw the frustration in her at being foiled and he lifted his hand so he could cup her face. “We need to talk about this. You can’t expect me to pretend that didn’t happen. You were so scared you threw up. You wouldn’t let me weasel out of this so don’t expect me to let you.” She jerked her head in agreement and he nodded. Taking a breath he considered what might be the best thing to ask. “Were you raped?”

She didn’t know why he asked that when he knew she hadn’t been. Maybe he was trying to cover all his bases. “No.”

“How long did he have you?”

She shivered again and he held her tightly, waiting. “They said a week. It felt longer than that though.”

“And when you begged he stopped?”

She shook her head and looked at a spot over his head. “No, when I begged I just got to pick what happened next.”

“What?”

She shivered again. “I usually said the glass because it hurt less than when I was burned, or when my fingernails were ripped out. That’s why my back is so bad.”

“Jesus Christ.” He had her in a tight hug before she knew what was going on and she slowly wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He held the back of her head as she pressed her face into his neck and she felt his breathing coming out harshly. She was stiff with fear and disgust, and he was stiff with rage and horror. “Is he dead?”

“Yes.” He held her for a long time, until her body loosened and she was leaning against him. “We should take a shower. If that chlorine stays in your hair any longer it’s going to turn green.”

“You’re really concerned with my hair right now?” He asked in disbelief.

“Hey, I’m not the one that’s going to have green hair in court tomorrow. You’re lucky I love you and don’t want the suspect to giggle at you behind your back. I suppose we could shave it off, but I’m not overly impressed with baldness, and really I don’t see you pulling that look off so well. I suppose we could always leave it green so you would match the kitchen though.”

He leaned away from her and looked into her face. “Smart ass.” He said affectionately. He lowered his head and kissed her gently.

When he pulled away she looked him dead in the eye. “I’m not a victim. I won.”

He raised an eyebrow. “No one that knows you would think you were a victim. Now, let’s prevent the victimization of my hair by chemical warfare and clean up.”

The knot in her stomach loosened and she allowed him to take her to the bathroom. David made no mention of what they talked about, made no indication that the information had changed anything between them, and she started to relax. By the time they got into bed and he rolled her to her back she felt like nothing out of the ordinary had happened between them. By the time he made her moan and rolled to his side of the bed she had all but forgotten the incident, and when he draped his arm over her middle and his breathing went even she felt totally normal again. She felt a hundred percent normal until she woke up with a shout at three in the morning covered in a cold sweat. At least David didn’t try to convince her to wait until it was light out to go running this time. He just told her she’d left her sneakers in the garage and watched as she left their room.