Fic: [NR] Mix of Dark Minors and Sunny Majors (Chapter 5/14)
Mix of Dark Minors and Sunny Majors
Word Count: Chapter 5: 3,803; [48,282 total]
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Nico/Dani-Possibly. Eventually?
Spoilers: References something from 1x07 and 1x11.
Disclaimer: don't own. Don't profit. Don't … a lot of things
Summary: She'd be willing to bet the Nico of reality was somewhere between her good guy and his evil one but he wasn't ready to see that just yet. "Nico, I work on feelings and intuition. Of course I see the potential. You work in cold facts and realities that aren't pretty so you see the bad. In order for music to be beautiful, there has to be a mix of sunny majors with the dark, harsh minors."
Author's Note: So, you can blame or credit, jeer or cheer brokenroots & goodisrelative for this 92-page (20+ chapter) fic. Brokenroots started me thinking about NR fic (go read hers, it's better) and then they both beat me up to get more. Please note, this fic is done. finished. fin. over. ended. ... that doesn't mean there might not be a sequel. at least a "Sunday Supper at Mama C's" [you'll meet Mama C in a much later chapter]
-%-
"Nico, thank you. This was just what I needed. Especially after the call." Dani smiled up at him as they walked out of the restaurant two hours later. The conversation had been easy, more in the sense it was about a variety of things, not the subject matter, and constantly flowing. He had a way of making her think outside of her own little world and she liked that. He had succeeded in getting her to drink a second glass of wine, a South African shiraz-pinotage bled that had also been very good.
"My pleasure, Doctor." He smiled down at her and wondered when it had become easy to talk with her. She challenged him with conversation, keeping him on his toes, but it had been pleasant. She hadn't tried to prod his secrets out of him but he had talked of all things impersonal, giving her vague insights into him without any real resistance.
She was asleep five minutes into the ride, her head leaning against the door.
As the pulled into the house they were using, Nico sighed. He really didn't want to wake her up. He considered carrying her inside but he wasn't sure about her reaction and he did not want to startle or scare her: she was finally relaxed.
"Hmmm. We home, Nico?" Dani asked as she stretched.
"We have arrived at the house, yes." Nico sighed, not sure why he should be so disappointed at the loss of an opportunity he didn't want.
Dani looked over to study his profile. "Hey, what is it? Is there a situation? You know you can leave me with your men, right?" She reached over to cover his hand on the seat between then.
Nico frowned and looked down at their hands. "No." he denied, not sure what he was denying at first then he focused on her words. "No situation I need to fix. And, no, it is not okay for me to leave you. I told your children-."
"Nico, you can take care of me without being right here with me. If something else is important, I need to know you would go deal with it. Babysitting me shouldn't take precedence over everything." Dani cut him off. "Contrary to what you saw today, I can take care of myself. I won't crack every time."
Nico shook his head. When he was about to say something, she squeezed his hand and started again, "Nico, I'm serious. I am not saying I don't like you being around. Your presence is a security blanket: I know nothing will happen when you are around. But that doesn't mean I can carry that everywhere." Dani sighed and let his hand go, moving to open her car door. Suddenly, there was a man there to help her out. She smiled at the man and waited for Nico to meet her on the front walk. "Nico, I'd like to see the two women tomorrow evening."
Nico nodded. This he could handle. "I will make the arrangements in the morning. Together or separately? Where would you like to meet?"
Dani rubbed her brow, pushing the hair back out of her face. "Together, and I am not sure. I want somewhere we can talk privately. Ideally, my office, but that is out of question."
Nico frowned. "What about the stadium office? Or is it too soon for the women to return there? If it is after 7 PM, the players will all be gone, as will most of the staff."
"That will be fine." Dani smiled. "What time do we head out to the Stadium tomorrow? How many men on duty tomorrow morning?" She groaned. "We needed to stop at the store."
Nico sighed. "I will have one of the men venture to the grocery store if you make a list tonight. Five men, why? And I was thinking you do not have appointments with the players until 10 AM, so we can leave here at 9 AM."
"Because I am making them breakfast sandwiches." Dani declared then headed into the kitchen to look for paper and a pen. It took her a second try, realizing that she had written the first list out as if she was home with two teenagers in the house. Sighing, she rewrote the list for two people but extra breakfast things.
She handed the list to Nico in the living room. "I know it's early, not even 10 PM yet, but it's been a long and trying day. I'll see you in the morning, Nico. Please try to get some rest."
-%-
He woke up to the smell of coffee and wondered which of the men he would have to thank for that. He had ended up turning in early-for him-at midnight. He glanced at the clock and blinked when he realized it said 647 AM.
He headed for the shower.
Dani heard the shower and knew Nico was up, so she finished washing the men's breakfast dishes and turned the burner back on. She set up two omelets, deciding she could stomach food now. She looked at the clock and sighed. It still wasn't even 7 AM yet: two more hours before they leave for the stadium. She didn't even know what she was going to do all day there! There was only so many sessions she could transcribe, so many sessions she could have, so many TK crises she could handle before she went mental with boredom.
Nico blinked. How had he missed her getting up? She hadn't taken a shower yet: she was only in yoga pants and a t-shirt, her hair just pulled back in a ponytail, and she hadn't made up her face yet. She looked so much younger. He shook his head to clear those thoughts from his mind.
"Morning, Doctor Santino." Nico smiled as she flinched. He moved to get a cup of coffee.
Dani muttered under her breath about stealth and payback before she flipped the omelet and smiled over at him. "You seem chipper this morning. Omelets will be ready in a minute. The men already ate their breakfast sandwiches. And, no, they did not let me go outside."
Nico smiled at the aggravation in her voice at her last comment. "My men know the rules, Doctor Santino, otherwise they would not be in my employ."
Dani nodded. "Well that's an understatement of the year if I heard one. Could you grab the orange juice out of the fridge? If I drink anymore coffee right now, TK wouldn't be able to keep up with me."
Nico was at the fridge but turned to look at her at that comment. "Just how many cups have you had this morning?"
Dani paused to think. "Well, this is the third pot I've brewed; the men all had at least two cups each. I think six." She shook her head. "No, seven. I forgot the one I just finished."
Nico's eyes narrowed. "In how long a time period?"
Dani eyed the clock. "Two hours."
Nico's eyes widened. "That's one every 17 minutes!"
Dani did the math in her head. "Yup, it is. Hence OJ with breakfast." She motioned for him to turn back to the fridge for the OJ. "Omelets are ready, Nico, so hurry up with the juice."
She was in the shower when Nico meet with his men. "Tomorrow morning someone needs to watch her coffee intake. She had seven cups this morning in two hours."
They chuckled. "I didn't realize she could drink you under the table, Boss." Someone stated.
Nico glared. "Any trouble with the others?"
"You would have been the first to know, Boss. We'll have two sit here on the house, the others will grab some rest."
"First I would like a team to tail us to the stadium and have another tail us back late tonight. Just see if anyone is out there." Nico told them. "Stay back and do not engage but collect information and, if possible, tail them back to wherever they go."
The men nodded and Nico headed back inside. The shower was off, surprising him. He figured she'd take her time.
Dani looked at herself in the mirror and let out a slow breath. She put on her makeup lightly this morning. After yesterday's phone call and crying, she didn't want a repeat of that scary look. Since she was talking to the ladies tonight, she went casual with jeans, low-heeled boots, and tank top with blazer over it: the stadium's AC could get chilly.
Nico studied her as she walked down the hall to the living room at 8 AM. He noticed the lighter makeup and wondered if yesterday's crying had anything to do with it. Then he noticed she went with shorter heels. He always thought she wore the ridiculously high heels to put herself on more even footing with her patients because of her small size. He wondered if he had been wrong there and it was just a woman thing.
Dani eyed him studying her. Did he notice that her heels were shorter and she had put on less make up? Smiling to herself, she decided they should just head to the stadium. "We can head to the stadium now, if you want, Nico."
Nico's eyes narrowed. She wanted something from him. He wasn't sure how he knew, he just did. "What do you want in return?"
Dani blinked. She hadn't meant to make it sound like she wanted something from him. Or was she letting his suspicious nature rub off on her? "Why is it assumed I want something when all I did was say we can head to the stadium early? We are both ready, we can do work there while there is not much either of us can do from here." Her voice sounded harsher than she had intended. Maybe if her sleep hadn't been riddled with nightmares of her son coming home in a cast. Or not at all.
Nico studied her. "How much sleep did you get last night?"
Dani shrugged. "Enough." She turned from his probing eyes, grabbing her purse to make it look like she had a reason other than hiding from him. Not that she even understood why she was hiding this from him. She sighed, maybe because she knew last night was the first decent night's rest he had gotten in a while?
Nico reached out to touch her arm. She jerked to face him: she hadn't realized he had moved closer to her. "Why are you hiding the fact that you did not have a good night's sleep? Your day was rough yesterday, nightmare material, really, so it should be expected that you had a rough time sleeping."
Dani looked down at the hand still on her arm, not wanting to meet his knowing eyes. "It was a bad night." She moved her head to look up at him. "It was a bad night, Nico, and I just don't want to think about it anymore. Ray Jay is safe. I know that. And I know Xeno will make sure nothing will happen to either of my kids." She straightened herself before she continued, "It's time to let that go and move on to this new day."
Nico nodded. He felt guilty for sleeping so well and he still was not sure how his alarm hadn't gone off. He knew he had set it for 6 AM to go for a run.
Dani's eyes caught something in his face and she wondered if she should ask him about it. She shrugged. "What has you so puzzled? You annoyed I got passed you without you knowing this morning?"
Nico smiled down at her. "No, not annoyed. Impressed. Are you ready to depart, Doctor Santino?"
His calling her that, especially now that they were sharing a house, was going to send her over the edge soon but she just didn't have the energy to do that fight justice. She nodded and they headed out.
-%-
It was almost noon when Dani headed to Nico's office, hoping to find him there. He hadn't told her he was leaving the stadium so he had to be around somewhere. She hesitated at the door: to just go in or knock? She had just raised her hand to knock when the door opened and the man she had been looking for was standing in the doorway.
"Did you need something, Doctor Santino?"
Dani smiled: he had opened the door, literally and figuratively. "Yes, actually I do. I was wondering if we could head out of the stadium to grab lunch."
Nico frowned. That was a lot of unnecessary lack of security for a simple meal. But then he made the mistake of meeting her eyes: there was no denying the restlessness and need there. "Where would you like to go?"
Dani shrugged, "Really, Nico, I just need out of here. We'll be here until late tonight and I need a break. Dinner is out since I have a meeting with Coach at 530 PM. We'll need to order in or something for that."
Nico nodded as he thought for a moment. "That can be arranged. What do you feel like for lunch? Deli? Thai? Middle Eastern?" He already knew they would pick up the food and eat somewhere else.
Dani blinked. "We can go out?" She had been expecting to negotiate more. "Middle Eastern." Dani decided quickly. "I would love a falafel!" She grabbed his arm and hauled him out of the doorway before he changed his mind.
Nico didn't like how her face fell when she realized he had ordered their food to go. Dani sighed, resigned to more time at the stadium until he pulled into the empty beach parking lot and parked next to a bench. She couldn't stop her initial reaction: she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek before bolting out of the car.
Nico sighed as he got out a few moments after her. He noticed while she had bolted out of the car, she had stopped not far from it and took a good look at her surroundings. He had to smile at that; she was thinking about her security much more than he thought she would.
Dani backtracked the four steps to the car and tossed her heels on the floor before heading over to the bench Nico had parked next to. "Thanks, Nico, this is wonderful. Exactly what I needed!"
Nico just nodded and sat to eat his chicken gyro.
-%-
Nico frowned. Why the hell was his alarm going off now? It was 6 PM. He stared at the phone. Really? He set it for 6 PM?! He sighed and fixed it for tomorrow.
-%-
The unexpected lunch at the beach kept her on a high through her meeting with Coach Parnell. He was frustrated with Booz. Understandable, the boy had retreated a step, but he was coming around again, it would just take some time.
"I took the liberty of ordering dinner while you were in with Coach." Nico stated as she walked out of Coach's office.
Dani's hand went to her heart and she swore. "Damnit, Nico! I am getting you a friggin bell if you keep this up."
"And you would put it where? My shoe? A ninja trains to walk without breaking rice paper, keeping his advances silent." Nico smirked.
Dani glared. "Did you say food? What did you order?"
-%-
The meeting with the two women went well. They walked the empty halls with Nico shadowing them. They talked in Dani's office of fears and deciding if they wanted to come back to work with the team. And they asked how Dani was doing. For that, she took a page from Nico's book and kept her answers vague and short: she didn't want to frighten them anymore, especially since they were doing so well.
Nico waited until they were in the car to ask how the session went. He could see that it went well in her face, but he asked anyway. "The session went better than expected?"
Dani nodded. "They are going to come through this, Nico. They are strong and one will definitely be back to work. The other one needs a bit more time to work through this." She sighed. "I pulled a you and gave short, vague answers on how I was doing. I didn't want to frighten them right now."
Nico chuckled at that. "She'll get a bump in pay."
Dani shook her head. "No, Nico. This isn't going to be fixed with money. She comes back on her own terms or she doesn't come back at all." She sighed, "God, I am exhausted. I still have to call the kids, talk with Jeanette, speak to Ma, and yell at TK for that damn picture he tweeted." She looked over at Nico with narrowed eyes. "Hey, how come you didn't deal with that picture? Or stop him. No one could stop him that I know, it is TK, after all. But you could have made him do something after it got posted."
Nico shrugged. "Responding or adding to the picture would only make it worse, keep it around longer. Sometimes it is best to just let it go."
Nico eyed the approach even as he parked in the driveway. They walked in quiet and he left her alone in the kitchen to make her calls.
Dani knew Nico was in the living room on his iPad, probably checking tweets and Facebook statuses, and monitoring his emails when she put her phone down after the last call. She rubbed her face and glanced at her watch, better than she expected, it was just midnight. At least the last call with TK had made her laugh.
She headed through the living room and frowned when Nico wasn't there. While his iPad was missing, his phone was sitting on the table. That was odd. She wondered if something had happened-Dani shook her head. He would tell her. She glanced at the phone again and took a step closer. Her eyes flicked between the two doorways as she reached for it and made one small adjustment. She was already in the bathroom when she heard the door close in the kitchen. She called out goodnight to him ten minutes later and told him not to stay up too late.
-%-
Nico rolled over and glanced at the alarm clock. He scowled and scrolled through last night. He used his shower to plan out his actions. There needed to be consequences, she was the one saying people had to take responsibility for their actions and accept the consequences of them.
"Thanks, Doc. We really appreciate the breakfasts. It's not usually a perk of the job." Nico heard Frank say as he neared the kitchen door. "Say, doc, how much coffee have you had this morning?"
Dani laughed outright. "Two cups, Frank. What happened yesterday won't happen again, no worries there. It freaked TK out yesterday morning when I meet with him at 10 AM. He decided that only he should be able to speak that fast."
"Morning, Frank, Doctor Santino." Nico walked into the room, ending their little banter, perhaps a touch more forcefully than he had intended.
Frank eyed the boss and he nodded in greeting then turned to Dani and gave her a smile. "Again, thanks, Doc. Enjoy the day."
Dani looked over at Nico. "Get up on the wrong side of the bed, Nico?"
Nico kept his eyes on her as he walked over to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup.
Dani knew he was trying to get her to blink and that it was time to face the consequences of changing his alarm two mornings in a row, so she just stared back at him. "At least one of us should get sleep at night, Nico. I won't apologize for doing it two nights in a row nor will I change your alarm again."
Nico blinked. He had not thought of her admitting it before he even brought it up in the scenarios he had run through in the shower.
Dani's eyes got wide. He blinked! She had expected quiet, hard words and angry glares. This scenario wasn't anything she had expected.
"Wait." Nico raised his hand. "Two nights? You changed it two nights ago? When?"
Dani's grin lit up the room. "There is no way you are getting me to answer that one, Nico."
Nico narrowed his eyes and took a step towards her. "Doctor Santino-."
Dani got right in his face. "It is Dani or Danielle. We are sharing the same friggin house, Nico, you can damn well call me by my first name. Doctor Santino is fine at the stadium or with players but I am sick and tired of you using it as a shield when we are alone."
Nico tilted his head, studying her, trying to figure out where this was coming from. "I call you Dani."
She glared at him. "Only strategically, Nico, when it suits your needs. To calm me down, usually."
Nico shook his head. "Not true, Dani, usually it is when I do not even realize until it is out." Wait, had he just said that out loud? From the stunned look on her face, he had. This morning was totally out of hand and he suddenly had no thought on how to get it back under his control.
Frank opened the door and walked in saying, "Doc, the guys say thanks. Here's the last dish." He stopped mid-stride and wondered what he had just walked into.
Dani turned and smiled for the other man. "No problem, Frank. Thanks for bring it in; just leave it on the counter." She kept her back to Nico as she fixed him a breakfast sandwich then washed the dishes.
Nico looked from the sandwich to Dani and just decided to follow her lead and leave the conversation where it had died. The fact that he was elated that one of his men had broken up the conversation, well, he would keep that bit to himself and maybe give Frank a bonus. "I will probably have to leave the stadium for a few hours this morning. Most likely around 10 AM."
Dani nodded. "Same unrelated situation or a new one?" she asked with a smirk.
"Different." Nico responded. "This is good. Thank you, again, for breakfast, Dani."
She smiled. "You are welcome. I'm going to take a quick shower and then we can head out."
Nico looked at the coffee pot. "Should I be concerned Terrence will be freaked out by the speed of your conversation this morning, Dani?"
Dani poked her head back in the kitchen. "No. Two."
Chapter 4
Word Count: Chapter 5: 3,803; [48,282 total]
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Nico/Dani-Possibly. Eventually?
Spoilers: References something from 1x07 and 1x11.
Disclaimer: don't own. Don't profit. Don't … a lot of things
Summary: She'd be willing to bet the Nico of reality was somewhere between her good guy and his evil one but he wasn't ready to see that just yet. "Nico, I work on feelings and intuition. Of course I see the potential. You work in cold facts and realities that aren't pretty so you see the bad. In order for music to be beautiful, there has to be a mix of sunny majors with the dark, harsh minors."
Author's Note: So, you can blame or credit, jeer or cheer brokenroots & goodisrelative for this 92-page (20+ chapter) fic. Brokenroots started me thinking about NR fic (go read hers, it's better) and then they both beat me up to get more. Please note, this fic is done. finished. fin. over. ended. ... that doesn't mean there might not be a sequel. at least a "Sunday Supper at Mama C's" [you'll meet Mama C in a much later chapter]
-%-
"Nico, thank you. This was just what I needed. Especially after the call." Dani smiled up at him as they walked out of the restaurant two hours later. The conversation had been easy, more in the sense it was about a variety of things, not the subject matter, and constantly flowing. He had a way of making her think outside of her own little world and she liked that. He had succeeded in getting her to drink a second glass of wine, a South African shiraz-pinotage bled that had also been very good.
"My pleasure, Doctor." He smiled down at her and wondered when it had become easy to talk with her. She challenged him with conversation, keeping him on his toes, but it had been pleasant. She hadn't tried to prod his secrets out of him but he had talked of all things impersonal, giving her vague insights into him without any real resistance.
She was asleep five minutes into the ride, her head leaning against the door.
As the pulled into the house they were using, Nico sighed. He really didn't want to wake her up. He considered carrying her inside but he wasn't sure about her reaction and he did not want to startle or scare her: she was finally relaxed.
"Hmmm. We home, Nico?" Dani asked as she stretched.
"We have arrived at the house, yes." Nico sighed, not sure why he should be so disappointed at the loss of an opportunity he didn't want.
Dani looked over to study his profile. "Hey, what is it? Is there a situation? You know you can leave me with your men, right?" She reached over to cover his hand on the seat between then.
Nico frowned and looked down at their hands. "No." he denied, not sure what he was denying at first then he focused on her words. "No situation I need to fix. And, no, it is not okay for me to leave you. I told your children-."
"Nico, you can take care of me without being right here with me. If something else is important, I need to know you would go deal with it. Babysitting me shouldn't take precedence over everything." Dani cut him off. "Contrary to what you saw today, I can take care of myself. I won't crack every time."
Nico shook his head. When he was about to say something, she squeezed his hand and started again, "Nico, I'm serious. I am not saying I don't like you being around. Your presence is a security blanket: I know nothing will happen when you are around. But that doesn't mean I can carry that everywhere." Dani sighed and let his hand go, moving to open her car door. Suddenly, there was a man there to help her out. She smiled at the man and waited for Nico to meet her on the front walk. "Nico, I'd like to see the two women tomorrow evening."
Nico nodded. This he could handle. "I will make the arrangements in the morning. Together or separately? Where would you like to meet?"
Dani rubbed her brow, pushing the hair back out of her face. "Together, and I am not sure. I want somewhere we can talk privately. Ideally, my office, but that is out of question."
Nico frowned. "What about the stadium office? Or is it too soon for the women to return there? If it is after 7 PM, the players will all be gone, as will most of the staff."
"That will be fine." Dani smiled. "What time do we head out to the Stadium tomorrow? How many men on duty tomorrow morning?" She groaned. "We needed to stop at the store."
Nico sighed. "I will have one of the men venture to the grocery store if you make a list tonight. Five men, why? And I was thinking you do not have appointments with the players until 10 AM, so we can leave here at 9 AM."
"Because I am making them breakfast sandwiches." Dani declared then headed into the kitchen to look for paper and a pen. It took her a second try, realizing that she had written the first list out as if she was home with two teenagers in the house. Sighing, she rewrote the list for two people but extra breakfast things.
She handed the list to Nico in the living room. "I know it's early, not even 10 PM yet, but it's been a long and trying day. I'll see you in the morning, Nico. Please try to get some rest."
-%-
He woke up to the smell of coffee and wondered which of the men he would have to thank for that. He had ended up turning in early-for him-at midnight. He glanced at the clock and blinked when he realized it said 647 AM.
He headed for the shower.
Dani heard the shower and knew Nico was up, so she finished washing the men's breakfast dishes and turned the burner back on. She set up two omelets, deciding she could stomach food now. She looked at the clock and sighed. It still wasn't even 7 AM yet: two more hours before they leave for the stadium. She didn't even know what she was going to do all day there! There was only so many sessions she could transcribe, so many sessions she could have, so many TK crises she could handle before she went mental with boredom.
Nico blinked. How had he missed her getting up? She hadn't taken a shower yet: she was only in yoga pants and a t-shirt, her hair just pulled back in a ponytail, and she hadn't made up her face yet. She looked so much younger. He shook his head to clear those thoughts from his mind.
"Morning, Doctor Santino." Nico smiled as she flinched. He moved to get a cup of coffee.
Dani muttered under her breath about stealth and payback before she flipped the omelet and smiled over at him. "You seem chipper this morning. Omelets will be ready in a minute. The men already ate their breakfast sandwiches. And, no, they did not let me go outside."
Nico smiled at the aggravation in her voice at her last comment. "My men know the rules, Doctor Santino, otherwise they would not be in my employ."
Dani nodded. "Well that's an understatement of the year if I heard one. Could you grab the orange juice out of the fridge? If I drink anymore coffee right now, TK wouldn't be able to keep up with me."
Nico was at the fridge but turned to look at her at that comment. "Just how many cups have you had this morning?"
Dani paused to think. "Well, this is the third pot I've brewed; the men all had at least two cups each. I think six." She shook her head. "No, seven. I forgot the one I just finished."
Nico's eyes narrowed. "In how long a time period?"
Dani eyed the clock. "Two hours."
Nico's eyes widened. "That's one every 17 minutes!"
Dani did the math in her head. "Yup, it is. Hence OJ with breakfast." She motioned for him to turn back to the fridge for the OJ. "Omelets are ready, Nico, so hurry up with the juice."
She was in the shower when Nico meet with his men. "Tomorrow morning someone needs to watch her coffee intake. She had seven cups this morning in two hours."
They chuckled. "I didn't realize she could drink you under the table, Boss." Someone stated.
Nico glared. "Any trouble with the others?"
"You would have been the first to know, Boss. We'll have two sit here on the house, the others will grab some rest."
"First I would like a team to tail us to the stadium and have another tail us back late tonight. Just see if anyone is out there." Nico told them. "Stay back and do not engage but collect information and, if possible, tail them back to wherever they go."
The men nodded and Nico headed back inside. The shower was off, surprising him. He figured she'd take her time.
Dani looked at herself in the mirror and let out a slow breath. She put on her makeup lightly this morning. After yesterday's phone call and crying, she didn't want a repeat of that scary look. Since she was talking to the ladies tonight, she went casual with jeans, low-heeled boots, and tank top with blazer over it: the stadium's AC could get chilly.
Nico studied her as she walked down the hall to the living room at 8 AM. He noticed the lighter makeup and wondered if yesterday's crying had anything to do with it. Then he noticed she went with shorter heels. He always thought she wore the ridiculously high heels to put herself on more even footing with her patients because of her small size. He wondered if he had been wrong there and it was just a woman thing.
Dani eyed him studying her. Did he notice that her heels were shorter and she had put on less make up? Smiling to herself, she decided they should just head to the stadium. "We can head to the stadium now, if you want, Nico."
Nico's eyes narrowed. She wanted something from him. He wasn't sure how he knew, he just did. "What do you want in return?"
Dani blinked. She hadn't meant to make it sound like she wanted something from him. Or was she letting his suspicious nature rub off on her? "Why is it assumed I want something when all I did was say we can head to the stadium early? We are both ready, we can do work there while there is not much either of us can do from here." Her voice sounded harsher than she had intended. Maybe if her sleep hadn't been riddled with nightmares of her son coming home in a cast. Or not at all.
Nico studied her. "How much sleep did you get last night?"
Dani shrugged. "Enough." She turned from his probing eyes, grabbing her purse to make it look like she had a reason other than hiding from him. Not that she even understood why she was hiding this from him. She sighed, maybe because she knew last night was the first decent night's rest he had gotten in a while?
Nico reached out to touch her arm. She jerked to face him: she hadn't realized he had moved closer to her. "Why are you hiding the fact that you did not have a good night's sleep? Your day was rough yesterday, nightmare material, really, so it should be expected that you had a rough time sleeping."
Dani looked down at the hand still on her arm, not wanting to meet his knowing eyes. "It was a bad night." She moved her head to look up at him. "It was a bad night, Nico, and I just don't want to think about it anymore. Ray Jay is safe. I know that. And I know Xeno will make sure nothing will happen to either of my kids." She straightened herself before she continued, "It's time to let that go and move on to this new day."
Nico nodded. He felt guilty for sleeping so well and he still was not sure how his alarm hadn't gone off. He knew he had set it for 6 AM to go for a run.
Dani's eyes caught something in his face and she wondered if she should ask him about it. She shrugged. "What has you so puzzled? You annoyed I got passed you without you knowing this morning?"
Nico smiled down at her. "No, not annoyed. Impressed. Are you ready to depart, Doctor Santino?"
His calling her that, especially now that they were sharing a house, was going to send her over the edge soon but she just didn't have the energy to do that fight justice. She nodded and they headed out.
-%-
It was almost noon when Dani headed to Nico's office, hoping to find him there. He hadn't told her he was leaving the stadium so he had to be around somewhere. She hesitated at the door: to just go in or knock? She had just raised her hand to knock when the door opened and the man she had been looking for was standing in the doorway.
"Did you need something, Doctor Santino?"
Dani smiled: he had opened the door, literally and figuratively. "Yes, actually I do. I was wondering if we could head out of the stadium to grab lunch."
Nico frowned. That was a lot of unnecessary lack of security for a simple meal. But then he made the mistake of meeting her eyes: there was no denying the restlessness and need there. "Where would you like to go?"
Dani shrugged, "Really, Nico, I just need out of here. We'll be here until late tonight and I need a break. Dinner is out since I have a meeting with Coach at 530 PM. We'll need to order in or something for that."
Nico nodded as he thought for a moment. "That can be arranged. What do you feel like for lunch? Deli? Thai? Middle Eastern?" He already knew they would pick up the food and eat somewhere else.
Dani blinked. "We can go out?" She had been expecting to negotiate more. "Middle Eastern." Dani decided quickly. "I would love a falafel!" She grabbed his arm and hauled him out of the doorway before he changed his mind.
Nico didn't like how her face fell when she realized he had ordered their food to go. Dani sighed, resigned to more time at the stadium until he pulled into the empty beach parking lot and parked next to a bench. She couldn't stop her initial reaction: she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek before bolting out of the car.
Nico sighed as he got out a few moments after her. He noticed while she had bolted out of the car, she had stopped not far from it and took a good look at her surroundings. He had to smile at that; she was thinking about her security much more than he thought she would.
Dani backtracked the four steps to the car and tossed her heels on the floor before heading over to the bench Nico had parked next to. "Thanks, Nico, this is wonderful. Exactly what I needed!"
Nico just nodded and sat to eat his chicken gyro.
-%-
Nico frowned. Why the hell was his alarm going off now? It was 6 PM. He stared at the phone. Really? He set it for 6 PM?! He sighed and fixed it for tomorrow.
-%-
The unexpected lunch at the beach kept her on a high through her meeting with Coach Parnell. He was frustrated with Booz. Understandable, the boy had retreated a step, but he was coming around again, it would just take some time.
"I took the liberty of ordering dinner while you were in with Coach." Nico stated as she walked out of Coach's office.
Dani's hand went to her heart and she swore. "Damnit, Nico! I am getting you a friggin bell if you keep this up."
"And you would put it where? My shoe? A ninja trains to walk without breaking rice paper, keeping his advances silent." Nico smirked.
Dani glared. "Did you say food? What did you order?"
-%-
The meeting with the two women went well. They walked the empty halls with Nico shadowing them. They talked in Dani's office of fears and deciding if they wanted to come back to work with the team. And they asked how Dani was doing. For that, she took a page from Nico's book and kept her answers vague and short: she didn't want to frighten them anymore, especially since they were doing so well.
Nico waited until they were in the car to ask how the session went. He could see that it went well in her face, but he asked anyway. "The session went better than expected?"
Dani nodded. "They are going to come through this, Nico. They are strong and one will definitely be back to work. The other one needs a bit more time to work through this." She sighed. "I pulled a you and gave short, vague answers on how I was doing. I didn't want to frighten them right now."
Nico chuckled at that. "She'll get a bump in pay."
Dani shook her head. "No, Nico. This isn't going to be fixed with money. She comes back on her own terms or she doesn't come back at all." She sighed, "God, I am exhausted. I still have to call the kids, talk with Jeanette, speak to Ma, and yell at TK for that damn picture he tweeted." She looked over at Nico with narrowed eyes. "Hey, how come you didn't deal with that picture? Or stop him. No one could stop him that I know, it is TK, after all. But you could have made him do something after it got posted."
Nico shrugged. "Responding or adding to the picture would only make it worse, keep it around longer. Sometimes it is best to just let it go."
Nico eyed the approach even as he parked in the driveway. They walked in quiet and he left her alone in the kitchen to make her calls.
Dani knew Nico was in the living room on his iPad, probably checking tweets and Facebook statuses, and monitoring his emails when she put her phone down after the last call. She rubbed her face and glanced at her watch, better than she expected, it was just midnight. At least the last call with TK had made her laugh.
She headed through the living room and frowned when Nico wasn't there. While his iPad was missing, his phone was sitting on the table. That was odd. She wondered if something had happened-Dani shook her head. He would tell her. She glanced at the phone again and took a step closer. Her eyes flicked between the two doorways as she reached for it and made one small adjustment. She was already in the bathroom when she heard the door close in the kitchen. She called out goodnight to him ten minutes later and told him not to stay up too late.
-%-
Nico rolled over and glanced at the alarm clock. He scowled and scrolled through last night. He used his shower to plan out his actions. There needed to be consequences, she was the one saying people had to take responsibility for their actions and accept the consequences of them.
"Thanks, Doc. We really appreciate the breakfasts. It's not usually a perk of the job." Nico heard Frank say as he neared the kitchen door. "Say, doc, how much coffee have you had this morning?"
Dani laughed outright. "Two cups, Frank. What happened yesterday won't happen again, no worries there. It freaked TK out yesterday morning when I meet with him at 10 AM. He decided that only he should be able to speak that fast."
"Morning, Frank, Doctor Santino." Nico walked into the room, ending their little banter, perhaps a touch more forcefully than he had intended.
Frank eyed the boss and he nodded in greeting then turned to Dani and gave her a smile. "Again, thanks, Doc. Enjoy the day."
Dani looked over at Nico. "Get up on the wrong side of the bed, Nico?"
Nico kept his eyes on her as he walked over to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup.
Dani knew he was trying to get her to blink and that it was time to face the consequences of changing his alarm two mornings in a row, so she just stared back at him. "At least one of us should get sleep at night, Nico. I won't apologize for doing it two nights in a row nor will I change your alarm again."
Nico blinked. He had not thought of her admitting it before he even brought it up in the scenarios he had run through in the shower.
Dani's eyes got wide. He blinked! She had expected quiet, hard words and angry glares. This scenario wasn't anything she had expected.
"Wait." Nico raised his hand. "Two nights? You changed it two nights ago? When?"
Dani's grin lit up the room. "There is no way you are getting me to answer that one, Nico."
Nico narrowed his eyes and took a step towards her. "Doctor Santino-."
Dani got right in his face. "It is Dani or Danielle. We are sharing the same friggin house, Nico, you can damn well call me by my first name. Doctor Santino is fine at the stadium or with players but I am sick and tired of you using it as a shield when we are alone."
Nico tilted his head, studying her, trying to figure out where this was coming from. "I call you Dani."
She glared at him. "Only strategically, Nico, when it suits your needs. To calm me down, usually."
Nico shook his head. "Not true, Dani, usually it is when I do not even realize until it is out." Wait, had he just said that out loud? From the stunned look on her face, he had. This morning was totally out of hand and he suddenly had no thought on how to get it back under his control.
Frank opened the door and walked in saying, "Doc, the guys say thanks. Here's the last dish." He stopped mid-stride and wondered what he had just walked into.
Dani turned and smiled for the other man. "No problem, Frank. Thanks for bring it in; just leave it on the counter." She kept her back to Nico as she fixed him a breakfast sandwich then washed the dishes.
Nico looked from the sandwich to Dani and just decided to follow her lead and leave the conversation where it had died. The fact that he was elated that one of his men had broken up the conversation, well, he would keep that bit to himself and maybe give Frank a bonus. "I will probably have to leave the stadium for a few hours this morning. Most likely around 10 AM."
Dani nodded. "Same unrelated situation or a new one?" she asked with a smirk.
"Different." Nico responded. "This is good. Thank you, again, for breakfast, Dani."
She smiled. "You are welcome. I'm going to take a quick shower and then we can head out."
Nico looked at the coffee pot. "Should I be concerned Terrence will be freaked out by the speed of your conversation this morning, Dani?"
Dani poked her head back in the kitchen. "No. Two."
Chapter 4