Look, It's Here. It's Fluffy. And Funny. Be Impressed. Now. :P
We Have a Situation
Word Count: 2,744
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Nico/Dani (eventually)
Spoilers: References something from 1x10, but goes AU in the middle of 1x06.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just break things.
Summary: She thinks he thinks everything is a situation. Trouble is, he's right. She just doesn't know it yet.
Author's Note: There. I finally, with the help of the other fics I did, get past the latest episode and was able to return to this story. And I was thinking about it... I already made Mrs. Pittman Nico's sister in this universe, so there will never, ever be any Nico/Mrs. Pittman here.
Yay!
A Revelation
"It's true, isn't it?" Lindsay demanded, rushing down the stairs. Dani frowned at her daughter, wondering what she was talking about. Ray Jay came out of his room, joining his sister at the bottom of the stairs. She shoved a phone in Dani's face, and Dani blinked, then bit back a curse as she saw TK's latest tweet. "It is, isn't it?"
She was trying to find a way to answer when there was a knock on the door. She turned back to open it, knowing who would be there. Nico looked at her. "We have a situation."
"Yeah. Lindsay just showed me TK's little tweet."
Nico looked over at Lindsay. She glared back at him. Ray Jay didn't glare, but his expression wasn't all that warm or anything, either. Nico's gaze turned back to Dani. "I could have him make a retraction."
"What's the point if it's true?" Lindsay demanded. "You're sleeping with our mom."
"Yes and no. In the sense you mean-sexually-no. However, we did sleep in the same room last night," Nico corrected. Dani touched his arm. That was not going to help their case, not now. He looked down at her. "Let me guess. You want to handle this yourself."
"You really are a very insightful man."
"Hardly. That was very obvious."
She couldn't help but laugh. She wanted to kiss him again, but she figured that was a bad idea. And what was with the constantly wanting to kiss him? What, was she a kissing addict now? "I'm sure you have some other situation to handle, don't you?"
"At the moment, no, but I suppose I could find something to amuse myself if-"
She yanked him down by his coat, cutting off whatever else he would have said with a kiss. She shouldn't have, not in front of the kids, but he was driving her crazy with the talking and the need for a kiss was more than she cared to resist at that particular moment. He caught her around the waist just as her legs got a little weak, but he didn't stop the kiss, not right away.
Nico pulled back. "I am not sure that was the way to handle this... announcement."
Dani looked over at her children, both with stunned expressions on their faces. They looked somewhat horrified. "Probably not. I'm just easily distracted these days, and if you would have gone instead of talking, then I could have resisted temptation."
"I am not to blame for your lack of willpower," he said. He looked at the kids and then back at her. "We could move them."
"Or we could move ourselves."
"I thought you wanted to discuss this with them."
"I do. I need to. I'm just-" she turned and snapped her fingers in front of her son's eyes. "Okay, the act was funny for a while, but you can stop now. I know it didn't really make you catatonic to see your mother get kissed. Your father used to kiss me in front of you, so I know it's not that foreign a concept."
"Uh," Ray Jay stuttered, looking over at Lindsay. He tugged on her arm, and she came out of it, glaring at him. He gave her a pointed look.
"What Ray Jay is trying to say is that Dad never kissed you like that in front of us. I swear, there was tongue action there. I don't think I'll ever be the same after that. I'm... traumatized for life."
"Your books do say that children have a hard time seeing their parents as sexual beings," Ray Jay added, recovering a bit. Dani swallowed hard. Sex. Now that was a logical progression of where this thing between her and Nico was going, but she apparently wasn't ready to think about that yet. Oh, she kind of had after the kisses-if they were that good, then the sex would have to be insanely good, right?-but she wasn't ready yet.
Part of her was. Part of her was very ready. She wanted Nico. Right here, right now. Well, not right here since the kids were here, but close to it. At the same time, she was not ready to go further. She felt like she'd rushed things with Ray-ended up pregnant-she didn't regret her children, but she wasn't ready when she was seventeen. She loved Ray Jay. She loved Lindsay, but if she could have had a couple more years before having a family. And then Matt... She'd certainly rushed in there.
She really wished she could stop thinking about that. She didn't always have to have her past come up, didn't have to have every bad judgment come back to haunt her. She knew that the past was always going to affect her, but she knew that it couldn't be used as an excuse, that the fear of repeating it couldn't keep her from living.
She forced the implications of that thought out of her head.
"Ray Jay, what have I told you about reading my books?" she asked, and he flinched, but he was looking at Nico, but not her.
"If I-You're so going to make him the one that disciplines us, aren't you?"
Dani looked over at Nico. He was just standing there, and he almost looked innocent. "Are you terrorizing my children now?"
"I haven't done anything. It's not my place."
"He's totally going to kill us," Lindsay said. "You picked like... an axe murderer or something."
"Nico, do you own an axe?"
"Point of fact, I don't need one to kill. SEAL training," he reminded her. She saw her kids gulp, and he shook his head. "I don't kill. There are far more effective methods to handle situations than death. Death is far too... permanent."
"Permanent?"
Dani started laughing. She couldn't help it. "Okay, okay, Nico, no more scaring the kids. Let's go sit down and have an actual discussion. If it will keep you two from being distracted, Nico will not join us."
"No," Lindsay said, and Dani looked at her. She shrugged. "We have a lot of questions. I mean. How? Why? When?"
"Who and what have apparently already been answered," Nico said, and Dani smiled. She knew that it shouldn't be so funny, but she was enjoying Nico's dry sense of humor more and more. "Perhaps it would be best if you ordered in? I don't believe anyone has eaten yet."
"Chinese," Lindsay said immediately. "I want some-"
"Sweet and sour chicken and egg rolls with a side of hot mustard," Nico said. Everyone looked at him, and he shrugged a little as he took out his phone and called their favorite Chinese restaurant. He walked away as he placed the order.
"He really does know everything, doesn't he?" Ray Jay asked, looking at his sister and then at Dani. She smiled. She couldn't believe how much she was enjoying this. It used to bother her, how much Nico knew about her and how little she knew about him, but she was beginning to accept that as a part of who he was. She was learning more and more about him as she spent more time with him, and that was only natural.
He was a mystery that she would enjoy learning more about, no matter how long it took.
"Oh," Santino muttered with a moan, rubbing her sore neck. "That was one of the longest and most uncomfortable conversations of my life. How was it for you?"
Nico touched her shoulder gently, and she backed into him, seeming to want more of the touch. He was no masseuse or physical therapist, but he did believe that sometimes it wasn't the level of skill that a person had but how much the other person needed to feel that touch at that particular time. "I found it amusing, actually."
"Yes, because you can be amused. They're not your children. They weren't interrogating-I mean, they were interrogating you, but you're not their mother. It's different."
"Of course," he agreed, continuing to massage the spot on her neck. She was making quiet noises and moving against him. He doubted that she had any idea the effect those two things were starting to have on him. He should stop, now, unless they wanted to take this further. He wasn't sure either of them was prepared for that. Physically, yes, but the implications beyond that... Not so much. "Are you disappointed with the way that conversation went?"
She took a deep breath. "Well... no. It went surprisingly well. I didn't expect either of them to be as understanding as they were. It's not like their father has been gone for that long, and dating after a divorce is always tricky. It doesn't help that Ray was trying to get back with me before the reunion. I think they got a reminder of what it was like when we were all a family, like I did, and we all felt tempted. It might have been easy to go back to what we'd been."
"Then why didn't you?"
She reached up to touch his hand. "You stopped."
"The discussion was not going in the same direction as the physical actions," he explained, and she frowned at him. He leaned close to her ear. "Those noises you make are rather provocative, and even... cute."
"Ugh, stop calling me 'cute,'" she grumbled, and her head bumped against his chest.
"You would rather be referred to as 'ridiculously hot?'"
"Do you bug every room that you're in?"
"No. I would never have enough time to do that. Still, it is impossible not to hear things. Don't look at me like that. I doubt you had any idea where I was in the room until the fight broke out between Shane Givens and TK."
"So... you were spying on me and Matt?"
"I was gravitating between two potential hot spots. If you think I was unaware of your relationship with Donnally, you are mistaken. I only monitored it because of the conflict of interest that might arise. It quickly became a non-issue. TK is always the focus around the Hawks. Are you angry?"
She shook her head, though it was hard to believe when she pulled away from him and started to pace. He folded his arms over his chest and waited. She ran a hand through her hair. "It's just that now I've been reminded all over again about Matt-and I guess a part of me is wondering what exactly you would have done if there was a conflict of interest-and since TK sent that tweet, I will have to talk to Matt."
"Regarding the conflict of interest-if it became clear that you and Donnally could no longer work together, one or both of you would be transferred elsewhere or your services terminated. Honestly, Donnally would have been easier to replace. Dangle an appropriate carrot in front of him, and he would have jumped at the chance."
Santino frowned at him. "You think so?"
"I know he is currently being courted by San Francisco. He's very likely to take the position-he has already mentioned the offer to Coach Parnell," Nico answered, and Santino's expression became pained. She was hurt, and Nico regretted telling her.
"He never said anything to me about that."
"It could be that he never actually intended to leave," Nico suggested, going over to her. She turned to him and leaned against him.
"I don't know why I feel so betrayed. I just-we should still be friends even if we're not together. We've always had that going, right? So, why didn't he tell me? And why does it matter so much?"
"Perhaps because there is unfinished business there."
She turned to face him. "Nico, I know that it-this must seem like-it's not like that."
He thought her insistence more like proof that it was, that she was protesting too much. He gently touched her face. "Feelings and attraction don't just go away overnight, remember? If they did, you and I would not be here now."
She kissed him again, but even as it began, he could feel a shift in the tone. This was not simply about their mutual attraction. The way she held onto him, the way she tugged at his clothes, the whole thing felt off, and he knew this was more about proving her earlier words about Donnally, which were a lie in the first place. He took her hands down and stepped back.
"I'm not going to sleep with you so that you can prove that you want to be with me and not him. That is not how this should start. Neither of us is ready to move forward at this point," he went on as he saw the look on her face. "I don't... do relationships, as you might have already guessed. It is simply easier to be on my own. I would be lying if I said I felt certain that continuing this was a good idea. I can see more ways of it going wrong than it going right. The simplest solution is not to start at all."
"Isn't that what we tried when we tried denying?" she asked, and he was forced to agree. It was already started. It was also public knowledge. They had even spent the evening getting her children to feel as comfortable with the idea as they could. It was already almost too late to turn back or stop. "Then where does that leave us?"
"I am willing to stay if we-" Nico's phone interrupted him, and he reached into his pocket. He took it out and read the message. "I have to go meet with the team's lawyers."
"What for? TK?"
"They didn't say."
"But you're just going to drop everything and go?" she demanded, and he looked at her. She was going to have accept that part of his job, too, or this would end faster than one of TK's relationships. "Take me with you."
"It isn't always about TK, you know."
"I don't care."
"It might be about Donnally wanting to break his contract."
"Fine. Even more reason that I should go," she countered. Nico frowned at her. "I can talk to him about the fact that he might be leaving and about TK's tweet. And us. I mean-you and me. Not me and him."
"It is about you and him."
"But I really, really want to move past that. Nico, I want you. I want to know more about you, I love the way you intimidate my kids, I want to find out if kissing you is as good as it gets or if sex is going to be even better, and I like the way you challenge me," she smiled when he gave her an incredulous look. "I do. With us, there's always a bit of give and take-whether it's talking about your past or the latest crisis or this thing between us. Other than not knowing much about you, you are more my equal than any man I've ever been involved with. Ray told me that he 'allowed' me to have my degree and my practice. Matt was a lot of fun, but the way he got back with Laura suggests that I was never really what he wanted or needed. He and I laugh and joke, and he knows the same pop references that I do, but you know the same psychology as I do. You're a fixer, just like I am, and that connects us in a way that other people don't understand."
"Two control freaks in a never-ending battle for control? That is no better than an inequality."
"Maybe not. But I can no more control you than you can control me, and that is probably the best relationship a control freak can have."
Her smile there was doing its best to distract him. "Lawyers."
"Still coming with you."
Chapter Nineteen