Finally, Finally, Finally...
We Have a Situation
Word Count: 5,836
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Nico/Dani
Spoilers: References something from 1x11, 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: Well, again, I jammed a lot into this chapter/day, but I got it to end where I wanted to, and that makes me incredibly happy. Now to see if I can wrap it all up after this or need an epilogue...
A Moment
"You cook?"
"My father certainly didn't and my mother wasn't there, so someone had to," Nico answered, and Dani looked over at him. She knew, of course, that he'd been up for hours already, since someone had put her in bed after they'd both dozed off on the couch and the dishes from the night before were actually cleaned up, but she hadn't expected the cooking. Or that revelation, though it should have been obvious with everything else he'd let slip about his past. "I don't need pity. I'll never be a chef, but I can make passable food. Go sit down."
"You don't have to wait on me hand and foot just because of this ankle. Really. I need to do a few things myself or I'd go crazy."
"I don't try and dress you, now do I?" he asked, and she looked at him again. Oh, she shouldn't say it, but... she couldn't stop herself.
"No, but you could undress me."
That stopped him, right in the middle of flipping the eggs. She bit her lip and tried not to laugh. It wasn't often someone got the better of Nico, to stop him, leave him with nothing to say. It was a priceless moment she wanted to savor.
He finished the flip and reached for a plate. "Are you aware that there is currently a very large betting pool regarding the two of us?"
"What?" she asked, completely thrown off. He put the plate in front of her, and she blinked. Food. Right. Wait. Explanation first. "What betting pool? And... why?"
Nico wiped his hands on a dish towel and picked up his tablet, carrying it over and setting it down beside her. Her mouth opened in disbelief when she saw the list. What Nico and Doctor D are doing right now. Some of them were absurd, some of them were obscene, and some of them made her blush. "Am I reading this right? The odds are in favor of you proposing to me?"
"Actually, the odds are in favor of me 'knocking you up,' but proposing comes in at a close second followed by eloping," Nico corrected, giving her a cup of coffee. "Don't drink that while you're reading. I don't want to have to replace the tablet."
"What is worse than what I've already seen?"
"Each of the leading candidates has another pool. If we get married, how long it will last. If I did propose, how long before the wedding? If you're pregnant, boy, girl, or twins."
She shook her head, her fists clenching. "You have my permission to kill them all."
He laughed. "Is that all it takes to get permission?"
"Nico, our personal lives are the subject of multiple betting pools. And the pots, from what I can tell, are thousands of dollars worth. I thought it was bad when Jeanette's photo went out, but this? This is worse. They've got bets on whether or not we're using the karma sutra. Please tell me that my children cannot see this."
"The site requires a credit card to confirm that the user is over eighteen and the pool is not open to the general public, but I am afraid that I can't guarantee it."
Dani moaned. "Someone kill me now."
"I wouldn't let anything happen to you, Danielle," Nico said quietly, and she looked over at the intensity of those words. She knew he meant it. She'd found herself a man who'd die before he let anyone get to her, and the people who did this would regret it. "I am not... I will handle that once I find out who started the pool and everyone that has participated in it."
"I know you will," she agreed. "I just feel... humiliated right now. Exposed."
Nico sat down next to her. "Whereas I am angry. Dangerously so. I don't like my private life being their entertainment."
"Do you think this is TK?"
"I think he had a part in it, though it's difficult to say how much of a role he had. The team has adopted his practice of calling you Doctor D, so that doesn't necessarily implicate him, but there is no way that it's going on without his knowledge," Nico said. He looked at the tablet again. "I wonder, though, how they would expect to know who won this pool. It's not like you or I would tell them."
"So... it's... what, someone close to us? Are you thinking this is one of my kids or Jeanette or Juliette?"
"Either that or they think they can get information from one of those sources. TK might believe he could get it from Balzarini or your son," Nico said, shaking his head. "While Juliette is many things, she would not be a part of this-not in this way. I can see her making a private wager with Balzarini, but not organizing a bidding pool. Not after the paparazzi has done so much to ruin her life."
Dani sighed. "I can't believe this is happening. And if we do happen to... We'd be winning someone's bet for them."
"I am not going to dictate my behavior by someone's bet," Nico rose again, going to the counter and picking up his coffee. "No one would know what we did besides us, so no one can win that bet. Besides, the whole thing will be shut down shortly."
"Unless..." Dani began. "Unless we pretend we know nothing about it and mess with them by... posting something to Facebook or twitter about what we're doing that has nothing to do with any of those options in the pool."
"Unlikely that anyone would believe it. You and I do not use those sites."
"True," Dani said, but she didn't like the idea of letting this go. Something had to be done about it, a payback of some kind, and sticking them with a bet no one won would only be the start. Nico could threaten them and hurt them, but the bet needed to be responded to, a nice bit of screw you to all of the people betting on her personal life. "But Jeanette does."
"If she's not involved."
Dani stared at him. She thought that Nico respected her friend. He'd entrusted his niece's safety and well-being to her. Why would he change his mind? This betting pool? Really? "You really think she would be?"
"I'm suspicious as well as paranoid, Danielle. I don't trust many people, and it doesn't take much for me to have doubts," he admitted, taking a sip of his coffee. "I could even be wrong about my niece."
Dani pushed the tablet away. "I think that we need to put that and your phone away for the rest of the time we're here. And we are going to do something that's not on their damn list and we are going to have it posted, and I trust Jeanette. I'm going to call her and have her post it."
"And what, exactly, do you have in mind for this picture?"
"You did take me to a nature preserve with wild horses..."
"Well, the horses are no-shows, so... back to the nature walk?"
Nico looked over at her. "You should be resting, not walking."
"I'm going to go stir crazy and kill someone if I have to be inside, in a chair constantly. I'm being as careful and as patient as I can, Nico, but I can't sit still forever," Dani insisted. She knew that she worried him-that he wanted to put her somewhere safe where she couldn't get hurt again-but she couldn't live a life covered in bubble wrap or locked up in a plastic bubble. She wasn't going to break. "I need to do this as much as you need to find the people who started the bets."
Nico's eyes went to the field. "Not too much longer. You can post pictures of us playing Monopoly or something after this."
"Really?" Dani asked, having a hard time believing that he'd suggest that. He did not seem much of the board game type. Then she frowned. "Why do I suddenly get the feeling that you'd kick my ass at Monopoly?"
He shrugged. She held up her phone again. The way the light was hitting him right now made for a great picture, his face half in shadows, like the man he was. As she took the picture, she frowned at the shadow behind him. Wait, no, that wasn't a shadow.
"Nico, behind you..." Dani began. He glanced at the horse and moved, putting himself in between the animal and her. She made a face. "You're blocking the picture."
"It's a wild animal, Danielle. There is no way to predict what it might do, and your ankle puts you at a disadvantage," he reminded her, and she rolled her eyes. She almost agreed with the last part. She couldn't run if the horse spooked, but she didn't think it would. She also didn't think he expected the mustang-she wanted to call it the black stallion even though it was not an Arabian-to walk right up to him and push at his hand.
She knew that he was going to hate her for this, but there was no way she could not take a picture of him with the horse. "I think he's asking you for something, Nico."
Nico nodded. "It looks like one of the caretaker staff might have been feeding the horses, in which case... they're going to have to be let go. The horses have to fend for themselves. That is the reason that this preserve exists. On the other hand... this one looks like he's not doing so well. Younger or weaker stallion, driven from the herd. On his own, kept from the better grazing land. I'll need to make a call."
"For what?" Dani asked, not wanting him to move and ruin the moment. She turned the phone to take a video, watching as Nico's hand reached out to touch the mustang's nose. His hand went up to the horse's ears, and he started moving around, examining the horse carefully.
"Sometimes the mustangs are... 'sold.' It's a very complicated process, takes years, and the owners have strict rules to follow if they are ever going to obtain the ownership papers. In the meantime, the horses are extremely well cared for," he explained. He took his phone out of his pocket. "I'll make the call, get the process started."
"Now?"
"Better now than later. He's not in a condition to wait. I'm also going to get the local vet out here," Nico said, watching the horse carefully. "I really don't like how comfortable he seems with humans. This is not good-for him. Are you coming inside now?"
She shook her head. "I'll wait a bit. You go ahead and make your calls. I'll sit here, like a good little girl, and enjoy the nature all around me. I've got our new friend to keep me company."
Nico frowned at her, shaking his head before he picked her up. She wanted to object, but at the same time, she didn't. She was in Nico's arms, and that was not a bad thing, not at all. He smelled good, and he protected her. He hadn't said it in words, but he loved her. That made this-as controlling and overprotective and maybe even possessive as the gesture was-worth it.
"You don't have to do this, you know. I would have been fine with the horse. I don't think Shadow was going to hurt me."
"You named the horse?" he asked, shaking his head with disapproval. "You should not get attached. It is not staying."
"You mean he is not staying," Dani corrected. Nico looked down at her, and she shrugged a little. "The horse is male, isn't he? And as much as I like being in your arms, you're not really going to carry me all the way back to the house, are you?"
"No. I'm not, but I was also not going to leave you alone there. The horse is not the only issue, and you are not going to be outside alone until your ankle is healed. If me carrying you the whole distance is an issue, I am certain that you trying to walk it would be worse."
She sighed. "Fine. I really just want my ankle to heal so I can do normal things again."
"Then stop walking on it all the time."
"So, you got the pictures? And you posted them?" Dani asked, thinking that Nico was probably going to kill her for the last one and the video. He knew she'd taken it-at least he knew about the picture. She'd seen him look up after she did, but she couldn't resist taking that photo when she saw him with the mustang. It was something unexpected, something amazing. She didn't care if someone else had started it by feeding Shadow. The horse had walked right up to Nico, of all people, and been friendly with him.
"Yes and yes, and damn, I hate you even more now," Jeanette said, laughing to take the sting out of her words. "I'm kidding, sweetheart, but it's just not fair that he's gorgeous, mysterious, and has a way with animals."
"And cooks and cleans. The man is freaking myth," Dani agreed with a laugh, taking out Nico's tablet and messing around with it until she'd brought up Jeanette's Facebook page. She flipped through the nature walk pictures-not that there were many, but what got her attention was the caption on the last one. "'Dark horse horse whisperer?' Jeanette, are you kidding me?"
Nico was going to kill her. She was a dead woman. She really was. He hadn't really liked the idea of posting anything to Jeanette's page, and she knew that he didn't completely trust her friend. Now that the photo was up, it would be back to square one for them. She sighed.
She hadn't heard Nico in a while, and that probably wasn't a good thing, either. He was around, somewhere, since he'd gone back out when the vet got here by himself, and she thought she'd heard the vet leave but he hadn't come back. He had taken care of all the calls he needed to make, but a part of Dani hoped that they wouldn't be able to take Shadow away just yet.
"Juliette liked it," Jeanette said, and Dani smiled a little. Juliette was not the least bit scared of her uncle, though. It wasn't that Dani was scared of Nico. She wasn't. She was terrified of losing him, though, and his reaction to the pictures was not going to be a positive one. Maybe she could distract him from the photos for a while. Probably not.
"How is she?"
"Having a blast. She actually got not one but two offers for modeling jobs."
"That's great."
"Well, she wasn't quite as flattered as I would have been, I have to say," Jeanette reported. "She asked them if they liked the way she looked because they thought she had an eating disorder or because they knew she was an addict. As they tried to come up with an answer, she walked away, telling them that they weren't going to get her to tell anyone that they should look that skinny."
Dani smiled. That was a change from the opinion that Juliette had voiced on her first day sober, but it was a good change. "That is great, Jeanette. Tell her I'm proud of her, and I think her uncle would be, too, not that he's here-not in the room-for me to ask."
"Have you two had sex yet?"
"Goodbye, Jeanette," Dani said, ending the call. She shook her head. She loved that woman, she really did, but she was not going to discuss that, not even with her best friend. Especially not after the betting pools. It wasn't that she didn't trust Jeanette. She did. Jeanette had done what she asked with the photos without even knowing why, but the whole thing left Dani feeling too exposed. She didn't want to discuss her private life with anyone.
She looked down at her phone again. She'd held off for long enough, and she was going to give into that mom urge now. She dialed Ray Jay's phone-he was more likely to pick up-and waited.
"Hey, Mom."
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"We were just going to get some popcorn and watch a movie. No worries," Ray Jay answered. "Although... Um, well... Lindsay accidentally hit the button her keychain earlier and the guys came and were going to beat the crap out of Dad, I swear."
Dani winced. "Nico explained why he gave those to you two, but I thought that he would have warned his team about your father."
"Well, they definitely know now. They got chewed out on the phone. Dad's pissed, but I think Lindsay was actually happy about it. Hey, Linds. Come say hi to Mom."
Dani heard the phone switch hands. "Mom. Hey. Did you really go somewhere with wild horses because Jeanette's got this photo up on Facebook that can't possibly be real?"
"It's real. It was incredible. The horse just walked up to Nico and asked for food," Dani told her. "Nico said someone must have been feeding it before we got here, but it was still something I can't believe I saw. I'm glad I have pictures. And a video."
"Cool."
"I'm surprised you're not saying something about animals not sensing evil."
Lindsay laughed. "You know, that button he gave me is pretty cool. Those guys got here fast. They're good, too. I mean, they shouldn't have scared Dad like that, but if those are the kind of guys he keeps around... Well, he's gonna keep you safe, right?"
"And you, too?"
"He told you about that? It's nothing, Mom, but Ian's not going to do anything to me with the guys your guy has around. Trust me. I showed him that video, said if the boyfriend's guys could do that to my dad, imagine what they'd do to him. He hasn't messaged me since, so I can thank your scary guy for that," Lindsay said, laughing a little. "Dad's pouting, though. He wanted to be the big scary guy and chase off the boys."
Dani laughed at the idea of Ray doing that. It was so childish, but so very him. "Everything's okay there? You're not-"
"Planning on moving in with Dad while you're gone?" Lindsay finished. "No, we're good. It's been nice to have some time with Dad, though. It's good that you took a trip, too. You looked like you were having fun in those pictures."
"I was," Dani agreed. She'd almost expected to be bored, but Nico's near photographic memory had helped them stay occupied as they went around the preserve. He knew things that fascinated her, and he was willing to explain all of them as they wandered around. Not only that, but she just enjoyed being in his company. Here, away from everything, he was less guarded, didn't have the same need to maintain that persona that intimidated people and kept them at a distance.
"So, Mom," Lindsay began, and Dani wondered what was on her daughter's mind. The boy? Nico? Her father? The divorce? "Am I too old to ask if I can have a pony?"
Dani laughed.
"How did it go with the vet?"
"He'll be back in the morning to take the horse to his clinic," Nico answered, turning away from the stove to look at her. She had been busy while he was occupied, and he had to admit, the idea of taking her phone had crossed his mind more than once. "I have been called many things, Danielle, but never a horse whisperer."
She winced. "Sorry. I asked Jeanette to post the pictures, but I didn't specify the captions. I guess I should have. I'm lucky you love me, right?"
He took a deep breath. "You have managed to damage the reputation I spent years carefully cultivating, and I won't say I'm not angry about it. No one would have dared create a betting pool like that only last year. Now that there are pictures of me with animals, this will only get worse."
"We can fix that," she said. "Just because you're good with animals doesn't mean you're any less scary. We can get you something scary to keep as a pet."
"What am I supposed to be now, Crocodile Dundee?"
"You've seen that movie?"
"I don't sleep. I've seen and read a lot of things that would surprise you," Nico reminded her, pointing her to the dining table's chair. She sat down, watching him. He had spent the better part of the afternoon and evening away from her, first making the necessary arrangements for the horse, then dealing with the vet, and lastly because he was afraid he'd lose his temper if he was around her. He didn't want to hurt her, but again, the consequences of her actions and their effect on his reputation were not to be taken lightly. She joked about him needing to be scary, but what he had really become was a subject for ridicule, and that was intolerable.
"Nico, really, I don't think it's-Look, even if the horse picture has you a little less scary, Lindsay totally used a video of you-well, your staff-being badass scary to deal with her problem, so you can relax a little."
"My sister got me a cat."
"I hope it's a black one."
"This is not funny."
She bit her lip. "I really don't think it's as bad as you think it is. If you act a little human, you might scare them even more when you yell next time."
"I shouldn't have to yell. That was the point. It used to be that all it took was one look. Silence. Cowering. Apologies," Nico told her. She didn't know how difficult this was going to make his job, and he wasn't sure she cared. She didn't like that he ruled by fear, but he knew that his methods were effective. She could be the one the team turned to when they needed sympathy and support and all the things that Nico was not, but someone had to stand for the side of discipline, enforcing the harsh consequences. The men on the team were in many ways still children. She could mother them if she wanted. Nico's approach was different.
And probably far too much like his father's.
He shook his head and left the room. He had no appetite, and he was not in a good state to talk to anyone. He heard her get up, but it took a while before she actually reached the living room.
"Okay, what was that? You left the stove on."
"I think I am entirely too much like my father."
"I think I'm like my mother. It happens, whether we want it to or not. We have models-we imitate them without meaning to, but we still have a choice not to."
"It occurred to me that you... mother the team. And if you're the mother-"
"You're the father," she finished, nodding. "Makes sense."
"Especially when you add in the rule by fear," Nico muttered. He rubbed his forehead. "All these years telling myself I wasn't like him, but I am. I'm worse than him because at least he didn't try and fool anyone about what he was."
"Nico," she said, reaching up to touch his face, turning him to look at her. "Even if I have never met your father, I can tell you that you can't possibly be worse than him. Because you care. You take care of everyone, and that nurturing-even if that's not what it seems like most of the time-runs completely counter to what your father did to you and your sister. Underneath all the mystery and the darkness is a man who has a huge heart. You are a fixer, yes, but a caretaker, too. You use different methods, but you and I... We do the same thing. You have done so much for everyone, and what's more, you did things your father never did. You may have a problem with alcohol, but you got yourself sober and you stayed that way. You got your niece sober. You won over Jeanette and both of my children-no small feat, not with Lindsay. And...you got me to love you. A man that can do all that is not all bad. Give yourself some credit, Nico. Have you ever hurt anyone like he did? Ever hurt a child?"
"No. Never."
"You're a protector," she went on. "You know how to hurt, and you'll make threats, but you only do it as a last resort. When someone's in trouble. You help them. And remember, everyone needs a kick in the pants sometimes. You can't make it so that there are no consequences. If people don't feel consequences for their actions, they'll do it again. If you want a child to stop picking on the cat, sometimes they have to get scratched."
"Again with the cat."
She looked up at him and smiled a little. "A big cat. You've got to be like... oh, what's the one that camouflages itself? Or am I getting confused? They're all pretty stealthy, right? But you'd have to have a black one. That would only make sense."
"I don't want a cat."
"And if I dressed up for Halloween as a cat...?"
He frowned at her. "You're changing the subject."
"I'm trying to get you to smile again. The image of me in a catsuit is funny, right? I don't think I could pull it off. Spots or no spots. What about a tail? That would be interesting. Would it be long or short, like a minx or like-"
"Danielle," he began, shaking his head at the absurd twist the conversation had taken. Now he had a picture of her in his head that he did not know that he could get rid of, and he was going to have a hard time keeping that one back every time he looked at her. "Please. Stop."
"Only if you promise me you won't keep punishing yourself."
He didn't really know how to make that promise, so he didn't. "We should finish dinner now."
"Nico?"
He looked up from the work he was doing his laptop and frowned as he saw her in the doorway. "I thought you were asleep."
"I was," she answered, crossing over to him. He wondered what it would take to keep her off of that ankle for the rest of the time it needed to heal, and he didn't like that he was leaning toward tying her up or breaking some other bone in her leg. "Someone put me in bed again."
"We have to stop falling asleep on the couch."
She sat down on the edge of the bed. "I don't mind, not really, but I bet it's killing your back."
He'd resorted to taking a few of the over-the-counter medications that were in the bathroom, but he didn't see the need to mention that to her. He could deal with the aches. They would fade. They always did. "What woke you?"
"I don't know," she admitted, pulling herself across the bed until she was sitting next to him. "Maybe I just didn't want to be alone."
"You can stay with me, if you like," he offered. "I've already... slept for the night, so I won't be falling asleep again, but you are welcome to stay. I'm not doing anything that interesting right now, either, but when I got done with this I was planning on doing some reading."
"More Ken Follet? You're not going to read it aloud just to put me to sleep again, are you?"
"The World War II ones are better," he began, amused by the way that she'd gone right for that. She had been reading one the other night-and had fallen asleep with it still on her lap. She didn't seem very impressed with the man's work, though. He doubted that he could change her opinion.
"Is this what you do every night?"
"Back in New York, I tend to travel more, but, yes, I do this on a regular basis. I keep track of... a lot of different things," he said, not really wanting to go into detail. She already felt that he did too much, and his nominal job description didn't handle half of what he did on regular basis. He preferred to keep busy, and he took on as much as he needed to stay that way. "Any other questions?"
"Were you named after your uncle?"
"No. 'Nick' was actually not his real name. It was a name he acquired because of his signature," Nico explained. She looked at him. He set the laptop to the side, not wanting to have this conversation while he held an expensive piece of equipment. He had that one set up exactly as he needed it to be, and it would be a shame to have to replace it. "He was a thug. He would work for anyone who'd pay him to hurt someone. He liked hurting people. He would always issue one threat with a nick from his knife, and if that warning didn't work, then... he made the cut."
"Did he kill people?"
"I'm pretty sure he did, though no one ever managed to prove it."
She grew quiet, and he looked over at her. She was troubled by what he'd told her, and he shook his head as he reached out to touch her, his hand gently resting on her arm. "We don't have to discuss my past if it will upset you."
She shook her head. "It's not that. I don't want you to think you have to keep things from me because they're unsettling. I want you to feel that you can share whatever you want. I want to know more about you, as much as you're willing to share."
He cupped her cheek with his hand. "You might want to stop before you get any deeper into this. It's just going to get darker."
She nodded, reaching up to put her hand over his. "That's kind of what I was thinking. After I woke up again, I laid there for a while, and I couldn't stop thinking about our break, such as it is. We haven't hardly had a break. We fought. You thought I'd died. Then we wake up to a betting pool. We find a horse that needs help. Then we almost lost dinner because of your past. Situations are always going to find us. Our pasts will always be there. My marriage. My children. Your family. Everything."
"Yes," he agreed, frowning. Was this her moment for backing off? Her time to panic, pull away, push him away? He would let her go, if that was what she wanted. He knew that it would hurt, but he could still protect her even if they weren't together. "Danielle-"
She leaned over and kissed him. "We had to make this time to be alone, to have time to breathe, to think. And even here, even out in the middle of nowhere, we still have one crisis after another. It's impossible to find that time."
"Yes, it has been difficult to balance."
"I'm beginning to think it's not about balance. That line from the serenity prayer-I think everyone knows it-the wisdom to accept the things we can change, courage to change what we can, and wisdom to know the difference. Even if you don't believe in god, the words have power. We all need to know what we can change and what we can't, and we need to have the strength to change them. We both have that strength. I think we have the wisdom, too, for the most part. Meaning... we know that life isn't going to change for us. We know that we have to make the time. To... take the moment."
"The moment?"
She kissed him again, almost dragging him down on top of her, and he understood. He placed his hands on her arms, leaning back for a moment and studying her. "Are you sure about this? It hasn't been that long since this started between us, not long since you signed those papers, and only the second day that we have been here."
"How long will we wait for a perfect moment to come? For that time when we're not in the middle of a situation or a crisis or surrounded by people? When I'm not emotionally vulnerable or you're not?" she sighed, closing her eyes for a moment, her cheeks red. "It's never going to be the right time. Even now... the way I brought this up, the questions I asked before-the moment is gone and the romance is gone and we're not-"
"Part of wanting you is that the fact that it doesn't... shut off. We may be in the middle of a situation, we may be fighting or hurting, but underneath that, it's still there. Sometimes it's easier to ignore. Sometimes it isn't."
"You have a lot of self-control, don't you?"
"More than you." It wasn't that it was a contest, but she had proved herself the more impulsive of the two of them, overall, even if neither of them were what other people would consider laid back or relaxed. She wasn't always thinking three steps ahead, but he usually was.
"Even... now?" she asked, her hand slipping under his shirt. Her fingers moved along his skin hesitantly, unaware of how seductive such a seemingly small thing was.
He smiled as he shook his head, leaning down to kiss her. "No. Not now."
Epilogue