All in One Conversation...
We Have a Situation
Word Count: 2,517
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Nico/Dani (eventually)
Spoilers: up to 1x07, goes AU in the middle of 1x06, though.
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: It is interesting just how many turns a single conversation can take. And I wanted to leave some of it obscured for now...
A Wound
"You just left here, didn't you?" Dani asked, frowning as she opened her door to Nico. He did not answer, just moved past her, inviting himself in. She frowned. Despite his tendency to show up at her house at any hour and to enter her car without permission, he did respect the boundary of her front door. He had never just invited himself in before.
"Nico?"
"This situation has taken an unexpected turn," he said, sitting down on the nearest chair-the one in her office. He winced a little, opening his coat and adjusting his position. If Dani didn't know any better, she'd say he was hurt. That seemed absurd, though. Nico gave off this feeling, this sense that he was untouchable.
"Unexpected, how?" she asked, studying him from the doorway.
"It would seem that some confusion has arisen over a certain status that-would you mind bringing me a first aid kit?" he asked, and she nodded automatically.
Then she stopped in the middle of turning to leave. "What happened?"
"I underestimated something. That happens. I would rather not stain your couch, and I am sure you would prefer it if I did not, either."
She stared at him for a second before crossing over, pushing his hands aside and ignoring his protests as she found the hole in his shirt. It was too dark to see the blood, but the fabric was soaked. She looked up at him. "What happened?"
"It is merely a hazard of my job. I assure you that I would not have returned here if another alternative had been closer. Can I have the kit now? I am capable of bandaging myself."
She shook her head. "Absolutely not. You sit there and you do not move, understand me, Mister? You are going to stay put and let me take care of this. I know-I mean, I just know-that you will try and make this less than it is, and I am not going to let that happen. You need proper care for this."
He caught her hand. "You are not a medical doctor, Dr. Santino. And my health is not your concern."
"I'm going to make it my concern. Just like you make it your concern when it comes to every little thing in my family," she told him, pulling her hand free. He gave her a look as she got to her feet. "I mean it. Don't move."
"Honestly, what do you think you could do to make me stay?"
She wasn't really sure there was anything, but she didn't say that. She turned, feigning confidence and conviction that he would listen to her that she didn't feel. She wouldn't be surprised to come back and find him gone. That would be so like him, leaving.
She grabbed what she thought she'd need from the bathroom, loading up more than she could really carry, but she didn't drop any of it as she made her way back to the office. She put her supplies on the table, catching his eye. He seemed amused.
"You could have at least made this easier by taking off the coat and shirt," she told him. He shrugged, slipping the jacket off and setting it to the side. He gave a slight grimace as he did. She hadn't expected him to stay, and she had a hard time accepting that he would reveal so much. "Maybe it would be better if you lay back on the couch."
Nico gave her a look, so she shoved him back. It was starting to worry her, just how cooperative he was being. He should have been verbally sparring with her, pushing her away. He had the advantage physically, and he was trained, too. Look what he'd done to Ray. How had he ended up like this? All he had said was that he'd underestimated something.
She grabbed a cloth, put the disinfectant on it, and moved closer to him, moving his legs so she could get a good look at his side. "Are you crazy? This is going to need stitches."
"It's a flesh wound."
"You surprise me. I wouldn't have thought of you as a Monty Python kind of guy."
"You don't strike me as a Python kind of girl."
"Kids," she reminded him, and he nodded, holding back any cry he might have made as she touched the cloth to his side, cleaning it up. She really did think that wound needed stitches. The team had a doctor, didn't they? Nico probably saw that man all the time, kept the injuries off the record. She sighed. How often did this kind of stuff happen to him? Was he injured on the job a lot? She had really only seen things that were more or less tame, but then who knew what he'd actually done to the loan shark that was after her poker player? Who knew what he did to the ones that wouldn't take money?
"How did this happen?"
"I told you."
"No, you were obscure and vague, which is very you but not all that helpful for figuring out how to take care of you," she said, and he smiled slightly. She shook her head. "What, is it embarrassing?"
"In that I let my guard down, perhaps, yes," he agreed. "What I thought was an overzealous reporter was very much... not. As I said, I underestimated things. This situation is not what it seems."
She frowned, prepping a bandage to cover the cut. She still felt that it needed stitches, and she wasn't going to let him get away with not getting them. "The one with TK?"
"I don't really think this has anything to do with TK," Nico admitted, catching her hand before she could put the bandage on. The way he looked at her made her feel very uncomfortable, though she wasn't sure what it was that really bothered her. The intensity? Jeanette had pointed it out earlier, but this was not the same as the look she'd frozen the video on earlier. "This is potentially more-Xeno will be staying with you until further notice. Do not argue with me about this."
"I'm not going to agree to anything until you tell me why you think I need protection," she said, and he started to get up. She shifted to the side, putting her weight onto his legs to keep him down. "Explain. Now. Remember, I have ways of making you talk."
"Hey, Dani, I am going to head out-oh, wow, excuse me for interrupting," Jeanette said, and Dani cursed when she realized that this would not look good. Nico had her hand, and Dani was on top of him. His shirt was open, but she doubted her friend was going to pay any attention to the cut or bandage and would have yet another wrong impression about all of this. "Sorry. Really."
"Remind your friend that she is not a medical doctor, and we will be even," Nico said, trying to move. Dani pushed him back down, knowing that she was going to hear about this for a long, long time. Jeanette would not let this go.
"You need stitches, and you are not leaving until you get this bandage on."
"I can help hold him down if you need me to," Jeanette offered, and Nico sighed. "Still, it looks to me like you have this all under control."
She smirked and left the doorway, and Nico glared at the space where she had been. Dani pointed a finger at him. "No making her disappear. She's my friend. She's my very, very good friend, and I will never forgive you if something happens to her."
He shook his head. "I do not always make people disappear. I do think that she could use some... clarification, if nothing else. She seemed to have an erroneous impression of this situation."
"Why is everything a situation for you?"
"Because they all are. Have you looked at the definition of the word lately? I cannot quote exactly but the basics are essentially this: the way something sits in relation to the things around it; a person's position or place of employment or in life; where they are with respect to conditions and circumstances; the relative position or combination of circumstances at a certain moment, a critical, trying, or unusual state of affairs; or a set of affairs at a stage in the action of a story. Most of life falls into one of those categories."
She frowned. "Did you memorize all that? When? Why?"
"Your thesaurus is sitting open right there. I figured it was on your mind, and I have a memory that is close to photogenic," he explained. "I don't have to memorize anything. You have about two seconds before I knock you onto the floor, so if you insist on putting that bandage on, you had better do it now."
"Let go of my hand so that I can do this properly, then," she said, and he looked down like he had completely forgotten he was holding onto her hand. She supposed his memory wasn't all that photogenic after all. But damn, if it was-the things he knew about her, about her family, none of that would ever go away. She really didn't like the sound of that.
He let go, and she set the bandage down, wiping down the cut with the disinfectant again. He hissed in surprise, and she almost smiled at that. She didn't like the look of it. It had to be at least four inches long and still bleeding. She put the bandage on. "You still need stitches."
He turned over, carrying through with his threat to knock her off the couch, and she cursed as she hit the ground. He extended a hand to her, and she took it reluctantly, letting him help her up. "I do not need stitches."
"You don't have to act macho with me, and I'm sure you know a doctor who will keep it off record if that's what you're worried about," she told him. He gave her another look, and she was sick of his stubbornness and still smarting from being dropped on the floor, so she poked him right in the bandage. He almost doubled over, and she shook her head. "You see? You need more than something covering that."
"Not when I'm not around apparently vicious therapists," he snapped, rubbing at his side. He reached for his coat, and she moved in front of him. She knew she was pushing this too far, but he was injured. He'd bled on her damn couch, and he still hadn't told her why. It was something that had to do with her somehow or he wouldn't want Xeno protecting her and the kids. "Do not make me move you a second time."
"You came to my house. You're stuck with putting up with me, and you are getting in the car and seeing a real doctor. Now."
"Do you realize you just implied that you're not a real doctor?"
She grabbed a hold of his arm and started dragging him to the door. She did not want to deal with this. She didn't need it. She was a doctor, not a medical doctor, and she was not in the mood to put up with this. She had spent all night with TK; she barely remembered the reunion-it felt like it was days ago instead of last night-and she was so tired of the damn implication that there was something between her and Nico, and she was sick of the mystery and the lies and evasions, and she felt like everything was out of control.
"Do you realize that by fixing everyone else's problems you leave no room for a life of your own?" she countered angrily. His look was dark but she thought she saw some confusion there. She had struck a bit of a nerve, one he probably didn't even know he had. "You don't sleep, do you? You don't do anything that isn't for the Hawks or some other part of Pittman's Group. Even the reading you do is probably done while you wait for some football player or employee to finish whatever they're doing. You just risked your life-even if you didn't know that was what you were doing, and for what? For money? Why do you do this, Nico?"
He was quiet for a moment. "I do what has to be done."
"You aren't helping them by making the problems go away. There has to be consequences. They have to feel them. TK needs to feel them," Dani insisted. "Sometimes a person has to fall to realize that it hurts. Children have to know that fire will burn them before they stop trying to touch it or the hot pan. It's not always enough to tell someone what the right thing is. They might already know it, but they have to make that choice and take the good with the bad after the choice is made. That's life. What you do is not helpful."
He pulled his arm free. "And what you do is no better. You placate feelings and pretend that dealing with the emotions will cure all of life's ills. It doesn't work that way, either. Awareness is not everything."
"And being closed off and bottled up will just cause more problems. There are documented cases of physical illnesses being tied to emotional distress," she reminded him. She knew that he wouldn't listen-why would he? He was the picture of cut off and closed off, and she didn't think that he would ever let anyone in. The few pieces of information he gave out were appeasements, meant to make people stop asking and ignore the fact that they knew basically nothing about him. What had damaged him so badly that he was like this? His military service? Had he seen bad times as a SEAL? Was it even earlier than that? Probably.
She shook her head. Now was not the time to deal with that. He needed medical attention, and it had been delayed long enough. "Get in the car."
He didn't budge. She wanted to shake some sense into him. She reached for the door handle and opened it for him. Nico's phone rang, and he ignored the glare she gave him as he answered it. He was quiet, listening, and then when he hung up, he focused on her. "What did you say to TK?"
"I asked him what he would do if the boy wasn't his. Why? What is going on?"
"That was the team's lawyer. TK just ordered him to file papers. He's applying to adopt Devin."
Chapter Five