Late Night Pizza

by BrisbaneGirl

Dizzy Flores is tired, bored and alone in her apartment and not really wanting to be any of the above. After a long stressful week preceded by a long stressful year , her night seems to be pretty dismal until there is a knock on her door... Diz/Goss

Late Night Pizza

Disclaimer: Nope, sadly I still do not own the Roughnecks. I am simply borrowing the characters to write stories for my own entertainment. The fabulous plot for this story however, does belong to me.

AN: Yes I know. Where are the updates for my other stories? Well I was looking through what I had salvaged from my old computer (who fell victim to a pretty vicious virus) and I came across this story. Of course, my computer had deleted half of it but I think that the ending I have added for it is probably better than the one I had originally. I promise promise promise that updates are coming for both Unlike Yesterday and Underneath my Skin now that the bulk of my personal issues seem to have been put aside but here is a little something to tide the Roughnecks over....

Plot Outline: Dizzy Flores is tired, bored and alone in her apartment and not really wanting to be any of the above. After a long stressful week (preceded by a long stressful year), her night seems to be pretty dismal until there is a knock on her door... (Diz/Goss)(AU)(One-shot)

Dizzy Flores unlocked her apartment door and threw her keys onto the sideboard. She watched them slide along it and fall to the floor but found she did not have the energy nor the inclination to pick them up. She wandered through the apartment, depositing her bag on the couch on her way past. After a quick trip to her bedroom for a more comfortable outfit, she continued on her immediate quest. She flicked on the kitchen light and went straight to the fridge, opening it to survey the contents. It had been a hard day and Dizzy just wanted to eat and then sleep. One year on from the end of the war and the rest of the world still couldn't allow the Roughnecks a moment's peace. They had just wrapped up seven days of media across the United States to "celebrate their victory". Dizzy thought that the only thing they should be celebrating was the end of the inane questioning. Dizzy slammed the fridge door and stalked out to the couch. She didn't particularly want to be alone. She missed the Roughnecks when they were away and it was often hard to get hold of each other outside birthdays and other important holidays. The other Roughnecks had retreated to their hotel rooms and Dizzy couldn't really blame them. Higgins had actually fallen asleep in the car on the way back. She slumped back against the couch and groaned. She couldn't really be upset with the Roughnecks for being exhausted. They had barely had more than a day in any one place for the last week and every single meal they had together had been held in a public place. They were all beyond tired of being put on display for scrutiny by public eyes.

Dizzy had put much thought into the whole public image thing and had recently been debating moving away from cities altogether. Far too many people always interested in her and what she was doing. Perhaps a ranch in Arizona or Wyoming would be more peaceful. Somewhere far away where she could have cows, horses and no people for miles. She picked up the remote and turned on the TV only to be greeted by her own face, photographed leaving the set of Larry King. She swore quietly under her breath as she realised it was a "celebrity news" show. They were currently discussing her choice of outfit; "understated but still very stylish". This comment caused Dizzy to bury her head in her hands and groan again. Then swear again as they started in on their latest favourite topic. Her and Gossard.

Dizzy lifted her head high enough from her hands to peer through her fingers at herself. The hosts were crowing about what a perfect couple she and Goss would make and she finally couldn't take it anymore. She picked up the remote and changed to the channel to be greeted by Hannah Montana. She shrugged to herself, it was better than what she had just been watching. She set the remote down and moved to leaning back against the couch. As she stared at the TV, she couldn't get the last photo she had seen on the screen out of her head. It was almost like someone was standing in front of her, waving it in front of her eyes. While Razak, Brutto and Doc had gone on FOX news and CNN to discuss serious, adult topics that bored the rest of the squad to tears; the "younger set" had been invited to host Saturday Night Live. The photo in question had been taken as they were leaving. Max and Higgins were almost to the waiting car. Rico and Carl had paused to sign autographs. She and Goss were walking out of the building together. He had been telling her a joke and her head was tipped back in laughter. He had been given the option to go with Razak but chose to go with her, secretly confessing that he had done enough of those sorts of interviews to last him a lifetime. They had been having such fun, the most fun of the whole press tour in fact and she was glad Goss had decided to join them, even though it was now biting her in the behind.

Dizzy moaned quietly to herself, changed the channel again and then picked up a pillow to bury her face in. Goss was intelligent, funny, and handsome and just all around wonderful. She did like him, way more than she should and she therefore spent vast amounts of time and expended a great deal of energy trying to hide it. She lay back on the couch, pillow still over her face and sighed. It was hard to connect with people now. She had basically no friends outside the Roughnecks. Although this didn't generally bother her, it was getting increasingly lonely while the Roughnecks were away. While grumbling into the pillow, she almost missed the knock on her door. She pulled the pillow from her face and fell silent as the person knocked again. She lay there and wondered who the hell would be knocking on her door after the day she just had and what they could possibly need that required them to do the aforementioned knocking. When they knocked for a third time and far more insistently than previously, Dizzy threw the pillow to the side and got up. Swearing under her breath she stomped over to the door, intending to give this unknown person a piece of her mind and flung it open. She nearly fell over in surprise when she saw who was on the other side and completely forgot what she had been intending to say. Leaning against the doorframe, wearing dark wash jeans, a fitted black t-shirt stretched across his muscles and looking far better than anyone had any right to after such a long week; was Goss.

He was holding a pizza in one hand; the other was raised; as if to knock again. She looked up into his smiling face suspiciously. It wasn't fair, she moaned internally. How can he still look so good when I feel like a sleepwalker? He was still smiling, but this time a little smugly as he surveyed her still suspicious expression.
"Pizza Delivery."
She rolled her eyes and opened the door while he laughed at his own joke. He walked in and set the pizza on the coffee table in the living room before turning to look at her with a raised eyebrow.
"SpongeBob? Isn't there anything better on TV?"
She rolled her eyes at him again and headed into the kitchen. He followed her in, snickering to himself.
"Don't knock SpongeBob. It's one of the only programs where I am not looking at my own face."
She told him this while half buried in a cupboard looking for plates. She pulled them out before turning and retrieving a diet coke and a beer from the fridge. Once those were safely tucked under her arm, the plates in her hand; she indicated for him to follow her back out. He sat down on the couch and accepted the plate and beer she offered him. Dizzy sat beside him and cracked open her can of coke and turned in time to see him looking at her.
"Why do you drink that stuff? The extra calories in normal coke wouldn't kill you."
Dizzy raised an eyebrow at him, shrugged and smiled before reaching for the pizza box. He knocked her hands out of the way before placing a couple of slices on both their plates and setting the box back on the table. She took another sip of her drink before settling back against the couch, picking up her pizza and began nibbling on it.

Dizzy looked at him, measuring his expression as he ate his pizza and drank mouthfuls of beer to wash it down. While she didn't drink beer herself, she knew that the Roughnecks enjoyed it and generally complained about the food and beverage selection that she kept at her house. She found it caused fewer arguments in the long run to just keep a couple of cans around.
"Not to sound ungrateful or like I don't want you here, but what's with the delivery pizza boy?"
He looked at her from the corner of his eye and shrugged.
"They dropped the rest of us at the hotel before they dropped you home and it's not that far to walk. There was this little pizza place between here and the hotel so I stopped to get some. I thought about getting ice cream but I was worried it would melt before I got here. It was boring being by myself and all the others wanted to do was be by themselves; so I came here."
He put the beer to his mouth and shrugged again as he took a sip. He looked over to see Dizzy smiling at him. She had grown her hair out; it was shoulder length but tied behind her head in a ponytail so it stayed out of her way.
"I just wish you would have warned me. This is not exactly how I picture myself greeting guests."
She gestured to her outfit which consisted of an old pair of basketball shorts and a shirt which she had once stolen from him that had Gossard emblazoned across the back in block letters. She had a habit of doing that and she now had a large collection of shirts that used to belong to Rico, Carl and himself; stashed away in her room. They were never quite sure how she did it but they always found themselves handing over old sports jerseys and shirts after about five minutes of arguing about it, not that Goss was complaining. He found he rather liked having his name written across her back. He looked at her outfit again and smiled at her.
"I think you look fine. I don't care what you wear as long as I'm spending time with you."
She smiled at him even more brightly than before and they settled into a comfortable silence, watching Spongebob and eating.

Once they finished their pizza, Dizzy rose to get them more drinks and remove the rubbish from the table in front of them.
"You can choose a movie if you want. DVDs are in the bottom drawer of the TV cabinet and the remote for the cable is on the table in front of you."
She left him to choose and took their used plates, drinks and the empty pizza box into the kitchen. She smiled to herself as she heard him practically falling over the coffee table on his way to the DVD draw. Her DVD's were mainly given to her by the Roughnecks and she never really watched them, even when she had time to. They were either horror (which she couldn't stand) or war movies (she had enough real war experience to last her a lifetime and didn't really want anyone else's opinion on it). They were here for nights the Roughnecks were over, when they had watched so much sport that she was prepared to smash the TV into a million tiny pieces so they couldn't watch anymore. The last time they had done this, she had nearly decapitated Rico with a copy of Saving Private Ryan as she attempted to escape from yet another game of NFL. Since that incident, she had come to suspect that they only watched that much sport when they were over to see how long it would take her to crack and haul out a DVD to make them stop. After dumping the box and cans on the counter, dropping the plates in the sink to be cleaned later and retrieving more drinks from the fridge and some packets of lollies from the cupboard; she decided to make a detour on the way back to the living room. She hauled her blanket off her queen sized bed and into the living room. Goss had placed a small stack of DVD's on the table and was placing one into the DVD player as she entered.
"What are we watching?"
Dizzy asked as she placed the drinks and food on the table and lifted her blanket up off the floor and began arranging it on the couch before snuggling underneath it and watching his progress. Goss picked up the remote after inserting the disk and moved the stack onto the floor under the table, so they were out of the way. He lifted his end of the blanket and got comfortable underneath it before turning to answer her.
"We are going to have a movie marathon. Firstly, we are going to watch the Ring, then the Haunting, the Shining and then an old favourite, Wait until Dark with Audrey Hepburn."
He smiled at her serenely while she stared at him in disbelief.
"Those are all horror films... You know I hate those."
Goss raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly while she continued to stare at him. He reached over and patted her hand and winked at her.
"It's alright Diz. I'll protect you if you get scared. You know I always do when we watch these sorts of films."

Twenty minutes later, Dizzy was lying in front of Goss on the couch facing his chest, with her head buried under the blanket and his arms wrapped around her as she tried not to watch the film or listen to the storm raging outside the window. It was silly and she knew it was. The film wasn't real and she knew that she really had nothing to fear from it but she couldn't help the fear that seeped through her every time she watched a film like this. Doc had once told her that it was more a fear of the unknown and a fear of not being in control that made her afraid of the horror genre but it didn't matter to her why she was afraid. All that mattered to her at the current point in time was that she was terrified. She thought she had been coping rather well, but a thunderstorm had started and one particularly loud crack combined with a scene on the TV had sent her diving under the blanket and another crack, louder than the last; had sent her scurrying up to the other end of the couch and into the warm, inviting and safe arms of Goss. It was rather nice, she decided, to lounge with him under the blanket and know that she was perfectly safe from nonexistent threats. His hands were making soothing paths up and down her back as he watched the film and it was making her drowsy. Occasionally, their path would differ, either up and down her arm, or down her hair, which she had released from its hair band and was now flowing down her back. She felt him lean down and brush her hair away from her ear.
"Come on Diz. Just roll over and watch. You're sitting with me now, so I think you should at least watch it."
She shook her head against his chest and she felt him press a feather light kiss against her forehead.
"Maybe in a little while, ok?"
She felt him nod and shift his head back a little bit, presumably so he could see the screen over her head. She let her eyes fall shut and told herself that she would enjoy another few minutes of lying like this before she turned around and watched what would surely give her nightmares for the next few weeks.

Another twenty minutes later and Goss suspected that Dizzy may have been asleep. Her breathing had evened out and she hadn't really moved except to snuggle closer to him, seeking warmth and security. He continued to rub her back as he stared at the movie he had never really been watching in the first place. This was the ulterior motive he had in mind when he had chosen the movies. Dizzy hated horror films because they scared her so much. She never gave a reason why she was afraid of them and he suspected that she didn't really know herself. She always sought comfort eventually but never to this extent. He had laughed quietly when she had thrown the blanket over her head but had immediately stopped when she reappeared and looked so frightened. He felt no hesitation in opening his arms and she had no hesitation in diving into them and burying her head in his chest. She was a petite little thing and the Roughnecks all towered over her, but she had never felt or looked as tiny to him as she had when she first cowered into his embrace. He pressed another kiss to her forehead and went back to semi-watching the movie. This was something he could get used to, he decided as they lay there together. She seemed to fit against him so perfectly. She was beautiful, intelligent and he still had the same feelings for her that he always had. After the war finished, Rico resumed chasing Carmen and he had feared that he and the others would be left to pick up the pieces of Rico's careless attitude towards her for the millionth time. Dizzy had surprised them all with her behaviour which proved what she had been saying all along, she had gotten over Rico a long time ago. She and Carmen had become friends and Dizzy would sometimes retreat to her for fun if the overload of testosterone during a period where they were all together became too much for her. He didn't want to screw up the relationship they already had. He would rather stay her friend and still get to see her, than avoid her because of his feelings and never see her. She burrowed her head a little further into his chest and he tightened his arms around her. The other Roughnecks swore up and down to him that she felt the same way but he just wasn't willing to take that risk and screw their friendship up.

When the movie had finished and Dizzy still had not awoken, Goss decided to move the empty drinks to the kitchen and replace them with fresh ones so they would have less rubbish to remove when they were tired later on. He slid carefully out from behind Dizzy; thankful that the back of her couch wasn't overly tall otherwise he probably would have ended up sprawled on the floor from falling off the back. He picked up the empty drinks and lolly packets and moved into the kitchen as quietly as he could. She looked so peaceful that he didn't really want to wake her. Sleep was something they had really learned to appreciate since the end of the war and sometimes it seemed like there wasn't enough time left in life for them to make up for the sleep they lost during the war. He deposited the drinks on the table before deciding to make a side trip to the bathroom, he was already up anyway and he really had no desire to continue climbing over the back of Dizzy's couch like a monkey. As he was coming back he could hear a sort of whimpering and it took him about half a minute longer than it should have to work out where it was coming from. He raced into the living room to find Dizzy thrashing around on the couch, tangled in the blankets and crying in her sleep.

He tripped over the coffee table for the second time that night as he hurried to her side. He reached for her arm but as soon as he touched it, she flinched away from him. She was becoming even more distressed and he found that he didn't like watching her suffer through her nightmares like this at all. With new determination, he reached for her again but this time, he brushed some of her long brown her from her face and brushed her cheek with his thumb.
"Diz? Diz, wake up. It's just a dream; whatever it is can't hurt you."
He kept gently stroking her cheek while whispering nonsense sentences in a soothing voice. Her whimpering quieted for a moment and her thrashing seemed to stop, before her whole body stiffened and her eyes snapped open. She sat up with a gasp and cowered away from him into the back of the couch. He immediately held up both hands and remained still as her eyes darted around before landing on him again.
"Goss?"
She asked him, while her eyes did another sweep of the surroundings. He nodded but remained where he was. He could tell she was still disoriented from her nightmare and decided not to push her anymore by coming any closer. He thought it would be best for her to see that there was no immediate threat before he tried to move closer again. After doing another quick visual sweep of the room, her breathing slowed and her eyes remained on him this time, apparently she had decided that there was no immediate threat within the room and she could focus her attention on him. He decided that it was therefore safe to sit on the couch beside her. Dizzy was still watching him, apparently unsure what to say or do. Since she didn't appear to have any intention of speaking, he decided to start the conversation.
"What was your nightmare about?"
She shuddered and refused to look at him, shaking her head as she stared at the now blank TV. He placed a hand slowly and gently on her arm and she tore her eyes away from it to look at him.
"You weren't there. I'm not even sure where I was but you weren't there and they were going to hurt me and I couldn't find you subconsciously beside me so I panicked. I'm sorry I moved away from you."
She told him in a small voice as she focused on his hand where it was resting on her arm. Although her breathing was steady again, he could see that she was shaking and trying desperately to hide it from him. He shook his head, moved both his hands to her waist and lifted her into his lap. She buried her head into his chest and began to cry again. He knew she wasn't telling him the whole truth about the nightmare but what she had said mattered to him. She had been looking for him subconsciously with her hands while she dreamt, looking for the safety and security he had been offering her while he was there and she had been unable to find him and that had scared her more. She thought that he had abandoned her. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and pressed a kiss to her temple and another to the top of her head.
"No, don't ever be sorry for something like that. You were frightened and disoriented from your dream. Diz, you have to know though. I will always be there to protect you when it matters. I'll never abandon you or put you in a situation that may cause you harm. I would never let anything hurt you, not now, not ever. I promise I will always be there."

They sat there for the longest time. Neither having any inclination to move, perfectly content to be together. The crying and shaking had ceased a while ago but Dizzy made no move to extract herself from his lap and Goss made no move to make her get off his lap. He had shifted back so he was leaning against the back of the couch, arms still wrapped tightly around her, his eyes having long fallen shut. Dizzy was curled up against him, her eyes open, staring but not seeing. They were both lost in their thoughts. Dizzy lifted her head to look at him and he opened his eyes to look at her.
"I know you'll always be there. I'm sorry I didn't remember."
He smiled at her as she said this, before shifting to sit more upright, pulling her even more tightly against him.
"You can always use a reminder now and then. Besides, you probably wouldn't have had that nightmare if it wasn't for me. You never watch those films unless we're here."
Dizzy laid her head back down against his chest and listened as his head fell against the back of the couch. She began running her fingers up and down his chest, feeling his well defined muscles contract under her touch.
"Hey Goss?"
"Hmm?"
She shifted a bit but continued to run her fingers up and down his chest, watching their progress; to avoid having to look at him.
"This is really nice, being here with you."
She felt him chuckle underneath her as he brought his hand up to caress her hair.
"Yeah, it is nice isn't it? You should also know Diz...I like this way more than I should."
It was her turn to laugh quietly as she lifted her head to look at him.
"I like this way more than I should too. Funny how that worked out huh?"
He smiled at her, a far more genuine smile than she had seen in such a long time.
"Then you should also know that I have no intention of moving from this spot, here with you, for as long as I can get away with it."
Dizzy laughed quietly at what he told her but as he went to plant another kiss on the top of her head, she tipped it up so that his lips met hers. She felt him smile against her lips as they kissed and she realised that kissing Goss was far better than she ever imagined.

When they eventually had to pull away for air, Goss was smiling so brightly, she briefly wondered whether he was going to burn her with it. She smiled back up at him, her fingers resuming their trail up and down his chest, as his resumed stroking her hair.
"You have no idea how long I have waited to do that."
He said as he smiled at her. They both laughed quietly, ecstatic that they had finally crossed that bridge. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Probably about as long as I have. You certainly took your sweet time in doing it."
She taunted as he pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. He was silent for a moment, seemingly debating what he was going to say to her and she was more than happy to wait, after all; they had a whole lifetime to wait now.
"I've always loved you on some level, right from the very first moment I met you but I only realised how much I loved you after Hydora. Twice we could have lost you on that planet, and to me, it was the most horrible thing I could imagine. A world without you in it; just wouldn't be worth living in. Then Rico happened and Barcalow and I just felt like I had lost my chance with you. It didn't change how I felt about you, and I kept fighting to protect you; even though you managed to make that the most difficult job I could imagine. Then in the final battle, you had to go and get yourself severely injured and I almost lost it. I'd failed you again and almost convinced myself that if you went, I was going to follow. I wasn't going to live without you. I'd do anything for you Dizzy because I love you more than my life and everything in it."
His eyes remained closed throughout his whole speech to her and he stunned her into silence for the first part. When he mentioned her injury, she shuddered internally. The Roughnecks had never quite forgiven her for that and it was still a very sore subject that was mentioned as little as possible; as tempers tended to flare up. When he mentioned failing her, she became furious. She grabbed his chin and forced him to open his eyes and look at her.
"You never failed me. That was my own stupid decision and it was never your responsibility to pay the consequences for it. Rico and Zander were...mistakes and the latter was certainly ill advised on my own part. After that, when I realised that it was you all along; it was too late. I had convinced myself that I was a jinx and I loved you too much to lose you. So I spent the remainder of the war trying to convince myself that I didn't love you but you made it so hard. You were so wonderful and you were always there for me; even when they finally confirmed that my brother was dead. You came and found me when I was hiding from everyone; held me while I cried myself to exhaustion and stood by my side during those horrific official investigations which turned up absolutely nothing and found no-one to blame for his death. I would have cracked if it hadn't been for you being there when I needed you. You're always there and I loved you for it then and I love you for it now."
She pressed a kiss to his collarbone before laying her head back down and listening to his heartbeat, allowing it to lull her to sleep.

It was well after midnight when Dizzy awoke again. As she tried to get up and loosen her stiff muscles, she found that she couldn't move at all. Gossard's arms were wrapped tightly around her and while she didn't want to wake him, she knew they needed to move somewhere more comfy or they would both pay for it in the morning.
"Goss, wake up. We fell asleep on the couch."
She gently shook one of the arms that was trapping her against him. He shifted and groaned as he opened his eyes to look at her.
"Come on. I have some of your old shirts. I'll pull one out for you to sleep in. We can crash in my bed together."
He nodded tiredly and released her so she could stand up and stretch out her now very stiff body. He pushed himself to his feet and popped his neck before he followed her down the hall to the bedroom, carrying her blanket. She was already pawing through one of the drawers in her closet, before she turned and threw him a shirt. He noticed that it was one of his old baseball jerseys and he pulled his t-shirt over his head to put in on. While he was doing that, Dizzy disappeared into the bathroom to change and brush her teeth. When she emerged, she found Goss already buried underneath the blanket and almost back asleep. Dizzy turned off the lights before climbing in beside him and snuggling against her pillow. She suddenly felt a tug on her arm and found herself with her head resting against Gossard's chest, her arm wrapped around him and his around her. As she nuzzled her face into his chest and prepared to fall to sleep, she felt him kiss her forehead.
"I love you Goss."
"I love you too Diz."
After five minutes, she was almost asleep when Goss suddenly said
"You know how you hate seeing your face everywhere. Just think how many magazines and gossip shows we will be on now that we are together. I even know what their first story is going to be."
She smiled against his chest and decided to indulge him. Maybe then she would get some sleep.
"What will it be?"
"They are going to be covering my walk of shame home from here tomorrow morning. In the same clothes I left the hotel in last night...from an apartment everyone knows is yours. What are the guys going to say?"
They both laughed quietly and found they could have cared less. They were together and that was all that mattered to them. He pressed another kiss to her head and they both drifted off to sleep. Safe, Happy and Together.