*** DISCLAIMER *** As always, I do not claim any ownership of these characters, nor is any ownership implied. Just taking them out to play!
Gage sat at the bar at CD's, an almost-untouched longneck sitting in front of him. He took the small black velvet box out of his pocket and opened it for probably the millionth time since he'd brought it home from the jewelry store. The princess-cut diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds and perched on its platinum band sat nestled inside. He'd bought the ring a year ago. A year. And he still hadn't worked up the nerve to ask Sydney to marry him.
When he'd bought the ring, she'd only just kissed him that once, after Walker and Alex's wedding. He had been sitting just about where he was right now and they'd spent the evening following the news about Walker and Alex's plane to Paris. There had been an incident and Walker had been forced to take control of the plane. When they found out the plane had landed safely, Sydney had launched herself into his arms, kissing him - a full-on, on-the-lips kiss that had rocked his entire world upside-down and sideways. He had dreamed about that kiss from the moment he met her, and there it was, everything he'd ever imagined, yet still taking him completely by surprise. He was so shocked by it that he was embarrassed to admit he didn't follow up on it, and afterwards, Sydney acted like it never happened. Gage wasn't sure how to bring the subject up, though he absolutely wanted to. When he did finally get the nerve up to talk to her about it, the week after he bought the ring, she had kicked him square in the jaw. Kicked him. After that, he put the ring away for a while and nursed his hurt pride.
He bought the ring after they'd finished an undercover assignment posing as a married couple to help break up a ring of kidnappers stealing newborns from hospitals and selling them. Walker often had them pose as a couple undercover – they had such good chemistry together and could pull off the couple act so convincingly – but this assignment had been one of his favorites. Inside that fancy house, acting as if they were married right down to the wedding rings on their fingers, it had all seemed so effortless and Gage loved how it all looked and felt. He loved the feel of the wedding ring on his finger. It was a good feeling, a comfortable feeling that up until then he hadn't realized he had been longing for; longing for so much, in fact, that when the assignment ended he didn't take the ring off.
"Aren't you going to take that thing off?" Sydney asked.
"What thing?"
"That ring."
"Oh, I didn't even realize I still had it on."
They stopped at a red light and Gage lost himself in thought about their undercover mission; how the wedding band and engagement ring looked on Sydney's left hand, how she looked holding the newborn baby in her arms. So that's what it could feel like actually being married to her. His mind played through various scenarios: coming home from work to her, falling asleep next to her, waking up next to her, what happened in that bed besides falling asleep and waking up.
"Gage. Gage!" Sydney snapped her fingers in front of his face. "That light won't get any greener."
"Oh. I was just ah, just, ah…." Gage stepped on the gas as horns blew behind them.
"What is wrong with you?" Syd asked, sounding a little peeved. Wife Sydney was gone and she was Partner Sydney again.
"Umm, nothing. Nothing's wrong." Gage replied, feeling the heat of a blush creep up from under his collar.
A few days later, he stopped off at a jewelry store after work and this ring – the ring – caught his eye. It was so perfectly Sydney. He really wasn't sure why he bought it, they hadn't even been on a date; but after spending so much time with her, Gage knew she was the one he was meant to be with and that at some point he was going to marry her. He just had to find the perfect time to ask her.
Gage had thought of asking her when they went to Sage City for the Ranger baseball game. Some alone time away from work would be perfect, he thought, but he just had to go and ask her about that kiss and she kicked him for it. If that's how she reacted to talking about a kiss, he was downright petrified to find out what she'd do in response to a marriage proposal, so the ring went back home with him and got pushed to the back of his nightstand drawer.
He could have asked her after their undercover stint as bikers. That one almost ended badly. Their cover was blown and Sydney was nearly blown up in a meth lab. Gage still felt sick when he thought of it and how things could have ended. But there was that one moment while undercover that he had gotten to kiss her. It was a spur of the moment thing. He had just been made part of the Raptors and in celebration he, as Nail, grabbed Syd, as Ronnie, and kissed her and it was amazing. Afterwards, one thought kept running through his mind – 'I kissed Syd!' and he had to work hard to keep his composure and not blow their cover. Why he didn't ask her afterwards, he wasn't sure. Maybe it was the shock of having their cover blown or maybe it was the fear of telling her his feelings after she'd kicked him the first time he attempted to bring things up. Whatever it was, he didn't ask, and the ring stayed in the drawer.
He thought of asking her before his class reunion. He would have been thrilled to introduce her to everyone as his fiancée. He could just imagine the reaction from his classmates over that, walking in to the reunion with Syd on his arm, diamond on her finger, feeling like he had won the biggest prize of them all, and… Syd would have hated it. She would never have forgiven him, and he felt bad for even thinking of her like that - like a trophy - so the ring remained in its usual spot.
When he lost his hearing after coming up on a carjacking gone bad that night, Sydney was beside him every step of the way, even learning sign language and putting up with his frustration with not being able to hear or work. Her dedication just reinforced for Gage that Syd was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He should have asked her then, when he got his hearing back. She was there when he woke up from that surgery and her voice was the first sound he heard. Nothing in his life had ever sounded sweeter. He even thought she had said something about wishing he was there every night when she went to sleep, but he wasn't sure he hadn't dreamt that. She never brought it up again, and Syd really wouldn't have said that, would she? Still, that thought, along with those two earth-shattering kisses buoyed him and gave him hope that one day when he got up the nerve to ask her to marry him, she'd say yes.
Then Trivette and Erika got engaged and Alex had the baby and Gage could feel Sydney drifting off into that far away place she would go to when she started feeling bad. She went there when Alex and Walker got married. Her usual perky cheerfulness had been replaced with a sadness that lasted for days leading up to the wedding and lingered for days after. He tried to tell her how he felt that night at CD's when she was hurling darts at the dartboard so hard that he was sure she would put one through the wall, but she didn't figure out that his speech about some guy who would appreciate her was about him. She tried to hide the sadness from everyone, but he saw it. He saw it and he hated it. He knew why she felt that way – she felt like she was never going to be a wife or a mother. She never talked about it, but he knew those were two things she wanted most in life and more than anything he wanted to make them both happen for her. But so close after Trivette's engagement and Alex and Walker's baby? He didn't want her to feel like he was doing it for her out of pity.
Sydney had caught the bouquet again at Trivette and Erika's wedding. Well, not so much caught it as it landed in her lap. She was kneeling down to try to get Angela to walk to her – Walker and Alex's baby girl had just taken her first steps a few days before – when Erika tossed the bouquet. All the single women vying for it managed to bat it in Syd's direction and it landed square in her lap as she knelt alongside the dance floor. She wasn't happy about it.
"Hey Syd, caught another bouquet, huh?" Gage teased his petite partner as he came back to the table with their drinks.
"Shut it, Gage." Sydney dropped the bouquet on the table and sat down with a scowl on her face. "I swear I am a magnet for these things," she told Alex.
When it was time to toss the garter, Trivette held the garter up, waved it around a couple times, and instead of tossing it to the waiting crowd, he instead turned and walked over to Gage and handed it to him. Trivette clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't screw it up, man," was all he said.
"What did he do that for!?" Sydney nearly fell off her chair as Alex and Walker laughed at her reaction.
The DJ called for the lucky bachelor and bachelorette to come to the center of the floor, reminding the guests that Gage now had to put the garter on Sydney's leg and that for every inch above her knee he placed the garter, it meant a year of marital bliss for Erika and Trivette. As Gage walked toward the center of the floor, Trivette called out from the edge of the dance floor, "Give us a long, happy marriage, man!"
Sydney just sat there, stunned. Gage motioned for her to come out to the center of the floor with him. She shook her head no. He motioned again. Again she shook her head no. Gage started to walk toward her and finally Sydney stood up. The room burst into applause and she felt her face turning as dark pink as her satin bridesmaid's gown. As she settled herself on the chair that Erika had just been seated on, she issued a stern warning to Gage through clenched teeth, "You just watch how far north you head with that thing, Francis Gage. I'm not shy about kicking you in the face and you know it."
"Aw, come on, now, Syd. Don't you think Trivette and Erika deserve a long, happy marriage? It's the least we can do for our friends, now, isn't it?" Gage smiled and winked at her as he knelt on the floor in front of her.
"Damn it, Gage. That's not fair, making me feel guilty." Sydney lifted the hem of her dress to just above her ankles.
"Oh, come on, Syd," Gage looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and then broke into a smile, that boyish grin that Sydney could never resist. She lifted her skirt up above her knees.
"Now that's more like it." Gage winked at her again and slid the garter over her shoe and up to her knee. Slowly, he inched the garter up under her skirt until finally she squealed and pushed him away. The room burst into laughter and applause. Gage stood up, a huge smile on his face, then bent to wrap Sydney in a big bear hug. Sydney blushed, burying her face in Gage's broad chest.
"Was that so bad?" Gage asked her, planting a quick kiss on her forehead.
Sydney raised her head, her eyes meeting his ice-blue eyes, and suddenly the room seemed to spin. "It's a good thing Erika and Jimmy are two of my best friends," she teased, "Because I wouldn't have done that for just anyone. "
Gage released her from his embrace and Sydney was almost immediately sorry. Standing alone on the dance floor wasn't nearly as fun as being swept up in Gage's strong arms.
Later, on the way home, Sydney and Gage were both very quiet and lost in thought. Sydney fumed silently, frustrated over one more caught bouquet and being the lone single of her friends now. Gage, conscious of the small velvet box in his hip pocket, frantically tried to think of how to word the question he'd been dying to ask the beautiful, dark-haired woman sitting beside him in the passenger seat and debated if he even should.
When they pulled in front of Sydney's house, she reached for the door handle.
"Syd, wait, the door. I'll get it." Gage jumped out and rushed around the front of the car as Sydney struggled with the door from the inside. Gage opened the door of the orange Chevelle and caught Sydney as she tumbled out, spilling her caught bouquet on the sidewalk.
Sydney's annoyance was obvious as she scooped up the offending flowers and shrugged off Gage's assistance.
"I really wish you'd fix that damn door, Gage," she huffed as she pushed past him into her house, leaving Gage standing on the sidewalk, his hand wrapped around the small velvet box in his pocket.