Getting in the Way
"Oh Natalia!" Natalia's shoulders jumped a mile high as the slightly shrill voice rang through MDPD like a very rusty bell.
"Mom." Natalia chuckled helplessly. "Anya, Christine."
"Hey sis!" The two younger women chirped.
"Hey...guys...what're you doing here?" Natalia asked nervously, speaking through her teeth with her brows tilted upward.
"Oh don't tell me you're not glad to see us, honey! We're your family!" Natalia's mother, Arianne, said happily.
"Oh mom, of coarse I'm happy to see you." Natalia gritted, hugging her mother back awkwardly. "I'm just...so busy, with work."
"Well we're taking you out for shopping, a movie and dinner anyway!" Anya piped happily.
"Oh guys, I'm not, but what if I'd been on call tonight." Natalia asked, still trying to get out of it.
"Then we'd risk the kidnaping charges, no come ON!" Chirstine grunted, trying to budge the ever solid Natalia from her place.
"Christine..." Natalia warned. Her high heel clad feet were still placed firmly on the ground. Her legs were stiff and her arms were crossed, showing her discontentment with her sister trying to move her.
"You are coming with us and-why are you so strong?!" Christine asked desperately, leaning against her taller sister's back. After some deep breaths she waved her hand. "Okay, give me one more go."
"No!" Natalia barked, turning to her sister.
"Oh!" Christine, after pushing her sister with all her might, fell over when she turned, hitting the floor quickly.
"Oh, sorry." Natalia said unenthusiastically, eyes half closed.
"Hey, there." Christine looked up to find a brown haired man's handsome face near hers. He had gorgeous hazel eyes and was probably only a few years older than her. He offered her a hand and helped her up kindly as she dusted her self off. "You're Natalia's sister Christine?"
"Hi, nice to meet you! I am Christine, and that's Anya, and I guess you know Tali." Christine flashed her pearly whites-thanks to show biz-and shook his hand, batting her eyelashes. "And that's our mom."
"Nice to meet you , Natalia's told me a lot about you, and I believe I know you." Ryan smiled, remembering Natalia hugging her little sister and how caring and sweet she really was.
"Hi, Tali talks about you a lot." Anya giggled.
"Ani!" Natalia hissed.
"Sorry." She said flatly, just like when they were teenagers.
"It's great to meet you Mr. Wolfe, my Talia does talk about you a lot." Arianne smiled. She and Natalia looked the closest; same dark auburn hair with a gold shine, same tan skin, same burnt-honey eyes.
"Oh, that's nice to know." Ryan stole a glance at the woman to see her look at the floor embarrassedly, biting her lip.
"Oh! I know! Why don't you join us for our little outing tonight?!"
Ryan couldn't stop his eyes from drifting to the irritated woman in the driver's seat, holding the wheel like she was strangling Stettler. Granted she was incredibly attractive angry. "I didn't have to come if-"
"Oh, no Ryan, I'm sorry. It's not that I didn't want you to come, it's just that-"
"Why do we have to sit in the back?!" Christine asked loudly.
"I told you Chrisy, only MDPD can drive the hummers." Natalia said to Christine's face in the rearview mirror like a mother would her child when they asked "Are we there yet?", for the millionth time.
"Then why can't Mr. Wolfe drive, and then I could sit in the front with him?" She asked excitedly.
Natalia grinded her teeth again and tried not to snap at her dear little sister. She tried to calm herself, though the bubbling heat in her blood refused to subside. She knew what was going on. She didn't need to be ignorant and chop it up to high blood pressure. She was...jealous. However!! The last thing she was going to her family was THAT. "Look, even if Ryan were driving, I would be sitting shot gun, and we're almost there. It's less than, like, two blocks."
"Fine." She huffed childishly.
The hummer went morbidly silent as Natalia's internal inferno began to settle and Christine stopped making faces at her in the mirror. Anya began to tremble and twitch from the tense atmosphere, not used to such conflict coming from her sweet sister.
"Hey!!" She shouted, startling everyone. She began to speak in her sweeter, more quiet voice. "Who wants to sing a car song?"
"Oh! I do!" Arianne piped.
"Oh no." Natalia groaned, rolling her eyes for a split second.
"THEEEEEEEE wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round, 'round and 'round, 'round and 'round. The wheels on the bus go-"
"Squirrel!!" Christine shrieked. Natalia hit the breaks as gently as possible in their situation, which was still pretty hard, and looked to see if there was anything on the road, then to see if everyone was okay. "Oopsie, my bad, this is why I should be up from with Mr. Wolfe."
"Chrisie!" All three woman snapped.
"And, by the way, there are no squirrels living in Miami!" Natalia shouted back. She shook her head and kept going, ignoring the shouts from the testosterone filled trucks behind her. She smoothed her tousled her hair and parked in the mall parking lot. She looked at Ryan, who blinked then tucked another stray hair behind her air. He smiled at her sweetly as she held her breath, heat coming to her cheeks.
"Come on Mr. Wolfe, let's go!!" Christine chirped, dragging him out of his side before he'd even unbuckled his seatbelt.
Natalia sighed heavily and sat still. "I wonder if they'd even notice if I just stayed in here." The idea was tempting, but... "Let's go die..."
"How about this?" Christine asked Ryan happily, coming out with another color of the same dress she'd tried on already...six times.
"It's fine." He said weakly. "Where's Natalia?"
"Oh she said she wanted to see if some book she wanted was in." Christine answered absently. "What about the blue one?"
"I'll be right back." Ryan rushed, flying out of the store in a flash.
"Let's see..." Natalia murmured to herself as she scanned the shelves for the book she'd been looking for.
"Can I help you?" A man's voice asked.
"Oh, thanks I-" She turned to see a smiling Ryan leaning against the bookshelves. "Ryan. I'm actually looking for this novel called Interference. It was supposed to be out, but I can't find it."
"Well, maybe I can-oh!" The bookshelf creaked and gave way under his weight. It fell over backwards, hitting every other behind it, creating a large, expensive, government owned, row of dominoes. "Oh. I can pay for that..."
"Where were you two?" Arianne asked, sipping her coffee.
"The bookstore." Natalia answered plainly, her eyes still a little wider than normal from the whole incident.
"I, uh, racked up a little debt." Ryan muttered.
"Oh, you didn't buy her that dumb book, did you?" Christine asked disgustedly, as if it were the worst thing imaginable.
"No, I um, tipped over a few book shelves and now I have to pay for the replacements, and a Canadian tourist's banana nut muffin." Ryan admitted bashfully. "Natalia actually offered to help pay for the damages but I told her not to worry about it."
"Well aren't you sweet. He's a keeper sweetheart." Arianne smiled, sipping her coffee again.
"I know, right?" Said Christine.
"I wasn't talking to you, dear." Her mother dead panned.
"Oh...hey! Let's go see that movie!"
"Here you go, Ani." Natalia said sweetly, sounding an awful lot like Calleigh, and handing the young woman her popcorn.
"Thanks, Talia." She smiled back, popping some in her mouth.
"And here are your nachos, Chrisy, and your coffee crisp, mom." Natalia said, handing each person their treat in turn. "Are you sure you don't want anything, Ryan?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. If I want anything I can just get it from the vending machine. What about you?" He asked.
"I don't like popcorn, too salty for me, and I just get from the vending machines too." She smiled as they went for their tickets.
"Five, for...oh. We never did decide, did we?" Arianne blinked, just realizing it.
"Pink Panther 2!"
"That's a kids movie! We should see a romantic drama!"
"I want to see one with a cute guy in it."
"Mom...what do you want to see, Ryan?" Asked Natalia.
"I guess, any of them would be fine, and I'm kind of in the mood for a comedy myself." He mumbled. "Five for Pink Panther 2, please."
"Hey, I like you." Ani stated. "You and I are gonna be great buds."
"I think so too." Ryan felt the warm fuzzy feeling in his chest, getting along so well with Natalia's family, especially Anya.
"Thank you, sir, enjoy the show." The acne ridden teen nodded.
"Oh, Ryan, you didn't have to pay for all of us." Natalia's brows tilted upward as she absent mindedly placed a hand on his arm.
"It's fine, and besides, how could I say no to this kid." Ryan asked brightly, giving Anya a noogie. Natalia chuckled warmly. "Natalia, I-"
"Hey...dude." Ryan looked at the boy. "Could I get their numbers? They're hotties!"
"Hey, back off, kid. She's with me." He said proudly, wrapping his arm around Natalia's waist, effectively surprising her.
"What about the blonde?" The boy whispered.
"I dunno." Ryan shrugged smugly, walking away with a rather stunned Natalia. He simply smiled as she was blushing profusely.
The theater was packed and it was hard finding five seats. Christine said that she and Ryan should've gone to the front, though everyone else was against it. In the end they finally found five seats.
"Chrisy, out of my way!" Natalia hissed.
"He's closer to my age!" Christine hissed back.
"He doesn't even like you!" Natalia persisted childishly. She and Christine wrestled for the seat next to Ryan, pulling hair, trying to jump over one another, shmucking the other right in the face.
"Hey Ryan, mind if I sit here?" Anya asked in her perky way.
"Not at all, kiddo." Ryan chuckled.
Natalia and Christine glared at each other. "We need to talk."
"Come on Tali, I know you like Ryan, but I...he...he's really cute." Christine whined.
"Come on Christine, you're not a kid anymore. You may have gone all Hollywood but that does not mean you get to act like a spoiled child. Now I would just step out of your way, because you're my sister, and I love you, but you insist on being difficult about it." Natalia said in her cop interrogation mode.
"Fine, but he's so...my type! And I love his hair." Christine said in a ditzy way, earning an eyebrow raise from her sister. "Tali..."
"Christine, how is he your type?" Natalia asked outrageously.
"I dunno, he just is." She shrugged.
"You know he's a scientist, like me, right?" She asked flatly.
"Which I don't get, 'cause you guys do not look like scientists to me." Christine huffed, clearly in a stereotypical frame of mind.
"Well we are, we're also cops, and if you like him fine, but don't throw yourself all over him!" Natalia blurted.
"Natalia, I'm sorry. I am, but I like Ryan, I-"
"Well I love him." Natalia rebutted.
"Fine. He's yours." The blond sighed.
"Really? And you're okay with that?" Natalia asked, surprised.
"Really. He likes you anyway." Christine smiled.
"I love you sis, it's just...get in the way much, geez." She groaned.
"I really had fun with your family." Ryan smiled.
"Yeah, we love each other." She smiled back.
"Tell Christine no hard feelings but, I like her sister." He winked.
"I'll tell her." Natalia blushed as Ryan pecked her lips nervously.
"Tali...who's that guy standing on your porch with a shot gun?"
"Dad?!"
"You keep your hands off my little Tali, Ryan Wolfe!"