Those Nights
Summary: We'd stay up late and we'd talk all night, in the dark room lit by the TV light, through all the hard times in my life, those nights kept me alive. -skillet.
A/N: So I watched the Marsan clips from 'Let The Games Begin' and then turned on Skillet and this just kind of poured out.
Dedication: My Beef-ef Rachel. and to B. Nugent cause a few mo.s ago she said something about loving this ep and I just now wrote a post-ep for it so I hope she reads it!
Disclaimer: Not freakin' mine, zoom in on my eternally empty wallet!
"You look good." Mark said as he looked at the photostrip.
"Yeah, well you go from bad, to bad, to worse. Although, the last one is slightly acceptable." Susan teased him, sipping her beer.
"You're mean." Mark laughed, "How is my chic face worse!?"
"You look like someone has stretched your face." Susan laughed, putting her drink down on a picnic table and pulling her sweater on.
"So, how do we seperate these things?" Mark asked, holding the photostrips up to the light.
"Here." Susan rolled her eyes and took the photos from him, bending it back and forth on the perforated edges. She then carefully, with a doctor's steady hand, tore them apart. She handed one strip to Mark and tucked the other safely into her purse.
"So where to now?" Mark asked, sliding the photostrip carefully into his bag.
"I have no idea." Susan laughed.
"Why don't we get a pizza and head back to my place." Mark suggested, "I recorded last weekends X-files and I still haven't watched it."
"Sure. I'll spoil the plot for you, four seconds before anything big happens." Susan laughed.
"I wouldn't expect anything less." Mark said, placing his arm around her shoulder and leading her out of the crowds that gathered on the pier, "Did you drive?"
"No." Susan shook her head.
"Well, my bike is sitting at the hospital with a flat." Mark sighed, "Do you want to walk or hail a cab?"
"Walk to the pizza place?" Susan suggested, "Take a cab from there?"
"Works for me." Mark nodded. They walked along in silence for awhile, Mark's arm around her shoulder and Susan leaning against him slightly.
"So," Susan tried to make small talk, "How's Rach?"
"She's fine." Mark smiled, "I talked to her this morning before work."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Susan asked, she loved hearing about Rachel's life.
"Like I was going to miss a prime opportunity to tease you about Tad." Mark chuckled and Susan brought her foot up and tapped his in the butt, "Hey!"
"Don't 'Hey' me!" Susan warned him, "If I have to hear about Tad one more time.. I'll.. I'll find away to get you and Doug in trouble with Weaver."
"I'm shaking in my Nikes." Mark rolled his eyes.
"Shut up." Susan glared up at him, "I'd come up with a better retort if my shoes weren't pinching a nerve that is apparently in direct correlation with my brain."
"You're the genius who wore the heels on a date.. to the pier." Mark glanced down at her feet.
"Yeah, you try being about six inches shorter than any normal guy." Susan rolled her eyes again.
"Take them off." Mark told her.
"And walk barefoot in the streets of Chicago?" Susan raised an eyebrow.
"Come on, we're like four blocks from the pizza parlor. Take them off and I'll give you a piggyback ride." Mark explained.
"Mark, you don't have-"
"Susan, just do it." Mark told her.
"Fine." Susan slid off her shoes, hooking them over two fingers, Mark bent slightly. Susan wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped, he caught her knees and pulled her up.
"You ok?" Mark asked, trying not to be preoccupied with Susan's legs in his hands.
"I'm fine." Susan said, her grip loosening around his neck and she rested her forehead against his shoulder, "You're really, really bald." Susan laughed, her breath warm against his neck.
"Yeah." Mark shifted her weight, "Keep teasing me about my lack of hair and you'll work traumas with Kerri for a month."
"Meanie." Susan pouted.
--
"I'll get the plates." Susan said as Mark flicked on the lights, pizza box in one hand.
"Sure." Mark said, walking into the living room and sitting the pizza on his coffee table, "I'm gonna change really quick."
"Okay." Susan said, letting herself into the cupboards for plates and Mark's refrigerator for more beer. She had been here so many times, she knew his apartment nearly better than her own.
"Susan?" Mark called out from behind his closed door, "You want something to change into?"
"Yes please." Susan called back, she wanted nothing more than to get lost in a pair of Mark's sweats, eat pizza and watch X-files with her best friend.
"Two seconds." Mark said and a few moments later, he came out in a pair of blue plaid pajama pants and a Bears tee-shirt, "Here." He handed her a stack of clothing.
"Thanks." Susan smiled, "Stuff is on the coffee table."
"Okay." Mark replied as she disappeared into the bathroom.
She slid off her shoes before anything else, the cabbie had demanded she put them on before she rode in his taxi. She then washed her face and pulled her short blond hair into a ponytail with the hair tie she had found in her purse. Susan looked at the clothes Mark had handed her, a pair of black sweats and a Cubs tee. She smiled. When she pulled on the sweat pants they almost immediately fell back off, so she tightened the draw string as much as she could, then rolled them down a bit. The tee-shirt went half way down her thigh and the short sleeves were past her elbows. Coming out of the bathroom, she hollered at Mark, "Okay if I grab a pair of socks?"
"Go for it." Mark called back.
"Thanks." Susan told him, she grabbed a pair of socks from his dressor and slid them on, coming back out to the living room and collapsing next to him on the couch.
"Comfortable?" Mark asked, putting a piece of pizza on her plate and handing it to her.
"Very." Susan smiled, "So, ready for some Mulder and Scully amazingness?" Susan laughed, they had gotten addicted to the show when Mark had come over to help her take care of a collicky Little Susie.
"Absolutely." Mark clicked on the TV and hit play.
"Beware, you may cry." Susan warned him.
"I do not cry." Mark told her as the creepy theme music played.
"Bull." Susan told him, "Need I remind you, Doug talks."
"Doug is going down." Mark said in a deep voice.
"Your threats are idle." Susan laughed, "You couldn't hurt a fly Mark Greene."
"You know me too well." Mark sighed, grabbing another slice of pizza and tossing the crust in the box.
"Yeah, well." Susan shrugged, giggling.
"Keep teasing." Mark grinned, "I'll just wait til you're almost asleep and slowly-" He reached over and ran a finger up her foot and Susan's leg straightened, kicking him in the chest, "OW!"
"That's why you do NOT tickle me." Susan rolled her eyes, taking her foot back.
"I'm sorry." Mark held his side.
"Didn't you learn after I almost broke your nose." Susan asked.
"I'm a guy. We have a slow learning curve."
"I've noticed." Susan grinned and Mark chucked a piece of peperroni at her, "MARK!" She screeched.
"You mocked me. No, no, you mocked MAN!" Mark said and tossed another piece at her.
"I hate you." Susan shoved him back on the couch, pinning his hands with one of hers, she traced her nails over his sides.
"Susan! Not fair!" Mark said as his chest shook with laughter.
"Not fair!? You wasted good peperroni and for that you must pay!" Susan grabbed her beer and shook it up, spraying him with it.
"You did not just do that!" Mark exclaimed.
"I think I did." Susan laughed as she looked at Mark's beer drenched face.
"Oh yeah?" Mark grabbed her beer and brought it to his lips, taking a drink, "No more for you."
"C'mon, that's not fair." Susan pouted.
"I think we need to grow up." Mark laughed handing the drink back to her.
"Probably, but where's the fun in that?" Susan asked, realizing she was still in his lap, "I'm tired."
"Yeah? Wanna crash here?" Mark asked and Susan nodded, "Okay." He muted the TV and looked at her, "Mind if we share the couch?"
"Nope." Susan shrugged, it wasn't an unusual occurence and had happened on a few occasions in their friendship.
Mark lay down on the couch, taking the inside and Susan lay down on her side next to him. Mark's arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her close, Susan's hand resting on his and pulling the afghan over them. Mark tried to pay attention to the show, but his eyes kept drifting back to Susan. She looked beautiful in the dim light as her eyes fluttered, closing fully and she snuggled against him as she drifted off. Mark tucked a blond lock behind her ear and kissed her temple, "Sleep Well Susan."
"Night Mark." She murmered in her sleep.
A/N: Is sharing a couch too OOC? you tell me. Cause I think sharing a couch is fine. :] LOL. Anyways, I am workin' on an update for Wild At Heart and I have a one shot underway. This just sort of spilled out tonight.. well.. this morning. :]