"I Told You So"
This story is inspired by Keith Urban's newest song, "I Told You So." I don't own the song, that belongs to Keith. And I am sure you know who owns the characters mentioned in the story by now, but, just to give you a hint, it isn't me… unfortunate, huh? Anyway, for those of you who have read some of my previous stories over at the regular CSI forum, you will know I tend to get inspiration at random times of the night, and tonight is no different… I am starting this story at 10 til midnight… so we will see how this ends up. No beta for this, so all mistakes are mine, per usual. Anything in italics is a flashback. Some spoilers for season 3. Comment please… I appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Happy reading!
Ten months. It had been ten months since his release from the hospital. Ten months since he had finally gotten the courage to kiss her and ask her out. Ten months since she had returned the kiss, in earnest, and agreed to a date. Ten of the most amazing months of his life. Ten months of conspicuous dates. Ten months of conspicuous glances and touches at work so as not to raise anyone's suspicions. Ten months of laying in each other's arms after work or on their days off. Ten months. That is how long Don Flack had been with the woman of his dreams. He was falling more and more in love with her as the days went on… hell, he had been falling in love with her since the first day he met her. Things had been going so well. Or, so he had thought… that is until she came to his apartment one night with tears in her eyes.
Flack had just settled down to watch his Knicks open a can of whoop ass on the hated Lakers when he heard a soft knock on the door. 'That's strange,' he thought… couldn't be the pizza guy seeing as how he had already chowed down on half of his pepperoni pizza from the new place down the street. He got up and looked through the peephole to see Stella Bonasera standing outside of his door. 'That's even stranger' he thought. He couldn't remember the last time she had knocked in order to gain entry into his place, she had been using the key he had given her for the past ten months.
"Hi there, gorgeous, what are you doing here, I thought you were on shift for a few more hours, not that I mind of course," he said as he opened the door to let her in. She walked straight past him and kept her back toward him as he closed the door. He walked around her so she was facing him and, as he leaned in to kiss her, she pulled away from him embrace. It was then that he noticed she had tears in her eyes. "Hey, what's wrong? Did something happen at work? Do I need to go kick someone's ass for making my girl cry?"
Stella had to resist the urge to smile. 'Damn him,' she thought. He could always get a smile from her, even when she was in the foulest of moods. But now was no time to smile. She had a purpose for coming here… she had to do it. There was no backing out. As much as she loved him, she knew it wasn't fair to him to be in a relationship with her, not right now, not with the question of HIV looming in her mind. No, he deserved someone else, someone who was healthy. Of course, she wasn't going to tell HIM that.
"No, nothing like that, Don," she replied. "I think we need to talk, can we go sit down in the living room?"
'Shit, that's not good,' his mind screamed. "Umm, sure," is what came out of his mouth instead.
As they settled down on his leather couch, she sat as far away from him as humanly possible.
"OK Stel, what's going on? You're kind of scaring me a bit, gorgeous," Don said, as he reached over to gently cup her face.
"Please don't," she said, averting her eyes from his gaze. "Please don't make this any harder than it needs to be."
"Don't make what any harder?"
"Me breaking up with you," she said.
"What?!?"
"I am here to break up with you, Don."
"I may not be a super-smart CSI like you Whatever it is, we can get through it. or Mac, but I have gathered that. What I don't know is why. Why are you breaking up with me, Stel? We have a good thing going here."
"We did. We DID have a good thing going, Don. But it's time to be realistic here. I am more than ten years older than you, Don. It's only a matter of time before your eye starts to wander toward one or two of the prettier, younger girls here in the city. Hell, I wouldn't blame you, there are too many gorgeous women in this city for you not to look," she said.
"Why would I even want to look at those women when I have a girlfriend who is more gorgeous than all of those girls combined," he started to reply, before she quickly interrupted him.
"Please just let me finish. I may be pretty now, but what about five years from now? How can you promise me that your eyes and, more importantly your heart and libido, won't wander then? Don, I care about you, so much, I just think that you would be better off dating someone your own age." She stood up and started walking toward the door.
"You can't be serious here, Stella. I love you, I have told you that numerous times. I am not going to stop loving you just because some gorgeous 20-something crosses my path five years from now. Please, don't do this, I want to be with you, and only you," he said as he stood up to go to her.
As he approached, she could see the tears in his eyes. It was almost enough to make her reconsider her decision. Almost. 'No, this is for his own good, he will see that eventually,' she thought.
"No, Don. Please don't make promises you can't keep. This is for the better, for both of us."
And with that, she opened the door and walked out his apartment. She took off in a quick run so he wouldn't try to talk her out of it. She never saw him fall to the floor, sobbing silently. She never returned one of the fifty calls he made to her that night. And she tried to not think of how she had just ended a relationship with the man she considered her soul mate, the love of her life. A man who had been so kind to her in the aftermath of the Frankie fiasco. A man whose hand she had held as he lay in a coma after the bomb. A man who, when he kissed her, she found herself falling for more and more each day, the man who completed her. No, she tried not to think of those things, in fear of running back to him and telling him she didn't mean it. 'This is for his own good.'
Four months later she was assigned to work yet another case with him. Ever since they had broken up they had been assigned to work together numerous times… they worked well together. And things had seemed to be getting back to normal. Until today. Today he was short and abrupt with her. As the case drew to a close, he became more and more tense, leading her to wonder what the hell had crawled up his ass this morning. After they had wrapped up the case, she ran into him grabbing coffee in the lab break room.
"OK Flack, what the hell has your panties in a bunch today," she asked him after she had made sure they were alone.
"What does it matter to you, Bonasera? I am none of your concern any more, remember?" he replied curtly.
"It matters because you have been an ass all day, and we have to work together. So I am going to ask you again: what the hell is the matter with you?"
"You want to know what's wrong? What's wrong is that I had to hear something of extreme importance from one of my officers who happens to be dating one of your lab techs. What's wrong is that I had to hear that you, my ex-girlfriend, just tested negative for HIV. And while I am thrilled that you are healthy, I am a little pissed that I had to hear about it through the gossip mill. Now if you will excuse me, I have a report to file back at P.D. and then I am going home to try and get rid of this headache I have had building all day," he said as he opened the door and made a beeline toward the elevator.
Danny cautiously entered the break room, having heard the angry shouts of his two hot-tempered friends.
"Can you believe him," Stella asked incredulously.
"Umm, yeah, I kind of can," Danny responded.
"What? Why?"
"Because I know I would act the same way if my ex-girlfriend had just been tested for HIV without telling me."
"We didn't have sex after that, you know? He has nothing to worry about."
"No, but it still sucks to find out that the woman you love was going through that and thought it was easier to break your heart than to tell you the truth."
"What the hell did he tell you?"
"He didn't tell me anything, Bonasera. Linds and I figured out you two were dating about three months into your relationship."
"How?"
"It wasn't difficult. I am an investigator, after all. Plus, Don is one of my best friends. I have known about the guy's crush on you from day one."
"Day one?"
"Yeah, the first case the three of us all worked together, the first case you worked with him. He made some smart ass comment as usual, and you came right back with an equally smart ass response. I could see it on his face at that moment, the guy was hooked. And the more you worked together the more he fell for you. Seeing you with Frankie just about killed him. And then when he was in the hospital, I finally began to realize the feelings were mutual. I began to suspect things a few weeks after he was released from the hospital; both of your demeanors had changed. You were both happier than I had seen either of you in a while. And it finally dawned on me why: the bonehead had finally asked you out, and I was guessing you had agreed. I was happy for you two, but didn't say anything because you obviously wanted to keep things on the down low, so I respected that. Then, one night, about four months ago, he shows up at my door. It was obvious that he was beyond drunk and had been crying all night, not a good combination. So I got him calmed down a bit and all he kept saying was that it was over, his life was over. Do you know what it's like to see one of the strongest men you know, one you consider a brother, that broken. I knew then that you had broken up with him, although I didn't understand why. He woke up the next day, apologized for the way he had behaved, and went home to shower. Then, last week, that guy Valens from Philly shows up, and I hear about the whole HIV thing, and, suddenly, everything clicks. You broke up with him because you didn't want him finding out? You thought you were protecting him. But, the reality is, Stella, that the man wouldn't have cared. He would have stayed beside you through all of it."
"Why," she asked quietly.
"Because love makes you do crazy things. Hell, I flitted off to Montana to make sure Lindsay was okay, and, let's face it, I would go to the ends of the earth to ensure she is happy. Flack would do the same for you, if not more, because he has been in love with you for so long."
"I never knew."
"What, that he loved you?"
"He always said he did, but I thought that it was just like every other relationship where he just said it because it was expected."
"I thought you were a good investigator, it doesn't take rocket science to figure out the guy is head over heels for you…"
"Oh God, Danny. What have I done?"
"Nothing that can't be fixed. Yes, he is mad as hell, but this can be remedied, just go talk to the guy. NOW."
She stood up and opened the door. Just as she was about to leave, she turned back to Danny.
"Thank you, Danny."
"Forget about it, just go to him, Stella."
After arriving at home, Flack took a long, hot shower to try and ease his headache. As the water cascaded down his body, he felt the tears start to roll down his cheeks. Soon, he was sobbing much as he had four months before. As his tears subsided, he turned off the shower and got dressed. Just as he was about to settle down with his first beer of the night, he heard a soft knock on the door. When he saw who it was, he groaned. 'Great, just what I need. Another fight with her.'
"What do you want, Stella," he asked as he let her in.
"I wanted to talk to you," she replied. It was then that she noticed his red eyes. She reached out to touch his face and quickly withdrew her hand when he turned away.
"About? Is this gonna take long? I have plans to spend time with my good friends Jack and Jose," he said, indicating the bottle in his hand.
"Us, Don. Look, I know you are angry, and you have every right to be, but just hear me out, okay?"
"Fine."
"I am so sorry for ending things the way I did a few months ago. I just… wanted to protect you and make sure you were happy."
"I was happy, Stella, with you."
"I know you were, and I was happy, too. But then I cut myself at the Gable crime scene. When I found out he was HIV positive, I freaked out. I thought about it for two days and decided that the best course of action was to break up with you. There was a very distinct possibility that I had HIV and I didn't to put that on you. I didn't want you to have to make the decision about whether to stay with me out of pity or break up with me. I figured it was easier for me to end it then. I broke up with you so you wouldn't have to make that decision."
"So you made it for me?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"I would have stayed with you, you know? Not out of pity, though. God dammit Stella, I was, and still am, in love with you. Did you really think that I would break it off with you so easily? Do you think that little of me?"
"No, of course not. But people have broken up over more trivial things than that."
"Then they weren't in love! I know you think you were trying to protect me, but you broke my heart that night Stella. That was the worst night of my life, watching you walk out that door."
"And I am so sorry I put you through that. Can we try and work through this? Please? I am so sorry… if I could take back that night four months ago, I would. But, I can't. So I am here now, just asking you to forgive me."
He was silent for a few moments. "Don't say you're sorry."
"What?"
"If you don't say you're sorry, I won't say that I told you so. All I want is for you to tell me that you love me, and mean it."
"I do love you, Don, with all of my heart."
"Do you mean it," he asked, and she nodded. "Good, because I would feel pretty stupid asking you to marry me if you didn't." With that, he reached over and picked up a small, blue Tiffany's box off the table. "I got this ring about three months before you broke up with me. I was planning on proposing to you on our one year anniversary. I had this whole spiel about how I knew it was really soon, but how I didn't care, because I had known from the first time I met you that I had wanted to spend the rest of my life with you…"
"Oh my God, Don. I am so sorry…"
"I thought I told you not to apologize? Let me finish talking, woman. Anyway. The night you broke up with me devastated me. I didn't fight you on your decision, though, because I wanted you to be happy. I figured I was somehow not making you happy. But I never stopped loving you. I still love you, more than anything." With that, he got down on his knee and opened the box. "Which is why, after everything that has happened, I am still here on my knee. Since you apologized, I get to say it: I told you so. We can, and we WILL get through anything that comes our way. Stella Bonasera, will you marry me?"
"Yes, Don. Of course I will," she replied as he slipped the ring on her finger. "And don't worry, this is the one time I don't mind being proven wrong. We are better together than apart. I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to realize that we are better together, for better or for worse."
Ok, well, what do you think? Sorry the ending is kind of lame. It is two am and I have to be up in four and a half hours for work, so my muse went to bed. Again, I like reviews. This is my first CSI: NY fanfic as I have just started watching the show a few weeks ago. Oh, and here is the song itself:
You said you needed your space
I wasn't where you wanted to be
I didn't stand in your way
I only want you to be happy
And so how surprised am I to see you here tonight
CHORUS:
Oh can't you see
That for worse or for better we're better together
Please just come back home
No don't say that you're sorry
And I won't say I told you so
Sometimes in our life
We get to where we wonder if
The long road that we're on
Is headin' in the same direction
Well when it comes to you and me
We're right where I know we should be
CHORUS:
Oh can't you see
That for worse or for better we're better together
Please just come back home
No don't say that you're sorry
And I won't say I told you so
Somtimes it's like we're deep in nothing but love
The slightest thing can grow so foolishly
Remind me please
Oh can't you see
That for worse or for better we're better together
Please just come back home
No don't say that you're sorry
You don't gotta say you're sorry baby
Oh can't you see
That for worse or for better we're better together
Please just come back home
No don't say that you're sorry
And I won't say I told you so
And I won't say I told you so
But I told you so
Shoulda known better than to leave me baby
Shoulda known better than to leave me darlin'