Part One
It was Thanksgiving and the whole team were getting together for dinner at Sheldon's apartment. He had recently moved in with his girlfriend and college friend Camille and they were all looking forward to spending some time together out of work.
Jo was just out of the shower when she heard her phone ringing. She sat down on the bed and smiled as she saw Mac's caller id flash up on the screen.
"Hello." Jo said happily.
"Hi, it's me, just wondered whether you wanted a ride to Sheldon's, save you driving or wasting money on a cab?" Mac asked her. He was already dressed and ready to go, so thought he'd call Jo and see if she needed a ride.
"Umm yeah that'd be great, what time were you thinking about because I'm only just out of the shower, Ellie isn't very well so I've packed her off to my Mom's in DC." Jo said trying to towel dry her hair.
"Well I'm already so I could just come over and wait for you?" Mac asked her, he had no idea why he was so desperate to see her, he'd literally only said goodbye to her at work a few hours ago!
"Yeah ok, door is unlocked if you wanna just come in?" Jo said grabbing her dress out of the closet; this was going to have to be the quickest change in history!
"How many times have I told you not to leave your front door unlocked, didn't your neighbour get robbed only last week?" Mac told her, he wished she was more worried about her own safety, let alone Ellie's.
"Yes…but that turned out to be her crazy Grandson who just wanted to steal her jewellery for drug money, I don't think he'll be coming round here anytime soon." Jo chuckled.
"Well ok… I will see you in about twenty minutes." Mac said.
"Ok, bye." Jo said putting her phone back on the bed and running into her bathroom to dry her hair. Once it was all dry and straight she slipped her dress on with ease, and then sat down at her dressing table to do her makeup.
Mac was now on his way to Jo's and he found himself humming along to the radio! He stopped and thought to himself when was the last time he'd done that, just let himself go and hummed to the radio? He knew that his feelings for Jo were changing every day, especially when she was in a flirty mood, which by Jo's standards was quite a lot. When she had first started flirting with him, he'd been a bit uncomfortable but strangely flattered, then as he got to know her more he realised she did that with everyone, it was just part of her irresistible southern charm, but gradually as the weeks went on, her flirting with him stepped up a gear and he would find himself staring at her when she wasn't looking or their hands would instantaneously reach out to touch each other without them knowing it, like when they'd walk past each other he would always end up walking a bit closer to her so he could run his hand across her lower back or she would touch his shoulder, whatever they were doing it was becoming quite confusing as to where their feelings lay, but all Mac knew was that it must mean something if his heartbeat increased in his chest every time he saw her.
Jo had finished getting ready and was now in the kitchen getting a glass of water before Mac arrived. She had no idea why she was nervous, it was only Mac for goodness sake, her good friend and boss Mac. Except lately he was all she thought about, when she'd first started working at the lab she loved how easy he was to wind up and how uncomfortable he got with her flirting, but as the weeks went by he responded to the flirting with his own, and gradually they got to where they were now, unexplainable touching! The other day he walked past her as she was talking to one of Don's officers and he ran his hand over her lower back. He'd apologised as if he'd just walked into her, but out the corner of her eye she'd seen him approaching and moving over so he was lined up with her body so he would clearly walk straight into her. The way her whole body tingled as he touched her was unbelievable, and trying to hide how much she enjoyed it was even harder! Just thinking about it was getting her hot again, so she grabbed a glass and went to turn the tap on when suddenly water flew out everywhere, spraying all over her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She put her hands over the tap but it just sprayed over her even more, and she now couldn't see from all the water in her face, all she could do was scream and hope someone would hear her!
Mac had just stepped out of the elevator when he heard screaming; he ran up to Jo's front door and was horrified to hear it was coming from her. He withdrew his gun and burst through the door, expecting to be met by an intruder, but was shocked to see a very soaking wet Jo struggling to stop the water that was bursting out of the tap. He ran over to her to help her.
"Oh my god, Mac, I can't stop it!" Jo said trying to stop coughing.
"Have you got a wrench?" Mac shouted to her over the water.
"Yeah under the sink would you believe?" Jo said grabbing a towel and plugging it over the tap.
Mac found the wrench and managed to stop the water flow from the pipe under the sink.
"There, are you ok?" Mac asked her standing back up.
"Ummm yeah I think so, oh my god Mac thank you, I don't know what happened, one minute I was trying to get a glass of water the next I am paddling down Niagara Falls!" Jo chuckled
"Oh lord look at me, I'm soaked!" Jo said looking down at her very wet dress; god knows what her hair would look like, oh and her face!" Jo thought, worried what Mac would think.
"You look fine, in fact I think I like you wet!" Mac chuckled, hoping if he made a joke out of it, it would hide how he thought she looked amazing wet, and that all that water and only sufficed to make her dress cling to her body in all the right places!
"Ha Ha very funny!" Jo said hitting him with the towel; she was interrupted with someone knocking on her door.
She padded out of the kitchen and went to open the door and was met by the building's janitor.
"Ms Danville? Have you had a problem with your water?" the old man asked her.
"Well how did you guess!" Jo asked looking down at her wet self.
"Sorry, well I am afraid you're going to have to leave your apartment, the guy above you left his bath running and you could be at risk of it….." he went to say but was cut short by the bathtub itself crashing through into her apartment and into her living room.
"Ahhhhhh!" Jo screamed, in fear and frustration.
"I'm sorry Ma'am I should have come a bit sooner, the fact he left his water running, meant that yours got backed up and then caused the burst pipe. I'm afraid you're going to have to leave your apartment for a few days." The janitor said.
"Errr you think?" Jo said getting more frustrated.
"Do you have somewhere you can stay?" the janitor asked her.
"Yeah she can stay with me." Mac said stepping forward and offering his jacket to a now shivering Jo.
"Oh Mac I can't stay with you, I don't want to be a nuisance, I'll just check into a hotel." Jo said thankful for Mac's generosity as she was now rather cold.
"What on Thanksgiving, I don't think so Jo, they'll all be full, go grab a bag of stuff, you can stay at mine…I'm not arguing about it, go on." Mac said turning her towards her bedroom.
"Ok…thank you, oh my god Mac the party, we're going to be really late!" Jo said getting worried.
"Don't worry about it; I'll call Sheldon now and say we're gunna be a bit late." Mac said picking his phone out of his pocket.
Half an hour later Jo was changed into another dress, and had dried her hair and re-applied her makeup. She was in Mac's SUV, and they were headed towards his apartment.
"Oh Mac, I can't believe what a disaster this has been, my poor apartment!" Jo said sighing sadly,
"It'll be ok Jo, the guy's insurance will pay for any of the damage." Mac said reaching across and taking her hand in his, something that instantly calmed her down.
"I know, it's just it's Thanksgiving, I did not see myself having to deal with plumbers and builders for the next few weeks!" Jo said sadly.
"Well you won't have to, you'll be at mine where you can relax and we can go and check on them whenever you want, just to make sure they're doing what you want, ok?" Mac said rubbing her hand with his thumb.
"Ok, thanks for this Mac, oh I need to call Mom and Ellie and tell them what's happened." Jo said reaching for her phone in her bag.
"Is Ellie ok, you said she was ill?" Mac asked her concerned.
"Yeah she's ok, she's got the flu, and seen as we're so busy at work at the moment Mom came and got her and took her back to DC with her, she was always a better nurse then I was anyway." Jo said laughing.
A few minutes later they arrived at Mac's apartment. Jo had just finished on the phone to her Mom and Ellie, and was now outside Mac's apartment waiting for him to unlock it. He unlocked the door and let her walk in first.
"Wow, you've got a really nice place Mac, it's very you!" Jo said smiling at him.
"What do you mean by that?" Mac asked chuckling.
"Well it's very masculine but has a soft edge to it too." Jo said laughing at what she'd just said.
"Ok…well I'll show you to your room where you can unpack your stuff then we'll head over to Sheldon's.
Mac showed her to the spare room and let her quickly unpack whilst he sat on the couch and waited for her. If anyone had told him today would have ended up like this he'd have laughed, but now it had he was happy she was here, he would have someone to talk to and to eat dinner with, all the things he'd missed the last ten years since he'd lost Claire.
He shook that thought out of his mind and waited for Jo to come back through to the living room. Jo was going to be staying with him. Jo as in the woman he'd become very close to the last few months, Jo as in the woman he knew he was falling for….suddenly he felt a bit dizzy, was it excitement or nerves? He didn't know, but he was looking forward to finding out.