Hey guys and gals! :D
This is a story requested by MoonCat... a background of how Derek and Angie came to look how they did when they appeared in New Blood. Its random and weird -- deal with it XD
Enjoy!
"Stoppit."
"Just, hold still… alright?"
"Just, stoppit."
"Will you please ho—"
"Will you please stoppit!!"
With a disgruntled sigh, Angela Stiles finally removed her fingers from her husband's locks and crossed her arms, staring impatiently at him. Much to her dismay he refused to pull his gaze off of his paperwork, knowing that she was ready to argue with him. She tapped her foot impatiently and made barely audible protests, never winning his stare.
"You're going to be standing there for an awfully long time…" he told her, chuckling softly when he heard her scoff again. There were some days that he really truly enjoyed annoying his wife, no matter how mean it sounded.
"I don't understand why you won't let me fix your hair!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air and letting them drop, hitting the sides of her legs.
"Because there is nothing TO fix…" he argued, finally looking up at her, "…my hair is just fine the way it is!"
Returning his stare downward he realized that he needed to shake the hair out of his eyes in order to be able to see the paperwork in front of him, something that would undoubtedly fuel Angie on in her protest of his growing mane.
And as she caught him look at her out of the corner of his eye, Angie knew that Derek was getting ready to shake his head back and forth, the motion the only thing that would rid him of the hair in front of his eyes. Not only was it too long it was slightly poofy, giving her the feeling that she might as well just rat it out and stick a pick in the side of it, like all the rest of those with 'fros do.
Angie cleared her throat and smiled when she noticed she had trapped him, until she noticed him pick his stack of folders up off of his desk and pull them into his lap. At this angle he was able to look straight down, bringing the documents into clear view. He bit his lip, trying to hold back a laugh as he heard Angie growl under her breath, obviously not happy with what he was trying to pull.
Desperate to hold his laughter in a little longer, Derek leaned back in his chair with a content sigh, still looking down at his work. And now, to drive it home…
"Oh man, I'm lucky. I would be unable to complete my paperwork if my hair was too long and hung down in front of my eyes – thank God that's not the case, as my hair is not obstructing my view in any way… right, honey?"
"Derek, you can't even look up." she interjected, ignoring him and his smart ass comment. "And I still don't understand why you don't care about looking presentable. Do you even know the number of important people that we've met that look at you like you're a hobo?" she asked jokingly, reaching her hand up to run through his hair again, to which he jerked out of her reach.
Angie laughed now, earning an unamused stare from Derek, before he returned his attention to the papers in his lap.
"Don't you have more important things to do besides worry about my hair? Like, be at your own desk…?"
It was then he turned up to look at her, bursting out into laughter at her scowl. His belly laughs quickly subsided as he noticed the seriousness of her stare, leading him to believe that something bad was about to--
And before he could even complete that thought, Angie had wedged a hand underneath the stack of folders on his lap and flipped it upward, sending them all crashing to the floor, papers scattering everywhere.
"…Angie?!" he exclaimed, looking sadly down at the mess she had just made. "What are you doing?!"
She just sent a sweet, innocent smirk back, turning to walk away. "…Giving you something to clean up, since it's not going to be your appearance."
Derek sighed, refusing to get out of his chair and pick up the papers – he wasn't done arguing with her yet.
"Well, I don't see you doing anything with your hair either!" he retorted, finally building up the courage to say it.
Angie whirled around, the long hair in question fanning out around her as she spun.
"What are you TALKING about?!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air again. "I JUST got like… two inches taken off last week – you told me it looked nice!"
"It DOES!" he said back, rising to stand from his chair. "But honestly if you wouldn't have told me beforehand, I wouldn't have even noticed!!"
Angie gasped loudly at the comment in offense, shortly after giving him her best evil glare, her hands firmly planting themselves on her hips. "You are SO mean, you know that?!"
Derek groaned, rubbing his face unhappily with his hand. "I didn't mean it like that Angie… long hair is long hair! I'm a guy – do you REALLY expect me to notice two inches?!" he said, beginning to laugh.
"Well then what am I supposed to do with it, Derek?" she asked, beginning to giggle as well. They had fought about quite a few things over their time together, but this had to have been the first time they got in such an involved fight about… hair.
"I don't know Ang…!" he said, racking his brain. "I mean, what if you cut more off? I haven't seen you with short hair since…"
"…since…"
Derek stopped and stared at the wall, realizing something important.
"…You've had long hair since I've known you." he finally said matter-of-factly, turning to look at her in his surprise.
Thinking about it for a second as well, Angie raised her eyebrows.
"Oh wow… you're right…!" she admitted. "I haven't had short hair since… my junior year of high school… ha!"
Derek's eyes suddenly lit up, causing Angie to drop her eyebrows into a more confused position.
"…What? Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked defensively, crossing her arms.
"Let's make a bet." he stated, immediately grabbing her attention, as shown when her right eyebrow raised slightly.
"…I'm listening."
Derek smiled, knowing that his wife was never one to pass up any sort of challenge in which she might be able to win.
"If I don't make myself 'presentable'…" he started, using the air-quotes to irritate her, "…in THREE days – I'll do my paperwork AND yours for the week."
Angie's eyebrows shot up nearly into her hairline, a loud laugh coming from her. "You can't be serious…!"
"As a heart attack." he replied, grinning as he prepared to finish.
"But, if I cut my hair and you can agree that it looks good…" he continued, "…you've got to chop yours."
"How short?"
Derek thought for a quick second.
"To right here." he said, marking a length on himself that rested between his shoulder and his chin.
Angie uncrossed her arms, a whine escaping her. "Derek! No…! I love my hair!" she complained.
"I do too honey, but its just hair – it'll grow back." he offered, doing little to console her. "I'd love to see it… that is, if you're not afraid…"
That statement was the nail in the coffin for Angie, as her stare instantly transformed to vindictive. She shot out her hand towards him and he accepted it, shaking to seal the bet.
"You're on. And I am NOT afraid!" she reassured, hearing him laugh.
Just then, something crossed her mind.
"So, what happens if you cut your hair and I don't cut mine?"
"Then you're doing MY paperwork… for TWO weeks!"
"…You're pushing it."
"Alright fine, a week. And you have to give me an hour long backrub."
Angie sighed. "Fine. Doesn't matter anyway – you're goin' down."
The surgeon chuckled at his wife. "The only thing that's going down is your hair, to the floor, when they chop it all off."
Angie scoffed, turning to walk from the room, leaving Derek to roll his eyes at his own comment.
"That was lame, but you get the point!" he yelled after her, turning around to clean up the mess she had so nicely made for him on the ground.
--
Two days had passed, and Derek still had done nothing with his hair, leaving Angie overjoyed at the fact that she was close to not having to do her paperwork for a full week. Thinking this over she flipped through the newspaper on the couch in their living room in the early morning, waiting for her husband to roll his lazy butt out of bed and greet the day.
Distracting her attention from the paper was Derek's wake up call in the form of his buzzing pager against the wood of his nightstand. Angie looked over at their half-open bedroom door, wondering how many rings it was going to take him to get up and face it.
"…Nngh…!" he whined suddenly, a series of loud bangs resounding through the house as he slapped his hand around on the nightstand, trying to find his pager to shut it off without bothering to open his eyes. Angie could only laugh from the living room – it was a ritual that she had known all too well, having been his other half for nearly eight years.
Shortly, Derek had managed to quell the noise from his pager, beautiful silence filling the house once more. Without even being there, Angie knew that he was face down on his side of the bed, forehead furrowed as he tried to wake himself up to go deal with whatever emergency Caduceus had for him that day.
Rising from the couch, dressed in a tank top and a pair of shorts, Angie softly walked over to the kitchen, knowing exactly how to remedy her husband's hatred for any time of day before 12 noon.
Meanwhile Derek slumped his body of bed, begrudgingly walking toward his closet to get dressed. A few minutes later he walked into the bathroom, taking a look at his messy hair in the mirror and deciding once again, not to even bother touching it. He retreated from their bedroom dressed in a suit and tie, a broad but sleepy smile sweeping his face when he noticed Angie waiting for him in the kitchen, a travel mug full of coffee she had prepared with his name on it.
"…'morning honey…" she said softly, watching his smile drop.
"…I hate mornings. Every one of them." was his irritated reply, reaching for his mug and bringing it to his lips.
Angie smiled, shifting her weight as she stared at him.
"Hey sweetie…?" she asked.
"Hmm…?" he said, still devouring his coffee.
"What kind of pants are those…?"
Her weird and downright random question caught him off guard, prompting him to take a small break from the second love in his life.
"Um… what?"
Angie never even so much as cracked a smile, repeating the previous question. "What kind of pants are those?"
He looked down at his pants, seeing his regular black dress pants.
"Uh, my dress pants..." he explained, still confused. "Why…?"
He knew something was up when a small smirk graced her lips, opening her mouth to speak.
"Because they sure look like grumpy pants to me…" she replied with a giggle, quickly thrown into a fit of hysterics.
And Derek just stood there dumbfounded at the lameness of the comment, yet unable to stop himself from joining her in her laughter.
"Oh wow, that was SO lame…" he said in between chuckles, stepping forward to scoop her up into a big hug.
"It worked though, didn't it?" she asked, muffled by his shoulder.
"I hate to admit it, but yes… it did. I promise I'll change out of my 'grumpy pants' before I get home – I shouldn't be too long… hopefully." he said, pulling out of their hug and beginning to walk towards the door. On his way out he spotted their calendar, eyes traveling to the box that had been circled with red permanent marker – he had less than a day left before he was going to lose the bet… and he honestly didn't care.
"Wait!" she cried, running after him. Walking to just in front of him, Angie rose onto her tiptoes and swept the hair up and away from Derek's forehead to kiss it, but found herself unable to when some of the hair stayed up, the majority falling back down.
She tried again and again, enlisting the help of her other hand, though even together they couldn't keep Derek's mop from interfering in one of the constant, cute rituals they shared as a married couple. Five tries later and Angie had given up with a small whine – she knew that she found his long hair annoying, but was actually saddened by the fact that it interrupted with tradition.
"Here…" he offered, using both of his hands to sweep his forehead clear of his ever-growing hair. With a small smirk Angie leaned up and kissed his forehead and shortly after his lips, stepping back and waving him goodbye.
Truth be told, Derek really wasn't planning on doing anything with his hair after their bet had been made. But as he closed the door and remembered the sad stare she gave when unable to perform one of the actions that brought them both a moment of happiness in their crazy lives, he sighed outwardly, knowing what he had to do.
--
In the kitchen making herself a late lunch, Angie heard the garage door open and shut, the sound of shoes being kicked off cementing in her mind that her husband had finally returned from work. Reaching into the fridge to grab food for a second meal, Angie never looked up, instead continuing to work.
"Hi Derek – how was your day?"
"Eventful."
"Oh really? How so?"
Silence.
"Derek…?" she asked, still not looking up at him just yet. When after that he still did not answer, she finished what she was doing, walking to go check where he had gone.
But as she turned to walk away and lifted her gaze up, she saw Derek leaned up against the wall with his hands in his pockets, the sly smile she found absolutely sexy spread across his lips.
And then she noticed why she was so turned on by the sight of him – his hair had been cut short and slightly slicked down, ends coming to rest not even halfway down his forehead.
Angie's eyes nearly bugged out of her head as her hands flew up over her mouth, unwilling to believe that he had actually done it.
"Oh my GOD!" she shrieked, running towards him at full force and jumping into his arms, wrapping her legs around his back. Lucky for the both of him he was ready for such a reaction and just chuckled, holding around her waist tightly.
"Derek!" she exclaimed, pulling back to look at him. Her hands impulsively ran through his hair, noticing immediately how much softer it was now that it was cut. "You look… SO handsome!"
"Why thank you…!" he said, sly smile giving way to a huge grin. She planted a kiss on his lips and dropped her legs down, moving to stand under her own power, still touching his hair.
"And you shaved too…!" she exclaimed, one hand dropping to caress his smooth skin.
Rising onto her toes again Angie placed her hands on each of Derek's shoulders, using him as an anchor to steady herself as she planted a sweet kiss on his forehead, smiling in the wake.
"Perfect." she said, smiling suddenly dropping.
Derek frowned. "What's wrong…?"
His wife sighed, looking down. "You probably just did this so that I would either cut my hair or lose the bet…"
"Nah." he replied, seeing her look up in wonder. "I saw your face when you were trying to kiss me this morning, so I went after work because I knew it would make you happy."
"You did?" she asked, wrapping her hands around his waist, chin resting on his chest to look up at him.
"Of course I did – that reaction was exactly what I was hoping for too…" he admitted with a smile, kissing her cheek. "Don't worry about the bet – I already got what I wanted."
Angie allowed Derek to lower his face and kiss her lips, wondering all the while… was that a ploy to get her to lose, or was he serious?
--
"Where's Angie?"
Leslie had poked her head into Derek and Angie's office, only finding the surgeon. He looked up and smiled at her, setting down his pen.
"She doesn't come in until 10 today… she had an appointment at the dentist."
"Oh… alright!" she chirped. "Can you tell her to come upstairs when she gets here?"
"No problem – I'll let her know." he replied, waving goodbye to Leslie as she retreated down the hallway.
Taking a quick glance at the clock, Derek noticed that it was already 10:10, leaving him perturbed – Angie was NEVER late…
Reaching for his cell phone, Derek was nearly scared half to death when a shriek from Leslie resounded through what seemed like the entire second floor, followed by several quick rounds of "OMGOMGOMG!" Once regaining his composure Derek just laughed, knowing in his many years of working with his best friend's wife that she was prone to high-pitched screaming fits when excited about something.
As the screaming ceased it was replaced with the sound of heels clicking through the hallway, growing louder as they approached. Reviewing and signing some pre-surgical charts, Derek didn't pay the noise a second thought until it suddenly stopped, replaced with someone gently clearing her throat.
His gaze started at the ground, seeing a very familiar pair of shoes attached to a pair of legs, attached to an even more familiar torso which sprouted a beautiful face.
Derek froze.
A beautiful face with gorgeous blonde hair that had been cut to just above her shoulders and was curled into big rings, leaving it bouncy and fluffy.
The brunette's mouth dropped wide open at his wife as she giggled, throwing her purse and travel bag down on her desk.
"Angie…! What did you do?!" he exclaimed in shock, giant grin on his face.
She smiled lovingly. "I wanted to see what this reaction was that you were talking about – and now I get it." she replied, watching him rise from his chair, smile still a mile wide.
"Oh, well… if that's what you want…" he said with a grin, preparing himself...
"OH…MY GOD!" he shrieked in his best Angie voice, launching her into a hysterical giggle. Giggles gave way to panic as he ran towards her, readying himself to jump into her arms…
"Derek – no!" she shrieked with another set of giggles, closing her eyes in anticipation.
Instead of doing something that was going to leave them both injured, Derek just fake jumped, instead sweeping Angie up into another giant hug, lifting her off the ground as she hugged around his neck tightly.
"Wow…" he said, brushing his fingers through the soft curls when he set her back on the ground. "Now I see what you were so excited about…"
Angie smiled. "It's so weird – I can't stop touching it. It's my first major haircut in like… 15 years – I'm not so sure what to do with myself."
Derek chuckled. "Well, I love it… It was your long hair that I fell in love with, but if it's possible, this makes you look even more beautiful than you already are…"
Grinning even as he kissed her lips, Angie suddenly broke away, remembering something important.
"Since it was so long…" she started, backing away from him. "They let me donate it to locks of love…!"
"Oh honey, that's so cool…" he said, watching as she dug in her bag.
"Yeah, it's going to make someone happy hopefully…" she said, still digging around. "But, I couldn't let them take all of it…"
Derek let out a nervous laugh. "What are you talking about?"
He stopped when he saw her pull a thin lock of hair out of her bag. It was wound up into an oval, the center of it tied around once with a light pink ribbon. She held it out to him and he stepped forward, taking it and lightly tracing over it with his fingers.
"You saved this for me?" he asked, smiling warmly at him.
"Yep… I know how much you loved my long hair – I couldn't let them take all of it…" she replied, kissing him.
"Oh, get a room…"
Derek and Angie broke away with a smile at the teasing of Tyler Chase, standing in the doorway laughing.
"Whoa Stiles' – lookin sharp! Is Extreme Makeover here, or something?" he joked.
"Yeah, they are – and you're next." Derek replied, linking an arm around Angie's waist.
"What's that?" Tyler asked, pointing to the lock of hair in Derek's left hand.
"Angie gave this to me…" he said with a warm smile, looking down at it again.
"Aw, that's nice…" the blonde replied, eyes suddenly shooting open, his fingers snapping.
"Heyy – Maybe if you keep collecting it, you'll have enough hair to make another Angie one day!" he exclaimed.
Derek and Angie laughed out loud.
"You're an idiot." Derek said, still laughing pretty hard.
"Alright fine, don't take my ideas! I'm outta here!" Tyler said, turning to retreat from the room when he was stopped.
"Wait!" she exclaimed, rushing over to Derek's desk and opening the bottom left drawer. "Will you, please?" she asked Tyler, holding a digital camera out to him.
"Sure…" he said with a smile, taking it and turning it on. Wrapping an arm around Angie's waist again, Derek pulled her into him, their cheeks pressed together, her arms linked around his neck. They both plastered huge smiles on their faces as a light flashed and the memory was now in print.
Though they both knew even though there was concrete proof, they wouldn't need it – it was something they weren't sure to forget soon.
Yeah, i described her hair as being longer than it was in New Blood - really honestly, I didn't think the style they gave her in NB looked all that great... It was cute, but a little longer and it would've been perfect.
Oh well - hope you guys liked it! :)