Definite Advantages
Word Count: 1,415
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Nico/Dani, reference to past Dani/JD
Spoilers: up to 1x09.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just break things.
Summary: Dani has learned to appreciate Nico coming and going unannounced. Sequel to Advantages?
Author's Note: I had some ideas about what I was going to do with Advantages? and I was going to have a secondary part, eventually, and it was not supposed to go quite like this. I got distracted from the latest chapter of my other fics, and everyone wanted to know what the note was, so I answered that. I threw in a line so I could call this part of the week four challenge on the lj community, and well... Here it is. :)

Definite Advantages

It all started with that damn note Nico had stuck in her pocket.

No, to be fair, it started before that, with the conversation they'd had right before she found it. They had happened about the same time, though, so she could say it was the note. Maybe it was both. Okay, it was both.

The note, though, it still bothered her, even now, over a year later. It should bother anyone. She didn't know how Nico had gotten hold of that excerpt from JD's latest book, but she was grateful he had. A part of her knew that she should have been mad about yet another intrusion into her personal life—ha, what personal life did she have since she started working with the Hawks?—but this she didn't mind.

No, she minded that Nico had seen it, had read it, but she had him to thank for the fact that it wasn't something that everyone had read. She would have been forever immortalized in a book supposedly about monkey sex. Damn JD. He'd used her as a case study, and he never would have told her if Nico hadn't found that. She would have found out later, maybe, after dozens of people had read that book.

"You're agitated again," her companion observed, running a hand down her arm and gently kissing her neck. She closed her eyes with a contented smile. That felt good. "That excerpt bothering you again?"

"Wouldn't it bother you?" she asked, reaching back to touch his face. She could feel some stubble there, but right now all she could think of was how nice it was to sleep in with him for a change. A lot of the time, he put his talent for coming and going without notice to use in the dead of the night, and she never heard him leave. Other times, he slipped out before they had much time to enjoy the early morning.

"It might, but I have lived in the shadows for a long time. I have been in places and done things that make the remarks in that book seem tame," Nico reminded her.

Dani nodded. That was true. "You don't have to live in the shadows anymore, you know that, right?"

"Are you suggesting I change vocations, Dr. Santino?"

"Hmm, I thought we agreed that you were going to call me Dani when we were alone together," she began suspiciously. He smiled at her.

"You're discussing the professional side of our lives. My life. That makes it a time to use your formal title."

"And you're jumping to conclusions. I never said this was about your job," she told him, turning over to face him. He studied her face, and she nodded at his unspoken question. "While I've come to appreciate your talent for sneaking in and out—and I will never stop being amazed that this has managed to work for a year without my kids suspecting anything—maybe it's time that this came out in the open."

"You're not worried about the impact on your professional life? Or your children?"

"I think I've become established with the Hawks on my own merit, and the kids have had enough time to adjust to the divorce. Ray is getting married again, and if they can handle that, I think they can handle me dating."

"Arguably, they could have handled it before, but—"

"It had nothing to do with being ashamed of our relationship, Nico," Dani interrupted. She had tried to explain this to him before. She still saw doubt in his eyes, though. "I didn't—after Lindsay and Ray Jay reacted so badly to JD and then rumors went around about me sleeping with Matt for the job, I just... Honestly, that was what made me start thinking about what you said that night, about people not knowing what the lady of the house was up to. Soon it was all I thought about, and I approached you about it. This has never been the most... orthodox of relationships, but it is still a relationship. Despite what other people might think about the secrecy, I'm not easy. And you're not. This isn't a case of wham, bam, thank you, ma'am here. We weren't... using each other."

"In the strictest sense of the words, perhaps," he began, and she looked at him. He smiled a little. "I mean that—regardless of the amount of feeling—the basic act involves the use of another person."

"Ugh," Dani muttered. "Normally, I'd be up for debating semantics with you, but not today. I'm too tired for that. I think I'll go back to sleep."

"I'll make you some coffee," he told her, giving her another quick kiss before he got up.

"Can't you just stay put? I like you better than my pillow," she told him, trying to pull him back to the bed. He resisted her, like usual, going over to get dressed. She had offered him a place to store a few things months ago, but he didn't seem to need it. She didn't know how, but his clothes always seemed perfect despite the night on the floor.

"Not today. We have a meeting with Marshall Pittman, remember?"

She'd forgotten, actually, but that didn't surprise her. She did not want to go, so she'd done her best to avoid thinking about it. "So... you're making coffee?"

"Should be ready in about five minutes with that model of coffee maker and the time it'll take me to get downstairs," he told her. She nodded and put her head back down on the pillow. It wasn't the same as having him there, but she'd take it. She closed her eyes, wanting those last few minutes before she had to get up and try and figure out what to wear for the meeting with Pittman.

She had barely relaxed again when someone knocked on her door. "Mom! That scary security guy is in our house making coffee! He must have... broken in or something."

"Nico is not a thief, Ray Jay," Dani told her, surrendering to the inevitable and getting out of bed. She pulled on a robe and met her son at the door. "I forgot about the meeting with Pittman."

"Oh."

"Something wrong?"

Her son shook his head. "No, I just—I haven't really seen him since he busted us, you know, so I guess I was... jumpy. Paranoid. For some reason I thought he was here because we were in trouble again. I mean—because I was in trouble again."

"No, it's not that at all," Dani told him with a smile as she headed down the stairs. She could smell the coffee from here.

Ray Jay went into the kitchen first, joining his very nervous sister who could hardly seem to focus on her cereal. Dani smiled with amusement and went over to where Nico was waiting, drinking from his own cup of coffee. He passed her the other cup, prepared just the way she liked it, and she drank from it slowly.

"Thank you."

Nico nodded. He was trying not to smile. She could tell. "While I would never consider myself much of a judge of fashion, I would suggest that you find something else before the meeting. We have less than an hour."

"But you're already here. I've got time," she said, patting his chest with a grin as she passed by him again. He caught her by the arm, and she stopped, looking up at him. "You should let me go if you want me to look nice."

"I am not sure that nice is the right word or even the right choice for this situation," he began, and she thought for a moment.

"Are you going to have to approve my wardrobe now?"

"Uh, are you two flirting now?" Lindsay asked, and Ray Jay choked on his orange juice, sputtering a little. "You come over here first thing in the morning to... flirt?"

Amazing. Even now, they seemed to have no idea that Nico had been there overnight. Dani loved this; she really did. She was ready to tell the kids about him, but she might just wait on that. This was too much fun. Nico had been right. There were definite advantages to what he could do.