A/N: Thanks for all the support! You guys are awesome :)
Previously:
Quietly, he spoke in a voice full of barely contained fury, glaring at her across the narrow space that separated their seats. "Doctor Santino, have I ever given you reason not to trust me?"
She frowned at him, the question seeming completely out of the blue.
"What do you mean?" He raised an eyebrow skeptically and continued to pin her down with his piercing gaze. His eyes grew cold and guarded with a hint of something more dangerous in the background, sending chills running through her spine. But she refused to be cowed into a corner. She had done nothing wrong and could think of no possible reason for him to be mad at her. Lifting her chin defiantly she met his glare and squinted back at him with a hint of a query in her brown eyes. Nico's voice remained hard as he replied.
"Answer the question please, Doctor Santino." He was not about to budge. But neither was she. Matching his tone, she inserted pure steel into her voice. He may have commanded battalions, but she had two teenage children. She could make demands just as well as he could.
"Not until you tell me what is going on." Taking note of the hard determination in her eyes, Nico sighed and pulled out his cellphone, placing it on the armrest between them, and opening it to the text message he had received during the staff meeting.
Red flag on our system. A call was made from Gabrielle Pittman to Doctor Santino's phone this morning.
Thoughts rushing through her head at a million miles a minute, Dani tried to figure out how much Nico's team knew. They knew better than to listen in on her actual conversations. Nico at least had to know she would kill him if he ever tried to breach her privacy like that. Which meant that Nico couldn't know the content of the voicemail message Gabrielle had left her. It was more likely they had Gabrielle Pittman's phone tapped and just knew the target of each call she made. She knew lying to Nico was a bad idea, but it was better than letting him get too close. For his own sake, and for the sake of her patients, she had to push him away. Giving Gabrielle an excuse to release compromising information was not an option.
"It was nothing Nico, she just needed to talk to someone about Marshall's death." Nico was not convinced in the slightest. Dani was the last person in the world Gabrielle would call for help. The self-absorbed and narcissistic woman was not capable of being vulnerable unless she was getting something out of the exchange. His eyes darkened even further as he pinned Doctor Santino to her seat with his eyes. His voice remained cool and detached.
"Doctor Santino, you are a terrible liar. Last time I checked, the foundation of our professional relationship involved mutual trust and respect. Now would be a bad time to damage that." Dani closed her eyes and bit down hard on her bottom lip, the feeling of helplessness from earlier that morning washing over her again. Taking a deep breath she tried not to let her voice shake, instead letting her frustration with the situation permeate her words
"You're right, and I thought that foundation was strong enough for you not to make unfounded accusations." A lone, frustrated tear escaped and rolled slowly down her cheek. Nico softened fractionally as he recognized how close Dani was to falling apart. His keen senses had no trouble deciphering that Gabrielle had put Dani in a chokehold, but for whatever reason Dani did not feel safe enough to talk to him about it. After everything they had been through together, that stung. But he knew how manipulative Gabrielle could be, and he refused to let her destroy his friendship with Dani. Seeing the tension in Dani's body as she stared out the window of the car, he let go of his hit man persona and spoke gently.
"Look at me." She continued staring at the window, refusing to let him see the tension in her eyes as she struggled between fear of repercussions from Gabrielle, and the deep desire to believe that Nico had the power to keep her, her patients, and himself safe. She was so scared to let herself depend on another man. So far every man she had dared to trust had let her down, badly. Nico repeated himself, a rough edge to his voice this time, as if he was also an inch away from losing control of his emotions.
"Look at me, Dani." She shook her head no. She couldn't. Reaching across the space between them, Nico placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and waited for her to respond. He could feel the shuddering breaths she was taking as she tried not to let herself cry, but eventually her breathing calmed and she turned slowly to face him. Looking up at him through heavily lidded and watery eyes, Dani said nothing, causing Nico's anger and frustration at Gabrielle to break through his stoic facade. He could not stand to see the normally strong therapist falling apart without being able to help. Although his voice remained quiet, his words were dangerously punctuated as he almost spat the words out.
"What. Did Gabrielle Pittman. Say to you?" He desperately needed to know. His voice gentled again as he explained. "I can't keep you safe if I don't know what I'm dealing with." Both his hands had made their way to her shoulders to turn her whole body towards him as he spoke. Their faces were only inches away from each other as the tension from their standoff continued, Dani maintaining her silence despite his plea for honesty. The vulnerability in Dani's eyes as she shook her head no was the last straw for the tentative hold he had thus far maintained over his emotions, and he leaned towards her, closing the distance between them in a searing kiss. He pressed his lips to hers, tentative at first, uncertain as to how she would respond.
Dani closed her eyes and reacted instinctively, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. She teased his lips with her tongue, and he called her bluff, taking charge of the kiss, pressing for entrance to her mouth with his own tongue as one hand moved to the nape of her neck and the other to her lower back. Through the haze Dani remembered Gabrielle's demands, the sound of danger growing insistently in her mind as she moved her hands up to his chest and pushed him away forcefully. With tears in her voice, she spoke.
"We can't do this." Nico shot her a fleeting look of hurt and confusion, before nodding curtly and replacing it with his usual impenetrable stoicism. All business once more, he repeated himself a final time.
"Am I to assume that you have no intentions of telling me what Gabrielle said to you this morning?" She met his now unexpressive eyes and shook her head.
"I can't, Nico." He nodded and gestured towards the steering wheel for her to turn the car back on.
The ride back to the Hawks complex was silent, both too lost in their own thoughts and problems to reach out to the other.
Dani was still in shock that Nico had kissed her. She couldn't deny that she was attracted to him, but why now? Why now, when she could not reciprocate without Gabrielle Pittman destroying both of their lives and careers? She knew she had hurt him by pushing him away, but she could not think of an alternative. If she told him the truth he would not be able to hide the knowledge from Gabrielle. He would go storming in and try to kill her or something, and she had no doubt that Gabrielle had backup copies of the tapes ready to detonate at the slightest provocation. Above all else, she felt helpless and trapped, something she had struggled her entire life to overcome. Getting pregnant so early in life, being trapped in a failed marriage for so long - she was done with it all. She just needed a plan.
Upon arrival at the Hawks complex, they were met by a concerned looking Matt who rushed to the car and knocked on the window before Dani could even put the gear in park. Rolling down the window she squinted at him in annoyance, what did he want now? Hands placed flat on top of the car and body tense, he looked down through the open window at Dani and spoke in a pained voice,
"You guys have gotta see this. You aren't gonna like it." Nico was sick of being given information in bits and drabs. He was not accustomed to it, and today had already been a very long day. In a barely restrained voice he growled,
"What is it, Donnally?" Matt took a deep breath before answering, knowing that the head of security was not going to react well to his news, and hoping that Dani would protect him from the wrath of Nico.
"Gabrielle Pittman released one of the tapes." For a second Dani was afraid Nico would punch something as the fury in his eyes made even her wary for her personal safety. Or at least the safety of the carefully preserved interior of her car. But the fury soon subsided into something much more sinister as he became completely calm and rolled up the sleeves of his black button down shirt, slowly. Speaking lightly, with only a hint of the dark undertone in his iron cold gaze, he inquired.
"Which one of the tapes did she release?" Matt said nothing, just looked at Dani with a sympathetic and agonized expression in his eyes. Nico took note of the glance between them and lost his cool, getting out of the car and grabbing Donnally by the collar of his white button up shirt while glaring at Dani.
"Which one of you is going to tell me what the hell Gabrielle Pittman is up to?"
