Written for the het_bigbang on on Livejournal. Thanks to Karlamartinova for beta-reading.
Sonja was working a case with them between undercover assignments; she and LaSalle were still in "work-married" mode (something that Georgie, too firmly believed in), and were sharing a lot- pretty much everything. Which meant that, even if he hadn't said at loud to Sonja that he did like Georgina Newman, she had understood it all right.
"So, Country Mouse, does your Belle know she is spoken for?" Late at night, they were outside a crime scene, ready to enter once NOLA PD would give them free reign; Pride was still inside, and they were all parked out waiting for Loretta and dear old Georgina.
"Uh?" He mumbled- a bit annoyed that Percy would refer to all the women he dated and/or approached as Disney characters- and lifted his eyes from his camera. And here they were, Loretta and his Georgie; Loretta was probably, knowing her, coming from one of her poker nights, while there was no doubt that his Georgie had been out.
Brody chuckled, titling her head to the side. "Killer heels. You don't wear them for your girlfriends…"
Sonja elbowed Chris in the side and rolled her eyes, a bit annoyed. She had always knew that Chris could be an idiot when it came to women, but here he was reaching new highs; first, as far as she knew, he wasn't admitting that he liked the girl- and even if he did, she feared that, still burned by Savannah, his idea could be something in the line of "yeah, I like her, as far as a roll in the hay goes" and not what she had assumed from his words, aka "yeah, that's the future mother of my children. Deal with it", second, he wasn't letting her know he was available and willing, and third, she doubted the girl liked her men on the drooling side.
Because Christopher LaSalle was drooling open-mouthed, like he had never seen a pretty woman with heels dressed to the nines.
"Dwayne's not here yet?" Loretta asked, looking confused.
"Pride's inside, sorting jurisdiction out." Sonja answered; then, smiling, she took a step toward Georgina and offered the older woman her hand in greeting. "Sonja Percy. You must be Newman, right?"
"The work-wife isn't calling me Georgina…." Georgie chuckled and was more than glad to shake Sonja's hand. "Percy, just for the record: I already like you."
Sonja chuckled. "Couldn't call you anything you don't like even if Country Mouse here forced me to. I worked with Colby Granger back in my ATF days, best partner I could have ever asked for. He says a loooot of good things about you. Which, I tell you, is not an easy feat."
"Is someone enjoying the NOLA scene?" Brody asked Georgie, a bit malicious, her eyes on the high heeled sandals and her pedicured dark violet toenails. "Let me guess, Trevor again?"
"Uh? What? Trevor? As in, Detective Keith Trevor? That Trevor? My friend Trevor?" Chris had suddenly lost interest in feet and shoes and tattoos and was now totally back with the living ones, thinking the most awful and hatred thoughts. And why is Brody the one knowing about it?
"Didn't know I had to ask your permission to ask him out." Georgie rolled her eyes, and Chris started to see red.
Of course she didn't need his permission to date- yeah, he had a thing for her, but it wasn't like she had gotten it through that thick head of hers, nor he had been open with her about whatever there was – and had always been -between them.
The fact was that, on the other side, he had been pretty clear with Keith about where he wanted to stay with the girl, and there was a bro code. So, even if she had been the one doing the asking, Keith should have told her no!
They were having breakfast at some cheap bar downtown, reminiscing about old times' sakes, something they used to do every now and then, when Keith broke the silence.
"C'mon, fella, I know you've got love for li'l' ol' me, but not enough to offer me breakfast just because!"
Chris laughed. "Me? Buying? The only reason I keep buying you breakfast it's because you've got the magical power of making your wallet disappear!" He chuckled. "Besides, you're a little too hairy for my taste!"
They laughed together, a nice reminder of the camaraderie of old times, when, over a decade before, they had been both investigators- it felt like a lifetime before, and for Chris it was, so much had changed -so much he had changed since those days.
"So… Georgie…" Keith asked, sipping his now cold coffee. "Am I stepping on any toes here?"
Chris sighed, his coffee forgotten. "Honestly? I don't know. I mean… I think I may like her, but I don't think she is interested." He grinned. "At least, that's what she says."
Keith chuckled, sipping the semi-cold beverage. "Gotcha. I'll keep it in mind, pal."
"I'm just saying, drop it. Say what you want, but you are the kind of girl who sees bells and flowers whenever dating is involved. I bet you even arranged a few weddings. And I dare to say that you were always the maid of honor, right?" Georgie said, and Chris again "uh-ed" as he had been, yet again, lost in his thoughts; Brody, Loretta and Georgie were talking a few meters from him- and somehow Georgie now wore pocket ballerinas- while Sonya was right before him at crossed arms. Annoyed.
"Let me guess, it didn't even crossed your mind that she could actually date someone else." She sighed.
Chris lifted an eyebrow, tried to be his charming self, the happy-go-lucky guy always ready for some fun and a party or two. "Thought you were fine with me moving on in any way I wanted to."
Sonja grunted, pinching the bridge of her nose. She didn't care if Chris had been an agent longer than her, she didn't care if he was older; thought love was in order. "Absolutely! But I'm not OK with you being a stupid idiot!"
Uh, no nicknames, he wondered. Sonja was really mad… and worried. It was a good thing, though, it meant she still cared even if she wasn't with them full-time any longer. But, still, he didn't want her to- as an undercover cop, she needed to keep her head in the game, not in his non-existent love life.
Chris shook his head. "That's fine. It's not like we exchanged rings or whatever."
He went into the warehouse, ready to get a look at the crime-scene, trying to dismiss it all. Even the fact that Sonja, at his back, was mumbling and grunting her annoyance with him.
It went on for a couple of months- sometimes Keith even came by the squad room in the evenings to get her, mostly if he wanted to walk her home or he thought she would join him for dinner; other than that, though, if it weren't for Brody's comments every now and then, Chris would have never guessed Georgie was dating his "friend".
And yet, he knew it all too well, and it stung; first, because Keith knew and he hadn't taken a step back like he had promised, and second, because Chris himself had asked her out for months back in the day, and he had done so again since her return in New Orleans, only to be blown off every time with the excuse of work. That it would have made things awkward. Well, she hadn't thought so with Keith. Instead, she had been the one to ask him out, the hell if they had to work together on a case or whatever. Which meant, work wasn't the issue. He was. She didn't want to have – to pursue - a relationship with him.
He saw red. Wanted to hurt his so-called friend, wanted to scream at her, demand what the hell was wrong with himself. That it was all her fault if he couldn't even have fun any longer. Because he knew that he had wondered why not having a no strings attached things since her time there was counted, but then, then she had come and showed him her good side and that it was all right to fall in love again. To dream of a tomorrow without feeling the pain of betrayal, the guilt stinging at his very soul.
And now he had to go and work a case with them.
"Something's wrong?" Georgie asked him casually, kneeling right at the side of the body; he grunted something in response, then went on to keep taking pictures. She grunted in response. "You know Chris, I don't talk caveman. So if you could tell me what I did or didn't do in English, it'd be terrific."
He shook his head. "Nothing. Guess I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."
"And whose bed would it be, lover-boy?" Brody chuckled; he didn't dignified her with an answer, but smiled proud and arrogant- even if he was lifting quizzically his eyebrows- when he noticed that Georgie was tensing hearing about his (non-existent) nightly escapades.
She was no prude, and she knew they were adults and that it was normal having sex; so it couldn't be that. If she was so tense, so uncomfortable, then there had to be another reason.
Maybe she wasn't as immune to his charms as she pretended to be.
Keith left Pride's side and joined them; he was dressed not as casually as the weeks before, and both Chris and Brody immediately noticed that something had mysteriously returned- he was spotting again a wedding band, which, thank God almighty, lacked on Georgie's left hand. "Ok guys, case's all yours, NOLA PD is officially off." He chuckled. "Good luck with that."
"Wow. Cold much, uh?" Brody asked, her voice low. "You would never say that you've been dating for months."
"We broke up a few weeks ago." Georgie kept looking at the body, at Loretta's side, without even lifting her eyes; her tone was flat, just like she was talking about the weather. "He's back with his ex-wife, I wasn't in for the long run anyway." She explained when silence followed her statement.
Chris wanted to chuckle; one of the reasons he hadn't really been all too happy with Georgie and Keith together was that the guy just wasn't enough for her. He was just so… so wrong. Not that he was any better, Chris knew he was no saint, but Keith was a self-centered ass-hole; he was easy-maintenance, in a way, and his Georgina needed to be challenged.
Seriously, why had he been so mad and worried to begin with? Of course it wouldn't have lasted! He should have known it to being with… which meant, he could get back at wine and dine her and try to get into her good graces- her bed and eventually her life. For Good
She didn't know it yet- but Georgina Newman wasn't going back to Los Angele any longer. Not if he could get a saying in it.
"You've got something for us?" Georgie walked into Loretta's lab, hands in the pockets of her jeans, sunglasses on despite being inside; she gave a quick look at the body the doctor was still examining, and suddenly, she had to turn and pinch her nose, another hand covering her mouth as a bolt of nausea hit her pretty hard.
"Did someone partied too much and too hard last night?" Loretta laughed. "Wouldn't blame you if you did. Because last night I won big." She ended the sentence sing-songing, then turned to look at Georgie, still in the corner on the verge of throwing up. "Georgie?"
Newman shook her head. "Yeah. Sorry. Must have eaten something bad that doesn't go along with cadavers." She tried to make fun of the topic, but, as she tried to laugh, another bolt of nausea wrenched her, bigger this time, and a pounding in her head; without asking for permission, she had to take a basin, and she just relieved herself.
"Uhm, sorry." She asked, candidly, using the walls to stay up. "I've been feeling awful this morning. Hoped that it would have changed, but it hasn't worked so far…"
Worried, Loretta took off her gloves and checked her temperature, forcing Georgie to take off her sunglasses; she was fresh- cold even- but she looked awful, her color and her dark circles clear indication.
"You want me to get you some coffee?" Loretta asked her, but at the mere pronounce of the word, Georgie was already again ready to vomit her soul.
"I'll take that as a no, then." Loretta sighed; with Georgie still on the floor, the doctor stood and went looking for something in a cabinet; soon she was back with a syringe. "Georgie, when was the last time you had your cycle?"
She shook her head. "No…" She whispered.
"Georgie… you are tired, you've got headache, nausea, things you've never minded before, such as bodies and coffee, are making you feel awful. Those are pregnancy symptoms." Loretta was talking with her calmly, quietly, like she was explaining something that was both easy to understand and yet hard to accept, she was distracting her so much that the cop didn't even notice that Loretta had taken her blood.
"No, just, no. I'm almost forty, and besides, I haven't been with anyone in more than a month…"
"No one knows they are pregnant in their first month, honey."
But Georgie kept shaking her head, moving her hands erratically. "No, I mean, I know. Just, it can't be. Because we've always been careful. Always!" She was still on the floor, but she seemed more… relaxed, and it was clear she was starting to feel better.
Loretta shook her head, one hand on her hip. "There's always a four percent chance of pregnancy, even in case of birth control."
"When girls are twenty-four and at the peak of the fertility, I get it. But," She stood up and got back to Loretta, and decided she had to try to face the body once and for all. "but I'm almost forty. Which is the lowest of my fertility."
Loretta sighed, getting exasperated. "Is that your way of telling me that you've missed your period lately?"
Georgie shrugged. "It's probably early menopause?" She didn't know if she was making an assumption or asking a question.
"Honey, I'm going to analyze your blood, but let's be honest, we both know that it's coming back positive, so stop burying that pretty head of yours in the sand and start seriously thinking about this, all right?" Because you and Christopher had been doing it for way too long…
Georgie rolled her eyes, sighing defeated. "Just, could we please keep it between us? Whatever the result is. I just… I know that the first few months are…" She choose the words that would fit the situation better, carefully, like, deep down, she already knew the truth, but wasn't ready to face it in front of the others. "… They are dangerous. I just don't want to… have something happen to the baby and have people pitying me, all right?"
"All right, if that's what you wish." Loretta chuckled, her eyes sweet and full of understanding as she looked at the woman in front of her and envied her a little- only chance had given her children, and they were already fully grown-up. "Now, getting back to our departed Mr. Sorenson…"