Mara stood at the near edge of his desk, having been pressed in by Garrett and Dino taking up the long front. Her fingers curled tightly on the side of her legal pad as she scribbled notes, as much for stability as a means to keep her tongue and emotions in check. It had made for a somewhat trying day, but she'd managed to act with an icy professionalism whenever unable to avoid him altogether- content in the knowledge she only had a few days to go, and there could be no cause for complaint if she went strictly by the numbers for the duration. Though she usually gave her all for a client, there has been something about this assignment, this man, that made her want to go above and beyond even her customary 110%. The casualness of his jest hurt almost as much as the realization it had all been effort wasted.
After their pleasant evening together, and yes it had been embarrassing but he had glossed over it like it didn't matter at all. Only to subtly lord it over her, make sport of her for fun… the action and the rejection it implied stung equally hard.
"So if there's nothing else…" Frank- the Commissioner's voice broke into her thoughts, and she allowed an internal sigh of relief. The meeting was drawing to a close and the day was almost over. Escape was just a few seconds away, as soon as his aides decamped. "Thank you, gentlemen. That'll be all." The men passed her with quick nods of acknowledgement, and she returned them before settling her focus on the files she was shuffling against her forearm. Knowing she must take leave before departing, she decided to use his own words and tossed out a perfunctory, "So, if there's nothing else, Sir, I'll say good night," and turned on her heel to go.
"Mara?" His voice brought her up short. "Actually, there was something else." Steeling herself with a deep breath, she rotated back and waited, pen at the ready, eyes pinned to her notepad. "Yes, sir?"
"About this afternoon," he began decisively. "There's nothing to discuss, Sir. Except that I didn't need the minutes of April's committee meetings for the status report." Extracting the unnecessary file from the pile on her arm, she stepped in, tossed it to the far corner of the desk and started to swing back toward the door.
Time suddenly slowed to three-quarter speed as she began her arc, preparing to simply walk out and finish her last two days with taut professionalism. Then she felt something latch onto her hand, and in the instant she realized what it was, time stopped altogether.
She was going to leave again. He wanted her to stay, he needed her to stay. Just as her hand was about to slide out of his reach, he caught it with his own. The grip was loose enough to break easily if she wished, but it caught her attention, and she took a deep breath before turning to look at him. Frank knew it was his time to speak or just do something but he was distracted by the way her hand fit into his, despite being so much smaller, and lost a few moments just tracing the ridges of her knuckles with the pad of his thumb.
Finally he brought his gaze to meet hers, the words again faltering as he noticed the faint sheen of tears and a tiny creasing of the skin between her brows before she dropped her gaze to the floor. Giving a slight tug on the hand he still retained, he directed her around the corner of his desk, rolling his chair out of the way to give her room to lean against the edge.
"Mara," he began, with a gentle press into her palm, "I'm sorry. I had a pretty decently worded apology worked out if I say so myself, but the meat of it is just that. I'm sorry. Without realizing it, I took things too far, and I was trying to get the taste of shoe polish off my tongue before I tried talking to you again. But the simple truth of it is that I'm sorry, and I never meant to hurt you, and I really hope we can… get back to whatever we were getting to be before I decided to jam my foot in my mouth."
Her jaw dropped the space of an inch, and he paused to let her speak, continuing on when all that came out was a sigh. "And I know you're leaving in 2 days, but I'd really rather you left on a positive note, both with this office… and with me."
She'd been watching him from the second "I'm sorry", but her eyes had fixed down on the way he was still holding her hand once he'd concluded, and it was there her gaze stayed, on those big, capable yet impossibly elegant fingers caging her own when she finally replied. "You couldn't really have known. And I know I'll be out of here soon, and that you probably weren't trying to hurt me, and you didn't even have to apologize unless you wanted to… " She broke off with a quiet sigh. "But I spent so much time in school being made fun of, and it just… really hurt to think you were doing it too."
The expression on his face would do the most sheepish schoolboy proud, as though he'd been caught out leaving a "check yes or no" note on a girl's desk and decided to pull her pigtails instead. "Oh, Mara. I wasn't making fun. I was just… teasing."
A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she regarded him with a slight quizzicality. "Big Anne of Green Gables fan, are you?" A slight tinge of color rose from his collar to the tops of his ears, and all she could think was how adorable the man was when he blushed. "Erin… Christmas one year begged for the movies. Watched them all the time with her mother, and I'd usually get stuck on the couch with them. After Mary… well, we watched them again together."
This time she was the one giving a small squeeze to the fingers that lay in her grasp, and he surprised her by sliding his hand a bit until they lay palm to palm and returning the gesture. They stayed like that for a while, bodies inclined towards one another, comfortably holding hands between their respective seats. Then she straightened, brushing the corners of her eyes with her free fingertips, and cleared her throat as though preparing for a pronouncement. "Alright. I'm hungry, and I know you probably are too, so what do you say we get out of here? There's a diner a few blocks away that I hear makes a fantastic clam chowder. It's no Danelli's, but it's supposed to be good and it's my treat, if you're interested."
Doing that nod with a slight pucker of his mouth she was coming to recognize so well, he pushed out of the chair and led her back around the desk to the center of his office. Reluctantly relinquishing her hand so they could gather their things, Frank found himself involuntarily flexing his now gloved extremity as they stood waiting for the elevator. After they stepped inside the car and he pressed the button for the lobby, he had decided to make a leather clad fist to suppress his fidgets… when her own gloved hand slid into his again. There were no words spoken, and her eyes remained nonchalantly fixed on the lighted floor indicators until they reached the ground floor, whereupon she turned to flash him a quick grin before they stepped off the elevator and off into the night.
A/N: Sorry sorry sorry. Stuff. No excuse really.
If you're still with me, there is one more chapter to go... unless you guys tell me you'd like more. I can do a quick wrap up or let it play out a bit.
Leave a review either way and let me know. Hope you're enjoying it, and I promise the next bit won't take so long to post.