Title: Trouble comes in Twos - Part 6

Night has long fallen. The frogs are singing, with backup from the gently swaying branches of the oak trees. After coming back to the house and calling the local police, we were told that they'd be by in the morning and that it was too late for them to come out to just follow a blood trail.

Amateurs.

That's harsh of me. I know they don't have the kinds of funds that we do at the NOPD. Their budget is going to get a harsh kick in the privates after all the lab bills and hours of investigation they'll have to do on this case. Which is another reason why I want to help them. I'm pretty confident that Nikki really isn't a serious suspect, but I want to make sure this investigation doesn't pigeonhole her into one just because she owns the land the man was found on.

Nikki and I bid Darius a good night about a half hour ago. I don't think it's late enough for him to have made his excuses and gone to bed, but I'll forgive him for leaving us alone.

We haven't spoken much since we walked back, just making small talk with Darius at dinner and afterwards on the porch. It's peaceful out here, but the tension is so thick between us.

Sitting here on the couch, with her only a foot or so away, both of us sipping a hot toddy against the evening's chill, I can't help but want more. I can't help but sit here and wish she was holding me. I can't help but wish...

I sigh louder than I intended and Nikki looks at me. We've got the outside lights off, the one interior kitchen light our only illumination against the darkness.

Her eyes are gazing at me intently again, questioning. Meeting her gaze for a long moment, I feel those tightly reined in emotions within creeping further out.

"Did you come here to run away?" I blurt out that one question she has refused to answer. I want to know. I mean, I know the answer, but I need to hear her say it even though I don't understand why.

A sad smile crosses her face and she turns her body to me, and rests her arm on the back of the couch, propping her head up on her hand.

"Yes."

Nikki's answer is simple yet we both know there's more to that.

"Tell me why?"

She considers my plea for several long minutes, just gazing at me. I can feel her eyes studying my face, looking for something.

"You want the truth?" she asks.

"Always. Always the truth," I answer, flashing back to the first day I met Nikki, only last week, and our first "partner" moment at the Dupont crime scene. She had asked me almost the same thing and I had answered the same.

Her sad smile changes for a second to one of amusement, and I wonder if she too remembers our conversation.

"The truth it is then. I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I'll admit that. But it's not the advantage you'd think. People expect things of you, expect you to act a certain way..." she starts to explain and I listen closely. I want to understand. "And when you don't, they use it against you. I have worked my ass off to get where I am without money or my Daddy's influence... or rather in spite of it."

"I know, Nikki. You're a great cop..." I start but she stops me.

"Let me finish. I have to get this out," she insists. "When I went to Tulane, my third year, I fell for this other student, Theresa Whitmoore. She was from New York, from a very well to do family as well. Sophisticated. Very beautiful. I was charmed by her. When I hit twenty-one I started going out to this one hot spot in the French Quarter. She saw me there once, dancing with this girl I'd met... let's just say that I was rather promiscuous back then, and told me that she was interested in me."

She rolls her brown eyes up at the sky and back, "I should have known back then, but I was still full of myself. I hadn't noticed women in a romantic way for that long, but... we started dating. One thing led to another. But I slowly became aware of something that I hadn't been willing to see, until we had been together for about eight months."

"What was that?" I ask quietly, wanting to know.

"She was more interested in my 'connections' and in my family than me. I had introduced her, as a friend, mind you, since she was very much in the closet, to all the local debutantes and high society types that I still knew and associated with." Nikki took a moment to take a drink and clear her throat.

"She met Tucker Harper and married him one year later, about 3 months after she stopped seeing me," she says with a small scowl on her face. "I wasn't clueless to what was going on between them, but I... well, back then I was a romantic."

Damn. You're going to make me cry, Nikki Beaumont.

She takes another sip of the warm drink and continues, "So after I joined the force three years later and went through the debacle with my first partner, I made it a rule. Don't get involved with cops or friends."

I don't know quite what to say, I only know how I feel. I know it's new to me. I know I care for this woman.

Nikki has one last thing to say before I can even gather up the courage to speak. The scowl on her face makes way for a slow, sexy smile. One that I haven't seen in a couple of days.

"However, a certain Detective has been making it very hard for me to follow my own rules. Which is why I ran like a chicken," she chuckles to herself, then grows serious again. "I shouldn't have left you alone that night. You were hurt..."

Reaching out I take the hand that she's got propped up on top of the couch in mine. I look at it, there in my grasp. Her fingers are slightly longer and more elegant than mine. Something I'd imagine that a pianist would have. Not like mine. I do take care to have my nails done, but my hands weren't made to be this beautiful.

Gently removing her hand from mine, Nikki puts down her cup and stands up. The nervousness is radiating off her in waves. I can feel it, but I'm lost. I don't know how to keep her from running again.

"I'm going to go back inside," she states, getting up from the couch.

"Nikki..." I stand up quickly and reach out to stop her before she can leave. "Please, don't go. I'm not her. I'm not Theresa. I'm not that sexually harassing asshole that was your first partner either."

She turns to look at me, her dark eyes so very sad. Her face looks even paler than usual and I can see the faint trace of dark circles under her eyes, her makeup unable to cover up the evidence completely.

I reluctantly let her go. "Thank you for telling me."

She looks at me with a wry look, "You deserved to know."

A quiet moment passes between us, then I let her escape, "Good night, Nikki. Try to get some sleep." I smile tentatively, pleased when she returns it.

"I'll do my best. Good night, Nora," she turns and opens the back door, throwing a parting word over her shoulder, "Sweet dreams."

I'm sure they will be, is what I want to say, but instead I just smile and watch her leave.

I sit back in my seat and enjoy the quiet of the night and my hot drink. I'm not too surprised when Darius makes an appearance, with his own toddy by the smell of it.

"I thought you went to bed?"

"Nah... too early. Couldn't sleep," he replies and sits down next to me, where Nikki was sitting.

"I think you mean that Nikki went to bed, so you thought you'd come out and prod me for information," I smirk, knowing he can see it, even though I'm staring out into the night.

"Guilty as charged, Detective," Darius chuckles, his white teeth flashing in the dim light of the porch.

Another few minutes of silence makes me prompt him a little, "I never got to thank you."

"For what?" he sounds surprised.

"Helping with the case. It really helped us," I compliment, "Without your help, we wouldn't have been able to find Simon. Of course, it would have helped to know he was an insane driver."

Darius barks out a low laugh, "Well, since you followed him, what does that say about you?"

"Good point," I chuckle back. "Is she really pissed about her car?"

"Talk about insane..." he continues to laugh, then tries to reassure me, "Nah, she's not mad. It was on the job. She's sad about it though, from what she's told me the car is going to be toast after soaking in the river and then sitting in a lot."

"I'm going to have to come up with something good to make up for it," I muse. That beautiful car. Sighing, I take a sip of my cooling drink.

"You'll come up with something, Detective," he replies. I can see him looking at me out of the corner of my eye. Studying me.

"If we're going to work together, you'll have to call me Nora."

"Nora. She's hurting inside."

I shouldn't have been blind-sided by him, but I am. Nothing new when it comes to Nikki apparently.

"She's not the only one," I mutter, but he hears me.

"I don't think either of you meant to hurt the other, Nora."

"That's the only good news so far about this situation... and the fact that she didn't show me the door as soon as I showed up," I note sadly before asking, "When did she find out I was coming?"

"Well, her daddy called about an hour before you got here. I got the idea that he didn't want to tell her, but from listening to her side of the conversation, she could tell he was holding something back. She's got her daddy wrapped around her little finger so tightly that it didn't take much to get it out of him," he clears his throat nervously. "She didn't sound happy."

I feel like I want to cry but a disheartening laugh comes out instead, "Of course not. She came here to get away from me."

"I know," Darius admits, his voice barely a whisper. "You need to get her to open up about why she won't date you."

"I KNOW why she won't date me Darius. She told me why," I hiss bitterly, frustration building up. I don't want to talk about this anymore. I'm tired. I'm sore. God am I sore. Sore in ribs and heart.

"So, what? You're going to just give up? Go back to being partners? Find someway to work together for years even if it kills you?" he asks impassioned.

"If that's what it takes to make sure she doesn't leave m... the unit? Then yes," I get up and start to walk past him to the door, but he grabs my arm and stops me.

I look at his hand pointedly and to his face.

"Don't give up, Nora," he insists and lets me go.

"Good night, Darius."

TBC