It had to happen sooner or later.

And she knew that. But she didn't have to like it. He was a detective, for crying out loud. He was needed to solve cases and do mountains of paperwork. He had to go back to work sometime. That, however, doesn't mean that Fiona was prepared for the separation anxiety that threatened to befall her while she watched him go through his morning routine of getting ready for work. She wasn't trying to be a petulant child but she was scared and worried. She doesn't want him to leave the house. Some time in the several weeks they'd spent together - him in bed, her taking care of him - she'd grown quite attached to having him around. Which was probably why she was currently sulking in a kitchen chair rather than just talking it out with him and dealing with it properly.

Always stubborn, she was.

"Fi-ona," Eddie drawled in exasperation, dropping his fork onto his plate and looking up at her. Any other time her usual pout-and-sulk routine would have made him melt, but after spending several weeks in the house, under her care, he'd have thought she'd be ready to be rid of him for a while during the day. Clearly not. He leaned back in his chair and chuckled quietly; "Fiona, I have to go back to work sometime."

"No, you don't!" Fiona protested, crossing her arms petulantly.

"And what, live off of you?" Eddie raised his eyesbrows. "Fiona, you knew this would happen."

"Why can't you just stay home for a couple more days?" Fiona asked him, still trying to win him over with the pout-and-sulk.

"Because I'm ready to go back to work," Eddie told her, pushing his chair back from the kitchen table and standing up. He dropped his plate and coffee mug into the sink before turning back to her. "Fiona, you're just acting like a child."

"I am not." Fiona shook her head indignantly.

Eddie sighed and made his way over to her, leaning against the stable. "You're sitting at the table pouting because I have to go back to work when you know I'll be home in a couple of hours."

"I just..." Fiona uncrossed her arms and stood up. "Eddie, are you sure you're ready to go back to work?"

"Fiona, I'm going to stir-crazy without work." Eddie grabbed her shoulders and tugged her to him - he was now basically sitting on the table. This could be interesting. "Nothing's going to happen to me. I promise. I've been given strict orders to not enter abandoned buildings alone and Pippin may be an idiot at times but he's a good Inspector and a good shot, he won't let anything happen to me."

"If you're sure," Fiona nodded, "Sorry for pouting, Eddie."

"You don't get to apologize. You were right to worry. I promise, this case won't end with me in a hospital bed." Eddie told her, smiling cheekily as he added. "Unless you wanted to play nurse and find out what those controls are really capable of."

"Eddie!" Fiona slapped his shoulder, blushing furiously.

Eddie chuckled as he pulled her into him and kissed her forehead, "I have to go. Apparently returning to work after an injury requires forms be signed and Superintendant has to sign off on me carrying a weapon."

"Okay," Fiona nodded.

"I'll be back in a few hours." Eddie reassured her, kissing her quickly before grabbing his jacket and starting for the door. "Bye Fiona."

"Bye Eddie." Fiona sighed as she listened to the slam of the front door followed by the sound of a car engine.

It was going to be a long day...

xxx

"So," Pippin looked over at Eddie, letting his binoculars drop back onto his chest, where they were hanging by a strap. They had been staring at the same entrance for two hours now waiting on a man who obviously wasn't going to show, by now Pippin had figured it okay to start his interrogation. "Fiona okay with you being back at work?"

"Why wouldn't she be?" Eddie asked him, even as the memory of how petulant and worried Fiona had been that morning, lingered in the back of his mind.

"Well I figure since you two are dating now..." Pippin shrugged as if to say that he could have been wrong.

"Dating? What are we, in high school now Pippin?" Eddie asked him incredulously.

"What would you call it then?" Pippin asked him pointedly. "You've kissed, you went out on a date and I'm assuming you've..."

"Not that it's any of your business but me and Fiona have...you know..." Eddie trailed off, trying to keep specific pieces of information - mostly information about certain activities which had been unmentionably wild - from his partner.

"Already?" Pippin grinned at him, "That didn't take long."

"Pippin." Eddie sighed in exasperation. He paused for a moment as if gathering his thoughts, "On second thought, you're right. It didn't take long for that too happen."

"How many times has it happened?" Pippin asked him, raising his eyebrows curiously when he noticed Eddie's smug look. "That smug look can only cross the face of a man who has been satisfied more than once."

Eddie absently raked a hand through his hair as he mumbled a quick, "Twice."

"Twice, you've been..." Pippin's look was one of pure admiration and envy. "How in the world?"

"In our defense, we were trying to go slow." Eddie's protectiveness kicked in - or that might have been his defense tactic.

"And slow for you is going full speed ahead for the rest of us." Pippin told him, "I cannot believe you and Fiona have..."

"Don't say it like that." Eddie groaned, leaning his head back against the seat. "You make it sound like we're doing something wrong."

"You're not. I'm just surprised considering how much you claimed to hate her before." Pippin chuckled, "Then again, we men do have very carnal ways of releasing our frustrations when it comes to women."

"You make her sound like a piece of meat." Eddie glared at Pippin from the passenger seat. "And we didn't really hate each other that much."

"So all that bickering was just hiding what I already knew?" Pippin asked him, "That you wanted to have your way with each other?"

"Is that all you think about?" Eddie asked him, raising his eyebrows. "On second thought, keep your mouth shut. I don't want to know."

"No, you don't."

"Can we please get back to the case? I'm tired of talking about what may or may not be happening between me and Fiona." Eddie sighed, ready to change the subject, even if Pippin wasn't. "And no, just for the record, Fiona was not okay with me returning to work."

"I knew it..." Pippin trailed off as he picked up his binoculars and went back to surveillance only to drop them again and shove the car into gear. "Hold onto your hat, there he is."

xxx

"How was your first day back?" Fiona asked Eddie late that night, from her vantage point in his bed. She watched him move around the room as he shed his work clothes and traded them for comfortable clothes. "Pippin give you a hard time."

"Yes apparently, because we've already done it twice, we're already going full speed ahead." Eddie laughed as he pulled a black t-shirt over his head.

"Well it kind of is," Fiona laughed, reaching for the covers on his side of the bed and pulling them back as he crawled into bed. "Let's face it, I spend more nights in here than I do my own room, we've kissed numerous times, done it twice and have only been on one date."

"What do you say - " Eddie grinned sly as he rolled them over and reached down to unbutton the white dress shirt of his that she was using as a night shirt. "We go three for three and work on the rest some other time?"

"Sounds good to me." Fiona grinned as she pulled his t-shirt over his head and tossed it somewhere.

Yes, slow was full speed ahead for them but they had their foot on the accelerator and neither had given a second glance at putting the brakes on their relationship. They liked it just like it was. Full speed ahead was the only way their relationship had ever worked - even when they had hated each other. They had to go full speed ahead, even with the all to real risk of crashing and burning.

Plus, it wasn't like there weren't a few fringe benefits to going faster than most people.

You might even say, there were unmentionably wild and delicious benefits that could be reaped from taking their relationship faster than most.


So, chapter nine, just kind of wrote itself in like an hour. The next chapter, I'm going to explore the possibility of Eddie and Fiona fighting and discovering the joys of making up while Eddie deals with the stress of a case. Hope you enjoyed it! Leave me some love, Dolls!

Love ya,

RobertDowneyJrLove