A/N: Welcome to another chapter of the story. I'm not going to hold you up, let's get started!
Chapter 9: Xena
"So let me get this straight, you kissed her?" Warthorn asked looking wide eyed at his son but smiling at the same time.
Robert threw his hands up resignation; he had just told his father what had happened at the hospital between him and Eva. They were now in the living room at their house talking and his father has a firm belief that Robert had actually meant to kiss Eva and no matter how many times he told his dad that it was an accident when he had tried to steady her he thought he had done it on purpose, at least the pull her in bit.
"No dad, I didn't kiss her, for one we just touched noses!" Robert said in exasperation. Meanwhile Warthorn was about to say more when his phone vibrated causing him to look over and see the text message said, 'I'm ready for our date whenever you are. Pick me up at 7:30 pm. Love Xena.' and he looked over at the clock on the DVR and saw it read 6:30.
"Alright, well anyways I have a business meeting I have to get to so I'll let this go. But you should talk to her as soon as possible about it." He said while getting up and heading upstairs into his room leaving a perplexed Robert.
"Why doesn't he just tell me he has a freaking date with his girlfriend? Doesn't make any sense." He said heading upstairs shaking his head.
Warthorn then came out is room wearing a tux and carrying a necklace box under his arm and the two of them stared at each other when Robert gave a smirk and said, "Enjoy your date dad." and walked into his room with Warthorn saying, "I'm not dating her, I'm just taking her out to eat for business deal!" which left him heading to the garage and Robert chuckling that his dad was in denial he was dating someone.
Warthorn got into his Chevy Cruse opening the garage door and driving out of it with it closing behind him driving to Xena's house which was about ten blocks away in a neighborhood called Shadow Edge.
He came up to her house which was an average one story house made of bricks with some Ivy growing on the left side of it.
He got out of the car and walked up to the door and looked at his watch seeing it said 7:29 and waited with his hand over the door bell and the moment the watch turned to 7:30 he pressed the doorbell causing a sharp ring to be heard inside of the house.
Warthorn stepped away from the door to the steps and made sure his tux was nice and straight and wrinkle free when the door opened and the most gorgeous sight ever was there to greet him causing his mouth to drop with amazement.
Standing on the porch was a smiling cream colored wolf with sapphire blue eyes wearing a deep navy blue cocktail dress with emerald earrings. She looked at Warthorn raising an eyebrow and saying, "How is it you can get here right on time I will never know, and also Warthorn," she said taking on hand and lightly lifting Warthorn lower jaw till it was closed again, "There could be flies around." She said with a giggle.
Warthorn smiled and said, "True, he-he, so are you ready for our date?" he asked as she reached to the side and grabbed a light jacket and put it on and shouldered her purse with a smile.
"Whenever you are." She said and Warthorn returned the smile and lead the way to the car opening the passenger side door allowing her to get in. After closing the door he walked around the car and got into the driver seat starting up the car.
As they drove their destination Xena asked, "So what restaurant are we heading to?" looking at Warthorn.
Warthorn smiled and said, "Oh, that's the secret my dear. You'll see soon enough." He said winking at Xena.
Xena narrowed her eyes but was still smiling. She looked forward again with her eyes normal but what Warthorn didn't see was her looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
She thought about when he asked her to go out on a date with her a few weeks ago. He had acted a little uncomfortable during it and she had known it was because she worked for the JPD and because of that she looked up whom Warthorn was and what he did and what she had found was that he was in a similar situation as her. Only her late husband had died in a plane crash and not murdered. But still Xander had died leaving her without someone to love and Warthorn had been the only other person she had dated after his death. The other wolf wanted her really for a one night stand, he thought otherwise when he realized she was a cop packing heat in her purse.
But when she met Warthorn she could tell he was different in many respects, most of all he already knew she was a cop and accepted it and that he even admitted he was impressed with everything she did to keep the criminals off the streets.
She had been the spear head for many operations against drug lords, gangs, and many other unsavory things. She has had to deal with death before but for some reason she couldn't get over Xander's death and she knew it was because he was the only one she ever loved.
One day she decided to try and move on but it wasn't until a month ago that she started dating Warthorn and the month before that she dated that one wolf…before he got scared off.
At first she wasn't sure about Warthorn and when their date first started he was obviously nervous but she didn't think anything of it and the date went great to the point where it was nearly closing time and they had to leave.
But there was something else she wanted to say though, "Warthorn?" she said getting his attention and he said, "Yes?" without taking his eyes off the road.
"Why didn't you wait for the police to get there? I was there but still you didn't have to kill him. From what everyone else said you had disarmed him and had the gun at his head. You could've waited until we had arrived instead of shooting him. I know he killed your wife but still if it wasn't for the fact he attacked your son and nearly stabbed you in the back with a knife you would be suffering legal consequences for that." She said firmly but kindly. As much as she didn't want to bring that day up she had to.
Warthorn smiled but it wasn't cheerful in the least, "Because, can you honestly tell me he wouldn't have been able to escape again? That he wouldn't have found some other way out? He was locked in a maximum security prison and was capable of evading the police. Not to mention they waited for two days before alerting me about his escape." He looked over at Xena and said, "Can you really blame me for wanting to make sure that son of a gun never escaped again?" he asked looking at her as they pulled into a parking space.
Xena thought about it for a minute then said, "Alright, I see what you mean. I was just making sure you aren't in the habit of taking our jobs from us." She said as a joke and was rewarded with chuckle from Warthorn.
She opened the door to get out and said, "But there was another reason why I asked." She said and Warthorn asked, "What was that?"
Xena looked back him as she was getting out and smiled and said, "I wanted kill him myself." And when she got out closed she closed the car door before Warthorn could respond.
Warthorn was caught off guard causing him to quickly get out of the car and go to her to see her staring at the restaurant in front of them.
Warthorn smiled and said, "Surprised?" and she nodded and said, "I can't believe you got reservations to Star Howl!" she exclaimed staring at the two story restaurant in front of them that had one half of the restaurants second story open to the elements.
She looked at Warthorn as he took her hand and lead her to the through the line to the front.
"Do you have reservations sir?" the woman asked Warthorn.
"Yes, it should be under Warthorn War-eye." He responded while the woman looked at the computer and finds the name and smiles at Warthorn and Xena.
"Right this way sir and ma'am." She said leading them to a table in the on the second story and in the open area where they sat down with soft piano music playing in the background.
Xena looked at Warthorn who was smiling as the waiter came up and placed their menus on the table.
Xena looked at the menu as Warthorn said, "Choose whatever you want, tonight is your night my dear." He said as he looked over his menu.
Xena was a little worried about how much Warthorn was spending by coming here but she knew that he was a sensible person and that though this was a five star restaurant he most likely could afford it.
Besides, she was really enjoying this evening and when the waiter came back she ordered the Californian Salmon while Warthorn ordered the New York style caribou steak medium rare.
He stared at Xena and she stared at him back until she starts laughing.
Warthorn cocked his eyebrow and asks with a smile, "What?"
Xena gets a hold of her mirth and says, "It's just, I never thought I'd be eating at one of the most respected restaurants in Canada! How were you capable of getting a reservation here?" she asked.
Warthorn smirked and replied, "Simple, I know the owner and he owed me a favor." He said causing Xena to squint at him and he elaborated before she got any ideas.
"His sons in the military and my last op involved his son being pinned down with his squad and we were sent to get them out. We succeeded in getting his squad out of there and his dad contacted me a couple of years ago and said if I ever wanted to eat at his restaurant he said his door was always open to him." He explained just as the food arrived and they both dug into the delicious if simple meal.
After about fifteen minutes the two of them were done eating and they waited for their check when Warthorn leans on the table with his hands on top of each other and under his chin.
Xena saw this and wondered why he was staring at her with a small smile so she asked, "What?"
Warthorn's smile grew a little and he responded saying while pointing, "I think whatever is in your purse you're going to want to take a look at."
Xena looked at him with a raised eyebrow but reached for her purse and picked it up while opening and found her looking at a blue laced necklace box. She took that out and looked at Warthorn in both surprise and confusion.
"Ok, first off how did you get this in my purse without me noticing?" she asked looking at him with some suspicion.
Warthorn smiled and said, "Simple, on the ride here I slipped it into your purse without you noticing, the one thing I know I'm good at is pick pocketing." He said with a roguish smile.
She looked at him wide eyed but in her mind she thought, well, at least he's honest. And then looked at the box and decided to put the matter about the fact Warthorn knew how to pick pocket aside and focused on the box.
"Are you going to open it?" Warthorn asked nicely.
Xena looked up and smiled, "Of course, I was just admiring the fact you know how to pick pocket." She said and was surprised when Warthorn chuckled at that.
She ignored it and opened the box, and gasped as she beheld a necklace of white gold with a pennant with a ruby in the center in the form of a tear drop shape.
She looked at Warthorn with an agape mouth and asked, "You got this for me?" she said shocked that Warthorn would actually buy this for her.
Warthorn smiled and said, "Yes I did. Would you like me to put it on you?" he asked politely.
Xena said enthusiastically, "Yes!" and Warthorn got up, taking the necklace from her as he went behind her he unclasped the necklace and put it around her neck clasping it together again and stepped back as she stood and turned around for him to get a look at her with it on.
"What do you think?" she said with a smile as Warthorn stared at her with wide eyes, completely in love with how the necklace matched her cream colored fur perfectly and even seemed to highlight the fur even more.
"Like what you see?" Xena said and before Warthorn could say anything the waiter came up with the check and said, "Here you go sir…I have to say you look stunning ma'am!" He said with his mouth open and looked to the side to see Warthorn glaring at him.
The waiter gulped and stuttered, "Ah, I have to ah…" he attempted to say looking left and right.
"Get back to work perhaps? And thank you for the check." Warthorn said as the waiter quickly said "Of course sir, enjoy the rest of your night." And hurriedly went back to his job while he still had one.
Warthorn sighed and with a rueful smile said, "He is right though Xena, you look stunning!" he said looking at her sapphire blue eyes.
Xena giggled a little at that then took Warthorn's hand and walked with him to the cashier who took Warthorn's credit card and swiped it and replied after handing it back, "Have a good night."
The two of them got into the car and as Warthorn drove Xena home she admires her necklace wondering how much it must've cost him but decided not to worry about it.
When they arrive at her house Warthorn gets out and opens the door for her and leads her to the front door of the house where they face each other.
"I really enjoyed the evening Warthorn, thanks for the best night I've had in years." Xena said.
Warthorn replied with a smile, "It was my pleasure Xena." And the two of them looked into each other's eyes both seeing something in them.
Warthorn saw in Xena's eyes beauty, grace, determination, a nobility of spirit, and fierceness mixed with kindness while Xena saw in Warthorn's dark brown eyes ferocity, hope, sadness, strength, and kindness and then the two leaned in and kissed each other.
They both closed their eyes and savored the moment when it lasted for a whole minute and the two of them pulled away and stared at each other with wide eyed and a little breathless and they both said, "Wow." At the same time and both realized that and Warthorn said, "I ah, have to get going, good night Xena." He said as he headed off to the car with Xena saying, "See you soon Warthorn." And headed inside and after she closed the door behind her she breathed out, "Wow."
Unbeknownst to her was that Warthorn said the exact same thing as he sat in his car and drove away.
A/N: What did you lot think? Be honest! I can take criticism mates, so please leave a review!