CHAPTER TEN
Playing Dress Up

It had been a month since then, and Nate had kept true to his word. He didn't lay a hand on her, and he even stopped drinking cold turkey. Sophie could see it was hard for him, but he was trying, and that was all she could really ask for. Things were getting better, even though there were still angry arguments from sober Nate now, just frustrated because he can't go have a drink.

Her and Parker had become closer though, and Sophie found they were hanging out about every other day at least. She was still the first person that Sophie thought of when she needed to feel safe, and even though Nate was doing significantly better since Christmas, the arguments still continued to escalate.

"Oh god, do we have to?" came Parker's worried response to Sophie's request. The last thing she needed right now was to enhance the already too girly behavior between the two of them.

"Of course!" Sophie said like she was ridiculous for even contemplating otherwise, and turned her to face the wall mirror as she sat her down on a chair and stood behind her. "You want to look beautiful for her, don't you?"

Parker made a face but sat diligently into the chair designated for her. She puffed out her cheeks as she let out a breath in defeat. "I'm not pretty enough now?" she asked her, looking at herself in the mirror. She thought she was pretty, at least. Mariah did say yes to the date when she was looking like this anyway, so why change it?

"Parker, you're gorgeous, I mean that," Sophie said, looking her in the eyes seriously so to pick up what she thought was Parker's dropping self esteem, though in fact it was only her confusement. "But everyone likes to look a little extra special while trying to impress someone of romantic interest."

"But I just want to have sex, not have romance," Parker tells her honestly, which makes Sophie roll her eyes and swat her a bit with the comb she had in her hand before starting to run in through her hair. Parker winced as she pulled on a knot.

"Well then this will help you get her into bed then, yeah?" Sophie said, trying to be serious but still sounding like overt sarcasm. Didn't Parker realize that some women needed a touch of romance?

"If you say so," is all Parker replies, then lets out an "Ow!" as Sophie pulls at her hair again. She slaps her hand over the offending area and glares at Sophie in the mirror.

Sophie let's out a patient sigh, "Well if you took better care of your hair that wouldn't have happened."

"My hair is fine," Parker replies and tries to get up, but is pushed with one hand on the shoulder back into the chair by Sophie. She huffs.

"Now tell me about this girl," Sophie requests as she starts working on her hair again.

Parker shrugs, "She's just a girl. Has nice boobs."

"Parker!" Sophie exclaims, and thwacks her on the head with the comb, which makes Parker cover her head again and exclaim annoyance on the matter. "You need to stop talking about women that way Eliot does."

"But she does have nice boobs!" Parker protests, clearly not understanding what was so wrong with saying that. She rubs her head a bit then puts her hand down. "I don't know, what do you want to know?"

"Why do you like her?" Sophie asks as she puts down the comb and starts picking up a few bobby pins, putting them in her mouth as she gets to work on her project.

"Because she's hot. Do we have to have girl time right now?" she asks, never enjoying these conversations much because she never felt like how a girl is supposed to be most of the time during these.

"Yes," Sophie tells her. A pause, "Anything else? Or are you simply just trying to get up her skirt?"

"The skirt thing."

Sophie sighs as she twists Parker's hair up, holding it in place with the bobby pins. "Are you ever interested in anything other than sex with another person?"

"I was with Hardison," Parker says, then makes a face. "It didn't end happy though so I don't see the point anymore."

"You can't write off all relationships because of that," Sophie told her softly, pausing to look at her in the mirror. She put her hands on Parker's shoulders and then ran them down her arms, squeezing them a bit. "You'll find someone else, I promise."

"Who?" Parker scoffs, rolling her eyes. "Everyone thinks I'm insane, all I'm good for is sex."

"That is not true!" Sophie exclaimed and came around the other side of the chair to face Parker, kneeling down in front of her so she could get at eye level with the thief. She tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ear and rested her hand on her cheek, looking at her seriously. "You are so amazing Parker. You're incredibly sweet most of the time, you're protective and brave, you're talented… you have so much to offer someone. Please believe me about that." She leaned in and kissed Parker, just a press of the lips that lingered probably a bit longer than it should have. When they broke she gave her a small smile and Parker licked her lips nervously and just nodded, not knowing what else to say.

It was like that with them now though: Sophie kissing Parker all the time. Parker didn't understand why, because it was never anything that she could interpret as solely sexual because they were always during times like this, or sometimes just kisses hello or goodbye. Sophie always seemed to want to kiss Parker, but it was never like the one under the mistletoe. There wasn't any tongue, it wasn't meant for anything else other than what exactly it was: a kiss. Or at least, Parker thought. But she did notice Sophie seemed to keep doing it a lot more often than not recently, and each kiss seemed to last a bit longer than the last.

When Sophie went back to her place behind the chair she continued to fix Parker's hair, and she laughed a bit as she admitted, "You know, it's funny. Sometimes I think that if it wasn't for Nate I'd try to make a play for you, even though you're a woman."

Parker just blinked at her, "What?"

Sophie didn't seem to understand the significance of what she just said to Parker, so she kept on. "Yeah, you know, I feel safe with you. Happier. I guess even though I'm not into women specifically, it might just feel so right with you that it wouldn't matter." She giggled a bit then shrugged as she put in the last bobby pin in her hair. "But no use talking about something like that." Parker was about to ask why not, when Sophie exclaimed, "There, done!"

Parker looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes wide at how it looks, though her mind was still trying to process what Sophie had just admitted to her. But she doesn't get much of a chance because Sophie's pulling her up now, over to her closet. "Now for clothes," she tells her, and starts looking through it.

Parker just stares at her, not knowing exactly how she was supposed to feel about what Sophie said. If she was to be honest with herself, she felt a little happy at the revelation, though that surprised her and yet at the same time worried her for the same reasons.

It also made her not want to go on the date she had tonight. She wanted to stay with Sophie, which was also a really bad thing to want.

"Oh Parker, you should just throw this wretched thing out," Sophie says, holding up a sweatshirt that was beyond wear and tear. Parker snapped out of her thoughts to snatch the offending object out of Sophie's hands and hold it close to her.

"No, its my favorite!"

Sophie just rolled her eyes a bit before pulling out a little black cocktail dress. "Ah, see this… this is perfect," she says as she hands it to Parker. "Try it on."

"But I already know it fits, its mine," Parker tells her.

Sophie just let out a patient sigh but responds, "I know that, but I want to see my work it it's entirety, now strip."

Parker blinks again at Sophie's order of 'strip', just because that could be taken so many ways. But she does what she says and takes off her shirt, pulling up off over her head and discarding it to the floor before pulling off her pants. Sophie looked at her in her underwear, and then the dress, and observed, "I think you're going to have to lose the bra. The dress is padded anyway."

For the first time in Parker's life, she was hesitant about taking her clothes off in front of someone. She had this funny feeling in the pit of her stomach that she didn't know how to explain, and she just thought it might be a bad idea, though she wasn't sure why.

"Oh come on, Parker, we're both girls," Sophie says with an eye roll. "You've never been shy before. Just take it off so you can put on the dress." And then she just stands there, staring at her.

Parker does what she says though, silently reaching up behind her to unclasp her bra before shrugging it off of her shoulders, letting it fall to the ground probably more slowly than she should have allowed it to. Sophie blinks a minute, staring at her chest like she wasn't expecting to do it so obviously. But Parker noticed it.

"The dress..." Sophie says finally, her voice a bit lower then normal, trying to tell Parker to please put back on her clothes, that maybe her own idea wasn't the best after all.

"Right," Parker says, and shakes herself out of it before sliding the dress on. Sophie goes behind her and zips it up for her slowly, before placing her hands delicately on the other woman's shoulders before turning her around to face her.

"God," Sophie breathed as she looks her over. "You look stunning."

Parker chewed on her bottom lip a bit before looking up at Sophie, before deciding to do the one thing Sophie always did to her. She leaned in and pressed her lips to hers, closing her eyes as she felt the grip Sophie had to her shoulder tighten a bit. When they broke she whispered, "Thank you…"

She knew a thank you kiss wasn't out of line.

Sophie looks down, biting her tongue lightly for a minute as if to stop herself from saying something. Then she was out of the trance, and smiled at her before giving her a little affectionate pat on the butt, which made Parker jump a bit. "Come on, shoes now. You're going to have everyone falling all over you."

Unfortunately, that' what Parker found herself hoping for, but it wasn't about Mariah.

TBC…