I seriously cannot believe that it took me this long to update. And I cannot express how sorry I am. At times I thought I would never be able to update again. But here I am. Thanks to all of who reviewed and who kept sending me messages asking me to update.

And a huge THANK YOU to Amanda for betaing this chapter so you all don't have to read my stupid mistakes anymore.

Chapter 10: Out and back

When Nico passed Dani's room the next morning, he could hear the blow-dryer running inside and knew that it would still take a while until she was ready. It was just nine o'clock, and they had agreed on nine thirty so she still had half an hour. Slowly, he walked into the kitchen and turned on the coffee maker. Falling asleep had been easy the night before, but in the morning he had woken up with a start. What had simply felt like relief the day before had overnight become embarrassment. Had he really told her that he loved her? He shook his head, remembering the words. He wasn't one to run away, but he had to admit to himself that he had been tempted there for a second. When the coffee maker was ready, he grabbed a cup, placed it in the dock and pressed the go button. Coffee scent filled the air, and he inhaled deeply. How would their breakfast go? Would they be able to talk, or would the tension be too thick for any normal conversation? He sipped his coffee slowly and wandered over to the large window. While he looked outside, he tried to focus only on the scenery and his beverage, but that was hard. Danielle was a fascinating woman and the tension between them and the talk the night before didn't help to get her out of his head.

When Dani stepped out of her room, she found Nico still in front of the window with an empty coffee cup in his hand. She had steeled herself for meeting him before leaving her room with a few deep breaths. She was able to put a smile on her face, even if it was a forced one.

"Hey, you already started breakfast?" she asked him. Nico turned his head before he spoke and she knew that he must have heard her coming.

"Just some coffee," he shrugged. "You're ready to go?"

"Yes. I just need my shoes and my purse and we can leave," she nodded and hurried back to her room to get said items. As always she was a lot taller once she wore her shoes. The drive to the small diner passed in silence because both didn't really know what to say after the revelations of last night. Small talk seemed hollow and they were both still too exhausted to dive into the hot topics again.

"Smells great in here," Dani smiled when they entered the diner and the waitress guided them to a free table.

"Hope breakfast will taste as good as it smells," Nico replied and pulled the chair out for her.

"Thank you," she said, still with the smile firmly in place and sat down.

"Do you already know what you want to drink?" the waitress asked them as she handed them the menus.

"Coffee?" Nico asked in Dani's direction and she nodded. "Then two coffee, please," he ordered.

"Pancakes or Danish?" Dani wondered aloud while she studied the menu. She closed it when she had decided with a satisfied smirk.

"And?" Nico asked when she closed the menu and placed it on the table.

"Both," she grinned. "And you?" she wanted to know.

"Pancakes, scrambled eggs, half bacon, half sausage," he let her know and closed his own menu.

"Your coffee," the waitress said when she came back to their table at that moment and they placed their orders before she left again.

"Did you sleep well?" Nico asked her then when it became clear that she wouldn't end the silence between them.

"Yes, I did. I was exhausted. And you?"

"Yeah, me too," he said leaving out how he woke up.

"Do you have any plans for what we are going to do today?" she asked cautiously.

"No, but judging by the look on your face I'd say you do," Nico knew, and Dani had to laugh. He knew her too well.

"We passed some small shops when we drove here, and I thought we could go shopping," she suggested, trying to make it sound as tempting as possible.

"Shopping?" he asked skeptically, "In these shoes you're wearing?"

"Would you stop complaining about my shoes already?! I'm not saying anything about the black power suit you're wearing again," she told him pointing at him meaningfully. "So what about shopping? You in or you out?" she wanted to know then.

"That's a rhetorical question since I don't have a choice anyway," Nico told her and leaned back in his chair.

"True," she grinned and flipped her hair back without realizing it. Nico noticed it however. "I bet you make a great assistant."

"You mean I will be an excellent pack animal," he nodded knowingly and made her giggle again. It was fun bantering with him, and she was glad that they were still able to.

"That, too. We might find something for you as well."

"What? A Hawaiian shirt?" he asked her wearily and made her laugh out loud that time.

"Don't tempt me. However, you're not the Hawaiian shirt type," Dani replied and leaned back in her chair when the waitress brought their food. For a few minutes, there was silence again while they dug in. This time, it was Dani who started talking again.

"So, uhm, last night you mentioned Gabrielle. How did you two meet?"

"At a party," Nico said. He didn't seem too happy about the topic of her choice, but he knew that she needed him to answer her questions. "A friend at the time who served with Marshall and me celebrated his birthday with a lot of people, and Gabrielle happened to be there."

"Huh," was all Dani said as she tried to picture the scene. She couldn't really imagine Nico chatting up a woman at a party.

"She and Marshall somehow started talking, and I wasn't really paying attention to her. That seemed to get her attention," he hinted but said nothing more.

"So how did she end up with Marshall?" Dani was curious now.

"He really showed his interest in her, and he had more money to impress her with. In the end, that was the bonus. She didn't understand that money alone doesn't make you happy and had to learn the hard way," Nico said and ate some more of his scrambled eggs, using the food as an excuse to pause and collect himself. "And then she got pregnant and married Marshall."

"And made you believe that Juliette was yours."

"She never said it. She just never denied it either. She did whatever she could without directly lying to me," Nico defended her.

"You're sad that she's not yours?"

"For a while I was. However just because she's not mine doesn't mean that I don't care for her," he pointed out.

"You'd be a great dad," she complimented him.

"You'd be surprised," he snorted with not much humor, and Dani got a strange feeling about the whole talk. She had to ask though. "You never wanted kids?"

"What makes you think that I don't have kids?" he asked back seriously, and she nearly choked on her pancake.

"You have kids?" she stuttered wide-eyed.

"A daughter," he nodded while a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"You never said anything," Dani accused and lightly slapped his hand.

"You never asked," he shrugged and grinned.

"Tell me about her," Dani requested, curiosity written all over her face. She didn't care that this was none of her business, and obviously Nico didn't seem to mind because otherwise he wouldn't have told her in the first place.

"Her name is Louise. She's 24, and she's a law student," he summed up the basics but Dani's look told him to elaborate. "Her mother and I had a brief affair after I got divorced, and one day she called me and told me that she was pregnant. We didn't want to be together so we never got married. When Louise was two, she got married to her boyfriend and he mainly raised her while I paid child support and saw her sometimes during the holidays. We don't see each other much but we get along well when we do," he explained without emotions. Too little emotions, Dani decided. There was more to that story.

"You never wanted a closer relationship with her?" she asked.

"I did," Nico admitted, "but they moved to San Francisco when she was three and that didn't make it any easier. And she had her new dad," he added and Dani knew then what had happened. Nico had stayed away so his daughter wouldn't have to choose between two fathers.

"That must have been hard."

"It wasn't easy, but we made it through," he shrugged.

"And you got Juliette by then," Dani did the math.

"What are you implying?" he wanted to know.

"That maybe you tried to make up with Juliette what you missed with Louise," Dani told him straight out. Nico remained silent for a while, then nodded.

"Maybe," he agreed.

"So how often do you see her? Louise, I mean."

"About two or three times a year. She did an internship here in New York last year. I saw her almost every day back then," he told her, and the way he said it showed that he had enjoyed that time immensely.

"You have a picture of her?" Dani asked because she didn't want to dig too deep into this. She had hurt him enough last night and didn't want to cause him unnecessary pain.

"No, not here," he shook his head. "I've got some on my ipad. I can show you later," he added with a smile.

"I'd like that," she smiled back, and they didn't shy away when their eyes met this time.

"You ever wanted more kids?" Nico asked then, staying on the kids topic.

"God no!" Dani burst out. "That is why Matt and I broke up in the first place," she told him. "He wanted kids, and I am done with having them. Mine are nearly grown up, and I don't want to start over."

"Understandable," Nico nodded.

"You're planning on fathering another kid sometime in the future?" she asked him.

"Fathering? No," he laughed, "I'm too old for that. In a few years I'd be happy to be grandpa Nico, but I definitely don't want to raise another kid. Juliette is enough trouble, even if she isn't mine," he explained and for some reason Dani felt relieved all of a sudden. She didn't want to analyze why though so she decided to change the topic to something lighter again.

"So, Nico, are you ready to go shopping?" she asked him with a smile.

"I think I'll need another coffee first," he sighed, but couldn't hide the small smile on his face.

They spent the next two hours browsing through the several shops while occasionally Dani tried something on and even bought small souvenirs for her kids. Nico obediently followed her through the shopsand frequently indulged in nagging and complaining, but always made sure she kept going when she offered to just return to their apartment. It was a nice change for him to just worry about shopping bags for once and he didn't want to go back to the place where he had bared his soul the night before. He still felt embarrassed and uncomfortable about it, though knew that he couldn't avoid it forever.

"I'm hungry again," Dani interrupted his thoughts when she stepped out of another shop.

"There's a coffee store over there. Muffin?" Nico asked and tried not to smile back too brightly when she gave him a smile as an answer to his suggestion.

"All we seem to do is drink coffee, eat and talk," Dani sighed when they sat down with their beverages.

"We wanted to relax, remember?" he reminded her, but knew that she was right.

"Mmmh, but we could do something else," she said, broke a piece of her muffin off and stuck it in her mouth. Nico's eyes instantly found the few crumbs that stuck to her lips and he wished he could just lean over and slowly kiss them away while his fingers would tangle in her hair.

He snapped out of his fantasy when Dani gave him a funny look and had to clear his voice before he was able to speak "You have something on your lip," he told her.

"Oh." Dani wiped the crumbs away. "Better?" she asked then.

"Yes," he nodded even though better wasn't the word he would have used, at least not when he hadn't kissed them away.

"So, how about those plans? You have any idea what else we could do?" she asked him again. Oh, he had ideas, but they surely weren't the ideas she was talking about.

"We could check online once we get back to the house. Maybe there's something to see or do around here," he shrugged.

"I kind of figured you've been here before," Dani wondered.

"I have, but I never made it farther than jogging down the beach or going grocery shopping," he admitted.

"So what do you usually do when you're here?"

"I read, sleep, maybe watch some TV," he trailed off, because that was basically it.

"Bo-ring," Dani teased him with a smile and he wanted to reply but just then her cell phone went off. She checked the caller ID, and her eyebrows knit together. "It's Ray Jay, I have to take this," she apologized before answering. Nico watched her while she talked to her son, and it became apparent after just a few seconds that something was seriously wrong. The longer she talked on the phone the more freaked out she looked. He tried to make sense of what he heard, but all he got was something about prison and lawyers. It didn't make any sense to him.

"What's wrong?" he asked as soon as she hung up.

"Ray Jay has been arrested and needs a decent lawyer that Ray is refusing to pay for. We need to go back," Dani said in a hurry, got up and simply walked out of the coffee shop. Nico quickly paid and then followed her. She was already pacing in front of the car. Nico went to her and stopped her by gently taking her by her shoulders.

"Dani, what has he been arrested for?" he asked, already formulating plan how to get him out of it.

"Possession of Marijuana," she told him and looked him in the eyes.

"Does he smoke pot?" he asked.

"I don't know, Nico. God, I don't…he said something about trying to get rid of the plant when he was caught by the police because of a broken tail light. I don't know," she replied helplessly.

"Don't worry; we'll get him out of it. I'll take care of the lawyer," Nico assured her and the look in his eyes kept her from protesting against it.

"I just wanted a break… just for a short while," she sighed and rested her forehead against his chest. Gently he stroked her hair back over her shoulders before he enveloped her in a hug. She wrapped her arms around his middle and held onto him. When she felt him placing a soft kiss against her hair she squared her shoulders and stepped back. She shouldn't drag him into her mess again as long as she couldn't promise him anything.

"Will you please drive me home?" she asked him and looked him pleadingly in the eyes.

"Of course," he nodded and unlocked the car.

The drive had passed mostly in silence, except for when Dani had called her ex-husband and then needed to vent afterwards. Nico didn't say much but listened to her. It wasn't that he didn't have an opinion about her ex-husband, but he needed all the facts first before he could say anything that would really help her. When they reached her house Dani got out of the car and unlocked the front door while he got her bag out of the trunk. He followed her to the door where she was waiting for him.

"I'm really sorry I ruined your vacation," she apologized when he handed her the bag.

"You didn't ruin anything," he disagreed.

"Maybe you can just drive back? You booked the house for a while longer, after all," she went on and he knew she hadn't really listened to what he had said. Or she didn't believe him.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. Just call me when you know what exactly is going on so I can take care of the lawyer," he reminded her of his offer.

"Thank you, Nico," Dani replied quietly, placed her bag on the floor, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "Thank you," she repeated and felt him hugging her back. They stayed in the embrace for some moments before she slowly pulled back. Dani hesitated when she was about to remove her arms from around his neck. She missed his warmth already and hadn't even fully pulled back yet. Nico looked down at her, and she saw how much he cared for her when her eyes met his. He found the same feeling mirrored in her eyes and it was like somebody had flicked a switch. One second they were hugging, and the next her lips were on his like she could drink in the warmth of his support and keep it with her always. It wasn't hesitating like the first kiss. It was passionate and heated. Dani pulled him fully inside and they both barely realized when the door slammed shut behind them. They stood in her hallway and made out like teenagers. Nico had already unbuttoned her blouse and his hands were massaging her breasts while she had ripped his shirt out of his trousers and was opening it as fast as she could. She didn't care that he still wore his coat or that this would complicate their whole relationship even more. She didn't have more answers for him than when they had talked only yesterday. But she couldn't think and she didn't want to stop. All she wanted to do was feel him, and he didn't object. They moved towards the stairs but stumbled slightly when Dani tried walking up them backwards in her heels while she refused to stop kissing him. In the end, she kicked her shoes off, and Nico solved the height difference by hoisting her up. She drew him even closer by wrapping her legs around his waist so he could carry her upstairs. She sucked on his neck, and her bra went flying when they were halfway up. She moaned when he touched her breasts again and he groaned when she rubbed up against him, stimulating them both. The frenzy came to a screeching halt when his cell phone rang and burst their bubble just when they had reached her bedroom door. He all but dropped her before he answered his phone without checking the caller ID. Suddenly feeling embarrassed, Dani hastily closed her blouse and wrapped her arms around herself as she listened to him talking on the phone and saw that he was getting dressed as well.

"That was Juliette. She wants to see me. I have to go," he said and wasn't sure what to do when he saw Dani's posture. He wanted to kiss her goodnight and show her that he didn't regret this, even though it went against everything they had talked about, but she looked like a deer in headlights and so he decided against it. "Goodnight Doctor," he said instead. "Call me if you need me."

"Good night Nico," she replied quietly and sunk down against her bedroom door when she heard the front door click shut.

Tbc.. hopefully it won't take me another five months to update