Author's note: Wow, you guys thank you so much for reading and favouriting this story. A special thanks to UntilNeverDawns who continues to be awesome! :-) And eva505, misstenten 246 and qxzky.
She hadn't seen him since their smooch-fest yesterday at that Latin club and now he was flirting with Renee freaking Young of all people?! She caught part of their conversation walking down the corridor. Way to make it worse, they were even being rather public about their flirting. Now that was uncalled for.
"So glad to have you back. Especially after such a long time... Do you still remember? I wanted to make you a Steak and Guinness Pie?" Renee cooed.
"How could a fella forget about that?"
Enough! April let out a small growl and burst around the corner. She made sure to bump into Renee on purpose. "Oh, sorry, didn't see you there, Renee!" she said looking at the blonde woman with an air of superiority and a condescending smirk. She flipped her raven hair over her shoulder as the other woman was still wobbling around on her high heels having trouble regaining her balance.
The devil on April's shoulder was disappointed that Renee didn't fall, the angel whispered to her that she needed to apologize immediately. Instead of focusing on her personal moral conundrum, she took her time to bestow each Renee and Stephen with a pointed glance. Unfortunately it was only then that she happened to notice that a camera team was also present. Damn! This was part of the show. And live! Oh God! She was such an idiot jumping to conclusions like that and now it was even on tape. Nothing to do but to pretend like this was all part of an act, so in best AJ Lee fashion she grinned at the other woman. "Be careful, Renee. Looks like you're trying to venture into my territory... And I don't like it." She let the smile disappear from her face when she spoke the last couple of words and replaced it with an angry frown to show just how serious she was.
The blonde reporter was clearly taken aback by April's behaviour and looked at Stephen helplessly who watched the whole scene with an expression that said he was still undecided about whether to find what had just transpired mortifying or amusing. The red light on the camera mercifully faded out. April let out a groan. "Sorry!" she said bowing her head in embarrassment and fled the scene as quickly as possible. But Steve, the old knuckle-head, wouldn't have been Steve if he hadn't followed her.
She was already halfway to her dressing room, spurred on by the feeling of utter humiliation, when he caught up with her. "Oi, Princess would ya slow down already? I've been callin' yer name at least 10 times already an' ya been runnin' away as if chased by the devil incarnate..."
"Now why would that be, I wonder?" She finally stopped, just to turn around and roll her eyes at him. "Has it ever occurred to you during those 10 times that I maybe I don't want to talk to you right now?!"
"Nonsense. Sure ya do," he flashed her a rather sexy and self-confident smirk that made her want to claw out his eyes or maybe better her own, because she learned in precisely that moment that even the theoretical thought of hurting him upset her for some reason.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that," April said and he deflated somewhat. "I've just acted like total psycho back there. Let me at least bask in my humiliation on my own," she made a face and hung her head.
"Yeah, like a proper jealous little psycho, I might add," he grinned and positioned his index finger underneath her chin to gently tip it up, despite the very possible chance of her biting him. When their eyes finally met, her dark glance was positive forbidding. He spoke on unflinchingly. "As fer me leavin' ya alone? Not a chance. Won't happen. That jealousy thing's gotten me all kinds of curious..." The amused sparkle in his eyes just wouldn't disappear. Why the hell was this so funny to him?
She huffed in frustration. "Great, be curious then or whatever!" A strand of hair was hanging into her face. She tugged it behind her ear with authority. "By the way, in case you didn't notice, the fact that I just acted like my in-ring persona has me kind of worried." She ran her hand through her hair again. It just wouldn't stay put. "Aaaargh! Maybe I should consider seeing a therapist. And a hairdresser..."
"Relax, princess, yer hair looks great an' I can sort ya out jus' fine."
"You can?" she raised her left eyebrow sceptically. "Okay," she leaned back against the wall behind her, crossing her arms over her chest. "Sort me out then. Won't take long at all. Not like I have a match in...," she pulled out her cell phone and looked at the display, "40 minutes or something..." She put the cell phone back in her pocket and reassumed her position from before.
He grasped her hands, gently uncrossing them and she let it happen with a look that was somewhere between defiant and angry. He leaned in and her whole body sort of tensed up involuntarily. They were backstage of some arena. The corridors were buzzing with technicians, journalists, wrestlers and PR-people. It wasn't exactly an intimate scenario.
"Relax, princess," he spoke softly into her ear, "What's gotten ya all riled up? Ya sure weren't like that yesterday..."
Their eyes connected again. Through the haze of her jealousy and emotional upheaval she remembered. This was Steve, her friend, her partner in crime, the guy that made her tingly all over and nervous in a good way... The left corner of her mouth twitched and he smiled at her.
"There ya are. I've finally got me April back," he said softly.
His April? That had a nice ring to it, but it was too soon to address that; too soon to put a label on them. For now it was enough to admit she had been jealous. It would be the right thing to do and she could finally start acting more like the adult person she actually was and less like a spoiled psychotic bitch.
"You know," she started and placed her hand on his chest. The fabric of his shirt felt warm underneath her palm. "I WAS kind a jealous back there..."
A smile slowly broke out on his face and she couldn't help but reciprocate it. She was sure no one on earth could resist his smiles. They made the laughter lines around his eyes more prominent, which gave his gaze a whole new level of intensity. He was so attractive when he smiled. Not that he was unattractive when he didn't. It just added some extra 'bamf' to the whole attractiveness deal.
The smile slowly faded, his eyes narrowed somewhat. She could feel a question coming on. "Do ya always get like that whenever yer jealous?"
"God, no!" she looked down at her feet or at least attempted to do so, because he tipped up her chin again. Just that this time around she wasn't irritated with him for doing it, only about to die of embarrassment. "It was just that I was really looking forward to seeing you, because we had such a great time yesterday evening and then there you were flirting with Renee and suddenly all those nice fuzzy feelings turned into something else..." She shifted on her feet uncomfortably. She was all for telling the truth, but sometimes it was very challenging, especially when you were looking straight into someone else's eyes. Or maybe not. She could see his reaction to her words immediately. It was a favourable one by all accounts. A smile.
"Relax I get what yer tryin' te say," he said softly. "An' jus' for the record, I had a great time as well yesterday."
"Really?" She could feel some mad, ecstatic feeling of happiness bubbling up inside her and immediately tried to quench it as best she could. Skipping down the corridor and hugging every single person she met on the way wasn't really an option, so she just grinned at him.
He leaned in again. "Really," he whispered in her ear and pressed a chaste kiss to her cheek when he moved back. She giggled softly, unable to curb that feeling of giddiness that overwhelmed her.
"Let's not do this here though, okay?" Her eyes danced over his features.
"Why?" He didn't seem to understand. She had suspected as much as soon as she saw that frown appear on his face.
"This place is a shark tank, remember? I'd rather keep them guessing about us. Let them think we're just friends, colleagues or whatever they like to think..."
"When instead we are...," he supplied, deftly preparing a verbal trap for her he couldn't exactly expect her to traipse into, because it was just that obvious, but one couldn't really blame him for trying.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" she winked at him and gave him a gentle shove back, so she could slip away underneath his arm.
"Wouldn't ya?" he shot back.
"Touché," she smirked and started walking. She had to get ready for her match. Lacing up those knee high Converse was a bitch. He fell in step behind her. "For now let's just be us," she told him over her shoulder like it was something casual, which in fact it wasn't.
"Sheamus an' AJ or Stephen an' April?" he asked her and she shot him a pointed glance at that. "What?! Forgive me if I get confused from time te time, princess. Ya do too, I suppose..."
Rather than dealing with that serious issue, she chose to approach it in another way. After all she had 30 minutes and counting until her match.
She stopped walking and turned to him abruptly, holding out her hand. Not knowing what she was up to, he grasped it after a moment of hesitation. Again there was instantly that ever present attraction between them, that little pesky magnetic lure that sometimes made working with him difficult. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is April Jeanette Mendez. I'm a weirdo slash nerd and also kind of possessive about you, as previously established..."
"Pleasure. Stephen Farrelly. Kind a possessive about ya as well. Did I mention that I'm a bit of a nerd too?"
She laughed and tugged at her hand which he was still holding. "Come on! Let go! I need that hand to lace up my boots! Can't go and face Eva Marie in my trainers..."
"Why not?" He pretended to give that idea some thought. "They do work with those tight little jeans of yers. Ya look gorgeous by the way." He actually had the nerve to wink at her as he eyed her over.
"Thank you and screw you," she laughed, again trying to pull her hand free without any success whatsoever. "Come on, you big doofus! Don't make me apply the Black Widow on you, because you know me, I totally would..."
"Yeah, 'cause that worked out so brilliantly last time. But I'm game. At least that way I get a good long look at yer arse up close..."
"Aaaaaaaaaaargh!" she growled, because she had run out of words to convey her frustration with this man.
"Cute," he grinned. "What else have ya got?"
"I could kick you in the balls. How bout that?" Her level of irritation was rising and when she was pissed off she said all kinds of nasty things. He didn't seem to be shocked though, only amused.
"Don't damage the goods, especially when ya might wanna use them one day..."
"Right now I'm seriously considering eternal celibacy... What the heck does it take?" she actually leaned back to tug at her hand. It wouldn't budge an inch and his grip wasn't even particularly tight.
"In fairy tales a kiss usually does the trick..."
"Yeah, in fairy tale. This is a horror story. Celtic Brute holds innocent girl's hand ransom. So childish by the way..."
"Ya jus' need te agree," he told her calmly and shrugged his shoulders.
"To what? Kissing you?" He nodded. She looked around sceptically. "Not here though..."
"No, not here," he grinned good-naturedly. "But at some point tonight."
"Okay," she grinned back and he slowly released her hand. "When?"
"Whenever ya feel like it."
"So never."
"Now that hurt," he covered his heart with his hands.
"It did? Awwww, you poor thing!" she grinned, reaching out her hand to tousle his hair.
He thwarted that attempt effortlessly. "Naaaaah-aaah-aaah! Don't touch the hair." If there was ever a moment she was charmed by his Irish accent it was right then and there. It was all over that last little sentence. It started with the word 'touch' and that little extra 'u' sound in there and ended with that very distinct 'r' sound in 'hair'.
"Fine," she said and the smile on her face was leaning suspiciously towards dreamy when she spoke. "Whatever."
"So nice we've finally reached an agreement. Let's shake on that," Steve smiled innocently, but he didn't have her fooled for one second.
Her non-verbal response made his mouth fall open. Seconds later his booming laughter echoed down the corridor. She had flipped him off.
AJ's skip down to the ring was particularly bouncy today, even JBL remarked on that. And all that in spite of the fact that the sight awaiting her and Sheamus down at ringside was not particularly encouraging or welcoming. The complete cast of Total Divas was standing there waiting. All that got out of AJ was a weak smirk and a pointed look at the human wrecking ball beside her. The devious grins she threw the other women seemed to all say just one thing: "Please, try something. He will tear you apart."
She climbed into the ring, faltering for a moment when Sheamus, in an unexpected display of manners, held open the ropes for her. She winked at him in thanks and climbed through the opening, but not ere she had wiped her shoes on the apron once for good luck.
Eva Marie, the rookie, was waiting inside the ring. It was a non-title match, because ladies and gentlemen, the title still rested over Nattie's manly shoulder, but AJ was nevertheless determined to put on a good show tonight. She was bubbly with energy today, like a fuse waiting to be lit. She wanted to bust out all her moves and wow the crowd with them. Eva Marie wouldn't know what had hit her.
They started the match. Eva Marie's fighting style was lacking the intensity her flaming red hair color promised. Not a natural red-head anyway like Sheamus over there. As a punishment she took the opportunity to grasp a fistful of that hair and slam her opponent face first right into the turn-buckle. Bam! Are we having fun yet?
Eva Marie more stumbled, then turned around and AJ was already waiting for her with a nice little clothesline. When her victim lay on the mat in front of her, she stalked closer with a predatorial smile on her lips. Now she was going to finish her off. Just when she leaned over her, AJ was hit by an unexpected kick to the face. Her lips slammed into her teeth, she could taste blood immediately and spit it out with an expression of disgust. Damn rookie!
She let Eva Marie get to her feet. The girl was swaying around like a palm tree in the breeze, which was a good comparison because they were still in Florida, Tampa to be precise actually. At least Eva Marie somewhat knew how to sell a beating. At least she could do that. The rest really needed some work.
AJ decided to teach her some moves. Maybe she'd come to appreciate them after her head had stopped spinning. She showed her how a Spinkick was done properly, then followed it up by a Scoop-Counter DDT and ended the whole thing with a proper and rather authoritarian pin. 1-2-3! That's the way this works, newbie!
The referee held up her arm as her music hit. She wiped at her bottom lip with the back of her other hand. Ouch! Now that her brain didn't feel like ordering up a fresh round of adrenaline for her body any more, the pain started to register.
Still that didn't keep her from celebrating her victory. She left the ring with the same bouncy energy she had entered it, though occasionally during her celebratory skip up the ramp she had to wipe at her lip. Consequently her first words to Stephen when he too came backstage a couple of seconds after her, were: "Quick! Tell me! Am I missing a tooth?" She bared her teeth at him and grimaced when she stretched her hurt lips a bit too much in the process.
He inched closer and made a face. So no good news then. She braced herself. "Sorry, luv. Ya might not like te hear it, but there's a bit of yer left incisor missin', I tink..."
She closed her mouth and touched the tip of her tongue to her incisor. It felt strange indeed, a little jagged. Again there was the taste of blood. "Great, at least now I know what to do with the rest of the night. I'll hit the clinic right after your re-match against Tyson 'concussion' Kidd."
"After me match? Are ya crazy? Yer going right now!" he told her.
"It's just a tooth, nothing major. Jeeze! Relax! It's not like I'm going to die," she crossed her arms over her chest. Someone offered her a handkerchief. One of the ringside physicians. She accepted it gratefully and wiped at her still somewhat bleeding lip.
"Let me quickly slap some disinfectant on that," the same doctor suggested and April agreed readily, despite knowing that it was probably going to sting like hell.
"Crazy lass," Stephen muttered right next to her.
She turned her head in his direction and glared at him. "He gave you a concussion last time. That's not gonna make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, sitting in that waiting room. I'm staying!" The doctor tutted at her. It was hard disinfecting someone's bottom lip when that someone had a lot to say. April fell silent again, giving the medic an apologetic glance.
"Fine. All right. I get it. Do what ya want. Yer like a fecking donkey anyway. There's no convincin' ya apparently. So at least let me make sure yer properly taken care of after me match, okay?"
"Yeah, sure, because nothing says romance like a trip to the dental clinic..." She flinched and cursed when a swap drenched in disinfectant was pressed to her lip for the first time. Apparently the medic had thought her to be distracted enough to give it a try. "Gosh! That stings!"
"It's going to be over in a second. You'll see," the physician tried to placate her.
AJ marched down the ramp next to Sheamus without that usual grin on her face, but with something akin to a scowl on her pretty features. There was that angry red line on her bottom lip that thankfully had stopped bleeding now. Well, she didn't feel like smiles anyway right now.
Sheamus handed her his championship belt with a grim expression on his face. He wasn't in the best of moods either. For a second or two he grasped her shoulders and looked down at her face as if he wanted to say something. Maybe "Keep my precious safe"? Or "Hey, great match against that newbie tonight. Sorry about your lip, by the way"? He stayed silent and she stared back at him. That probably meant she would never know.
Natalya was again present at ringside. AJ barely spared her a glance. This wouldn't take long anyway. Sheamus was pissed and Tyson Kidd would soon learn that one angry Celtic Warrior was something you shouldn't mess with.
He proved AJ right about three minutes later. He virtually pulverized Tyson Kidd in his anger and AJ couldn't help but feel proud of him. She handed him his title back with a lopsided grin. That was as much as she could do with a split lip without it feeling completely uncomfortable.
They marched backstage. "Showers an' then we'll meet up in yer dressin' room!" Steve instructed immediately and she responded to that with a mock military salute. He shook his head and they both headed off in opposite directions.
April decided to be a good little girl. She was on the way to her dressing room to grab a clean set of clothes and have that shower they had talked about. Her power walk there was interrupted however, by one pesky individual called Philip Brooks.
"Ouch!" He told her instead of a greeting. "That's what you get for fighting a newbie. Eva Marie sure said thank-you for climbing into the ring with her. Split lips really suck."
"Thank you for the sympathies. But that's not all. I also have a chipped tooth. It's pretty impressive. Look," she bared her teeth at him. She had had a quick look at herself in the mirror before Steve's match. That tooth looked a little like a vampire fang now and some twisted part of her liked it.
Phil wouldn't have been Phil if he hadn't uttered the next words. "You know what? Don't fix it. Makes you look rad. Like Elvira from Tales from the Crypt or that girl from Liar of the White Worm."
"I know. Right?" she smirked and immediately cursed right after. "Ouch! That hurt!"
"You should probably get that checked out though..." Phil suggested eventually.
"I'm going to. Steve's going to take me to a dental clinic right after we've showered..."
"Hmmm hmm," Phil flashed her a shit eating grin and with utter dread she realized what had inspired that particularly nasty grin. Here came the ripping she very much deserved for her thoughtless blabbering. "After you've showered. Together or separately?"
"Oh, shut it!" she told him, blushing profusely.
"You know that I was seriously toying with a different opening to our conversation earlier..."
She took the bait. "Like what?"
"I was gonna ask you whether you had a little accident making out with him yesterday..."
"How did you know? Did someone tell you?"
Phil cackled evilly. "No, but you're so busted now, missy."
"Oh my God! You're such a pain in the ass! Go and get on somebody else's nerves. I need to go and shower," she told him grumpily. And already as she walked away from him, it became clear to her that she had made her second mistake that night.
"Yeah, sure you do. Have a nice long shower with Sheamo," he cooed in reply and made April flinch in embarrassment. That seemed to be tonight's major theme apparently: people trying to embarrass her. Unfortunately she hadn't gotten the memo that everybody else seemed to.
Surprisingly she managed to avoid further humiliation by doing something as clichéd as slipping and falling in the shower.
After she had put on her clothes and ran her brush through her long, damp hair there was a knock at her dressing room door. She opened the door, expecting Steve, but looked straight into Celeste's preoccupied face.
"That lip looks really bad, sweetie!" her friend told her as she clutched her face between two hands without much pretext.
"Ffffaaanks," April attempted to speak, eventually pulling Celeste's hands from her face. "So I've been told..."
"Do you want me to drive you somewhere so you can get it checked out?" her friend offered shooting her a sympathetic glance.
"Thank you. Somebody's already taking me," April said diplomatically. She was trying to be a bit secretive about who that somebody was, because she didn't need Celeste to drill her with questions about yesterday and much less still did she need her to ask questions about Steve's and her current relationship status. It would make her all too aware of the fact that she had no answers to any of those questions yet. All her secretiveness and smoothness was blown to hell though, by Steve's sudden appearance in the door-frame.
He was just as eager to finally grab her and have her properly taken care of as before and she was torn between finding that somewhat pesky and cute at the same time.
"Are ya comin' or what?" he asked urgently, only noticing Celeste's presence as an afterthought. "Oh, hi, Celeste!"
"Hi, Steve!" the Texan grinned at the red head and that grin took a turn towards downright devious when she turned to her friend April. "So that's the someone who's taking you to get yourself checked out... I see." She waggled her eyebrows at April, which Steve didn't see because her back was turned to him.
"Yeah," April admitted in slightly uncomfortable tone of voice and made as if to grab for her duffel bag. Steve was quicker and slung it over his shoulder. She turned and glared at him in silence for a couple of seconds.
"Well, at least you're in good hands then," Celeste grinned. "Take care of her," she addressed Steve and slapped his shoulder.
"Course," he nodded. "Come on, tooth fairy," he threw April an impatient look. "Get a move on!"
"All right. All right," April muttered and followed him out the door.
A good hour and a half later they found themselves in the waiting room of the nearest dental clinic. It was just like you would imagine a waiting room. There was fluorescent light and lots of disgruntled people waiting around, sitting in plastic chairs that got pretty uncomfortable after a while. She had to know. Her bum felt like it had as good as merged permanently with the plastic surface underneath it.
April was staring down at the clipboard in her lap with a mixture of disgust and annoyance. Why did it take forever to fill out those goddamn forms? For what felt like the thousandth time she signed her name on the sheet and loudly and proudly said the word "done". Steve peaked over her shoulder. He was wearing ear-buds but apparently the music wasn't so loud he couldn't hear her over it. He gently tugged at the clipboard, signaling that he wanted to bring it back for her. What was it with him being so overly attentive and gentlemanly ever since that chipped tooth? He was literally showering her with attention. Other woman might have felt flattered, and April did too to a certain degree, she just didn't know how to deal with it.
Resignedly she let go off the clipboard and he marched over to the counter and the less than friendly looking nurse behind it, who wonder upon wonder, actually smiled when he handed her the filled out forms. It had to be his charming personality, she decided.
He plonked back down on the chair beside her again with a huff. They had been sitting here for a while now and April felt exhausted. After all, they had been through an entire house show tonight already, so she had every right to feel exhausted. She leaned her head against his shoulder, which he acknowledged with a soft smile and also by placing his arm around her shoulders.
She casually stole one of the ear-buds, interested to know what he was listening to. His left knee was discretely bobbing along to the beat of the song. It was brushing against her trouser leg. She closed her eyes listening to the song. It was some grungy number with lots of guitar and drums. The voice of the singer was pleasant in her ears. It was worth quite something if someone could sing and actually express emotions with his voice.
She opened her eyes and saw his fingers drum out the beat on his thigh and had to smile. Inevitably she flinched and let out a sting of expletives seconds later. She had forgotten all about her injured lip. Immediately his preoccupied, questioning eyes were on her. "Smiling hurts," she informed him and inadvertently betrayed her emotions to him.
"Sorry, to hear that, luv," he said placing his rough hand on her cheek. She couldn't help but lean a little into it. It was kind of nice having him here. Waiting rooms really sucked, with him around they were... Well, less sucky.
"Miss Mendez!" someone called out and it actually took her a second to realize she was meant by that. It didn't happen a lot that she was called by her real name. AJ Lee had the upper hand these days.
"Yes!" She jumped out of her seat.
She approached the waiting nurse quickly, eager to leave this temple of disinfectants and fluorescent light behind as fast as possible.
"You can bring your boyfriend too if you want to," the nurse informed her and quite inevitably April threw back a glance at Steve. At this point she didn't have the energy to protest against the whole boyfriend deal any more, wrong as the assumption might be.
"I'll go and ask him if he wants to come. Is that okay?" April asked the nurse who nodded patiently. Apparently that one led a less joyless life than her colleague behind the reception desk.
Quite predictably Steve wanted to come. Why, however, remained a puzzle to April. After all he would only be able to stare at the attractive picture of her lying down in a dentist's chair for a good long while. She just accepted it with a shrug of her shoulders.
The dentist was a nice guy in his early thirties, tan, relaxed, sort of looked like Channing Tatum. Who knew, maybe the actor was moonlighting as a dentist in Florida on the side?
They joked around a bit and April started to relax about the thought of him rummaging around in her oral cavity for the next couple of minutes. He said he wanted to cover the chipped off tooth with a veneer. They selected the colour and she was praised for her white teeth and good dental hygiene like a good girl. She fully expected to get a sugar free lollipop at the end of the treatment now.
While she was lying down on that chair, both men tried to set her at ease by engaging in some small talk. The issue of wrestling came up, since April had had to fill in her occupation in that form. Mercifully she was distracted by the men's conversation, because having her mouth open like that hurt quite a bit thanks to the lip injury.
At some point during the procedure some tears slipped from the corner of her eyes. Unfortunately the freaking dentist noticed and commented on it.
"You should have said something earlier, I could have given you an injection against the pain... Now we'll be done in 10 minutes. Doesn't seem like a smart thing to give you something right now, that is unless you really need it..."
She shook her head, because it was difficult to talk around the tube and the other dental instruments in her mouth.
"Right. Figures. Stubborn like a donkey that one," she heard Steve say. His voice was closer now and seconds later she saw him standing above her. His rough hand grasped hers and she held onto it firmly because it seemed to drown out the pain somewhat.
"So, I better finish up quickly then. When you're back home, you make sure she takes her medicine, all right?"
Steve nodded. "Course, doc. After all I'm the sensible one between the two of us."
True to 'Doctor Channing Tatum's' word the treatment was over 10 minutes later and April's incisor was as good as new after that. Her lip was bleeding again though. Another round of the apply-some-disinfectant-game ensued and the doctor gave them a prescription for anti-inflammtory painkillers, which they picked up right after their pleasant little trip to the dentist was over.
Once back inside the car, Steve and April simultaneously let out an exhausted breath. Both had to chuckle, though April in a more cautious way because she didn't want to bust her lip open for a third time tonight.
"So what now?" Stephen asked after a while. "Where do ya want te go now? The hotel?"
"Why the strange question? Aren't you going back there too?"
"I've got a house here, remember? Why not sleep in yer own bed fer once when it's nearby?"
He had a point. She let out a thoughtful 'hmmmmm' sound, which made him laugh.
"I just thought you'd be heading back too...," she said eventually.
"Ya wanna come with me?"
Now that question sat there and it was really tempting. What was she supposed to answer? Quite impulsively she chose the truth. "I don't know. I just want to hang out some more if that's okay..."
"Ya can come back te my place if ya want te. I have a guest room an' I'm not gonna deflower ya in yer weakened state," he quoted her own statement back at her from when he had had that concussion roughly a week ago.
"Good. I feel very reassured now," she threw him one of those lopsided grins that wouldn't hurt too much. "Can we get my stuff from the hotel first, so I don't have to take a detour before we leave tomorrow?"
"It's on the way anyway," he agreed.
