Valley of the Shadow of Death

Disclaimer: Don't own them!

Please Review! The next chapter is going to be the last one.

Ch14: Impulsive Outlet

Nick's eyes were red and sore, he could feel them as he scanned the ceiling feeling too weak to lift his head up. His skin was pale only enhancing the red appearance of his eyes. Nick swallowed hard as he continued to look around. It had been two days since the tube was taken out and as much as Nick thought he was doing better, it was definitely evident that this was going to a slow process. For now, Nick felt that he was in a trans, he didn't know if it was the pain medicine or just the emotional shock of everything. Mandy was still at his side, she had no plans to leave unless she came with him. She held his hand, and when she went to look at him she saw that he was already looking at her.

"How are you feeling?" Mandy asked looking at him. Nick was a confusing person, he had many mood swings and bottled a lot of his feelings.

"Tired…" Nick said looking at Mandy with a tired smile.

"Why don't you fall asleep?" Mandy asked leaning closer to his bed but not leaving the stall comfort of the hospital chair.

"That's all I've been doing… when do I get to go home?" Nick said fighting to sit up. Mandy stood up to help him. Nick was the definition of a stubborn man.

"You need to rest or the doctor is going to keep you forever." Mandy said as she moved the pillow behind him and inclined the bed so that he was in a more sitting position.

"Forever?" Nick chuckled a little before wincing in pain as he rest back against the bed. Mandy smiled at him.

"Yes, forever. I'll let him too." Mandy said putting her hands on the rail of his bed. Nick smiled and pushed the railing down and scooted over a little, and patted the space next to him. "Nick…"

"Come sit with me…" Nick almost begged her as he held her hand. "Don't make me beg, Mandy…" Nick said smiling. Mandy sat next to him on the bed, it wasn't more comfortable then that chair but wasn't worst either.

"Better?" Mandy asked stroking his face as he smile.

"Much. Thank you for being here." Nick sad softly putting his hand on her thigh.

"Someone has to keep the beast in check." Mandy teased, Nick smiles as does Mandy. "This is what I do. I take care of you." Mandy smiled and Nick reached up and touched her face.

"You were right, I was looking for the easy way out and I wasn't thinking straight or about you or the baby. I was selfish…" Nick started but Mandy kissed him to shut him up.

"How about for now on, we just talk to each other? Let me help you." Mandy said.

"Okay," Nick said smiling as his machine beeped giving him a dose of pain meds. "My sleepy juice."

"Don't ever scare me like that again." Mandy said turning the mood serious again.

"I won't." Nick said kissing her hand. Nick started to feel the waves of relief and fatigue from the pain medicine.

"Why don't you fall asleep? Quit fighting it." Mandy said watching Nick. Nick smiled as he slowly opened his eyes.

"I wanna stay here with you…" Nick said looking up at her tiredly. Mandy just smiled sweetly.

"I will be here when you wake up."

"I know." Nick said trying to chuckle but not being able to because of the pain. Mandy consoled him getting him to relax.

"Just relax. You don't have to laugh, I know, I'm funny." Mandy said smiling as did Nick.

"A regular comedian, Mandy dandy." Nick said still smiling.

"I know." Mandy said stroking his face. Nick turned to get a better look at her.

"Let's get married?" Nick said seriously looking at her, as his medicine started to get the best of him.

"What?" Mandy said thinking and hoping she had just had heard him wrong, that maybe the pain medicine had him just blindly mumbling.

"Me and you, let's get married. We could just go to the altar right now, we are in Vegas. What do you think?" Nick said slowly losing the battle to keep his tired eyes open.

"No…" she whispered unsure why. "I mean… why don't you just focus on getting better, okay? I'm going to need your help chasing our little one around." Mandy said, Nick immediately smiled.

"Okay…" Nick said finally falling asleep.

Nick stood out in front of his Denali waiting to see Mandy. She had texted him saying that she needed to talk to him, she wasn't having a super stellar day. Nick wasn't necessarily worried about being see by anyone he had parked far enough from any other cars, and you wouldn't see his car unless you were looking for it. Nick rested his head back as he rested against the driver door. Nick peeked his head up as he heard footsteps and looked up and saw her coming. She didn't look to happy.

"Hey..." Nick said biting his lip.

"I need a hug." She said as she approached him. Nick pulled her in a hug kissing her forehead. Mandy snaked her arms around his waist resting her head against his chest.

"What's up?" Nick asked.

"Ecklie…" Mandy said and Nick could only imagine and held her a little tighter. "You smell nice." Mandy said looking up at him.

"Thank you?" Nick said looking down at her. They heard footsteps and nearly tripped over each other to get in the backseat of his Denali. Nick looked at the window seeing Hodges and Henry leaving probably for lunch or something. "They're probably leaving for lunch…" Nick said looking over at Mandy. "What's up with Ecklie?"

"The stupid backlog." Mandy said taking off her glasses rubbing her eyes.

"You don't have a backlog though, I thought?" Nick asked confused.

"I don't." she said quiet matter of fact.

"Oh, I don't understand." Nick said scratching the back of his head.

"Swing shift right now is a revolving door of techs so they have a backlog. Ecklie wanted to know why I haven't started working on them, and if I needed a special invitation to do so. I hate that guy, he's such a turd!" Mandy said and Nick couldn't help but smile until Mandy looked at him with a displeased look wiping Nick's smile from his face. "I'm serious, Nick." she said pushing him a little.

"I'm sorry, he shouldn't yell at you. It's not your fault." Nick said pulling her into a hug. "You want me to talk to him?"

"No, that won't solve anything. You weren't there when it happened, he will get curious? Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it? If it has you upset I'm going to worry about it. I don't want to see you upset." Nick said serious looking at her.

"You're the sweetest guy." Mandy said kissing him.

Even though they had silently vowed to never do anything at the lab, so that their chances of getting caught together were slim there was always exceptions to rules and this had to be an exception. This was an outlet for both of them, a stressful day that left them in need for some physical release and sooner was always better than later.

Nick and Mandy were very impulsive people, so some ideas that could be demeaned a little risky often they acted on especially when they were together like this one. The idea of hooking up in the backseat of his Denali at work only engulfed them further getting them wrapped so far up in what was going on that they didn't think what would happen afterwards. Like what would happen if they were caught, or about protection. They had previously acted without protection and just didn't think about it. As juvenile as it sounded, what was one more.

"God, I love you." She said as she regained control of her breathing, as she laid against Nick's chest. Nick chuckled as he tucked a piece of her kind of sweaty hair behind her ear as he kissed her forehead.

"Love you too, babe." Nick said kissing her forehead again.

"Where does DB think you are?" she asked.

"I told him I wasn't feeling well and needed to grab some lunch." Nick said smiling grabbing her hand and raising it as if they were doing the tango.

"What are we doing, Nick?" Mandy asked, she felt Nick shrug.

"I'm not sure, but we got the rest of our lives to figure it out." Nick said smiling looking down at her. Mandy smiled and bit her lip with giddiness as she held Nick tight.

The creation of little Poncho. A lot is going on this chapter. Why do you think Mandy said no? Mandy is Nick's rock as he is hers. What did you think? Please Review!