Ch. 13
Allie waited until Michael had been escorted away and the room was nearly empty. She had asked Brass if he could wait for a while till she tried to remember what exactly happened. She wondered if robberies always turned your mind to mush. The owners had given everyone a free meal and apologised profusely. The lady dressed in the aqua-green dress, her name was actually Jennifer, had come over to Allie. She asked her if she was okay, then told her if she ever wanted to talk she could phone her. Allie thanked her and sat down at the now empty bar. As she guided her finger around the rim of the glass, she suddenly remembered an incident a few years back that might indicate why Michael had chosen her neck instead of anyone else's in the restaurant. Greg had went off to help Brass interview people. Allie reckoned that he might, someday, try out for a position in CSI. Something higher than lowly lab rat. Allie half-smiled, pressing a finger to her eyelid. Brass walked up to the bar, Greg in tow, and sat on a stool.
"You ready to talk yet?" He smiled at her. Seeing Brass smile was a rare occurrence. Then again, seeing Grissom smile was even rarer. She nodded.
"Yeah." She cleared her throat and started playing with the hem of her red dress. She noticed the red on her wound matched her dress. Thankfully it had eased off on the bleeding. Maybe she should've put something on that wound earlier… "Okay, after he won the lottery- did I mention this part to you?" Brass nodded. "Oh, okay." She looked at Greg, who held his head in his hand, smiling pitifully at her. "My mom, uh Bonnie Moore, Mullins I mean, she started going out with Michael a few nights a week. He was nice enough at first. Always bought me and Dylan things." Oh, my God! Allie thought to herself. Dylan! I should have called him… "I have to use my phone a sec-"
"Allie, just tell us the story first. Then you can go." Brass stared her in the eye. She checked Greg again, who was looking at her with a real look of concern. "Please?" Brass tilted his head, making him appear like a sad puppy.
"They nearly got engaged. But I said I didn't want them to. So one day, when Mom was out, Michael came to the door." Allie started talking as fast as she could before Greg calmed her down and told her to talk a little slower. For the sake of the crime lab, of course. She complied and went back to her story. "He started pushing Dylan around so I told him to stop. He- uh, Dylan was only a kid at the time. He started crying so Michael yelled at him to shut up." Allie blinked rapidly, trying to hold away tears. How had she forgotten this? Did Dylan still remember it? "I slapped him and then Mom came home. Michael started bitching at her then." Brass wondered if he should write 'bitching' into his book. "She dumped him and gave me a hug and told us it was okay. We didn't see him for a week or two and then-" Allie blinked, looking at her nails. Greg reached out and took her hand. She surprised herself at how easy she found it not to cry. She smiled. "then he burnt down our doghouse. Thankfully the dog was indoors at the time, but still… Michael then went into business. He started gambling, we heard, and then he went bankrupt. I read a few years ago that he got slightly loopy-" Allie twirled her finger around an invisible strand of hair beside her head, signalling that he was crazy. "and he was taken into a rehab thing. And this is the first I've seen him since."
Brass finished taking notes and grinned, closing his book. "Thanks, Allie. You've been a great help. I'm sorry for gate-crashing your, uh, date." He looked at both Greg and Allie when he said this, then turned on his heel and walked off. Allie sighed and twisted in her chair. She was still holding onto Greg's hand.
"Hey." Greg whispered.
"Hey yourself." Allie laughed wryly. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"This." She motioned around the room. Greg smiled, letting go of her hand and jumping off the bar-stool.
"Well, at least we got free food." Allie glared at him. He threw his hands up. "Too soon to joke?"
She nodded, furrowing her brow for a split-second. "Just a little."
Allie got off the stool and stood directly in front of Greg. "Can I go home now? I really wanna call Dylan, but I've got no batteries in my cell."
Greg groped around his pocket for a moment before finally pulling out his phone.
"You can use this if you like." Allie snatched it out of his hand and went to phone her brother.
"Hello?" A small voice said groggily from the other end of the line. Allie smirked.
"Hi, Dylan."
"Allie! Hey. How'd the date go?"
"It was…interesting. But good." For the most part, anyway. Until a raving-psycho-lunatic raided the hotel. Well, she could hardly tell this to an invalid, could she? "How are you?"
"Great. Nick and Warrick are the coolest!" Dylan talked excitedly. "They only left half an hour ago, I think. Are you okay?"
Allie wiped a small tear off her check, grinning at her brother. "Of course. I miss you though. Anywho, I'll be round tomorrow for a while. Was Mom or Dad with you?"
"Yeah. Both of 'em. At different times, but… Oh, I've gotta go. Nurse What's-her-face is here. Night, Al."
"Good-night Dylan. I love you."
"Yeah, yeah… love you, too. Bye!"
Allie clicked off, wandering back over to Greg.
"I'm ready to go now if that's okay."
He turned round, looking at Allie's puncture mark. "As you wish." He placed his hand on her back as they walked out to the car.
"So, no Spiderman 3?"
Allie hit Greg a playful little slap across his arm, laughing.
"Maybe tomorrow…if you're lucky."
She sauntered off into the passenger seat while Greg was already turning on the ignition. She checked her nails yet again. "By the way," Greg turned to face her. She leant in and kissed him lightly. "I never did thank you for saving my life."
A/N: Dun, dun, dun! I know, first date and they kissed. Tsk. LOL. Anyway, is it just Year1989Rocks and Mindi that are reading this??? I hope not! Please R&R! BTW, thank you to the above mentioned for the excellent reviews. I hope they enjoyed ;)
Jaunty
XOX