~29~


Title: Crystal Ball
Rating: PG
Warnings: slight language, UST and all the naughty thoughts that accompany it, lol.
Characters/Pairings: Emma, Sheridan/Luis, mentions of past Beth/Luis, mentions of Sam and Grace
Summary: prompt: candy. "Will you be my 'tend Daddy, Lu-wees? Just for Hall'ween?"


Luis let himself inside Sheridan's house, grumbling underneath his breath (the stubborn, infuriating woman...did she ever listen?) when the door opened with barely a nudge from him. A curl of cold October air stole past him, making him shiver involuntarily and the flickering, crooked grin offered up by the pumpkin standing sentinel at the foot of the stairs directly in front of him to waver and wink. He still wore a slight scowl when Sheridan's musical voice startled him.

"Don't take it personal, Jack-Jack. Supercop here hardly ever smiles."

One black brow rose in near-exasperation as he tossed a look over his shoulder to the woman that had been the unapologetic pain in his ass for more than three years running. "Jack-Jack, Crane? Really?"

Sheridan grinned back at him, her blue eyes twinkling and the dainty whiskers painted on her cheeks curling in her amusement. Her nose twitched at him as she took in his dour expression and the utilitarian brown uniform (that his magnificent muscles did wonders for, but still…) that he wore proudly as an officer in the Harmony P.D., and she shook her head lightly at him, taking her time responding to his baiting comment. "Emma's doing, not mine. Is that your costume? Because seriously…"

Luis's dark eyes glittered at her blackly in challenge, roving boldly over her tight, cleavage-enhancing sweater, and the jeans snugly wrapped around her curves to great effect. He merely grinned back at her, wolfish and white teeth-baring, forgetting for a brief (but paradoxically all too long) moment the danger inherent in any open acknowledgment of the attraction that simmered and flared between him and this frustratingly engaging woman. Unbidden, the memory of what Beth had said to him, whispered in his ear as she had hugged him goodbye and broken things off with him for the final time last summer floated back to him, made his jaw tighten in indignation as he recognized a small (okay, bigger than that) amount of truth in it (You like her, Luis. You…more than like her. You can't hide from it forever, and I won't let you hide behind me and this relationship anymore. We didn't work before, and we won't work this time, not when you have feelings for another woman, feelings you won't admit to for Sheridan Crane). Luis had feelings for her alright, feelings of annoyance, feelings of frustration, feelings of…hell, he might as well admit it to himself, lust. That didn't mean he had to let her in on them, though. And he damned sure didn't need her making his insides tumble embarrassingly when she looked at him with that unbearable softness in her blue eyes. That said, he traded his own barbed defense to her question. "That yours?"

Biting back a smile, Sheridan blithely ignored him (and the way her heart was thudding erratically inside her chest) as she brushed past him, mounting the stairs. "If you're going trick-or-treating with us," she trailed off in a put-upon sigh.

Luis stifled a groan and jerked his guiltily entranced eyes away from her retreating backside. When he trusted his voice again, he called up to her, his voice rough with warning (and desperately disguised want?). "I'm not wearing a costume, Crane."

"If you're going trick-or-treating with us," Sheridan's muffled voice repeated, called back down.

Luis shook his head, unbuttoning the top buttons of his shirt as he walked into her living room, eased himself into the worn softness of her couch. Lucy watched him with large, hopeful brown eyes from across the room, her tail thudding quietly, pleadingly, against the floor. A shiny, velvet cape rest across the overgrown pup's sleek, lanky shoulders, and Luis felt an unwanted smile tugging at the corners of his mouth when the German shepherd whined at him. "Me too," he simply said, filled with the knowledge that Sheridan had him right where she wanted him, because there was really no conceivable way he could see himself denying Emma; Sheridan, maybe. Emma? Never. Luis didn't have too long to dwell and stew in the unwelcome revelation (that wasn't really a revelation), before he heard the excited scamper of little feet just seconds before a familiar curly head appeared around the corner.

"Lu-wees!" Nestled in Emma's crown of haphazardly tamed honey curls was a sparkling headband bearing a set of fuzzy white feline ears. Her cute button nose twitched (oh so like her mama's) in her excitement, and the whiskers carefully drawn across her smooth, flushed cheeks wiggled with her beaming smile as she climbed into Luis's lap without invitation. "Me and Mama match," Emma proudly proclaimed.

They were, in fact, worlds apart, with Emma soft and adorable (in what amounted to fuzzy footie pajamas) and Sheridan sinful and alluring (in what amounted to nothing more than her own skin, figuratively speaking, of course, and some face paint), but Luis didn't tell Emma that, didn't have the heart to. Instead, he fondly fingered a springy gold curl and agreed with her. "You do." The little girl's brilliant smile stretched even wider, showing off perfect, pearly little teeth, and Luis's decision was instantly validated. "Speaking of your mama," he combed Emma's curls over her small shoulders as he spoke, "where is she?"

Emma shrugged and cuddled closer to Luis, tucking her curly head beneath his chin. She fit her tiny hand in his much, much larger one and admired her pink-polished nails.

She sighed contentedly against him, and Luis felt some of his earlier tension melting away from him. Some of it remained, though, because the little girl in his arms was entirely too quiet and had become, in the span of a few short seconds, entirely un-Emma-like. He pressed a careful kiss to her fragrant curls and encouraged her to tell him what was (obviously, to him at least) bothering her. "You know you can tell me anything, right Emma-bug?"

Emma shifted in his embrace, pulling back and nodding at him, biting her plump pink lip in indecision.

"Anything," Luis reiterated, mindful of the approaching clatter of Sheridan's boots down the stairs. He waited for the child to speak, soothed the worried furrow from her brow with a tender thumb. "Emma," he softly said.

Emma released her lip and blew out a nervous breath, tightened her fingers around Luis's hand and stared at him with bottomless blue eyes filled with longing, then blurted, "Will you be my 'tend Daddy, Lu-wees? Just for Hall'ween?"

Luis caught just a glimpse of Sheridan's blue eyes, bright and glassy with moisture, before she quickly turned away, withdrew into the safety of the darkened foyer. He felt his throat tighten with answering emotion as he turned his focus back on the little girl sitting in his lap, acknowledged silently that maybe Beth had been right (but not completely, the stubborn voice inside his head railed) when he realized he didn't just want to comfort Emma, he wanted to do the same for her mother, and forced his voice into gruff steadiness. "If you'll be my pretend little girl."

With his answer, Emma positively glowed. Throwing her short arms around Luis's neck, she squeezed, hard, and breathed her thanks into his ear before scooting from his lap and disappearing to the kitchen in search of her candy pail with an excited giggle.

Sheridan's blue eyes still held a soft, shimmery sheen as she approached him long seconds later, when he'd had a chance to compose himself and she'd had a chance to do the same. Still, she had trouble meeting his eyes as she told him, "You didn't have to do that."

Luis captured her smooth, trembling hand in his own, tugged her closer, compelled her to look at him, read the sincerity in his eyes as he unevenly replied, "I know. I wanted to."

Tears fringed Sheridan's lowered lashes as she nodded and accepted his gesture of kindness, released a murmured, "Thank you." She smiled at him then, with gratitude, with beauty, with burgeoning apologetic amusement as he shook his head in denial.

"I hope you don't think I'm wearing a matching set of those," Luis told her, indicating the sparkling headband of feline ears that crowned her own set of blond curls.

Sheridan laughed, and the sound was still husky with unshed tears. "Worse, Supercop. Much worse."

Luis felt his gut twist with dread, but not for all the expected reasons, because he could handle those, but the other reasons, the secret ones he wouldn't admit to, didn't dare give a name. "You think I'm scared of you, Crane?" Luis asked, rising and standing so close to her, he could feel the heat from her body licking at his clothes, desperate to touch his skin.

Sheridan considered him, and the haughty twinkle in her blue eyes was almost Luis's undoing. "No," she finally said, soft as a whisper, "I don't think you're scared of me, Supercop." Before Luis had a chance to gloat, she hastened to add, "I think you're terrified."

She stalked off without giving Luis a chance to say another sputtering word, and jaw dropped in amazement, Luis could do nothing more than watch her go (later, though…later, he'd have his payback).

Lucy barked in loyal agreement, and her nails tapped against the floor as she hurried to join her girls where they were waiting (im)patiently in front of the door for Luis to get his act back together.

"Lu-wees!" Emma bounced in place in her excitement. "Look what mama found for you!"

The short walk down the street to Sam's and Grace's house seemed interminable to Luis (Zorro, Crane? Where the hell did you…). There were too many houses (not that many), too many laughing looks (admiring looks), too much candy (one little girl could not possibly eat all that). But it wasn't all bad. Emma's little hand was warm in Luis's, and her smile put the majestic moon to shame. And if some small part of him wished, deep down, that Emma's fantasy was indeed true…the moon wasn't telling, and neither was he.


OMG!

Another new chapter within a week! Shocking, isn't it?

I'm both thrilled and saddened by this turn of events. Thrilled because it just, well, wrote itself (warts and all). Saddened because now there's only one new chapter left in the cards for this fic, and I'm taking it embarrassingly hard, even though I'm feeling kind of accomplished for the first time in a long, long time (as all my WIPs will attest).

I hope everyone enjoys this chapter (Tom especially-I can't say thank you enough for the wonderful feedback you've gifted me with throughout this story, one of my all-time favorites to write).

Mistakes are all mine.

Recognizable characters of Passions are not; I just thought I should make that clear since I'm terrible at remembering disclaimers. But you guys know that. ;) Emma (and Spencer)? All mine.

Feedback is love!

Thanks so much for reading!