We Have a Situation
Word Count: 3,308
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Nico/Dani
Spoilers: References something from 1x11, but goes AU in the middle of 1x06.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just break things.
Summary: She thinks he thinks everything is a situation. Trouble is, he's right. She just doesn't know it yet.
Author's Note: As an additional clarification, even though I mentioned it the chapter a couple times... three days have passed since the last chapter. Nothing all that major happened, no new conflicts or anything, so we can pick back up after those days have passed. And now I have covered three more things that I think needed to be in this story (you can try and spot them if you like), even if one of the scenes was an almost last minute addition. It fit. :)

Oh, and here, two chapters in the same day again. Given the temporary lull in real life drama, I'm going to try and get this finished up quickly. Almost everything has been covered... Even if not quite as I originally planned. ;)

Papers

This was a departure from his routine—not that he kept much of one, actually, and he was the better for it—and Nico wasn't really sure that he could explain why he'd gone out of his way this morning. He didn't have much in the way of free time, even less so after the rumors started flying about the possible split between the Pittmans the day after he put his sister in rehab. He could have had someone else take care of this, but he'd decided to do it himself.

This was likely something he was going to regret.

He scanned the grounds, looking for his target. She shouldn't be that hard to spot, but if she thought that her style was all that distinctive from anyone else in her age group, she was mistaken.

"Look, just leave me alone. We are never going out, okay?" a girl's voice carried across the courtyard, and Nico turned in the direction it had come from. There she was. She looked frustrated, trying to ditch the boy beside her as she hurried through the courtyard. She was heading toward Nico, so he could wait here until she got closer.

"Come on, Linds, you know you like me," the boy insisted, and Nico considered for a moment what he would have done if he'd tried that on Juliette. "We're good together."

She held a hand up in his face. "No. We're not. I don't like you. Get it through your head."

"What, 'cause I'm not a senior with purple hair?"

Lindsay looked up from rummaging in her backpack and shot the boy a dark look, slamming her hand on her bag. She turned in the other direction again. "Ray Jay!"

"Oh, now you're going to go find your big brother? You need him to protect you?" the boy harassing her kept after her, and Nico left his vantage point. Yes, he believed that the Santino boy could help his sister if need be, but he did not like the feeling he got from the kid that was hassling her. "You know you don't. Stop being so unreasonable, Linds."

"No. I don't want to go out with you. And I don't need my brother's protection. Ray Jay, have you seen my report? It's not in my bag."

Her brother shook his head. Nico decided he was close enough. "Lindsay."

Her eyes wide, she whirled back to look at him. Her look was half-horror, half-disbelief as she walked over to him. "What are you doing here? I haven't hardly seen you around the house the past few days—and I was kind of liking that—but now you're at my school? This is creepy."

Nico handed her the report she'd dropped in the driveway. "I happened to see this on my way out. Of course, if I shouldn't have brought it by—"

"No. Uh, thank you. I... I guess I owe you one now," Lindsay told him, clearly uncomfortable. Nico shook his head. He did not consider her in his debt at all. He looked over at the boy who'd given her trouble and back at her. She caught the look and shoved the report in her backpack quickly. "It's nothing. He's just an idiot. It'll blow over."

Nico didn't agree with her, but he knew she was a lot like her mother. "I can respect your desire to handle it yourself, so I will simply remind you that—as your mother is a part of the Hawks team—you are entitled to protection from our security personnel. If you feel at all threatened, let me know, and I will have someone at your side. I can speak to him now, if you want."

She looked back at the boy again. "I can handle him. Really."

"Very well." Nico nodded, turning to leave. Though she would hate it as much as her mother would, he thought he'd assign a team to watch the girl from a distance. He'd rather anger her and her mother over a bit of hyper-vigilance than fail to provide adequate protection for her.

"Dude, Linds, what was with the creepy man in black? Do you know him?"

"Yeah. He's my mom's new boyfriend. And if you don't back off, he'll kill you. All I have to do is ask," she said, and Nico looked back at her. She gave him an actual smile, waving. He watched the boy next to her squirm for a moment. Lindsay pulled her backpack up over her shoulder. "I said no. I meant no."

She headed off in the other direction, and her brother and his friends started laughing. Nico gave the boy a smile, watching him gulp in fear before he shook his head and went back to his car.

"Okay, spill."

"Jeanette," Dani said, frowning as she leaned down to check on her ankle. "I am not telling you that. We are not discussing that. I thought you'd hooked up with that doctor. Why don't you spill?"

"I had a couple phone calls. That does not a hook up make," Jeanette disagreed. She looked over at Juliette. "I can cover the girl's ears if you want me to, but you owe me. I called your mother, personally, and set everything straight about the photo of you and tall dark and scary. That was above and beyond, and she hates me even more now than she did before, so... spill."

"I'm not going to be traumatized if you tell me you've actually slept with my uncle," Juliette added helpfully. Dani shot her a dark look.

"I am going to find all the sugar in my house and lock it up."

"No! That's cruel and unusual punishment," Juliette cried, sounding a lot like Lindsay just then. Dani rolled her eyes. Jeanette looked around the kitchen. Normally, she'd be getting out the wine for the two of them, but with Juliette here, that wasn't going to happen. "It is. And Uncle Nico so stole my stash from my room the last time he was here."

Dani smiled at that. Nico really didn't know what to do with a hyper, sugar high Juliette, especially not with his back still tender, so he would have taken as much sugar out of the house as possible, even though he didn't spend all that much time here.

"Things have been kind of crazy around here, you do realize that, right?" Dani asked, leaning back in her chair. "In the past three days, I've had my hands full. I've been helping Cherise with losing her mother, TK with his role as an almost parent to Devin, and the team with the rumors about the upcoming divorce. Nico and I don't get much of a chance to talk, so when exactly would we have time to do anything else?"

"I am so disappointed. He said he could be creative with your injuries," Jeanette pouted, and Juliette laughed. Dani frowned at her. She shrugged.

"I told you. You're good for him. He can't admit it, and he has a hard time showing how he feels, but it's true. You do make him smile, and smiling is not something that he does often. I used to joke about how he always had some kind of frown on his face. Then again, he did come to visit me after talking to my parents, so that's not all that surprising. My parents... Well, you saw my mom. Believe it or not, my dad's worse. He might not seem like it, but he is."

"Still, that doesn't make me comfortable discussing my sex life—or lack thereof—with you," Dani said. She sighed. She had actually wanted to talk to Jeanette about having Juliette say with her for a while, but the moment she said that, both of them would jump to the conclusion that Dani was trying to arrange some alone time with Nico. Even if she was, she didn't want to discuss it. "It is not happening. We are not discussing that."

"Okay, so are we discussing this?" Jeanette asked, lifting up the envelope. "This is what I think it is, isn't it?"

Dani reached for the envelope, but Jeanette held it out of her reach. She tried to get up and get it, but her ankle still wasn't fully healed. She couldn't get a good position, and Jeanette kept hold of the envelope. "Come on, Jeanette. Hand it over."

"We should celebrate this moment," Jeanette began. "It's a big moment in the life of Danielle Santino. The end of one chapter, and the start of what is hopefully a better one."

"You don't even know what that is."

"Sounds like she thinks those are your divorce papers," Juliette said, leaving the table and going over to the cupboard, taking out a container full of what Dani would swear were brownies if anyone around here actually baked. "If you sign them, you're... free, right? So you have nothing left to hold you and Nico back."

"Except time. And her ankle."

"I thought the ankle was doing better," Juliette said. "She's been cheating and not using the crutches—right until Nico glares at her, picks her up, and carries her to the nearest chair."

"Oh, I love this man," Jeanette said, putting her elbow on her table and then head on her hand, closing her eyes dreamily.

"Too bad he's taken. Very taken," Juliette said, setting the brownies down on the table.

"I'd ask if he had a brother, but they clearly broke the mold with him," Jeanette went on, picking up a brownie and continuing to moon over the very romanticized idea she had of Nico. "Dani, I need details. When you finally get creative, details."

Dani snatched the envelope from Jeanette's fingers. "No. No details."

She pulled the tab, opening the envelope. She took the papers out and shook her head, frowning. "Not that long ago, Ray was pushing for spousal support. I know he dropped it, but this can't possibly be ready now. Not when he was trying to get back together at the reunion, and that was less than a month..."

Dani's phone rang, and she limped over to the handset, picking it up. "Hello?"

"Ms. Santino, this is Dennis Kennedy. I was told that you should have received the papers today. Look them over and if you have any questions, let me or one of the others on our team know."

"Just a second, Mr. Kennedy. I was under the impression that my ex-husband had—"

"As I assured you when we last spoke, we are well versed in handling contractual details. A divorce is not that far from our usual field, and the Hawks organization makes sure that the needs of its own are seen to. Otherwise..." Kennedy trailed off, and Dani wondered if Nico had ever threatened him, or if he'd done it about the divorce. Then again, she hadn't mentioned that she'd taken him up on the lawyer switch. She'd figured he'd known since she'd taken his recommendation and used the teams' lawyers, but he hadn't said anything about it. "We pressed for a quick settlement, and we got it. As long as you agree to the specified terms, all you have to do is sign the papers."

"Right, but—"

"Are the terms not what you agreed to?"

"I don't know. I haven't had a chance to read through it, so just... I'll look through the papers and call you back if I have any questions," Dani told him, pushing the button and ending the call. She cradled the phone against her stomach for a moment as she frowned at the papers. The words weren't all that confusing—she'd seen a rough draft of the agreement when she spoke to the team's lawyers, but she didn't know what might have changed, couldn't hardly concentrate on it.

"Two words, Dani," Jeanette said, crossing the room to hand her the pen. "Free. Woman."

Dani looked down at the pen in her hand. She knew that she could just... do it. Scrawl her name on there, and it would be over.

Jeanette patted her shoulder. "Oh, but we should add more to that and say... free woman with a hot boyfriend who's a bit dark and scary but a big softie who needs to take him to bed already."

"Ew. Gross," Lindsay said, stopping in the doorway. She held up her hands and shook her head in disgust. "I was almost starting to like that guy today, but... I cannot believe I just heard that. Ew."

Dani's ankle started to throb again as she watched her daughter walk away. She grabbed the papers and sat back down with a sigh.

"We need to talk."

Nico turned and looked over at her, frowning. Danielle was not supposed to be here. As far as he knew, she'd been planning on working from her home for the rest of the week, longer, even, until the doctors cleared her ankle. He frowned at her. "They do say that doctors make the worst patients, but I didn't know that applied to therapists as well."

She looked down at her ankle and back at him. "Are you going to pick me up and put me in a chair again? I want to see your back if you do."

"At least tell me you didn't drive in here," Nico told her, frustrated. She didn't answer. "Damn it, Danielle. Do you want to have a permanent limp?"

She let out a breath. "Did you put pressure on the lawyers?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, but if we're going to have an argument, you're going to sit for it," he said, pulling her into his office. He made sure she was sitting down and ignored the glare she shot his way. He leaned against his desk, facing her. He'd intended to talk to her about the incident at her daughter's school, but he thought that could wait until later. The boy was a bully, but Lindsay had held her own with him, and bullies were really cowards at heart. "What upset you so badly you had to come here and confront me about it? You couldn't call me, felt it had to be done in person. Whatever it is, it's big. Did something happen with Juliette?"

"Nico, don't play dumb with me. You have to have known. You know everything."

He didn't like her tone, but he wasn't really in the mood to fight with her, either. He ran through a quick list of what he'd heard about today and folded his arms over his chest. "You think I bullied our lawyers? Or what, your ex-husband's? I don't care for the accusation. I was aware that you approached the team's lawyers about finishing the divorce, yes. No, I did not interfere. If I had any hand in the way your divorce was resolved, it was because I hired the entire legal team. However, that is where my involvement ends. Did you really think that I would... what, pressure you into a fast divorce because of what is between us? I admit, I don't care for your ex-husband and would gladly do him harm, but I had nothing to do with you getting the papers today."

She looked down, shaking her head. "Nico, I—"

"I'll have someone drive you home," he said, reaching behind him for the phone. She started to get up, and he gave her a dark look. She stopped, sitting back again. She put a hand up to her mouth, shaking her head. He pushed the button for Xeno's direct line. "Xeno, I need you to drive Dr. Santino back home."

"Something wrong, Boss?"

"No, I just don't think she should be driving with her ankle, and I can't take her right now," Nico told him. He hung up the phone and looked at her. She was chewing on her nail, and he went over, taking her hand away from her face. "You understand why I called Xeno, don't you?"

"Because you're angry. You have every right to be angry," she said, shaking her head. She moaned, putting her head in her hands. "Damn it. I feel like such a fool. I don't even know—No, I do know why I accused you of that. Even so, Nico, I shouldn't have. I should have known better. I should have trusted you. I'm surprised you didn't take my head off for that one."

"I came close," he admitted. "I came close to a lot of things. That's why Xeno is taking you home. Before anything else happens."

She nodded. "I'm sorry, Nico. I really am. It's just... All this time, all I thought I wanted was for the divorce to be over. Done. The papers signed and processed and I'd be... free. That's what I thought I needed, and once that happened, everything would be better. Then the papers showed up today, and I didn't feel relieved. I don't know how I felt. It... I don't want Ray back, I know that. But I couldn't make myself sign those papers. Jeanette told me to do it, like ripping off a band-aid. Instead, I sat there for three hours staring at that paper, unable to put my name down. What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Nothing. My ex-wife used to leave me messages detailing how much she hated me and wished me dead every day while the lawyers were sorting out our divorce... and then once the final papers were served, she took two weeks to sign them," he said, shrugging. "Everyone reacts differently. You know that. There's no right or wrong way to feel about it, and don't force yourself to sign the papers before you're ready."

"Because you'll be waiting patiently no matter what?"

He shook his head. She didn't need any illusions where he was concerned. "I am not that patient."

"But you didn't put pressure on the lawyers. Other men might have done it. You could have given them one look, and they'd have done whatever you wanted," she said, looking up at him. He frowned at her. Did she still doubt what he'd told her? "Why are you so patient with me?"

"Because I'm about to send you home."

"Oh."

He smiled at her, and she made a face. Then she grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him close. "Am I really forgiven? I mean, since you're sending me home..."

"Xeno should be here any second—"

She cut Nico's words off with a kiss. He shouldn't let her do this. Not here. This was to be preferred over arguing with her, though. Somehow, though, it always seems to be the wrong time. They were fighting or hurt or having a rough night. He wasn't sure if he was trying to find an excuse or what he was really doing. He knew there was no such thing as the right time or the perfect time, though he did believe that there were places and times for things—this was neither the time or the place—but to really have that time or place, they were going to have to create it. It was clearly not going to happen on its own.

"Boss?" Xeno called, knocking before he came into the office. "I'm here to get Doctor Santino—Oh."