Once Again
Author: Joy
Email: Julianna@ziplip.com
A/N: So they really did the changes. If anyone is jumping ship please leave a forwarding address.
Once again Sara sat with her partners in the morgue looking over their latest case. "Suffocation is what killed him," Vicky looked at her friends.
"VicDon't mean to tell you how to do your job but the guy has five bullet holes in the back," Danny commented slowly.
"Someone was pissed at your dead guy cause those were administered post-mortem."
"Literal over kill," Jake commented.
A very stoned looking Sly came into the office appearing completely lost. "Slyneed something man?" Sara asked hoping nothing was actually wrong.
"Gabe's Store" he muttered looking confused.
"Is Gabriel okay?" Sara asked starting to panic.
Sly's face broke into a big grin. "Oh yeah, I'm just messing with ya. I got asked to bring these" Outside the door he picked up two vases of flowers.
"One for youand one for you," he said handing one to each woman.
Sara hit the deliveryman upside the head, "Don't scare me like that."
"Just like to see if you care as much as I think you do. Later." Off scurried the very strange twenty something that was bizarre in all manners.
"Why is my boyfriend sending you flowers?" Sara playfully snipped at Vicky.
She smirked, "I'm assuming Gabriel is moving into his gift lessons I have to say your boyfriend is making my dating life sooo nice."
"Huh?" Jake grunted.
Sara rolled her eyes. "Gabriel has made it his mission in life to make Ian as socially adjusted as possible. You should have been there for some of the lessons. It's hysterical. Ian is this incredibly observant man and Gabriel acts like Ian's thirteen."
"I'm with Jake on this. HUH?" Danny stated.
Now Vicky rolled her eyes, "Ian knows human behavior but was raised really isolated. So there are basic things he knows to do but not why. He knows that guys give girls flowers but he would think of it something he had to do rather than something he wanted to do."
"So Gabriel is being the authority on romance?" Vicky nodded. "Hey! I am the only one in this room married," Danny snipped. "I should be the one teaching him about romance."
"I am not letting innocent Ian anywhere near saturated bomber over there," Vicky countered.
"Hey! How'd she know about that?" Danny griped to Sara.
"WhateverGabriel is doing a fine job thank you. We're going on our first double date tonight. Though you kids better behave yourselves," Sara snapped. "I have no desire to be kicked out of a movie or watch you two make out."
"You're just jealous," Vicky countered
"Of what?"
The coroner smirked, "That Ian is being carefree Admit it! You're jealous that I get the sweet wooing that all teenage girls wanted and you have a grown up relationship."
Sara stared at her friend very annoyed then went on the defense. "I will have you know that Gabriel is plenty playful and sweet and his wooing is just right dammit!"
Danny started to crack up but tried desperately not to show it. Jake looked at him and in classic male style also started to laugh. Vicky and Sara both glared. "Laugh it up Fuzzball," Vicky snipped.
"Star WarsYou're quoting Star Wars," Danny laughed even harder. "Two highly intelligent, kick ass women are standing in a morgue over a dead body having a 'My boyfriends better than your boyfriend' argument for kicks. Someone tell me we at least have this on the security cameras."
Vicky's eyes went wide with fear, "Security camera."
Sara looked at her friend and saw the panic. She smirked, "Why Dr. Po what have we been doing in here that we would be panicking now over security footage?"
The coroner glared, "Bite me!"
"Oh now I'm interested I may have to go find out if such a tape really exists," Jake stated raising his eyebrows a few times. "Especially if you offered Ian to bite you on said tape."
"I hate you all."
"Tell us the skinny and we won't go poking around," Danny grinned evilly.
Vicky grit her teeth and sighed, "Nothing that exciting I swear" All three waited patiently. Sara flicked her eyes to an empty gurney. "Oh godyou think I'd actually oh that is so gross. I work here. There are dead bodies on those things We were just kissing!"
"You do not get that up tight over just kissing," Danny contended.
"It is just embarrassing to think some security guards might have been getting a happy watching Ian and I."
"Come onat least give us a visual," Jake asked lecherously.
Vicky's eyes went big. "Out! Get out of my morgueBe goneNow!"
The three detectives scurried from her sight as the phone rang. "Dr. Po."
"Hello my sweet," Ian cooed.
"AghhWould you be willing to come out of retirement to kill a few people for me? Preferably three nosy detectives."
"What did our fair Sara, wise Daniel, and idiotic Jacob do now?"
She sat more comfortably in her chair, "Sara and I were fooling around and Danny joked about hoping that it was caught on tape. It never occurred to me that there might be a security camera in here so I got a bit tense about our little tryst a couple nights ago. I didn't like the thought that some guard would have been enjoying the peep show."
"Victoria," Ian said deeply.
"I love it when you say my name."
"Well Victoriayou may not have thought about a security camera but I did. And I know for a fact Sara and Daniel both know there is not one in the morgue."
"Okay now you have to kill them".
"We have a double date tonightwe can torture Sara there."
"I love a man with a plan." There was utter silence over the phone. "Ian?" Vicky questioned.
"You did not mean that" he stated quietly.
"I didn't mean what?"
"It is unimportant."
"I doubt that."
The air hung with no words as Vicky rewound the conversation. 'I love a man with a plan' she remembered herself saying in reference to Ian. She wanted to bang her head against the wall. This was not a man you flippantly said either 'I love you' too or was he someone you hinted about that with unless you were positivebecause nothing less than forever would follow.
"Ian," Vicky began.
"Please do not say it," he whispered. "I do not think I could bare to hear to you say it and not take it as always."
She thought for a minute. He could mean don't say she loved him because he would take it too far or it could have meant don't take it back because he wouldn't be able to see it as forever no. "Ian."
A deep pain filled sigh escaped his lips, "Victoria."
"Do you love me?" The best offense is a great defense right?
After a long pregnant silence he said, "I do not believe I am at the momentbut I hold you in high regard and wish only the best for you."
"Then we are on the same page," Vicky nodded. "Now how will we be torturing Sara?"
"You are very good with distraction techniques," Ian complimented.
She snickered, "Yes well that is how we got in trouble in the morgue to begin with."
"All I did was sit down. You were the one that decided to reclaim the chair with me already occupying it."
"You can't tell me you didn't enjoy having me in your lap."
Ian chuckled, "I believe from your position you could feel just how much I enjoyed having you in my lap. You were in rare form for driving me to distraction that night suggesting I remember that position for future use before biting my lip to the point of blood." He could feel her smile over the phone.
"It's a wonderful feeling to know the great unshakeable Ian Nottingham will tremble like a leaf and beg for mercy with mere words from my lips. You have to know it's quite a high."
Ian cleared his throat; "You are an evil woman at moments."
"At moments"
Sara shucked off her coat in a hurry, arms flaring as she ranted while Gabriel leisurely had opened the door to her apartment and caught the offending garment as it was discarded. He hung it up and sat on the sofa only half listening to the raving of his absolutely inconsolable girlfriend, not seeing at all the humor of the situation they had just come from. He thought it had been funny.
The evening started out with Gabriel and Sara arriving to dinner at a fancy restaurant that Ian had switched their plans to at the last minute. This meant Sara had to dress up, not one of her favorite activities. Vicky and Ian were already seated looking at each other goggly eyed making Sara want to hurl.
Right off the bat Gabe knew something was up because Ian was being way too demonstrative in his attention of Vicky. In private sure Ian could swing that but in front of others was a different story. Gabriel could tell they were being played but he wasn't sure to what purpose. Eventually he realized it was really all about pushing Sara's buttons. The end result of course was that after dessert the most amazing fight began
"Gabriel I am so pleased you could be here for this moment," Ian had said. On one knee he bent before Vicky and uttered, "Victoria will you do me the great honor of having you as my bride?"
"Oh Ian," she had sniffled before nodding her head, sitting on his knee and kissing him forcefully.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Sara had shouted at her friends in utter insolence before Ian and Vicky had completely broken down in a fit of laughter. Gabriel knew better than to laugh at his love's hysterics having learned his lesson after being covered in water. He just tried to calm her down.
So here Gabriel sat with Sara still ranting about the fact her friends had gone out of their way to mislead herout and out lied to herand made a fool of her in front of a room full of strangers. "I mean really what was the point? To get me mad? To freak me out? What?" she muttered on her next pass.
Gabriel stood and walked to her path. As she went to begin anew he reached out and grabbed her for a heated kiss. With the cartoon blink in full effect Gabriel continued to seduce her mouth followed by her body. "Are you really going to keep fussing about dinner?" he whispered nuzzling her neck.
"Not as long as you keep that up."
"Goodglad to know I can be more attractive than a good fight."
Sara pushed back to look at Gabriel. "What does that mean?"
He rolled his eyes and groaned, "What is up with you? I still don't understand what the big deal was in the first place. Why can't this be you and me now without the need for confrontation?"
Cartoon blink again from Sara caused Gabriel to groan again. He shook his head; "You don't even see it do you? It was very plain that they were playing a part for us. It was obvious. But you got hung up on one thing after another that Ian did and completely lost sight that Ian would never do those things in public. You acted like a spurned ex when he 'proposed.'"
Gabriel rubbed his brow and dry washed his face. "Is that what you want? Are we competing with them suddenly? Are we not keeping up fast enough with their pacecause Hun I'm not real sure what was going on tonight."
Sara sat on the edge of her kitchen table in one of her only dresses and looked at her love. Why had she gotten so bent out of shape? Why did it feel like she had been spurned suddenly? She opened her mouth to speak a few times before anything came out, "I guess I guess with you sort of walking Ian through the rules of attraction, courtship, and dating I just assumed we would do everything first. I just wasn't prepared for them to move past us."
"You mean you weren't prepared for the feeling of rejection that Ian moved on."
"You're joking," she snickered.
"No Sara. I'm not." Gabriel sat on the other side of Sara in his only suit taking her hand lightly brushing the skin. "However much you don't want there to bethere still is a basic part of you that says you and Ian have a history. So if you and I didn't work out you would always have Ian. Tonight you realized that wasn't true anymore."
"Gabriel" she whispered.
"Shhh" he shushed kissing her forehead then leaning his to hers. "I'm not mad. I knew someday you would have those thoughts and have to sort through them. It's okay."
Gabriel walked to the CD player nearby and put on some slow music. He took Sara's hand and led her in a slow dance. "Now this is what I wanted to do all night," he said in a low murmur.
They danced cheek to cheek for a long while before Sara sighed out, "I love you Gabriel. I love you so much. Don't ever doubt that."
"Not possible for me to doubt you," he answered as they continued to hold each other tight.
TBC
A/N: Sorry for the delay. I have got a new job and I'm still trying to juggle when to write, sleep, eat, and see my husband. (Obviously not in order of importance.) Nuana has been keeping me up at nights of late as Eli can attest to. I may need to tape his little beak shut until I get on a sleep schedule that will allow me to be at work at seven thirty in the morning Have I mentioned how much of a morning person I'm not? Or how direct sunlight is evil? Can you tell I've had a migraine recently?