"No," Nigel says resolutely into the phone. He won't do it. He has a dinner date in less than an hour with Amy – a nice woman from the anthropology department – and he's been looking forward to it for a week. Just thinking about the wave of blonde hair, her light blue eyes, the swell of her breasts in those low-cut shirts she's always wearing whenever he sees her, the –
"Nigel," Claudia whines, interrupting his thoughts. He frowns. Her voice has been off in this conversation but now he really notices the hoarseness – her whine isn't so effective. "I need you." He pulls the phone away from his ear to look at it, sure he's hearing her wrong or he's speaking with the wrong person. The caller I.D. still shows Claudia's name and it's her voice, although it's rough. He puts the phone back to his hear but before he can speak, she continues, "If you don't, I'll tell Preston you used his credentials to get into museum records." He presses his lips together, annoyed, although pleased that her voice is back to demanding rather than pleading.
"Fine," he sighs. Telling Preston about the unauthorized use of credentials will result in a lecture from his older brother that Nigel doesn't feel like listening to. Although he might be more okay with it if Nigel tells him it was for Sydney. However, he'd rather not have to explain at all. "I'll be there in 20 minutes."
When he arrives at the venue in his taxi, he finds Claudia standing out front, waiting for him. She's wearing a short red dress that hugs her body, spaghetti straps showing off her smooth pale shoulders, and strappy black heels. Her necklace is an odd shape, but it's hard to see in this lighting and what does he know of women's jewelry? Her eye makeup is smudged and she looks as though she's been crying. Before he can even get out of the cab, she's getting in, pushing him to shift over.
"Claudia, what – ?" Nigel starts, but she ignores him in favour of giving the taxi driver what he assumes is her address.
Claudia slumps in the seat and looks out the window. She doesn't acknowledge Nigel in the slightest.
He gapes at her for a moment, torn between feeling offended that she asked him to come and get her (he doesn't even have a car!) and now she's ignoring him, annoyed that he's missing his date for something she could've done herself – she was able to call him so she could've called a taxi, and concerned because she isn't her usual put together self.
"Claudia?" he asks tentatively.
"Why are guys such jerks?" She crosses her arms over her chest. Her voice is still rough.
"What happened?"
She doesn't answer him, just keeps looking out the window. He rolls his eyes guessing that her date didn't show so she decided to ruin his night as well, and turns to watch the passing city scenery.
At her apartment building he isn't sure if he should get out of the car or not, but Claudia leaves the door open and looks back when she doesn't hear him follow. Sighing, he pays the cabbie because she didn't (and who has more money between the two of them?) and gets out. The doorman lets them in (honestly…) and he follows her into the elevator. The ride up to the fifth floor is quiet except for their breathing.
Claudia stops a few steps inside the flat, and Nigel closes the door behind him after he enters, unsure of what to do next. The flat is dark except for the light pollution coming in the windows, so he squints at the wall beside the door until he finds a switch and turns the main light on. He's still not sure why she asked him to pick her up, or why he's at her place. He's so busy thinking that it takes him a moment to realize that Claudia's shoulders are shaking.
"Claudia," he steps closer to her and reaches out to touch her arm, "what's going on?"
She jumps as though she's forgotten he's there and turns to him. He can see she's crying, tears streaming down her face. His stomach drops as he takes her in. In the light he can see that her necklace isn't a necklace at all – it's a bruise, and the odd shape is because it was a hand that made the mark. He feels sick that something happened to her, and angry at the stupid blighter who's done this to her. He's not a violent man – he leaves that to Sydney – but he definitely wants to punch the guy. Right now though, Claudia is safe at home, and has called on him for whatever reason and he's determined to be with her right now.
He reaches out, placing a hand gently on each shoulder, and pulls her into him, keeping his touch light so she knows she can move away from him if she wants. But she moves to him easily and clutches at his shirt, sobs into his shoulder. He wraps his arms more solidly around her and they just stand there.
Nigel's not good with tears, from women or men. Tears make him panic. Especially when everyone's needs are different. His usual MO is to offer cups of tea while rambling about what he thinks they might want to make them feel better. He can feel the need for that bubbling up inside him and all at once he wishes Sydney were there. Not that she was any better with emotions than he was.
He settles for rubbing Claudia's back because she's not letting him go so he can try to make tea, but it seems as though he's only making her cry harder, so he stops.
He's not sure how long they've been in that position for, when Claudia finally pulls away. Tears are still running down her cheeks, her eyes are red and puffy, and she's sniffling.
"Can I make you a cup of tea?" he asks her. She nods, and honestly he's not sure she heard him properly as he's never seen her drink tea, but that's what he knows. She sits on a large purple couch to the right of where they're standing, and pulls a blanket off the back, wrapping it around herself.
He turns to the kitchen on the left – the area is open concept and finds an electric kettle buried in the back of a cupboard. He's a bit surprised to find she has one, and may ask about it later – it doesn't seem like Claudia at all – but fills it and flicks it on after plugging it in. He busies himself while he waits for the water to boil looking for teabags, mugs, milk, and sugar. He suddenly realizes as the kettle clicks off that he also doesn't know how she takes her tea, and decides to just make it the same way he does his own; the tea isn't the important thing right now anyway.
He brings the mugs over to the living room and hands one to Claudia where she's curled up in the blanket. Claudia takes it from him silently. There's a box of tissues on the table in front of her and it's surrounded by used tissues which litter the table. He sits beside her, and goes to speak several times, but the words get caught in his throat. He's no good at this and he's grateful when she breaks the silence.
"A friend wanted to check out the new club downtown – the one you picked me up at? We went early, figuring we could check the place out, and then get to our usual place when the cute guys show up if that other place was a bust." Claudia stares into her mug as she talks. "We go up to the bar and this guy starts chatting me up, the usual. He asks me to go home with him, and I mean he's not ugly, but he's not cute. I told him no way. He kept asking and wouldn't take no for an answer so I went to the bathroom to get away. When I came out, he was waiting for me. He asked again and grabbed me by the throat when I said no. So I told him I had a boyfriend. He didn't believe me, so I called you to come get me."
Nigel realizes he's gripping the mug so hard he's shaking, and he puts it down hastily on the table before he spills tea everywhere or breaks the mug. "You should go to the police."
"It's fine Nigel. I'm fine," she says, looking at him for the first time.
"Claudia, he hurt you," he says incredulously.
She shakes her head. "I don't want to. I'm fine."
He opens his mouth to argue.
"I'm fine," she says almost angrily. Then quieter, "I just don't want to be alone."
He swallows his next words. He's not going to force her to do something she doesn't want to, but he will be there for her. For all their bickering, she's like his little sister. Or maybe that's why they bicker so much – God knows he and Preston do. Either way, he feels a protectiveness over her, and knows he's going to do whatever she wants.
"Okay," he says quietly.
They sit for a moment in silence, Claudia looking at her tea again, and Nigel staring at nothing in front of him.
"Can you put on a movie?" she points at the DVDs sitting on a shelf beside the TV.
"Sure." Nigel gets up and looks at her collection, which seems to consist mostly of cheesy rom-coms. He grabs one at random (Jerry Maguire) and pops it into her DVD player.
He sits back down beside Claudia, and she snuggles into him, resting her head on his shoulder.
Nigel realizes Claudia is asleep somewhere around Jerry and Dorothy's wedding, and he's stuck, unable to reach the remote on the table without jostling her. He settles in for the rest of the movie, dozing off and on while it plays, falling asleep before the end credits.
In the morning, he decides, he'll try to get her to tell someone, even if it's Sydney so she can hunt down this creep, but for now he just lets her rest, happy he was able to be there for her when she needed him
