hockeylover – Thanks for the help with Lizzie's appearance.

A/N – "Thoughts"

Chapter 5 – Still In Love

Gordo looked in the bathroom mirror at his reflection and smiled as he adjusted the silk black tie Lizzie had bought him. Walking out of the bathroom, "Lizzie, you ready?"

"Almost," came the muffled reply from the bedroom.

Gordo chuckled under his breath, "Women, takes them days to get ready." Putting on his suit jacket, he adjusted the cuffs and then heard the bedroom door open. "About time Liz," he teased with his back still turned to her.

"Well perfection takes time," she shot back.

He laughed and then turned around. When he saw her, his mouth practically dropped. "Wow." He tried to say something but nothing would come out and his voice cracked a little.

Lizzie giggled at him, "You're finally speechless."

Lizzie's dress was a deep cranberry red with the texture almost like velvet. The dress had outlines of poinsettias printed on it and while not too form fitting, the dress showed off her slender figure. It was sleeveless, but was worn with a print-less long sleeved sweater of the same fabric. The neckline laid like a wide oval on her shoulders, and the skirt stopped a few inches above her ankles. She also wore black stockings and a pair of black four-inch heels. Her hair flowed over her shoulders, with her bangs curled a little and a few strands set to frame her face. Lizzie also had a pair of small, gold loop earrings, a simple gold chain necklace with a diamond tear drop pendant, a gold sapphire and diamond ring on her right hand, and a gold chain bracelet on her left wrist.

Clearing his throat, he was finally able to speak. "You look incredible."

Lizzie smiled softly at him and walked to him. "You look great too. Gordo grabbed her long, black dress jacket and held it out for her. Lizzie slipped her arms into it and he put the jacket on for her. "Thank you."

Gordo just smiled as he put on his own jacket. Opening the door, "After you milady."

"Thank you my knight," she teased back with a little giggle.

The party was being held in the ballroom of the Washington Hotel. After checking their jackets, Lizzie took Gordo's hand and let them into the ballroom.

For the first few minutes, Gordo let Lizzie lead her around as she politely said hello to a few people. Suddenly, Lizzie spotted a read head woman and immediately headed towards her with Gordo in tow.

"Sue."

"Beth," the woman said turning around and greeting her with a huge smile. "You look fantastic. She than saw Gordo standing next to her, "Who's the hunk?" she said with a wide grin.

"Beth?" Gordo thought with a smirk.

"This is David," Lizzie introduced. "David, this my friend Suzy."

"So you're the famous David," Suzy said with a grin as she shook his hand.

"Famous?" Gordo asked sarcastically.

Suzy laughed, "We can't get blondie here to shut up about you." As Suzy and Gordo laughed, Lizzie wanted to sink into the ground.

After talking for a little while and mingling with a few of the other people there, they were standing near the bar when a male voice spoke up from behind them, "Heya Beth, Suzy, and I don't believe we've met."

"Jake, this David Gordon, one of my oldest and best friends," Lizzie seemed to force out with a fake smile. "David, this is another coworker, Jake Hutchinson."

"Nice to meet you," Jake said with a fake smile and stuck out his hand.

"Nice to meet you too," Gordo said taking the hand and the two men glared at each other.

Suzy gently nudged Lizzie and grinned at her. Lizzie just rolled her eyes as the two men released their hands. Before anything else could happen, "David would you like to dance?" she asked Gordo.

He thought about saying no but realizing if he did this, Jake would swoop in. "Sure." Gordo than took Lizzie's hand and lead her to the dance floor.

As they danced, Lizzie looked at him and couldn't help but smile. "He's jealous!" Reaching up, she gently stroked his cheek. "Do you think he can actually compete with you?"

"What?"

"Jake," she told him.

Gordo looked at her confused, "I don't understand."

Smiling a little, she moved in a little closer to his body. "When you met Jake, you got jealous," Lizzie said smugly, " I can see it in your eyes. But there is no way Jake could compete with you, much less compete with what we have."

"Come on Lizzie. You're telling me you've never been attracted to him."

"I never said that," she said laughing a little. "But he's also arrogant, abrasive, and a pig. It's all about him or nothing. I could never be with someone like that, no matter how attracted I was to them," Lizzie looked at him intently for a moment.

"What?" Gordo asked as he got a weird feeling from her intent stare.

"Sorry," Lizzie said blushing a little. As the current song ended, she reluctantly let go of him and they walked off the dance floor.

As he followed her, Gordo watched her, studying her. Her expression, body language, he knew she was holding back something. After twenty-five years of being so close, he could read her without her saying word. Much like she could do with him. "Beth."

Lizzie spun around, a little surprised to hear Gordo use that nickname for her. For some reason, she didn't like the way it sounded coming from him.

"Knew that'd get your attention," Gordo said with a smirk. "You're hiding something, what is it?"

Lizzie smirked back at him, "So after ten years you finally notice," she said with a harsh sarcastic tone.

Looking at her confused and a little surprised at her tone. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he asked, his annoyance starting to rise.

"I…Never mind, sorry," she mumbled and started walking away.

Gordo quickly grabbed her arm and lead her out of the ballroom so they could have some privacy. Spinning her around, so she was facing him, "Stop playing games and tell me what it is bothering you."

"You are, alright. Its you," she said upset. "I am driving myself absolutely crazy because I can't admit the one thing that I want so badly."

"Lizzie," he said softly.

"I'm scared Gordo. I'm scared that if I tell you, I'll completely screw up our relationship."

"Tell me," he said as he wrapped her lightly in his arms, "Please."

"I love you. I've always loved you. I knew about your crush in junior high and I was scared that if we got together and something went wrong, I'd lose you. So I felt it was better to not even try. That's why I had to hurt you like I did, no matter how much it killed me. But the problem was my feelings didn't go away, they just got stronger and now I'm acting like a fucking basket case," Lizzie said in rush as she tried to fight back a few tears. "I just wanna go home."

"Ok," It was Gordo could think to say and then went off to grab their coats.

The taxi ride home was silent, as Lizzie tried to pull herself back together and Gordo tried to digest everything that Lizzie had spilled to him. Walking inside the apartment, Gordo took Lizzie's coat and hung it up with his.

Gordo watched her walk over to the kitchen table. "Lizzie," Gordo called out softly and Lizzie turned around to face him, with a questioning look on her face. Locking eyes with her, as he walked to her, he never broke the gaze. "Do you still love me?" he asked very softly, almost in a whisper as he stopped only an inch away from her.

Lizzie swallowed hard, "Yes." Those few seconds after she said yes, felt like years as she waited for any kind of response from him.

Gordo slowly reached out with one hand and gently cupped her face. He smiled softly as he felt Lizzie's pulse start racing and her breathing become haggard. "I never stopped loving you," he said softly right before he leaned in and kissed her. As he released her lips and pulled back, Lizzie let out a small whimper. "You wanna know why I didn't have the main character in my book end up with the blonde?" he asked her softly. "Its cause I'm saving that ending for real life," Gordo told her and then kissed her again.

Carefully grabbing the lapel of her sweater, he slowly pulled it off her and placed it on the back of one of the chairs. Turning his attention back to her, Gordo started to kiss the nape of Lizzie's neck.

"David," Lizzie practically purred as her head fell back and she clutched his sides. Grabbing the hair on the back of his head, she pulled his head up and quickly capturing his lips with her own and started to furiously kiss him. Stumbling into the bedroom, Lizzie kicked off her heels and started to fumble with the buttons on Gordo's shirt.

Letting her go for a moment, Gordo quickly threw his jacket off. As his hands slid along her back, looking for the zipper of her dress, Lizzie finally unbuttoned the last one and tore his shirt out from his pants and pulled it off him. Finding the zipper to Lizzie's dress, Gordo carefully pulled it down, not wanting to ruin the dress.

Letting go of each other for a moment, Lizzie quickly took the dress off as Gordo pulled his t-shirt over his head. Just as Gordo looked at her only in her underwear and felt his mouth go dry, Lizzie practically pounced on him. Losing his balance as the back of his knees hit the bed, Gordo picked Lizzie up and feel backwards onto the bed.

Unbuckling his pants, Lizzie pulled them off him. As she gently trailed kisses up his chest, Lizzie gently laid on top of him. "Gordo, what are we doing?" Lizzie asked breathlessly as she nuzzled his neck.

"I don't know," Gordo said struggling to put together a coherent thought. "But it feels right," he said as he ran his fingertips along one of her bra straps. "We don't have to, if you don't want to."

Pulling her head back, she pressed her forehead against his and looked at him in his eyes. "I'm starring into his eyes a lot lately. They're like deep blue magnets." "I want to." Before he could say anything else and she could give it anymore thought, twenty-five years of pent up emotions came pouring out and they started making love.

A few hours later, Gordo laid on his side and watched over a sleeping Lizzie who was curled up against his chest. He just wanted to stay like this forever, he didn't want to leave the bed, much less the city.

Gordo felt Lizzie shiver a little. As he pulled the blankets up higher, Lizzie snuggled closer to him, wrap her arms around his waist, and let out a happy whimper. As he held her tighter, "The things you do to me McGuire."