Disclaimer; I do not own "Las Vegas" the series or any of its characters.
AN: Thanks again for the feedback! Sorry if this took too long. I've been trying to post this for the last few days, but the site wouldn't let me.
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"Why am I so nervous?", Mary asked herself. She stood in front of the mirror in her bedroom, looking at her reflection. Trying to decide what to wear, she had on her third outfit of the night. "I look like a nun", she complained. As she attempted to take the outfit off, there was a knock at her door.
When she opened it, her friend Delinda Deline, made her way through the door with bags in her hands. "Have no fear, Delinda's here." Getting a good look at Mary, she commented, "you look like a nun."
"I know", she frowned. "I have nothing to wear."
"I've got you covered", she said, holding up the bags of clothes.
Mary smiled gratefully. "Thanks for coming over."
"Oh, it's my pleasure. Even though you are going out with my man", she joked.
The redhead smirked. "He's not your man."
"He would've been", she pointed out. "I can't believe you're going out on a date with him."
"It's not a date", she denied unconvincingly.
Delinda snickered. "Yeah, right." Mary just rolled her eyes at her as she rifled through her bags. Pulling out a dress, Delinda held it up to Mary. "This would look so good on you. It goes with your hair color."
Shrugging, Mary grabbed it and walked into the bathroom nearby to try it on.
"So what did Danny have to say?", the blonde called out as she made herself comfortable on Mary's bed.
"Oh... not much. He doesn't even remember Jeff."
"What's the story with you two anyway?"
Sighing in frustration, Mary replied, "I don't know. We keep making plans, and then he cancels on me. I'm beginning to think Danny doesn't really want to be with me."
Delinda raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I meant, you and Jeff."
Mary walked back into the bedroom, fully dressed in the new outfit. "Oh. So what do you think?"
Scrunching her forehead in confusion, the blonde asked, "about you and Jeff or you and Danny?"
"About the dress", Mary spun around, showing it off.
"Oh", she chuckled. "Hmm", she inspected her. "I think it makes your butt look big."
Mary looked at her friend in shock. Even though Delinda had always been blunt with her, it still managed to render her speechless at times.
"What?", the blonde asked defensively. "It does."
Shaking her head, Mary muttered, "you're unbelievable".
Going through the bags once again, Delinda pulled out a skirt set. "Ooh, this is real pretty. Try this on." Mary went back into the bathroom.
"So about you and Jeff..."
"Oh right. Well, we went to high school together for awhile. He was so sweet and cute and smart. We were paired as lab partners once in science class, and that's when he asked me out. He was kind of like my first boyfriend, even though we only went out a few times. But I was totally in love with him."
"Really? I never thought you loved anyone but Danny."
Mary returned in the skirt set. "Let me tell you, I love Danny. But if there was any other guy that I could have seen myself with, it was Jeff", she confessed with a bright smile. "He was also my first. When he told me his family was moving, I was so crushed. We went out his last night here, and we... you know. It was so beautiful. On a blanket, under the stars. It just felt so... right. It was his first time too and we were both so nervous and it was so awkward, but it was... everything a first time should be", Mary finished with a meloncholy smile.
"Aww. Sounds a lot better than my first time", Delinda interrupted.
"And the next day, he was gone. And I never saw him again. We wrote to each other for awhile, and I even saved a couple of his letters, but then that stopped. You know how it is, you lose touch with people", she shrugged.
"Yeah".
Blinking back a few tears, an emotional Mary admitted, "I always considered Jeff to be the one that got away." Lost in her own thoughts for a moment, Mary came back to herself and asked, "so how about this outfit?"
Delinda nodded. "You look gorgeous."
She smiled. "Thanks, I like it too. I think this is the one." She then sat at her make-up table. "How should I do my hair, up or down?"
"Hmm." Delinda came up behind her and played with her hair. "I say up. It shows off your neck and guys love that."
"Danny always loved my hair down."
"Is that why you usually wear it like that?"
Mary didn't answer. She simply smiled, then grabbed some hair clips to put her hair up.
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After seven that evening, Mary and her date were driving back to the Montecito. "I'm really sorry about this, Jeff", she apologized for the second time since he picked her up at her house.
He smiled. "Don't be. I understand. McCoy's just looking out for you."
She rolled her eyes. "No, he's just being an overprotective jerk."
"I think it's sweet."
"You do?", she looked at him with surprise.
"Yeah. It's kind of what brothers do. I used to do it to my little sister all the time."
Mary scoffed. "Danny is not my brother."
She said it so vehemently, Jeff had to take his eyes off the road for a second to glance at her. He shrugged. "At any rate, I don't mind."
Mary smiled thankfully. "You're wonderful."
"I don't know about that. I'm only going to put up with his interrogation for five minutes. Ten minutes, tops. Then I'm dragging you out of there, whether he likes me or not." They chuckled as they neared the resort.
"Here we go", the redhead mumbled under her breath, and stepped out of the car when her date opened the door for her. As soon as they entered the building, Mike came running up to them. "Mary."
"Hi, Mike. I'd like for you to meet Jeff Cooper. Jeff, this is Mike Cannon." The two men greeted each other and shook hands. "Where's Danny? I want to get this over with. We have reservations for eight o'clock", Mary said, as she checked her watch for the time.
"Yeah, about that... Danny's sick."
A look of immediate concern crossed Mary's features. "What's wrong?"
"Umm, I think he ate something that didn't agree with him. He's been vomiting for the last hour."
"Where is he?"
"I got him lying down in the Staff Room." The three of them took off together.
"Maybe I should go in alone?", she suggested as they got to the door. Mike and Jeff simply nodded as she entered the room. Upon first walking in, she spotted Danny on the leather couch with his eyes closed, wrapped in a blanket. He was also slightly moaning. "Danny", she called softly as she sat down by him, caressing his face.
He opened his eyes. "Mary", he croaked out.
"Hey" she smiled. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay. I think I may have come down with a bug."
"Mike says you ate something that didn't agree with you."
Danny's eyes widened for a bit. 'Damn Mike. We went over this', he thought to himself. He hoped he hadn't just been caught. "Uh, well I got sick after dinner. So we thought that was it at first."
"Mmm." She felt his forehead. "You don't feel warm."
'Double damn'. "Um, I feel cold actually."
"Like chills?"
"Yeah", he nodded. 'This isn't going too well. She isn't buying it', he paniced.
"I've got Jeff outside."
"Oh right. I'm sorry about this, Mary", he falsely apologized. "As you can see, I'm in no condition to meet him."
"No, you're not. And I can't just leave you like this."
He knew she'd say that. "Mary, I'll be fine. I don't want you to break your date because of me", he said it with a puppy dog look on his face, but his mind chanted, 'break it, Mary. Break it.'
Mary contemplated that for a moment, then came to a decision. "If I don't, I'll just spend the whole night worrying about you anyway." She kissed his forehead and got up. "I'll be right back."
Once she left the room, a big chesire grin crossed Danny McCoy's handsome face. "Nice try, Jeff Cooper."
