Author: snowyplains
Rating: K+
Note: This one's for awesomepossum because I owe her one :) I finally managed to write a D/A angst! Incorporates a paraphrased line from the finale...and I may add a chapter to this...we'll see.
"I'm just looking out for you." she says. He nods and walks out the door.
Two years now, and she was still doing it; looking out for him. She couldn't seem to help herself.
The first time they had met two years ago, when she, fresh out of college had been hired by the forensics department, the attraction had been immediate...and mutual. She found herself smiling at him as they passed in the hall. He dropped by in the lab when he knew she was working to ask her how she was doing. She suddenly began to find coffee and donuts on her desk in the morning. And they were assigned to work cases together.
Their initial courtship had been mercifully short. Three weeks in, and he asked her out.
Their first date had been to an Italian restaurant, where the prices were steep and the waiters snotty. They dropped by his place after, where they slow danced to cheesy ballads, and she, with her horrible voice, began singing along. He laughed at her performace and kissed her. Just like that, something irreversible had happened. She found herself always watching out for him. She wasn't looking to save him, or change him. She was old enough to know that men never do.
One night, 4 months later, they broke up in her living room and he left. Refusing to cry, she lay in bed, mentally running through all the possible altercations that could take place the next day at work.
She hadn't needed to worry. When she got to the lab, she found coffee and donuts on her desk as usual. She looked around, and saw him standing by the door, watching her, waiting for her reaction. She smiled gratefully at him, and he grinned weakly in response before leaving.
It was business as usual. She was surprised at how easy it was to work with him, how they weren't awkward around each other at all, even after all that. They became friends, a step that had been skipped the first time around, and they started going for lunch, stopping by the bar after work, sharing a cab home. Ironically, it was only after they broke up that rumours started flying that there was something going on between them.
And she never stopped looking out for him.
"Aiden, I'm a big boy. I don't need you to watch out for me."
"Yeah, but if I don't do it, who will?"
One conversation that had never been brought up again between the two of them. He stuck with his side, she with hers, and no attempt was ever made to convince the other otherwise.
And now, she was beginning to notice the looks he gave her again. She recognized them because he used to look at her the same way, two years ago. Only now, they were tinged with sadness. She realized she missed him (too?)...missed the way the used to fall asleep together, the way he used to touch her, the way he tried so hard to make her smile. Now, teasing him was just an excuse to see him laugh, for her to touch him again, going out for food was just an excuse to be together. Even working together was an excuse to talk. The rumours were easy to brush off at first, but as time went on, it was getting harder to listen to them without wishing they were true. She began to remember all the times he told her she was beautiful while they were lying in bed together, or watching dumb slapstick comedy curled up on the couch. All of a sudden, two years didn't seem that long ago, and now they knew each other much better and maybe they could give it another shot...
Some nights, she couldn't help but wonder what could have been.