This is a one-shot fic. I wrote it one night whilst trying to avoid doing any other work. I wrote it because there just aren't enough Ryan/Valera pairings out there. Hope people like! Reviews are good and will be appreciated!
Finally
'Get out of my lab.'
Ryan stopped, backed up, and stared. 'What?'
'I said get out my lab. You're not deaf Ryan, for all that you're stupid. Now get out.'
'Valera,' Ryan said conversationally as she placed a hand on each of his shoulders and pushed him out of the lab. 'Have I managed to upset you in some way?'
She seemed lost for words for a minute then grabbed a handful of his shirt and yanked him back inside, the expression on her face furious.
'What do you think you're playing at?' she demanded.
He blinked. 'You just threw me out of the lab, now you're dragging me back in? You're yelling at me without an explanation, and you're asking what I'm playing at? Shouldn't that be my line?'
She muttered, 'Dumb bastard,' under her breath.
'Thanks,' he said, spreading his hands in a gesture of confusion. 'You done? Can I go? Or even better, can I get an explanation?'
'I think you owe me one,' she shot back. He had never seen her looking so angry. Annoyed, upset, close to tears and seriously hacked off, but never foaming at the mouth furious before.
Ryan took a deep breath. 'Let's start over. For the moment, Valera, assume that I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Let's assume I'm stupid and have the memory of a goldfish.'
'That's not an assumption,' she snapped. 'That's a fact.'
'Insulting me is not going to get us very far, is it?' he said from between gritted teeth.
'Makes me feel better, though.'
'Maxine,' he said as calmly as possible. 'If I confess to whatever it is I've apparently done, then you can hurl abuse at me. Not before. Okay?'
She scowled but nodded.
'Right. What have I done?'
He half expected her to throw him out of the lab again. Instead, she took a deep breath and said crossly, 'You wrote this and left it my locker.' She shoved a piece of paper at him. He took it and unfolded it and read it.
Giving her an annoyed look over the top of the page, he read aloud, ' Dear Valera. You're an ugly cow and I don't know how you ever managed to get a boyfriend. Even the stupid idiot you're dating at the moment. Who, by the way, is the single most useless pile of garbage I've ever had the misfortune to set eyes upon. All the same, he could probably do better than you. Lots of love, Ryan.' He gave her a blank stare. 'You think I wrote this?'
'Your handwriting,' she hissed. Now he saw that there were tears in her eyes.
'Not my handwriting,' he said, screwing the paper up. 'I didn't write this, Valera. It's close to my handwriting, I'll say that, but it isn't my handwriting - '
She slapped him.
He let a yell of pain and shock and stumbled backwards into a table. 'What the hell was that for!' he yelled at her. 'I didn't write it! I don't know whose idea of a joke this was, but I didn't write it!'
'I thought we were friends!' she yelled back. 'I can cope with you hating me, but why do something as vile as that?' She made to slap him again.
He lifted his hands to defend himself. 'Valera, stop!'
'What did I ever do to you!' she yelled. 'What did I ever do to you to deserve that!' She picked up a book and hurled it at him. He caught it and used it as a shield as she threw another one at him.
'Stop!' he said, waving the book at her. 'It wasn't me! I swear, it wasn't me!'
Valera turned on him. 'Oh, really? You expect me to believe that?'
'Yes!' He took a deep breath. 'Valera. I don't think you're ugly at all. I think you're beautiful. And yes, I do think your boyfriend is a useless waste of space, but I think you could do a lot better than him. So why would I write this?'
'I don't know,' she spat at him. Then stopped. 'You think I'm beautiful?'
'Um…yes,' he said in a low voice.
'Really?'
'Yes…'
'And you think I could do better than my – now ex – boyfriend?'
'A lot,' he muttered, no longer looking at her, face bright red.
'You swear you didn't write this.'
'I didn't write it.'
Silence fell over the lab.
'I'm sorry I hit you,' she said eventually.
'It's okay.' He touched his jaw gingerly. 'Just as long as it doesn't land me in hospital again, it's fine.' He gave her a lopsided smile. 'Are we okay now?'
'No,' she said shortly.
He blinked. 'We're not?'
'No. How come you never told me any of that stuff before?'
'What?' He gave her another look of total confusion. 'Oh…you mean…'
'Yeah. That's what I mean.'
'Um…I thought you'd probably slap me,' he said.
Valera shook her head, still not smiling. 'Ryan, for someone who's very intelligent, you can be seriously stupid and for a criminalist, you can be really unobservant.'
'Now you've totally lost me.'
She rolled her eyes, grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards her and treated him to a very long, very thorough kiss.
Ryan simply stared at her in astonishment. 'Um…' he said slowly. 'Why didn't you ever mention this to me?'
'Because I thought you'd noticed,' she replied and kissed him again, briefly this time. Ryan wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close again him. She closed her eyes and gasped softly as he pressed his lips against hers, slowly, tentatively. She lent forwards, leaning into the kiss. Ryan completely forgot everything else that had been on his mind, his mind instead focusing totally upon her. He even forgot where they were and what they were supposed to be doing, rather more interested in what they were actually doing.
Calleigh heard a crash coming from inside the lab as she walked past and stopped, looking inside. 'You all right?' she asked, sounding concerned.
Valera was kneeling on the floor, picking up pieces of glass. Her face was slightly pink. Ryan was also picking broken glass up off of the table. His face was bright red.
'We're fine,' he said to Calleigh, avoiding looking at her and hoping she didn't notice that a couple of buttons were now missing off of his shirt.
Valera got up, surreptitiously smoothing her hair down. 'Ryan tripped over and almost knocked the table over,' she said, smiling innocently at Calleigh. 'Broken a few things.'
'Yeah, I'm just clumsy,' he said, frowning at her.
Calleigh nodded. 'Okay. Just make sure you clean all the glass up.'
'Will do,' Ryan called after her as she left.
Calleigh went into the locker room. Eric was getting his things ready to leave. He looked up. 'Something wrong?'
'No,' she said, smiling. 'Ryan and Valera finally got together.'
'Finally,' he muttered. 'Alexx's idea worked, then.'
'It did.'
'I'm amazed it did work. And you got Ryan's handwriting almost perfect.'
'What can I say?' She grinned. 'See you tomorrow.'
He walked out. Alexx was peering through a window of the lab, grinned and walked on. As Eric passed her, she smiled and lifted a hand. Eric lifted his and gave her a high-five.
