"I better go ahead and go downstairs before I kiss you again, because if I kiss you again I don't think I'm going to be able to stop just there and we have to be at midnight mass in like thirty minutes." Tony admitted. He softly ran his hand through her hair and then he lightly kissed his forehead. He checked himself in the mirror and fixed his tie a little. "I'll just be downstairs talking to Robbie."
Kate nodded. She watched him leave the room. She sat down on the toilet and fanned herself. Kate had always assumed Tony could kiss. I mean she heard the way girls sounded on his voicemail. Still she never imagined kissing him would leave her so satisfied.
Tony shut the door and sighed. Kissing Kate had left him feeling alive. It was like one kiss with Kate could sum up every happy emotion ever conveyed. He made his way down the hall replaying the entire moment in his head over and over again. He was so caught up in replaying the moment that he almost didn't hear Adrianna call his name. He stopped and turned around. He stood in the doorway to her room. "You called?"
"Uh yeah I did. I was wondering if maybe I could talk to you for a moment." Her voice cracked. She sounded defeated. Her cheeks were stained with mascara. She looked as though someone had just run over her dog.
He started to say no. He started to tell her that he didn't want to waste a minute on her anymore. Still even though he started to say those things he couldn't actually say them. He walked into her room and sat down on the bed beside her. If his sister saw them together she would probably kill him. "Shoot."
Adrianna stared at her hands for a moment and then looked up at him. "I know you were wondering why I came here. I know you were wondering why Ted divorced me. I know you were wondering why I even had the nerve to think of your family as my family still." She stopped and looked at her hands again. She sort of shook them as if trying to shake something off of them. She clenched and unclenched them. "Uh see the thing is I couldn't go home. Tomorrow is that day that everyone in my family just sort of tries to forget even though none of us can. I mean my mother is fine for 358 days of the year but this week rolls around and she just freezes. She falls apart. So do I. I woke up yesterday morning and I couldn't force myself out of bed. I just didn't have the will to move."
"Oh my God I totally forgot tomorrow is the anniversary of Mikey's overdose. God is anniversary even the right word. I doubt it." He found himself remembering that morning as if it was yesterday. The way she sounded when he called her. The way you could hear her mother sobbing in the background demanding to know why Mikey was dead. Mikey had been Adrianna's twin brother, her best friend, and her rock. When he died so did a little part of her.
"I still remember the way my chest burned after I screamed when I found his body. The way his face was so pale. I remember how my mother one day suddenly took the chair that I had found him sitting in outback and she lit it on fire. I remember the way my father had to drag her inside. I remember it all." Adrianna stopped to take a deep ragged breath. "I woke up this morning and I thought that maybe I could come here and for once feel like I was part of something again. I know how it seems. I know what I did. It's just your family is the only family I had left after Mikey died. My parents are in Italy pretending this never happened. Ted never understood. I don't know."
Tony nodded. He had known Mikey his entire life. He remembered the first time Mikey called him to tell him about the way cocaine made him feel and he remembered the last time he talked to Mikey about quitting the drug that so quickly ruined his friend's life. "I get it. I am going to go ahead and go downstairs though. You probably want to get cleaned up for mass. I know how much you miss him…believe me I do."
Kate was surprised by how distant Tony seemed when she got downstairs and sat next to him on the couch. She wasn't sure whether it was something she had done or not. Was he regretting kissing her? She noticed that when he looked at Adrianna his eyes weren't so cold anymore. She tried not to think about the situation because she knew if she did she would get too worked up. She didn't say a word to Tony until they got into the SUV and were on their way to mass. "Are you okay Tony?"
"Adrianna told me why she came here for Christmas. Why she wanted to spend it with my family. Nearly ten years ago her brother overdosed. It was like a scene straight from Less Than Zero. He was going to film school in New York. Everything was on course for him. Then he tried to cocaine. Then he became addicted to cocaine. Then he failed out of film school. Then he moved back home and promised to go to rehab after the holidays were over. Then he went out and partied for what he said would be the last time. Then on Christmas morning Adrianna found him dead in a living room chair a bloody towel on the floor next to him. Her family doesn't celebrate Christmas anymore. I had sort of made a point to not think about Mikey anymore. I didn't want to dwell on it. She needed to be here because she needed to be with someone who didn't think she was crazy for not being over the day her brother died." Tony explained to Kate. He didn't mean to explain it all but as soon as he started talking about Mikey he couldn't stop. It had been so long since he had even thought about his dead best friend. The year after Mikey died was the year his football career ended. It was the year that she dumped him. He didn't have time to dwell on the past that year. After that his life changed. It was like he got past it but Adrianna never did. "He was her twin Kate. Her twin brother."
Kate wasn't sure what to say. She had seen the movie Less Than Zero once in high school. She vaguely remembered the plot. She knew it was about people being addicted to cocaine. She knew Robert Downey Jr. died but other than that she had no clue. She gently placed her hand over his. That was all she could think of. "I'm sorry Tony. I can't imagine ever going through something so tragic."
"Yeah well I think it's harder on her now because she can't have kids. She basically has no family left in the world. Her parents are just shells of people now. They lack a soul. My family always took care of her. You know?" Tony had never in a million years thought he would have forgiven her for leaving him the way she did. He guessed that it was healthier this way. "Don't mistake my not hating her to mean that I want to get back with her. I like this. I like us."
"So do I Tony." She kissed him softly on the cheek. "You realize this means that we are going to have to break rule number eight."
"I thought it was rule number eleven."
Kate shrugged. "Whatever number it is doesn't really matter it's the rule itself that matters. Gibbs isn't going to like this."
"No I think Gibbs is going to love this." Tony replied. "Abby is going to throw a parade when she finds out that we have finally gone from platonic to romantic."
"I wonder what Gibbs said when he found out that her and McGee were breaking rule eight/eleven."
Tony laughed. "I bet you he didn't say anything he just sort of raised his eyebrows and nodded. You know one of those Gibbs gestures that only Gibbs can't turn into a form of communication."
Kate smiled. "I think you are definitely right."
Tony parked his car and sighed. He had been attending this church since he could remember. It was right over the Massachusetts border and it was more like a cathedral than an ordinary church. He loved the stain glass windows. Robbie had actually been an altar boy at this church. He got out of the car and opened the passenger side door for Kate.
"Wow. Everything is so massive up here." Kate was sort of stunned by the size of the building. It was very beautiful and European if that made sense.
Tony laughed. "Wait till you see the inside. Still I could say the same thing about you not the massive part but the wow part."
Kate looked down at herself. "You think?"
"I know. Which is why I want you to wear my suit jacket because in that dress you offer me too many chances to have impure thoughts in church." Tony sort of half joked. For the most part he was serious. See he was convinced that Father Giocoso could tell if you were thinking dirty thoughts in church. He didn't want to have to deal with a disgusted padre on the night honoring Christ's birth.
Kate gently hit his chest. She allowed him to help her into his jacket. She loved the way it smelled it was a mix of Italian food and cool water. "Well then what am I going to do to keep me from thinking those kinds of things about you."
"I don't know but I wouldn't risk it because Father Giocoso is on top of those things. He'll totally catch you in the act. The man is omnipotent." Tony joked as he wrapped his arm around her waist. He smiled and said hello to people as they made their way to the front of the church where his family was sitting.
Kate whispered quietly. "Do you really know all of these people?"
"Sure and one day you will too."
Okay so that was the update. I watched Less Than Zero twice this weekend and I felt like suddenly giving Adrianna a coke addicted dead twin brother. I know that is a terribly offensive sentence. Thank you for reading. I didn't mean to take so long to update. Life just sort of got hectic. Review please. All of them totally make me smile.
