Chapter 28.
Happy New Year and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Shameless.
Summer vacation had finally begun meaning that it was time for Daniela to start padding her resume for her college applications. While she was still unsure of what she was going to study, Healey had urged her to fill it up anyway and had gotten her some jobs helping out the community. One of those jobs was volunteering as a lifeguard down at the city pool.
It was her first day but before heading down there, Daniela wanted to stop in at the Gallagher house to see Lip.
Stepping outside, she frowned when she saw construction workers and trucks parked along the street.
"What's going on?" Asked Daniela to a worker as she passed him.
"We need to do some construction on the pipes this week so the water will be off on the day," he answered before turning back to throwing out instructions about where to dig up.
Nodding, the girl continued on her way, heading up the stairs and through the front door. As she entered the kitchen she saw Debbie wearing a bright pink swimsuit, huddled over a pan of scrambled eggs.
"I did it!" She cried with enthusiasm, taking a huge gasp of breath before looking at a blank Jimmy. "One hundred! One hundred seconds!"
"New personal best," grinned Daniela, grabbing the younger girl's attention. The teen flicked her head at Jimmy. "What's with him?"
Debbie shrugged with an annoyed huff. "I don't know but I can't do breakfast, set up for daycare and practice holding my breath at the same time."
Snapping out of his daze, the man simply held up his bandaged pinky. "Can't. Still broken."
"It's a finger, not your neck."
Smiling at the authoritative little girl, Daniela headed up the stairs to Lip's room passing Molly who was still staying there. She smiled at the girl who she had recently been informed was not actually a girl.
Lip was still sleeping when she peeked her head past his door, his shirtless body tangled up in sheets. The corners of her mouth tugged up as she quietly tip-toed over to his bed, sliding down beside him.
Pressing her lips gently to his jaw, she felt him stir awake. Lip's bleary eye flickered open, a frown marring his features at the unknown presence beside him. Once his eyes focused and saw that it was Daniela, he relaxed.
"Morning," she smiled, watching as his own face lit up.
"Hey, I thought you were working at the pool today?"
Daniela nodded, propping herself up on her side with her elbow. "I am but I wanted to come see you first." Lip's eyebrow raised and he smirked cockily making the girl beside him roll her eyes.
"I also stopped by because I thought we should do something this weekend," she continued as Lip's fingers came up to toy with the wavy strands of chestnut colored hair framing her face.
"Oh yeah?" He asked lightly, getting caught up in one particular lock. "Why's that?"
Daniela tilted her head, feeling her nerves build up suddenly. "Well, it's coming up to six months that we've been together and I thought we could celebrate." She watched Lip's reaction; the hope inside of her dying a bit when she saw his entire posture shift.
The grip on her piece of hair slackened as he pulled back, coughing uncomfortably. She was blindsided by his sudden change.
"Six months, huh?"
"I know," Daniela nodded, hearing the surprise in his voice along with something else she couldn't quite pinpoint. "It went by really fast."
"Yeah…it did." Pulling himself up from the bed, Lip moved over her to his chest of drawers and began digging through them for some clothes, meanwhile avoiding eye contact with Daniela. "Don't you think it's a little weird to celebrate six months?"
Feeling even more unsure of herself, Daniela shrugged. "Uh, well yeah. Kind of." She shifted so that she was sitting upright with her legs hanging over the bed. "Usually, I hate when couples celebrate monthly anniversaries."
"Yeah," Lip nodded in agreement, his back still turned to her as he pulled on a shirt. "Besides, I'm gonna be a little busy this weekend working the van with Kev."
"Oh." Daniela's gaze dropped to her hands. "Right. It was a stupid idea anyway."
Chewing the inside of her cheek, she rose from the bed and began padding her way to the door. Lip also dropped his head, his hands gripping his open drawers for support.
As she passed him, Daniela heard him sigh.
"It wasn't stupid." Lip forced himself to finally meet her gaze and felt a pang in his chest at her saddened expression. "Just…bad timing is all."
Daniela nodded, still not feeling any better about his sudden shutting her out. She could see that he was even having difficulty keeping eye contact with her and knew it had to do entirely with her idea.
"I better get going." With that, the girl breezed down the stairs and out the door.
Back in his room, Lip pressed his balled up fists into his eyes. "You idiot. What the fuck is wrong with you?"
/
The fiasco with Lip managed to drift from the forefront of Daniela's mind as she got more settled into her job. She couldn't afford to be distracted when she was responsible for keeping an eye on the hundreds of people down at the pool.
She sat perched up in her lifeguard tower, staring out at the swarm of families swimming around and having fun. She enjoyed seeing the happy smiling faces as it wasn't always something she saw a lot of around the neighborhood.
The teen was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard a voice call out from below.
"Hey, stranger."
Daniela frowned and leaned over to look down at Jessica. The other girl smiled warmly up at her as she used her hand to shade her eyes from the sun.
"I thought that was you up there," she continued, watching as Daniela quickly climbed down.
"Hey!" She grinned, pulling the other girl in for a hug straight away.
Since meeting at the art class in the city nearly a year ago, the two had kept in contact with each other, mainly through text messages due to their different schedules and neighborhoods though they were always making plans to meet up again.
"I didn't know you were a lifeguard," said Jessica, impressed.
Daniela just shrugged. "Volunteering."
"For your college applications?" At the girl's nod, Jessica grinned and nudged her arm. "So you've finally decided what you want to do?"
"More or less."
Jessica raised an eyebrow. "More-more or more-less?"
"More-less," sighed Daniela as she wiped a hand over her face, looking out at the sea of children just to make sure she wasn't completely shirking her responsibilities.
The other girl chuckled, fully understanding the struggle of picking their future. It was a big deal and definitely not one to be taken lightly.
She too, looked out at the children, her eyes focusing on two younger kids making their way to the pool ladder.
"I better go before my little cousins start drinking all the pool water," she joked but there was a nervousness to her voice that indicated her cousins would indeed drink the pool water.
Daniela grimaced at that as her eyes locked onto the two kids. "Yeah, I would definitely advise against that."
"We'll properly catch up soon, though," promised Jessica as she flashed another warm smile at Daniela before making her way over to her little cousins splashing around.
The rest of Daniela's shift seemed to speed up after that point and soon another lifeguard showed up to take her position. She smiled kindly at them as she climbed down.
As she made her way to the staff locker, her eyes caught onto Debbie who was relaxing by the pool with a book. She had seen the younger girl when she came in and kept an eye on her throughout her shift.
Daniela's brow lifted when she saw two older girls stalk over to Debbie with scowls on their faces. She watched their interactions from afar but began walking towards them when she saw Debbie's expression change.
"Stop staring at us, freak-bag," warned one before her friend got in on it.
"And grow some tits."
"Everything okay, Debs?" Interjected Daniela politely though there was an underlying threat in her tone that the two girls quickly picked up on.
She quirked an eyebrow at them as if daring them to try and say something but they decided against it, choosing to scurry off but not without glaring at Debbie over their shoulders one last time.
Daniela's narrowed eyes continued to follow them, not letting up until they were back on their side of the pool. She saw them throwing looks their way and whispering with their other friends which ultimately just made her roll her eyes.
"Thanks," piped up Debbie, keeping her eyes on her book.
Daniela sighed and bobbed down beside the girl. "Let me know if they bother you again."
Debbie nodded, chancing a glance at the mean girls who had turned their attention to something else. Satisfied, Daniela continued on her way to the staff lockers to get changed before heading home.
/
The jingle of the bell above the store door announced Daniela's entrance and her eyes clicked onto Lloyd leaning against the counter speaking to a smug Ian. Whatever he was saying died down at the interruption but he was quick to recognize her.
Coughing, he turned his attention back to Ian. "Think about it." Having said what he needed to, Lloyd made his way out of the store, giving Daniela a curt nod as he passed her.
Once the bell signaled that he had left, Daniela lifted an eyebrow at Ian.
"What did he want?"
"For me to rob his house," he answered casually while grabbing a magazine to flick through. Daniela laughed outright but sobered when she saw that her friend wasn't making it up.
"Oh wait, you were being serious."
"His wife locked him out of the house so he wants me to break in and get some of his stuff. He said the rest is fair game."
Daniela nodded at the proposition. "Sounds pretty sweet. You gonna do it?"
"Yeah," Ian chuckled as if the answer was obvious. "I was gonna ask Mickey and his brothers to help."
"Right, just ask your current boyfriend/not-boyfriend to rob your ex-boyfriend/not-boyfriend-because-that's-illegal-and-weird's house," joked Daniela as she pulled out a box cutter. "I'm sure that'll go down well."
Ian simply shrugged his shoulders like it didn't matter. "Mickey won't care. They're rich, he'll say yes."
Seeing that he had a point, Daniela got to work restocking some of the shelves while Ian waited for the last ten minutes of his shift to finish up. As she placed tubes of Pringles on the shelves, her mind remembered the situation with Lip and she felt like asking Ian about it.
"Hey," she called out gingerly. "Did Lip seem kind of…off to you this morning?"
Ian simply shook his head and turned the page of his magazine. "No, why?"
Sighing, Daniela stopped and placed a hand on her hip. "This morning, things were great but then I think I messed it up."
"How?"
Her mouth twisted. "I told him that we should do something this weekend because it's coming up to six months but as soon as I said it, he completely shut me out."
"That's weird," frowned Ian, glancing up at his friend who was now chewing on her lip.
"Yeah, I know. If I had have known he was going to react so weirdly, I wouldn't have bothered bringing it up."
"Look, you probably just scared him," reasoned the boy before shrugging his shoulders. "Think about it, the last long-term relationship- if you can even call it that- was with Karen. And look how that turned out."
His attention turned to the clock placed on the wall behind him, seeing that his time was up. "I better get going."
Daniela nodded from her spot in between the aisles. Her mind was off elsewhere and she barely registered herself saying goodbye to Ian.
/
Daniela didn't see Lip again for the rest of the day. He had texted her of course, just giving small updates as to what he was doing. When she had proposed coming over for the night he had turned it down saying that he was too tired.
It had hurt her but she wanted to take the benefit of the doubt and say that whatever had caused him to act so strangely was a one-time thing and that they would be back to normal the next day.
So the next morning, Daniela found herself at the local park where she knew Lip and Kev were parked up with the ice-cream truck. Making her way over to them, she rapped her knuckles on the side of the vehicle, catching both men's attentions.
"Hey," she smiled at Kev before settling her attention on Lip. He looked a little surprised that she was there and after meeting her eye once, kept his focus on the joints he was rolling.
"Hey, D." Kev greeted her warmly, picking up on the boy's weird attitude.
"Aren't you supposed to be working at the pool?" He asked bluntly, his voice sounding not at all as warm or inviting as Kev's did.
Daniela chewed on her lip. "I had some time to kill so I thought I'd drop by and see if you guys needed any help."
"Actually, since you mentioned it-"
"I think we're good." Lip cut the other man off quickly, still not meeting her now hurt gaze and she shuffled awkwardly on her feet.
Kev put an arm out to defend her, not understanding why Lip was being so cold. "Come on, she can stay."
"No, it's fine," stopped Daniela as she felt her anger rise. Her narrowed eyes zeroed in on Lip who just continued to roll joints, acting like she wasn't there. "I know when I'm not wanted."
She waited for a second to see if her words would have any effect on him but there was nothing. Fed up, she scoffed and stormed off.
Back in the van, Kev watched Lip with a raised eyebrow.
Feeling his stare, the boy finally raised his head, eyeing the man with agitation. "What?"
Kev sighed in disappointment. "Karen messed you up, dude."
A customer came up to the window at that point, drawing Kev's attention away from Lip who paused his actions, simply staring down at the half rolled joint in his fingers.
/
Her earlier interaction with Lip had put Daniela in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Throughout her shift at the pool, her leg kept bobbing up and down and her angry expression was enough to scare away any children who were in search of help.
Daniela didn't care though because quite frankly, she wasn't in the mood.
Her narrowed eyes caught onto Debbie who was climbing out of the pool. She noticed the white bikini the girl was wearing and figured that it was Fiona's since Debbie didn't own any.
Daniela's stare hardened when she saw the two mean girls from the day before approaching the little redhead.
One of the girls smiled sweetly at Debbie but Daniela couldn't help but feel that they had something more malicious planned.
Her concerns were proven true when she saw one girl squirt ketchup onto Debbie's chair before it was sat on by an oblivious Debbie. Feeling it underneath her, the little girl stood up, showcasing her ruined bikini bottoms much to the amusement of the girls.
"Period!" Ridiculed one of them, holding her stomach from laughing so much. Daniela felt her blood boil even more and she was quick to jump down from her chair and march towards them.
Debbie stood rooted to the spot and quickly wrapped her towel around her as she heard others beginning to laugh at her expense. Tears built up in her eyes, ready to fall but her attention was pulled away by a voice storming towards them.
"Oh, you think that's funny?" Asked Daniela sarcastically as she scowled at the two girls while simultaneously pulling Debbie behind her to shield her from everyone's eyes.
The two blondes grew quiet at seeing the pissed off expression on Daniela's face.
Daringly, one of them raised their chin defiantly. "Yeah, we do."
Daniela chuckled dryly before fixing them with a killer glare. Her bad mood was practically through the roof now.
"You wanna know what else is funny? The fact that you two will be subjected to living a shitty life, married to some shitty guy who will probably start having an affair after your fourth child because your vagina is all stretched out and your only source of comfort at night while he's out banging a younger, hotter version of you will be the bottle of tequila stored in your bedside table."
Daniela's heated words managed to stun them into silence along with everyone else who dared to laugh at Debbie. She knew there would no doubt be repercussions but she didn't care at that moment.
"You two like picking on little girls?" She continued, stepping towards them so that she was towering over them with her obvious age and height advantage. "How about you try me out and see what happens? Go ahead, I dare you-no! I double dare you."
Wisely, neither girl rose to the challenge and instead gulped as Daniela continued to glare daggers at them.
"Mm, that's what I thought." Taking a step back, she pointed at Debbie who was shaking with tears running down her cheeks. "Apologize."
The blondes looked shocked at the sudden demand but when Daniela raised a threatening eyebrow they both stuttered out apologies that brought a small satisfied smirk to Debbie's lips.
"Now get the hell out of here before I throw you out by your bottle blonde ponytails myself," said Daniela through gritted teeth.
They moved to take off but she quickly grabbed them both by the arm. "And don't you dare think about harassing her, or anyone else here again just because they don't fit into your overrated criteria."
Letting them go, she watched them scurry off to where their bags were before they began shoving their things in and heading off to the exit. Once they were out of her line of sight, Daniela turned to Debbie, her eyes softening immediately.
"Come on," she coaxed gently, placing an arm around her shoulder and leading her to the changing rooms after picking up her bag.
She led her into the changing rooms before sitting her down on one of the benches. Debbie was still sniffling and continued to clutch at the towel around her so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.
"Debs?" Began Daniela carefully. "Why are you wearing Fiona's bikini?"
Debbie sniffled some more but finally managed to croak a response. "I was trying to be cool like the other girls."
"Those girls are nothing but bitches, Debs. You're way cooler than them," said Daniela genuinely as she used her thumb to wipe away a stray tear on Debbie's face. "They should try to be more like you."
"I just wanted to fit in."
Daniela twisted her mouth, feeling a pang of sadness. "I know you did. But sometimes it's better to be different. You should embrace that instead of hating it."
She leaned her head closer to whisper. "Besides, girls like them are going to be balancing a baby on their hip by the time they graduate."
Debbie seemed a little more reassured by her words but still looked put out.
Tapping her leg lightly, Daniela offered her a grin. "You wanna go get some ice cream?"
"Aren't you still working?"
Daniela shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm pretty sure after all of that I'll be fired."
A small laugh bubbled up and out of Debbie's throat making the teen smile a little more. Daniela let her clean herself up and get changed into her normal clothes before she walked her to a nearby ice-cream store.
The frozen treat was a welcome distraction for Debbie but as they made their way home she fell back into a silence most likely thinking about what had happened.
/
Ian made his way down the stairs into the kitchen dressed in his ROTC gear. He and Mickey were going to do some practice while discussing the plans for the robbery the next day but first he wanted to talk to Lip about Daniela.
Said brother chuckled when he saw Ian all dressed up. "Is it Desert Storm night at the Cheesecake Factory?"
"Why are you being such a dick to El?" He asked, getting straight to the point.
Lip raised his eyebrows, not expecting the question. "I believe the answer to that is none of your fucking business."
Ian rolled his eyes at his brother's pathetic response. He was tired and didn't have time to play around.
"She told me you've basically been ignoring her ever since she brought up this whole anniversary thing."
"Look, I already told you, this doesn't concern you."
"Daniela's been nothing but nice to you so why are you treating her like shit all of a sudden?"
"Jesus," sighed Lip feeling his own temper rise. "What are you her fucking lawyer?"
"No," Ian shook his head, getting up in his brother's face. "I'm her best friend and you're acting like a douche bag. You want out? End it. Otherwise, stop treating her like a piece of garbage because we both know that's not what she deserves."
Lip's defense faltered but Ian didn't stop there. "Just because Karen wiped her ass with you doesn't give you the right to shit on El."
Lip didn't move from his spot, having descended into a silence. Ian waited for a smart-ass rebuttal but none came. Hoping that his brother had gotten the message, he made his way out the front door.
Daniela and Debbie approached the house, spotting Ian heading off in the other direction in his uniform.
The teen had her arm around the other girl who had been silent the whole walk home. She knew Debbie was still mortified about what had happened and felt bad for her.
They made their way up the porch steps and through the door into the kitchen where Fiona was telling the others that they needed to all work together to dig up the backyard.
Daniela's eyes instinctively sought out Lip who was leaning back against the sink. She was surprised to find he was actually already looking at her.
"Hey, Debs," grinned Fiona with her hands on her hips. She was covered in dirt. "How was the pool?"
The girl's throat clogged up at the question before running up the stairs, a sob ripping out of her throat. Daniela's eyes clenched shut before opening and meeting Fiona's.
"What happened?"
"She got her period at the pool today," laughed Carl as he took a bite of some crackers. His sister's eyes widened at the news but Daniela was quick to deny it.
"No, she didn't," she shook her head. "These girls have been giving her a hard time down at the pool so they put ketchup on her bikini so it looked like blood. I chewed them out after it happened but she's still pretty embarrassed about the whole thing."
"Oh shit," sighed Fiona, rubbing a hand over her face before heading up the stairs.
Still feeling his eyes on her, Daniela met Lip's stare for a split second before rolling her eyes and following after Fiona.
She wasn't going to just tolerate his weird behavior and then accept him again when he suddenly decided to acknowledge her presence with no explanation.
Noticing her own coldness, Lip dropped his gaze to his shoes feeling like a dick.
Fiona kneeled on the floor in front of the bathroom door trying to coax Debbie out but she was being particularly stubborn. Daniela stood back and watched as she finally managed to convince her little sister to come out of the bathroom.
When she did, Debbie rushed into her sister's arms, tears still streaming down her face. Fiona sighed sadly as she looked down at the top of Debbie's head before turning her attention to Daniela.
"Thanks for being there for her, El."
She led Debbie into her room, closing the door behind her so that the two sisters could talk some more. Daniela chewed on her lip and turned to head back downstairs when she caught sight of Lip making his way towards her.
The girl simply crossed her arms over her chest with one eyebrow arched, waiting for him to say something.
"Hey."
"Oh, so I exist now?" She asked, her voice heavy with sarcasm.
"I know I've been distant," began Lip, making her scoff.
"If you didn't want to celebrate, you could've just said so, Lip. I can handle it. There was no need for the sudden cold shoulder."
Lip heaved a sigh, seeming more frustrated with himself than with her. "It's not that. It's…"
He knew why he was being such a dick. Both Ian and Kev had helped make it clear as day.
"Whatever." Daniela rolled her eyes and moved past him, giving up. "I have to go."
/
Daniela was still in a crabby mood when she got to the hospital an hour later but she managed to push it aside and put on a smile for her mom.
The woman was relaxing on her bed when she walked into her room, smiling warmly at her daughter when her eyes locked onto her.
"Hey, mom." Daniela made her way across the room to drop a kiss on Camille's cheek before surveying the rest of the room. "Jake's not here yet?"
Camille shrugged, clueless. He had texted Daniela saying that he was on his way a while ago and she had thought he would beat her to the hospital.
"I heard my name," chimed Jakob, stepping into the room with a cheeky smile though Daniela picked up on his jitteriness.
"I thought you'd be here first," said the girl, crossing her arms over her chest. "Did you get stuck in traffic or something?"
Her eyebrow raised when he scratched the back of his neck. "Actually, I had to make a pit-stop."
Sticking his head back around the corner, he waved for someone to come in and Daniela shared a curious look with her mother.
"Mom, Dani, this is Katherine." The teen raised a brow at the blonde woman who stepped through the door looking both nervous and excited. She made her way towards Daniela first and stretched out a hand.
"It's so nice to finally meet you," she gushed sounding completely genuine as Daniela accepted her handshake. "Jake's told me so much about you."
"Really?" Daniela raised an eyebrow at her brother who was avoiding her stare. "He hasn't told me much about you. I was starting to wonder if you even existed."
Katherine laughed lightly before turning her attention to Camille and introducing herself once again.
Ten minutes passed and it seemed like Daniela's mother already approved of the woman and she was starting to think the same. Katherine was nothing but nice but didn't mind poking jokes at Jakob which made Daniela like her even more.
"So!" Began the teen, settling into her chair and fixing her smirk on the blonde woman. "Tell us how you two met."
"Oh," Katherine huffed a laugh before sharing a look with Jakob. "Some guy took off with my purse and Jakob saw and tried to stop him."
Daniela deadpanned at her brother. "You're kidding."
"Little did I know she already had it covered," smirked Jakob and Katherine nodded looking smug.
"Black belt in jiu-jitsu."
"Really?" Daniela just continued to grow more and more impressed with the woman.
"Yeah, I teach at one of the school's in the city."
"Badass," nodded the teen, a smirk growing on her face. "So why are you with my brother?" Her question made said brother glare across the room at her and Daniela felt her mother tap her hand lightly as a sign to cut it out and stop embarrassing him.
"And you wonder why I never introduced you to her," huffed Jakob, pouting like a child as his sister rolled her eyes.
"You were probably just afraid that she'd like me more than you, that's all."
Continuing his trend of acting like a petulant child, Jakob stuck his tongue out at his sister causing the other women in the room to chuckle.
/
Jakob switched off the ignition of his truck as they came to a stop outside of their house after dropping Katherine off.
"She's totally normal," frowned Daniela as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "Honestly, Jake. I don't understand why you were being so secretive- apart from the fact that she's totally out of your league."
The young man followed suit and closed his door behind him. "You know I've never really brought any girl home to meet the family or anything." He fumbled for a second with his keys. "But Katherine's different."
Daniela eyed him, a knowing smirk lighting up her face. "Awe, you like her."
"Shut up."
"You love her."
"Ew, stop it. You're creeping me out," grimaced Jakob as he finally managed to unlock the door.
She just laughed, not letting up at all. "That's okay. I won't tell her that there's a very likely chance that she'll be my sister in law."
"Would you shut up?" Jakob narrowed his eyes at his sister and grabbed a beer from the fridge. "I feel weird in my chest the more you bring it up."
Daniela rolled her eyes at him. He had always been a bit of a charmer, never bothering to settle down.
In fact, Katherine was the first woman her brother had brought home to meet the family and that was evidence enough that the woman was different from all the others he had been with.
"That's love, brother." She heard him groan in the kitchen as she made her way up to her room.
Daniela had only been home for close to fifteen minutes when she heard a voice yelling outside of her house.
Recognizing who it was straight away, she rolled her eyes but made her way over to her window, pushing it up to glare down at Lip.
He sighed in relief at the sight of her, glad that she was even giving him the time of day after how he had been her lately.
"I'm an asshole!" He proclaimed, spreading his arms open. Daniela simply raised an eyebrow at him. He was going to have to try harder than that.
"Yes. Yes, you are!"
Lip saw that she wasn't to just let him off the hook so easily and heaved a sigh. "Please come down!
"And why would I do that?" Pondered Daniela, resting her elbows on her windowsill.
"So I can tell you how stupid I was for treating you like shit!" Sensing that she still wasn't going to budge, Lip continued. "Please?"
Daniela stared down at him as she chewed on her lip in thought. It seemed like minutes before she finally closed her window on him and Lip wasn't sure if she was done or not.
Thankfully for him, the front door swung open and she stepped out, her guard still up.
"What do you want?"
Lip took a step towards her, his eyes pleading with hers. "Please, just…come with me." She ran her tongue over the tops of her teeth before curiosity got the best of her and she began walking beside him.
He led her to a spot under the L where he had set up an old couch and what looked to be fireworks.
"What's all this?" She asked with a frown.
Lip clapped his hands together and waved a hand at the whole thing. "My apology." Daniela's tough exterior cracked but he continued. "Kev says that Karen messed me up. And he's right."
Daniela felt her stomach drop at his words. Of course, Karen still had her claws sunken into him even after all this time. Lip noticed her face fall and took a step towards her, gently placing a hand under her chin to make her meet his eyes.
"But I'm not letting her do that anymore," he vowed and Daniela was taken aback by the absolute conviction in his voice.
"The truth is, I was scared because of how great things have been between us so I started pushing you away and you didn't deserve that." Lip moved his hand so that his thumb caressed her cheek. "I'm sorry."
Daniela could see the sincerity in his eyes and her crossed arms slackened as she melted into his touch but her eyes continued to hold that fire.
"Don't ever treat me like that again," she warned making him grin down at her.
"I won't," he promised before dipping his head forward to press his mouth against hers in a searing kiss.
Taking hold of her hands, he pulled away and led her over to the couch, making her sit down as he lit the fireworks.
When the first one popped off, Daniela cheered ecstatically as Lip came to sit beside her. He pulled her onto his lap, grinning at how happy she was and knowing that he was an idiot for thinking that pushing her away was the right thing to do.
While Daniela's eyes stayed fixated on the fireworks, Lip's couldn't seem to wander from her for very long, seeing her as the true show. Her eyes lit up with each colorful explosion and Lip felt a tug in his chest at the sight.
I thought I would give you a nice ending to help reign in the new year. There was a little bit of drama with Lip and Daniela but things have finally cleared up for them.
Also, I really enjoy writing Daniela and Debbie's relationship; it's one of my favorites.
Let me know what you thought or what your favorite part was!
Special thanks to Cierramist96, Spencee98, Alex, NessieBooEvans, Isabeaux3, Raging Raven, Guest, TheDivineMsEm, RHatch89, xenocanaan, Jess54325, Lindsabt, noordinarykilljoy, rainydays99, Onlineashley, hanna891, MarieSeleneArroyo, Daenerys86, Dikas, bEledwardgurl, tothewoodswego, nonosave, andreeea147, and a7xluver91!
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