April 4, 2019

Sorry for the delay on this one! I'm starting my next quarter for my certificate course and have been prepping for that to kick off tonight. Hopefully I'll settle into some kind of posting schedule when I see what the workload will be. :)

Liam stepped into the elevator at the Ritz, waiting until the doors closed and he confirmed he was alone, and then removed the baseball hat that didn't quite suit his usual business clothes. But it went alright with what he had changed into, which was more along the lines of what he'd worn around Fallon originally, during his I'm-not-who-I-say-I-am thing.

The elevator stopped when it finally reached the upper floor, and deposited him down the hall from Fallon and Kirby's rooms. His concern had him glancing around, but the coast was clear so he made his way to the door they shared and knocked gently.

Inside, Fallon jumped up from the couch, where she'd been impatiently thumbing through business stories and news about stock trades. As soon as she opened the door, she reached out to his sleeve to draw him in. Liam chuckled softly, waiting for the door to shut behind him before greeting her.

"Sam says hi."

Fallon smiled in relief, taking as the positive that it was. When Kirby popped her head out to see what was going on, she grinned deviously.

"I knew it! No wonder you were so anxious, Fallon," Kirby announced, one hand on her hip and the other holding her door open.

"Kirby..." Fallon started, her tone one of deep warning. "We need to make plans, not get all dramatic."

Liam shrugged. "I mean, when you say it like that, it kind of sounds like evil plotting."

Fallon waved a hand at him before heading over to the couch to pick up the cabernet she'd poured earlier. "Come on, then," she ushered them, sitting down. It took a great deal of effort to bite back her pleased smile when Liam sat right next to her and draped his arm across the top of the couch behind her. Whether he was doing it purposefully, to tell her that he meant everything they'd talked about earlier, or because he just wanted to, Fallon didn't care. She hid her reaction inside her wine glass, then turned her head to look at Kirby.

"So, recap," she started. Fallon and Liam filled Kirby in on their plans, and Liam went over what Sam had told him, his hand shifting to Fallon's shoulder when her anger set in about Steven and the fact that she wasn't there to make sure he was okay.

"Sam's keeping an eye on him," Liam assured her. "And first thing tomorrow, we can start listening in on that bug."

Fallon pursed her lips a little, realization setting in. "I have meetings tomorrow. And you need to work everything out with your editor if you're really not going-"

"I'm not."

She looked over at him, not quite sure how she felt about that, still. "Well, regardless, we can't just listen to it all day."

"I can," Kirby pointed out. "I'm sure most of it will be boring or maybe just silent, but maybe Sam can call me whenever Adam leaves or comes home. I can just keep it on in here, or wear headphones or something while I hang out downstairs."

"... About that," Fallon said cautiously, not wanting to upset Kirby after she'd been so much help. "Be careful where you spend time. For all we know, Ada could be informed at any minute that we're not out of the country. As soon as that happens, we'll probably be trailed. So just... keep an eye out, okay? Or try to disguise yourself somehow."

"I'm pretty good at that," the redhead assured her. "So I guess I'll call you if I hear anything weird?"

"That would be great."

Liam reached into his pocket and handed over the device that Jeff said matched the bug Sam would plant the next morning, explaining that she could plug it into a laptop. "Or just call Jeff if you run into problems, I guess."

Kirby nodded with a confident smile as she took it, her eyes darting between the two of them. It took Fallon widening her eyes pointedly for Kirby to remember that the two of them were planning to do dinner. "Sorry! I- I'll get out of your hair. Just, don't order the salmon from downstairs. It's not as good as Mrs. Gunnerson's."

And with that, Kirby hopped up and hurried into her room, closing the door to give them their privacy.

A heavy moment of silence settled over Fallon and Liam, until she sat up straighter and turned towards him, taking control of the situation like she was used to. "Okay. Hold this," she told him, handing over her wine glass so she could pick up the hotel dining menu and open it between them.

Much to Liam's surprise, she didn't frown at him when he took a sip of the wine. Though he did squint at it and lower the glass to rest it atop his knee. Noting his distaste, Fallon traded him, and a few minutes later, she hung up the phone after placing their order.

Refusing to let the silence creep back in, Fallon dropped back down next to him, her glass now empty and abandoned by the hotel phone. "So. Tell me about your book. When can I read it?"

"Uh," Liam turned a bit red, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. "Not yet."

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, and he held up a hand to try and calm her down.

"No, it's not- I just, I haven't shown it to anybody I actually know. Besides my agent. After my last book deal fell through, I didn't want anybody thinking I was going to do another book about my family."

"Alexis never gave me that manuscript," Fallon explained, though he surely already knew. "But she said something once, about second chances. And something about it reminded me of you."

"Well, that's what I told her," he nodded. "That if you could give her another shot after what you'd been through, maybe I needed to do the same for my mother. So, in some ways, I guess I ought to thank you for that."

"But in other ways?"

He sighed, as she'd sort of expected him to. "We're trying. But you know full well it hasn't been easy." Her lips turned down in apology, but he just shook his head. "It's okay. I had to do it eventually. You only get one family, right?"

"Genetically, at least," Fallon agreed. She leaned into the back of the couch beneath his arm, her expression clear: she understood exactly how he felt. And she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt that way with anybody.

"I do want you to read my book, Fal. Soon, I promise."

She smiled her thanks, but actually turned a bit pink herself as she decided to voice something personal in return. She couldn't help but say it with a bit of sass, though, in hopes that doing so would cover up how nervous it made her feel. "You know, … I like when you call me that."

"Oh?" He asked, his brow furrowed with interest.

"Yeah. It's strange, I never really thought about what people called me. It was always just Fallon. But it sounds different when you say it. And even better when you shorten it. I don't know why."

Liam leaned in to kiss her, intending to keep it gentle in appreciation for her openness. He knew how hard that was for her. That, of course, and the fact that she'd explicitly told him she wanted to take things slow. But she returned the pressure, one of her hands falling to the space just above his knee, and he very nearly turned it into something more when he felt that – something impatient, and designed to make up for their lost time. But this was Fallon, and he couldn't just do that with her.

Still, when she broke the kiss with a smile, neither of them went very far. Fallon felt a bit foolish for the quiet that came over them again. She wasn't usually one for casual conversations, preferring to always be working on something. Her hustle, it seemed, was coming back to bite her when it came to Liam.

At the same time, there was something sort of nice about the quiet, and he reached over to slip his hand beneath hers to take hold of it. It was perfect timing, really, because there was a knock at the door a moment later, so he helped her to her feet to greet the hotel employee that had brought them their dinner. After they dropped it off and left with a nice tip from Fallon, she pointed Liam towards her adjoining room, and a table within that was set a good distance from the mounted television.

She turned to him, determined to make this as easy as possible for both of them. "Alright, Mr. Six-Course-Meal. Do you watch Hell's Kitchen?"

Liam laughed, finding that he was pretty unsurprised that Fallon would watch something featuring a figure like Gordon Ramsay. "Of course I do," he replied, sitting down and passing her a glass of, in his opinion, a better wine to go with what she'd ordered.

Not used to watching things with anyone else, Fallon was almost taken aback by the easy banter he offered throughout the show – at least until she settled into it. And somehow, over the course of that dinner, she felt the uncomfortable newness of whatever they now were just fading into the background. His commentary about the stupid mistakes the competitors were making had Fallon smirking and biting back laughter – until he started doing an incredibly sorry attempt at an impersonation of the different people on the show – particularly of Gordon himself. Then she couldn't hold it in anymore, and found herself laughing harder than she had in quite a long time.

"I'm going to teach you to cook," he announced, ignoring the way Fallon shook her head.

"You really shouldn't bother," she warned him. "I hate mess."

He nodded, eyes widening slightly with understanding. "I figured as much. Otherwise you wouldn't be so anxious and concerned about everything." When she frowned, he rushed to make himself clear. "That's not a bad thing, Fallon. I just mean that you're always taking everything on yourself to try and avoid things going awry. But y'know, when you let people help you, it sometimes works out for the better."

"Like Sam at his engagement party?" Fallon asked, lifting an eyebrow of pure disagreement.

"Okay, okay," he held his hands up for a moment and then opened his hands out for her to take. "I did say sometimes, to be fair. But if you didn't trust Sam then, I hope you trust him with this now."

Fallon twined her fingers with his, feeling like it was an oddly intimate thing to do, even after what they'd almost done at their divorce party. It wasn't the order in which she usually felt comfortable doing things. "I know, but we don't have a choice. And Sam's... he's gotten better recently. It isn't like he was ever unintelligent, but I think he preferred to just block certain things out, if that makes sense. Until all this trouble with Steven."

"I know. But we all make mistakes, or questionable choices."

"Like what I did to Michael?"

Liam's reassuring expression fell, and he shrugged somewhat reluctantly. "It certainly wasn't kind, but you know that. On the other hand, for now it seems like it's offered you some protection. Compared to the other things we've seen in the past year, I'd say this is a much smaller issue."

"I didn't actually confirm it. He just... assumed. So, he's still going to be mad, and I know that. It does make it harder to consider mentioning Ada to your mom, though. If he's still trying to protect me somehow, I..." Fallon shook her head, deeply confused.

"It's possible that someone could know a person without knowing the bad things they're doing," Liam pointed out, his cautious tone suggesting that he wasn't talking about Michael knowing Ada.

She drew her hands back, twisting them in her lap. "I know. I'll try and keep him as far away from the crimes as I can, if we talk to your mother."

"You're giving him a lot more credit than most people would. And he may not see it, but he ought to appreciate it."

Fallon didn't have to explain why she was doing so. They both knew what she would've said if asked, anyway. She'd loved him. No one else had been there for her over those five years after Alexis's decision to leave. Well, him and Steven, but she and her brother had gone their separate ways, when she and Culhane hadn't. So he was all she'd had, really, until Jeff's lies derailed everything.

And then there was Liam.

Looking back, she had a lot of things that she wished weren't true when it came to the pair of them. A lot of mistakes had been made – and she'd said mistake a lot, in reference to him. But the only real mistake she'd made was being afraid enough to push him away. Afraid enough to use him despite having such a deep, gut feeling about him.

She didn't mean to sink into silence, but she must have done so for too long, because he set his glass down after finishing it off,. "Listen, I should probably head out. But as soon as we hear anything from Kirby, let me know, okay?"

Fallon stood when he did, brushing down her skirt. "Right, of course," she agreed, trying to hide the disappointment she felt.

Liam reached over to her upper arm, smiling kindly as he recognized her reaction for what it was. "I really hate to say this, but we shouldn't talk at work until we know what's going on. Culhane might catch on."

"Or just catch us," she agreed, sighing. "It figures, though. As soon as we sort things out..."

"I know." He gave her arm a gentle squeeze, despite his slight frown. "But we're good, right? Taking it slow?"

Fallon frowned, looking over at their now-empty plates and glasses. There was something almost remarkable about having two places and no more. About having had a genuine evening of just talking and... fun. Fallon so rarely spent so much time on something so simple. Yet she'd enjoyed it, and hadn't even needed her usual safety blanket of intimacy to be open with him. It was almost like that night at his mother's house, when they'd talked about their family, but this felt just as easy. She'd enjoyed listening to him just as much.

"Yeah, about that," she said slowly, trying not to sound too cautious. "The thing is, I really enjoyed this. And... you know how I feel about you. Just like I know how you feel about me. And, as terrible as I am with labels, I'm almost- used to it, I guess, when it comes to you. So maybe... maybe just being-"

"Fal," he cut in, a grin breaking out across his face. "Is this your way of trying to get me to ask if you'll be my girlfriend?"

"Well," she reached up, wrapping a curl around her fingers anxiously before releasing it again. "I was working up to asking you, actually. I've never tried to before. Nor wanted to. So."

Liam lifted his hand to her jaw, brushing his thumb over her cheek. "It's okay, really. I get it. And if you're sure, then you must know my answer would be yes."

"Good."

"That doesn't mean I'm not still going to try and do things the right way, though," he warned lightly, tone mostly teasing.

She shook her head at him, hardly caring how they did this so long as it happened, and reached up to just kiss him in reply. It was sweet and lingering, but evidently he was serious about how he intended to do things, because he drew back and pressed a kiss to her forehead before stepping away to clean up their dishes.

"Walk me out?" He joked. Her amused eye roll had him laughing as they made their way into the kitchen with the plates and glasses. He picked up the cap he'd worn on the way in and donned it again before knocking on Kirby's door. "Thanks again!" He offered through it. "See you around."

And after Fallon saw him out – managing to snag a last kiss before he slipped out to head home – Kirby stuck her head out in confusion. "He went home?!" She asked, amazed.

Fallon pursed her lips but nodded. "We're... taking it slow."

"Wow."

"Alright, alright. I know it's not my usual style, but calling someone my boyfriend isn't, either. So we're in entirely new territory, anyway." Fallon shrugged, but turned and headed towards her room, fully ignoring Kirby's shock at the subtle announcement of their newly official relationship. "Let's just see what tomorrow brings, shall we?"

And without waiting for another comment that would make her even more uncomfortable and bizarrely shy about Liam, she walked into her room and closed the door behind her.