Title: I Know How He Feels
Category: TV Shows » Days Of Our Lives
Author: And The Moment's Gone
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Chapter: 7, Words: 7,725
Warnings/Spoilers: AU after Chloe's return to Salem after faking her death.
Summary: I know how he feels, how strong his touch can be, when he believes it's real. I've been there. And I know how he feels
Official Disclaimer: All Days of Our Lives characters and plots belong to Corday and the NBC. I do not hold stock either the man or the company. Chloe Lane, Brady Black, and any other character featured are NOT mine. The title, summary, and lyrics come from the Reba McEntire song I Know How He Feels and I don't own that either.
Before she could lead her date back to their seats, Chloe was engulfed into the arms of her mentor and father figure. "How did I wind up with such talented children?" John asked her as he threw his other arm around Brady. He tightened his grip and pulled them both in close together. "My daughter's a world class designer. Then there's the two of you."
"We both enjoyed the show." Kate's hand pried Chloe's form from John's grasp and laughed at the look that spread from Brady's face. "It's a shame the two of you don't have albums of your own out."
Their heads shook in unison. "We're both far too busy-" Chloe started, watching Brady back out of his father's grasp.
"And promotion would be a bitch." Brady finished for her as he readjusted his shirt. Chloe's hands slid over her hips to smooth her dress and they both blushed nervously.
"Besides they couldn't spend that much time together without one of them being dead." John relented, slapping his son on the back and smiling to Chloe.
Chloe shrugged. "There is that." She nodded, cursing when she turned to come face to face with Vincent Cassman. For a spit second, Chloe was actually curious if there was a limit to ho cordial she could be this close to Brady Black in one evening. It didn't help that she could swear that she could still smell his cologne. "There are still five more acts left." She informed him, almost as if she were ushering him back to his seat.
"You did a wonderful job, Ms. Lane." Vincent said as he clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Both of you were just magnificent."
"Unfortunately the company at our table currently is..." Marguerite searched for the word as Brady and Chloe followed her line of sight. Sure enough, there was Nicole, perched on a waiter's lap, bottle in her hand.
Brady took off to the table as Chloe threw and apologetic glance at Patrick and then shrugged to Shawn. "Let me take you over to another then." She said sweetly, weaving her arm around the Cassman's son. "I'll get you closer to the stage." She maneuvered them to the closest empty table and slid into a chair, her mind already in damage control mode.
Patrick stood where he was left as Shawn came up behind him. "She's going to be there for the rest of the night." The younger man informed the agent. "I would go grab a drink and dance with your sister if I were you."
"Does this happen often?" He followed Shawn to the table. Nicole broke away from her fiancée and headed to the stage. The only thing Brady could do was take off after her, Belle hot on his heels.
Shawn handed him a fresh glass of wine and shrugged. "More often than you would think." Jan kissed his cheek and left the table to try to help Brady. "And unfortunately there's nothing anyone can do about it."
Three hours later, and more than enough glasses of wine, Chloe sighed as the elevator doors closed in front of the Cassman family. She leaned against it for a moment to get her bearings before straightening her shoulders and slowly heading back to the table where her date would most likely be cursing her.
It had truly been a Hell of a night. Over half of the guests were gone now, and it being well after one in the morning, Chloe wished that she had run when she had the chance. After moving Vincent and his wife away from Nicole's- she honestly didn't have an adjective to describe how Nicole had been, she had managed to talk stocks and bonds, and artists and charities long enough to take their mind off of the woman.
Then someone had allowed Nicole to get up on the stage.
Chloe didn't understand how someone so cool and calm at the office could behave the way that the former Kiriakis wife did. Did she learn nothing from Victor's death? But Chloe wasn't given much time to think about Nicole. After Brady had gotten the microphone away from the drunken woman, Belle shifted the program back to where it should have been, Chloe was back into overdrive, backtracking her way through Nicole's mistakes expertly and assuring the Cassman's that Stone Records was indeed in good hands with her and Brady working side by side with their son at the helm. And that regardless of the woman they had had the displeasure of meeting, nothing in the merger would go wrong.
But now the Cassman's were on their way back to their jet to go home, and Chloe was free to try to salvage what was left of her evening. She smiled at Patrick when the table came in to view and somehow she could have sworn he understood her sentiment.
"Oh Brady, can I speak to you for a second?"
He had been in the process of trying to get Nicole's mink around her shoulders when he heard his father's voice behind him. With a curse and a cough, he slid the coat onto his fiancée and turned to argue that he really needed to get her home.
Patrick was a step behind him, retrieving his overcoat from Duke and he smiled. "I'll make sure Nicole gets down to your car for you." He answered nicely. It wasn't that he wanted to be spending time with the inebriated blonde, he just understood that she couldn't be trusted by herself and Brady, like Chloe, had more important things to do.
"Thanks man." Brady tried to shrug off the menace in his voice to the man who had spent most of the night wrapped around his – Chloe.
"Over here son," John slid into a chair at the table he had originally started out, and patted a place for his son.
Brady remained standing. "What can I do for you Dad?"
"I don't think that Nicole should accompany you to Paris next week." John Black's voice was firm and, even though it was posed as a suggestion, there was no room for mistaking that his mind had been made up.
"Especially after tonight," Kate said gently, laying a hand on her husband's shoulder and trying to sort out what John was definitely not going to say elegantly. "Her behavior in front of the Cassman's tonight was just unacceptable. It took poor Chloe almost three hours of backtracking to smooth over Nicole's–" She searched for the right word but came up short.
"Crass." John supplied for her.
Brady watched his stepmother smile down at his father. "So she had a drink too many." He said somewhere between haughtily and disheartened. "I think it's safe to say we all have from time to time." He knew this conversation was coming; he wasn't oblivious to the way Nicole had interacted with the president of Stone Records or anything else that had happened.
"A drink too many?" John Black turned to his son and tried to recognize the face in front of him. After whatever had happened with Chloe, Brady had definitely become someone else. And most of the time he didn't think he knew his son anymore. "Son, she drank straight from a bottle." He settled back into the chair when Kate touched his arm again gently. "Nicole is not the first impression that I want Basic Black showing when they meet with the Cassman's board of directors next week."
He had to refrain from pointing out that Basic Black and the Black Label were two legally separate companies, and Nicole could be representing either or, but with his father's mood he choose to just remain silent. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Chloe helping his sister out of her chair and swallowed instinctively. The taller woman took Belle's coat from Mimi and slid it over the pregnant woman's shoulders before kissing both Belle and Mimi on the cheeks and waving good-bye. "So I'm going to go to Paris alone?" He asked after a moment, his eyes following the dark haired woman as she slid off her heels and helped Shawn right a fallen chair.
John shook his head and finally caught his son's attention again. "I don't think that would be a wise move on our part either." He commented off-handedly, his eyes following the trajectory that his son had seconds earlier. "Chloe?" He raised his hand to the younger girl and smiled when she picked her shoes off the floor and headed in their direction.
There was something in the way that John had called her name that made Chloe wonder what it was that she was being set up for. She took steady steps to the threesome on the other end of the room and paused for a moment to wave when Shawn and Jan were leaving. She wished she could have spoken to Shawn one more time, but he and his wife were on their way out, and there was always the morning.
As she perched herself on a chair across from John, Brady noticed yet again how much Chloe had adopted the attitude of a daughter doting on his father. "I know this is last minute dear, but what is your schedule for the next week?" John Black was treading lighter with the brunette in front of him than he had with his only son.
"Just a few marketing meetings and a talent agent or two." She would have to consult her smart phone for specifics, and John knew it, but she was confident that she had given him the answer he was looking for when he smiled up at his wife. "And Joy has a soccer game on Saturday that I promised I would be there for."
"Would it be too hard for you to cancel your meetings?" Kate asked carefully, trying to tell Chloe that there was no way she was trying to get the woman to cancel a promise to her sister. When Chloe frowned, Kate amended. "Nicole will not be going to Paris on Monday." She was avoiding eye contact with her husband and his brooding son. "And John and I don't think it's wise to send Brady by himself."
Chloe understood where Kate was going with this. Brady was going to be the Black Labels' representative in Paris while Nicole was going to reinforce Basic Black's agenda, but after the display that they had all witnessed earlier John and Kate were going to send her along to help Brady tag-team the executives. "I promised Joy that I would be at that game." She said smoothly, trying to mentally figure out how to juggle moving her schedule and make sure her sister was taken care of while she was in Paris. "And Belle's baby shower is Sunday afternoon." She was trying to make it bluntly clear that regardless of what they had decided, she was going to be back to be at both of those events.
"I can arrange with the pilot to be ready for takeoff the second the party Friday night is over with." John supplied quickly, smiling at the way Chloe bit her lip. "And Joy is more than welcome to stay with Kate and I while you're gone."
Chloe would have laughed if she hadn't known that John was serious. Although he spoiled the young Wesley sister rotten, John Black had had minimal alone interaction with Joy, and somehow Chloe knew that her sister wouldn't want to spend the week with her best friend's parents. "I can have Skye reschedule the agents and I can teleconference the marketing meetings." She said confidently, choosing the next sentence carefully. "And Mimi has been after me for the last month about some quality time with Joy." Chloe said it with a satisfied nod, stifling a yawn and Kate smiled.
"Why don't you head on home?" She suggested, patting the woman on the arm. "I think John and I can manage the clean-up crew."
Chloe slid on her shoes and looked around the room for wherever her velvet cloak had ended up. "I'll stop by the penthouse in the morning for the files on Stone." Her voice wavered, and she swayed on her feet. Brady and Kate both jumped to try to keep her upright. "I'm all right." She all but snapped, kicking herself for pulling such a late night the night before and then actually getting up when Belle showed up at her house early. "I'm just tired."
"Brady will walk you down." John said decidedly, his tone not to be questioned. "And my driver can take you home." He watched as she started to protest, but he didn't hear any of it. "The last thing Black Label needs is its chief executive wrapped around a telephone pole." He chuckled, patting her on the knee and then walking off, signaling his wife to follow. Chloe didn't bother to remind him that she and Patrick already had a car of their own.
"Good night Chloe." Kate gave the younger woman a hug and then kissed Brady on the cheek. "Good night Brady."
After retrieving her cloak from the table, Chloe stood still while Brady played the gentleman and helped her slide it onto her shoulders. She didn't fasten it as she turned back to him. "You don't have to follow me all the way to the car." She said absently as she picked her clutch purse off of the table where she and Shawn had been sitting. "I can make it into an elevator and across the parking garage by myself."
"Dad's orders." He smirked, pushing the elevator down button and placing a hand on the small of her back as they entered. "And tonight John Black is definitely in rare form."
Chloe pulled her cell phone out of her purse and shrugged. "Your fiancée was visibly and obnoxiously drunk in front of the executive we were supposed to be impressing." She offered weakly, as if to explain away his father's actions for the evening. "Then she attempted to start up a karaoke contest." There was a brief smile as Chloe envisioned Brady carefully pulled Nicole off the stage as Belle turned the crowd's attention to the rest of the night's program. "I don't think he was concerned much with form."
The doors shut in front of them, and Brady leaned against the railing, the exhaustion finally seeping into his bones. "She's going to be pissed when she hears that he took her off the trip." He didn't realize that he had said it out loud until Chloe looked up from checking her messages.
"Just tell her I insisted on going." She placed her phone back into her purse carefully and took out a pack of gum. She didn't even realize that she was trying to take the burden of Nicole's wrath off of Brady until she noticed that he was staring at her. "Black Label is my company." She told him offhandedly, wishing that she had brought some lip-gloss with her. "And I really didn't want to her to go over, have one glass of wine too many, and fuck this up for me."
Brady's hand immediately went to his mouth as she realized what she just said. "Chloe Lane Wesley." He reprimanded her gently, watching the grin spread across her face and he laughed for the first time all night. "Where did you learn that kind of language?"
Her bottom lip caught precariously between her teeth as she looked at him, and just for a moment, she could imagine them in a different time, heading down to their limo to go back to their home instead of him to the mansion with Nicole and her with Patrick back to her own home.
"I think I might have had a little too much champagne tonight too." She shook the exhaustion out of her voice before putting a hand to her cheek. "I think Joy can play over at the Deveraux's a little later this weekend."
"It might be for the best." Brady agreed, enjoying the sight of a slightly tipsy Chloe in front of him. He had forgotten what she was like after these types of events.
The elevator doors opened in the parking garage and Brady offered Chloe his hand as she bent to retrieve her shoes yet again. He led her over to where the driver had parked the town car she had arrived in sat in its space as his valet stepped out of the vehicle and opened the door for Chloe. After a brief discussion with Duke over the fact that John had insisted she take his car – and the swift apology that she wasn't, she set her purse onto the seat and smiled at Patrick. "I'll call you in the morning, and we can talk strategy." Brady whispered in her ear as he attempted to give her a quick hug. She shivered at his touch and without thinking Brady kissed her cheek. "Have a good night, Chloe Lane."
Chloe fell into the seat and blinked a few times before she refocused on Brady's face and remembered that she wasn't alone in the car. "Good night Brady Black." She told him after a second. Then she smiled as awkwardly as she could. "Good luck with Nicole." She added, if only to prove that she wasn't as affected by him as he thought she was.
The door shut and the car pulled out, and for a second Chloe just sat there, staring at the back of the driver's head.
"Are you okay?" Patrick set a hand on Chloe's knee, and she jumped slightly, still not too sure what she was doing sitting beside the man on a Halloween night.
Chloe sighed, rubbing the back of her neck and sighing. "It's just been a long night." She told him softly.
The rest of the ride to her house was quiet, neither of them thinking too much about conversation.
As the door opened again, Chloe turned to say good night and stopped herself. She took a deep breath, choked the voice in the back of her head and prayed that Shawn would help her understand in the morning when they both were sober as she smiled
"Would you like to come in?"
She threw her jacket at the butler and stormed into the great room, knowing without looking that Brady was hot on her heels. "I have no idea what was going through your head tonight, Nicole. Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"Do you?" She snapped back. The liquor was gone from her lucid eyes and Brady cursed himself for allowing her to do everything she did, much less do it sober.
He took a deep breath as she poured herself a drink of water and watched her down it. "Your behavior tonight was revolting." He informed her, just as if he was talking to a child. Nicole just propped herself up on the arm of a chair and crossed one leg over the other. "Are you even listening to me?"
"Of course I am Brady." She took another sip of the water and frowned. "We're back from yet another Chloe Lane showcase and now you're berating me for behaving like I always do." When he ran a hand over his head she kicked off her shoes. "I'm tired of this program." She decided. "I think it's time we talk about you."
She took him aback and Brady frowned. "Oh. And what did I do?"
"Should we start with the drooling? Or do you want me to segue into the I-Will-Always-Love-You power ballads?" Nicole dropped the drink onto the table to her left and stood, advancing on her fiancé. "Or…" She came toe to toe with the man and crossed her arms. "I could always ask you where the ring is."
Brady backed away from her and shook his head. "You're either more drunk than you're pretending you're not, or you've actually lost it this time."
"The ring." She repeated. "You never leave the house without it, Brady. After all it was your fathers." She pulled his hands out of his pockets and inspected his fingers. Then she tore at the shirt, pulling at the chain that he was trying to hide. "I think we have a winner here Mr. Black."
"You're drunk." He shouted at her as he readjusted his shirt and the gold chain underneath it. "You win the Oscar for best sober performance, Nicole, but you're wasted." He pushed her out of the way and frowned when she took the decanter out of his hands. "Damn it! Just go to bed."
Nicole didn't back down, in fact she simply just let go of the decanter. They had another in the closet anyway. And as the amber liquid washed over her feet, she pushed the tears out of her eyes. "I'm not drunk, Brady." She decided. "I'm actually the most sober I've been coming back from one of these wretched functions." She stepped away from the broken glass and whirled on him again. "And you're pathetic display of 'poor poor Brady' was the only embarrassment I saw." When he opened his mouth to reply, she did the only thing she thought she would regret.
Her hand came across his mouth without a second thought. "You left her." She announced to the room, spinning wildly in a circle with her hands raised. "You gave up your Happily Ever After with her for this!" When he did nothing but stare at her she sighed. "Your bed has been made Mr. Black, and I'm the new Misses." She picked her shoes off the floor and finally exhausted went to bed.
Brady didn't know how long he stood there. But he did know that at ten to three the phone rang. Without thinking about his head or his heart he hit the button and put it to his ear. "What?" He snapped bitterly.
The voice on the other end was frantic. He was fairly certain that it shouted at him in sentences, but all he heard were three points. Joy was at the hospital, Shawn couldn't find Chloe, and no one else had legal decision-making power.
He didn't say good night to Nicole before grabbing his keys off the table and heading for the door.
The front door swung open, and with a flick of her wrist, the foyer was illuminated with light. "Come on in." She instructed carefully, dropping her keys into the tray and her bag next to it on the table. She brushed past the stairs, kicking her shoes onto it before changing her mind and shifting to pick them back up. "Sorry for the mess."
Patrick took in the elegant staircase that seemed to branch backwards to another hallway, the cool wood floor and calm colors. He followed her into the large living room with a semi-vaulted ceiling and large plush couches. Her home was warm and inviting, very much as she was now that they were back into her element. Now that they were away from everything business related. "This is a mess?" He asked as he looked around the room. The only things out of place were magazines that had apparently fallen off the coffee table. "Don't tell me what you consider clean." He laughed.
"Thank you. I think." Chloe slid her cloak from her shoulders and draped it on the back of the armless chaise lounge. "Do you want something to drink?"
"Coffee if you've got any." He didn't look up from the magazines on the table.
Chloe's laugh echoed in the room. "You're kidding, right?" She giggled again, and then bit her bottom lip when she realized that he hadn't been warned about her addiction to caffeine. "French Roast all right?"
"Of course." Patrick smiled as she blushed and then when she disappeared into the kitchen he looked back at the table. "Good Housekeeping?"
She hadn't realized they were still out there. Shawn had given her subscriptions to them as a joke for Christmas the year before. Chloe hadn't had the heart to throw them away. Two would have probably arrived in it's place had she done it. "Looks good on the table." She shouted back. "I think there's a Forbes somewhere in that pile. I know there's a Billboard in the rack."
"I was expecting those." He called back to her. "You just don't strike me as a Redbook kind of woman.
"I think I'm going to surprise you." She called from the kitchen, leaning out and smirking at him over the opening in the counter. "There's a Family Circle and Parents hidden under my mattress."
Patrick winked at her and laughed. "I don't believe it." He told her carefully. "You'll have to prove it."
As she made her way around the breakfast nook, Chloe laughed. "We'll see." She told him sweetly. "Here."
He took a sip without saying anything else, and his eyes opened slightly. "This is good." Patrick told her as he set the cup and saucer down on the coffee table and watched as Chloe disappeared behind a door down the hall to the left.
"As much as it costs to import it," Chloe shouted from her room. "It better be." With a flick of her wrists and a quick shrug, she traded the expensive gown for a pair of worn jeans and a camisole, her usual comfortable at home outfit.
Patrick laughed. "Now that one I could have guessed." He shouted back to her. For a second he wondered what it was that she was doing in there, whichever room that one was.
"Well I am a world class Diva." Chloe emerged with a sigh and a shrug. The tiara was gone from her hair, as was the bobby pins, but she had left the braid and the curls intact. They would be just as easy to wash out in the morning. As she set herself on the couch next to him, she wondered briefly if she should have taken the make-up off as well.
"I've tried not to ask, but-" Patrick took another sip of his coffee and watched as Chloe turned her sweet orbs of blue in his direction.
Her smiled was almost whimsical. "Go ahead. I have a seven year old, there's not a question in the world that I can't answer."
But as Patrick opened his mouth, Chloe felt her stomach clench. "What happened? With you and Brady?"
"Except that one." Chloe flinched inwardly as she looked back up to the candle and the framed picture of her and Shawn, she knew what the picture was hiding, the small professional photo that they hadn't displayed even when it was the home she shared with Brady. "It's history." She admitted at last, shaking her head in consternation and allowing a little bit of the pain to shine through her eyes. She was too tipsy and too tired to hide much from anyone. "Lots and lots of history."
"Sorry."
She shrugged. What else was she to do? "No apology needed." She decided, and it was true. Why apologize for something that no one had any control over? Even when all was said and done and he had walked out the door, Brady had never apologized for the choice he made. "Brady and I were together, and now we're not. That's all anyone really needs to know." It was the long and the short of it, and really all Chloe was planning on saying.
Patrick fiddled with his cup and then sighed. "I just made this awkward didn't I?"
"It's fine." Chloe told him. "And it's not awkward. When is your next assignment?"
The subject change brought a smile to Patrick's face. "Monday morning actually." He set his emptied cup and saucer onto the coffee table. "I'm headed out to California to help with a security detail."
She couldn't help her giggle as she watched his face light up with the excitement of the next job. "Top secret?" She asked, tipping her cup and shaking her head before noticing that the strap of her camisole had slid down her arm. She shrugged it back up and smiled.
"Not so much." He told her, and for a brief second, he followed the path of the strap with his eyes as it dropped again. "A private company needs to modify its electrical monitoring system and they need some help when they shut it down." There was a moment when he forgot what it was he was about to say just as he opened his mouth to say it. "I'm pretty much a glorified babysitter for the next week, nothing too amazing."
"I have a feeling that everything you do in the ISA is pretty amazing." She countered, setting her mug down next to his and debating whether or not to pull out some more wine.
Patrick's smile widened and he shook his head. "You are a successful business woman, president of her own company and a single mother of a seven year old girl that everyone describes as perfect." He took a deep breath and blew it out of his nose. His eyes on her never wavered and her skin flushed beneath his gaze. "I have this feeling that you're the amazing one in this room." The skin of her shoulders reddened more. "And watching you tonight…"
"I have a wonderful stage presence." She admitted with a shrug. She was never one to boast on her own abilities. "You can't sing opera without it." Chloe picked up the mugs again and headed to the kitchen.
"I can't sing opera, so I guess I'll never know."
"It's an acquired skill." She told him, mock seriously. She was trying to hold back her laughter. "Not many people can." She set them in the sink and moved back to where Patrick had shifted to see her better.
There was laughter in his voice when Patrick finally spoke. "That makes me feel better." He said honestly. When Chloe's laughing died down and she settled to the couch, he sighed. "Can I ask you something?"
Chloe smiled. "As long as it has nothing to do with Brady Black." She poked him playfully on the nose and laughed again.
"Promise…" Patrick took both of her hands in his and looked directly into her eyes. "Can I kiss you?"
Chloe sighed, not prepared for the butterflies that erupted at his question. "Since when does the high and mighty Patrick Lockhart shyly ask for anything?"
His lips slid against her, slowly, sweetly, and Chloe felt a brand of stark disappointment brush through her when she realized that he was most likely going to treat her like porcelain as long as they remained touching. His hand came up gently, to cling to her curls while the other stroked her bare arm all the way up to her neck.
It was the wine, Chloe would protest, that pulled the whimper from her lips when he drew back. The champagne and the date that was making her head spin. It had nothing to do with the man in her arms or the way that he brushed her hair out of her face the way Brady used to.
As he sat back against the cushions, Chloe bit her lip and slid closer to him. "One kiss is all I get?" She asked as she snaked a hand up his chest and pulled his lips back to hers.
His dress shirt was on the floor before either of them could think about it, and soon his tie joined it. Patrick shifted Chloe from in front of him to his lap and he pulled the camisole over her head without pulling her lips from his.
She leaned back, ridding him of his undershirt and Patrick groaned when she shifted in his lap.
But as she placed her hands on his shoulders, as she moved to steady her body, to shift so she could get to his pants, the knock on the door almost physically knocked both of them backwards.
"Damn it." Chloe growled, grabbing her camisole off of the coffee table and kissing Patrick briefly she stalked to the foyer. "If this is your idea of a joke, Shawn," she shouted as she placed her hand on the knob. "I'm going knock you unconscious and bury you in my back yard so I can hear you screaming." She jerked open the door just as she got the material over her head. "Brady."
For her credit, Chloe didn't try to appear ashamed of her current state of redress as Brady stood in front of her in his costume. She didn't think twice about the fact that Patrick was putting his shirt back on in the living room when she shook her head and opened the door wider.
"What's wrong?" She asked carefully. She knew the look on Brady's face. Chloe saw the underlining calm in his eyes. "Brady?"
He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He should have known she wasn't there alone. "Why haven't you had your phone on?" Brady snapped. He still hadn't stepped over the threshold. "Your seven-year-old isn't at home with you and you decide to stop taking calls?"
Chloe moved to slap him and noticed the already reddening spot on his cheek. Apparently this wasn't the first argument he's had since they had parted ways in the parking garage. "You don't get to lecture me on responsibility!" She snapped, moving out onto the porch with him. She wasn't about to let Brady see Patrick with the state he was in. "What's going on?"
He calmed almost immediately, sighing and running a hand over his head. "Joy had an accident." Brady watched the blood drain from her face and the fear bud into Chloe's eyes and shook his head. "It's nothing serious. Lexie told me she's fine. But someone needs to go down and sign a few forms. They wouldn't release her to Abby or Shawn."
"Why didn't you go?" She wrapped her arms around herself. It wasn't the temperature cooling her skin. "You could have been there and back by now. You could have brought her home."
"Shawn was worried that you weren't answering you phone." Brady took a step back when he saw what exactly the reddening mark on her shoulder was. "I wanted to make sure you were here before I brought Joy back; she doesn't like coming over when Nicole's home."
Chloe would have snapped that Joy had good reason, but the door behind her opened and Patrick stuck his head out. "Is everything okay?" He asked, moving further out of the door and adjusting his pants. "Chlo?"
They weren't sure which one the embarrassment hit first.
Brady's jaw clenched as Chloe coughed and when he looked back to her, her cheeks matched the maroon of the camisole. He had to give her credit though; she was in no way about to offer him an explanation. Then again, he wasn't about to ask her for one.
"Fine." She answered sweetly, turning away from Brady's steamy blue eyes and smiling at the look that crossed Patrick's face. "Joy had an accident over at Jen's and I didn't check the messages when we got into the house." She ran a hand over his hair and sighed. "I'm sorry Patrick."
The older man smiled and pulled Chloe into a hug. He'd heard the bulk of the conversation, as he'd gotten dressed, the phone call for a cab already made. "I completely understand." He fiddled with his overcoat and smiled. "Joy comes first. Do you need me to go up with you to the hospital?" Patrick could see head lights up the street, but he wouldn't hesitate to send the cab away if Chloe told him that she needed help.
If he hadn't thought about it first, Brady probably would have decked Patrick for being so damn understanding. Or maybe it was because he practically caught him about to sleep with Chloe. "I'll take her." He bit out, finding a perverse pleasure in the way Chloe's eyes snapped back to his own. "You can go home now."
Patrick looked back to Chloe. "Are you gonna be okay?" He asked her, shutting out her ex.
When she nodded, Chloe thought that there was nothing further than the truth. "I'm fine. I just have to get up there for Joy." Deliberately she pulled Patrick down and placed a kiss to his lips. "Call me later? I'm sure Joy would love visitors that bring her ice cream."
Lockhart flashed a smile to Brady and then laughed. "Ice cream it is." He kissed her again, and then stepped off the porch to the waiting cab. "Good seeing you again Black." He whispered carefully.
Brady watched him leave. Then when the cab pulled out he turned back to Chloe. "I didn't think he was your type." He shrugged.
She tried not to take it as the insult that it was intended. She popped the door open again, twisting and grabbing a stray coat off the rack and her keys from the glass bowl, locking it as she pulled it shut again. "Last time I checked we have papers that state my 'type' was none of your business." She responded easily, turning and slipping into the leather. She dropped her keys into her pocket and smiled at him. "Besides, you have enough problems in your own bedroom." She bounced easily off the porch and down the path to the Jeep. "Are you sober enough to drive or shall I?"
"I'll drive." He rolled his keys in his hand and frowned at her. "Would you like to take the Durango?"
"I'm not drunk enough to let you take my car, Black." She pulled open the door and slid inside. "Just get me there in one piece. That's all I ask."
As he buckled himself in, he raised an eyebrow. "You used to ask more of me." He reminded her with a cocky grin.
But Chloe was one step ahead of him. "Then you left me for Granny and I learned that my hand was just as good." She snapped back, buckling herself in and turning to the window. "Just drive. Meaningful conversation is not a requirement."
They arrived at the hospital together and Shawn could see the glare even before she opened the car door. As she stepped out, her jacket pulled tight around her, Chloe bit her lip and headed straight to him.
"What happened?" She growled shoving her hands in her pockets and ignoring the way Brady fell into step beside her.
Shawn couldn't tell if they were ignoring each other on purpose or if they were both just too focused on Joy that the other just ceased to exist, but when Chloe repeated the question he realized that she was indeed talking to him. "They were playing flashlight tag and Joy took a tumble down the stairs." He heard Chloe swear and touched her arm. "It sounds more serious than it is." He reassured her when they came to the elevator, and he watched as Brady held the door open with an arm for her. "It's a bump on the head and eight stitches on her shoulder."
"At two in the morning?" Chloe hit the elevator up button and allowed herself to release the breath that she had been holding. "Is anyone up with her?" She asked carefully.
"Abby and Jack Jr." He heard her blow out a breath and she leaned her head against the cold steel of the elevator. "The poor kid wouldn't leave Joy's side when they brought her in."
Brady placed both of his hands on Chloe's shoulder, and Shawn frowned when she leaned in to him. It was comfort that she was seeking. The comfort that she knew Brady would be able to give to her. "But she's fine?" The blonde man asked for her.
The door opened and Shawn nodded. "She told me she thinks the stitches were cool." He laughed.
As she stepped off, she turned to corner to come face to face with Abby. "I am so sorry Ms. Lane."
Chloe laughed. "It's all right Abby. I highly doubt you pushed her down the stairs." When Abby blanched, Chloe sighed. "It could have happened to anyone. The kid's clumsy, what can I say?" A nurse met them and muttered something about paperwork and Chloe stopped dead. "Um…"
He had to hand it to him, Shawn watched Brady smile at Chloe and nudge her slightly to send her in Abby's direction. "I've got it." He told her. "You go see to the Mighty Monster." He took the clipboard and sighed when he realized that he had forgotten to ask her whether she had changed insurance companies when Basic Black merged. With a growl he groped his pocket for his own wallet and reminded himself to swear Lexie to secrecy. He filled it out as best he could remember and headed to the counter to pay for whatever had been done.
Brady made it back to the hallway in less than ten minutes, Joy's bill squared away and the receipt planted firmly in his back pocket. He knew Chloe would kill him for taking on something like this for Joy, but Patrick had been right, that little girl on the bed had to come first. Shawn was stationed at the door, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowing at the sight of him. Brady didn't say a word, just pushed past the police officer and into the room without so much of a knock.
The child in question was lying back on the bed, Chloe positioned behind her and both women with their eyes closed. He almost didn't want to disturb them. "You ready?" He asked Chloe expectantly, watching her eyes open slowly and the haze of the alcohol and weariness taking more than a moment to subside. Suddenly Brady was glad that he had been the one driving.
Joy however, was almost wide-awake. "Daddy! Look what I did!" She shouted, bouncing off the bed and into his arms. It may have been years since he had lived with them, but that hadn't stopped him from keeping his place as Joy's father figure. Brady had to admit that it was probably the only thing that he and Chloe hadn't fought about when they split. "Eight stitches!" She said sweetly. "Does that mean I get ice cream?"
"No denying you're Nancy Wesley's kid." He chuckled, picking her off the floor and properly inspecting the bandage before holding his hand out to Chloe. "She wants ice cream." He told her carefully, not too sure if she had heard Joy.
"She's going to bed." Chloe kissed Joy on the cheek and smiled at Shawn as they rounded the corner into the hall. "You can go on home." She told him; too tired to think about how she looked, holding on to Brady's arm for balance while he held her daughter. "I'll call you in the morning."
But Shawn shook his head. "Are you sure?"
"Positive." Chloe responded, not letting go of Brady as they came to a stop inside the elevator. "I'm only certain that your wife is pissed that I took you away from her again tonight."
Shawn laughed. "Like Brady, I'm going home to find my bedmate passed out and most likely drooling on my pillow." He responded gently, watching recognition flash on Chloe's face before she let go of Brady's arm. "Jan was too drunk to realize I even left the house, guaranteed." But when Chloe shook her head again, he only bent to kiss it. "I'll talk to you in the morning." He confirmed at last, watching her smile.
"I'm fine." She answered his look with another soft smile. "Tired, tipsy and a little disappointed of how my night ended, but I'm fine."
"I'm only sure if you're that desperate you can call Pretty Boy back." Brady shot out as the elevator opened again. Chloe stepped away from him, but he still smiled at the weight of the child in his arms. "He seemed rather disappointed himself."
Chloe shook her head and expertly opened the Jeep door and pushed the seat back for Brady to lay Joy in with one hand. "You and I don't want to argue desperate after the display that your fiancé put on tonight." Chloe shot back fairly certain that she sounded as tired as she felt. "And that's the last time you get to mention me getting laid." She watched Brady shiver in the heat and smiled triumphantly.
With a sigh and a curse, Brady shut her into the Jeep and leaned his head against the door. He hadn't been ready for this. The good-bye down in the parking garage had been more than enough for him. Now that he was staring in the face the family he had lost, he didn't think he could take much more of it. And heaven knew that Chloe wasn't making it easier on him. He laughed when he realized that it wasn't her job to make it easy on him anymore. All he could do was slide into his seat, and drive her home.
As she opened her door, Chloe shook her head. "I've got her." She said as nicely as possible. "Thanks."
Brady bit his tongue when she struggled to get Joy out of the car. Of course she wouldn't accept his help. Why would she? Why did he even want to? But the sweet murmur she made to keep the sleeping child still as she adjusted her to get the keys was something he smiled at. And the look as Chloe's hip closed the Jeep door and she propped the screen door on her side was something he knew he missed. She was even more of an independent woman now. She did everything on her own whether she had to or not.
He couldn't help but feel responsible for that one.
He waited until she was inside, flipped the key into the ignition and pulled out of the driveway. With the vision of Chloe tucking Joy into the king sized bed on the first floor, Brady pulled into the driveway of the mansion.