Rain
Setting: A week after Nick's abduction and rescue.
Disclaimer: I got a secret… shh, don't tell anyone … I don't own these characters. No really it's true. I just like to imagine that I do. Lol.
It was late at night, and rain was softly falling down from the sky when Catherine found Warrick standing outside. They had both just gotten off of their shift. Warrick was leaning against a wall with his head tilted down; and his body was rigid as if he were just a statue. His clothes were nearly completely wet, which made her wonder how long he'd been out here. She hesitated for a moment before walking towards him.
"Warrick," she softly called out to him, and crossed her arms as if that would shield her from the rain. He didn't respond to her. When she got closer she touched his arm. "Warrick, are you alright?"
"Yeah," he finally replied, his voice was slightly raspy. "I was just thinking." Even as he spoke his body did not move from its position, and he continued to look down at the puddle covered ground.
"You do know it's raining, right?" At first she tried to make light of the situation. "What were you thinking about?" Her voice was clearly filled with worry and concern.
"Things that I should've done but never did." He sighed as he looked up from the ground and began staring at the horizon. "I don't know … it's just that ever since Nick …" He couldn't even bring himself to say it. "It … it made me realize how damn short life really is, there are just so many things I regret not doing." He turned his head towards her.
"Warrick, I--" She began to say but was interrupted by him.
"There's something I need to tell you." There was a look of intensity in his eyes, mixed in with a touch of uncertainty, hope, and fear.
Catherine only nodded in response.
Warrick glanced away from her for a moment. "What happened to Nick made me realize a few things. I don't want to live my life alone … I want to have a family, people to remember me by if something ever happened to me. And I didn't feel like waiting any longer for that to happen, so yesterday I …" He suddenly stopped as if he wasn't sure whether he should say this to her or not.
"Warrick what is it?"
The rain had suddenly begun pouring down harder.
"I've been seeing this girl and yesterday I asked her to marry me." He spoke softly as if wanting to see her reaction to every word.
Catherine opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
Warrick saw her hesitation and tried to continue. "I still don't know why I did it, I guess I was --"
"You're married?" She finally found her voice, and did not bother to hide her shock. She felt as if the wind had just been knocked out of her. She looked away from him, and tried to hide the emotions she felt raging inside of her.
He saw a look of hurt flash in her eyes right before she turned away. He wasn't sure how he had expected her to react, but his heart had nearly skipped a beat as he recognized that this could only mean one thing; that she cared about him. "Catherine --" He tried in vain to get her attention.
She turned back to him and forced herself to smile. "That's … that's great." Her legs had already begun moving on their own accord. "It really is. Look I've got to go …" She wanted to get as far away from him as she could. She wanted to get rid of the damn feeling of betrayal that had quickly begun to consume her. She didn't want to deal with this right now, and the pouring rain only added to her frustrations as she fought to compose herself.
"Catherine, wait let me finish." He reached for her and gently grabbed her arm. For a moment he could have swore he felt her shiver beneath his fingers. "We went to one of those 24 hour chapels, but I couldn't go through with it." He rushed the words out and hoped that she had heard them.
"What?" It took her a second to realize what he had said.
"I couldn't do it. The moment I walked into that chapel I felt a strange sense of happiness that I haven't felt in a while, but when I turned to the woman beside me I realized that I was expecting to see someone else." He took a step closer to her, their bodies barely inches apart.
"What are you trying to say?" She knew the answer but asked the question anyway because she needed to hear him say it; needed to be sure he felt the same way she did.
"I care about you, more than just as a friend. I've felt this way for a while now. I've spent a lot of time trying to get you out of my mind, but I've never been able to. And I realized yesterday that's because a part of me doesn't want me to."
"I …" She found herself speechless.
A small panic arose inside of Warrick. "If you don't feel the same way, then tell me and I won't ever bring this up again; but if there's a chance that we could be together then I think we should try. I know things will get complicated but if we --"
Catherine brought her fingers to his lips stilling their movement. "Isn't complicated the point?"
She smiled then moved her fingers and leaned up to kiss him softly on the lips. Slowly his arms wrapped around her waist pulling her body against his. The kiss deepened and the rain was suddenly forgotten.
THE END
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